Justice

Indie Gijinka Cobalion

[cobaltchampion]

gladiodivina‌:

Elisheva tapped the back of their heal against the stone of the fountain. “Hm. It…comes and goes? I remember you, obviously,” they bumped against his shoulder with a grin, “but it feels like there’s some things missing. Like, you might have more stories than I do, even though I was there.”

They’ve started writing, deep in the night when they wake and scramble for the journal on their nightstand so they don’t again forget half a memory come upon them in the dark.

“If you dropped me in the middle of somewhere and asked me to map out my childhood home, I could. I could probably do the same in the older parts of the forest. Y’know, hey remember when I was taller than that tree? That kind of thing. Feelings, sometimes? Like, I figure whatever father I had back then was a piece of shit cause I remember the way the others talked about him, and I can feel part of myself not wanting to remember. Um…”

The curtain sound of cascading rain, the lurch of falling, pain before blacking out.

“I’m trying to relearn the old writing system. I remember how to say most the old words now, but I was kinda a little shit and didn’t realize how much I took being able to read for granted until I couldn’t.” The last was said with a bit of a laugh at their own expense. It was even more the case now with illiteracy being what was abnormal.

He chuckled lightly at the nudge, letting himself sway far more than they could ever actually push him. Would he have any more stories? Not from the earliest days, nor from many of their trips around the woods. It was routine to him- nothing of particular fancy, even when there was trouble afoot. He could take the same path blindfolded, of course, but what sort of story was ‘we walked for a time until you came across a bush with fruiting buds for lunch, then we walked some more’ ?

“At least you can still speak it. That tongue died so long ago, it would sound just as rotted in my mouth.” It was a wonder he even learned this one, considering how little he bothered with the humans. 

Reading was another matter entirely. “You tried to show me once, I think. Written things? I only really cared to learn....” After. “-when humans started putting so many signs everywhere. No one’s content with just a marker anymore.”

Cob closed his eyes for a moment, “I hear your people’s music the most. Every now and again a chime or some other nonsense will get something playing. I always thought it was just so loud, but....”

[cobaltchampion]

@gladiodivina

Cobalion did not envy the life of immortals. 

Compared to most creatures on the planet, he could be considered something of a demigod (should he stay standing in battle), but it never felt incredibly long until now. The world was always changing, and even if there was a constant cycle to it’s ways, nothing was ever exactly the same. It made the present and future his only vision. 

But when one lived forever, things must repeat in such fantastic ways that all one could think is the first time it happened. The world was not infinite. Ideas were recycled. 

Friends reborn. 

“Elli...?” He spoke softly, watching the people of the park go by from their seat on the fountain’s edge. “How...how much do you remember? About...the first time?”

[cobaltchampion]

gladiodivina‌:

It took a moment for Elisheva to reason with themselves that this was Cob, and let themselves be moved. Their hands remained on his armor, though, gripping tight with the tips of their fingers. Like hell were they gonna let even him separate them for a single second after so long apart.

“Pr—” They more mouth the syllable than sound it.

When was the last time anyone…?

A tremor began in their fingers.

When had…?

Most people these days used good job. Had it been learning to shoot a bow? Presenting her first page of writing that looked semi-legible?

When…?

Elisheva took a breath as their shoulders collapsed and their face hid in their arms, and wailed against Cobalion.

She cried so much...

Cobalion never discouraged it- emotions felt should be emotions dealt with, as carrying burdens of regret or anguish could damage one’s performance (not that he’d heeded his own advice). It just pained him to see, and pained him even more that he was the cause of another bout of tears. 

It made another slip down his own face. 

Words weren’t doing much at all, so he ceded, simply pulling them closer again to work through it in their own way. Some days all one needed was a long hug.

[cobaltchampion]

gladiodivina‌:

You want something to cry over!?

Eli, stop—

Elisheva couldn’t help it. She tried, she really really tried, but when her siblings had finally come back the three weren’t hers anymore but the kingdom’s. She was happy to be included, but everything was so overwhelming and everyone else took one look at the Devine sibling too young and too small to fight who had troubles putting ideas into words and dismissed her without so much as a second glance.

