Frontier Town Industrial Park

[Sinderella]

Odette was in one of her moods. One of her "walk aimlessly, somewhere" moods. She didn't want to sit around and idly drink tea at Sun Stone, she didn't feel like training, and she sure as shit didn't feel like trying to sort her thoughts. There were far too many of those, and she wasn't quite sure where to start with that. She supposed her prominent concerns were when or if she'd be contacted for a Covenant job, and when or if she could move her things over to Sun Stone. Because gods, she couldn't spend another night in Drungfield's. Too much doctor's office exposure over the course of a few days, and she was over it.

When she ended up in the industrial district, she wasn't sure. She hadn't noticed where she was until she looked up and was met with the sight of an empty lot of scrap metal. Jawile started twitching, and the healing injuries under her thirtieth round of fresh bandages ached under the movement. She cringed and jerked at a chain hanging down over her shoulder. "You calm your ass," she snapped. They'd been so much rowdier since the altercation with Seth; it almost concerned her...

But, still. It wasn't like any of it was being used right now. No 'mon around in her immediate sightline. With a sigh, and a shake of her head, she pulled out her key and started undoing the chains. She didn't get very far into it when she caught movement in her peripheral vision.

[[ @Shadow Serenity @Hap ]]

 

[Shadow Serenity]

An empty lot wasn't where Kimiko normally came to practice, but she found it wasn't terrible, either.

She'd tried her normal spot near the outskirts, of course, but the area had been occupied, and it was too noisy to focus. She'd been in this area once before and recalled it being relatively void of foot traffic; a good place for her to be alone and work on some music before her next shift. She'd taken to listing some future song ideas and testing them out on Greasewood's requinto, making notes on what changes might work and what didn't.

She'd been in the middle of this note-taking when a voice reached her ears. Spotting the familiar mawile wasn't difficult in the otherwise barren lot. A knot formed in her gut; with everything else going on, she'd still not had time to discuss the watchtower. (And, to be fair, the snivy had also been generally avoiding people a fair bit recently.) They hadn't seen a whole lot of each other in that time, but when they did, there was always an air of awkwardness. At first she'd thought she'd imagined it, since their first encounter went so well. But no, it had definitely been there at the doc's office after the drapion battle, as well as that large group meeting. She didn't even know why this weirdness had developed between them. Maybe now would be a good time to clear the air.

She'd barely stood up and started to walk closer before Odette seemed to notice her.

"Hey, uh... listen," she started, that awkward feeling forming again. "I know we got off on the wrong foot..." she paused, throwing a quick glance backwards at the requinto. "Actually, that's not true, is it? We got off on the right foot... and then immediately broke both ankles."

She paused again, shaking her head. There she was again, launching into a rant without so much as a greeting. "Sorry... um, do you have a minute?"

 

[Sinderella]

Green. Green and S-shaped. Unless Greasewood or Sonora had somehow changed their body composition, there was only one other 'mon that could have been. She resisted the urge to grunt out loud as she turned to face Kimiko head on. She crossed her arms over her chest, ignoring the sensation of Jawile continuing to jolt against their restraints, and the minor discomfort it caused her.

The metaphor almost got a laugh out of her. But the humor of it was eclipsed by what Kimiko had said about ghost types back at the tower.

Blinking slowly, her expression deadpan, Odette canted her head to the side. "Hi to you too," she said.

She reached up and re-locked Jawile's chains before placing the key back in her garter strap. She had a feeling that whatever was coming didn't need to be made worse by her crass ass second head. "Sure, yeah," she huffed. Not like there were any distractions nearby for her to use as an excuse to bow out. "What's up?"

 

[Shadow Serenity]

"Oh, um... hey." Yep, there's the greeting, about ten seconds too late. At least that awkwardness, she could explain.

'Step one: initiate contact' was a success. ...Sort of. She hadn't been shooed away at least, although she wondered if she'd been interrupting... feeding time, perhaps? Did mawile need to feed their second mouth too? It looked like she'd been about to unchain them...

Well, whatever. She'd gotten her cast in the door with her stupid spur-of-the-moment, vaguely-dance-related ice breaker. Step two, then...

How the hell did she even begin to breach the subject? She chewed on her lip for a moment while she debated on how to word it.

