Grass Continent ~ Treasure Town Beach

[TheGOAT]

The thought of alcohol was out of the question. Her tolerance had never not been low, and that didn’t change when it came to these new bodies. God, she could still feel the distant, fading reverberations from her previous hangover…

“No thank you,” Astrid said, soberly enough to segue into what she said next. “Are you… uhm. Is everything okay? Do you wanna talk about something?” You seem distressed, she almost let slip. As if it wasn’t already obvious.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Did she want to? Fuck, maybe. Was it a good idea? Gods only knew.

Astrid's worried face was so earnest. So concerned. Why not get this over with and skip to the part where it wasn't?

"Tell me Astrid," she began, feeling the self-loathing bubble up to the surface as she realised what she was going to say. "If someone pinned you in place so you couldn't move and then they hurt you in a way you can't even put into words, even if they didn't know that's what they were doing..."

She trailed off, staring out to sea.

"How could you even fuckin' forgive somethin' like that?"

 

[TheGOAT]

For a few seconds, only the dancing wind moved. That, and the gears in Astrid’s mind.

Asking where this was coming from was pointless; she would end up with that information just by acknowledging the question, hopefully. First, however, she tilted her head like she’d been caught on something.

“‘Pinned?’” she echoed. “But… also on accident? I—apologies, but I don’t follow.”

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa gave Astrid a hard look.

"Okay. Suppose that... this person, they attack you while sparring, then. And the attack... hurts you, hurts you so bad you're still hurtin' a couple days later. Didn't mean to hurt ya. Didn't realise it would. But it happened."

More whiskey.

"Is it, is that somethin' forgivable?"

 

[TheGOAT]

She didn’t have to think about it. “Of course it is,” she said. “Pokémon are natural battlers, and…”

“…and sometimes, shit happens,” Mincinno grunted as he picked the last ice shard out of his fur. Vulpix refused to even look, but her friend still had the mind to wipe her tears with one of those damned tails. “—Hey, c’mon, seriously. You’ve gotta be prepared to go all out when we practice. No excuses. It’s who we are. It’s in our DNA.” He grit his teeth, trying and failing to pass it off as anything but pain. “—Ngh. Go hydrate real quick. We’ll start again in five.”

Sparring accidents were nothing new, and she desperately wanted to believe him. But that wound would scar, and they’d both been lucky it wasn’t worse. Two centimeters to the right was all it would’ve taken. She would never forget that feeling, that moment of realization…

The breath she’d been holding released all at once, finally. Yet with every swig Brisa had swigged, Astrid panicked a little bit more. Her words had been growing less precise, and now entire sentences.

She held out a paw towards the drink, gently resting it lightly atop Brisa’s knuckles. If the contact wouldn’t help, maybe it would at least keep her from drinking herself back to her home world. “H-hey. What happened? What’s wrong?”

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa blew out a long breath. It stank of whiskey. Alright then, better be out with it.

"I fucked up."

Look at Astrid, don't look at Astrid... she settled on a space just off from the vulpix's head at which to stare.

"Someone did something terrible to Curio, once. And a few days ago, I did pretty much the same thing. Everything she'd tried to forget came rushing back, and it messed her about somethin' awful. She can hardly stand to look at me now. The stuff she said... Well. I don't know if there's any comin' back from it."

Words were starting to come easier. Better shut her trap now, before she started explaining why this mattered so much.

 

[TheGOAT]

Curio—? Oh. That explained it. Astrid had figured out, as everyone else probably had, that those two had clicked pretty much off the bat.

So was that why Curio looked so crestfallen at the café? And yet… it had taken almost nothing to cheer her up again. Besides alcohol, but…

“Curio… I-I think she’ll be okay,” Astrid affirmed, nodding at Brisa, and perhaps at herself. “Yes, I’m certain she’ll be okay. She’s really smart. She wouldn’t hold a grudge over something you didn’t mean. Right? Maybe she’s just… processing right now.”

What did she do? What could she have possibly done in the two and a half weeks we’ve all known each other…?

Diyem? You any good with repairing friendships?

After removing her paw from atop Brisa’s, Astrid blew a cool breeze onto the sand around them, where she then took a seat. She gestured to the spot next to her with prospective irises. “You look like you’re about to lose your balance, silly.”

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa's face darkened as she looked down.

"Still got perfect balance," she muttered, but she took a seat by Astrid all the same.

She didn't say anything at first, but right as Astrid was opening her mouth to speak, Brisa blurted out a broken scoff.

"The other time I did somethin' like this, I never got that person back. Not ever. So I'm not about to make any optimistic assumptions."

 

[Namohysip]

Diyem? You any good with repairing friendships?

...I am good at recognizing what destroyed them.

 

[TheGOAT]

“Well…” Astrid sighed. “I’m sorry. I can’t pretend to know that kind of pain… but I can still offer this. Who says Curio and that person are the same? Maybe they’re both justified in feeling hurt, maybe they’re not, but different people handle pain in different ways. I-it doesn’t mean your friendship is already over.”

