awesmazings | Voicemail

_{[There's a nod. She recognises a few of those names but she doesn't really think to elaborate on that fact.]}

You should tell me when you have a show next time. So I can watch.

I will! I'm hoping we might have one this month or the next, actually, since we came back home. Joker must want to start getting ready for our next show.

[Jimmy slows once they reach the rooms for performers, making his way over to his designated space.]

Here, I'll pull out another cot for you so you won't have to use a sleeping bag or something.

_{[She lets him go and carefully sets her backpack down on the floor, setting Aria down on top of it.]}

I can help.

_{[She'd like to, really.]}

[Jimmy shrugs his own bag from his shoulders onto his cot, nodding as he points to one of the folded up ones by the wall.]

Help me unfold this then, 'kay? Just grab the other end and pull-

[He grunts as he drags it around, stepping past Leader as he gets a grip on the top edge.]

_{[Coming up to him and grabbing the other edge, she nods at Jimmy when she has a good grip, and then decides they should count it down. So she just does.]}

Okay, one, two, three.

[Jimmy pulls hard on three, and the cot snaps open with a sharp crack. After that, he gets it pulled next to his own with Molly's help.]

There. It's not a hotel or anything, but it's better than the floor.

It's okay. It's good.

_{[She goes to get her backpack - Aria climbs up her arm again - and sits down on the cot, next to the little pile of blankets and stuff it had inside, and hugs her backpack to her and just regards Jimmy for a moment.]

[She really is grateful he's letting her stay there. It probably shows, but she's still more subdued than normal.]}

Can I ask you something?

[Jimmy gets to work getting his own straightened up as he answers her, smoothing out the wrinkles of the surface before sitting down on the edge.]

Sure! What's up?

Did you have like ... a power or something back home?

Ha, I wish! Wouldn't that be awesome...

[He shakes his head a little, resting his forearms across his knees.]

I mean, I guess if you count that one time me, Beezy, and Heloise were super heroes...but we don't really have real powers or anything.

_{[She gnaws on the inside of her cheek for a moment.]}

A lot of people I talked to here had powers. But they don't work here.

[He nods.]

Oh yeah. Anybody who's got a power of some kind loses it here. And everybody turns human, too.

[He knows that from personal experience.]

_{[That's a weird thing to say, about turning human, but she only reflects on that for a moment. She hasn't met anybody who wasn't human yet. As far as he knows.]

[She's quiet for another little moment and then says with a small, troubled frown,]} I miss my power.

[He raises his eyebrows a little, sitting up straighter.]

...you have powers back home?

Mhm.

_{[She nods, and moves to pick up Aria to hold in both her hands, which she's leaning on the top of the backpack. Something to occupy herself. She's not quite looking at him, but she's obviously comfortable enough to share despite that.]}

Just one. I only know about one person who had more than one.

Wow...

...what can you do?

I can find people.

If I think about them I can see them in my head. What they're doing and ... and where they are.

_{[She glances up at him, something a little pained about it.]}

But it doesn't work so I don't know if people are okay.

...so that's what you meant. When you say you can't see Shaun...

[Jimmy's voice quiets a little as he plays with the edge of his jacket.]

_{[Another small nod, shoulders tensing a little.]}

I can't see anyone.

I wish I could see people back home so I know they're safe but I can't see them either.

[The boy falls silent for a moment, watching Molly but not making eye contact, since she's not looking his way.]

Since time doesn't pass while we're here, things won't...get better or worse, for them. I don't know what's happening for you back home, but...that I know is true.

I know it's...gotta be scary, having something like that taken away from you.

Someone told me that. So I know nothing is happening, but ... but I still wish I could see them.

_{[Stroking over Aria's feathers with her fingers, she breathes in slowly and looks up at him again.]}

It's not fair.

I know. I'm sorry, Molly.

[And he really is, too. While he might not fully understand or comprehend what she's going through, he feels sympathy for her all the same. That's just how he is.]

I know you're worried about your friends, and family. About Shaun...and me, like when I fell asleep a couple months ago. But...

[He falters, putting one shoe on top of the other as he tries to think of how to talk to her without saying something wrong that might upset her.]

But...you also gotta trust us. Even if you can't see us all the time or know if we're doing okay...you know that we know what to do if we get into trouble. Here, our Pokemon can protect us.

[Leader nudges his head into Jimmy's hand as he says that, snuffling at his fingers with a low whine.]

And Shaun...he's prolly got a family back home that's watching over him right now, yaknow? Or friends that care a whole lot about him. I'm not saying you shouldn't worry...but I am saying that you should try not to let it be the only thing you think about.

He didn't want to go home.

_{[Aria burrows gently into her fingers and Molly closes her hands over her in a subtle game they've played before. She does feel upset, for all the care Jimmy's putting into his word choices, and her tone is getting strained again for that reason, but it's not the same upset as before. It's not the panicky kind. It's just ... just the normal upset kind.]

[Or okay, that's not entirely true - there's something kind of defensive and stubborn about it too, along with an insistency that maybe shouldn't be there.]}

And there are bad guys here, too. What if something happens?

[Jimmy winces, but he looks away quickly in the hopes that Molly doesn't notice the shift in his expression. He and Shaun didn't talk enough for him to know exactly what his life was like. He responds, slowly.]

...I don't know. I don't think I can answer that.

[If he had been talking to Molly when he first got here, he would have blindly assured her that everything was going to be fine. But he's lived in Johto long enough to know that things happen that you just...can't control. And he doesn't want to give her false hope. He knows she's smarter than that.]

That doesn't mean something bad will happen, though.

_{[And Molly, while she's a remarkably resilient little kid, has kind of come to expect the worst. She knows the good guys usually win. Sometimes. But she knows things are hard, and that there are risks, and that things are dangerous, and she's seen too many bad things to not ... well, it's not like she always expects them, she doesn't actively fear them.]

[But she's so, so aware of the possibility tha they might. That they can.]

[And that's why she's so worried that if she can't see people, she just won't know. And not be able to help. Maybe if she'd known before ...]}

But it can. And if it does and nobody knows what's happening then maybe it's too late.

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