singularjustice | ♔ [Text]

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[ If anyone is looking for N, he will not be easy to find. His Pokemon seem to be missing too, though his name still registers on the SFC. However, he does not seem to be answering messages, though one is free to leave one and try their luck.

He does, however, send out short messages to anyone he has made plans to meet with this week, leaving them a short message that simply says: I need to cancel this week. Sorry. ]

[Private Text to Red]
I'm sorry I upset you.

But I can't be sorry for fighting Silver. I'll leave him alone now. He's got his choices, and I said what I wanted to say.

But I couldn't just let him go like that. Let him take Feraligatr back and think he had won, that everything was going to be okay the way it was. Maybe it's not important to anyone else, what a trainer does to his Pokemon. Maybe to everyone else the rights of a human is more important. But not to me.

Green's right. I don't deserve you. I'm not like other people and I'm never going to be. This just proves it.

[ The message ends there, and then, a few minutes later: ]

Go to the Clinic if you're still feeling bad. And get some sleep.

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[She was starting to get used to the creatures. She looked around the warehouse, finding a hole in the wall and climbing in through that way. She eventually found her way to him, and carefully whispered, so as not to startle him too badly;]

N...? It's me, Mrs. Brisby.

[ N jumps, looking at her with wide eyes. ]

Mrs. Brisby? What are you doing here?

I could ask you the same, you know...

[She approaches him, settling at his feet.]

But... I have a feeling you're not really wanting to talk to anyone. Let's at least get you out of this dark, dusty place. Places like this will be the death of you! We can find somewhere nicer for you to be.

[ N turns his face away. ]

I am fine here.

Thank you.

Now, now. We can find a nice quiet place that isn't so dark.

Won't you go on a walk with me? We can go through the forest and find a private place there.

No thank you.

... N. You don't have to tell me what's wrong, but... this isn't good for you. I don't want to see you lonely like this...

I can take care of myself. I will be fine.

Well, yes, you can, I can tell...

N... is that what this is about? Trying to do everything yourself...?

Yes.

[She almost decides against it, but she climbs onto his knee so she can get a better look at him.]

Now... what's gotten you thinking about that? Did someone say something about you, N?

Because... from my experience, I don't think that refusing help is the right answer.

[ He lets her sit on his knee, but ducks his head lower. ]

I don't want to talk about it.

...Will you listen, if I tell you a little story?

Something special, that I haven't told anyone else?

[ ... ]

[ N peeks out, only one eye visible. ]

...yes.

It's a little long, but...

[She smiles at him, before starting her story.]

My husband's name... was Johnathan Brisby. That's where my own name comes from, naturally. But mice like me... we don't usually have names quite like that. Brisby. You mustn't tell a soul about this, but... he was a part of an "experiment". A group called N.I.M.H. had collected many rats, and many mice. They injected the mice with something that slowed their aging, and made them intelligent. I didn't know this, but the way Johnathan knew how to read, and sew, and the way he spoke about humans... there was no doubt in my mind. Johnathan was special.

He would always tease me. About how much I wanted to do things myself, instead of making him do them for me. He'd jest about how it was "only natural" that a husband takes care of his wife. I had our children, and it was then that I was finally able to do something for him, since he was always away for the day.

Timothy... my youngest son, one day in the fall, got attacked by a spider. Johnathan was there in an instant, and I... I had been too afraid of the spider to even think. All I did was call for help. But it was okay, because Johnathan wasn't afraid of anything. There was no one braver than he was. He wasn't afraid of anything. And because he wasn't afraid... neither was I. I felt that as long Johnathan was there, everything would be okay, no matter what.

Timmy... Timmy got sick. The spider bite made him sick, and so Johnathan introduced me to Mr. Ages. But one day, when I went to retrieve Timmy's medicine, Mr. Ages wasn't there. That night, Johnathan didn't come home. As I was putting the children to bed, Mr. Ages delivered the medicine personally, and told me what happened.

Johnathan was dead.

But that's all he told me.

Timmy started to get better, and made it through most of the winter, but... then... he got very sick. Mr. Ages called it pneumonia, and I was told that Timmy couldn't go outside for three whole weeks. And... the very next day was Moving Day; the frost was off the ground and the farmer was starting his tractor. If nothing happened, my house would have been crushed. And Johnathan wasn't around to help me.

I thought I could stop it. I climbed onto the tractor as it was running, but... I was too afraid. Auntie Shrew ended up sabotaging it for me. I couldn't even save my own children from being killed; someone else had to do it for me.

I was so scared. But I wasn't going to let my children die. I couldn't... I don't think I would be able to live with that. I had to protect my children, at all costs. And since Johnathan wasn't around to do it... I had to.

I... I went and visited the Great Owl. I begged him, and begged him, to help me, to give me some sort of clue. Something that I could do to save Timmy. ...It was my husband, again, that saved me. Because even in death, he left his name with me. The owl only told me once hearing that I was Mrs. Johnathan Brisby that the Rats of N.I.M.H. could help me.

And when I went to seek their aid, it was only Johnathan's name that let them turn their ears towards me.

I felt as if I was using my husband. As if being his wife was simply a tool in getting what I wanted. But...

[She shakes her head.]

I met the rats, and I explained everything to the best of my ability, and those who were helping me only did so by giving me the chance to speak on my own. I met Nicodemus, and he gave me this.

[She holds up her necklace for him to see, the red pendant glowing softly in the darkness.]

"The Stone", he called it. A gift from Johnathan. On the back, it says... "You can unlock any door if you only have the key". And that was when I really realized everything Johnathan did for me. He was never doing anything other than leaving behind the keys I needed. His name... the stone... the rats... they were all just keys. I was still the one who had to learn which doors to unlock, and who still had to pass through each "room". You know?

...The rats failed to move my house. They had built this machine to move the brick, but it collapsed, and my house began to sink in the mud. I thought for certain that my children would die. I was so scared that I nearly drowned myself trying to pull the brick out all by myself.

But the stone started to glow... and it gave me the power I needed. With the stone, I moved my house somewhere safe, using only the key that Johnathan had left behind and the love for my children to do it.

Now... well, when I left... Timmy is getting healthier, Martin and Teresa are growing up, and things are back to normal. I miss Johnathan so dearly, but... I don't need to depend on him any more. Now I'm the one being strong for my children, and doing whatever it takes to protect them.

...I suppose... what I'm getting at, more than anything... is that it's not whose help you ask for, or whose help you're receiving. There will always be work to do, whether or not you share the effort with someone else. But the key is sharing the effort, and not letting someone do it for you.

[ N listens, attentively and quietly. When she is done, he just murmurs: ]

You are a very brave mouse.

I'm a mother. It "comes with the job".

[A little chuckle.]

Listen... you're still a child. It might seem a little hard to think like this, but... you'll live for years, and years, and years, whereas I've only got a few more... you have plenty of time to learn how to stand on your own two feet. There's no one rushing you but yourself.

You'll grow to be a fine man, I'm sure. I'm certain of it. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

...I need to rush.

[ He looks away again, his frown deepening. ]

I have people depending on me, too. Not children, but those that need me all the same. I can't let them down again.

Well, they can't depend on you if you're hidden away in a corner, can they? Sitting here in the dark will do nothing for you other than make you lonesome.

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Hurp rethought my tag

♥

Tagging from phone aww yiss

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1/?

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DONE /phew

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