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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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[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?

[yellecaster]

Yeah, of course. My plan's to start with Morpeko... but I wanna get them all back, someday.
Morpeko first, then probably Grimmsnarl... though I think the one you'd be most interested in is Toxicroak.

You'd wanna study its poisons an' all that, right?

[Or has she misjudged his scientist...ness?]

[alchemistake]

Oh, yeah! I mean, anything that uses any sort of...chemical, or anything like that. I'd love to take a look.

[Varian would probably want to take samples...of everything...give Marnie's eventual Pokemon strength, should they ever regain any of their abilities.]

It's so cool how it sounds like your world doesn't really deal with anything that's like "magic", exactly. It's just the way the creatures living there are, naturally.

[yellecaster]

[Another nod, as she finishes a bite of her curry.]

Yeah. No magic in my world; that's just how things are. Stuff people think is magic is usually just a Pokémon messin' with'em.
Fairy-types like to do that the most, of course.

But it makes me wonder what the deal with "magic" is, here. It just seems like Pokémon stuff, but no one bothered to name any of it... so it's all just "magic".

[alchemistake]

Well...I guess it's the same as magic back home. Anything people can't explain...powers that normal people just don't have. People call it magic.

[Science, on the other hand, is completely different. Explainable, replicatable...reliable.]

I would say there might be some kind of difference between magic and innate abilities, but...at least in Corona, you don't just get magic. You usually acquire it through some sort of means. You might have it given to you, or are cursed with it...whichever way you look at it.

[yellecaster]

Y'think there might be a chance all that magic's just stuff people haven't researched, then?
Like Pokémon and the stuff they can do.

[Not everything is understood about Pokémon - and she's definitely not one of the people to ask about how it all works - but she knows it's at least considered scientific.
Realistic. It's an energy, after all; not some sort of mysterious force no one understands.]

... Though, I guess there's a chance yer researchin' that, right?

[alchemistake]

[Varian nods, his nose wrinkling before he shoves another spoonful of curry into his mouth. That face he made wasn't at the curry though, he promises.]

I don't have much of a choice.

[That's. Cryptic. But as he says that, the small sparrow wings on his back flap briefly.]

Ever since I changed, the wind around here has picked up. ...until I realized, the weather's been perfectly fine all month. It's only windy around me.

That's when I realized...I'm pretty sure it's coming from me. ...magic, as much as I hate to admit it. No idea what kind of monster I could be, though. I haven't really met anybody with wings as small as mine are...

[Even the winged monsters have wings they can fly with. Varian's are completely useless for that.]

[yellecaster]

Well, like we're sayin' - it might not be magic magic, yeah?
What if it's just some kinda energy no one really gets yet?

[Y'know... like Pokémon.]

And personally, I kinda like the small wings. I bet you could find a way to fly with'em, even if they're puny; you're a smart guy.

[alchemistake]

[Don't flatter him Marnie, he's trying to be MAD about it...though he does sort of deflate a little after she says that, propping his chin up in his remaining hand.]

Yeah, maybe...I just have to figure out how it works, first. So far it's just sort of happening whenever it wants with no input from me. I can kindof...encourage where it goes with my wings, but that's about it so far.

[That's probably at least partially how it's meant to be used, but he'll just have to figure that out on his own as he gains new elemental magic over time. Wind is just the most complicated one since it's not...really tangible.]

Speaking of all of that...I guess you haven't started changing yet, have you?

[yellecaster]

[A small shake of her head follows that question, just enough to make her pigtails wobble a little.]

Nah, not yet. No clue what I'll be changin' into, either.
'S not as forward as Pokémon evolvin'; no one I've seen has changed into anythin' like how they looked before.
Gettin' stuff like big Woobat wings or fuzzy Raboot ears...

All I can really hope for is I don't turn into whatever the guy that broke my arm was. Seriously ugly bloke.

[alchemistake]

I don't think you will.

[HE...has no way of knowing for SURE, but...he'd rather reassure her than be like "oh no yeah you'll be hideous.

Before he can think of more to say, Ruddiger graciously breaks the silence with a loud belch after licking his bowl clean again, prompting Varian to take it from him before Marnie thoughtlessly gives him even more.]

Thaaat's probably enough for you for today, buddy...

[yellecaster]

[- Which... is a good thing, because she'd even just started to reach for the ladle again.
She even looks confused for a second. Just a second.]

Ahh, sorry. I'm a little used to just fillin' up empty bowls as they come; Morpeko would've eaten half this pot by now.

[She clanks the handle of her ladle against it, just as a way to gesture to it.]

He can't handle big meals, then? Hope he doesn't end up sick or somethin'...