God, she was so bad at this. Speech wasn’t usually an issue for her, yet when it came to actually helping someone, she could barely follow along with herself as she talked. Her idle paw nervously searched for a task, and ended up simply touching Brisa’s shoulder, tentatively at first in case she flinched away.

“…Besides,” she eventually continued, a hopeful smile creeping up on her—one that she desperately tried to Baton Pass over. Of course, she wasn’t a psychic, nor did she know the move, but the effort was there. “You like Curio a lot, don’t you? I have a funny feeling you won’t stop trying to fix things even now. And if you aren’t sure, well… you should be sure. Give it some time and I’ll bet all of my radiance that you two will be even tighter than before.”

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Rather than flinch away, Brisa actually leaned into the touch. The change in her body was immediate—her shoulders and jaw relaxed, and she took her grip off the bottle, leaving it in its pouch.

I’ll bet all of my radiance that you two will be even tighter than before.

She tensed up again a little at the mention of the word radiance, but it didn't last.

"I want you to be right, Astrid," she murmured. "Maybe you are. There's... a lot that's different about what happened this time. Curio ain't the same kinda person. I laid a different kinda hurt on her. Even I've changed since then. So maybe it can go better this time."

She looked Astrid in the eye, for the first time in the conversation. "And I figure that... I figure that this time, Curio ain't the only friend I got, huh?"

She even managed a weak smile. Brisa didn't smile that often, and she expected it showed in the effort it took to make the expression.

 

[TheGOAT]

It wasn’t cheek to cheek. But it was still plenty. At that, Astrid’s own smile was unleashed, unable to be held captive.

“Yeah! That’s the spirit! Never forget you’ve got a ton of friends who you can count on. Cabot, Celeste, Cynthian, and so on…” She glanced away, if only briefly. “Oh, and, um, me. I’ll happily be your friend.”

She could see the effort written all over Brisa’s face. It wasn’t easy for her to smile right now, that much was clear. And yet, in spite of that, it was the most natural look that the Shinx had given her thus far. Joy was contagious (or so Astrid had once been told), and she was definitely feeling it now.

“I like your smile, by the way,” she added.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa's whiskey-induced boldness evaporated the moment she processed the tenderness of Astrid's reply.

Brisa stammered her reply. "I would lo-, that is, yes pl-, I mean ah, yeah, I also... wanna be your-- your friend."

Your smile is awful pretty, she didn't say. Neither did she reach forward and rub her cheek against Astrid's. Maybe in fifty fuckin' years she'd learn that kind of forwardness.

Instead she flicked her tail back and forth and found it in herself to say "I like yours too."

 

[TheGOAT]

Oh dear. Her words were getting mixed up even further. Perhaps the alcohol was starting to really kick in?

“Thank you! That’s…” Her voice lost its luster, replaced instead with discreet satisfaction. “…really sweet of you.”

A compliment. An honest-to-Arceus compliment…

For the first time, she thought of home, and realized there was something there that she didn’t miss.

“Oh, umm…” With a thoughtful flick of her ears, Astrid recovered her thoughts and dug into her bag. Out came a translucent canteen, liquid filling it two-thirds to the top. “—here! It’s water, in case you wanted to hydrate. Could help with your impending hangover, heh.”

It wasn’t entirely a joke. Astrid had a distinct feeling Brisa had been drinking for a little while before the Vulpix had arrived at the beach. Whether true or not, Brisa had drank plenty after they’d both arrived anyway.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa nodded and took the canteen gratefully. Besides being a gift—and you didn't turn down a thoughtful effort like that—it was a practical concern.

"Thanks," she said with a gasp, after downing plenty of it. "I'll be fine, I ain't new to holding my drink, but I sure 'ppreciate the help."

With her returned compliment having been accepted, the whiskey-boldness returned a little.

"I'll be fine here too, I reckon," she added, patting her chest. "It's-, it's more of a help than you realise, to know I got someone who cares even at a time like this. I'm... not so used to kind words back home. Looks like you ain't either, which is a damn shame considerin' you sure deserve some."

Brisa flashed a scowl to the side, but it didn't last. It seemed like she was, if not back to normal, at least... safe.

 

[TheGOAT]

Astrid didn’t want to admit it, but she was impressed by Brisa’s tolerance. If she’d had that much to drink, her snout would be stuck in the dunes right now.

“Mmm. Well.” Her smile was back, but had it ever left? “We aren’t back home. For however long, those problems can be put on hold. They never go away, but… maybe this is the best vacation we’ll get. And… although I didn’t ever ask for any of this, I’m really grateful for it. I-it’s really nice feeling so valued.”

It was her heart speaking for her at this point. Yes, valued. That was how her friends here—yes, her friends—made her feel since she’d arrived. It was how Brisa made her feel right now. It was how she wanted to always feel, forever afterwards. And it was exactly why, in that moment, her smile did not reach her eyes.

