towerofanimus | Snoop, we're not in Pokeland, anymore.

Entry tags:

Snoop, we're not in Pokeland, anymore.

Characters: Dave Strider of the game transplant type and YOU
Setting: Outside room 3-04, and the cafeteria
Format: Action but if you want prose, bring it and I'll match you.
Summary: So you heard about those two pokemon trainers? Well there is a third...
Warnings: Language, probably. Will update as needed.

Room 3-04

[Going to bed and waking up somewhere new had only happened twice in Dave's life. He wasn't a fan of before and now is no different. Some part of him expected it. Like how his dreams are full of mazes, the screeching of crows, and death painted in so many colorful ways. Once the waking hour happens, he tends to push it out of his head.

Not thinking about it has been his best friend. Unfortunately, now he has to consider it because of a letter. Then again, if it had been old gold tooth who brought him here, he'd expect to be space dust.

He stands in the hallway just outside room 3-04 and frowns down at his pokegear. The piece of shit just isn't connecting which is stupid. It has perfect signal, usually. Dave is different from the one any tower resident would be familiar with. He's clearly older, fairly tall, and starting to fill out and take on more of a resemblance to his parents.

He stuffs the gear into the pocket of his dark coat and looks to the flame maned unicorn to his left.] Don't look at me, man. I got nothing to even say about this. If you're along for the ride that means either I'm asleep, so, stand by for murder by the ticking clock, or, who even knows.

[He reaches out to pat her nose, giving it a reassuring rub with a sigh.] If it's Team Rocket don't settle for hot foot. Roast their shorts.

Cafeteria

[By this point, he's gotten hungry. Anyone treading into the cafeteria will find one blond haired shade wearing douche of a guy in a dark coat sitting between two large dragons. None of them look all that pleased with the food but they're eating the stupid oatmeal anyway. Dave wasn't the only one that got so hopelessly spoiled on Jane's cooking.

Sitting wrapped up in a knitted scarf (red, green, purple, and blue), is a large egg. Dave keeps checking on it, sometimes shifting so he can keep an eye on his scaled bros and the egg at the same time. After a while he just transfers it to his lap where he knows it will be safe.]

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[The dragons track this new Dave's movements before Snoop dips her nose down so he can reach it. Pets? Tupac is a bit warier, seeing this one is smaller and not possessing the ease that his trainer does.

Dave keeps scanning his other self achieving a pretty good poker face. If you didn't know him, you'd say he is reacting indifferent. In truth he's putting pieces together and not liking the math.] Which surprised you? Me, or my dragon bros?

[The underlying question of the evening? Am I still operating without time and my speed to back me up?]

[Dave reaches out to pet Snoop's nose. Why not. He has a really huge soft spot for these things since he was given Missy. They're kind of really nice to have around in this Tower, he's found.

Dave is able to keep a pretty neutral face, but he's probably a little more tense than need be. But he's always fucking cold.] Mix of both. I've already seen John and Rose arrive with theirs. It's just really weird to see a me that wasn't made from a time loop. You know, they tend to be the same height as me. [Also, you're more filled out so that means you haven't been subjected to the Tower's menu for an extended period of time.]

[Snoop immediately decides this Dave is okay too. He knows the score. That's all she needs to know. Her wings flutter a bit as she dips her head down further so it's not a strain on him to give her what she wants.

Dave lifts his arm up and focuses causing red light to slide down his arm like he flicked a switch. He stares at it before letting go of it and something inside of him that had been locked up tight since he was stripped of these powers eases. Even if things are shitstorm city, he has his power over time. It can be spotty with how it works so long as it does.]

I'm two years and some months ahead of you. Of course I'm going to be taller. [He'd filled out a bit because he'd turned from swords to training his body itself to be a weapon. Not that he couldn't do a lot of that stuff before, but, it had become a focus since Pokeland didn't allow swords.

