victory_road | Track 4 - [Video] (backdated to the 16th)

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Track 4 - [Video] (backdated to the 16th)

Guuuuuys?

_{[Maurice's voice comes from off-camera. It's thick and slurred. Somebody has spent most of his festival time drinking. The Poke'Gear is pointed at a strange, strange creature crouched outside a Cherrygrove Poke'Mart.]

[A frog.]

[A normal, albeit ghostly, earth frog.]}

What does it want!? It even followed me into the bathroom! I can't deal with this! Dee? Hanna?

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Is that a normal frog?

[Hanna hadn't seen any normal animals around here since he'd arrived.] You'll be okay, It's not going to hurt you!

IT HOPPED THROUGH A WALL, HANNA!

Wait...Is that your ghost?

[What the fuck. He hasn't seen any animals following people around. Just...people. Now he's really confused. But also very interested.]

What the hell, okay. Um. don't panic. Where are you? I can help.

I'm just outside th' Poke'MART!

_{[That last word turns into a shriek as the little frog takes a lazy hop toward him. Maurice stumbles as he jumps and nearly drops his Poke'Gear.]}

Okay, okay, I'm coming. Don't freak out! They're not dangerous, Maurice. I promise.

[Not that he's seen anyways. In any case, he'll pack up shop from where he and Amelia were training and jog back into town.]

ITS GONNA TAKE MY SOUL TO THE BOG BEYOND!

_{[Sure enough, Maurice is shuffling anxiously through town with his little green-gray shadow following him hop by hop. He almost runs straight into Hanna and his bat friend.]}

Oh God!

[Hanna is quite thankful Maurice doesn't run into him since he would have been bowled right over. Amelia squeaks in concern but Hanna waves at her, knowing it's fine.]

Didn't I tell you not to freak out? Come on, really. The frog won't hurt you. It's just...lost. Lost and stuck, a little like we are here.

[He smiles hopefully.] Feel a little better?

I'm sorry! I'm sorry!

_{[He flails a little to regain his balance and hops anxiously from foot to foot, trading glances between Hanna and the frog. Which hops steadily closer. Silent. Watching. Knowing.]}

What! No! No, I don't feel any better!

[Okay, color him severely confused.] Why are you do afraid of this thing?

I don't get what's so upsetting about a frog...

Not only is it a ghost frog that I'm responsible for but it's a SAD LOST ghost frog! It's going to haunt me for the rest of my days and probably drown me in the toilet!

[Hanna isn't sure how a frog would drown him in the toilet, but he's sure that is some wild imaginings going on in that blonde head of his.]

Uh...So you killed it. But that happens, like. Things die... And I honestly doubt it's like you did it on purpose. That frog probably had a good life, and it didn't even know it was gone when it went.

Well no! It never hurt anyone! But if I wasn't so busy feeling sorry for myself and looking where I was going, I never woulda stepped on it!

_{[Maurice tears his eyes away from the frog to finally look at Hanna. He's a MURDERER.]}

[Hanna makes a face. This is so...simple. It's hard to believe that out of everyone he's met, all the close relationships, the friends, the fathers, the mothers, the brothers that have appeared to haunt people, Maurice has a frog. He feels guilty about a frog.

What do you even say to a frog? It can't comprehend, can't understand the guilt that's going through Maurice's head right now.] But you were, and you can't change that...it's..it happened.

[He swallows. Why is he suddenly feeling really messed up. He doesn't want to turn around and look at Conrad while he's saying this. He looks at the frog instead.] That frog...it doesn't even know all the shit you're going through because of what you did. So why hold onto it? You've learned a lesson so...maybe move on? Forgive yourself?

_{[Maurice huffs and puffs and gestures as grandiosely as he can at the little brown frog to try to drive the point home but...his arms fall limp. Hanna does have a point. He can't un-kill the frog. And he'd already said he was sorry over and over, even to the poor thing's corpse back when it originally happened.]

[Why didn't he?]}

I don't know...

_{[He'd done way worse things than step on a frog.]}

I need a drink.

[There were so many things that Hanna could say. He saw the gestures, he knew that feeling. Like...nothing you could do would ever make up for what you did.

