"I.. know."

She can feel it even through the phone, how his eyebrows come together and he grinds his teeth to keep from expressing his frustration. Or maybe she's assuming the worst again, painting a picture in her mind of what she wanted him to do. She deserved it. She deserved his anger and his frustration, she deserved being shouted at, scolded. She had let him down.

I will be your shield, but she had failed to be just that.

"Because.."

Her mind is blank, because no reasonable excuse comes to mind. Her actions didn't make sense then, and they didn't now. But to tell him that she didn't know why wouldn't help and wasn't really the truth.

What was she to say?

"I was scared of you, scared of the choice I made in the dream, scared of myself. I- I don't know, I panicked."

She lets her voice fall away while she thinks.

"You punched someone, Greyson. I have never seen you that upset, so upset you'd hurt someone else. It scared me."

Greyson Connors

☉

She can hear the rustle of him as he lays down, but she assumes it to be something else. Her mind automatically assumes the worst- that he's busy and she's pulling him from something. That he would prefer to be anywhere but in the moment, on the other end of the phone. She wasn't his anymore, she had made that clear when she'd left without a goodbye.

How she wished she could go back in time.

"To see my dad, in Kalos. I thought that something had happened-- I don't know what happened to me at the party, but I thought that he might be in danger."

The more she talks about it out loud, the less realistic it seems to feel. It had just been a dream, a nightmare of desire that lead to destruction. Her affection for Greyson had lead her astray and she had watched her father decline. It was silly, because he was the strongest man she had ever met.

But because she had chose Greyson, the interdream had told her she would lose her father.

"It wasn't real. The nightmare wasn't real, and he's safe, and I'm safe. I was scared, Greyson, and I'm sorry."

Greyson Connors

☉

Leaving him had been a mistake, it had been a moment of weakness. Panic had gripped her tighter than she anticipated, pulling her from his side in an instant.

And for nothing.

Hi Gwen.

She misses the feeling of her fingers laced through his, of his constant warmth, his shoulder pressed to hers. They're too far apart, lead astray, a knot once steadfast now severed.

"... Home. I went home." Why did that word sound so.. wrong? Like a lie. "I needed to see my father. I-I saw something at the Soiree that scared me."

She bites her bottom lip, hard, to still the trembling. Her fingers tighten around the phone more, the phone case groans.

But it hadn't just been the interdream mist that had scared her.

Greyson Connors

☉

It rings for longer than it ever has. Each time the singsong note trills, the heavier her heart feels, the tighter her fingers squeeze the phone. Dread fills her with self-doubt and the itch to cancel the call.

For a moment she pulls it away to consider it, watching the seconds tick up. Her thumb hovers the end call button.

But then she hears his voice, and nearly fumbles the phone instead. His tone is questioning, as it should be, and she hurriedly presses her phone back to her cheek to catch the tail-end of his hello. Her heart thumps loudly, tears well up in her eyes.

"It is so good to hear your voice."

Her voice trembles a bit, would he hear it?

"Greyson, I am so sorry. I am so, so sorry."

Greyson Connors

☉

Guilt twists greedy fingers into her stomach, holding tight with no indication of letting go.

She'd never run before, never run from anything, from anyone. She had been taught to be brave, to be confident, to hold her ground and to be the force against all fear. She was a butler, a guardian, a protector.

And she had run the moment shit had hit the fan.

The fog, or the mist, or whatever it had been in that ballroom had shown her her worse fears. It had shown her pain and dread, manifesting in her chest and making it impossible to ignore. But when she'd shown up on her father's doorstep, breathless and panicked, he had been standing right in front of her looking exactly the same as when she'd left.

He was fine, and she had been tricked, and her own guilt had prevented her from making amends with the one person she had come to care for outside of herself.

Weeks had passed, and she knew it was probably too late. No one in their right mind would wait this long with no word. She was unfair, she was selfish, she was insane.

But she presses dial anyway.

mission: feast or famine

Greyson Connors

☉

She's exhausted, her arms hurt from wrangling scared Wooloo, and she's spent the entire afternoon chasing off wild Mightyena and the like in order to appease a hard-working farmer. Time had flown by and she had almost missed her chance to hop back on the bus and make it back to Oldale in time. Now, in the middle of last-minute rush-hour shopping, Gwen was struggling to find what she was looking for: the 20 pound unfezant she'd seen in the flyer.

Of course, the flyer had also said 'limited supply, will go quick!' but she'd missed that part, and missed the part where she was in the middle of rush hour. Everyone and their mother was out here trying to get last-minute supplies for dinners and the like in the upcoming weeks. She'd figured by buying her supplies early she might save herself some stress later.

Such was not the case.

"Oh no.. they're all gone already. What a shame."

But as she says this, her attention snaps up to a shock of silver hair and a familiar face. As quickly as the girl appears, however, she disappears, and Gwen frowns a bit while deep in thought. Slowly, she pushes her cart in the direction of the familiar stranger.

mission: feast or famine (aa)

lilith eirwin

☉

Maybe this was a job a ranger would typically pick up given it's relation to wild Pokemon, but Gwen had agreed anyway. Police officers weren't only limited to jobs surrounding people and the community - in many ways this was related to the community.

Besides, maybe these 'attacks' on the farmer's flock of sheep was staged. Perhaps it wasn't really wild Pokemon attacking these poor sheep. Wool was expensive and sometimes hard to come by, and Galarian Pokemon were still sought out even if their value had decreased since they had been formally introduced to the region.

Regardless, here she was, coaxed into a day spent in the hot sun rather than in the shade of some nice trees or inside of a cool grocery store grocery shopping until her arms fell off. Surely, though, she had time to pick up supplies for dinner later tonight anyway.

"You should avoid wearing black, miss! It might help, since black or dark-coloured objects absorb sunlight and heat. Do you have sunscreen on? You might end up with one of those.. um.. farmer's tans! Is that the phrase? Where your arms tan but your shoulders stay pale? It's quite funny. The sun is quite a danger!"

mission: wooloo who cry wolf

Ann Nickolette

☉