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[alchemistake]

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, VARIAN. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 018.07.154.55 *** CHARACTER NAME/ALIAS has joined 018.07.154.55 <thealchemist>This thing is SO COOL okay- hey, hi, Varian here! If you're seeing this then you've reached my channel for messages. Leave me one if you need something!

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[yellecaster]

Wish I could tell ya what to use instead, but where I come from, we get our power from some kinda particles just floatin' through the air.
Or somethin' like that.

[Not exactly easy to just suggest, especially when it's just known as "Galar particles".]

... Who's Demanitus? Someone important?

[alchemistake]

Oh! Yeah, sorry. He's an ancient engineer from way before my time...and he saved our world from an evil sorceress by combining both alchemy and magic to create a machine he built deep in the mountains. Not only did it have the power to change the direction of the wind, but it contained a chamber with a portal that could trap evil spirits in completely different realms.

[He gestures with his spoon as he talks.]

I really wish I could have had the opportunity to meet him...there was a, uh. A complicated sort of spell thing he used to transfer his consciousness into a monkey, apparently? At least that's what Rapunzel told me...she and Eugene actually got to talk to him for just a little while.

[Any of this making sense yet Marnie, because it probably won't.]

[yellecaster]

... I don't know what a monkey is.

[So no, it's not making any sense. At least she's honest!]

It sounds to me like he did a lot of important stuff for your world, at least. Can't say I followed any of it, but I don't need to, to get it.

Is he why you're tryin' to be an inventor?

[alchemistake]

Nah.

[He shakes his head a little. Demanitus was never his original inspiration for inventing, because he really didn't know of his work as much early in his life. No, his priorities lay elsewhere...]

I wanted to make life better for the people in my village. And...I wanted to make my dad proud of me.

[His dad the farmhand, who time and again looked at him with disappointment after he'd accidentally blown up their basement, or set something in town on fire, or something that no doubt embarrassed the single father in front of everyone else...Varian wasn't a normal child, despite being driven and hardworking. It took him a lot of trial, error, and huge mistakes to earn that admiration.]

[yellecaster]

...

[She runs her spoon around her dish through her curry, looking down at it. That's not...
Really something she can relate to. All she's had for a very, very long time is her brother, after all.
And Piers is proud of her no matter what she does - sometimes it's even smothering.

The other part, however...]

... I think I kinda get that? Wantin' to make life better for your village, I mean.
That was kinda my goal, too, back home. Kinda had my original plan yanked out from under me, but it's still somethin' I'm workin' towards.

[alchemistake]

So what happened?

[Assuming she's willing to divulge...it sounds like there's a story here.]

[yellecaster]

Well, y'see...

[Seems she's plenty willing to divulge. ... Probably because he's about her only friend, around here.]

Back in Galar, there's this thing called the Gym Challenge. Trainers like me get all suited up to take it on, complete with a jersey and everythin'.
You travel 'round the region, battle the Gym Leaders, and get their badges - and if you get all the badges in Galar, you get entered into the Champion Cup.

[She's almost looking wistful, now, as she talks.]

The Champion's a big deal where I come from. Lotta people look to the Champion like a hero, someone to look up to and a spot to strive for.
So if someone's a Champion... there's a good chance the place they come from would get a good bit of tourism.
That'd be enough to get some blood flowin' in even the shabbiest place.

But... I lost in the semifinals of the Cup. Very first match...

[alchemistake]

[It's an interesting thing to hear about, since when Marnie says "battle" he thinks like...she's actually going in there and fighting people herself, which...doesn't seem right? She did mention she had a "team", so that likely has more to do with it than he understands.

Becoming Champion being a big deal in terms of Marnie getting more traffic in Spikemuth...it makes sense. So to hear she'd lost right at the very end...]

I'm sorry, Marnie. It sounds like it was a lot of work just to get that far.

[yellecaster]

It was. Even with Team Yell tryin' to help, it was still pretty hard.
But I had a pretty good win streak up until the end, there!

[So she can't say she regrets it, or that she isn't proud of it.
Sure, there's no smile on her face, saying that - again with the dissonance, her voice cheery while her face decidedly isn't - but she's still clearly proud of herself.]