He swallows again. God...this whole ordeal has been hard. He's been avoiding the problem, and now that he's face to face with it, it's kind of frustrating that he's only now getting what he's been avoiding what was staring him straight in the face.]

You know...I get it. I really do.

A small thing can just, explode into something horrible and huge, and you don't even know what to do with it. It sits there...and it can follow you, and you don't want to let it go because how can you? There isn't anything you can do to make up for it...but maybe you can't. And that's okay too. Even if you don't think it is. It'll hurt more people the longer you hang on to it, I think.

[Have a confused ex-robot giving you the weirdest look.]

Is...is that it? Your ghost is a frog?

[That's it. That's all. He's seriously awed by that.]

MY ghost!? This thing doesn't belong to me! It belongs in the froggy beyond!

Yes, I understand that, but...it is a ghost that is following you, correct?

[Mettaton ducks to the side, revealing that he's being haunted too, by what looks like a floating sheet...with headphones...and teary eyes?

After a few moments, MTT's face reappears on the screen.]

See, that's what's following me. That's what I mean when I say "your ghost."

Anyway, I'm struggling to understand why a frog has decided to follow you, dear.

_{[Maurice has a hard time focusing on the poke'Gear because he's so busy keeping an eye on his amphibious apparition. The ghost that Mettaton gestures to looks far more like the ghosts Maurice is familiar with from cartoons or decorations.]

[For a short moment, Maurice is glad he isn't the only one being haunted. And then he launches right back into a panic. THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!]}

It's not even Halloween! Why is this happening!

I haven't the slightest idea!! Though I must ask you to define Halloween for me, if you've got a moment. Is it some human thing??

[This is seriously what he's fixating on. Yep. But to be fair, Mettaton has a habit of avoiding his current problems for absolutely anything else.]

Aaaaah I'm sorry! I'm not the best person to explain human stuff right now!

_{[He doesn't question what Mettaton used to be at the moment but he is curious.]}

ITS STILL HOPPING!

...Are you afraid of it because it is a ghost, or because it is a frog?

Neither are really all that frightening, I assure you. Just ignore it!! I'm ignoring my problem!

What are you talking about! Ghosts are terrifying! Haven't you see Poltergeist?

Maybe it wants to play with you.

[Frogs are pretty harmless, right? What's the absolute worst that could come from this advice?]

_{[Ghost Warts.]}

Well I don't wanna play with it!

You could try kissing it. Maybe it'll turn into a handsome prince.

[But then you'll have those ghost warts on your lips so you probably shouldn't.]

_{[Zack does Maurice a great service. He manages to get him to stop freaking out so that he can be pissy.]}

Wow thanks for your help.

No problem. Always happy to help.

[Who you gonna call? Not this dork.]

So, why's a frog got you all freaked out anyway?

I murdered it and now it wants to exact its froggy revenge! I don't wanna stick around to see what that revenge is!

You know, I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure you getting a wart is the worst that things gonna do.

Uhhhhh....

[Wow, that sure is a weird frog. Or rather, weird in how not-weird it was?]

...is that even a pokemon!?

NO! It's a Texas frog! It wants me dead!

[~~Is that like a Texas Smash?~~]

It... it's trying to kill you!? Wait, why is it even here?

[...was it also a pokemon trainer!?]

It wants revenge! All ghosts want revenge! It's like their thing!

Um, setting that aside, did you do something to it?

I...killed it. It was an accident. But it still shouldn't have happened.

That's... that's really sad. I'm sorry that happened. Has it... tried doing anything to you?

Well...uh...

_{[He glances aside at the frogghost.]}

Not. Really. But it's judging me. I can feel it!

Have you tried explaining to it? Apologizing?

Over and over!

Well... does it follow you if you try to leave?

[This is pretty creepy but if it's not actually doing anything...]

[Oh boy.]

Want me to come over and help you out, Maurice?

_{[It comes out in a wail.]}

Yeeee-eeeees!

Okay, okay. I’ll be there in a second, okay? Don’t panic. I’m sure the frog doesn’t want to hurt you or anything.

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Track 4 - [Video] (backdated to the 16th)

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