friendship was a mistake [closed]

[blue_ice]

They all needed a vacation, he'd said. They should take it together, he'd said.

After that little bit of uncharacteristic thoughtfulness on Kaiba's part, he regretted it almost immediately. But the plans were now set in motion, too far along to stop without undoing the progress he'd been making these last few weeks.

That was how he found himself on Hano Beach, dressed in his casual beach wear (with cargos. rip.) and sitting on a large trunk full of Stuff. His smaller Pokémon are nearby, playing in a shallow puddle he'd carefully dug for them and stuck an umbrella over.

There's a table with Anela's famous berry smoothies, also with an umbrella over it, and chairs for the humans to sit and relax. Have fun. Try not to kill each other.

Comments

part one: busting on the beach

[blue_ice]

Come enjoy a smoothie, lounge a while, go for a swim, or chat amongst yourselves. It's all about that chill life.

seto: before the disaster strikes

[blue_ice]

...okay, so the mess is already in progress. They've showed up with more guests than he'd planned on, and he's not sure the tents are big enough. Really, Zahra should've made them bring their own if they were going to spring a surprise like that on him.

He's decided to blow off steam by hitting the waves sitting on a surfboard with Kisara balancing on the edge, urging her trainer to take her into the waves so she can practice her new tricks. He obliges, and...yeah, Kaiba can surf now, even if he's not a pro at it yet. He's just the balancer while Kisara flips and waves, though.

Passersby should also watch out for Goliath. The sneaky Sobble is using his camouflage ability to turn invisible, then shoot streams of water at passersby. He chirps happily every time he manages to hit someone.

Just happy to be included

[gm_of_my_own_soul]

Beach hat: On. Bathing trunks: On. Giant legendary egg: on the beach towel. Watermelon: ready to get smashed.

Ryou didn’t go to the beach often but he did know people go to the beach to swim and enjoy the sand. He also knows they’re here to enjoy the food. Besides the watermelon, sitting there humbly next to the volleyball, Ryou has brought a bunch of supermarket snacks and is chomping away at some malsadas.

“MMmmm... these are so good...”

You should join him!

There also seems to be a weird purple glow around him. Maybe you should check it out even if you aren’t hungry...

[bloomingdespite]

"Hey."

Zahra flops down next to Ryou, laying in the sand and looking up at the sky.

It feels... weird, being with Ryou instead of the Ring-Spirit after all the time they've spent together. Hell, Zahra has been friends with the Spirit for longer than they've been friends with the Ryou on their world.

Which was kind of fucked up? And probably needed to be fixed.

"I'm Zahra." They offer a hand towards him.

[gm_of_my_own_soul]

Truly, it was a testament to how fucked up being a prisoner in your own body is.

But maybe it’s different wherever Zahra is from?

Ryou blinks as he is joined and smiled at the person. He’s already been told this is neither Anzu nor Yami, so this is just a new person. It doesn’t bother him at all and he smiles.

“And I am Bakura Ryou. Nice to meet you, Zahra. Lovely day, neh?”

[bloomingdespite]

"Yeah. I mean, most days are in Alola, but this one stands out." Zahra chuckles, staring up at the sky. "Although I probably shouldn't say that, considering that every time I so much as thought about how much of a beautiful day it was on our roadtrip we inevitably got jumped by a cultist and/or the weather went to shit."

oh if only you knew how right you were zahra,

[gm_of_my_own_soul]

Ryou laughs a little, though it is a little confused.

“That seems so specific. Sounds like you and the beach have disagreements, often,” Ryou said. He curls up on the sand and idly traces images in it, idly drawing ghosts around Slifer.

[bloomingdespite]

"Less the beach and more the concept of vacationing itself, but. Semantics."

what does that even mean,

[gm_of_my_own_soul]

“Oh right. That’s fair. I mean... I can imagine vacations end up as world saving and ending adventures, right?”

[bloomingdespite]

"It was more like we tried to take a vacation in the middle of the apocalypse and it didn't work out."

[gm_of_my_own_soul]

"Understandable," Ryou says. You gotta have vacations whenever you need them but Ryou understands sometimes life gets in your way.

