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I'm not going to say it was damage, but it was damage.
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Post by Robot on Dec 15, 2021 3:24:41 GMT
The void yields to birdsong, the scent of flowers, the buzz of insects. The land of the meek, gave way to the land of the fierce, gave way to true paradise. A clear blue sky with the odd cloud. A fair prevailing tailwind. Berries in incredible abundance, and not the faintest hint of the conflict that had come before. Trees in a rainbow of colors sat around the clearing Muku woke in.
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Post by birdy51 on Dec 15, 2021 20:29:56 GMT
As if falling from a great height, Muku drops to a knee and holds it there breathing for a moment. Her body was alive with a slight tingling sensation. A small pair huh-huhs escape her throat. A chuckle. She shakes her head, smiling just a little.
For now, she felt like she was in control, like things were where they needed to be. Correction. Like she was where she needed to be. Mentally at least. But she couldn't exactly stop here for long. This wasn't exactly the end of her journey after all.
Except, could she? They could stop traveling on if she wanted. Take a moment. Rest as herself and not some cool bird version for herself. Yeah. Maybe for just a moment. Soak it in a bit. She needed to talk to Mentor anyways. Pressing onward, she finds a lovely little grove where she can hang her coat and hat for a moment. A pause to splash some water in her face. A stretch. Then down to business.
"Hey. You wanna talk a bit? I have some things on my mind." She says. Her index finger finds the trigger release and with a flash of red and white, Mentor is released from the confines of his Pokeball.
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I'm not going to say it was damage, but it was damage.
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Post by Robot on Dec 16, 2021 2:06:33 GMT
The graying bright green plumeage, and the wizened eyes that never blinked regarded her with kindness and familiarity. "I always have time for you, Muku.". Mentor settled on an exposed root and wrapped his wings firmly around his body. He took in this unliving paradise and all that it entailed, and was satisfied.
"You are troubled, often. This is no different, I assume? Of your schisms, and your past?"
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Post by birdy51 on Dec 16, 2021 3:41:43 GMT
"I... I uh... No?" Muku asks perplexed. Quickly, the bird girl pouts and crosses her arms bitterly. "I'm not always having a traumatic reaction to something just so you know. It's not very often, but it does happen!"
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I'm not going to say it was damage, but it was damage.
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Post by Robot on Dec 16, 2021 19:05:41 GMT
A playful chuckle escaped the aged bird, and a rare smile reached his eyes. "No of course not. You are Muku, and that is all that matters. All you should know, and feel. What did you want to discuss?"
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Post by birdy51 on Dec 17, 2021 2:38:23 GMT
"Well... I guess I wanted to discuss here." She says, gesturing quietly to the abundant fields of earth. But her heart wasn't really in it, and it showed in the weakness of the gesture. Her hand drops to her side. "Or at least... Here. Here, here. This isn't really a dream, right? No it's... Some form of reality, though not the one I'm used to. Maybe a kind of unreality? Ugh. I'm no good at this."
Her hand reaches down to her belt as she plucks a Pokeball at random, rubbing it softly betwixt her fingers as she ponders. "When I step through the shadow wall, what is happening there? The memories I mean. They're not mine, but are also not, not mine. Right? Explain that to me in your own confusing words if you can."
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I'm not going to say it was damage, but it was damage.
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Post by Robot on Dec 17, 2021 21:07:53 GMT
"I will show you without words, but you must pay attention as a Staravia does weaving a nest; perfectly. Focus your energy, and close your eyes."
When Muku had done as Mentor had instructed, his right wing settled across her shoulders and pressed in. In her minds eye, a ball of blues and greens, lightly luminescent appeared. "This is where we live, viewed from far, far away. Humans call it PokeEarth. On it are countries, regions like where you are now, called Johto. Cities like Cianwood. The places and people you know are here. Occultists refer to it as Animus."
A second sphere split off of the first, this one shrouded in pastel pinks, royal purples, and vantablack. "In the same place as PokEarth, are other places humans cannot see, or interact with. Most pokemon can't either. This one is Somnus, the realm where creatures travel when they dream. It exists but you cannot physically travel there, like how birds do not go to the bottom of the ocean, and fish do not fly."
A third, this one resembling PokEarth but washed out in grays and tans, the surface uneven and broken, the insides hollow. "This is Limbo, where we were before. Again, most humans cannot see or feel it. Ghosts slip into and out of this place as easily as a needlebeak spears fish. It has many of the features that our world does, washed out. Monolith, as a truly ancient creature can perceive us here, as he can normally."
The final item to break off was dark, and layered. "This is the Distortion World, beneath Limbo. It is here the dead arrive and seek their final rest. Concepts too, come here to fade to a place beyond memory. Who you were, before you became who you are now. It is here, somewhere. Maybe trying to communicate. Maybe trying to take hold once more. I cannot know."
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Post by birdy51 on Dec 18, 2021 1:20:35 GMT
"Ok, ok. I think I might get it." Muku nods.
