revivalproject | Ghosts of the Past

WHO: Radley and anyone in his location
WHERE: Hotel
WHAT: Ghostly visit
WHEN: During the Storm
WARNINGS: CW: Mentions of torture and death by electrocution, suicidal thoughts

Radley was angry, frustrated, and worried about the sudden storm. At least he had supplies, so he wasn't so worried about himself, but he was definitely concerned for those who might not be in such a good situation. He was also really worried about Eddie, not sure if anyone was even at the hospital with him. He tried to get over there, but failed before the storm hit. Unable to leave, he went around checking on those who were in the building with him and was trying to adapt to dealing with the problem (hoping it wouldn't last long), when a sudden additional chill permeated the air. This one went right to his soul. He froze, turning to look to the source. As a ghostly vision began to take shape, all color drained from his face.

"Kalin?!"

The man who appeared was younger than Radley, but his golden eyes were emotionless and dead. Long, pale blue hair framed his face and fell around his shoulders and down his back, a sharp contrast to his dark coat. A jagged yellow mark went all the way down the right side of his face. He stood, just staring through Radley for an agonizingly long moment before raising a hand and pointing at him with a steady finger.

"You failed."

Radley went colder than even before. "Kalin, what ... why are you acting like this?! What happened to you?! Are you dead?!"

He did seem to remember hearing about apparitions that appeared during storms. Was this real? Was it just someone taking on Kalin's appearance? How would it know about Radley's past and what haunted him so?

Kalin ignored him and kept talking. "You failed the town. You failed everyone who cared about you. You couldn't protect them. Instead you were dragged to Malcolm's mine and tortured to death with an overloaded shock collar, just another victim of his cruelty! You gave up on life and let yourself die!"

Radley was shaking, but finally he found his voice. "What about you?!" he spat. "You gave up on life long before that! You wanted to go to the mine! You wanted to suffer and die! I wanted to live! I wanted to save everyone ... and I couldn't...."

"You weren't good enough. Everyone left you. Everything was taken from you. And you lost all hope, all desire to go on. And I ... I couldn't care less."

The phantom rippled and faded into the mist.

Radley sank to his knees, still shaking. He was angry, he was hurt, he was crushed to pieces. Kalin or whoever had laid bare everything still torturing Radley in his mind and in his heart, right down to his anguish that Kalin didn't care, or didn't seem to. They hadn't spoken since Radley's revival. He didn't know why Kalin had always treated him so poorly. He only knew how it had felt to him. Every time he had tried to reach out, he had been kicked away like an unwanted animal. As if that hadn't been bad enough, Kalin and his friend Yusei had abandoned Radley to the torture in the mine, where he had suffered and died. Now the scab had been ripped open anew and all of the pain he had been trying to push back and hide was coming out again. He sobbed bitterly, unaware that others had witnessed the spectacle and were probably still here now.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"That's really weird it'd effect Pikachu like that-I think as long as he's not showing in signs of electrical build up but I think he's okay.." He glances over at Pikachu who nods in agreement.

"I'll just have to keep an eye on him."

"Yeah, you do that," Radley agrees. He resumes making the food. "... If there's electrical build-up, won't he have to ... let it out somehow?"

He wonders if it could be put towards charging the fridge rather than sending it into the air.

"Yeah, Pikachu can get really sick if he can't discharge all that electricity but... he doesn't seem to have ANY electricity right now. A good bolt of lightening should give him a recharge, though."

"Pi-ka." Pikachu nodded, glancing at the window.

"As long as he doesn't get a fever though, I think he'll be fine." Is Ash trying to convince himself or state a fact? It's really hard to tell. He moves to card his hands through the yellow creatures fur who responds with a happy 'chaaa'.

"Lightning doesn't look too likely right now," Radley mused. "If there's no electricity at all, it's probably the same power-zapping thing the humans go through. I'm sure he'll be back to normal when the storm passes."

He presents them with the food. "Here you go!"

"I sure hope so." Ash comments, glancing at Pikachu before he accepts the food he's offered.

"This looks great! Thanks!" He says happily, setting some down for Pikachu to munch on. The Lightening mouse lets out a happy noise before digging in. Once Pikachu is eating, Ash is able to dig in too.

"Sure," Radley smiles. He starts making some for himself too.

"So, where are you guys from?" He likes learning about all the different and new places he had no idea existed before.

"I'm from Pallet Town in what's known as the Kanto Region back home. My Mom runs the only restaurant there and Professor Oak's Lab is world famous-that's where I got Pikachu." Ash explains excitedly, still chowing down. He is trying to eat slower than usual because he doesn't want to deplete the man's resources like that.

At least this time, trapped in a blizzard, there was even food to eat. Still, he'd give anything to have a full team again.

"I see," Radley muses. "It sounds like a nice place." He wonders if it's anything like home. "What other kinds of animals are there?" He imagines there must be other unique ones.

"You mean what other Pokémon?" Ash asks before plowing on ahead to that subject. "There's a bunch of different types-" He holds up his fingers to count. "Let's see, there's normal, grass, fire, ground, rock, water, ghost, psychic, bug, poison... uh..."

"Pika." Pikachu offers.

"Right, flying, steel, dark... um..." He starts to falter again.

"Pikachu." Pikachu says helpfully.

"Oh yeah, Fairy, dragon, electric of course and... I think there's two more..." He frowns in thought, trying to come up with last two types.

"Pika pikapika." Pikachu supplies.

"Oh yeah! Ice and fighting!" Ash nods. "And there's hundreds of different kinds of Pokémon. They're all over the place."

Radley is pretty lost, but he nods, trying to keep up. He figures out soon that Ash is naming categories rather than the animals themselves.

"That's ... pretty interesting," he says. "And say, do you understand what Pikachu is saying?" That intrigues him much more.

"Hm?" Ash and Pikachu look at each other a moment. "How do I explain it? It's.. not that I understand him as far as words go... it's more like I can sense what he means."

"Pikapi piKachu." Pikachu says happily, hopping up to rub affectionately against Ash's cheek.

"I can do it with all my Pokémon but with Pikachu it's a lot stronger." He pets the yellow mouse with the same affection.

"That's really cool," Radley smiles. "You guys have a special bond."

Ash just continues to pet Pikachu who's making happy noises at all the attention. "Pikachu's been with me since the very beginning. Whenever I decide to start over, he's always right there with me."

While he does know just how strong his bond with Pikachu is he doesn't really say anything more about it- in his recent experience his strong bonds with his Pokemon led to a lot of trouble.

He wasn't going to stop making friends and bonding with them, but maybe he shouldn't brag about it as much.

"Start over?" Radley repeats in surprise.

"Yeah, whenever I travel to a new region, I always only take Pikachu with me." Ash explains. "So far we've been to six different regions- not counting Kanto of course."

He finishes up eating and gives Pikachu a few extra bites of his own food. "Thanks again for feeding us. Hopefully the snow stops soon, so we won't have to bother you again."

"Pika!" Pikachu agrees.

"... Ah. So the regions are all really different?"

He smiles. "It's no problem. I like company."

"Yeah, every region has new Pokémon that I've never seen before. It's so great being able to travel all over, make friends and meet all kinds of Pokémon." Ash gushes.

"PiKachu!" Pikachu agrees happily.

"That sounds really fun," Radley says. "Are some Pokemon in every region?"

Ghosts of the Past

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