route_1065 | Cue sax of the yackety variety.

Current Location: Goldenrod City Hotel

Entry tags:

Cue sax of the yackety variety.

Who: Anyone in the Goldenrod Hotel
Where: The Goldenrod City Hotel
When: Starting at 5:00 PM on December 19th and ending at 4:00 AM on December 20th.
Summary: POWER OUTAGE IN THE GOLDENROD CITY HOTEL. See here for details!
Rating: Probably PG to PG-13.
Log:
A pair of deep, enormous red eyes sat in front of the receptionist and stared, intensely.

The receptionist pursed her lips and frowned, staring back through a pair of horn-rimmed glasses.

Claudy's enormously fluffy feet were reflected neatly on the glossy countertop, as were the wickedly-sharp talons that stuck out of them.

Those were the main things keeping the unfortunate receptionist on duty from shooing the owl Pokemon, although the beak wasn't much of an incentive, either.

"Um... young lady," she said hesitantly, trying to lean around the large bird, her chair creaking. "The lobby is intended to be a space for EVERYBODY..."

"And it still IS a space for everybody," Heather said, unloading a shoulderful of soft, folded blankets onto one of the lobby's sofas and dusting her hands off. Several other blankets had already been partially tied up over the back of the couch and stretched out to attach at the corners to rows of chairs that were painstakingly arranged in aesthetically-pleasing, tunnel-wall-like patterns. There were also the beginnings of several pillow-built barricades, and even some large cardboard boxes standing by on reserve, should the pillows run out before construction was complete. "It's just a COOLER space for everybody."

The receptionist's frown grew and she sighed, rubbing her temples and trying to ignore the Noctowl's unblinking stare. She was fairly certain that it had been placed there SOLELY to distract her from stopping the construction of 'New Lobby'-- and it was doing a fairly good job.

Why did the difficult visitors ALWAYS come downstairs while SHE was on desk duty?

Meanwhile, the wind howled outside, piling snow against the glass doors to the outside and plastering against the windows-- not that there was much to see out there, besides flying snow. It blotted out even the rest of the city's lights, which normally lit up the plaza outside like daylight even after dusk.

"Miss, I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to take all that down," she said for the fifth time in the past half-hour, and as usual, she was completely ignored as the scruffy blond girl tied a few more blankets up (with some difficulty due to her bandaged hands).

Biting her lip, she started to stand up.

Maybe if she just went over and started... taking all the blankets down herself--

And then suddenly, there was a low mooooooan of electricity deciding spontaneously that life wasn't worth it anymore and turning itself off.

The lights went out.

Silence reigned in the lobby.

.... for about five seconds.

"Oh my goodness..."

"WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED--"

"/OLD WOMAN OWL SCREAM"

_{[Feel free to make your own threads! They can be down in the lobby, they can be up in the rooms, they can be anywhere! Is your character in the bathroom plucking their eyebrows when the lights go out? WE WANNA HEAR ABOUT IT, SO GO FOR IT. Are they falling down the stairs? POST THAT SHIT.]

[Threadhopping/jacking is totally encouraged, so TAG AROUND TO YOUR HEART'S CONTENT, MY DUDES. If your own thread isn't getting replies right away, go ahead and jump in somewhere else! Look out for other characters in the same areas as yours-- lobby, hallways, staircases, etc! Have fun!]}

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Poor little guy.

The ensuing commotion probably did not help, either-- with staff members running all over the place-- but luckily, there was ONE good thing going on, and that was the fact that Heather had spotted him before the lights went out.

"Whoa-- jeez, the wind musta-- ... yikes. Hey, Miles. Where are ya?"

She eased her way out of the half-constructed blanket fort, feeling her way with her bandaged hands gingerly to make sure she didn't wind up accidentally destroying all her hard work.

"What a lousy time for the power to go-- ... out-- .... hey, are you okay?"

The amused exasperation in her voice turned to alarm and concern when she reached the spot where Miles SHOULD have been and instead found... a traumatized ball of ten-year-old. She reached down with one of those bandaged lobster-hands until she found his shoulder-- or head. Whichever came first.

