Ghost City Vibes

The mention of being a sacrifice causes Zera to pick up Chu and once again places her on their shoulder. That’s enough to make Zera uneasy again. 

Chu gently pats Zera before partly glaring at the vendors… After which she looks to the child. “We’re in a bit of a hurry Ignem, the sooner we can talk to them, the better.”

“Ohhh, a hurry?? Ok!!”

Ignem straightens its shoulders and marches a little bit faster. The overall effect does not make the child move any faster, but does give it the appearance of a wind-up toy made from wood or metal. Step, step, step! It marches down one street and up to a walled in structure. Without hesitation, the child marches in, heading towards a massive, ornate structure made from fine stone and wood. There’s a large pond next to it with colorful ghost fires flitting across its surface. Ignem continues up to the massive double doors of the manor, pausing to look back at the other two.

<ANGRY.> Giratina hummed in thought. <ANGRY AT NATURE. BUT NATURE SIMPLY IS. CREATOR FORGED NATURE, THEN LET IT EVOLVE ON ITS OWN.

<YOU MISUNDERSTOOD. WAS ASKING IF YOU WERE ONCE A HEATRAN.> It looked away. <ANSWER PROBABLY NO.>

“Eh?”

That stops the ghost for a few long moments as he thinks over this new information. Wait, that’s what it wanted to know? The darkness around Hongcha swirls and churns like storm clouds as he realigns himself with the clarified question. 

<NATURE? PRESSURE?> Giratina tilted its head in confusion. It supposed heat could build up to a pressure of point of doing something… crazy. But making a dragon seemed a bit… off.

<WAS HEATRAN?> The letters bubbled off its back. If it was in a volcano, heatran would come to mind.

“No random god made me who I am.”

It’s the first time Hongcha’s tone takes on a dangerous cut. Tendrils of shadow swirl around him like a dark storm. It takes a few seconds, but he smooths his voice out and settles his form.

“That’d be nice. Thank you Ignem! Lead the way please! We’ll follow.” Chu smiles, what a nice kid! 

Zera nods as well, though the ‘Mon will get distracted a bit as they go, there’s new food here… 

Ignem nods and sets off down one of the busy streets. All around ghosts and spirits called out sales pitches for their wares. Roast meat, fresh! Sources, not important! Fresh dumplings made right in the stall, on sale right now for an exciting low price! Lanterns sway in the gentle night breeze and cast their disorienting red light over the the walls of buildings. Shadows flicker and dance under the unsteady lighting. 

“Little sword, little sword! Why do you have those mortals following you,” calls one of the vendors. “Are they a sacrifice or something? Or are they under the Ol’ Scrap God’s protection?”

The child pauses and looks up at the vendor, all smiles.

“Ghost City? So full of Ghost types?” Doesn’t explain why everyone’s talking like a human of its full of Pokemon. Chu tilts her head a bit. “Well its nice to know there’s a place like this!” Though… there are some very powerful ghost types here. “Do you know if there’s someone in charge I can talk to? We’re here on a mission to help keep places like this safe.”

Zera looks around, then goes back to focusing on conversation. 

“Yeah!! There’s soooo many ghosts here!! We made sure it was safe for them.”

Ignem nods its head as it talks, enthusiastic and excited to talk about serious business with serious visitors to the city. It hops from one foot to the other, delighted. 

“Nice to meet you Ignem! Though we meant what this world is. We’re not from here.” Chu replies, this kid is odd.

Zera is unsure even more, ears moving back. 

“Do you mind explaining what this place is like? You don’t seem shocked at all that two pokemon are talking like humans.” Chu’s confused but she’s trying to be nice. 

Ignem goes quiet as it considers what Chu is talking about. It doesn’t know all the words, but they’re sort of familiar? It’s pretty sure most people call Salt ‘Hugo’ so that’s probably pretty close to whoever ‘hu-man’ is. With its concerns about not knowing what these two are talking about resolved, Ignem beams. 

“Salt’s a ‘Hugo,’ so I know how hu-people talk.”

It rocks back onto its heels and claps its hands together with a light, metallic clink.

Giratina tapped its front right foot twice. The initial response was dodgy. The other dragon made it sound complicated. Giratina didn’t like complicated. It liked things neat. Orderly. Unnecessary complexity sent a prickle along his back.

