Rocky Road ~ House of Starr and Nate

[Chibi Pika]

Starr shrugged, leaning back on the couch. "Mostly filler matches today, otherwise I'd have the TV on. Heard there might be a few legend matches over the weekend though, so that'll be cool. As for me, eh... haven't had one since Brisa and I got our asses kicked by Team Colada. We tried out a sort of suicide strat that went pretty well, y'know, up til the part where Pine is a goddamn freight train," she said with a dry chuckle.

"We're thinking we might try fighting one of the Omen teams again soonish though," Starr added. "Could use a good outlet, to be honest." What with all the pent-up frustration from the past few days, letting loose in the colosseum was starting to sound pretty appealing.

 

[Negrek]

"Suicide strat, huh? Yeah, that sounds like a Team Spectrum thing." Nate smirked. He must have missed that match. Too much fucking business, lately. "A lot of interesting pairs with those, er, Omen Heroes. Sounds like a fun challenge. And I hear you about the outlet thing." For Starr, it sounded like that was punching things. Nate usually preferred to watch other people punching things, but to each their own.

He sighed. Probably best not to put things off. "I was thinking of going to visit Silver and the team myself. You heard they let him out of jail? I guess they're putting them all up in our old digs at the Guild."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr kept her face neutral while on the inside she really wished there was a can or something decently crushable nearby.

"Mmm," she replied noncommittally. "Yeah, I heard about it." She'd been trying not to think about it, more like. "Dunno what they're thinking with that one. Even if he's not the guy we thought he was, not like that just magically erases all the shit he pulled."

But then by that same argument, Giovanni should've been the one going free, and... ugh. Just lock them both up where the team never had to see them again.

 

[Negrek]

Oh, this was going to go... well. "Yeah. I mean, but. What shit did he actually pull? Seems like there's a fuckton of mind control going on around here these days." Nate started to reach for his gills, then made himself stop. Really needed to cut that habit. "Hell, I bet if you asked the guy himself he wouldn't be able to tell you what he actually did over the past few months."

 

[Chibi Pika]

"Mind control. Right." Course there was. Couldn't even be pissed at the guy who'd been running around acting like Giovanni and doing Giovanni shit for months. Wasn't his fault. The universe just refused to give her anyone that it was okay to hate.

Starr let out a long, heavy breath, leaning her head against the top of the couch so she was staring at the ceiling. "And they're sure he's safe now? All that shit's worn off, power of starter hugs and all that?" She'd meant to make it sound stupid but it mostly just had the effect of making her want to hug her starter and not have to think about any of this.

 

[Negrek]

(( "The universe just refused to give her anyone that it was okay to hate." Nate feels that so hard, haha. ))

That was the real fucking question, wasn't it? "I dunno that anybody can ever really be sure," he said. "When all the shit was going down at Destiny Tower and S'more was running around all mind-controlled, he managed to resist it, I think. And Chip was making those machines that were supposed to stop whoever it is out there fucking with shit from being able to take him over. So long as he keeps it on him, he ought to be safe. But who the fuck knows? I dunno how the guy even tested that. Who knows if it'll work when it actually counts?"

Probably this was a stupid idea. Starr was right--you've got somebody who was all getting taken over and made to explode shit and fuck people up, and you want to invite them to hang out? Nate picked morosely at the fabric of the chair. It didn't make no sense.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr inclined her head toward Nate. The dude looked pretty bummed out about all this stuff. Seemed like he mostly felt bad for Silver in particular. While she was over here wishing they could just throw him in jail and forget about him. God dammit.

"Eh, well... if anything did get 'reactivated' or whatever the hell, I kinda had my doubts that cell was safe anyway." Not when someone like Soda could just let him out at any time for shits and giggles. "And if anything did go wrong, it's not like the team couldn't curbstomp him at this point since we've been getting stronger while he was stuck in jail. So..."--she threw her arms up, feeling like she must have gone insane--"I guess there's not really any place safer than the guild. Least people can keep an eye on him there."

 

[Negrek]

"Oh, for sure. Those goddamn cells ain't never been able to hold nobody who really wanted to get out. Remember fucking Karat?" What a fucking shitshow that had been. And then he'd fucking told Chip to move the fucking mewtwo somewhere else, and then what the fuck had happened? The busted mewtwo tracker, too... He should have pushed the Porygon harder about that.

Whatever. Not what he needed to be thinking about now. Nate found himself reaching for his gills again and forced his hand back down. Goddammit. "Yeah, the Guild... it's probably pretty safe. Bet he fucking hates it, though. All those people around all the time, and lots of them probably watching him. Remembering when he was mind-controlled into blowing shit up around Destiny Village, all that. But, well... I guess he ain't really got nowhere else to go."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr's brow furrowed as she listened to Nate go on about all the reasons why living at the guild was supposedly such an awful prospect. She really was having a hard time caring--wasn't being out of jail good enough? And she was about to cut in with something like, 'Well where the hell else are we supposed to keep him?' before Nate went and said pretty much exactly that. Alright then.

She folded her arms. "I dunno, the rest of us did fine at the guild, not like it's the end of the world." Well...most of them had--apparently Nate had just crashed somewhere else that whole time? "And putting him somewhere where people can't keep an eye on him is just asking for trouble."

 

[Negrek]

Damn. This really was going to be a no sell, wasn't it? Nate strongly considered breaking things off here, heading off to visit Silver right now and never mentioning this stupid idea to anyone else ever again. Hell, he didn't even know if Silver would be at all interested; not like he'd asked or nothing. They basically barely knew the guy, seeing as they'd actually been hanging out with his evil dad the entire fucking time.

