bamfsecretary | sixteenth form; worst mother's day ever {Video/Action} (F/D to 7th May)

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sixteenth form; worst mother's day ever {Video/Action} (F/D to 7th May)

{It's early evening, and at Ise's house, they're eating dinner. On the floor, because Nanao has no furniture yet. On the plus side, from what can be seen of the house, it seems that renovations have finally been completed, as the walls have been repainted, and the bare wooden boards have been scoured clean. Nanao (who is dressed in her nurse's outfit) waves briefly at the camera, before going back to her soup.}

Hello, Johto. It's been a while, and, as you can see, I've finally finished overhauling the house. It was a long job, but I'm glad I finished before summer hit, if what you all told me about the seasons was accurate. {She gestures to something with the spoon, and the camera swivels around to find an egg in what looks to be a cradle with eyes, with a grumpy-looking Charmeleon sitting beside it, warming the egg with it's tail flame.}

And I have acquired yet another egg. Hopefully this will be the last one for a while, as I really need to start focusing on raising them all. You, ah, may have seen me wandering about, looking pregnant - that was because I was carrying this egg around. {She frowns, briefly, before going back to the soup.} Does anyone else have an egg from Easter that hasn't hatched yet? It's been nearly two weeks, and I'm a little concerned about the Pokemon inside.

I'm taking it in with me to work this evening, but I'm not - wait. {That may have been something like a crack. Everyone moves in, and the cradle transforms back into a Ditto, and it stares curiously at the egg. There's silence for a little while, but the egg has fallen silent again.} That's the fifth or sixth time that it's done that, and I don't know why.

{She reaches out a hand, and gently lays it on the egg, and the shell seems to crumble beneath her touch, and suddenly, in a wash of amniotic fluid, the tiny and far too still form of a Riolu appears.} No...

{The camera blurs, and for a few minutes, only garbled pictures and sound comes through - running feet, the calls of Pokemon, the sudden shift from light to dark to almost-strobing light, and the change in the BGM to the rather familiar tune of the Pokemon Center. When it stabilises, Nanao is slumped on a chair in the staff break room, head in hands.}

I should have known something was wrong - why am I even allowed to do this? He could be dead, and it would be fault..!

{The camera switches off, but not before it catches the sight of Casanova the Ditto transforming into something that looks distinctly human.}

{ooc: She's in the Goldenrod PKMN Center - feel free to run into her, because she really, really needs a hug now.}

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_{[Minding his own business and -- person he recognizes. ...looking sad? That's- that's new. He's not very good with this but he's not a complete jerk, despite what many may think, but he's still going to be pretty awkward about it.]}

Hey, uh ... you okay?

{She looks up, surprised - out of all of her acquantainces, this was the one she was least expecting to hear from.}

I've been better. {Her eyes are all red and puffy, and she's slumped over, a far cry from the normal way she holds herself.}

_{[Yeah, but you can't just ignore someone crying, especially if they'd helped you out previously. Or tried to.]}

Yeah, I ... can see that. _{[He strokes the back of his neck self-consciously. He doesn't really want to ask what's wrong, but hey, he's not exactly fleeing the scene, either.]}

{She shrugs, and digs out a hanky from her uniform, wiping the vestiges of tears away before standing up.}

I think I want a cup of tea. Would you like one? {Abrupt subject change is abrupt, but there's a method to her madness.} Because just sitting here won't do jack all.

-- sure. Yeah, I'll have some.

_{[He's confused, but he'll go along with it. He's a little curious, but there's mostly a sense of obligation at work here that he rarely acts on. He makes a vague gesture for her to lead the way, keeping an eye on her too because ... well, he hasn't seen anyone in tears for ages now. How does I handle?]}

Edited 2011-05-08 14:15 (UTC)

{She goes through the familiar routine of tea making, but if he looks closely, her hands are shaking slightly, and there's a crack in her voice.}

Milk and sugar? {She's trying so desperately not to fall apart in front of him it's not funny.}

_{[And ... yeah, he can tell. At least sort of. He might not be able to tell that she hasn't got it all together, but he can definitely see that something isn't right here.]

[He nods carefully, utters a 'thanks' and takes one of the cups after a moment's hesitation.]

[Even more hesitation follows until he decides he better speak up.]}

Ise, right? ... what's going on?

{She sits down, and wraps her hands around the mug.}

{She's half-glad he breaks the silence, and takes a sip before responding.}

That's right. Did you hear about the Riolu that's in Intensive Care?