"You really don't talk much, do you?" Ryou asks. "You give a lot of one sentence answers and don't elaborate. We may have just met but we're hoping to be friends, neh? It's okay to talk if you want."

And satisfy his own curiosity.

[bloomingdespite]

"I. Um." God this is an absolutely horrible topic of conversation Zahra really hates this-

"Here's the thing. I... we... kind. Of. Knew the spirit. For a lot longer than we knew you." Zahra looks away, sighing. "And it feels weird, knowing how much you hate him, and kind of us by extension on my world, and we're just... having a casual conversation."

[gm_of_my_own_soul]

Ryou blinks innocently at the statement and tilts his head.

"Well, I'm not the Ryou, you know. And I can't imagine why I'd hate you by extension. The ring spirit is his own person, so you're not accountable for anything he does." Ryou bites into his food. "And even if you did do something, you didn't do it to me. So maybe think of it like a fresh start."

[bloomingdespite]

Zahra blinks. Wow. They did not think it would be that easy. Normally these kinds of things were an ordeal in of themselves on their world. Emotionally draining duels where both parties screamed at one another before begging for forgiveness and hugging it out. That kind of thing.

They sigh, then give Ryou a genuine smile. "In that case... it's nice to meet you, Ryou." Zahra offers a hand for him to shake.

[improvking]

Somebody plops down on the sand in front of Ryou, facing him. ...Somebody who uh. looks like another Ryou? A Ryou with two horn/antenna-things of hair. The new-arrival steals a bag of crisps and starts munching on them, watching original-Ryou the whole time.

"What's with the purple." His tone is carefully neutral, but yeah that is definitely the Ring-Spirit's voice. No Ring in sight, but. that's him.

[gm_of_my_own_soul]

Ryou had seen him when the gods were raging and Zahra was crazy. However, he had dismissed it as a hallucination. He hadn’t seen the ring spirit since high school and thought it was just trauma.

But he was here. Eating his chips and staring at him. And that was the voice he heard in his head and nightmares.

Ryou wants to scream but he can’t. He only stares in shock.

“I... you’re here... how?”

Ryou leans back, terrified out of his wits. However, the purple begins to shift towards the sand.

Two tendrils of seaweed shoot out like harpoons and suddenly tries to grab the ring spirit.

[improvking]

Information garnered: yes his double knows him, and is Unhappy about that fact (understandable), but also his presence is in and of itself... bewildering somehow? The Spirit barely has time to process any of that though before suddenly! Seaweed attacks!

"Fuck!" The Ring-Spirit dodges pretty darn gracefully - tombrobber reflexes long outlast the original body apparently - but then he Realizes.

The purple, the seaweed... a pokemon, duh. A pokemon picking a fight with him. And he's totally taking that challenge, because he knows what good decisions are. He snarls at the sand and briefly glowers at his double as well. "Convince ya boy you're not part of the pokemon or you're part of this."

[gm_of_my_own_soul]

Ryou gasps as the sand begins to peel off of the body under it. From beneath Ryou, a Dhelmise appears.

“Ahab!” Did you really name the Dhelmise after a Moby Dick character, Ryou?

“Ahab, please stop. He’s not hurting me!” Yet.

The Pokémon hisses and floats menacingly. It shoots a shadow ball between Ryou and the spirit. Sure, it purposely made it easy to dodge but the threat is there.

1/2

[improvking]

Hm! Alright then, the (admittedly feeble) protests towards the dhelmise are good enough for the Spirit to decide he's not dealing with some kind of shapeshifter-that-uses-doppelgangers-as-lures pokemon. (...If the pokedex is to be believed, this is a perfectly valid concern.)

The Spirit turns his full attention to the dhelmise, expression shifting into a predatory grin. Sure, he'll take advantages just handed to him... he rolls from this attack, ending in a crouch. "A warning shot~? How nice of you, h-heh heh..."

