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Frontier Town Frontier Town Outskirts

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"Yeah, professors like that exist in my world too. But there's some sort of special distinction of being a Pokemon Professor specifically. They study all kinds of things related to Pokemon, from species themselves to the very things that allow them to do what they do, even to mere theories that might involve them. They help set the foundation for Pokemon battling too, which applies heavily to me, as a trainer...but that's as far as I know about it. I never had the willpower to even attempt that path in life," she explained.

"And...yeah. Essentially. One private organization that rallied others to work against this terrorist cult, but yeah, it started with them. Of course the police were dealing with them as best they could, but I don't think I'm doing the scope of it justice here...I'm talking secret society, I-can't-believe-this-shit-is-actually-real, conspiracy theory come true level scope." She scoffed. "It's actually fucking zubatshit fucking insane. And believe it or not, a standard city police force can't do much against an underground blood cult funded by the world's most rich and powerful. Hence the need for a...private establishment that actually had the means and understanding to even have a chance at getting at them."

She was shaking her head again. "Sorry, I know you must have a lot of questions; this must sound like fucking fiction to you. I just hope you don't think I'm busting your balls here. I couldn't make this nonsense up if I tried."
 
"Jesus." Dave exhaled. "I mean, I can't lie, this all sounds like a batshit paperback supernatural thriller to me, but half of everyone else's worlds sound extremely fucking made up by my world's standards, so I'm going with it. The entire fucking concept of being sent to a universe that looks like a Western but everyone's a Pokémon sounds made up. I'm still not totally convinced I'm not just having the world's most elaborate drug trip after someone spiked my drink."

He shook his head. "Either way, a cult having that much power is fucking nuts. I guess at least you've got a literal fucking nightmare demon on your side, but I take it your dad's got a bunch of demons working for him too?"
 
She had to laugh at Dave's comment. "Now that you brought it up, actually, the concept of a world inhabited by only Pokemon is a fucking video game franchise where I'm from. So. I get it the idea of 'all this sounds made up.' Because yeah, it does. If I woke up in my bed tomorrow recovering from some really bad weed, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest. "

Pushing the humor of it aside, she sighed. "And you'd be correct. Six of the seven. Well..." she bobbed her head. "Presumably six of the seven. My half brother has one, and he's...unknown in terms of loyalties. I only met him once, and he helped me, but we haven't heard from him since. So...so for now, we have to assume six of the seven. And move forward as is."

Cracking a grin, she rubbed at her cheek tiredly. "You're welcome to pitch this as an obnoxious teen drama show in your world and use the inevitable fortune you make off of it to fund your legal battles for your pokemorph kids. It'd be my otherworldly way of saying thank you for letting me dump my life story on you."
 
"Yeah, we've got, you know, all sorts of cartoons and games and so on where the characters are all talking Pokémon. Mostly they're for kids, because Pokémon don't talk in real life where I'm from."

One private organization with a single legendary demon against an all-powerful cult with six of them. Christ. At least the Church of Holy Truth was ultimately a bunch of pathetic god-bothering weirdos with a dramatic building and not much else. What the fuck would Isaac Daniels have done with control of a half dozen supernatural fucking demon Pokémon? Vaporized him and the morphs and everyone at the lab to start, probably. And then what? Jesus.

He looked away, shaking his head. "Christ. Well, I hope when you get home you manage to take down your dad's demon cult, somehow. Novel fucking sentences. Guess the upside of Forlas is you get a break from that bullshit."
 
That time, her laugh was a little more genuine. She let it linger, trying to enjoy some form of lightheartedness in the conversation at hand. "Sure, I guess," she agreed. "I get a break from the demons but get thrusted into Shadow and Radiance shit alongside a group of human descendants that I'm still not totally convinced aren't at least a type of cult."

Still, he had a point. That much she indicated with a tired nod. "But...yeah. At least nobody is slinging fucking Pokemon blood magic at me here."

She slanted one more glance at what was left of the tree they'd both went nuts on, then crossed her arms and turned her gaze back toward town. "Well. All this life storytelling has really expanded my need for a drink. My treat at Sun Stone, just as thanks for listening to me bitch?"

She owed Dave that much. Besides, he felt like someone she could probably shoot the shit with for hours, and she didn’t have a lot of those here on Forlas. She wanted to capitalize on that as best as she could.
 
Dave gave her a grin. "Definitely wouldn't turn down a free drink. And yeah, Christ, don't even get me started on the fucking Covenant."

They headed back towards town together, discussing the ins and outs of cults and the Covenant. Yeah, he liked Odette. She might have been the protagonist of some wild bullshit novel in another universe, but she was sensible and down-to-earth where it counted.

