[[Slightly weird chronology here as usual with having many conversations at once; I'm assuming the conversation between Dave and Pandelume is still all happening a bit earlier.]]
"You have Gastly and Klink? Interesting. If they truly don't have souls, I cannot think what gives them any cognition at all, their species lacking brains as well. Perhaps their anima structure dictates their behavior, which I presume must be extremely simple. Ah - I should explain my terminology. Luminescence is the energy that fuels all moves and abilities, as well as the functions of magic items. The anima structure is the sum total of all a Pokemon's anima organs - consisting of a luminescence collector, luminescence pool, and anima scripts, which are... spiritual machines which have some specific effect whenever luminescence is channeled through them, similar to a windmill grinding grain when wind turns its blades. Soul-affecting abilities consist of telepathy, hypnosis, many ghost-type moves such as confuse ray, many fairy-type moves which alter emotions - generally, anything which has an effect on the cognition of an ensouled being, but which has no effect on animals."
Pandelume swayed slightly as they thought about the stranger things Dave had told them. "It is strange that psychic abilities in your world are - mediated through excrement, if I understand correctly? Perhaps even stranger that they affect the brain - psychics must be extremely powerful in your world, to be able to alter things they cannot see with such great precision to as to have any effect on the brain other than destroying it. I am surprised that your world's community-of-truth-seeking-scholars" (that was what 'science' translated to for Pandelume) " has never found any evidence of souls. If humans in your world had souls, surely it would be easy to notice. Do you never have memories of your previous life? Do you not find it odd that your higher cognition is unaffected by toxins, brain damage, or lack of sleep?"
"Oh, they definitely have brains in my universe. Bit different but still the same sorts of complex structures of neurons. They're just literally brainless in yours? Just, literal floating gas with a soul?" Fucking fascinating. This was what traveling to other universes
should involve, not fucking murder party games. At the Abomasnow's questions, a grin slowly crept onto his face. "That's a
great fucking question, isn't it? See, no, we
don't have memories of 'previous lives', and we're
definitely not unaffected by toxins and brain damage. See why we're pretty sure we don't have souls?" He paused as it sank in. "You mean, you just don't have
any intoxicants over there? No alcohol, anything? None of it works because all the thinking is seriously happening in the
soul? Oh my God."
Vix's look of pride seemed to double, or perhaps even triple? If one looked at her carefully, they could probably see her head actually inflating from all this praise. She totally forgot how great it felt to be looked up to, and obviously if she bragged about being the leader, she'd be looked up to even more. It's not like anyone here could fact check her... Other than Dave, and if Kora was to be taken seriously, also Koa.
...Maybe if Vix tried to sound humble about it, they wouldn't get on her case? "Well yeah, but I didn't wanna put myself above anyone else so I decided to take a more supportive role. Let everyone else get their chance in the spotlight from time to time." That was pretty much the truth too, therefore, it wasn't a total lie and Vix could continue to be praised with a clear conscious. Everybody wins!
Jean grinned and nodded. Sarah Hooter sometimes did that too as the leader! All of her friends were an important part of the team.
Kalas craned his neck as he turned to take a look at Jean. "A-ha, sure... so Pokémon in your universe are not like us?"
Tiana's feathers bristled at the idea of being considered a potential pet, and she idly preened herself as she eyed Jean. "I'm fine on my own, but thanks for the... high regard? I guess."
Kalas worked up some courage and walked up to Jean to ask. "So, you don't look exactly like the Pokémon I know. Are the others in your world like you, too?"
Linden began edging away from Lusamine. This really wasn't a fight he wanted to pick. By engineered coincidence, this brought him closer to Dave and Jean, the latter of whom he was really trying not to stare at... with a limited degree of success. He couldn't help his curiosity.
Jean turned toward the birds and giggled. "I'm not a Pokémon! I'm a Pokémorph. Half human, half Vul-- Ninetales." She'd begun a little twirl on her feet but stopped awkwardly. "There are eight of us. My dad made us!" She grabbed vaguely behind her where he was supposed to be, only to grab thin air. She looked around and -- oh, he'd just stepped away, still keeping a wary eye on her. She pointed at him with a smile. "He's a really cool scientist."
"Dave's here?" Koa exclaimed. He turned, eyes wide, to see not a Mightyena, but a scruffy human man. Of course. Dave had told him he'd come from a human world, of course he wouldn't be here as a Mightyena. It felt oddly jarring to see the mon he'd known for almost a year, now a human.
But somehow, the shape didn't matter. It was Dave. A grin broke out across his face. "Dave!" he called. He started towards him, unable to retrain his excitement.
It
was him. Weird to shake off the mental image he'd had, but something about it just made sense, the exact same energy as the Manectric he'd met in Cibus. He couldn't help but picture a wagging tail as Koa ran in a beeline towards him. "I'm -- whoa. Hey, kid. What's been going on?"