He eyes Tupac being wary and decides to give him time to adjust. Back into the ball he goes after a reassuring pat.]

Want to go grab more soup before we get deep into this? Seeing as you were about to eat and all. [You are way too thin. That's worrying him.]

[The corner of Dave's mouth twitches up a bit. He seriously loves these things even if they aren't his. He can still give them a hell of a lot of affection and that's pretty much enough for him. So he's going to keep petting Snoop. He will give Missy extra love after because she'll probably start whining soon if he doesn't.

Dave doesn't ask about it. He wouldn't be surprised if Dave couldn't do that before from wherever he came from. It's too bad powers here are really spotty as far as time goes. They get blocked pretty much every month that they're more of a crutch than a use. He has to admit he's needed them from time to time though.]

I'm beginning to get that. Everyone is getting older than me. [It's jarring and kind of annoying because he's starting to become one of the youngest of them. It also implies he's pretty far behind on the timeline and not knowing what's up was actually bothering him. It doesn't really make a difference here. He hasn't exactly done anything game related for almost a year.

There was a gym floor that Dave frequented, but things keep happening that he just doesn't go to it more than he should. At the very least, he's determined not to get out of practice. Not in a place like this.]

I can grab food after. It's not that big of a deal. [His eating habits are abysmal. It's true.] Don't want to give myself a reason to do a spittake. Waste more food and stain our clothes. At least I can pretend to drown my sorrows after if I wait.

Age isn't all it's cracked up to be. Besides, John knows less than we do. Unless he finally caught up. [Well if he's going to just suggest he might spittake, Dave is not going to spare him.] What's the last home thing you remember?

I don't want to dance around and guess because there's one other Poke you should meet before the day's over.

Well, that John is still behind. But who's surprised about that? The other John is pretty up to date I think. Time is kind of wonky going from here to there, but he's also older so he probably can fill you in on what's been happening. [Dave speaks pretty bluntly when he mentions his point of time. He's become rather desensitized to dying to some extent that it doesn't bother him. Especially since it's been a year.] I died. Everyone else pretty much confirmed that it was a success. At least the ones who are farther along the timeline. I woke up here with my time jammies in my trunk. Course that didn't mean jackshit to me at first because there wasn't really a guidebook to what happens after you set of the Tumor and wake up in a creepy Tower with some asinine note.

[He raises an eyebrow.] What do you mean?

Time is always wonky, especially in The Ring. Some of the ghosts we've run into while riding the meteor have been waiting for eons for us to come by. Then others had just died. It's a mind screw just trying to chart out the ripples of time. The longer you stay, the more the sense of time distorts even if you know what time it really is.

[He pulls out Lady B's ball and lets her out. Fire twists in the air as she tosses her head to the side. She comes back down on her hooves and peers at the smaller Dave with her calm red eyes. Unlike the others she trots over to him immediately, because to Lady B, Dave is Dave no matter the age or look on his face. They are hers and she will follow them into hell if that's where they go.] Ask what you want to know about the future, I'll fill you in on what the others haven't. Pretty sure I'm the farthest along.

You would have loved what happened not even a week or so ago. Time was basically acknowledge then thrown right out the window. It was kind of jarring. [But there was a lot of why it was jarring for him, but he isn't going to talk about those.

Dave...has no idea what he's expecting. This was not it, and he feels his heart beat really fast for a moment, but immediately feels it calm down as he approaches. He raises his arms up although he isn't sure if he wants to maybe hug her or pet her or what.] I don't think being up to date will change much, honestly. I'm not really interested in knowing past everyone isn't dead and I've already been told as much. Unless there's stuff I should know in case it gets brought here.

Nah, I'd rather not have some weird blip of time missing in my head again. [He still has no clue how he made it to Violet City, or how he got his hands on Tupac. Dave watches his counterpart as Lady B trots him up to him within hand reach and her flames harmlessly generate warmth. She shifts to nudge the smaller Dave out of concern.]

