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brideofcthulhu10 · 4 years ago

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More headcanons to help me work through the dreaded writer's block! Hope you guys don't mind it's a bit slow right now, I plan on posting another tonight and hopefully I'll be able to get to some asks once my brain is no longer fried

Dwayne Headcanons

When he was responsible for Laddie, Dwayne would often take him out to the boardwalk whenever Star was busy. Sometimes he’d even choose to take him along even if they were with Star just to hang with the munchkin

If anyone told him he was too short Dwayne would hypnotize them into letting him one. He wasn't exactly worried about the kid being flung from the roller coaster, he could easily catch him if it happened. It felt awesome impressing him at the strength test, just watching him jump up and down as the attendant handed him a giant blue monkey which of course he'd give to Laddie. The boy was such a hyper, sunny child it was hard not to laugh when this spritely eight year old would play a water gun game and yell “this is a load of bullshit” when he lost. Well, he did grow up around four teenage guys, two having the worst language you could imagine. David used the word "fuck" like it was going out of style. At one point some lady in her thirties tried to lecture Laddie about watching his language, to which Dwayne had immediately stepped in after he said “piss off lady”. Again he had to choke back a laugh, pushing the kid behind him before this lady throttled him. To save face Dwayne feigned some half assed “shame on you” to Laddie just so she would piss off, and then ushered him away- for an ice cream sundae. Granted while he couldn’t condone a kid cussing up a storm, he did find it utterly hilarious watching this uppity chick squawk like a hen in outrage.

“Seriously though I don’t know where the hell you learned all that from-”

“Paul taught me.”

“Yeah, well, Paul probably isn’t the best guy to copy, kiddo. "

Chinese food isn’t his favorite, but he knows it’s Markos so he doesn’t complain when they have it at least once a week. Actually, his favorite is probably Hispanic. Many forget much of California was once Mexico, and as such the culture still thrived even into the early 1900s. Santa Carla flourished, and between pick pocketing gigs and heavy labor on the docks, Dwayne could always count on there being fresh tortillas for a few dollars after a long day. Elotes with extra chili powder, huarache, freshly brewed horchata on ice? Utterly delicious! Nothing can compare to freshly made tamales by a sweet abuela in a tiny food truck cooing to you in Spanish. Even he can blush when they pinch his cheeks gushing about what a skinny man he is. Paul and Marko love it as well and will often tag along when Dwayne goes to Mama Rosa’s, although he often has to elbow Paul in the gut because he’ll flirt with the cooks in the back into getting a free taco.

“Ay, Paul, mi angelito querido cielito, you’re skin and bones!”

“Well, I always skip a meal before coming here, abuela. Your cooking is too epic to have anything else in my stomach!”

“Dude, will you stop flirting with that poor woman before you give her a heart attack, you ass?”

Dwayne had a brother many years ago who was lost after being caught in direct sunlight during the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Since then on April 18th he holds a small memorial for his brother Jasper, who died pulling the curtains shut to shield them from the sun. Some years David, Paul and Marko will join him, silently drinking to their fallen friend. It's a rare moment of seriousness for these wild boys, sitting beside an altar crudely constructed atop a wooden crate, draped over with the jacket once worn by Jasper that survived the flames. Decorated in worn candles melted by decades of use, a bottle of rum from over eighty years ago still untouched with an empty shot glass beside it caked in dust and cobwebs, worn flowers shriveled into darkened husks, a glass of blood they keep freshly filled with each visit, feathers of birds to help carry him to the sky. Every time he adds something new, a gift from every era. Recently he brought Jasper a Def Leppard vinyl record, propped against a sketch of his brother drawn before his passing by an admirer who had died long ago. Paul left a little toy motorcycle for him, Marko brought an old pocket watch he found at an antique store that bore a striking resemblance to one he had admired long ago, and David brought him a hunting knife

“You would’ve loved hair bands, Jas. Everything’s changed now, its crazy. It sucks you never got a bike of your own,” Dwayne would say, sitting in the dark with only the tender flicker of candles brushing away the dark. Never again would he let the sun take him. It was the darkest, deepest cave in the hotel. And there, Dwayne spoke more than he ever does outside “Horses were cool, but it’s better to have something that doesn’t stop every time it takes a shit, you know?”

Unfortunately Dwayne sucks at video games. It’s not that he doesn’t get it, but he has the worst gamer rage. Now, Dwayne doesn’t often get legitimately mad, but when he’s been playing the same god damn stupid water level for the past hour and a half just to be killed by a squid-! Well, lets just say Paul practically dove to catch the controller before it was chucked at the tv, and cue a dirty look towards Dwayne for nearly smashing his “baby”. He wasn’t about to have him break ANOTHER controller. Yeah that wasn’t the first. At this point he’s content just watching from afar and sometimes back seat gaming when Marko is going the wrong way. He’s not nearly as bad as David who will openly call someone stupid after dying.

Dwayne is definitely the type to nap after a long night. Truthfully he misses when he could just lay out in the sun like a lizard on a hot rock after a long day, it’d feel incredible. Instead he’s resorted to a hot water bottle or a heating pad. Yeah, he loves hot weather. Summertime is his favorite time, just savoring the toasted air blowing in his face on rides over the beaches. Sometimes he’ll try to wake up early to watch the sunset from within the cave, although it’s burnt him on more than one occasion he will still try to get a glimpse. Winter is the worst for him, he hates, absolutely despises the cold. Even though he doesn't technically get cold anymore, everything seems to die away in the winter leaving only twisted branches and grey skies. David may enjoy all that gloomy melancholy but not him.

