genessia | Truths past, present, and future || [Voice/Video] [Backdated 5/16]

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Truths past, present, and future || [Voice/Video] [Backdated 5/16]

Normally, Ted didn't hesitate with his communication device. He liked to talk, and phone calls were his preferred method of keeping in touch with his loved ones. Sadly, peaceful, relaxing times would be coming to an end. His goku uniform, which might be ready any day now, demanded his utmost strength and willpower. He had to steel himself to have any chance of surviving. To be utterly firm in his convictions.

He was appalled by the subarchways; how they preyed upon the weak-hearted and the weak-minded. Especially children. Ted knew it was the moral duty of everyone to love what's true, and hate what's false. If only he could get others to agree. The thought of motes and beams crossed his mind. If he wanted others to embrace truth, he'd have to do the same, and cut himself loose of comforting falsehoods of his own. It was time for the truth. As he dialed each number and waited to be received, He prayed that the truth would not be too terrible.

Past: To Justice

Mewtwo isn't Ted's first choice for conversation, despite the lengthy one they'd had upon their first meeting. He simply seemed to irritate the artificial creature for reasons unbeknownst to Ted. In a way, that made him uniquely poised to answer the unsettling question that weighed on him ever since Koishi's party. Mewtwo, regrettably, was himself a victim of comforting falsehoods, if his time on Lake Canaa were any indication. Perhaps that made him an expert.

"Hello J--Mewtwo. Is now a good time? I need an expert opinion. It's about my...well, pokemon in general."

Present: To Sans

Ted wasn't sure where to start with this one. Sans had worried him at first with his previous position on the wrong side of a racial war. But he'd largely forgotten it, using Sans' sloth as a convenient excuse from anything dreadful. He couldn't deny that there seemed to be more to the silly skeleton than he let on, but then Ted could hardly hold that against him. Everyone has their secrets. It's just this one in particular that nagged at him. How to begin?

"Good afternoon, Sans. I hope your frank business hasn't gone to the dogs. Tell me, are you familiar with a...shall we say, bipolar flower?"

Future: To Ronan

Ted, of course, was justice's biggest fan, both in the concrete and the abstract. He was always angling for Ronan to tell him the best stories about his time on the force, peculiar cases, and so on. Even in the short time they worked together, his legal expertise was invaluable. In the middle of one such call, like any other, Ted was especially curious about one subject they hadn't broached yet.

"Say Ronan, what are your thoughts on entrapment?"

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Mewtwo had been meditating when Ted's call came through. He opened an eye to see who was calling, and was tempted to simply ignore it. However, upon hearing the message, his curiosity was piqued. What could Ted be asking him about?

"The time is irrelevant. What do you wish to know?"

[This is unusual.]

"...ya mean Flowey?" [Yeah, he's a weed.] "What about 'im?"

How to articulate this...

"Do you remember, back in August, all those pokemon that appeared for a month? I'm curious; how like are they to the ones that came from your original world? Did they...follow the same pattern? That is, did trainers have to beat them, pitch a ball at them, capture them, then secure a rock and a related bit of bric-a-brac to hold on to them, lest they vanish?"

Ted was trying very hard to not sound too upset near the end.

Edited 2016-06-03 15:01 (UTC)

"A male flower, is he? So you are the skeleton he referred to." He paused, deep in thought, wondering how to explain the bizarre proceedings succinctly.

"...we played a sort of game. The name escapes me. It involved magic and seven-colored hearts and...well, by now you're either familiar or utterly confused. Anyway, we talked for a bit and I brought up how odd it was that sheer violence was so readily available. I made some off-hand comment about monsters being savage, you know, on account of them always needing to be slain in books and such.

That comment seemed to strip away all his sanity, and he remarked that I had 'no clue' as to the truth. Do you have any idea what he meant by that?"

[That was a question more serious than he anticipated. And yet, he feels that in some timeline, he should've been aware this was coming. Or perhaps the fact that this is not as important as others, he chose to ignore it.

Nevertheless, this was serious question and it wasn't something Sans would answer over the phone. He didn't answer, but instead hung up on Ted. He starts walking in a random direction, and emerges near Ted. The power of short-cuts.]

"Hey bud... Before I answer yer question... Why were ya talking to Flowey?"

"Sans? Hello? Sans?" Well that was weird. The coverage one the communicators was flawless; he'd never known them to have technical difficulties. First time for everything, he supposed. He redialed the number, looking upset. Did he offend? It didn't sound possible, given Sans' character. That would be almost impressive, in a perverse sort of way.

He was shocked to find things take on a three-dimensional quality so quickly, fumbling the phone and almost dropping it. "Oh! Hah, hello again, Sans. I think I just called your twin brother." He took a breath.

