Another Way (Pokémon Fanfiction)

Sue wasn't sure if she should be here.

The wannabe convoy of several children at various levels of concern was tailed by a pair of adults. Jasper's confidence contrasted Sue's lack thereof, especially without Lilly to provide constant reassurance. The Forest Guardian had asked her not to follow them for a reason—as emotional as she herself could get at times, the leafy dancer felt everything much more intensely. Not exactly the preferable quantity when interacting with Heather, especially if she already wasn't feeling well.

Then again, even if most of Sue's feelings were subdued, they were still so much more intense than the mental silence emanating from the towering night kin beside her. With Thistle and Spark present, she would at least not be the sole source of emotional disturbance, but her better judgment couldn't help but point out that she should've just stayed behind with Lilly. Repeatedly.

Alas, too late for that now. Mostly because she had no idea how to get from where they already were back to the clearing, and getting lost in the nearby woods for the fourth time since she'd arrived here would be... suboptimal. Primarily for her sanity, followed by her continued structural integrity.

Jasper spoke up as their group slowed down, the absence of any translation turning his voice utterly bestial. Grunts, snarls, growls; the sounds reminded Sue of sound effects for orcs or other 'evil' creatures in fantasy movies. Just some audio filler, normally coming in between the swishes of the heroic protagonist's sword slashes as he carved down legions of nameless, monstrous mooks in his fight against whoever or whatever the big bad was.

But, of course, they weren't just sounds—they were words. Words that everyone beside her understood, and—judging by the response that came soon after—were supposed to be a question. Thistle slowed down but didn't vocalize physically, leaving her side of the conversation even less understandable for Sue. If the circumstances had been any less tense, Sue would've chimed in to let Thistle know she hadn't extended a link towards her, but it wasn't necessary here. She was just along for the ride; the last thing she wanted was to interrupt the important things going on.

Especially since her senses had plenty to feast on even without Thistle's words—namely, how she walked. It was one thing to watch the hatted psychic support herself entirely on the braids on the back of her head; it was another altogether to watch her walk on them. Her 'real' body dangled limply underneath the brim of her hat with every step, tossed around in a way Sue wasn't sure whether to describe as amusing or harrowing. Guess that depended on how much moving like that hurt her, and whether her spine went all the way into the hat or not.

And whether she had a spine to begin with.

The conversation between Thistle and Jasper didn't last long, ending after just a couple of questions. Whatever was said, it straightened Jasper out even more, while Thistle ended up sticking closer to her friends and Sue, worry radiating from her like the world's least helpful night light. 

Sue wanted to collapse underground at this thought of all things finally attracting Thistle's attention, interrupting her mental murk with an instant of bafflement—followed by an embarrassed realization. "^Oh, sorry, Sue! Didn't know you couldn't understand us!^"

Just don't force me to make an entire circus of myself by having to explain what a night light is and I'll be all good, Thistle.

"It's alright," Sue answered, dragging the attention of the rest of the group towards herself. The kids scrambled just close enough to avoid getting inadvertently kicked, while Jasper gave her a brief, approving nod, upping his pace until he fronted the group. Sue's role was clear now—child magnet, something she didn't mind getting volunteered for over and over again. "Though I didn't hear what you and Jasper talked about."

"^He just asked how my mom was feeling before this! And I didn't really know. She was really nervous when everyone from Moonview showed up, but then kept being tense even after everyone relaxed, then I realized she'd gone somewhere, then we found her and she was feeling even worse and panicking, a-and then we ran back to you!^"

Sue entirely understood the first part of Thistle's recollection—she could barely imagine how stressful it was to stare down an entire approaching convoy of what could've been enemies—but everything afterwards sounded... worrisome. It made sense for Heather to take her leave with her sensitivity to emotions, but Sue also didn't doubt one bit that she understood it was just a temporary visit. A cause for a headache, maybe annoyance at so many minds disturbing the silence, but not stress. Not panic, at least not any that Sue could imagine.

...

Unless her panic wasn't tied to the Moonview convoy to begin with. A very annoying strain of thought rushed to remind Sue that Heather was one of very few people that fully knew who and what she was. Not a reassuring realization, but also one Sue refused to give an inch to. 

Fact of the matter was that Heather didn't care about her even with that knowledge, an approach the once-human preferred greatly to its opposite. There was no reason for that fact to play any more of a role now than it did when they'd first met, especially with Sue being just one of dozens upon dozens of guests slash intruders.

Which left exactly zero leads. "That sounds strange. I really hope she'll feel better soon," Sue mused. Mostly out of empathy, but she couldn't deny the desire to avoid being chewed out or snarked at again.

"^Me too... w-we're getting close, I can feel her already.^" Thistle shuddered as she spoke, her words slowing the entire group down to a calm walk. It took Sue a few moments more until she felt what the little psychic had sensed, but once she did, it was hard to look away.

Heather stood in place in the middle of a small grove, shaking. Her long, blue arm was bent at a harsh angle, the three fingers on its end curled into a tight fist. High-pitched wheezes filled the air around her as the body hidden underneath the hat breathed heavily, trying its best to soothe the mental turmoil. Said turmoil wasn't anything Sue had suspected it to be, nowhere close to the anger that would've made the most sense in her situation. She was terrified, the occasional jolts of her tall body making her look like she was having a nightmare, especially with her not acknowledging their group's arrival right away.