‘Always.’ But there would be no always. This was temporary. The boundaries of spacetime were steadfast and sturdy, whereas her time left here was unclear and brittle. This place wasn’t nothing to her—it was something, maybe even an important piece of her everything—and yet she might not even remember any of it when the curtains closed. She could only live in the present, but how long would that present really last? Eighteen days ago, she didn’t know the multiverse even existed. How many more days before she was forced to believe that again?

None of this was news to Astrid. The terms had been clear from the get-go. But she hadn’t expected to feel this way either, and now, she felt like a fool for not even considering it.

But she knew how to hide her feelings from her face (practice makes perfect), and did so in spite of her beating heart. Maybe… they just needed a subject change.

“Soo,” she started, searching for a one-liner. That was a no-go, because how could she possibly think of a one-liner after all that, so instead she settled on an icebreaker. “How long’ve you been enforcing the law?”

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Astrid's earnest moment of vulnerability brought out a different kind of smile, if only briefly. What she'd just said rung a few bells for Brisa, so... perhaps they'd got a few more things in common than she'd realised.

"Enforcing the law? Oh, right. The ranger stuff."

Brisa cracked her neck and cleared her throat to compose herself.

"Technically I'm registered as a ranger team of one, by way of my parents. So, I guess I was born into it? I helped out on a few patrols when I got old enough, and then after Jesse and Sierra left... well, they were kinda holding down the routes around Frontier Town on their own. So I had to pick up the slack. It made sense, you know? I had the brains and the muscle, I was already a ranger, people knew me."

She seriously considered taking another swig of whiskey. Nah. If she wanted to feel light headed she could just compliment Astrid again and look at her giddy face. Heh.

"Anyway, I was good at it. I even liked that I had a job that made a difference, helpin' people out. Sometimes I took out bandits and such, other times I just made sure no harm came to vulnerable travellers. You can take pride in that. Problem is, if you get a reputation for bein' unnatural kinds of fearsome, and you're the kid of a human and a 'damn feral,' then soon enough people start avoidin' ya."

She was still smiling, but it was a wan smile now.

 

[TheGOAT]

So that was why she seemed so passionate about it. It was a facet of her lifestyle from birth. Astrid couldn’t deny the strange sense of appreciation she had for Brisa and her job, nor the tiniest beat of envy that accompanied it.

“Welllll,” she said, flashing a grin. “I sure wouldn’t mind having a ‘mon like you keeping the streets safe at night. That’s for sure.”

And Arceus, how she wished it could be true. Lively Town was scary at night. Too many dark alleyways, too much space between street lights, and so on. Helli was no slouch in battle, but he was too aloof, and made Astrid feel less than safe when patrolling with him. His stupid jokes helped, but only a little.

“After I left home and joined the Expedition Society, I made some great friends and gained the respect that came with my badge. And eventually respect on a more face-to-face level with the townsfolk. Err, some of the townsfolk…” She idly poked at the sand, occasionally lifting her paw and letting it trickle back down. “But, I dunno. Sometimes it still doesn’t feel real. Even when I’m busy contributing to my dream of mapping out the whole world, every now and then it feels like something’s missing. Just don’t know what it is.”

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

“I sure wouldn’t mind having a ‘mon like you keeping the streets safe at night. That’s for sure.”

Brisa actually broke into a grin of her own at that, and immediately tried stifling it with little success.

it feels like something’s missing.

Brisa hummed to herself and idly scratched a couple thoughts in the sand. "I reckon... we all came here to help out, even the grouchy, weird or... worryin' types. Not to get anything for ourselves, exactly. But maybe bein' here together affords us a chance to figure things out that we never coulda done back home. Like what we really want. Who we really are..."

Her train of thought stalled as it went through a rough patch, and she nearly reached for the whiskey again. Best not. She'd had enough.

"Hrrmph. Anyway. What I'm gettin' at is that you should use the time you've got here to figure out what's missin' from your normal life. Even if you forget the specifics of what happened here," even if you forget me, "you might remember what it was you learned from the experience. That's... I guess it's what I'm hopin' for."

It wasn't all she was hoping for, but she bit the rest back down. If she was ever gonna let herself think about that stuff, it wouldn't be after a miserable drinking session, that was for sure.

 

[TheGOAT]

Off impulse alone, Astrid almost went for the whiskey herself. Thank goodness it was out of reach. They’d just climbed out of one pit, and she didn’t want to fall into another.

“It is pretty helpful,” Astrid admitted with a wistful sigh. “I’m still not used to shelving my problems from back home. To just… put stuff on hold with no worries at all. I have to keep reminding myself that those responsibilities don’t exist here.

“It’s hard to wrap my mind around how much could happen to us—has already happened to us—in the same amount of time it takes our colleagues back home to blink.” Her tails idly traced circles in the sand as she sat, deep in thought. “I’ve started dreaming about them at night…”