foolishwren | IC CONTACT (Victory Road)

It's okay.

It's okay, it's okay.

_{[Heather's voice is as comforting as she's capable of making it sound. But it's kind of tight, too. This is hard to watch. Hard to listen to. She won't cry, herself... but it kind of feels like someone's squeezing her ribcage in a big fist.]}

I know.

I know you don't.

But it's okay.

You'll learn-- that's what this place is for. You'll learn.

[ Thankfully, he calms down with his Pokemon comforting him. He managed to gulp in some deep breaths, brushing away the last of his tears with his sleeve. A part of him is ashamed, knowing he shouldn't show his tears to anyone. But mostly, he feels hallow. Like what was in him; his anger and hate, had been scooped out and all he was left with was confusion and the echoing feeling of hurt. Assumption hugged his chest.

Assumption. He slowly looked at Assumption, before lifting his eyes to Heather. ]

I'm in Ecruteak City. Nearby the Burned Tower. We can meet by the Pokemon Centre, if you want.

... Burned Tower. Haven't been there in years.

_{[She looks over at the clock. Awhile back, a trip to Ecruteak would be something to plan for, but the warp pads make it much easier to move around.]}

I could be out there in twenty, if you want.

[ Walter would've asked for more time. Postponed this for later. But he heard Assumption gasp and look up at him with such wide eyes. He rested his hand on Assumption's head, gently petting him. He steeled himself and nodded. ]

Okay. [ He shut off the Gear and rose to get ready. He left Jennifer at home - he still couldn't handle her yet, and in public she made a point of practicially gluing herself to his side. Assumption was twirling his club nervously as they waited by the Pokemon Centre. Still time Eileen was also with them, holding Walter's hand to help steady him. ]

_{[Fortunately for Walter, it winds up being more like half an hour anyway.]

[Sharkhaus isn't way on the outskirts of town or anything, but it's still a fair bit away from the inner-city Pokemon Center.]

[This time, when Heather approaches the meeting spot, she's on foot rather than on horseback, and there don't seem to be any Pokemon accompanying her out of their balls just yet.]

[He'll probably spot her by her bright hair as she comes trekking up the hill.]}

He does eventually notice her, partly thanks to Assumption nervously pressing against his side. He dropped a hand to pet his crown, giving Eileen's paw a brief squeeze before clasping his hands together. Eileen copied him, chirping to Heather when she approached. Assumption couldn't look her in the eyes, lowering his head and half hiding behind Walter's leg. The Marowak wasn't truly ashamed of what he'd done to Henry, but he thought Heather wouldn't like him for it. And he was still worried his friends would be cross at him as well.

"Hello Heather." Seeing that she didn't have her Pokemon out with her, he somehow felt more nervous. Last time they'd barely come within a foot of each other and Heather had stayed on her Rapidash. This was more personal. "Eileen's only here to help me." At the mention of her name, Eileen waved.

"Hey."

She stops some distance away.

Funnily, she seems a whole lot smaller now that she's not on top of a horse.

All the same, she's got her hands in her pockets and although she doesn't exactly look casual, she's not on-edge like she'd been last time. Which is honestly the last way she'd expect to feel, now that Henry really HAD come to harm during an altercation with Walter... but this place works in strange ways.

She doesn't think that he'll attack her.

... That's not to say that she didn't take precautious-- Walter's Pokemon may notice a faraway white shape circling in the sky overhead. Sunny's watching, just in case.

"An Audino, huh? Always heard those were nice Pokemon."

"She's very sweet. She helps when...when I'm overwhelmed." At least that's one thing they always seemed to agree on; how good Pokemon were. Eileen heard Sunny overhead, glancing up to the sky, but she only smiled. She wasn't a fighter and it didn't concern her if Heather had brought a friend along.

She moved behind Walter, gently trying to nudge Assumption out from behind him. Assumption shifted to stand beside Walter at least, still unsure. He didn't think Heather would try to hurt Walter but was nervous about seeing his friends. Walter brushed his fingers over the top of Assumption's head, sighing deeply.

"I don't deserve them. Any of my Pokemon."

"You think I did when I first got here?"