It was only after Jasper got within an arm's reach of her did she finally perceptibly react, snapping her eyes open and scanning their group. She didn't expect to see Sue here, making that clear with a narrowed gaze, but didn't linger on her presence here for more than a couple of moments. Before Sue's self-critical voice could celebrate at getting a one up on her, it was obliterated by an increasingly familiar distraction—the sensation of a psychic link being established, bold and sharp.

"H-hello, Heather," the hairy night kin broke the silence as he walked up closer. "Is it too loud? C-can I help?"

To both his, Sue's, and Thistle's surprise, Heather lightly shook her upper half. "^It's not—it's not being too loud,^" she began. Her sharp, distant voice sounded profoundly exhausted. "^I-I cannot deal with this many people anymore. But, for the time being, I would not mind it getting quieter here.^"

Jasper got the message loud and clear. He walked up behind Heather and stepped forward, as if for an embrace. His hands grasped the sides of her head, just below the brim. Sue took a step back in surprise as she watched the fur around his hands unfurl, the long black hairs spreading to cover as much of Heather as possible. The thin arms underneath all the hair really were quite similar to the Forest Guardian ones, fulfilling Sue's earlier hunch.

Said hunch wasn't what mattered right now, though. Sue's attention was entirely on the other psychic as Jasper's intervention brought immediate relief. It was limited, unfortunately, and the murky feelings inside Heather's ironclad mind were still there, but she could at least breathe slightly easier now. About as much as she could reasonably ask for on a short notice. "^Thank you, Jasper,^" Heather muttered as she breathed even deeper than before.

Sue was glad to see her doing better, but also intrigued by what the other psychic had said. What did she mean by 'dealing with this many people'? She didn't remember Heather actually doing anything beyond posturing when they showed up. Could it have been something imperceptible? Was she interpreting this in the exact wrong way? Only one way to find out.

"If you don't mind me asking, Heather," Sue stepped forward, Spark remaining glued to her leg, "What happened?"

A sharp exhale was hardly the most friendly or encouraging of responses, but the emotions therein thankfully stayed out of the words that followed. "^Unpleasant memories.^" Heather's tone was firm despite her clear weakness, as if trying to impose that the answer was exactly that and nothing more, and that no more prying would be permitted.

And yet, Sue wanted to pry. "I'm sorry to hear. Is it because of this many people showing up—"

She didn't even need to finish her question to receive a very clear answer. A dull pain bit down on her head as Heather stared at her furiously, the message as clear as it could get. Sue audibly winced as she backed off, frightened, one hand shooting up to soothe the sudden headache. It reminded her of what Solstice's relatives did, especially Nightbane, and just like there, she had exactly zero interest in pressing the topic any further.

But this obviously wasn't okay. Not there, not here. "^Mom!^" Thistle squeaked, cutting off Sue's headache and sending an abrupt, painful flinch through Heather. The sheer intensity of her mother's reaction stunned the little psychic for a while, but once she realized everything was still okay, she continued. "^Sue was just asking why you were feeling so bad! And I want to know, too! I'm scared for you...^"

With the pain fizzling out, Sue watched the scene from a distance, not exactly eager to get close to the psychic tower again. She watched as Heather recoiled at her daughter's words, expression narrowing as it struggled to hold on to whatever composure it could find. "^Nothing important, I promise,^" she answered, her tone simultaneously afraid and annoyed.

Thistle wasn't a fan of either of these—or of her questions being blatantly ignored. She gathered her own composure, approaching her mother as seriously as a creature built like her was physically capable of. "^But you're so angry and scared and—and this isn't how you normally act!^"

No, it very much wasn't, and that was something not even Heather herself could conceivably deny. Still, there had to have been better ways of dealing with it, and Thistle deserved her to put in the effort towards them. "^I know. I am sorry. It's just a difficult, tense situation.^"

"You know," Jasper cut in, his monstrous growls once more reassembled into meek, gentle words, "I d-doubt that ignoring what's hurting you will help any, Heather. I promise you that nobody here will mind. A-and if it's something private, it can be just the two of—"

"^I don't want to hurt Thistle,^" a loud, strained whisper slithered into Sue's and Jasper's minds. Nobody else had reacted to it, especially not the younger psychic herself. As much as Sue was still reeling from earlier, and would rather not risk having a headache sicced on her again, she couldn't help but immediately think of several problems with that reasoning. Just like Heather couldn't help but hear them. "^I know it would hurt her, Sue. It is not her fault. It runs deeper than her or me; it is about our entire kin. I don't want the truth about us to hurt her even more.^"

"But it's a truth she'll have to face eventually, won't she?" Jasper spoke out loud. For once, he was the recipient of Heather's annoyance, as utterly ineffective as it was on a night kin. Absent of any context, his words immediately caught the kids' attention—as intended.

"Truth? What truth?" Pollux asked, tilting his head as he looked between the mother and daughter.

"Is it—*ow*—about Thistle?" Spark added, her tone as worried as the constant aching would let it sound.

