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 Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 12:53 pm
Luciole was getting restless. By the time she woke from her nap, her trainer still had not returned. She had wandered the halls briefly, searching all the places she knew Aila tended to spend her time. When she had returned to the room, not only was her favorite person still strangely absent, but some of her things were gone. Something was wrong. The Jirachi couldn't even begin to fathom what that something was, but the mere knowledge that this had never happened before was enough to alarm her. What would happen if Aila didn't come back? Even if she was gone for a while, she always came back - but this time, more and more of her was disappearing. Luciole didn't like it.
It was late, far later than the Jirachi was usually awake, but she couldn't relax enough to turn in for any length of time. Instead, the very worried little legend made it her personal mission to search every corner of the base until she could find her Aila, or at least someone else that knew the human and could tell her where she was. As she traversed the many corridors, she eventually came upon one she didn't recognize. The lights were dimmed, and it had a strange, sterile scent to it. Luciole clung hesitantly to the doorway, peering in with her wish tags glowing brightly. It was scary, and she didn't want to go inside. But what would she do if her Aila was in there? She couldn't just leave her. The Jirachi steeled herself and entered.
Rows upon rows of doors greeted her. They were all clearly marked, but Luciole wasn't sure what those marks meant. Her confidence waned as she proceeded, peeking into window after window. There were strangers in the rooms. She shrank away from the door of every chamber that contained an unknown person, and she spent less and less time looking to see who was inside. Her light shined brighter as her fears and sorrows multiplied. Her Aila wasn't in here; she was just wasting her time and being somewhere scary for no reason and, and--
Wait! A small 'o' of surprise widened into a large grin. That wasn't a stranger! She descended away from the window and fiddled with the doorknob until the door gave way, opening just enough for the legendary to squeeze into the room.
"Izaya!" The gleeful exclamation was projected into the mind of the room's occupant as she practically vaulted herself across the room, immediately moving to cling to the Rocket. "Yay Izaya! Yaaayy!" She was so happy to find someone she knew that she completely forgot she had set out seeking her trainer.
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 6:49 am
Said grunt had just managed to drift off to sleep after several hours of turning over the events of the mission in his mind. It wasn't easy for him to rest while feeling so vulnerable, rendered immobile by his two casts and bandaged waist.
He felt like a sitting duck just waiting for those who wanted to get back at him for the loss of Aila - as if he hadn't been sleeping with an eye open before that. With as many enemies as he'd had, it was no surprise the informant had long been a light sleeper.
Thus, when a delighted little voice exclaimed his name in his head, Izaya overreacted. His eyes shot open just in time to witness a brightly-glowing blur shooting at him, remarkably resembling a shooting star. He aimed to scoot away, perhaps even off his bed if he could, but the little pokemon was already clinging to him.
The slim man blinked drowsily and looked down. He wasn't used to hearing his name and such happy excitement exclaimed in the same sentence. If he hadn't recognized the Jirachi once his eyes had adjusted, he might have been sure the being had mistaken him for someone else.
"...Luciole..." he whispered in astonishment, gingerly moving his uninjured right arm to put around her. "Heh...Izaya is hurt right now, Luci...might want to be careful." The grunt carefully pried her tiny form away from his body so that he could look at her at arms length. "...What brings you here, koibito?"
His smile was present, but it was sad. Of course he knew why she had come. With the little star pokemon as gleeful as she seemed, it was obvious she didn't yet know. She had probably come to the infirmary looking for her trainer since Aila was no where else to be found. Good thing she hadn't first stumbled into the room where they were doing the autopsy on the agent's corpse.
Damn it, wasn't there someone else in charge who was supposed to inform Aila's pokemon about the loss of their trainer? He hadn't signed up for this. It hadn't been in his job description. Why him? The man sighed. Well...at least maybe he could finally get the little psychic and steel type off his back after this. Even Luciole likely wouldn't want anything to do with the Rocket that had gotten her precious Aila killed.
