Truth or Dare Crossroads

[Hanafuda]

A full name? That made Seb assume the Marshtomp was a human, but it probably was too soon to bring that up.

“Sebastian, or just Seb. Nice meeting you, too.”

He looked around at the stars around them and the Pokémon present.

“Are we dreaming right now?”

 

[Forestoak]

After Fake had recovered, he found out he wasn't as...sad anymore? And what was that cloth thing?

"I'm Clover the Shuppet. What's your name?"

Oh. A shuppet. That explained it.
Rei had said his name plenty of times. Now he just had to say it."Fa-cade?"No that wasn't it. "Faks?" Wrong again. "Fak..."He gave up and searched for a pencil to write with.
Well, maybe that kirlia had one? Maybe that ducklett? Maybe that thing that was talking to the kirlia? Gah, it'd take forever to find one.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

aether_out <<
"TRANSFORM_ENVIRONMENT:\n"
"Whispering_Pillar:\n"
"- Target: Sandscape\n"
"- Generate: Dunes\n"
"- Generate: Lighting\n"
"- Transform: Heat_Shimmer\n"

The Whispering Pillar shifted and swirled... and changed. The surroundings of the Spirit Nexus changed with it, blurring before the eyes as if watching night turn to dawn, then day, in mere seconds. The paths that made up the crossroads remained, though it was becoming hard to distinguish them up close. Around them, though, a bright, broiling heat shimmer made sand dunes dance before the spirits' eyes. Golden peaks lit by no sun, and purple shadows cast by no sunlight. The idea of the desert, but only that. An idea.

The Whispering Pillar itself was no longer a tower of mist, but of intense heat-shimmer, so strong as to seem almost opaque. Despite the sense that it should be scalding to be near, the temperature remained... normal? It was hard to tell if the air had any temperature at all...

Lurosa blinked. Entire conversations had passed while she'd taken tea with Alioth. Did time work properly, here? Or was it a timeless realm? Did perception rule over causality...?

And how many truths and dares had been issued?

#include <aether_io>

int aetheric_ops()
aether_out <<
"REQUEST_PROMPT_LIST:\n"

"PROMPT_01:\n"
"- Type: Truth\n"
"- Text: What is the truth that you seek most?\n"
"- Responses: 1\n"

"PROMPT_02:\n"
"- Type: Truth\n"
"- Text: "Is there anything that you've done that many would call horrible, but that you don't regret at all?\n"
"- Responses: 4\n"

"PROMPT_03:\n"
"- Type: Dare\n"
"- Text: Stand upside down.\n"
"- Responses: 4\n"

"PROMPT_04:\n"
"- Type: Truth\n"
"- Text: What's your biggest regret?\n"
"- Responses: 4\n"

"PROMPT_05:\n"
"- Type: Truth\n"
"- Text: How do you deal with the feeling that things are going wrong, and there’s nothing you can do about it?\n"
"- Responses: 2\n"

"PROMPT_06:\n"
"- Type: Dare\n"
"- Text: Try to down a full cup of piping hot tea in one gulp.\n"
"- Responses: 0\n"

"PROMPT_07:\n"
"- Type: Truth\n"
"- Text: What is your happiest memory?\n"
"- Responses: 2\n"

"PROMPT_08:\n"
"- Type: Dare\n"
"- Text: Can you sing?\n"
"- Responses: 2\n"

// ...

 

[Namohysip]

Mhynt paced through the new desert, appreciating the sun but not the heat, as she looked through the curious text. She seemed to decipher it quickly enough. "Tea," she commented. "How interesting. Nobody has taken it. Afraid of some burns? I've had worse."

She took the tea in question and tilted her head back. For someone so small, she was talented at downing so much at once. Her eyes closed, calmly, and only strained once by the end of it as she set the empty cup down again.

She puffed out a little cloud of steam, and then realized her mistake.

"...I should have taken that dare before it became a desert."

She wrote down another dare in its place.

Dare: Construct a sand castle as a symbolic self-portrait.

Truth: What is your happiest memory?

 

[lichhen]

Porygon was not quite computing the things the others were communicating. Even so, he could appreciate the desert as it appeared - he had fond memories of the desert. Celadon was in a desert, although it was modified by human design; it was where he had spent half of his childhood.