"Were you lying to her before?" a cawing voice asked. Sue strained her neck with how suddenly it had to snap upwards, spotting Rainfall sitting on one of the higher branches. She had no idea whether the corvid had been here all along or if she'd just arrived, but she certainly couldn't deny her being almost as good at stealth as Pollux and Alastor.

That last addition made Heather twitch, the little Sue could make of her actual body's expression revealing a small grimace where there was only cold neutrality before. A grimace that wanted—no, needed to defend itself from the situation it was in, from the overt and covert accusations levied against it. It searched for words, any words that could help—

"^M-mom?^"

—but in the end, it had to admit defeat. Maybe she could've conceivably swept it all under the rug if Jasper hadn't spoken up, but it was too late now. A very underhanded tactic, only providing further fuel for her annoyance. She couldn't deny its effectiveness, though. Nor that, at some point, she did want to open up about all this. Just not to Thistle. She deserved better than that, even if she didn't know that yet.

Alas, her hand had been forced to pass on the pain to a new generation. "^Fine then...^" Her mental voice was equal parts resigned and annoyed, a combination that made Sue second guess her every word up to that point. Not Jasper, though, the night kin stepping aside. "Good. However hard you try to hide it, it's a truth that still affects you. And her too, by extension."

He then eyed out a nearby fallen tree, something Sue had overlooked in all the tension. She didn't mind crossing the perilous distance of approximately thirty feet that separated the group from it, but Jasper had a better idea. He grasped the fallen tree by the largest branch, individual hairs wrapping themselves tight around it, before dragging it closer. All of it. The entire tree. Sue wasn't sure how she felt about the fact that neither the sight, nor the piercing loud rustling that accompanied it, even made her flinch anymore.

Saying nothing more, Heather levitated off the ground and hovered towards the seat.

Wonder how she's gonna actually sit down like—oh. She folds in half. I see.

The bend where Heather's body sat down on the log was much further up than Sue expected it to be, in what would be mid-torso for a human. It certainly helped that Heather most definitely wasn't a human, then. The little bipedal body at her center that was surrounded by all the hair was sitting as expected—it was just really, really short; the size disparity between it and her outward presentation was even more intense than Thistle's. Much the same was true for the glare Sue's way that followed—it sure was much more intense than any expression her daughter ever had!

Thankfully, Heather's annoyance didn't last long, not with the lil' hat climbing up onto the fallen log to hold her mom tight. Her braids and tiny arms alike wrapped around what was probably Heather's torso, pinning the outer layer of hair against her body. Goofy as it looked, it was certainly heartfelt, Thistle's warm affection undoing the other psychic's tension one deep breath at a time. It helped a lot, but...

Heather was still afraid, clearly so. She really didn't want to talk about any of this. If not for the well-intentioned peer pressure, she would've just brushed it off and tried to rejoin everyone, regardless of whether she was ready for it. But ultimately, Jasper was right—as much as Heather would do everything in her power to ensure that what she'd have to describe would never happen to her daughter... it clearly affected them both, even if in different, indirect ways.

"^Do you remember when I told you about how feared our kin is, Thistle?^"

Heather's words made her daughter flinch, stubby braids visibly shaking and turning unkempt as they held the older psychic close. "^Y-yes I do, mom. I still don't like it...^" Thistle mumbled.

Her mom nodded weakly, small body drawing the deepest breath it was capable of. "^I know. I do not like it either. But that is the reality of things, and I don't think I can hide the full reason behind that from you any longer.^"

Sue perked up at the realization that the little hatted psychic didn't even know why her species was so supposedly disliked. Sadness stabbed her heart—at least for a few moments, before confusion replaced it. Because, now that she thought back, Thistle had given her a simple explanation for why her kin was supposedly so disliked. Them being 'mean and aggressive' in the wild was understandably fearsome, especially since one could've easily extended that description onto every predator species out there. Not that Sue could imagine how features this close to cotton candy in coloration could ever be aggressive to begin with.

To her and Thistle's dismay, however, the full answer was so much worse.

"^Once we evolve for the second time,^" Heather began, gaze unfocused, "^it comes time to establish our territory.^" Thistle nodded, uncertain about her mom's demeanor, but following so far. "^Except, that territory is not the same as with other kin. It is not as deliberate.^" Exactly nobody understood the difference the towering psychic was trying to convey, giving her a pause. "^Emotions are very loud, Thistle, aren't they.^" she eventually muttered.

Her daughter nodded weakly. "^Yeah, but I can live with it! It's nice to feel when people are happy!^"

Sue made a mental note about the comparison between sensing emotions and sound. It was interesting, because that wasn't her experience at all. It was so much more... tactile with her, like a part of her was being pulled around, without anything for her ears to perceive. She was well aware of the idea that different lifeforms would perceive their environment differently, but she'd never experienced that difference for herself.

Wild.

Heather let the world's weakest chuckle at her daughter's enthusiasm. "^It is. But it is still very loud, even when it is the best kind of loud. If too many people are celebrating too intensely, you still want to back away, don't you?^"

"^Yes, but—^" Thistle tried to answer, before her mom continued.