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 7:03 am
"Hurt..." She blinked once and leaned away from the Rocket, allowing herself to be moved even further when Izaya encouraged it. She stared momentarily, as if only just beginning to notice the various bandages on his person, and a small frown appeared on her features. 'Hurt' was something she only vaguely understood, and her understanding of it stopped at 'do not touch.' The legendary lowered herself gently onto Izaya's stomach, though the majority of her slight weight was still held aloft. His question incited a brief look of excitement, followed quickly by anticipation.
"Aila's not back," she explained. Worry was gone from the mental voice, though; clearly the fact that she had found Izaya meant there was no more cause for concern. He would know where to find her human. "Looked everywhere. Do you know where she is?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 11:34 am
"Well, look at you, using full sentences now," the grunt commented proudly, perhaps in a subconscious effort to prolong the matter at hand. "You're a good little Jirachi, Luciole. Aila raised you well." He stroked her star-shaped head delicately, almost with the same tenderness with which he'd stroked Aila's hair in her final moments.
"There's something...difficult I have to tell you, Luciole. Something sad," he sighed, unsure of how aware the legend was of concepts like sadness. Unh...how to do this... He was so used to being blatantly truthful, brutally honest, and gleefully cruel that trying to break bad news gently was something he'd never had to do before.
Normally he relished giving people news that he was sure would impact their lives in one way or another. He savored seeing the looks on their faces, but this was different. This was a pokemon; how could he derive any pleasure from this?
Aw, to hell with it. He couldn't even be sure if the Jirachi would understand. Could Luciole even feel loss? As far as he was concerned, she was nothing more than an animal. A talking animal that only gave the semblance of feeling emotion. He was making this harder than it had to be. "...Aila is dead, Luciole. She died while protecting me in a battle." She could at least understand protection in terms of pokemon battles, couldn't she? "She protected me from one of Team Galactic's pokemon when it attacked."
He shook his head, not meeting the little Jirachi's eyes. "She's never coming back."
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Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 11:50 am
The Jirachi smiled brightly at the praise, a quiet giggle responding to the touch. She beamed with a pride in herself and in her human, and the expression lingered until she heard the warning of the sad news. Curiosity settled into her pink eyes, and she tilted her head slightly in anticipation. 'Sad' wasn't a good word. 'Sad' was what she had felt when she woke up from her nap and her Aila was still gone. Was this worse than that?
Her features didn't change as Izaya delivered the news. Luciole clearly didn't understand the words or the circumstances they implied. "Battle...?" she repeated in confusion. The Jirachi had watched her trainer and her teammates in practice battles before, but she had never participated properly herself or seen one outside of a controlled setting.
The final statement, however, managed to elicit a response. A tangible air of panic trembled through the room as the psychic-type legendary internalized what she heard. She leaned forward, balling tiny hands into tiny fists and arching to catch Izaya's gaze, "Aila is mad at Luciole, because Luciole left the room without permission?!" The Jirachi had been warned against roaming the base unsupervised. This time must have been the last straw, and now Aila was so upset with the legendary that she didn't want to be her trainer anymore. This was worse than sad. This was awful. "Won't do it again! Promise! Tell her to come back!" The Jirachi clung to the fabric of Izaya's shirt pleadingly, unintentionally forcing her emotions of desperation against him.
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Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 12:53 pm
Izaya thought his heart would stop beating. Heck, he hadn't even realized he had one to begin with until the pink, glowing Jirachi started to plead with him. He'd managed to keep a thick skin of numbness up until that point. So much for thinking she wouldn't process the emotions. Was it just him, or had the whole room suddenly taken on a more intimidating atmosphere?
"No, no, she's not mad, Luciole," Izaya tried to gently reason with the Jirachi. "She wasn't mad at you. She's not now, either. She...just..." Gah, why was this so tough? "She loved you very much. She just did her duty to Team Rocket. It's not your fault." The little legend was looking for someone to blame, but he couldn't let her blame herself. She had nothing to do with Aila's death, after all. It had been his fault! If he hadn't been there...
Wait - what was she doing to him? He didn't notice it at first, subtle as it was, but now there was a definite psychic intrusion going on - more than just telepathy this time. He would have never blamed himself otherwise.
