Earning her keep

[arceusstansme]

Who: Akari and any poor sod who crosses her path.
What: Akari is here to prove her worth to Bottlecap Bay. Whether you like it or not.
Where: Bottlecap Bay
When: Sometime during April (all of it)
Warnings: Swearing, the traumas:tm:



Some people (or, well, Pokémon) would take a day or two to adjust to having their bodies shaped into something new and thrown into a new location. Maybe take a moment to adjust to any weird dysmorphia about suddenly having no fingers or being a sentient bag of garbage (which, let's be real, isn't a change for some people.)

Akari on the other hand started to work. Someone needed a berry delivered from point A to point B without being eaten somewhere in the middle? Akari was on it. Needed someone to go tell their kid who was playing dangerously close to a ledge to stop it? Akari was already there. It didn't matter; it seemed like the moment someone looked mildly uncomfortable, the Cyndaquil was already there trying to fix an ill or find something.

It would be impressive if it seemed like she took a break. Or if she didn't seem like she was just sitting in traffic waiting for a light to turn as she listened to whatever someone needed. It was also obvious she was also trying to make sure the task was done 100 percent, even if she checked back in with the person like she was throwing a cigarette butt at them when she was done.

That was just the nature of her. Sometimes you might see her resting her feet for a second or two; other times you might see her waiting for someone or something to appear to give a message or deliver something. Or sometimes, she might stop and stare at you for a moment before asking if you needed help.

Comments

cw: dawntrail spoilers

[bladeofnymeia]

Ooh.

[Okay, that makes sense. She can conceptualize that.]

But, the both of you are completely different people once reborn. And that's not to say souls can't continue to cross paths across lifetimes. That I don't have a specific example for, but...it feels right, that it could be possible.

[She's just. A lot of people she's known have died, and will die in the future, and someday she'll die and she just has to make peace with it, you know? That's the world she lives in.]

If we were the same forever, always one life, one person, even persisting beyond death...ah. I have actually seen that. It was...in some ways it offered resolution, but in others...it was unsettling. Strange. If not because we are unused to such an afterlife, then because no one is able to go beyond that sense of self and truly learn and grow anymore.

[arceusstansme]

I-dee-kay.

[She said, thinking about Ingo talking about finally meeting his twin. How happy he seemed-]

There is being the same, and then there is like-finding your person. The one who matches you. Like, you see someone hunting for that person-then when they, like, find them- there is a light in their eyes.

Seems sad to lose them again.

[... She is getting too introspective about her own situation. What if wherever she had come from, she had that person? And they were hurting, looking for her-]

[NOPE. SHE WASN'T GOING TO THINK ABOUT THAT!]

But like, great this is all like, hypothetical.

[bladeofnymeia]

Of course.

[She actually has zero doubts about Akari's hypothetical-ness.]

I was being serious. We have actually encountered a people who have found a way to preserve the memories of the dead and keep them in a place to live out eternity much the same as they lived their lives. Just more idyllic? And...honestly, the process to make it work chills me to the bone. But the people know no other life than this - never fearing death when it comes, because of the promise of a blissful after.

...They had these boats that you could ride through canals that were very nice, though.

[arceusstansme]

But death is like, normal. I've looked it in its blank eyes.

[We all know what Pokémon she is talking about, and it's not Darkrai or Giratina.]

I can accept dying- just not-

[Never seeing someone again in any life.]

Like little river boats?

[bladeofnymeia]

Aye, same.

[It was stupid, she was stupid. But also, when else would you ever get to do what she did...?]

No, like...fancy little boats. Long and thin, with someone pushing them along with a pole. The bow had flowers. It was nice.

[arceusstansme]

Sounds really nice. Maybe they can do something like this here. I could get a little coat in case I fall in. I stink at swimming.

[Akari is, after all, still just a 15 year old.]

[bladeofnymeia]

Mm, I don't think the canals were especially deep...but I suppose as we are now, to us, they would be. [A quiet sigh.] I never took the Kojin's blessing for granted, but I also never thought I'd miss it so sorely.

[arceusstansme]

Kojin's blessing?

[bladeofnymeia]

Oh, apologies. The Kojin are a people from the Far East who have the ability to breathe underwater. They cast a magick upon myself and two friends so we could do the same. And if you can ride something else that can do the same? Ah...traversing the seas was never easier.

[She misses seeing all the cool weird underwater shit!!]

[arceusstansme]

Ok, so, let's say you got a friend, and you sit on their back and drive in.

Could they breathe?

[bladeofnymeia]

...You know, my chocobo could, if I rode him in the water. But I don't know if he also received the blessing or it extends like that.

[arceusstansme]

I have no idea what a chocobo is. I am thinking like. A person. You find some man, throw yourself on his back, and go into the water.

[bladeofnymeia]

A Chocobo is a large bipedal bird that you can ride. They are often yellow.

[But she chuckles at the idea of just getting a motherfucker into the water and surfing down into like, an ocean trench or something on their back.]

Mm! Hm. I don't know!

[arceusstansme]

[She could do some sick kickflips on the poor asshole.]

You should find out one day. Can you still do it here?

[bladeofnymeia]

Well, I can't quite do any of the other things I used to be able to do...so I don't think so. And I'm not keen on almost drowning while finding out.

[arceusstansme]

Maybe we can find like...a pond or something. Like if you just need to go into the water, you could lay face down in a puddle even.

[bladeofnymeia]

As long as doing that doesn't frighten any passers-by...

[arceusstansme]

I'll stand by with a notepad. So people know we're doing science.