Better hope that whenever she went back from this, she was in the sort of novel where the protagonist wins against all odds.

<><><><><>​
 
[Ch07] Nova & Gladion ~ Type: Full of It New
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    • As Owen had winded down his part of the meeting, Nova had put forth a reckless idea: to send some Wayfarers directly to Eremus Rift via Twilight Quarry. And he had volunteered as tribute, right on the heels of saying what the Comb showed him. Given some folks' reactions to that, he figured it would be best not to linger. So, Nova had quickly excused himself and made his way along the outskirts of Frontier Town.

    The gifted darkness tingled deep inside of him. It wasn't quite ready to blossom, but Nova didn't think it would be long. There was a familiar tug in the pit of his stomach. He knew it well. And Nova figured there was no way this power could follow him to Forlas. But he was wrong. The question was how it would manifest. Would it be more... protective in nature here?

    Nova sat down. He slotted in the Fire Memory. As a fiery red replaced his standard turquoise, he shut his eyes and tilted his head, bathing in the sun's warmth.
     
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    • The stars had left a feeling like some kind of itch beneath Gladion's skin, dormant and waiting for release. He'd have time to figure that out later, though. There were more important things to address right now. Like Nova. He'd just dropped a hell of a piece of info on them, he couldn't just slink away. Gladion had to talk to him. To... To...

    He wasn't sure why he had to talk to Nova about it. Nova'd seemed at peace with it, so it wasn't to comfort him. But it was important! There was no way Gladion could just let it go like it was nothing. So he ended up deciding to find Nova shortly after that meeting ended. Even if there were many other things he could be worrying about instead, this felt most urgent.

    Nova looked... relaxed, somehow. Calm. Peaceful. Nova must've known from the beginning what was coming, so it wasn't new information for him. Gladion wasn't sure how to make himself known, so he just slowly walked up towards Nova until he was in earshot.

    "H-Hey, Nova. How're you... holding up? With, you know, everything."
     
    Nova's eyes slowly opened. He looked over his shoulder. "Oh, hey." His orange cheek bolts turned once in their sockets. "Lying if I didn't say I was nervous about this fight. Gotta let those nerves settle." He shut his eyes again. "And you?"
     
    "Gonna beat the snot outta some Cipher people, nothing new about that. Alexander's more of an unknown variable. But, well, I'm not sure I'm set up to comprehend the scale of what's going on there. It hardly feels real to me. Not in terms of having to fight him, I'm ready for that, but the stakes are just..." Gladion sighed. Things usually went better for him here when he didn't try to wrap his head around the vastness of some of these cosmic forces. "I'm just trusting we got it under control."

    He settled down beside Nova. Wasn't gonna get very far if he wasn't willing to talk about what he was thinking. "More thinking about... You gotta still be there when I get down, alright? Hard to picture you going straight down there. I mean... You're the least expendable Wayfarer, you know? 'Cause..."

    He trailed off. Not like it was hard to guess what he was referring to. He hadn't gotten over the fact Nova was dying yet.
     
    A tired laugh escaped Nova's beak. "I dunno about least expendable. Appreciate the compliment, though." Part of him wanted to steer the conversation in a different direction. But, whether it was the simmering darkness or just dumb instinct, he didn't do so.

    "Going to hell early definitely wasn't on my bingo card for what to expect out in the frontier," Nova quipped. He chuckled weakly. "Holding down that fort's... going to be an uphill battle. I'm betting Alexander will do everything to try and make me lose heart and give up." His gaze fell to his gold claws. "Wouldn't be the first time that happened..."
     
    Gladion seemed more worried then amused. "You can come to Terminal One if you need to. I... I see the logic in going to keep him busy directly, I do, It's just..."

    He never had been capable of saying what he meant outright. This was pathetic. If he wanted to say something he should just do it. But he couldn't.

    "You're not allowed to die, is all I'm saying. Rest of us can get sent back and it'll be fine, but you can't tell me you're gonna die for real if you leave this world and then go do exactly that right away. Just gotta hold out 'til the rest of us get there. Know you can do that. It'll be fine..."
     
    Oh. That really was what this was about, then. And for a moment Nova was really tempted to answer something to the contrary. But that would... be bad. It'd be like when he dropped all that stuff about alternate versions on Gladion a few months ago. Unnecessary. Unhelpful.

    Instead his mind flailed about and grabbed onto the first thing it could.

    "Silvally," he whispered. His crest tightened slightly. "Laura called me that in the Comb." Nova tilted his head. "But I don't... know what that means."
     
    Where was Nova going with this?

