[ Hello! You have reached: "Walter Sullivan". Unfortunately they cannot answer the phone right now. Leave a message after the beep and they will return your call. ]
[ Oh. That's actually a thoughtful question, not more innane shouting. ]
...somewhat. The Otherworld is a reflection of our world. What it is truly like at it's core. The worlds I created were echoes of places I had known in life, as they were under the surface of...of it.
[ This is all wrong but Walter doesn't know any differently. ]
Is that why you decided to use one against me when you gained powers? I guess tha--HEY!--Why did you have to use a chainsaw? What the actual FUCK was that all about? Huh? You can't show me your fleshy slideshow if my heart explodes while I'm running away!
That....it was me but. It wasn't. [ He sounds a little unsure. Not confused but, he had no idea how to explain this. How do you explain that while housing an angel, he'd sort of been torn in two? Or three technically since there was his dead body, his adult form and his child form. And it became fuzzy what had been Valtiel's doing and what had been his once he died. ]
You're right. It wasn't the right thing to do. I shouldn't have shot at you either. I don't...know why.
...I vaguely remember you speaking to me. The little me.
[Henry decides to add that last jab before falling silent. This was...something almost like...an apology. And he didn't believe it. A serial killer's ghost made flesh again telling him that chasing him with power tools was the wrong thing to do. Or was it just the wrong way to get his heart out of his body? Walter's ritual required quite a few hearts.]
[But if what Walter said was true...that he was himself but not himself...Heather's words started to creep back up on him. He runs his tongue over the space where his tooth used to be and the still-healing gum. He could be lying. Walter could have been a lying liar what lied. But what would that gain him now? Walter was a lot of things but he wasn't fucking stupid.]
I- [ ...Had he laughed? Why would he laugh? The last time he had laughed...he couldn't remember. Had he laughed when he had killed during the ten hearts. When had it been...him laughing and not Him? Not before Johto. Not before Assumption's evolution.
But that was his life, wasn't it? At the end. He'd given himself to Valtiel. They were the same, towards the end. Except they weren't. Otherwise, he wouldn't have separated from him. They wouldn't have needed to find him, his little self, to bring him to the Room. Walter groaned. It was like trying to sieve through sand for an answer, an answer that was a mess of water and ink and blood and tar. Some of his own Pokemon noticed he was getting himself in a mental knot - Eileen and Joseph came to cozy up to him. ]
I didn't want to laugh. [ His voice is very small. He couldn't deny if he had or not. Because he knew, he probably had. ]
[Henry has found himself with far more to chew on than he expected. Suppose that came with the whole Receiver business. And he had asked.]
I see.
[A cold response, yes, but at least not a loud one. Whether Henry likes it or not, whether he is traumatized paranoid, or otherwise, he can't keep from being curious and observant forever.]
[ Walter let it hang for a moment, gently holding one of Joseph's clawed paws. He didn't know entirely what Joseph said to Henry; that area was almost completely closed from his influence. He was supposed to tell Henry how to kill him. What else he might have said about Walter himself? Who knew, except for Henry, Joseph and Eileen.
Henry already knew a lot. He wasn't sure just how much, but. ]
I remember you talking to the little me. I think. ...I think I spoke to you. As the little me.
That was me. [ He said, fairly certain. But at the mention of seeing both of them, he tried to remember- ]
...I had to...be at the Room. But, I didn't trust him. Myself. But I had to go, so he grabbed me. I knew I wouldn't go- unless I made me... [ He's getting a headache. Eileen rubbed over his throbbing temple. ]
I don't remember. Not all of it. I was...I was banging on the door for Her. And I was waiting for you. I think, I was mostly at the door?
[Walter is once again met with a thoughtful silence. However, this time instead of being broken by a yell or another question, there comes a crunching, munching sound.]
Huh.
[Classic sitting-on-an-escalator-to-hell Henry.]
Was it you who set the traps in the forest? Or were they there when you were small?
The traps...? [ Which ones? He didn't remember setting traps up personally. But, there were blanks. Times he had been...sleeping, kind of. Or running through the woods. He thought back further. ]
There had been traps. To stop us from getting away. I don't know if that's what was there...
[ Walter almost wanted to laugh, bitterly. Not for kids. ]
Henry...did you think the cells at the water prison were made for children?
[ Truthfully, the traps he wasn't sure on. They probably weren't the ones he was thinking of from his childhood. But traps for children. Cells for children. Blood for children. Did Henry agree with those things? If, they were made for children? ]
...mmm. [ A very quiet hum. It's still...strange to hear people outright say that it was wrong. But, Henry had seen the outside world and what he had been able to show him of the Order and his upbringing firsthand. He was possibly the only person to have not experienced that kind of childhood who could have anything valid to say about it, in Walter's opinion. ]
...I tried to leave. That's how I met...her. [ Eileen. And later, Cynthia. But Cynthia he met shortly after the Wish House told him he was...to go into the world as an adult. ] But I had to go back.