And I even took my big brother's offer; I'm Spikemuth's new Gym Leader, instead. I'll bring people into town just by bein' fun to watch and frustratin' to battle with, that's my next plan!
Maybe see if I can't get some real bleachers made for the crowd... all we have right now are stoops to sit on, but I know that's not enough for the kinda numbers I wanna pull in.

[alchemistake]

If you could make this sewer system into a nice place to live, then I'd believe you could have a whole kingdom's worth of people visiting your home in no time, easy.

[Sure, Marnie may not be...at all a charismatic type of person, but when you have the determination to do something, you don't always need that.]

If you need any help brainstorming ideas to take home with you, let me know. Just give me a number and scale, and I could get some schematics for expansion written up for you in a day.

[yellecaster]

[Varian... what a sweet talker. It's almost - almost - cute.
For now, though, she just shakes her head with her flat look gaining just a touch of softness.]

I'll probably take you up on that. That kinda thing really ain't my strong suit.
For now, though, I think I'd actually like yer help more down 'ere.

[She looks up at the ceiling a bit, looking at all the cracked stone and the exposed wires the poachers used for power...]

This place ain't the safest. I keep thinkin' about findin' ways to make it more liveable - not just for me, but for whoever.
Even a rundown place like this could end up useful for people who need it.

But I'd need help rewirin' things, gettin' things covered up an' out of the way...
I dunno how to do any of that, I just know it hurts to step on a wire that's got a hole in it.

[alchemistake]

I could probably give it a look! Though, ah...fair warning...still getting used to the more modern power system around here.

[Things like wires and electricity...it's all really new, you know? But Varian's already made huge strides in figuring it out. He wouldn't be able to call himself much of an engineer if he couldn't figure it out.]

Though uh...you're positive everything the Poachers had got cleaned up from down here, right? The last thing we need is me accidentally busting a pipe that has more awful shapeshifting gas inside.

1/2

[yellecaster]

Yeah. It's all cleaned up; there are some chemicals an' things still, but they're somewhere safe right now.
From what I've heard they're pretty much useless, too... I paid a group in whatever they found to clean this place up for me, and one of'em was a scientist.

[If Flug has uses for it, she wasn't told - and doesn't care to know, either way.]

Aside from that, though...

2/2

[yellecaster]

[Suddenly, though, she perks - and she reaches past Ruddiger to grab her backpack sitting nearby, pulling that over to rifle through.]

Actually, that reminds me! I found somethin' down 'ere after I'd come back to clear it out after all that gas an' all that, and I think it's somethin' you might wanna see...

[From there? She pulls out a little vial, no bigger than the end of a person's thumb.
It's not marked beyond some handwritten medical-looking label that's hard to read, but it's probably clear what it's full of, considering he'd been at the receiving end of a dose of it before getting locked up in one of the cells down here.]

What d'you reckon it is?

[alchemistake]

[Varian's not too surprised, hearing that. There are a lot more sciencey types living here in Ryslig than he might have first thought...

Varian blinks, setting his bowl in his lap so he can very carefully take the vial from Marnie, holding it gingerly between his thumb and forefinger. It's very delicate, but it's clearly meant to be used as a dosage. Specifically, for a monster strapped down and injected with it...

He swallows against the lump that suddenly appears in his throat.]

I'd have to run tests to be sure, but...I can almost guarantee without it that this is a dose of their immortality drug. It must have gotten left behind in the chaos...

[yellecaster]

[She's patient, letting him look it over like that - and she even looks it over herself, leaning around to look at it where he's got it pinched between his fingers.]

... So...
What does it do? Same stuff as that gas?

[alchemistake]

Yeah. It depowers you if you have any abilities tied to whatever monster you're turning into...and it makes it so you can't die. No matter what.

[He turns it over briefly, watching the liquid turn inside the vial. It's such a small amount...to think just this little could do so much tells Varian plenty without even needing to study it terribly close.]

I doubt they would have left this behind on purpose.

[He returns the vial to Marnie, but he doesn't just hand it back. He puts it in her palm, going so far as to close her fingers orotectively around it.]

Whatever you do, don't let the wrong person know you have this. I'm not saying the others can't be trusted, but...even with an antidote, this serum can wreck havoc. Especially if it's reproduced.

[yellecaster]

...

