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Static made his hair crackle in the soft breeze as he leaned into the comforting mass of his best friend's leg. An amused rumble sounded above him. ~We've met Jagdish. He won't eat you,~ the dragon legendary prompted.
N fidgetted with the puzzle box on his belt. “I know. But he hasn't fled his duties or failed to achieve his goals. Maybe we shouldn't have come here yet.” The human sounded young and uncertain.
~The Arbiter has had many years to achieve his ideals and people to help him do so,~ Zekrom pointed out. ~You need another like you to help heal your wounds, my friend. Those resident already know we are here.~ The pokemon twisted to look over his shoulder as his tail briefly flared blue. The light bounced off a third being some distance away before night reclaimed the area once more.
Jagdish's body language betrays no concern, though the fact he's stepped out of his cathedral to greet them at all makes up for the understatement. At a few metres distance, granting enough space for the creature to move in practically any way it might like on impulse, he pauses, glancing up at his Legendary guest. “Welcome back,” he addresses it, then lets his gaze meander down the pokémon in curious steps - the shape is still unfamiliar enough to attract some interest, after all - to find N. “You're a long way from home,” he observes. “What can I do for the two of you?” There were a few things that came to mind, but he wasn't going to get ahead of himself and base a conversation on assumptions.
Despite the warning N still startled at Jagdish's appearance. He'd been expecting a pokemon, maybe even Mew, not the Arbiter himself. “I apologise for interupting your business,” N began with a respectful nod. “Ghestis returned to Unova to attempt to control the tao dragons against their will, and were forced to fight him, and father said…” N's voice wavered and he took a breath. “Is it true being able to talk to pokemon makes me an inhuman freak?” he finished near a whisper.
Sparks struck the ground as Zekrom growled fiercely. ~That foul being will never hurt you again!~ the legendary repeated with a slightly desperate edge to his voice as he looked to Jagdish for help.
Jagdish's spine straightens subtly as one brow arches lightly. There's no abrupt response - apparently, it's not a question he can just deny off-hand, and whatever answer he's concocting requires some thought. The pause doesn't stay past its welcome, though; instead, Jagdish's attention finds N's face again. “I think you need to ask yourself what that means far more than whether it applies to you,” he says, tone soft. “I'll be frank with you - I think the answer to your actual question may be 'yes'; it's certainly what I see when I look at myself in the mirror, but my situation is a little… more complex than yours, I think, so that needn't mean anything.” His arms have folded behind his back. “But what does 'inhuman' mean? It's a clever little, insiduous word, isn't it? Are we talking subhuman… or superhuman? Neither, perhaps? Are you perhaps just presumed to be… lateral to the human definition? Would that be a problem?” His hands fold behind his back as he inclines his head lightly. “You're far removed from subhuman, that much I guarantee you.”
“Father meant it as an insult. He… - he laid the blame for all the pokemon he harmed at my feet and said that were it not for my treason they wouldn't have suffered. So much rage and pain in him towards me…” N exhaled slowly. “I should be pleased he thought of me as a pokémon if he hadn't proved how he hated them. He thought his lies true and it hurt.”
The young man stared into the distance before adding quietly: “It's selfish of me, but I had hoped… that after losing all he had plotted for, he'd realise the cruelty he'd committed and charge for the better, like Rood did. That his feigned love would become real. Instead he became more monsterous.”
“I'm sure it was meant as an insult, but there is much flattery to be found in the insults of one's opponents, providing one knows how to deconstruct their fallacies,” Jagdish comments, a light shrug touching his shoulders, expression a weak smile. There was, after all, little he could do other than to offer an avenue out of such circular thoughts - if they weren't taken, it was a question of either sitting it out or finding a different leverage. “Mind you, as it were, psychopaths have no one to blame but themselves for the harm they cause.” In another circumstance, he'd outright laugh at the notion for its ridiculous 'logic', but the time hardly seemed fitting. “May I invite you in?” he asks after a moment's pause, tilting his head, only to glance across at Zekrom with an apologetic undertone.
~Go talk. I have others I wish to speak with,~ Zekrom prompts even as his friend is turning to ask if he minded. The legendary's words were warm and N smiled even as he wondered who in Sehto Zekrom wanted to talk to. Not that he would ever object.
“Yes?” Jagdish was both comforting and intimidating and the animal part of N's brain liked having an ally even though he knew that was silly. Something of that must have shown on his face as behind him Zekrom rumbled a low chuckle.
Jagdish turns halfway, then swerves a hand up in a casual gesture for N to follow. A few steps of the way are walked in silence; then he's cutting through it with a related thought that's been nagging at him lightly ever since he's met the boy: “I understand you're concerned for Unova's pokémon and so I honestly presume it isn't an option for you, perhaps even to the point of unintended scorn… but I feel I must ask, regardless: Have you ever considered a… more permanent residence on our humble island? You would certainly be welcome here.”
N startles to a halt and has to take quick steps to catch back up to Jagdish. “I hadn't considered it, no.” Silently he does so before admitting: “I'd like to stay, but if I don't help Unova's pokemon who would? I've seen spoken with many pokemon that are happy with their humans and true partners and it would break my heart to seperate them, but maybe if I could break the back of the gym circuit it would let those other less harmful relationships thrive.”
The comment prompts an acknowledging nod. The uneven ground crunches slightly under Jagdish's boots as they walk, bridging the last of the distance to the Cathedral's gates. There were, technically, easier ways to enter the building than by the front door, but it still seemed like he was breaking some unspoken, universal etiquette if he took any other path. An exhale transitions into a motion of his arms - a moment later, he's pushing one wing of the gate open, only to pause after pushing it ajar enough for two people to pass comfortably through the gap. The inky darkness inside is a little disconcerting, but if past experience was any indicator, a little curious pink light was going to guide their way into the lit corridors soon.
“With more than a single human lifetime at my disposal, my choice has always been an obvious one,” Jagdish comments, an apologetic undertone appearing almost misplaced amongst all that he's communicating. “A slow, gradual change is not easily undone. Something that burrows into the minds of several generations of people cannot be dislodged by revolution; that's both my curse as well as my blessing. I've whittled at Sehto's culture for decades and will whittle at it for a few more, but you may not have that luxury. But then, my nature spoils me; I don't need to think about a perfect successor and by proxy of never having done so, the thought is daunting.”
It's all a bit cryptic at that point, like some narrative that's lost its precise place in time and space, beautiful perhaps on some level, but frayed at the edges. Then: “I can offer my advice if you'd like to mimic the method I'm applying to Sehto, but I cannot judge if it's a sensible path to take for Unova or for you and those who might carry your heritage, my friend. If your patience allows for it and you deem it a prudent approach, despite your likely mortality, then you have my full support, of course.” A pause. “Rather, you have my full support otherwise, as well, but then I predict I'll be significantly less useful for your budding plans.”
The end goal was clear, but the path to reach it foggy and uncertain. Jagdish had shown one way, but he was right: It relied on advantages he didn't have and their absence brought new difficulties. It was hard to imagine a successor that couldn't speak with pokemon and the thought of stealing a child and abandon them in the wild in the hopes it would work as well as in his case left a bad taste in his mouth. Surely if being raised by pokémon was all it took to understand them there would be others with his gift. It was more likely his ability was inate and spared him from whatever accident had befallen his birth parents.
“I do have a group of people sympathetic to my view and willing to help,” N muses before grimacing. “They're seen as criminal by many but that can change with time. They've already begun with Rood running a refuge for mistreated or abandoned pokemon. Perhaps they could begin convincing people there are better methods of bonding without battle while I attempt to handle the gym circuit.”
✘ IN PROGRESS