tapestodiane | 025

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025 - video

[It's probably been a while since the network heard from this guy. It's safe to say he's been preoccupied - between being lightly obsessed with Tetris, the Halloween possession thing happening (which actually affected him more than he cares to admit), the train hijacking and those three days ... he's had a lot to think about. And, in truth, still has.]

[But Christmas perked him up and with the new year just around the proverbial corner he's feeling like things just might get better, and you know what else never fails to lift his spirits?]

[Local wildlife.]

[That's right. So today the network is treated to a video of a group of trees. It's pretty early so the sunlight is warm and yellow and sparkles just so in the snow, and as the video sloooowly zooms in on one tree in particular ... you can see there's a Hoothoot snugly nestled in a hollow of the trunk, looking asleep and kind of ruffled up.]

[It's actually a very beautiful image, because Cooper has a tendency to catch them like that.]

[And then he zooms out. ...no, wait, he's zooming in again - a little closer this time, really focusing on that sleepy little owl. Despite his thing with birds, he can always appreciate them from a distance. And this little fellow is admittedly very cute.]

Look at that.

The spitting image of comfort. Right there.

[He sounds sort of breathless and utterly wistful, then zooms out again just for a pan of the scenery - snowy tree trunks and the little lake behind him. The water isn't all frozen yet so the sunlight gets to show off in the surface there, too, before Coop aims the gear back towards the bird and zooms in on it again.]

Almost makes you jealous, doesn't it?

[Action for anyone in Ecruteak! He's hanging out just on the edge of the forest, stalking the wildlife.]

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_{[Just be glad you're bigger and older than her, Cooper. If you were one of her little adopted siblings right now, you'd be so screwed.]

[Letting out a triumphant crow, she does manage to wriggle her legs out from underneath his-- the shifting snow aids in that. If she were any other person, she'd probably have abandoned the attack once she was free, but naaaaah. REVENGEANCE!]

[Although one wrist does get snagged, she just increases the assault on the poor man with the other, drawing her legs underneath her to prevent them from being sat on again. Meanwhile, her reply takes on an innocent singsong tone, as though she totally wasn't trying to tickle him to death.]}

Yeeees?

_{[To death? But Heather das murder.]

[Coop shakes his head in response, not managing anything more coherent than a sort of strangled "Stop it", which sounds kind of pathethic even to his own ears.]

[It's kind of difficult to pull off anything right now though, especially with the way he doesn't want to get up, all instincts still telling him to curl up and protect himself from the non-existant insects that are threatening his well-being.]

[But if he had cuffs, he would so cuff her and let her keep those on for a few hours. Because this? This is just unfair.]

[THAT SAID he draws his own legs up for protection and makes to push her with his feet the same way she did to him earlier, letting her go and hoping to regain a bit of breath.]

[Geez.]}

_{[THE BEST KIND OF MURDER.]

[When he pushes her away, she laughs and finally relents, scooting away to let him catch his breath and gather up his dignity a little, even if that might be hard to do with her sitting a few feet away and openly giggling at his expense.]

[Needless to say, she's insufferably smug.]}

I win.

_{[It's a good thing Coop isn't a sore loser. He's laughing too, shaking his head a little in the eve of his defeat - or something. He's going to have to watch her closely from now on. Protect his torso.]

[After clearing his throat rubbing the rest of the melty snow off his face and neck, he shoots her a look that probably says That was cruel, but the way he's still fighting a smile goes to show how much he minds.]}

Yeah, I guess you did.

_{[Aaaand as an afterthought,]} Please don't do that again.

_{[This would be a good idea. Because it's a pretty sure thing that Heather's not gonna forget about this. You don't emerge from the Otherworld alive without being the sort of person willing to constantly learn ways to get the edge on your opponent.]

[She just grins back at him like a big ol' cat that just got the canary.]}

Mm, I dunno...

Seems to me you could stand to laugh a bit more often.

I'd prefer to do it without shortage of breath.

_{[Which he points out very sensibly.]}

Aw gee, guess that means you oughta do it on your own a little more then, right Coop?

_{[UNLESS YOU WANT HEATHER TO HELP.]}

_{[..HE'LL MANAGE. He'll also be getting up now because snow is melting everywhere and getting kind of cold. He shoots her a look though, and there's a bit of fondness in it, somewhat subdued as her words remind him of Rainbow Dash and the way she'd always been pushing for the very same thing.]}

Point taken.

_{[She just grins back. Apparently getting her revenge erased any bitterness she may or may not have had towards Cooper for all his 'cheating'.]

[Hauling herself upright, she brushes snow off of her coat and jeans. In hindsight, she hadn't really dressed very well for a snowball fight. Investing in a REAL winter jacket would be a good idea, but eeeeeeh.]}

I make a pretty good point, if I do say so myself.

_{[Well, in her defense, that snowball fight had been pretty unexpected.]

[But still yeah that's probably a good idea.]

[He doesn't answer though, just finishes brushing off and makes sure he still has everything on him. It'd be kinda annoying to have to go on a pokégear hunt in the snow later, after all.]}

_{[That's true. She hadn't expected him to FIGHT BACK.]

