foolishwren | IC CONTACT (Victory Road)

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IC CONTACT (Victory Road)

ffzzbrrttzzckssshhhh

"Yo, it's Heather. I'm probably asleep or one of the Pokemon ate my 'Gear or something so I can't answer you right now. But feel free to leave a message or something.
I'll probably get back to you. ... Probably. Peace out."

Click!

[Need to send Heather a private message, or start up any other thread that doesn't need a log or post of its own? Tag here with the date of the interaction in the subject line!]

[(NOTE: The old contact post containing all threads from Route 29 can be found here!)]

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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."

Walter held his hands tightly together. It didn't matter if it was 'permanent' or not. He vaguely remembered being split in two again. Returning to his worlds to ensure they were maintained and that Eileen was still waiting. Staying here, cuddling his Pokemon and trusting them to protect him, so utterly happy about their company.

"When he comes here, take Assumption. I can't fight him." His tone was firm, even as his gaze seemed distant. "...he's been here. I don't fully remember it. But I don't know what will happen next time." Will Valtiel decide this world also needed cleansing, to release the Conjurer? He'll know about Walter's feelings towards his Pokemon, towards certain people - Walter didn't know what he'd do about that. And there was still the Seal of Metaton he had received in the winter.

Assumption beamed to Warden. As long as they weren't shouting or being angry, he counted them talking as a success and wasn't too worried about what they were exactly talking about. "I could feel something different, when we were on the islands. I think the Holy Mother was smiling on me there." Clearly he had earned God's favour, to be able to evolve like this. That's what Walter had told him.

"Did you keep the drawing I gave you? I was going to bring the other one I did from when we were traveling, but I couldn't find it." He had wanted to bring lots of things but couldn't decide or find them all, and Walter had been firm on them leaving on time. That, and he had been scared about whether they would like him at all so he had ended up empty pawed.

"I... okay, fine. If he comes here again, I'll take any Pokemon you want me to."

It's not like she hasn't taken in many, many Pokemon from others for various reasons over the course of her time here. If that made him feel better, why the fuck not. She'd seen Valtiel appear in this world too, after all... and although it admittedly hadn't amounted to much, it had definitely left a couple people with the terrifying memories of seeing an angry faceless monster vibrate very quickly in their direction because it thought they meant to harm her, and it goes without saying that she'd rather avoid that happening again if possible.

"She must have been. To evolve is a wonderful thing, especially when it's to better serve our trainers. You heard a call, and rose to it."

Wolf nods vigorously, both agreeing with Warden and reassuring Assumption-- of course he kept the drawing! He didn't bring it with him, though-- it's kept safely with his favorite toys back home.

Walter relaxed when she agreed. Assumption would be safe. He glanced over to Assumption, then down to Eileen. "Thank you. I know he likes your Pokemon. He would be happy with you." Although...maybe not with Henry in the same house. But he had trust in Assumption. He wouldn't hurt Henry just because. Eileen chirped at his side, squeezing his hand.

Assumption snuggled into Wolf, tail wagging. "Did I tell you we have a Vulpix in our team now? My trainer specifically mentioned you! He gets nervous around certain types of Pokemon, but both of you helped him so he took her in. Her name's Bonfire." He knew they didn't care for Walter as he did. But he still wanted to tell them that as it made him happy to see Walter handle new friends better and it was thanks to them that he had been able to do that.

"I'd take good care of him... I promise."

However much she doesn't think it will be necessary unless Walter leaves this world entirely, she knows she can guarantee that much.

"Bonfire. What a lovely name. I would like to meet her sometime."

Warden does shoot a curious look over her shoulder at Walter.

His discomfort was certainly something she'd picked up on the first time they had secretly gone to visit him-- it was part of what made her keep her distance, never quite allowing him too close, even if he tried. That 'wrongness' animals can sense.

But it's less so now, than it was in the beginning.

And that too was reason for hope.

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IC CONTACT (Victory Road)

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