Painful Choices (Annie, Tanya)

[Amanda Dupomme]

''Ne voyez-vous rien, Alfred?''

''Upupupu... 私は何も見えない''

Amanda sighed, recalling her Duskull and quickly stepping through the doorway, walking as fast as was politely possible, intent on reaching the exit to the dorm without running into anyone. It wasn't that she had no desire for social interaction, no. Just that every single time she had been through the area: Tanya had been waiting behind some wall, trying to ambush her.

Amanda knew it was likely because of the things she had said during battle class, clearly they rubbed the other Wave Dormer in a wrong way. Yet, there was no desire on part of the blonde to debate it. Tanya could get overenthusiastic, she knew, and dealing with that was simply not tiring. Besides, as horrid as it may have been to claim trainers being attacked was a valid tactic, Amanda had no desire to back out of that notion. The next time she ran into Team Origin, they would suffer, and nobody could change her mind.

[Tanya Christianson]

Tanya had been waiting. Insisting on bringing Annie alongside her, Tanya waited towards the exit of the dorm, knowing that Amanda was going to have to come out eventually. It was pretty obvious that Amanda had been keeping her distance from her. Obviously she didn't want to have that talk that Tanya warned her about. While she wanted to be civil about it at first, the rate she was going to avoid her was reaching levels of ridiculousness. She was going to stop it now.

While she had been caught out previously, she wasn't going to be caught out again. Hiding at the sight of the Duskull, Tanya waited with bated breath of the sound of footsteps. Once she found them coming closer, Tanya jumped out of her hiding spot and held out her arms.

"Where do you think you're going Amanda?' Tanya said coldly, looking very unpleased with the lengths she had to get just to encounter Amanda. "I'm not stupid. I know you've been avoiding me Amanda. However, we are going to have this talk, whether you want to or not.

[Annie Prince]

Annie was very much on edge about all this. If Tanya hadn't insisted, the girl with the scarred face might have simply and without a word taken to avoiding her fellow Kalos-born student in battle and probably in other respects as well. She remembered well enough that Amanda had only proposed attacking Team Origin trainers directly, but she couldn't trust anyone who would dare even suggest the idea. It was too unthinkable...

Tanya knew, because of that strange night, what was wrong with Annie and why she took it so hard. It was Tanya's idea to confront Amanda, and Annie was talked around all too easily. She had liked Amanda well enough, before... that class. Maybe the blonde could be persuaded to see reason...

Which was what led her to be here, at the entrance to the dorm, with her roommate, hiding from Amanda's weird Duskull. The Pokémon was obviously scouting, checking to see if they were there. And they needed to convince it that they weren't if they were going to actually talk to Amanda...

Here she was. Annie left the hiding place along with Tanya, letting her roommate do most of the talking.

[Amanda Dupomme]

An annoyed sigh came from her as Amanda crossed her arms in exasperation, a light tap on her wrist alerted her Pokemon, calling her Hariyama from her Pokeball. Perhaps having her bodyguard out was a bit too much for this situation, but she wasn't about to risk Tanya doing something drastic, nor anything from An- wait, why was Annie here?

Amanda turned to inspect her fellow Kalosian. She didn't seem particularly eager to be there, nor could Amanda see why Tanya would bring her along? Most likely to help yell at her or something, back up some foolish optimistic stance. ''How come you are here as well?'' the blonde queried, before shaking her head and turning back to Tanya.

''Never mind. Tanya, I don't care what you have to say to me, I told you all what had mattered to me during class, and I don't intend to apologize for it. And I most certainly do not appreciate being stalked like this!'' Amanda stated: flatly, quite annoyed at having to deal with the most unpleasant of discussions.

[Tanya Christianson]

Upon seeing Amanda release her Hariyama, Tanya got out one of her pokeballs and released Daniella, who floated lazily in the air, unaware of the tension that was thick in the air. She wanted to make sure she was prepared for anything, especially considering the mental state that Amanda was in. She really didn't want to, but she would not hesitate to put up a fight if the situation called for it.