One wouldn’t assume Dwayne to have much of a sweet tooth. That’s because they’re wrong. While he isn’t into the marshmallow caramel double candy bars deep fried and dipped in chocolate like Marko or Laddie, he has a serious weakness for chocolate. Like, a major weakness. Paul is still searching for his stash, tucked away somewhere secret in the hotel. Any time he thinks he’s close to finding it, Dwayne moves it again.

“Dude, sharing is fucking caring you greedy bastard”

“Get your own candy asshole, why do you think I keep my stash hidden from you guys?”

Now the whole hoity toity fancy chocolate isn’t what appeals to him. He can certainly appreciate a well made chunk of dark chocolate sprinkled with chili powder, but he’ll settle for a cheap bar snatched from a gas station. Most sweets weigh heavy on him, but chocolate is such a unique medium that can be changed into almost anything, appealing to every taste imaginable. Sweet, savory, spicy, bitter, semi-sweet, rich, dense, light. Chocolate cake, chocolate doughnut, hot chocolate, fudge, and of course the traditional candy bar. You make him a mug of Mexican hot chocolate and he is putty in your hands. You couldn’t necessarily bribe him with food. But you could certainly butter him up to suggestions when he’s crunching down on a candy bar. Paul knows this, and at this point Dwayne knows this guy has royally fucked up if he comes up to him with a stack of chocolate bars.

“Heeeeey, Dwayne, buddy, old pal, chum, lookie what I found, all for you man how cool is that?��

“....,” Dwayne glances up from his book at the handful of chocolate and slowly lowers it with a firm sigh. “What the hell did you do now?”

“Wha-Whaaa-? Oh! Okay, wow. Woooow. Offend much? I go out of my way- I mean, can’t a guy just, you know, do something nice for his best friend-?”

“Paul. What. did. you. do?”

“Okay okay, well you see David made me go fill up his stupid bike, and there was this hot chick at the gas station, I mean perfect fuckin ten man, she had the biggest frickin tits- okay anyway! Well, next thing I know the keys are gone, the chick's gone, the fuckin bike- You gotta help me man he’s gonna fucking kill me and dance on my grave!”

Of course Dwayne will help… in exchange for twice the chocolate. Like I said, it won’t always work as a bribe, but it’ll certainly help your cause if you go in with some incentive.

#lost boys 1987 #lost boys imagine #the lost boys #lost boys fanfiction #fanfiction #fanfiction writing #lost boys #fanfic #80s movies #lost boys dwayne #billy wirth #lost boys vampires #lost boys laddie #vampire fluff #fluff imagine #fluff #lost boys head canon #headcanon

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space-blue · 4 years ago

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A High Magic

The theme being pure dialogue, I did not bother with tags. This is my 8th competition win.

You've always known what you wanted to do then, and that's really admirable. In my case at six I wanted to be a vet, as one does, but by eight I'd caught on enough to want to be a firefighter. You know, helping people and stuff. Intervening. At eleven I had made up my mind that I would become a guru. Seemed to me if I were successful, it'd be the best way to have people take proper care of their dead. Change their habits at the root, the core of their convictions.

It wouldn't have changed the way the masses behave. The world is just too big.

Well, I had to believe, right? Plus everything is interconnected these days, word goes round, people follow trends. Could have made my cult all online and reach people everywhere, even abroad.

I suppose... How did that work out?

I never got around to even try. I don't think it would have been that great a success if people knew the origin of my abilities.

Is it so? I find that surprising! Surely it still is impressive no matter what sparks it?

Most people just pitied me. The folks at the evaluation office did too. Listened to me describe all the ghosts, and what I'd come to understand of hauntings, and why the ghosts always ended up following me around in the end, and they nodded and said how it was quite rare to have magic coming out before eight. You know that gramps, don't you? Earliest magics to manifest are the elemental ones–

Fire, air, water...

Yes, and that's 'cause they take no imagination. Anything more complex and the kid needs to have some understanding of higher concepts. It worried my parents a lot, that concept thing. How I got to see ghosts when as far as they knew I didn't know what death was and never did come home with a dead animal and questions. Least of all seen a dead person.

So they just labelled you with a higher, or spiritual magic and left it at that? Surely people saw the value in that at least? Did no one want to investigate?

Not really. Like I said, it spooked people. My assigned magic counsellor drafted a few career paths for me, spiritual re-connector, grief counsellor, Voodoo witch, whathaveyou. He didn't understand! Everyone just assumed I got to see these ghosts if I wanted to. Everybody with magics, small and big, even feral magics, they get to control when they use it. Dead people, they don't work like that. They're there, following their victim of choice, the person they latched on to, and then they notice me seeing them, and that's it! They jump wagon. Because you see, ghosts are just attention seekers! They have to have it! Talking to them is like bacon down a dog's gullet. Makes them follow you loyally. If you see them, and you react to the stuff they do, they're in attention heaven! Some will even just start reciting their entire lives at you, bitch and moan and groan, it's a nightmare.

I guess, you being dead, as everyone around just ignores you... Even the people dear to you, it's quite hard on the mind.

Gramps, do you know how ghosts are made?

Mmmh... Not really? I have my ideas, monks at my temple do too, every culture thought about what happens to the spirit after death. But I'm sure, considering you're the expert...

Right, I don't though. Nobody really does. Here's my educated guess : They're born of people's attention to begin with. People can't get over the death, they rehash it, might have trauma, dreams, they call out to their dead ones, and that makes their essence–whatever ghosts are made of–stick around. They can then coalesce into whatever makes the flavour of ghost they end up as, depending on their own regrets and emotions and drives. They're kept here by that anxious maelstrom of emotion, and form based on their own worst traits. It's a bad mix. So they'd come to me alright, scare the shit out of me and persecute me, right until the day I figured out that you could make them leave!

