Tyrrier Reven Hollow

[Jackie Cat]

This guy really was phlegmatic, huh. Still, phantom pain? Laura fidgeted with her claws. Fair enough about the group's relative strength being off the charts for just about anything local, at least. Not that he seemed confident, more... indifferent, somehow.

"I'll bite," she said, at length. "What are you expecting to find when you make your way back? You make it sound like you were, I dunno, yoinked into this reality while you were mid-violent-death or something. Deus ex machina'd into Forlas, only to drop right back into the jaws of death, or whatever."

She winced a little, realising that she'd basically outlined Steven's predicament, as they understood it. Oops.

She made a stab at corrective steering. "I still don't have much of an idea what you, uh, get up to in your former life. Probably not what you do as a Grovyle, I'm guessing."

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

Again Steven found himself regarding Ralsen with veiled skepticism. 'Comes and goes?' What sort of an injury would result in that? Not that he could confess to know anything about Grovyle anatomy.

"Well, I'm sorry it's still lingering, but at least it's more or less healed," Steven said matter-of-factly as he plucked the bottle of dungeon sand from the table and stowed it back in his bracer. Not that Ralsen's health was any personal concern. It was simply a relief to know he wouldn't be a liability to himself or the others in the dungeon.

As he re-clasped the pocket of his bracer, Steven let his claw linger atop its worn leather. There was no forgetting about the blemish that it concealed. A reminder of what they'd been through on their own mission. That's all it was though; a reminder and nothing more.

Except the reminder Laura's hypothetical just dredged up was a little more than nothing. His eyes widened, and for a quick second he turned his incredulous gaze to her. Was that really the best example she could come up with?

"I don't know, Laura. That doesn't feel like something someone so eager to go back home just forgets, you know?"

He worked to keep his tone conversational, for Laura's sake if no one else's. She seemed to at least realize what she'd said, but goodness if he had a heat rock for every time he was around these two and this topic came up, he'd have enough to have a lovely picnic in the middle of a Tyrrier winter.

 

[Chibi Pika]

"I'll bite," she said, at length. "What are you expecting to find when you make your way back? You make it sound like you were, I dunno, yoinked into this reality while you were mid-violent-death or something. Deus ex machina'd into Forlas, only to drop right back into the jaws of death, or whatever."

"I don't know, Laura. That doesn't feel like something someone so eager to go back home just forgets, you know?"

"That's the interesting thing," Ralsen replied immediately, his eyes glinting. "Heroes summoned by the Beacon are all the same—a near-blank slate with barely anything more than their name. And your group is the opposite—fully intact with just a few oddities here and there. But Fallers... every single one I've spoken to, or read about, has had a different story, spanning everything in between." He chuckled dryly. "I suppose I'm lucky in that regard. The only part that's hazy is the weeks leading up to my arrival here."

He turned back to Laura. "So, to answer you question... I don't know what to expect. It's all a lot of vague feelings... impressions. I know there was a great conflict centering the legends of my home region, and that I'd been trying to keep them out of the hands of those who would abuse their power. Something had gone wrong, and I was searching for something that would put things right. I might have even found it, too... I've been convinced for some time that I ended up here as an unintended side effect of something I'd done." He gazed at his palm as though the answers were there, just out of reach, slipping through his claws like water if he tried to hold them. There wasn't any way to put into words why he was so sure that he himself was indirectly responsible. It just was.

Ralsen shook his head. "Of course, I wasn't expecting to find answers to any of that while I was here. Finding a way home would render it moot anyway." Here he paused for a long moment, considering. His eyes stared into the distance as though focused on something far away.

"At least, that was my thinking before I touched the Relic Stone," he said finally, in a quiet voice.

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

Steven gave a noncommittal hum. "Well it seems Forlas keeps coming up with new and inventive ways to have humans tumble their way in through the fabric of space time."

So Ralsen was on some sort of noble mission before he ended up here. All sorts of people who meddled with Legendaries thought they were on a noble mission too; Aqua being one of them. Funny, that.

He pinched the bridge of his nose with a claw and sighed. "Look, Ralsen... Why are you telling us all of this? We entered in this 'alliance' to prevent us from actively sabotaging each other's missions, and that was it."

