blueser | IC CONTACT

Yep. Definitely still broken.

[The answer comes in a boy’s sardonic, almost mocking tone. Somehow, it also manages to come across as put-upon.]

Hey, what do you know about the Arehtei? You sound like you suspected something.

Huh? Oh- sorry, no, I didn't mean broken like this - I didn't even mean to project this thought at all. If your crystal was really broken, you wouldn't be able to talk to me.

I met the Arehtei I'm aligned with recently, so I've been thinking about it a bit more than normal.

Oh, actually broken. Don't they make a big deal out of not losing the crystals? --So, what happened when you broke it? You didn't get hurt or anything, did you..? What were those jerks freaking me out about, then...

[There's a little inflection to that, like a break in the confidence of his earlier voice, but he seems to fix that right away.]

So we really can meet them... That old man wasn't messing with me after all.

You said Aiada, right? [A trickle of recognition filters its way across the crystal.]

Edited 2019-03-04 22:27 (UTC)

I've been told in the past that I tell strangers a little too much about my past and make them pretty depressed, so I'm not sure you want to know all that much about me breaking my crystal. I can tell you that it was a big deal - and yes I met Aiada. In a way.

She has these... giant puffballs. That she can send out and they're like extensions of herself.

Oh... [The boy's voice slowly utters, sounding like a moment of regret. Yeah, spot on there, huh?] Well whoever told you that is probably right, huh. So like, let's just forget that.

[Smooth.]

About Aiada, though... Puffballs...? [Blue repeats, sounding bewildered. Then, as if with a sudden spark of understanding, tries] --Spores? Is she a Grass-type?

Mm...

[ He also nods in understanding that he was right, a stranger wouldn't want to hear about such a traumatizing event in their first contact. ]

I'm not sure what you mean about a Grass-type, but...

[ He remembers what the puffballs look like and sends that over the amulet. ]

That's what her smaller forms look like. She can speak to people through them. I met them on the street one night recently.

[Blue utters a little 'ah' when he receives the mental image. They aren't at all what he was expecting, but neither do they... not look like Pokémon, so...] You mean, telepathic? Same as these crystals? ...I guess if they're connected to these things, makes sense they could.

[Maybe Grass and Psychic, he amends mentally.]

Um, anyway, whereabouts did you meet them? ... I had kinda been thinking about whether I'd want to look for Aiada, but I was surprised that they seem to mingle with people so much. Where I come from, legendaries-- um, 'Arehtei' or whatever, they don't usually just appear to people.

Well... something like that? It's some kind of connection. She insisted that she has a bigger form too, but that the smaller forms are still her, Aiada. The puffballs found me, though. The other day they just pounced on me and...

They, uh, gave me a hug. And ran off. So I chased them, trying to figure out what they were.

That was the first time I'd ever seen her. Why Aiada, specifically?

So it's... like a Po-- a creature with multiple formes? I've heard of things like that, but I've never seen it...

[Blue makes a face to himself that sends an unintended accompanying sensation along of awkwardness and a small bit of withdrawal; these Arehtei sure were strange, from all descriptions he'd heard...]

Hmh... well, because she's supposed to be.. "my" Arehtei, I guess. Whatever it is that means.

I guess she must not be that intimidating, if your story's anything to go by.

Oh! Weird, because I was thinking about how few people there are like me attached to her as well - she told me there's only a dozen or so of us. There's so few in fact that she thinks of us as family. She probably knows who you are already, if I had to guess.

I wonder if she'll appear as the puffball for you too.

You're serious...? [Blue hadn't considered, even after talking to Archie about how involved in Otherworlder's lives the Arehtei were, that Aiada might be actively seeking him. That they might already know who he was already was a little surprising and made him a bit nervous, but when he considered it more carefully it wasn't all that surprising, for a supposed legendary.]

[Blue considers this, and the wait is an awkward, stretched out moment.]

...Did she say anything when you met her about how we can find her, if we want to? Or, um... Do you know where she can normally be found?

Yeah, I'm serious. ... I'm actually really terrible at making jokes, honestly.

But I think it's pretty easy to find them if you actually want to. At least, that's the impression I've gotten from everyone else over the years. I just never wanted to before recently. I was tailing one of her puffballs and she thought it was weird that I didn't just ask to talk to her.

Oh, I didn’t— does he think I really took it as a joke...?

It’s hard to believe that they’re so... um, casual about it. It’s not at all like I expected them to be.

[Suddenly struck by an idea, Blue hums.] Do you think that we could contact them with these crystals? If I tried to concentrate and think of her, maybe...

[ Welp just gonna ignore that first part then. He doesn't do people that well sometimes. A lot of times. ]

Maybe it's just Aiada? I've gotten a pretty different impression of the others, like Thras or... Piphron, I think.

Well, I've never trIed that myself... Maybe? Considering we can contact everybody else with these things...

[That's pretty fair, given Blue's personality; maybe it's an Aiada thing?]

Ah, are those... Thras, that sounds familiar. I think someone told me about that one, before. Other Arehtei, right?

Hmph, that settles it, then! I'll just... I'll just try to think about her hard enough, and maybe it'll work.

... Um, maybe another time.... I don't know if I'm ready to talk to a legendary just yet. What was she like?

Yeah, other Arehtei.

Good luck. If she shows up as the puffballs, I don't think you'll find her very legendary. She was just kind of... cutesy and nice and girly. She braided my hair.

[Blue sounds so... taken aback at that, that for a moment he can't really reply. Not exactly the fearsome and powerful legendary that he was imagining....]

[...Then again, there were some myths of legendary Pokémon that seemed to be quite small and sprite-like, so maybe this whole description wasn't all that odd.]

Sounds... um, well at least I shouldn't have anything to worry about with her being intimidating....

Don't think I want my hair messed with, though.....

--I forgot to ask you your name. I'm Blue.

[ Arden meanwhile had similar preconceptions, just for entirely different reasons. ]

It's fine. I forget to give it sometimes too. I go by Arden here.

You're right, though - I thought the Arehtei would be intimidating, but at least this one isn't. I don't know if that's tied to how few of us are attached to her.

[ It didn't seem fair, at least not to him, that the others should be so highly regarded as to have Knights of Thras running around, meanwhile Aiada had... puffballs. ]

Thanks for the info, Arden. Even if it happened in a weird way...

Does this kind of thing happen a lot? Weird thoughts just popping up all over the place when you don't mean them to?

[Blue considers the suggestion, and then wonders if it was because Aiada was lonely that she reached out to her 'aligned' more, or was friendlier towards them. Maybe that was what had aligned Blue towards her...]

[She would probably appreciate that little pang of jealousy for her sake, huh?]

To everyone else? No, I don't think so.

[ To him, yes, absolutely. He has three separate memory strains in his mind. By blunt force trauma, or a significant magic strike like Naminé's, it can get bad enough to knock him out too. ]

I've been here almost 3 years and I don't remember it happening before. I'm glad you found it useful information, Blue. At least there was that. Good luck with everything.

[Everyone else...? Blue wonders what that means, and curiosity creeps around the edges of the conversation, but he manages not to slip anything out.]

[3 years... Blue can't imagine being trapped in this place for that long, but then again, in the last 3 years, what has he been doing with himself? Anything productive? Maybe it wouldn't be much different.]

...Yeah, you too, I guess.

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Wrap?

yes! thanks!!