Second Spell: Across Time. [Partially backdated.]

[behindblueskin]

Who: Keldor and...
Where: Hisui or Johto
When: The past or the present
Summary: Backdated stuff from the Hisui event and some current day things.
Rating: Unrated
Log:

Hisui #1: It'll be a few days yet before everything's fixed and people are sent back to their proper time, but before that happens, Keldor's making yet another attempt to catch one of the native Growlithes before time runs out.

The clock Keldor should be worrying about right now is the "day clock". It's already sunset, and that means the diurnal 'mons will soon be punching out while the night shift punches in. Already a flock of Zubats and a few Golbats are heading out with a big case of the munchies. Their Crobat leader hasn't arrived yet, but when it does, it's gonna notice Sakura and recognise her as a potential enemy.

Rocks will need to be deployed, but unfortunately for Keldor, there's a Voltorb amongst them, and when he grabs it, the result is predictable. It might even look like the taserings from Despicable Me 2, but we won't confirm that.

While he's recovering from the shock of a lifetime he might need assistance. First to drive off the 'bats thinking he's now been zapped into a lunchable, then to help him back to consciousness, and then hopefully to help him catch his Growlithe.

---

Hisui #2: One day and one electrocution later, it looks like Keldor's made a fast friend with the Voltorb he accidentally grabbed last night. He's not quite sure what to make of it, but the Voltorb doesn't seem inclined to want to leave [despite all efforts to shoo it away], so it looks like it's going to be part of the team for the foreseeable future.

---

Johto: It's good to be back, even if where he is isn't his original home. Ganpi, Fukiran, Gingko and Momiji are eager to get to know their new friends before Keldor's pokegear informs him that he's got one too many pokemon on-hand and the limit is six. As much as he'd really like to work on training Sakura and his second Growlithe, he did spend a lot of money trying to get Fukiran's egg, so he'll be kept while the other is sent to the box [as will Sakura].

Now that that's out of the way, it's time to get to work.

Everyone is behind on their training and they need to make up for lost time.

Comments

[crystalmaster]

[Radley smiles a bit.]

Hey, I'm just glad I was around. I hate to think what would have happened if we hadn't been nearby.

[behindblueskin]

[Actually he meant more in general. Radley's one of the first humans he's ever met that didn't treat him with bigotry born from an ancient crime. That's something that goes far with Keldor.]

No. I mean... You have been kind to me ever since we first met. I am ... not used to that...

[From humans.]

[crystalmaster]

[Radley frowns.]

People always seem to act unkind with the ones who don't deserve it. I saw that a lot back home too.

[behindblueskin]

It is not just me, though. Any one of my people can expect a similar treatment. We are branded as beyond contempt anywhere we go.

[Most Gar don't even bother leaving the island. No point.]

[crystalmaster]

That's sickening. I've seen prejudice back home and have even been the victim of it. And it used to be that everyone from an island called the Satellite was treated like garbage. I never bought into that.

[behindblueskin]

[Belatedly, Keldor realises he's disclosed more than he intended to, especially to someone he still only barely knows. But he decides to keep going; divulging just enough without sharing too much information. Besides. Radley's next reaction will affirm or not that he's someone Keldor can truly confide in about everything.]

And yet they do not care. Certainly not the rightness of their opinion, or even if it is long past time to let things go. They will neither forget or forgive.

To them, the deeds of one must be atoned for by the rest. For all time.

[Anger can be heard in his deceptively-calm tone, but also great pain. Keldor isn't just another Gar—he's the son of King Miro and a descendant of no less than King Grayskull himself, and thus a prince. But if being a prince didn't provide immunity to the humans' hatred, one can only imagine what those Gar who have ventured beyond the island have been subjected to.

Not Keldor, though. He knows, for he was told, and it fuels his own anger over this injustice his own people are subjected to.]

[crystalmaster]

... All of your people are being blamed for what one person did a long time ago?!

[He looks furious and indignant.]

[behindblueskin]

[Keldor doesn't quite know what to call the emotion he's feeling, seeing as he feels it rarely, but it's that feeling of elated relief and bonding that could be summed up as "kin spirit". A kind of deep friendship. Like this is someone you could trust with anything.]

Essentially, yes. We are all stained with the blood that Grayskull spilled when he was murdered. Or so they see it.

[The thought makes him want to cry, but Keldor is not a man of tears but of action. Knowing that there are people suffering makes him want to do something about it. Like take back the crown that he feels was stolen from him by Randor after the death of Queen Amelia.