He wondered, and seemed naturally inclined to project out to the others a certain thought:

Dare: I dare you to go through with a battle with someone else here.

 

[Ambyssin]

"A... battle?"

Nova stepped back. "No, that doesn't sound like a good idea. Make the... weird thing delete it."

 

[Namohysip]

"Hmph. Thankfully, the dares are optional. You can pick as you like." She leaned back ."It's quite relaxed compared to a more round-robin style I've seen before. At least you can ignore that one, hm?"

 

[Dragonfree]

She turned around to see the source… some sort of fire-type, but not of any sort she was familiar with. Trying to act less on-edge than she was, she waved. “Hello. Are you… okay?”

Gabriel's gaze snapped to the Kirlia. She was... talking to him. In... English? Or was it? He wasn't quite sure how he understood her.

"Yeah, uh... This game, huh? Everyone's just playing?" The whispers told him that was how to get out of here. He wondered if he could answer a different question, but that one was almost sticky in his brain, in some indescribable way. Without knowing how, he knew it wouldn't let him skip a question that had struck him.

It was just a dream. Just a dream. None of this was real, could be real. So what the hell, why not?

Truth: "Is there anything that you've done that many would call horrible, but that you don't regret at all?"

He took a deep breath. "I burned a man to death," he said. "He was the guy that killed my dad. And he was going to kill my best friend. And it felt good to do it. I know it was bad. I just..." He looked away. "I don't really feel that way. Some part of me, the Slugma part I guess, is just, 'You won, you beat him.'"

There. He'd said it. In a dream. And now what? The whispers nudged him to give a question or dare of his own.

Dare: Act like a dog.

As soon as he'd said it, and it had been somehow inscribed on the pillar, he noticed there was an actual Growlithe there. He smiled and his heart stung at the same time.

 

[Dragonfree]

Dare: Construct a sand castle as a symbolic self-portrait.

Another one that stuck, in that indescribable way. The plain had turned into a desert as if nothing were more natural, but instead of the sweltering heat that should have accompanied it, the air was still and neutral and muted. Like you'd expect from a dream, he supposed.

A sand castle. He knelt down on the sand, cautiously sweeping his hand over it. The grains sank into his slime, but didn't nourish him, not really. Weird dream-matter.

Slowly he bunched the sand up into a pile. He'd never be able to do this very well, not with his skin absorbing the sand on contact, but at least the slime added some moisture to the sand too, made it stick together better. The pile became a misshapen, lumpy tower; he even managed to sculpt a couple of awkward spires branching off from the main body. A vague evocation of a fantasy castle, the sort that'd imprison a dragon, maybe. He raised thick walls around it, awkward and lumpy too, cordoning off the castle, but the castle was much taller than the walls. They'd keep people out, or the dragon in, or both.

The whole thing looked gross, coated with slime, but that was what you got when he didn't have any gloves on. He looked dully at his creation, wavering between thinking it was pretty good and that it was all weird pretentious crap and he should knock it down.

A new question, a new question. Gripped with self-consciousness, he blurted out the first thing he thought of, something that'd make him feel less strange.

Truth: Is there anything or anyone you would kill for?

 

[Namohysip]

Mhynt hummed. "I hope you can speak to someone about that," she said to the Slugma-human child. At least, she assumed as much. She'd never seen a human before, not properly. "It's a good castle," she said. "I think it captures your feelings." She approached it and crouched down, using her blades to help adjust some of the spires, imaginary as it all was.

"It's only natural to dislike someone. And for that person to be who killed someone you cared for... I doubt many could blame you for your actions."

 

[IFBench]

Truth: Is there anything or anyone you would kill for?

Arctozolt immediately began to answer, "If it truly came down to it, I'd kill for my ideal—"

And then its tail smacked into its snout again.

 

[Ambyssin]

"I can and have killed for my team," Nova mumbled, before glancing at one of the other statements in the strange... not-a-pillar thing. He tilted his head up and opened his beak wide.

"BARK! BARK BARK BARK BARK!" In a quieter tone, he added, "Woof."

