soggypastry | 033 [Video/Action for Goldenrod + Anon Text]

[Private Text to: Riku and Xion]
Team Rocket's list of targets changed. You're both on it now, so stay sharp and watch your backs. I don't know when they'll move on any of us.
[/private texts]

[It's been almost three months since he left, with only a letter to say goodbye. To say that Lightning hadn't been thinking about him as the day that would have been thier first anniversary drew nearer would be a lie, and she's taken it with remarkable grace when all things are concerned.

Or maybe she's just used to getting left behind. Who knows. All she knows is there's a house on the beach with too many memories and dreams, and she can barely look at Lucky or Strike without expecting him to be right at her side. She has to put that part of her past to rest if she's going to be able to lead the Corps in the best way she can, and so she's come to the seaside once more. Something a young boy once taught her matters more than she ever thought it would now.

Those passing close to the Radio tower will find her crouched at the railing, a lit sparkler in one hand and a bottle with a letter in the other as her Lucario stands guard nearby, gear in paw. Today would have been special, if he were here. But he isn't and it's just one more anniversary of loss. One more thing that needs to be shaken off.]

Turn it off, Sen.

[The Lucario in question yelps, but it's only in surprise, not fear. Lightning's voice is steady and quiet, and she rises to her feet as the sparkler burns out and leaves ash in the wind. She moves to the railing now, but Sen manages to end the feed just as the bottle that was in her hand drops out of sight and into the ocean.

A few minutes later, however, something else hits the network. The fact that it's an anonymous text may make people wary, but there's nothing untoward about this one. No, this one is the exact opposites of the others that have gone out.]

[Anon Text]
If someone gave you a chance to help protect this world and everyone who lives here from the people who want to harm it, would you do it? Or would you stand by and watch it burn like the Lighthouse?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I have a group at home already. Another one will slow me down.

[Unfortunately for Lightning, regardless of the format this conversation would happen in he would be just as stupidly stubborn. That and he's a teenage boy who thinks he knows everything.]

[Teenagers who think they know everything...hah. She knows the the type.]

Keep thinking like that and the only one who'll be slow is you. You'd be a liability to anyone you work with because they have to work around you instead of with you, and you'll never reach your full potential. See if you can accomplish your mission when you're crippling your chances already.

My mission is something only I can do. I have to do it alone.

[He might be aware that he's crossing over from stubborn into complete denial, but he's both unsure of if he wants to keep responding and too proud to stop at this point.]

Whoever gave you that idea is either stupid or setting you up to fail. Did you stop to consider that? There's a reason the military assigns people to squads, and it's not to watch fireworks.

[Complete denial and stubborn idiocy. Yeah. He's pushed a couple of her buttons, too. Pride is all well and good, but this? This is something else.]

This isn't a military mission and it isn't something I want anyone else involved in. I'm the only one who can kill him.

[Actually, he doesn't want to add that last line and he'd rather be more anonymous about it where possible. But when he tries to go and delete the words, he accidentally sends it instead.

He's starting to miss the just plain voice communicators for missions...]

[Well then. That...doesn't clear anything up. If anything, it just makes her remember something she saw happen so long ago.]

So, what? You'll risk your own death because you won't let yourself ask someone for help? Now I can't tell if you're being stupid or just suicidal. What good is killing that person going to do? It's not going to make anything better.

[There's another long gap between texts, mostly because it feels like he's given away information that he wasn't prepared to. But, again, his pride wins out and he simply can't let the message sit.]

The only people who could have helped died five years ago.

[She's just shaking her head at all this. She hasn't heard this much idiocy in a long time.]

And that's stopping you from asking others to help? That doesn't make sense.

[Clearly this is her first time meeting Sasuke.]

I'm not asking you to understand.

[Sadly. This can't end well.]

Clearly.

But if that's the way you feel about things, then this may not be the place for you. We work in groups here; if you think they'll slow you down, all you'll do is be a liability to us.

[This is all stuff he's heard before. Time and again, his mentors and ~~friends~~ comrades have tried to drill this information into him in some form or another. But, somehow, having a complete stranger telling him these things is worse.]

If he can become that strong on his own, so can I.

[He's not even sure which 'he' he's talking about anymore, but he can't let it sit. This stranger won't understand, and he isn't about to do what he thinks is needed to make them understand. It's a waste of effort that could go to increasing his strength.]

Edited (Typo. orz;;) 2012-08-29 13:15 (UTC)

[You'd think after having so many people telling him that, he'd listen at least a little. But noopppee. And instead he gets to sit through a lecture from someone who doesn't know a thing about him because of his pride. Teenagers. Bah.]

Maybe, maybe not. Depends on how lucky you get.

But you're not going to listen a word I'm saying, are you? You're just going to keep on being stupid and do everything on your own.

[Hey, it's kind of hard to just suddenly accept that everything he knows just might be wrong. Which it isn't. ~~Stupid adults.~~]

I will get stronger.

[That's the last text he's going to send, and he puts his pokegear away after that. He never should have answered that first text, because now... He feels off, and he can't explain how. Maybe the sound of rain will drown out both the music and his thoughts long enough for him to fall asleep...]