They'd already heard about his jumbled up vision from the Relic Stone back at the museum. Something about 'fixing it', whatever 'it' was. Why bring it up again?

"What's changed?"

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura's curiosity overrode her misgivings faster than she'd like to admit. Steven wasn't interested in hearing Ralsen out? Too bad. She needed to know this.

"What did you see when you touched the Relic?" she asked, her voice tight. "You learnt something. About... your old life? What happened to you?"

Why was Ralsen here on Forlas...?

 

[Chibi Pika]

"Look, Ralsen... Why are you telling us all of this? We entered in this 'alliance' to prevent us from actively sabotaging each other's missions, and that was it."

"What's changed?"

"What did you see when you touched the Relic?" she asked, her voice tight. "You learnt something. About... your old life? What happened to you?"

Ralsen closed his eyes. "I suppose... it's just that I've had some time to think since we last met. I couldn't make sense of what the Relic showed me, and it was all so vague, like a half-remembered dream. Hearing you speak of your own vision... it made some things click for me."

He was looking at someone… no, looking through them. Like he was seeing them from all angles at once. They were saying words, but the voice was tattered, distorted, like a badly edited audio recording that someone had tried to scrub out.

It's too late for me. Too late for us. But I know how to fix it now, so maybe...

Ralsen lifted his eyes to meet Steven's, his expression clouded. "I think I'm dead too."

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

Steven knew Metang didn't have any blood that could run cold, but it didn't stop him from feeling like he'd been dunked in the icy waters outside. Whatever he'd been expecting Ralsen to say, it wasn't that. He stared across the table, dumbfounded.

"...What?"

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura glanced sidelong at Steven, stiffening. So, she'd been right to pick up on something like that. It was just how incredibly phlegmatic the guy was – like he would just never display the usual dread or anxiety you'd expect someone to if they were suffering or doomed. That, and this weird, faint... grandeur, in the little hints he shed about his goals back home.

She swallowed, and squeezed one paw in her other.

"Do you mean that in a straightforward way, like – you were killed by something before, and ended up here? I have this feeling – call it a hunch – that it's nothing so simple."

“I was looking at someone… looking through them, more like. Like I was seeing them from all angles at once. They were saying words, but it was hard to make out what, like most of what they were saying had been erased. Something like… I know how to fix it... I think it might have been me."

Something had happened to him, something weird. Here was a guy who couldn't remember his life, yet talked casually about legendaries and distant plans, like he had some purpose that defined him. She'd talked to Jade about 'Stalker', his other alter-ego from her world. Grovyle Ralsen, 'Stalker', Sebastian... How many different faces did he have? And what for?

"...You weren't always you, were you?" she asked, in a low voice. "Something changed you. And it... It has to do with whatever your 'goal' is that you can't wait to get back to. Even though you've hinted you have no idea what it even is."

She felt faintly ridiculous, making stabs in the dark like this – but what kind of mysterious prick would spill if she didn't engage? Guessing felt like 'earning' corrections, prompting him to supply further truths. What was he feeling right now? She had no idea. Some part of her, in the recesses of her mind, wondered if Betel could tell anything about Ralsen's aura signature. He wasn't part of the network, but still...

What can you tell us about his soul, Betel?

 

[Jackie Cat]

Betel piped up immediately, their tinny 'voice' cheerfully replying in her head.

Oh? One moment, please, Laura...

The air pressure seemed to change as Betel examined Ralsen. Laura winced, as something fed back along the telepathic network. It wasn't air pressure, no – it was some kind of deep and crushing mental reaction to whatever Betel was seeing.

...

Just as Laura's heart rate began to rise, Betel finally replied.

...Something is very wrong with that pokémon.

I cannot explain it adequately. There are sealed memories, as is to be expected in an offworlder, but beyond that... there are parts of this human's past that are simply 'broken'. Whole segments of his subjective experience that have been ruined somehow, likely irrecoverably.​

I do not know what could cause such a thing.​

 

[Chibi Pika]

He stared across the table, dumbfounded.

"...What?"

"Do you mean that in a straightforward way, like – you were killed by something before, and ended up here? I have this feeling – call it a hunch – that it's nothing so simple."

"...You weren't always you, were you?" she asked, in a low voice. "Something changed you. And it... It has to do with whatever your 'goal' is that you can't wait to get back to. Even though you've hinted you have no idea what it even is."

