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Little Scriven Shining Springs

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"Well, I just think that I should keep my mouth shut and observe," Andre said. "That I'd screw things up if I spoke up. I also felt like I shouldn't speak for the group lest I say something they don't agree with or reveal something that should have been kept under wraps. And it feels like there may have been important information that I was missing." He shook his head. "Well, at least now we have group communications through Betel. That should help things."
 
Nova paused with the washcloth against one of his cheek bolts. Sudsy water dripped off his beak. "Help you... do what? Test the waters? Cuz the only way you're going to feel confident contributing anything is by trying, isn't it?"
 
"Well, with the group communications, I'll be more up to date on what's happening," Andre said. "Yeah, I should definitely try to be more assertive. Though I should start with some low-risk scenarios, just in case."

He paused for a moment to simply soak in the warmth of the water. "By the way, what do you think of that offworld-themed festival this town is throwing? Going to share any stories of your world?"
 
A festival? This was the first Nova was hearing of anything like that. "Uhh..." He focused on washing his right side. "I'm not so sure that's a great idea. My world's rather... depressing. And hostile."
 
"Yeah... I had a feeling you might say that," Andre said, frowning. "Though I was thinking you might have known something from its history that wasn't as grim, but maybe not." He shrugged. "Myself, I don't think I have many stories to tell. While I am into history, I don't think there's anything all that impressive to mention. My world does have mythology, but most of that, on the other hand, isn't mine to spread. I could tell them about Galarish myth and legend, though. Of Zacian and Zamazenta and the Darkest Day."

He paused. "Actually, wait. Didn't you mention knowing Galar before, when we first met at Traveller's Haus? How do you know Galar?"
 
"Galar's a region on Earth," Nova said, tilting his head. "It seems like most of our Earths have them." He switched to scrubbing his left side. "Wouldn't call it an impressive place. Lot of factories and production plants. Not many people live there anymore because the skies are full of smog and stuff."
 
Andre huffed, amused. "Sounds like someone less fond of Galar describing my place," he said, "though I get the feeling you're more literal."

His smile muted. "This whole 'parallel worlds' thing is pretty wild. There even seem to be parallel people. Gladion mentioned that you knew a version of him when we talked shortly after arriving here. But I doubt you know a version of me - you'd've brought it up by now if you did." Unless this parallel-Andre had actually gotten caught for his crimes and everyone had found out what he was really like, in which case Nova would be giving him the benefit of the doubt. Or silently evaluating him. "I certainly don't know a version of you. I've never seen a mon like you before."
 
"Andre's not exactly an uncommon name," Nova said. "There are plenty of notable Andres. Actors, musicians... I think one was the first pokébase player to reach three thousand hits in his career." He absentmindedly continued to use the washcloth as he spoke. Then he finally placed it beside the soap bottle.

"On the flip side, people like me only exist when someone wants to play capital G God."
 
Andre paused, then laughed. "Right, of course. You don't even know my last name. It's Duval, though, if you're interested."

Ambyssin said:
"On the flip side, people like me only exist when someone wants to play capital G God."
Click to expand...

Andre tilted his head. "What's that mean? 'Capital G God'?"
 
"Create something from nothing," Nova nonchalantly said. "In this case... life that's manufactured in a laboratory, not born through natural means."
 
"I know." Nova sighed. "But someone artificial like me doesn't just... magically get the spark of life. A spirit had to come from somewhere." He looked up.
 
"...Hm," Andre hummed. "Your world has spirits, then? I don't think mine does. I mean, in the 'soul' sense, anyway. Though Betel did talk about summoning our souls... I don't know. I didn't use to think parallel worlds were real, either. Or I wasn't sure. There wasn't any way to discover them, so it was just an unsolved mystery."

He shook his head. "Well, in any case, I feel like a synthetic mon like you would have made the news either way if you were created in my world. Unless it was covered up, but that sounds like a conspiracy theory. And not one of the real ones."

He paused. "Where did you get that 'spark of life'?"
 
"That's—" Nova stopped himself. "I believe she said it was... a spirit slumbering after its old life was cut short. One that would be 'compatible' with the body she built."
 
"Huh. That sounds strange. So you have a past life of some kind? Did you ever try to find out what it was?"
 
"Did I try? No." Nova looked at his blurry, rippling reflection in the water. "Was I shown it? Yeah. And that made me a shadow 'mon. Still am one back home."
 
"Oh, wow. That's... rough." Andre looked elsewhere for a while. "I felt a bit of Shadow after I was bitten by the Shadow charmeleon -- Owen. It wasn't nice. I can't imagine what it'd be like to have that, much worse, all the time." He shook his head. "I don't even wanna think about the possibility of that happening again if we happened to be caught by Cipher..." He blinked. "Though maybe there's a way to prevent that. That light energy, Radiance, is said to be, like, the opposite of Shadow. Granted, it seems to have some downsides of its own... but it's probably still the better option of the two. Were you informed about Radiance yet? Do you think you'd be interest in trying to harness it?"
 
"I don't think it'd be a bad power to have," Nova said. "Though I wonder... if it can really cure shadows." He lifted a foreleg, then curled and uncurled his talons. "They sound like opposing energies, sure. But what if they don't actually cancel out and instead, like, stack on one another?"
 
Andre frowned. "Yeah... that wouldn't be good. I guess we'd better wait until a Radiance user gets hit with Shadow and see what the effects are before we start trying that on our own."

Andre stretched. "Well, I better get to washing myself, too." He grabbed a bar of soap and began rubbing it against his coat.
 
"It feels nice," Nova said. "And it was nice catching up."

The water swished a bit behind Nova from his tail wagging. Nova finished cleaning himself up. His coat wasn't nearly as dirty as when he came in. Then he grabbed his towel, bid the deerling farewell, and headed back to the locker to collect his stuff.

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