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[ Pyrrha's deliberately taking a route she knows he doesn't utilize in his trek home from work, and it isn't so much the destination as it is the fact that she's moving at all. In truth, Pyrrha has no idea where she's going, other than that she simply needs to, desperate for the cool night air to clear her head. She's fleeing but she's not running: her gait is moderate, controlled, looking for all the world like she's just on a late night walk.

She had taken her CereVice with her, for obvious reasons, and is unsurprised when it starts to ring.

JAUNE ARC
> ᴅᴇᴄʟɪɴᴇ
> ᴀᴄᴄᴇᴘᴛ

She stares at it for a moment. After two rings, he'll hear this: Hello, you've reached Pyrrha. I'm not available right now but leave me a message and I will get back to you. ]

Edited 2016-09-05 19:39 (UTC)

[ Hello voicemail my old friend... ]

Pyrrha?! Pyrrha, it's Jaune!! -- Obviously. I'm-- yeah, a-are you-- where are you? Pyrrha, if you're there, please, just... respond. I just need to know you're still here... please...

[ He's had too many friends disappear as it is, and he's already been through this with her once before. ]

[ She relents, because punishing him had never been her intention, merely an unfortunate side effect of her shortness of breath and desperately roving feet. He's done nothing wrong, and Pyrrha can't stand to hear that note of heartache in his voice.

She ends up texting him her location, some five minutes after Jaune's left the voicemail. In the pleasure district, although going there has been a bad idea for a while, she had walked and walked and walked until she had found herself in the exact spot where they had emerged from ViViD some months ago.

She might be trying to find her way back, although - to what? ]

[ Jaune wastes no time finding the place, knowing exactly where it is (how could he forget?). After hearing about the recent unrest that's been growing here, Jaune actually shows up armed (Shiho's gun included!). In his hand is the creased letter, it appears he's shown no care for it as he ran to meet up with Pyrrha.

And boy did he run! He takes a few seconds to catch his breath before he continues-- ]

You shouldn't be here.

[ ...Poor choice of words. He means the pleasure district specifically, knowing how bad it's gotten lately. ]

[ Her eyes widen somewhat, not noticing the incidental details of the letter or Shiho's weapon. Of course he ran here, fully armed. Pyrrha had spent so many months fighting to get his attention and now - and now? When he's offering it up freely?

She can't quite bring herself to look at him, eyes just so averted. ]

I've... begun to realise that.

[ Unlike him, Pyrrha's not talking about the pleasure district. ]

[ He gets the sense that they're not talking about the same thing. Maybe. ]

...W-What do you mean?

[ Pyrrha had believed, on some level, that she couldn't resent Jaune for sharing his heart with someone else, nor would she have the energy or desire to be jealous of someone she's never met. And yet, standing here - in the dark, so far from home, Jaune keeping a stranger's distance away from her, their words mismatching again - it does hurt, more than she's prepared to admit. And she's dreadfully unhappy about it, about a girl who was brave enough to use words like "soulmates" and "half of the other", when Pyrrha had to die before Jaune would look at her and see her.

Miserably, she shakes her head. Maybe they'll always be on different pages, only able to understand one another when they aren't speaking. Silence stretches out between them, Pyrrha struggling to separate emotion from thought. ]

-- I...

[ She's feeling too much, it weighs her down, all she wants is a moment of clarity, a break from the torrent to put two words together. A shudder runs through her whole body, ribs quaking - it's a visceral moment, and an uncomfortable one: everything she's doing to keep from crying. ]

I think we need to stop pretending.

[ Just for a moment, or maybe longer -- ]

I'm not pretending anything, Pyrrha.

[ He approaches closer, albeit slowly. Her suggestion that everything they've been doing so far can be summed up as pretending stings a little. He's aware of the reality of things all the time, even more so when she disappears like this... ]

Talk to me.

[ He sounds so sure, Pyrrha has to tell herself not to get swept up into it. And yet, when he approaches her, the letter still crumpled in his hand - well, it doesn't help. Her shoulders flinch, a jerk restrained as she leans away from him. ]

You just said —

[ No, that's not right. She starts and she stops, and then tries again. ]

Jaune, eventually... you're going to go home, and your world will grow, you'll meet people, and - [ she gestures to the letter, but even then, it's a very sharp and quick gesture, hand withdrawn as if warding off a blow. ] ... You have your whole life ahead of you.

I didn't choose that! You made that choice for me, what am I supposed to do?

[ He would have much rather died with her that night, or better yet, not let her go off at all. Either way, his existence won't be much of a happy one without her, he's known that for a while now. ]

I-I don't know what's gonna happen in the future, maybe I'll punch my ticket, too, I don't know! Just-- i-is this about what you found? [ And now he holds up the letter, in case she's not sick of looking at it yet. ]

[ On some level, this is what she's been bracing herself for over the past two months: for him to make that point, to get upset and make her confront the events of that night. Maybe her upset over the letter is just a pretense, tired of waiting for this conversation and forcing it to happen instead.

His words do sting, though. Pyrrha can't help thinking that it would be bitterly unfair if her death was answered with anything but Jaune living a happy, long life, the life she wants for him.

It's only made worse when he holds up the letter. Pyrrha swallows, ]

- that's none of my business.

Edited 2016-09-06 10:35 (UTC)

Oh yeah? You made it yours when you read it, you don't get to unmake it now.

