Chương 28: Chapter 25

The varied cries of indignant or overexcited joltik are fading now, thankfully. Sure, they look like little yellow fuzzballs with eyes, but they sound like a hoard of drunk chipmunks after being told it's way past bedtime. Well, I guess it wasn't too bad as a first 'quest.' … Oh, it's a shortening of request, that's why they use it.

"So?" Weaver prompts, nudging me as we keep pace with Onaga and Dodrio.

"What did you think?"

"I think," I say, pausing to truly collect my thoughts, "That it was… something. It wasn't hard, and, as annoying as they were, I've dealt with worse. Is this how it normally is?"

"Yeah, most days," Weaver confirms, turning to face me while still skipping along, now facing backward.

"Big emergencies don't happen too often, but I think you'd be fine if one happened, anyway."

"If you say so," I reply, not keeping the disbelief from my voice. At the moment, the four– how do I count Dodrio? Uh, the six of us are now pulling away from the other ranger and his cart of spiders, slowly turning in a large circle back towards the city. Onaga seems content to let Dodrio set the pace, and none of them seem to want to go fast. It's mostly fields and dirt roads this far south of the city, it seems, the occasional pokemon darting past us or flying overhead the only real action around us.

Pushing myself just a bit further into being real, I can even appreciate the cool wind blowing past us. It's been a bit since I fully phased in.

"You good, Smokey?" Weaver's voice breaks the easy quiet.

"For the moment," I say, staring out over the various fields.

"I'm trying to stay grounded right now, it's harder than it should be." I lock onto movement in the distance, to our right. It takes me a moment to place the general shape as I watch the red tractor pull a large piece of metal through a field. Then I blink as I realize it's the first time I've seen anything with an engine that wasn't a train since arriving.

"Maybe it's because you're always flying," Weaver drops, pulling my focus back and maintaining her smirk as I turn to give her a flat look.

"What? You are, so maybe you should join the rest of us down here."

"We're at the same eye level right now."

"Yeah, but I'm touching the ground."

"Only half the time," Left Dodrio points out.

"Which means you're halfway to where they are, unlike us."

"Does taking a foot off the ground count as being half off the ground then?" Right Dodrio asks.

"In the interest of consistency, yes," Left says, nodding thoughtfully, "which puts us halfway to halfway there." Middle Dodrio looks between his other heads, rolling his eyes with an amused look, "I think it more depends on the fact that we can't fly, yet."

"Oh not this again…" Right groans, Left joining him in the act.

"We can't get the airstream right unless we all agree on a direction. And 'up' isn't good enough."" It's a starting point," Middle argues, and the three of them start bickering like, well, siblings. I… guess they are siblings, aren't they? Weaver and I watch on as the three don't quite descend into a physical slap-fight, though they obv iously want to. Onaga, riding the pokemon, just shakes her head.

"Anyway," Weaver pulls me back into conversation, "Anything I can do to help?"

"Keep being you?" I say, shrugging.

"You've been helping a lot, honestly. Maybe we can go grab a bite to eat at some point, too?" Weaver gasps, "I should have realized, you're starving! Looks like you could disappear at any moment! You're practically transparent!" She takes a pose, one clawed hand over her heart and the other with its back on her head. She stays like that, still skipping backward the whole time, for several seconds.

"Yep, and you should feel bad for not noticing," I tell her, receiving a hurt noise before she starts chuckling.

"Well, I'll just have to make up for it. Do you have any real preference in food?"" Yeah, but I don't know what all is around here that's good…" I trail off, a thought hitting me, "Can– Can we get drinks?"" Drinks?" Weaver asks in a perfect mimicry of my tone, flicking an ear." You know, drinks." At the weavile's now cocked head, I elaborate further, "Alcoholic drinks. I hadn't honestly thought about how that works till now."

That makes Weaver drop her theatrics for a moment, stan ding still as she thinks about it too.

"I don't know," She says after a long pause, starting to walk again.

"I'll need to ask Ryu about that. I'd never thought of trying any, is it any good?" I whistle at the difficulty of the question, then shrink a bit as everyone flinches, Onaga giving me a strange look.

"Uh, sorry," I apologize. It's too easy to stop thinking about making sharp noises, or how I even make them. It doesn't sound too bad to me, maybe a bit high-pitched, but everyone reacts like my voice hurts. It probably does, really, I just can't tell because it's my voice. What were– right," T hat's… a difficult question. There isn't only just alcohol, so it mostly depends on what you like, what's in it, and what it's in."

