thebastion | [Day 182(?)] the bottom of the Hell reflects thee;

Entry tags:

[Day 182(?)] the bottom of the Hell reflects thee;

Who: AZ + Pokecast + Anna
Open: Closed.
When: The night of day 182 [or if people aren't back by that night then the next night they are].
Where: Out near the ranch ~~and probably will get dragged other places~~.
What: AZ is having terrible nightmares. Pokecast to the rescue!
Format: Action brackets for real tagging action!
Warnings: X/Y spoilers, descriptions of death, as dark as Pokemon gets, basically.

[AZ did not often sleep soundly, but tonight was particularly bad. His dreams kept consisting of broken earth and the screams of the dead, human and Pokemon alike.]

[You betrayed us! You thought only of yourself! It's your fault! You should have died for what you did! They all swirled around him, standing on chunks of land like those that floated on the Skyway, chastising him and throwing every sort of insult at him.]

[Outside of the dream he let out a pained cry, waking his Pokemon. Still, he didn't wake, even as they gathered around him protectively. They knew this wasn't uncommon, but there wasn't much they could do. He needed his sleep…]

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[ An unfortunate side of being a psychic means all sorts of things leak in, even when she is trying to keep them out. Keeping things out works much better when she's awake, so Anna wakes with a start.

She recognized the mind of that dreamer.

And so after gathering up her cloak, a blanket for her egg, and finding her shoes, Anna tries to sneak out of the apartment she shares with N and Hilda. Tries is the keyword - she might have woken up one or two of the pokemon.... ]

[ At first, it was Emboar that noticed. He liked to sleep protectively near the little one, and N and Hilda were often busy dealing with Zorua most nights. As the two of them had finally gotten her to settle down for the night and were trying to sleep, he didn't want to wake them.

So, he decided he would follow Anna himself.

It wasn't easy for a Pokemon of his size to get out of there without making some noise, though. Hilda was still mostly awake after her nightly episode with Zorua, and crept herself out of bed so she didn't wake N up, catching Emboar crouched in a doorway, and Anna nearly at the door. ]

Anna?

[ Her voice was a loud whisper. She made her way over to the young girl. ]

Anna, what's wrong?

[ Oh no, caught.

Although her expression is only startled for a moment. ]

AZ is having nightmares. I want to wake him up.

[ ~~She's pretty much a psychic/fire type, okay-~~ ]

[ Oh. Oh, that ... that's a good reason to get out of the house. She looked to Emboar and nodded, then looked back to Anna. ]

Emboar and I will come with you. But let's be quiet, so we don't wake N up.

[ She puts a finger to her lips. ]

[ Anna nods solemnly because that's how you be quiet, and reaches for the door.

And yes, she is bringing her egg, because she was told eggs hatch with being warm and she isn't leaving it alone.

Time to go find AZ, off by the ranch? Yes, he felt like he was by the ranch. ]

[AZ is indeed by the ranch, and Golurk is sitting in front of him protectively. Floette is sitting on Golurk's knee, and Torkoal looks distressed. Eevee is staring at him sleepily.]

[The whole group is not exactly inconspicuous.]

[ As they get a little closer to the ranch, she starts to see the image of all of AZ's pokemon around him. This worries her a little, and she looks rushes forward a little, toward all of them. ]

[ Anna does the same, but she is still picking her way carefully, arms full of pokemon egg and blanket. She blinks up at Golurk - and then thinks about it, and addresses Floette. ]

We want to wake him up from his nightmare.

[ That's okay, right? ]

[Floette looks a little surprised, and says something to Golurk, who moves aside. AZ is still asleep, head on his arm. His face isn't very visible, but what can be seen looks pained and like he's been crying.]

[ Now that they had been given permission, Hilda knelt near the large man, a hand on his shoulder. ]

AZ ...

[ She called out, softly at first, before realizing that wasn't going to help. She cleared her throat, then tried again, louder. ]

AZ!

[ Anna carefully sets her egg and blanket down next to torkoal, then studies AZ for a moment.

It really is a bad dream. Anna tries not to shrug her shoulders up like she's trying to shake off stares, moving to the other side of the shoulder Hilda had her hand on.

