49. Prose (s-sorry guys!) Backdated to Christmas Eve. (action)
Christmas Eve.
The night may not have had quite as special a significance in Johto as it did in other worlds, but between the (admittedly somewhat aggravating) mistletoe and the jolly little mobile trees lumbering around in the snow, the festive spirit caught. Even the locals seemed more eager to join in the festivities. It seemed Christmas spirit was just catching like that.
The arrival of the day of Christmas Eve brought activity left and right.
Impromptu snowball fights in the streets, last-minute gift-buying, Snover-chasing...
Goldenrod City was bustling with activity all day long and the previously-stated were just to name a few.
And Heather?
Well, actually, she'd been popping in and out of all of them.
Her friends in Goldenrod might have noticed her occasionally rearing her scruffy head in their general presence every so often throughout the day.
Popping into the Pokemon Center to give Rise an enthusiastic hug, a couple of decorative butterfly ornaments ("I know you like the girly stuff, sooo... they made me think of you!), and a written coupon promising a shopping trip in the department store (during which Heather was not allowed to complain TOO much)....
Knocking on Phoenix and Miles's door far too early in the morning to drag them outside with the intention of showing Miles how to build a snowman (under the assumption that if he didn't know much about building FORTS, he might need an emergency injection of childhood-- and Phoenix obviously did, too)...
Grabbing Snake during a smoking break to give him a heartfelt hug and a couple of really big cardboard boxes she found in the storage basement of the department store while restocking (there were a few sticks of gum thrown in, as well)...
And, naturally, doing everything in her power to start a crazy snowball fight with Kaito and his little band of troublemakers (did she get them matching team sweaters? Yeah, she totally did-- "YOU GUYS CAN BE THE SWEATER BANDITS.")
That was to name a few.
Anyone she knew in Goldenrod was liable to have received a visit from the teen-- and if they were a friend of hers, a gift as well.
But she never hung around for long. Flitting around from place to place, anyone expecting her to remain would have wound up a little bit disappointed. By nightfall, there didn't actually appear to be much of a sign of her at all, which was a little odd, considering that just fifteen minutes before, she'd been at the Snover ceremony, sneakily making off with some of the free apple cider (despite the fact that she hadn't caught a Snover, dohohohoho). But as soon as that had been accomplished, wham bam thank you ma'am, she was gone.
This was because Heather Mason was very good at becoming scarce when she didn't want to be found.
The sounds of crowds and festivities bled away into the night like muted trumpets as a single figure, in a short blue coat and a silly pom-pom hat tromped through the snow away from the center of the city, well-bandaged hands in her pockets. The cold was nipping at her face, but unlike the hasty, not-too-well-thought-out excursion she had taken two weeks before, she was dressed for the night, scarf around her neck and ears firmly covered.
It was surprising how silent the city got on these nippy winter nights, once you left the central streets.
It reminded her of home in that way.
When the brightly-colored lights strung all around the little plaza where the Snover ceremony was taking place faded around a corner, Heather picked up her pace and tossed the now-empty paper cider-cup-- still steaming-- into a nearby wastebin, re-stuffing her hands into her pockets hastily to escape the chill.
There were a few other people making their way down the cobblestone street, but not too many.
Feeling a slight bounce enter her step, Heather puffed out her cheeks as she walked and started to whistle a jaunty, old-timey tune-- which soon turned into a lowly-uttered song that nonetheless sounded loud against the night's quiet-- audible to anyone who might happened to have been near, although its singer was walking too swiftly to be deterred or caught up with.
"The Mason died on Monday...
We bricked him in the wall.
All his children grew and grew,
Theeeey never grew so tall befoooor-ooor-ooore..."
When she reached her destination-- she kicked snow off of her boots and shouldered open the glass door, heading inside and going up the stairwell.
There was nobody in the Department Store tonight except for the janitors cleaning up-- the whole place was empty, closing early. Which was why Heather had chosen to go. Puffing, she climbed the staircases-- all seven of them-- but kept the little tune going, even though she'd gotten a little out of breath.
"They may never grow so tall agaaaaa-aaa-aaaain..."
During the blizzard, the wind on every rooftop in the city had whistled and whipped, but several days later, the air was still and calm in the wake of the storm. Heather had to plant her back against the rooftop door to shove it open through the snow that had piled up there, but with a few strained noises, she was able to get through. Nudging a crate to prop the door open (last thing she wanted was to wind up locked out up here all night on Christmas Eve...), she crunched through the icy pile-up and towards the edge of the building, breath steaming.
The sight tugged a smile onto her face.