At the hand on his shoulder, he gives a rather violent twitch --... at least he didn't rip away from her by smacking her hand away. He knew it was Heather, hallucinations of his running through his head or not. He doesn't raise his head immediately, but when he does, well -- god, there wasn't any trace of his usual snark and self-assurance.

"M-Miss Heather..."

Is he shaking? Like a leaf. He can't really find her through the dark and the panic, so he reaches for the only thing he was certain about: her hand, and when he finds her wrist band-- well, clinging ensues.

Thank goodness for squishy wrist-cuffs. Heather grasps his much-smaller hand in her own once he latches on and starts to pull him upright.

"Jeez, kiddo, are you all right?"

Was he scared of the dark or something? As much as that seemed like something she'd tease about, she actually understands. Looking over her shoulder (not that looking anywhere did much good), she hunches her shoulders a little.

"Ugh there's people rushing around everywhere-- c'mon, let's get off to the side, okay?"

If he let her, she'd tug him over to the sitting area where she'd been constructing her fort. He was shaking like crazy and she didn't want to leave him curled up on the floor over there where somebody would trip over him...

"He's going to die."

--Except, not really. With his father's (in Johto) day of death drawing clear and everybody he cared about disappearing in December, he's been feeling extremely stressed, and the sudden power outage wasn't helping his trauma one bit. As Heather pulls him up, his eyes, rather unfocused, seem to be staring at something behind her. Not that there is anything there.

"I have to stop him... he's going to-- he's--"

Edited 2010-12-20 01:34 (UTC)

She'd look behind her, but she can't even tell WHAT he's looking at in this dark-- all she can tell is that he's facing her direction, which ain't much.

"Hey, hey-- relax, okay?"

What was he talking about...?

"The power just went out, it's okay. Nothing bad's happening."

She'll just-- ... take him over to the safety of the sitting area, which is seeing the beginnings of the most epic blanket fort ever seen.

Even as Heather leads him to the sitting area, he only grasps her shirt tightly, stumbling slightly, his eyes still glued to those invisible people.

"....He's going to kill him..."

It's then that he starts to struggle slightly, trying to tug himself away from Heather, his eyes wildly darting between where he thinks she is, and where he's seeing his father.

"He's going to kill my dad.."

Heather's eyes widened in the dark.

Whoa, okay. So this was MORE than just a little panic attack.

"Hang on..."

She grasps both of his shoulders tightly and sits down in the middle of the stacked pillows. There's no blanket over the top of it yet, but it's still SOMETHING of a shelter. Maybe that will help.

"Miles-- no one's gonna kill your dad. You're SAFE-- okay?"

She knows there's a strong chance her words won't get anywhere-- but she's holding onto him tightly because the last thing he needs is to squirm away and go running off into a completely dark building when he's having some kind of... traumatic flashback.

"Relax!"

"But he's-- right there!"

He's still struggling against Heather's hold, but that's the disadvantage of being tiny and ten years old; he's not strong enough to throw her off, and he is eventually reduced to a panicked mass of panic, nearly sobbing.

Bewildered, Heather looks over her shoulder. Sure enough, it's just... dark. She can't even see how he could see anyone even if they WERE standing there.

In any case, it's a good thing she's pretty strong for somebody so scrawny.

She hands onto him firmly as he struggles-- sometimes that's what you NEED.

She's no good at doing the 'SHHH' comforting thing, but one thing she DOES know is what it's like to see things that aren't there-- or to have nightmares while you're awake.

Once he quiets down-- IF he quiets down, she speaks up at last, firmly-- "Miles. There's no one there. Calm down, I've got you. It's all right."

He does calm down, eventually, although calming down in this situation will be for him to just.. sit, trembling and managing to look even tinier than he already was. His eyes are still darting back and forth between Heather and where his father was supposed to be... but even that goes away soon, and he raises his head to look at Heather.

He's definitely still frightened, and his hands reach up to grasp Heather's again, as he mutters something inaudible and incoherent under his breath.

