foolishwren | 87. [Text/Action for Ecruteak in the evening]

Current Mood: crushed
Current Location: Ecruteak City

87. [Text/Action for Ecruteak in the evening]

_{[The following is sent out network-wide.]}

[Text]

gonna be gone today

won't be back till late

if it's important leave a message and I'll get it later

[Note left on the bedside table in hotel room, for Harry Mason and Henry Townshend]

Gotta take care of something

Won't be at work.

See you guys later in time for dinner probably

-Heather

[ACTION]

_{[There's a little rec center towards the south end of Ecruteak City. Given that the town's full of old people, it doesn't see a whole lot of activity.]

[But today, someone passing by might notice a small group of Pokemon hanging out JUST inside the door-- normally Pokemon waiting for their trainer would be playing or gamboling outside in the snow, but they look unusually subdued. Butch the Quagsire and Alessa the Absol, probably recognizable to anyone who's spent a significant amount of time around Heather, are sitting in the chairs by the entrance, although they're accompanied by two new faces...]

[A babbling Wooper is cuddled up to Butch's side, and a small, purple ball of fur is nestled deep into the Absol's bristly mane, not moving aside from the occasional little shiver or reflexive squirm as Alessa lifts her head to give it a gentle nudge every so often.]

[They're Heather's Pokemon, all right-- plus two of Kaito Kuroba's, Flapper the Wooper and Biz the Aipom, and they're clearly hunkered down morosely in the front lobby of the rec center, probably waiting for Heather.]

[But... where WAS Heather?]

[Smiling.]

[At the end of the letter, he'd told her to keep smiling.]

[Well, she couldn't do that. Maybe later. Maybe in a few hours, or tomorrow. But not today. Sorry, buddy...]

[If anyone actually went into the recreation center's lobby to see why the hell Heather's Pokemon were just sitting there, waiting around, they would likely hear it-- the repeated thwak THWAK THUD of someone viciously venting their spleen on a punching bag.]

[Which is exactly what she was doing, and HAD been doing for the past god knows how many hours. She hadn't even looked outside since she'd gotten there in the morning-- for all she knew it was past dark. She didn't know and she didn't really care, either-- which actually surprised her. She'd left that note for her father and Henry specifically with the intention of guilting herself into returning when she'd told them, because hey. They'd worry.]

[That wasn't good, she knew. Getting so sucked into hitting something that she didn't even care about getting 'home' on time. That sure was a throwback to the old high school years, wasn't it.]

[But hey... she wasn't punching a wall or a tree this time.]

[That was an improvement, right...?]}

[OOC: PokeGear responses will be replied to around 10:00 at night, when Heather returns home from beating the shit out of gym equipment. 8I]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

_{[Coop's surprised, but in a good way. While he doesn't actively think of her as a friend he does think of their relationship as something of a friendship, and well ... he's glad to see she seems to value it the same way, or at least enough to talk to him.]

[He stops and turns, waiting for her to catch up.]}

Looked pretty mad to me. Are you feeling any better?

_{[It's not accusing - he knows she's not mad at HIM.]}

_{[Jogging looked too desperate, so she just sort of... speedwalks after him until she'd gotten to him, whereupon she stops, chest still heaving slightly. She'd gone at that bag so long that it'd actually left her feeling a little lightheaded now that she'd stopped.]}

I'm not-- .... well, yeah. I'm mad. But not at anybody. Just at... I don't know. Not really.

_{[A little more TIRED, but... not much better.]}

Anger is the second of the five stages of grief.

_{[In other words, anger is a perfectly normal response. Being angry at circumstance isn't new, and coming from Heather, almost expected.]}

_{[Yeah, especially considering that for Heather, all four of the other stages ALSO tend to involve anger...]

[She lifts a hand to rub at one painful-looking red-rimmed eye, sort of grateful that this place is practically deserted. She's a hell of a lot more composed NOW than she was EARLIER and it had been a blessing that she'd been able to be that way while nobody was around.]}

Just the second, huh?

_{[She tries to force a laugh, but very little actually comes out.]

[Grief, huh. He must know what happened. Or at least have guessed. Part of her is sort of relieved. It means she doesn't have to explain it. Explaining is the hardest part. Even in the times when she feels like she can do it, the very thought of it is often exhausting. So exhausting that she just doesn't want to say anything.]}

_{[He gives her a small crooked smile that reads kinda sad. That was a rather pitiful laugh, but he knows her pain.]}

The first one is denial.