"Why?" He considered, statuesque in his immaculate contemplation. Asking Ted why he struck up conversation is like asking him why he breathed or thought. "My interpretive dance was rusty, and I doubt sign language would've found any purchase." He laughed, partly out of nerves. "Why not? Was I not supposed to?" He's open to the possibility, given how dark things turned.

[By now, Sans would've figured that if Flowey had the power, he would've done it already. His knowledge of timelines would inform him if timelines stopped or reset. So he was sure by now that Flowey lost that ability.]

"...What exactly did you want to know? ...About the 'truth' he insists I know?"

Ted's always down for a long story. "Erm, all of it, I suppose. Sorry; I'd give you more context, if I could, but Flowey must have felt cryptic yesterday." It doesn't help that Ted's light on specifics as a matter of course; idealists don't have time to deal in details. Ideally, Sans would just brush it off as the ravings of a lunatic, which would almost satisfy, were it not for the fact that such different looking creatures knew each other. Their relationship, at least, would have to be answered for.

Edited 2016-06-03 05:49 (UTC)

[All of it... Well, if he doesn't, then Flowey will, and Flowey will do more than just tell the truth. Sans opts to tell the story that best illustrates the truth.]

"Then yer in for a long story then, friend...

...In my world, humans and monsters lived together. A lone human child once got lost, and found itself where monsters called home... It was found by Prince Asriel Dreemurr and adopted by his parents, King and Queen Asgore and Toriel... The kids were best friends, all though mischievous, until one day... the human fell ill. Asriel tried to bring it up to the humans to hopefully save his best friend... But the humans... they didn't see it like Asriel did. They attacked the poor kid and beat him senseless while he laid on his friend to protect it..."

[Sans stopped for a moment to give Ted a moment to let that sink in before continuing.]

"...Once the humans got tired of wailing on Prince Asriel, they left. He was a bloody mess, and his adopted sibling had since died. Asriel dragged his friend's lifeless body back home... Asriel managed to make it home, only to die to his injuries.

In one night... Asgore and Toriel lost both of their children... In his anger and despair, Asgore declared war on the humans...only for all us monsters to be trapped in our homes in the underground.

...In one recent timeline...another human found itself in the Underground...and it killed everyone except those lucky enough to escape to a secure hidin' place... And the reason for its genocidal rampage...? Heh... Because it could."

[Sans shifted a couple of steps because he could.]

"So ya see, bud? Where monsters chose MERCY... You humans chose to FIGHT. So to us..."

"...you humans are the monsters."

[Sans shows no signs of hostility though. He mentioned timelines as his own way to hint at an alternative. And there was, but he was going to wait to see if Ted caught it before telling about the other fallen human and Sans' connection to Flowey.]

Yay, storytime! Ted sat criss-cross applesauce like he was back in kindergarten, listening eagerly.

It was a sadder story then he liked. No happy ending, or really any kind of ending at all. A bunch of monsters are killed without purpose, the end. Then again, that probably meant it was a retelling of history, rather than a narrative. It left him with more questions than answers.

"If I might ask a few things? If the monsters and humans lived together, why not simply return the lost child? I would think a King and Queen would have the resources for finding his parents. Unless they were dead, I suppose." Grim!

"Even then, a human being raised by monsters...I assume it'd be difficult. Heh, maybe a bit like Tarzan?"

One of the things that stuck in Ted's craw was asking him to believe that people did things without reason. He held the possibility that it was simply a bad story without sufficient character motivations, but Sans seemed sincere.

"That's awful. What kind of humans must the prince have come upon to enact violence on such a public figure like the prince? Mountain bandits?"

So it was the monsters that began the war. Ted suspected as much. "What an odd way to cut violence off at the knees; to simply segregate the two peoples, irresistibly. Rather sounds like humanity were the merciful ones that didn't want to fight, even if meant everyone's estrangement."

And then he found out what Flowey likely meant. Of course something so horrible would be compounded by, of all things, a bizarre twist involving time. Ted had difficulty following plot lines that forked and frayed like they did in time travel stories. This was the first time he'd heard of something like that happening in reality, as evidenced by his taken aback expression.

"Timeline?" Then he used the same words as the one in the game. Was that was it was? A microcosm of the forces that molded the world? Ted reminded himself to ask about that and LV later on.

And then, Ted laughed. He didn't want to; everything had gone so quickly from joy to sorrow that he almost had to. As though the dramatic need for comic relief was a real force acting on him. He'd never have guessed that monsters accepted their own connotation so humbly. His own race burst with pride by comparison. If, say, humans and aliens got into a war, they'd hardly dream to smear their enemies by calling them "the real humans." If he were a complete fool, he'd be tempted to say monsters had low self-esteem. But then, Ted thought that whole concept was silly.

