Frontier Town Nocwell's General Goods

[Jackie Cat]

"Auriga."

Powehi closed his eyes, and raised a paw to cover his face for a moment. When he took it away, he tapped his chest again, the same gesture as when he'd empathised with Nova's loss. Some ancient holy sign, perhaps?

"The world-spirit. Yes. Although, we did not turn away from each other as you imagine. It took much longer than that – and more mistakes – and it was her who turned from me. I could not break faith with her any more than I could bite out my own throat; it is in my nature to protect her. I am too... loyal."

A dark look. Bitter humour in the Lucario's eyes.

"And a stupid, loyal dog I remain."

 

[Ambyssin]

"If you're dumb, then I'm dumber," Nova shot back, less bitter humor in his eyes. "Stupid loyal dog with a birdbrain."

Still, the Auriga issue. There was something about her that had come up before, right?

Wait!

"Hmmm... Yes," he hummed. "That... that certainly rings a bell during that dreamlike transfer. Auriga... Hm, hm." His smile grew sinister again. At this point, the Wayfarers could be confident it was some kind of habit. "Thank you for that information. I've connected the dots. My summoner... was Auriga."

"I do know," he said, "I'd arrived before you... but my summoner also knew of you. Took an opportunity. Perhaps mine was... faster on the transfer."

Nova blinked several times. "There's an offworlder we've been in touch with. One who... claims to have worked out a deal with Auriga to enter Forlas while she was going about summoning a human here. A summoning that apparently happened a year ago." His eyes narrowed. "But the thing is... this offworlder implied Auriga already knew about us Wayfarers, even though it wouldn't have been anywhere near when we were summoned. And this offworlder had already set up shop long before we showed up."

He wedged a talon into the dirt. "You're intricately connected to the world. How would you explain a contradiction like this to a birdbrain like me?"

 

[Jackie Cat]

Powehi dragged his paw across his muzzle again, resetting his composure once more with a thin groan.

"Oh? And you're certain this creature is not simply a liar?"

He scoffed, and tugged his tattered cloak around himself.

"Do note that that was rhetorical. If we grant the claim, however... The best explanation is that the act of summoning is not instantaneous. Your patron is inexperienced and weak, and attempted to summon dozens of you. I have felt the passing of certain souls back to their own worlds, their tethers to this world having broken. I sense some never made it to Forlas to begin with, and some only by a thread. Have you considered that the world-spirit began and completed a summoning of her own while all of you were... still in transit?"

 

[Ambyssin]

Nova sighed. "That's... what I was afraid of." He shook his head. "Nobody seems to know what they are. Or, really, who they are. Or how they got here and summoned us, for that matter.

"But now that the team's found Sage and knows that they were built here, I can't help but wonder if our patron's like me." He paused, choosing his words carefully. "If, somehow, someone here on Forlas attempted to make an artificial planetary force, like you or Auriga."

 

[Jackie Cat]

Powehi nodded gravely. "It is a serious possibility. Plausible, at least, if not proven. My essence recoils at the thought, but such is as it stands."

The Lucario looked about himself, considering this, and how far they'd come from the south side of town. He adjusted his cloak.

"I'll be on my way soon, Nova. Was there else that you would wish to ask?"

 

[Ambyssin]

"I think that's everything," Nova said. He bowed his head. "Thank you for... taking the time to come up here. I'm sure it wasn't easy."

Wait, would the thanking hurt a being of negativity? Well, it wasn't like he could unsay it now...

 

[Jackie Cat]

Powehi managed a thin, stony smile. "It had to happen sooner or later. I will endure like this for a time... until my business is concluded."

He didn't seem hurt by the thanks. He was a stable, well-adjusted creature, for a being comprised of Shadow...

Dark Matter bowed lightly, and looked off into the distance, the path he looked for diverging from Nova's. Then he looked back, his face betraying a degree of pain. Something else pressed up there, too – some kind of quiet longing...

"You said you were... closer than your closest ally. Tell me... what were you to your Dark Matter?"

The ancient entity from the dawn of time looked at Nova, and waited for his answer.

 

[Ambyssin]

"His mate."

The answer was quiet, almost a whisper. There was a flicker of... an intense longing in Nova's eyes. The red dimmed, before he quickly collected himself.

"I left a message for him... before I was lost to the shadows," the chimera said. "I told him that I was sure we would meet again. And, when that time came, I wouldn't be the same person he remembered. So, I said that I'd trust in him to do what needs to be done... for everyone's sake."

He fell silent, figuring that the implications were clear enough.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Powehi met Nova's gaze, unblinking. Something in the Silvally would sense that behind those eyes, Shadows boiled in Dark Matter's soul.

"I see."

The air grew thick and tight, the atmospheric pressure pressing down, down...