"Do you have any idea what you are saying Amanda?" Tanya asked Amanda incredulously, giving her a look that was a mix of anger and worry. Her emotions were bubbling over and she was having trouble making sense exactly about how she felt. What she did feel was that this was all wrong and that she needed to correct it. Somehow. She hadn't really worked that part out, only the part about talking to Amanda.

"There is no situation where using pokemon against people is fair and what you said in class is wrong. Miss. Eisenberg even told you the reasons why it's wrong to use pokemon like that and I bet that if you try to, even against people from Team Origin, you will most certainly be expelled and lose your pokemon. Do you really want to leave over something stupid like that?"

At the moment, Tanya was trying to appeal to her sense of right or wrong. When she thought about it more however, she realized that this might not be the best idea in the world. When she thought about it more, Amanda was probably not in the most sane state of mind. She felt obligated to help though, even if she had to be tough about it.

"As for why Annie is here, you need to apologize to her. What you said in class was out of line and for reasons I'm not going to say, you have an obligation to apologize to her. Did you even see how she was in Battle Tactics?" Tanya stated, trying to avoid the topic of why exactly she brought Amanda here. She guessed Annie probably wouldn't appreciate having her past revealed to people, so she stayed quiet about that specific detail. Yet she felt that Annie needed to be here. At least to have a chance to convince Amanda to stop acting the way she was.

[Annie Prince]

Amanda seemed surprised to see Annie. That was fair enough. Annie was somewhat surprised to be there.

And then Amanda claimed to still stand by her words in Battle Tactics class. Annie's eyes went cold, and she wanted to laugh in a terrible and dark way when Tanya asked if Amanda had noticed how she had affected Annie. It was so obvious that she hadn't.

"You've never seen what happens when a Pokémon attacks a human on their Trainer's orders, have you?" Annie inquired pointedly. "Hardly anyone has, of course. It's rare. It's rare for a [expletive deleted] reason." Annie rarely ever swore, but she was different now than usual. Normally, she was like a queen concerned for her dignity, but now she was far more like a scarred old soldier. "So of course you've never seen what it looks like, or what happens in the aftermath. And you've met a team of bad people. Do you know what will happen, if your Pokémon attack the Trainers directly?"

Annie stared levelly at Amanda. They were the same height, she realized only now. "Almost certainly, you will kill them, whether you mean to or not. Your Pokémon are just too strong not to. But, unfortunately, they have friends, human and Pokémon. Once you have attacked one of them, do you really think they wouldn't do the same to you?" Annie shuddered and had to look away. The image of the girl in front of her dying was far too strong. She hated how easily her mind's eye furnished details that she would have loved not to consider. All it would take was...

Wrenching herself away from the thought, Annie shook her head and put a hand against the wall to steady herself. In a more subdued tone, she asked, "Do you have any idea how lucky you would have to be to live, in that case? People don't just survive things like that. It's like getting shot. There are so many ways it could kill you, and if you somehow survive them all then you have to spend the rest of your life dealing with the consequences. Scars on your body, scars on your mind... and everyone else thinking you're not human because you survived something that should have killed you..."

[Amanda Dupomme]

Amanda rubbed her forehead in irritation, trying to comprehend what exactly the girls were saying to her. Was Tanya really that dim-witted, she had seen the girl as a highly competent battler, but now it seemed perhaps that had been too rash a conclusion, why would fairness matter when criminals were involved?

''Mais bien sûr,, let's all be good girls then! Let's play by the rules, let's all timidly and obediently do as we are told, like good little children. But who is to say the other side will do the same? These are monsters that destroy homes and attack people as well, shall we simply let them have their way, to do as they please and escape because all us good little people can do is temporarily incapacitate their Pokemon after we've caught them, after the city has been reduced to a burning ruin? Ils ne jouent pas selon nos règles, they make their own, and if we are naive enough to expect anything different, the only ones dead will be us, and I will NOT have the lives of innocent people on my conscience, people who lived lives and had friends without trying to destroy those of others, now gone because I wasn't willing to go the distance!''

She turned to Annie, flinching slightly at the unexpected expletive. The pale-haired girl was hardly the type to swear, and perhaps that warned Amanda something else was at stake, almost like Annie had some sort of experience with this sort of thing.

