Game Week of the Multiverse: Polteageist Cafe

[unrepentantAuthor]

Lee eventually left to go torment some poor soul, and Jesse wished him a fond, if dry, farewell. He stuck around, slaking his thirst and nursing his migraine. The sneasel looked as if she'd had one too. Perhaps they could talk it over.

Ah. The human-souled mimikyu was approaching. He couldn't read the expression on fabric none too good, but her mind was buzzing with negativity. Too bad for her.

"Howdy," he called. "Y'got my sympathies; I know it ain't easy adjustin' to a new body and world just like that."

 

[Shiny Phantump]

"Oh?" Lillie turned to see who that voice had belonged to. Now that she had eyeholes, she could see he was Delphox... but dressed with a full human outfit.

"I'm doing... fine." Really, it was a bit generous a description of her headspace. "Not much to do now, I guess."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Jesse nodded and hid a smirk at how transparently not fine she was, even for regular folks. "Glad t'see ya in more suitable attire," he said, of her new outfit. "Was just thinkin' of havin' food if'n ywanna join me. I sure know when I was in yer position I coulda used someone who knew what it was like to be shoved into a new body all disoriented-like. Woulda helped just to talk to someone, realise that I could get a handle on it."

He remembered vaguely that bright afternoon so long ago, and how he'd marvelled at his own tail, despite not remembering anything of his old body. Of course, he got the strong impression from her thoughts that Lillie didn't much care for her present form... Poor gal.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

"Mhm. Sure. Food sounds good..."

It seemed like this guy hadn't been human for a long time. Since long before he arrived here. "I take it you've been this way for longer than most of the humans here?"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"Ah..."

He grinned, and sent a request for service to the staff. "Yeah, I sure have. I been a fox fer goin' on twenty-six years now. That's longer than a fair few of us have been alive for."

 

[Shiny Phantump]

"For... twenty-six years?" Lillie felt the insides of her new form stir nervously. I guess I'm going to be like that one day, too. Life won't stop just because I'm a Mimikyu now.

"What do you do? I mean, what did you do, back when you first... ended up like this."

 

[IFBench]

The Tyrogue that was next to the Polteageist grabbed a menu off the wall, and walked over to the table where the Delphox and Misdreavus-disguised Mimikyu were. He set the menu on the table, and asked, "What would y'all like?"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"Breakfast muffin fer me, thanks," replied Jesse. "Hot, if'n y'don't mind."

"What do you do? I mean, what did you do, back when you first... ended up like this."

"Well, I was summoned by my world's Voice of Life specifically to solve a crisis. So I did that, though I had t'find out what it was I had t'do and work up the courage fer it, first. I had amnesia, y'see. Didn't even remember I was human 'til much later."

He scratched his cheek in thought. "And then... I guess I stuck around." For a moment, a scowl wrestled with a smile on his face. "Had a kid with my partner, worked as a ranger fer a while. Before I wound up here I was..."

Being waterboarded in a fucking jail cell, blind and helpless.

"Ah, it's not important. Just work."

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Lillie looked over the menu. She wanted something sweet, but... Oh, whatever. It wasn't like Mimikyu had to worry about looks anyways. "I'd like a donut, please." It was a bit of a consolation prize to this form.

She pondered what Jesse had said. She couldn't imagine not being able to even remember being human in the first place. Wouldn't help her figure out what to do with her life.

And after that? It was... work. It felt oddly mundane, but it wasn't like there was anything else for her to accomplish. He'd also had a child with his partner... as a Delphox.

She couldn't imagine that. She'd seen Mimikyu eggs in part of the conservation area. Squishy, slimy, leathery things. She couldn't imagine ever loving one of those. Or laying one. No thank you!

Unless she got used to the idea one day... It was hard to imagine being a Mimikyu could ever feel normal to her.

Perhaps it was for the best, she wouldn't have made much of a mother anyways.

She snapped out of her thoughts. If she didn't respond, who knows what Jesse would think she was thinking. "Oh. Just... work. I don't know what I expected, I guess."

 

[IFBench]

"I'll have it ready for you both as soon as possible," the Tyrogue said, waking to the back of the room, and through a doorway in the back, wondering just what they were talking about.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

who knows what Jesse would think she was thinking.

Jesse smiled to himself. He didn't envy her the imagined experience with mimikyu eggs though, heavens... It had been tough enough to get used to being a fox, and he'd had to do it all over again after he got his memories back, and... Well. Nevermind.

"Hey, it ain't so bad. Y'get a lotta free drinks if y'save the world." Mind you, it sure sounded like the kid hadn't signed on for that. "I reckon y'ain't here t'do that, though, not that yer old enough t'be drinkin', anyway... I'd relax if I were you, though. My gut tells me we're all goin' home when whatever it is that brought us here is put to rights.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

I reckon y'ain't here t'do that, though, not that yer old enough t'be drinkin', anyway...