The crowd down in the little Snover ceremony had grown since she'd left it-- and if she listened closely, she could even hear the festive chatter far below.
Bunching her scarf up around her neck, she made her way along the edge of the roof.
"Mason was a mighty ma-an, a mighty man was he-eee,
All he said when I'm dead and go-oone,
Don't you weep for meee-eee-eeee...."
There were a few benches back over by the door. Heather rubbed her arms for warmth and headed back over to one of them, kicking some of the snow off idly with one boot before taking a seat with a sigh.
With the little gathering far below out of sight, her view of the city was dominated by the towering buildings and cloudless night sky.
When she'd been traveling in the wild, the sky had been dazzling. Stars, more than she'd ever been able to see in the city she'd grown up in, had been spread out across the sky like spilled sugar.
Sure wasn't like that here-- the city lights that blazed all through the night just turned the sky inky.
Heather's singing had faded to a hum, and then it trailed off colpletely as she drew in a long breath and exhaled slowly. Pulling her hand out of her pocket briefly, she looked at the shrunken Pokeballs in her palm. Then slipped them back in-- she didn't quite trust Cujo not to be a spaz and run off the roof by accident. And she was probably gonna be here for awhile.
So she reached into her other pocket instead, drawing out a little paper carton.
She hadn't smoked a cigarette in almost two years now, and yet the feel of the box in her hand still felt familiar. How weird was that?
It had been a hard month.
There were all kinds of reasons for that, which wasn't uncommon. But it had reawakened old cravings-- and as much as she felt sort of bad for it, she knew where to get the stuff that would indulge them.
Tugging one of them out of the box, she already had it pinched between her lips when she realized that the closest thing she had to a lighter was... well, Cujo.
"... Heh..." Taking the little paper cylinder out of her mouth and looking down at it, she chuckled slightly. "I guess it's kinda stupid to be smoking one of these given the circumstances, anyway..."
She flicked it to the side-- and then, after a second's thought, shook her head.
"Hell with this..."
Chucking the entire packet off to the side, she kicked some snow over it. It was a couple hundred Poke-money down the drain, but eh. She'd live.
Leaning back, she planted her hands on the plastic bench seat, feeling the snow start to melt into the bandages, but not caring too much.
"So... I guess I don't really know how to do this. I talk to myself a lot, but I never really did it with you..."
She trailed off for a second.
"... Not even when I had the chance."
There was a brief silence, and then she coughed.
"So uh... I'm just gonna do this right now. I know it's too late and stuff, but... well, better late than never, right? Here goes... Hey, Dad... It's been awhile. I could've talked to you sooner, but... 'pparently I'm still a pretty stupid kid, even after everything. Who'da thunk?"
The words flowed with surprising ease.
She'd expected this to be hard-- like trying to swallow a pill dry.
But maybe the cosmos was taking some mercy on her-- it wasn't hard at all.
"I know you were here a little while ago... I wish I'd... you know, gotten to know you. How you were back then. But I was pretty scared, no lie. I know you had a hard time accepting me when-- ... well, you know what I'm talkin' about. I know it changed later. But I guess I was kinda scared you'd feel the same way you did back when you lost me the first time around.
... But it shouldn'tve mattered. If my whole life wasn't proof that you did right by me, I don't even know what is. ... It's still weird, havin' Christmas without you. Even if it usually was just us, that was just the way it was, y'know? ... Last year, I stayed with Douglas on Christmas Eve. I know you never met him, and I'm not sure you even would've liked him much, but... he's a good guy. We drank to you. ... Heh. I guess you might not've liked the idea of that too much, me still bein' seventeen at the time and all...
This year's different. I've actually got friends now, Dad. No, not like the losers I used to run around with. Decent ones. ... A few of 'em would probably annoy the hell out've you, but I think you'd like 'em anyway. They've been keepin' me out of trouble. ... Well, mostly. ... I got gifts for 'em using money that technically wasn't mine. So uh... sorry to say, I haven't changed as much as I probably should've, what with the whole life-changing experience and all. But I guess you'd already be able to see that, given those cigarettes I totally just bought like an idiot.
... But I have been doing better. Trying to, anyway... I... never forgot all the things you taught me, even if I didn't always listen...
I guess... what I wanted to say most was... I miss you, Dad. ... I know you can't hear me, but I do. I'm not sure I deserve for you to be proud of me, but... I kinda hope you are, anyway. There's... no crime in hoping, right?"
She cut herself off with a dry chuckle, shaking her head.
