Frontier Town Sun Stone Saloon

[Sinderella]

"You had me in the first half, I'll give you that," she said. She took the brief reveal as an invitation to sit at in the empty stool right next to her. Her shift was over, so she might as well take the time to catch up.

While Bellatrix elaborated on her question, Odette caught sight of a pitcher of water on the other side of the bar, with a few glasses conveniently placed near it. At risk of looking like a total animal, she got up onto her knees and reached over, pulling a glass and the pitcher closer so she could pour herself a drink. She took a sip, effectively soothing the post-set tickle in her throat.

"Oh believe me," she said in a breath, "I have my own set of unpacked unprofessional thoughts I'd be happy to unload to a trustworthy listening ear."

She chugged down what was left in the cup before pouring herself some more. "Ah, yeah," she said, her tone having deflated some. "I don't know, after the drapion attack, I was having a hard time sleeping. Figured the change of scenery would help. It didn't, of course, but at least my commute is shorter. And I'm closer to all the action."

A shrug. "And it's gotten better. Can't complain, being that it's the furthest thing possible from hard labor, and performing is something I'm good at. Could do without the nasty heckling drunks, but that's simply a perk of working in a saloon. Keeps me on my toes."

She followed that up with a grimace. "Also, I apologize. I'm still getting used to everyone changing forms and sort of forgot you evolved. I guess that's a sign that it has been too long since we last spoke," she added sheepishly. "Anyway. Assuming I'm not one who drives you mad, I'd be happy to trade thoughts."

 

[Inkedust]

"So long as I am able to keep the guise for the unaware, I should be fine," replied Bellatrix, continuing the conversation in her natural voice. She seemed pleased that Odette did not bother to press her about her illusion practice. "And there is little need for apology. Not being noticed means that I've been doing a good job as a zoroark," she added half-jokingly, waving Leafeon's paw for emphasis.

"Either way, I doubt there is hardly a dull moment here. Is it only you who lives here?" She decided to pocket the rest for later. Perhaps it would come in handy when she finally took the opportunity to seek a more stable job. Instead, Bellatrix took the invitation to speak on the recent events.

"Where do I even begin?" she asked, taking another sip of her drink. Both she and the leafeon illusion rubbed a temple. "Terminal Two, the apparent death of Ein, the murkrow, and everything else we have been contending with. I have grown used to accepting odd events as they come but when there is little logic to make sense of them, I cannot help but grow bothered." Leafeon's ears flattened as a small amount of irritation crept into Bellatrix's tone. Ignoring the temptation to order another plate of food, she took another sip of her drink to try and keep her nerves level.

 

[Sinderella]

"I believe it is just me, yes," she said with a nod, taking a quick glance as if expecting to see another familiar face. "It does get a little lonely but...I have my own bathroom. That's kind of a fair trade in my book." She chuckled to herself.

Bellatrix's irritation wasn't lost on her, and it didn't take long for Odette to match her energy.

"Yeah, you're preaching to the choir," she said, her fingers tightening around her glass. "I've at the very least been trying to tie the murkrow to everything but nothing's clicking. Still stuck on the 'they're a bad omen' thing. Maybe they're attracted to Shadows for some reason?"

Huffing, she chugged the rest of her water.

"And...excuse me if I sound like I've put on the tin foil hat, but...I don't fully believe Ein's dead. I'm of course prepared to eat those words, but without a present body, I refuse to make any definitive calls."

Another huff. "Alex was able to keep those guards in suspended slumber or whatever from within whatever all that Shadow energy was. There's no guarantee he's not doing the same thing with Ein. Whether Ein is in one piece or not, though, that's the part that remains to be seen."

 

[Inkedust]

"Their appearance here is nothing short of strange," Bellatrix added, nodding. "I visited the library here the other day to do some general research, one of those being the natural range of murkrow after more recent sightings." A pause as Bellatrix stared at her drink intensely. "And I learnt that we're far, far beyond it. Either something is happening in the northeast to cause a mass migration or... something is drawing them here.

"And if it's the latter -" she took a sip to further loosen her thoughts "- it could be Shadows, Cipher, Alexander, perhaps even the Covenant, or a combination of them."

Bellatrix shook her head and set her drink down with a mild thud. "But that is secondary compared to the current situation with Alexander. I do not believe Ein is dead either, nothing about that makes any sort of sense. What would he gain from his and, by extension, the other admins' deaths that he wouldn't from the Frontier Town guards? What of Ignatius and the drapion? He didn't kill them, so why would he attempt to do so with the admins?"