Yeah, there's one thing you should know. The big bad, the real one showed itself. I was on dreambubble watch duty when it happened. Though my eyewear finally gave it up at first, big glowing cracks in space.

That's when ghosts started dying. [He carefully glosses over the screaming because like fuck does he want to talk about it.] The ghosts are amassing an army to fight it under the punky sea princess who tried to fork Roxy.

It's a green guy with a gold tooth. That much I know. Every where the guy goes dreambubbles break and more of space cracks.

You might get that more than you want here. When this tower basically doubled in space everyone blacked out for a period of time and just woke up and suddenly the it got bigger. [He decides giving her a pat on her nose until he feels like it's okay to maybe give her a hug or something. But he really likes the warmth she's letting off. It was definitely comforting.]

Okay, so Dreambubbles are a thing and there's a huge green guy.

I hope you realize I don't really know who this punky sea princess is and who Roxy really is either. [Look how far behind he is on the scheme of things. He may know Roxy by name, but Dirk wasn't around too long and nor were the alternate verisons of Jane and Roxy. He really doesn't know much on this subject.] I'm really behind if you haven't noticed. Probably not like John, but it's pretty bad.

[Wow, yeah. The guy is really behind. Dave's eyes widen slightly as Snoop demands petting from him and his hand automatically lifts to give her what she wants.]

Okay. So, no one told you what the Scratch did, did they. Man, I'd expect Rose to at least say something. She loves talking our ear off especially about 'Getting Shit Done'. Then again these days you go so tell me about Eevees and your head quietly explodes because you will never hear the end of the pros, then cons, the evolutions.

[He only knows things like that he won't see John for three years and other things. But SBURB related stuff has pretty much stopped being mentioned to some extent.

In the meantime, he kind of gently threads his fingers into Lady B's mane.]

It kind of got brought up, but this Tower kind of gives you plenty on your plate as is. [A beat.] She came in at a bad time along with John. Jason was in charge of the month of December. We spent most of the month dealing with a flu epidemic. [He isn't going to go into details. Dave can probably guess it wasn't just any normal flu.] And with the mishap in January, there isn't as much time to worry about bringing me up to date about things that won't be happening to me as far as I'm concerned.

[Lady B presses into his touch, aware he probably needs it. She knows this because Dave let her out for this very purpose. Dave says nothing about the flu, he can guess. It explains why his sister was so scared. Back in the saddle again, he guesses.]

Then let me bring you up to speed because some of this could affect you here. The Scratch is resetting the whole session and rebooting it with more favorable odds. The fault in the session isn't fixed because Skaia can't do that. It switches when the players and their ancestor/guardians arrive. Essentially this changes a lot of things, creating new history because we'll do different shit.

The new players will not be some alt Dave and co. It will be a Teen Bro - Dirk, and Roxy - teen mom, Jake and Jane, the teen old people EgbertHarley relations.

[He's really liking Lady B. Like holy shit. Missy is surprisingly being good and not making too much of a fuss. She kind of makes her way over to the other sniffing at him and Snoop.]

I know a little about that, yeah.

I met Dirk. He was here for a little. He shared a room with Bro, but he left awhile ago. People kind of come and go in this place. An alternate version of Jane and Roxy appeared. I can't say much about them because they were barely here either and their timeline was hells different. [This is a hell of a lot to hear all at once, but he thinks he's taking it pretty well.] Yeah, that kind of makes more sense to hear in full.

[He whistles a greeting to Missy. Hey girl, he hasn't seen you since he left Golden Rod. He uses his other hand to scratch under her chin.]

People coming and going is nothing new to me. Roxy went before I got the chance to know her. Bro came once then left. Then came again with Mom and Dirk in one little burst of family.

[He says the word family like he really knows what it means. And he does. Damn, he was really excited to go see mom and Bro in person. He wanted to get to Bro before his Bagon egg hatched.]

