Spirits' Edge

[unrepentantAuthor]

Jesse snarled with enough venom to put Sierra to shame. He didn't need a fucking type advantage. He'd pick this mongrel up by the goddamn scruff and wring him out until he saw stars. The nerve of this taint-sucking prick.

"You think you know what fuckin' happened? What's been goin' through my head all these years? You stupid bastard, you haven't got the first idea how I fuckin' feel. I'd die for her, d'you realise that? I'd fuckin' die for my daughter's sake. Goddamnit, man, use your shit-fer-brains cogitation a minute and think this the fuck through. I caught my daughter about to tear someone's fuckin' throat out, I fuckin' begged her to quit it, and she actively fuckin' ideated murder knowin' full well I'd see it in my head like it was real. And for one fuckin' second, not expectin' she'd fuckin' hear me, yeah, I thought somethin' shameful. Somethin' I tried to take back."

He somehow found it in himself not to spit in this stupid motherfucker's eye.

"You think that means I'd ever actually fuckin' hurt my kid? That it makes my years of protectin' her count fer nothin'? You dumb, gutless cunt. I love her. I goddamn love her. I've bled fer her. Even if I'd meant it, even if I'd said it—have you honestly never been so afraid for your kid's safety that you'd try'n fuckin' scare 'em straight? Brisa's half-roughlander, goddamnit, and to every civilised mon that means she's a born killer. You have no idea the lengths I've gone to, all to keep her safe. So shut the fuck up already."

 

[Dragonfree]

Oh, he loved her. What a way of showing it. Dave thought of Brisa, in Shadow form, going on about how she was dangerous and violent and needed to be put down, all because of his fuckery, but oh, no, it was okay because he loved her. "Yeah, you should be fucking ashamed. You traumatized her and tried to rip it out of her memory and it fucked her up for life. Good job, Dad of the fucking Year. I'll be over here in Never Even Thought About Killing My Fucking Kids club."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Jesse turned away and let a white-hot flash of anger run through him and somehow managed not to burn this motherfucker to a crisp.

"Can you fuckin' hear yourself? You think you have the fuckin' moral high ground over me 'cause you never got scared, never thought somethin' stupid, but you... You failed yer fuckin' kid. You let her get killed, and yer still on at me about Brisa bein' 'fucked up fer life'. The fuck are you talkin' about with that—Brisa's got more worth in her goddamn spit than you do in your whole fuckin' body. You act like you care about my daughter. You got so little faith in her you think she's fuckin' broken.

"So go ahead, pat yourself on the fuckin' back for having purer thoughts than me. I've spent six fuckin' years bein' ashamed of mine already. Does that fuckin satisfy you? No? Doesn't matter what you fuckin' think. I kept her alive, goddamnit. You sorry piece of shit, I kept my goddamn daughter alive, you don't get to fuckin' speak to me about bein' a father. Get out of my fuckin' sight. Get out!"

 

[Dragonfree]

(a spectral Poochyena, muttering: "...It was my fault they even went to the church. I told them where--")

Dave's lips twisted into a snarl. "Brisa's alive and Mia isn't because you didn't have a bunch of murderous shits target her for being who she is, you reprehensible fuckwad. You think they wouldn't have shot her too? What, you think you could've stopped them, as a human, without the fucking superpowers?"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"I did have a bunch of murderous assholes targeting her, you ignorant piece of shit! I had a daughter who refused not to use lethal attacks on people, and a town full of scumbags who'd love to see her dead whether she killed anyone or not! I fuckin' doubt you'd have done a better job than me considerin' yer fuckin' track record involves failin' to prevent everythin' I was scared of happenin'. How the fuck can you claim to have been a better father, huh? I swear to any god you like, I am two seconds from opening your skull and findin' you out, dark type or not."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave gritted his teeth, feeling his pulse pounding in his ears. "Mia didn't just fucking murder someone off the street. She was there rescuing a kid who'd been kidnapped, with a bunch of other kids, from a bunch of gun-wielding god-botherers out to kill all of them. They were in the fucking right."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"Oh, I see, that's alright, then," oozed Jesse, so nauseated by the anger in his gut that his grip left claw-marks on his desk, "I'm glad to hear that you let your daughter kill and die fer a good reason. So which is it? Did your kid actually wanna eat ya, or was she only a killer when it was in the fuckin' right? While we're at it, was Brisa a provocative adolescent, or was she maybe puttin her teeth around her friend's throat for a fuckin' laugh?"