To Amanda, it seemed like that distinct scar was starting to make more sense, she sighed: very much aware of what the other Kalosian was saying, to do what she wanted to do, it would be going off the deep end. Yet, she didn't know if she could live with the alternative.

''You both know me, you know of my past, how I worked in the tourism industry even a child. Do you know why I did that, I wonder? Because I loved my country, I loved the things it had done and all the lessons it taught it's people. What I didn't love was those that disrespected it, those that only came to look at the ''fancy buildings'' and throw their beer cans and gum on the floors where kings and nobles once dined. Les touristes en sueur idiotes avec le cou de viande that would harass me and my friends, trying to take photos up our dresses all while grinning toothless smiles. But I persevered, because I loved what I did, and because my town needed those people, crude as they were, to sustain itself!'' She spat each word with cruelty, hating to speak ill of her town, hating to remind herself of those moments when even her passion struggled to get her through the unpleasant people that once more, were in her life, though she doubted they would ever really leave.

''They were a necessary evil... but this is most certainly not. As far as I am considered, these monsters have it coming!''

[Tanya Christianson]

It was painful, dealing with Amanda. She knew she had her heart in the right place, but she had been approaching the situation completely incorrectly. She wondered if Amanda had ever listened to herself or thought it through in a rational way. Did she realize that what she wanted to do was basically the same thing as Team Origin? She probably thought that the only way to defeat them was be like them, something that Tanya full-heartedly disagreed with.

When Annie began speaking, Tanya flicked her head towards her, looking concerned as Annie started to talk to Amanda in a way that she didn't see. While she did feel it was necessary for Annie to be here for her message to be stronger, it was now that Tanya was worrying that it may not have been the best idea in the world. It was for that reason that she kept her eye on her, watching her friend carefully as she poured her heart out to Annie.

When Annie had finished speaking, Tanya went to move towards her, leaving Daniella behind to block the path. She put a reassuring hand on her back, smiling softly before she turned to Amanda, who seemed to be getting more frantic as time went on. It seemed that there was more to this than just Team Origin. She looked down for a moment, trying to calm down before the last statement Amanda made caused her to shake with anger.

"Just because you think they're not a necessary evil doesn't give you the right to attack them or kill them!" Tanya shouted, clenching her free hand until she could feel the nails digging into her own skin. "You'll be no better than them if you do that. Plus, if you attack Team Origin, what's going to stop you from attacking others as well as time went on. You could end up hurting a lot more people than you intend with the misguided purpose of trying to help. Do you think of the implications of killing someone? What it would do for your reputation and the reputation of the school? Or are you just to selfish to think about it?" She hissed the last few words, losing control over trying to be nice to Amanda. She was probably going to regret saying this later, but it just came out before she even thought about it.

[Annie Prince]

"Fools," said I, "you do not know:
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words, that I might teach you
Take my arms, that I might reach you."
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence...

Annie smiled weakly when Tanya came over to lay a hand on her back. Her uncharacteristic outburst had been as unexpected to her as to her companions, and it had tired her out.

And it seemed that she wasn't done. Amanda clearly still didn't understand the magnitude of what she was proposing, and maybe even Tanya didn't either.

"These rules," she spat clearly, "are not trivial or childish. They do not exist to prevent you from protecting people. They exist to protect people—including, maybe especially, the same civilians you want so badly to help.

"Everyone who went out from the school to defend the island came back. That tells me that, for all that they have done, our enemies have not been attacking Trainers with their Pokémon. But you attacking them may well be exactly what they want. They are trying to set us up as the bad guys. You would be playing right into their hands, accomplishing their own goals for them in your zeal to defeat them! And even if you ignore that, even if you think only of the fight at hand? Unless they really are better people than we are—and we would not be having this conversation if you thought there was any chance they were—they will start killing if you do. The surest way to make your enemy break a taboo is to break it yourself, and this is a taboo you do not want broken. Because even if you do have the self-control to stop at one murder—" Annie nodded to Tanya, acknowledging her point. "Do you really want to bet on them having that kind of self-control? Because if they do not... perhaps they kill you. Or perhaps they kill all the students they can get. So who else did you just get killed? Everyone is suddenly at risk, whether they approved of your idea or not. And I, for one, am not willing to put my life on the line for your dream of magically rendering all your enemies passive by provoking them. Because that is what you are proposing."

