2024-02-04: A World That's Already Been Destroyed
- Log: 2024-02-04 A World That's Already Been Destroyed
- Cast: Chase, Dias Flac
- Where: Pewter City - Rock Road
- Date: February 04, 2024
- Summary: In the wake of Michael's attack, Chase struggles with his Pokemon on what he should do. Dias happens to pass by and gets roped into the matter (thanks, Pikachu).
<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.
Rest and recovery was much needed after the battle with Michael. Strictly speaking, not all of Chase's Pokemon should have been as hurt as they were in that final barrage of SPICUUULE!! But. They're as stubborn as their trainer, and in that unspoken moment was the agreement to endure what would come together.
It is not a sentiment that is sitting with Chase as reassuringly as his Pokemon might have hoped.
They Pokemon Center has helped fix his Pokemon's wounds, but Chase is concerned with a different problem. Ponyta and Nidoran are out (Pikachu is, of course, always out), lying in one of the rock gardents of Pewter City with a Poke Puff picnic. Nidoran is all too eager to get icing all over his tiny face as he scorfs down an off-white colored puff, but Ponyta snorts at Chase in vague irritation. Chase narrows his eyes back at Ponyta. They are having a silent argument -- a battle of wills.
Pikachu's holding her own green Poke Puff, her ears halfway lowered as she watches Chase. For once, her curly smile is not plastered on her face.
She looks to her puff, then tugs on Chase's sleeve to offer it up to him as if this will fix it. "...Chachu?"
Chase looks at her and sighs, resting his hand on her head with a shake of his own. She frowns, then nibbles it, unable to help a quiet, "Chaaaa..." of happiness at the taste.
But she glances around for any other variables that may help her in this worrying moment.
<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.
Dias has had a lot to mull over after the battle with Michael. There are a lot of questions and no real answers. It might be better not to worry about it, but this is a battle he's chosen to taken on--one he can't walk away from. The Ten Wise Men are everyone's problem; they've made themselves everyone's problem. Walking away now would only be delaying the inevitable.
So for the moment, he walks through the cold of Pewter City. With Michael gone and the stones, streets, and buildings he'd blasted cooled, the snow has reasserted itself. Dias has gone from impact site to impact site to inspect them. They haven't told him anything he didn't already know from the battle itself.
So at some point, he has to return to the inn where he and the rest of his companions are staying. Along the way, though, he passes one of Pewter City's rock gardens--and spots a boy and his Pokemon therein. Chase seems to be having a staring contest with his Ponyta while his Nidoran and Pikachu eat their Poke Puffs--creatures and things that Dias can put names to now thanks to the research he's done into Pokemon, ever since his talk with Joy. He hasn't yet had the time to go to Armlock, but that's a separate matter.
He watches the four for a moment with a slightly troubled frown. They seem to have all recovered, though. When his internal debate is over, he turns away and begins to walk off again.
Pikachu might not be willing to just let him do that, though.
<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.
Pikachu spots a brand new variable. A powerful variable. "Pika!" So important is this new opportunity that she drops her puff to scurry off --
-- then runs back for her puff to shove the entire puff into her mouth all at once --
-- finally scampering in earnest for the mysterious, serious eyed swordsman. She does not greedily reach for his sword this time, but instead running circles around him. "Piii pikachu!" She stops in front of him, pointing, like any of this is Dias' problem.
It's more than enough to get Chase's attention. He steps over to scoop up Pikachu with an apologetic nod to Dias. Gaze terminally downcast for the day, he's the one who fixates his attention on Dias' sword after a glance catches it.
Acknowledging it only dims his expression further, and Chase does not possess the decorum to keep himself from looking up at Dias with concern. It's not as if any of this is Dias' fault. It's just that Dias looks exactly like what happens to a person when the 'journey' goes awry and certain choices start being made.
... No offense to Dias. (Sometimes it's good Chase cannot speak.)
<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.
Dias is only a few steps away by the time Pikachu catches up to him. She's a speedy Pokemon, and he's only walking, after all. He blinks once, coming to a stop as she circles him rapidly, then stops and points over at Chase. Dias looks at Chase as he picks up Pikachu with a forlorn look--and a glance at the sword sheathed at Dias's hip, then up at Dias himself.
"..." Dias doesn't know Chase well enough to guess exactly what he's thinking, and Chase doesn't have the words to express it directly. But it's clear that Chase is down, and given the direction of his stare, one can reasonably assume it's about the battle the other day. Dias was one of the ones who laid the final blows that sent Michael teleporting away.
"Don't look so down. You and your Pokemon survived, after all," he thus says gruffly. "But next time, maybe don't be so eager to charge into battle." He turns his stare away to the horizon. "...It's not bad to be brave, but I'm sure your sister would be upset if anything happened to you."