"Okay, well... look, I'll just dive right into it." Because you hadn't already done that, she chided herself. "Did I... say something?" Gods, she sounded pathetic. Buck up and spit it out already! You've been waiting for this chance for a month!

She let out a frustrated sigh before starting over. "I mean, I feel like every time we've been in close proximity there's been some kind of... weird vibe. And I don't think I'm imagining it. Doc's office, the drapion fight... When we met with Pyrrin, even, I felt like there was just this tension in the air that had nothing to do with that meeting. I thought you'd been happy to help me get hired at Sun Stone, but after that..."

Her words got softer and uncertain again as she asked about the only event that came to mind that might have caused some animosity between them. "So, back at the, um, the Blaguarro watchtower... you know I was just worried for you, right? I wasn't trying to... to like, imply that you couldn't handle yourself or anything like that, so... so if you thought I was trying to patronize you or something, I... it just wasn't like that."

She started tapping her foot as an outlet for all her nervous energy. "Am I making any sense? Or have I just lost my mind?"

 

[Sinderella]

Kimiko took a while to get her words out, and Odette almost felt bad. Still, she didn't let her listless expression falter, even as she listened to the snivy stammer over her words. Truth be told, a big part of her was actually anticipating what for what she was going to say.

The weird vibes, yes. Those were real, and it might have been mostly by her fault. Nothing she inherently regretted, though. Her lip involuntarily curled slightly at the mention of Pyrrin. Thank the gods nobody had asked her about why she was acting like a cracked out sobble during that whole exchange, and she'd continue to pray nobody would. But that was besides the point right now.

She had been happy to get Kimiko that job. Thrilled, even. To have another human-turned-Pokemon friend who also knew music so well was like, a dream come true given the circumstances.

Maybe that's why her words had bothered her so much...someone Odette thought could be a really good friend, with those views on the Pokemon she held near and dear to her heart?

As that thought occurred to her, she couldn't stop her eyes from bugging out of her head over what she guessed Kimiko was attempting to apologize for. She thought Odette had been mad at her for yelling about climbing down the ladder? No, not the braindead take on ghost types, but the somewhat warranted "get your ass back up here?"

She blinked a couple times, trying to give herself a moment to process what she'd just heard.

"You're--" she started, uncrossing her arms to point in the snivy's direction. "You...you think I'm upset at you because you wanted to pull me back up the ladder back there?" she asked. She wasn't sure if she wanted clarification or not, and didn't really give her a chance to offer it before reaching up to rub her eyes in tired irritation. She shook her head after a second.

"No. That wasn't the problem. I didn't think twice about that, if you want reassurance on that front," she said. Now, she supposed it was her turn to explain herself. Fuck all of this already.

Her shoulders lifted with the deep breath she inhaled, and she blew it out in a deep sigh. "No, you're not imagining it. I haven't been in a particular mood to speak to you lately," she said, a little more tersely than she probably needed to. "I have been frustrated but it wasn't about what you thought it was."

Another breath, this one somehow deeper than the last. "Since it has to come up, you should know that in my home world, I'm a Pokemon trainer. And I specialize in magical types; namely ghost types." She let the words hang in the dense desert air around them, hoping maybe they'd catch in Kimiko's little snivy ears and give her eardrums a good beating. "No, I had no qualms helping you get that job at Sun Stone. I was more than happy to do it, actually, because I thought, 'huh, former human who also sings? Good friend material.'" Now it felt like she was rambling, but she couldn't get herself to stop. The familiar heat of her anger had started to travel up her spine.

"So, hearing you say...what was it...something about the type I train, and know like the back of my human hand, murdering non-threatening passersby? Really got my fucking blood going, have to say."

 

[Shadow Serenity]

Kimiko simply blinked confusion at Odette's reaction. It took her a second to get started, but once she did, Kimiko deflated a bit in relief. So it hadn't been the thing from the watchtower. That helped to settle her nerves a bit. She nodded, just to show she followed so far.

But then, what was it?

Odette followed up by confirming she had indeed been... well, not in the mood to talk. Possibly understandable, given everything else that had been going on since they arrived, if not for the fact that it still felt personal. She'd not had issues discussing their situation with anyone else, as far as Kimiko had seen, but-

...Oh. Oh.