"Man, you'd think I'd have my shit sorted out by now, what with technically being a world savior and all. You never hear about heroes in movies pulling dumb crap like I do. ... But yeah. Guess it's just something I should work on. ... It's different in this place. I think-- I think if you came here at the age I knew you, you'd like it, at least a little. I thought I'D hate it, but... it's growing on me like a damn weed. The people, too. ... I mentioned I had friends. Well, they're awesome, Dad. Would you believe I even knew how to find real friends again? I didn't know terrible taste was something you grew out of, but I guess I did. It's a start, right?
I mean... heh. Y'know, first thing that happened when I got to this crazy place..."
What little hesitance was there to begin with dissipated like steam right around that point.
Later on, Heather wouldn't be sure just how long she was up there, talking at length about ... everything.
The people, the Pokemon, the mishaps, the mirth.
From the friends she'd made to the fights she'd been in, Heather just talked until her throat kinda hurt and the lights down in that plaza below had been turned off, the people standing underneath them having long since gone home.
Heather trailed off, watching the steam from the tail-end of the last anecdote float off and dissolve.
"... Aheh... I guess I'd... tell you more, but... it's pretty cold up here, and I know I'm not actually talking to anybody, so..."
She stood up from the bench, reaching into her coat briefly to tug the pearly, gold-patterned locket around her neck, thumbing the little latch open with her thumb. The inside was empty-- it had been empty ever since that night in Silent Hill. It seemed wrong to refill it with something Harry had not given to her himself.
She stood silently, staring into the polished, empty hollow within for a second, before snapping it shut and slipping it back into her collar.
"I love you, Dad. Merry Christmas."
After taking one last look at it, Heather turned her back on the city skyline and edged back in through the door, kicking the crate out behind her on her way in. As she started the long descent back down to the first floor, the echoing clomps of her boots on the stairs got a beat in her step once more. She hummed a few notes-- then raised her voice again as she went.
"Take me to the reaper ma-aan,
To give back what was oweeeed--
If he's in some other land,
Write it off as stooo-oooo-oooole...!"
[ooc: MERRY CHRISTMAS, ROUTE. I love you guys so much. I'm going to be posting a list of everything that Heather got her friends for Christmas shortly-- once I'm done writing this post. I just wanted to get it put up before Christmas Day was over! Sorry for the tl;dr!
FEEL FREE to action or video-tag here if you wanted your character to run into or talk to Heather on Christmas Eve Day! As usual, reading the redonk long prose is NOT NECESSARY. XD]
The night may not have had quite as special a significance in Johto as it did in other worlds, but between the (admittedly somewhat aggravating) mistletoe and the jolly little mobile trees lumbering around in the snow, the festive spirit caught. Even the locals seemed more eager to join in the festivities. It seemed Christmas spirit was just catching like that.
The arrival of the day of Christmas Eve brought activity left and right.
Impromptu snowball fights in the streets, last-minute gift-buying, Snover-chasing...
Goldenrod City was bustling with activity all day long and the previously-stated were just to name a few.
And Heather?
Well, actually, she'd been popping in and out of all of them.
Her friends in Goldenrod might have noticed her occasionally rearing her scruffy head in their general presence every so often throughout the day.
Popping into the Pokemon Center to give Rise an enthusiastic hug, a couple of decorative butterfly ornaments ("I know you like the girly stuff, sooo... they made me think of you!), and a written coupon promising a shopping trip in the department store (during which Heather was not allowed to complain TOO much)....
Knocking on Phoenix and Miles's door far too early in the morning to drag them outside with the intention of showing Miles how to build a snowman (under the assumption that if he didn't know much about building FORTS, he might need an emergency injection of childhood-- and Phoenix obviously did, too)...
Grabbing Snake during a smoking break to give him a heartfelt hug and a couple of really big cardboard boxes she found in the storage basement of the department store while restocking (there were a few sticks of gum thrown in, as well)...
And, naturally, doing everything in her power to start a crazy snowball fight with Kaito and his little band of troublemakers (did she get them matching team sweaters? Yeah, she totally did-- "YOU GUYS CAN BE THE SWEATER BANDITS.")
That was to name a few.
Anyone she knew in Goldenrod was liable to have received a visit from the teen-- and if they were a friend of hers, a gift as well.
But she never hung around for long. Flitting around from place to place, anyone expecting her to remain would have wound up a little bit disappointed. By nightfall, there didn't actually appear to be much of a sign of her at all, which was a little odd, considering that just fifteen minutes before, she'd been at the Snover ceremony, sneakily making off with some of the free apple cider (despite the fact that she hadn't caught a Snover, dohohohoho). But as soon as that had been accomplished, wham bam thank you ma'am, she was gone.
