Act One Interlude – Cold Comfort
by konkonocturneTracklist
Ennea stared through windows a lot.
She wasn’t sure exactly when it started, but eventually, it felt like it was all she ever did. Stare. Peer through glass at a world out of reach. Her life was one of muffled noises and frosted images.
Fine, glittering snow dusted the world through tonight’s window. It coated the rooftops and monuments, clung to the branches of every tree, and blanketed everything in a white that reflected the colors of the sky up above. That night sky, perfectly visible despite the weather, was lit by a fuchsia aurora that intermixed with the twinkling stars and crescent moon beyond. Staring out at this scene, one word came to Ennea’s mind.
Stupid.
She lived in the Southern Arm of the Star Continent. There weren’t any auroras. It didn’t snow there. She’d never experienced snow in her life. And this wasn’t an exception, even as some phased through into her home to allow her to feel it.
Snow was a lot crunchier than it looked, and way stickier, too. It didn’t slip and spill in the same way dirt or sand did. It just compacted into denser, wetter forms. Or, at least, this snow seemed to. But this wasn’t real snow.
Nothing in this world was real.
The weary frown on Ennea’s face deepened as she shooed the snow back out the wall and returned to watching the window. Outside, Pokémon of all ages were playing in the gorgeous weather, exclusively participating in activities she’d read about in books. Children swung onto titanic trees they’d outfitted into forts for their snowball fights. Teens co-opted the package delivery system to use for sled races. Even adults had turned a frozen waterfall into a new center for festive activities. Everybody had something they could do.
Ennea turned away, pacing deeper into her home. Her home changed a lot, here. Depending on the night, it would redecorate itself to fit a variety of different professions. Explorer, researcher, actor, playwright, captain, rescuer, diplomat, performer.
…or investigator.
Ennea could be whatever she wanted to be in this world. That was how she knew it was fake.
Tonight, her home was empty. Shabby, undecorated walls and creaking floorboards framing an unlit box. It wasn’t too different from the outside of Heartstopper’s, really. And to allow her to take in the shoddiness of it all, it was completely featureless.
Or at least, it would be. But one feature stubbornly remained. On the back wall, lit by the will of the world alone, was a corkboard full of sketches of Pokémon, objects, and locations. A web of red string haphazardly connected all the disparate ideas.
Speaking of ideas, this was another bad one. Ennea had the genius plan to do the whole “conspiracy board” thing as she figured out the case. How naïve. She really wanted this to just be some fun game, didn’t she? A little adventure for the little Eevee, still trying to pretend that she was something more.
Waving a paw, Ennea willed the corkboard to reorganize itself, the strings sorting into a much simpler shape, all converging on the sketch of a Vulpix.
What a moron she had been. Trying to act all cool, dramatically claiming she’d solve the case. Assuming nobody else knew what they were doing.
The truth was simple. Autumnal did it. A quadruped with a falling injury could be a coincidental resemblance, but one that also had long hair? Hardly any quadrupedal species could grow hair that long. Eevees, for example, couldn’t get hair any longer than their cheeks. He just lied to her. It was easy, she’d practically done it for him.
And now she had made a complete fool of herself. What was she supposed to do for the next two days? This had all happened on a weekend, so she couldn’t even go to work and bore herself to death. She just had to wait until the trial, where she’d go up in front of everyone and tell them that she was a fucking dumbass who’d been easily deceived. It’d finally be something people would remember her for. Hooray.
Ennea growled as she shook her head, desperately turning away from the corkboard, then the window, finally settling on glaring at the failing wall.
Why had she been so stupid? Saying all of that junk in the dungeon, all because of a baseless belief….
Not yet…
It was a bad idea with an even worse resolution. And everybody but her knew it.
Don’t give up just yet…
Bezel, Polaris, Calvera, Urania, the Town Guards… all of them tried to warn her. And she didn’t listen.
Turn it around…
Arceus, those Guards. Why couldn’t they have just told her that the thief had long hair?!
Turn your thinking around…!
…What?
Think about it a different way…!
No. Ennea wasn’t going to listen to a voice in her dream. That was yet another stupid decision. She was done with those.
If you look at things from a different perspective, it’ll all work out…!
Normally, the ethereal voices in her dreams sounded just like her. Or her nan. Or a soothing, feminine voice that she couldn’t put a name to. But this one wasn’t any of those. It was… something deeper. Not even necessarily in pitch, it was just….
You’re not the kind of person to let this stop you! Figure it out!
Fine! If it would get the stupid voice to just shut up, already!
What had Ennea even been thinking about, when that something deeper suddenly started pestering her? Her stupid naivete, everyone warning her that Autumnal did it, the guards….
Ugh. That still upset her to no end. Why couldn’t they have just told her from the beginning? Total jerks.
Why couldn’t they have just….
Why couldn’t they? No, wait.
Why didn’t they? Those guards, Thyreos especially, wanted her to just give the okay for the trial. Heck, Thyreos had gotten mad at Salute and even threatened him when he went off-script. And Salute got chewed out for allowing Ennea to go through with the investigation. The guards clearly wanted anything but what had happened to happen.
Ennea began to move. As she did, the strings on the corkboard started to shift once more, and her home began to change. After just a moment, the floorboards she paced over no longer squeaked, and shelves full of forensic tools faded in.
Did they keep it from her on purpose? That didn’t line up with their goals, unless their goal was to get Ennea to screw herself over. But that would mean that all of them were in on it, and likely cooperating with some others to try and ensure her doom. That was a lot of people… and Ennea wasn’t sure Salute was capable of lying.
It was a messy idea that quickly spiraled into grand conspiracy against her. The amount of people who’d need to be in on it and able to perfectly predict her actions was ridiculous.
But there was another idea she had. One that was neat and tidy. One that easily explained everything thus far, but also raised a thousand more questions.
The guards didn’t tell her because they didn’t know.
“But why wouldn’t they?” Ennea’s pacing had sped up to Urania levels. “They were the ones who arrested him….”
And they were given that description by Calvera, who was given that description by Polaris. And who knew if it was even that simple. There could have been more links on that information chain. It was perfectly possible that the thief modified the report along the way.
But why remove just that critical bit of description? Autumnal still got arrested, so clearly the omission wasn’t beneficial to him. Would he really have just assumed wrong?
And how could he have muddied the waters… if he couldn’t even talk?
No. No, no, no, I had it all wrong! There was only one conclusion Ennea could draw from this theory: Autumnal had been framed. Intentionally. The most plausible reason for the omitted description was that it somehow incriminated the thief more than it incriminated Autumnal.
She looked back to the corkboard, now warmly lit by nearby sconces. It was once again a tangled mess, even more so than before. Just how she liked it.
Alright, c’mon! There’s still a mystery to solve, one that’s way more complicated than anyone gave it credit for! I can’t sleep forever! It’s time to wake up!
1. Window to the Beyond END POINT
0 Comments