She was a ghost-type trainer. That explained why the timing felt odd; it still lined up. There had been something about ghosts brought up at the watchtower, too. And both Odette and Ridley had quickly snapped at her over it, just before the skorupi showed up and cut off what likely would have become an argument.

Well, that made far more sense.

She realized she'd been staring, probably with a dumb stunned expression on her face. "Er... Y-yeah, I can see how that might upset you, okay. I'm sorry, then. I was just... speaking from experience, y'know? I mean, there are some willing to work with a trainer, of course, like any 'mon. But generally, it's just a bad idea to turn your back on them. You just never know what they're gonna do, and more often than not, you won't like it."

 

[Sinderella]

The apology started okay. Then it got slightly less okay. And somehow, it got worse.

Something deadly crossed Odette’s eyes as molten Wrath pooled in her core and exploded up into every nerve within her body. She stared Kimiko down for a long, long time before she found the ability to speak again, and she took a step forward, her movement matching the sheer weight behind her words.

“You’re gonna tell me, the Champion who specializes in training ghost types and who grew up in a fucking lab surrounded by ghost types and is partnered with three incredible ghost type partners that it’s a bad idea to turn your back on them? I never know what they’re gonna do? Who in Giratina’s sweet fucking distorted timespace do you think you are?”

She’d somehow closed the gap between them as she spoke, and was only getting closer. “Yeah I really didn’t fucking like how my mimikyu partner pulled me out of a depressive spiral.” Step. “I really didn’t like how my froslass partner helped me not fucking freeze to death on the side of a mountain.” Step. “And I really hate when my chandelure partner makes me do breathing exercises when I’m about to commit aggravated fucking assault on someone for talking out of their fucking ass.”

Now, she was nose to nose with Kimiko. Personal space meant absolutely nothing to her when she was on the verge of blowing a Wrath gasket. “So, please tell me more about the shit that they do that I won’t like, since you’re the big bad fucking expert here.”

 

[Shadow Serenity]

On instinct, Kimiko took a step back as Odette began to approach her. Her initial reaction had been surprise, and there was no doubt it was written all over her face. But that surprise wasn't due to her closing the gap between them, but rather how quickly personal Odette had gotten with her life problems, and hearing how her ghost partners supported her was genuinely shocking.

Even so, after that initial step, Kimiko held her ground. There was a lot to unpack here - Odette was a champion? She also had a froslass partner? - but most of that was shoved to the side in favor of the main issue. Somehow, she hadn't imagined Odette being this short-sighted. Perhaps if she hadn't gotten so aggressive over it, her defensiveness could have been understandable - every trainer thinks their own team is the best team any trainer could ask for. And it did sound like she relied heavily on hers. But there were more ghosts in the world than just her three.

This was not at all how she imagined this discussion to go, but at this point, the anxiety had been boiled away, replaced with frustration, confusion, and anger.

"Well, aren't you the lucky one, then." She hadn't meant to sound so snarky about it, but she couldn't help herself. "You know what? Congrats to you for finding the exceptions. Honestly, if that's all true and you're not just making shit up, then I'm genuinely happy for you that you somehow managed to find not one, but three ghosts who you can rely on. I mean that.

"But come on now. Even if everything you just said is true, even you can't be so delusional to believe that your three are shining examples of the average ghost. What I don't get is why you'd turn a blind eye to their natural behavior!

"Because guess what, you're not the only ghost trainer here! I've got two on my team also, and I love them dearly! But do you know how they got there? One joined me after we escaped his kin trying to kidnap us in the middle of the night! And the other? She set me up for torture before betraying her last trainer and freeing me!"

Kimiko wasn't sure exactly when she'd started trembling from anger, and distantly she was aware she should probably cool down. Gods, this was so much harder without support...

"And that's saying nothing about the rest of the cult, trying to murder us! So don't think you're the only one who's spent time around them. I wasn't bullshitting you when I told you I'm speaking from experience!"

 

[Sinderella]

Odette's breath hitched, and she felt her hands jerk forward with violent intent. However, she managed to get a grip on herself and pull them back. She began to crack her knuckles as a means to keep them busy.