This was because Heather Mason was very good at becoming scarce when she didn't want to be found.
The sounds of crowds and festivities bled away into the night like muted trumpets as a single figure, in a short blue coat and a silly pom-pom hat tromped through the snow away from the center of the city, well-bandaged hands in her pockets. The cold was nipping at her face, but unlike the hasty, not-too-well-thought-out excursion she had taken two weeks before, she was dressed for the night, scarf around her neck and ears firmly covered.
It was surprising how silent the city got on these nippy winter nights, once you left the central streets.
It reminded her of home in that way.
When the brightly-colored lights strung all around the little plaza where the Snover ceremony was taking place faded around a corner, Heather picked up her pace and tossed the now-empty paper cider-cup-- still steaming-- into a nearby wastebin, re-stuffing her hands into her pockets hastily to escape the chill.
There were a few other people making their way down the cobblestone street, but not too many.
Feeling a slight bounce enter her step, Heather puffed out her cheeks as she walked and started to whistle a jaunty, old-timey tune-- which soon turned into a lowly-uttered song that nonetheless sounded loud against the night's quiet-- audible to anyone who might happened to have been near, although its singer was walking too swiftly to be deterred or caught up with.
"The Mason died on Monday...
We bricked him in the wall.
All his children grew and grew,
Theeeey never grew so tall befoooor-ooor-ooore..."
When she reached her destination-- she kicked snow off of her boots and shouldered open the glass door, heading inside and going up the stairwell.
There was nobody in the Department Store tonight except for the janitors cleaning up-- the whole place was empty, closing early. Which was why Heather had chosen to go. Puffing, she climbed the staircases-- all seven of them-- but kept the little tune going, even though she'd gotten a little out of breath.
"They may never grow so tall agaaaaa-aaa-aaaain..."
During the blizzard, the wind on every rooftop in the city had whistled and whipped, but several days later, the air was still and calm in the wake of the storm. Heather had to plant her back against the rooftop door to shove it open through the snow that had piled up there, but with a few strained noises, she was able to get through. Nudging a crate to prop the door open (last thing she wanted was to wind up locked out up here all night on Christmas Eve...), she crunched through the icy pile-up and towards the edge of the building, breath steaming.
The sight tugged a smile onto her face.
The crowd down in the little Snover ceremony had grown since she'd left it-- and if she listened closely, she could even hear the festive chatter far below.
Bunching her scarf up around her neck, she made her way along the edge of the roof.
"Mason was a mighty ma-an, a mighty man was he-eee,
All he said when I'm dead and go-oone,
Don't you weep for meee-eee-eeee...."
There were a few benches back over by the door. Heather rubbed her arms for warmth and headed back over to one of them, kicking some of the snow off idly with one boot before taking a seat with a sigh.
With the little gathering far below out of sight, her view of the city was dominated by the towering buildings and cloudless night sky.
When she'd been traveling in the wild, the sky had been dazzling. Stars, more than she'd ever been able to see in the city she'd grown up in, had been spread out across the sky like spilled sugar.
Sure wasn't like that here-- the city lights that blazed all through the night just turned the sky inky.
Heather's singing had faded to a hum, and then it trailed off colpletely as she drew in a long breath and exhaled slowly. Pulling her hand out of her pocket briefly, she looked at the shrunken Pokeballs in her palm. Then slipped them back in-- she didn't quite trust Cujo not to be a spaz and run off the roof by accident. And she was probably gonna be here for awhile.
So she reached into her other pocket instead, drawing out a little paper carton.
She hadn't smoked a cigarette in almost two years now, and yet the feel of the box in her hand still felt familiar. How weird was that?
It had been a hard month.
There were all kinds of reasons for that, which wasn't uncommon. But it had reawakened old cravings-- and as much as she felt sort of bad for it, she knew where to get the stuff that would indulge them.
Tugging one of them out of the box, she already had it pinched between her lips when she realized that the closest thing she had to a lighter was... well, Cujo.
"... Heh..." Taking the little paper cylinder out of her mouth and looking down at it, she chuckled slightly. "I guess it's kinda stupid to be smoking one of these given the circumstances, anyway..."
She flicked it to the side-- and then, after a second's thought, shook her head.
"Hell with this..."
Chucking the entire packet off to the side, she kicked some snow over it. It was a couple hundred Poke-money down the drain, but eh. She'd live.
Leaning back, she planted her hands on the plastic bench seat, feeling the snow start to melt into the bandages, but not caring too much.
"So... I guess I don't really know how to do this. I talk to myself a lot, but I never really did it with you..."
She trailed off for a second.
"... Not even when I had the chance."
