"thank you," she says quietly. it's hard to talk about these things. it's hard to talk about regrets. gosh knows she has a dozen of those. and those unspoken ones she thinks about while elisa confides in her pieces of her past. 

by most accounts, she does not know her friend very well. she knows she's a widow, and that her marriage had been complicated and unhappy. but the extent of that knowledge is threadbare at best. am i a bad friend?

elisa would say no, she thinks, and that's some comfort, but not enough for her to feel like she hasn't given as much as she could. 

"i'd never thought of it like that, in so many words, but i think you're right. my world turned upside down when i had roman. i don't think i need to tell you how hard it was having a kid that young. i saw friends get to travel. go to college. pursue their passions." she chuckles. "fall in love.

"and i mourn sometimes, for what i could have had, but i also think if i hadn't gone through with the pregnancy, i'd wonder about having him. what could have been then. i think maybe that's why i get so paralyzed by decisions. if i don't make one, then i don't have to face the idea of having regrets."

the chill is internal and unwelcome now. she offers a wan smile to elisa and then clicks her cheek. lou spurs into a quicker trot and then lopes into a canter, with willow's smile growing wider as they surge ahead of their companions.

Elisabeth Fiorelli

☉

relief washes over her. not at the situation at hand, of course - that still terrifies the hell out of her - but at the fact that greyson isn't willing her away. she stands her ground firmly and curls her hands into fists to stop them from shaking. her legs feel wobbly. 

elisabet and foxglove look at her with determination and she thinks we got this. we can do this. 

"you're right," she says and reaches for another ball at her side. she can barely handle ordering one pokemon around. elisabet and foxglove will mostly be following greyson's direction, but she trusts lus. 

"i can do that." she nods and looks at her two companions. camellia will probably be able to sense them first with a bug buzz and lus can plug up the holes. there should only be one main entrance for them to come and go, but they're at the heart of the hive. their internal structure could be anything. 

feeling not so ready at all, she sucks in a breath and says, "we're ready."

Greyson Connors

☉

"whatever you want to learn," willow says and then quickly adds, "except maybe we work up to the tauros. they're not very nice, those two." the last thing she wants is to see the girl seriously injured because of buckwheat or cowslip's bad attitudes. 

"you'll probably want to wear things you don't mind getting dirty. sturdy boots help too. the ground can get kinda muddy when it rains." or when the snow melts, like they're expecting in a couple of weeks. 

"gossifleur pollen has healing properties," she explains. "i'm mashing it with a couple of other herbs that help settle a stomach since you said he's been having trouble eating. the blueberries are for taste." still, they're not enough to get the stubborn mule to take it. he keeps looking anxiously from willow to eris. 

she smiles and holds the bowl out to the girl. "go on and feed it to him. he trusts you more."

Eris Halla

☉

she's sturdy enough to take the brunt of ollie's weight, but his height is the biggest obstacle for them to overcome. she doesn't often curse her short stature, but right now she bites her lip and scowls, stressing the entire walkway up and up the stairs into the house. 

once inside, and once she's managed to get him on the couch without incident, she finally sighs with relief. she gives him a hard-stared look over just to make sure he isn't bleeding out of any wounds. if his stitches popped, she could fix them, but gods she hopes that doesn't happen. 

from the other room, her mother's voice rings out. willow answers eleanor's frightened call with a, "mom, it's just me."

she tucks her hair behind her ear and goes to fetch a glass of water for ollie (and as per usual, it's fallen back out of place and into her face). "berry picking. i don't think you'd have recognized me, actually. i asked him on a date."

ollie morales

☉

"if she's anything like you," willow agrees. she looks fondly upon her friend, at the token of their platonic affections wrapped around her neck in a symbolic, wordless thank you. the snow continues to fall pleasantly around them. lou snorts, sending a puff of curled breath around his snout. 

"that's the best part of it, i think. having this dumb little language no one else knows but the two of you." how fiercely she wishes roman had any desire to learn what they meant. he's familiar enough with some of the negative ones, much to willow's own annoyance.

but you have to start somewhere, right? 

"his parents. he was born and raised in fallarbor on the farm. it was more of a cattle farm then. flowers were my grandmother's hobby.

"he never wanted that life for himself. at least, that's what he thought. so he moved to rustboro and starting working at devon as a software engineer, of all things." she laughs. "he met my mother and i think that's when he started to realize how much he missed all this." she gestures around them. 

"he regretted not patching things up with his father before he passed. i think that's why he was so...gentle with me when i got pregnant."

her shoulders shake with a chuckle. "sorry. i don't mean to ramble about them." her voice catches, eyes smarting, and she blinks rapidly. "i miss him. and my mom."

Elisabeth Fiorelli

☉

concern dapples her features. she reminds herself, before she can say anything rash, that this is absolutely not her kid and she has enough problems on her plate already. she can't dive down a rabbit hole and go after whatever deadbeat parents are letting her wander around in the snow. 

maybe a middle ground then. 

"well, how about we make a deal? you come and help me when you can and i won't charge you for lucky's treatment."

she mashes some berries into the mixture and then sits cross-legged beside the deerling. its nose twitches and she holds it out gently, clucking softly. "i promise i'll take the very best care of him for you. i can even teach you how to do it if this happens again."

Eris Halla

☉

willow sends a silent apology to the unlucky person who ends up with the squished olive on the bottom of their shoe. and the person at the end of the night who has to clean up the remnants of said squished olive. she looks piteously after it until it rolls out of sight, which isn't very long, as the place is getting crowded by the minute. 

seems the last call echoing from the bar is drawing them in like moth to a flame. just what they need - half of these drunk folks out on the road while they're trying to get home.

bo and ollie have taken the conversation and run with it, which is no surprise. she stands there outside of their drunken babble, calculating the best way they can maneuver out of there. 

"no, roman and bo play just the two of them, i think? there's a mode or something? or is that the zombie one?" 

csgo completely loses her, but it's very clear bo's competitive spirit is coming out. 

"ollie, did you already pay out your tab...? they're doing last call. i can take care of it for you though. you stay and talk to bo." she pats his arm before moving off to head towards the crowded bar. 

ollie morales boruta maher

☉

so much for her attempt to repair things. the strings that tie them together are knotted - thick, ugly things that just about anyone sane enough would take one look and say you're better off cutting it. for now, she lets it rest. she stops her picking and her attempt at fixing it. she's too tired to make a decision just yet. 

"you say of course like it's the most natural thing in the world." 

has she seen the sides of cian he's kept hidden from her? that night at the masquerade, watching the anger get the better of bo, watching him devolve into it - his arms weren't his own. his face wasn't his own. his eyes weren't his own. but they were, weren't they? they were just of the man he both was and wasn't, of the someone who still lives inside him. 

she does not have a friend here so she does not share her anxieties and isn't that the loneliest thing in the world? 

she fishes for her wallet and pulls out several bills. she had imagined she'd be paying for some of ollie's drinks, but the opportunity to make an exit and throw something in the councilwoman's face is too much to pass up. she'll kill her with kindness if it's the last thing she does. 

"don't lose yourself to love, penny. you might end up just like ollie." 

the bartender passes by and she tosses the bills down. "i'm settling her tab. she doesn't need anything else to drink tonight." she stands, shoulders her bag, and sighs at the other woman.

"good-bye, penny." a pause. "get home safe."

PENELOPE LIVY

☉