"Wait... How old do you think I am?" How childish do I seem? Mother was right about that, I guess..

Whatever, that wasn't the important part of what Jesse had said. "Even if I can go back... What's the point? Unless then can turn me into a human again, I'd be better off staying here. In my world, the only civilization is human, and having to be a wild Mimikyu would be worse than living here."

Nero seemed to be more or less an expert on Ultra Space, but the only way he knew for someone to become human again was one particular deity, who by his own admission had almost no chance of finding them here.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Jesse scratched behind his ear. Kid didn't seem offended... "Well, y'ain't an adult, right? I dunno what yer local legislation says, but where I'm from, the hard stuff is fer folks goin' on twenty. Weak beer fer you, partner. Anyway, yer new body is a property of bein' brought to a world meant fer pokémon. You'd get yer old body back if yer soul returned from this world.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

"I can drink in Alola. Not everywhere, though." I can also drink on Aether, but that's just Aether being legally weird. Either way, Mother would kill me. "Not that I've tried it, anyways."

"Uh, anyways... I don't know if that'll work for me. I don't have my human body sitting around waiting for my souls to get back, my body was the thing that fell through the wormhole that took me here. It's gone."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"Oh, fuck."

Oof. Jesse tried to laugh off his immediate alarm; who knew if the kid was even right?

"Yeah I'm not gonna lie t'you, that's outside my breadth of experience. Hang tight, I'm gonna look fer somethin' in yer head."

Jesse narrowed his eyes and initiated a pretty low level read of Lillie's recent memories. With how alarming they were, they'd likely stand out... He was looking for psychological continuity between bodies, seeing if she transformed or whether her old body was truly lost...

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Lillie felt a chill, and some images flashed through her head.

She hid Nebby in her tote bag, and turned to flee the deep labs. She pulled up to the lift, swiped her stolen card again, and went to select the docks lift.

The lift lurched upwards, and it moved up past the docks. No. Had her hand been shacking that much, or had Faba rigged some kind of trap in case she tried this?

The lift didn't stop until she was all the way to the conservation area. One of the employees was waiting for the lift. What if he noticed she was stealing the Cosmog? He didn't seem aware of the issue yet, but she couldn't just stand with him on the lift. Nebby wasn't sitting still in the bag. She bolted off the lift, the man giving her a strange look as she fled, but ultimately deciding it wasn't worth his time. Once the way was clear, she could get back to lift and get out.

Alarms started blaring. Someone in the deep labs had noticed that Nebby was missing. She hadn't stolen a high enough level of card to let her use the lift during a lockdown. The only people who could do that were Mother, Faba and Wicke.

She wished Aether had a Tapu for her to ask protection of, but the only guardian deity here was Wicke. Lillie could only hope nobody else got to her first. The employees in the conservation area we're looking for the cause of the lockdown, and a few of them had caught on and were beginning to pursue her.

She was cornered. Nebby, from inside the bad, began to whine. Space twisted around her, and...

Oh no.

The world around her twisted at impossible angles until she couldn't see anything more of Aether Paradise at all. She was freefalling through clouds of strange, nebulous lights.

It felt like her entire body was burning up. As if it was melting, even. She couldn't process it all, and she slipped quietly away into unconsciousness...

When she awoke, she was covered by the hat. The memory cut off abruptly.

She was back in the cafe.

She shuddered and glared at Jesse, fear from reliving the memory lingering in her eyes. "What did you do?!"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Oh, yikes. Poor kid hadn't had much fun today, huh.

"Relax," he drawled, "I just saw what I was lookin fer. The good news is, I reckon you'll snap back t'yer body the minute yer done in this world. The bad news is I ain't got much advice fer dealin' with those creeps back home. Best of luck, though. Here's hopin' time is passin' there th'same as it is fer us while yer gone."

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Well, at least I won't end up stuck here like him. Assuming he's right, that is...

"That's good. But, uhh, how much of that did you see?"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Jesse bristled at her immediate thought, but let it go. "All I know is, you ain't a bad sort, and they're adult humans chasin' you around. Sounds like creeps t'me."

That seemed simple enough to Jesse. What was with this girl? And, more than that...

"God it's fuckin' weird seein' human bodies again..."

 

[IFBench]

The Tyrogue came back, holding a steaming breakfast muffin in one hand, and a donut with pecha frosting and sugary sprinkles. He set both down on the table.

"Here ya go!" he said, before heading back to beside the Polteageist, wondering just what was up with those two.