#19.3 Unravel
It had been some time since Agni felt this nervous. Not even talking with Jinsung Ha recently had made him feel like this. He fiddled with the mask on his hand as he waited for Grace to come back. He had thought hard on how to deliver the news, but he knew that no matter how he phrased it, Grace would be upset. Velt nuzzled under his palm and Agni gave her a few pats, before deciding that she would be better inside her bowl in his lighthouse, just in case the shinsu acted up around Grace after he received the news.
Grace came back wearing the comfiest shirt and shorts Agni knew Grace liked to wear on lazy days. He joined him on the floor, and they ate dinner together. Agni always finished last, so while waiting for him to finish his meal, Grace told him about his day with Bam. Grace was intrigued by how much his way of thinking had changed, and how glad he was to be able to be by Bam's side when he was having a bad day. It reminded Agni of the hidden floor, when Grace faced his sworn enemy.
They left the used bowls on the coffee table and went to brush their teeth. Afterwards, they turned off the light and went upstairs to sit on their bed. Grace's curious gaze never left him, and Agni curled his feet nervously.
Grace was the one who broke the silence. "So…what is it?"
Agni's breath hitched. This was the part he dreaded most. "I talked with the crocodile earlier. Did you know that he could manipulate stone already?"
"Huh." Grace needed a few seconds to let the information sink in. "Didn't Rak learn it on the Hell train? How does he know it?"
"Turns out our crocodile also traveled back to the past like us. He found the young crocodile and taught him."
"What?!" Grace gasped, wide eyed. "That means our Rak is–!!"
"He's dead." Agni quickly snuffed out that hope. They had been in delusion for long enough; it was time that they faced the bitter truth. "He suffered a fatal injury from the explosion. He couldn't have lasted long without proper help." Agni omitted the actual cause for Rak's death, but still kept his words true. "I'm sorry."
"…Oh." Grace looked lost, just like Agni was. His lips parted a little, but they closed before any sound escaped.
Agni gently squeezed Grace's hand, encouraging and comforting as he let the silence stretch on, giving Grace some time to process the information.
"Agni…" Grace whispered, "do you think Hatz and Isu…?"
Agni bit his lip and avoided his gaze, as the nightmare of that day replayed in his mind. He witnessed Hatz get his arms ripped off when trying to protect him. He could still recall the clang of a sword hitting the floor, and Hatz's suppressed scream that gnawed deep at his guilt. He witnessed Isu get beheaded after being taken hostage, the memory of warm blood painting them both still vivid like it happened yesterday.
Agni refused to acknowledge their possible deaths, because it felt like a nightmare that one day he could hopefully wake up from. He avoided the topic when Grace brought it up, so he wouldn't have to say it aloud and make it real. He had been so hard on himself, because he couldn't get rid of the feeling that he had failed Grace and everyone else involved.
Agni knew this had to change if he wanted to live better, now that they had gotten a second chance. So he swallowed down the lump in his throat that had built up over the years and asked mostly to himself; "What are the odds of their survival?"
"There's always a chance–"
"Grace." Agni looked him straight in the eye. "They were already severely injured before the explosion hit."
Grace fell silent and went still.
Agni felt a pang of guilt upon witnessing Grace's reaction. "Sorry. I didn't mean to snap." Agni fiddled with his hands. He realized that he didn't know how much Grace knew of what happened. "My scar…do you know how I got it?"
"I…was told it was from the family heads' battle." Grace looked thoughtful. Agni knew he was trying to be careful with his words. "A stray attack?"
"It could have been worse." The memory of the scorching heat on his skin felt like it had only happened yesterday. He passed out right when he was about to heal Isu, and only found out later that he also lost sweetfish at that time. The days he spent recovering from the burn, to withstand the excruciating pain every second he was conscious, and finally coming to terms that it'd be a permanent scar, was one of the turning points that had changed him forever. Were Grace not there to care for him, he might have ended up destroying himself even more.
Agni hadn't realized he had his left hand clawing on his cheek until Grace pried his hand off and frowned, "You're doing it again."
"Maybe I should wear the mask…" Agni muttered to himself. After all, Grace gave it to him less so he could hide the scar but more to prevent him from unconsciously hurting himself. The only time he could safely take it off was when Grace was around.