Heather's not what you'd call conventional when it comes to dealing with kids-- partially because she remembers so clearly what it was like to be one. _{... And she still IS one in a lot of ways.}

But one thing SHE knows is that sometimes just being stopped from doing something stupid can be exactly what you need.

So she just holds on-- until whatever this was passes. When he starts to calm and looks up at her, she smiles hopefully down at him. He might not be able to see it, but he'll be able to hear it in her voice.

"Hey... don't worry, I gotcha."

Her firm hold loosens into a regular hug.

"You were scarin' me for a second there, kid."

Miles really wasn't used to these hugs. He'd always been close to his family, but the person who hugged him most often was his father. After Gregory's death, his mother had crumbled into a depressed state, and his past few months with her only recalled memories over her sitting, curled up on her bed, and he could only sit by her feet, hoping that he might be able to get some comfort from her-- but the warmth never came.

Suddenly coming to Johto, there were a lot of people, like Heather now, who were willing to hold him like this and.. well. He was grateful, if not a bit flustered. He shakes his head and wraps his arms around Heather as well, sniffling.

"I--I'm sorry," is all he can get out before he starts to cry.

Heather was lucky enough to have a father who had stuck with her no matter how much she screwed up-- there had been no shortage of hugs in her childhood. She knew how important they were.

So when Edgeworth hugs her back, she goes right ahead and shifts into a more comfortable position, wrapping her arms around him a little more securely.

"What're you apologizing for? It's okay, man. You just freaked out a little. Happens to everybody, all right?"

A light appears over the edge of the pillow wall-- it's that receptionist, having finally gotten a candle. She looks concerned.

"Is... is everything all right?"

"I think so.."

He'd never actually hallucinated about December 28th, before. The nightmares were constant and they'll probably never go away, but.. they were in his subconscience, nothing more..

But this?

He's silent for the longest time, just leaning against Heather, until he decides he'd better explain before Phoenix's friend starts to think he's crazy on top of growing up to be pretentious... not that hallucination wasn't a sign of insanity, probably, but that was another issue.

"......I saw my father from the day he got killed."

Heather nodded to the receptionist.

"Yeah, everything's fine."

And a meaningful look that said: I GOT THIS.

She seemed to get the message and backed off. Once she did so, Heather looked back down to the tearful kid in her lap.

His eventual explanation makes her swallow, hard.

Whoa. That's... that's pretty rough. Especially for a little kid... and it hits home even more than it would normally, because... well, Heather's been having more nightmares than usual about her own father's death lately. Three guesses why.

"That's... I'm sorry, kiddo... But you're okay here. You're not seeing anything else right now, are you?"

She figures she'd better ask.

(( http://i851.photobucket.com/albums/ab76/nijyuushi/karmaedgey.png ))

There's another shake of his head. "It's all back to being pitch dark."

Not that it helped, as it was pitch dark on that day, too. His one relief was the presence of oxygen and the fact that there was no pistol in his hand saved his sanity more than anything.

"There's.. nothing there anymore. Can't bring back the dead, 'fter all.."

Heather frowns... and gives the kid an extra squeeze.

"The lights went out and you got scared. It's normal-- stuff like that happens sometimes. S'happened to me."

If she could count the number of times she'd thought she had heard her father's voice and come awake in a panic only to realize that it had just been part of a waking dream...

She bites her lip-- she's not sure if it would be a good idea to ask about this or not. ... Maybe not while it's still dark. She doesn't wanna take the chance that he might start flashbacking all over again.

"... Tell you what. Help me out with something. Then once the lights come back on, we'll get you something warm to drink and then you can tell me about this if you want, okay?"

"I don't want to bother you, Miss Heather... I know you've been sad this week."

He didn't want to add on to anybody's burden anymore. God knew how many people he'd end up hurting.. back home, and here. Powerless and dependent was not the way he wanted to be anymore.

So he falls silent.

"Hey, no worries. I've dealt with that already."

She's not about to air HER dirty laundry to someone who was just HALLUCINATING. Even if it was just a panic attack.

She lays a hand on his head-- not ruffling playfully like she usually does, though.

