Destiny Village ~ X-Eye Cauldron

[Negrek]

Nate snorted when Mergo went over the Blacklight's tragic backstory. The atmosphere grew more tense from there, though, until the ice in Mergo's glass finally cracked with a snap that made Rocky jump in his seat. In the silence that followed, Nate realized he was staring. Holy shit. This was feeling a little bit like that meeting after the fuckup in the Tree of Life.

"Can't say I like the idea of just standing around and taking hits," Nate began tentatively, but whatever, if going all pacifist is what it takes to finally close this shit out, then that's what it takes. So long's there's no bullshit going on like whatever fucking hallucinations Soda laid on us in the Tree of Life, it sounds like it's just another battle."

It hadn't exactly been difficult getting info on the Blacklight in the end. Not that there seemed to be any point to Diyem's stupid secrecy. It sounded like things had gone pretty much as anyone would expect by now.

"Can't imagine you're too happy about being dragged back here," Nate said. "That shit sucks. It was supposed to all be over." He sighed. "Well. Guess you at least don't gotta deal with none of the Blacklight nonsense while you're here. Show up, kick some ass, and head right back home again. Can't come too soon, huh? I know I'm fucking stoked to be off this rock at last."

 

[MadderJacker]

Slowly, appraisingly, Mergo answered with a nod of the head. He leaned forward and folded his hands to stop himself from swaying, as if staying sober by sheer force of will.

“Every moment I experienced here has turned into a knife in my back,” he said. What started as a whisper was gradually raising in volume to something low but intense. “Brought into being by some foul memory necromancy, a whole week early for the task at hand. That’s absurd. What do I have to do now, then? Walk the land that taunts me with all these things that are ghosts of what I remember? What the hell did I do to deserve this?”

He still hadn’t talked to any of his teammates yet. What would he say to them? Could he even look them in the eyes and converse with them? He didn’t know which answer he was more afraid of.

“At least, you seem to understand. Distantly,” Mergo added. He averted his gaze to Rocky for a moment, then back to Nate. “Which surprises me. You don’t seem like the type to care much.”

 

[Negrek]

Holy shit. The gardevoir was getting intense over there. Nate tried to play things off with a laugh, but it was more of a bitter, bitten off barking sound. Exactly how would he feel if he actually did make it home, after all this heinous shit, and then Diyem dragged him off to some other fucing planet to do some sparring and give some pep talks to another bunch of happy heroes? Yeah, he wasn't sure his pissed-offedness meter went that high. "Why'd he bring all of you around early? You know it was totally so all of you could make new friends, right? And see your old pals on the team, I'm sure. Big happy reunion and all."

"Anyhow." Nate leaned back in his seat and sighed. "Dunno about caring, but it ain't exactly easy to find people around here to bitch at about how fucked up this place is. Even Starr, you know, she don't want to leave. They got their friends, their crushes, whatever. About to get punted back to whatever fucked-up home lives, I guess. Like fucking Bahamut and his eternity of torment and not being able to die or whatever the fuck. So it's like a sensitive topic, you know."

He wasn't going to miss anyone. He didn't have any friends to feel sad about leaving. That had been the entire goal, hadn't it? So mission most certainly fucking accomplished. Except for where things had happened that were out of his control.

Rocky was scowling down at his plate, drawing patterns on the table in a splash of spilled brandy. He didn't acknowledge Mergo's look. "You want to go?" Nate asked. "You're done with your food and all."

"No," Rocky said sullenly. His choice, then.

 

[MadderJacker]

"I haven't eaten, actually," Mergo replied evenly. He hadn't had an appetite for a while now. For a while now he'd been too preoccupied to think about food. There was only one meal on his mind, and he currently wanted to torch it.

An invisible hand lifted the cap for the brandy bottle and twisted it back on until the metal ground against the glass. It almost fused to the surface. No normal means would separate it again.

"If you'd like to go, I suppose we can," he added, though made no effort to get up. "You've gotten what you wanted from me, after all, didn't you?"

 

[Negrek]

"Oh, sorry," Nate said. "I was talking to Rocky. You're fine." He gave the mangled brandy bottle a regretful look. Now that was a damn shame.

"He's asking if I want to leave because he knows I don't like it when he goes on about how much he hates this place and wants to go home," Rocky said. "If I'm not here, he can be as mean as he wants and not feel bad about it."