She doesn't sound accusing. She'd come at least slightly prepared to counter Walter's self-destruction, having come to expect it by now.

"This place doesn't care about what you deserve. I think it just cares about what you need."

Reaching down, she shifts her coat a little to get at the Pokeballs on her belt.

"Is it a good time to let mine out?"

Walter gave her a thoughtful look. He hadn't expected Heather to feel unworthy of her Pokemon. To him she always appeared confident, so sure in what she said and felt about him, the Order, their Pokemon. Even when she wasn't sure she stated as such so...openly. It was strange to hear her say that. "I'm surprised. You seem very comfortable with your Pokemon. It's hard to imagine otherwise."

He nodded when she reached for her Pokeballs, bending down slightly to squeeze Assumption's shoulder. Heather wouldn't have brought them here to hurt him or Assumption. He was nervous. But some part of him was telling him that Heather could be trusted, and that little part was what he was going with right now. "They won't hurt you, Assumption."

Assumption still held his bone tightly, taking a shy step forward.

Strange indeed! But, well, she's led a strange life.

She shrugs, expressively.

"Well, I've had seven years to get used to them. The first few were pretty rocky."

Between having her arm ripped open by a spoiled crocodile and beating her own starter black and blue with a stolen IV pole...

Heather has no shame in admitting that she started completely out of her league and grew into the tough, competent trainer she is today. And hell, there's still stuff to learn. As evidenced by... this whole series of events.

She tugs the three Pokeballs free and tosses them, releasing the trio Walter and his Pokemon have come to know so well.

The first thing that happens is a piercing yelp and a patter of paws-- Wolf is a small golden flash rushing towards Assumption at breakneck speed, and before anybody can do ANYTHING, the little Riolu flings himself against the Marowak, skinny little paws clinging around his neck. There's tears. SO MANY FEELINGS.

Warden follows behind more slowly, letting Wolf get his hugging out. She's been concerned ever since what happened-- fortunately, no one in Sharkhaus really seemed to blame Walter's Pokemon (or even Walter himself) for what happened, but... they still all knew exactly which of the team had been the one responsible for Henry's brutal pummeling.

Kite, chattering as normal, stays near Heather for the moment, hopping around on the ground and flapping. Ever since evolving, she's been taking her 'task' more seriously. Protect the Holy Mother at all costs!

Assumption froze at first. Then immediately dropped his bone club, wrapping his arms around Wolf and holding him tightly. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry Wolf! I missed you so much!" Tears were gathering up in Assumption's eyes too and he couldn't help a shaky breath and a sob.

When he finally eased back from Wolf's embrace (while still hugging him) he looked up to Warden. "I missed all of you. And I'm so sorry. He was going to kill my trainer, I had to do something. And when he was on the ground I just. Everything was red." He thought Warden would be the most disappointed and upset with him. She had condemned violence in the past and didn't like battling, and he had acted violently towards Henry.

Walter took a step back once he saw that Wolf was only hugging Assumption, wanting to give them some space. He knew that Heather's Pokemon weren't fond of his presence. He hummed vaguely. "Time. And, positive experiences." Just as she had told him. Eileen looked between them, thoughtfully. Could this human help her trainer?

Wolf doesn't say anything (still mute, it seems), but the tightness of his tiny hug pretty much spoke for itself. He continues to dangle off of the Marowak (the size disparity between them now slightly comical) as Assumption addresses the others.

Warden had stopped a respectful distance away, tails lowered.

"You were protecting your trainer, Assumption. No one is angry with you. Not even your trainer's attacker."

More than any of Heather's Pokemon, Warden certainly has a distinct lack of sympathy for Henry in this matter... but she's no liar. The scruffy man has been quiet ever since getting back from the Pokemon Center with his cast. Not quite a changed man, but he'd seemingly lost his former intensity regarding the presence of his stalker and would-be killer in Johto. And the other people in the house had, too.

Regardless of their feelings about Walter himself, it seems that a Pokemon protecting its trainer is universally excusable.

Heather watches from her spot down the hill as well, nodding.

"Yeah. That's what it takes."

