There's a devil on your shoulder

[awesmazings]

Who: Jimmy Two-Shoes (awesmazings) and "Dietrich Jaeger" [Schuldig] (aufsassig)
Where: Goldenrod City
When: 08/12
Summary: Jimmy has a chance encounter with a stranger called Dietrich, and what he has to say might not be what he wants to hear...
Rating: PG for Schuldig's mouth
Log:

[After the hurricane, things were slowly being cleaned up all around Goldenrod. Thanks to the hard work of the Circus Troupe, the tent itself suffered minimal damage, allowing Joker and Jimmy to plan to leave for Olivine at the end of the week once they were sure everything was in order. Jimmy decided to take advantage of this free time to explore the city a bit more, visiting the department store to pick up a few things in preparation for getting back on the road, and eventually challenging some more gyms as he got to them.

Now he's just walking the streets with no particular place to go in mind, a Houndoom trotting at his left, and a Manectric at his right. The city is large and vast, and there are still a lot of places he hasn't explored yet...but it's still early, so he decides to wander a little farther than usual away from the tent, out towards the outskirts of the city. There are fairly less people here, and a lot more wild Pokemon wandering around, but it doesn't seem to bother Jimmy all that much. He can be heard humming as he makes his way, one hand hanging on to the strap of his backpack, and walking with an almost literal spring in his step.

All things considered, it's just another bright, sunny day. Though it is rather quiet around here...]

Comments

[awesmazings]

Mhm! Some of them, anyway.

[He laughs a little, shaking his head no.]

Aha, nah! That'd be cool though....

No, Heloise is kindof like a scientist! An inventor. She makes things for Lucius, and then Beezy, my best friend....well, he doesn't really have a job, or do a whole lot...

[aufsassig]

Oh, so you named your dog after one of your friends.

[As if he needed any more confirmation that he'd been right; those two names, he remembers well.

Idly, he directs a thought to Schlingel, who re-routes it through the rest of the network: give the kid a nudge, gently, make him want to keep on this subject. The chitchat is fine, but he'll grow bored of it eventually; might as well wreck the kid's day a little for his trouble, and if memory serves this was a touchy subject with him.]

Lucius and...who, did you say?

[awesmazings]

Beezy. Beezy's Lucy's son!

[Jimmy answers quickly, feeling a surge of eagerness to tell him about them. Well he has been gone from home a long time, and he does miss them a whole ton...so it feels nice to get to talk about them a bit, since he can't really talk to them here.]

I might name a Pokemon after him sometime, actually....he'd probably like that. Heloise too....and Cerbee!

[aufsassig]

Beezy and Lucy?

[There we go. He feigns ignorance and surprise, tipping his head a little to the side with his expression schooled into a look of vague concern.]

Where did you say you were from again?

[awesmazings]

Oh sorry, I didn't say, I don't think! I'm from a place called Miseryville!

[Jimmy drops his right hand to his side so he can put it in his pocket, idly scratching behind Leader's ears now with his other.]

S'not really anywhere that anybody else seems to recognize, so I guess my world is just different from everyone else's.

[Everybody comes from different worlds though, right? So that's not really that unusual.]

[aufsassig]

Miseryville?

[There goes the "concern" again, a little more intense this time.]

That doesn't sound like a very nice place at all, kid. What kind of a name is that?

[awesmazings]

[The boy hesitates, but only for a second. A lot of people have asked that before, but that's not unusual. It is a strange name for a town, after all.]

Oh, well- yeah!

[He looks away for a minute with a short, soft laugh.]

It's been called that for as long as I've been there, but that doesn't make it a bad place or anything.

[aufsassig]

Well, I don't know about that. Aren't places usually named after something about them? You know, like how Violet City is purple, or someplace called Green Valley is probably built in a green valley?

[awesmazings]

...Well....yeah, I guess you got a point there.

[Jimmy shakes his head again and his smile returns as he begins to explain, gesturing a little with his free hand.]

Y'see- Miseryville is run by Lucius. He's kindof like the mayor of the town, and he oversees how everything is run, and all. His job is to try to make the townsfolk....ahh, miserable, using different products that Heloise invents for him for Misery Inc.

