Whispers of Laura and Isidora

[JFought]

Isidora's ears perked at Laura's voice. No way... Did she make it out?!

She called back. "I'm here!" Then began running.

Thoughts of both relief and dread flew through her head as she swiftly navigated the dungeon corridor towards her voice. What did she see, what did she see... She'd been talking to someone, and half the possible options were not the kind of 'mon she'd ever want Laura meeting.

Isidora turned a corner and there she was. "Laura! You made it!" she called out, running up to offer an arm the dizzy meowth could steady herself with. "What happened back there?! You good?"

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura took the offered arm with a mumbled thanks, then grinned at the uncharacteristic (but not unwelcome) support. Then the grin turned into a weary, scattered sort of laughter.

"I'm okay," she managed, forcing herself to answer coherently. "I'm fine. You don't need to worry."

Her vision clear, she glanced again at the surrounding dungeon floor. Similar to the one she'd been stuck waiting in alone, but there was light dancing faintly on the calcite fins of one tunnel in particular... There. A way was open.

She turned to Isidora. How was she looking...?

...Worried, mostly. Maybe for what Laura had seen as much as for Laura herself. Understandable, really – something twisted inside Laura at the thought of what Isidora might have seen from out of her head...

"Bits and pieces," she said. "Fake city, metaphors I'm still not totally getting, echoes of 'mon you've known. An echo of you."

That's right. She'd been about to run to a young Isidora, terrified and bleeding and alone...

Hug her.

Laura just barely resisted the impulse. Don't make it weird, fucking howls.

Instead she said, "You don't have anything to prove to me, Isidora."

 

[JFought]

Isidora blinked and felt her cheeks grow hot. "Th-the hell's gotten into you, Laura?" She took a step back and crossed her arms to fight back the embarrassment. "L-look, whatever you saw, it's probably not that big of a deal!"

Was this something prompted by the dream? Did she see something embarrassing? Except I know I heard the word kill.

"A-and what kinda echoes are we talkin' about here?" Isidora asked, dread creeping slightly into her voice. "You didn't see anything... bad, did you?"

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura suppressed a grin at Isidora's flustered reaction. Probably for the best that she didn't hug the Sneasel, really...

She shook her head, then pursed her mouth and considered the question properly.

"Okay, I won't lie to you, some of it was a bit fucked up. Don't freak out, though. I'm fine, you're fine, we're good, I'm not gonna be stupid about it. I, uh, trust you'll be normal about whatever you saw, by the way."

She grinned awkwardly, and slouched back against the cave wall. For all she knew, the Sneasel had seen nothing but a slideshow of all the most cringe-inducing shit she'd ever said and every fuck-up she'd ever done. Hard to imagine it had been flattering.

"If you really wanna know, it started out as just, like, an empty town with nowhere to go – except for the Rose Club. I got grilled by a Mismagius calling herself the Witch – don't really envy your acquaintance with her, not gonna lie – until she had me pretty well figured out. She opened the way into the city..." past a bunch of corpses "...and then I saw you – younger you – having a shit time of it with some other kids. You said you'd, uh, hurt me. If I didn't stay away."

Laura didn't know whether to be serious or laugh it off, to keep eye contact or take her eyes off Isidora's face. Her head hurt.

"I don't think you will, though," she added, quietly. "Fuck me if I'm wrong, I guess, but... I feel like you already know what I really think of you."

Not someone to use, or hurt, or betray. Just another person you like; forever out of reach.

Saying it felt a little like seeing a train coming and not jumping out of the way. What was it Isidora had said before, something about not trusting that Isidora wouldn't eat her alive for laying out her feelings? Still, the Sneasel had seen something inside her head, too – bullshitting didn't really feel like it was on the table right now.

"Anyway," she continued, looking down at the scarf in her paw, "I offered to patch you up. It, uh, looked like you might say yes for a second, then you passed out... and the dream ended. There's other bits, some I still don't get, but there you go. That's the gist."

