Little Scriven Frosty's Frozen Flights

[MintyMimix]

Amidst the alleys of sandstone and wooden towers nestled a quaint little parlor only a short walk away from the town center. One would be forgiven for missing it, as all that advertised it was a small chalkboard sign of a cartoon Delibird surrounded by various fruits and berries with the phrase "Flavour of the Month" at the bottom.

Upon entering, one would be greeted a refreshing breeze as gentle mist nicked away at the edges of the polished wooden floor. Along the wall was a variety of snow globes, commerative plates, and bottles of syrups of various colors and sizes. It seemed the owner was well-traveled. A long counter with bar-style seats lined nearly the enter establishment as the Delibird owner occasionally frosted its surface with icy wind.

Whenever someone entered, she'd would deftly slide over a menu listing out the various flavors served. Upon placing an order, she'd plop upon a small cellar door, take a peek inside, and climb out carrying bags of cream. She's work her magic with a combination of pouring, mixing, a bit of ice beam, and a flourish before scooping it up and serving it to her happy customers.

Of course, it wasn't a Frosty Flight without a little bow and little candied wings added to your cone or bowl.

<><><><>​

 

[Tetra]

They're not real. It was what Koa kept telling himself every time he saw the pair of eyes in the shadows, or an all too familiar crumbling temple ruin Or fragments of red chains. Brisa had held out down here for who knows how long, he could handle a few more minutes.

For Odette. He couldn't bear the idea of her coming out alone, of her secrets spilled against her will and no friendly face at the end. So he forced himself to stay alert and ignore the flickers at the edge of his vision and the familiar shapes in the walls. And to block out the whispers.

"Monster."

Having Archie at least made it better, even if he wasn't in a conversational mood. However much time passed, he lost track.

A voice jarred him from his swirl of thoughts and he turned, his ears perking up. Another dungeon whisper or...? Footeps grew louder and he rose to his feet just as he spotted a familiar glimpse of pink and dark jaws. Warm relief spread through him. She's okay.

"Odette!" he rushed towards her, catching himself and stopping short. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't think of what. Hugging her would be too weird. "I'm glad to see you made it." He nodded in greeting to Kimiko. It's finally over.

If he never saw the inside of this dungeon again, it would be too soon.

---

Koa took another spoon of his ice cream, savoring the rich flavor, focusing on enjoying his treat and pushing down the tide of dark thoughts gnawing at his chest. They'd found Brisa and made it out okay. They'd succeeded. That was all that mattered.

After he'd filled in Kimiko and Odette, they'd all left the comb fairly quickly, and checked in with the rest of the team. He'd smiled (not too much) and made a joke (without laughing too hard), to make sure he seemed appropriately uneasy but not too bothered by what had happened. As soon as everything was settled, he'd slipped away from the team, desperate to find somewhere quiet. He'd ended up some time later at Little Scriven, where he'd stumbled upon the little ice cream parlor. A perfect escape. And with any luck, a spot where he wouldn't run into any other Wayfarers.

He'd come to this world to have a chance to do some good, and put his worlds problems behind him and he was determined to do that. With considerable effort, he took another bite of his ice cream and savored the flavor.

 

[Sinderella]

There were only a handful of things Odette vehemently hated doing. Going to the doctors, fraternizing with people she harbored homicidal rage toward, and talking about that thing.

That last one had unfortunately been forced in this scenario.

Kimiko had been gracious about it. She saw the whole thing; all of it, everything--a gross mix of sympathy, pity, and anger had muddled the look she'd given Odette when they finally broke from the illusions. Odette had been so caught up in the horrors she'd faced under Kimiko's identity that upon hearing what she had seen, it hit her like a critical sucker punch to her gut.

The numbness that had manifested in her chest quickly spread across her nerves, and by the time they made it out of the cave, she'd lost feeling of her entire body. A shrill, static ringing in her ears drowned out the chatter of her fellow Wayfarers, the corners of her vision blurred, and all she knew was look forward, walk straight. She couldn't even be sure she was still breathing. It was starting to feel like she was leaving her body for the second time.