[ But... he scrunches the paper up for some reason, then turns his back to her as he throws it away. Far, far away. Begone, embarrassing past! ]

Tch, I should've done this a long time ago...

[ He's right, even as she struggles not to flinch at the brutal honesty of his words. She hadn't had any right to read his personal note.

And, unsurprisingly, she doesn't feel any better when he crumples up the letter. It doesn't make anything else she said less true, at least in Pyrrha's eyes. ]

... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been in your stuff to begin with.

It's alright, I didn't mean to... hide it from you. [ There isn't a lot he would want to hide from her. His heart belongs to her, despite what Pyrrha may think at the moment. ]

I just forgot to throw it out. The letter, it's... it's not what you think.

[ He doesn't blame her, though, even Jaune was fooled for a while. It wasn't a love letter that Pyrrha found, but a tangible reminder of his own naivety. ]

Well —

[ Somewhat helplessly, she extends her arms outward. She believes him - as she loves him, she trusts him - but. There’s more here, emotions still weighing heavily on her neck and closing her throat. It’s worse than it had been with him and Weiss, because that had never been real. ]

… how did you feel when you first read it?

[ He sighs, having anticipated that question somewhat. ]

How do you think I felt? [ He guesses that Pyrrha knows him well enough to imagine how he'd feel about being accepted, validated, loved... things he wanted all along, things he's had all along without realizing it at the time. ]

Things were... things were different back then. Before-- everything. ...I know how I feel now.

[ She does know, which is part of the problem. She would never want him to feel like his life on Remnant needs to be devoid of love, or affection. ]

You found what you needed, didn’t you?

[ It didn’t have to be her. It simply needs to be someone kind, someone he’s comfortable with. ]

I want you to remember that when I’m – …when we’re not together anymore.

[ Jaune tenses up when Pyrrha talks of a possible future without her, as if he hadn't already lived it for months. He knows how broken he'll be when she's gone, and he knows the amount of strength it will take from him to keep going for the sake of others. ]

If that day comes, don't think my feelings will change.

[ Too much has happened for him to ever love anyone else. His priorities shifted on the day Pyrrha died because that was the day he really found what he needed, before he apparently lost it forever. ]

All I'll remember is you. It will always be you.

No!

[ It's the second time in her life she's ever raised her voice to him. As her shout trails off, all the metal in a thirty foot radius begins to rattle. ]

[ Jaune doesn't notice the metal shifting around him, so he presses on-- ]

"Pretending"! How can you just say that? Like-- like it doesn't matter! I know that when I'm with you, a-and what I feel for you, it's... more real than anything else out there. More than that dumb letter! And you think I'll just replace that?! Pyrrha, I--

- don't, please.

[ It's a quiet plea, desperate and low enough to be dangerous. He's skirted around the words so many times now and, each time, her answering thought has been the same: don't, no, not yet, I can't.

The rattling metal seems to subside, but there's a low, curious scraping in its place.

It's strange. Once, she would have given anything to hear these things from him.

... ] Jaune, tell me - would you still feel this way if I hadn't died? [ Grief and impossible miracles, these things could confuse his feelings - and, quite possibly, ruin the possibility of him ever healing and moving on. Pyrrha's voice is shaky, on the clear verge of tears as she struggles valiantly to keep her untidy emotions restrained for a moment, another moment, a hundred thousand little seconds where she teeters on the edge of a breakdown. ]

Edited 2016-09-06 20:23 (UTC)

That's so unfair! Would you have liked me had I known who you were back then? Or could any idiot have accidentally taken my place?

[ ...

It is unfair, applying impossible differentials to their situation. Visibly, some fight leaves her stance, shoulders settling.

Quietly, brokenly: ] I'm not sure.

[ Now, that shaky threat of emotion manifests, downturned eyes becoming damp with tears. ]

Edited 2016-09-06 21:43 (UTC)

[ He's... not surprised at her response. While his question was just a counterargument to how ridiculous her own question was, he had wondered what qualities he has to bring to the table besides the circumstance of their first meeting. ... Especially in a place like this where nobody can treat her like a celebrity in the first place. How does he stand out? ]

Great - so we're together because you died and because I was a sheltered dimwit at the right place at the right time. Great talk, Pyrrha.

[ He's about to walk off like the dramatic diva he is, but his steps slow down, and eventually he turns slightly to face her again. He's upset, but... he can't leave her alone in a place like this.

Truth be told, he doesn't want her to ever feel alone, even if they're out of sync right now. ]

Winter Ball on the Eve of December 26th. ... Do you remember that?

[ She had been prepared to let him go, willing - if not ready - to resign herself to solitude and the dark, to chasing off the best thing in her life out of some high-minded notion that it was best for him. When Jaune stops, he takes that choice from her, his back blurry in her tear-stricken vision.

Her words are hiccuped out, unstrung with brittle emotion. ]

... a little.

[ Bits and pieces spike through the whirl: the sharp, white lights; Yang's pale gold dress; Sousei's smile at the end of their dance. And, always, Jaune at the centre. Holding her hand, dancing with her, walking her home -- ]

Everything from that time feels a bit like a dream.

[ That's something Pyrrha hasn't told anyone yet, not really. ]

Edited 2016-09-07 08:58 (UTC)

audio; sort of (but not really).

audio; voicemail!!!

text.

action; what a trip

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