Annie shuddered and turned her gaze from Amanda to Tanya and back. "You want to talk about innocent people? Let's talk about that little blonde girl who's always so excited in Battle Tactics class. She's good, she's very good, at battling. But behind all those great big monsters she commands, she's, what, ten? She can take on a full-powered adult Trainer with her Pokémon, but if one of the enemy went for her directly—would you want to explain to her family why you opened up an excuse for that to happen? And there are so many—"

At that point, Annie remembered that her little brother was also a student here, and that he would likely try to join in on any battles that came up as well, and she fell to her knees, crying mutely.

[Amanda Dupomme]

Amanda felt her feature relax slightly, taken aback by the surprising sight that was Annie Prince being overwhelmed. That wasn't something Amanda had thought could ever happen, if anything: Prince was a role-model, she always kept her calm, she was always regal and composed, yet that Prince was not the person before her, if anything: Annie seemed to imitate Amanda, it was familiar yet frightening.


A weak sigh, Amanda leaned against the wall, letting herself slowly sink to the floor, lowered to the level of the other Kalosian, as she struggled not to cry as well. Amanda wanted to be strong, she didn't want to have another event like Mavro, where she became overwhelmed and lost control, or like the Pinsir attack in the forest, where she had to let her Hariyama handle things. It didn't seem fair, how everyone could handle things better than her. Even the crying Annie could be counted on for strength, even some of the ten year old members of the school could be forces of nature on the battlefield: by strength of force or by naivety of youth, why couldn't Amanda be like that?


Slowly, Amanda rubbed her eyes with her forearm, trying to hold back the tears. ''If I don't go all the way...'' she whispered. ''Then what good am I? I'm a weakling, even the toddlers on this island have shown to be better trainers than me, I just sit in the corner, crying while my Pokemon suffer and struggle without a trainer, if I don't go and do something drastic, I just know I'm going to be the first casualty here...''

---

All the while, the Hariyama couldn't do anything but stand by his trainer, an eye on the other Pokemon, he let out a sigh. His trainer was doing the funny thing she did again, the thing she did at night or when she thought they weren't watching, while all of her Pokemon, himself included: had been worried at first. Now... now it was getting tedious, and he had begun to wonder if perhaps she was the right trainer for them.

[Tanya Christianson]

Once Annie started, there was really no stopping her. She listened instead, the words that came out of Annie's mouth feeling like a waterfall crashing on her head. It was obvious to her that this was probably a very sensitive subject for her. Maybe it was better if she vented, allowed her rage to get out of her body. Tanya still kept a hand on her, making sure she didn't completely lose it.

Once Annie fell to the floor, Tanya quickly followed after her, reassuringly rubbing her back. "It's ok, it's ok..." Tanya uttered silently, trying to help Annie through the tears she was feeling. Her rage at Amanda was momentarily replaced with concern for Annie. As she continued to console her though, she noticed that Amanda was crying. Again.

"Are you serious?" Tanya hissed in annoyance, leering at the other girl as she started to exclaim angrily at her. "I swear, half my interactions with you have involved you crying, or being sad or something along the lines of that!" Torn between consoling Annie and berating Amanda, she stopped rubbing Annie's back, but kept her hand there as she turned her attention towards Amanda.

"You complain that you are weak and that you can't battle unless you do something over-the-top and completely stupid. Are you listening to yourself or are you trying to gain my sympathy? It may have worked before, but now it's just getting dumb." Her previous anger at the girl was heated even further by her exasperation at how she was acting. Right now, all she wanted to do was say what was on her mind.

"You're pathetic, and the worst thing is that you don't think you can do anything about it! Right now, it feels like you hide behind your tears, hoping that someone will jump into action and fight your battles for you. If you want help, then I will be more than happy to provide it. Right now though, you're just hiding and frankly, it's getting old."

By this point, Tanya had her arms crossed and looked down indignantly at Amanda. She didn't know what she was more angry at Amanda about. Her issues with being weak or the fact that she suggested to attack people with pokemon. Both of them were serious offenses to her though.