That was when a blue blob raced in front of her, effectively interrupting her walking path and re-rooting her consciousness back in place. Blinking dazedly, she cut her eyes over to the presence, slowly recognizing it to be Koa. She gave him a once-over, though she wasn't quite sure what she was looking for.

"Oh," she said in response. Inklings of a follow-up bounced around in her empty mind, but all she could muster was a distant, quiet, "Uh huh."

---

Leaving the cave with the rest of the group was a blur. She remembered hearing talking, but didn't register any words. She remembered walking ahead, but didn't know where she was going. She eventually ended up in some sort of restaurant, but didn't recall how she'd gotten there. When she finally began to regain a sense of feeling, she was slumped in a booth with four empty glasses stacked on her table. As she stared them down through her swimming vision, a quagsire hobbled by and sat another one next to them. The enticing pink liquid in the glass called out to her, but her mind stalled on the thought of moving even an inch. She couldn't do it. She didn't have the will or energy to.

She somehow managed to sink lower into the bench of her booth, and suddenly wished she would just fall unconscious right then and there. She didn't care who found her, or what they did with her after the fact. At that moment in time, she wanted to become one with the floor and melt out of existence. Anything to escape the torturous, heavy feeling that drudging up the events of that thing brought on.

"Fuck."

 

[Tetra]

A familiar voice shook Koa out of his thoughts and he blinked, snapping back to the present. The remnants of his sundane had become closer to a milkshake at some point, despite the parlor being fairly cool. He poked at it idly.

Slowly, he turned towards the voice. Odette. When had she... He hadn't even seen her come in. So much for not running into any other Wayfarers. He found himself scanning the shop to see if there was any other Wayfarers around. Guilty relief flowed through him when he saw he was still alone. And so was Odette. At least it was her and not someone else.

She looked worse than when she'd first come out of the comb. A surge of emotions rose through him, and he almost considered leaving. Maybe he should let her be, find somewhere else to go... He couldn't. Odette wasn't just a Wayfarer, she was his friend.

Steeling himself, he took his half-melted sundae and headed for her booth. In the all too short distance between his seat and hers, he tried desperately to think of what to say. Some way to help her, make everything better or comfort her.

Nothing came to him.

"So that sucked." He blurted the words all at once, then awkwardly sat across from her. He couldn't find the words he wanted to say, but his eyes said it as watched her. How are you holding up?

 

[Sinderella]

Words. Someone was talking to her. Someone was sitting across from her now, talking to her. Look up.

Odette didn’t know how long it took her to finally regard Koa. It could have been a minute, or it could have been 10. Maybe more. She eyed him for a while, her pupils struggling to focus on him. It soon dawned on her that yes, Koa was sitting with her now, with a bowl of melted ice cream in front of him. And he was talking to her.

The nerves in her arms began to crackle back to life, giving her just enough energy to reach up and rub at her eyes. This…wasn’t how adults were supposed to act in front of kids, right? Especially not a mentor in front of their mentee? She was supposed to be a role model; what kind of role model got reduced to almost catatonia so easily? It wasn’t like she herself had relived it, but knowing that’s what Kimiko had seen; in complete and total detail; it just…

“Sorry,” she said, blinking rapidly as she pulled her hands away. She sniffled before adjusting her glasses on her nose. “I…I didn’t…catch that,” she admitted, her voice hollow and edged in a tormented rasp.

She sniffled again. “Um…” She blinked some more. Shook her head. Trying to stay grounded. Present.

Something to forget. A distraction.

Talk to him.

She winced. “You…um…how are you?” she asked.

 

[Tetra]

Now that he was sitting across from her, Odette looked even worse. Like her mind was entirely somewhere else. A feeling he could sympathize with. A flicker of anger awakened in him again at the thought of what she'd had to go through. It wasn't right.

"I'm fi-" He bit back the reflexive words. His gaze dropped to the table and he forced back the memory of the dungeon, of being exposed. He managed a shrug instead. "I don't know," he murmured.

A thick silence fell, and Koa's gut churned. He knew the look in her eyes far too well. He'd seen it on himself. Pressing her seemed wrong, but he couldn't just ignore her either. He took a spoonful of ice cream even though it was fairly melted by now. It gave him time to try and think.