"^But imagine if that noise was ten times stronger still. Or a hundred. Or a thousand. Even a single person, even the gentlest joy, would turn deafening.^"

Thistle's eyes went wide as she was first cut off, and then forced to comprehend what her mom had described. She struggled to imagine—but she could do it, in all the detail that the rest of the surrounding group lacked any reference for. The mere idea made the little hat feel profoundly uneasy. Because at that point,

"^Everyone else would hurt...^"

Heather let out a somber nod, leaving her head hanging low. "^Correct. And it is that impulse, that excruciating pain, that prompts our kin to establish territories. Not to fight against one another for wild berries, not to secure hunting grounds. It is all in pursuit of even a moment of silence, of relief from that constant pain. And, when our senses grow that sensitive, that relief only comes when not a single soul remains in sight.^"

By then, Thistle had joined her mom in staring at nothing, her little expression dripping with fear. It was almost unimaginably terrifying, but what's worse is that it made sense. The little hat could put herself in these wild psychics' figurative shoes; she could imagine how existence like that would feel like. And, in a moment that made the puzzle finally come together with a disgusting, fleshy click,

What she'd be willing to do in order to find her silence.

"^Do you see it now, Thistle? That miserable, nightmarish existence? One where the woods around us are strewn with untouched, decomposing remains of everyone who dared to trespass, where the very trees and grasses wither and die? Where hundreds of other creatures are at best repelled from a place they once called home, and at worst slaughtered where they stand?^"

The explicit, brutal imagery made the rest of the group feel weak to their stomachs. Sue fared better on account of knowing exactly how much pain and regret dripped from Heather's every word, but the little ones around her didn't have that privilege. Spark scooted behind her, followed by Pollux soon after, his usual confidence replaced with visible shock. Even Jasper wasn't left unaffected, though his reaction was much more pensive and inward.

Tears rolled freely down Thistle's face, her imagination getting the worst of her. It showed her images of hell from both perspectives; someone in such intense pain they would kill to make it stop, and an innocent creature suddenly attacked by a maddened psychic, disarmed and disemboweled before it could even strike back. And yet, despite all that, it could always get worse; an obvious truth that her mind wasted no time reminding her. She slowly looked up at her mother beside her, breathless expression conveying a wordless, yet extremely clear question.

"^No, Thistle, I did not do any of that myself.^"

Five pairs of lungs gasped as they let out the most tense breath of their lives, while Heather only shook harder in her seat. Sue hadn't forgotten Daystar's words from the last time she'd visited Newmoon, her claim about many inhabitants of Moonview having had to kill for survival in the past. She would've been lying if she claimed that the idea didn't leave her at least a little sick, but even then; murder for sustenance was still so much more understandable than murder for... silence. She had no idea what she'd think of Heather if she'd answered differently, letting her conscience appreciate at least this instant of mercy in this wild world.

Heather wasn't done with her response, though. "^But my mother did.^" The revelation captured everyone's attention yet again, the crowd of children and big children dreading where the towering psychic would continue that thought. "^I grew up in such a 'silent' territory. It was immensely safe and equally crippling. You get used to the silence, start expecting it, requiring it. And so, the longer you live in silence like that, the lower your tolerance for when emotions and noise inevitably return to your life. And once you finally have to leave a territory like that, the safest and most natural place in the world for you, why wouldn't you then try to recreate it by yourself?^"

"^And that is why, more than anything, I looked the other way whenever you sneaked off into Moonview,^" she continued, making her daughter gasp at her 'secret' turning out to be about as well-hidden as she herself was in a forest environment. "^Whatever thoughts I have had and still have about Solstice and the rest of them, I was certain you would be safe there, while gaining tolerance to others' emotions. Earlier, I asked you to imagine the noise being ten or a hundred times stronger—and because of your friends and 'escapades', that will not happen to you. Everything will grow louder once you evolve, but not to that level. You will be alright, Thistle. I promise.^"

The little hat could barely contain her own emotions, her expression filled with a painful grimace at her mom's words. Fear at a fate like that even being possible in the first place, shock at her mom condoning her visits to the other village, gratitude for her reasoning, unimaginable relief at the certainty that she wouldn't have to hurt her friends—or anyone else—like her ancestors had. Love for her mom, for her efforts to make sure she ended up okay, despite everything she herself had gone through.

And even with the source of that last emotion being just a couple of inches away, Heather couldn't help but savor every moment of it, in all its overwhelming intensity.

"^Thank you, mom...^" Thistle whispered, the mental message too weak to be picked up by anyone except her mom.

It brought the tiniest smile to her face. "^You're welcome, Thistle. I'm sorry you had to learn about all this.^"

"^No, no, it's—it's okay, mom. I'm...^" Thistle searched for words, nothing quite fitting exactly. Because no, deep down she wasn't glad to know all this, her selfish, self-preserving impulses didn't want her to know something this existentially upsetting. But if not for that, she wouldn't have known just how hard her mom had tried to spare her from her forbearer's tragedies. She would have never understood why wildlings reacted to her the way they did. A painful lesson, but one she had to learn, eventually.

And despite how intense it was, it still remained incomplete.

Sue was conflicted on if she should even bring that up, with what they had already heard having clearly drained both psychics immensely. Sure, her conundrum wouldn't have gotten an answer, but it didn't need one. The important lesson had been taught. Everything else was a bonus at most.