"You don't need to talk about it later if you don't want to. But for now I think it's best you get your mind off it, all right? Believe me, it's not gonna do any good to dwell on this stuff in the dark."

".....Thank you, Miss Heather."

He looks up at her and gives a weak smile, regardless of whether she can see it or not, before he leans against her again.

"I'll... I'll think about it. It isn't that big of a deal, though.." Stop bluffing, Miles.

She does smile at that, and give his shoulder a squeeze as he leans on her. However, what he says next makes her shift her position, put BOTH hands on his shoulders, and push him away JUST enough so that she can face him and look him in the eye even if it's too dark to make anything out.

"Listen. Don't ever tell yourself that it's not a big deal. ... You said someone killed your dad. I know how tempting it is to try and blow something like that off so that people won't think less of you, but it's not the truth."

She pauses for a second, and then adds, a little more quietly, but just as firmly.

"... Someone killed my dad, too. It was a big, big deal to me."

Tone softening, she lets go then and allows him to lean back against her if he wants to.

"You don't have to talk about it. That's okay. But you don't need to pretend that it's not a big deal."

He's startled - almost frightened again - when Heather pushes him away, and he's still jittery when she lets go. Frowning, feeling guilty, he averts his gaze and stares at a spot on the dark floor.

"...I'm not saying that.. that it wasn't a big deal. My father dying.. I'll never be able to forget it."

Here, he pauses, swallowing and clenching his fists.

"But I can't dwell on it forever," he says at last. "I can't let it take over me like it was supposed to have done. Nothing I do will bring him back, and nothing I do will help my mother anymore.

"I have to move on, Miss Heather, and be stronger so that I don't have to watch anyone die ever again."

Don't be guilty, Edgeworth!

When he doesn't voluntarily lean again, she goes ahead and pulls him back, hooking an arm around his shoulders just to be sure.

"Of course you can't dwell on it... but it's normal to, just a little. Just... don't be afraid to go to other people for help, okay? It doesn't make you NOT strong to do that. ... Just means you know when you need help sometimes."

There's another pause, and then she adds-- "I'm a LOT older than you, and I... still need to talk about it sometimes."

It was... something she was still learning how to, herself.

"...Everyone has enough on their shoulders already, Miss Heather. I'll be fine." Says the kid who's.. shouldering more about Phoenix's future than the lawyer himself. God.

He's just a really stubborn child, Edgeworth. He knows he didn't kill his father, but the guilt of having discharged that pistol won't ever go away, and he knew what Manfred planned for his future, too.

She shakes her head, giving him a squeeze.

"Yeah, they do, but that's just part've life. That's what you have friends for-- so that you can share stuff like that."

She hadn't, back home. Apart from Douglas.

And she's starting to become sure of what she knew all along (but hadn't really had the good fortune to do, herself, before Johto), which was that pushing people away really did no good at all.

"You don't need to talk to anybody if you don't want to. ... But don't ever think that you HAVE to keep quiet. You've got people around who'll listen and help you if they can, and I don't think any of 'em would consider it a bother."

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...return of the nightmare event? /)__= ;; )

8c awwwww edgeeey

He doesn't need fogs to be traumatized 8(

he needs hugs

does Heather give hugs?

A: YES.

GOOD TO HEAR <3

Heather is a fan of hugs!

And Miles will be too because YAY no Manfred 8| b

MANFRED IS TERRIFYING, I WOULD NOT WANT HUGS FROM HIM

...FOLLOW THE LINK

....... DB /CALLS CHRIS HANSEN

THIS MADE ME WORRY ABOUT THOSE 15 YEARS OF MISSINGWORTH 8(

DB IS THAT A CANON IMAGE?!

NO IT'S NOT THANK GOD

GOOD I WAS WORRIED FOR A SECOND

FHSLAJKDF YOU MADE ME CHOKE ON MY OWN SPIT WHEN I READ THAT

W-WELL CAN YOU BLAME ME???

N-NO BUT FSAJDLFH AA ISN'T THAT TERRIBLE

XD THANK. GOD.