<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.
Chase also lacks the decorum to keep from a grimace as Dias goes for the low blow, which even Chase can recognize the strategic advantage of. It's all too easy to imagine Elaine laying into him about it. But there's one thing he keeps struggling to understand: everyone keeps calling him brave.
He starts to walk away.
"Chachu."
Pikachu, w h y.
Chase sighs. He shifts around to Pikachu can crawl up onto his shoulder and perch there happily and fusses to get his phone out. Dias doesn't seem a man who wastes any time, and words come to Chase so, so slowly on most days. He takes a deep breath and gets something out to show on his screen.
<not brave>
<born in this timeframe>
Not an eloquent way of communicating that he sees the Ten Wise Men as a problem he cannot escape by simply looking away and that he's safe by pretending they don't exist, but there it is.
<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.
'Pikachu, why,' seems to be a question that is posed often and will continue to be posed often.
Dias watches Chase as he starts to walk off, still frowning. That grimace seems to indicate that his point has been made, so he doesn't stop him--though he wouldn't stop him regardless. He'd be willing to let him simply leave, if not for Pikachu's honestly surprisingly deft social graces. But Chase sighs, and takes out his phone to type a message, and then shows that message to Dias. He leans over to read it with furrowed eyebrows. "'Born in this timeframe'...?" he echoes aloud.
It takes a moment for him to parse the message. When that moment ends, though, he considers Chase and Pikachu. "...Oh, I see. You're saying you're just dealing with the issues of the times." Joy had said something similar--and she'd also said that a lot of people don't deal with it. That's why Dias continues, "From what I understand, most Nedians wouldn't deal with it. They'd run away and let someone else handle it. You ran *towards* the problem to do something about it yourself."
He stands up straight and regards Chase's Ponyta and Nidoran, still over in the rock garden. "...But it's true there's a thin line between bravery and recklessness. If that was your first time encountering one of the Ten Wise Men, I'm betting you didn't think it would be that intense. Without Rena and that other girl, several of us would've died. Now you understand that, and you're afraid. Is that right?"
<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.
You teach me and I teach you, nerds.
Chase waits for Dias to parse it out, thankful he has and that he does not have to figure out different words. If only he knew Joy had said as much herself. There's much Chase worries about when it comes to Joy, but their thoughts about the world and future are in surprising alignment.
Dias points out, though, that Chase could have run. But these are new problems. They've just begun, awoken in the world with the awakening of the Ten Wise Men themselves. He looks back at his phone, flips it around, thumb hovering on the screen.
He does not have an answer until Dias continues speaking. Chase's eyes flit up, then to Ponyta and Nidoran, then back to Dias. His eyes are clear and without fear, even though Chase would say he is quite afraid, if he could say it. Instead he pieces together his words again to show Dias.
<pkmn battles are for growth>
<10wm fight for conquest>
<pkmn will grow differently against it>
<I'm scared of that>
...A world where these monsters, instead of being companions, have to evolve into weapons and tools of war and life or death battles, both for their own sakes and for their trainers.
Not just his, but all of them in Nede, as the Ten Wise Men continue to spread their violence and chaos.
<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.
Dias asks Chase if his assessment is right; Chase types up a new response and shows it to him. To even his own surprise, he huffs a breath of a laugh, the corners of his lips turning up ever so slightly. It's not really funny, but he has to laugh anyway. Because--
"So you aren't even afraid for yourself," he interprets. "It must be something else to live in a world so peaceful that the only combat that exists is for 'growth.' It's right in front of me and I still can't imagine it." His faint smile drains away. "On Filgaia, even if you happen to be living peacefully somewhere, there's no guarantee someone won't randomly cut that to shreds. It doesn't even have to be 'someone.' It could just be a monster or some other wild beast. It happens so often that it's 'normal'--even though something like that must be unthinkable to someone like you, who's grown up in a world like this. Here, people fight for fun. There, people fight to survive."
He shakes his head slowly. "...Sorry. That probably sounds like I'm criticizing. I'm not, really. This isn't a world I could live in, but it's not bad that it exists. I can get why you'd worry about it getting corrupted."
After all, even their bandits are soft, comparatively speaking. Before the worlds started mixing, Chase probably never would have had cause to worry that Elaine might get murdered before his eyes by them while he was helpless to stop them.
Not that Dias is projecting or anything.
<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.
When Chase gets laughter in response, he can only stare dumbfounded. It is at least a little because Dias did not strike him the type to laugh. He glances to Pikachu, who glances back just as shocked. But also! Why is he laughing! Chase IS afraid and this is a big concern...!
Dias goes on to explain Filgaia, and any offense Chase might be experiencing quiets down. He shakes his head when Dias mentions criticizing. It doesn't really sound that way. It's explaining -- their worlds are very different. Their perspectives are very different. There's a lot to learn from...