"Their natural behavior, huh?" she repeated with a biting edge. She wanted to say more, but her ears caught on to the word "cult," and she stumbled over herself. "Wait--"

Hang on, hang on. What the hell was she going on about cults now? She'd befriended the Pokemon who did that to her?

What the fuck even was this conversation?

"Hang on..." she said in a breath, once again rubbing her eyes like she was trying to coax the disbelief out of them. Cults, what fucking cults could she have known about? Torture? Enigma didn't focus on ghost types; their thing was blood types and--

Oh. Wait. No. Her brain, in its angry tailspin, was starting to get ahead of itself. Kimiko wasn't from her world, so for all Odette knew, yes, there was a cult out there in the multiverse, training ghost types to instill them with murderous intent. Of fucking course, it was the ghost types.

"No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no," she said, groaning into her hands, which she'd moved to rub her whole face. "Girl, that sounds like a case of them being trained to do that, not their fucking nature. Your froslass partner freed you, didn't she? If you're so dead fucking set on believing that it's their nature to be malicious, why'd she let you go? Sounds to me like she was trained to do that and managed to have a change in understanding at the best possible moment. And why'd you decide you felt comfortable, even after that, to let her stay with you? Is it the ghosts or the powerful people and 'mon they're training with influencing the ghosts? Have they made attempts on your life since you took on training them?"

She jabbed a finger in Kimiko's direction. "And to turn your fucking washed-out ass argument around, have you met every single other ghost type out there? Have you been exposed to any who weren't in this cult? I'm not saying I have met every species of ghost myself, but I'm confident enough to say I've gotten pretty motherfucking close, and not one time has one tried to off me. In fact, I've had more fire types try to kill me than ghost types. And I'm not here saying all fire types shouldn't be fucked with. It's called not generalizing."

She stopped herself there. Was she being a hypocrite? It's not like Kimiko was the only one with an aversion to a certain Pokemon; if that meeting with Pyrrin was any indication. But...no. Odette was terrified of houndoom, but even she'd had the sense to concede that, more than likely, not all of them were bad. When Koa mentioned his houndoom friend, who sounded nothing short of an ideal Pokemon partner, she didn't lambast him for deciding to train one, did she? No. This was different.

"And believe me, I know a lot about cults training Pokemon to do shitty things. So before you come at me with any 'what the hell do you know?' let me just assure you that I have a very deep understanding of that as well."

 

[Shadow Serenity]

For a moment, Kimiko thought maybe she'd gotten through. Odette had started to pull back, as though she'd come to some sort of realization. Maybe they could finally make some progress here.

But that moment passed when the mawile started speaking again.

"I don't know the full story behind why my froslass had a sudden change of heart," she admitted. "But she did. I do know she was in danger for helping me, not just from her former trainer, but from her fellow ghosts! She was more afraid of them than any humans she'd been working with. I sure as hell wasn't comfortable keeping her around at first, gods no, but I'm not so heartless as to just abandon her to die after she rescued me, either! She wanted to change, she realized that what her kin were doing was wrong, she wanted to fight back! She had insider knowledge of what they were doing, and putting aside saving her life in exchange for saving mine, I'd have been a fool to let that slip away! Would you not have thought the same, in my position?"

Too late, she realized that would require Odette to see her position, and that was increasingly unlikely.

"Of course I haven't met every single other ghost, obviously not, but I think being chased through a gods damned forest full of them on multiple occasions accounts for a pretty decent sample size! I couldn't even begin to count the number I've fought." She shook her head in frustration. Why was this so difficult for Odette to wrap her head around? Was she just not wording herself right?

It didn't take long to get somewhat of an answer to that, though. Kimiko was caught off guard by Odette's revelation. She had experience with cults training pokemon?? Was she one of the cultists? No, wait, that... didn't quite line up with what she'd said about her partners, though... so what the hell was that about?

"Okay, I see the problem here. You seem to think it's the cult with the influence and the power here, for some reason. It's not. It's the ghosts who want us gone, and that's what drew these nutjobs to them! The ghosts are not working for the cult, the cult is working for them! Hell, half the cultists I've met have been possessed themselves. Willingly, by the way. What do you know about that?"

