89. [Video/Action for travel group]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[A short while after the singing wild Pokemon and egg presents had died down, a rather unfortunate discovery was made upon dialing a number she'd been meaning to dial ever since Claudia Wolf and Kaito Kuroba had disappeared from Johto.]

[Already on the road, the weather's mild enough (even with the wind picking up) that Heather decided that was pretty much a good time to pocket her Valentine's Day present and just head off for a walk. Because lord knows, she needs one.]

[It's not the first time Johto has given everyone the gift of a precious little egg, but it is the first time that Heather's found herself resenting it.]

[The video feed pops on, focused in on a tiny, pale yellow little egg hardly bigger than a chicken's, nestled in the palm of Heather's hand as dry grass goes past underfoot.]</sub>



It would be so easy to just... crush it.

Comments

[video]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[Naoto was even closer to Rise than Heather, probably... in Heather's case, it's the triple-blow. She'd been on the road to dealing with the loss of Kaito in a more or less constructive way, even if it was hard. She'd been able to handle Claudia, even if it was with a burning sense of loss both of her and the fact that, in accordance with Heather's secret fears, she'd somehow managed to take a friend with her.]

[But Rise... losing Rise was the last straw.]

[She'd never even been able to tell her she was sorry for that fight. She'd never even been able to tell her what that fight had been over.]</sub>

.... You could say that.

[video]

[crimsondirge]

Did you-- [she cuts off, stopping her tone and hesitating for a second. this isn't the place for interrogations and investigations, for questions and prying. she tries again, and her voice is a little softer.] Did you lose someone?

[something doesn't honestly occur to her. she knows how this place works.]

[video]

[foolishwren]

Yeah.

_{[There's no more concise answer she can give to that.]}

... Probably the same person you did.

[video]

[crimsondirge]

[she looks down, and it takes a second before she trusts herself to speak. she nods, instead, to buy herself a few extra seconds, but even that doesn't stop her tone from being shaky for the first few words.]

I expect quite a lot of people are in the same situation, right now.

[video]

[foolishwren]

... Yeah.

_{[There was no denying that.]}

[video]

[crimsondirge]

I detest our inability to change the way this place works.

[video]

[foolishwren]

I'm not sure 'detest' is a strong enough word.

[video]

[crimsondirge]

There are quite a few others that I could use to accompany it, but it would feel superfluous after awhile.

[video]

[foolishwren]

If I had my way, there would be a version of 'detest' so strong that people would consider it a curse word.

[video]

[crimsondirge]

[Naoto considers for a moment. Well-- all of her vocabulary at her disposal, and really, she can't find a good term for it that would be better.]

I think the only way I could make it stronger would be to actually add a curse word to it. [which would just be strange, coming from Naoto.]