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Pokémon Broken Things

Electric 2.3

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
Electric 2.3: Gods and Kings
Genesis

[-28:07:15]​

There are two types of museums: the ones filled with dangerous lies spoken into the world by Yveltal and presented as fact, and the ones that actually present facts. The true ones are wonderful! This one has a bunch of pictures of the power plant under construction and a room with a really overly complicated steam-powered device that rings a bell.

The museum says that the Blush Mountain Geothermal Plant is the largest of its kind in the country and third largest in the world. There’s a giant hole in the ground and very hot air comes out and turns water into steam. That spins a rod which… produces electricity somehow. You really tried to understand that part but half the words didn’t make sense. Doesn’t matter. This place makes most of Alola’s energy. It’s weird to think that when you turn a light on steam comes up in Blush Mountain and spins a wheel and then sends electricity down a wire on the ocean floor to another island where it goes into the room and makes... How did lightbulbs work? Internet time! Okay, the internet says that it makes some metal so hot that it starts glowing. Like a metal candle. Ugh. Such a better name. Metal candles and horseless carriages.

Annoying that you had to come alone. Sure, Cuicatl can’t read signs so she might not have liked it. But it’s all renewable power and save the earth and everything so Allana would think it’s cool. She’s not talking to you and you aren’t sure you’d want her here anyways. She did hit you a few days ago. Hard. Just for your beliefs. Honestly, she’s lucky that it stopped hurting by the time you got back to civilization.

It doesn’t matter. Really. Yveltal makes sure that the true believers will be persecuted. If you’re getting attacked, you’re doing something right. Not that it feels good. And then Cuicatl pretty much took his side! Even though he attacked you. Ooh, measured from the seafloor to peak Mt. Hokulani is the tallest mountain on earth. Wait if all of Ula’Ula spreads out from Hokulani does that mean that the entire thing is a mountain? Even the flat parts? Are all of the islands actually mountains? And why is Lanakila the one capped in snow year-round if its shorter? Internet time. Oh. It’s already noon. Lunch time.

Then dedenne hunting.

Here’s hoping that Cuicatl’s in a good mood.

*​

“Hello, Genesis.” You start and glance at Cuicatl. She’s awake and sitting awkwardly on her bed, half-crouching with Coco leaning on her side and Pixie lying beneath her back so that she can’t move. “You’re back early.”

“Yeah. I, um, wanted to see if you wanted to get lunch? And then maybe we could go dedenne hunting together.” Allana isn’t present. Where is she? You shouldn’t ask that. Not when you’re trying to get Cuicatl to like you for a few hours.

She twitches her leg and Pix moves to the side. Coco starts slipping and her trainer barely catches her in time. After pushing the dinosaur upright Cuicatl slips over the side of the bed and stands up. “Sure. Let me just…” Her hand slips to her belt and Coco disappears in a flash of red. A sheepish grin creeps onto Cuicatl’s face. “I don’t trust her table manners.”

*​

The shrill cry of a kricketune sounds off beside you. Cuicatl wipes the sweat off of her brow and brings her phone to her ear. You can hear a woman’s voice come through for almost a minute. Despite the call she never asks you to stop and you keep on going closer to the grassland. Closer to elekid.

There are three pokémon out to help you find one. Coco keeps bolting ahead, thumping her tail on the ground to tell her trainer to catch up, realizing that it won’t happen, running back to you, and then running ahead again. Right now she’s running back for the fourth time. Pixie and Inferno (better name TBD) keep pace with you, Pixie by Cuicatl’s side and Inferno by yours. The foxes have good dog noses and Cuicatl says that tyrunt’s are even better.

Cuicatl lowers the phone and tucks it into her pocket. “Who was it?” you ask.

“Miss Bell.”

Miss… Bell… Hmm. You’re not the best with names but. Wait. You remember her. “The VStar person?”

She nods. “Yes.” Coco rushes off again. “She gave me Pixie.” The fox perks up at the mention of her name but keeps quiet. Right. You vaguely remember that. It got buried in the memories of your first meeting. In fairness a lot of stuff came up and you were very nervous. “What do you think about VStar?” Cuicatl asks you.

“Um.” To be honest you haven’t thought much about them. “It’s cool that they let people like you” and Allana “go on journeys. And give pokémon to people who want one. Like you and Pixie.”

“Hmm.” Her face stays even and her voice is neutral. You still get the impression she disagrees. “We get three hundred dollars for a dedenne. They sell for $1500. VStar gets most of the money. None of the danger.”

“Yeah, well, that’s just how companies work. They need to make a profit so they can exist and pay us at all.”

For a second a flash of… something flashes across her face. Anger? Disappointment? It’s gone in less than a second. “My father was a merchant. Traded with the States. He gave money to the schools. The library. The doctors. When business was bad he’d keep giving. Sometimes wasn’t enough food in the house but he helped everyone else. That was his duty. Your merchants aren’t like that.”

That’s insane. Actually insane. People look out for themselves because no one else will. Like life vests on planes. “So he starved himself to buy a few books?”

Cuicatl gently shakes his head. “I don’t think he ever starved,” she says softly. “Or my brother. I took care of them. That was my duty.”

Your eyes narrow automatically. “So he starved his daughter to make himself look good to everyone else?” Inferno yips beside you. He’s stopped moving, planted his butt down, and is staring at you with wide eyes. Why? Is he scared? …how loud were you just then? A glance at Cuicatl shows that she’s lowered her head. There’s hair over her face but you’re pretty sure you can see a scowl.

“Let’s talk about something else,” she says. Her voice is still quiet. It somehow feels violent. Threatening. Like the tiny blind girl is going to murder you with words. You’re not good with people. At all. But you’re pretty sure that if you keep pressing her she’ll hate you for trying to help her. Like Allana. Then you’d have no one to talk to. Except maybe Exodus.

You know that if you say anything you might say something wrong, so you don’t say anything at all.

*​

“Well, we’ve made it to the tall grass,” you announce. The plain stretches out in front of you with brown and yellow grasses covering a rugged plain bounded by cliffs on both sides. More grass stretches out below the cliff. Something like, oh, what’s the word… terraces? The things they use for farming in South America? Sounds right. Cuicatl reaches for her pokéball and withdraws Tyrunt. “Uh, weren’t you going to use her to find dedenne?”

She shakes her head as she curls the leash up.. “I was. But she’s never smelled one. And she’d probably scare them away.” As soon as the leash is in her pack and the pack is back on her back she nods with a look of quiet determination. “Hike on.”

Sometimes you can hear stuff rustle around you. Inferno or Pixie lets out a growl once or twice. Never bark to signal that an dedenne’s close. The grass rubs against your arms and it’s starting to get really irritating. Cuicatl’s wearing her poncho and a long skirt and you’re envious. And she gets to trail behind you after you press all the grass out of the way.

“Water break,” she calls. That’s rare. She almost never calls for a break. You stop in acknowledgment and glance back at her as she slowly lowers herself to the ground and sits criss-cross applesauce. She still keeps a hand tightly gripping her dinosaur’s tether. Pixie just curls up beside her.

You slowly lower yourself and pull out a water bottle. Looks like you could be here a while. She doesn’t drink. “You read about primarina?” she asks.

Primarina? The water starters. You’ve definitely heard of them. Seen a few. Can’t say you’ve read that much about them. You shake your head and then catch yourself. “Not really.”

“I thought about getting one,” she says. “They like to sing. Live in groups called ‘choirs.’ I thought it would be fun to sing with a pokémon.” She reaches out and rubs a finger over Pix’s ear. “Didn’t. Glad I didn’t.”