... Ah. Chase is beginning to understand why Pikachu insisted on any sort of conversation taking place. He gives her another look, and her smile is smug incarnate.
He looks back at Dias, some intensity there. Understanding. He's listening, really. Truly. Because the Nede that Dias describes is changing. It's becoming more like Dias' Filgaia. His gaze, unsubtly, drops down to the sword on Dias' hip, then back to Dias himself, with all those words Dias has said about no guarantees.
Another message gets thumbed out. Chase looks at it a long time, frowning, before he turns his screen for Dias.
<so running doesn't work>
Even if Chase wanted to. Or maybe he kind of does want to, and simply doesn't believe in it.
<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.
The smuggest of Pikachus...! She really is socially savvy. Chase is lucky to have her around.
He's also lucky that Dias, for all his stoicism and distance, understands people's feelings surprisingly well. It's not how he frames himself, even in his own mind, but he watches and he listens closely. He notes in particular the way Chase's gaze drops again to his sword.
"...That's right. I have this sword because if I didn't, I'd have been killed a long time ago," he says quietly, answering the unspoken thought he imagines Chase might have. He looks over at the new message, then shrugs. "In some circumstances, it does. Lots of people survive by running away. But if you run out of places to run to, and you can't fight back, you die." He rests a hand on the edge of his scabbard, just under his sword's hilt. "...And being able to fight doesn't guarantee you survival, either. If your enemy's stronger than you are, that's the end, too. That's why I..."
He trails off then. Then he breathes a rough sigh as he shuts his eyes in irritation at himself. "...But I won't bore you with irrelevant details."
A pause as he considers the situation. He looks back at Chase. The boy does look as though he's paying close attention, but that doesn't mean he wants to hear about some stranger's life. "In any case, even if you're scared, you have to prepare yourself for what comes next. Even if it's hopeless, at least you can go out on your own terms. And if it *isn't* hopeless, then you'll have better odds of surviving... and making sure the people you care about survive, too.
"After all, yours is a world that's already been destroyed."
He eyes Pikachu and the other Pokemon again. One thing he *won't* say to Chase is how, as dreadful as it might be to him that someone would have to survive by using a real steel sword, it's dreadful to Dias to make one's animal friends fight and get hurt on one's behalf. That's just the culture on Nede, though--and, as far as he can tell, it's just the way people have to survive here. You take what you can use.
"Anyway, I've talked your ear off long enough. The short of it is, you can run away if you want to, and you can fight if you want to, but either way, you'll have to be prepared for whatever happens next."
<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.
Together, Chase and Pikachu almost make a single functioning entity.
Dias, thankfully, does not need an electric rodent to clue him around right now. He picks up on the unspoken words between even Chase's attempts to speak, however meagerly his phone allows him to. Dias takes up the blade, personally and himself, to fight.
And judging by the last battle, he does it very well. There was a brief moment where Chase saw the way he and Xantia struck back even during the most powerful of assaults and how critical this moment was to chasing away Michael. It stuck in his mind more because he saw, in restrospect, the moment he and his Pokemon could have done something similar, had he been brave enough to try.
'Even if it's hopeless' and 'if it isn't'...
Chase's stare is unrelenting, but attentive, with each word of Dias' explanations. Just as Dias has trouble imagining peace in front of him, Chase has trouble truly imagining the level of strife that's shaped Dias. But he still knows it's real. He's experiencing fragments of it now.
It's too important to be boring. Chase turns his head slightly to one side in a question, but at least knows better than to pry further.
His gaze follows Dias' to his Pokemon. Nidoran is hiding behind Ponyta. Ponyta still has not so much as licked the Poke Puff, gazing at the two of them with his own fiery determination: Pokemon have their own will to protect, and their own prices they're willing to pay for it. Chase sighs at this. He looks back to Dias, a determination settling in those dark eyes of his as he nods with understanding.
Run or fight. But that choice has to be owned. Chase closes his eyes, then seems to make a decision. He turns spins around and steps back to Ponyta and the uneaten puff.
Then he pulls something out of his bag: a kind of vitamin bottle? Ponyta's eyes light up. It nearly leaps to all fours, smashing a hoof into the earth with enthusiasm. Chase maintains eye contact and a flat stare, picking up the Poke Puff to insert this supplement into the delicious, fanciful looking snack.
Maybe they'll fight. Maybe they all agree on that. But they are not selling their sense of joy and these moments of peace to do it.
Ponyta stares, looking more offended than a horse ever has. Slowly, so very slowly, it bites the puff. "Chaaa?" Pikachu asks. Ponyta's eyes are sparkling despite itself. It grunts a noise of reluctant agreement.
<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.