She leaned back with a sigh. "I am rambling. The point is that I would not be surprised if that was not the last we will see of Ein." Not to mention the other Cipher admins that they had yet to apprehend. Although I am certain he will be pleased to hear that his generous donation has been immensely helpful in finding a cure to reversing the shadowfication process."

 

[Sinderella]

Odette visibly stiffened at the mention of the Covenant. She dragged her gaze over her shoulder, evidently checking for any prying eyes or ears. Nonetheless, no sense of disagreement crossed her face.

"We seem to be in the epicenter of bad things happening. Whatever is causing it--and I say this with ample dismay--it probably won't be long before it hits us square in our fucking heads. And I'm not looking forward to it."

She went on to nod at Bellatrix's hypothesis, before snickering at her last comment. "Taking 'donating your body to science' to a whole new level. But, no, please. Ramble. We could not be on a more identical page if we tried," she said.

"To me, his death felt far too..." she fell silent, squinting while she hunted for the word she wanted. "...convenient. The raid is successful, we're able to escort the admins away, but one just happens to be killed in an ambush that happened to occur during that particular escort? Please." She was shaking her head now. "And why kill him but leave the guards mostly unscathed? And if he could hold onto the guards like that, who knows who the hell else he could have in his personal abyss." Another snicker.

Pouring herself another round of water, she picked up her glass and leaned back against the chair, swishing it around as if it were expensive wine. "Whether he comes back in one piece or as a zombified half 'mon, half shadow, I don't think I'd bat an eye at it. Again, without a body..."

She started shaking her head again, a fraught dullness sucking the typical shine out of her eyes. "No. Not making that mistake."

 

[Inkedust]

The leafeon illusion gave Odette a curious tilt of the head. "Speaking from experience?" Bellatrix asked.

She sighed and looked at the counter. "The ambush itself could have simply been a matter of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. The fact that he had only attacked then gives me the impression that Alexander was not able to reach Terminal Two itself or felt that he would be outclassed facing Cipher directly at the time. Given that he is a zweilous and not a hydreigon, he has not yet reached the height of his power.

"Though you may be right," Bellatrix then added. "We have gained some significant notoriety as of late. Whoever these parties are, I am beginning to think that they intend to act soon before we grow too powerful."

 

[Sinderella]

Her lips curled over her teeth, moved by a derisive snort. "Was it obvious?" she muttered. Not the topic of conversation she was looking to have right after work, but sometimes things just slipped.

She tried to ignore it by mulling over the possibilities behind Alex's attack. "He was clearly on the trail to Terminal Two; probably long before we were. I would wonder why he couldn't get in..." Then again, he didn't exactly seem like the brightest spark when she'd first met him. But that very well could have been an act. "Or, like you said, he understood he was outclassed on his own and decided to lie in wait for our group to do something."

Her frown seemed to deepen. "Gods, he's already such a fucking bastard as a zweilous; I do not want to see him as a hydreigon."

It was there she finally sipped her water again. She swallowed it slowly, eyes falling back to the bartop. "And yet, I can't help but feel like bullshit of that caliber is right around the corner. Whether we want to acknowledge it our not, we're targets. I have to assume we're doing what we need to do here, but the parties that are causing these problems are undoubtedly going to try and stop us one way or another."

 

[Inkedust]

"A little, yes." Bellatrix decided to leave it there seeing how tangential it felt to the conversation at hand, although the curious expression left the door open if Odette did want to delve into that topic.

"This is perhaps, the most vulnerable we will be to dangers," she continued. "Strong enough to be on one's radar but weak enough to be taken advantage of or be left at risk from these parties if we are caught off-guard. Not helped that our newfound strength can make us overconfident, especially when using high amounts of Radiance."

A small spark of light appeared at the end of one of Bellatrix's claw, which translated as a small wisp right in front of the Leafeon's nose, as she studied it intently.

"Perhaps it is reductive to say that the light is good and the shadows are bad -" ignoring her own personal biases, even as the phantom of her nightmares flicked across her mind's eye "- but Shadow always seems to find itself in the most unsavoury of hands. Alexander, the Cipher admins, and any other lowlife who wants a quick bid for power." As Bellatrix spoke, grew more serious, a ruthless determination filling her.