[Grinning, she shoves her hands into her pockets, checks to make sure all her Pokeballs are still in place, and then starts walking. At some point they'd lost sight of the town over the hill, so she's heading in that direction.]}

So what were you doing, bird-watchin'?

_{[You know, before she'd shown up and RUINED EVERYTHING.]}

_{[He follows her when he's made sure he's got everything in place too, and throws her one of those bright wide grins in response at the question.]}

Caught sight of a Hoothoot.

_{[And he's STILL excited about wildlife, even after such a long time in Johto. Still just-a-bit breathless from their scuffle and the cold winter air, he gestures with a hand in front of him to really paint the picture.]}

All nestled up in a tree hollow, fast asleep. Looked the very image of undisturbed comfort.

_{[And she grins right back, although hers has the usual mischievous glint to it.]}

... Yeah, kinda like what you looked like.

_{[Right before she'd decided to plaster the back of his head with snow from a distance. c:]}

Those Hoothoot things've grown on me.

Henry's still terrified of 'em, though.

They take getting used to.

_{[Or in other words, he doesn't blame Henry.]}

Yeah, that they do.

_{[Although she seemed to have had an easier time than some.]}

... Do birds make you uncomfortable or something?

_{[She'd never TOTALLY forgotten his weird skittishness around Sunny-- she just hadn't known him well enough at the time to justify asking about it.]}

Yes.

_{[He answers easily enough, looking ahead with his head tilted up a bit, like he's surveying what lies beyond the small hill.]

[It's fact, not an admission. He knows she noticed back then - in all honesty, he'd reacted to the owl worse than he'd liked. But he often found that in Johto it was hard to keep steady around the bird pokémon simply from their sheer size and demanding presence.]

[Not to mention the knowledge that they could pull off feats no ordinary bird had the right to even imagine.]

[He looks back to Heather, neutral.]}

If they get too close.

_{[She hops over a snow-covered log in their path.]}

Yeah?

Traumatic experience, or just one of those weird... fears y'can't explain?

_{[She's got both... although after regaining the memories from her other life, the ones that had previously seemed unexplainable had started to make a little more sense.]}

Edited (HTML) 2012-03-25 04:55 (UTC)

_{[He doesn't hop, rather steps up on the log and then steps down from it, allowing the second of concentration to not fall to keep him silent.]

[He can explain it halfway, he supposes. The birds had always been an ominous presence and he knows he believes they're somehow responsible for his mother's death. But he doesn't know why birds, or why they were so scary to her. He just knows he adopted that uneasiness and that both fate and circumstance helped it develop into fear.]}

A bit of both.

S'it a good story or just something I should butt out about?

_{[Walking sideways to face him a little, she shrugs good-naturedly to show she's not trying to pry.]}

I mean, I ask because about half of my phobias are serious business and the other half have some backstories that are comedy gold in hindsight.

_{[Well, no, way less than half. The ghost one is good campfire story fodder, though.]}

_{[He smiles briefly, lets it be for another short moment. There are two explanations, so he can go down two routes in conversation. .. or three, as he settles on a bit of a compromise.]}

I don't know about comedy, but part of it has to do with a panicked bird getting tangled in my hair when I was fourteen.

_{[It hadn't been very funny at all, of course, and he frowns a bit at the memory, then continues with the same tone of voice.]}

Flew up in an air duct the moment it got free and got chopped to very fine pieces right in front of me.

_{[She WAS going to open her mouth and outright laugh at that first part. Because HEY-- are you kidding? That's HILARIOUS.]

[... And then he gets to the second part.]}

... Jesus.

_{[He merely shrugs in response, a gesture not common with him, and it probably takes a year or two off him when coupled with the way he looks to the ground for another small moment, echoing a young kid who doesn't have more to say and is uncertain on whether or not to keep talking.]

[Like there should be some kind of summing up but there just isn't much else to say. And there isn't, really, because that's the one event that really solidified it, the fear from abstract feathery figures to actual birds, and that's exactly how it went down.]

[There are those feather-figures too, of course, but he's not going to draw attention to them right this moment.]

[So he adds, instead, a little belatedly, an afterthought,]}

Left quite an impression.

Edited 2012-03-25 12:09 (UTC)

Yeah, sheesh. I can see why.

_{[She can't make fun of him for something like THAT.]}

So... that's what made you think there was a pattern with the starters when you got your owl, right?

_{[Well, no. There's a small headshake as he keeps going. There's a certain kind of alarm involved with birds for him, but the striking oh god of realizing just what he'd been given, taking into account what cave he'd been in only a few hours before ... that was a different kind of jolt entirely.]

[It just couldn't possibly have been chance.]}

Only partially. I'd been warned very specifically about owls some time prior to my arrival here.

_{[And he still hadn't figured that (what, clue? hint?) out.]}

_{[That catches her attention a little, because it's different than what she'd assumed-- that the deal with his bird starter was the same as with her dog starter.]}

Warned?

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