tapestodiane | 028

[Suddenly, reedy background music playing, and then a disembodied voice — someone's here, but you can't see him.]

Dale Cooper, friend to the animals. Which merit badge are you earning for this one, Coopy?

_{[... Windom.]

[He'd recognise the voice anywhere, even if the manner of speech didn't give his identity away. It's a voice he's listened to for years, one that reassured him as often as it guided him, and lately one that sometimes finds its way into his nightmares.]

[The feeling of slow, cold dread starts settling in immediately, but he makes a good job of not showing it as he slowly turns around, surveying his surroundings.]}

I already earned my badges, Windom. You know that.

_{[Casual. Testing.]}

[He's nowhere to be seen. Nothing around but you, Cooper — and your llama.

Or is there?]

Oh, you've earned a lot of things. Shelves and shelves full of personal accomplishments for the golden boy. But that always comes with a drawback, doesn't it? The more pretty things you keep around, the more things you have that might get broken, don't you?

_{[He's not sure if he prefers it like that or not. It's been years since he saw his ex partner, but he's torn between wanting to try to reason to his face and not wanting to see what he's become.]

[Because the man from the last handful of years, he's not the man Coop once knew.]

[He keeps watch, moves a bit away from the llama, stays carefully even.]}

Is that what you're here for, Windom? To finish the game you started?

To finish it? Why, my boy, this is just the next round!

[A quick laugh.]

Just look at all the new pieces we've put on the board.

_{[He was hoping Windom wouldn't know about the people he cares about in Johto, so that chills him a little, despite it being something he'd been steeling himself for. It could be a bluff, but he can't afford to hope for it.]}

This is between you and me. We could settle it right now. No pieces. No board.

And no gun! What kind of Special Agent leaves his sidearm behind?

[Another bout of laughter, this time a set that abruptly stops into a far more sinister pause.]

But you always were a careless boy, weren't you.

_{[And just like that, he really wishes he had it. He hasn't needed it in Johto, have learned to rely on his pokémon for defense, but he doesn't exactly want to get his team involved.]}

And you taught me not to be.

_{[Stalling, maybe, and still looking for the other man, despite knowing full well he won't find him until Windom decides he can.]}

[For a long time (or maybe just what seems like a long time), there is silence. Rustling, whispering silence. Calm, familiar nature sounds, ever so soothing, ever so quiet.

And then a Hoothoot sounds its cry.]

_{[He's startled. He can't not be. He's already on edge, his body wired but his mind willed (mostly) calm, a conflict that snaps into tension at the sound of the owl.]

[He turns swiftly towards the sound. Things suddenly feel darker.]}

You don't like my little friend?

[Oh, look, there's that voice again — and a few bars of a haunting melody play across the breeze, piped on that reedy whistle.]

That's a shame. I'm fond of so many of yours.

_{[He knows the sound of that, too. It used to be soothing, beautiful even, but feels only like an omen now.]}

You're overestimating the amount of friends I have, Windom.

_{[It comes out as a little defensive.]

[And while it is true that he doesn't have many it does little to stop the implied threat from being effective.]}

You're underestimating how easy it'd be for me to find them, Dale.

[Deadly serious now.]

_{[There's a brief moment of silence where he just tells himself to breathe. Then,]}

No. I'm not.

I'm asking you to leave them out of this.

Leave who out of it? Use that training! Embrace specifics!

[A low chuckle.]

Pretend I'm your tape recorder if it makes you feel better.

_{[There's actually a flash of -- not quite anger, but something like it, that Cooper does his best to bite down.]}

That'd make it too easy, Windom, even for you.

[The voice turns silken, smooth.]

And it'd make it far too easy to leave them out of it, Dale. Two kings alone on a board can never bring a game to a conclusion. It's the pieces that matter, make the challenge, make it fun.

[And are those footsteps rustling, there to his left in the trees? Maybe. Or maybe not.]

Our game hasn't ended just because you ran away.

_{[Maybe. He turns his head to listen, not to look, gaze in the opposite direction. He stands still.]}

I didn't run. I had every intention of finishing it.

And now you're here. And so am I.

[A pebble flicks through the air, impacting off the back of his neck.

And if and when he turns around, there will be Windom.

Long time, no see, Cooper.]

And the next round has already started.

_{[He resists whipping around. He has no gun to pull on him. Instead there's half a second of stillness as he tenses, a shoulder shifted with the idea to draw his weapon, before he turns, apprehension clear in every line of his body and too-controlled expression.]

[Of course he turns. There's no way he couldn't. But he doesn't like what he sees, the seemingly-normal, ever-friendly face that has something not quite right about it, that isn't what it was when he got to know it.]

[But he meets his gaze steadily. Speaks slowly.]}

Are you going to tell me your move?

[He's ever so friendly, ever so charming — just a respectable middle-aged man with graying hair, too-bright eyes, a curling smile.

You'd never guess he murdered his wife, and came very close to doing the same for the man in front of him.

His stance is nonchalant, his whistle in one hand, the other in his pocket. He gestures lightly with the whistle when he speaks.]

I could tell you a great many things, Dale. This place is a land filled with mysteries. Would you like to hear some of the ones I've deduced?

_{[Coop is aware of it, and acutely aware of how it can be used as a weapon and that he himself has very little other than a selection of pokéballs on his belt - that he can't trust, he realizes, knowing that sometimes when these things happen your pokémon aren't normal, either, or won't listen.]

[But other than a very brief (but telling) glance towards it, he keeps his eyes on Windom's, meeting the challenge in them with caution.]

[He doesn't say anything, but tilts his head forward in a slight nod. He's so sure he doesn't want to know. But he's equally certain he has to.]}

[He draws his hand out of his pocket, and holds it up to display what he's got between two fingers and a thumb: a Pokeball of his own. He turns his eyes to it, giving it an almost fond look.]

The most remarkable woman greeted me upon my arrival here, Dale. Charming, sweet, forthright. I think you would've liked her very much. She offered to make me dinner, you know, and I asked her what she thought of love and fear, good and evil.

[A pause.]

She didn't have an answer, so I killed her.

_{[Coop's eyes lingers by Windom's face for a moment before he looks at the pokéball. There's nothing significant about it other than the fact that it is one.]

[It's jarring, seeing Windom in Johto, and seeing him behave with such ease, like he belongs.]

[There's a momentary widening of his eyes when he realizes who Windom is talking about, the universal oh, shit easy to recognise before he opens his mouth again, voice slightly tight but betraying little.]}

People don't die here.

_{[It's a protest disguised as a simple stated fact. Cooper knows people don't die - but he also knows that every other rule that he knows of has been broken today.]

[He'll cling to that, though. He has to believe that the people he cares about are still safe by that rule.]

[And that Windom didn't actually ... no. Not only kill Mom, but meet her first -]}

I know! Isn't it marvelous?

[And suddenly he lights up, abruptly animated, almost delighted by this new information that's just come to light.]

No one dies here. No matter how many times you do them in, they always come back. Again and again and again.

[He knows, of course. There's no doubting that this statement is coming from personal experience.]

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