 

[Sinderella]

Odette suffered through twenty different emotions at once, and she couldn't pinpoint any one specifically. All she knew was that she wanted to punch Kimiko square in her little pointed nose. Just what fucking ghosts had Kimiko been in contact with? Ghost types not wanting humans around? They were rambunctious and rowdy, yes, but to the point of wanting to commit homicide against humans? As a type-specific thing, that was unheard of.

At Kimiko's last question, her eyes blazed. A million ways to answer that swelled up on her tongue, but they all coalesced into one single, bone-chilling word.

"Plenty."

And it was there that she understood what was happening here. Their worlds; they were from different worlds. What Kimiko was talking about was so eerily similar to the blood type issue, but she was talking about ghosts being the problem, not demonic vampiric mon. Jesus fucking--

She brought her hands to the sides of her head and began to rub her temples, taking one large step backward and squeezing her eyes shut. She needed to get a grip and think here. Miscommunication was a fucking bitch and a half, but what exactly was the goddamn disconnect? Sort it; she needed to sort it.

"Wait...okay..." she said breathlessly. "Wait." She rubbed hard, rough circles into the sides of her head. It felt like she was going to cave her own skull in, but she didn't care.

"I get it. There's a whole fucking multiverse of disconnect happening here," she said. "You're talking about a cult where the members willingly take on possession, and I know every single bit of what you're talking about, but it's not ghost types. They're--" she stumbled over what to say, how to explain herself, "not ghost types. I--"

All she could do for the moment was shake her head. "It's different because...the ghosts aren't like that where I'm from, so I just--" She threw her arms up in frustration, grunting loudly as she whipped around on her toes and kicked a rock into a nearby hunk of scrap metal, the impact causing a loud 'PANG' to echo through the area. Now Jawile's stem was twitching like crazy, and she had to make herself take a long, hard breath to calm them and herself down.

"I don't know exactly what's going on in your world," she said evenly, holding her arms gingerly out to her sides like she was trying to balance on something. Balance her mood, maybe. "But in my world, ghosts aren't causing those kinds of problems. I don't know what your ghostkind did to you, and I'm...sorry for what they might have..." She inhaled again. "But my ghosts are everything to me, and the talking in absolutes makes me fucking zubatshit. But obviously, you wouldn't know any of that; you're not where I'm from."

With another breath, and the decision that she felt calm enough to look Kimiko in the eye again, she turned back around. The intensity was still clear as day on her face, but it had significantly drained from her voice. “So I’ll offer you an apology in regards to this clear miscommunication of culture and world state. But nothing more.”

 

[Shadow Serenity]

The way Odette stepped back and rubbed her head made Kimiko think she'd had a headache. Finally, something they could agree on-

"Not ghost-types?" she asked, skeptically. "The fuck does that mean?"

It was the mention of a multiverse finally made her back down a beat. That would answer so much of what was going on here... maybe things had simply played out differently in her world.

And then... there was an apology. Fine, but Kimiko wasn't ready to accept it just yet.

"You want to know what kind of ghosts I'm dealing with?" She was no longer shouting, her voice low, dangerous. Her whole tiny body shook, whether from rage or from fear or frustration or something else entirely, she didn't know nor care. "I've seen people I know and care about turn and leap off a cliff. I've watched them drown themselves under ghost possession. I've watched them have their soul sucked out of their bodies, to be used as food for their ancient fucking ghost god, or whatever the fuck it is!

"Do you know what that's like? To see the light leave someone's eyes as a ghost drains their soul away? To hear, to feel their empty husk of a body crumple to the ground at your feet? All while praying that you won't be next to go? Or anyone else you care about, your team, your boyfriend, your sister?"

Somewhere amidst her outburst, she'd sunk low to the ground, as though preparing to pounce. She snarled at Odette, teeth bared. "So I'm sorry if I struggle to see the good in these fuckers who want to exterminate us. I simply don't have the option to try to fucking make friends or whatever with them. My loved ones can't afford it."

 

[Sinderella]

Odette listened to Kimiko rant, the intensity in her look slowly draining away to leave behind something a little more stony. She didn’t move from her new spot, instead only allowing her eyes to follow the snivy while she went on and on and on about things Odette would not have expected in a hundred years.