Hah! How did that happen?

Was at one of my favourite joints. Mikwa kitchen, run by a couple, maybe five tables–didn't matter, food was from heaven's own canteen. Always got the same damn thing, never got tired of it.

I understand. I was the same with corn dogs. Corn dogs never got old, even if I did.

You know what it's like then, long week, tired, tough time at school, girlfriend getting all in my face about my magic being unmanageable... It was a Friday and I was needing my dose of Mikwan to just–

Relax.

Damn right. Anyway. I'm right outside waiting for my take away to be done, and she drops right out of the tree I'm leaning on! Rope around her neck, face all purple, eyes... You get the idea. She starts screaming at me, and man, it was just too much! So I screamed right back at her! "Fuck you, bitch! You don't fucking get to ruin my Mikwan fucking meal. I don't care about your sad shit story, go haunt somebody who gives a shit!"

Ahaha! That's very colourful, young man, but don't yell so–here, let me top up that glass of yours. Go on–what happened?

It worked. She tried to drop out of two more trees on my way back home, walked right past her, cussing but not giving her a glance, and she gave up. Shortest haunting I had had my whole life.

How old were you?

That day? Twenty.

Mmmh, it must have felt like a long time coming. Did you not try to see a soother?

I did. Biggest shock of my life, that.

Did it not work?

That's just the thing! I went a year after the tree lady. I'd managed to find ways to cope by then, but I couldn't believe I struggled this much still with my magic. It just didn't seem worth it, to keep it. So I go to that well recommended soother. With a high cancelling magic. Could erase abilities down flat. Had to save for four months for that appointment. Dude sits me down, grills me about my reasons for being here, and at least he was agreeing with me! Asked if I had consulted with someone to help "master" my magic first. Told him I plain didn't want it. Nothing wrong with having no magic.

Quite true. Never had a shade of ability myself, hasn't stopped me from being happy.

I didn't picture you as magicless somehow, gramps! I thought you'd have a trick like curling up moustaches or something! Hah! Anyway, man puts his hands on me, frowns...

Oh?

Says I don't have a magic at all.

Whaaa–

I know! And he was adamant. Just nothing there for him to remove! He even refused to charge me. It struck me then. In the eval office, they don't touch you. I mean, not for check ups like mine. First they listen to what you can do, or look if you can show. If you fit in a category, that's all there is to it. Only those with big potentials get appointments with staff with abilities. I never saw one. Lady never touched me, she probably had no magic to be able to tell anyway. What I described to her sounded like a pesky magic that would feed a psychiatrist for years, and nothing more. So they never checked. And then you know how it goes: at school, during civic duties, in the army, they ask but unless you make a big splash, nobody sends you to a Senser, or anyone who can tell for sure...

So you spent your whole life thinking you had a higher magic, when in fact you had...

Nothing. Nothing anyone recognised, at least.

That has to have been a shock.

Tell me about it.

But then, what is it?

That soother called a senser friend of his and sent me in for a free appointment. She too said there was nothing there at all. She was fantastic. Marta Balbin, we're still in touch, she's great. Anyway, she tagged with me in search of a ghost we could squeeze for some good intel that their relatives would validate, to prove I did see stuff for real, you know?

Did you show her how cussing at ghosts makes them go away?

Aha, I wish! But no, that's not quite how it works. With tree lady I got lucky. What you need to do is press their buttons, scratch their itch, tell them what they need to hear. Making them leave requires you to interact with them somehow, and I'd spent two decades avoiding that as much as I could.

Ah, I see, each ghost needs their own special interaction in order to be able to move on?

Precisely.

And so she believed you?

Oh yes, and finally helped me meet with a person with answers for me!

How exciting! Pray tell, young lad, tell me what it is!

She introduced me to the high priest of Enmu, in the capital's temple.

The God of the Netherworld? I suppose it makes sense to ask them.

Prepare yourself to be blown away : it turns out I was dead at birth, for two whole minutes the doctors worked on me, and I eventually breathed. Apparently though as a newborn I'd had no sins to weigh and I had already been given a rank in the Great City. So when I was brought back... I was an official of the Great City.

A foot in life and a foot in the Netherworld? Is this even possible?

High priest was the same! All Enmu high priests are! Apparently outside of ceremonies they spend their time putting ghosts at rest.

That is incredible! How can such a secret be so well guarded?

There are only a dozen people like this in the country, so it's not too hard. They'd have found me sooner, if the magics office had done their job properly and not discounted me as a minor seer or medium.

So are you one of them now? A high priest of Enmu? Working for a God?

Precisely.

And you work with ghosts?

What do you think we're doing here, gramps?

I– What?

You're Jeremya Mikkels, an archaeologist deceased at the ripe old age of eighty-eight, you wrote books on ancient civilisations until the bitter end, didn't you? You loved digging up secrets.

Yes–I... I did.

And I just gave you a great secret. A truth you never knew in your living days. Exactly what you'd been craving. You've regretted not digging up more, haven't you? Well, now you can take this very rare knowledge with you to the Great City.

I can? Yes it's... Yes, I suppose I can.

Leave us with no regrets my friend. Times have changed for me too, I enjoyed our chat, a lot more than if I'd met you fifteen years ago!

I would have haunted you...

And I wouldn't have had anything to say to satisfy you. But now, you can go in peace gramps.