[Henry tenses at the mention of her. He had a good idea of which her that was and his grip on the Poke'gear tightened so that its plastic chew-proof casing creaked.]
[He can't very well blame a kid. But if Walter had expired in the streets...would the Order just have kept on and on and on anyway? More Walters? More Heathers?]
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[voice]
You don't understand anything.
[And for a long moment it seems as though he's done ranting. But then he pipes up again in a tone Walter will be more familiar with.]
I have a question.
[voice]
Go ahead.
[voice]
[The two opkemon, Boo and Pickles, who had been watching him from the door creep a little closer now that their usually quiet trainer isn't howling.]
[voice]
...somewhat. The Otherworld is a reflection of our world. What it is truly like at it's core. The worlds I created were echoes of places I had known in life, as they were under the surface of...of it.
[ This is all wrong but Walter doesn't know any differently. ]
[voice]
I had wondered why there were so many guns scattered around. If I hadn't found that shovel, I don't think I would have survived.
[voice]
[ He says this like it's as common as going to the shops. Which it was for him. ]
[voice]
[voice]
That....it was me but. It wasn't. [ He sounds a little unsure. Not confused but, he had no idea how to explain this. How do you explain that while housing an angel, he'd sort of been torn in two? Or three technically since there was his dead body, his adult form and his child form. And it became fuzzy what had been Valtiel's doing and what had been his once he died. ]
You're right. It wasn't the right thing to do. I shouldn't have shot at you either. I don't...know why.
...I vaguely remember you speaking to me. The little me.
[voice]
[Henry decides to add that last jab before falling silent. This was...something almost like...an apology. And he didn't believe it. A serial killer's ghost made flesh again telling him that chasing him with power tools was the wrong thing to do. Or was it just the wrong way to get his heart out of his body? Walter's ritual required quite a few hearts.]
[But if what Walter said was true...that he was himself but not himself...Heather's words started to creep back up on him. He runs his tongue over the space where his tooth used to be and the still-healing gum. He could be lying. Walter could have been a lying liar what lied. But what would that gain him now? Walter was a lot of things but he wasn't fucking stupid.]
You laughed...and laughed...
[voice]
But that was his life, wasn't it? At the end. He'd given himself to Valtiel. They were the same, towards the end. Except they weren't. Otherwise, he wouldn't have separated from him. They wouldn't have needed to find him, his little self, to bring him to the Room. Walter groaned. It was like trying to sieve through sand for an answer, an answer that was a mess of water and ink and blood and tar. Some of his own Pokemon noticed he was getting himself in a mental knot - Eileen and Joseph came to cozy up to him. ]
I didn't want to laugh. [ His voice is very small. He couldn't deny if he had or not. Because he knew, he probably had. ]
[voice]
I see.
[A cold response, yes, but at least not a loud one. Whether Henry likes it or not, whether he is traumatized paranoid, or otherwise, he can't keep from being curious and observant forever.]
[voice]
Henry already knew a lot. He wasn't sure just how much, but. ]
I remember you talking to the little me. I think. ...I think I spoke to you. As the little me.
[voice]
[voice]
...I had to...be at the Room. But, I didn't trust him. Myself. But I had to go, so he grabbed me. I knew I wouldn't go- unless I made me... [ He's getting a headache. Eileen rubbed over his throbbing temple. ]
I don't remember. Not all of it. I was...I was banging on the door for Her. And I was waiting for you. I think, I was mostly at the door?
[voice]
Huh.
[Classic sitting-on-an-escalator-to-hell Henry.]
Was it you who set the traps in the forest? Or were they there when you were small?
[voice]
There had been traps. To stop us from getting away. I don't know if that's what was there...
[voice]
[voice]
Henry...did you think the cells at the water prison were made for children?
[ Truthfully, the traps he wasn't sure on. They probably weren't the ones he was thinking of from his childhood. But traps for children. Cells for children. Blood for children. Did Henry agree with those things? If, they were made for children? ]
[voice]
[voice]
...I tried to leave. That's how I met...her. [ Eileen. And later, Cynthia. But Cynthia he met shortly after the Wish House told him he was...to go into the world as an adult. ] But I had to go back.
[voice]
I wish you hadn't gone back.
[voice]
The Orphanage had food. A roof. It was cold and I'd been beaten before. It was...it was familiar. Safer, than being on the streets.
[voice]
I think that's all the questions I have for now.
[voice]
I see.
...Henry. I'm in Ecruteak City. Don't come here. Please.
[voice]
I'm not going to, Walter. I'm done pouncing on you.
[voice]
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