Who cared, anyhow? Starr was right; most people had had a great fucking time at the Guild, even if they were excited to leave once there'd been some new digs offered. And it wasn't like Nate wanted the dude to be out here blowing shit up if he got mind-controlled again; it would be real fucking nice for that to be somebody else's problem.

"Yeah, you're right. It ain't a big deal or nothing. He's probably having a fucking great time. I was just thinking... Anyhow." Nate got up. "Guess I'd better get going." He hopped from chair arm to stool to cushion to floor, fuming at himself. It wasn't like it was going to hurt to ask, like whatever, if Starr got pissed, that was her fucking problem. Was he really so scared to ask a simple fucking question? Jesus, that was pathetic. Not that it mattered. Who cared where Silver ended up going? Why the fuck was he getting so worked up about this?

Nate started for the door, but the pressure of the unasked question only grew heavier in his chest. This was fucking stupid. Let's just fucking get it over with.

He paused and turned back to Starr. "I mean, I was just thinking... Maybe Silver'd like living here better. We got the space, it's quiet. He'd have more privacy. And it'd be nice to have some pokémon around, you know?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

It took Starr several seconds to register what Nate had said. She'd heard the words, but assigning meaning to them was a whole other thing. Silver. Living here. With them. It didn't compute.

She blinked at Nate. "...What."

 

[Negrek]

"I mean, I know it's weird and all, since he's, like, your twin, sort of. And obviously we don't even know what kinda shit he actually did because he wanted to, and he was pretending to be your dad, and that's pretty fucked up, but..." Nate sighed and looked away. "I don't know. He's had a real shit time here on Cibus, and I can't imagine people are gonna be too kind to him out there. I guess if I was gonna end up in his situation, like. People being pissed at me for things I kinda didn't do, or... actually did... I'd wish there was somewhere for me to go. Where I wouldn't have to worry about that."

Though from what Starr had said earlier, she wasn't exactly feeling like this was water under the bridge herself. Stupid idea. Way to make an ass of yourself.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr gave a low, humorless laugh. "I was fine with the twin thing. It was weird, but so's everything else on Cibus." It hadn't even really bothered her back then. Back when it was Cosmog. But then he turned out to be...

And now Mewtwo was Silver. Not Giovanni. He was the one who'd been stringing them along and playing them for idiots. And he didn't even know why. Must be nice to be able to look at shit like that and know that it wasn't really you. He hadn't decided to, not really. Wasn't his fault. So she got to be the asshole for wanting it to be.

...God, what the fuck was any of this.

"Having Pokemon around would be nice," Starr said is a low voice, without really knowing where she was going with it. "Regular Pokemon, not--you know."

 

[Negrek]

(( Aww, no, Starr, don't take that as a criticism. :( ))

Nate shifted, not sure what to make of Starr's response. She seemed really bothered about something. "Yeah," he said. "It's fucking weird, having all these pokémon around, but they're really not. Or at least not like they are at home." He smiled, just for a second. "Maybe we can invite the team to bunk here, and Silver can hang out at the Guild, huh?"

But whether she was bothered by the twin thing specifically or not, there was clearly something going on here. "Don't worry about it. Like you said, Silver'll be fine at the Guild. Ain't like he can't get out of there himself if he wants."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr leaned back in her seat, mulling it over. It did seem like the perfect solution, didn't it? Silver could stay at the guild where he could be watched for signs of anything weird. And his team could come live here, so they wouldn't have to spend their time stuck at the lab or whatever. It all fit.

...So why didn't it feel like a satisfying outcome?

"You think his team would be happy here?" Starr asked. "I mean, if there anything like mine, they'd wanna stick with their trainer."

 

[Negrek]

Jesus Christ, he was really fucking this up. "Nah, I was joking. After how long it took to find each other, I doubt they're gonna want to split up anytime soon." He shook his head and started for the door. "Forget I mentioned it, huh? It ain't important. It's nice we got a bit of extra room. Don't need nobody else crowding it up, really."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr narrowed her eyes slightly as she watched him move toward the door. What, so he brought all that stuff up only to drop it like it was nothing?

"Okay look, I don't believe that for a second," she said, fixing him with a hard stare. "You wouldn't have brought it up in the first place if it wasn't important. Why's this matter so much to you?"

 

[Negrek]

Oh, for fuck's sake. "No, really, it ain't important. I just thought it might be a nice thing to do, since we got plenty of room and all. If I was Silver, I wouldn't be too happy with the arrangements. But it was just something I thought, I didn't expect to get a fucking interrogation about it. If you're not feeling it, fine. It ain't a big deal."

 

[Chibi Pika]

The hell? So now Nate was the one just trying to do a 'nice thing' and Starr was the bad guy for shutting it down when she hadn't even really done that. What, was being mildly skeptical of the guy who'd been their enemy until like five seconds ago a crime now?

"Well obviously it must be a big deal," Starr said with a huff. "If you want to pal around with him and the team so much, then just do whatever. I don't care. Invite him over if you want--don't act like I'm the one stopping you."

 

[Negrek]

This was so fucking stupid. What the hell was her damage? "Well ex-fucking-scuse me for thinking it might be a big deal if I didn't ask you and just invited the guy to live here without no fucking warning. I'm glad you're so chill about that shit, though. Like I was also thinking maybe we could fit Joule and Poffin and Cola in here, too. Maybe I'll fucking ask them while I'm just out and about and all, if it don't make no difference to you." Nate made to leave again, fuming.