drops of jupiter.

[redbellion]

[ so that was a lot, especially since it was keith’s first time coming face-to-face with a commander. he knows everyone must be tired and emotionally drained, but they have a lot of things they need to talk about. things that can’t wait to be sorted out. he has to collect his thoughts first, though--he’s not sure how to feel about this exactly, but he knows he’s feeling a lot of things. keith needs time to process everything, and he goes off to be alone for a little while.

eventually, michael, kayneth, ignis, camilla, and bucky bring over some food for the gang. it’s a much needed meal, and maybe some people want to eat in peace. unfortunately, keith is keith, and he thinks now is the best time to have a discussion. ]

Look, I know I’m not in the best position to say this, especially after how I acted back there. But unless anyone has any better ideas, we need to go to that lake and see the Guardian. We have to try. If that’s part of the solution to saving these people and going back home, then there’s really no other option.

[ he’s saying this with a calm head this time. he’s frustrated, clearly, but he’s speaking firmly and with nowhere near the same aggression he held earlier, back when he wanted to attack jupiter.

he doesn’t believe that he can be the leader anyone needs him to be. not here, not back at home. but it’s not going to stop him from trying to do what he feels is right. ]

And if we need someone to scope it out before we act, then I’ll do it.

Comments

[eudaimonikos]

[Michael's not so dense that he can't tell that the ghost discussion upset pretty much everybody but him. So working in the kitchen to help get the food together...it just sort of makes sense, right? Humans use food for comfort all the time. He doesn't have much cooking experience, but by now, he's watched enough stew being made that he can throw some things together. Alternately, if anyone else is present, he's perfectly happy helping them!

When both that and the meeting are done, he'll be making rounds, delivering food and checking in on people. There's no need for headcounts here, doubtless, but. It's good to check things out? He's been a little quiet since that conversation about playing the sacrifice, like he's thrown a bit off-balance.

Later in the night, well after everybody has gone to bed, anyone who's not quite asleep yet might spot Michael all bundled up in his warmest clothes again, slipping out the Center door. By the time anybody gets their shit together to follow him, he's probably standing near the center of Snowpoint amid a small group of Gastly and Misdreavus. Looks like he's giving some kind of speech.]

- need anything at all, please feel free to come and find me. That goes for any of you, I think at this point your previous species isn't relevant. Now, I won't be staying here forever, so don't put it off too long. If you want to get out of this hideous arctic wasteland, that's also on the table.

night

[niceoppai]

[Chelsea laughs to herself, holding her Munchlax in her arms.]

Is that a professional thing?

[eudaimonikos]

Ah -

[Michael spins on his heel, hands still raised a little, clearly not having expected company. The ghost Pokemon, as usual, mostly just stare blankly.]

- in a sense, I guess? I may technically be unemployed.

[niceoppai]

You mean since we're all far from home and just making a living off lemonade stands.

[eudaimonikos]

Since I smuggled some humans out of my torture chamber with a bunch of stolen access pins and my boss tried to torture me for it?

[niceoppai]

...whoa. Yeah, uh, that's a thing too.

[eudaimonikos]

Yeah, I'm fairly sure I've been fired.

[He rolls his eyes, but then looks contemplatively back at the assembled ghosts.]

All the same, I guess I...feel a sort of responsibility. I'm the only not-human around, I ought to check in, just make sure everything's okay.

rounds

[swiftasacoursingkawa]

[Sena's a little high-strung, and a little panicky...but otherwise alright. He already has food from the kitchen, but Monta gleefully takes any food offered.]

Hey, I already fed...ehhh... [Sigh.] Sorry about that...

[eudaimonikos]

Oh...uh, no, that's okay. Geez, he's really going in on that.

[He just stands there for a second to watch the (now somewhat larger) monkey scarf down the provided food.]

Gotta say, the flame tail looks a lot better than the flame ass did.

[swiftasacoursingkawa]

He's definitely been a lot more lively these past few weeks...