That would’ve been cute. And would’ve meant that Sir Bubbles could have a friend in the pools at night. But this way she has a guide fox so things worked out the way they were supposed to. But why does she want to talk about the seals?

She presses on as if to answer your question. “Now, there’s something else interesting. Every choir has one girl and a lot of guys. The primarina’s the girl. When she dies or leaves a brionne evolves.”

“So then there’s a male primarina?” That is kind of weird. They look very feminine. Wait. She said that every choir has a female primarina. How does that…

“No. The brionne becomes a girl when it evolves. Organs change and everything.”

“You’re joking.” She has to be. That’s impossible. How would it even work?

Cuicatl just shrugs. “Look it up if you want.” On the internet. Full of lies. “Bunch of other ‘mons do it. Basculin, axlawful…” You can see a faint smile form under her hair. “You watched Jurassic Park, right?”

“Sort of. I was asleep where a lot of it.”

She waves her hand through the air. “Your loss. Anyway. In the movie they put poliwag DNA in the tyrantrum. Let it change sex and lay eggs. Because, y’know, poliwag can do that if they want.”

They can what. You reach down and let Sir Bubbles out. He looks up curiously and—oh thank goodness you can’t see eggs. Still a he. Cuicatl goes on, “There was a zoo with a psychic working there. Had him ask some delibird what their sex was because they’d need surgery to tell. Found out that the delibird themselves didn’t know. Just kind of guessed.” That’s an obvious lie. Way too ridiculous to be true. “Then there’s the Aztec gods. We have four big gods. One takes whatever form he wants. Male, female, pokémon, human—doesn’t matter.”

“Well, they aren’t even real,” you insist. Lies from Yveltal. Myths to lead her people astray. Drive them to murder.

You just earn a slow head shake in response. “They don’t care if you believe in them.” Of course they don’t. They aren’t real. That’s incredibly selfish, too. She gets to go to Aztec Heaven but doesn’t want anyone else to go with her. “You think Xerneas created everything right?”

“Yeah…” Yveltal made evil. You don’t think he actually made anything real though. No. Evil is real. Ugh. Doesn’t matter. You know what it means.

“Then if Xerneas made primarina and axlawful and poliwag and delibird, why’d He give humans the tools to do it and then tell them not to? Can’t be wrong or He wouldn’t have done it for pokémon.”

“That’s…” Wrong. Right? “People aren’t animals. Pokémon. Whatever. We aren’t supposed to… do a lot of things that pokémon do. Even if we can.”

“Yeah, yeah.” For a second you can see her bite her lip. “Although there is some Galarian who thinks humans should drink their piss like desert pokémon do.” You regret eating lunch before having this conversation. Has she really… “I’m not convinced,” she says. Your worst fears dissolve. Well. Not your literal worst fears. Figurative worst fears. She sighs and uncrosses her legs. “Just think on it, okay?

“Okay.” You can do that much. Will do that much. If nothing else you have to find an unbiased source to figure out if she’s lying or not. Which she is. Probably. Not that it would matter if she wasn’t. She’s still wrong morally.

“Want to catch some dedenne?”

Ugh. You really don’t want to go back to walking through the grass. “Do you think our pokémon will get the scent soon?”

“Probably already have. Just don’t know what it is.” She grins and glances away. “My fault. Tried to find one in the city. Ran out of time.” Huh. Well, not as if you were trying to find an dedenne. Honestly you were basking in the joys of indoor plumbing and air conditioning as long as you could before it was time to go back on the trail. “But,” she dramatically flips a finger up and raises her voice, “I do have an idea.” Cuicatl brings the finger back down and unlocks her phone before holding it out to you. “Go to the videos. I have thunderstorm sounds saved.”

“Why?” You still do as she asks, flicking into her stored videos. There are a surprising amount. Just from the blurry thumbnails of random objects you’re pretty sure that she took them. “And what are you filming so much?”

“One: dedenne love thunderstorms. Maybe it’ll draw one out.” She pauses and purses her lips. “Or a togedemaru. Or elekid. Or golem. Electabuzz if we’re super unlucky.” Cuicatl starts petting Pixie like she isn’t about to throw herself and the fox into danger. “Two: I like having voices recorded. In case, um,” the darkness slips back onto her face and she turns away from you, “in case something happens.”

You don’t know exactly what happened in her past. From what you’ve heard about Anahuac you don’t even want to imagine. Something bad. Whatever it was. “Hey,” you nudge her shoulder, “you want a hug?”

“Yeah, sure.” You lean in and wrap your arms around her and she gently leans her shoulder into you. Wait, how long should you hold a hug? If it was just a greeting hug you definitely would have let go by now. But this is a ‘friend feels sad and I do not trust myself to say un-sad things’ hug. Clearly longer. Is this good? She isn’t leaning out. Okay. So. Still doing this. She’s using the travel shampoo you recommended. Well, the same one you use. Saving space and all. You like it. Of course you do. It’s yours. Uhhhhhhhh. She leans away and places her arms behind her. Smiling. Faintly but it still counts. Good job! “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” You stop yourself there before you can ruin it. In the distance a bird starts chirping. You have no idea what kind it is.

Cuicatl turns to her ice fox. “Tell me if anything gets close? Flick my ankle if it’s a dedenne, hiss for other stuff.” He huffs in response and slowly gets up on all fours to stare intently into the grass. Cuicatl reaches into her skirt’s pocket (it has pockets!) and pulls out a bag of seeds and nuts. She scatters them into the wind before sitting down. Then she turns to you and tilts her head. “Play whenever.”

“I, uh, this is safe, right?”

She shrugs. That really helps your nerves. “We’ve got Inferno for geodude, Count Cloudy and Sir Bubbles for togedemaru, Pix for dedenne and elekid.” Ah. So she’s assigning everything but the tiny mouse and the actual baby to you. In fairness both of the bigger pokémon have a type advantage against her. And Pixie has all kinds of tricks for the capture. Okay, fine. it’s fair enough. And she doesn’t sound concerned. But—

“Why Sir Bubbles? He’s a water type.” However brave and strong he is he won’t like dodging lightning.

“’cause Count Cloudy will be using ember in dry grass. I want the whole thing watered down.”

That makes a lot of sense. The Count’s embers are still tiny in comparison to Sir Bubbles’ bubbles so it should work out. You steel yourself and let the thunder roll.

*​

The thunder keeps rolling. At some point the sun came out from behind the clouds and you really want to curl up and take a nice nap in the sun on an impromptu grass bad. Cuicatl’s already half there, sprawled out with her head on her backpack and her eyes closed. Not that the eye thing actually matters to her. Why does she ever open them, anyway? It’s weird.

Something big moves the grass in front of you. Heavy, too, from the footsteps. Pixie starts a low hiss and Cuicatl bolts upright. “Graveler or golem. Pixie, use baby doll eyes when it gets closer. Genesis, pelt it with razor leaf, bubble, and water gun once it’s distracted. Be prepared to throw a ball and run.”

“Right.” You turn around to see Inferno already moving into position. You relay orders to Count Cloudy and Sir Bubbles—Sir Bubbles start to run away. You withdraw him for now. Don’t want to deal with that and a battle at the same time. The graveler stops moving just as you can get a good look at it. Mostly gray. Little black and yellow stones jut out from the surface here and there. You can’t see the face but you get the impression that it’s really ugly.

“Any time,” Cuicatl whispers. Right. Dramatic shout or quiet whisper order.

It comes out as a shout.