Luciole was slicing through his mental defenses like butter! It didn't help that his own mental wall was weakened by his pain and his sleepy state, either. Her grief was penetrating his thoughts, infecting him with her overpowering sense of loss and understanding... Stupid psychic type! She probably didn't even know what she was doing!
Overwhelmed by a new wave of emotions, Izaya shoved the little one away without thinking, clutching his head in agony. He grit his teeth, willing himself to feel something - anything - but the feelings Luciole was imposing upon him. It was too late, though. He had already been feeling enough of those emotions before she had reached out to him mentally. So though he'd thought he'd sealed them away, once they were reawakened by Luciole's similar feelings, he couldn't shut them back in the vault he'd locked them in. What had she done?
"I CAN'T!" he burst out, unable to control himself. "I can't talk to her anymore, and you can't either! It's my fault she's dead, Luciole, understand? She died protecting me! I'm the reason she's not coming back, not you. If there's anyone you should blame, blame me. Hate me. Just stop feeling sad and get over it. Aila wouldn't have wanted that..."
The grunt's words were cut off by a broken sob, though he sucked in his breath as soon as he'd heard it. No, no, no! He wasn't going to give in to this! He was a human; he could take a little psychic-type attack and still stand strong! He couldn't give in. Not now. Not in front of Luciole...
In spite of everything, Izaya reached out and gently pulled the Jirachi back toward him, bracing himself against her mental powers. "I'm sorry, Luci, I'm so sorry...it's my fault..."
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Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 1:49 pm
"Don't understand!" the Jirachi exclaimed in frustration, shaking her small hands in defiance. Bright eyes glistened with tears yet to be cried; regardless of how much - or how little - she understood of the details, she could at least understand that something horrible was happening. "Where is Aila?" Her question remained. Luciole didn't understand enough about mortality to connect this usage of the past tense with any sort of permanence. If Aila wasn't there, then she had to be somewhere else. That was how the world worked.
She uttered a brief cry of surprise, a physical one rather than a mental one, as she was pushed away, the atmosphere around her quivering on the brink of an immense sorrow. She flinched at the shout and stared wide-eyed as Izaya spoke, her painful aura strangely mellowing and calming at the sound of the sob. It took little encouragement to pull her small form back to him, and the Jirachi wrapped short arms around the injured man as best she was able.
"No blame. No hate," she murmured as the overwhelming emotion ebbed away from the room. She didn't understand what 'dead' meant, but she could at least begin to comprehend that her Aila couldn't come back even if she wanted to. The last thing she wanted now, though, was for Izaya to look so sad. "No sorry... No fault... Aila loves Luciole, Aila loves Izaya. No sad things." No sad things except the saddest thing of them all, but if the Jirachi was hurting Izaya then she would do her best to make it better.
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 12:04 pm
Argh, this was becoming so stupid...wasn't Luciole the one supposed to be comforted here? Why was she the one comfroting him? Wiping eyes on the back of his sleeve, he slowly eased back against his pillows, carefully shifting the little pokemon against his shoulder like a mother would hold an infant. He cradled her as he turned his head to face her, forcing his painful smile on his lips once more.
"You're so confident," he noted in a voice little louder than a whisper. "I kind of envy that... But at the same time..." He sighed heavily, recomposing himself. "Even if it's true, Luciole...even if she loves us, she's can't come to see us anymore. She's...in a special place where she gets to watch everything happen...but we only get to go there after a long time. If we're good." His smile faltered before widening, but it was more broken than ever. "Aila was so good that she got to go there sooner than most people. But now that she's there, she can't come back. And we can't go to see her for a long, long time. If we're good and we behave ourselves."
He stared up at the ceiling for some time more, stroking Luciole absently, wanting everything to just go away. He didn't want to feel. Maybe later if he managed to get back to sleep, he could convince himself it was all a dream. He could go back to being the selfish, heartless b*****d that he was and not have to worry about anything or anyone else. But for now...misery loved company, and there was something to be said for the comfort that even a pokemon like Luciole brought.
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