She thought about what she’d do if Hau or Plumeria or Gladion leapt off a cliff. If Noel drowned. If Vienna got her soul sucked out. Not by just anything, but by a Pokemon like Isaur. Or Ange. Or Loïc. She couldn’t stomach the thought for very long, that much she only indicated by a hard swallow.

And an ancient ghost god. Somehow, she saw that one coming from a thousand light years away. She maintained her stance; eldritch gods were fucking bastards sometimes.

But those weren’t ghosts. What Kimiko was describing were monsters. Kimiko’s world had monsters masquerading as the type she cherished so deeply. The prolonged thought continued to make Odette feel ill. Some ignorant people from her world already had plenty of reservations against the type, but if they’d heard something like that…

Had Odile ever compelled her to hurt herself? Or blood types in general? From her experience, and what she’d seen over the prior three years, no. Blood types gained nothing from making their hosts harm themselves except the wonderful payoff of being vessel-less. They were a lot of things, but they weren’t that low.

Of course, some of them, namely a certain quintet of all-powerful bloodsucker eldritch terrors, might do those things to another person, but that was a different story. Kind of. Not really.

The bottom line was those weren’t her ghosts. Not even close.

“I’m not asking you to do anything in regard the absolutes of my world,” she said, her eyes boring into Kimiko’s as she watched her get low. “What ghosts are to you are not what they are to me, and I’ll respect that. But I expect the same courtesy.”

Her expression was as steely as her typing. “I don’t expect you to drop your views. I truthfully can’t say I blame you, if what you’ve told me is true. But I kindly ask that you not refer to me with your absolutes either. My partners, and the type, are special to me, and I won’t ever deny that. So I’m willing to take this as an ‘agree to disagree,’ because it’s clear our worlds are…very different. And that’s not gonna change.”

 

[Shadow Serenity]

Kimiko held her glare. If Odette wanted to fight about it, so be it. She was ready. Not what she'd intended at all, but if that's what it took to make her understand...

Odette had listened silently the whole time she'd monologued, and her expression had... not quite softened, but the aggression slowly trickled out of it. And she remained silent for a beat, absorbing everything she'd just had thrown at her. Kimiko found she desperately wished to know what was going through her mind at the moment, if she'd double down or...

When they came, her words were not harsh. There was... some degree of understanding behind them, at least.

Control, control...

Kimiko wasn't quite satisfied, but she wasn't sure why. What, did she just... want Odette to admit that her reaction was justified? Probably. But that wasn't fair, was it?

Relax, focus. Breathe.

Kimiko straightened up, but did not break eye contact. 'I can't say I blame you.' She did understand.

She took a deep breath, and the tension slowly melted away.

"Must be nice, not having to fight them for your life every day. That's why I'm here. I ran away. Couldn't deal with it anymore. Needed to get away, even if it's only temporary. I'm no fuckin' hero or anything."

Then her expression softened a bit. Maintain eye contact. Don't cower away. "For what it's worth, I know it's not... I love my ghosts, too. My haunter's a sweet little shit. Like a toddler. Chaotic little bastard. Means well. And despite trying to kill me, my froslass did save my life, too. I can't ignore that. She's been a valuable ally... and a good friend. They're my family."

She finally looked away, unable to bear Odette's intense stare any longer. "Sounds like you've got a solid support group of your own back home, too. ...I-I'm sorry for..." What did she even say here? 'Sorry my world fucked me up'? Would it matter?

"...For jumping to conclusions. You didn't deserve that, and neither did your partners. It's just all I've known, and it's so hard to-"

No, stop. Don't fuck it up. You said what mattered.

"Ugh... I'm sorry. Really. I didn't mean t- ...Sorry."

 

[Sinderella]

Odette's brow quirked. "Must be nice," she'd said. Well, maybe she wasn't fighting ghosts, but she sure as shit was fighting something else.

She watched in real-time as Kimiko settled back. She'd by no means been kind with her words, but she had meant them, and it seemed Kimiko understood that, despite how uncomfortable she'd started to look. She talked fondly about her haunter friend and a froslass (gods, she had a froslass partner? Why couldn't they have a civil discussion about that?), and there was a pull in her voice that indicated she wasn't spewing bullshit. She did enjoy having them as partners, despite everything, which Odette supposed was worthy of giving credit to.

