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]

... Maybe.

[video]

[gochuugoku]

But wouldn't you have done it by now if that's what you truly wished?

[video]

[foolishwren]

Do you do everything you want the moment you want to, no matter what it is?

[video]

[gochuugoku]

You got me there. [Basically, no.]

[video]

[foolishwren]

Yeah.

Exactly.

So... y'know.

_{[Excuses. She's not going to. And she doesn't REALLY want to, either. ... But there is that desire. Deep down. As brutal as it is...]}

[video]

[gochuugoku]

What's causing your mood to be like this? Is it all the departures?

[video]

[foolishwren]

Gee, you think?

[video]

[gochuugoku]

[He puts both his hands up in front of him in defense.]

I am sorry, I didn't mean to enrage you further, aru. I am missing people just as much as you are.

[video]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[It's pretty hard to be mad at China, but Heather's just... mad in GENERAL. :(]

[She lets out a huff of breath much in the same way a horse might snort angrily.]</sub>

Well, then join the club.

_{[Sorry China. It's... it's nothing personal. At all.]}

[video]

[gochuugoku]

[And China takes no hard feelings.]

Think about it this way, [Going back to the subject of the egg.] we all start out vulnerable, even Nations, when we are born. Parents also have the same choice on whether to destroy the new life or not.

[video]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[... That's a pretty good point.]

[Especially to someone who had been made alarmingly aware of how close her father had come to this exact situation. With her.]

[He'd decided to keep her. Even though she wasn't the same as what he'd lost.]

[She goes silent, not quite looking at the screen.]</sub>

[video]

[gochuugoku]

[Oops, he didn't mean to strike a nerve.]

I am sorry, I did not mean for it to be that deep, aru.

[video]

[foolishwren]

It's not deep.

_{[At least not on purpose. But she's clearly affected by it, despite her surly dismissal.]}

[video]

[gochuugoku]

It is always possible that they might return, or we may go home to join them.

[video]

[foolishwren]

... I won't be joining any of them if I go home.

_{[The ones from home were all dead.]}

[video]

[gochuugoku]

. . . [Because really, what is he supposed to say to that? A simple "I'm sorry" sounded stupid to stay, at least to him.]

[video]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[Y-yeah...]

[And it's around that point that she hangs up.]

[She'll... probably be apologizing to him personally for being nasty later.]</sub>