Weaver is still rubbing an ear, but she nods at my answer, "Definitely need to ask Ryu about it then, but I can buy us dinner no problem. Tonight?"

"Whenever is good," I respond, drifting down until I'm half in the ground.

"… Hmm, I don't know if this is helping." Weaver just cackles. ▲▲▲ ▼▼▼ Dodrio still seems to be mildly arguing with himselves as we near town, and I finish noting down another thing about Misdreavus. Another addition to the sheer number of sounds they can make. Now, from what I've seen, they seem to prefer sound as a method of attack, so it isn't all that unusual.

However, if we were to compare them to other pokemon with similar adaptations, like a loudred, they typically won't accidentally deafen someone by simply whistling. Of course, that could be down to age and power. Misdreavus is only a month old, so they're likely still learning fine control. While a whismur would need to put quite a bit of effort in to hit deafening levels on their own, and has time to learn to tone it down—or up—before they get too strong, Misdreavus has all the power and none of the age.

At least they seem to be trying not to make those kinds of sounds as much. Indoors, at least. My radio chimes, so I start putting my notepad away, stowing those thoughts for later, and making a quick mental note to bring them up to Rowan when he gets here tonight. Or tomorrow, if he wants to settle in first.

"Onaga Ryuko, responding," I say, switching the radio to active. There's a bit of muffle and barely picked-up voices before, "A– Ah, hello, Onaga."

"Fran?" I ask, glancing at the radio, and then in the direction of the academy.

"Should you be on official channels right now?"

"I'm–" His voice is cut off by another, "He's with us at base right now, there was a decision made up top, apparently," Katie says. Over the same mic, if I'm not mistaken.

"Yes, that does sum it up," Francois says, dryly.

"With that out of the way," Katie cuts back in, "I'm off to bed. Barry or I will fill you in when you get back."

"Well, it'll be nice having you back, Fran," I tell him, acknowledging a familiar woman who's trying to flag me down with a nod and a raised hand.

"Was there anything else? I think I'm about to get a quest."

"Just me being here and the changeover," He says.

"I'm not a full operator yet, and I still have assignments from school, but I'm stationed here now." That… honestly doesn't bode well, if the Union is rushing students into positions like that.

"Okay, well, again, good to have you back. I'm going to see what Bertha needs now." Having said that, I flip a switch and clip my radio back to my belt before waving down the seemingly mid-task woman, "Sorry for making you wait, Bertha. What do you need?" Bertha is a large woman, in almost every sense of the word. Tall, broad-shou ldered, stout, muscled, her character… everything. Even her family size, now that I think of it. And the farm she runs.

She's also likely the strongest person in the region, as the tauros she's carrying over one shoulder as if it weighs nothing proves, the pokemon himself looking rather more like a mareep at the moment.

"Ain't no worry," She waves off my apology.

"Just bringin' this one back from a check before we let 'im at the miltank, the big baby, and saw you comin', figured I'd see if you could go get my kids for me."

"I'm going to assume they're in the forest, then?" It's not really a question, since that's the only reason she'd be asking a ranger about this.

"Mm-hmm," She confirms, "You know I'd ask Tim, but…" We share a nod, Tim's phobia is well known. He does okay with cuter and more harmless seeming pokemon, but anything with claws or teeth makes him freeze up. The forest is not somewhere he likes being.

"It's not a problem, I don't have any other quests at the moment. Want me to bring them back, or just get them moving?"

"Ah, they don't need looked over like that," She says, hefting the tauros into a more comfortable position, the bull pokemon huffing helplessly in Bertha's titanium grip, "just send 'em on their way, they're good kids." Her eyes trail behind Dodrio and me, widening slightly, " You got a new partner following you around?" She asks, gesturing at Misdreavus.

"Two actually," I smile ruefully, "Espeon isn't exactly healthy enough to keep up all day yet."

"Mmm, I heard something about an espeon and smugglers recently, nasty business. Good to hear they went with you, you're good people." Knowing Bertha, she won't let me get away with waving the compliment off, so I nod instead, "Thanks."

"It's the truth," She tells me before she starts walking south to her farm.

"I'm not gonna keep you longer. You have a nice day, now!" I give her a wave at her cheery call back to me, and pat Dodrio to get their attention before pointing West. Checking behind, Weaver is, as always, smirking. While Misdreavus is simply staring after Bertha with that wide-eyed look they sometimes get, looking more solid than usual and wavering slightly in the breeze.

