70. [DREAM/DREAM/DREAM/DREAM]

[foolishwren]

[So while the rest of Johto alternately panics, cries, or rushes around trying to capture as many of the soulstealing insects as possible, there are dozens of souls floating around in that dream limbo, drifting in and out of each other's slumbering thoughts and visions. Whether it's nightmarish flashbacks or just those dreams where you're at school

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THANKS BRO <3

[foolishwren]

[The door is heavy for someone so small. It groans deeply as it comes open... but come open it does. And the room she steps into is-- ... tiny. Like a little matchbox... or a particularly generously-spaced supply closet that was converted into a room as an afterthought.]

[The smells of rust and metal that had been drifting through the doorway previously are gone, replaced by the almost fragrant scents of dust and old wood. It's hot and stuffy-- like one would expect a little, windowless room in an ancient house like this to be on a hot summer day.]

[There's little decoration... a low-set little bed with old sheets on one side, littered with a couple well-loved dolls, and a small bookshelf holds the bizarre combination of charming picture books retelling classic old tales like Wizard of Oz and Mother Goose rhymes, along with thick texts that look religious in nature... The only decorations on the walls are a couple of framed insect collections-- butterflies and moths. They're pinned neatly in lines, each with their scientific names labeled underneath them, the painstaking care they were obviously written with comically juxtaposed with the childish handwriting.]

[It's clearly a child's room, albeit a rather stark, austere one.]

[So where's the child?]

[... Well, surprisingly, the answer to that is obvious ... she's sitting over in the corner, surrounded by crayon drawings and staring, wide-eyed, at Nanao as though she were a boogeyman who'd just stepped out of the closet.]

[Alessa Gillespie, age seven, was very different than the girl she would, twenty-four years later, one day be. For one thing, she never cursed. But if she'd had the mouth of her much-older self, the first words out of it would probably be ".... WHAT THE FUCK?! WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT WERE YOU DOING IN MY CLOSET?!"]

ANYTIME MAN

[used_glare]

{She had to struggle to push the door open wide enough to slip through, and even that was difficult, but once she was through it took every ounce of her being not to stare over much at the... clinical emptiness of the space.}

{And then there was the girl. She looked vaguely like someone she would one day know, but that was neither here nor there.}

{And despite some deep feelings that something was not right here, she wet her lips, and opened her mouth.}

H-hello.

Re: ANYTIME MAN

[foolishwren]

[Alessa continues to stare. And there's more than a little fear in that stare.]

[Not just because someone just mysteriously stumbled out of her closet, either. Other children were... well, let's just say that Alessa and 'other children' did not play nice, enough that apart from the other kids in the church... she's pretty terrified of her general age group. She hurriedly starts to gather up the drawings, as though caught red-handed at something she wasn't supposed to be doing. Her voice is a very small whisper.]

You're not supposed to be here. Go away...

[used_glare]

{Nanao backs away, hands raised placatingly. She has no idea of why this girl is so darn spooked, but she feels bad about it all the same.}

I - I'm sorry, I don't know how I got here.

[foolishwren]

[Before the frightened girl can reply further, there's a noise outside the door-- footsteps. They're not loud-- bare feet on hard wood. But this house is old, and the floor creaks with each footfall as the mystery person approaches. And soft or not, the girl tenses at the sound, before looking back to Nanao with a very, very real fear in her eyes.]

You have to leave.

Now!

[used_glare]

{Nanao starts at the sound of footsteps, and jerks back a few steps.}

I - I'm going.

{And with a few whispered words, she folds the fabric of space around herself, removing her mostly from the room. She cannot be seen, nor touched, but she can still be heard, and so she stands perfectly still, breathing as quietly as possible.}

[foolishwren]

[The girl's eyes pop wide open when Nanao just... suddenly disappears, but-- she's got no time to think about it. She gathers up the pile of drawings hastily and shoves them into the dusty crack between the floor and the bottom of her bookshelf... just in the nick of time.]

[The door opens without so much as a knock. The woman standing there is dressed strangely-- but the resemblance is there. It must be the girl's mother.]

[She isn't overly tall, but somehow retains an imposing presence anyway. She's wearing an ashen gray dress, a veil, and... weirdly, the most hideous red-and-black striped tie known to mankind.]

Alessa!

I told you to get ready. You don't want Mommy to be LATE, do you?

[used_glare]

{Nanao raises an eyebrow at her outfit - that's one weird combination, that's for sure.}

{But even the weird combination of clothes can't keep Nanao from shrinking back at her tone - something about it raises all the wrong hairs on the back of her neck.}

[foolishwren]

[The girl on the floor looks up at her mother with a slight gasp, but she's already scrambling to her feet, shaking her head.]