Thank you, lad. I can see it and... it means a lot. I'll bring good word of you.

And I'll seek you out in the next life. We shall talk again, and I will bring you more secrets of this world. Now be gone, Jeremya Mikkels. Cross under Enmu's obsidian gate without regrets.

~~ August 2020 – Theme : Pure Dialogue

#original work #original story #competition #win #fantasy

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nanodayoloswag · 6 years ago

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Detective Akechu

It’s words. Several of them, strung together. Y’know. Like a parody fic that absolutely did not need to exist but weird shit happens when you don’t sleep for days so here we are. Read on if you dare or whatever.

“Hey! Hey, wake up, please? Are you alright? You’ve both been passed out for a very long time now. I’m not sure exactly how much help I can be in this form. I feel as though what I could do would be very counteractive to what actually needs to be done. Though in this world is that particularly dangerous? Then again, in our own world, where people tend to heal absurdly fast, something like that isn’t particularly dangerous at all, right?

“Surely then, in this world, where creatures such as this exist, then it’s the norm to be jolted like this every now and again, right? Otherwise this creature wouldn’t be half as popular as it is, would it? Well, maybe among certain groups. But generally the face of the brand such as this has much less malicious intentions, right? Of course, there is an argument to be made for Madoka’s mascot character, but that character also wasn’t acting out of malice, really. It’s just that people perceive it as malice.

“Attempting to save the universe from entropy really is a noble endeavor, though I suppose the real cause for argument is how unethical the tradeoff seems. Alien creatures don’t need to adhere to any human code of ethics though, right? It doesn’t really make them wrong not to abide by that, does it? No, of course not.

“But am I taking the aliens’ side too easily you ask? What about the humans who were tricked into the contract? Withholding information isn’t exactly a trick or deception. It isn’t an honest tactic for sure, but why would anyone accept the deal the incubators needed for them to strike if they knew the consequences from the start? Something like that is what you’d call ‘a necessary evil’ right?

“You can’t answer that of course, still knocked out cold it seems. Perhaps I should find someone. Or, perhaps I really should employ that particular method? It is entirely possible that convenience in situations such as this could be a reason that I was -

“Oh! Are you finally coming to now? Great. I was just thinking that maybe I should sh - GyAHk”

“SHADDAP.” A fist collided hard with the back of the blabbering creature’s fuzzy head, shoving it down into the dirt as Aiura Mikoto groggily picked herself up off the ground. “Ugh, what the shit.” She blinked several times, and glanced around at her surroundings. Whaaa-HuH??? This. Certainly wasn’t where she lived. Or anything close to it, actually. Was this still even around Hidariwakibara? She was out in the woods somewhere.

And. The hell was that guy doing here?

Lying face-down in front of her was Toritsuka Reita.

Why in all fuck was she out in the forest with Toritsuka?

Just what the hell did that imply?

Well she’d be damned if she wasn’t about to find out. She grabbed his unconscious form by the shirt and yanked him off the ground.

“Hey, get your ass up and tell me what’s going on here!”

“I can tell you that!” Something else popped up from the ground. It was a familiar little fuzzy shape. Yellow-ish with tiny bead eyes and round red cheeks. Plus that iconic tail shape. There were several reactions a person could have to seeing something like this. Mikoto, thoroughly startled by it, responded by screeching and kicking it away from her as fast as possible. It slammed into a nearby tree, and fell back against the trunk, dazed. What that thing was didn’t click to Aiura for another few moments.

H-HuuuHHHH??? Her face perfectly matched that sentiment. She let Toritsuka go and stared at the large rat she’d kicked for a few moments, making sure she was absolutely certain before slowly coming forward and making the call. “Holy shit is that a fucking Pikachu?” She was incredulous. What in the heck. No way. This was like, a toy or something, right?

The toy sure was moving in a lot less robotic way than she would have expected as it tried to recompose itself. It was quietly mumbling as it did so, words a bit slurred here and there. “That chsertainly is unpleasant. It isn’t as though this medium has ever implied that these scenarios were parchitcularly pleasant but the battles against each other at the least arree shppposed to be exhilerating at least, yes? I guess that’s not fully connected. There’s still got to be physical pain involved, it’s jusht that -”

It sure did talk a lot too for a toy. Didn’t Aiura know that voice?

“Hey. You’re like, for reals alive, yea? Ya ain’t a toy?” Might as well just cut to the fastest way to clear this up.

The fuzzy little thing looked straight up at her face. “Yes, I’m alive, to my knowledge. I can’t say that I know much about how ‘life’ itself works in this world. We can easily assume it works the same as ours, considering what’s presented in the materials for it, however one can also easily make the argument that this is simply an altered state with life itself being tethered to original bodies and worlds and so on and so forth. For example, my form may have shifted to become that you see before you right now, or, my spirit could have traveled here and possessed this being. There are several more possibilities and as I just woke up this way I can’t say that one or the other is for sure the truth of the matter here. But it is very possible that if my spirit is here and my original body is left behind somewhere, that that version of me is ‘dead’ at this moment if it can no longer function without the spirit.”

Woah, it recovered fast all of a sudden. Aiura had no idea what exactly he was on about with spirits here but at least something was clear now.

“You’re that one guy. Kusuo’s friend.”

“I assumed that I was being clear enough but yes. I am Akechi Touma! Although at this moment we could also say that -”

“NO, quiet for a moment. I need to understand this.” Okay. Alrighty. Sure. She had just woken up in the middle of the forest. Toritsuka was there. Akechi was there. And for some reason, he was a Pikachu. Right. Yeah. Okay. That was happening right now.