It's true. Fighting oneself is just common sense on Filgaia, but Dias takes it a step further--or did before Rena barged back into his life, both six years ago and more recently. To him, as long as he's able to protect himself by himself, there's no need for anyone to get hurt because of him--either by getting killed protecting him, or dying because he couldn't protect *them*.
Not that he'd put into words like that. There are things Dias is running away from, too. But Chase doesn't need to know about that, even with that inquisitive tilt of his head. He has his own problems to worry about.
And it seems like Chase is deciding to face those problems head-on. Dias isn't surprised. If he were the kind of child who'd run away, he wouldn't be having this emotional crisis in the first place. He watches him embed some kind of vitamins into the Poke Puff and offer it to his Ponyta anew, to Ponyta's initial excitement and then grudging acceptance.
He smiles faintly again, the ghost of a laugh in the back of his throat. "Cute," he remarks.
<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.
Chase's role as a trainer isn't to supercede the will of his Pokemon. He'd prefer it if Nidoran only joined battle because it wanted to get stronger, not because it was afraid what might happen if it didn't. He wants Ponyta to be able to run fast and free with joy, not reshape such instincts into this brutal shape. And Pikachu... Pikachu will always demand to share Chase's fate, whatever it turns out to be.
He has to honor each and every one of them. That's what he thinks it means to be a trainer -- to be their friend.
Cute, Dias remarks, and Chase blinks back at him trying not to look surprised, but failing. But once the shock passes, he has a smile of his own. He considers a moment, then offers the puff to Dias, gesturing his head back at Ponyta.
Would Dias like to try feeding a snack to this constantly burning hellbeast?
Ponyta digs a groove into the earth with a hoof, mane and tail flaring brighter. The heat can be felt from where they're standing.
<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.
Dias isn't a trainer. The ways of a trainer are the complete opposite of the way he's chosen to fight and gain strength. But he can accept that the culture of this world is different from his own. He's even been studying to understand this culture and the nuances of it better, because Team Rocket has made it clear that he's going to have to.
Dias isn't a trainer, and has no desire to change that. But that doesn't mean he dislikes Pokemon. Having no skill to train animals, and having no desire to learn that skill, is completely separate from having the love of animals that would make one good at it. When Chase stares at him, his smile fades--but then Chase smiles and offers him the Poke Puff to feed the Ponyta.
Dias considers it. He considers the Ponyta, pawing at the ground while it burns.
Any reasonable person would think twice about it, especially after fighting a man who used a fiery super-move back to back to back to back to back.
Dias takes the puff and holds it out to the Ponyta, fingers flat to avoid getting them bitten, posture relaxed to keep the Ponyta relaxed too, hand still so the Ponyta can munch at their own pace as they will.
<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.
Pikachu looks slowly to Chase, smile vanishing. "...Chachu?" But Chase is confident as he hands over the Poke Puff and steps back.
Fiery hellsteed stares down swordsman. The fire burns hot, melting the snow around them. Chase never once displayed any discomfort around his Ponyta. Not now, and not while riding, sitting directly with those flames that look like they should have incinerated them. This is something Ponyta gets to control.
A friendly fire toggle, if you will.
The Ponyta continues to stare, eyes ablaze.
It takes a single step forward and the threatening heat of its flames becomes nothing but the warmth of a nearby campfire while it chomps into the offered Poke Puff in Dias' hand. Some of the fire of its wildfire mane even flicks along Dias' hand, to no ill effect.
Pikachu's mouth drops open. Chase continues to smile.
<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.
It's that confidence Chase displays around the Ponyta that gives Dias his own cues. The Ponyta may seem fierce--may be fierce--but if Chase is comfortable around it, it's not so wild that it's beyond interacting with.
The Ponyta stares. Dias waits. Then, eventually, it takes a step forward and begins to munch, its heat settling into something friendlier. Dias watches this too, noting with silent surprise that even when its flame-mane touches his hand, it doesn't burn. A part of Pokemon biology? Something to read more about later.
Eventually, the puff is eaten. Dias turns his hand and, if Ponyta lets him, strokes the backs of his fingers along its neck. The grim, guarded look usually on his face is... not precisely soft. But soft*er*.
"Cute," he repeats. Then he pulls his hand back and considers Chase. He gives him a single, slow nod. Then he turns to start to walk away.
<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.
Pikachu remains in stunned shock as Ponyta allows Dias' touch without turning into an inferno of rage. The flames remain warm and comfortable until Dias pulls away away.
There's a snort at being called cute, but Chase gives Ponyta a pat of his own and a more knowing smile. Ponyta glances to Chase, then watches Dias go.
Chase has nothing more to add and leaves Dias to it in silence, but Pikachu suddenly becomes aware again and pops her paws in the air.
"Pi kapika!" she calls in farewell, and perhaps in thanks.