Poppin' Arms Guild ~ Infirmary

[Namohysip]

"I knew peace. I had become a part of the world. It was... well, it didn't feel like much of anything, but it was better! Imagine how you would feel, being woken up from a, what do you call it, a nap. Slumber." Diyem ranted, though he did not yell. "For an amount of time that I could not perceive, it was like I could finally rest. And then..."

Diyem growled lowly. "That smug bastard woke me up one day. Haughty as always, condescending, as if I somehow was being done a service. The Arceus of my reality directed me to the Overseers. Demanded I improve myself, as if that was something I was capable of. Studied me so future iterations of my 'kind' could be better handled. Put me through therapy. Or what they thought it was. It involved more than just words and talking, since that obviously wouldn't work. They broke me. They tried to retool what I was. And...

"...And... and I still don't know why."

 

[Negrek]

"What the fuck?" Nate stared hard at the underside of the pile of blankets. "Jesus, man, when you said 'therapy' I was thinking, like, with a shrink and all, not some kind of fucking deprogramming bullshit. And, I mean, okay, that seemed kinda silly, but I didn't think there was no like torture going on. What the fuck is an Overseer? And, I mean, you got away from them, didn't you? Or are they still, like, watching you or some shit?"

 

[Namohysip]

"It was horrible." Diyem growled again, something primal. "Overseers... They are a group that watch over worlds. They observe any that may leak into others malevolently. An organization with no leader, only a mission toward stability.

"There is an Overseer among us, right on Cibus. That... Bean. Zygarde are often Overseers due to how their natures align with the mission. Though, he does not seem to travel worlds. I do wonder if Maple is familiar with them, too... Or a division of them...

"But Overseers... what they did to me..." He shuddered under the blankets. "They put me through so many tests and trials. They forced me into a mortal body and assigned me to make friends. I had to sing songs and go to fancy restaurants. They filled my room with... cushions, and books, and... talked to me." Diyem made a retching noise. Black smog poured out from under the covers. "It was Hell."

 

[Negrek]

Nate stifled a sneeze when Diyem started throwing off smoke, his eyes watering. His stomach clenched painfully under a surge of anger and nerves both. So not only was there all this shit with Giovanni and Joule and Eternatus, but there was some other shady universe-spanning group or some shit pulling strings behind everything? And yeah, Diyem's description of what they'd put him through would be funny under other circumstances, but considering that, like, friendship literally hurt him, it wasn't actually cute.

And on the tail end of all that, there was one of these Overseer people here on Cibus, and it was Bean? The fucking dog was in on this, really?

"That's fucked up," Nate muttered. "That's so fucked up. So if Bean's one of those Overseer types, does that mean he knew all along you'd be coming here to try and stop whatever was up? And then he didn't fucking tell anyone? He's playing Arceus and the God Squad, too?"

 

[Namohysip]

"That, I'm unsure of." Diyem sighed. "The Overseers are a vast and spanning organization, and no one part is aware of what every single other part is doing. If they have a leader, I don't know them. But... I doubt Arceus is unaware. It's more likely that Bean didn't know about me at the time. Perhaps he had submitted an inquiry by now." He huffed, calming back down. "...The Overseers told me that they wanted to enable me to build up a tolerance, and perhaps then an acceptance, of positive emotion. Something once thought impossible.

"I hate them for trying. Even now, I don't see why they put so much effort into trying to help me. To what do they owe me? I never trusted them. Even now I don't. In fact... I imagine, when I return, they will know that I broke their rules."

 

[Negrek]

Nate snorted. "Help you? Buddy, it's one thing if you asked for the whole Extreme Positivity Experience, but doing all that to somebody who didn't want it in the first place? Especially if it was gonna be scary and painful for them? Especially if they were just, like, chilling in a fucking tree, not bothering nobody? That's super fucked up. Nobody who decides they're gonna fix you whether you want it or not is somebody you should trust. Seems pretty clear to me that they're in this to figure out if there's some way they can deal with other Dark Matters in the future, without having to worry about that pesky 'acceptance' thing." He tipped his head, narrowing his eyes. "Maybe use 'em for their own purposes."

"Well..." Rocky said uncertainly from behind Nate. "I mean, it's good if Diyem can not get hurt by happy things, right? You feel better now, don't you?" He was talking to the blankets.

