video, at the end of october

[friendlyflower]

[A weird, half-dead sunflower seed with dilated eyes and sweat rolling down its shell appears, shouting at you from the clinic.]

THE VOTE IS CLOSE!!!!!!! VOTE FOR UMBREON NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[He grabs the Grumpearl with a vine.]

DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT VOTING FOR LURANTIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Nurse Chansey from the clinic visibly tries to wrestle the Grumpearl away from him. He shouts various curses that Emporio taught him. You may or may not have a headache now.]

Comments

[consequerer]

[ * You tell a joke about two kids who... ]

Indeed. I am not sure what any of them were trying to prove.

[offtracks]

I am sure they have nothing to prove!

[ Though admittedly neither Flowey nor Emporio is the strongest of Pokemon...he's just too nice to say so. ]

I only hope that they have learned better now!

[consequerer]

Then I would have expected Emporio, at least, to show more caution. Flowey, of course, will do as he will.

[ Which is apparently halfway kill himself doing tasks for these guilds? Certainly they are indebted to them for their hospitality, but as far as they are aware, they are hardly being pressured to perform, and do so so foolhardily.

Perhaps it is different for Cheris? Ah well. Their task complete, they float their way back over to the Typhlosion, delicately picking up one of the cups he's brought along. ]

[offtracks]

[ Ingo chuckles in the back of his throat. He's poured two cups of tea for now, since Flowey isn't partaking for a little while, and he angles his big head to carefully lap from his own. ]

I suppose. He is quite brave!

[consequerer]

That is one word for it, I suppose.

[ A very generous one at that! ]

But perhaps my perspective is quite skewed when I am still capable of terrifying him.

[offtracks]

Oh, dear - the two of you knew each other before, then?

[ They did mention having a sibling about! Though - hm, hm. After what Flowey's confided to him...maybe he shouldn't actually have asked. ]

[consequerer]

[ They'll finish up the sip they're taking from their own cup, before: ]

My, that is certainly a reaction. 'Oh, dear' — is there something to be concerned about here?

[ Answering a question with a question is a bit impolite, perhaps, but now their curiosity's been piqued by his sudden apprehension. Has someone been telling more stories than they've been aware of, or is this about Flowey himself? ]

[offtracks]

[ Ingo blinks; he hadn't really meant it that seriously? If anything, it's sort of nice that they seem to both have someone to mess with. Maybe he can sort of unconsciously recognize Sibling Behavior. ]

Well, I suppose that depends on why you are frightening him!

[consequerer]

[ They, too, are (mostly) messing around. But Flowey's been a little careless about some things, and in a state of feverish delirium at current to boot, so they thought they'd check.

Anyway, in response to him, they just offer, in sardonic deadpan: ]

Keeps him in check when he starts thinking he's the absolute God of Hyperdeath again.

[ They will not go into the details of certain other history. ]

[offtracks]

[ He does let out a bark of laughter at that. ]

The god of what?

[consequerer]

[ With absolutely zero hesitation: ]

T_he A_bsol_ut_e GOD _of Hy_per_dea_th.

[ How are they doing that with their mouth. ]

[offtracks]

Hy_per -

[ no, nope, he can't do that with his mouth, he breaks off coughing and takes a sip of tea ]

[consequerer]

[ They let out a brief peal of laughter, and allow him to try to regather his dignity by taking a sip from their own tea. ]

[offtracks]

[ Ingo takes a few sips until the strange feeling in his mouth (almost sparkly???) seems to go away. That was weird! He's not doing that again!

(He will do it to taunt Emmet one day.) ]

Well! In any case - what a...unique moniker!

[consequerer]

Yes, he worked very hard on it.

[ Another practically dainty sip of tea. ]

[offtracks]

[ Ingo laughs. ]

Oh, I wish that I could remember my own childhood! I think that Emmet might have something to say about that!

[ Vague sense that he was some similar flavor of emo! ]

[consequerer]

[ Emmet, from somewhere across the bay, suddenly gets the urge to stage whisper "not beating the goth allegations" over the Grumpearls. ]

Perhaps you might just ask? Though if it is something truly embarrassing it may be in its own way a blessing in disguise that you cannot recall it ...

You have mentioned your issues with memory before, though. They are truly that thorough? Nothing comes through lacking context, no sense of deja-vu?

[offtracks]

[ Ah - Ingo's perpetual frown deepens. ]

No. I had thought something of that sort might happen, but I have never managed to truly regain any memories at all. There are only vague impressions, and even that much is rare. Maybe if I saw him as a human, or if we were anywhere familiar... [ But, maybe not. Ingo is beginning to have his doubts. ] Ah, but I could ask him, I suppose!

[ He is not going to do this. ]

[consequerer]

[ They full-body tilt a bit.

Then, very seriously:

(it isn't, really, but their delivery is impeccable.) ]

Perhaps the powers that displaced you ... or the ones that noticed you after, did not trust you not to cause a temporal paradox, whether intentionally or otherwise.

[ Consider: accidentally yapping about events to come to exactly the wrong person, and giving them an existential crisis. ]

[offtracks]

[ His brow furrows. This may require a little more explanation for a guy without access to time travel media. ]

A temporal paradox...?

[consequerer]

Yes. For example ... you say you came from the future, right? Let's say ... an important event happened, somewhere between when you came from, and where you ended up. Maybe something important was discovered, maybe something new was invented. You don't mean to change things, but because you know things the people around you do not, you happen to mention a few things offhand, not even very specifically.

But people start thinking about it. Before you know it, this all builds up, and suddenly that event you knew to take place some decades in the future is happening now, far too soon.

[ They shrug a little, cheerfully. ]

Who knows what else might happen differently next? Will the future you came still look the same, if things change so much?

[ ... ]

Barring that, I suppose, there is also always the classic example of a man going back in time and preventing himself from being born somehow. Usually by killing his grandfather.

[offtracks]

.....oh. Well! Hm...

[ The theory does make sense. Could Ingo really do something like that, even across so much time and space? Even if only by mistake? What would he have even changed?

...he's brought a higher level of training to Hisui. Could he have done it already, somehow?

Later, later. He doesn't want to put these new concerns on the Yamask, especially at Flowey's sickbed. ]

Well, I certainly have not killed anyone!

[consequerer]

Well, that is just the usual example. Maybe he just accidentally holds up his grandfather in a way such that he never ends up meeting his grandmother, which results in the same thing.

But then, here is the confusing part, the one that makes it a paradox! If the man was never born, how could he have ended up going back in time to stop himself from being born?

If the future you came from was changed, then why do you still exist, if you are a product of the future that used to be?

[ behold, the subject of many a sci-fi and fantasy story! ]

[offtracks]

[ He doesn't really enjoy this conversation! But he's far too polite to just say that, and so. ]

Most likely nothing of the sort has happened, then! Though I do not believe our family is from Hisui, and Unova is halfway around the world...I think it would be difficult to affect my own personal history in such a way.

[ Other things in history are maybe a different story... ]

[consequerer]

Yes, that is a common response. That such a thing cannot happen, so therefore time travel is impossible. Or, perhaps:

Another option. The time travel was always meant to happen. The time traveler's actions in the past were always meant to be, and not a distortion or disruption, because they are what created the present that the time traveler hailed from. A cycle, then, with no clear beginning.

[ They can recognize his discomfort with the topic, at least; it only makes sense that he would be, all things considered. Hence their segue to the stable time loop theory instead. ]

It might be the happiest interpretation, perhaps?