Nerdstein [complete!]

[will_be_god]

Characters: Cyrus, Django, Jupiter
Time period: 1000 AD
Location: Millennium Fair
Time of day: Early evening
Content: An empty fair with a robot and a disembodied head. Insert slow music box music and you have any given horror movie ever.
Warnings: Paranoia! Surprisingly unrelated to most of that.

Comments

[g3_jupiter]

The sight of the portal had made Jupiter shiver, for it had immediately reminded her of that fateful moment when the Gods had been summoned...

Still, she reasoned, if the Gods were on the other end, she was going to give them a piece of her mind. And if the portal led to the cramped hideout she called her home, that would have been welcome as well.

Surprisingly, going through the portal felt a lot like using one of those teleport platforms in the Galactic Headquarters. She hadn't registered the feeling the first time, and being reminded of the most glorious days of Team Galactic made her smile pleasedly.

Once past the portal, she blinked.

She had relived her memories before, but they had never been so odd and so realistic at the same time.

[g3_jupiter]

Jupiter followed Cyrus, inwardly a bit upset that their moment of intimacy had been broken so abruptly.

As she walked, she looked around herself. "It seems... Festive, like a carnival of sorts, but it's deserted..." she observed aloud. "I thought I smelled food earlier."

As Cyrus' words, her head fell in shame. "If you think of my presence here as a hinderance, I will leave you alone."

[will_be_god]

"This world is strange," Cyrus mused, seeming at first to have nothing to do with her words. "People appear and vanish, and some reappear later. If we are separated, you must continue to spread our word." Then he turned back towards her. "But now we dine together. You seem famished."

[g3_jupiter]

"Th-that is correct!" Jupiter replied to Cyrus' observation. As usual, he could read right through her. How could he do that?

"So this is not our world, huh. Neither the world you and I were born in, nor the world we had meant to create. Is that correct?" she asked. She found that as long as she was with him, the situation couldn't worry her less. She went to one of the tables and leaned on it on her elbows as she examined the food.

[will_be_god]

"Yes, that is correct. I do not know where or when we are, only that it is a world far removed from ours."

Staring down at the table, he looked over all that it offered. How long had it been there? Yet even the meat, which should have looked putrid for being left out even overnight, seemed as though it had just been set from the oven. "...how strange. Perhaps time doesn't flow in this place. No, that can't be it or the day would not have come from night. Uneven flow maybe...I ought to be able to sense such a thing, unless Dialga's power weakened that ability in me..."

Cyrus snapped to attention. "Commander! You said I had been gone a month. Tell me what has become of the Team in my absence."

[g3_jupiter]

Jupiter nodded. Choosing a fish specialty as her first target, she focused on the food, not daring to meet Cyrus' gaze. "Saturn has taken everything in his hands. Mars and I had no say on it. And he... he has denied your word. He doesn't seem to want to follow any of your teachings." She narrowed her eyes and shook her head. "All the posters at the Headquarters are still up, though. I hope they help him change his mind."

Before helping herself to more of the food, she added "Tell me, is this world... Any better than the one we know?"

[will_be_god]

At the mention of Saturn's disobedience, Cyrus dropped the orange he had picked up. "He..." he stammered out, fists tightening. "What reason has he given for his transgression?" came through clenched teeth.

[the creepy televised mass is kind of helping me write]

[g3_jupiter]

Jupiter stopped eating to pick up the orange, clean it with her sleeve and offer it to Cyrus, in case he still wanted to eat it. "He said your words had blinded him, or some other such nonsense." she said dismissively.

She sighed. "There is light in your words, but it's the salvific light of naked truth. I tried to tell him, but he wouldn't listen. So I left. Didn't want to be under him. But, as you can see," she indicated the uniform and the logo she still proudly wore.

"Without anybody but us here, this place just doesn't look right." she remarked as she went on eating.

[will_be_god]

"Blinded him...then he is a fool. My teachings are the truths of the universe." Cyrus's tone had lost its venom. "He understood that once. He knew what it meant to serve a greater goal. Power has corrupted him."

Finally he unpeeled the orange. It seemed normal, with an ordinary scent. Cautiously he took a taste, and another. "...Commander. Tell me of the past month for you. And where is Mars?"

[g3_jupiter]

"I stopped hearing from Mars after a while. As for me..." she stopped eating. She looked up at Cyrus, her eyes big and asking for forgiveness. "Being without your guidance has proven difficult. I've spent the last month away from the world, with my Pokémon as my sole company... And then I lost them when I arrived here... And then here you are again."

She sighed again, resting her forehead on her hand. "And you tell me you could disappear a second time."

[will_be_god]

"I am also without my pokémon. I have had to battle with sticks and rocks, but unlike the primitive people who first hosted me, I am unskilled in their use." Finishing the orange, segment by segment, Cyrus bowed his head, muttering something. Jupiter had never heard the words, but she knew it to be his silent prayer. "I could, or you could. But know that I exist here, Commander. Do not lose that, and do not lose faith."

[g3_jupiter]

"Oh, I won't lose faith, sir! Don't you ever doubt that!" Jupiter exclaimed, showing Cyrus her sincerest smile.

She looked around the square again as she started nibbling on an apple. "There's not much to do here, is there? Yet we slept here... Is this your new home, or something?"

[will_be_god]

He looked puzzled by her assumption for a moment. "I had been in this place for only a few hours before you showed up. There was a young man with me, one I only met here but who I believe is another one cast from his world. He left, the same way you arrived, but I had much to think about on my own."

Falling silent again, he began eating a bread roll that he hardly noticed. His eyes unfixed as he lost himself in thought.

[g3_jupiter]

Jupiter leaned closer to Cyrus to get his attention. "Sir? What is it that you've been thinking about? And have you come to any conclusion?" her eyes were big and attentive, and she was eager for his words as usual.

[will_be_god]

A moment later he snapped up. "I can reach no conclusion until I properly research this place."

He dropped his voice almost to a whisper then, leaming towards her. "There is another in this place. Another being. It speaks, and can manipulate material objects, but when I attempted to touch it, my hand went through it."

[g3_jupiter]

Jupiter grimaced. "A ghost, huh? If only I had Skuntank with me... Is it a hostile creature?"

She finished her apple in a few bites and put on her classic sly smirk. "Then, how about we research together?"