"Rocky." Nate sighed. "It ain't mean, it's just--"

The familiar's ears were pinned back, and he wouldn't look Nate in the eye. Instead he glared at Mergo, his flames flaring and dancing high. "So what's so great about where you come from, huh? Somebody does something bad, so you cut their head off? People think friendship is stupid and are cranky all the time? Maybe you're just jealous because Cibus is obviously so much better than your world."

 

[MadderJacker]

Mergo skewed his head to the side as he met the glare with little more than roused curiosity. "Oh, so you're more than just set-dressing? Here I thought Nate just brought you along to be a stress ball."

Those eyes were driven. He'd seen them many times before on greenhorn youths and seasoned warriors alike, sparking bright on the faces of idealists who would fight against the truth. Mergo understood him. He wasn't even wrong to say such things.

"You got it in one, Guardian," he said quizzaciously, donning a thin smile that belied a warped sense of amusement. "In the mornings I wake up with a glass of warm blood, and when I get bored throughout the days with my proceedings, I decapitate someone on a whim to spice up my day. And of course, I ensure nobody can get too close to me. Friendship is toxic in my world, after all. Should someone so much as hug me, I will scream and turn into dust. I'm a bastard because it's the only way I can stay alive."

 

[Negrek]

"I don't believe you," Rocky announced after a second. The familiar folded his arms and looked imperiously down his nose at Mergo. "I don't know why you're scared of telling the truth, but it's stupid."

"Hey. Don't antagonize the guy," Nate said. "If you're just going to be a dick, you are going to leave, get me? Nobody's making you stick around if you don't want to."

Rocky turned his glare on Nate for a moment, then squeezed himself back into the corner of the booth, arms crossed and eyes glowing sullenly out at Nate. The marshtomp sighed again and sloshed the remainder of the brandy around the bottom of his glass. It looked like that was all he was getting, so he'd better savor it. "Don't imagine your own familiar gave you grief all the time, did they?" he asked Mergo.

 

[MadderJacker]

"In a different sort of way, yes," he answered.

Distantly, he wondered what his own Guardians were up to at the far edge of the multiverse. Likely something he'd be questionably proud of, and maybe a little bit horrified. He hoped the two were doing well anyways.

"He's free to question me, though," Mergo added. "Your little friend here. After all, I answered your prodding for a while, didn't I? And at least Rocky here has the decency to be honest with me about his questioning."

 

[Negrek]

"What, you think I ain't been honest with you?" Nate said, unconcerned. He swirled the brandy one last time, then gulped the rest of it down. Setting the empty glass aside, he rested his head on one palm, feeling oddly melancholy.

"I don't see what the point of asking anything would be," Rocky said. He didn't emerge from his corner. "I'm not interested in dumb stories."

 

[MadderJacker]

He exhaled. That was a shame. Slowly, his eyes returned to Nate.

"Technically no," Mergo answered. "But I recognize a few of your tricks. Didn't your Diyem tell you not to ask us certain questions? I don't know for certain, but you offering me a few drinks before asking your questions... I find it curious."

 

[Negrek]

Nate smirked. "Maybe. You're psychic, ain't you? Don't imagine it's very easy to pull one over on you, except maybe for a dark-type or something. I get the sense you wouldn't have come here in the first place if you weren't up for answering."

 

[MadderJacker]

Mergo let out a rueful chuckle. "Please, I don't need to be a psychic to know to be wary of you," he said, shutting his eyes and giving Nate a dismissive wave. "You're deceptive by nature, after all, alleged 'monfucker.'"

 

[Negrek]

"Alleged by what? By you?" Nate wasn't going to let that one throw him off again. "Deceptive, though, that one hurts. Dunno what would give you that idea."

 

[MadderJacker]

"I think you do," Mergo replied. "Tell me, Nate, what were you before you arrived here?"

 

[Negrek]

Ah. So that's what this was really about. Nate gripped his glass tighter. Shouldn't have finished that last drink off already.

"I was a mudkip, again," he said flatly. "Because someone"--he jerked his head in the direction of Rocky's dimly-glowing eyes--"pissed off a legend and got their ass punted to the Pokémon Zone, and I got sent along to play, I dunno, cosmic babysitter or some shit."

Nate gave Mergo a hard look. "Dunno exactly what you think you're fishing for, but if you're trying to get me to admit I'm a bad guy or whatever, guilty as charged. Ain't like I ever claimed otherwise. But a liar, though, that's something different."

