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Post by DataNinja on Nov 11, 2021 21:04:31 GMT
"I will, thank you" he says, curtseying. "Myself is all that I can be."
And with that, he hesitantly strides in to meet a god. He isn't sure how one's supposed to act around a legend, so he just follows Jasmine's advice for Bastion, and casts his eyes towards the floor before he enters, so as not to make eye contact first.
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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 Nov 11, 2021 21:53:34 GMT
Movement catches the edges of Thel's vision. Red and black plumeage, powerful talons, horns. His sight is the only indication there is anything at all. He can see that Yveltal draws breath but he cannot hear it. Nor does it make even the slightest sound as it moves. Nothing, a bird shaped absence in space. The sight of it, the only indication it is, or ever was. Sharp blue eyes follow the human's hands, and his face.
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Post by DataNinja on Nov 11, 2021 22:09:23 GMT
Involuntarily, Thel draws a sharp breath, if only to make sure that he's still breathing. For some reason, he hadn't been sure if he still was.
What should he say? He doesn't have the words to speak into the darkness. The words that would be right to shatter the silence. Instead, he speaks his self into the void, reaching with his spirit towards the bird. His recent memories, his fear, his sorrow, his desire to help. His inability to know what to do. Lysander said to be himself. And himself he is, revealing his essence raw and vulnerable to the bird in front of him.
He closes his eyes. If this was a mistake, he would rather not see his death coming.
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6,672 posts
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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 Nov 11, 2021 23:25:57 GMT
Thel casts himself into the void, farther and farther then he has ever reached before. At first there seems no answer, nor means to return. It isn't until he has felt adrift for some time that the presence of another at last catches his attention, as though casting a stone down a deep well and awaiting a splash.
It was peace, emptiness. In the absence of the frenetic chaos that was life, absolute order. It was a between. Neither one thing nor another. The Void took note of him, and stirred. It reached through what was offered and seized an old memory.
The sheer panic, and rising sense of anxiety that was born of being trapped in one of Magma's energy chambers as it spun up tore through Thel's psyche as though it were fresh and new. It hung like a small star just out of reach. You know what it is to face me, and here you are.. It seemed to say.
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Post by DataNinja on Nov 11, 2021 23:44:52 GMT
Thel breathes in and out, trying to calm himself. He can't tell if it's working, though. Either the calming or the breathing.
But the pain at least means that he's alive. Right? He doesn't want to live through that again, though. Through the agony that was his birth. But he has to. He has people that he has to help. People who have no idea what's happening. He knows, so he has to act.
"I... I've come to try and stop this all," he says, his voice sounding tiny and insignificant. "To try and save the people and Pokémon of this world. All of them. But I don't know how... I don't have a plan. I don't know if I can stop the device. I don't know if it's even possible to do this. If it wouldn't be better to just... give in, and hope and try and save as much as I can..."
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6,672 posts
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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 Nov 12, 2021 0:17:43 GMT
Silence answers Thel, couplied with faint impressions of both disappointment and wry amusement. How like those that are to claw and scrape for answers to it all. The voice came as the faintest whisper, as though to usher in more might destroy the very fabric of the boy's mind.
Still yourself, child, and know me.
Thel slid through the unobserved spaces in the world and knew no judgement. Knew no Other. There was They, and the things They kept. Tumbling through the memories of something ancient and alien, Lysander became more and more common. A figure of interest and also intense hatred. His subdual of Yveltals rival. The experiments that left him forever beyond the bird's reach.
The purging of the first world, where They left people-shaped holes in the fabric of creation. There was no joy in the task. The Void simply acknowledged that these people weren't, and so it was.
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Post by DataNinja on Nov 12, 2021 0:43:57 GMT
Thel feels ashamed, reaching for something so powerful and ancient with his tiny concerns. How could he have thought that that was the answer?
And now he knew the void. Vast, incomprehensibly vast. The world was tiny. All the worlds together, even were tiny. Insignificant.
But there was something that was still beyond it. Someone. And he knew the hatred, could understand the hatred. But to Thel, the hatred was not for the fact that he was beyond reach. Not entirely. Because for the first time, he knew. He could understand how many people No Longer Were by the hand of one man. One who had done it before, and there was no guarantee would never do it again. He was, after all, beyond Their reach.
It was an insignificant nothing. A single world. But to Thel, it was everything.
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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 Nov 12, 2021 1:22:33 GMT
All things cease to be. When memory fades. When the universe is cold and dark. Not when death comes, but far, far from now. This company was unwelcome, an intrusion. They stated passively, then added with a hint of mirth. The Eternal One, I take joy in nettling him where I may. Your transgression is forgiven.
The star, bearing the memory of Thel's imminent destruction winks out. With it, the memory and what it pertained to disappears. He regains himself, staring into the Pokemon's eyes.
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Post by DataNinja on Nov 12, 2021 1:33:06 GMT
His first instinct is to apologize but... no. They would know that he regretted the disturbance. To reiterate would be pointless.
