OPEN - am I blue? you'd be too

[halloflamer]

Who: Blue Oak and yoooou
Where: Mt. Silver's peak, Heavenly Blanc, and Mortis Lake (maybe Merlaut Apartments later)
When: throughout voidcember!
What: Between Red and Lance vanishing, Ren and Akechi seemingly vanishing, and Mementos, Blue has been having a real Bad Time.
Content Warnings: alcohol abuse, depression


A. Mortis Lake Forest

[When Blue is stressed out, he has a few ways of dealing with it. The healthiest one, thankfully, comes first.]

[Although they may not having all their usual abilities, having his full team of Pokémon back meant that Blue could get back into the swing of a training routine, and that was at least the first step in keeping his mind straight. Mortis Lake was a great place for this- Gyarados chills in the lake waters for a happy soak while Exeggutor sits amongst the other trees next to a meditating Alakazam, watching as Blue directs Arcanine and Pidgeot in Agility training. Eevee is trying to follow along, although even quick as he is, he can't make such powerful single bounds and dashes as the powerful 'windy' Pokémon can.]

Come on, Arcanine! A little quicker! This time, try to make it to that notched tree over there and back before Pidgeot makes it to that treetop and back! [Blue calls, absorbed in his training. He looks... exhausted, almost like he himself has been pushing at this for hours without a break. You'll have to forgive him and his Pokémon if they don't see you directly in the path of their makeshift training arena.]


B. Heavenly Blanc

[Whether it's before the disappearance of his coworker or after, patrons of Heavenly Blanc might find the bar.... less regularly manned than it usually is. At first, maybe one could chalk it up to the strange sleep cycles everyone has found themselves beholden to, but those that catch the bar's usual tender might realize that's not the only reason.]

[Those that knew him well probably knew Blue was a fan of the bottle to begin with, but the way he's slumped over the bar, or in of the booths, or laying spread eagle on the floor probably makes it obvious this isn't just his usual casual, raucous overdrinking. If a patron enters while he's miserably laying about, he'll blink up slowly, squint, and try to roll himself up. Gotta... get back to work...]

Ah, customer... jus' gimme a second...


C. Mt. Silver's Peak

[And when he just can't bring himself to face the outside world anymore, he goes to where's most familiar to him.]

[...It's sort of laughable that it's this place. It hurts, more than it helps; huddled up on the cavern at the peak, Blue looks out over the world of the void that he can see in glimpses between the veils of snow that fall, below the misty cloudcover that swirls this high up. He wonders if Red always looked down over Kanto like this, wanting to return, but unable to bear it. That was probably how it felt, right? ...Who can know what that guy was ever feeling, or thinking...]

[Blue tucks his face into his knees and sniffles, hard and gross, shivering against the warmth of his Arcanine, who whines and nuzzles against him. That idiot.... there was no way of knowing what had happened to him- if he had slipped and fallen down the mountain, if he'd gotten eaten in those terrible corridors full of monsters and mouths- or if he'd simply ...gotten tired of people again, and vanished somewhere. Gotten tired of him again.]

[Well, in the end, as Blue had always supposed back then- he wouldn't blame him.]

Comments

[forceofnature]

What a terrible attempt.

[Viridi snorts.]

Got it in one, didn't I? Don't get bent out of shape. It's one of the quintessential human life problems, right up there with 'I'm 35 and I still live in my mom's basement' and 'it's 8pm but I'm too lazy to make myself food.'

I'm not joking.

I don't really feel love, exactly, but the purpose of love is to bond people together so intimately that they never wish to be apart. It promotes social harmony and the advancement of a species. What you're feeling is an unfortunate side-effect.

But! What it also means is that you've found somebody who cared deeply about you and whom you cared about so much that you're willing to risk this pain. And isn't that the true measure of the human experience?

Besides, you're just going to end up back home sooner or later anyway. It's not like they're dead.

[halloflamer]

[Being told not to get bent out of shape, unsurprisingly enough, has the opposite effect- but then again, she's got him so pegged that he can't really say anything to that if he wanted to.]

[...How does she know about the 8 pm snacc....]

[He is listening, despite his petulance. Whatever other personality "quirks" this nature guardian might have, she's lived for eons, right? ...So it isn't like she's speaking out of a lack of experience or observation, even if maybe things of this nature (hah) didn't usually concern her.]

Shockingly scientific appraisal, coming from you. [He tries to be acidic about it, as pointless as it likely is. Underneath that all, though, what she's saying isn't.... wrong. And it's not even necessarily that he doesn't know- but knowing logically what causes the hurt, and actually coming to terms with living with it, was what he'd spent half his life struggling with.]

Do we really know that? That we're gonna get out of here. That we're gonna go home. [It was the most obvious assumption, maybe, but... He wasn't sure there was any way to be certain.]

[forceofnature]

Of course I'm scientific! [Viridi looks disgruntled.] I'm the Goddess of Nature. I invented the birds and the bees.

[so probably, this is her fault. viridi will redirect blame to the off-screen goddess of love, though]

Not really. But I have no intention of sticking around. As soon as this place finally recognizes my divine power, it's going to be wham, bam, let's blow this popsicle stand.