 

[MadderJacker]

"Different indeed." He slid his own glass across the table, seemingly frictionless until it came to a calculated stop an inch from the edge of the table. By this point the ice cube had broken into a number of small pieces that formed across the surface of the brandy like an ice flow, and the pieces clinked and bobbed as the sea continued to stir. It was still two thirds full.

"I'd call you more of a dancer. Your use of words is careful and deliberate, which your cold and blunt personality actually serves to hide. It's... subtle."

The part of his mind that wandered freely tried to imagine Nate waltzing with someone, a scowl on his face growing ever-deeper with each turn. That vision only lasted a moment before the rest of him, focused on the game at hand, yanked it back into line.

"Truth be told... I think I could have used someone like you during my own endeavors here," Mergo mused. "Someone other than Owen to keep me sharp and alert. Even your Guardian, too, though he doesn't mince words like you do."

 

[Negrek]

"A dancer, huh?" Nate said. "Can't say I've gotten that one before. Specially not as a marshtomp. Swear I'm still about as likely to fall over as get anywhere on these damn legs."

"It would be pretty funny to see you dance," Rocky said from his corner.

"Yeah, you'd like that."

Nate eyed Mergo warily. Guy sure did enjoy his conversational swerves. They might be off... whatever that other topic was, exactly, at least for the moment, but Nate wouldn't be surprised to see it come around again somehow. Mergo was either not as drunk as he'd been playing at before or operating on God knew what kind of other level. Probably both. Goddamn psychics.

Nate couldn't pretend he wasn't enjoying himself, though. "I'll take it as a compliment, anyhow. Wouldn't have minded having you on our team neither. Woulda kept things interesting. Which is, you know, exactly what we needed, more fucking interest on top of the moon crashing into the planet and Giovanni swapping places with his fucking son and goddamn Soda clones running around everywhere and all that shit, but what the hell. Always room for one more."

Nate set his empty glass aside with a wistful glance at Mergo's mostly-full one. "I ain't good at pretty words or nothing, but if I had to describe you, I guess I'd call you a..." Now that was a tough one, actually.

"A jerk," Rocky supplied flatly.

"...a damn slippery bastard," Nate finished with a faint smile.

 

[MadderJacker]

Mergo snorted. "If I had a coin for every time I've heard that..." he trailed off, not specifying which one he was referring to. Probably both.

Of course, it took one to know one. And Nate, on top of being abrasive, was a mud fish. It was hard to get more slippery than that.

"It's hard not to be," Mergo admitted. "Opening up just leads to undesirable outcomes. You know what I mean, don't you, Nate? You're the same way. At least this way," his gaze shifted over to Rocky, "you control the circumstances in which people come to hate you." Back to Nate. "So becoming a social dancer-- a slippery bastard, if you prefer-- is a survival mechanism."

A mechanism that he didn't know how to feel about now. Not entirely, anyways.

 

[Negrek]

Nate frowned thoughtfully. "Don't see any reason to get all psychological about it, really," he said. "I mean, yeah, it's stupid to go dumping your life story on whatever rando makes eye contact with you on the bus. You can't just go trusting anybody. That's just common sense, at least where I'm from. Maybe in the worlds where frienship is like some kinda supernatural power, sure, go be friends with everybody. But it's more than that."

He was quiet for a moment, scratching pensively at his face. "I don't really want no rando on the bus dumping their life story on me, neither. I got my own problems; I ain't got room for everybody else's, too. I can't be everybody's friend, even if I wanted to. Which I fucking don't. Which bothers the fuck out of some people, like they're entitled to my life or my friendship or any of that shit. If you want to call that surviving, then sure, I guess."

 

[MadderJacker]

Mergo hummed, and his smile dimmed. "If you say so."

Either Nate was lying again, or he just didn't understand what exactly Mergo had meant. 'Opening up' brought a number of things to mind. To Nate, it was secrets and details. It was his life. It was what Mergo had been prodding at, even though he was confident in the answers. Nate was a mercenary brought on who didn't want to bring anything personal into it, and to his credit, he was good at that. At least from a cursory glance. Chances were he had slips in the past. But he was open about one thing. At the very least, he was showing who he was.

But, there was no point in saying that aloud. His shot had been off-center. He'd already lost a point in this little game.

"... That does make me wonder, however, if that's entirely true," Mergo continued, and his gaze shifted again to Rocky. This time it lingered. "You seemed particularly excited earlier, hadn't you, Rocky? Before I went on and said that friendship is for doo-doo-heads, I mean. I find that to be a bit strange, given Nate here is just as cynical. I mean, you heard all that too, didn't you?"