Weaver glances at me before grabbing one of the tendrils that seem to appear and disappear from Misdreavus' mane, pulling them along behind her. That snaps the ghost out of whatever they'd been thinking. They look between Weaver and myself before seeming to accept being dragged along. It's good that Misdreavus doesn't seem to get tired. Ever. Katie's told me that they drift around the base at night, and I haven't seen them make any kind of bed or nest, nor have I seen them sleep.

I would assume they're nocturnal, except that none of us have seen them sleep and they're far too active during the day. They seem bored at times, too. They're clearly intelligent for a month-old pokemon, if how fast they pick up on everything is any indication at least. I might need to dig out a copy of the integration aid soon, Weaver's had enough time to not need the help, but a pokemon as smart as Misdreavus needs something to do in their off time. And since they don't seem to sleep…

I take a closer look at Misdreavus, trying to find any hint of tiredness. It's not made any easier by their odd mix of body languages, some nearing the level many humanoid pokemon display while others are expressed in their tendrils, gemstones, flight pattern, and even miasmal movements. They're currently looking mildly amused at Weaver as she drags them behind, barely moving up or down as my friend skips and hops over the slightly uneven dirt road.

Then, as if sensing my interest —which they likely do — they're looking at me. Large, unblinking eyes meeting mine." Can you get tired?" I ask, choosing the direct approach. They don't look away, but it's easy to see their gaze lose focus on me for a moment, and when it does it's all too obvious why some ghost stories are the way they are. Having Misdreavus look through me like that would be frightening if I didn't know they're generally passive.

After some seeming contemplation, they refocus on me and shrug, "Misser dreav."" But you do get bored, don't you? I've noticed you getting restless recently." I say, deciding not to let a potential problem build. They shrug again as Weaver releases her grip on their tendril. That's interesting. Not willing to admit to it, or not wanting to be a burden?

"We can help you find things to do, you know. Don't be afraid to ask." I'm surprised they haven't asked about lifting the curfew yet, honestly. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. Misdreavus nods, looking down while still following without issue as Dodrio's been slowly picking up speed. I don't know what their max speed is, but I doubt it's as fast as a dodrio's. We won't be going full speed, however, so it should be fine.

The forest is loud again, without the constant stomping of tourists making many of the small pokemon hide while the alphas' alertness scares the rest. Now? The calls of v arious rodent, insect, and bird pokemon ring through the air in a way many people will never experience. I even see a crow watching us, cawing occasionally. Frankly, if people who visit would all just listen to what we tell them then things would be so much better. … That's unfair of me.

I know many of them do, but nine in ten doing so still means that more than enough don't, so it remains a major issue. And many of the more responsible ones also tend to get caught up in group thinking. Looking down at Weaver from where I'm sitting, she has her nose down and ears up, tracking Bertha's kids. And looking up, Misdreavus doesn't seem to have spotted them yet, but they're still looking down from above. Then Misdreavus vanishes, which continues to be an interesting sight.

They never simply wink out of visibility, the process seems to start somewhere inside them before spreading to everything else in the blink of an eye, but Misdreavus' eyes are always the last thing to go. Why did they do that now? Is there something they're hiding from nearby? Or maybe they're employing their own tracking method, as, like many scavengers, they've confirmed they have the ability to track food sources. And when asked— with Weaver having to write it down—they said they track emotions.

Fairly obvious, once I thought about it for half a second. We still need to test distance, but I've been waiting to bring that kind of thing up for when the study of Misdreavus actually starts. Frankly, I'd like to give them more time to acclimate and maybe open up a bit, but everything was already in motion. Regardless, whatever strategy or hunting method they're using to try and scan the forest, when they eventually reappear it's from ahead and slight ly to my right.

As t hey descend I can see the end of an eye roll before they point back the way they came.

"Dreavus," They say in a tone that I can fully understand. The 'I should have thought of this sooner' tone. Well, they're pointing us mostly the same way Weaver was moving, so we only need to speed up. Weaver herself is giving Misdreavus an approving nod as she rises back into her normal bipedal stance, bounding forward now that we apparently have a set destination. It doesn't take much longer to f ind them now, and soon I'm seeing eight children goofing off by one of the many small streams.

Three of them are engaged in a 'sword' fight, poking each other with sticks. T wo have a pair of binoculars pointed deeper into the forest, swapping it back and forth as they point at something distant. And the oldest three are all sitting on the bank, relaxing with their feet in the cold water. The eldest in the group… Daniel, if I'm remembering right, spies me first, nodding as he turns a bit to face me, "Mom sent ya?"