2/2

[improvking]

The Spirit's posture tenses, clearly about to leap at the pokEMON what is wrong with him - but he never does. Instead, a mimikyu appears (from where? not from a pokeball, she's just, there, now,,) and smacks him with her wooden 'tail', sending him flying. ...Wait was that a full-out attack move,

Damn straight it was. A pretty solid hit too - not enough to KO him, but uh. The Spirit looks a just bit out of it. ...from. over there, where he landed,,

[gm_of_my_own_soul]

Ryou has no idea why the spirit wants to fight a ghost. Did he have a reason to fight? Ahab was responding to the bad vibes, but the spirit?

Ryou is about to throw a warning out when suddenly there’s... a small creature? The man blinks as it sends him comically off and he frowns.

“Uh... thank you?” He offers the Mimikyu.

The Dhelmise gives a chuckle and expresses its own thanks to Mimikyu for getting that ‘unruly hedgehog’ away from its friend.

“I... you’re alive, right?” Ryou yells over. Thanks Ryou.

[improvking]

The mimikyu looks at Ryou. She looks over at the Spirit. She looks up at the dhelmise. That she's noting the similarities and discrepancies between humans(?? does the Spirit count as human?) is pretty clear. But why is she looking at the dhelmise with so much confusion?

She makes a few exasperated whispery-shrieks at the Ring-Spirit, and then directs a steady stream of softly discordant hissing noises at the dhelmise. It seems there's been a misunderstanding: the mimikyu came over to correct the Spirit's 'continuing refusal to battle properly' - but is that not what's happening? She demands to know what 'the disaster' is 'fucking up now'.

When Ryou calls to him, the Ring-Spirit huffs and finally gets to his feet. "S'not like ya boy can die." (He has no idea why he believes this, but he believes it strongly enough to likewise believe that he does have a reason. Unless he doesn't! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

[gm_of_my_own_soul]

Ahab, now out of the sand, is also noticing the strange similarities and thinking about it quietly. Then, noticing Mimikyu’s eyes, the ghost looks at the other Pokémon. There is a small pause before the Dhelmise gives a low hum. This is true. The spirit is not battling properly... and messing something up?

“You can’t die? Like... okay. That’s weird.” Ryou does look fascinated by that before he remembers this is indeed the Ring Spirit and not a typical ghost or occult thing. “... but... you know you can’t die but you don’t know who I am? What kind of amnesia is this?”

[improvking]

The mimikyu continues her hissing whispers to the dhelmise, side-eyeing the Ring-Spirit from deep within her homemade costume. Apparently, the Spirit 'messes up everything' because he's 'an idiot'. This is why she's taken it upon herself to babysit him.

The Spirit, meanwhile, seems to understand her whispering and glares at the mimikyu indignantly. He's about ready to argue against some of her points, but Ryou's questions distract him.

"Tch, so I've forgotten the details, I still have instincts." Clearly I am for sure immortal, maybe is ~just one of those gut feelings~ and needs no proof. What kind of question is that. "I might not remember you, but I knew to be careful about my approach - for all the good it did." He gives the dhelmise a sour glance. If 'Ahab' is staying over there... hm.

He eyes the mimikyu calculatingly, then sizes up Ahab and Ryou. HM. ...Ok fine, fight on hold for the moment. He stalks back just close enough to grab the bag of chips he'd dropped. "What set that off, I didn't even do anything."

yet

Ryou, Dhelmise can drain an ENTIRE WAILORD you hopeless friend.

[gm_of_my_own_soul]

Dhelmise gives a hum of approval. How noble of you, Mimikyu. Humans certainly needed to be minded and protected. Ahab themself has to look after Ryou because the boy seems like he has no survival instincts in the slightest.

"You have instincts?" Ryou says doubtfully. However, his hair still stands on end. The arrogant, cocky attitude certainly told him this was the spirit...

"I don't know... Ahab seems to get a bit antsy whenever I'm... uneasy or angry." Ryou sighs and eats a little bit of his food. "Man, I'm so tired."

Well... Ahab has been sucking his energy which is why Ryou's so tired and hungry. And being scared made energy taste bad, Spirit. Ryou knows about this and allows it but he doesn't exactly want to share his Pokemon's dietary habits.