Anne still didn't like the idea of taking a nap, but she knew that decision wasn't in her court anymore.
Meanwhile, Pippi had to resort to using her entire willpower to keep herself from corralling Anne to her bed until she was done with the remainder of the packing. One more cup, one more utensil, both bags threatening to burst- done, finally done. Except not yet, stuff could be moved around, better use the pockets, move important items for easier access. Maybe double back to pack some food.
Signed, sealed, double checked, triple checked, go the fuck to bed you lamp post of a nerd.
Before the human could come up with any other excuse, valid or not, she found herself being dragged over somewhere else. One moment fumbling with seventeenth pocket in a row, the next sat down on her bed, blinking to piece together what had happened. Pippi. Pippi had happened. Happened and was busy staring her down with one of the most cross expressions Anne had ever seen her put on, accompanied by crossed arms and rhythmic taps of her foot.
If Anne had actually put signs to her expression of confusion in that moment, Pippi would've likely just strangled her there and then.
Fortunately for them both though, she didn't, realizing what the deal was the instant before her hands could finish flexing out the first sign. Instead, a groan, a grumble, and finally, surrender. Kick her shoes off, lay down, feebly stare up at the ceiling. Glance to the right- Pippi bringing the alarm clock over. Fiddling with it. Was it this, was it that- no got it. Turned it around to show her accomplishment.
1:49 PM.
Press of a hidden button.
5:00 PM, blinking.
> "Alright, you got-"
Cold metal and wood on her stomach, involuntary whole body jump, fabric of her shirt shifting over.
> "I know I got it, I was just showing you to calm the worry bug inside you."
If Anne hadn't been reeling from the sudden cold, she would've quipped back with something funny and appropriate. Instead, she replied in the most composed, serious way imaginable- by sticking her tongue out in the general direction of the Clefable. Who then mirrored the action. And then Anne did the same. And then Pippi once more.
The resulting tongue-sticking back and forth was decisively won by Pippi after Anne managed to blink for so long she missed the fairy's counter attack entirely.
Just a few adjustments left. Few paces closer, yank the glasses off, replace with pets. Giggle at human's resulting annoyance before she finally closed her eyes. Continue to apply the pets, ruffle her hair once or twice. There you go, comfort the big lanky, hold her hand. Silly big lanky, staying up for way longer than she should've, naps exist for a reason.
Her big lanky.
Had Pippi known Hypnosis, she would've definitely considered it here, even if just to speed up the process. Alas, no Hypnosis, and no... most moves, really. There was Metronome of course, it was the most natural thing in the world. That aside there was little, the very brief time period in which Anne's father was even considered "training" her only got as far as Fairy Wind- and still managed to be one of the most painful events in her memory.
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She had that Fairy Wind down on lock though- much to the dismay of the far wall of Anne's room and all the paint that got chipped off of it.
Moonblast was a solid maybe, there was this innermost sensation during full Moons and she always ended up staying up through them, could likely pull off a decent kachow that way purely off of instinct. She never really had a chance to try, unfortunately. Much as she wanted to use one of many opportunities to sneak out onto the backyard of the mansion during a full Moon and try her hand at blasting, the risk of running into Anne's Father managed to put her off of the idea for good. Among... other things.
Anything beyond that? Not gonna happen, nah.
She didn't even know how it could happen either. There were some things she could practice on Anne once the time came without risking injury. Charm was a solid option, as was Follow Me- Sweet Kiss was much less practical but way more fun to imagine practicing. Not like any of them were going to be all that useful though. Who was she ever going to be using any of these on, a random burglar?
Even if one did come it'd be in the middle of the night, and their first target would be nabbing her ball with her inside it.
Rationally she understood that, and it wasn't like she was suffering because of not knowing how to invoke Meteor Mash or whatever, but... it still felt wrong. At least a bit wrong. Any wild Clefable her age would've likely already known all about applying those in self defense. In the human world however, her self defense was paperwork overseen and managed by her big lanky. Someone strikes Anne, she Moonblasts them bad and oops, broke a limb or four? Death sentence, more than likely.
League took that stuff seriously when it wanted to.
It's not like Pippi particularly cared about comparing herself with wild Clefable. Not knowing anywhere near as many moves sucked of course, and she was mildly peeved about it, but you know what didn't suck? Having an actual moral spine. The bare minimum of conscience. Ability to distinguish right from wrong.
Knowledge that no matter what might ever happen, she would never sentence a defenceless creature to death by exile.
Her hand shook right as she was about to flip the current time waster of a book over to the next page, expression twisting into a snarl. She hated crying, hated feeling bad, hated making Anne worry about her even more than she already did. Guess if there was one appropriate moment for tears it was now, with her big lanky asleep for hopefully the next couple hours straight. Idle thoughts ended up steering her into a dead end full of knives, expertly sharpened over a decade of steadily growing grudge.
She hated her species.
Of course it was natural to leave wasteful, unviable young to die. Ones that would only ever take. Ones that needed so much more than most. Ones that were fundamentally broken, barred from ever experiencing the full gamut of what it meant to be their species. The blind, the lame, the feeble, the slow.
The deaf.
On a rational level, she knew full well that Clefable were far from the only ones that did that. That such savagery was inherent in the natural order, that outside of human settlements, right to live had to be carved out in an utmost, unending struggle at the expense of someone else, somewhere else. Not like humans were perfect in practice either, but at least the idea of everyone deserving to have a chance at life was mostly uncontroversial enough. Way ahead of most mons even if at times hypocritical, way ahead of Clefable, way ahead of..
...
...why did they leave her to die?
Silent shaking gave into mute tears, the manufactured hatred in her mind giving way to genuine grief that underlaid it. She didn't want to hate her own species, she didn't want to feel repulsed by the Moon, she didn't want to look in the mirror and only ever be able to feel disgust. Why was it so impossible for her to just be a Clefable, for her soul to not be worth any less purely because of a neurological disorder she had no way of fixing.
...why did they leave her to die?
She didn't want to be fixed, deep down. Her existence was special, it gave her joy, Anne gave her joy, anxiety aside she was so excited to go out into the world and become more of her own person at last! But it wasn't good enough for the wild Clefable. She knew how to read, write, was learning how to cook, wanted so deeply to finally be able to contribute back to the world at large in some way.
But she could never hear their songs, and could never join in.
And for that, her sentence was death.
The alarm goes off at six.
...why?