Mystery Continent ~ Southern Beach

[Negrek]

"It's kind of weird that we end up on the beach all the time," Rocky said. "You never go to the beach in your world."

"Yeah. I dunno. Must be a water-type thing or something."

Lugia and Meringue had long since flown off to do lugia things somewhere else. More pokémon were starting to appear along the coastline, out for a morning swim or a run along the water's edge. Nate sighed and stretched out his legs, which were dangled over the edge of the cliffside. He had a feeling someone was going to try and get him moving soon.

"Ooh, look," Rocky said, shielding his eyes against the sun. "It's Seyka!"

"Where?" Nate craned his neck, searching.

"Come on, let's go see what he's doing!" Rocky said, jumping to his feet. "We haven't said goodbye yet. We can't leave without saying goodbye!"

And just like that, he was off. Nate sighed and pushed himself back to his feet. More goodbyes. But Rocky was right. They shouldn't skip an opportunity to get another one in.

Somewhere down on the beach Rocky was calling, "Seyka! Hey, Seyka!"

 

[RJR Basimilus]

The Skarmory was staring idly at the sand when he heard Rocky’s shouts. He turned towards the shade and waved back.

“Hi,” he shouted back. “Enjoying the sand?”

 

[Negrek]

"Of course!" Rocky said, giggling while he bounded up to the skarmory. Nate followed behind, much more slowly as always.

"Hey," he said. "Been a while."

It really had, hadn't it? It felt like the last time he'd seen the skarmory around was back in the nightmare forest, which... ah. Yeah. That was why it had been so long. He tugged nervously on one of his gills while Rocky said, "What have you been up to, Seyka? Were you going to bury yourself in the sand?"

 

[RJR Basimilus]

“Maybe,” Seyka replied, “I might just do nothing. Who knows what might happen.”

The Skarmory looked at Nate. “It has been awhile. Not too much has happened in between though, so it doesn’t feel much different.”

 

[Negrek]

"That's true," Rocky said. "Who knows? Maybe the sand could even jump up and attack!" He gave it a suspicious look as though, now that he'd said it, it must be going to happen.

Nate laughed. "Oh, yeah, nothing much. All that shit with the moon, I guess, and the null universe and everything. Just another Tuesday on Cibus." Which it was, in a way. Maybe more spectacular than previous fights, but to some extent more of the same. "That's good, I guess. Can't let all the shit going on around here fuck with your head too much." Unless, of course, you started out head-fucked and had hoped some good heroing would set you straight or whatever. Seemed to be the path a fair number of the team had taken. "How're you feeling about going back? No big deal either way?"

 

[RJR Basimilus]

“It won’t really matter if I regret it now,” Seyka said, shrugging, “I’ll go home, wake up as if nothing happened, and maybe kill someone. If I remember this later, then I will. Just another year of years.”

The Skarmory tilted his head. “You’ll go back too. Maybe you feel differently, and you can tell me how to feel, you know?”

 

[Negrek]

Nate blinked. Well, that was one hell of a shrug-off. "Kill someone, huh? What, are you a soldier back home or something?"

He'd never really gotten a real handle on the skarmory's backstory, only the sense that it probably wasn't all that happy. So what else was new, with Team Spectrum? Still, though. That was kind of a lot.

 

[RJR Basimilus]

“Back home?” Seyka thought about it for a moment. “I help my brother with a... group, you might say. We pretend to honor a made up god and sometimes we sacrifice Pokémon to them.”

The Skarmory made a face. “He says it’s good for morale. I wouldn’t know either way.” He shrugged. “I don’t think I’d mind being a soldier though.”

 

[Negrek]

Well, that... certainly was a new one. Rocky gave Nate a look of alarm, but Nate tried not to get too worked up about it. Seyka had always been kind of a weird guy. Who knew how literal he was being here?

"A made-up god, huh? Is that like one of the legends here, you know, Arceus, Mew, all them? Or somebody totally different?"

 

[RJR Basimilus]

“I don’t know,” Seyka admitted. “I just do what my brother tells me to. There is a ritual or whatever, but after saying it for over a hundred years, I kind of tune it out.”

“I still don’t really get the legends here,” the Skarmory continued. “Legends are like stories right? But they’re right there, nothing is a legend if you can confirm it.”

 

[Negrek]

"Your brother, huh?" Nate said. "How'd you end up in that situation, huh? With him telling you what to do and all?"

Rocky was shifting uncomfortably, but he perked up a little bit at Seyka's comment about legends. "Well, some legends are about people who used to be real, right? Or were supposed to be. I think the legends here went to sleep for a real long time, so people could tell a lot of stories about them! Then they came back, but people were used to them being legends, so the name kind of stuck." Rocky tipped his head thoughtfully. "It might have been kind of awkward."

