010 [text]

[likewatson]

hi

hi hi hi

hi hiiiiiiiiiiiii

HI

hi

[Guess what squishy pink thing got a hold of Harry's Gear and learned how to use her nubby arms for something other than flailing.

God help you all.

YOU HAD ONE JOB, ZACK.]

Comments

[doitrockapella]

[Well, far be it from her to actually help with alleviating those feelings of flutterdom.]

You did.

[In a sense, and with a certain amount of explanation attached — but keeping things concise is a good way of making a point, and so she does. She also leaves a space between words here, so he can linger on the implications of that for a few moments before she clarifies.]

I didn't leave Blackthorn by choice. A few weeks ago, I ended up thrown to Pewter City—

[Absently, she touches her fingers to her eyebrow, running the pads of her gloved fingertips over the skin like she's remembering something that isn't there.]

—It's not the first time that's happened; the last time, it was Azalea Town. In any case, I was there awhile. [Pause.] But you asked me to come home.

[likewatson]

[And linger he does. Up go the eyebrows and everything, though just a fraction, and they're down again by the time she picks up where she left off.

He nods, turns his attention to his coffee for a moment.]

Yeah, I've heard that happens. This isn't exactly home, though, is it?

[doitrockapella]

That depends on if you think "home" is a place or a person.

[He's right, though. This isn't home. She has a small handful of places and people she'd give that designation to, and this isn't one of them. But with Hiccup on the other side of the world and Coop even farther out of reach, Harry's not quite home but he's close enough to pass.]

[likewatson]

[Harry's not sure whether to say he'd love it if she'd come back to the Farm, or whether he should keep that to himself, but he'd love it if she'd come back.

But that's a little selfish.

A slight shift in topic:] What have you been up to?

[doitrockapella]

[There's no polite or tidy way of saying, "becoming the unofficial protégé of a sociopathic monster no wait hang on I didn't mean it like that", so she doesn't. But that's fine, because there are other things she's been up to, instead — ones better suited to a casual afternoon conversation.]

I rented a house for a short while, back in Pewter. Spending a week cooped up inside with my entire roster loose and Zack forbidden from playing on my Gear was an...interesting experience. Hiccup's in Cinnabar; another young acquaintance of mine disappeared for home. And it was Father's Day this past Sunday, of course.

[likewatson]

[Well all that sounds... not very fun, but such has been the trend, he guesses. Worlds flipping upside down and inside out, people coming and going, stumbling off elsewhere. He frowns a little, then tilts his head.

Wait.]

Your — all your pokémon? Loose at once?

[doitrockapella]

Forty-nine.

[Can you just hear the exhaustion lurking underneath her tone.]

I pulled them out of the PC because of the way things were glitching. I didn't want to take the risk of leaving them trapped in there if something happened to disrupt that system, among everything else that was behaving strangely those days.

[likewatson]

...don't you have a whale?

[Because.





Harry's having some problems picturing this in his head.]

[doitrockapella]

The whale came third to the incredibly violent man-sized stag beetle and the murderous dream-haunting ghost.

[Sigh.]

Like I said; it was an interesting week.

[likewatson]

Jeez, Carmen.

[And he thought the flesh-eating snowflake in the backyard was bad.

...oh, hey.]

Speaking of murderous pokemon, there are some new additions to the house. We got a pool! And... Albert keeps his giant flesh-eating snowflake in there.

[doitrockapella]

[...what.]

Albert has a what?!

[WHO JUST CASUALLY REMARKS, "OH, SPEAKING OF MURDEROUS POKEMON" LIKE HE'S COMMENTING ON THE WEATHER?

...and why does Albert even have a — no you know what DOES SHE EVEN WANT TO KNOW]

[likewatson]

A Cryogonal. It's — it's literally a giant snowflake. And it's carnivorous. Since it's so hot out, if we don't keep it in the pool, it'll turn to steam, and... well, he keeps it chained up. So.

[So that would be a PROBLEM.]

[doitrockapella]

I've heard of the Pokemon, but why in the world would he catch one?

[IS HE CRAZY.]

[likewatson]

Because he's Albert?

[WHAT OTHER EXPLANATION IS THERE? He probably wants to do science to it.]