[And does everything fast. A little too fast.]

Uh...you think so?

[eudaimonikos]

Oh, absolutely. Don't have to worry about where it's coming from anymore. [...] And also there's more range, he could swing that right into someone's face.

I dowonder why the original ones are improving so much faster. Some of us caught our second Pokemon only a few days later, but none of them are doing as well.

[swiftasacoursingkawa]

[...You just made him think about Ootowara, honestly. The prospect of that guy constantly farting fire is...

...Yeah, no, he's scrubbing the mental image of that as fast as he can.]

Zelda and I were wondering about that, too...she wondered if it was because we were paired up with Pokemon that would suit us, although we both got caught on why that would matter if we were all going to be mindwiped anyway...

[He sighs.]

I thought maybe our designations had an explanation in them, but Jupiter doesn't know anything about them...

[eudaimonikos]

Mine did begin with a P. Like Purrloin. But that didn't seem to hold true with everyone else, so it's probably a coincidence.

Still, just because she didn't know doesn't mean that they aren't relevant. She didn't seem like she cared to be informed about that. And they aren't sequential, so it makes sense for them to hold some sort of meaning - for example, if S meant "scientist" or something, and then they numbered those sequentially.

Night

[radiantflame]

[Just sorta standing off to the side and watching at first.]

Are they listening?

[eudaimonikos]

Well, they're not leaving.

[Just sorta staring at him in that blank way they all have. It's about as close as you can get to confirming that a wild Pokemon around here is absorbing anything.]

[radiantflame]

[She scans the small crowd, looking especially close at their eyes, searching for any sign of lucidity, of humanity.]

We don't have any such thing as "ghosts" in my world. The idea of humans existing beyond death is a new one for me.

[eudaimonikos]

See, that's weird for me. Do you all just dissipate?

[Michael's already scanned the ghosts to his satisfaction. Looking for something for his hands to do, though, he does reach out to touch the string of beads around one Misdreavus's neck. It feels solid. Strange...]

[radiantflame]

I can't say for sure. I'm still alive.

How does an 'afterlife' work, exactly?

[eudaimonikos]

Well. A human dies, and then their soul exits their dimension - this one, for example - and comes to ours. Final calculation and judgement is almost always complete by then, so they just go directly to their final destination. The transition is a lot, so they're not really aware of the processing for the most part.

There's no traffic in the other direction for them. We're still aware of what's happening on Earth, but for humans, that's the end of it.

night;

[ventulus]

[ Sure Ventus is a little up past his bed time, but he can't really sleep tonight. He hasn't burned off a lot of energy despite the fact that...they did have a trek. When he spots Michael leaving, however, he follows him wondering what he's doing. ]

Is this a new thing you've started doing?

[eudaimonikos]

...as of five minutes ago, yes.

[geeeeeeez, do all of you people just stay up all night?]

Why?

[ventulus]

It was late so I kind of wondered what you were doing up at night and followed along.

[ Says the kid who is up late too, but hey. ]

And I didn't remember seeing you do this before, so I asked.

[eudaimonikos]

Well, I didn't know they were dead humans before. Actually thought they were just Pokemon composed of gas that sort of looked like ghosts. No weirder than the sentient rocks.

[but apparently that was not a fucking figure of speech]

You're up late yourself.

[ventulus]

That's true. [ ... ] It's still kind of weird to think that they were actually people at one time.

[ Ventus was weirded about it at the time -- and honestly still is -- but he's sort of been able to take in the idea better now that some time has passed since the discussion.

He nods at the comment, hands resting at his sides. ]

...I couldn't sleep since I wasn't feeling all that tired, so that's why I'm still up.

[eudaimonikos]

Yeah. I'm used to dead humans staying...human. No physical body, sure, but you all don't change that much.

[He swipes a hand thoughtfully through the edges of one Gastly's aura. Body. Thing?]

Not tired, after all today's bullshit?