At least he could be honest with her. "I wasn't expecting the dungeon to do that. I just figured it'd mess with me. Not show... everything else to someone else." His grip tightened on his spoon. Somehow the dungeon knew. "I hate it. It's wrong."

 

[Sinderella]

He wasn't expecting the dungeon to do that. Well, that made two of them.

It wasn't enough to fight through Kimiko's trauma--because holy fucking shit--but she had to find out that Kimiko had fought through hers. How had the cave even known all of that? How did it know that Kimiko was carrying all of that around? How did it know what had happened to her all those years ago? None of them were even from this world!

A slow, numb nod. "Right," she said, watching him scoop up the ice cream soup in his bowl. "They should..." she shifted in her spot, pushing herself up so she wasn't slouching anymore. Again, with her hands finally being able to move, she rubbed her eyes, pushing a little harder this time around.

"...they should put up warning signs. Or something," she said. Her eyes, having gone a little bloodshot from how hard she'd been rubbing them, snapped over to the new drink that the waiter had set down however long ago. The condensation running over the chilled glass made her realize just how dry her throat was, and she snatched it up and downed half of it in a single gulp. It tasted like nomelade. She'd never been crazy about nomelade in the past, but in that moment, it was the best thing she'd ever drank.

Sighing through the last of the liquid cooling her throat, she set the glass near the other four she'd emptied in her fugue state. The hydration had also managed to clear more of the fog out of her head, and she could think just a tad more coherently.

"...I don't know what I was expecting," she said, digging the heel of her hand into her temple as she slumped against the table. Her eyes glazed over for the shortest of moments while she tried to gather the rest of her straying thoughts on the topic. "I feel like...this place just keeps getting...fucking dumber and dumber. Some worlds should just stay fucking video games..."

She tried to put her full focus on him. She was so caught up in her own little web of trauma that she truthfully wasn't paying enough attention to him, like a mentor probably should have been doing. She studied him for a passing beat, really noticing the angry notch in his furry brow, and the melted ice cream in his bowl. There was far too much of it for it to just be what was left of a sundae; he had to have let it melt. Thinking too hard?

"Do you, uh...wanna..." she shook her head hesitantly, "talk about what you saw? You look like you have a lot of, um...thoughts about it."

 

[Tetra]

Koa swallowed with some difficulty, the pit in his stomach growing. He could think of nothing he wanted less right now than to talk about any of it. Archie had given him a few more details afterwards and every bit of it made Koa sick to think about.

But Odette looked genuinely distressed. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen her like this, except maybe after they'd fought Seth. And even that was different. She'd been there for him, listened to him, helped him, she'd never written him off for being younger, she was like him... She was his friend. He couldn't do nothing. Couldn't just brush her off.

For a good several seconds he didn't speak, dreading the words, the thought of what it meant. Maybe leaving it be was best, letting her have some peace. Eventually, his concern for her won out.

He spoke, planning to sound confident. Assured. Maybe a little lighthearted. As soon as he actually started talking, his voice failed him. It dropped to a low murmur, awkward and stilted. "Only... only if you'll talk about what happened to you." Still, he managed to meet her eyes without faltering. He meant it, with every fibre of himself. He'd be there for her, hear her out.

"That's what you taught me. Keeping it all in isn't good, right?" Even though the idea of sharing anything made him ill. Odette would accept him... right? Some small part of him almost hoped she'd back out, that he wouldn't have to actually talk about anything.

 

[Sinderella]

Now she looked fully alert. And not for a good reason.

“I—”

Odette didn’t know what stunned her more. The idea of actually talking about that thing with Koa or the fact that he was fucking right. She had said something like that to him, a while back. In an effort to get him to come clean about what was bothering him. She hasn’t considered how that was going to swing back around to bite her in the ass, but she certainly didn’t consider that it would be a situation like this.

“I can’t.” There was a harsh finality in her tone. It resonated like a heavy door slamming shut. “It’s, um…that’s different. It’s very different.”

Was it, though? She didn’t even know what had Koa so troubled. What he’d seen in there himself. While she was fully aware of the nature of her own issue, how could she be so sure it was any different?

