Poppin' Arms ~ Study

[Namohysip]

On the far end of the hall of the dorms, as far from the lounge was possible, was the study room. There were no board games here, no darts, no Sky Jukebox, and perhaps to some, no fun. But it was here that the quiet, insulated walls allowed for deep concentration, meditation, and learning. The more academic guild members frequented this place. If their rooms were too loud or too close to the lounge, the study was a reprieve where distractions were unwelcome. Essentially, quiet hours were always in effect here.

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"Hmm... A place where the gods descend to live life as if they were mortal," Cosmog hummed to himself. "That's what Destiny Village is. I don't really know what to make of that..." Being the only person in the study, Cosmog let himself speak aloud to sort out his thoughts. It helped him focus. The idea that he was able to think at all was confusing him. Did he even have a brain? Or was it just some other part of his gaseous form that happened to contain thought? No, he had to focus. More about this world. Maybe they'd have a way to recover memories or old bodies. Apparently it was a human pastime here.

 

[Disco]

Mellow walked into the study, in search of information. She had learned a lot about this place and how it was run just by listening and paying attention, but there was something that always stood out...

Why didn't they have Gumi Berries? How did they make Gummis if they didn't? What did they put into them?

These were very important questions that needed answering. How could she eat properly without properly made food!? She had made do while in Treasure Town. It was small. It would make sense if it didn't have things that you would find in big communities. But Destiny Village... It was massive. They should have things for everyone!

So she went through the books available, and found every book on Gummis she could find, then sat them near where someone else was reading. She'd get to the bottom of this today...

 

[Namohysip]

Cosmog was enjoying the silence and inwardly frowned when Mellow entered. He was braced for her to try to interact with him somehow. Charmander... for some reason that species filled with with annoyance. Perhaps that was an old memory. But... she didn't try to. She was, like a normal and proper individual, quietly reading on her own.

Well. Good. Nobody would bug him.

Unfortunately, his current book gave him nothing to work with in terms of his humanity.

 

[Chibi Pika]

It took a bit of digging, but Starr eventually found out that Cosmog had left the library and gone to the guild study to read. She found him there, in that bland, lifeless room, accompanied only by one of the Charmander, who seemed to be doing her own thing. Starr hadn't seen him yet since she'd been out cold when he was pulled out of the shadow machine. He was literally just a cloud of glittering, blue-violet stardust, huh. She suddenly felt grateful that she'd at least wound up in a Pokemon body with limbs.

It would probably be kinda overwhelming to bombard him with questions all at once, so she sat down on one of the cushions near him and said, "Hey, heard you were human so I figured I'd introduce myself. Name's Starr--I'm human too."

 

[Namohysip]

"Oh, wonderful. We should start a club." Cosmog didn't even look up from his book as he used one of his pom-poms to turn the page. Similar to Dave, it irritated him to no end that it was possible for him to do that, yet it happened, and he wasn't in the mood to question how or why.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Great. Ray of sunshine, this one. Then again, waking up at a ball of gas after being stuffed inside a metal ball of evil would probably piss anyone off.

"So what's the story with how you got here? The rest of us were dragged here by some kinda fake, dimension-hopping Charizard."

 

[Namohysip]

"Another Charizard. There must have been a sale." Cosmog sighed, placing a bookmark between the pages and closing it. "Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to answer your questions. I don't even remember my name. I was hoping to find memory recovery methods in this book, or something to restore it, or remind me of something, but I have nothing of the sort. This world's so-called god was no help, either. He claimed it might have been influence of the force you're fighting, so I'm on my own."

He studied Starr, his yellow eyes narrowing as he brought a pompom under what was probably supposed to be his chin. "Though I can at least get... flashes of what I think are memories. Feelings. The way I react to things. That's all I have to work with..."

 

[Disco]

Mellow had been busy studying, but the conversation caught her ear and she looked up. It was one of the members of Team Spectrum, and... Another Pokemon. She wasn't sure which, but it seemed familiar. They said they were Human, though. She tilted her head, then blinked as a past conversation came to her.

"Wait...Human? You're both Humans? You just take different forms, right? What does your kind actually look like?"

Mellow waited hopefully and expectantly.

 

[Namohysip]

"I haven't found any reference images," Cosmog replied simply. "Maybe later I will. Right now I'm more interested in getting things back than recalling things I already know."