[...A pause.]

Oh. I guess you might die of old age. Eh, it's probably fine; they haven't gotten to aging yet.

[halloflamer]

...I guess you've got a point, but nature in this place isn't exactly-- er, natural, is it? And if you don't have any control over that, you don't really have any divine power, huh?

Not sure what makes you think you're gonna be recognized. [Now he's just bitter, and being a brat. Will he regret this if Viridi does regain her powers? Probably. But that's a problem for future Blue!]

[Speaking of...]

I'm pretty sure I'm gonna die of boredom before I die of old age, [Blue grumbles, fashioning another snowball. This time, apparently bored of target practice, he starts making a tiny snowman to sit next to himself.] My Pokémon can't even battle, and I can't train the new ones, either. What the Furret am I supposed to do around here if I can't even train or catch Pokémon?

[The only two options, obviously.]

[forceofnature]

Nnnnnnnnnnnnngh.

[Viridi makes a sound of disgruntlement and continues to sound like a cow in the wrong phoneme for a few moments.]

I'll get it eventually! You can't not have gods. All worlds have gods! Sooner or later, it will come around - we're the first ones born in most worlds! What kind of mythology goes, "And from Chaos stepped forth bears with spikes and spicy lava?" No one's ever heard of that! It's Chronos - time! Or Ymir - the giant of frost!

This is just backwards.

And why don't you just go and make friends and take care of the new animals? Isn't that the same thing as what you did before?

[halloflamer]

I get what you mean, but so far we haven't heard of anything. So if you're basically just another mortal now, I doubt we're gonna know any better until-- whatever brought us here is good and ready.

[As absurd as her retelling is- Blue likes to think he has a healthy respect for the natural order of the world! And he'd hope that a so-called Goddess of Nature would too.]

[This place? Was far from 'natural'. So who could say what controlled it....]

Sheesh, do you really think people can just be replaced like that!? New friends are great and all, but... A-anyway, the Pokémon here don't seem to have any abilities, either. So I guess whatever took your powers away decided Pokémon should be boring, too.

[forceofnature]

I didn't say 'replace' your friends, I said make new ones and commune with the animals so you don't spend your time moping on a mountain in a snowstorm.

You're just trying to find reasons not to self-improve.

[Viridi assumes a superior expression.]

Take it or leave it! That's the advice of a god bestowed upon a lowly mortal.

[halloflamer]

[Blue balks at the accusation, and although he's rankled, it's... not like she's wrong, and he knows it. His jaw clenches, but aside from an ineffective glare, what is he gonna say to that?]

...Tch. Thanks for the blessing, [He begrudgingly mutters, plopping a second snowball atop his first. It's coming out to be quite the squat little Snow-vee.] You know, it's kinda funny to hear that advice when I'm just copying that loser, anyway.

Pretty lame of me, huh?

[forceofnature]

I have no idea what pre-existing mental hang-up you're referring to, but if you want me to say 'no,' you don't know me very well.

[obviously. they've talked for 10 minutes.]

But you can be better than 'that loser.' ...Or if the thought gives you some sort of complex, just like, stop comparing yourself to 'that loser.'

[halloflamer]

I mean Red, [He grumbles- he's slowly learning to push past Viridi's bluntness. He can adapt! Or at least pretend to be unaffected. He'll sulk about it more later.] For a long time when we were kids, he came and parked his butt up here on the mountain, avoiding everyone. Went through his own moping phase.

Well, it was my fault, though. So if you wanna call it a complex, I guess you're not wrong.

[Being up here kind of helped him feel closer, in a way. Sure, it wasn't any less pathetic... But not comparing himself to Red, now that was an impossible ask.]

Ahhhh.... Don't worry. I'll get over it eventually. I just need to miss other people more than I miss him.

Why're you bothering to talk all this out with me, anyway? Is lowly, mortal drama more interesting than whatever else you could stir up?

[forceofnature]

Oh, right.

[The guy he was clearly in love with. Viridi identifies with the thought of calling your love obsession 'that loser.']

I'm helping you because I'm a magnanimous, kind, beautiful and dewy-skinned perfect goddess!

[actually blue got it in one.]

Also I like your dog.

[In a stage whisper, she leans towards Arcanine and asks if he wants to live with her, instead. She offers cookies.]

[halloflamer]

Hmmmmm.

[Read Blue's face: not buying it. But, you know what? She took the time to talk to him rather than just ditching, and that had to count for something, right?]

[So, he'll let the deflection slide; besides, Arcanine is the one that truly deserves all this attention.]

That's fair, [Blue shrugs, watching as Arcanine makes an unsure, grumbling sound at the question, but perks up the moment cookies are brought into play. Now you have him on board!] He likes spicy food, [Blue comments helpfully.] Fire-type and all.

[forceofnature]

I'll make them out of spicy lava. Come see me later. Ditch the human.

[She continues to whisper enticingly.]

OK, anyway, now that I've cured all your problems, I officially declare this mountain mope-free.

I am going to go get a milkshake.