She almost didn't get it. Every reflex in her body told her that she was but a simple bird. Concepts about the outer lying fabrics of reality were quite meaningless when all you really wanted to do was beep at you flockmates and go beat up some Pidgeys. As a bird, she simply couldn't absorb any of this. No, she wouldn't even try. But as a human? Well. Her mind was a little more expanded. Forced to expand beyond her will, yes, but she couldn't go around rejecting every idea and concept she didn't like anymore.
Oh yes, there was much to dislike about the concept of spheres that are not spheres and worlds that didn't work like the normal world she knew. But patiently she bore it and absorbed, ceasing her questioning paralysis and embarking on the pursuit of learning. "Ok. Yeah. Ok. So. I'm obviously not in the 'Animus'. I'ma just call that home for now. I'm not home and Muku isn't answering the door. Nor am I in this Somnus place or Limbo. I mean, I could be in Limbo, but that doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. At least not in the normal sense. Monolith exists there kind of and I'm also kind of here. But that doesn't explain the shadowwalls. Unless those walls aren't a part of Limbo and... And am I overthinking things? I kind of get it but it's still a whole heck of a lot."
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Post by Robot on Dec 18, 2021 19:16:14 GMT
"You are drawing in the pieces of who you were before you were Muku. Remembering things that, perhaps, should be left unremembered. The walls belong to the distortion world, each piece a filter separating those who lived from those who died. The forgotten from the remembered. These you-but-not-you birds are here, though they live on in you. A Plock of one, you understand?" Mentor cocked his head, hoping the girl understood.
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Post by birdy51 on Dec 25, 2021 4:06:53 GMT
"A plock of one. So... Maybe like whatever Archie was talking about. How there might be other hims. And other Mukus. The wall is just a way of touching bits and pieces of those Mukus."
She nods slowly, brightened by the dawn of understanding and an expanding mind. "You know, not all of it is bad. The first memory was weird; mostly because as a Starly, I never had a teacher who was nice to me. Or, maybe a parent? Maybe it was a parent. The second one though, this most recent... It was nice." She smiles faintly, breathing deep of the crisp air. "It was like... Coming home. Feeling like that's how I would have liked to have been. Because, for that moment, I was. I was this big strong bird, making big strong decisions. And I didn't like all of them, but they felt like they were mine. And that's a good feeling, you know?"
Her fingers curl. "I've always wanted to feel strong. To feel like it's my choice to be doing this. To be... Free."
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I'm not going to say it was damage, but it was damage.
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Post by Robot on Dec 26, 2021 16:40:28 GMT
"There is some debate, among my kind, about true freedom against destiny." Mentor explained slowly. "Futures can be seen, known, all of them. It implies that there are a limited number, and were someone to make sure a specific set of events came to pass, that future would be certain. There are individuals like Muku, though, that are disruptive to the pattern. Make things with nearly no chance of happening, come to pass. That is true freedom. It is nice to see, for someone who never had that." He smiles.
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Post by birdy51 on Dec 29, 2021 17:06:27 GMT
“I don’t see why you couldn’t do that.” Muku smirks, tilting her head to the side in an impish manner. “Oh yeah. I can see it now. Renegade moochbird, sees the future, chooses to ignore it. Just eating all those Butterfree, causing all sorts of shenanigans. You may be a weird bird, but you are a bird. Just go full chaos you know? It’s in our blood.”
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Post by Robot on Dec 29, 2021 19:20:41 GMT
Mentor cocked his head thoughtfully. "I met my end, as was forseen, and yet my adventure continues with you. I am free of the pattern now. To go and act as I see fit within the limits of my ability.". His feathery brow furrowed. "This place speaks to me as if a long journey has ended, coming home to roost."
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Post by birdy51 on Dec 29, 2021 21:28:00 GMT
The young girl’s goes crestfallen at the thoughts she turns away, as if unwilling to remember that she was only here to guide Mentor to his place in the afterlife, not encourage him to acts of chaotic wonder. “Sorry. I did get ahead of myself there, didn’t I?” She mutters.
Her braver face returns quickly enough. “Sorry. It’s somehow easy to forget where we are sometimes. What with all the pretty plants and landscapes and… Stuff.” She pauses pensively, staring her friend deep in the eyes.
“Would you be happy here? It is rather beautiful in this part of the afterlife.”
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Post by Robot on Dec 30, 2021 18:42:27 GMT
"I would be happy here, such is this place by design. However, if I did not continue with this opportunity presenting itself, I would always wonder what might have been had I taken the road less traveled. Until the day even my memory faded away, never knowing what could have been." He laughed, reedy and relaxed.
"Not seeing my own future... It's exciting, terrifying, mystifying and new. Not knowing what comes for me. It, and you, give me cause to try again."
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Post by birdy51 on Dec 30, 2021 20:30:54 GMT
“Guess you’ll just have to join the rest of us clueless Pidgeys then, huh?” Muku smirks. “I was always planning on walking out of here anyways. Doing so with a plus one to the plock would be just fine by me.”
Her hands fold behind her back and begins to walk, gesturing for him to follow. “You know, I really, really hated you the first time we met. Like, I was so mad. Mostly because I didn’t like suddenly being a place that I didn’t want to be. And maybe also because I wasn’t really ready to talk about my issues. But if I’m being honest, I don’t really have many people to talk to. To… Practice the whole human thing, you know?”