But really, all of the things they make aren't bad at all. To tell you the truth, they're all really cool and fun!

[...Well, someone is seeing the world with rose tinted glasses, aren't they?]

So I guess that's why it's called that, but it really isn't that way at all! It's different, but it's just like any other town.

[aufsassig]

...Do you ever have new residents come in?

[He tips his head a little to the side.]

I mean, if it's such a nice place, then everybody who lives there must be really nice, right?

[awesmazings]

Everybody's nice, yeah!

[He finds himself slightly confused by the first question, though, and it takes him a minute to answer.]

Well...sometimes I run into folks I've never met before, every now and then.

[aufsassig]

What're they like, the new folks? Do they ever talk about where they lived before they came to Miseryville?

[awesmazings]

[Now that he mentions it...]

Well...no, not really. They're not usually all that different from the ones I already know! And it doesn't usually take anyone too long to get used to living Miseryville, if they are new. So...people like it pretty well, I'd say!

[Almost gives a feeling that you've been here all your life, and there never was anywhere else.]

[aufsassig]

They like it pretty well, for people who're supposed to be miserable, you mean.

[awesmazings]

Not everyone is really miserable, though!

[...]

I mean...I'm not miserable.

[aufsassig]

Oh, of course! And, I mean, I'm sure you've asked everybody else if they're happy, too, right? I mean, that's how you can say for sure, with such certainty.

[awesmazings]

Well I...I haven't asked, but they aren't! I know they aren't. If they didn't like Miseryville, they would've left by now, right?

[aufsassig]

Right, absolutely. It's not like they don't have anywhere else to go, right? It's not like they're stuck, or it's too dangerous to try to get out or something. I mean, I'm sure you yourself have been to plenty of other places they could go, right?

[awesmazings]

Miseryville is uh....actually kindof like, um...the whole world, if that makes sense? Like it's the town, but it's also got the beach, ocean, mountains, forest...but it's all still Miseryville when you put it all together.

So...

[...So?]

Unless they wanted to go live with the Weavils on Mt. Misery, and they probably wouldn't,....I guess there...wouldn't be anywhere else to go...

[The last words trail off a bit as he glances down at the top of Leader's head, pulling his hand away from where he'd still been petting him. The Manectric glances up at Jimmy briefly, tilting his head curiously as Jimmy blinks slowly, his expression shifting just slightly, as if that's something he's never thought about before.

And, really, it's not.]

[aufsassig]

[You know, for doing this out of nothing more than sheer boredom on a lazy afternoon, it sure is gratifying to know he's still got the touch and can utterly ruin someone's entire perspective on life over the course of a single conversation.

...Technically two and with the help of his little psychic friends, but you know. Who's counting.]

...Right, but still, it can't be that bad. You would've noticed if people were unhappy. So what if maybe you overlooked something little like whether or not people could leave. You'd definitely notice something that important, wouldn't you?

[awesmazings]

Yeah...yeah, you're right.

[He nods slightly, reaching a hand up to rub the side of his face subconsciously, an anxious gesture.]

Sure I would! It prolly doesn't matter anyways. Nobody would want to leave Miseryville.

[aufsassig]

Right, exactly. If nobody would want to, what does it matter whether or not they actually can. They're not gonna change their minds or anything, it's a great place.

Everyone's happy there, just like you.

[awesmazings]

[He nods, echoing Schuldig's words.]

Everyone's happy.

[That's right. Everyone has to be happy, because that's what he's always trying to do, isn't it? Make everyone else as happy as possible, in a place designed for misery.

...but he's not there right now, is he? Does that mean everyone is still happy anyway? Or...is Lucius managing to make them miserable?]

[aufsassig]

So don't worry about it! It's like you said, the place is really terrible at making people miserable anyway.

Even if that's its job, it's nothing to worry about. It's like how people say hell isn't that bad of a place if all of your friends are there too, haha.

[awesmazings]

[...]

...Do people really say that?

I-I mean. ...I was told that...that isn't a good place all around.