semper_cogitans: (-.-)

[personal profile] semper_cogitans 2012-04-18 09:20 am (UTC)(link)
[A few seconds pass this way, them both faced away from each other, weeping softly into their hands. They tick by to the sounds of ragged, wet breathing, of desperate attempt to control emotion.

Robert finally regains his composure enough to sob once, push his glasses up a little to wipe his eyes on the back of his hand, and then take one shuddering breath.]


... D-Don...

... a-a-am I... truly good for you, if... if th-this is... wrong to your p-perspective...?

Do you w-want this...? Do you want... me?

[The last person who said "You don't know me" left him.

And that was five years ago.]
i_speak_softly: (So sad.)

[personal profile] i_speak_softly 2012-04-18 11:50 am (UTC)(link)
[Don keeps his eyes covered. If he looks, he won't be able to say what needs to be said.]

Robert, there is no right for me. This is the best I get. Are you okay with that?
semper_cogitans: (:<)

[personal profile] semper_cogitans 2012-04-18 04:26 pm (UTC)(link)
[Softly:] A-All I want is... for you to be h-happy...

And, if... if I am... f-failing to make you happy, then... [Then he's not doing a good enough job.]

I do not w-want to fail you, Don... I l-love you...
i_speak_softly: (But if you ask my opinion -)

[personal profile] i_speak_softly 2012-04-18 08:48 pm (UTC)(link)
[Don looks now, trying to meet Robert's gaze. He wants the man to know how true this is.]

You make me so happy, you've raised my standards of happy to levels I wouldn't have even imagined two years ago. You didn't fail; you graduated.
semper_cogitans: (D:>)

[personal profile] semper_cogitans 2012-04-19 01:45 am (UTC)(link)
[This is slightly reassuring; despite this, though, Robert's smile is... broken-edged.]

B-But... then this... it is c-clearly a problem...

[Is it an insurmountable one?]
i_speak_softly: (Uncomfortable)

[personal profile] i_speak_softly 2012-04-19 02:17 am (UTC)(link)
[Don hugs himself, but doesn't look away.]

I've been keeping things from you, and I'm sorry. I know they'll be hard for you to understand, but... it's wrong of me to not even give you a chance.

[He studies Robert's expression.]

I want you to know everything. It's my own fault that you don't already.
semper_cogitans: (:|)

[personal profile] semper_cogitans 2012-04-19 02:21 am (UTC)(link)
[... oh. That... that would explain things, then.

Robert visibly deflates, but he nods, tersely.]


... I... I have c-come to... accept many things here that... I w-would not have accepted before, Don...

... I will... at least listen. I owe you... that much.

[And though he wants to cling to his Terran mannerisms - or, what is left of them - especially hard after this experiment...]

... Perhaps... we should b-both share more of ourselves...
i_speak_softly: (Facing away)

[personal profile] i_speak_softly 2012-04-19 02:26 am (UTC)(link)
[... It's going to be okay.]

[Don moves over to the tree, pries his shuriken out of it with a practiced twist, and vanishes the projectile back into his elbow pad.]


Do you know how much you've changed, since I met you?

[He was shaken by how much he'd moved on from his own former life, and Robert didn't get that first-hand comparison.]
semper_cogitans: (:<)

[personal profile] semper_cogitans 2012-04-19 02:29 am (UTC)(link)
[Robert shakes his head a little; with a twinge of regret and shame - if he doesn't know Don entirely now, he certainly can't say that he knows what Don was like before.]

... if... this p-place changed you as much as it... changed me...
i_speak_softly: (Zaa)

[personal profile] i_speak_softly 2012-04-19 02:32 am (UTC)(link)
[Don leans back against the tree, and looks up through the branches with their new leaves.]

It hurt. Being home.
semper_cogitans: (:|a)

[personal profile] semper_cogitans 2012-04-19 02:34 am (UTC)(link)
[Robert looks up too, more out of reflex than anything. The air feels cold on his still-wet cheeks.]

... It... hurt...?