Including the actual reason our convoy showing up had scared her so much.

It was a thought Thistle also had in the back of her head, but had given little focus to. At least, until she'd heard it from Sue. And then, in not too long, from Spark, too. As much as her mom had spilled her heart, she remained curious about her reaction from earlier, still worried about there being something she wasn't being told 'for her own good'.

This time, though, Heather had no intention of obscuring anything. "^And as to why I reacted like I did earlier,^" she continued, Jasper giving her an approving nod, "^it ties to how territories I had described meet their downfall.^" It wasn't hard to imagine how a territory like that would inevitably fall, either by the psychic maintaining it meeting their match and perishing, or by them deciding they'd rather keep running than fight whichever predators lived nearby. Neither of which mapped onto the current situation particularly well, though.

Because nothing was ever that simple, not even death. "^A single attacker is unlikely to win, even if they're a night kin. Our psychics may not be able to hurt them, but moonlight can. No—it is never a single attacker.^" Even though Heather had regained much of her composure by now, this topic threatened to undo all her progress. Her mental voice shook as she did something she almost never did—voluntarily reached into her memories, as opposed to them forcing themselves into her mind.

"Heather, what happened?" Jasper asked calmly, concern clear in every growl and snarl.

No point in running any more, no point in beating around the bush. The tall psychic nodded weakly with her entire upper body before focusing her pinprick gaze on her night kin friend. "^I was younger than Thistle when it happened, only mere weeks after my first evolution. I had little time left there. Mother made it clear I was to leave before the next full Moon, or she would make me. Then, one evening, right as I tried to fall asleep, I heard, felt... them. A chorus of whispers, right at the edge of my hearing. Individually much too quiet to perceive, but adding up into a presence much more fearsome than any deafening shriek of rage. I climbed out of our burrow, climbed on top of the hill we lived in, beside Mother.^"

Heather trailed off, no mental words coming for an unnervingly long amount of time. Everyone wanted her to take her time, least of all Thistle, but it was clear this wasn't just her gathering her thoughts. Jasper walked closer and took a seat beside Heather, furred hand grasping the balled up fist at the end of her blue tendril, slowly prying it apart. Prying her fears apart.

"^There were dozens, hundreds of them...^" she whispered, as if only halfway here. "^Predator and prey and beast and bird, allied in a deeply unnatural truce, their wrath focused on us, and us only. I felt it from miles away, red hot and seething, long before we saw them. I was so scared, but... Mother was not. I looked up at her, hoping for reassurance, or an answer, or a plan of how we would escape. Something, a-anything!^" Heather's raised voice felt as unnatural as it did distressed, making Jasper wrap his other arm around her for reassurance. She didn't notice, lost in the past—just like earlier today.

"^There was nothing in her eyes,^" she finally whimpered, mental words on the verge of tears. "^Nothing at all.^"

Not letting herself stop, she pushed on. "^I teleported as far as I could and ran, did not stop until my body was so exhausted it began to come undone. I was on my own, cursed much like Mother had been at that age. I still wonder what would have happened to me if I had not run into Ginger all those years back, or if his kin had not let me stay in their territory. What atrocities I would have committed, how much blood I would have senselessly spilled. How many more generations I would have condemned to this cursed existence.^"

The pang of pain that came from Thistle in the wake of her mom's words took her aback. The little hat didn't think of her existence as cursed; that sounded so weird! She was sensitive in one specific way, yes, but that was still only a part of who she was! Though, the more she thought about it, about how her life could've gone differently if her mom had followed her own mom's footsteps... the more she understood. Understood how her mom could think of existence like that as cursed, not just shaped by their sensitivity, but single-handedly defined by it, condemned to violence or madness. It was terrifying.

"^I-I don't know,^" Thistle eventually whimpered, redoubling her affection. "^B-but you didn't condemn me to anything, mom.^"

"^I know, and I'm so happy because of that.^"

Finally, the tension wrapped tight around Heather's body began losing its grip, letting the tall psychic regain her usual appearance as she stood up from her seat—with her single limb holding her daughter close. Not the kind of affection Sue ever expected them to share, but no less utterly adorable because of that, forcing a wide smile out of her despite how messed up Heather's recollection was.

It was a relief everyone gathered was sorely lacking, most of all Heather herself. She hovered towards the rest of the group as she thought through what to do now, whether she should even go back like this. The earlier panic was gone, but that didn't extend to Jasper's original concern, namely that of all the visitors from Moonview being much too loud for her to mentally handle. Maybe she could've afforded to stay here for a while longer after all, give all the guests time to ~~get out~~ take their leave first. "^Would it be alright if I stayed here, Thistle? I promise I am feeling better now.^"

Not an outcome the small hat wanted, but the last thing she wanted was her mom to suffer even more today. "^Awwwh. Okay...^"

Pollux, however, didn't see the logic right away. "But why, Mrs. Heather? Don't you wanna greet everyone?"

Even Sue's piddly psychics heard the 'No' ringing out from Heather's mind loud and clear, only letting her remain quiet by her sheer force of will. Everyone but her and Thistle would need an actual answer, though. Heather tried to stretch her language muscles, dressing her immediate, visceral response in words as gentle as she was capable of.