You made a mistake. How dare you lay such pain on him. Don't let him kill you. Be together again.​

Weak mortal. You should have killed yourself while you yet retained some volition. Now it will be worse.​

The words weren't spoken. They were impressions – soundless, voiceless thoughts that came lancing directly into Nova's brain from somewhere in the lightless spaces of his skull.

The Lucario coughed into his paw, his phlegm black and viscuous. "Ignore it," he hissed.

Did you kiss him? Did you fuck him? What was it like? I want to know. I want to feel...​

No. Love is the seed of grief. A fever of the soul. It leads, inevitably, to suffering.​

​

Dark Matter clutched his head with one paw, and grimaced. "It will pass," he managed, through gritted teeth.

He was not your mate. He is the blackness of the world. As I am. Surely he could not love you. His love would scald you, skin you, scar you. As mine would. Why would you love him? How does one love Dark Matter?

Alike to me, oh echo, oh sibling. Is it not excruciating, to love?​

Did he not sicken you?





Powehi swore softly in some ancient tongue, under his breath.

"Just go."

He did not look at Nova.

 

[Ambyssin]

The air grew thick and tight, the atmospheric pressure pressing down, down...

A sudden gasp escaped Nova. He staggered back, eyes squeezing shut. And before he could even realize it...

Weak mortal.

"But I—"

The proclamations were coming too fast. Too quickly for him to rebut. Scrambling themselves around in his head.

"Ignore it,"

"Wait—"

Again, Nova tried to get a word in edgewise, but he was battered by more thoughts before he could. Nova staggered further away, his glowing parts flickering like lights loosened from their sockets.

Did you kiss him? Did you fuck him?

He was not your mate. He is the blackness of the world.

What was he doing? Nova knew what this was. This was his life back home. Day in and day out.

Surely he could not love you. His love would scald you, skin you, scar you.

Did he not sicken you?

Amidst the swirling thoughts still jumbling around in his head, Nova thought he heard a command to leave tacked onto the end of a final flurry.

"You're... wrong..." He sucked in sharp, rasping breaths to stave off a coughing fit. Like the mask was back on. Suffocating him. "You are... so sure of yourself and your place. And so... was he. You think... he didn't... talk like that to me?"

He took one shaky step back. Then another. And a third. "But he was... not... a force. He was... a person. A soul... bound to the... essence of negativity." Nova took a few more breaths. "All I did... was help him... rekindle... his sparks of life."

Nova turned away and hobbled off, still breathing like he'd run across town. The impressions kept wrestling around in his head.

You made a mistake. How dare you lay such pain on him.

Opposite that emptiness in the back of his head, Nova glimpsed faint, golden light.

"I wish I had another idea. I really, really do." The voice was quiet. Remorseful. "But if my hunch is right, the new creator's not awake. Won't be for a while. And even once they are, they'll need time before they can accept what you have. I'm... not sure how many plates that will be. But I think you'll know. Call it... intuition."

I didn't have a choice...

Not that Powehi was around anymore to hear that. Though the grief behind it would end up reaching him anyway.

It leads, inevitably, to suffering.

The light and shadows in the back of his head melted away, leaving behind a faint humanoid silhouette. Faceless as always. With hair mocking the one he was built as a knock-off of.

"The tree of suffering blossoms from the seed of flawed connections. From mankind to pokémon to the legends themselves. Look at yourself, Construct of Man. What good have you done? Have you... uplifted those you connected with? Are they happy? Do they lead... joyous lives?

"No. They suffer. For their connections to you. To one another. There was... no other outcome. It was their fate. It is their fate."

But that wasn't true. Even the tiniest good deeds — for Lucien. For Sage. For Mhynt and Leaf and Archie and his other friends amongst the Wayfarers — could create something worthwhile. Otherwise... Nova would have already been back home.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have broken that mask here.

Nova shook his head. He started off toward the abandoned cabin.

One way or another... he'd keep pushing forward. And right now, that meant the Quarry mission. That meant rescuing Mhynt's friend.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Once the chimera had made it far enough from Dark Matter, Powehi raised his greying head to watch Nova walk away. It took time, but eventually the blackness leaking from his mouth ceased to flow, and he was once again a stone-faced Lucario.

"You think... he didn't... talk like that to me?"

He raised his paw and tapped his chest once again, more out of habit than because Nova would look back and see it. Thmp-thmp. One of the oldest gestures. 'My heart beats.' Or, more poetically, 'Yet I live; yet I feel.'

It meant any number of things. An expression of sympathy; a silent shorthand for one's own grief; even a love confession.

He was perhaps the only soul on Forlas who still used it in its oldest form.

"Must I admit it?" he whispered to himself, the syllables staccato with reluctance. "Must I speak it aloud, to make it feel true?"

He pressed the paw to his steel spike, and grimaced, the physical pain focusing his mind through a fog of emotional anguish.

"I confess," uttered Powehi, "that I am a person, too."

Saying this, Dark Matter turned and walked away, into the foothills of the desert, alone.

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