... Why?
i_speak_softly: (When I look to the sky)

[personal profile] i_speak_softly 2012-04-19 02:40 am (UTC)(link)
[Still looking thoughtfully at the sky:]

I was injured and starving and this - [He jerks a thumb over his shoulder at his carapace.] - was a mess and I had never realized how bad it felt. It was dark and the refrigerator was empty and everything I owned had been salvaged from the garbage and I couldn't go outside. April called and she's an amazing person but she'll never see me the way you do. I thought I knew why but... now I'm afraid it's something else.

[He'll stop there; it seems like enough.]
semper_cogitans: (:<)

[personal profile] semper_cogitans 2012-04-20 12:58 am (UTC)(link)
[...

... What does Robert say to that?

He's silent for a few long seconds, like heartbeats.

He knew Don's life had been hard, before. That he'd been in poverty; that he'd been isolated and alone, separate from so many things Robert had taken for granted growing up. That even most people take for granted...

... But to have it spelled out like that, in such bleak, frank words, really hits home.]


... Don, I... [What can he say to that?]
i_speak_softly: (I wish I could)

[personal profile] i_speak_softly 2012-04-20 01:08 am (UTC)(link)
[He tips his head to the side, to see Robert's reaction.]

That's some of what I wanted you to know. About my life before Luceti.
semper_cogitans: (D:>)

[personal profile] semper_cogitans 2012-05-06 12:23 pm (UTC)(link)
[Well, it certainly worked.]

... I... I wish I could have... d-done something for you. [Anything. Anything to help Don's family out of that.]

... It is... unfair, that your family - your w-wonderful family - was... living in such conditions...
i_speak_softly: (So sad.)

[personal profile] i_speak_softly 2012-05-12 01:47 pm (UTC)(link)
[Don shrugs; he doesn't want to go down that path.]

It was what it was.

Do you want to tell me anything about yours?
semper_cogitans: (:|a)

[personal profile] semper_cogitans 2012-05-23 06:04 pm (UTC)(link)
[What does he remember about the beautiful world he visited with Mewtwo?]

... Mewtwo... took me to visit Kanto.

Though... he was, er, preoccupied. So to speak. I have the impression that, had we had more time, he would have... not hesitated in chasing the woman I encountered early on with him... She was dangerous, and... succeeded in immobilizing several Trainers at once, but... there was little we could do.

So... we spent the time exploring the planet, instead...
i_speak_softly: (Facing away)

[personal profile] i_speak_softly 2012-05-26 01:51 am (UTC)(link)
[Don is silent, waiting for Robert to continue. Visiting a planet full of strange creatures sounds like every astrobiologist's dream.]
semper_cogitans: (-w-)

[personal profile] semper_cogitans 2012-05-29 04:20 am (UTC)(link)
[In a way, it was. Robert's expression softens as he continues.]

... Kanto is... beautiful, Don. So... so expansive, and the forests are... p-pristine...

... And the sheer variety of Pokémon - the general term for the organisms there - is... enormous.

... I still... r-remember many of their names. [From when he "studied" them.]
i_speak_softly: (This is my grim and serious look.)

[personal profile] i_speak_softly 2012-05-30 01:50 am (UTC)(link)
[Something occurs to him.]

You remember living there.
semper_cogitans: (:|)

[personal profile] semper_cogitans 2012-06-04 12:01 am (UTC)(link)
Yes. [Robert's face is distant now - almost faraway.] I remember Cerulean well... almost as if I had been truly born there.

My memory... does not allow me to forget easily.
i_speak_softly: (So sad.)

[personal profile] i_speak_softly 2012-06-04 01:33 am (UTC)(link)
I know. I have the same thing.
semper_cogitans: (:<)

[personal profile] semper_cogitans 2012-06-04 08:34 pm (UTC)(link)
[It hurts, doesn't it? And yet...]

... The worst part is... missing Hematite. I know he... was never truly real, and... and y-yet...

[To have that taken from him...]
i_speak_softly: (I forgot)

[personal profile] i_speak_softly 2012-06-06 02:11 am (UTC)(link)
Your, um... I'm sorry. [He can't remember what it's called.]
semper_cogitans: (-w-)

[personal profile] semper_cogitans 2012-06-14 12:36 am (UTC)(link)
Magnemite. [He still remembers the technical detail.] Thirty centimetres tall... six kilograms... Electric/Steel type...

[The moves they could learn. The places they were wild in Kanto. What they evolve into. It's all there, in his head, just like it was meant to be...]