 

[RJR Basimilus]

"Well, there's really nothing else to do," Seyka said matter-of-factly. "Since our dad died and Mar... err, that's- I mean... there's nothing left for me to worry about. I guess if you want to put it one way, I let Inno do all the thinking. That doesn't mean I don't think! I just don't think hard- about things, if you know what I mean."

The Skarmory paused, frowning, before turning to Rocky. "Oh, that makes sense. I've lived for a bit, so maybe I could make a legend for myself. Then, I could go traveling and come back in a hundred years or so. But it wouldn't be awkward because I'd make sure to include factual inaccuracies so I can know it's wrong and not feel weird about being so dramatically remembered."

 

[Negrek]

Letting someone else do the thinking, huh? He could kind of understand that, given what it sounded like Seyka wasn't saying. "Yeah, I know what you mean," Nate said. "Doesn't sound like good times, though. The whole sacrifice thing. Must have been nice, coming here and getting a break. Who knows? Maybe you'll kind of have a feeling for what things could be like when you go back. Get a sense of maybe there being something else to do after all." Yeah, right. Forgetting was forgetting.

"That sounds like a good plan," Rocky said, still hesitant but warming more to what Seyka was saying. "What kind of wrong facts would you want to include? Maybe... you could make a story about how you breathed fire, or you were ten times the size of other skarmory!"

 

[RJR Basimilus]

"Good or bad is irrelevant," Seyka said. "It's not really a break so much as it is a pivot, if brief. Something to pass the time."

The Skarmory looked thoughtful. "If I did remember this whole thing when I went back... well, I don't think it would make a difference. I'd keep doing what I always do, but I guess I would have a story to tell other pokemon- uh, if anyone asked."

"But speaking of stories-" He faced Rocky again. "I would say I used to have an evil eye in my neck that kills you instantly if you look at it. Dangerous things are thrilling, so they raise excitement."

 

[Negrek]

"No, huh?" Nate said. That sure was a fucking depressing thought. But... he thought he knew what the skarmory meant. "That how it's always been for you? Good or bad not mattering?"

"Ooh, that is more exciting!" Rocky had found something infinitely more fun to pay attention to. "That's a good one! Zzap! You even get your own sound effect!"

Why would just looking at something make a noise? No, hang on, there were way more fucking important things going on here. Nate rubbed uncomfortably at his gills.

"I can't really think of any stories I would want people to tell about me, though," Rocky said thoughtfully. "I can already do most things, so it's hard thinking of something that would be more exciting."

 

[RJR Basimilus]

Seyka looked past Nate at nothing, expressionless. "If only. The distinction mattered to me. Once." He smiled. "But that was then, and the past is the past. I think I cried enough, you know?"

"If you want to make a story about yourself, then you would want to do something crazy!" Seyka said to Rocky. "There's already a lot here that's really exciting, almost too much so. Maybe you could try being evil? Not like, evil evil, but halfway- er, I'm not sure what's considered evil or not. There are different interpretations."

 

[Negrek]

"I know the feeling, yeah," Nate said. And now he was feeling like he just wanted to sit and stare at the ocean for a while. At least they'd picked a good backdrop for this conversation.

"Oh, that could be a good idea," Rocky said thoughtfully. "Maybe I could be somebody who seems evil, but who's actually good? Or I could do bad things but end up joining the good guys in the end."

"I think that one's kinda played out on Cibus," Nate said darkly.

Rocky sighed. "I guess that's true. I think you'd have to be really evil-evil to stand out around here." He drew himself up as tall as he could, and said in his best approximation of a booming voice, "I am Rocky the conqueror! And I killed like two billion guys! And now I'm going to kill you! Bwahahaha!"

He sighed, slumping back again. "No, I'm just not good at it."

 

[RJR Basimilus]

"Well, it's a matter of scale," Seyka said, nodding at Rocky. "Two billion is a lot, but if you're quantifying it, it's harder to see you as super evil compared to like a big storm."

"Generally speaking," Seyka continued, "When a name becomes a number, then its meaning is lost. At least based on my experience."

I don't know that number, do I

Seyka frowned. "That's a bit awkward to think about- I think everyone would be depressed rather than in awe of your evil. Maybe a more effervescent evil would work?"

 

[Negrek]

"Oh, well, that's not good," Rocky said, ears drooping slightly. "I don't want people to be sad. Hmm. When you say 'effervescent,' do you mean like silly? I could get a cape." Rocky mimed sweeping a cape around to hide himself in. "Maybe build a space laser? Hmm, Chip has a space laser... maybe I could say I stole it?"

 

[RJR Basimilus]

"Along those lines, more or less," Seyka replied, "You could say lively too." He perked up. "You could probably do that with that laser. Why don't you shoot it at the moon? It's already been messed up a bit, and if you accidentally destroy it, someone can just make a new one. If Chip can make a laser, why not an artificial moon?"

"Besides, it's not like the sun. The moon hardly does anything."