Assumption shifted so he could sit, still hugging Wolf. He spoke honestly. "I'm still sorry. Walter told me...he always told me that Henry would one day kill him. And he still wanted us to protect him anyway. I just really, really didn't like it...and I still don't. I'll still hurt him if he hits my trainer again." He extended a paw, so Warden could come closer if she wanted.

"I tried to call you all but I got so scared. I thought you wouldn't like me. For what I did or...or now that I'm evolved..." Although that fear was more about Wolf's reaction than Warden's, he was still worried about how they might see him now.

Walter didn't know what to say. He wanted...He wanted a lot of things that he didn't have names for. He wanted to be better. He wanted to be free. He wanted to forget everything that had happened to him, forget who he had been before. But none of those things seemed very likely.

He wanted to talk more about the Order. How Heather got away, what had happened to them. But now wasn't the time. He didn't hide his relief, that Assumption's friends weren't shunning him. Henry had been lying after all.

Eileen looked up at Walter, touching his arm. Assumption had said that this was Saint Alessa. Walter held Saint Alessa in high regard. She took his hand and tried to push his sleeve up- Walter quickly drew his arm away. Her worry and disappointment was clear.

Wolf sits down as well, half-perched on the Marowak's knee. He stays clinging-- he doesn't want to let go. But he nods vigorously at Assumption's claim-- Wolf, almost more than Warden, is still angry at Henry for what he did.

Most of Heather's other Pokemon have picked up on the fact that it's a complicated matter, but well... for Wolf it's personal, and he's also still practically a baby.

The only Henry he's ever known has been the jittery, violence-prone basket case that Henry's been ever since learning of Walter's arrival.

Once the Marowak is seated, Warden approaches and sits next to him, tails curling around her feet.

"It's been... complicated. But we are not angry with you, at all." She looks at him, eyes crinkled in a rare display of emotion. "You've grown up so handsomely. I'm very proud of you."

Heather, meanwhile, is standing a little bit awkwardly. She does notice-- but doesn't particularly pay attention to the little Audino messing with Walter's sleeve. At least not this time.

"... So..." she finally starts, after the silence gets a little too thick. "Are you thinking of doing more traveling, or settling down here in Ecruteak? ... S'a nice town, if that is what you decide to do."

Goldenrod is home, but Heather had spent a number of months living in Ecruteak. There's fond memories here. ... Some not-so-fond ones, too, but for the most part, it was a nice little town. Quiet and friendly.

Assumption smiled shyly. "Thank you. I know that it's...complicated, with my trainer. I can feel it now - how he is. But I'm so happy we're friends." He loved Walter, and he loved Warden and Wolf and Kite. He hugged Wolf with one arm, a little unused to the height difference between them. He rested his chin on Wolf's crowd, touching Warden's paw with his other hand. "It'd be nice if they could get along someday. So we could live in the same city again."

Walter drew his hands together, clasping his wrist to hold his sleeve down. Eileen chirped in disappointment but relented, shifting to stand by his side and hold onto his hand. He reflected on Heather's question.
"I still want to see more." He decided quietly. "When I was in the Sevii Islands, I thought about going to Kanto. But, my Pokemon didn't want to be so far from their friends. And they didn't want me to be so far from...the people I've come to know too." His own friends. It was still hard to say.

"I like this town. The Burned Tower is very calming. And my Pokemon like having a place they can claim for themselves. But..." He exhaled softly, watching Assumption. "I don't know how long I will stay."

"We can hope," is all Warden says on that matter-- while the days of Heather storming down on her enemies like some kind of terrible force hellbent on revenge are seemingly past, there is just too much mistrust. And for all her silent judgment on the trainers and Pokemon she now lives in the company of, Warden is not ignorant of the genuine harm and distress that these damaged humans came to at the hands of the organization that her original master belonged to.

But no one can see the future.

Heather nods, slowly. That's fair enough.

"I honestly didn't completely settle down until I'd seen most of this region... and I'm still exploring the rest of Kanto, on and off. There's nothing wrong with waiting to put down roots."

If asked a number of years ago, she honestly wouldn't have seen herself living in a house at all. But what had started as it being a temporary crashpad had turned into semipermanent residence... even before she and Envy had gotten, er, closer.