“No, it’s—” She tried to backtrack. “I shouldn’t.” It would be inappropriate. That was something she didn’t need to lay on another person, especially not Koa.

She then remembered talking to her therapist; one of the many times she had after that thing happened. How mortified she’d been at the insinuation that she needed to talk it through with people.

“What happened to you was horrific. But that doesn’t bar you from being able to talk to others about it. You are just as valid in discussing your trauma, no matter how harsh it is, as anyone else is.”

But…now? To Koa? What would he do if he found out what had happened to her? What she did in return? Did mentors talk about things like that with mentees?

If she’d insisted keeping it all in was bad, then it would be hypocritical of her to not take her own advice. Which would arguably be worse for a mentor to do, wouldn’t it?

Besides. Mentors were still people. If they didn’t teach their mentees it was okay to have moments, then who would?

She exhaled deeply, shakily, through her nose. Her eyes slipped shut as she contemplated her final answer.

“Okay,” she agreed. “That’s fair.”

 

[Tetra]

“I— I can’t. It’s, um…that’s different. It’s very different.”

“No, it’s—” She tried to backtrack. “I shouldn’t.”

Koa struggled to keep his expression neutral at her refusal. He wasn't sure if he was relieved to have an excuse to avoid talking, or worried or hurt.. Not that he could blame her, not when he recoiled inside at talking about it.

Well at least now he could avoid talking-

She exhaled deeply, shakily, through her nose. Her eyes slipped shut as she contemplated her final answer.

“Okay,” she agreed. “That’s fair.”

Great.

He almost laughed inside. Well, he'd got what he asked for.

Koa nodded, then poked at his ice cream again before lapping at it. Anything to get rid of the dryness in his throat. "It... it goes without saying but... whatever we say stays between us. I..." Archie already knew but...

How did he even begin?
Why was he even doing this? What was he thinking? He couldn't talk about this... He hadn't even managed to with Archie and he'd seen it all himself. Another spoon of ice cream. Now he was just supposed to actually tell someone? To tell her the truth?

Even with the faint chatter of conversation around the parlor, it felt too quiet. Before he realized it, the rest of his sundae was almost gone. No he had to say something. Stick to his word, if he wanted to help Odette.

"...Umm.... Mt. Coronet," he mumbled. Wait that didn't make sense. "The comb showed..." He trailed off, frowning, then shook his head. How much did Odette even know from her own world? "Did your world have teams? Like Team Rocket or Flare or... stuff?" He hated that those seemed to be a constant.

 

[Sinderella]

She quirked a brow. Did the cavern show him Mt. Coronet? She recalled him saying he’d never climbed it, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she settled for watching him try to figure out how to elaborate.

“Yes. I’m familiar with those names,” she said with a few nods. “They’ve uh…been borderline absorbed into that cult I’d told you about. But they exist.”

A sinking feeling opened up beneath her personal discomfort. “You’re…Sinnohan, right? There was one in Sinnoh…forgot the name…” She didn’t want to interrupt him too much, and just raised a hand to silence herself.

“I…take it you’re more familiar with one of these teams than you want to be?”

 

[Tetra]

Koa swallowed, struggling not to shrink back, heat and chills spreading through his pelt. Somewhere in the back of his mind, an old familiar commercial ran through the back of his mind. "This world needs to undergo a change..." One he'd not thought about in years.

"Team Galatic." The words were acid on his tongue, burning his throat and sparking an old anger in his chest. It tightened around his heart, digging into it. He stared at a very interesting scuff on the table.

It was another few seconds before he'd pushed down his emotions enough to continue. This time his voice was more detached and nonchalant. "Guess every world has them. Some group taking advantage of legends or trying to do something... Control something." With a shudder, he remembered Brisa's words back at the Comb and Betel's small voice. A Lighthouse. Once again, people meddling.

Every world... Team Rocket. Magma and Aqua. Legendaries. No Odette in his world that he'd heard of but... Was he...

