[center][h1]Donnie, Tora and Poppi[/h1]
[h2]Word Count = 1,195 words[/h2]
[h3]Donnie, Tora, and Poppi + 2 EXP[/h3]
NOTE: This is a collab between myself and [@Lugubrious].[/center]

Donnie, fresh off of the Courier muttering curses at him and the Captain walking away thinking he was crazy, was a bit annoyed. However, he’d certainly dealt with worse in his time adventuring. If he had a copper piece for every time he’d gotten on someone’s bad side, he wouldn’t have needed to do errands for random townsfolk or track down bounty targets just to get the gold necessary to fund his questing.

The thing he planned on doing next, however, was significantly more troublesome. Seeing as Tora and Poppi were done talking to Cid and Cindy, now was the opportunity to pull them aside, if he wanted to do it.

No, he had to go through with this. This talk needed to happen sooner rather than later, before it became a problem.

Dismissing the Disc on the ground nearby and walking up to Tora and Poppi, he asked, “Hey. Do you two have a minute to talk in private?”

The pair recognized the man, by sight if not yet by name or reputation, as an ally. While at first glance he didn’t seem particularly interesting, encouraging Tora to have gladly walked right by, the way he spoke -and sort of got in their way- commanded their attention. As such, the Nopon raised his eyebrows and replied, “Am listening.”

“What can Tora and Poppi help with?” his companion chimed in, an innocently curious expression on her face.

“Look, we need to talk,” Donnie said, beckoning to a relatively out-of-the-way spot at the east side of the gas station. When they followed him, leaning against the wall, he said to them. “SInce the fight earlier in the scrubland, there’s been something that’s bothering me. When we killed the clown, you two immediately treated it as a casual act and started talking about Tora’s weight.” He looked at both of them, standing next to him. 

“I’m not going to claim sympathy for that piece of horse dung, far from it,” he continued. “But I’ve killed many in my travels as an adventurer, and killing people never gets any easier, even when they’re violent, murderous monsters like him. I’ve learned to deal with it a lot better, of course, but it’s still an incredibly serious situation. When I saw you talk like that, I figured you two had been simply gotten used to conflict better than I have. And I wanted to ask you about that.”

The implication was clear. Donnie had, under his rough yet casual exterior, had been quite disturbed by what he had heard from them. How would they respond?

Poppi, who didn’t know the answer herself, turned with an expectant look to Tora. “That good question. Poppi assumed Masterpon had good reason all along, but never ask.”

Plainly in deep thought, Tora took a few more moments before responding in a slow, less-than-confident fashion. “W-well, meh...did not think very hard about it. Back in Alrest, Tora and friends fight all the time, lots of monster and machine but a few people too. For some, it very simple: it either them or us. Still, we never kill people, even rogue driver.” A hefty silence momentarily filled the air. “...Suppose I look at it like this, meh. When Galeem beaten, according to Master of Masters, everything return to what was before. That mean everything done in this world get undone. So, even if Tora have to kill to stop very bad man here, it not really real, meh.”

After getting it out there, Tora started to sound a little more sure of himself. Closing his eyes and rubbing his non-chin in an authoritative manner, he continued, “Plus, if it is what seems like and everyone really just spirit in this world, with fake bodies, destroy body not really kill spirit. Meh, meh. Can be brought back in way or another, yes?”

The explanation took some consideration from Poppi, but after a few moments she nodded in agreement. “For once, Masterpon make sense. This world clearly work different from normal. But is obvious that even if actions not matter so much in temporary world, should still hold to principle.” A notion occurred to her, prompting her to gaze off into the distance with a worried expression. “Plus, what if friends cannot win? Would have to live on in this world, with consequences of actions. Very interesting.” Her Nopon creator, who clearly didn’t think of this last point, mulled over her suggestion.

Donnie seemed to stiffen during their explanation, and stare at his hands. “You know, I arrived late last night. I got filled in on the whole MegaDragonBowser thing from the rest of us, but I wasn’t really there for the Master of Masters’ explanation. Hell, I didn’t even really know who he [i]was[/i]. I got the basics, of course--Galeem ripped our universes to shreds and stuck them together with duct-tape and glue for some insane reason, and we have to kill it--but uh”--he looked back at them--”that does explain a [i]lot[/i].”

“Still, Poppi brings up a good point. Galeem is extremely powerful even by cosmic standards, we might not be able to kill it. And if we fail, we’re going to have to live in this sick experiment it’s cooked up for the rest of our lives in these fake bodies even [i]if[/i] we survive. Hell, we’re stuck like this for the foreseeable future even [i]before[/i] the final battle. Playing the long game is admirable, but the short-term matters as well. Our actions [i]do[/i] have consequences as long as we’re here, and this quest might take years. If we go around acting like killing people, even in self-defense, is no big deal, others are going to judge us.

“And,” he continued, recalling the conversation with Captain Falcon painfully, “Not everyone is going to believe us about what’s really going on here, nor that we’re somehow the only people who are free.

“Besides, even if all the spirits are gonna restored to normal with Galeem’s death, that doesn’t [i]actually[/i] mean that the Spirits that were consumed, turned into items, and so on will have their consciousness intact until then. I’m not sure how spirit fusion or spirit-infused item creation works, but there’s nothing I’ve seen that shows their minds are still intact. For all we know, they might cease to exist until we kill Galeem, which may never happen. And what if the person who’s been fused kicks the bucket, or the spirit item is broken beyond repair? What then?

“What I’m getting at here,” Donnie said, “ is that this is all a lot more complex than you’re making it out to be, Tora, and it’s best to tread with caution even if it seems at first like your actions don’t have consequences in this world.”

At some point Tora lost the thread of what Donnie was saying and stopped really paying attention, but when he arrived at his eventual conclusion, it seemed straightforward enough. Plus, the Nopon really wanted to resume his exploration of the garage’s facilities. Vigorously nodding, he said, “Yes, yes, mehmehmeh! Tora will be very careful. Poppi too.” he glanced at the artificial blade for assurance, who gave a grave nod.