Agni bit his lip nervously when Grace didn't reply. He no longer had the courage to look Grace in the eye that spoke so much concern, so he leaned close and rested his head on Grace's chest. "Rak, Isu, Hatz and Hwaryun were trying to get me out of that damned place. But we were caught while escaping, and…it was a bloodbath. I was…too occupied to react to the incoming heat. Rak shielded us from the explosion. And when I woke up…"
"They weren’t with you," Grace finished it for him after Agni trailed off a moment too long.
Agni nodded dazedly, "I've been telling myself that they're still alive, after a blow that could kill rankers. But…who am I kidding? I was lucky enough to survive with just this little–" Agni vaguely pointed to himself– "inconvenience."
Agni felt a hand gripping his arm, and he pulled away to see Grace looking at him with a pained expression. His eyes were glossy and his lips were pulled into a thin line. Trusting his instinct, Agni reached out to gently trace and cup Grace's cheek with his free hand.
"I'm sorry," Agni muttered. "I'm sorry, for not telling you sooner."
Agni silently witnessed tears that streamed down on his love's face. It was a bitter sight that Agni wished he'd never have to see again, that he had tried to avoid for so long by not telling him. He pulled Grace in and held him close to his chest, as if Agni was trying to gather his own crumbled heart back together.
Grace mumbled their late best friends' names as he held onto him tighter, shaking from each breath he took between sniffles.
Agni felt his own eyes sting with unshed tears. He remembered the years he spent climbing the tower together with his old team. Despite their banter being his source of headaches, Agni knew he too had come to acknowledge them as his cherished friends. Only when they were gone did Agni realize how much he'd miss having them around. Seeing the younger them didn't exactly close the gaping hole in his heart, but at least the emptiness was more filled.
Agni squeezed Grace tighter. "We have their younger selves with us now. We will protect them better this time."
Grace only nodded and sank further into his embrace. And Agni planted kisses on his hair, relishing the thought that after everything he had gone through, Grace was still a constant in his life. As long as he had him, everything would be okay.
When Grace started shaking again, Agni caressed his hair and hummed a comfort song they had known by heart. Still, it didn't make falling asleep any easier for Agni, especially not after admitting that his nightmare was very much real. However, as he had been through grief…this, too, would pass.
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Hello. My name is Maria. I am a Faller hailing from Yharnam, a place that is comparatively far darker in a literal and figurative sense than this world. If you also hail from there, I would not mind commiserating. If you know of the name Yharnam from elsewhere, my condolences. If you are not familiar with it at all, I would not recommend requesting further information on it without being mentally prepared.
Out of a lack of anything better to do after Falling into the Johto region and a desire to do anything but think extensively upon my past, I embarked upon the local Gym Challenge. Since then, I have forged an alliance with a god considerably kinder than those I am familiar with, driven the cowards calling themselves Team Rocket out of that region, and defeated the previous Champion of the Indigo League.
While I am technically the new Indigo League Champion, I am not yet formally so due to the re-emergence of Team Rocket in the adjacent Kanto region. I will be putting an end to their schemes once and for all, for the machinations of Giovanni pale in comparison to the horrors I witnessed before Falling into this world.
My trainer card is attached above, for I've found that I look rather dashing in it even if the image refuses to embed itself properly, and my team is as follows:
Rakuyo (Meganium, X)
Hunter (Furret, F)
Molotov (Arcanine, M)
Adeline (Gengar, F)
Evelyn (Kingdra, F)
Eileen (Honchkrow, F)
My Gengar, Adeline, rather enjoys borrowing my Pokégear to make posts for herself or to provide additional commentary on my own. As she is considerably better versed in the technology of this world than I am, I have no qualms with this, and she favors the color purple.
I suppose that Silver does still count as my rival, even if the rivalry was always rather one-sided. She is twelve years old and as such does not borrow my blog often, but when she has occasion to, she uses blue. She is currently undercover and has requested that I and others refer to her as a girl until she no longer has need to be. She is a girl now and you will refer to her as such.
