Destiny Village ~ X-Eye Cauldron

[Dragonfree]

Dave raised an eyebrow. This was... one of the miracle people, right? Probably shouldn't be surprised his name had gotten around; Brisa'd seemed to be hitting it off with that Lucario.

"I'm a fan of the house special steak sandwich, but you can't go wrong with a good burger either." Not that it looked like the Emolga was actually there to ask for food recommendations so much as because he'd just decided to invite himself to join him at the table. And just what was that accent?

Whatever. If this weirdo was actually going to stick around and try to make small talk, why not humour him.

 

[Readerlove]

Danithan's mouth practically watered at the mention of steak. "That sounds bloody delicious!"

The Emolga sat quietly for a minute or two of awkward silence with the Mightyena. In the midst of the short bit of silence, the Emolga had taken the time to feel the seats, take a look at the table itself, see Dave in a much closer light, and smell the scent of freshly cooked food in the air. Poking his head off to the side of the booth, he gave a hearty smile out into the aisle with an occasional hand wave to get any waiters attention. Eventually, a waiter did head to the table to take orders. Danithan gave the house special steak sandwich as his order, but then turned to look at Dave. "Oi, Dave, you want anything?"

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave took a sip of his drink. "If I did I'd have ordered already."

He peered at the Emolga for a moment. What on earth was this guy's deal? Sitting down in his booth, asking for recs, and then just silently fidgeting around in between staring at him intently? Was he some kind of hyperactive kid or what?

"I, uh, didn't catch your name."

 

[Readerlove]

The Emolga nodded at Dave. "Name's Danithan." As Danithan finished up the order, the waiter then asked if he would like a drink with it. There was a second of hesitation, his eyes darting to Dave's beer and the waiter, before he answered. "I'll just take a can of pop with the food." As the waiter left, the Emolga turned back to the Mightyena. "... so lad ... what's the least fooked up thing that's happened to you during this whole black-light mess?"

 

[Dragonfree]

Seemingly tempted by the beer but sticking with soda? So... he was some kind of recovering alcoholic, or what?

Dave let out a barking laugh at Danithan's inquiry. "The least fucked-up? What kind of question is that? I mean, most everything here is some degree of fucked-up, but every now and then you do get to do something normal. I had a regular good night's sleep in my bed last night, how about that. Low fucked-up quotient there." First time in a while, too.

 

[Readerlove]

Danithan smiled at Dave's laughter. "Aye lad! Being able to get some half decent shuteye is worth it after you haven't had it for a while." He put a paw to his chin. "Eh, let's up the ante a little, what's the weirdest thing you've seen? And why not ask me a question of your own?" He put his paws behind his head as he leaned back in the booth. "I'm sure I can answer something if ya ask me it."

 

[Dragonfree]

What was this, Twenty Questions? Was he a kid? Christ.

"Honestly, personally, I'm still stuck on how the fuck I'm lifting this glass." He waved his paw up and down, the glass following despite his nonexistent grip. "Fucking magic."

Did he really not have anything better to do than indulge this Emolga in dumb question games? ...Well, not until he'd finished his drink, probably. He took a chug of it.

"Here's a question for you. If you already saved Cibus, and went home, and now you're back for this shit, does that mean for the rest of my life Diyem might at any time just snap his fingers and bring me on to help Alternate Fucking Cibus #543? Because if so, I did not agree to that. Did you agree to that, or did he just do it?"

 

[Readerlove]

Danithan stared at the drink once more, eyes trailing it as Dave moved it. He shook his head and blinked. "Aye lad that's ... yeah I don't even know how that works." He looked down at the table in thought. "With Diyem ... yeah, if you've met him, you can probably wander into the crossroads ... that campfire place, you know it aye?" He shook his head and then looked back at Dave. "Technically ... yeah, Diyem can summon ya to the campfire. But, ya can still refuse while there. With my group, he asked us before he sent us." Danithan smirked. "I think you have to agree to Diyem is askin before he is willing to send ya to another place. I agreed to be sent back here again, or at least an alternate version of Cibus."

Looking Dave over, Danithan tilted his head. "I ... I gotta ask. Ya sound old enough to be my fuckin father. And I don't even know who my own parents are ... how old are you?" The Emolga mumbled to himself as he looked at the mightyena's muzzle. "I'm bloody what ... 21 ... 22? When was my last birthday ..."

 

[Dragonfree]

Guy was really staring at his beer. Jesus. Why'd he even come to a bar.

"Forty. So, uh, would've had to be pretty young, but." He narrowed his eyes at Danithan. "You don't remember how old you are? In your fucking twenties?"

