Backdated to the weekend Beach Party and Birthday Log! \o/

[fierybluebird]

[Marco runs around setting everything up. There's platters of food laid out -- more than enough and some extra as a habit from dealing with Ace and 1600 pirates, a boombox with tons of music, beach volleyball set up, a campfire, and according to Selphie and Marco, fireworks for later. GO NUTS. There will be some threads set up, but you can make your own or do anything! Just remember if the thread gets wild, mark it as NSFW.]

Comments

[corruptedsouls]

Thanks.

[Tobias tries to lean into the hug as best he can, looking at the little Lance!figure with an odd expression. He doesn't know why, but... it kind of hurts. Even if he only ever fought the man in the Elite 4, even if he just saw him that once in the cave, it's only being able to think clearly that Tobias can understand what Lance had done.

Lance had gone in to find him knowing the dangers. He had tried to help for Tobias' own good. And when the accident happened and he was dying in the most agonizing way Tobias could think of, Lance used the last bit of his strength to make it clear that he never blamed Toby. That scar Tobias held, that guilt and sick feeling and pain, it was something that would probably never go away. But Lance, even in that way, was important. Because...

Lance was the first person who wasn't afraid of him. Even dying, he was never afraid. He never hated.

And Tobias can't let him fall away and be forgotten. Not this time.]

...He was really strong, you know? His Pokemon loved him a lot, and even after I won, he was smiling. I think he liked us.

[espio]

[He's not sure what to say. What can he say? "Maybe he lives on in another world"? "It's a shame things went the way they did"? "He'd be happy to know you remembered him that way"? No. That was... just inconsiderate.

He feels like he has to say something, though. He'll have to go for honesty.]

I don't know what to say.

Just that... he's not a person you'd want to forget, even if it hurts to remember. Right? It means a lot.

[corruptedsouls]

I don't know what to say either.

[It's the truth, really. There's just nothing in his mind to say about Lance. Even if he holds some hope that, maybe, Time Compression will bring him here some day so he can say he's sorry, say anything...

It's not something even he can believe in. That one dark spot in his heart that even his innocent nativity can't stretch to.]

He... was the first person who wasn't scared of me. And even when it happened... he didn't hate me either. I... just don't want him to disappear completely.

[Ack. Tobias rubs his face on his sleeve, trying to dry it off. He hadn't even realized he'd been crying a little.]

[espio]

I know you don't.

[Squeezes, hopefully reassuringly. He can't even say something stupid like "he'd like the sand-portrait!" because, well... that's stupid.]

And I'm glad you don't.

There are people who'd run away from that memory because, well... it hurts. It takes strength to look back and see the value, despite the pain.

[corruptedsouls]

Yeah... I wanted to do that a lot. But...

I don't want to be forgotten anymore. So I don't think he would either. And... I'm the only one here who saw him. But maybe if I talk about him... he won't go away forever.