There was a brief silence, and then she coughed.
"So uh... I'm just gonna do this right now. I know it's too late and stuff, but... well, better late than never, right? Here goes... Hey, Dad... It's been awhile. I could've talked to you sooner, but... 'pparently I'm still a pretty stupid kid, even after everything. Who'da thunk?"
The words flowed with surprising ease.
She'd expected this to be hard-- like trying to swallow a pill dry.
But maybe the cosmos was taking some mercy on her-- it wasn't hard at all.
"I know you were here a little while ago... I wish I'd... you know, gotten to know you. How you were back then. But I was pretty scared, no lie. I know you had a hard time accepting me when-- ... well, you know what I'm talkin' about. I know it changed later. But I guess I was kinda scared you'd feel the same way you did back when you lost me the first time around.
... But it shouldn'tve mattered. If my whole life wasn't proof that you did right by me, I don't even know what is. ... It's still weird, havin' Christmas without you. Even if it usually was just us, that was just the way it was, y'know? ... Last year, I stayed with Douglas on Christmas Eve. I know you never met him, and I'm not sure you even would've liked him much, but... he's a good guy. We drank to you. ... Heh. I guess you might not've liked the idea of that too much, me still bein' seventeen at the time and all...
This year's different. I've actually got friends now, Dad. No, not like the losers I used to run around with. Decent ones. ... A few of 'em would probably annoy the hell out've you, but I think you'd like 'em anyway. They've been keepin' me out of trouble. ... Well, mostly. ... I got gifts for 'em using money that technically wasn't mine. So uh... sorry to say, I haven't changed as much as I probably should've, what with the whole life-changing experience and all. But I guess you'd already be able to see that, given those cigarettes I totally just bought like an idiot.
... But I have been doing better. Trying to, anyway... I... never forgot all the things you taught me, even if I didn't always listen...
I guess... what I wanted to say most was... I miss you, Dad. ... I know you can't hear me, but I do. I'm not sure I deserve for you to be proud of me, but... I kinda hope you are, anyway. There's... no crime in hoping, right?"
She cut herself off with a dry chuckle, shaking her head.
"Man, you'd think I'd have my shit sorted out by now, what with technically being a world savior and all. You never hear about heroes in movies pulling dumb crap like I do. ... But yeah. Guess it's just something I should work on. ... It's different in this place. I think-- I think if you came here at the age I knew you, you'd like it, at least a little. I thought I'D hate it, but... it's growing on me like a damn weed. The people, too. ... I mentioned I had friends. Well, they're awesome, Dad. Would you believe I even knew how to find real friends again? I didn't know terrible taste was something you grew out of, but I guess I did. It's a start, right?
I mean... heh. Y'know, first thing that happened when I got to this crazy place..."
What little hesitance was there to begin with dissipated like steam right around that point.
Later on, Heather wouldn't be sure just how long she was up there, talking at length about ... everything.
The people, the Pokemon, the mishaps, the mirth.
From the friends she'd made to the fights she'd been in, Heather just talked until her throat kinda hurt and the lights down in that plaza below had been turned off, the people standing underneath them having long since gone home.
Heather trailed off, watching the steam from the tail-end of the last anecdote float off and dissolve.
"... Aheh... I guess I'd... tell you more, but... it's pretty cold up here, and I know I'm not actually talking to anybody, so..."
She stood up from the bench, reaching into her coat briefly to tug the pearly, gold-patterned locket around her neck, thumbing the little latch open with her thumb. The inside was empty-- it had been empty ever since that night in Silent Hill. It seemed wrong to refill it with something Harry had not given to her himself.
She stood silently, staring into the polished, empty hollow within for a second, before snapping it shut and slipping it back into her collar.
"I love you, Dad. Merry Christmas."
After taking one last look at it, Heather turned her back on the city skyline and edged back in through the door, kicking the crate out behind her on her way in. As she started the long descent back down to the first floor, the echoing clomps of her boots on the stairs got a beat in her step once more. She hummed a few notes-- then raised her voice again as she went.
"Take me to the reaper ma-aan,
To give back what was oweeeed--
If he's in some other land,
Write it off as stooo-oooo-oooole...!"
[ooc: MERRY CHRISTMAS, ROUTE. I love you guys so much. I'm going to be posting a list of everything that Heather got her friends for Christmas shortly-- once I'm done writing this post. I just wanted to get it put up before Christmas Day was over! Sorry for the tl;dr!
FEEL FREE to action or video-tag here if you wanted your character to run into or talk to Heather on Christmas Eve Day! As usual, reading the redonk long prose is NOT NECESSARY. XD]