His brighter mood didn't last. "Sorry...you said in one timeline. Does that mean there were others? What happened in those?"

Edited 2016-06-03 13:21 (UTC)

"The human had no family to return to.

...What ya see in Genessia and Attleton is right about the same as how monsters lived. We even have pets. So the human living in the King's castle? Heh, that's livin' the good life.

Asriel was attacked by the humans in a town nearest to the underground, so no bandits were involved. Otherwise Asriel wouldn't have made it home at all.

...So yeah, that same human who killed everyone in one timeline, instead showed nothin' but friendship and mercy in another. I don't know how the two could be so different."

[Or it could be the same human in a single timeline. The knowledge that Sans won't ever remember when the timeline is reset and his awareness of it all is what makes him consider it to be multiple timelines.

But all this talking is starting to tire him out.]

"I see." Ted furrowed his brow at the mention of the other timeline, completely opposed to the first. "That sounds like Flowey: almost schizophrenic. So...which one stuck?" Ted thought he knew enough about timelines to posit that, like Highlander, there could only be one. Either the most recent, or the one Sans came from. "Not that I doubt you, either, but how do you know all this? It's not like the 4th dimension to admit observers."

The question about Sans and Flowey was the one that burned most fiercely in his mind. It also had the potential to yield the worst answer, so Ted left it for last.

"Perhaps that explains what 'FIGHT' and 'SPARE' are about; how they're at opposite ends of each other. But it's strange. In the game, I picked 'SPARE' to see what it might do. I even hoped it would end the whole thing. But it had no effect. Speaking of the game, Flowey was unusually evasive about something. Sans, what does 'LV' mean? It appeared right beside my name, with the number 'one' near it."

[Sans wasn't going to answer which timeline stuck. Even he wasn't sure what his timeline was going to be.]

"...I have my ways."

[And explaining how he knows cryptic all on its own.]

"Showing mercy and sparing someone...that only works if the other is willing to do the same..."

[And then to the LV...]

"As for LV... it means... Love. But that, too, means something... It means... Level Of ViolencE. To gain LV...you need EXP... EXecution Points...

...So...if yer LV is 1, and EXP is 0, yer right on track with the merciful human."

[...But are you really, Ted?]

It was doubtful Ted would remain so innocent for long. Months ago, when he promised to protect Everglade, he swore he'd end Dracula's unlife if he ever got half the chance. He planned to march right back into the belly of the beast and save what he could. But it was a sinful city, and as the scriptures say, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.

Ted's curiosity was merely idle, at points, and he trusted Sans to have good reason not to tell everything. It's not unlike the opaqueness and untold mysticism of fairy tales.

"That's completely perverted. That's not in the least what 'love' means!" What devil came up with that? And using the end of a word just to make it fit? "What a tortured acronym."

Deep breaths, Ted. "Sorry; for humanity, that's a singularly precious word. It beggars my belief that it could be used that way. I'm...really very relieved to hear how I rate." Despite the abhorrent sorcery and potential evil the game afforded, it seemed to compliment Ted lavishly. First he's "Mr. Integrity", now he's a gentle spirit averse to violence. Despite the hunting trips and the roughhousing he enjoyed with Ike, Satsuki, and...Vyers.

Thinking of him brought to mind the last thing Ted wanted--needed to know.

"I mean no insult with my final query; you and Flowey are day and night. That said, how do you two know each other? Are you...the same race? Both monsters?"

[Believe what you will. But monsters have their own form of love and romance. He doesn't dwell on the human concept of love.]

"Flowey and I... We are monsters, yes. But, Flowey... If given a chance... He will kill you... And kill you... And kill you...over and over, time and again, as many times as he wants.

He is a twisted buttercup."

They may as well have been in an encounter, for Ted's heart broke. It was pathetically obvious in his face.

"I...I see." He'd hoped for Flowey to be someone he could befriend; their last episode had ended on a sour, even evil, note, but now any hope of salvaging it was dashed.

But the other hope Sans dashed was seventy times worse. Tears welled up; his voice cracked. He took short, panicky breaths. A lump knotted in his throat. "Thank you for telling me everything." He asked for the truth. He almost wished he hadn't.

"I should go." That's the nearest Ted could get to lying to Sans. He didn't have anywhere to be. He just wanted to run away.

[Sans can remember the promise he made to the old lady, and how difficult it was to make that promise. Using that memory, he would try to console Ted. Well...try, and fail. Sans couldn't find the motivation to move.]

"...Whelp, sorry bud."

[He begins to walk away in a random direction that wouldn't lead him anywhere, but then he stops.]

