Comfort Given

It crawled over her like a darkness over her mind, and Omega’s eyes stung from tears that suddenly built up unbidden. What? She wiped at them, though a couple got free and ran down her cheeks despite her best efforts. A wail threatened to claw its way free from the depths of her soul, tightening her throat until she couldn’t breathe right. Omega swallowed repeatedly, forcing the lump free and she panted after it cleared. Brown eyes scanned the shadowy, overgrown streets of Murkhaven, trying to figure out why the sudden despair washed over her like a much too heavy blanket she didn’t know how to shake off. She wiped again at her eyes, cursing quietly under her breath. 

She’d not felt something like this since her cousin’s accident, when they thought they were going to lose him. He’d managed to pull through, but it had left him severely impaired physically. She missed him so much. That sorrow clung to her heart, and even her bright sunshine optimism struggled to shake it. 

It’ll be OK. She reminded herself, pulling her denim jacket closer around her form, as if that’d help fend off the chill of the surrounding weather and the soul-wrenching pain that clung to her, whispering laments in her ear. Everything works out.

A mantra that shone a flickering, struggling light against the darkness, and her eyes finally landed on a Pokemon she’d never seen before. Muted grays and purples, with glowing symbolic markings across its forehead. Two tails dangled into the air, each with a red stone connecting the tufts of fur to the rest of the tail. It floated down the street, expression hollow and eyes unfocused, as if it was lost in thought. It looked… sad, as if they were the source of the depression that threatened to pull her down into the abyss. Her heart broke for the creature, and not just because of the emanating sadness that it was the core of. Why would such a thing be sad? Pushing back through the mire, almost as thick as the swamp that led into the town she stood in, Omega found her feet moving before she could even stop them.

Panic flared in her chest, tightening her lungs in a vice as the Pokemon took note of her and stopped, hesitant and unsure. Years of practice had made the young woman good at reading others, human and Pokemon alike. Lonely. It was lonely. Her technical display beeped in her ear, letting her know there was information available. She tapped the sensor, and the Pokedex app pulled itself up.

“Mesprit, the Emotion Pokemon. One of the three Lake Guardians of legend, said to be responsible for humanity being able to feel emotions such as happiness, pain, and sorrow.” 

She looked past the display to the Pokemon who seemed unsure of Omega’s intentions, uneasily wringing its own hands in front of itself. It floated further up into the air, out of her reach. Still, she could see that it had been crying - the tear streaks were obviously cutting through its fur. Tears streaked down her own cheeks, unbidden, but she didn’t stop them. 

Under all that sorrow and hurt, her sunshine finally illuminated the root of the issue. Mesprit missed its siblings, the other two Lake Guardians. She knew that one all too well. She missed her family so badly, especially when the Fog rolled in and cut off communications with the outside world, leaving her, her brother, and her cousin - the same one who’d gotten into the accident - alone and away from the rest of their family. They’d all been so close, and to suddenly not have access to them… 

Omega held her arms out to the Mesprit, offering it a hug if it wanted it. After a moment’s hesitation, it came down a little lower, before its expression screwed up, tears freshly welling in its eyes before it dove into her chest, clinging to her tightly, and its little shoulders shook as it sobbed into her chest. The young woman wrapped her arms around it carefully, holding it close and stroking the back of its head with her thumb. She hummed quietly, sniffing to try and get her own emotions under control again. “It’s OK… It’s OK.”

The emotions slammed into her again, stronger than before and she held Mesprit tighter, a strangled sob escaping her control. Still, she kept stroking the back of its head with her thumb. She missed her family so much. “I miss my family too. I miss them so much…”

Little hands clutched at her shirt and tightened, but the sorrow seemed… lesser? Somehow? It was almost like sunlight poking through a crack in the curtains, or the warmth of a fire slowly coming to life. The mantra ran through her head, over and over again, and it took a long time for her to finally force the words out again, “It’ll be OK… Everything works out.”

“It’ll be OK…”