_{[He shakes his head no, because he really doesn't pay attention to what the magical speakers are saying, but then he stops and makes an oh-sound. He picks his words carefully because wow is he ever scared he'll say something wrong which will cause her to start crying again.]}

A _{[short, short pause]} pokémon of yours?

{Honestly, if she thinks too hard about that tiny limp body in her hands she'll probably burst into tears anyway.}

Mm. New-hatched, too.

_{[Oh. Snap.]} Sorry to hear that. _{[He chews lightly on his lip for a second, trying to pick a topic that seems a bit less dangerous than 'intensive care' or 'will it be okay' or 'hope it's not dead' but a topic that's isn't anything like 'nice weather we're having'.]} ...so what's a Riolu, anyway?

{She shrugs it off, and takes another deep drink. Her fingers draw invisible patterns against it as she considers.}

It looks sort of like a small blue jackal, I guess, with black paws and and black mask marking across it's eyes.

I haven't had time to check the 'Dex yet, so I don't know what typing it is.

_{[Oh, right. He realises he didn't drink any of the tea yet, so he does while he listens and is surprised to find it quite good. The word 'jackal' means nothing to him, but he nods anyway and sets the cup down.]}

Something that doesn't make sense, probably. I mean, what does in this world, right?

_[Heh.]

{She laughs, short and sharp, and a small smile crosses her face.}

You've got that right, for sure. It's probably something weird, like 'dark', or 'rainbows' or I don't know.

{She feels a little better now.}

_{[Oh wow success. He can't believe he actually managed to get a laugh out of her. That does make things less heavy.]}

No nonono, it's probably both. This place is nuts, especially the mutant animals.

_{[They'd grown on him, but he's not going to admit that. He takes another drink of the tea.]}

{She stares at him in increduality}

B-both? 'Dark Rainbows'? Well, I never!

{And then she starts laughing, long and loud. ... that might not be good, actually.}

_{[...wait, what - is she going into hysterics? She's totally going into hysterics, isn't she?]

[He looks at her uncertainly and drinks some more of the tea as an excuse to not say anything.]}

{Wait... No, she's definitely in hysterics. The laughter sounds bizarre, and far too high pitched to be healthy.

Then the laughter turns into sobs, deep and heartbreaking, and she buries her head in her arms, and slumps down onto the table.}

I'm a horrible mother...

_{[Wh- oh, god. He has no idea what he should do here, but after a moment's hesitation touches her shoulder, carefully, like she's going to burst into flames and roast him if he does this wrong. But that doesn't seem to happen (thankfully), so he lets it stay there and.. um.]}

Whoa, hey- it's not your fault, right?

{She leans into that touch. Dear god, she's so embarrassed to be breaking down in front of someone she barely knows, but the need to be near some other human being overwhelms that completely.}

But I should have realised that something was wrong, Tulio, not just continued on my merry way!

_{[Well - at least he seems to be helping somewhat, and that's more than he'd expected to manage. He rubs her shoulder haltingly.]}

You know what they say, "to err is human"! _{[It comes out sort of nervously because please stop crying, but then he backtracks a little and tries to figure out something to say that might have more weight to it.]} Look, my partner - you remember Miguel, right, blonde and ... a beard - he messes up a lot but he's still okay. Well, mostly. Unless I hit him too hard.

{Her sobs quiet a little, and she pulls off her glasses, folding them up, and leaving them there on the table.}

I know that, but I've had so many years of knowing and practicing, and you'd think that I would know about these things.

And whenever I mess up, someone always dies. {The words are said in a hopelessly dead tone.}

_{[He blinks. Death has always been an overhanging danger to him, but he never really talks about it, so those words cause him to just stare at her for a second. He wouldn't buy it, except she does seem quite broken up and sincere about things.]}

You ... what?

_{[He frowns. But it's not pointed or accusing, just confused.]}

{Unfortunately for her, death is - quite literally - her occupation.}

It's true. It's always happened, ever since I was just a kid. I screw up, someone... dies.

{She sniffles, and scrubs at her nose.} I don't want him to die.

_{[Again, he would argue, but stranger things have happened to him lately. He accepts it without comment but goes on to try to ... say something worthwhile by pointing out something else:]}

If that's a "power" of yours it's gone now. _{[He's seen enough people complain about it on the network, even if he obviously had no powers of his own. They were just pretend.]}

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