"^No.^"

"But whyyyyyyy?" Pollux insisted, his whine turning into the world's shortest and cutest howl.

For once, Heather wouldn't even have to come up with an alternative answer to a question like that, the plain reality more than sufficient to justify her. "^Because there are too many people there, and staying around them all would be too painful.^" There it was, the bulletproof answer, not leaving anyone else any room to argue—

"But didn't you let Thistle go to Moonview so that she would get used to having many people around?" Rainfall pointed out, jumping from one branch to another until she was level with Heather's blue hat. "If you let her go there so that she could get used to having people around, why not do it to yourself, too?"

You couldn't have waterboarded a question like that out of me.

To Heather's credit, her initial reaction was much too stunned to even come close to anger. That state of things didn't last for long though; the muted expression on her face soured into an unamused stare. "^As a general principle, Rainfall, it is best to assume that people have thought their situation through, and if there's something unsavory about it they're putting up with, it's for a good reason. As opposed to immediately trying to argue about it.^" Her words were pointed and her tone intense; two parts annoyance mixed with one part disbelief about her actions even being questioned like that in the first place, especially after everything she'd shared. Hopefully, a few sterner words would be enough to straighten her out, even through the means of intimidation.

Success, even if at the cost of the bird slowly backing off from her with shaking, rapid nods, before taking off towards where they had all come from. Neither Sue, nor Spark, nor even Thistle were fans of that outcome. The former was much too skittish after drawing Heather's ire earlier to commit to even a single thought; the fox was too preoccupied by her increasingly constant aching to think of what to say, and the latter wanted to cut her mom some slack. Which just left the two remaining night kin, a group that Heather was sure she wouldn't get any more crass questions like that out of—

"You can't deny she had a point, though," Jasper calmly, yet confidently, added. "It's great that you've been nudging your daughter into growing more comfortable with there being more people around her, but why not extend that to yourself? Wouldn't you want to visit Moonview again eventually, without having to stay in a mud burrow half an hour away?"

To Heather's infinite chagrin, it was much harder to dismiss Jasper's point. Still, not impossible, and this was a topic she had thought about plenty in the past. "^It is—it is much too late for me to conceivably grow my tolerance anymore. I'm afraid that it won't get substantially better than where it is, even if I committed all my energy into it.^"

A perfectly reasonable answer; one the tall psychic even had reasons to suspect was accurate. Still, there was one teeny tiny issue with it, one Jasper had noticed as well. "And how do you know that, Heather? Have you tried?"

There was nothing in the world Heather wanted more than to snap back with a "yes, obviously". Alas, there was a critical obstacle in the way of that reaction—namely the fact that she hadn't ever tried, not with the long-term determination a task like that would require. Her daughter had persevered and improved because of her sheer excitement and the allure of a place where she knew she 'shouldn't' have been, but Heather herself had nothing that could fuel her anywhere near as effectively. Even if it had mellowed out over time, dismay and distaste still dominated her thoughts towards the denizens of Moonview, and she had grown immensely comfortable living in Newmoon, reaping almost all the benefits of her own territory without having to fight for it.

How much that dismay and distaste were a genuine product of her friends' exile, and how much it was a post-factum defense mechanism so that she wouldn't feel bad because of what she'd lost, she didn't know. But, the more she thought about it, the more she realized the ratio between these two emotions was nowhere near as skewed towards the former as she had thought and wanted it to be.

It would've been very easy to lie, and Heather doubted either her daughter or Sue would've had enough grit to call her out on it... but there was no point. Jasper would know, by the mere virtue of their cohabitation. "^Nowhere near as intensely as Thistle, no,^" Heather eventually answered, trying to keep the saltiness out of her mental tone. Unsuccessfully.

Jasper tried his hardest to keep the smug satisfaction away from his expression—also unsuccessfully. "Sounds like just the thing to try, then! Wh-who knows, maybe Thistle can teach you some tricks, haha." The little hat perked up at the idea. She hadn't ever considered the possibility of passing any knowledge back to her mom, as opposed to absorbing it from her.

She liked the sound of that. "^Yeah! I-I think I could teach you a thing o-or two, and maybe we could go visit Spark at her home together!^" Thistle beamed from her mom's embrace, her excitement positively infectious. Which was helped by the fact that, out of everyone still living in Moonview, her mom held Sundance in the highest regard. Only about knee-high, though, but still way ahead of everyone else. Could've been a fun excursion, barring the whole 'trying to keep her brain from exploding at all the emotions' part.

Not today, though. Both because of the obvious reasons, and the slightly less obvious ones. "^I will consider it sometime, Thistle,^" Heather began, finally finding it within her to look her daughter in the eyes again. "^Probably not soon, though. Spark is not feeling anywhere near well enough for a visit like that.^"

The little kit let out a quiet yelp at suddenly becoming the center of attention, only for that sound to be interrupted by another wince. She had gotten palpably worse during their little excursion, to where Sue didn't hesitate picking her up into her arms the moment it became clear how much of a strain every step was putting on her. If not for Sundance having remained eerily calm earlier when witnessing her daughter's symptoms, the Forest Guardian would've descended into an outright panic at seeing her in that state. Instead, she maintained her cool; green fingers brushed Spark's extra warm fluff as the kit gave up any pretense of being opposed to her current position.

