victory_road | (no subject)

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Hypothetically speaking, is it ever okay to steal a pokemon? Unrelated second question -- what's a better name, Chief or Sarge?

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[Her expression softens as that definitely confirms her suspicions, that Riz's dad is no longer among the living.]

What was he like? Your dad?

[Her tone soft and sympathetic. She knows all too well what it's like to lose a father.]

He was so cool. When I was little, I thought he was like... an accountant or something [He shakes his head for a moment, with a fond smile. He had never been told Pok was an accountant or anything. That was just a conclusion his child brain had drawn.] but he was actually a secret agent. He'd sneak in places as a Goblin, just pretend to be a random underling and carry out whatever the mission was.

[And he still does it, just for Heaven now. But Riz can't talk about that. Nothing against Bo, he just has no idea if Kalina can still monitor everything he says and does. Who even knows how being in this world affects that particular clusterfuck.

After a short pause Riz adds]

He died when I was nine.

[Hearing him talk about his dad that way brought a faint smile to her face. Clearly Riz deeply admired him, and missed him.]

He sounds amazing.

[Riz had been so young too.

It was hard talking about such loss, she knew that. So she didn’t press him. Riz would tell her whatever he felt comfortable with sharing. So instead of prying further or changing the subject, she offered him a bit of herself in return.]

I was six when my father died.

Oh.

[Riz hasn't really met a lot of people who have lost their parents too. Fabian, yes, but that was when he was a teen. It was... different and not different all at the same time.

One thing Riz does know is that nothing you can say makes it better. If anything, a lot of what you can say can just make it feel worse. So, all he does say is]

That sucks.

[Because if there is one thing that is true when you lose your dad before you even need all your fingers to count your age is that is fucking sucks.]

[No. Nothing makes it better, that much is true.]

It does.

[Acknowledging the fact that it sucks.]

With time it will fade, as does everything. Do your best to hold on to his memory.

[For her it’s been so long. She was now older than her father had been. Bo’s memories are fuzzy, and she found it difficult to even remember his voice despite her best efforts.]

[Oh, Riz has certainly been trying to. Unfortunately, it's also very hard. He has pictures, of course, so he can't exactly forget what his dad looked like, but there are other details that are becoming far more fuzzier as time goes on. The pictures help him remember his dad as a still image, but it is much harder to remember him in motion, the way his smile got a little goofy when they were all joking around or how he'd pull his mom into a dance whenever he'd heard something nice on the radio.

Riz isn't even sure if meeting him in Heaven helped at all. Sure, it meant seeing him again, but now Riz feels like he's scrambling to cling onto both his old memories and the new ones.

(he's really going to have to figure out some way of getting Ayda to plane-shift him to heaven ever so often.)]

Easier said than done.

I know.

[She knows that all too well. There were still holo recordings of her father that Bo could look at, at one point. But of course it wasn’t the same as having him there in person. They’ve also all now been destroyed. While she had a few fond memories of him, she had been very young. Only a few particular instances stuck out in her mind while the rest of it was a blur.]

Anyway, I’ll be back in a few days. We can talk more then if you like. I’ve also got something planned for all of you. Hope you like food.

Trust me, there isn't a single thing you could make I wouldn't eat.

[He sounds proud of that too. And why wouldn't he be! Being voracious and not very discerning is a point of pride for goblins.]

Good. Then this should be a treat for you.

[Having a voracious appetite is exactly what she’s hoping for. That’s the point of a feast after all, to eat as much as you can possibly stand.]

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