_{[Which, if she's anything like him, he figures she had at least a touch of that before she decided to go and beat up gym equipment. But he'll hand it to her - it's a much better solution than a brick wall and leaves fewer scars.]}

_{[Oh, you bet there was denial...]

[Hell, her first (irrational, because although Kaito could be a rascal, he wasn't that mean) thought had been that he was playing some kind of trick on her.]

[It had quickly been replaced with a sick feeling when she'd realized that no. No, he wasn't.]

[The way she turns away from Cooper slightly, folding her arms and tucking the towel's corners in with them to pull it around herself like a blanket, is just a little pitiful.]

[She doesn't try to laugh this time around, although her voice holds that bitter semi-self-mockery he's probably gotten a little used to hearing from her by now.]}

Think maybe if I speed through the other three as fast as possible, it'll go away quicker?

_{[Yeah, he knows the tone. He takes a step or two towards her, puts a hand on her shoulder and squeezes lightly. He can't do much else for her right now.]

[Well, other than offering an ear, he supposes. But naturally he doesn't ask if she needs that outright.]}

That's his Aipom out there, right?

_{[She doesn't look up at the touch, but she nods a little bit.]}

Yeah...

And his Wooper.

_{[She supposed Crow must have gotten one or two as well... but she hadn't seen her other friend yet that day. He's probably not taking it much better than she is.]}

_{[He's quiet for a moment, but remains where he is, looking at her in a sort of quiet understanding.]}

Always catches you by surprise, doesn't it?

_{[Johto hasn't been too bad to him, even if that's largely his own doing, but people going (and coming) in such an unpredictable way ... well, it's the worst part about the place, no matter how many times it's pointed out.]}

_{[There's a pause, but then she sniffs audibly and nods again.]

[She's had a lot of friends disappear over her time in this place. Some close, others not AS close but still important... but not even Phoenix's disappearance had her feeling... feeling like this.]

[Heather had a knack for words. Not eloquence so much as being able to find the right ones for a feeling, even if it wound up sounding uncomfortable.]

[But she can't think of words for this, and the brief battle that takes place on her face even as she turns it to face away from Cooper probably shows that. He's seen her on several occasions shortly after losing friends, by now... Aoko, Old Snake, L... But none of those did this.]

[When she speaks up again, her voice is tight and strained.]}

... I didn't think he'd go anywhere.

_{[Yeah, this is big. He's seen her upset a fair number of times and he's always listened, but this is different because it's present, now, it didn't happen a few years ago. It makes it worse to talk about by default.]

[And he's not sure where, exactly, he stands with her. It wouldn't normally stop him from going about things his normally perhaps-too-blunt way but he finds himself thinking a little more carefully about Heather in particular just because they got off to such a rocky start.]

[Dale Cooper isn't usually uncertain about things, but he finds that he is here. It says a lot, really, but it's not about him. In the end he just sighs softly and sort of lets her be, for now.]

[But man she must get a hug later.]}

We never do.

_{[Heather's probably more sure of where she stands with him than he is... but that's the furthest thing from her thoughts at the moment.]

[She's not really crying-- between the sweat and all the tears she'd shed earlier, there's not much in there for her tear ducts to work with anymore. He's come across her around the tail end of her energy reserves, and now she just looks drained-- shoulders slumped, head hanging. She'd pretty much only been able to keep going at that punching bag out of pure inertia. Bodies in motion want to stay in motion and all that. Yaaaay high school physics.]}

... He was one of the first friends I ever made here.

_{[Again, he smiles a bit in response. She's talking, and he figures that's a good thing.]}

So you go way back, huh?

_{[He didn't know, even if he assumed. He'd only talked to Kaito twice or so but from what he could tell he was pretty similar to Heather, so it doesn't surprise him to hear that they'd been friends a while.]}

_{[A very small nod.]}

He got here not too long after I did.

Few weeks, maybe.

You're going to have a hard time the next few days.

_{[It's not insensitive, though. Of course not. This is Cooper.]}

_{[Insensitive? Maybe a little. But ... well, it's the truth. And how can Heather be upset at him for speaking the truth? It's something she knows.]