 

[Dragonfree]

Glad to hear you let your daughter kill and die for a good reason. Dave's stomach twisted; he bared his teeth at the Delphox. "Oh, wow, Mr. fucking Listening Comprehension over here. No, jackass, she had impulses to kill and then she didn't act on them, because I fucking taught her not to, until she was dealing with these pieces of shit. Meanwhile, yeah, Brisa was just a provocative adolescent who never would've killed anyone, and I can't fucking believe you think otherwise and then say I'm the one who thinks your daughter's fucking broken."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Jesse's claws raked the back of his chair and he bit down so hard it sent a pang of pain through his jaw. The nerve of this fucking guy.

"Really. 'Never would've killed anyone.' Huh. You're sure? You're damn fuckin' sure? You aren't fuckin' psychic. She could absolutely fuckin' kill someone. I know it. I've had to live with that. You have no idea what you're fuckin' talkin' about."

 

[Dragonfree]

"Based on what, she thought really hard about it one time because she wanted to get you out of her fucking head? Not exactly the gold standard of evidence there."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"You wanna talk evidence, you fuckin' hypocrite? You wanna know? Well–"

Jesse cut himself off with a vulpine snarl. Why did he care this fucking much what this asshole thought. Why was he about to spill his own guts just to make a point.

"Never fuckin' mind. You barely know my daughter. You failed yours. You don't have a damn thing you can teach me, you feckless cunt."

 

[Dragonfree]

“As opposed to you, who just fucked off one day and never returned? Yeah, stellar father-daughter relationship. She regularly calls you a motherfucker, but I guess you didn’t know that because you haven’t even seen her in fucking years.”

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Yeah. That fucking tracked. This asshole wasn't lying, he could tell that much. Oh, Brisa... listen kid, I know I got it wrong–

Jesse clutched at his cheek fur and yanked until the pain brought the world back into focus. If he were talking to anyone else he could just pour his agonised certainty into their head and they'd be a fucking mess, they'd understand.

Maybe that was still an option.

"Let me in your fuckin' head for five goddamn seconds and I'll show you just how sure I was that Brisa would kill someone... and be hanged for it. I won't touch your mind, I couldn't even if I tried, 'less you wanted it, but I can fuckin' give you 'evidence', you witless bastard."

 

[Dragonfree]

“Yeah?” A flicker of uncertainty crossed Dave’s mind and was immediately snuffed out by the blazing desire to prove this bastard wrong. “Sure. Let’s hear it.”

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

((OOC: this post contains some blood and gore. Click the spoiler for a censored version.))

Spoiler: Clean Version

Full telepathy with a dark type required meditation, but this motherfucker's humanity, consent to the link, and receptive intent were enough to let in stream of remembered emotion. Jesse's eyes blazed with a psychic heat. The memories were an inferno of light, feelings, impressions, visions... pain. Dave would get what he asked for and more.

A predatory cat with her jaws fully clamped around a deerling's throat. Fear in the girl's eyes. Hunger in his daughter's. Defiance. Shouting. A vision of himself half-dead so real that he felt it, thought is that what you'll do to me? A vision of Deerling Cathy– no, the experience of biting into her throat. He felt ill. Brisa knew what it was like to kill a wild pokémon. She knew what it was like to come close with a thinking person. She melded the two in her head so strongly it was like Jesse was in her position and he couldn't look away.

Oh gods, she meant it.

A new memory. Sierra, her teeth tearing into that bastard's throat. Sierra looking at him, her face grim. Brisa looked exactly like her, in the right light. He'd already seen a face just like hers above a person's corpse.

"Don't give me that look. It needed to be done. And I knew you couldn't do it."