"Flare tried to control Xerneas. And Aqua and Magma in my world tried to change Hoenn. Rocket wanted power, a legendary of their own." His voice had fallen into a rote casualness, tinted by annoyance. He'd talked about this before, that was easy. "...And Galactic said they wanted to change the world. Make it better."

There was still time to leave. Excuse himself. No. he had to, for Odette. "'Make it perfect.'" His voice cracked slightly.

 

[Sinderella]

Now, Odette was tracing the rim of her glass, still nodding. “Mhm,” she said. All names she recognized. Perhaps with varying degrees of success in their endeavors, compared to what they accomplished in her world, but still names she knew.

“Galactic…” she repeated. That was the group that gave Koa pause. Got a rise out of him. The crack in his voice made her cringe.

“Did they succeed?”

 

[Tetra]

Koa snorted. "No. Succeed in ruining the world. Not making it perfect." His jaw tensed and he forced down the stir of emotions rising in his chest harder.

Still neutral, he made himself continue. "They said they wanted 'harmony'. A better world free from 'strife'. That they just wanted to 'end suffering'." There was a bitterness that felt almost closer to betrayal than just irritation or disgust. "So they kidnapped the lake spirits and stole their power to control Dialga and Palkia. All so he could remake the entire universe into what he wanted. Perfect." He, that time. Not an ambiguous 'they'.

Do not look for me.

"They got all the way to the peak of Mt. Coronet. To the Spear Pillar. Summoned the legendaries. Enslaved them. But..." A strained, false smile spread across Koa's muzzle. "You know, Dialga and Palkia in my world aren't a duo. H-Team Galatic knew there was a third legendary, but they underestimated it. Giratina appeared there, and saved my world. Got rid of their leader Cyrus and freed Dialga and Palkia. Stopped everything. Without Giratina my world would be...." Gone. Because of Cyrus.

Koa's paw clenched, digging into the table. "Seems like the comb knew all that and showed it to Archie I guess." It knew who you are. What you are. He felt sick. He was really regretting those last few spoons of ice cream.

"Just showed him...everything. Like it read my mind. Knew my past." His gaze grew distant for a moment as he stared at the far wall. Do not look for me.

 

[Sinderella]

Right. Because if they’d succeeded in “making the world perfect,” Koa likely wouldn’t have been sitting before her struggling to talk about it. Though, if Team Enigma had been any proof, typically when a large, organized groups sought to “make the world perfect,” the fine print of that goal usually pointed to the exact opposite.

The distinction of “he” wasn’t lost on her, even as she sunk into a thought. And the name “Cyrus” followed, prompting her to tilt her head as her gaze on him softened. Did Koa…?

“Yeah, that’s a well-known trio in my world,” she said. “I know a thing or two about Giratina,” she added under her breath. Odile had had plenty to say about him, and some of the other legends as well.

She sighed to herself, feeling something twist in her chest as she watched Koa bite out what that stupid cave had pulled out of him. He really wasn’t that far off from her, was he? He just seemed a little less catatonic about what that insinuated…

“That it did,” she said, grave contempt underlining her words.

She let that sit between them for a while. Let Koa stew through whatever was going through his pre-teen brain. Gave him a chance to say whatever else he felt like he needed to say. When nothing else came, she sighed.

“You said ‘he.’ Was that…referring to their leader? Cyrus? Did…did you know him? Personally?”

 

[Tetra]

The question felt like a physical blow, and he almost cringed. His ears drooped and he stared hard anywhere but at Odette. All the feelings from the comb came flooding back. Hearing Archie's words, knowing, dreading what Archie would see. The feeling of being exposed. Memories he'd pushed aside and thought he had gotten away from here pushed to the surface. How had the comb just known those?

Except... Odette would understand. She wasn't just his friend, she was like him.

Even so, the words latched in his throat.

Blake, kneeling before him. "Listen, Koa. You must not tell anyone, okay? Nobody can know." A strained smile. "It's our special secret."

"In a manner of speaking," he muttered vacantly. Not that he'd ever truly known him.

I'm doing this for Odette. It was the only reason he could bring himself to speak. Still, forcing the words out felt like coughing up concrete, and several moments passed. When he did, his voice felt hollow and not his own. His thoughts felt even more hollow.

