foolishwren | 89. [Video/Action for travel group]

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89. [Video/Action for travel group]

_{[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.]}

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

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_{[Oh, yeah. Well -- the Tibetan Buddhists believe everything is connected. Some things would have to be considered ironic as a direct result.]

[But that was news to him and he nods slowly.]}

Do you miss her?

Yes... No.

... I don't know.

_{[Her feelings on the matter of Claudia had always been Complicated, no matter how much she wished it were as simple as just HATING her.]}

_{[He'd thought she might say that. He regards her for a moment - it really is a tricky situation. He thinks he knows that one, too.]}

But you don't like that she's gone.

_{[It's another one of those soft assumptions that he's pretty good at.]}

_{[He is good.]

[She considers this... and then nods.]}

I...

... Back home... on the night Dad died.

I swore to... well, not to GOD, but I just... I swore I'd kill her with my own bare hands.

... But she died before I could...

_{[She trails off, shaking her head.]}

... I guess part of me, when she got here...

Part of me thought that I could...

_{[... But that wasn't all, of course.]}

She was your friend once.

_{[He remembers as much, of course, from that ice cream chat what feels like quite a few months back, now. Of course killing her wouldn't have been it. He can imagine how complicated things would be if Windom showed up, after all...]}

_{[There's a pause before she speaks, and when she does, there's a quaver in her voice.]}

Yeah, well... s-so what?

She killed my dad. Killed Vincent. Would've killed ME, all for the sake of making her stupid fantasy reality. _{[Sure, she'd thought that everyone would be saved in the end (okay, maybe not Harry), but why the fuck should that matter?]}

I don't-- If she'd-- if she'd ever come close to me in PERSON here, I'd--!

_{[She doesn't know what she would have done. It's wavered... every time she'd talked to Claudia while she was here, it had wavered.]}

I know.

_{[He doesn't really, not perfectly, but it's the kind of thing you say .. and he thinks he can imagine it. He really does.]}

But you knew her before she did those things. It isn't as easy as blind rage.

_{[No. No, it's not, and the way she bows her head, squinting her eyes shut, shows that she knows that even if she'd rather not admit it.]}

... You remember the day I got Sunny?

_{[She knows he must-- he'd been so weirded out by the sight of her. ... Heh, that had been before they'd truly become 'friends'.]}

_{[How could I forget? is what he doesn't say, but it's there in the nod somewhere. That had been a tiny bit traumatic, mostly because the presence of an owl even more enormous than his own had caught him so incredibly off guard.]}

_{[Yeah, his reaction had been... memorable. So had Claudia's, although it was the complete opposite.]}

...She thought Sunny was an angel.

_{[Oh ... yeah. That sounds about right. She had talked about Johto as paradise, after all. He's not quite sure what he should answer to that.]}

What did you tell her?

I told her... I said she wasn't, because... fucking DUH, she's a goddamn BIRD...

_{[But even though she's hauling out her usual vulgar vocabulary to harsh her way through the explanation, something in her face just sort of... crumples.]}

... And I dunno, at some point Sunny did that... fluffing up thing that birds... I dunno, DO sometimes, and it made my hair go all staticky and shit and...

_{[A pause, as Heather turns her gaze firmly downward and away from the screen, eyes shut tight in that way that only people holding something back do.]}

... And she laughed.

Like normal.

_{[Like they'd both used to. Like they hadn't had a chance to when they'd met again so many years later, because of the direness of the situation Claudia had created...]

[Oh, what a pair, me and you...]}

_{[And that's what he'd been talking about. It isn't as easy as rage or hate when it comes to these kind of people ... the important people.]}

I'm sorry.

_{[What else can he say...]}

_{[Yes, the important people.]

[And even more than that, the victims.]

[Heather had already known, of course, the circumstances under which Claudia had become the woman who would murder Harry Mason and try to bring God into the world by any means necessary. From the moment she'd gotten Alessa's memories back, she had known, quietly, under her rage.]

[But talking with Vincent on that miserable evening back in January had brought it home harder than ever.]}

... Fuck.

_{[It's said in a hiss, as she lifts a hand to rub violently at her face. No. No, she doesn't want to cry. Not now. Not for what has to be the goddamn second or third time in the past few weeks, in front of COOPER. It's okay, she trusts that he won't be an ass about it like so many others might, but it's still fucking EMBARRASSING to be destroying that big confident facade of I-can-take-on-the-world piece by piece.]}

Fuck, fuck, fuck, no, fuck.

_{[Which is part of the reason he looks away. He knows about facades crumbling, has seen it happen several times, and it's never pretty nor pleasant.]

[Heather is strong. Moreover, she knows it. And she doesn't like being the opposite. He gets that, because she's already sacrificed a lot of that image in front of him.]

[Then, there's ... well. He can't really do anything and he doesn't like it. He likes this video thing, it's technology he never thought he'd see, but it can only do so much for comfort. ... but even if he was there, he's not sure he what he would have done.]

[He really never was that good at comforting people. So he remains quiet. He doesn't know what else to say, but ... he's still there if SHE knows.]}

_{[At this point, attempts at comfort would probably make it worse. Words just can't make something like this better. Neither can hugs, not really. Only time can, and obviously no one can give her that.]

[She can tell he's looking away and she sort of appreciates that, but even THAT'S not much of a comfort.]

[Covering the microphone with one thumb, she turns away from the screen herself and just sort of... takes a few minutes to try and compose herself.]}

_{[He lets her, remains quiet on his end, petting one of his pokémon off-screen. Allows himself the familiar sadness he couldn't help but pick up from his favorite teenager, because it's right there in the silence.]

[The world is a large and interesting place - but unfair, too.]}

_{[After a time, Heather finally appears back on the screen, the sound returning with a scrape as she uncovers the mic.]

[She's still scrubbing at her eyes with one hand.]}

I don't-- I don't think I can talk right now.

Okay.

_{[He doesn't look back to the feed immediately.]}

If you need to, you have my number.

Yeah.

I'll... yeah.

_{[She nods a little, mostly to herself.]}

... I'll talk to you later.

_{[And then she cuts the feed.]}

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89. [Video/Action for travel group]

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