Assumption nodded. He was beginning to understand that Walter had hurt Henry. He knew Walter had been hurting too but he was starting to understand that everyone had been hurt and in pain, and it had become something vicious and ugly that spilled over even when Walter came here. He glanced over to Walter and lowered his voice, as if Walter would somehow hear them.

"I'm worried about him. He still hurts himself but...he uses a knife now, Warden. His arms are all cut up." Assumption admitted sadly.

Walter's answer was quiet and soft. "I want them to be happy. The Pokemon I have." His eyes drifted from Assumption to Eileen, squeezing her paw. "They...they look after me. And they try to make me happy. And protect me, even though they shouldn't have. We both know Henry was right to do what he did, Heather." He added, before she could interrupt about how a Pokemon should protect it's trainer. This was more than that. Henry had a duty to kill him.

His next words were almost a whisper. "I'm not...happy, with what happened before. I can't change that. It was unavoidable. And I don't want to be... that, here." He didn't like what he became. He didn't like certain things he had done. And he was worried and afraid because he couldn't stop fate, his fate was still carved into his skin, and Valtiel was waiting.

Warden shut her eyes sadly for a moment, breathing deeply, before replying.

"... I'm sorry to hear that. My original trainer sometimes did similar things. Not as drastic as yours, but she would pull out the fur on her face. Like a Chatot plucking its own feathers. My current trainer, too, has apparently had her own spells... not that I have witnessed personally, but I see the scars on her hands, and know how she sometimes redirects her anger to things that will not give. These humans are ill, and trying to get better. But they cannot do it on their own."

Warden leans in to nuzzle Assumption's skull mask in the most comforting way she can.

"Do not lose hope. If my trainer can learn to overcome, yours can as well."

Meanwhile, Heather sighed under her breath. It wasn't that he was wrong.

Not even the lessons she'd learned here could explain away or turn the blame on herself and Henry for doing everything in their power to protect themselves from the ones who turned them into what they were-- their stalkers, attackers, abusers.

And there were some things that there could be no forgiveness for.

"What he did made sense. I'm not going to go so far as to say that it was right or wrong. Walter..."

She lifted a hand to her brow, sighing audibly. It was time to be an adult... something she never felt particularly good at, even after growing from a gangly teen to an equally-gangly twenty-something.

"You have to understand that we didn't choose to be like this. When Henry came here, he lived in the woods for months. He barely talked to anybody. When I found out he was a survivor like me, I practically had to drag him back to civilization. He learned how to talk to people again, how to make friends, how to function kinda normally after what happened to him. And yeah, we got a pretty good deal here-- we have our friends, and our Pokemon, to help us out. We've built a good life. But we're scared. Even here, we get scared. That the ghosts from our past will show up and keep hounding us further. That we'll have to cut and run, again, just to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe. When you showed up, Henry literally couldn't think about anything besides the possibility of coming home and finding me or our friends murdered like the people in his apartment complex. He went back to being the terrified guy in the woods. It wasn't about destiny, or some kind of holy duty. It was about fear. The same fear the Order put into you."

Spreading her arms a little, Heather gestures to the land around them, still not quite awakened from winter.

"There's nothing we can do about what happened before. Good, bad, forgivable or unforgivable, like you said, we can't change it. Not even killing each other would fix it. You and Henry could just go at it over and over and neither of you would accomplish a thing outside of wasting your time and traumatizing all your Pokemon-- which I know you don't want to do."

More than anything else in their conversations, it's been the reoccurring love of Pokemon that's made Heather believe Walter might be worth trying to save.

"All we can do is move on. ... And I'm bad at moving on. The worst. So when I say it... that means a lot."

Assumption leaned into both of his friends. Despite the sadness and the heaviness he felt in his heart, he also felt warmth. His friend still liked him. And they wanted to help. He nuzzled a little against Warden.

"I missed you so much. You always know what to say." He looked over at Walter and Heather, seeing them talk. It gave him hope, along with Warden's wisdom. "You should see our new house someday. We get all the rooms in it to ourselves and there's lots of room to play. And a garden too. So my trainer doesn't have to be with us all the time when you come over."

