TEST 8.

[azumods]

FLOW. The feeling of pressure in here is immense. It's stronger than it was with Darkrai, something you can feel down to your core, something that you couldn't shake off even if you tried; there's nothing to do but power through it. Saturn, for his part, either isn't feeling it at all or is incapable of reacting in any sort of appropriate way even if he could; he simply continues to regard you from across the room, his words hanging heavy in the room. It's a far cry from his behavior during the first month you were here; he was civil then, willing to do you favors in exchange for the chance to talk to you. It's plain that he will be doing no such thing today; it may be difficult to know where to start, really. Especially when your Pokémon don't seem to be doing well - whatever's happening here, they seem reluctant, even unwilling, to fight anything in this room. Perhaps it's not surprising; the energy in the room is likely familiar to them, and it's the sort associated with someone deciding to take their spirit away last time it was angered. Whatever the reason, you're on your own for now; whatever happens is your choice, and yours alone.

Comments

[azumods]

I don't believe in lost causes. Personally speaking.

[niceoppai]

You sure seemed to. Why else would you wanna destroy how happy and alive the world was?

[azumods]

Again, our mission and our vision is one of lasting peace. Such a thing has been secured. That's all there is to it.

[niceoppai]

[She grimaces and shrinks back. She really doesn't want to make snarky comments when they're at a disadvantage, even if everyone else seems to think it's a good idea. They could die????????]

I dunno. Everyone's right, you are different. I know Cyrus said you were all okay, but according to people who knew 'im, even he wasn't acting all right back then...

[azumods]

I have no reason to doubt or fear anything anymore. Everything is as it should be.

[niceoppai]

I mean, uh, no offence, but kidnapping people and torturing gods and taking away free will are not really things that should happen anywhere ever?

[She's looking around nervously as she says this, though.]

I know you didn't like your life before, but...

[azumods]

My life before all this doesn't matter anymore.

[niceoppai]

Maybe not to you right now. But nothing's really gone forever.

[azumods]

I'm not that person anymore. I made a point of ensuring it.

[niceoppai]

You're seriously creeping me out.

[greydients]

[.....]

Do you extend that line of thinking to yourself?

[azumods]

That's for Master Cyrus to decide.

[greydients]

...we've experienced first-hand what happens when he does consider you to be a lost cause, so. You're obviously doing something right.

[...]

What do you want from us, Saturn?

[azumods]

I believe you're the ones that came here...?

[greydients]

We were, yes. We're trespassing. Yet you haven't made a move against us, so I suppose that's something.

[...SHE IS NOT TRYING TO DO A MORAG HERE, BY THE WAY, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTINUE NOT DESTROYING THEM]

I'm just...

[...

Sighing again, Rey looks down at the floor, shaking her head.]

I'm...disappointed, that's all. Seeing you like this, it's...I mean, it's stupid, because it isn't like we're friends or anything like that, but...I don't know. After our first meeting, I was really hoping you'd...come around.

But I'm afraid I'm too late to help you like I promised.

[......]

...like we promised, rather.

[azumods]

I don't need you to help me. Everything that was standing in my way - the imperfections that were holding me back - have been destroyed. All is as it should be, now, and I'm grateful to Master Cyrus for it.

[greydients]

[God, she is really getting sick of all you sad, damaged people-]

What about Toxicroak?

[azumods]

What about her...?

[He's aware of where this is probably going, but you know what, if we're going to do this, let's get it the hell out of the way.]

[greydients]

What about her...?

[Rey doesn't bother to try and mask the incredulous nature of that response-how could he...]

You don't...care anymore? About what he did to her?

[azumods]

I wouldn't say that I don't care. But it's not going to hold me back anymore, either.

[greydients]

[...oh.]

...it wasn't holding you back in the first place. You're the one who told me about how humans and Pokemon used to be so close, how they'd appear in the wild to try and prove they were worthy of aiding us. You made me understand that Pokemon battles...they're not violence for violence's sake, they're a display of the bond between a trainer and their Pokemon.

It's why I wanted to battle you so badly; so I could see...how it is, when a person and their Pokemon have grown up together. I never experienced anything like that throughout my childhood, so...

[God, this is getting horribly personal and she really should just shut up and consider this man a lost cause, but-]

...you're so lucky. To have that, I mean. That connection, that...history.

At least that's something Cyrus can never take from you.

[azumods]

[That's. Mm.

...This is wholly beside the point and not going to assist anything he's doing here, but she mentioned it and he wants to know, so- ]

Were you not close to anyone, growing up? You speak as though you weren't.

[greydients]

[...oh, well. That's new.]

...I wasn't, no. I...

[...she really doesn't want to turn this into her Sob Story Power Hour, but. she's gotten good at summarizing this, so.]

...my parents sold me when I was 6, to a junk dealer. I spent most of my life scavenging the corpses of warships in exchange for food. I lived in a desert, so no parts, no food.

[Her voice is blank, as if she's suddenly reverted back to being M-73; it's just...easier to tell this story if keeps her emotions in check.]

I didn't have anyone. No one to talk to, no one who showed me any manner of kindness, just...no one. I would have given anything to have a friend, like a Pokemon. Anything.

...

[Let her just...awkwardly trail off there while she thinks of something else to say, ugh she hates talking about this but he asked-]

...it's why I...how do I say this, it's...now that I have my own team of Pokemon, and all of these friends, I've never...I didn't think it was possible to feel joy like this, I...

[Alright, that's enough, let her just. stop, before she embarrasses herself.]

...so that's why, when you said you'd known your Toxicroak since you were young, I...fixated on that, I suppose. I don't know if it was jealousy, or just curiosity, but...you really are lucky.

[azumods]

...I know. For a long time, she was all I had. I don't know what I would have done without her.

I wasn't alone like you. I had parents, a hometown, people I knew. But I wasn't connected to any of them - no attachments, no amount of caring for any of them - and I've never understood why. It took a long time for me to understand that sometimes people are just terrible like that - that maybe I'm just a bad person, and that's how it's going to be.

Master Cyrus gave me a way to help people. To not be a bad person, to help create a world with him, one that would embody lasting peace. I didn't really care about the people or the Pokémon. I just wanted to see if something like that - creating a new world, eternal peace - was possible in the first place.

If this is what that world and that peace has to look like, then so be it.

[greydients]

[.....]

...there's an order back in my home world, called the Jedi. I'm...in training to become one, I suppose you could say. The Jedi believe in a universal energy called the Force, that has a light side, and a dark side. Life, death, happiness, sadness...it's all balanced. That's the ideal way for the galaxy to be - balanced. You can't have the light without the darkness.

[She is trying to make a point here, don't worry.]

What I'm trying to say, is...I don't think Cyrus' world is sustainable. You said it yourself, the last time we met; you keep having to re-do it, because the world - the original world - pushes back on you, desperately trying to regain that balance that Cyrus has shifted. Look at what is happening with Dialga, right now, across the region. You've barely got it under control.

I don't...

[You're really messing with her emotions today, give her a moment-]

...I don't think you're a bad person, Saturn, and I don't think Cyrus is, either. I've seen the way he reacts when you ask him what happened to him, to make him think this equates to eternal peace. You both...want to help, so badly, I can see it, but you're going about it the wrong way. You need to maintain the balance, not throw it off. You shouldn't...need to sacrifice everything that brings some semblance of joy to your life.

Even if it's just Toxicroak that does so, because...well. I understand better than most that she would be more than enough.