[Annie Prince]

Annie had finally said her whole piece, and now she wasn't sure she had enough voice left to say anything more. Tanya's reassurances helped in some way: Annie might have done something far outside her usual nature, but at least she wouldn't have to deal with the fallout alone.

If nothing else, Amanda's reactions would surely distract passersby from Annie's. They were eye to eye again now, and the blonde was again saying extraordinary things.

Didn't Amanda know how it worked? You tried, and then you failed, so you worked until you thought you'd gotten better, and then you tried again. That was just how learning worked, and what were they at the academy to do, if not learn? And surely that went for things like keeping one's head in a crisis just as much as more measurable skills.

Annie had nothing useful left to say, so she only watched.

[Amanda Dupomme]

It was with a weak sigh that Amanda slowly hugged herself, trying to rub some warmth into her arms, fighting away the chill that had set upon her: not from any physical means, yet simply from the stress.

''It's not that easy...'' she whispered. ''Maybe when we were little, we could be excused to fail, but as we grow older and older, that just doesn't work anymore. We are responsible...''

The blonde shivered, feeling colder than ever, both emotionally and physically. As she continued: ''We have responsibilities, for ourselves, for our Pokemon, and now even pour l'ensemble de l'île... if I fail, then people will get hurt, I'll get hurt, and that's not something I want...''

Amanda looked to the side, doing her best to avert the gaze of everyone in the room, the other girls, the Pokemon. She didn't want to face anyone anymore, all she wanted in that moment was to curl up and hide, yet: that wasn't something she could do, she couldn't allow Tanya to be right.

''But...'' Amanda turned her head upwards, facing the two girls directly, her face now masked with a cold stare. ''I am not weak, I am doing what I think needs to be done, it's the exact opposite of hiding! I will NOT be spoke to in that way!''

With those words, she pushed herself upward, allowing her emotions to work her up, letting the anger push aside any doubts. It was hardly the smartest thing to do, her logical side would have told her that she was in the wrong, and that she needed to accept that. But logic fell victim to pride, and now she needed to lash out. She was confused, she was angry, and in her thoughtless state, decided that Tanya was to blame. How dare she verbally attack Amanda like that, even bringing a roommate and her Pokemon to help. (Conveniently forgetting she herself had brought out a Pokemon first.)

The icy stare immediately turned to one of rage, her fist clenched: Amanda took a swing at Tanya.

[Tanya Christianson]

She didn't really know what else to say. Was there anything she could say? In her opinion, Tanya doubted it. She had said, well shouted would probably be more accurate, whatever. She had done her thing and tried her best to talk sense into Amanda. Whatever state Amanda was in, she probably wasn't in a state where she wasn't going to be reasonable.

This train of thought seemed to be confirmed with the sudden arrival of Amanda's fist to Tanya's face. Due to a mixture of the impact and shock of what just happened, Tanya staggered backwards and fell backwards, a million emotions swarming in her mind. It hurt. That punch hurt a lot and the feeling of just crying momentarily threatened to overwhelm her. A black eye had formed on the right side of her eye where the hit had occurred.

"W-what the hell was that!?" Tanya screeched, clutching onto her eye as tears started to fall. Was she expecting this? No. The fat that someone had actually felt so much anger as to hit her was something that she never had dealt with before and it showed in her facade cracking. Her body slumped and she cried. At that moment, she completely forgot the world around her.

[Annie Prince]

If nothing else, it could truly be said that Amanda had successfully surprised Annie.

Looking at it logically, perhaps it shouldn't have been a surprise. Amanda had already proven that she was not behaving according to any logic or morality that Annie could understand. Why, then, would Annie have expected anything else? Especially since the subject of the conversation was the other Kalosian girl's willingness to attack others outside of the normal rules of combat.

As her roommate sputtered in pained shock, Annie simply stared at Amanda for the span of several seconds. It didn't make sense, except for how it did.

Annie stood up, forgetting the tears drying on her face. Her usual defenses rose again, her chin lifted, and her voice took on a commanding tone.

"That's enough," she snapped. "I think all that needs be said has been. This does not need to become a fistfight."