WHO: Alice Quinn & Pikachu WHEN: A couple days after Dinosaur World WHERE: Alice & Pikachu's Room WHAT: Alice is grieving. Pikachu helps. TRIGGERS: Portal & Canon Based Grief
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Alice hadn't had a Nintendo when she was a child. Her exposure had been through other children on the occasions she'd been invited to sleepovers (rare) or when her brother's friends brought one over to the house (also rare, as kids rarely visited the Quinn house). There'd been some more brief exposure in college, when Nintendo 64 parties were popular, but she'd never been invited to those gatherings. She'd only seen them happening as she visited a dormitory for study sessions.
In other words, the Mushroom Kingdom had no nostalgic value for her and was viewed as an exploration of another world. A fictional world that happened to exist and be real and they could populate in. Familiar? Immensely so. Only the Mushroom Kingdom hadn't been a nightmarish version of her childhood dreams like Fillory had. It had been as innocent as she'd assume a Nintendo franchise might be.
But it had been where she'd felt her heart gripped, like it was tight in a vase, and she'd had a choice: give into the sudden overwhelming desire to hide from everyone and everything or to throw herself into the pursuit of knowledge.
Knowledge had won out. After a stint of crying herself to sleep in Penny's arms, she'd thrown herself into traversing around the Port, with a focus on the land of Dreams. She'd collected artifacts to take back to her lab (one day) and only really came back to the ship for sleeping (and cried herself to sleep every night, too, but that was beside the point). But now? There was no pursuit of knowledge. There was no distraction.
Her best friend, the very first person she'd ever loved, was gone and if he never came back? Well.
And so, with no distractions, she was back in the bed. She'd not left since they'd left the Port. Covers were yanked over her head and she was in and out of consciousness, holding a pillow close to her frame.
Pikachu entered their shared room and the instant he noticed Alice’s condition his ears flattened from sadness. Out of consideration, he moved as quietly around the area, the only sound being the soft patter of his paws, but as he went about his business, his eyes kept drifting back to her. When they did, he’d pause to ask himself whether or not it was a good idea to speak. They’d been thrust together as roommates, an odd couple of sorts, and they never really developed anything that might be considered a friendship. Still.
Pikachu was a pokemon, yes, but he also had the consciousness of Harry Goodman. A dad. It was something that he didn’t consider that often, if at all, but there were times when Harry's personality became more dominant. This was one of them.
After a few minutes, Pikachu made a decision and went over to the side of Alice’s bed, looking up at her from the floor. “Hey,” he said at first, trying to get her attention. Her response would determine where he would go from there.
She'd heard him enter but she'd not made any movement to acknowledge him. They weren't friends and she didn't really think it mattered how she looked around him. If it'd been one of her friends, she'd have put up the effort to seem fine. It was what she'd been doing outside of the room this whole time, after all.
Of course, she'd not left the room in awhile.
Still, she listened to his movements, wondering if he was staying or going. If he was going to stay? It was a good time to take her next nap. Of course, she'd not anticipated him speaking to her. She shifted, glancing over her shoulder, though she couldn't see him because of the blankets. One hand moved to pull it down from over her head and she looked to him. "Yes?" Her glasses were off and her hair was the definition of bedhead. She watched, waiting.
What could he say? Pikachu’s tiny mouth shut into a frown as he swallowed a lump in his throat. “It sucks, doesn’t it?”
She watched him for a moment. He had no real way of knowing the depth of it but she knew he was intelligent. It wasn't exactly hard to put together the disappearances and her shift in mood. But it wasn't the disappearance. Not really.
It was that he died.
And that thought had been in her head for a year, but he'd been here, thriving and alive. Him going home? It was like he was actually gone now.
She cleared her throat, shifting to push herself up with her elbows, sliding back against the headboard. "Yeah. It sucks." She rested an arm on her knee cap, palm coming up to rub at her tired eyes.
“Yeah,” he agreed with an empathetic sigh so deep it caused his shoulders to sag and his ears to droop further . He glanced at the floor and gave a little sniffle. “I haven’t lost anyone close yet, so I can only imagine what you’re going through. I’m sorry.’ He glanced back up. “You want to talk about it?” he asked, then quickly added, “I’ll understand if you don’t,” so Alice wouldn’t feel pressured.
Her head tilted just ever so to the side at the sound of the sniffle. It occurred to her, as he said it, that she wasn't sure exactly who Pikachu was close to. Of course, he likely could say the same. Still... she shook her head, and gave a weak attempt at a smile. "No. But I appreciate you offering."
“Don’t blame you.” Pikchu was the type who metaphorically wore his heart on his sleeve, but knew that others weren’t the same way. Pain was processed differently, and the Harry side of his consciousness knew when to back off and not press her for more information than she was comfortable sharing.
Still. There must be something he could do.
“I got some chocolate?” he offered. “Or at least, the closest thing to chocolate on this ship.”
There was a small smile. "Yeah. I could go for some chocolate."