Inferno flicks her head leaf and begins her assault. Water streams out from the sky, admittedly at a rate closer to a trickle than a torrent. How is this supposed to hurt a solid rock that comes up to your hips? It shouldn’t. It seems to. The graveler makes a cry of pain that sounds like, that is, rocks grinding against each other before awkwardly turning around and lumbering away.

Slowly.

Doesn’t look like its coming back.

Victory!

*​

When you wake up there’s another battle going. Cuicatl’s crouched down behind Pixie while the fox wrestles with a small yellow, with a dedenne! An adorable dedenne! You know you can’t keep everything VStar sends you to get but you wish they didn’t pick such tempting cuties. Inferno and Count Cloudy are currently watching the brawl. Just as you start to move the dedenne jerks and tosses Pixie out of the way. The pupper lands on her feet and starts prepping ice… no. Her eyes are… the dedenne halts and uneasily glances around. Confuse ray.

A ball rolls into your knee. “Can you toss it for me?”

She would have troubles with that. Not that you have too much experience with this. You did it underhanded last time so let’s try that. Just a gentle toss. The dedenne starts turning around and sparks fly around its hand as it sees the pokéball. Then they fade. It all fades to red. The ball shakes. Pixie raises her tails up and prepares an ice shard, probably for real this time. Another shake. You’re holding your breath. Know you’re holding your breath but can’t bring yourself to exhale. Another ball rolls into your foot as Cuicatl prepares for. Click. Capture.

You let out the breath you knew you were holding. The breath and the small shift in posture that comes with it calms you. Not to sleep. All exhaustion was driven out in the, what, forty seconds since you woke up?

“You’re a really deep sleeper,” Cuicatl says, irritation and amusement mixed in her voice. “We’d been going for ages before you noticed.”

“Well, I did wake up when I was needed.”

She rolls her eyes. You think she rolls her eyes? The frosted pattern moves. “That was my third ball.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Thought your snoring might scare off the ‘mons.” Her shoulders roll and she leans back on her hands. “Worked out fine thanks to Pix.” The ice fox puffs up her fur and sits down, tails curled around her. Cuicatl’s smile sinks a little. “If you’re tired we don’t have to stay out. Always tomorrow.”

Tomorrow… Tuesday. Right. “Sorry, it’s a holiday.”

“Well, it’s about to rain…”

Is it? There are a lot more clouds. And the sound of thunder. From beside you. Wait. You reach down and turn the phone off. The battery’s almost dead. Looks like you’re going back one way or another.

“Okay. Day after tomorrow? We’ll still be here right?”

“Yeah. Heading out on the… twenty-ninth? Sorry. Hard to remember three calendars.”

“Three… The American one... The Aztec one…”

“We have two calendars. One for gods. One for farming and business and stuff.”

“Yeah, but, couldn’t you just… adopt the one everyone else uses?”

She sits up and starts getting her things together. “Ours are better. Months have the same number of days.” That’s actually pretty reasonable. You can never remember what days have 30 and which have 31. “What’s the holiday tomorrow?”

“Thanksgiving.” You mirror her and get your pack around. Thankfully there’s not much. “We get together with family and think about what we’re thankful for. Then there’s a parade in Castelia.”

Cuicatl stands up and makes a broad sweeping motion around your impromptu clearing. “Can you get the ball?” You pick it up and slip it into her hand as you stand. “And that’s the genocide one, right?”

“No. It’s more about being thankful for the natives helping us out.”

She gestures towards the rough direction of the Pokémon Center and you set out. Cuicatl follows behind. “Right, then you killed all you could and stole half their land.”

“I think you’ve read a lot of propaganda.” Well, not read. Heard? You did manage to keep your voice very neutral. Good job. She’s wrong but you don’t have to be mean. If you are you might be actually alone on Thanksgiving. And then you’d probably burn down some grass while fighting a togedemaru.

“Just because it’s propaganda doesn’t mean it’s wrong.” You glance back at her. What was that supposed to mean? Of course it’s all lies. That’s what propaganda means. Doesn’t matter if it’s Anahuac or Yveltal herself saying it, all of it’s lies. Well. Okay. The natives did give away a lot of land. And some of it was stolen. But that’s not your fault. And you like being thankful for stuff. Can’t you just do that without making everything political?

*

[-27:11:49]​

What do you have to be thankful for last year?

In hindsight, way less. Should’ve been thankful for a lot more in 2018. Your family, Lyra, good food, a place to stay every night. Sure you were thankful for all of that but… not as much as you should’ve been. You’ll be better at that in 2020. But now you have pokémon to be thankful for! Sir Bubbles, Count Cloudy and Inferno. One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn’t belong.

The Green Knight! Yes! You’ll tell her later. She will be ecstatic.

Sir Bubbles, Count Cloudy, and The Green Knight. Then Cuicatl. She is away from her terrible father and has enough food now. For some reason she still seems sad. Sometimes. Other times she seems really energetic. She’s confusing but you’re thankful for her. Then… well, Allana is a ministry opportunity. The silver lining in your bad situation. And your family’s still alive so you should be thankful for that!

Lyra… no. Not this year. She is on a journey of her own. Maybe you’ll cross paths and she’ll apologize for what she did.

Apologies. Family. You glance at the window and watch the water run down the glass. Another rainstorm. Even if it wasn’t a holiday you couldn’t go dedenne hunting. You turn back to the room. Well, not a room. The small area between sets of doors. Some volleyball courts and outdoor pools past one set, a hallway connecting the pools and lobby down the other. Allana’s in your room and you don’t want to do this with other people around.

You take a deep breath and call your only relative who might listen.

First ring. You can do this. Second ring. You need to do this. It’s the point of the holiday. Third ring. What if they aren’t taking calls today? Someone picks up. “Pine Pass Programs. What can I do for you today?”

Another deep breath. “Hi, I was calling to see if Exodus Gage can talk. I’m her sister, Genesis.”

“Alright, please hold.” Gentle piano and… harp(?) music starts to play. You lean back on the wall and exhale. Exodus. Exodus, Exodus, Exodus. You visited on her birthday five months ago. Haven’t called her since. It’s fine. She’s better now. Much better. You still tense up. Even though she’s across the Pacific and younger than you.

“Hey, Gen.” Her voice comes through. Well, close enough to her voice. You don’t have it memorized. But you still sort of recognize it. Puberty. Changing. Or maybe you just forgot. Bleh. “What’s up?”

You’re alone in a cramped corner of a Pokémon Center because your mom kicked you out for something that isn’t your fault. “Nothing much. How are you?”

“Eh. Have the day off from classes. Decent lunch a while ago.” A while ago?

“What time is it on the mainland?”

“Two-thirty.” Right. Weren’t sure exactly how many hours ahead they were. “So, this a friendly family call or do you want something from me?”

What help could she even give. You shake your head. Focus. Not the issue. “I just wanted to wish you a happy Thanksgiving.”

“Aww, thanks.” You can sort of make out a quiet chuckle on the other end. “’course, probably helps that you got kicked out. What’s the deal with that, by the way? No one’s telling me.”

Do you tell her the truth? Would it matter? There’s nothing she could even do about it, right? Right? Nothing comes to mind. You try again. Darn it, you’re doing this. “Lyra kissed me. I didn’t ask. I didn’t like it. Mom still got mad. Didn’t want Levi to get corrupted.”

“Hmm. That all there is?” She sounds smug. Definitely not supportive. And what’s she getting at.