Nate made an impatient negating gesture without turning to look. "Yeah, 'course it's good. At least it sure as hell sounds like he was miserable before. But that ain't the way to do it, and I don't think any of these Overseer assholes are our friends." He studied Diyem's bed for a second, then asked, "So what are these rules you broke, then?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Hmph. I doubt I would ever accept or trust someone... in the past. They never would have gotten me to agree with anything." Diyem then hesitated, as if he didn't want to answer that next question. And then... "The rule I broke... They did not give me many rules. Or conditions. But I had a few. And one was..." He mumbled it. Knowing that he wouldn't be heard, he grunted and said, "...I wasn't supposed to enter a world that had a Tree of Life. Hence... why I had to send you all here instead."

 

[Negrek]

"Well, 'course you wouldn't. That's why they should have left you the fuck alone, instead of deciding they were going to turn you into the kinda person who'd be okay with it. People are allowed to not want shit 'for their own good.'" Nate scoffed and crossed his arms. All right, all right. Piece fucking said. It wasn't on him to decide how Diyem ought to feel about those bastards. Besides, he could easily be pissed enough about it for two. "So, it all comes back to that tree again, does it? That's fucked. It ain't your fault you ended up here, so nobody reasonable'd give you shit for it. But you know who we're talking about here." He sighed. "Well, have you thought at all about how you're gonna deal with that? Like, are you gonna try and talk it out with Bean, or...?"

 

[Namohysip]

Diyem didn't answer. He curled again, his tail slipping out of the covers before he tugged it back in.

"What's the point? ...I don't see why I should. They'll blame me anyway for trying to bend the rules..."

 

[Negrek]

"Oh, so you've been breaking them and bending them, huh?" He nearly smiled. For a big scary hyper-evil guy, Diyem sure had the look of a surly middle-schooler right now. Not that he blamed the guy. Like obviously anybody who'd gone and turned over his whole world and then put whatever kind of bullshit rules around what he was allowed to do with the life they'd so graciously bestowed on him would have been told to get fucked at every possible opportunity and on every scale. "Yeah, I guess sending a bunch of people you can, like, telepathically communicate with into a world with a tree of life ain't really in the spirit of not going there, huh?" He sighed. "The way I see it, it's like the whole thing with whether or not to tell Maple about you being Dark Matter way back when. Bringing it up with our friendly local Overseer might score you some points, maybe make them go easy on you. On the other hand, they might decide to... I dunno. Whatever you think the punishment there would be. In which case, holy shit, keep quiet until we can get you out of here again. I'm guessing it won't be too easy to get you out of reach of multiple worlds full of angry legendaries, but hey, you do what you gotta do, right?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Rrrgh... Which is why I've decided to be quiet for now. I don't need more trouble than I'm already in." And the fact that none of the others really knew about this was also to protect them. If they didn't know, then he could take the full blame, Cibus would be safe, and that was all he had to worry about. "It's pointless to dull it. I'll just take the brunt and you all can be sent back to your worlds when this is over."

 

[Negrek]

Nate sighed and sat back on his haunches. "Well, can't say I'm a huge fan of that plan. I prefer to roll with 'do the crime and don't do the time,' personally." He did smile then, crookedly. "Especially when it ain't a crime in the first fucking place. Ain't no reason you should have to suffer on account of this Overseer gang being a load of assholes. But you're right. Everybody's got loads more to worry about than you right now. You're probably good to keep your head down for a bit, and we can worry about anything else later." Nate rubbed at his head and scowled around at the legs of nearby beds. "Thanks for telling me, anyhow. Definitely better not... to be in the dark about this."

"What... do you think they're going to do to you?" Rocky asked softly. Nate grimaced.

 

[Namohysip]

Diyem clawed softly at the cushions. "...I'm not worried about what they'll do to me," he finally said. That, if anything, didn't seem to be a lie... "They'll probably just keep me under heightened monitoring and prevent me from entering Cibus or any other world like it again. Perhaps heavily monitor me if I try anything else. Maybe put someone in Veritas City again. They'd lifted that obligation when I made enough progress, so I imagine I'll be getting downgraded... Bean will probably tell them everything I've done wrong."