[She lets out a sort of sobbish laugh, reaching up to rub an eye again. It looks painful. They're always sore and exhausted-looking, but right now they look like she's been scrubbing them with steel wool.]}

You figure?

_{[Sniffing, she pulls the towel from around her shoulders and rubs her hand dry on it, although there hadn't been much to wipe off of her face, tear-wise. The single nice thing about dehydration: shuts those tear ducts up good and hard.]}

... Feels like... feels like it's gonna be a lot longer than the next few days.

Like maybe just forever.

_{[It's almost hilariously dramatic-sounding, especially coming from a girl like Heather. She'd experienced so many losses before. All of them lingered in one way or another, but ... well, she did move on. She'd moved on from Phoenix, moved on from James and L and Old Snake and all the others... hell, even from her father's, although that had only been because he'd returned.]

[But this was different. She sort of knows she'll be embarrassed for saying that later, but she's emotional enough right now that she can't bring herself to care.]}

_{[He raises an eyebrow slightly, because - yes. That was a rather unexpected response from her and he tilts his head slightly to look her over.]}

Few things last that long, Heather. Pain isn't one of them.

_{[NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE]

[But it's actually true. It gives way to resignation and acceptance, or in SOME cases, guilt and the fact that he keeps feeding it, but it's not like she needs to know that.]}

_{[It's not like her at all. But to be fair... the last time she'd been this attached to a particularly unique friend-- a boy-- was... well. She's not sure she's ever had a friend she felt this way about. Not long from now, she's going to facepalm in horror at her own melodrama.]

[But right this second... it seems perfectly reasonable.]

[She shakes her head and replies in a flat, resigned voice.]}

Nn.... no. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna feel this way forever.

_{[You were a teenager once, Cooper. Surely you understand.]}

_{[Yeah, sure. Although it's been a while since he had to step into that particular dramatic mindset, so it takes him a moment to catch on. But when he does ...]

[He pulls a sympathethic smile. He might have teased her a bit about it if, well, said boy hadn't COMPLETELY DISAPPEARED, but now he has and as such that makes it a pretty terrible time to poke fun.]

[So instead he moves a bit to look her in the face properly with an open kind of expression.]}

I hightly doubt that.

_{[Yeeeeeaaaah.]

[Under normal circumstances, Heather would likely weather teasing fairly well, all things considered. Right now? She'd probably try to use Cooper in place of that punching bag.]

[As it is, though, she just looks up at him with a sort of puffed sigh. She doesn't really want to look this upset. Not even in front of him, and she's actually grown rather okay with being emotional in his general presence, which is a fairly big deal.]

[But there's not a lot she can do about it except be grateful that the waterworks died down.]}

I guess...

_{[It's said somewhat grudgingly.]}

_{[To which he offers her a halfway, slightly crooked smile and a brief clap to the shoulder, all encouraging.]}

Then you'll guess and I'll know.

_{[Not that he's entirely sure what he's going to accomplish there, but he still somehow manages to say that in a mild way that means it's sincere and not belittling.]

[That said, her teenage drama-y self is new to him and it's honestly a little, well ... weird and funny to see.]}

_{[It's a side of her that hasn't had any reason to surface since what seems like forever ago, and therefore really hasn't before now. Not even when Phoenix left.]

[She doesn't shrug out from under his hand, but does sort of let out a defeated sigh. She knows it'd be silly and pointless to argue, that she'll be cringing at her own emotions in a few hours, even while her insides still ache with the loss.]

[But she appreciates what he's saying, for what it's worth. Even if she's not in much of a state to show it right now.]}

I guess.

_{[She reaches up to rub some of the salt (from tears and sweat alike-- no blood, thankfully-- from her face after repeating herself.]}

... It's all pretty stupid, isn't it.

_{[To which he shakes his head lightly, because why would it be?]}

Stupidity is relative, you know. We only notice it when comparing it to something that isn't. On its own an act, thought or emotion doesn't have to be one thing or the other.

_{[A quiet snort.]}

I dunno. I can think of some acts and thoughts that are pretty stupid.

_{[But he does have a point, so she just sort of shakes her head and sighs.]}

Did you.... come in here because of me?

Yes. I did.

_{[It's an unlikely friendship, theirs, but he values it. Of course he did.]}

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