 

[Dragonfree]

"I can and have killed for my team," Nova mumbled, before glancing at one of the other statements in the strange... not-a-pillar thing. He tilted his head up and opened his beak wide.

"BARK! BARK BARK BARK BARK!" In a quieter tone, he added, "Woof."

Gabriel raised his eyebrow, but couldn't help smiling. The creature actually was in some strange way like a giant dog. "Nice. Good boy."

Mhynt hummed. "I hope you can speak to someone about that," she said to the Slugma-human child. At least, she assumed as much. She'd never seen a human before, not properly. "It's a good castle," she said. "I think it captures your feelings." She approached it and crouched down, using her blades to help adjust some of the spires, imaginary as it all was.

Gabriel looked around at the Treecko. "I... Thanks. I mean, I talk to my friend about it sometimes. He sort of gets it and sort of... I don't know." He moved into a sitting position, hugging his knees.

"It's only natural to dislike someone. And for that person to be who killed someone you cared for... I doubt many could blame you for your actions."

He winced, looking away. "Well... thing is I didn't know it was him when I did it."

Arctozolt immediately began to answer, "If it truly came down to it, I'd kill for my ideal—"

And then its tail smacked into its snout again.

He looked up at the bizarre Pokémon. It sort of looked like some dinosaur Pokémon he'd seen in books, only... weirdly stuck together. "Your ideal what?"

 

[IFBench]

"Ideals, I was going to say, before I was RUDELY INTERRUPTED!" the chimera said, screeching those last two words at its tail.

 

[Ambyssin]

He called Nova a good boy. There was a protocol for that.

... Tail wagging!

 

[Namohysip]

Mhynt hummed again at Gabriel, but nodded. "Did they do something else to warrant your attack?" she said. "How old were you at the time?"

 

[UnknownUser55]

"Playing along is not going to hurt, I suppose," Eco said after an excruciatingly slow yawn. The Vikavolt seemed awfully tired of a Pokemon who was currently convinced by the idea that she was trapped in a dream.

In a lazy manner, Eco lifted herself only about a foot from the ground to move towards where this... tea party, was, settling in a position that she could consider comfortable. She opted to not take a cup for herself, however, as she was not fond of the bitter taste.

...Then there came the sudden shift in the environment, into an arid, dry landscape. Mildly annoying, especially for a Pokemon such as Vikavolt. Her mandibles vibrated to show her displeasure.

"I hate these dry climates the most," Eco complained.

 

[Inkedust]

There had been pain. The intense burn in the throat and stomach lining, a sharp stab like a knife to the gut and the pounding of the headache comparable to the gift of being given seven concussions in rapid succession.

Sleep had been the one thing capable of warding it off. No concoction from the strongest of ingredients could try but everyone kept waking to give more and more, no matter the protest, no matter the struggle.

So today would be the day to forfeit all to sleep, and then there would be no...

And then there would be...

And then...

...

...

...?

A whisper. One so faint that it may have only existed in the depths of the imagination. For just a moment it vanished but then, in the distance, a path of sand and glass snaked its way towards the crossroads. A path, upon closer look, with no visible traveller.

But as the path drew closer, tiny circlets of light formed around invisible paw pads, each step creating a gentle chime against the glass. The closer it got to the pillar, the more faded (the now apparent) illusion became.

A zorua, pale in complexion and ghostly in nature was seated towards the others. She was young, very young, barely older than a pup but her tired gaze held the experience of lifetime. She studied each and every one of the wayward souls, appraising them, scrutinising them.

A small sigh left her and with a slight tilt of the head she asked, voice so very quiet, "Am I dead?"

 

[Forestoak]

"Am I dead?"

What was this creature? It didn't look anything like the pokemon he was used too...except he considered it looked like a zorua. Wait. A zorua. It had been using an illusion.
There were so many different people!
He decided to stay by this strange pokemon's side until he was sure that everyone was not by one bit hostile before joining that big group of pokemon drinking something that smelled like the tea Laventon always liked to drink at The Wallflower.

 

[Forestoak]

Build a sand castle in a symbolic self-portrait.

Well, this was going to be tough.
It didn't help that the sand wouldn't stay together either. Oh well, it worked.
Though it looked more like a kleavor smashed some sand.