[Her hand now closed around it, she looks down at her fist for a moment or two... before moving to put it in an inside pocket of her jacket, someplace much safer than her backpack.]

Does that mean you trust me with it? I mean, y'don't know me that well.
Who's to say I'm not just some awful little punk makin' her home under the city where no one can get at'er?

[She looks up at him from the tops of her eyes saying this, not bothering to lift her head. It's a very pointed sort of look.]

[alchemistake]

[Varian goes silent for a moment at that, because being asked if he trusts anyone is...a very tall order. Varian doesn't trust easily. And when he does, he's wary with it. He treats it like a skittish animal, these days; something that can easily slip through his fingers or be broken. A different perspective has given him a better outlook on that since, but...

A huge betrayal sticks with you. It's hard to say, especially in such a dangerous place as Ryslig, if Varian was betrayed in such a way now...if he'd ever be able to look past it.

He exhales on a sigh after he notices Ruddiger watching him carefully, noting the long pause.]

I'm not going to lie to you. I don't know if I trust you for sure, yet. But what I do know is that I don't completely distrust you.

[...okay he knows that sounds. Backwards, but hear him out.]

You could have easily taken advantage of me fighting off that Poacher in the sewers to escape, but you didn't. You had no reason to stay.

[yellecaster]

[That's apparently all she needs to hear - because she gives him a little nod before just moving to pick her curry back up again, bringing it into her lap.]

I'd say somethin' about how it's 'cause we're friends and I like ya... but really, I just wanted to see it all through.
Don't get me wrong - you've been a great friend since showin' up here.

But the whole reason the guy was chasin' me is 'cause I threw a punch at him from the shadows, seein' if I could knock him out while he was stalkin' around these halls.
I wasn't gonna be some kinda coward, startin' a fight like that and runnin' off when someone else starts takin' the hits for me.

[alchemistake]

[Varian smiles slightly at that, looking back down into his own bowl. He's not sure he'd call himself a great friend or anything, but...he guesses he's glad that's starting to shine through again. He's been trying, at least.]

Yeah, somehow I didn't think so. You really don't strike me as that type at all.

[yellecaster]

Well, it's just not proper. In Spikemuth, you finish what ya start; though, it's also important to know when yer beat... not everyone gets that, really.

[... She's one of those people, but it's not something she thinks about.
She's also gonna take a second, here, to serve up a little more for Ruddiger - poor guy's been sitting here with an empty bowl and curry on his face while they've been chatting like this.]

Just wish the fights 'round here weren't all by hand. I don't really have the kinda strength you'd need for that... back home, that's what Pokémon battles are for.
You get in an argument, ya battle it out.

[alchemistake]

[Bless you Marnie, he will remember this. He's also going to immediately eat more because he's just...always hungry, obviously.]

Okay...I was wondering if I understood that correctly. Your "team" fights for you.

[Her team of...]

It sounds like Pokemon are similar to Ruddiger, but...I'm guessing they have more abilities than Ruddiger's, uh. Zero abilities.

[yellecaster]

[A bit like Morpeko... in fact, out of instinct, she immediately ladles another spoonful into his bowl to make up for whatever he must've eaten the moment she put it down.
Doesn't even notice she did it, either.]

Yeah, they do. I dunno how they do it - studyin' Pokémon wasn't really my thing - but all Pokémon can use what we just called "moves".
Buncha different attacks an' things, and they all had different "types" that changed up what those moves did.

[And now a new spoonful in her own bowl, just to warm it all back up.]

Just for example, my team's all Dark types. Like Morpeko, which is Dark and Electric.
It's got a special move called "Aura Wheel"; summons up a big wheel of electricity, and runs inside of it 'till it's fast enough to send at the opponent and do some damage.
But when Morpeko's angry enough, it's Dark energy instead of electricity.

That's the kind of stuff Pokémon can do. An example of it, anyway.

[alchemistake]

Wow...that's pretty crazy, not gonna lie.

[All Ruddiger can do is, like...steal things. Trip people up. Be a general little nasty guy...Varian won't mention the time he, uh...turned Ruddiger into a mutant, though. He doubts that will go over well no matter what context he told it in.]

If you can get Mana to bring Morpeko back, can you show me?