Poppin' Arms ~ Holding Cells

[Fusion]

"Me? Oh, well..." Kora grimaced slightly, pacing back and forth again. It was probably best to just be honest, right? The fox sighed, gripping his arms. "I heard a lot about what you guys did, you know? About what happened on the moon... and with Soda. I've been worried, and... I dunno, I think I'm still on the fence about checking on him."

He looked off to the side, mumbling a bit. "...I know he isn't the one from the Cibus I saved, but he's still... him. If one Soda went apeshit and power-crazy because of the Blacklight and that Eterna parasite..." his voice trailed off, then he sighed. Kora didn't seem to notice his claws digging into his arms at this point.

"Why are you here, if you don't mind me asking? I don't remember the jail cells being very high on anyone's places to eat lunch."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave narrowed his eyes at him. "Well, yeah, I'm visiting. What, was he a friend of yours in the other Cibus?"

 

[Fusion]

Does he think we're lying?

I mean... would you blame him?

Can the self deprecation for a second, geez!

"Yeah, he was," Kora chuckled. "We didn't get to spend too much time together, but I still cared about him by the time I left. Although you could say that about just about anyone, hehe..."

Kora cleared his throat, letting go of one of his arms, still unaware of his claws still digging into the other. "It's probably more complicated than I'm letting on, but that's all in the past, ain't it? But... I mean... dunno..." he sighed, shaking his head. "I take it you're one his friends too? Other than Flesh, and I guess the rest of the God Squad, I didn't think he was that social."

 

[Dragonfree]

"I mean, we used to have drinks at the Cauldron together before the whole Blacklight clusterfuck, and I've been getting him food while he recovers." Dave gestured at the takeout bag. "So in your Cibus he just... didn't get hit by the parasite at all?"

 

[Fusion]

Kora seemed to darken more, shifting anxiously. "If he did, he did a helluva job hidin' it from us. I want to say for a fact that he wasn't, he acted more like a recluse than someone dealing with insanity... but you never know with these things." The darkness around him faded, mostly, and he touched the ground for the first time.

"One minute, everything's fine, the next... saying everything isn't would be an understatement," Kora said, coldly. "From the look of it, Soda from my Cibus is fine, considering Diyem didn't have us fight a super-powered maniac before coming here but... Like I said, things happen."

He let out a weak chuckle, holding his arms behind his head. "Man, I thought this was gonna be a vacation. Shouldn't be so doom and gloom about it. I'm sure everything will be fine." Kora fell back, going back into a float before hitting the ground. "I don't know about you, but I don't think we should keep Soda waiting much longer, right?"

What a getaway, I think we pulled the wool over this guy's eyes like pros.

Hell if I know. I just wanna hurry up and see Soda again. Make sure he's alright.

 

[Dragonfree]

For a fleeting moment Dave imagined that universe. No Blacklight corruption, no memory fuckery, no Substitutes. Soda just staying a drinking buddy, and not someone he'd had to spend weeks thinking about.

"No. Let's not."

He picked up the bag and headed in towards Soda's cell.

 

[Namohysip]

The Zoroark was accompanied by Wheat again, but it was hard to tell if Wheat was awake or not. Soda himself was reading a book, but he must have heard Dave's and Kora's jabbering, because he was already closing the book.

"Hey," Soda greeted, glancing at the bag Dave brought with an appreciative smile. Without saying much, it seemed like he was in slightly higher spirits. Perhaps it was a good day.

 

[Fusion]

...Geez.

Yeah...

I have... no idea what to do here. H-He's not the same one, not by a long-shot.

You state that as if we should know.

Don't... we..?

Kora planted himself back on the ground, shrinking a bit. Did he not think this through enough? He was still worried, but... he didn't even know what he was going to say, did he? No, he did, but...

"Howdy," Kora said, waving slightly.

W-Wait! What are we--

Hold on a sec, just... lemme handle this.

"Name's Kora, my team and I recently dropped by and, well, when I heard a version of someone I knew was... worse for wear, I wanted to check up on 'im," the fox said, an honest, but sympathetic look on his face. "You look better than I thought you'd be, which is nice."

 

[Dragonfree]

"Hey," Dave said back. He moved to exchange the mozzarella sticks through the slot, keeping a wary eye on Kora. Guy looked like he was having a real internal battle with himself. He'd made it sound like he and his Soda had barely even hung out, and this was an entirely different universe's version of him at that. It was hard not to suspect there was more to this, one way or another.

"Specifically," he said, when Kora completely failed explain what on earth he meant by 'a version of someone I knew', "these people came here from an alternate Cibus. Apparently he knew the Soda in that world."

 

[Fusion]

Kora chuckled, his head dropping slightly. "To get into specifics, yeah. I know another Soda."