"Is there anything I can do?" he asks, his voice feeling like it hasn't been used in ages, alien in his ears. "]I can't imagine there's anything that I can do that you could not, but... I want to at least try. However futile it may seem."
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6,672 posts
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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 Nov 12, 2021 1:48:22 GMT
The bird's eyes narrowed as Thel asked more of it. Folding wings to its sides, it sat back. Know yourself as you now know me. Feel the weight of what he would ask of you.
Grief, the grief of a thousand thousand souls screaming their rage and pain into an uncaring void over lost sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters. An emotional pain that no one human should ever know exploded across Thel's senses.
Thel woke outside, his eyes burning with tears, throat raw from screaming. His nails had cut divets in his palms, and every muscle ached as though it had been held taught for far too long. His head pounded, and he was exhausted.
Mable lay a compress across his brow as he rested, kneeling at his side.
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Post by DataNinja on Nov 12, 2021 2:24:08 GMT
For the longest time, he stares without seeing. Emotions continue to pound through his head. Pain, grief, anger... but as much as this feels too much, he doesn't regret it. Someone has to feel for all those who were lost. Even if it may never go away... at least someone knew. The thought is no comfort, though. He doesn't think the voices will ever go away.
Eventually the sights before him resolve into recognition, and he actually sees Mable. "Oh... hi," he says, cracking the tiniest of smiles. It hurts to talk. "I... hope I didn't worry you too much."
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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 Nov 12, 2021 2:37:52 GMT
"Only a little.". She lightly brushed his hair with her fingers. "We had to drag you out of the rose, and you wouldn't respond... Just wailed inconsolably. Are you okay?"
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Post by DataNinja on Nov 12, 2021 2:46:13 GMT
"Ah... I'm sorry. The short answer is... no," he laughs lightly, reaching up to lay one of his hands on hers. Laughing to keep from crying. "Yveltal shared with me... what came before. All of it."
He looks around, though the process causes his head to swim again a little. "Where's Lysander?"
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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 Nov 12, 2021 20:49:16 GMT
"He said he was taking a walk, and wouldn't be far. I suspect he's correcting my sabotage.". Mable answered nervously, voice a hushed whisper as she cast her eyes over her shoulder. "Everything, Thel? Does that mean you've come to a decision?"
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Post by DataNinja on Nov 12, 2021 20:56:21 GMT
"I would imagine so... I could tell he knew," Thel says, quietly, slowly sitting upright. "I... yeah. I can't do it. He made it sound attractive, but... I can't go along with it. I can't cause that pain and suffering. I have to do all I can. Even if," he gives a sad smile, "in the end it might just delay things."
He lays a hand across his ring, thinking of Em. Waiting, hoping. He can't let her voice become one of the ones crying out. Her, Jasmine, Violet... anyone that he's known, or anyone that he hasn't. They all deserve a chance.
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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 Nov 14, 2021 15:19:02 GMT
"If you reject him, he will make sure you live forever with the consequences of your decision. Eternal life, with the expectation you may someday change your mind. Lysander is nothing, if not patient.". Mable explained sorrowfully. "He won't permit you, in your youth, to leave this world to the choices of its inhabitants. Instead, merely wait until you have seen the depths of humanity's wrongs."
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Post by DataNinja on Nov 14, 2021 19:52:41 GMT
"Better me suffering than all others..." he says softly. "I don't want to live forever. Have felt for a moment how terrible it is. I don't want to leave Em and remain unchanging while she moves on. But... I was never meant to have this life. I was gifted it, against all odds. I can't be selfish with it. Those who never had a chance, never had a choice... I have to help them. Even if I risk giving up everything, I just... I have to. It's the only thing that's right."
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6,672 posts
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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 Nov 15, 2021 21:09:53 GMT
"You fancy yourself a martyr for the greater good, yet are willing to sacrifice thousands of lives to ignorance, mishap, wrongdoing, sin, disease, and abuse.". Lysander spoke sadly from the corner of the rose, his hands were laced together at his waist, and he considered Thel as a disappointed father might their favorite child.
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Post by DataNinja on Nov 15, 2021 21:19:28 GMT
"That is not my choice to make," Thel says, getting to his feet. "This is. The only life that I can choose is my own. The only one that I can offer up."
"I would love to make the world to better place, but it is all meaningless if there's no choice in the matter. I lived in a world where how things were was dictated to us. And that has given me an appreciation for choosing your own path."
"I've seen people improve, if you just take the time. And that just needs to be passed on. Through kindness, not killing. Wiping people from the world is not one sin. It's one for every person. At least."
"But even if that's not the case, even if the world never improved, that would be the choice of the world. Not of one man."
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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 Nov 15, 2021 21:54:01 GMT
"I tried it your way once. Under the belief it was the duty of the strong to guide and protect the weak. Humanity has this awful habit of doing what is the worst for it. Only ever when things are too little, too late, do they make the right decision or choose to band together to common cause. You would rather they their freedoms, and be left to send their civilization into a downward spiral of self gratification, pollution, and debauchery? Suffer their evils in your gardens, because you feel no responsibility for their voice, their life, only your own. Do I have that right?"
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