Walter could swear he felt the Seal on his back burn. His hold on his wrist tightened. "It's not in the past. He'll still find me. Valtiel will find me." He sounded absolutely convinced...because he was. Valtiel was going to find him and this would fade. He'd be stuck between this world and the visions of what it was like under it's skin as Valtiel turned the valve to show him. He'd follow him and watch, and constantly hold out his hand with a patient look, waiting until Walter couldn't take it anymore, the anger and hate and utter despair. Waiting for Walter to take his hand.

He didn't want to. He didn't want to become what he had been before. He hadn't realised how much control Valtiel would take, how damned it would all be- Eileen chirped and took one of his hands in both of hers, squeezing and trying to soothe him. He breathed slowly. He hadn't realised he had stopped. Fear.... Henry thought he was like Valtiel. He closed his eyes. He deserved it all. He deserved Henry's fear and hatred. Did he feel sorry for Henry?

No. He had shown Henry a glimpse of his life. Henry only had to endure it for several days at most. It had been his life, since he was a child. But he was still afraid because he didn't want that life anymore, he hadn't wanted any life, but here he was.

Here he was.

"...I don't want this to end."

"We would love to see it sometime, Assumption. I'm sure it's lovely."

When, though... who knew when that would be a possibility. The fact that their trainer had brought them this far seemed promising, though. Warden is tentatively hopeful, just based on the fact that 'Heather' had been willing to make the gesture...

Well, Walter, it only takes several days of brutal assault and psychological torture to give someone PTSD. Just sayin'!

Heather sighs again, shoving her hands into her pockets. Kite has apparently had enough of fluttering around on the ground, and hops up to her shoulder, chattering.

"Don't even think about ending. There's no point to that, either. In this place, you just have to... be."

"I don't want him to find me. When he does, then this will end." He murmured quietly, clentching his hands together tightly. Mother forgive him...he didn't want Valtiel to be there again. He didn't want to see the muscle and bone and blood of this world. He just wanted to be, as Heather was telling him. He just wanted this, even if it was a lie, even if this world was as ugly and vicious and cruel as the last.

Eileen gave a soothing cry, leaning against him and holding his wrist. He touched the top of her head, stroking her soft, short fur and his shoulders relaxed slightly. Somehow, Valtiel hadn't found him yet. It had been months and he hadn't appeared. He couldn't hope that Valtiel wouldn't come eventually, however. Looking over at Assumption, cuddling his friends and so clearly happy with them, he finally turned to look Heather in the eye.

"When he finds me, take Assumption. Please."

At that, Heather squints for a second. She has no doubts at all about the sincerity of Walter's request, but... what?

He?

"... You mean Henry? ... I don't think he's going to come after you again. Not after what happened."

"Valtiel." His gaze was hallow. "The angel, Valtiel."

Seeing that their trainers were talking, Assumption decided to make the best of what time they had. Before, when Alessa/Heather hadn't known about the visits, they could play for much, much longer. He stood, arms around around Wolf and giving him a spin. "Oh! I didn't tell you; I can use fire now!" He beamed, clearly so proud of himself.

Even after all these years, the name sends a chill down her spine.

"What? It's not-- ... it can't come here."

She says it abruptly, even bluntly, but it's clear that it's more out of surprise than annoyance. Furthered by the fact that she then shakes her head.

"I mean-- ... it can. But not permanently. There are times when... stuff like that can slip through. I've seen it, but it leaves. It can't stay in this place."

Because surely, if it somehow could stay... it would. Friend and foe alike have come here, but no monster ever has... except on those strange weekends. But weekends end and nothing that's come, good or bad, has ever stayed.

Happily oblivious to the serious nature of the conversation his trainer is having, Wolf clings happily and allows himself to be spun around. Assumption's evolved strength could let him lift the lanky pup with one hand if he wanted to.

Warden, on the other hand, is keeping an ear trained on their humans even as she listens to Assumption.

"I can see that! It is interesting you chose to evolve this way. I think it suits you very well."

IC CONTACT (Victory Road)

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