"If I had the capability to, I would rip those Shadows out of them and see to destroying them personally."

 

[Sinderella]

Watching the light fester on Bellatrix’s fingertip, Odette listened to her go on. She felt the whisper of deja vu rush over her, and suddenly she was back in the abbey, speaking to Akela about this exact thing.

“It’s all bad in excess,” she said. Her nose crinkled at another thought; one that was evidently a little more unsavory to her. “The problem is that you’re far more likely to find a villain feeding off the implied negativity that comes with a darker power like Shadows and skewing it to suit their own vendetta. Not to mention, the aesthetics of it just ring more diabolical—as a child, are you more likely to be afraid of the dark, or the light? But of course, too much light isn’t a good thing either, and I’m sure any given villain could nefariously harness Radiance if it suited their vendetta. Seemingly ‘righteous’ and ‘enlightened’ people can still commit atrocities.”

She smiled, though it still wavered under her thought. “I’m just not so quick to judge the darker power when it seems the issue is that it’s just been placed into shitty hands. Another thing I’m a little too familiar with.”

Flicking her fingers, wisps of a shadowy essence began to fan off her nails.

“That said, I’d sell my left tit to personally bash Alex over the head with a mace a couple hundred times. And even that wouldn’t be enough.”

She left it at that, not wanting to get too out of control with reciting her vengeful thoughts. Instead, something far more pressing came to mind, and she pursed her lips as she slid the “leafeon” a pensively curious glance.

“Speaking of Shadows,” she said, her voice having dropped in volume considerably, “you heard Owen too. Is it safe for me to assess what I think that probably means?”

 

[Inkedust]

A shrug. "I agree there, it is less about the power itself and how it is used. It just so happens that it is currently being used by a large quantity of fools who think they can run around and play god with that power."

There was a pause as Bellatrix returned the look. Then, she took a swig of her drink. "The second time, yes," she admitted. "Though I cannot determine what changed between the two instances that allowed me to understand him." She understood Odette's meaning quickly, both of them were the only humans around during the first instance but the second time, Koa had been present and he did not show any sign of understanding the charmeleon.

She lowered her voice to match Odette's. "What do you think it means?" she asked.

 

[Sinderella]

Odette quirked her brow, going in for a swig of her water. "Were you always a member of the zorua line or did you start as something a little more human than that?" she queried, tucking her free hand under her chin.

 

[Inkedust]

"I was a zorua before I was summoned here," Bellatrix began, "but I was not one my entire life." She glanced at her claws before continuing. "There are more worlds like Forlas out there. Inhabited only by pokémon, filled with dungeons, and willing to summon humans to fix their problems for them. I was summoned here from one of those worlds. My current 'adventure' there interrupted for this one."

She shrugged before continuing. "When we first arrived here, I was not entirely certain on how reciprocal this world was to humans. The world I had come from was not, so I kept that detail hidden until I could form a clearer picture but then it did not come up again in any meaningful way."

She glanced at Odette and asked, "Is understanding what Owen said something you think is tied to being human?"

 

[Sinderella]

"That's--" she started to say, but stopped herself. Archie had said he'd come from a similar world, and now Bellatrix? She made a mental note to take a swing at playing the video game that had very clearly ripped off their worlds when she got home. Purely out of a need to really understand where they'd come from.

"That's incredible," she finished. "I thought this one was it but I suppose if Forlas exists, there must be more like it. Although...I hope the world you came from is going to be okay without you?" She said it with jest leaking in around the edges, but it was clear it was a serious question nonetheless.

"I guess I don't blame you for keeping it under wraps though. You're like...two layers into this."

She wanted to ask if, like Archie, her human world had been destroyed. But, that felt like too much of a touchy subject for the moment.

Instead, she focused on the newer question at hand. "I don't know, maybe?" she said in a huff, a hasty shrug to follow. "I--we--were the only humans there to start, and we ended up being the only ones to hear it. I know Koa showed up later and couldn't hear it, but I can't think of any other reason why suddenly only a select few of us could hear what Owen was saying. I thought it was because I have some semblance of understanding of the fire-type language in my world, but I've been talking to fire-types here in Forlas like nothing since I got here. So the only thing that makes sense to me right now is that it's a human thing. Maybe it just didn't hit Koa because he hadn't been around long enough? There's still holes in that theory, but it's all I have."