<WHO CREATOR?>

The simple answer, then. The tip of Hongcha’s tail flicks as he thinks of the best way to explain this. Parents? No, he’s positive that isn’t what it’s looking for. Death? Adversity? Devotion? All of those made him who he is and what he is. Even then he’s certain the ghost won’t be content with his answer. All that left was the most illogical sounding answer of them all. He taps his tail against one of the dark marble stones of the wall as he chooses his words.

Giratina instinctively recoiled at being tapped with shadows. Its own wispy body bubbled. Small protrusions rose out from its gray back, morphing into vaguely unown-like shapes.

<WHO CREATOR?> were the shadowy words trailing behind Giratina like smoke.

Hongcha tilts his head to the side and considers the question. There’s always the easy answer, he muses. However, he’s confident Giratina is not looking for a story about his parents or anything of that nature. 

That earned a curious tilt of the head. What it was looking at seemed… unnatural. Disorderly. Pinpricks spread across the back of Giratina’s neck and forehead. Its ectoplasm rippled. Was this one some product of humans? An Ultra Beast like necrozma? They were certainly meddlers, as far as Giratina was concerned.

Giratina leaned forward and poked the other dragon with one of his wings, trilling with curiosity.

Hongcha lets the other dragon tap at him with its wing, doing his best not to laugh at the confusion of the other. The whole situation is amusing, but he doesn’t want this ghost backing off again. Forward progress is forward progress, after all. While he’d rather not have a stranger poking at him, he’s come to an executive decision. However strong and dangerous this one is, they have a childlike mindset. As such, lots of the rationalizations he can offer have no chance of working. No, he’s stuck making progress the slow and labor intensive way; gently coaxing some level of respect from the spectral dragon while not stirring any unease. 

He pushes his reservations aside and taps Giratina’s snoot with a tendril of shadow.

Giratina squinted. The funny thing had jokes, did it? Well, two could play at that game. It swiped the paint brush and smeared it across the stranger.

“Pfffbt.”

A tendril of black hair whips out and snatches the paintbrush back from the dragon as Hongcha lets his casual clothes endure a streak of white. Fuck, he thinks as he pulls his favorite brush back into the hammerspace his distortion realm exists as, Jiji’s going to ask what happened. I’ll have to change if this doesn’t escalate and that is such a pain.

He stares up at the other dragon in annoyance as he weighs his options. Really, he considers, he wins no matter what if he gets into a fight with the interloper. Either he beats the dragon and wins or, his husband comes back and Hongcha gets to play the beautiful lord in distress while being rescued. Win-win. The deck is once again stacked in his favor.

Besides, the other giratina really did come into his territory and make a nuisance of itself, so really? He has every right to use however much violence he felt like to chase it off. However, he isn’t sure what this thing’s power levels were like. The unknown factor usually doesn’t bother him. He’s a gambling man with more luck than anyone deserves in this world. However, extraplanar beings are another story, and he promised Jiji no more dying. Which means all he can do is play things safe. 

Annoying. 

He decides this is one of those times he has to let go of his pride and use the form he’s less confident in. Matching the other dragon feels like the best way to get it to take him a bit more seriously. Hongcha takes in an unnecessary breath of air and puffs it out as he lets his form unspool into something longer and less contained. 

Stared at weird person, then at paint. Then at weird person again.

With a roar full of “You don’t have enough badges to train me!” energy, Giratina swatted the paint with its tail. It would not be painted. The floor would.

“Oh no, I see what’s going on...”

Hongcha shakes his head, laughing. It’s been a while since he’s dealt with anyone trying to intimidate him.

“You’re thinking, I’m an amazing and powerful dragon with spectral powers most mortals can only dream of. Why is this twiggy man trying to prove? Why does he think he can turn me into a canvas? Am I correct?” 

Like any dragon, the cold was enough to jolt Giratina awake. It saw the line… and the human with the brush.

“Krrrrrrrrr.” It stared with a judgmental look in its eyes.

“Well, look who’s up.”

Hongcha did not stop painting the other ghost and his smug expression did not change as he looked up into Giratina’s red eyes. 

What are you, a puppy? Falling asleep in someone else's lair without even a proper introduction? Come on, up and at'm. I've got enough people I actually know falling asleep in weird places around here, it's time to wake up.