They can rock him back and forth like this? Maybe. Sort of. Anna does her best to start shaking his shoulder. ]

[The shaking and the shouts pull him out of the dream and he wakes, gasping for air. Blinking, he looks up at them. His voice is a little hoarse and quiet.]

Sorry... was I that loud?

[ She smiles gently down at AZ as he awakens, trying to be reassuring. After all, she cared a whole hell of a lot for AZ. ]

Anna noticed you were having a nightmare, so we came to see if we could help.

[ Anna nods, returning to sit next to torkoal and her egg. ]

Waking up is usually best.

[Torkoal nuzzles her a little. Yes good. Good human girl. Golurk relaxes visibly, and Floette floats over to Eevee again to curl up in her fur.]

... Oh. Sorry... you shouldn't have to worry about me like that. The two of you should go back to bed...

We're going to worry about you because we care about you.

[ She relaxes a little. Sure, she was tired. Zorua did a good job of keeping both her and N up for most of the night. But she would be here in a heartbeat to help out someone she cared about, and that's exactly why she and Anna were here. ]

We're family now, right? In this place especially, don't we have to hold on to and help out the family we make?

... We should make tea.

[ Where did that come from, Anna- ]

If you fall asleep right off, you might have nightmares again. [ And them going back to sleep would be for nothing. ]

I -

[Golurk just stares at him, as if to say go on, I'll take care of things here. He deflates a bit. He's not going to get out of this one, is he?]

... I guess.

[He'll... address the 'family' thing later.]

That's a good idea. Tea helps with all sorts of things.

[ Hilda takes AZ's significantly larger hand into her own and tries to tug him up.

It's not successful. She's a tiny little thing trying to tug a much larger man up. Emboar seems amused at his trainer's attempt, though. ]

[ Anna is tinier yet, so she gathers up her egg-and-blanket and looks about. The kitchen was... this way!

She takes a couple steps in that direction and stops, waiting for Hilda and AZ to start moving. ]

[AZ stands a little stiffly, looking a little amused at Hilda's attempts.]

[ WELL AT LEAST SHE HELPED. Kind of. Maybe. Okay she wasn't much help. Still, she's happy that AZ is standing now, and she's standing herself. Emboar moves to stand near them all. Hilda starts to follow Anna, since Anna seemed to be leading the way to the kitchen. ]

[ Anna leads the way! Follow the little white haired child.

Hopefully the kitchen isn't locked - which seems like a silly idea - and Anna can get the door open and start looking for kettles. ]

[AZ crouches awkwardly. The ceiling is high enough, but the doorway definitely isn't. He has to turn, push his upper half through, and then his lower half through.]

[ She enters after AZ is in, and proceeds to help Anna look for the necessary things for tea.

Emboar stands there uselessly. He has no idea how to tea. ]

[ After a little bit of Emboar standing awkwardly, Anna taps his arm and points toward upper cabinets. ]

Maybe cups are up there? Or kettle...

[ AZ is okay to sit awkwardly off on the side. ]

[He's doing so, as he doesn't want to break anything. Maybe a tea bowl is a better idea for him. He just looks tired and slightly sick, though his eyes are looking a little less red.]

[ Of course, Emboar is absolutely smitten with the young girl and wants to do everything to help her, so he nods and reaches up to see if the tea cups are in there.

Sure enough, there's a full tea set up there among other various types of cups and glasses. Hilda looks over at him. ]

Oh, good, you found them. I can get them down if Emboar will lift me up?

... AZ might need a bigger cup.

[ Or they can give him the kettle. Who knows. Anna will look for bowls in the right area anyway. Or big cups. ]

Maybe.

[He just hunches his shoulders a bit. He feels a little strange, being taken care of like this.]

Oh, yeah, that might help ... let's find a bowl or something.

[ Deal with it, Dad.

Hilda finishes collecting two tea cups and the kettle, and Emboar lets her down gently. She places the teacups and kettle down, then joins Anna in looking for bowls. ]

[ The first bowl found is clearly a mixing bowl - too large, as it was bigger than the kettle.

A couple more cupboards later finds the actual soup bowls, which are somewhat designed for drinking out of, and Anna proudly brings that over to the tea kettle and cups.