High time to head back to Moonview.

"^Indeed,^" Heather responded to Sue's thought, barely any louder than the Forest Guardian's inaudible sentence. "^Is everyone here okay with me teleporting us back?^"

Sue's sole experience with that facet of magic was overwhelming, but not at all painful—she had no objections. Spark was too knackered to care either, only letting out a quiet growl as she closed her eyes. Pollux nodded excitedly for a moment before forcibly suppressing his emotional display to something more calm. Jasper had no objections, and Thistle—"^Only if you promise to finally teach it to me tomorrow!^"

The Forest Guardian bit down on her tongue to not laugh out loud at the little hat's tactic. It was childish, sure, especially with Spark already feeling so rough... but it was also incredibly amusing to see Heather's stoic expression be interrupted by a brief, accusatory look towards her daughter. One returned right after, with cheekiness dripping down Thistle's pink cheeks. "^Fine, fine. I suppose I have been putting it off for long enough.^"

Heather's tone sounded as dejected as she could project, but it was a flimsy pretense that not even she could maintain for much longer, especially with her daughter redoubling her embrace. "^Thanks mom!^" Thistle beamed, her small body resting as close to her mom's as possible.

Sue's adoration of the scene was interrupted by her, both psychics, and everything else in the radius of a few feet, becoming surrounded by an intense white sheen. Knowing how the rest of Heather's act would play out didn't make it any less interesting, though. Sue focused on her and then on the two night kin, wondering how this trick in particular could affect them too.

She could've thought she heard an answer coming from Heather, but by then, everything was too loud for her to hear it.

The few moments that followed were very familiar. A split second of absolute nothingness, of not just darkness but a total lack of any sensory input, followed by the weight of existing again slamming against her mind, knocking her off-balance. Her psychic senses perceived what must've been their equivalent of static, a sensation of something coarse and ill-defined brushing against her very soul, before growing weaker and weaker, until disappearing completely. Not painful, not even unpleasant exactly, just... hard to describe.

The total opposite of the scene they had all found themselves in—not in Newmoon proper, but just outside it. They were right beside the road leading back to Moonview, and while it allowed them to head back home right away, there were several factors that would've made it ill-advised. Such as Sue's leg already feeling rough after her walk towards Heather, and that distance being less than half of what still awaited her. Or her not trusting herself to avoid her soul's call of getting lost at every opportunity.

Among other, even more important reasons. "Thanks for getting us back here, Heather." Sue turned towards the tall psychic, her eyes closed as she caught her breath. "Lemme just grab Lilly and we can start heading back to Moonview."

Heather didn't respond, weakly nodding instead as she let go of Thistle instead. They were all still a few hundred feet away from the settlement proper, but even that seemed to be too much for her, making her levitate into the air before hovering away, her small body breathing as heavily as it was capable of. "^Take care, mom!^" Thistle shouted, hopeful but not concerned by the sight—it was about what she expected.

Without any further ado, they got going again, catching a few double takes from bystanders as they stepped back into Moonview from the opposite side they left it from. Sue didn't notice most of them, though, too preoccupied by spotting her favorite flower from the crowd—and there she was, listening in on a conversation between Ginger, Solstice, and—

Kantaro!

Sue wasn't expecting the sight of the beetle to cheer her up as much as it did. She still didn't know him that well, but between getting to hear his tale a few days back, and his valiant opposition to Root when the whole kerfuffle with Ginger happened, she was immensely relieved to see him doing okay, if still bandaged in spots around his exoskeleton. Her smile shone as wide as she could put on as she approached the group, with her mentor catching onto her approach and roping her into the conversation with a covert wink.

Part of her wanted to let Lilly know of her presence right away, but the rest couldn't resist getting to repay her for her little prank shortly before they first met. She carefully snuck up right behind her, barely containing a shit-eating grin even as the tip of her bandaged horn was mere inches away from her girlfriend's back. And now, she waited until she'd noticed her~.

"Can't believe he got ya scorched like that," Ginger mumbled, eying up Kantaro's bandages. "Well—'course I can, saw it myself, jus... even I thought he was less blatant than that, y'know?"

The beetle let out a grinding sound that was probably meant to be a chuckle. "You were hardly alone in that assessment, Ginger. I had expected him to back down as well."

"^It's been a while since I've seen him get that incensed,^" Solstice shuddered, the interaction destined to remain seared into her memory. "^Even if you cared little about that monument anymore, Kantaro, he did. Sometimes it felt like he was more obsessed with it and the other side one than Her actual shrine.^"

The technicolor lizard let out a low, guttural sound before spitting off to the side, the subsequent hissing noise overshadowed by his words. "Ain't too surprised 'bout that, aye," he grumbled, the tone of his voice mismatching what Sue could only perceive as a wide, toothy grin on his face. "The point was never to get his own stuff; it was always to fuck with ours."

The Forest Guardian sincerely wanted to disagree. "^I... don't know. Maybe I'm giving him more benefit of the doubt than he deserves, but he wasn't always like that,^" she mumbled, hand on her cheek as her wide, red eyes drilled into the packed soil.

