hashtagafreakingghost

Hey, no. It's okay. Um.

[Why is he so painfully bad at this, Jesus. Welp.]

The, uh. Well, it's not the reason I talked to you, but. The thing you said when you got here, about expecting to still be covered in blood? That was something I could've said when I first woke up here, so. Believe me, I get it.

I can try to avoid talking about the thing that sets you off if I know what it is?

[Dave, it's called a trigger warning. Come on, didn't you ever listen to Kankrahahahahdkshgdkd yeah jk.]

I- I've been trying t-to just ignore it.

[A few soft murmurs in the background- from Pokémon, naturally.]

...But that's...n-not working, is it? [Just like what that card reading told her. She takes a deep breath.]

It's...monsters. [...] Well, and- saws, I'm n-no good with those anymore, but- Monsters, ha, i-it's so inconvenient here, right? I just- there were these...h-have you ever heard of a...a wendigo?

Uh...maybe? From, like. T.V.

[On Dave's end, there's the quiet click of a door. Looks like he went somewhere else so they could have more privacy.]

They live in the woods...?

Yeah. On a mountain. A-a specific mountain. They...they were once h-humans that, um. Get possessed b-by the wendigo spirits and are dr-driven to e-eat someone.

[A soft, choked whimper.]

They become monsters l-like- ...like what I asked about earlier. Actually. M- my friends and I, we...well. We k-kind of got caught up in their...feeding grounds.

Oh. [And then, as it sinks in:] Oh my god.

[Is that why--Jesus.]

Were you...did you get out?

[Her voice cracks, but something about it is bitter and angry.]

We survived. Most of us did. W- we were in the ranger station, being interviewed. They- we had to blow up the lodge, and they didn't believe us. Those things would've k- killed us if we didn't! Th- they alm-most...

[She's standing so close to them, while Mike breaks the light. This one advances on him. Sam screams. Draws its attention. There are footsteps, the others starting to run, but she had to wait. Wait until Sam had its attention. They could've gone for her, she could've-]

...I-I was...sitting with Ch-Chris. In the station. Most of the others were still- trying to convince them we d-didn't... That we had a reason. That we didn't kill the old man on the m-mountain and leave Josh to--

[It's the first time she's said his name. She freezes up.]

[Oh.

Oh, no.]

Ashley. Hey.

[His voice is quiet. Sincere.]

I know you didn't. Okay? Neither of those things. I'm sorry. For your friend, and for. That you had to go through all that. That must've been...that was fucked up. Shit shouldn't happen like that.

[Bad things shouldn't happen to good people.]

I believe you.

[She breaks off into a muffled sob. A murmured attempt at an apology- or an explanation? A wobbling I didn't want but it dissolves before she can get any other words out.

A soft trilling noise on her side, and her cries are softer; she's likely buried her face somewhere.

In the end, she can only barely murmur:] Thank you.

'Course.

[That must have been one of her Pokémon. That's good; it's good that this place never lets anyone be truly alone.]

Like I said: I've kind of been there. So, for real, take all the time you need, whenever, and know that I know how it is.

[A strangled mm of confirmation. Ashley's in no shape to do much but cry for a time. There's this part of her that wants to just spill everything, to wail about the wendigos, and the bite, and Josh, and...the twins.

But. He said...

...so when she can, when her sobs have subdued to sniffles, she says:] T-tell me. [Clears her throat.] I- do want to kn-know, what you've, you've been through, s-so tell me.

Th-the meteors. The aliens. A-all of it.

I mean. If we do that, we'll be here, like, all year. I mentioned this all started when I was thirteen, right? I can...maybe get through up to the trolls tonight.

Okay, but you'll still tell me, right? Even if it takes awhile, I- I don't care.

[It's the least I can do. This bubbling urge inside her drives her on, like she has to know.]

I--Yeah? Sure? I mean, I'm not the best at telling stories and TBH I'm a little unclear on some of the behind the scenes metaplot shit, but I'm generally an unstoppable fount of talking about the subject, so. All right. As long as you're positive you don't mind sitting through three literal years of outer space time travel bullshit.

I don't. At all. [Another sniffle. On her end, she's got...quite a few snuggley Pokémon close.] Besides, it distracts me from...I don't know, being out here in the dark with just my Pokémon to light things up. [Because like an utter cliche, she hates the dark.]

Y-you um...you were at...another dimension...?

Yeah. So, um, eventually we all get there. Rose gets John in as his server player, I get Rose in, Jade gets me in, and then John closes the circle and makes sure Jade turns up all right. The thing that happens is each of our houses ends up on our own personalized mini-planet. Mine was LOHAC. The Land of Heat and Clockwork.

[...]

Okay, maybe this part I should draw.

Go ahead. If you think that'd be easier to explain with, th-then, yeah.

I do comics, you know? It's easier for me. Anyway, I'm sending you something like how LOHAC looked.

...I...can see why it's called The Land of Heat and Clockwork.

Yup, that's real lava. John got the Land of Wind and Shade, Rose got Light and Rain, and Jade got Frost and Frogs. You'd've liked the girls' planets, they were both really pretty. Rose's had clouds that basically rained light, there were rainbows and white sand everywhere. And I spent a lot of time on Jade's. It was all snowed over at first, but there were these trees--huge. Kind of the way you imagine the forest in Little Red Riding Hood, but instead of being small and scared in the dark it's just sort of majestic and serene and lonely. The trees were kind of dead 'cause it was winter, but they had this moss growing on them or something, and there were these star-shaped red flowers...and hummingbirds. Little purple hummingbirds. And the Aurora.

They sound...beautiful, Dave, really wonderful, but...

[...]

The Earth... Was it...?

...

Yeah, it. I mean, I wasn't there, but.

[He pauses again, silent.]

That's why I don't know about anything that happened from the second half of 2009 on, 'cause for us, it. Didn't. Happen, that is.

[Her breath catches audibly and for a moment, she's quiet.]

I'm so so sorry. I... I'm so sorry.

[After a moment, he sighs slowly.]

I dunno. Maybe I should feel worse about it than I do, but I was too young to really understand everything I missed out on. Like, I feel bad, don't get me wrong, that was a solid fuckton of people who didn't get a chance to get out like we did. But...

I didn't have a lot of time to dwell on it, back then, not with everything we had to do in the Incipisphere. And Bro did a good job making sure I had the chops to survive.

Edited (When you spell a made-up word wrong) 2016-02-26 00:04 (UTC)

Bu- but that's awful! I mean- for you, I- that you had to go through all of that, no matter how...prepared...

[She slows to a stop.]

...Wait. Your brother...trained you for the...the apocalypse?

[Because let's just call this what it is.]

Kind of? Well, yeah, I guess so. Sorry, this is one of those things I mentioned I'm not a hundred percent on. None of us ever figured out exactly how much our guardians knew about what was going on, and Bro was always pretty inscrutable anyway.

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