I- n-no... no, I don't... but--!

[The woman is already grabbing the girl's hand with a talonlike one, pulling her to the door.]

Butts are for ashtrays, my sweet Alessa. Now come along!

[There was something cloying and heavily sarcastic about the way that she addressed her daughter... it probably didn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that there was something very wrong in this household... with this relationship.]

But-- but Mommy, I don't want to! I'm scared! I-I already did what you asked me before...! I made that man disappear!

[used_glare]

{Nanao bites her lip and winces - this scene almost hurts to look at, yet, she knows that she cannot escape one of these dreams until it ends.}

{"Made that man disappear." Was it possible that this girl... Alessa, apparently, was like her - the holder of some great power?}

{Equal parts scared and curious, she tiptoes closer, being careful not to make a sound.}

[foolishwren]

This is FAR more important than anything you've been asked to do before, child. Now come along!

[The strangely-dressed woman just... doesn't appear to be taking 'no' for an answer, apparently. She drags more than leads the girl out of the room as Nanao tiptoes closer-- she's lucky, all the racket would probably drown out the sound of her steps anyway, even if she wasn't being cautious.]

[used_glare]

{Well. The winner of the Worst Mother Ever award would seem to be this woman. And with a growing sense of worry, she follows them out of the room, always keeping a dozen steps behind, light feet moving carefully over the old floorboards.}

/copypastas from another tag since Nanao's seeing the same scenario for the moment!

[foolishwren]

[When Nanao reaches the doorway, it would seem that progress has reached a halt at the top of the stairs. The girl is throwing quite the tantrum, kicking and pulling away from her mother, face scrunched up unhappily. It's a scene that could probably be taken from the life of ANY frustrated parent dealing with a child who doesn't want to go somewhere, but the words they're saying ... seem to speak otherwise.]

[The mother's wheedling tone remains.]

Do what Mommy tells you, now. I just want you to lend me a teeny bit of your power! That's all.

No!

[The little girl breaks away from her mother's grip and tumbles backwards against the floor, although she draws herself up into a sitting position almost immediately, her face tear-streaked.]

I don't want to do it!

[Possibly surprisingly, the woman makes no attempt to grab her daughter again. Instead, she stands at a safe distance away, hands raised. The cloying quality of her voice is at an all-time high now as she speaks, appealingly.]

It will make everyone happy... and it's for your own good, too!

[The girl looks a little confused, but certainly not unhappy about not being grabbed for again. She sniffs and wipes at her face with one sleeve, looking up at the woman hopefully.]

Oh, but Mommy... I... I just want to be with you!

that's cool!

[used_glare]

{Nanao is getting some real Bad Vibrations from this situation, and while she wants - like nothing else - to interfere, she forces herself to stay still and watch the situation unfold}

{What that woman is saying, though... Wheedling, needling, it sends icicles of dread curling around the base of her spine, and she takes another tiny step forward.}

{The girl - so oddly familiar - and her actions, her words send alarm bells ringing in Nanao's head (that's not how a child should act, there's something so badly wrong with this, stockholm syndrome?), and she takes another involuntary step forward, hand reaching for the girl - and a floorboard creaks under her foot.}

:D

[foolishwren]

[Right on the money. Nothing about this situation is right, or okay. It might not be obvious to the little girl, but to anyone ELSE watching... it's pretty obvious that this woman does not have her child's best interests in mind.]

[The little girl carries on, her tone pleading.]

Just two of us... Please understand...

[The woman pauses, regarding her daughter slowly... as though something, some miraculous possibility is occurring to her. When she speaks again, it's in the tone of someone who has seen the light. ... But there's something almost mocking about it. In fact, that mocking note has been in almost everything this woman has said. The little girl is either too young to recognize it, or maybe she's just so used to it that she doesn't care.]

Oh yes, I see! ... Maybe Mommy has been wrong.

[A tentative smile blooms across the little girl's face. A hopeful one.]

Mommy...

[... And then the board creaks-- the girl stiffens slightly-- as though worried that if she reacts to it, she might be alerting her mother to its presence... but oddly, the woman doesn't seem to have noticed at all...]

/bounces

[used_glare]

{At creak of the board, she stills again - but the lack of reaction from that woman was confusing.}

{Nanao looks away, biting her lip - this poor girl, what on earth had this ...woman done to her?!}

{This was actually painful to watch. This woman, this... creature - how could she manipulate her own child like this?! It made her heart ache - and suddenly, Nanao was very glad that she'd never known her mother.}