"He is... was... My father."

He found himself watching her from the corner of his vision, waiting to see how she'd react.

 

[Sinderella]

At first, she showed no immediate reaction. She just stared at him, processing his reveal. Then she settled back against her seat.

“Huh,” she breathed.

She didn’t know what to feel at first. She felt sorry for him, of course. She was angry for him, too. What was it with these psychopaths deciding to have children?

Something surprising sprung up, too. She felt empathy. And relief.

Of all the fucking people in Forlas, she did not expect this pre-teen boy to be on that same wavelength as her. Being the offspring of absolute genocidal maniacs; who would have fucking guessed?

“First of all,” she began, a little more conviction slithering into her voice. She appeared a tad more alert now. “I’m sorry. It sucks so much ass knowing your biological father was such a fucking shmuck.”

She leaned forward to fold her arms on the table. “I know…exactly…how that feels. Suffocating, is what I started to call it. Knowing you came out of someone who had the capability to do…or…try to do such shit things.” A thought occurred to her, and she smirked derisively, rolling her eyes as she went. “Like, gods. Fuck them. Fuck dads. They suck. Alternative father figures for the win.”

Reaching for her drink, she chugged what was left of it, then shoved the glass to sit with the rest. Exhaling through the nomelade now churning in her stomach, she regarded Koa again with a raised brow. But this time, she was smiling. Painfully, but it was still a smile.

She rubbed her temple nervously. “I’m…probably not the best person to look for advice on this. Because I can’t sit here and tell you that the feeling goes away. I don’t know if it does.” A frown tickled the corners of her lips. “I…I’m still working through it myself. It’s…hard. Really hard.”

Of course, that probably wasn’t what Koa wanted to hear. It wasn’t like she particularly enjoyed saying it. But, as the older one in this duo, she had to offer some insight. And fortunately, it wasn’t all negative.

“But,” she said, raising a hand, “what has always gotten me through the day is just…knowing I’m not my sperm donor. No matter what my fucking stinkbrain tries to feed me, at the end of the day, I’m me. I never will start a blood cult and commit acts of fucking terrorism in the name of some eldritch gods. And…you’re you. And if I know you well enough, I don’t think you’ll ever summon ancient legendaries to try to destroy your world.”

She eyed him with a little more solemnity, shaking her head slowly. Tiredly. “On the days where they take up…far too much real estate in your head…sometimes that’s all you can tell yourself. And just keep going.”

 

[Tetra]

Hearing his father called a 'fucking schmuck' was not what he had expected.

Yet...

It felt... Good. Really good, to have someone else be angry. To see Cyrus like that. To despise him, to think he was horrible and to think he sucked. To be mad for doing what he'd done. It felt good to hear someone else be angry, and be angry for him. Someone who understood.

Suffocating. That was how she'd described it. Not a word he'd really thought of, but it felt right. Inescapable, pressure all around him...

His own words, spat out in anger. "Someone has to do something."

Blake's reply, cutting into him. “That doesn’t mean you can! Why can’t you get that through your head?”​

He listened, pushing back the tide of emotions and focusing on her words.

I’m me. I never will start a blood cult and commit acts of fucking terrorism in the name of some eldritch gods. And…you’re you. And if I know you well enough, I don’t think you’ll ever summon ancient legendaries to try to destroy your world.

She doesn't know you.
​

Koa nodded in acknowledgement as she finished speaking, taking time to absorb what she'd said. He didn't know how long he sat there, thinking (or what he was thinking about), before he realized he'd spaced out for a second.

A bubble of anger rose in him and a knot formed in his chest. "I can't stand it... I can't stand that anything I do or say, that just because of that means maybe something's wrong somehow. I heard how some of the team talked about Lucien. Or humans. And back home people hate Galactic. I hate them too. And I hate that the only thing people see about me is him." They see the truth.

The knot tightened. "Everything I do..." He was still following Cyrus footsteps, wasn't he? He gripped the table, then looked up, meeting her eyes. "Does anyone do that to you? Back home? Do they know who you are and... look at you like that?"