“Yes. That’s it. I don’t really get it either. Okay, like, I did for a few days but it’s been over two months now.” You aren’t crying. Your voice is breaking for other reasons. You will not cry in front of Exodus. You will not. “Maybe they just think I want to journey or something?” You don’t. It’s sometimes not bad. You’d rather be home.

“Oh, sweetie.” Somehow she sounds even smugger. Yeah. This sounds like Exodus again. “You still don’t get it, do you? It’s almost sad.” She definitely does not sound sad.

You can hang up at any time.

“Get what?”

“Well, for one… no. That’s not mine to tell you. But I don’t think I’ve told you why…”

“No. You haven’t.” The voice cracks stop. You think you sound really cold. Good. She deserves it.

“Yeah, well, if Mom and Dad ever loved us they stopped when Levi was born. They had their heir. We’re just decorations now. And if we don’t act the part they’ll throw us in the trash.”

Delusional. Absolutely delusional. “Exodus, they sent you to therapy for trying to choke their son. You can’t justify that.”

“Heh, you didn’t say I was wrong…”

“And you’re wrong.” Your thumb drifts to the red button that will end the call. It stops just over it. “They still love you. Why else would Mom go all the way to the mainland to visit you?”

“Love, first of all this ain’t therapy. At best it’s discount juvie. Second, it’s been years, okay? I’ve changed.” She sighs into the phone. “I was eight. I made a mistake. I’m sorry. Really. If they loved me, they’d let me out. Give me a chance to make things better.” You can practically see her shaking her head through the phone, crocodile tears in her eyes. “I was like you once. Thought they were just scaring me, heh, scaring me straight.” You don’t get what the joke is. Wait. Ugh. Terrible joke. “They weren’t. I wasn’t the decoration they wanted and they tossed me out of sight.”

“They visit.” Often. At least once a month. More than you’re getting. Plus they call. “Trust me, they do love you. They’re just worried about…” Levi, mostly. Pets too. She probably killed a glameow and an ariados. Probably. You only really put it together after she was sent off. She’s clever. Knows how to hide things. If the housekeeper hadn’t overheard the struggle…

She butts in before you can finish the thought. “That doesn’t mean anything. They only come because they think they’re good parents and that’s what good parents should do. When I talk they don’t listen. Ever. Then they path themselves on the back and leave.” You don’t know how to answer that. So you don’t. “Just be glad they didn’t send you to conversion therapy, okay? A few kids here have been to that. Fucked them up something good.”

“Language.” There’s somebody listening to her conversation, right? And she’s only thirteen. She has no business talking like that.

You fidget and your thumb presses the last quarter inch down onto the end call button. You could call back. You don’t want to.

Instead you slowly slouch down and sit on the radiator. So many lies. Primarina are transvestites. Blood sacrifices keep the sun moving. Your parents don’t love you. Exodus was ever justified.

You put the phone down next to you and lower your head into your hands. You don’t scream. A convenient crack of lightning does it for you. As a kid you heard about temptation. You thought you’d be strong enough to resist. That you would earn your afterlife.

You still will.

It’ll just be harder than you’d anticipated.
 
Last edited:

Chibi Pika

Stay positive
Staff
Location
somewhere in spacetime
Pronouns
they/them
Partners
  1. pikachu-chibi
  2. lugia
  3. palkia
  4. lucario-shiny
  5. incineroar-starr
aaaa, at first I was super disappointed that we didn't get to see the immediate followup to what happened last chapter. Buuut, thinking about it more, I guess it might not have provided much additional information? Obviously, the interesting discussion is yet to come. Though I would've loved to see Genesis's reaction when Cuicatl sided with Kekoa.
Electric 2.3: Gods and Kings
I still can't believe you went through with naming it that lol
And then Cuicatl took his side! Even though he attacked you
I'm amused by the fact that she still occasionally slips back into calling him he.
“Hello, Genesis.” You start and glance at Cuicatl. She’s awake and sitting awkwardly on her bed, half-crouching with Coco leaning on her side and Pixie awkwardly lying beneath her so that she can’t move. “You’re back early.
I. Have no idea what Gen just walked in on, but it must have been something. xD
The foxes have good doggo noses and Cuicatl says that tyrunt’s are even better. Maybe. Based on skulls that are supposedly from millions of years ago. You’re not entirely convinced.
I mean. If tyrunt exist now because they've been resurrected, then I think that'd be easier to test their senses from versus some fossils.
You slowly lower yourself and pull out a water bottle. Looks like you could be here a while. She doesn’t drink. “You read about primarina?” she asks.
ohoho, I know where this is going. Is this why you made them so... unique to begin with? Or was it just convenient to use after you'd already come up with it?
On the internet. Full of lies.
Heh, after you made a point of having her look up things on the internet like 20 times this chapter. ;P
You let out the breath you knew you were holding.
punchline.png
 
Electric 2.4

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
Electric 2.4: Spiderwebs and Lost Souls
Kekoa

[-24:08:40]​

Before you take out lunch you kick your boots off and stretch. Downhill was supposed to be easy. Instead it was a thousand controlled, halting steps to keep you from tumbling down. Did bring you to a damn nice lake, though. Perfectly clear water with a few wishiwashi darting below the surface. Mountains reflected in the water. The shit they put on postcards. There’s another group sitting down for lunch about a third of the way around the lake but otherwise you’re alone.

Well, alone with Cuicatl, some Pokémon, and a transphobic piece of shit. Pixie and Coco have already curled up on their trainer as she lies down. Count Cloudy the Pretentious is hovering over the pond, the leafeon is curled up in a sunbeam, and Sir Fucking Bubbles is staring into the water and deciding if he’s man enough to swim in it.

You can see Hekeli flit between branches from time to time. Makani, your grubbin, thankfully ignored you when you sent him out and is busy rooting around in the dirt. Cuicatl told you that your ‘mons would need a reason to stay. Thankfully, he found one on his own. Something changed on Blush Mountain. Not evolution. For the best. Don’t want to deal with Makani the vikavolt quite yet. Might think it’s funny to spit ten thousand volts in your face rather than string. But he seems to get why he should stay. The bug grew up on Akala. Never had a chance of evolving on his own. With you? He can become a terrifying murder bug. Will become a terrifying murder bug.

And the people (and colonizer) are sprawled out in the shade, ignoring the hike the afternoon will bring. Food. You were supposed to pull out food. Canned meat and hummus, raisins that are somehow more dehydrated than usual, and crackers. Bland but cheap and nutritious. Maybe Cuicatl’s thought of something better but she’s never complained. You toss some at the haole thing and gently hand your friend her portion. Then silence. Near-silence. Eating sounds and spitting followed by happy dinosaur noises. Not quite as close to pikipek noises as you’d expect from her feathers and build. Speaking of! You can hear Hekeli’s songs and they’re getting really complex. Plus, her beak is growing out. If she’s not a trumbeak yet she will be soon. Damn shame she won’t be useful in the next trial. Maybe she can come in with a rock smash if the crabrawler you’ll catch later can’t do the job.

You hear barking noises and the sound of snapping twigs behind you. You glance back and—pancham. Two of them bumbling towards you, tripping over tree roots and each other. That means there’s a momma pangora nearby. “Cuicatl,” you say as neutrally as possible, “there are pancham here. Bears. Fighting-types. Momma’s a dark-type.”

The thing beside you makes a dumb “aww” sound and, after a pause, “We aren’t allowed to feed them, right?”

