Post-Event Reaction Log!

[lucetimods]

Who: Everybody
What: Post-Event Reactions
When: Today (and tomorrow too)
Where: Anywhere
Summary: Most of Luceti was back to their normal selves. Not only that, but they now remembered their trips to other worlds. So how 'bout that?
Rating: Whatever

This is for today and tomorrow, since not everyone will be fully reverted until then. Remember to tag your characters in!

Comments

[semper_cogitans]

[... oh. That... that would explain things, then.

Robert visibly deflates, but he nods, tersely.]

... I... I have c-come to... accept many things here that... I w-would not have accepted before, Don...

... I will... at least listen. I owe you... that much.

[And though he wants to cling to his Terran mannerisms - or, what is left of them - especially hard after this experiment...]

... Perhaps... we should b-both share more of ourselves...

[i_speak_softly]

[... It's going to be okay.]

[Don moves over to the tree, pries his shuriken out of it with a practiced twist, and vanishes the projectile back into his elbow pad.]

Do you know how much you've changed, since I met you?

[He was shaken by how much he'd moved on from his own former life, and Robert didn't get that first-hand comparison.]

[semper_cogitans]

[Robert shakes his head a little; with a twinge of regret and shame - if he doesn't know Don entirely now, he certainly can't say that he knows what Don was like before.]

... if... this p-place changed you as much as it... changed me...

[i_speak_softly]

[Don leans back against the tree, and looks up through the branches with their new leaves.]

It hurt. Being home.

[semper_cogitans]

[Robert looks up too, more out of reflex than anything. The air feels cold on his still-wet cheeks.]

... It... hurt...?

... Why?

[i_speak_softly]

[Still looking thoughtfully at the sky:]

I was injured and starving and this - [He jerks a thumb over his shoulder at his carapace.] - was a mess and I had never realized how bad it felt. It was dark and the refrigerator was empty and everything I owned had been salvaged from the garbage and I couldn't go outside. April called and she's an amazing person but she'll never see me the way you do. I thought I knew why but... now I'm afraid it's something else.

[He'll stop there; it seems like enough.]

[semper_cogitans]

[...

... What does Robert say to that?

He's silent for a few long seconds, like heartbeats.

He knew Don's life had been hard, before. That he'd been in poverty; that he'd been isolated and alone, separate from so many things Robert had taken for granted growing up. That even most people take for granted...

... But to have it spelled out like that, in such bleak, frank words, really hits home.]

... Don, I... [What can he say to that?]

[i_speak_softly]

[He tips his head to the side, to see Robert's reaction.]

That's some of what I wanted you to know. About my life before Luceti.

[semper_cogitans]

[Well, it certainly worked.]

... I... I wish I could have... d-done something for you. [Anything. Anything to help Don's family out of that.]

... It is... unfair, that your family - your w-wonderful family - was... living in such conditions...

[i_speak_softly]

[Don shrugs; he doesn't want to go down that path.]

It was what it was.

Do you want to tell me anything about yours?

[semper_cogitans]

[What does he remember about the beautiful world he visited with Mewtwo?]

... Mewtwo... took me to visit Kanto.

Though... he was, er, preoccupied. So to speak. I have the impression that, had we had more time, he would have... not hesitated in chasing the woman I encountered early on with him... She was dangerous, and... succeeded in immobilizing several Trainers at once, but... there was little we could do.

So... we spent the time exploring the planet, instead...

[i_speak_softly]

[Don is silent, waiting for Robert to continue. Visiting a planet full of strange creatures sounds like every astrobiologist's dream.]

[semper_cogitans]

[In a way, it was. Robert's expression softens as he continues.]

... Kanto is... beautiful, Don. So... so expansive, and the forests are... p-pristine...

... And the sheer variety of Pokémon - the general term for the organisms there - is... enormous.

... I still... r-remember many of their names. [From when he "studied" them.]

[i_speak_softly]

[Something occurs to him.]

You remember living there.

[semper_cogitans]

Yes. [Robert's face is distant now - almost faraway.] I remember Cerulean well... almost as if I had been truly born there.

My memory... does not allow me to forget easily.

[i_speak_softly]

I know. I have the same thing.

[semper_cogitans]

[It hurts, doesn't it? And yet...]

... The worst part is... missing Hematite. I know he... was never truly real, and... and y-yet...

[To have that taken from him...]

[i_speak_softly]

Your, um... I'm sorry. [He can't remember what it's called.]

[semper_cogitans]

Magnemite. [He still remembers the technical detail.] Thirty centimetres tall... six kilograms... Electric/Steel type...

[The moves they could learn. The places they were wild in Kanto. What they evolve into. It's all there, in his head, just like it was meant to be...]