Now to find tea. ]

[AZ runs his hands through his hair, working out knots. He's not sure what to do, or how to act. His gaze goes a little blank as he recalls the dream, and he shivers. It's never pleasant when he has those dreams, but he hadn't had a bad one in a while.]

[ She finds the tea shortly afterward, and starts heating up the water. She looks over to AZ just as shivers. Hilda frowns. Whatever he dreamt about must have really gotten to him ... ]

Do you want to talk about it, Mr. AZ?

[ Anna stares at that shiver, and looks about.

There is a chair. Anna scoots it closer and sits next to AZ. There there, she's here with you? ]

I...

[He needs to open up. He needs to form relationships again. He knows, but it's hard, after all these years.]

I... it was those who died when I was building the machine. All the Pokemon whose life energy I took to fuel it. There were... many. At least a hundred. A few hundred? I lost count after a while. And... the people and Pokemon who died when I turned the machine into a weapon.

They were all standing around me, telling me what a horrible person I am. How I was selfish, and thought only of Floette... and then only of myself and my pain.

[He buries his face in his hands, trying not to let his voice break.]

I... I know. I know I'm terrible. Was terrible. What kind of king does something like that? But I just wanted Floette to live again... I wanted the war to end... for people to stop taking Pokemon by force and making them fight an enemy they didn't know or care about.

[And there it goes. His voice cracks a bit, and when he looks up there are tears in his eyes.]

Th... that's why I can't fight. I let Lysandre take me and lock me up without resisting. I rarely battle. I can't make myself pick up a weapon. I just... I'm afraid. I'm afraid that I'll destroy again. It's so easy to snap something by accident... I have enough blood on my hands.

[ ... Hilda wasn't sure what to say to that. All she could do was move over toward him and give him a hug. Or, well, as much of one as she could give to him.

She knows a little something about being there for someone who's done something very, very wrong. ]

[ Anna knows what to say to that, but there's another hug - although Anna shucks her shoes and carefully climbs into his lap to do so. ]

Kings have power. Its a great and terrible power, and its always easy to hurt with it. But you can chose to use it to protect, and you know the difference from how it feels when you destroy.

[ Does her left eye look a little more red than her right? Totally in the imagination. She sits back, staying put on his lap for now. ]

At least, that was what Tatara told Mikoto.

[... Oh. Hugs. He wraps one arm around Hilda, holding her close, and the other around Anna.]

I know. But what I did... so many people suffered. That's why I abandoned the throne, letting my brother take over. He's the one who set up the graves and memorials while I just... wandered. And kept wandering. I didn't... and still don't... deserve to rule after that. Though I suppose I... did sort of run away.

I ... don't really know what I can say about any of that. I know just doing good things with the rest of your life won't always make you feel like you've made up for any of the things you did in the past, too.

For what it's worth, though, I know who you are now and I feel that you're a good person.

[ There's really not a lot she can say. She has no personal experience with the matter. Even if she knows what it's like to care for someone who has made some pretty major bad decisions in their life, not every case was like N's and she knew it. ]

[ Anna just blinks into that hug, and settles better. ]

It's okay. You ran away, instead of hurting more people, which is okay. You don't need to be a ruler here, but what you know can still help.

I... hope so. I was angry for a long time. Floette left when she saw what I did... I wasn't the person she cared about anymore. She... only came back recently... I want to be worthy of her trust again. And yours.

Floette seems to be a good judge of character, so if she came back to you then she probably sees you as someone worthy of her trust. You really seem to want to do good, so I think it's okay. I know I trust you.

[ She looks to Anna. ]

You trust him too, don't you Anna?

Mmhmn.

[ It really helps that she can pick up just how torn up he is about this - the feelings that made the nightmare, that aren't making it completely into his voice. Small child knows. ]

You can take your time in trusting yourself. We will trust you still.

[... He smiles a little bit at that, even as he can feel himself tear up, and he gives both of them another careful squeeze before letting go.]

... Thank you.

[ She smiles at him and moves away as he lets go, returning to tea preparation. ]

Okay, so ... tea.

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[Day 182(?)] the bottom of the Hell reflects thee;

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