What? No. Gods, no. That’s how you get killed. But if a pangoro’s staring you down you’ll gladly bribe her. Unless she decides she likes your food and wants to take the rest, plus three weak animals and some pokémon. Throw pokéballs, run, and pray? Always an option. Maybe you could trip the asshole and make a break while the pangoro’s eating. No. A bit too harsh. Just a little bit, though.

Cuicatl sits up and gently smiles without showing any teeth. “Hello. Can I help you with anything?”
The pancham stand up on their hind legs and start adorably growling something out. Cuicatl’s just nods and strokes Pixie’s tails with one hand while physically restraining her tyrunt with the other. Girl’s smart enough to know she doesn’t want a fight. At best she loses and her pokémon get hurt. At worst she wins and gets killed by a confused pangoro.

“We’re just passing through on our way north.”

It turns out pancham can make a sound best described as an excited squeak.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t have any. It would make you sick.”

That earns a tiny roar. In the forest something a lot bigger than a twig snaps. For a second Cuicatl’s composure breaks. Then she starts to open her eyes wide and slowly shake her head. “Oh, no. We’re very scared. Terrified. But we’re—poison-types. We eat bad things. Bird shit. It would make you sick.” The sound of snapping branches keeps coming closer. “Promise.”

More squeaks and growls while Cuicatl slowly nods her head. “Not all humans can. Just me. Can’t talk to your—” Heavy breathing at the forest’s edge. A giant bear with a cape of black fur stares down at you. Fuck. Cuicatl recovers much faster than you do. Thank the gods. Her gods. Whichever get you through this. “Well, that’s rude of her. You scared me plenty on your own.” To your friend’s immense credit, it turns out pancham can feel embarrassed by their parents. One of the cubs turns around with a pout and start garbling out something to her mom. The pangoro’s stem twitches in her mouth for a second before her face settles into a smile.

The mother barks at her children, shoots a half-hearted glare at Cuicatl, and heads back the way she came. The pancham clumsily run after her.

No one, pokémon or human, dares to move for several long minutes. In the end Hekeli moves first by dropping down to a nearby branch and making a nervous trill. Cuicatl collapses back down, head hitting her pack, and mumbles some (untranslated) words in Nahuatl that are obviously swears.

“First time meeting a bear without a hydreigon at my back.”

Wait.

What?

“You had a hydreigon?”

She awkwardly shrugs as best she can while lying down with her vulpix on top of her. The tyrunt is still standing where she was, glaring at the forest’s edge. “Mom did. Did I not tell…” She snaps. “That’s right. I was going to threaten to sic her on you in Paniola. You cut me off.” You can feel a little blood come back into your cheeks for the first time since the pangoro drained it out. Just how far did you press her back then? The whole conversation’s a blur. Honestly you only remember her outing you. Sure, you knew that she was mad at you but you’d figured it was just the name thing. Maybe you should apologize. But its damn hard to apologize if you don’t even know what you did wrong. And she wasn’t exactly blameless in that whole fuckup.

Stop. You’re going to say something you’ll regret. Regret after forgetting what you said, anyway. Also, what kind of person just threatens to have their pet dragon eat someone? Cuicatl Ichtaca. Yeah. That’s who. At least her new dragon thinks you’re her father. Probably won’t eat you.

Probably.

“Were you, um, talking to the bears?”

Right. It’s here. And hasn’t been told, apparently. Good call on Cuicatl’s part.

“Yes, I was.”

It awkwardly shifts as its castform drifts closer. “How?”

“I can talk to pokémon,” Cuicatl says like that’s just a perfectly normal thing. Is she going to do the accent trick? Still haven’t quite moved past that. After that you’ve been able to hear a slight accent in your voice but that might just be because that’s how you think she should sound.

“How long?”

“Hmm?”

“How long have you been able to do that?” There’s a hint of betrayal in its voice. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.

“Since I was seven. At least. Maybe earlier.”

Coco shakes herself off and plods over to you. How much of this is she following? If it’s just her trainer’s part then does she even understand what the humans are talking about? “Why didn’t you tell us?” the thing asks.

“She told me weeks ago.” It’s rude to Cuicatl. You’ll apologize later. But the look on Jenny’s face makes it absolutely worth it. Even if your friend’s half-snarl ruins the view.

“I don’t tell people if I can help it. Had to tell him to end a dumb fight.”

It wasn’t a dumb fight. She outed you in front of a colossal jackass and you said something that made her think about murder. And if she really wanted to make peace she probably could’ve found another way. Girl’s smart, sometimes.

“Why not tell people?” Its mouth hangs open as she struggles to find words that aren’t its usual level of stupid. “I think it’s cool. And it would help you make friends.”

“N,” you answer for her. “That’s why.”

It’s something you’ve thought about in the last few weeks. Maybe Uffe was right and she’s just another refugee from a collapsing fascist shithole. But she said her mom was from Unova. Someone important from Unova. And her hair has to be natural green. You would’ve noticed her roots by now. Of course, N was Asian. Cuicatl isn’t. Right? How do you do the loud thought thing?

Hey, Cuicatl, was your mom Asian?

{Second person to ask me that in a month.} You flinch more than you’d like to admit. {Can this wait?}

Yeah. It can.

{Cool.}

“The terrorist?” Cuicatl asks, aloud. “Sorry, that was a long time ago. Didn’t follow it.”

“Yeah, the terrorist.” Or freedom fighter. Same difference. ‘course, he went at it wrong. Tried to free the pokémon. Didn’t realize that shitty humans would immediately take them back. You have to take care of the shitty humans first. “They say he could talk to pokémon. Told him that fighting was hell, training is slavery, all that. So he tried to take over Unova.”

“As one does,” Cuicatl says. Her voice is flat but it sounds like a joke. You snort as a sign of support.

“As one does. He failed. Flew away on a fuckoff thunder dragon. Sometimes people spot him but he hasn’t done anything big in years.”

The thing slowly gets to its feet and starts pacing. “But he was wrong. Pokémon benefit from the system. Hilda used her team’s bonds of friendship to defeat him.”

“Hmm.” You turn to Cuicatl and do your best to project your voice in her direction. “Is that right?”

She shrugs. “Sometimes. Coco’s staying close to her parents. Ce wanted food and shelter.” A grimace. Her pace picks up. “Pix likes being appreciated. Pokémon don’t always like it. The social ones like home. Some ‘mons just don’t want to get hurt. Guess neither were right. Not all the way.”

Well, that’s some centrist bullshit. You were expecting better from her. Wait. “If you weren’t staying mum over N, why don’t you tell people?”

Cuicatl pulls her pack to her and puts her arms through the straps. She’s clearly trying to end the conversation by just getting on the trail. For its part the thing has stopped pacing and is just staring at your friend. “Governments. Anahuac would’ve made me a spy, U.S. might deport me and tell Anahuac why.”

“I’m not going to tell anyone,” the transphobe lies.

“Even if you had a filter between your mouth and the place your brain should be, she wouldn’t owe you shit.”

It looks like you punched it again. Or killed a puppy in front of it. Good. You pull on your own pack and get up before withdrawing Makani.

Cuicatl sighs rather loudly. “Can we please be civil? Just for a little bit?”

You snort. For real this time. “Oh, please. Jenny won’t even say my name and you want me to be civil?”

Another sigh as Cuicatl slowly gets to her feet and flicks her cane out. “He has a point, Genesis. If you want to bring him around and save his soul,” you can’t tell if you’re imagining Cuicatl’s cringe or not, “then he has to be willing to talk to you. If you insist on being rude then he’ll never listen and never convert.” {Not that I care about that,} she adds to you alone.

Hey, missionaries fucked over Anahuac, right?