"She did," I confirm, hopping off Dodrio's back.

"Asked me to get you on your way."" Aw, we haven't even seen…" One of the younger boys says, trailing off as his eyes look behind me, "Ooh, she's cool looking!" Glancing at where the boy is staring, I already think I know who he's talking about. And the flash of red eyes, before they vanish, confirms it, Weaver tracking the ghost as they both move away from us.

"We can always come back tomorrow," The second eldest, Samantha, says, standing and pulling her older brother up from where he's still sitting on the bank.

"Yeah," Daniel sighs, not fighting his sister's strength.

"Wish we had longer though." The two of them get the others in line quickly enough, and all eight are soon walking back to town without complaint. Can't say I don't empathize with wanting to spend more time out here, but I happen to have a good excuse: My job. Granted, if I get a call about something then I'll need to head back, but for the moment? Riding around sounds nice.

Although, with the way Dodrio are gulping down water at the moment, and how one of them looks like he's eying something in the water with hunger, I'll let them relax for now. I'm not surprised when a bonsly approaches, the living rocks being generally inquisitive, if skittish. And t hey don't seem distressed, just curious. They totter up, look between Dodrio, Weaver, and me, and then burrow into the ground. I always loved the way they act.

They w alk up to something, figure out if it's safe or not, then bury themselves if it is. Or if it's not, since they're still safer that way. Rock-type camouflage at its finest. The peaceful moment stretches out into nearly ten minutes of meditative zen, and after the activity of the last month, it's truly welcome. Weaver and Misdreavus have started talking about something over Weaver's notepad, but I'm too far away to se e. I'm a bit startled when a berry suddenly drops in front of me.

Looking up, a swellow is perching above, tilting her head to eye me from different angles. Picking the ripe persim up, I offer it back, but the dull-colored female shakes her head, "Swell oh-oh," She chirps.

"Okay, did you want something?" I ask, receiving another shake of the head. Well, gifts aren't uncommon, but it's usually after we've done something.

"Thank you, then," I tell her, inspecting the berry. Persim are good for keeping focus, and the truly ripe ones taste pretty good. Before I can bite into it, however, I'm distracted by a sloshing noise. Looking around it takes a moment to realize it's coming from… Ah, Marshal is out with her children today, though I doubt her turning up somewhere I just so happen to be is a coincidence.

The water here isn't deep enough to hold the massive pokemon, but she doesn't care about things like that, simply creating her own surf to swim through. Dodrio swiftly back off, and I get a good look at the group sailing up the stream. Standing on his mother's back, just above Marshal's unnaturally flowing water, is Shinx. And floating in the swell next to the small mountain of a pokemon are two buizel, one clearly older than the other.

I lock eyes with the alpha, and not the one in the water, as Luxray is following them on the bank opposite us. That's a bit strange, he normally stays in his own territory. There's a gust of wind as Swellow makes herself scarce, and I sigh, "So, how are you?" I can't fully hold in a chuckle at the sight, though. The buizel both toss their heads noncommittally, while Marshal gives a small wave and Luxray nods with a happy flick of his ears.

"Need anything, or just passing by?" Luxray chuckles in a deep purr, pointing a paw toward where Weaver and Misdreavus had been talking. This is about one of them, then. Why would… Oh. Oh, Misdreavus came with me right after taking those poachers down and Luxray is Luxray. The big softie wants to say thank you.

"Well, Misdreavus, you're up," I say, turning to see the ghost frozen in place, their eyes locked on Marshal. Interesting, from what I understand the two of them had a good relationship. So why does Misdreavus look afraid of her? ▲▲▲ ▼▼▼" You said they could react to things oddly," Luxray rumbles curiously at me from the stream bank, "Not that they found you frightening."

"No, that's new," I tell him.

"Shinx, hop over to your father sweetie." Once he does so, I stand out of the stream bed to get a better look at everything. Ryu is inspecting Charlie as well, looking a bit concerned as the ghost follows me with their eyes, not moving otherwise. The last I saw them had been a bit abrupt, but fairly normal. Charlie had a psychic with them though, and that took precedence since the ghost had been concerned and confused about the psychic's reaction to me.

But I haven't seen them since that, so I can't say what might have happened. It's been a bit since I checked up on them though, harder to do since they left. Climbing out of the stream, I let the water I was using to move along it fall back into place. The sound catches Ryuko's attention, the ranger giving me a calculating look, "I don't know if you getting closer is a good idea, Marsh."