Her gaze didn't waver while she chewed on Kimiko's stammered-out apology. Broken and almost incoherent, but sincere. By the end of it, she didn't just look uncomfortable; she was uncomfortable. Odette felt the last of her tension disperse out of her, and she dropped her chin toward her chest, sighing deeply.

"It's fine," she said, pawing at her forehead. "I never accounted for multiversal culture shocks, either, so..."

She straightened her posture. "I'm sorry for whatever happened to you. Or...those close to you. I didn't realize it was like that." Then, she shook her head and shrugged. "Water under the bridge. If we can even find water out here, of course."

 

[Shadow Serenity]

"It's not fine," Kimiko replied with a sigh, although she appreciated the gesture. They were starting to mend the bridge, and that had been all she'd wanted from the start of this. She didn't want to ruin that. But it didn't feel fair to just pretend the last month didn't happen.

Now that they weren't shouting at each other, Kimiko had a sudden revelation that had taken over her thoughts. "It's the same shit I was annoyed at Isidora for, except my issues are with ghosts instead of humans. I guess I didn't account for how difficult it is to put aside your own existing beliefs. I... should have accounted for this... multiverse whatever. I had then. But I didn't apply it to my own beliefs. So I'm sorry."

Odette's water comment had her looking around, the joke momentarily flying over her head. Water in a desert. No water, no problems. Right.

When she refocused, Odette had relaxed her stance, too. They hadn't even come to blows... Kimiko had a flicker of hope that maybe they could salvage the situation. "Yeah. It's that bad. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to get over what I've been through with ghosts. But obviously, here in this world - and yours - things are different. So, uh..."

Was she even allowed to ask for a restart? That felt unfair, too. But compared to home, her support network on Forlas was dangerously fragile, and she honestly didn't think she could keep up this animosity, regardless of which way it fell. Worst Odette could say was to go fuck herself, which honestly, would be warranted. But that didn't quite sound like what she'd been implying... Might as well go for it.

"Can we try this again? And maybe this time we can save the broken legs for the stage in Sun Stone?"

 

[Sinderella]

Odette wanted to roll her eyes; she really did. But more out of her own discomfort and not because of anything Kimiko was saying. They'd already apologized to each other, so what was the point of further doubling down? All it did was get her chest into one of those uncomfortable knots that she was too emotionally unintelligent to undo herself. For now, she settled for casually rubbing at her collarbone, hoping that would do something to help with the unease. Couldn't they just move on? She wasn't sure this was a "cultural difference" she wanted to keep dwelling on. But, maybe it was necessary.

However, at the mention of Isidora's name, she frowned in annoyance. "You got into a fight with that bitch for the same reason? How the fuck?" she said. She'd intended that to be an internal thought, but, oh well. She wasn't sure if she wanted an answer or not. If she could go the rest of her time here without hearing about that sneasel, she'd be okay with that.

She shrugged again. "I don't think anyone would expect you to. You don't have to explain yourself, really. It goes both ways, so it's--" She didn't know where she was going with that, leading her to trail off.

Odette seemed to consider Kimiko's words for a drawn-out length of time. That time, the broken ankle joke actually got her lips to twitch, and that was enough to really get her to roll her eyes. But, jokingly. She silently huffed, then reached out her hand.

"Odette Cinq-Mars," she said. "It's a pleasure."

 

[Shadow Serenity]

The snivy leaned in to snatch Odette's hand with one of her own tiny leaves, rather than a vine. She wasn't sure why, but it felt more personal. "Kimiko Tomori, and trust me, the pleasure's mine."

She was somewhat surprised by Odette having a similar experience with their sneasel teammate. At least the topic change helped the words flow easier, so - oblivious to Odette's internal battle - she latched on to the conversation's new direction; anything to push passed the discomfort of the last several minutes.

"Y-yeah. Back during the battle with Farin and Valere. Uh, don't think you were there for that one. But yeah, they'd heard about us, humans summoned to help save the world, and wanted to test us, see how we were all unified in that cause, and all that... and then Isidora thought that was a good time to bring up how her world was destroyed by humans and how she hates them."