How the heck was that happening right now? Was this a dream? Was she asleep? No way in hell she’d be dreaming about Toritsuka being there with her. Actually, she needed to get back to waking him up. It’d be easier to understand an explanation from him than Chatterchu over there. She had just bent down to grab the spirit medium up and start shaking him when someone who just could not follow directions called her attention again.

“Ah! Right! Him! He was here with you when I first woke up. I was around the both of you as well so I assume that whatever happened must have involved all of us together. I have no recollection of events prior to ending up here like this either, or what has caused my sudden transformation. However if you need an assist in waking him I did several experiments before attempting to wake either of you. As this is my body now it seemed imperative that I-”

“GET TO THE POINT! Geez, some of us are tryin’ to figure out what the fuck is happening yanno?”

“Ah, yes, right, the point. Well I’ll be brief then and test my theory on this. After some trial and error with this body I discovered that shockingly easily I am able to –“ He cut himself off for once as a bolt of electricity burst forth from his body and struck Toritsuka.

The target crackled and sputtered from the shock, his body twitching violently. Akechi’s plan worked well enough to jolt Toritsuka awake though. Once he stopped his attack the medium hopped up, screaming, and also stumbling a bit as his body was still shaking.

“I WAS ONLY LOOKING I DIDNT TOUCH ANYONE!”

A little smile crept onto Aiura’s face. Toritsuka seemed like he’d be fine, but that was. Well. She hadn’t expected it, at the least. “Hey that’s super handy. We should consider keepin’ you this way.” Down the line Toritsuka could probably use a few more good jolts like that.

It took a good minute for Toritsuka to realize that he was awake and in the middle of a forest instead of off in some foreign nightmare prison being tazed for things he probably should not admit to here. He wasn’t as confused by the situation as Aiura had been once he got his bearings. He simply mumbled out, “Must’ve been sleep walking.” His temple was around a forested area, so he just had to figure the way back.

Akechi was fascinated by the fact that Toritsuka didn’t seem to particularly be injured once he’d fully woken up. The physics of what he’d just done worked just as he had figured that they would in this world. He would have launched into a whole spiel on that, excited to share his discovery, if Toritsuka hadn’t taken notice of them finally first.

“Hah? Boob girl? What are you doing here?”

The first thing Aiura did in response to that was slap him as hard as she possibly could. The force sent him reeling backward.

Toritsuka grabbed his poor, very red, stinging face. “HEY WHAT THE HECK?!!”

Aiura was having none of his games. “Obviously you kidnapped me out here in my sleep or something!” She had ignored Akechi’s implication that something must have happened to all of them. This was Toritsuka’s fault. There’s no way anyone would willingly wake up next to that guy. There’s no way she would’ve willingly gone into some situation with that guy that would cause this. Well, unless Kusuo asked, maybe. But if he had, she didn’t remember it, so that didn’t matter at the moment.

“I DIDN’T DO THAT! I’M NOT THAT KIND OF PERVERT!”

Her hard stare said she didn’t believe him. She was about to voice that but stopped, startled as something fuzzy had leapt up onto her shoulder to be more at eye-level with Toritsuka.

“I’m here as well!” Akechi chimed. That sent Toritsuka reeling back for an entirely different reason.

“Wh-HUUH??!! That’s a Pikachu! Isn’t it?!!”

“Yes. Indeed, it seems I have become a popular mascot character in this world. However, that is not our issue at current. Well, I suppose it is still my issue, as I’m not quite certain how it may have happened, and I would like to return to my original form, if possible. Although I do have several theories on the matter. Again, though, that is not the topic of discussion right now. At present the issue is how all of us have awoken together in this place. I feel it’s wrong to place unnecessary blame without having all the facts. We can’t confirm or deny that one person dragged the other out here. And the three of us don’t particularly spend as much time together as we do apart, so unless there were other circumstances, one of which I think is a major factor in this, then -”

“Woah, okay, shut up! You’re just like that one guy!”

“He is that one guy.”

“He-WHA?”

“Right! I already said this while you were asleep, but I do happen to be Akechi Touma!”

Toritsuka stared at the Pikachu for a long moment. A very, very long moment, before voicing what was on his mind about it. “Saiki-san really is terrifying, huh.”

“Kusuo?” Aiura questioned, not quite following.

The look Toritsuka shot her said that this should have been obvious. “Well, duh! What else could do this?! You’ve seen what he can do to people just by looking at them!”

“Well, yeah...” Of course she had to concede to that, but. Why would Kusuo do something like this? He wasn’t the type to just mess with people on a random whim.

Akechi didn’t look so sure about Toritsuka’s deduction either. “Though I also feel as if Kusuo-kun may have had something to do with this situation, perhaps we can’t place the entirety of the blame on him just yet? Considering where we are, there could be several other factors at work here. This particular group is proof that our world has it’s share of unnatural phenomena, but I feel that in this one such things are far more common.”

People didn’t often -no, they would never- ask Akechi to elaborate, but the way those two were looking at him said that they weren’t quite understanding. “The two of you still haven’t realized, I see. Take a good look around us. Particularly, at the fauna. Do they look like creatures that existed in our own world naturally?”

Fauna was animals and junk, right? Aiura walked around, glancing here and there with Akechi still riding on her shoulder. That was a little annoying, but it really was easier if they didn’t have to look down at him. She wasn’t really seeing anything though. There were some birds in the distance, but they were too far off for her to tell what they actually were.