So Elisheva kept going back. Finding solace in the forest that had sheltered her from Father’s temper and raised her to stand up for herself. Inconsolable and miserable, and wanting nothing more than to curl up and do the world a service by disappearing. Until a stranger found her: dressed in armor and the deepest blue Elisheva had ever seen, and had asked why she was crying.

Don’t cry, please.

Elisheva sniffled and rubbed the tears away from one of their eyes, and found themselves repeating the first words they had ever said to their dearest friend. “Who’s crying?”

Their voice broke on the last word and Elisheva’s arms flew back around Cobalion in a vice grip. “I’m sorry,” they sobbed again. “I p-promised I’d s-stay put…but they—they were going to attack again! P-people were—were gonna get hurt!”

Sweetest Eli. Sweetest in all the world. 

Perhaps he’d been too good a teacher. To risk his life for his home, for every being weaker than himself, was so deeply ingrained into his being he gave it no thought. As high as they carried their head, Eli was still so fragile in comparison. He failed where they went to serve. The woods were too dangerous in that downpour, and yet-

It didn’t matter. The forces that were saw it right to bring them back. He wouldn’t fail again.

As much as it pained him, he took Eli gently by the arms, pulling her grip away to force their gazes to meet.

“You did what you thought you must- there is nothing to apologize for. You were carrying out your duties. It was an accident. Just an accident.”

A horrid, horrid--

“I’m proud of you, Eli. There’s nothing to be sorry for.”

[cobaltchampion]

fusionbolts‌:

    Adair has no time to react; the kick strikes him straight in the ribs and he’s thrown skidding through the mud. He comes down hard and the jolt shoots a fresh wave of pain through his shoulder. An low, agonized groan creeps out of his throat.

    He almost doesn’t want to rise. This is your fault. Please, gods, tell him it wasn’t true. Tell him those words didn’t mean what he thought–what they surely did. It can’t be, it can’t be, it can’t–

    It’s that same doubt that forces him to sit up, push his weight onto a knee, shuddering with every movement. There’s a considerable wheeze in his breathing, every breath labored. He’s in no state for this.

    “Wh–What happened to them? Please–They can’t be–”

He’d been taught by the forest that no body was lost in the arms of the woods. Life ruined became life anew, feeding the grass and the creatures who nested within the rolling hills and sprawling sea of bark and life. He taught his charge as such, relieved to hear that their people did all they could to return the body of their hunts from whence they came.

But to see them- sweet Eli, decayed, decaying, eaten-

“Dead?!” Cobalion called, chest consumed in the fires of wrath, “At your hand, defiler! You and your people- you set their ruin the same as these woods.” 

A crack if thunder overshadowed a crack in his voice. Their body would not rest comfortably in that grave. Not with this rain. Not with the fire. Not with the screams of the helpless calling for the Rider’s help. 

.............No.                                                He would make things right.

“Elisheva is the woodland. It will grow by their spirit- and they will rest peacefully with your death.” 

He pointed his sword forward, “Now, get up.”

[gladiodivina]

                                                                                         you become responsible

                                                    𝒻𝑜𝓇𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇

for what you have tamed

[cobaltchampion]

gladiodivina‌:

“They.” she repeats. A sense of relief gets to her: sure she may be no spirit or true critter of the woods, but it’s nice knowing she’s not weird. More than that, though, is how right the word fits. A single phrase to sum up and answer all the questions she’s had about…everything.

“We use they to mean more than one person. Is,” she hesitates a moment. She is, after all, human. “Is it okay if I use it? For when I feel like…that?”

“I don’t see why not. It’s not like it’s a holy word between the souls of the forest, If it was, I don’t think I could translate it into your tongue.” The language of beasts and birds was not always as elegant as the one crafted by man, but it held a deeper understanding of the world than a mere mortal could ever grasp. Eli was as close as they would come. 

“They may even like you more for it, actually. The restrictions of your society baffle not just me.”

[cobaltchampion]

gladiodivina‌:

“Don’t think so.” Not to her face. “I mean more like…like I’m a girl, right? And I am, but sometimes it’s… I don’t feel like one? But I’ve never felt like a boy?”