[crystalmaster]

That's sickening! Why don't they come into the modern age and act logical?! I guess they're incapable of that.

[He pets Lily, disgusted by the senseless cruelty of it.]

[behindblueskin]

[Sadly, it is the "modern age" where Keldor is from in his timeline, and the humans still will not see sense. It's enough to occasionally make him cynical about the whole "take back your crown" business. If he succeeds, he's going to need every ally he can get just to keep the inevitable coups, uprisings and assassination attempts at bay.]

Apparently they are not capable of such things. And yet they rule the kingdom of Eternia.

[Technically it's Randor, but he's human, so in effect humans rule the place.

At any rate, one can guess how the other peoples of Eternia have it. Not nearly as bad as the Gar, but it's probably not something to celebrate either.]

[crystalmaster]

[Radley frowns.]

Power always seems to end up with those who abuse it.

[He thinks of Malcolm and Lawton back home.]

Everybody must be miserable there, unless they have the same narrow views.

[behindblueskin]

I would not say Randor abuses his power, but rather that he simply has no idea what he is doing or should be doing. "Incompetent" is not a word I would use to describe how he uses his power and authority, but it is close.

[crystalmaster]

That's not good either. Then he's a prime target to be manipulated by people who both want the power and know how to use it.

[behindblueskin]

[Well, Keldor is someone who wants the power. Partially because it's supposed to be his; that Randor never should have ascended the throne, and partially to make something of a difference in Eternia.]

I wish I could say that the people he has advising him on what he should do are not those kinds of people, but the sad truth is that there might very well be such individuals.

[Possibly why the Masters exist. In the hopes that they can give good counsel to the king, whoever he is.]

[crystalmaster]

[Radley also wanted power back home. But he would have been a kind leader, unlike his enemies.]

I wouldn't be surprised. If they were leading things in the right way, that'd be okay, but they probably aren't.

[behindblueskin]

[Keldor probably be the same. Or at least a just ruler. Being both human and Gar should in theory give him a balanced outlook on things.

Sadly, it seems there are a lot of human hands on one of the scales, tipping it against his Gar blood, making it hard for him to fully accept the human half of his heritage.]

I concur with your assessment. So far, what I have seen during my travels across Eternia has not shown me that Randor would be anything beyond mediocre at best.

[crystalmaster]

Is anyone interested in taking over the throne for a good reason?

[behindblueskin]

[And here he'd thought the biggest test of friendship was behind him...]

Yes.

[Significant pause.]

I am.

[Time to come clean regarding this.]

Randor is my brother. My younger, half-brother.

[Which, if he's playing his cards right, should convey what he means to convey: Keldor is a prince, a high-born noble, and, if titles follow the same rules in Radley's world as it does in Keldor's, that right now he should be king.

All this makes him a touch anxious, but he hopes he's hiding it well.]

[crystalmaster]

[Radley stares at him in renewed outrage. He definitely gets it.]

He stole the throne from you?!

[behindblueskin]

More like unexpected circumstances made it so that Randor became king, not I.

I was ... not able to become king due to ... things happening.

[Kinda hard to be coronated when you've been packed up and kicked out of your own home, yes? Packed up, kicked out, and all for one more thing you've never done, but are expected to atone for anyways.]

[crystalmaster]

[Radley frowns, thinking back on the ramblings and the points when he remembered hearing Randor's name.]

... Did he blame you for something happening to someone?

[Worse, did he frame Keldor for it?!]

[behindblueskin]

[Damn, Radley is astute. He'll give him that much.]

Not entirely. But neither did he defend me against the charges.

[Randor might not be a perfect person, but he's not the sort to use underhanded means to achieve something.]

[crystalmaster]

You can't do anything to prove your innocence?!

[Radley thinks of how alone he felt when he was abandoned in the Hellish mines. He can imagine Keldor may have felt similarly.]

[behindblueskin]

[Uh oh, looks like Keldor's about to divulge something he never intended to.]

I WAS NOT EVEN GIVEN THE CHANCE!

[There are tears in his eyes now, but he's too angry to notice them.]

She died! She died near me! I laid no hand on her, but she died near me! And yet I was branded her murderer by none other than my own brother! A woman I regarded as "mother" for all that she did not birth me.

[This is probably the first time he's really talked about this. Even his friends in Eternia don't know the whole story of Amelia's death.]

....my.... ...my own brother....

[crystalmaster]

[Radley rocks back at the outburst, then stares in sickened outrage and horror.]

Why?! Why would he even think that?!