Ralsen met Steven's eye for a long moment. They were the same in this. Something about that... felt meaningful, even if he wasn't the sort to put it in sentimental terms. He didn't remotely expect it to endear himself to Steven any, no. It just felt right than he should know.

At Laura's question, he gave a low, hollow chuckle. "Perhaps not. I doubt I'm in any position to say one way or another—after all, this is all I've ever known." Something about her guess did feel appropriate somehow, though. He leaned back in his chair and gazed up at the ceiling. "I've always been chasing goals without really knowing why, guided by these feelings I can't explain."

A conversation, somewhere... someone that wasn't quite him, that girl he'd never met—

“Do you ever feel as though you know what you’re meant to do? Memories that can’t possibly be yours. Knowledge of things you never learned?” The words expectant, hopeful, in spite of everything.

“N-no…?”

The hope faded. “I didn’t expect you to. But I thought, maybe...”

"That said..." Ralsen went on, turning to face Laura once more, "it might be straightforward, but it feels true. I think, whatever power I used to reach Forlas, it was one that I grasped out of a deep desperation, and a feeling that I had only seconds left to do so."

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

Steven continued to stare at Ralsen, searching for something even if he didn't know what.

They were the same. No! They were nothing alike. Two souls with nowhere to return to. Except one of them arrived empty-handed and alone. Two souls that made a choice. It wasn't the same choice. Ralsen came here to save himself.

Finally, he broke his stunned silence. "Then... then why? Why are you so eager to go back home? If... if it means..."

What did it mean? Betel said parts of Ralsen's life were missing? Steven could understand if his mortal vessel was gone, but for Ralsen, the broken part of him was his soul.

What power had he meddled with? What had he done?

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura's brow furrowed as she tried to understand. What did it even mean for parts of his memories to be 'destroyed', or whatever? Why had that happened? Her intuition said it had something to do with this stuff he was saying about being 'guided' by impulses he didn't understand, but... what did that mean? That he had gut feelings about things, or something? Without knowing anything more specific, it was still a mystery.

Steven spoke first, asking one of the obvious questions. Why go back if he'd been seconds from death, just as Laura had guessed?

"In your position, I feel like I'd just commit to living out my days on Forlas," she said, carefully. "Or at least, y'know, feel some kind of way about it. Steven didn't exactly brush it off when he found out, so... I mean, look, is what you were working towards really so important that you'd... throw your life away? Just in case you get some last-minute way out of your scrape? Aren't you scared?"

She swallowed, thinking again about this power he'd 'grasped out of desperation'.

"I mean, wasn't coming here your way out, anyway? What, uh... I mean, how did you even do it? Not just anyone can bail on their reality at will when they're in a pinch. It's, y'know. Dramatic. Were you buds with a big-leagues legendary, or something...?"

A tinge of urgency entered her voice as she willed the Grovyle to act like this was as big a deal as it was. Her food was gonna go stale. Even so, it was hard to divert her attention away from this.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Finally, he broke his stunned silence. "Then... then why? Why are you so eager to go back home? If... if it means..."

"In your position, I feel like I'd just commit to living out my days on Forlas," she said, carefully. "Or at least, y'know, feel some kind of way about it. Steven didn't exactly brush it off when he found out, so... I mean, look, is what you were working towards really so important that you'd... throw your life away? Just in case you get some last-minute way out of your scrape? Aren't you scared?"

Ralsen considered his words carefully, swirling the liquid in his glass. "It's all I've ever known," he finally said, eyes distant. "As long as I can remember, I've been chasing my goals. When I found myself here, there was never any question that I needed to get home. I've gotten to see so many fascinating things and meet so many interesting people, but it can't last. I can't stay here." I can't exist here.

He looked up at the two, willing them to understand, somehow, even if he couldn't put it into words. A compulsion so strong it felt like his soul would split apart if he didn't act on it. Maybe it already has.

Ralsen clutched his glass, claws splayed over the faceted surface. "In the end, there's no way to know if my suspicion is true. So long as there's even a shred of doubt, I have to find out for sure." A pedantic distinction, maybe, but one he felt obligated to make. He couldn't really know until he found his way back, opened the proverbial box.

