thevoidsdarkhorse | Heart Game (Continued)

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From:

pawper

[Yes please since she's been flying by the seat of her pants

as carrying continues:]

Why did you help me? Aren't you hungry, too?

From:

thevoidsdarkhorse

[Patience, patience.]

[Time fast forwards, you're home, you're safe, helping the Carapacian treat your own injury, and they explains. Explains that there is a difference between Dersites and Prospitans. How you're a 'Dreamer' though the term confuses you, and how a Prospitan must never harm one, but for Dersites it's more just really, really bad form to do so before the start of the end. It's confusing, but you understand a few basic things.]

[When Carapacioans are hungry, they have a harder time controlling themselves, and they're all basically starving.]

[The reason you're protected is because of some role you don't understand and not because it's you and that HURTS more than the teeth did in your skin.]

[And no matter what, you are never completely safe outside your house.]

[Hydra is herself again, and she's in the basement. There's Roxy, only five years old, a bandage wrapped around her leg, and sorting through cans of food with a grim determination.]

From:

pawper

[depressing shit, that

.....ah, she remembers tiny roxy

so she knows to sit down quietly, put her hands where they can be fully seen, and say, slowly:]

Roxy.

From:

thevoidsdarkhorse

[This one is even tinier too.]

[And she jumps, like a startled rabbit, and whips around to face Hydra with wide, fearful eyes.]

From:

pawper

[she was expecting that, so she remains still]

I won't hurt you. I'm not even going to move without your okay.

[it's said slowly, calmly, sincerely, backed up by totally unguarded body language; she thinks about turning into a wolf, or at least trying to, but it doesn't seem like this roxy would remember anything to do with that]

From:

thevoidsdarkhorse

[The slow is appreciated. She flinches as she talks, a hand moving to her ear, and it takes a bit longer for her to parse out the words. She's not used to being TALKED AT and needing to RESPOND, always having all the time in the world.]

[But she makes the motions and don't move! Don't move at all, I can totally fight!!!]

From:

pawper

[she just nods]

I know.

[to double check, does she have her weapons again]

From:

thevoidsdarkhorse

[Yes she does. Not!tiny gets to have sharp things.]

[Gestures, demanding, who are you.]

From:

pawper

My name's Hydra. I know you when you're older.

[A pause.]

Also, I have a sword and a knife with me. You can have them for now, if you want.

From:

thevoidsdarkhorse

[WEAPONS!!!!]

[Toss them to the corner!!!]

From:

pawper

[She tosses them to the corner! Then settles her hands on her knees and waits for Roxy's response.]

From:

thevoidsdarkhorse

[She moves so there's a wall of CANS between her and Hydra. Protect me, Can Town.]

[And just....GLARING at her suspiciously.]

O....old?

From:

pawper

[believe whatever calms your bitty kokoro]

Yeah. Um, in the future. Maybe that's hard to believe, but it's true. We're friends.

[friends with dokis]

From:

thevoidsdarkhorse

[None can take on the power of Can Town. It is all knowing, all seeing, all powerful.]

[...friends...?]

[What is this magical word you speak of.]

From:

pawper

Uh huh, friends! You, the older you, she's helped me a lot.

[the most painfully sincere honesty, to the point where she has to blink away a sudden tear or two]

So....so I'd like to help you, now.

From:

thevoidsdarkhorse

....

I.....d....did?

From:

pawper

[nodding]

You...she....I wouldn't have learned how to be happy, without that help.

From:

thevoidsdarkhorse

[Tilts her head. How?]

From:

pawper

It's a really long story.

[and a little hard to summarize]

But, at first, I didn't know anything about being a person. I thought there was nothing special about me......I thought it wasn't important if I got hurt. I thought my life didn't matter.

You taught me how to think differently, that it was okay to think differently. To....to be alive in a way that was really living. You considered me to be important. You thought it was worth it to care about me.

[crying a little more, unable to help it]

From:

thevoidsdarkhorse

[O-oh.]

[That]

[That actually is really good to hear? Because her own sense of self has been brought into question. If she mattered, if she was important, but...she taught someone that? Didn't that mean...she knew?]

[Slowly, slowly she moves out from the cans, approaching her.]

From:

pawper

[She's trying to blink away the tears, keeping her hands where they are so as not to break her promise of not moving except when Roxy said she could. Her vision is blurred, but she smiles a trembling little smile.]

I'm really glad to have met you, Roxy.