{They tried. We kicked them out centuries ago.}

Good call.

{Thanks.} “Let’s just head out,” she mutters, aloud.

[-24:01:12]​

Cuicatl slowly pivots to ‘look’ around the campsite. “Smells like eucalyptus,” she says. And it does. Pretty strongly, in fact. There’s a big clump of the trees at the edge the clearing. “We could make bug repellant from that and water. Cheap.”

“I’m not lugging more water around than I have to.”

“No,” she looks at you with… disappointment? “We just get the leaves now. Grind out the oil and put that in a bag. Mix with water when you need it.”

That does make sense. Mostly. But. “You know we’re up $600, right? We can buy real bug spray. Even with Alola prices.”

Cuicatl drops her pack and sits down. Her usual routine after arriving at campsites since she can’t set up the tent or hang bags or anything so she’s kind of useless until it’s time to do a few minutes of cooking. “Yes. But. We should also buy another pack or two. More balls and potions. Another tent. Human and pokémon food. Maybe a real pokédex. And I want to make money eventually.”

You turn back to the tent. The poles and fabric that will soon be a tent. Your ugly assistant awkwardly hovers nearby but does move in once you start setting it up. At least its intelligent enough to do some menial labor. “How much money do you really need? Payouts are supposed to increase later on.” Supposed to. Not that you trust VStar one bit. Yours is a marriage of convenience. You need power to save Alola from its false queen, they want you to help them plunder Alola for profit. But nature rebuilds.

All will be well when the kingdom is free.

“Seven hundred and eighty-one thousand dollars.”

The pole you were holding clatters to the ground and you stare at her dumbfounded. You can sort of see the other one doing the same. “Holy shit.” Cuicatl’s looking down at the ground, absently stroking Pixie’s back. “You’re serious?”

“Yes.”

“In deep with the cartels?” Has to be it. You’re pretty sure Anahuac has free healthcare so it can’t be a ‘my brother is dying of cancer’ thing.

That earns a lazy headshake in response. “Nah. They’re more to the north and east.”

“Then what the hell do you need it for?”

“I… I’d r-rather not say.” Is the stutter real? Just something she wanted to communicate? Intentionally or not? Everything she says about her power raises more questions than answers and she rarely gives answers when you ask. Her face tells you what you want to know. Push now and she’ll burst into tears, threaten to murder you, or both. You reach down and pick the pole up. The thing does likewise and you set up camp in silence.

*​

“Can you help me gather the leaves?” Cuicatl finally asks, composed, after the food bag is hung up.

“Look…” A few dollars won’t make a dent in the debt. She can’t even make the money here anyway. At best she walks away with maybe a tenth of it. How do you phrase that without being an asshole here? And since when did you start asking yourself that question? Baby doll eyes. The trick Pixie pulled on you in your first battle with her. She made herself small, vulnerable. Stirred up every damn bit of estrogen in your system. Her trainer’s doing that now. Ugh. Fuck her.

“I know.” She sounds tired. Defeated. Manipulative. “I know. But I’m bored and I want something to do. Can I at least have the leaves?”

*​

She’s still harvesting eucalyptus. It’s a slow process filled with trial, error, and lots of awkwardly moving her hands around in the general direction of the tree. Her pokémon are ignoring the tree she’s groping and staring up another one. There’s a komala sleeping probably ten feet up. The thing hasn’t noticed it yet. Probably. It is being perfectly quiet, just staring down at the grass between its crossed legs.

You’re bored. You could have hekeli fight the komala. Seems cruel, though. Beating up something for just sleeping nearby. Nah. You’ll save her energy for dumbass haole kids in Malie. Still bored. You could cook but that’s literally the only thing Cuicatl does for anyone. And some translations. Maybe more of those now that the thing in on the secret. Eh. Fuck it. You’ll help her. She turns her head a little bit when you approach. “Kekoa, right?”

“Yeah.” You start picking leaves. She has a quart bag in one hand that she’s putting them in. Once you’ve got your first fistful you stick those in with hers.

“Thank you.”

You grunt out something that was maybe supposed to be “no problem” in your head. Wait. Can she understand that? …

Cuicatl, can you understand that?

“Understand what,” she mutters.

“That grunt?”

She rolls her eyes. “You have to at least try, Kekoa.” The bag is gently pressed into your hands and she starts walking back to the campsite. “Going to make dinner now.”

Did you say something wrong? Not say something you should have? Maybe she was just hungry. You turn back to the tree. You can hear footsteps behind you as Cuicatl’s pokémon go to beg for food, the komala forgotten. Should you have told her about it? She does like cuddling her pokémon and komala would be into that. Then again, komala isn’t exactly a killing machine. Might undercut her rep. Her pokémon would have told her about it, right? Seemed to be important to them. More as prey than a potential snuggle buddy. What will happen if or when she catches a prey pokémon? Or when Coco gets big enough to just snap up Pixie in a single gulp? Eh. You can trust her. She’s probably already drilled into the little dino’s heads that foxes are friends, not food.

Komala, on the other hand… definitely food.

Your phone vibrates with a text. You glance at it.

Kanoa.

Your childhood friend. Current trial captain. She has more important things to be doing now. Yeah, you were really, really close years ago, but you’re so different and. When you met back up outside Lush Jungle, she demanded to know where her brother had been. That. You’re better than that. You were supposed to be better than that. Unlike Jabari, you don’t just abandon family for years, whether or not you’re related by blood. And yet.

She should hate you. But she bought you lunch, gave you her number, even apologized to you when you gave her a brief version of where you’d been. And it hurts, watching her repeatedly run back to someone she should hate. Like she just doesn’t get it.

“How is Route 22 goin?”

“*Route 11”

“Finger slipped”

How do you talk to someone you’ve hurt if they don’t want to acknowledge it? She would be better off without you. Right?

“good. signal / battery low. talk later.”

She replies shortly after.

‘kk 😊”

Before your stomach stops turning there are human footsteps behind you. Definitely the thing. Cuicatl would either have the swish of her cane or the patter of pokémon footsteps or both with her. You stand still and stare straight ahead. Maybe it can take a hint. Or at least not see motion. Wait can Coco actually see non-moving stuff? She has to, right? Something to pay more attention to in the future.

“I, um… I wanted…” A deep sigh. You give it a glance over your shoulder. It’s hunched over, staring at its shoes with its hands awkwardly fidgeting against each other at its waist. Like it’s going to confess a middle school crush or some shit. “I wanted to ask if we could meet halfway. Like, you don’t call me by my name so, I dunno, maybe you could make up a nickname or something that isn’t All— that isn’t your old name.”

“No.” You very deliberately go back to picking the leaves. It steps into your peripheral vision but you ignore it.

“I’m just asking to be able to do what you’ve been doing to me for months!” Gods, it’s pouting. Like it’s the victim here. “Just, please…” What a great argument.

Ugh. It won’t go away if you don’t give it anything. And right now you’d rather have her go away than stay 1000% true to your principles. Fine, here goes. “You’ve got your name in Galar. Here? My kingdom. I call you what I want.”

Your kingdom? Since when are you royalty?” You see her hesitate. “Unless, um, you are…”

You’re not but you’ve met the princess. Dresses in rags. Lives in the same orphanage you wound up in. Sure, she could probably afford better clothes but it’s all the principle of it. Tattered robes on the princess of a tattered kingdom. The girl who spends more time with the dead than the living. Ghosts. The mournful and angry souls of an occupied nation. What was. What lingers. What stands ready for revenge.