 

[Inkedust]

"Well assuming that we will be returned exactly as we were, then I do not think it much of an issue," Bellatrix replied. "Otherwise, who knows?"

Back on Owen, a pensive frown crossed her features. "But Koa was on the wagon that Owen attacked," Bellatrix pointed out, her claws drumming against the bartop. "Meaning that he probably had just as much exposure to him, if not more, compared to us. And furthermore, there were other humans on the wagon too but you're the very first to mention anything like this."

But then something that Odette had passingly mentioned caught her attention. "You could understand pokémon when you were human?" she asked.

Could that have been it? Now that she thought on it, Bellatrix didn't lose the ability to speak or understand her natural tongue when she had first become a zorua, she just gained the ability to comprehend what pokémon were saying (not that it helped her in terms of literacy. She had to learn how to read and write in Common Kythran the old fashioned way). "Mhynt did describe what he said as 'feral chirps', maybe your old ability translated here," she suggested.

 

[Sinderella]

Bellatrix's question left her silent for a moment. "...yeah?" she said, wondering where she might have been taking it. What it came down to were these so called "feral chirps" that apparently Mhynt had been aware of. She started pawing her cheek, sinking into another round of thoughts.

"I see," she said to herself. "Maybe somehow that understanding of fire types just transferred over to Owen's 'feral chirping,'" she mused. Probably just some more world-hopping nonsense at work. Nonetheless, that didn't stop the whole instance from being completely unnerving. "I suppose that would mean you had that level of understanding of Pokemon too." But what about Koa? Could he not talk to his Pokemon team like she did with hers?

Now she was getting off track, though. "I wonder if that might come in handy for any future Shadow 'mon encounters. Or even if we come into contact with Owen again. Just something to listen for in the future, I suppose. I highly doubt that's the last we've seen of him, if Alex is as much of a bastard-ass no good sore loser bitch motherfucker as I like to imagine he is."

She'd started to shake her head, but she wasn't sure when. She only stopped when another question came to mind. "Since we're on the discussion of gripes...haven't had the chance to really talk to you in depth in regard to the Covenant stuff. Any particularly feelings on that end of our dinnerplate of issues, not including whatever's happening with the murkrow?"

 

[Inkedust]

"It became innate the moment I turned into a zorua," Bellatrix responded. "But I do not expect Alexander is exactly pleased with us running off with his minions, so I expect he will be back for more. We just need to be prepared for it."

The zoroark leaned back, her disguise fully dropped now that she finished her drink. "As for the Covenant, activity from them has been quiet as of late, or they have just been drowned out by Cipher and Alexander. It bothers me," she added. "Like they think they can get off scot-free while our attention remained fully focused on those two. And given their dealings, I would not be surprised if it was intentional."

 

[Sinderella]

Odette frowned again. “That’s what’s bugging me. I spoke to Nolan right before all this kind of hit the fan; said something about us hearing from them soon. It’s been crickets since then, and the coincidence of it all has really put me on the alert.” She spoke quieter now, as if they were anticipating somebody trying to listen in.

“When we do hear from them, it’s probably not going to involve anything that makes our lives any easier.”

At the thought, she groaned quietly to herself dipping her head down with the fervor of a tired, overloaded drunk. “You know when I answered this call, I wasn’t exactly expecting easy sailing, but Jesus fucking Christ. If I wanted all these conspiracies and warring evil teams, and eldritch powers, I’d have fucking stayed home.”

 

[Inkedust]

A nod of agreement. "Which is why we need to remain on high alert if we do not want to fall several steps behind." Her claw traced the rim of her empty glass. "You too, hm?" she asked with a mirthless chuckle. "Perhaps that is why we were chosen for this endeavour. Experience with those problems back on our home worlds would not be difficult to translate here. These sorts of problems always seem to be cut from the same cloth after all."

 

[Sinderella]

She raised a brow at Bellatrix. "Is Shadow and Radiance and Cipher-like shit a rampant problem where you're from as well?"

The laugh she followed up with was deflated and she went for a last gulp of what was left of her water. "And good fucking gods, you're preaching to the choir."

 

[Inkedust]

"More the conspiracy surrounding an organised group, although that was one I seemed to stumble upon accidentally. I'm not entirely sure what is happening now with them now that the two members that were sent have been dealt with." Bellatrix shrugged. "Shadows and Radiance are completely new, however."