But he could do it.

You didn't need to intend to end a life. You could kill while hardly trying if you were as strong as Jesse. As strong as Brisa.

He could see the corpse when he closed his eyes at night. Burns so bad they looked like they'd been inflicted with a fucking blowtorch. Jesse had shot him. The power he held... was too great. Brisa had that same strength.

Brisa Escarpa. Daughter of two killers. Strong enough to kill who she liked, deliberately or not. A vicious predator. No intention of holding back, not ever, not ever, not ever.

Of course she could kill someone. Only a goddamn moron would deny it.

And there, deeper, was the memory of the gallows, and who hung from them, and what was said to Jesse.

"Only good feral's a dead feral. I'd stop hangin' around that luxio ladyfriend of yours, Stranger."

Jesse stared at the noose, and imagined that the Escarpa luxio whose neck it cradled was the girl he loved, and not a stranger. He'd be damned if he let that happen. He'd make sure it never did. At any cost. Nothing was more important. Nothing. Nothing.

Full telepathy with a dark type required meditation, but this motherfucker's humanity, consent to the link, and receptive intent were enough to let in stream of remembered emotion. Jesse's eyes blazed with a psychic heat. The memories were an inferno of light, feelings, impressions, visions... pain. Dave would get what he asked for and more.

A predatory cat with her jaws fully clamped around a deerling's throat. Fear in the girl's eyes. Hunger in his daughter's. Defiance. Shouting. A vision of himself half-dead so real that he felt it, thought is that what you'll do to me? A vision of Deerling Cathy– no, the experience of biting into her throat. The taste of blood, strong enough to make his human stomach clench. Brisa knew what it was like to kill a wild pokémon. She knew what it was like to come close with a thinking person. She melded the two in her head so strongly it was like Jesse was the one eating that girl's flesh and he couldn't look away.

Oh gods, she meant it.

A new memory. Sierra, her teeth tearing into that bastard's throat. Sierra looking at him, her muzzle stained with what she'd done. Brisa looked exactly like her, in the right light. He'd already seen a face just like hers covered in a thinking person's blood.

"Don't give me that look. It needed to be done. And I knew you couldn't do it."

But he could do it.

You didn't need to intend to end a life. You could shed blood while hardly trying if you were as strong as Jesse. As strong as Brisa.

He could see the corpse when he closed his eyes at night. Burns so bad they looked like they'd been inflicted with a fucking blowtorch. Jesse had shot him. The power he held... was too great. Brisa had that same strength.

Brisa Escarpa. Daughter of two killers. Strong enough to kill who she liked, deliberately or not. A vicious predator. No intention of holding back, not ever, not ever, not ever.

Of course she could kill someone. Only a goddamn moron would deny it.

And there, deeper, was the memory of the gallows, and who hung from them, and what was said to Jesse.

"Only good feral's a dead feral. I'd stop hangin' around that luxio ladyfriend of yours, Stranger."

Jesse stared at the noose, and imagined that the Escarpa luxio whose neck it cradled was the girl he loved, and not a stranger. He'd be damned if he let that happen. He'd make sure it never did. At any cost. Nothing was more important. Nothing. Nothing.

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave returned to reality with a choked yelp, stumbling, heart hammering in his chest, a nauseating taste of blood in his mouth. "Jesus," he muttered. "Even with the cowboy shtick I didn't know you literally lived in the fucking 1800s."

He took a moment to get his bearings; it didn't help much, the horrid taste still there, images of gore still vivid in his head. He fixed Jesse with the firmest gaze he could, swallowed bile. "Look, that's evidence of stuff you were feeling. Not of anything she did or would've done. She was imagining shit. To get you out of her fucking head. Frankly I can see why."

Focus. He took a deep breath; it came out in a shaky chuckle. "You know what, Mia probably imagined worse on a daily fucking basis." And what? That didn't even help his point.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

“Yeah, well, I didn't have to be sure about Brisa. I knew. It wasn't the one time, y'fuckin' idiot. That was just... the worst one. And let me fuckin' drill this in for you: whatever benefit of the doubt I could give her, fuckin' nobody else would. I showed you what happens to roughlanders who slip up. I could show you the lengths I've gone to to protect Brisa from the consequences of her slip-ups. Not that you'd give me any credit fer it.”