Not much more to know after that. So let's slide over to something else, that being I can teach you how to ride Lady B if you want. She likes it, let's her stretch her legs and go as fast as she wants.

[Yesss. She likes this. This is great. Missy is enjoying the shit out of this.

Dave doesn't really say anything, kind of slouching his shoulder a bit, even though he didn't really want it to outwardly show. It was a little harder to take that in. Because he kind of didn't really know what that was like. He definitely was happy with having Rose and Bro here. But that also meant remembering the small glimmer of Rose who came for a second and just disappeared as quickly. The two iterations of Rose who were here longer. Dirk.

He wants to say he's used to it. People coming and going, but that wasn't completely the case. It was still hard in a place as unforgiving as this.

He quickly snapped out of his thoughts turned his attention back to Dave.] What? Oh. Well, there's a meadow floor she'll probably like a lot. It's always nice on that floor.

[He isn't as used to it as he claims. They share that in common. The sword of Damocles they both share is always present when he wakes up in the dead of the night, having only gotten a few hours at best. Life is too good. He can't believe it will last. And it hasn't.

The funny part is now, he wants it back and he's willing to fight to get what he wants. Seeing this other him makes him feel protective. Dave rises to his feet and steps towards him. After getting three badges under his belt he feels confident and it shows in how he walks. He pads over to them with Snoop at his back.] Let's go. She hasn't been too happy with all the snow around back in Azalea. Winter makes fire pokes really cranky.

[And you need a distraction which he's providing no questions asked.]

Winter makes me fucking cranky. [This place is cold. He's spent more time burying himself in blankets with Missy than anything else.] This place is cold, so the warmer Tower floors are kind of a godsend.

If you're done eating, I can take you there. There's a few more new floors that we can probably visit that she may like too. I haven't had time to visit them all. [The Tower had gotten drastically bigger and he did a brief passing of most, but he hadn't really gotten to see them all in their entirety. There were a few he knew he wasn't gonna check out again though. They didn't leave a very good impression on him.] You're lucky. They just put in a dark room floor.

Sweet, a whole floor that's a dark room. Hell yes. [It makes him think of his Dark type pokemon. Shit, he misses his critter bros.] Anyway, yeah I'm done eating. Let's head out.

Be careful. Shit is kind of creepy on that floor sometimes. [He hasn't stayed long but he's seen some weird stuff while he was on that floor.]

Alright. [He motions Dave to follow him and starts heading towards the staircase.] Let's go.

[He calls his pokes back into their balls to make things go faster and tucks the egg safely away. Dave follows his counterpart out to the staircase.]

[Dave climbs the stairs, used to them.

He'll glance sometimes to see if he'll recognize anyone he knows, but mostly continues until he reaches the floor with the meadow. It's actually warm, unlike most of the tower.]

[He's been running and exercising so much that the stairs don't bother him. When they reach the meadow he releases his pokemon from their balls and Snoop takes to the air to circle overhead. Lady B tosses her head before Dave rubs her nose and swings up onto her back in one smooth motion. He extends his hand to his counterpart.] Come on.

[Missy rolls in the grass contentedly before bounding over next to Lady B. Dave glances up at Dave for a moment. Oh man, this is still kind of weird.

But he grabs hold of Dave's hand anyways. He doesn't think he's ever done this before. Okay, he knows he's never done this before. And maybe he's comparing himselfto the other just a little bit. He should stop that.]

[Dave helps his counterpart up onto Lady B's back behind him. The warmth of the flames that never burn or harm is comforting after the chill of the tower. He settles in it with a sigh.] Hold onto me. We'll pick up speed slowly so you can get used it.

[Then they were probably going to surprise him with a sharp burst of speed because slow was not Lady B and Dave at all.]

WELL BUCKLE UP.

Sobs on the ground.

You were not preppppparrreedd

NO I WASN'T SCREECHES

Re: NO I WASN'T SCREECHES

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