It wasn’t too long before Akechi poked her face to get her attention. He pointed to what had his own attention currently. A little farther off from where they were, in between the trees, things were gathering. Big things. They were brown, bug-like, kind of reminiscent of an upright stag beetle with those large spiked horns, and stood about as tall as a person. More and more were gathering to watch them. It was kind of creepy.

“Perhaps,” Akechi whispered. “It would be in our best interest to head to another area. Their demeanor and movements suggest agitation, so perhaps we’ve intruded on their territory. It would better if-”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it.” Didn’t need to tell Miko-chan twice. She also agreed that booking it outta there would be best. They just had to get Toritsuka, and-

Oh no.

What the fuck was he doing?!

They turned to find Toritsuka nearly face to face with one of those bugs. How the heck had that happened? Did one just decide that it couldn’t stand his face and decide to go at him first? Well, considering that guy, it’s probably what happened. It didn’t seem like he had a plan here though. He looked scared as shit as he backed away and the thing kept advancing on him. If he kept that up he was just going to get pinned against a tree. Damn it. They had to do something to get him out of that, but what? If Aiura did something to call attention to herself that thing would be on her. Not to mention all of those other ones that were probably also getting ready to make some attack against them.

Akechi decided this was a matter he should take into his hands. Logically he could do the most here, right? He hopped off of Aiura and ran towards the bug. She called after for him to stop, but this should be fine. These creatures were made for this sort of thing. And despite his earlier experience with impact pain, surely when it came to battling these bodies were much more durable. They had to be, otherwise this sport never would have gotten as far as it did. Or, as far as he assumed it did, anyway. At present he had no reason to believe that such wasn’t the case for this world.

He shocked the bug as he had Toritsuka before. It didn’t seem to enjoy the experience, but as Akechi also figured, one hit wasn’t enough to put it down. And now it was angry with him. Forgetting Toritsuka, it charged the Pikachu, bending to gouge it’s target with it’s horns. That was, admittedly, kind of terrifying, as Akechi was quite a bit smaller than the bug. So when Akechi unleashed yet another bust of electricity to counter, it actually was not the only thing he unleashed. That was much less embarrassing as a mouse out on the ground where it wasn’t as noticeable and socially unacceptable. Although when it came to various creatures that were territorial, what he’d just done was probably very bad if these particular creatures noticed and got it in their heads that this was some sort of marking behavior.

Through his counter-shock he was still grabbed by the larger monster anyway, and it clamped him with it’s pincer-like horns until the pain became too much and Akechi was forced to cut off his own attack. Perhaps he should have moved before making the decision to attack again, but sometimes fear beats out reasoning and he did not. How was he going to get out of this? The spikes on it’s horns were piercing his body slightly, and the more it clamped the deeper they went. Perhaps the others could lend an assist now that he had it’s attention? But where had they gone? Had they abandoned him here?

No, he was able to see Toritsuka at least. He had moved from where he was before, but now he was just watching the situation. Akechi thought he seemed unnaturally still. He tried to call out to him, as he most certainly did not look alright, but all the managed was a little squeak as the other clamped him tighter. It was saying something.

Akechi realized then that he could understand it.

Right, of course he would be able to understand it. In this world, these creatures understood each other. What a terrible oversight. That wasn’t like him. He probably could have tried resolving this through conversation, yet, he had just done what had seemed natural. Was that folly truly a simple misstep, or was it due to now being more driven by instinct than rationality?

Either way, perhaps he wouldn’t be in a situation where he was being crushed to death, had he reacted differently. But, ah, what was that thing saying? It was repeating something over and over again.

How strange. Somewhat alarming, Akechi supposed. But what did it really mean? He pondered it as he started to lose consciousness. It was probably the last thing he’d ponder. Surely this creature would manage to completely stab through him soon enough.

Well, that might be true, if something hadn’t knocked Akechi out of it’s grip first.

He bounced along the ground, rolling to a stop near the still unmoving Toritsuka.

“Shit, shit shit shit shit shit shit shit SHIT”

Aiura, who had bashed the monster across the back of it’s head with the largest fallen tree branch she could find and carry, was now rushing towards the two of them. The bug was straggling after her, with more coming out of the trees to avenge their injured comrade that hadn’t managed to take the group down solo yet. She scooped up Akechi in one arm and with the other grabbed Toritsuka’s arm and attempted to drag him off with her. Bugs were emerging from all sides now and quickly coming up on them. It was time to bolt the heck out of this forest.

Toritsuka wasn’t budging. This was not the time to be fucking around. Aiura pulled at him harder. “Come on, we have to -”

Slowly, he turned his head towards her and her mouth snapped shut on those words. She had no idea what to think about that.

Toritsuka’s eyes were glowing orange. Seemingly satisfied with Aiura’s reaction, he looked away from her and screamed. It was jarring, an eerie sound akin to a cross between a human cry and the warning growl of some large animal. Then he ran forward, opened his mouth, and shot fire from it at the horde of bugs that had come for them. The bugs started, attempting to stop and turn before they got burned with several failing to succeed. Toritsuka screamed again. The group seemed to take the hint.

Once it seemed as though their attackers had retreated a good distance, Toritsuka’s eyes faded back to normal and he relaxed, breathing out an exasperated sigh before turning back to Aiura. She was staring at him, agape and completely dumbfounded. He ignored that.

“This is the forest near my house! Come on! It should be safer there!” He started onward but Aiura was not about to let this go without saying anything.

“Woah, woah, wait. Just what was that? Did you get some kind of bullshit spirit flame power that you’ve been keeping secret until now?”

