Marowak Dojo ~ Hidden Quarters

[Namohysip]

In what appeared to be a dead end of the Dojo, a false wall slide away to reveal a small alcove fit for approximately four, perhaps five Pokemon. A miniature set of supplies, similar but lesser than what was provided in the main room, allowed for a small bunker to hide away from the world. The walls also seemed to be more reinforced than the others, and there was something that felt oddly insulating about the surroundings. Still, without Marowak to explain its purpose, this room was just a quiet offshoot of the main quarters...

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"And here we are," Truffle announced, looking back. "while not necessarily under the ownership of anybody in particular, Soda advised me to introduce this private room to you, Poochyena. He said, ah, let me find the note..." Truffle pulled out his badge, which displayed a holographic screen above it. "He says, 'For you and your lovely guests.'" Truffle nodded and beamed at Dave. "How thoughtful! I imagine this works well for those who would prefer to sleep in something quieter while we find better room arrangements..."

 

[Dragonfree]

"Oh. Ha." Dave chuckled. "Okay. You know what, this is good. Really might get a good night's sleep in here."

If it wasn't some kind of setup, that is. This was clearly some kind of... bomb shelter, or the sapient Pokémon equivalent thereof. The idea they might lock him in there struck him; his fur fluffed up unconsciously, along with a strange urge to just hightail it out of there right now. Oh, joy. Didn't Poochyena have an ability called 'Run Away'?

He took a deep breath. "So what, do you people run this place? The, uh, 'God Squad'?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Er, yes," Truffle said, though he didn't seem very satisfied with the name or title. "Well, no. We don't run this place; we are here on a mission, I suppose similar to how you are, though we actually live in this world." He adjusted his feathers nervously, humming. "However!" And back with the enthusiasm. "Despite your odd circumstances, we are happy to welcome you as part of the counter efforts! And the comfort of the team is important for morale and efficiency when the time to fight arrives!"

 

[Dragonfree]

"Yeah?" Dave looked around the room. "I mean, cool, thanks for the hospitality. But if you don't run this place, and just came here on a mission, I'm curious how you found out about this room, given it looks pretty secret." He looked back up at Truffle, trying to gauge his response.

 

[Namohysip]

"It was shown to us during evacuations if we needed to find shelter," Truffle explained, spreading his wings again. "One of the safest places in Treasure Town! Apparently it had been made some time during the Bittercold Dark Omen, and was used during the Dark Matter incident proper. Though, apparently there was no need for it one way or the other... but perhaps that shall now change!"

 

[Dragonfree]

"Hmm. Good to know." Dave wanted to know what the Bittercold Dark Omen and Dark Matter incidents were, but asking Truffle would probably not be a good idea as far as not revealing too much to these guys went.

"Well, if it was nothing else, I'll see you around."

 

[Namohysip]

Truffle nodded. "Do take care!" he said, bowing deeply. "Be careful against Magikarp. We will be sure to alert you all if things change."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Having walked back up from the beach chatting to Curio, Brisa felt the urge to secure some private resting place for herself before it was too late. The urge to find somewhere to escape to if she got caught in another group conversation was making her fur crawl.

"Mind waitin' for me while I pick a bed?" she asked the riolu, who assented.

Going inside and past some mon who looked to have recently sparred, she found an alcove that seemed, if not totally solitary, at least significantly less crowded than the main room. Inside was that poochyena she spotted in the square before; hopefully he wasn't going to object to her picking a bed here.

"Well met," she said. "Shinx Brisa. I don't think I caught your name before?"

 

[Dragonfree]

"Oh. Hi. Dave." He gestured at the room with a paw. "If you were looking for some peace and quiet for tonight, this place is some kind of reinforced bomb shelter and it's got room for a few more. I was just heading out to see if anyone else wanted in."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"I could use some peace and quiet tonight," Brisa confessed. "Thank you. I suppose you must be a human, usin' words like those. How are you findin' this world? It's more or less like where I come from, not that this ain't all deeply weird and distressin' for me..."

She inspected each bed for preference as she spoke, finding that there were no lingering scents or shedding from recent use. Excellent.

 

[Dragonfree]

"Oh yeah, deeply weird and distressing just about covers it." Dave scratched his ear with a hind paw, then made a face at it. "I'm used to living in a world where Pokémon don't talk. And not being a dog, Jesus Christ. Humans have hands to do things with."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"We get by well enough without hands," mused Brisa. "Hence the architecture. Wait, pokémon don't talk? Is that just a way of saying we're deeply antisocial where you're from, or are we not sapient?"