On occasion, Ho-oh utilizes this platform and blog to communicate with me and with others. They do so in bolded orange text, and have since chosen an additional name that they use interchangeably with that of their species: Solaire.
The first person I met in this world was a ten-year-old boy named Ethan. He introduced me to his mother, Reina, a woman who I hold in great esteem and bear much affection for. Though I do not anticipate either of them having much reason to use my blog again, both did appear in conjunction once—Reina using pink, and her son using yellow.
(Unfortunately, the color yellow seems to have been removed since then, and Ade is uncertain as to how one might go about restoring it. On the off chance Ethan does ever have reason to come here again, I suppose I will ask him what he would prefer instead.)
Recently, there was an... incident... where my Pokégear was stolen from me via Pelipper Mail, and delivered to a woman in the same world as I. This woman referred to herself as simply "Dee", favoring green text to differentiate her posts from my own, and did eventually return my device... if not face to face.
For the most part, I can only speculate as to what the truth about Dee may be, but I know she has some association with the individual who stole my Pokégear in the first place (whose messages were all sent in bolded red text, oddly enough) and I have reason to suspect that they may be a Faller from Yharnam as well.
I do not know why, or how, I have come here. I suppose it ultimately matters little; the people of Johto have shown me great kindness, and I have no intention of allowing Team Rocket to continue their heinous acts any longer. I simply have to locate them, first...
(OOC info under cut!)
Still @ofstormsandfire, still way too invested in my silly little pokeblog where I thought it would be funny to throw a bloodborne boss (and perhaps some others...) into the world of pokemon. I already had three pokeblogs, but I realized I could do really cool things with a faller blog, and I'm so normal about Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower, come closer.
Worth keeping in mind that Maria is an ex-Bloodborne boss (she lost her bossfight, that's how she got here) and so canon-typical themes for that will be unlikely to faze her as much as they would the average pokeblog or even the average faller. This includes, but isn't limited to: death, blood, cosmic horror, nightmares, probably some other things I'm forgetting. I do my best to tag for stuff but if you'd like me to tag for something else, just ask!
Some navigational tags for y'all (if I could figure out how to make them chronological, I would):
#firebird arc: I smashed together the Radio Tower plot and the Ho-oh plot, made the Kimono Girls more relevant, and also ramped up the stakes a little. Called that because Ho-oh is a firebird and also I'm 90% sure there's a kind of rocket called the Firebird. I like puns. I also put way too much effort into this and I regret nothing.
#from the ashes arc: I made Giovanni a significantly larger threat, threw a full on Rocket base into Tohjo Falls, and traumatized Silver a whole bunch. Please mind the tags on this one; someone dies here, though they don't stay that way for more than five minutes.
#kanto rocket arc: Remember what I said about Giovanni being a Threat? Team Rocket is actually up to more than a little petty crime in Kanto, and posts relating to that will be tagged with this.
#milf time and sonboy hours: The fairly brief takeover by Ethan and his mom (mostly his mom) on Valentine's Day. They might show up again sometime, you never know.
#passing stranger: Posts made by or in relation to someone known only to you, and to Maria, as "Dee" for the time being. While Dee's true identity is currently unknown, it seems that she knows Maria... even though Maria doesn't know her. (This tag will be reused; "Dee" will be returning, and you'll likely even know who she is by then!)
#rainbow wings: That time Ho-oh showed up on the blog specifically to tell Maria to take a break. Same tag is used whenever Ho-oh turns up now, which is not particularly often but does happen.
#what's with this sassy lost child?: The Silver takeover, as well as future posts by her. Has a Crobat. She's not sure how to feel about that one. Has also spent a nonzero amount of time attempting to steal Maria's drip via cosplay.
#ask game: Reblogs of ask games and responses to asks for said ask games. Fairly self-explanatory.
#hints to the future: Bits of prose foreshadowing things to come, because I got really into that one ask game with the gears. (I'm always open for that particular ask game, btw, no matter how long it's been since I last reblogged it. I can always think of something.)
#the vampire allegations: A couple of people made jokes about Maria being a vampire. Admittedly, she is from Cainhurst which is the closest Bloodborne gets to proper vampires, and I thought it would be really funny to have her be allergic to garlic for legitimately mundane reasons.
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