Toritsuka shrugged. “I wish. Something possessed me, right after you went looking around.” He tried to sound nonchalant. Ghosts were his thing and he wanted to seem like he had a handle on this stuff. But it was clear he was a little uneasy about the event himself. Usually he was the one to incite possession. Spirits didn’t just force their way into his body. They were usually even polite enough to ask first. “It told me we should ‘wait for the right moment’ and then that happened.”

“Ghosts can give you superpowers now?”

“It wasn’t a normal ghost. It was like. Well, I guess these really are other Pokemon, huh?”

“Apparently.” They couldn’t deny it based on those encounters. Akechi was right. This was some alternate dimension. But that still left more questions than things answered.

“It’s good that you’re accepting our surroundings now,” Akechi voiced. “However if it’s not too much trouble, may I request that we find some medical assistance for me? I feel as though I might have some pressing internal injuries.” And then he promptly fainted.

Oh shit. Aiura hadn’t even paid attention to Akechi’s injuries. Her only goal had been to grab him and go. But now that she got a better look at the mouse she was clutching close in her arm, daaaaaaamn. Those were some concerningly deep bloody gashes. Wasn’t that a little too macabre for a world like this? The look on Toritsuka’s face said he thought about the same.

“What should we do about this?”

“Why are you asking me?!”

“You’re a priest, aren’t you?”

“That’s not the same as a doctor!”

“Well we can’t just walk him into the hospital!”

“Wait... can’t we?”

“Huh.”

“We’re in this kind of a world, right?” Toritsuka was pretty pleased with himself for realizing the obvious a few seconds before Aiura could. “They have hospitals for Pokemon. They should be all over the place!”

Come to think of it, yeah, that was right. It had been a hot minute since Aiura had played Pokemon, and she was pretty sure all Toritsuka probably bothered to play were eroges and online mmorpgs where he could harass girls, but. That was pretty basic knowledge for anyone that’s ever picked up Pokemon once or at least had some other experience with it. “Guess I gotta bother finding it then, huh?” Divining was more of a pain without her crystal ball, but whatever. She just needed some space.

Toritsuka thought for a moment. “Well, the temple shouldn’t be too far from here. We can still stop by there first and see if there’s anything that can help some!”

That was another thing.

“How are you so sure about that? If we’re in another dimension why would your temple exist here?”

“The ghosts told me!”

Of course they did. So currently, dead people were their authority on this place. Somehow that didn’t seem to bode well. At least they knew where something was though. “I guess that’s worth a shot. Wait, give me a sec.” It would be better to know for sure before making any unnecessary stops. She shoved Akechi into Toritsuka’s arms. He flinched back, face revealing his disgust at having to hold the bloodied mouse.

Aiura ignored him as she dropped to the ground and started rapidly tearing out blades of grass and collecting them in her hands. Once she had almost too much to hold she stood up, turned, and blew it all into Toritsuka’s face. “Yeah, it looks like you’ve got some Pokemon medicine there.”

“Was that really necessary.” The grass-covered Toritsuka grumbled.

“Soz.” Aiura smiled as she took Akechi back and brushed stray grass from his fur. “No other way. Let’s go.”

Toritsuka didn’t believe that for one minute, but it’s not like it mattered anymore.

Once they arrived at the temple, Toritsuka left Aiura and Akechi in his room while he went to find that medicine. She had told him exactly where to find it, but that didn’t seem right. She had said it was stored in one of the Buddha statues, specifically, the one he often hid his porn mags in. Haha, the other monks totally would have kicked him out if they found that stash. No way they were keeping medicine in there. Besides, there were more practical places to keep it.

That wasn’t the only odd thing, he supposed. If this place existed in this world, and so did his room, then shouldn’t there be another him walking around somewhere? Another of all of them? It was probably more important to figure out just how they got here and how to get home, but. What was the alternate Reita like? Was he popular? Did he have a girlfriend? Was he possibly off on a date right now? What were his secrets?

Well, he at least happened upon a familiar secret once he got into that statue. This Reita, too, hid his porn in there. Although among that were several other things. There were some snacks, several small spray bottles with different labels, which Toritsuka assumed had to be the medicine, a few colored discs, what appeared to be a pile of berries to one side, a few electronic devices, and two familiar-looking red and white balls which may or may not contain more Pokemon.

Woah. To hide this much stuff, the monks really had to be cracking down here, huh. He grabbed several of the medicine bottles, then hesitated a moment before also taking the spheres. It was fine to borrow these, right? It’s not stealing or anything if you’re taking something from yourself. Alternate Reita should understand, right?

If they had to be here a while, most likely they were going to run into more situations where Pokemon attacked them. And Toritsuka would feel a lot better if they had more backup on their side for that. He didn’t want to have to rely on ghosts to help them there again. Sure he could probably count letting Pokemon, who apparently could still will the elements when in a body, possess him as a cool new power. It gave him new bragging rights. He had access to so many elemental abilities now that he felt like even Saiki, the superpower monster, might get jealous!

But he hated how unsettling that was. The ghost didn’t have any ill intentions that he could discern, it just wanted to help them out of a tight spot and took control of the situation to do it - completely without Reita’s permission. He didn’t like that. He really didn’t like that. He’d almost lost himself before when ghosts started taking over him on their own accord. He was not about to let that happen again.

Ghosts were usually nice, but that was aggressively nice. Maybe if they noticed that he had other means of handling things, they’d leave him to it.

When he re-entered his room, Toritsuka found Aiura against the back wall, facing his direction as she did a handstand. Akechi, blood covered Akechi, had been laid on his bed. But that was fine. This was Alternate Reita’s bed.

“Oi, ya get the meds?”

He held up the potions he’d found, gaze questioning what she was doing at the same time.