 

[Disco]

"You forgot things...? That's too bad. There aren't any Pokémon species called Human where I'm from, so I really want to see what they look like."

 

[Namohysip]

"Humans... aren't Pokemon. Humans don't fight. Pokemon fight, and typically Pokemon fight for humans otherwise." Cosmog glanced toward Mellow, then Starr. "At least, that is how it usually goes. I believe I remember that very clearly. Humans battled one another by proxy, with Pokemon."

 

[Chibi Pika]

"I haven't found any reference images," Cosmog replied simply. "Maybe later I will. Right now I'm more interested in getting things back than recalling things I already know."

Starr blinked at him. "Wait. You don't even remember what humans look like?" Holy shit, that was some amnesia. "You mentioned some flashes of feeling, though... what kind?" At least, from his movements, it looked like he wasn't used to the whole not having limbs thing.

"You forgot things...? That's too bad. There aren't any Pokémon species called Human where I'm from, so I really want to see what they look like."

She gave the Charmander a sideways glance. "Humans aren't Pokemon. And I guess if you really wanna know... humans stand on two legs. We don't have fur, or scales, or tails. Can't use attacks--we're pretty weak compared to Pokemon, to be honest."

 

[Namohysip]

Cosmog hummed. "I passed by a Charmander a little while ago. I felt something. A mixture of feelings. I liked and disliked it. Perhaps I was very familiar with their kind in the past." He looked toward Starr, thoughtful. "...But that's all. I can't really recount to you every single thing I feel."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr leaned back. "Damn. That really sucks. That machine we busted you out of was made by humans, so I was hoping we could find out more about the kinda world it came from. So much for that, I guess."

 

[Namohysip]

"Well," Cosmog said, frowning, "why don't you try anyway? Maybe you can jog my memory if you show a few examples? Who knows... I was put in there for some reason. I could've been a great threat to them." He looked toward her. "...I wish I could at least remember my name."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr put a paw to her chin. "Hm. Well, there was one thing that jumped out at me." She grabbed her badge from her bag and brought up the photos she'd taken of the salvaged bits of shadowmachine. "Does this writing mean anything to you? It's Tohjoan--the language I spoke back home. Thought maybe our worlds might be pretty similar."

 

[Namohysip]

Cosmog immediately stared at the symbol like he'd been shown a picture of some old acquaintance. He stayed that way for a long while in total silence, reaching forward with a pompom to look more closely, but then stopped. "...Rocket... Yes. Yes, I know a lot about..." It was barely a whisper. He knew, certainly, about it. "I was..." He spoke again, a little slower this time. "Something to do with..."

 

[Disco]

Humans...weren't Pokémon? But that made no sense. Were they saying Humans were aliens? Everything was made by Arceus' hands, right? Did they get less powerful over time, like Magikarp...?

Mellow watched and listened to the two with a skeptical expression.

 

[Negrek]

The guild seemed like about the worst place in the entire village to get some space to yourself. Nate stayed for a while simply watching people come and go from the building--a hell of a lot of people. Worse, a fair number of them were people he knew, and who might recognize him and somehow get him into some discussion about fucking shadows, again. Give it a week or so and he'd have found plenty of out-of-the way places to hang out, but for right now he could use a lead. Plus, it was kind of fucking cold outside.

Things were even more bustling inside, and the corviknight at the front desk was awfully damn insistent on roommates for some reason. Nate shoved his name-plate in his bag and kept his head down in the corridors, doing his best to avoid anyone who looked inclined to be chatty. And then of course when he actually managed to find the study, there were already like five fucking people there. Yeah, what a surprise, the charmander had been talking completely out of his ass. Nate was about to get out of there, do triage on where he could fucking go, like maybe sneak into the colosseum after hours or something, when he saw what was being projected from the litten's badge. Something that definitely shouldn't fucking be here. Something that couldn't be here, like how in the fucking hell--?

"Hey," he barked, going over to the table where the group was gathered. "What the fuck is going on over here? Where the fuck is that from?"

 

[Namohysip]

Wonderful. More people to annoy him. This used to be such a quiet place. "Hello. We are just talking about Team Rocket and the Shadow Machine you all defeated recently. And how the fuck are you doing?"