"...if it means anythin'... I believe even the worst might have a drop a good in them somewhere. That even the worst can change for the better...if they just try..."

[He slowly turns around and approaches the teary-eyed human, taking his left hand from his coat pocket and lightly touch him on the shoulder.]

"...If, uh... if anyone can find any amount a good in Flowey..."

"...it might just be you."

Edited 2016-06-03 15:32 (UTC)

Ted gave the barest motion to assure he'd heard him, then went away to any solitary place he could find, hoping he'd hid the horrified look on his face. It was the final evil of their conversation. He'd really given Sans the impression that it was Flowey he was so upset about. Like he gave a quarter of a damn what would happen to that poisonous weed. Villains like that are a dime a dozen. How did Ted always do that? How was he able to convince them he was better than he was by saying nothing?

What a perverse irony. He'd sought out the truth, then left with a lie. Just as well; if he told Sans everything, he'd think so much less of him. Anyone would.

Finally, he happened upon a place where none would hear. It wasn't Flowey's fate that upset him so dearly. It was Sans'. He'd just told him that they're the same kind of creature, with all that went with it.

Ted thought about the kingdom of heaven constantly. How to get there, what it would be like, sometimes even how he might get others there too. Especially Everglade. His wildest daydreams involved turning that city from Sodom into Nineveh; maybe even Zion. And Sans, with a cruel kindness, ignited a hope that to Ted meant nothing, while dousing another that meant so much more.

Monster souls are temporal. They aren't made for eternity. That meant that ultimately, Sans would leave him. They would never see each other in heaven. Not even in hell. Maybe not today, maybe not next week, but one day he'd awake and find one of his dearest friends irrevocably gone.

Leave it to an idealist like him to despair for things that haven't happened. Ted couldn't ignore the pattern. The pokemon he captured, Justice, Strength, Moon, Vyers, and...Death. He loved the monsters he knew as dearly as a dream. Figures they'd all vanish just as readily.

He felt awful, and spoke awfully. "So this is why he's named 'Sans'. Why can't they all just drop dead and get it over with? I hate monsters." Ted fell and wept bitterly.

Edited 2016-06-03 22:32 (UTC)

Mewtwo sighed, closing his eyes again. Of all the dumb questions...

"Of course not. We are not some mythical force separate from our own world. We are every bit a normal and natural part of our world as humans are. This world, however, was not originally native to Pokemon, and while we can adapt to our surroundings, we are subject to this place's rules just as much as humans."

Why he was granted a pendant and permanent residence here... well that was a mystery he was still working out.

If he were in a better mood, he'd have laughed at "natural"; the Kanto scientists must have kept themselves very busy explaining half the fantastic things they were capable of. In any case, the original ones sounded much better than these. Right now he's simply frustrated; Ted's angling for details, for once. He also didn't quite believe the one answer he got; that the pokemon were connected to the place, same as themselves. If they died, would they reappear sans one memory? Ted's not exactly eager to experiment.

"So what are the differences, comparatively? Between the ones you remember and the ones that appeared here, albeit temporarily? Please, in as much detail as you can."

The level of detail Ted was asking for was... disconcerting at best. It's as if he knew something - or suspected something - and was looking for confirmation. "...Why does it matter? They are what they are, and nothing I say will change that."

Ted withheld a facepalm. Of course Mewtwo wouldn't care about these things. Utilitarian to the point of tautology. It seemed he'd exhausted his curiosity on the day they first met. He felt a twinge of nostalgia. He paused, before his features were momentarily galvanized. Koishi. She would know. There may still be one thing Justice knew too.

"...I'm afraid my need for answers is morbid, though born out of caution. Mewtwo, have you ever known a pokemon like mine to," Ted swallowed, "Die? And if so, did they return, like we can? I ask because, as is typical, we've had our fair share of breakneck adventures; some dangerous. They've helped save the life of myself and others. But if their mortality was more severe than ours...well, I'd like to know what I'm risking."

[It's not like Ronan's never employed the tactic before...]

It's...got it's place. Why?

Ted laughed. "Is that right? Last I checked it was illegal. You know, the compulsive kind, where a cop lies to someone about the legality of a situation, or tries to pressure someone into something. Granted, the world's laws aren't a perfect mirror of our own, but we're both Americans. Or did Salem view it differently?

What about its benign variant; oh, what was it, those...bait cars, yes! Or bikes. You know, where cops would set up a handsome vehicle, make it look as appealing as possible, then follow it back to a warehouse or something once it found its way to the source. Supposed to be very good at rooting out thefts of that sort.

Oh, I'm simply curious."

Sometimes, you know a guy did something, but you don't have a reason to bring him in, so you bait him. Piss him off. Make him screw up. That's what I'm talking about.

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