027 [Video]

[soggypastry]

[Hi, Johto. Hope you don't mind whatever you're doing around noon getting interuppted, because it's going to, by a woman with pink hair. Some of you may recognize her and the boy writing on paper behind her, others may not. It doesn't matter, either way. You'll know them soon enough; some of you better than others. It's hard to make out what Ven's writing, but the papers beside him are covered in Lightning's handwriting. What can be seen of them seems to be some kind of list, though it doesn't say for what it's meant for. No, that would be too easy. Especially since she's going to explain.]

We've got enough to start with. Anyone who's doing something about Team Rocket, get to Goldenrod by next Saturday.

[Or perhaps not explain. Because with that said, she moves to end the feed before something Ven is writing gets her attention and she frowns a bit deeper than normal.]
That's just asking for trouble, Ven.

[He glances up at her when she says that, but she cuts the feed before anything can be said. Sorry, people. No secrets for you guys yet.]

[ooc: for those of you involved in the Anti-Team Rocket Squads, consider this the start of things. :3 For those of you who need CR, feel free to comment and consider yourselves ICly included. Also, Ven may be tagging into threads. Mingle at your discretion~]

Comments

[Video]

[soggypastry]

Maybe, but it doesn't matter now. We're here and we can't go back by choice. What good is wondering if this is our fault going to do?

[And it's not like dwelling on the past is going to undo it, either. They just have to live with whatever they may or may not have caused...and try to fix it by making this workd a better place.]

[Video]

[foolishwren]

... Yeah. You're right.

_{[There's not much point in worrying about ANYTHING, even if it's... hard to help doing so a lot of the time.]}

... I'm Heather, by the way.

I dunno if we've talked before.

[Video]

[soggypastry]

[A nod; she knows it's hard not to worry about things, especially those that affect people you care about, but that's energy that can be spent in better places.]

We did, once. Almost two years ago, when I was asking about Snow Villiers.

[Lightning doesn't really remember the conversation, only that it happened. She remembers a lot of things when it comes to her family.]

[Video]

[foolishwren]

... That's right.

Now I remember.

_{[Snow... she'd known him so briefly compared to the other friends she'd made back then, but like a LOT of those first few acquaintances, the memories are vivid.]}

... God, has it really been that long already?

[Video]

[soggypastry]

Yeah, it's been that long....hard to believe, isn't it?

[Vivid memories indeed. As far as Lightning knows, she and Heather and Ven are some of the only ones still around from back then. Everyone else...Rise, Snow, and so many others like them...just gone. The vivid memories don't help ease that ache, sadly.]

[Video]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[They're some of the last... Heather had sort of thought that being around that long was almost like added security. They hadn't been like the people who showed up, stayed for a few months, and then left. They were permanent. Lasting.]

[But that illusion's as shattered as a broken window now that the number of the people from the beginning keeps dwindling down.]</sub>

Yeah.

I mean... some days, it... feels like I just got here yesterday, y'know?

[Video]

[soggypastry]

[Lightning nods; the illusion is a comfort, until it shatters and the realization that they could disappear, leave everything behind, just as easy as the people who are here for only a few months, is one that leaves something irreversibly broken. It hurts sometimes.]

Yeah. You keep thinking that there's no way that it could have been this long, and that you'll turn around and everyone who's left will still be here.

[She leaves the "but they're not" unsaid. She doesn't need to say it.]

[Video]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[Lightning summed it up more eloquently than Heather ever could, even with the unsaid bit. She nods silently, because... what else is there to say? That's it. That's it exactly.]

[... After a moment, though, she does pipe up.]</sub>

Who'd you lose?

_{[Because everyone she knows just lost SOMEBODY in that rash of disappearances.]}

[Video]

[soggypastry]

[Lightning doesn't answer right away; who'd she lose? Who hasn't she lost yet? Family's all but gone and they haven't come back, but...]

Rise. She was...really important to me.

[Everyone lost someone. They both know that. And yet...it still hurts worse than Lightning expected it to.]

[Video]

[foolishwren]

_{[Heather's expression probably says it all. It's not that the answer of 'Rise' is surprising. After all, Rise probably knew more people in Johto than everybody else combined. But it's still a bit of a pang in the chest to hear the name.]}

... I think she was important to a lot of us.

_{[Her voice is quiet, and contains a mostly-suppressed but still audible quiver.]}

[Video]

[soggypastry]

[Heather's expression says nearly everything, including things Lightning has been unwilling to say because she thinks if she doesn't, Rise will come back. It's hard, not to cling to those tiny little hopes.]

I think she was important to almost everyone here. I don't know anyone who didn't at least recognize her name.

[Well, other than the new arrivals, anyway.]

[Video]

[foolishwren]

Yeah.

... She was one of the first friends I made here. If not the first...

[Video]

[soggypastry]

[A nod from Lightning. Rise was the same to her, only she became Lightning's sister after a time and now...now it's really just her.]

It was hard, not to be drawn to her as a friend. She was just...

[Amazing? Friendly? Kind? Sweet? All of the above, and too many things for Lightning to name.]

[Video]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[Yes, all that indeed.]

[Heather had considered her a sister, too.]

[... But she'd never really admitted it. Not to the full extent. She'd been a little too worried about coming off as creepy, and not to mention a little too hung up on the last person she had once considered a sister... so the one time it had even come up, she'd floundered even as Rise said it was okay.]

[You bet she regrets floundering now.]</sub>

... probably one of the best people I've ever known.

And a hell of a lot more mature than I ever was at her age. ... Or am now, come to think of it.