 

[Negrek]

"Could be worse," Nate said. "But I see what you mean about that lot. Condescending as fuck." Rocky was frowning at nothing, his tail lashing behind him with agitation. Well, at least there weren't no complaints about getting a move on. Everybody was in agreement about how important this shit was.

"Yeah, so, Veritas City... Is that, like, on another planet in this universe? It's not, right, it's somewhere else? That's something that's been bothering me. From what Buffet told me, you and him are pretty similar, like, born with the first person, die with the last, kind of thing. But he told me he can't leave Cibus, and he doesn't think Cibus' Dark Matter can, neither. So how are you able to get all interdimensional and shit? That something the Overseers did to you, too?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Veritas City is... a world that I operate, yes, but it does not exist in any particular plane. It's between realities. An Overworld Crossroads that only the spirit can access, hence its many odd properties. It was a place I made as part of my... therapy." Diyem sighed, like he was embarrassed to talk about it. "I proposed seeing how others confronted their darkness and uncomfortable situations in a harmless way. Expose myself to mortal realities in this way. The Overseers helped facilitate that with willing gods and other upper entities sending spirits from their world to Veritas. Most of the other creatures there are just my Void Shadows mimicking a bustling town."

 

[Negrek]

"Damn. Must be nice to be able to pop out a casual planet kinda place whenever you like. Seems like a good idea, though... from a 'therapy' perspective." And also gave an idea of the kind of power the Overseers had, which Nate was not fucking liking very much.

"Right, so Veritas City is kind of its own little thing and doesn't really... count as a real place. But does that mean you're Cibus' Dark Matter, then? Because if you're not, you still had to end up in a different universe somehow. Like I said, I thought that was supposed to be fucking illegal."

 

[Namohysip]

"I am not," Diyem said. "Though, I have tried to reach out to the Dark Matter of this world. He told me to go away. Very pleasant, by our species' standards. He's also dead." Diyem sighed. "So, he's quite literally resting in peace. I have searched for the Dark Matter of the parallel Cibus that Balm and Cepa are from... but was captured by Giovanni before I could get a response. I do not know where that one is. But I at least know for certain that the Dark Matter of Cibus is not involved in this ordeal.

"I am from... another world. Similar to, but not exactly, like Cibus. But I'd left it long ago when I was defeated in a similar way. I simply was nowhere for a while. Veritas City was my new plane, between worlds."

 

[Negrek]

"Mmm. So Buffet was just straight-up wrong about that. Dark Matters can go where they like. Or at least, you can." Nate leaned his head against his hand. "Good to hear the guy around here's doing all right, though. There's kinda too many Dark Matters floating around in this mess, so that's one accounted for and unfucked-with, at least. Seems like there must be at least one still knocking around here, though, after what happened to Joule." Nate stared up into the pile of blankets. "You the betting type, huh? Where'd you put the odds on it being the Dark Matter from Telum? I mean, there weren't many people around for the end of that world, and Dark Matter'd be one of them? And pretty much all the rest have turned up already."

 

[Namohysip]

"...I don't know. That Dark Matter should have succeeded. Perhaps he found peace, too, and died with the rest of his world." Diyem shook his head. "I think I remember what Buffet said. He might be right... in general. But the Overseers helped me learn new techniques... and therefore, gained new powers. I got some help from others. I'm not an ordinary Dark Matter anymore."

 

[Negrek]

"Well, one way or another it seems likely that we have two world-hopping Dark Matters here. It's always possible Giovanni built some kind of shadow machine, and that's what attacked Maple and them, but other than that..." Nate shrugged. "That's why I was thinking Telum, since we also have a Voice of Life from there running around where she shouldn't be." He thought a moment more, then shook his head. "Well, anyway..."

"W-wait! Diyem, do you have any idea... Do you know how to stop that big attack Joule made? Arceus was going to block it himself, but I think if he does, he's probably going to die," Rocky said.

"Dunno how I feel about trying to save the bastard now," Nate muttered.

"But we have to!" Rocky said, his hands clenched into fists. "I don't think he's bad! I want to hear... I want to hear why he's doing all this Overseer stuff."

"Yeah, well, we can't exactly go mentioning any of this shit to him." And fuck, the guy could read minds, couldn't he? What the fuck was it with all the nosy bastards around here? Nate sighed. "But we probably do want him around to try and get info out of later, I guess somehow."