Welcome to Gaia! ::

Revenant responded to Claire's indifference with an approving huff, watching as she removed the laptop. That's right, nothing to see here - move along.

The knock drew Aila back from the onset of slumber, and she adjusted her posture to be as upright as she was able, the paralysis impeding her left arm making the task slightly more difficult than it should have been. "Yes, that's the one. Thank you again," she said with a faint smile. Liam probably wouldn't have minded much if she borrowed his computer, if he even had one. He seemed to have an awfully hard time with technology in general...

She accepted the thin machine, slightly warm from being left open for so long, and situated it in her lap, pushing up the cover and pecking out a URL. Argh, one-handed typing. "I suppose it's strange to keep up with the politics of a country that I've never even visited when I don't keep up with those of the one in which I live," she said idly as the page loaded. "The curiosity gets to me, though..." Ah, there it was. She scrolled through the links, opening a few in separate tabs to review.

Elsewhere in the room, the Thing was thanking its lucky stars that it had correctly evaluated the visitors' intents. It remained very still and very quiet.

"I'm not sure," she replied honestly. "From what they've told me, healing is proceeding normally. I'd probably be able to move around a bit if I weren't so stubborn about their pain-killers." The latter part of the explanation came as more of a mutter. She knew it was unreasonable of her to turn down the promise of relief, but the threat of being completely unable to control her thoughts and words was embarrassing enough that she was willing to deal with the pain. She pursed her lips slightly, unwilling to speak of the matter of her left arm. It remained completely paralyzed, beyond both willful movement and sensation. It was a worrying matter, but Aila had been assured multiple times that it would recover, and so she held her tongue lest she jinx it.

A small "ah" denoted that she had found something in particular she had been seeking: a yearly address delivered by her brother on the nation's state of affairs. "I'm not usually so avid about it, but things have been... interesting since the end of the PokeBall." The information was always either immensely satisfying or immensely torturous, but she persisted.

The web's scent, though concentrated near the headboard - possibly due to the recent String Shot - was elsewhere in the room as well, such as on the walls and near the ceiling. Confident in its olfactory illusion, the Thing remained still.

The Thing did take notice that its scent trail didn't seem to be deterring Zeus a great deal, so it instead continued to sit perfectly still, formulating its emergency plans lest the situation fall to an emergency.

"Interesting? I'm not sure I could call it that," she remarked, scrolling through the words. "It's an annual thing. On the anniversary of his little revolution, he gives some fancy speech and tries to justify what he did." She paused momentarily, a frown creeping into her features. "It seems he's hijacked the event to write a public eulogy this year. Ah--" She froze, lifting her fingers from the trackpad, all semblance of warmth fleeing her extremities.

Its hopes of shaking the Pikachu with a scent trail thoroughly dashed, the Thing instead took solace that it's hiding place was at least a fairly good one. If it came down to it, it had one final wall of defense prepared...

Aila raised a thoughtful hand to cover her mouth, as though otherwise a flood of emotion would threaten to spill. The anxious inclination of her brow, however, betrayed that same emotion, and her eyes remained firmly fixed on the words as she read.

Blameless. Unborn sister even more so.

Never make things right with the sister whom my actions drove away.

Every comfort, every loving word.

Never ask for her forgiveness.

Her mother's words - that Leon was a man of treachery and murder, that his foul actions had besmirched the honor of the de Valois family, that his were deeds wrought in malice and greed - suddenly seemed so... distant. False. Deceitful.

For what am I if not a criminal, a murderer.

Will not ask for understanding, will not hope for forgiveness.

A world in which my sister could have lived happily.

"This is wrong," she said, her voice airy. "It's an obvious lie. He knew I would read it, so he wrote lies." She stopped herself and turned to Claire. "I'm sorry. This is..." her gaze faltered, "...fairly personal." She kept her tone level, though her expression was one of obvious distress.

She read the words again, unconsciously biting at her lower lip as she did so. Their meaning seemed to flawlessly clear, but her thoughts simple couldn't accept the possibility. As if of their own will, her lips moved to form the words, "Avez-vous menti, Maman?" The quiet whisper seemed to break her trance, and she leaned her head backwards and into the pillow with a shuddering sigh, eyes shut and a grimace twisting her features. First she had to contend with some ridiculous guilt over the death of Leon's daughter, then she was confined to the clinic after being attacked by a Ho-Oh, and now her entire purpose for everything she had ever done was being called into question? It was shaping up to be a bad few months.

The nudge to her elbow, abrupt as it was, went completely unnoticed, the paralyzed limb failing to register the pressure from the touch. The Thing took good notice of the Pikachu's proximity, but movement would wholly betray its location. The poor Thing couldn't fathom why the Pikachu was so insistent about finding it; it only wanted to help the girl, maybe even keep her company a little...

Eyes dim from labored thoughts fluttered open, and she turned her head towards Claire as she stood. "Thank you," she said, "for, ah... for visiting. For this as well." She inclined her head towards the computer. Deeply torn as she was, she wasn't beyond pleasantry, especially since the woman had done her quite a favor - even if the result of that favor wasn't quite what she had been expecting. Left once more in a darkness that was penetrated by the light of the laptop screen, she continued to stare at the words. Crying was out of the question; she refused to give Arceus the satisfaction of seeing her tears.

Slowly, cautiously, and careful not to significantly disturb the human, a red Spinarak wriggled out from between the pillows, perching quietly beside the girl's head. It would wait there until she fell asleep, when it would close the laptop and, using its String Shot, move the computer off of her lap and to the table. It would then find a crevice to hide itself and wait for an opportunity to be of help once more, hopefully free of the threat of angry Pikachu for a time to come.