You opt to let the leaf bag fall from your hands and give her a real glare. You flick a hand back over your shoulder. “See that? The mountain in the distance? I’m gonna kick out that haole bitch you put on a throne on Mauna Fucking Lanakila. Then I’m tearing the whole place down. Give the palace in Hau’oli to the real queen. Take back my home from assholes like you.”

That just earns a few slow blinks before it brushes a stray blonde hair off its face. “No, you can’t. That would take a vote or something. Not just a battle with an athlete.”

“Hmph. We can’t take back the kingdom with a battle but we could lose it with one? That right?”

It pointedly looks away from you. “It wasn’t a democracy. That was how things worked then.”

You know that well.

*​

In 1888 Elisha Gage strolled into the Palace and challenged the Queen for her throne. He didn’t do it right. He was supposed to first be accepted into the island challenge and then complete it. That would’ve required him being an actual citizen of the kingdom and not some haole leech. The Queen accepted. You don’t know why. He faced the four kahunas and the Queen all in a row to take the throne.

He did that all wrong, too. Bought himself five teams. Brought a different one in to each match, all tailor-made for the win. That wasn’t supposed to happen. No one had ever used more than six pokémon for the royal challenge before. But the rulebook doesn’t say anything about using thirty pokémon! You can imagine his smug face. Like he’s a ref allowing a growlithe to play basketball with an entire country on the line. It also ignored the point. There were no rules in the first place. Just traditions. The people knew what they were supposed to do and they did it. You had a shred of decency.

He won. Barely. Later came out that he’d paid three-point-eight mil in that days’ dollars for his final team. The Queen could’ve told him to go to hell. She didn’t. You don’t know why. He sat on the throne and called in the marines and told them that Alola was part of the U.S. now. All so that some spiderweb dealer could pay less taxes.

Hope he’s happy in hell.

*​

You don’t say any of that. You just stare right into its icy eyes and cross your arms. Hope she’ll be happy in hell with Old Man Gage.

It rolls its shoulders and tries to almost look you in the eyes again. “I… fine. Sure. Not what I wanted to talk about.” You snort. Of course. It thinks its entitled to pick everything it talks about. “I just wanted to say that I was mean to you and I’m sorry… Kekoa.”

“Dinner’s ready!” You blink and turn towards Cuicatl. There’s a half-empty bowl in her lap and she raises another spoonful of food to her lips as you watch. Dinner has clearly been ready for a while. She just wanted to sit back and watch the show. Listen to the show. Did she tell it to do that? Doesn’t really matter. The thing has turned around and is walking over to the food with far too little weight on its shoulders.

Her shoulders. Maybe. Ugh, fine. You’ll at least need to pick another name for her. Jennifer is too close to her real one. Janette? Sounds good.

[-23:16:49]​

It isn’t raining when you step outside. In fact the sky is almost suspiciously clear for this time of the year. Full moon overhead and the clearing is remarkably bright for the middle of the night. Wings stir at the forest’s edge and Hekeli glides over to perch on your shoulder. She’d hear a pangoro coming and a rattata isn’t enough to take her out anymore. It’s safe to leave her out at night.

As you walk away from the tent to pee movement catches your eye. A dark, slender shape rises up near the treeline. It’s almost as tall as you. No, taller. You finally catch the shape of its—her head and the red markings on her chest. Salazzle. You’re being summoned. The salamander drops down on all fours and raises her tail into the air as a signal before slipping into the forest.

It’s hard to follow the fire-type. The trees block out much of the moonlight and there are way more shrubs in your way than there were on Route 12. If Cuicatl hasn’t heard the noise herself her pokémon definitely have. You really hope she doesn’t follow. She’d understand, of course, but she might get sucked in deeper than you’d like right now.

The forest abruptly breaks into a clearing, another campsite from the looks of it, and you see the woman sitting on a log in the middle. Her hair’s shorter and died black but the tank top, tattoos, and baggy pants let you know that you’re dealing with Big Sis. As if the salazzle wasn’t enough of a giveaway. She flicks her hand towards the ground and you sit. Probably too far away. Might have to raise your voice a little bit. Not that you were sounding stealthy before.

“I got your message a few weeks back,” she says. Like it’s just a normal thing that Big Sis reads reports from someone who isn’t even a grunt. Should you respond? She’s supposed to be pretty casual. She’s also the only one doing anything about the False Queen. A hero here in the flesh. One on one. What would you even say? “The Nahua girl’s interesting.” You know that you needed to tell her about Cuicatl. For a moment you still regret bringing Big Sis’s attention to her. “But not what I want to talk about.”

That’s… not what you were expecting. What else did you even say? Damnit you were tired and a little angry when you emailed Manollo. You’ve forgotten half of it. Running problem today. “I almost have two Z-Crystals.” That can’t be what she wanted to hear, it sounds almost pathetic when you say it aloud.

She blinks twice and slouches a bit. “You really don’t know…?” Don’t. Know. What? Plumeria shakes her head and smiles. “Dummy. Genesis is a Gage.”

Genesis is. Gage. Elisha. The Old Man. The Spiderweb Prince. The Kingdom Thief. She’s his spawn.

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

You knew she had money before but billionaire heiress? To a family that’s somehow worse than most billionaires? Fuck. Honestly, her being a transphobic piece of shit is now waaaaaay down on the list of things to hate about her. It. Hate about it. Definitely not ‘her’ anymore.

Plumeria dismissively waves her hand through the air and brings you a little bit closer to reality. “You aren’t actually in Skull so I won’t give you orders, but. A suggestion: do whatever you can to keep her on the trail and away from her family.”

“Why?” Everything still feels unreal. The words slip from your mouth before you realize how stupid they are. Big Sis has a reason. She always does.

Her expression doesn’t waver. If she thinks you’re a dummy—she did call you a dummy didn’t she—then she’s not pressing it now. “I don’t need her now. There’s some shit that’s about to go down and we’re laying low. Later?” The smile returns. Less friendly this time. “Yeah, I can find a use for her. Much easier to get her if she isn’t being guarded by daddy.”

A kidnapping. You’d have to gain its trust. Regain its trust. Pretend to be nice. Call it Genesis. Act like its human. A friend, even. It’ll all suck so much. But in the end everything will have been worth it when you see the look on her face.

You nod slowly. “I can do that.”

The Skull Boss slowly gets to her feet and looks—up—to meet you in the eye. Shorter than you’d thought. Never been this close to her before. At the Mauna she always sat above everyone else. Her height’s probably why. The shadows around her shoes move and a gengar rises up behind her. Hekeli cries out in shock and flutters into place in front of you. You call her back and she glides to a branch behind you.

“You’re using one of VStar’s phones, right?”

“Yes.”

She slips her hand into her pocket and holds a flip phone out to you. Should you? Yes. You step closer to Plumeria, defender of Alola, and take it. Your hand almost touches hers. Stupid.

The boss turns around and starts walking towards the edge of the clearing. It’s almost. Heh. You’ve gotten used to Cuicatl’s dumb military-types pivots in place. Kind of weird seeing normal humans turn around. “My number’s saved in there. Tell me if things go to hell.”

“Wait, I.” She turns around and glances at you. Shit. What were you saying? “Does this mean I’m in Skull? For real?”

Plumeria turns back around as her gengar’s shadows rise up to engulf her. “Whatever you want, kid.” When the unnatural blackness fades to normal night Big Sis is gone.

You’re left alone with a pikipek—no, trumbeak, a phone, and a mission.
 