“Oh, is that all?” What a relief- something he could help with. 

“Many spirits and creatures of the forest feel the same as you, little one. There’s nothing to be confused about- they simply call themselves as they will on any given day. Why should you be no different?” A beat, “Do humans not do this?”

[cobaltchampion]

gladiodivina‌:

“It’s um, like, about what people call me? I guess?”

“You mean like your name? Has someone called you out of it?”

[cobaltchampion]

gladiodivina‌:

@cobaltchampion

“Can I talk to you about a weird something?”

“It depends on the something. I only know about so much.”

[paltita-sketch]

To you, I shall be unique in all the world…

You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.

[cobaltchampion]

fusionbolts‌:

    He squints through the rain and mist as he tries to make out the figure–who was this man? And what was more–what on Earth did he have to do with his sibling?

    “Their brother.” Adair has always been a born leader–a man whose presence could hush a room if he used it properly–but when he tried to summon that commanding presence here, it fizzled out into nothing. His voice was hoarse and weary, betraying the desperation he felt deep in his chest. What should be demands sound as pleas when he asks, “How–How do you know of them? Where are they?”

Brother. 

It’s the only thing he needed to set his body into motion, pivoting himself around the tree to kick off his charge towards the figure in the dark. Mythic being or no, the rain clouded his vision as it would any creature, but he was certain his eyes were sharper than a human’s.

If he could even be called that anymore. Swine. Monster. Destroyer. 

Murderer. 

“This is your fault!”

It only takes a moment for him to reach his target, another to turn his body on a planted foot and his other to firmly kick against the man’s abdomen in a roundhouse. 

He would die, but not so quickly.

[cobaltchampion]

fusionbolts‌:

@cobaltchampion | JUST FUCK ME UP

    “Elisheva!”

         It’s his third day of searching. He’s only slept a few hours at most. The weather is still turbulent, rain pouring down on him as he trudges through the forest in search of his sibling. Zekrom keeps their distance for now, somewhere they won’t have to fight to fit through the tangled branches, but they’re prepared to come to his aid if anything should happen.

    Three days of trekking through the woods, pouring rain running into his eyes and making it impossible to see a damn thing, still adjusting to the fresh pain that shot through his burned arm every time he tried to move it–he’s exhausted. He hunches over, cursing under his breath–if he could just fucking find Eli–

    It’s only several minutes later that he notices another figure in the mist; he squints, trying to wipe the downpour from his face to get a better glimpse. Who in the hell was out and wandering around in a storm at this hour? 

They were gone. 

It took hours of searching, screaming, stumbling past the overturned trees and fleeing Pokemon to find them. Of course Eli didn’t stay put, not when they knew the trouble everyone in the area would be. The war, the storm; it was hell in a handbasket, as the humans would say. He was a fool to think they’d listen. Such a fool. Such a fool. Such a-

Lightning struck somewhere in the distance. 

   “Elisheva!”

Cobalion turned on his heels, sword drawing from it’s sheath almost on its own. His teeth grit. His knuckles turned white against the hilt. 

Thunder crashed not to far behind. 

He took the sound as an opportunity, masking his movement to the roll of sound across the woods to a tree, back pressed hard against the bark. 

Another crash. Another roll. He called out after, “Who are you to carry that name on your tongue?”

[gladiodivina]

gladiodivina:

Kris: Here’s a song that fits my muse and how he feels in regards to yours.

Me: Thanks I hate it.

The good news is I was finally able to get back at Kris.

[cobaltchampion]

gladiodivina:

“If you wanted to play up the justice aspect, there’s a few names that could pull from that. Some people just straight-up use Judge.”

“ ‘Eli Judge’ is not only a nice sounding name, but it sums up what you do with all of humanity. I don’t quite think that’s a grammatically correct sentence, though. I could be wrong.”

[cobaltchampion]

“Eli, we need a family name to replace yours. I haven’t even thought of a human alias, so I’ll leave it to you.”

[cobaltchampion]

gladiodivina:

sachisama replied to your post “Marriage is gross and you should all feel gross.”

cob voice never change your mind ever

“If you never get married you hack the universe and get infinite lives.”

“You...what the universe?”