    "Think Odette introduced that one. A name for our species." That was true of Forlas, at least, but... "I think I came up with it? Or, will come up with it from where I am now. A name other than Type: Full for our species."

    It was a pretty literal name, which made it pretty easy to reverse-engineer the component words. That felt like it didn't communicate what they meant, though. Didn't make it clear why he chose them. Even Gladion, from where he'd come from, didn't really know that yet. Not in any more detail than that he cared about Hazel, Theliel, Nova, his partner from Laura's world. (But that was the important part, wasn't it?)

    "Silver comes from the feathers. They were originally gonna change colours, if you didn't know, like the eyes and crest. Supposed to be derived from Oricorio feathers. But it didn't work, so they're always silver... or white, I guess. But silver's supposed to be a trustworthy metal. Gold's malleable. And ally, 'cause partner doesn't really fit as far as the Alolan syllables go and it's the same kinda idea. If I'm the one who came up with it, that makes sense too..."

    Gladion shifted to stare at the earth in front of him. Avoiding eye contact. "'Cause I care. Maybe... Maybe that's why the one you had to take out never came up with it. If he just wanted Type: Fulls."

    That itch again. Shadows simmering beneath his skin. He took a deep breath to suppress it. "Good fucking riddance. Can't believe you have a... a self-destruct sequence. That shouldn't exist."
     
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    "But it does," Nova said. He offered Gladion the best reassuring smile his beak could manage. "Don't beat yourself up over it. It wasn't your idea. You didn't make me." He slowly shook his head. Gladion said Alola, right?

    "Dunno how much you know about Sinnoh, but my creator was a lady named Cynthia," he said. "And when I rebelled against her, I was able to take the sequence offline."

    Nova took a steady breath. "I'm the one who reactivated it." He closed his eyes and looked up at the sun again. "No one forced me. It's my choice."
     
    Huh. Gladion had always just assumed Nova'd been like the ones he'd created. This was news to him. "Cynthia? She's the champion right now. Of Sinnoh. Don't know that much else about her, so I guess her being involved in this stuff is a your-world thing."

    There really wasn't a coherent way to articulate what he was thinking. Wasn't even really a super coherent thought. Wasn't like he was gonna say it wasn't fair like some kinda nine year old. Or even that he'd miss Nova, because technically he wouldn't even remember, or like they'd ever meet outside Forlas either way.

    "I'm just glad you're here, then. You're pretty cool."
     
    Nova's fish tail wagged a bit, kicking a bit of dust up in the process. "Despite some of the craziness, I'm glad to be here." He looked at Gladion. "And I'm... choosing to believe that, even if we can't consciously remember one another... this will stick with us."

    He awkwardly lifted his foreleg toward his chest. "In our souls."
     
    Gladion smiled, in spite of himself. He still didn't know what a soul did even, in the sense that he wasn't sure what it did to affect who people were. But he wanted it to be true, and it wasn't anywhere close to the weirdest thing he'd heard about so far, so he chose to believe it.

    "Sure, I can get behind that. Feels right."

    Of course, that would only really affect him for more than a few seconds. Unless Nova came from somewhere that had afterlife souls, that was a thing here. Alright, he'd choose to think of it that way. Was more comfortable that way, which is probably why a bunch of cultures back home came up with ideas like that, too.

    "Think that'd be better. Weird to think, when I first arrived here, I wanted to just get everything done and be gone as quickly as possible. Now I think I'm better for having been here. Talked to everyone, you know?"

    Felt like there was a good chance that'd be true for Nova, too. The guy didn't exactly come across like he'd had the greatest time back home. At least he'd have a fair shot here. Get to have friends and things.
     
    "It was part of the deal," Nova said. "There's... someone like Auriga back home who helped me set things up. And I think they sensed Betel and offered up my soul. Get to... experience being free again, before the end."

    His crest fanned out a bit. "Which is why I'll do my best to hold the line against Alexander. But if our backs get put against the wall... I'm picking you guys over me. Will try not to let it to get to that, of course."
     
    Oh. So the timing wasn't a coincidence, then. That made sense. And if there was someone like that keeping an eye on Nova for him, maybe that'd be alright. "Glad you're getting that shot. But I'd rather get sent home than let you bite it early. So if we get put against the wall you're gonna have to beat me to it. So I guess we'll just have to both make sure we don't get that far."

    He fidgeted with the dust in front of him. Couldn't sit still with everything going on in his head. "Wish there was some way we could let you stay here, or stay somewhere at least, without it being this whole thing with soul age and naturalizing or whatever. But I guess it's lucky you got another shot at all, maybe it doesn't make sense to look at it that way. But. Still can't help but think it."
     
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