"I mean, wasn't coming here your way out, anyway? What, uh... I mean, how did you even do it? Not just anyone can bail on their reality at will when they're in a pinch. It's, y'know. Dramatic. Were you buds with a big-leagues legendary, or something...?"

Ralsen's eyes relaxed. This was easier, and there was a sort of humor to it all. "I don't know that coming here was a way out so much as just... an accidental side effect of trying to fix things. I've felt so sure that it was my own doing somehow." He stared down at his palm, like if he could just look hard enough, he'd see whatever it was. "I don't feel like I'd met a legend, but I must have been using one's power." He nodded to himself, rationalizing. He'd used a strange power, not knowing how it worked, not having any other choice but to try it, and wound up in another world. That made sense.

"With hindsight, it's hard not to wonder if it was a Relic of some sort. Only, I remember my studies—my world isn't full of departed and missing legends the way this one is." He forced a somewhat sheepish smile. "Perhaps the answer might come to me in a dream." He was only part-joking.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura chewed her lip as she considered Ralsen's reply. He'd given it thought, it wasn't a dismissal of the notion she'd presented. Rather, his need to return home was just... overriding. He made it sound like a compulsion. 'As long as I can remember' sounded perfectly literal coming out of his mouth, with that context from Betel. He'd been bent wholly towards his purpose, to the point where he seemed not to be able to consider any alternative but to go back.

The rest – about a would-be-Relic as his means of arriving here – was just a piece of his own world's lore, of that she felt sure. Important to him, but not something she had a frame of reference for...

...which brought her thoughts back to his 'dedication', if one could call it that. It was like something or someone had chucked out everything about this guy not relevant to his mission. Kinda like what the World-Spirit apparently did to summoned heroes, if you thought about it...

She took a drink, and cleared her throat. It still felt dry.

"When you say 'it's all you've ever known'," she began, unsure where she was even going with this, "do you mean you've been at it your whole life, with nothing else going on with you that whole time? Or that you've lost the rest? Or... what? You make it sound like you're, uh, your world's equivalent to Matthias – y'know?"

She imagined, in quick succession, a Ralsen raised from childhood to complete a certain goal; a Ralsen devoting himself zealously to his objective even as his mind deteriorated; a Ralsen subjected to some kind of mindwipe until no distractions remained.

"If you don't remember choosing this shit for yourself," she added, with an edge to her voice, "then what's stopping you from just fucking quitting? I mean, howls, mate – nobody's forcing you right now. Right...?"

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

"Or at least, y'know, feel some kind of way about it. Steven didn't exactly brush it off when he found out, so...

Steven's gaze fell to the tabletop, his claws tightening around the heat rock in his hands. Laura hadn't exactly meant it as a jab, but it still didn't stop the sudden rush of shame from coursing through him. He very well could have done without that in front of not one, but two people, thank you very much.

It was true, though. Ralsen sitting there so calmly explaining it like it was-- what had he called it-- transactional? Marching toward an inevitable fate without a care. It was almost an obsession; one that would bury him if left unchecked. And in this case, it might very well do just that.

Steven listened, eyes downturned and tracing the multitude of patterns in the wood grain. He was happy to let Laura, whose mind was probably churning at a million miles a minute, be the ever-dogged journalist. She was better suited for it, anyway. If he opened his mouth, all that would come tumbling out was probably the confession that that he'd happily live ten thousand lifetimes on Forlas if only he were here with his partners, like Ralsen was.

Jealously is an ugly color on you, Stone.

He scowled at the table, torn between anger at himself and at Ralsen. Ralsen, who had everything he coveted in this position, yet was willing to throw it all away in pursuit of some nebulous goal he didn't even have a clear picture of.

"It's all I've ever known," he finally said, eyes distant. "As long as I can remember, I've been chasing my goals. When I found myself here, there was never any question that I needed to get home. I've gotten to see so many fascinating things and meet so many interesting people, but it can't last. I can't stay here."

"Maybe it can't for you," Steven bit out, finally unable to hold his tongue any longer, "but what of your pokemon? Have you asked them if they're ready for it to end, too?" It came out more bitter than he'd wanted, but it was too late now.

Even if Ralsen didn't care for them the same way, it was more than short-sighted to make a decision without their input. They had been brought here with him, after all. Was he so callous as to determine their fates in the same casual way he treated his own?