 

[JFought]

Externally, Isidora was making her best attempt at a straight face. Internally, she was screaming, and the shocks made waves across her pelt.

You saw a Rose Club?! You met the WHO?! And then they showed me getting bullied?! What the fuck?!

She had left all that behind, and here the dungeon dragged it all back up to show to someone it also expected her to be friends with. Nothing about this was fair.

By the end, she couldn't look Laura in the eye anymore. "Well. Shit. Yeah, I got bullied as a kid. Sorry you had to see that," she said carefully. "Rest sounds confusing to me too. I mean, this dungeon's fucked up. I don't even know any witches." Lie. She scratched her arm. "Coulda... all meant anything, really."

Need to change subject. Talk about anything else. "Anyway, we can talk about all that later, probably. Right now..." Her gaze slowly hardened, and her need to change subject suddenly became genuine.

"Well I woulda been normal about this, but I gotta let it out, what the fuck was up with that ink metaphor in your head, Laura?!" She brought her paws to her mouth and shivered. "It's still scarin' me off cleaning my claws! There was nothin' normal about that!"

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura kept her eyes on Isidora long enough to notice, not that she was lying, but that she was lying badly.

She sighed. So much for earnestness.

"Yeah. Anything."

There's no way she really expects you to buy that. Just pretend. For now.

It'd be fine. Just... She needed time. That was all.

Then Isidora asked about what she'd seen. And... she wasn't gonna be normal about it. Okay.

"Ink metaphor—?"

Ink. Her paw went to her mouth, her usual impulse to chew on her pen suddenly flaring up. A black thought pressed into her mind, a memory of a recurring nightmare.

Her heart plummeted from her chest, bludgeoning her ribcage on its way down, down into the dark, the figurative darkness where she would live from now on, if she could bear to live at all. Her lungs were full of it, full of thick, black ink, and with every breath she spent cursing herself, the ink filled her up, feeding on her, spewing from her throat and staining her body. The darkness spread from her, and ate the walls of her room, devoured the house around her, drank in the whole world until there was nothing in it but a worthless, stupid bitch who couldn't fucking do anything right.

Fuck. She really didn't miss university...

She winced, and shook her head.

"Sounds like you had the worse trip, I guess," she said, flatly. "I used to eat my pens whenever I got, uh, stressed out – especially at uni. So, uh... Fucking things up makes me think of the taste of ink."

You can taste ink right now.

She pulled a face, swallowed, and began to walk towards the tunnel to the next floor.

"C'mon. We can, like, compare notes or whatever later."

 

[JFought]

Well that was a mystery solved. "This dungeon really is fucked up..." Isidora quietly complained.

As Laura turned to continue onwards, Isidora felt a sudden impulse tug at her feathered ear. She had almost forgotten. There was something else she needed to get out.

"Wait," she called out. "I have something I've been meaning to say."

She told the dungeon, but it would be meaningless until Laura heard it herself. Isidora took a deep breath. Then scratched her arm again.

"Uh... Sorry," she said, the word feeling strange on her tongue. "About what happened in the library all those months ago."

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura stopped, looked back over her shoulder. Isidora was scratching her arm again. Anxious tic, right? Like how she pricked her own carpal pads all the fucking time. Snap. Better listen.

And there it was.

How often did Isidora say sorry for anything? As apologies went, it was pretty... basic. Clumsy, even. Vague about 'what happened'. Distanced from 'all those months ago'.

It was also devastatingly sincere.

Laura hid her face. That way, Isidora couldn't see how hard it hit her.

"I, uh... I get why, y'know. Don't... don't worry about it. Fresh start, yeah?"

She roughly swiped her face with a paw. The last thing either of them needed was for Laura to start leaking.

"And... thanks. Thanks for saying so."

 

[JFought]

Isidora didn't say much in reply, just "Yeah." This was way too awkward. Happy now, Whisperwind?

There was the I'll be your friend part too, but admitting that was already asking too much. So, she kept quiet, and together they proceeded further into the dungeon.

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