"No, it– We need to–" The kid stutters out for a moment. They look down, gathering themself for a lengthy moment before speaking again, "It's been a little too long, and I've started to get too wrapped up in my own head again. Can we…" They don't finish the question, but I know what they're asking, "Of course," I say, casting my gaze around, "Maybe not here, though." Ryu has been looking between us, and she relaxes a bit once the kid starts moving the way they normally do again, "Uh-huh.

Could I get a hint about what's going on?" It's Weaver who speaks up, quickly doing something with… ah writing something for Ryu, "Here." Ryuko inspects it while I turn back to Luxray and our children, "Sorry, but I don't think they'd appreciate an audience."

"I still need to thank them!" Shinx yelps, looking at me and then his father.

"We both do," Luxray says in a soothing tone, "We'll get our chance. Your mother just needs to speak with them for a bit," He consoles. Though he also throws me a questioning look. I give him a pointed one back, which he accepts with a small nod.

"You two need to talk?" Ryu asks, stepping next to me. Honestly, when will she learn to listen to us right? I know humans can. But I still nod at her, rolling my eyes when she asks, "For how long?"

"Long enough that you'll probably need to leave anyway," I say, shooing her with one hand, "Don't worry, I think I know why you're asking and they'll be back with you soon." Ryu raises her eyebrows at me before rubbing her face with one hand. She walks over to where the poor dodrio are still trying to decide if they should run or not, and hops onto their back, " Okay, you've more than earned the benefit of the doubt.

But," She turns to look at Charlie, deliberates for a moment, then shakes her head, "No, never mind. Just… Please head back to base when you're done, and let whoever's on radio know you're back. Okay?" Well, that's confirmation that Charlie's with the Rangers now. The kid nods, looking less nervous, and Ryu nods back before patting Dodrio on the side. Dodrio certainly don't waste any time in bolting away, though, and the weavile cackles as she chases them.

Luxray huffs, "I was hoping she'd at least pet me for a bit." That makes me smile slightly, he's always liked the Rangers and their lack of fear. And lack of stupidity, that generally helps.

"So… who are they?" Buizel asks pointing her eyes at Charlie. That makes me laugh, it's been months since I've seen her, and we've barely started catching up. I haven't gotten to explaining the kid yet.

"A good spook," I tell her, beckoning Charlie closer.

"You can ask your brother about them while I'm gone. I'll give you more of the story after." Buizel quickly starts questioning her brother, who starts pleading for me to help him with his eyes. I watch for a second before reminding myself that the spook is still waiting.

"Come on," I say to the ghost, dropping back into the shallow water and pulling more in to move with, "I can tell you got things rattling around in there." They simply nod, following after me as I swim downstream. Once we hit a river, they finally speak, "So…" They lead." Are you okay?" I ask, rolling onto my back in the now comfortably deep water.

"I didn't think you'd just vanish and I've been half-thinking you were avoiding me." Oh, they flinched at that, " You were avoiding this?"

"… Yeah," they admit, staring into the river.

"But I realized how much you checking on me helped. And that I might have been thinking about things the wrong way. But," They look up, actually locking eyes with me for once, "I've been doing pretty well otherwise, better than I was at my– the cabin," They sigh.

"Being around other humans?" They groan, resigned, "I knew one of us was going to bring it up." They slowly fall until they're almost in the water before speaking again, "Maybe. Probably, really. I don't think I count anymore, and that's part of my problem. When did you figure it out?"

"You're weren't exactly being subtle about it," I can't help chuckling.

"Lots of little things, how you reacted to protecting yourself was what finally convinced me."" You mean how I panicked? I gave it a lot of thought afterward, and I can't help thinking about it sometimes–" They stop, freezing for an instant too long before resuming, "You were right, of course. I still don't know how to feel about what I did to them, and I don't like that." Hmm…

"Human misgivings?" I ask, turning over to get a better look at the odd ghost. I can practically see the question turning over in their head before they answer, " Probably, I think I had some… preconceptions when I woke up here. Most of them didn't last long, but a few did. I guess you already figured that out, though."

"You aren't exactly complicated, Charlie," I tell them, smiling, "I don't know what it must be like to be you, but I think you're doing alright at it." They nod slowly, "I think I am too, honestly. Much, much better than I was before I died." Their face twists for a moment, a grimace spreading over it before smoothing into that blank look they get when thinking.

"You good, kid?" They're still and quiet for a few moments before responding, "Yeah, I'm fine." It's believable too, they aren't twitching or shifty-eyed, only looking a bit distant.