Come to think of it, she hadn't seen nor heard a lick from either of them since that encounter... "I'm still not sure how much that influenced their opinions on us, but they've been on silent ever since. Which only backs my opinion that it was not the right timing for the human slander, but..." Her face scrunched in displeasure. "Well, I was a little snappy at her for it. Given my own, uh... problems, I can't judge her for her opinions, but... probably should have been something she'd told the group before our meeting, not in the middle of it."

She shrugged. Now that they were on her mind, she wasn't sure whether to consider it a good thing or not that they'd not encountered the gallade or the noivern again. Although, given all the other factions that were crawling out of the desert sand, there was something to be said for having one not being an immediate concern breathing down their necks...

 

[Sinderella]

Odette slitted her eyes at the explanation she was now sure she didn't want. But, they'd just finished making up, so she wasn't about to tell Kimiko to stop talking.

For a moment, she felt guilt. Then she felt annoyance. Then she wasn't sure what to feel.

"Wait, she...doesn't like humans," Odette said to nobody. It wasn't a question; more a realization on her end. That explained a lot more; the angry side-eyes and the pointed comments. And perhaps, to some degree, they were warranted. But Odette wasn't from Isidora's world. And to pick a time when those Vanguard people were testing humans to say that shit aloud...

Pinching the bridge of her nose, she exhaled sharply. She guessed, in a way, it was the same exact fucking argument. "Well. You've definitely provided me some much needed clarity on why she's been such an ass to me when I've only said two words to her," she said. "But I'm not fucking thrilled she might have turned off a potential ally because she thinks her world's state applies here."

She raised a hand, as if trying to silence herself. "Not the person I really want to be discussing right now." Not that what she wanted to talk about next was any better, but she felt the need to ask out of pure, morbid curiosity...

"But uh...you said...something about a cult? Where you're from?"

 

[Shadow Serenity]

So Odette had been subject to some of Isidora's anti-human snark, too. Yeah, that right there was a small-scale example of why Kimiko was trying to keep her own status under wraps. Keeping a mental tally was tiring, but so far she could only recall four people she'd flat out openly admitted it to... well, five, counting telling Odette she was a trainer via the two ghosts on her team.

She agreed on the worry over pushing away a potential ally, too, but given pretty much everyone else who had been there had refuted Isidora's experience, she figured there was still a chance. And they had won that battle of wills with the Vanguard, so...

She'd been about to note that, but Odette decided she'd rather change the topic... and Kimiko wasn't sure she liked the new one any better.

"Oh, uh... yeah." She crossed her little arms. This certainly wasn't going to be a pleasant discussion. "It's... a long story. The short version..." She sighed. Was there a short version of this?

"Well, for starters, we don't... there's still pieces of the puzzle we don't know yet. But as for what we do know... there was an incident several years ago in... my world's Sinnoh. A not-cult of sorts formed that believed only certain trainers were worthy of being pokemon trainers. Fast forward to recent times and the actual cult are basically remnants of that old one, but turned up to eleven; they don't believe humans as a species are worthy of existing alongside them, nevermind training them."

She hesitated a moment, not wanting to re-spark an argument, but it was... pretty undeniably relevant. "The, um... the ghosts of my region tie in because they share those thoughts, for... gods only know what reason. We have assumptions, of course." She started nodding her head as she counted them off. "Half the entries in my 'dex for ghosts talk about how they'd been abandoned dolls full of malice, or lost children who died in a forest, or feed on fear, or some other equally ridiculous and tragic thing. Anyway, they've been unable to act until this cult started gaining traction. They have resources, tools, numbers... and are willing vessels for the ghosts, essentially human disguises to allow them to operate outside the confines of the forest they live in.

"Anyway, they've been... gathering souls to power up their giant bird deity. Apparently it feeds off them or something. They've even sacrificed their own members at times when they felt they weren't 'meeting quota'." She shivered at the thought. "Like it's some sort of business model or something. Not that they care, obviously, since their whole goal is human extinction anyway. They're not exactly picky."

She shrugged. "And... yeah. So that's what I'm dealing with. Oh! Here's a fun detail. Apparently my dad was involved somehow, but I've yet to discover exactly how. Just that he'd done something to piss them off and they killed him. But I've got a pretty little target on my back because of it."