ｏｏ１． ➟ 【video】

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'Zodian' as this place is called... I demand some answers.

[ the video focuses on a tall boy, standing beside a golden-scaled dragon-type pokemon. the pokemon appears fierce with its axe-like tusks and red eyes, but is calm beside its trainer, watching the screen over his shoulder

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[video] 1/idk

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[video] just kidding combo over...

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[WHAT.]

--Cheren?!

[Pretty close to the microphone there, whoops.]

I-- did you just get here?!

you got me all excited for nothing!!

[haltings]

[ he'll wince as he hears Touko's loud voice blasting out from the device, but he doesn't seem visibly irritated anymore as he recognizes her. ]

Touko. I did. Where are you? I'll find you- [ a pause. and he thinks, eyebrows furrowing slightly. ]

...no. It's probably best if you find me. I don't know my way around this place yet. I assume that all people arrive where I am currently.

lmao sorry my icons are too shit ;_;

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...Point taken. Gimme five minutes.

[...Ignoring that she should probably be explaining FIRST, rather than keeping him waiting...]

[action]

[...More like seven and a half minutes before she comes dashing up.]

Hey, Cheren! Sit down somewhere.

lies. i see those new additions!

[haltings]

[ he opens his mouth to complain just as the feed clicks off. he sighs and grumbles, and haxorus carefully nudges his cheek with it's own. the two stand in silence until Touko arrives. Cheren is petting haxorus as he glances over at her. ]

You're a little late. [ but he's not mad. he sighs. ] I'm glad to see you're fine though.

[ and take a seat he shall, though he of course looks for a proper ledge or something instead of the ground. ]

/)_(\

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Well, I'm not Bianca-late. Don't I get credit for that?

[She grins, then leans in and needles his shoulder.]

Yeah, well, you'll want to be sitting down when you hear all this. Where do I even start?

[Pause. For a moment, her eyes dip beneath her hat, and then she comes back up with a smile.

Protip: it's totally a ruse.]

I hope... um. You aren't a virgin, for starters.

1/2 oh btw i use japanese names, just ignore them <__>

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I suppose. Is Bel here as well?

[ his eyes narrow but he'll simple needle her in return, not too hard, though.

he'll listen to her, open and inviting any and all information, until... ]

[haltings]

...excuse me?

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I don't think she is, but all the better if not, at this point.

Since... I really, really wish I was kidding about that.

[She sighs and kicks the dirt.]

Okay. There are twelve gods. You heard that much. What they didn't tell you in the fine print is that the worship is supposed to be... sex with someone else. Everybody here has to do it once a month, or the gods start getting impatient.

The place has food and shelter and all, but... we're pretty much being stuffed in a glass cage and expected to do that to help them.

[A glance up. Her explanation was pretty straightforward as far as such things go, but she still seems pretty mortified.]

...Now you know why I told you to sit down.

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... [ Cheren is eerily quiet here. he pushes up his glasses, his arms rested on his knees as he leans forward. there is a moment where he holds his forehead with his hand, seemingly thinking hard about what Touko has just explained to him.

...his eyes are shut tight as he pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose. again. he's pretty frazzled, and it's obvious by the way he's acting. ]

...what else?

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...They have our Pokemon. Mine, too. I only have Samurott left.

[Touko takes a breath and takes a single step closer. She can see how disturbed he is, easily.]

It's hard to swallow, I know. But as long as there's still a small hope, let's put our faith in it. There's no such thing as a perfect plan, even if it seems that way on its face.

[haltings]

As you can see, haxorus is the only one here with me.

[ Cheren will wait a beat before sitting up straight, arms crossed across his chest. ]

I understand what is...required of me. No matter how...bizarre it is, I will do it.

[ ugh ]

Somehow.

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[Oh, the feeling's definitely shared. Regardless... at least he's taking it better than she did at first. Eventually, she reaches out to grab his wrists and tug him to his feet again.]

--Well, enough about that for now. I'm gonna show you around, and hopefully we'll find the place you're supposed to stay in the process.

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[ he'll let her, getting up on his own but not snatching his wrist back or anything. for conveniences sake he'll place haxorus back in it's pokeball. Touko was lighter on her feet than the poor dragon, he didn't want to exhaust him - especially when he seemed weaker here for some reason. ]

The architecture here is amazing, in the very least.

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[Touko actually seems pretty happy right now, circumstances be damned. Problem is, she has no idea where to look for Cheren's housing, so she's just kind of going in the first direction that comes to mind.]

It's not like anything in Unova. Which I guess is pretty easy to see by the lack of Pokemon, but when you look at it closer... obviously these gods hail from a totally different world.

Weirdly enough, there's stuff like kitchen appliances in the apartments, but everything else is pretty basic when it comes to technology.

[haltings]

It's like something from an old civilization, similar to the interior of Dragonspiral Tower.

I would assume it's their way of trying to make us more 'comfortable' here. [ tch. he'd rather not be here at all. ]