 

[Readerlove]

Danithan nodded at Dave's age. "Guess you are just barely old enough to be my father, that's interesting lad." The emolga hummed."The reason I'm unsure is because my birthday falls on a weird spot near the end of the year and I haven't checked a calendar yet. So I'm not sure if I'm still 21 or I'm now 22. It's still winter back home and I haven't had time to check a calendar."

The emolga looked around the room, before his eyes returned to the beer. Damn it. Danithan spoke, his mouth dry. "so ... what are your vices?"

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave took another sip of his beer, watching Danithan fixating on the glass. Christ. And what, was he trying to get him to admit to having some sort of drinking problem?

Yeah, he was just not going to dignify that with an answer.

"So you've got calendars but no general awareness what day it is? Not a human world, I'm guessing." Still sounded like the ages approximately lined up, at least. What was the drinking age even for Emolga?

 

[Readerlove]

Danithan nodded. "yeah, back home, human's don't really ... exist?" Danithan shrugged. "Unless ya count them turning into Pokemon. There are records of it, but it's not common. They tend to guard legends from disaster or something." The emolga shook his head, "I'm guessing your home is human only?" The emolga then mumbled to himself. "All this human stuff is reminding me a bit of R."

 

[Dragonfree]

"'R'?" Dave cocked an eyebrow. "My world has Pokémon too. They just don't talk. Is yours, uh, one of the ones with 'ferals'? That's basically what all Pokémon are where I'm from."

 

[Readerlove]

Danithan nodded. " In my world, Ferals can't speak, they just mindlessly maul you while howling at ya in dungeons. Some wackjobs try to sell them as pets ... I don't get it." The Emolga shivered. "As for R ... well he's a Riolu." He let out a sigh as he continued. "When R first showed up, everyone was convinced he was Feral due to the tag in his aura sensor and the fact he couldn't exactly speak besides growling. " He tapped against the table. "but when he wrote down actual words and made a sentence, in addition to aura bullshittery ... quite a few mons wanted to get his head checked out."

 

[Dragonfree]

"Huh." Dave sipped his drink, thinking. "Regular Pokémon aren't universally aggressive in my world. Just sort of... you know, they want to battle all the time, you need to take your pets out and battle them a little now and again or they'll start pissing all over your floors, but only particular species are likely to try to maul anyone." It was pretty fucking bizarre how all these different worlds had the same Pokémon species, looking basically the same, but a myriad different variations on how they behaved, wasn't it. "What do you mean, a tag? Do you tag and release ferals for research, or what?"

 

[Readerlove]

The Emolga tilted his head. "Lad, I wish ferals only wanted to battle, and not be territorial as all get out."

Danithan let out a bitter laugh. "Lad, I wish it was a research tag. and I wasn't the one to put it on em either. I work for a guild." The Emolga continued. "Backing up a little, the reason R showed up is because of Axel, a non-feral outlaw of an Umbreon, who now works with me. It's a bit of a story why he's working with me, I'll get back to R now." He clenched his paws. "The tag in R's aura thing was an ownership tag. Like one that you would see on a miltank. Turns out Axel ended up having to steal R from a black market. That's a whole other story."

He took a deep breath. "When R was taken to a Psychic, well, it came pretty clear he wasn't a feral ... that's for certain ..." Danithan grit his teeth as looked down at the table.

 

[Dragonfree]

Oh, Jesus. "So... there's some kind of underground slave trade with sapient Pokémon disguised as ferals going on?"

 

[Readerlove]

Danithan nodded slowly. "When the Psychic finished with checking out R, he said that the Riolu used to be human." Danithan was shivering and if Dave took the time to sniff the air, a scent that could only be described as disgust and anger would be coming off the Emolga. "They said that the inside of his head, his mind ... it was if someone broke into a house and decided to take a crowbar to everything in an attempt to destroy it all, in addition to throwing what was left behind locks."

Shadows began to drip off Danithan, droplets of darkness running down his body. "Said it was a miracle he wasn't a fucking vegetable." A growl bubbled up from his throat. "He's just a fucking kid, a teenager at most ... what sick fuck would do that and how many more ..."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave felt his hackles rising. Fuck. Somebody took a human kid and just... pulled a Soda on him. "Jesus Christ. That's fucked up. They manage to help him?"

 

[Readerlove]

Danithan growled but nodded. "He's getting several different types of therapy." The emolga was slowly calming down. "speech therapy, occassional sessions at psychics trying to pry open the locks." The emolga continued, shadows receding. "There is also the bit of education taught to him, and some anger management." A sigh exited his mouth. "He still allowed to go on missions with Axel or me, but we both take him to a psychic afterwards to make sure it doesn't fuck with his head." A small smile overcame the emolga's face. "Each new time he has his head checked, it's still a mess, but a little less each time."