She stayed in place as she answered. “I’m looking for Kusuo.”

“Ours or one from here?”

“Doesn’t matter. Either would probably help us find some answers...but.” Her own expression was knitted with concern. “Something’s wrong.”

“What do you mean wrong?” He came to sit on the bed beside Akechi.

After a couple of seconds of silence she gave a frustrated sigh and fell onto her side. “Uuuugh. There’s at least one here, I just can’t tell where he is. It’s like...something’s blocking me. It’s pissing me off.”

“Maybe Saiki-san doesn’t want to be found?” Toritsuka offered.

Could he really hide himself from Aiura’s divination powers? Just what kind of power would allow him to do that? That thought pissed her off too. He’d never hidden himself from her before. In fact, until they bumped into each other in the wild, he usually wasn’t aware beforehand that she was even going to use her powers to find him. No, this had to be something else, right? It had to be.

Then again, he was always hiding from people. Of course he’d jump at the chance to stop her from scrying him out if he knew he could. “Uuuggh this is mega annoying. Whatever. Let’s try to fix whatshisface up now before he dies or whatever.” She grabbed one of the potions out of Toritsuka’s arms and tried to figure out where to press on the odd little square-shaped bottle to spray it.

Toritsuka found the trigger on one that he was looking over first, jolting back with a startled yelp as he accidentally sprayed the contents into his eyes.

“Oh man, good job,” Aiura laughed. Then, ignoring Toritsuka’s agony, she went ahead and sprayed the medicine on all of Akechi’s wounds. This was how they were supposed to do it, right? Hopefully that was fine. Whatever this stuff was might keep him stable at least until they got him to the hospital - which she had also gone ahead and divined before trying to search out Kusuo.

“HELP ME NOW!” Toritsuka cried once it seemed like Aiura had stopped spraying. He couldn’t see and damn his eyes burned like hell.

Aiura just looked at him. “Help you with what?”

“WOMAN YOU KNOW DAMN WELL WHAT!”

She sighed. What a pain in the ass.

“Fine, fine. We’ll go find some water.” She took his hand and yanked him up from the bed. “Try anything while walking behind me and I’ll make sure those eyes never work again, got it?” She didn’t wait for his answer before pulling him along out the door. He had better understand her clearly, and that was that.

When they returned to the room after flushing out Toritsuka’s eyes, they found Akechi awake and standing on the bed waiting for them. His wounds seemed to have completely disappeared. “Hello!” He bowed. “Thank you very much for the assistance! Well, for the moment anyway I’m assuming that is how I’ve recovered so quickly! As I woke up in a place with which I’m unfamiliar I must have lost consciousness at some point, and seeing these bottles of what is presumably the medicine leads me to think that the two of you must have applied it to my injuries. It looks to have worked remarkably well. I’m not in the slightest bit of pain anymore. Injuries don’t persist very long in our own world to begin with but this is astounding, isn’t it?”

The psychics had to admit that they were amazed too. The only way they’d ever seen someone heal so fast was if Saiki used his restoration power on them. Pokemon medicine sure was something, and it saved them a trip to that hospital.

Toritsuka flopped down onto the bed next to Akechi, sure to avoid those blood stains that persisted. “So what now? How do we fix this if we have no idea how to find Saiki-san?”

“We search for him.” Akechi proposed. He looked to Aiura, who had taken to standing in the middle of the room for the moment. “It’s my guess that you were unable to locate him with your clairvoyant powers, yes? If that weren’t the case, then finding Kusuo-kun would be no problem to us. Since we are unaware of the circumstances surrounding both his involvement in this and where he might be, he could very well be anywhere in the world. This could turn into a scenario where we end up searching for a needle in a haystack. But that’s only one possibility. It also is not the most optimistic one.

“Rather, what we should do is to start with what we can. This world appears to be a more direct alternate to our own. Places familiar to us exist here. That stands to reason that other people familiar to us should exist here as well, correct? This gives us our first lead in finding Kusuo-kun. We should start with that. And were we to start there, where would the most logical place to visit first be?”

“His house!” Aiura and Toritsuka chorused excitedly. Akechi was right, they weren’t as in the dark as they thought.

“Correct!” They were a bit slow on the uptake of things, Akechi had noticed, but it was good that they were all on the same page at the moment. He had to admit though, that despite their unfortunate situation, he was a bit excited as well for a different reason. Solving mysteries was where his true deductive nature shined. It wasn’t something that people really appreciated much before due to his tendency to talk on and on, but nor were their mysteries as important as this one. Here, he could show off his skills! “Now then!” He jumped up and plucked a hat off the wall that had been hanging above Toritsuka’s bed. A few hung there, but this one served his purposes the best. It looked like one of those hats you often see detectives wear in works of fiction.

Huh. Toritsuka remembered that hat from his own room back home, but was it always that small? It seemed to fit well enough as Akechi put it on.

Hat acquired, the Pikachu hopped off the bed, making sure he was both in between and in front of the other two before striking a cool, thoughtful and confident sort of pose worthy of a great detective. “PK Academy Psykickers, move out!”

Toritsuka and Aiura nodded, each hopping to attention and striking a pose of their own behind him in true Psykicker mission style, but the look on their faces was much less enthused than usual. Even though they had accepted Akechi as part of the Psykickers before, it still felt like somehow their bit had just been taken over.

#Saiki Kusuo no Psi Nan #The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.#Akechi Touma #Aiura Mikoto #Toritsuka Reita #Saiki Kusuo #Pikachu #Pinsir #Pokemon #Detective Pikachu

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