“Thel and I… We share the same start, but I don’t think our philosophies could be further apart. Omega and I probably would have got along good, but then he just ran off into the woods. Em was always so quiet herself and while I liked being around Kursz, it kinda felt like he had his own thing to do too. Like a personal Kursz quest, ya know? And I really like Terra; she’s solid and tough, but to be honest… I don’t even know why exactly I wanted to swim after her. Maybe it was just not wanting to be alone? She had joined the plock so quickly and then it feels like just as quickly it all kind of went to pieces.”
She takes a breath and continues. “Chuck and Miranda are great as well. They’re good humans and I think I need good humans in my life. But I also think they forget that I’m not really human. And I know I’m not really Starly either, but I’m flying a path that there’s no real chart too. I don’t know where my nesting grounds are anymore, or what I need to be doing. I’ve got this need to protect people, but no real place to put it, you know? Like, what am I protecting? What am I fighting for?”
Exhaling, “Yeah, I just don’t really know. It’s a stupid question, but mostly because there are actively threats that want to hurt Chuck, Thel, Terra and everyone. Sorry. Maybe I just needed to say it to say it, you know? Put it… out there. Here? Here.”
Stopping, she turns just a little to give a small half smile. “Sorry. Like I said… I think I still have a lot to say and think about but like… few people to beep at. So ah… Thanks. I’m really glad that you’re walking with me here. I’d missed having you back in the normal world.”
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Post by Robot on Dec 31, 2021 2:01:20 GMT
"Searching for your reason is the highest goal all humans aspire to." Mentor explained in a self assured way. "Your reason for being, for doing. As a Starly, it wasn't something you required. Your reason was because you were Starly, and it was what Starly did. You must know that can't be your reason anymore?". He posited gently, his gait wobbling him lazily to and fro as they meandered through the sun dappled forest floor.
"When we first met, I had my reservations. There is something to be said for aggressively pecking those that wrong you though.". He chuckled, closing his eyes, giving a spry hop over an exposed root.
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Post by birdy51 on Jan 2, 2022 14:47:05 GMT
"I know. I just don't want to ignore where I came from either, you know?" She replies. An amber breeze wafts through the air, tugging lightly on her hair and tussling her coat. "We lived and fought on the wind. Together, one big unit. Maybe, maybe if I really think about it, I don't think it was a perfect life. But you are right; I didn't have to think about any of this. I just had to exist and learn and maybe, maybe some bigger reason for being might have come down the line. But that never happened. At least not to this version of me. I grew up so, so quick and my brain now is just... Big. I've got more information that I can handle and thinking hurts and- well. It used to hurt. I... I don't think I've actually complained about that in a while?"
She tilts her head just a little. For as heavy as the subject matter is, she feels oddly relaxed. Lighter? Maybe a different kind of stronger. "Yeah. I think I'm a bit more resilient than I was. Maybe. I'm sure something big enough would bowl me over and I'd have to start all over again. But I've come a long way since meeting you in the grove."
"Still beeping vitriol every once and a while, but hey at least we're not talking about 'feelings' or 'taking lessons on how to be a Staraptor' from a moochbird. And hey! Look at you. Obliterating the opponents, we're trying to catch with shadow balls and the weight of the crushing future. You've learned to peck." She adds cheekily.
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Post by Robot on Jan 3, 2022 19:13:17 GMT
"It only took partnering with someone that lives in the moment and does her best not to overthink things.". Mentor answered dryly. "Have you tried doing as a glyphwing or a mockingbird does? Not thinking to do, but watching and copying to blend in better? Does that even matter to you?"
He gave a flutter to catch up, landing beside the girl once more. "Fitting in with humans, finding your big unit that gives you purpose, and a sense of being a part of something? Chuck and Miranda talk about family, but a flock is more like a battle group. Larger and less personal then a family."
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Post by birdy51 on Jan 4, 2022 7:07:59 GMT
Muku turns on her heel, arms folded across her chest as she walks backwards. Facing Mentor, she posits sharply, "Maybe Moochbirds don't have flocks, but trust me, they were my family too."
"I'd of traded my life for anyone them if I needed to do so to help them. And that's not a family, what is?"
Brushing her momentary anger aside, she considers the larger idea with a bit more care as she walks on. "I haven't considered the idea of being human much. Or at least, what that means. We've- I've always seen them from a distance. Camping. Fishing. I never quite got why they could act so carefree. Like how they never had to worry about surviving or getting ready for your first migration. So, no. I haven't considered what it might be like. I'm a Starly, why would I have to be human."
Her steps falter, just a little bit. "Actually. Hold that thought. I wonder if by now I would have ev- no, never mind. Thinking about where I would be relative to what I am is stupid. The point is, I haven't spent all that much time around other humans. Miranda, Chuck; they're good and they're patient, but I'm not really much of either. I'm just a girl who is lucky to have the partners that I have. So, if I'm gonna do the whole human thing, I think I need to find some way to be both bird and human. Maybe. That make any sense at all?"
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