 

[Namohysip]

"...Another Soda, huh?" he replied, smirking a little. "Well, I guess I've heard stranger things." There still wasn't a lot of energy in him, and he was clearly haunted by recent sins, but at least he wasn't spiraling for it. Wheat must have done a good job at curbing that part of his psyche.

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave'd wondered if Soda would ask if the other Soda had done the same things he had, but maybe he didn't really want to know. Any answer to that was shit in its own way.

"What's the status on getting out of here by now?" he asked instead. "Anything new?"

 

[Fusion]

Kora didn't seem to loosen up all that much, but he smirked back and nodded. "There's a whole lot stranger than doubles and all that, huh?"

"But, yeah, when is it lookin' like you'll be let outta this place? Nice as it is, I don't think being kept in this cramped little place is all that great," Kora hummed, holding his arm. "Doesn't feel right to have someone like you locked up in the same place as someone like Giovanni, you know?"

 

[Namohysip]

Soda didn't look like he wanted to answer at first. "...They said I'm stable. You know, in terms of the whole world-ending thing." His claws dug into his arms' fur. "Maple and the others are looking into any legal issues I've got for the whole... natural disasters thing. You guys get it, but the world doesn't yet." His voice was quiet. "And I dunno if I can face anyone yet. People who lost their homes or their families. They're gonna be everywhere. And they'll know me."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave glanced back at Kora. Did he even know the full extent of the damage? Fuck.

"Are they at least treating you okay in here? What Owen told me about that Wheat guy sounded pretty fucking sketchy to me."

 

[Fusion]

Kora tensed up slightly, gripping his arm tighter. A few shadowy wisps trickled off his body.

World ending...

He's getting better! He's stable, and sane, a-and remorseful!

He would have destroyed the planet...

Could! He could have destroy the planet! But he didn't! He's gonna be fine! Cibus is fine!

How many people didn't--

This is nothing we have not seen before, and as we know from those experiences, being tense and anxious will not help any of us.

The fox sighed, still holding his arm, still tense, but at least trying to level himself. "Stable, yeah, that's good. Thank gods for that," he chuckled shakily. "It's gonna be rough facing everyone again, I ain't even gonna pretend it won't, but you don't have to face the world now. But, when you do, you won't be facing them alone. You still have the God Squad backing you up, you know? And some members of Spectrum."

Kora nodded, grinning weakly, "You aren't the same guy that did any of that carnage anymore, remember?"

 

[Namohysip]

Soda grunted, looking away. "I owe Wheat for stabilizing me, so as creepy as he is, the guy does good work. Not gonna question it." He glanced at Wheat, who remained unresponsive. He wondered if he slept with his eyes open.

Soda leaned back. "I still don't know if I deserve any of it, though," he murmured. "God Squad wants me back. Flesh visits a lot, yeah. Everyone's treating me like I'm a victim instead of a perpetrator. Or maybe I'm both. But they're just... ignoring it. But how can I shift the blame away when I know I did it... it felt like I made the choice to do it. That's... different from being controlled. It didn't feel like I was forced." He sighed. At least her wasn't spiraling.

"I can't come to terms with that."

 

[Dragonfree]

Soda was still stuck on this. Goddamn it. Dave really wished he had gotten a drink.

Instead, he just shoved a mozzarella stick in his mouth and tried to enjoy the taste for a moment. "What's it matter what you deserve? They want you back. Flesh wants you back."

 

[Fusion]

"Whether you think you did those actions or not, they weren't your actions. They were the parasite's, the Blacklight's. Not yours," Kora said, tightening the grip he had on his arm. "This Blacklight stuff already has a way of messing with your head, and that parasite is no different. You'll believe you're sane when you've lost your head, think you're just when you're no different that the villain's you've detained... but it isn't you."

The fox looked... tired? Sympathetic? Remorseful? It wasn't easy to tell. "The thing about losing your mind most of the time is that you won't know you've lost it, even when you get it back. Sometime's you'll feel like something let go of your brain, other times you won't feel anything at all."

"You aren't a monster because you lost yourself to something stronger than you, and it's... painful to see you think so little of yourself because of what happened..." Kora exhaled, shaking his head. "Your team, hell, Maple wouldn't have forgiven you if you weren't deserving of it. Even if you can't trust your own judgement, or ours, you can trust her's."

 

[Namohysip]

Soda deflated, listening to every word. "Yeah." They seemed to register, but at the same time, they weren't sticking like they should have. Not entirely. "No matter what happens, they aren't gonna just give up on me. That's how they are. I guess you guys would know more than anyone how much they're like that. Huh?" He glanced at Dave, then at his claws on his knees. "...I gotta be around for Flesh. Yeah. Guess he'd still want me around..."