 

[Sinderella]

Odette’s face scrunched up, even as she held his gaze. She was suddenly very glad she’d asked him to talk about this with her, because who the fuck else would be able to know where he was coming from? Or be able to answer the questions he was asking? Unless there was someone else with a genocidal parent (Gladion might have counted, but that still felt different), there really was no one.

Still, the question lifted bile up to the back of her throat, and she pinched her chin between her thumb and index finger while she dwelled on how she wanted to answer him.

“…yeah,” she eventually answered. “Some people do know. It happens.” Her eyes wandered up to the ceiling, and whether she was counting the beams or running through her thoughts was hard to tell.

“I wasn’t planning to tell anyone. At least, not for a while. Some shit happened, and my E4 and PR team found out. They're the only ones who know right now; I haven't gone public. It's a...safety thing." The words looked like they hurt to say. "They've been very gracious. But...it didn't start that way."

A memory tightened up her frown, and she started gnawing on her lower lip. "That's not to say anyone was inherently mean to me. Whatever way you slice, it it's pretty shocking to find out your opponent is the offspring of a terrorist of my father's caliber. They weren't hateful; more just...scared? But it didn't feel good. I cried about it." A pause. She dug her teeth into her lip so hard, she tasted blood on her tongue. "I still cry about it."

She sighed again. She realized she was doing that a lot, but there wasn't much to do about it. "I guess...it helps that I went so far to oppose what my father was doing. That I made strides to destroy his reign. It also helps that, despite how I might feel about it internally, I'm vocal about my disdain."

Something a little more sly glinted off her eyes, and she snickered. "Not sure if you caught onto this, but I have a penchant for being a bit of a bitch. If anyone has anything to say in regards to my relation to my dad, well...they'll have something to be scared of, and it's not the bloodline aspect."

Snickering again, she looked back at Koa and just shook her head. "I don't know what I can say that'll make you feel better about it. I can tell you to keep doing what you can to oppose what he did; keep speaking out; deny, deny, deny...but that shit doesn't even help settle my head, so I can't imagine it does for you. There really...isn't anything. You and I come from shitty blood, and people are inherently stupid. Some of them will look at that before they see anything else."

Odette wished that nomelade was alcoholic. It would have been irresponsible to attempt to get drunk in front of a minor, but she didn't care. "But, again. I'm not my dad. You're not your dad. And at the end of the day, the opinions of those who might think otherwise don't matter. Those closest to you are going to see you for who you are--not a cultist, or a genocidal fuckhead--and sometimes, that's all you have to go with, but that's always what matters most." Another snicker. "Easier said than internalized. Like I said, I'm still figuring this shit out myself, and I'm a decade older than you, at least."

That time around, she smiled again, then shrugged. "Keep fighting. Keep those closest to you close, and keep fighting. Maybe one day the pressure of it all will let up. And you can know, somewhere on the other side of the multiverse, I'm right fucking there with you."

 

[Tetra]

His thoughts swirled as she spoke, circling and circling. It wasn't fair. The thought of Odette having to deal with that back home made him angry. The fact that anyone could do that or see her that way because of something she couldn't control.

At least it sounded like she had other good people in her life. Friends, her team... And she was fighting it.

The thought made his resolve burn stronger. He'd show everyone, especially everyone back home, who he was. He'd prove it.

No matter what it took.

But, again. I'm not my dad. You're not your dad. And at the end of the day, the opinions of those who might think otherwise don't matter. Those closest to you are going to see you for who you are...
Keep fighting. Keep those closest to you close, and keep fighting. Maybe one day the pressure of it all will let up. And you can know, somewhere on the other side of the multiverse, I'm right fucking there with you.

A lump formed in Koa's throat as she continued, until he felt like he could barely swallow. His chest ached and his eyes felt like they were burning. He blinked, unable to swallow at all, then managed a hoarse, "thanks." Which felt like the weakest possible word to say, but there wasn't another he could think of.

Hearing Odette say it made it feel like it might be... true.

He fell silent for a few moments, his head buzzing. "That's... that's why I'm trying to climb Mt. Coronet back home. And why I'm trying to catch a legendary pokemon. If I can just do something good... make a different name for myself. I'm going to do it." He had to.