[❀11] [video]

[styxiedust]

[Beep, good afternoon world of Pokemon! Botan turns on the video with it focused on herself, though a Sensu Oricorio does peer into the lens with interest at first. Botan laughs and moves it up.]

Come now, Hisoka-chan, it's not a mirror. That's a camera, people can see you.

[The Pokemon looks a little surprised at this and pulls up a wing over its face in embarrassment. She just smiles gently at it before coming back to what the original intent was.]

Hello, everyone, Botan here. We seem to have gotten some new people, so I wanted to introduce myself and what I'm able to do to help you make the most of your life here.

[Well isn't that nice, pretty nice for a strange lady with bright blue hair and fuschia eyes.]

Mostly I run a sweets shop over in Goldenrod, I've been vacationing on the islands but I'm ready to come back and reopen it soon. You can always get something nice for you or your Pokemon to eat or even seek work if you wish. My other services include interpreting Pokemon and mediating between them and their trainers, most especially Ghost types. I have a certain talent for communicating with them and understanding what they say. ...I know in particular ghosts can be troublesome ones, can't they? [She laughs again, rather jovial for someone talking about actual ghosts.] In any case, please do always feel free to contact me for anything, my door is always open!

[And the feed just ends there. Apparently people can have days in this world where they aren't distressed or reacting to something strange in the nature of the world.]

Comments

[forsaintcecilia]

Oh-- Uh, I'm sorry about that, Azuma. I'm sure she didn't mean it like that...

[Azuma shakes his head. She obviously doesn't know what she's talking about.]

Right, this is Azuma! I caught him awhile ago in Lavender Town, in a graveyard. I think he was guarding one of the graves there. I would have left him, but he was causing trouble for the visitors there.

[styxiedust]

I'm sorry, indeed, Azuma-kun. I think insulting is how she shows concern.

[Hisoka just huffs, puffing up her feathers and turning away. Buffoonish prole. Botan...tries to laugh it off, petting the bird gently.]

Are you comfortable telling me what was in the graveyard, Azuma-kun? Someone you knew, perhaps?

[forsaintcecilia]

[Azuma opens one eye to regard Botan, as if weighing his options... Then he turned his head back towards the camera.]

Nobody else would have given her an offering.

[styxiedust]

[Ah. A lonely grave?]

Is that why you were giving visitors trouble, as well? Or, I suppose you were trying to get their attention. [As an aside to Kazuki:] He said nobody else would have given "her" an offering. I'm assuming that means the grave he was watching over.

[forsaintcecilia]

Ah, yeah! He had put a bunch of purple flowers all over it.

[Azuma breathes a small sigh in his feathered chest.]

I don't want their attention. Nobody cared about her when she was alive, so why should I care for them?

[styxiedust]

So then, it was more of a resentment thing towards the people on your end? Azuma-kun, I think your trainer would be happy to take you to her grave and give offerings periodically. He just has to know that, he can't understand if you don't try to convey it to him. Does that make sense?

[It's quite sad, but this is the kind of thing Botan wants to resolve between Pokemon and people.]

He said "nobody cared about her when she was alive, so why should I care for them?" He seems to have quite a history in Lavender.

[forsaintcecilia]

The orphanage that told me about him said he'd been causing problems for awhile. I didn't mean to take him away from a place that was important to him or anything... I'll take you back there whenever you want, okay?

[Kazuki's earnest nature had gotten through to Azuma a little, and he wasn't as outright cold as he was at the beginning. But he still seemed depressed.]

...I used the flowers to become like this, but I still could not join her in the afterlife.

[styxiedust]

...I can't go there, either. Beings like us in between just don't belong in Heaven.

[--Her Oricorio gives her a strange look, whapping her lightly with a wing to snap Botan out of her moment of relating to the grieving Pokemon. ...She decides against telling Kazuki what was said, for the sake of Azuma's privacy.]

If you would, I think that'd improve your bond with him. Maybe over time he'll open up more, feel less...lost and alone.

[forsaintcecilia]

[Azuma's head-feathers perk up just slightly at Botan's words, and he looks her in the eye for the first time. Perhaps someone could truly understand... He was a Pokemon, and he did not wish for death, but he felt trapped between worlds as well.]

I can take him whenever now that we know how to fly! Right?

[styxiedust]

[Given the look back, yes, she knows. It's impolite to drop "I'm a psychopomp equivalent to what's called a reaper for your human friend there I'm not dead or alive and don't belong in either plane" in the middle of a conversation unrelated to her own identity, however.]

I believe it! Won't that be nice, Azuma-kun? You can visit whenever you like now.

[forsaintcecilia]

Yeah! Just let me know when you want to, okay?

[Azuma relents, sighing deep in his birdy chest. It was very hard to remain gloomy when your trainer was so zealous, and earnestly trying to help.]

Does the pain every truly go away?

[styxiedust]

While it'd be lovely to have a definite "yes, it'll stop hurting" answer, that would be a lie. It never stops hurting when you lose someone, that's a part of you that's opened up and needing time to heal. The pain lessens, you learn to cope with it, the grief does not actually end.

All you can do is keep moving forward.

[How honest, how terrible is the pain this Pokemon expresses. Of course every trainer knows that Pokemon are intellectually capable of emotions just like humans, but actually seeing something like grief in what's essentially an animal is heartbreaking.]

He asked me if the pain ever goes away.

[forsaintcecilia]

Aww, buddy...

[It didn't look like Azuma was terribly fond of being called "buddy", but as Kazuki raised his hand to stroke his head, he relented and let himself be touched.]

I'm sorry. About everything you had to go through. But we can keep going forward together now, yeah?

[Azuma sighed again, this time more comically put-upon.]

I've become attached to an optimistic fool.

[styxiedust]

I know the feeling, Azuma-kun, some people just sneak up on you that way.

[Fondly said. Humans are such strange and interesting beings, aren't they?]

And I'm glad that you're so supportive of your friend, Kazuki-kun. I hope I was able to answer your questions about him well enough!

[forsaintcecilia]

Yeah! That really helped a lot-- thank you, Botan!

[Even Azuma inclined his head slightly. It was good to talk to someone, even if they were human-shaped.]