Jesse scoffed, and clenched his fists so as not to go for his wands. No fire until the other guy went for a move. That was the rule.

“You can harp on all you like about a disturbin’ thought I had six years ago in a moment of terror. Everyone has those, pal. I just got unlucky enough that Brisa could hear mine. If I could get in your head right now, I'm sure all sorts of awful secret private thoughts would come tumblin’ out. Call me any name you can think of. It won’t change the fact that you’re just fuckin’ incapable of takin’ responsibility for your failure to protect your kid.”

 

[Dragonfree]

"Yeah, well, some people know that God fucking told them to commit murder. Doesn't make it true."

Dave looked away from the Delphox. Why was he even still here? Wasn't the point here that Brisa was going to get to confront him, and now she'd just fucked off? Grilling this guy had been fun but the psychic assault had thrown him off, lost his momentum, and it was harder to work it up again.

"You know," he said, forcing his gaze back towards Jesse, "for a guy who says you just had a wretched thought in a moment of terror, you sure are determined to tell me why it was rational and justified. You're standing here trying to convince me your own fucking daughter is a bloodthirsty monster. Just... fucking think about that for a second."

He paused, glaring. Was it even worth it to respond to all these baseless fucking ad hominems? "And what the fuck do you think you know about my awful secret private thoughts? We only just met two fucking minutes ago. You think you know a fucking thing about me, or what I've done for my kids?"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Jesse’s eyes narrowed. Okay. He was gonna go there, huh? Okay.

“You’re one of those fuckin’ types who thinks that you’re so rational, so moral, so right in the head, that everything you think has gotta be true. That you know better than everyone else. And you keep believin’ it no matter how much fucked up shit you live through, no matter how fuckin’ miserable you get, no matter how much of an asshole you are to other people for no good reason.”

Jesse grinned, and in doing so, revealed a row of sharp, predatory teeth.

“You know who gets at people the way you’ve been doin’ with me? Folks who’re projectin’. You wanna believe you did right by your kid when we both know you failed her, so you call me out for fuckin' up as a father even though my daughter is a goddamn hero. You wanna believe that you’re a fuckin’ genius, so you twist my words every which way to make you look better, so you never have to concede a point. You wanna believe that you’ve never thought of your kid as a monster, so you accuse me of thinkin’ that about mine. But you have. I can fuckin’ tell.”

He advanced on Dave, and at a closer distance, the delphox towered over his poochyena body.

“Look me in the fuckin’ eye and tell me you never thought it.”

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave clenched his jaw, his back fur fluffing up automatically at the much larger Pokémon looming over him. He still felt sick, his insides crawling with a nauseating chill. "Sure, Freud, nice job ignoring everything I just said," he said; it came out in a tense snarl. "You've spent most of the last while shouting at me about why you were right and you knew your daughter was going to kill people, and now you think you've got special insight into my head because you're just that insightful, but oh, sure, I'm the one who can't admit to being wrong, I'm the one who thinks my kid's a fucking monster, I think I know better than everyone else, I'm the one who's fucking 'projecting'. And now here you are resorting to, what, is this supposed to be intimidating, just make me give up and worship you? Ten out of ten, asshole. Bet everyone loves you back home."

Fucking Poochyena brain was telling him to run, and he wanted to take it out behind the shed and fucking shoot it. Maybe the Delphox would do it for him, just let loose like he obviously fucking wanted to. Let this rank hypocrite contend with that, having murdered two more people than Brisa had.

"You don't know shit about what's in my head," he growled. "Yeah, Mia was pretty fucked up. But she wasn't a goddamn monster. She was just different and had a different way of thinking about things and you had to fucking learn how her brain worked." His voice was starting to waver and he hated it. "Yeah, sure, I wondered every damn day if she'd kill somebody. But I believed in her anyway, because I fucking chose to, because that's what you do when you love your fucking kids."