no_ufo_ending | [Victory Road] Ic Inbox

_{[Henry has not received a text from Walter before so he instantly mistakes the curt message as someone from the Pokemon Center he works at.]}

Oh hey is this about the Grimer that likes hugs? It's okay.

[ ...what ]

No. This is Walter. It is about when we met in the fog, after your shift.

_{[Henry juggles his way through a few other messages. His 'Gear has been blowing up lately and he just hasn't had the energy to respond verbally.]

[But once he realizes exactly what has just happened, the sheer silliness of it, he feels like a brick just dropped into the pit of his stomach. And the the brick turns into boiling molten steel.]

[He hunches over his Poke'Gear like a gargoyle and grips it so hard that the plastic creaks. He struggles to find the right button to switch functions.]}

YOU!

_{[It comes out as a roar.]}

[ Walter had just been calmly sitting, making some notes about his Pokemon when Henry's voice booms out of his phone. He snaps his head to it, while his Pokemon give startled cries and scatter away from it. Carefully, he picks it up - but doesn't hold it to his ear yet. ]

...As I said, I did not intend for the circumstances to be what they were.

_{[Henry manages to dial down his roar to an angry growl.]}

What do you think you're doing?

[ Okay he'll put the phone to his ear now ]

I'm not sure. I was waiting for you, but I blacked out and...I'm alive. I didn't know you were here as well.

You are the last person in the multiverse I ever wanted to see again. I am not going to to finish your perverted ritual.

It can't be completed here, Henry. You know I have to be dead. And the Mother Reborn is not here either.

I won't hurt you here.

And it won't be completed back home either. I'm going to stop you. Don't you know you're going to end the entire world?

_{[The words seethe out from between the Receiver's teeth. He's never had the chance to have an actual dialogue with Walter before--not that either of them had given the other a chance.]}

It will be purified, and mankind will pass into Paradise.

If it is successful. [ He knows the Receiver must learn how to stop him, from Despair. Joesph. What would be, would be. He could not fight fate. ]

No it won't! You're trying to summon the devil, you fucking idiot!

I am not summoning the devil. I am awakening the Holy Mother. [ He thinks he would know if he was summoning the devil Henry. ]

But as I cannot complete the ritual, it doesn't matter much here.

_{[Henry is not used to being angry. He is not versed in channeling his temper into ways that get across what he wants it to and so, in the end, he ends up being a vibrating kettle.]}

There is nothing HOLY about giant two-headed infants and snarling assmen you COMPLETE SPONGE!

_{[His voice rises high enough for the rest of the house to hear it.]}

[ Walter's been called a lot of things. A 'complete sponge' is new. And so is this attitude of Henry's. ]

The Otherworlds are a reflection of the world itself. It shows us the Truth. [ he trails off. He's...a bit concerned. Henry doesn't seem to remember things he should, given that he had made sure to leave his worlds open for Henry to explore. He had watched Henry, he knew he had seen what he had needed to (and saw that he had found things Walter hadn't intended him to find). ]

...something's wrong.

Yeah, something is wrong! You're here! You should be rotting in hell where you belong! Do you know what I'm going to have to go through once I've stopped you and your stupid army of monsters? I'm going to have to go into therapy! For a long, long time, because when we finally leave this world, the six long years I've spent here recovering from your satanic bullshit are going to go away!

I hate you!

I didn't want to be here. [ He can't hide the growing bitterness in his voice. ]

I wanted this to be over. Whether the Holy Mother was Awakened or you killed me, it would be over and I could rest. I know I'm not wanted here. Your friend has made that clear. And what you've gone through? That was my life.

I know you hate me. I'd be surprised if you didn't.

I know it was your life, you sick fuck!

_{[And now that Walter has brought up his 'friend', a hotness flashes into his cheeks and neck. The conversation about the cult with Heather had not been a fun one and he knows things. He's been to the prison. He's had those entries read to him. He's seen the Little Walter hurring around in search of his mommy. But he's still so steeped in hot anger that he can't look at Walter the way Eileen did. It's been too long.]}

Stay out of mine! I'm not your lamb or pig or whatever else you plan on sacrificing me as!

I'm not sacrificing you here. And you're not a pig; you were special. [ The others he chose out of anger. Chaos was the neighbour who threatened violence on others and was cheered for it. Watchfulness, the guard who had oversaw him at the prison. But Henry and Eileen, he chose not out of bitterness or hate. He chose them because they were perfect. There's a pause as he realises something ]

...How long did you say you had been here?

Special!

_{[He gets spit on his Poke'Gear screen.]}

Six. Six years. Six long years of peace. It's a shame nobody can die permanently in this world or I'd make it seven.

_{[Henry falls silent for a moment. Wow. That had come out of his mouth. Had he really been building up this much acid over the years? He shakes himself and continues.]}

If you're so hung up on Paradise, why don't you just accept Johto as a replacement? There's no war here. The air and water are clean. People and nature live in harmony. Our world is in stasis.

[ Six years. Henry claims to have been here for six years. He had been waiting with Eileen for about half at hour at most. He hadn't intended...but he hadn't thought about what happened if he died and Henry succeeded in stopping him. The world would simply move on without him. He hadn't noticed any physical difference about Henry to suggest so much time had passed. ]

Six years. How...

[ He acknowledges the death threat, bowing his head unseen. But there's something more disturbing about what Henry's just said. There's a pause as he tries to take it all in. ]

No permanent death? There must be.

There isn't. Not for us at least. The people who weren't born here. If something happens where you should have died, you suddenly wake up in a Pokemon Center.

_{[Henry's tone flattens out from sputtering rage to something a little closer to the Henry Walter knew. But only a little.]}

And as far as I know, nobody new has been born from the waves of newcomers either.

[ Walter let his head fall back, touching his neck. How could they not die...? It was God's gift, to allow them to rest from their suffering. When he was young, he had wanted his mom. When he was older, he wanted a friend. Now it was all Walter had wanted as an adult - for the pain to stop. ]

There's no suffering in Paradise. Yet the Pokemon I received mourns for his mother. He cries and... [ Sometimes, Walter cries with him. His voice has quieted. He doesn't sound like the sure, reminiscing man Henry had listened to on the steps of the Otherworld apartment. He sounds more like the young boy who had told Henry he had no family, no name, no home. ] And people continue to hurt and corrupt what is around them. Some are kind but it's not enough...

Why are we here?

Edited 2016-11-05 12:59 (UTC)

_{[A cruel smug thought perches on Henry's tongue. He probably cries because you're his trainer.]}

All Cubone are like that--it's part of how the--they come from eggs they don't even have--we're getting off topic.

_{[Henry frowns again, thinking of his time on the moon and the strange space kitten that introduced itself to them. Arceus was there. There was dance music. It was weird. He tries to think of a way to frame it so Walter can understand, and honestly it's his best guess as he thinks about that knowing gaze the mysterious white Pokemon looked at them with. And a little cartoon logic from watching TV back home before his life went to shit.]}

The Gods of this place want us to experience the joy of befriending Pokemon.

[ Funny you should think that, since you made him cry by nearly killing Walter. And he's cried quite a few times after about that. Said Cubone has returned to Walter's side after the initial YOU! outburst, entertaining himself by playing with Walter's coat. So many secret pockets...Walter permits him, too absorbed by the phone call to worry. ]

I...was brought here to feel joy? [The idea that anything wanted him to be happy is pushing it Henry. ] By God?

Not the God you're thinking of. You really have no idea how big the multiverse is, do you?

[Victory Road] Ic Inbox

no subject

no subject

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]