 

[Dragonfree]

"I mean, that's a complicated line to draw, biologically. Many Pokémon are pretty smart in their own sort of way, but they don't speak a language, you know? No communicating complex thoughts and ideas in a consistent intelligible way. Usually they don't use tools, or very primitively. They sure don't build shit. You can take a, a Scyther, you know, and it can do math in its head and understand systems and predict future events based on observed evidence. So clearly they've got some clever reasoning skills going on in there. But they don't create anything, and they don't talk to each other, not about anything more complicated than 'I'm hungry' or 'Piss off'. So what do you call that?" For a moment he seemed lost in thought about something else entirely. "So yeah. Pokémon building towns and dojos and having teams and talking about saving the world? Not gonna get that there."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa considered this. She climbed into the bed which she deemed the comfiest, and appraised Dave anew. With the knowledge that he was human, she realised that there was something distinctly un-poochyena about his expressions and mannerisms. Sure, he scratched like a dog, but that was just the best way to deal with an itch when you had a quadrupedal body. His face just didn't have that stupid canine yearning in it. He was smart, or at least smarter than a canine.

"That sounds fascinatin'," she said at last. "But I guess it must be unsettlin' for you. The faster you get used to it, the better, so if there's anythin' you could ask me that would help make sense of things for you, please do."

Ugh. Why had she said that? Always, always she had to be helpful. Idiot, and she was keeping Curio waiting.

She smiled brightly with her face, tail twitching unseen behind her as she presented the model of helpfulness.

 

[Dragonfree]

"Thanks, but I'll manage." Dave said. "Think I've got some, uh, Poochyena instincts to figure out how to pilot this fluffball around." The way she was smiling at him was almost disconcerting, overly eager to be of assistance. "So... what do you do over in your world? Feel like somebody who'd have a 'Hero's Aura', or is that as bullshit as I think it is?"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa turned her face away. If she gave a real answer, she risked embarrassing herself. If she didn't she'd be snubbing this human before they'd built any trust. Twin anxieties fought inside her throat. The need to give an answer won out.

"I... live alone, past the edge of town. Frontier Town is a lot like Treasure Town in this world, as best I can tell. I make patrols; I watch for suspicious folks or travellers in need of aid. I've helped a few out, I guess. I get by."

She gave Dave a hard look. "You must have seen the other... 'party members' by now. Whatever a 'Hero's Aura' is, I don't think it's something that requires you to have done anything especially heroic, or be particularly good at anything, or even be a decent person. I don't even think it means you're the best person for this sorta thing. If I could have picked anyone from my world to send here, I know I wouldn't have chosen me. So... why us? I've thought about it and... I think we're just the ones who were willin'. We said yes. All of us said yes."

 

[Dragonfree]

"Ha. Yeah. Might be it." Dave snorted. "'Hero's aura', a.k.a. saying yes to a thing. Good job. Any asshole can say yes to anything."

He shook his head. "Well, at least it means there's a bunch of us. Maybe we won't all die. Not that it'd apparently matter if we did, according to Diyem. I mean, fuck. Why not fight a giant Magikarp if we're immortal in here."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa's tail swished. This was some form of irony. Sarcasm? ...cynicism?

"I mean to say," she began in a cautious tone, "that even those of us who have... doubts about the truth of Diyem's proposal agreed to it all the same. It could be that some of us are, ah, genuinely selfless deep down. It could be that some of us have nothin' better to live for — or a death wish. I've spotted a couple like that."

She cringed at her momentary candidness and tried to head off further comment by changing topic. "So, um, what is it that you do in your world? I daren't imagine how different human lives are to our own, aha."

 

[Dragonfree]

"Yeah, that's my point. I could definitely believe this is just whoever agreed to Diyem's thing and he's dressing it up like 'Ooh, you've all got a hero's aura' to make it sound like he didn't just pick up any jackass who'd bite."

He paused. "Me? I'm a geneticist. Do you even have genetics in cartoon talking Pokémon world? Ugh. I don't know if we even have genes here, for all I know."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa couldn't help but trill with unexpected interest. "I doubt many of our allies will know the word, but I do! I do a lotta reading, and I have an ancient text that mentions genes. It's not... uh, current science. Lost knowledge, I'm afraid. But I'm certain that pokémon, in my world at least, have genes."

Brisa waved her tail in front of her face. "For bein' fashioned by magic, these bodies seem real enough. I look like I did as a kit, and not like some other shinx." She nipped at her own paw experimentally. "And, hm. I feel pain. Pain is very grounding, I find. Is your... genetics? Somethin' you could perform here if you had the right resources?"