Exactly nobody else bought that assertion, Sue included.

"Uh-huh," Ginger began, projecting all the disbelieving snark onto these two syllables he was capable of. Even he, positive as he had tried to be, had his limits. "C'mon Solly. Out of all the folk out there to have earned that benefit, I'd say Root has looong since tossed whatever of it had remained. Ain't no use giving grace to those that'll only ever spit on it."

Solstice nodded weakly, sighing. "^Yes he has, but I'm talking about how he used to be. Though...^" she trailed off, before her expression flinched as she forcibly stilled her train of thought from booking it down a dark, well-traveled path. "^...nevermind. You're right. Can't let who he used to be dictate what I think of him now.^"

"I may not have lived in Moonview for as long as you have, Solstice, but I'm not far off. I wouldn't say that he has changed significantly from how he was when I first interacted with him," Kantaro pointedly added, both men unsure about what the Forest Guardian was trying to get at. "I have. You most certainly have, for good or ill. Not him."

Sue could sense a pang of annoyance radiating off her mentor at that correction, both at Kantaro and at herself. He was right, though, and it was her that should've been more precise with her intent. "^Maybe not as much who he used to, but rather what I thought he was. I remember when I first arrived, with a head full of ideas. He was already much closer to what my family spewed than I was comfortable with, but he wasn't as... constant with it? Ceaselessly aggressive? Restrained enough to not dispense slurs at every non-Psychic he interacted with? Easier to stomach in small doses, either way. And I think that changed how I perceived him, as more 'respectable' than my clan, if it makes any sense. I had mostly disabused myself from wanting any validation from them at that point; it's what let me run away from them to begin with. I suppose you might say I saw them in him, but more tolerable. Someone I disagreed with, but which I could still hold in high regard and value the input of. Value much, much more than I should've, in hindsight...^"

The framing made things click in place for the men, Lilly, and Sue alike. Kantaro summed it up. "You make it sound like an addiction, of sorts. Addiction to a poison you couldn't get away from, despite your best attempts."

Or like an abuse victim gravitating to someone like their abusers.

Sue's stray thought pierced Solstice's mind much more intensely than Kantaro's words, making the older Forest Guardian flinch as she looked up at her pupil. "^Indeed.^"

The very same reaction also drew Lilly's attention to one particular someone standing right behind her. Her piercing gasp single-handedly crushed the dour atmosphere in the air as she repeated her favorite trick—picking up Sue into her arms, the lanky psychic weighing barely any more than air as far as she was concerned. "Sue! Thistle mom good?"

The dancer was far from the only one who appreciated her intrusion, the uplifting interaction sorely appreciated. "Howdy again, Sue," Ginger greeted, hissing with a laughing cadence at watching Lilly's antics.

"Hi Ginger!" Sue replied, trying to keep her balance in her crush's embrace. "And yes, Lilly, Heather is doing better, thank goodness. B-but Spark isn't, and I thought we could start heading back to Moonview."

Especially since almost everyone else had already gotten that idea, as a cursory glance around the village showed. There were just a few of carts left, and aside from the builder team chatting with Daystar and Thorns, Sue could only make out a handful of faces that didn't live in Newmoon. A fashionably late time to leave, either way.

"Awwh, and here I thought ya were gonna stay here forever, and I'd get a roommate," Ginger cackled, the joke even getting a quiet chuckle from Solstice. "I think I'll pass on another visit myself for now. Heard Daystar was eager to check Moonview out, though."

"Can make everyone, then!" Lilly cheered, eyeing out the cart she'd brought here earlier. "Us and Daystar and Solstice and everyone want!"

"^Not me yet, Lilly,^" Solstice gently chided. "^There are still things we need to hash out first. I don't think it'll be terribly long, though.^"

The dancer was undeterred. "Can wait! No rush—"

Solstice shook her head. "^No, no, no need to—especially with Spark already so close. We—I'll get back to Moonview safely, don't worry.^"

Sue wasn't sure which unanswered question her mind wanted to latch onto first, the quickly discarded 'we' or the unspecified something that Spark was already 'close to'. Either way, she didn't have too much time to ponder on that before Lilly carried her away, yanking her out from underneath her thought process as if it had been a plate on her head, now falling to its doom.

They didn't have to ask around much to find everyone else that had wanted to tag long on a trip to Moonview. Thistle literally leaped at the opportunity, psychicing herself into the now-empty cart, much to Sue's amusement. Pollux followed suit soon after, simultaneously excited at the opportunity to finally visit Moonview in the open, and worried for Spark. Daystar and Snowdrop were there too, though both of them were too proud to use the cart despite there being more than enough space for them both to fit.

Snowdrop did let her girlfriend pick her up and carry her in her arms, though. Whether there was any point to that with her levitation, Sue had exactly no idea. It certainly looked adorable, and that's what mattered.

And last, but hardly least, was one particular green snake, slithering out from underneath a bundled up tarp at the front of the cart once it got going. Everyone was ready; it was time to depart for Moonview, that once-dangerous, once-loathsome town. Or, as some in the group referred to it,

 Home.