"Just… considering."" Makes sense why you spend so long thinking lik e that, now," I nod. I had to do a lot of that myself when I evolved, more than most even. I'd think going from human to ghost is worse though. We fall silent, the air charged but not heavy. I have questions that I'm hoping they might answer now, things I think they need to talk about, and I can tell they still have things to say to me. I let them take their thoughts at whatever speed they need to. We have time.

I wonder, if the kid was human, how many of the other spooks were? Some of the ones I've had to chase off had been acting strange, and none of them handling that change as well as the kid has could explain some of it. Well, can't change the past, only keep it in mind. After a few minutes of swimming they eventually speak up, "So, you killed those two." A statement, the tone implying they don't know what to think about it. Makes me wonder what their life was like, as a human.

I've seen good and bad people, humans and pokemon, but most humans recently seem to have an aversion to killing a nything, not like when I was young… The look on the kid's face tells me they got a hint of that.

"Sorry, old memories," I say, sliding onto the sandy bank here and standing up, "Did you want to talk about that?"" Not really," they answer, bringing themself up to my eye level again.

"I just– When I heard – When I saw what you did to them a lot of things I'd been told about you… shifted? I guess." I consider that. I'm well aware of how some of the younger ones think of me. What their elders tell them in warning. And of how the different humans do so as well.

"I keep the peace," I tell Charlie, "It's what I've done most of my life now, it got easier when the rangers appeared, but sometimes they fail." I look directly at the ghost, "You won't tell me you don't understand." They look away from me, "I… do, I just don't like that feeling, you know? When I realized what those two were doing, I froze. I wanted to get away, to get you, but I knew what everyone they'd captured was feeling. And what could have happened to them–" They pause.

The kid's voices had become a bit discordant there." It wasn't just anger – I mean, that was part of it, but I was so focused on stopping them that I didn't realize I'd already won, and I hate feeling that way. Like I'm not in control of myself." Now that sounds familiar.

"I get it," I tell them, settling my behind into the soft, warm sand.

"And I'd imagine you know that not liking it doesn't change anything."" I know," They sigh.

"All of this was easy when I was human, give it a day and it was just a distant memory." They chuckle ruefully, "Might be why I'm having trouble now. I always put off dealing with stuff like this. Now i t's all… there. Like it just happened. And when I think about it, it's like it's still happening." They fall still for an instant again, "It's not great."

"Never had to deal with something like this before?" I ask, genuinely curious.

"I've never had it hang around so long," They reply." You're young," I say, remembering that first talk I had with them, "Haven't learned some things the painful way yet."

"I guess not." Another moment of stillness passes, less charged than the last." Wait a second," Charlie breaks the silence, "Why were you swimming up that stream?" They ask. I want to chuckle at that, but a snort comes out instead, "Luxray wanted to thank you for being there when we weren't. Shinx was getting excited about it, too."

"But… how did you know where we were?" That I do chuckle at, "How much have you talked with the tailow? Need to know where something is? Ask one of them. They let me know you were there."

"You had them watching for me?"" Of course I did," I say, giving the kid a look, "I had Sunshine and Rainbow wanting to thank you, and we hadn't talked since you were looking one bad word away from curling into a ball and disappearing!" They blink, "Oh." Then mutter near soundlessly, " Sunshine and Rainbow?" I can tell we're reaching the same question I always ask near the end of our talks, they've run out of things th ey want to say, and I can tell they're doing alright.

Getting things out of their head is always good for them, good for anybody, really, and I'm glad they seem to know that, but there's still the one thing they haven't–"So, you want to know about… how I died." Once again, not a question. And they beat me to it.

"I can tell it's eating at you, and you've pointed out more than once how you can't forget anything," I say gently." Honestly," They give a hollow laugh, "I've wanted to talk about it for a while now, I just didn't know how to avoid the human thing." They fall, settling onto the ground, "It makes me glad I can't sleep, you know. I'm certain I'd be having nightmares about it. And I… I don't know what to do! I don't want it hanging over me forever, but it's starting to feel like it might."

They slump, deflating into a heap.

"Well, that's why I've been asking about it, maybe if you'd talk to someone, it doesn't have to be me," I stress, " A nd not keep it all in that head of yours, you might start feeling better about it."" I need a drink," They groan, rising back into the air a bit. They must catch my glance at the river, because they give a halfhearted laugh, "Not– Never mind. You're right, I know you're right."

They seem to center themself, and I wait the few seconds it takes for them to continue, "So, I suppose I should start with how I died."