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Chibi Pika

Stay positive
Staff
Location
somewhere in spacetime
Pronouns
they/them
Partners
  1. pikachu-chibi
  2. lugia
  3. palkia
  4. lucario-shiny
  5. incineroar-starr
Well, alone with Cuicatl Ichtaca, some Pokémon, and a transphobic piece of shit.
Ah, so that's how we're starting this.
Maybe you could trip the asshole and make a break while the pangoro’s eating. No. A bit too harsh. Just a little bit, though.
He does have limits! \o/
Heavy breathing at the forest’s edge. A giant bear with a cape of black fur stares down at you. Fuck. Cuicatl recovers much faster than you do. Thank the gods. Her gods. Whichever get you through this. “Well, that’s rude of her. You scared me plenty on your own.” To your friend’s immense credit, it turns out pancham can feel embarrassed by their parents.
This entire scene was somehow both hilarious and terrifying. xD Also, don't think I didn't notice how Kekoa constantly refers to Cuicatl as a friend in-narration. c:
Stop. You’re going to say something you’ll regret. Regret after forgetting what you said, anyway. Also what kind of person just threatens to have their pet dragon eat someone? Cuicatl Ichtaca. Yeah. That’s who. At least her new dragon thinks you’re her father. Probably won’t eat you.
Coco loves her father! (Also I had to go back and look up what he said, and hooo boy, yeah, I can see why Alice came up back then. xD;
It awkwardly shifts as its castform drifts closer. “How?”
oh boy, this chapter's gonna be exhausting, huh.
“N,” you answer for her. “That’s why.”
ohoho yes, I've been waiting for N to come up since the moment we got a protag with green hair who can talk to Pokemon.
Well, that’s some centrist bullshit. You were expecting better from her.
There's something inherently hilarious about this comment being made in response to the plot of Black and White, a game about the flawed nature of black-and-white thinking.
Like, you don’t call me by my name so, I dunno, maybe you could make up a nickname or something that isn’t All— that isn’t your old name.”
I really, really love the doublethink here. "Oh, I can't call you by that nickname, can't I call you by a different nickname." Because that one's... bad, or something. And by 'love' I mean *internal screaming* because that's the exact same argument that gets used on me with my name. :) :) :)

But at the same time, it's so obvious that she genuinely thinks this is the best way to handle this aaaaghhhh.

Anyway! Really heavy chapter this one. And a lot of revelations! Everything surrounding these three keeps tying them back into each other's personal character arcs. And oh god, if Kekoa is seriously gonna pretend to be friends with Genesis in order to get revenge on her family that's gonna be hard to watch. Oof. Good stuff, keep it up.
 
Electric 2.5

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
CN: Child Abuse, Eating Disorder, Borderline Suicidal Thought Patterns. I'll include a summary of this chapter at the start of the next one.


Electric 2.5: Life Goes On
Cuicatl Ichtaca

[-15:03:11]​

The air feels like rain again. You’d hoped that being in the States would bring a real winter and summer and not just wet and dry seasons. Of course, you weren’t so lucky.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but pokémon aren’t allowed in the library.”

You stop and turn towards the voice. An employee? You gesture towards your cataracts. “I need her to get around.”

The wind picks up. For the time being it doesn’t carry water with it. The woman is silent far longer than she needs to be. “Do you have her service pokémon documents on you?” She sounds unimpressed. Almost aggressive. Coco would’ve growled at her already. Pix is probably considering it.

You don’t have the papers. They don’t exist. “She’s not registered.” You plow through to keep Pix from taking it personally. “But she’s smart. Won’t cause trouble.” Last bit might be a lie. She’s been behaving well recently. Well enough to gamble on.

“I’m sorry but we only allow registered service pokémon. An assistant can help you around if you need it.”

Right. Because being jerked around by a stranger with no training is better than letting your (somewhat) trusted helper do it. Your heart rate’s up and your shoulders are tensed. Pix flicks a tail to your ankle. Probably asking if she should fight. You make an effort to relax your shoulders and take a deep breath. You don’t win this fight. This woman has the power and she’s made up her mind. Experience tells you that all the facts and logic in the world won’t change that. “Fine,” you concede with a huff. “You good going in your ball, Pix?”

“Yes.”

You withdraw her and clip the ball to the second spot in your belt. Before you take your cane out you slide your hands back down to your skirt’s pockets (making your own clothing has its advantages). “Well, now what?”

She hesitates. Figures she didn’t have an actual procedure. Just saw a rule she could enforce on some kid and decided to be cruel. You could take out your cane and save her but a little bit of your own cruelty bubbles up and you let her solve the problem she made. “One second,” she finally says. “Let me get someone to help you.”

It takes a lot longer than a second. By the time it starts to drizzle you’re starting to doubt that she’s coming back at all. When it starts to pour, you’re certain that she isn’t. With a sigh you pull out your cane and walk into the building itself. You consider letting Pix out and walking in anyway. If the same woman is still there you doubt she’d complain again.

She doesn’t speak up when you step inside. You’d half expected that she’d just darted through the door and spent a half hour staring at you through the glass. “Excuse me,” another woman calls out. “Can I help you?”

There’s no way to be sure she’s talking to you. She probably is. You nod and turn in the voice’s direction. “Yes. Where are the computers?” In an ideal world you’d ask for journals and in-depth guides in Nahuatl braille. Or at least American Braille. You doubt such things even exist.

“Certainly. They’re just down… actually, let me take you there.” You hear her approach and you feel her slip her hand into yours before she immediately starts moving. Not the best way to do it. It makes keeping pace awful. And you would have liked it if she asked you first. Or given you time to collapse the cane. Still, you do eventually find yourself in front of a computer. Then she power walks away before you can figure out how to log in, turn the screen reader on, access the internet… anything.

After many days and even more arguments on the trail you’d wanted time alone. At least time away from other people. And you need to have a talk with Pix. So far you’ve managed to bring Kekoa around in two talks and tag-teamed Genesis in three. Hopefully this one’s as easy. But you need information. Everything you can get on vulpix thought. Make some guesses on how she sees the world. That brought you here. You’re still no closer to the information.

Even if you wanted to call Genesis or Kekoa there’s another obstacle. You’d have to talk in the library. You really aren’t supposed to do that. Sure, you could find a bathroom or a door outside. But because Pix isn’t here you’d have to ask someone. Talk to someone. Aloud.

You slump forward in the seat and cross your arms, letting the cane clack to the floor.

Why does this always happen?

July 2019​

The gate creaks shut beneath you and you take a few steps forward. Your cane is out because Achcauhtli won’t coddle you when you don’t need it. No, not won’t. Can’t.

Your mind is half gone and even the remaining half feels so empty these days. There’s nothing to say. Your godmother has taken over your chores for the time being. It’s more kindness than you deserve but it also deprives you of a simple, routine task to get lost in.

Maybe you do deserve it, then.

You hadn’t told anyone about your brother’s headache and neck pains. His meningitis. If you’d forced him to seek care right then he wouldn’t have died. You’re sure of it.

You killed him.

You still haven’t fully grasped what that means.

Maybe you never will.

With more care than your body deserves you lower it to the ground. Silence. Nothing approaches. Alice had been hanging around the house for a few days but apparently ellas needed to eat. Searah’s probably exhausted all the ants in the area after staying put for so long. Renfield’s mourning and you can’t judge him for wanting distance. And Spike…

“Hey, Spike.”

Spike doesn’t answer. He wrapped you in a vine when you told him. It was the most affection he’d ever shown you. Or your mother, from what memories of hers you have. Seems he’s back to normal now.

Great. Just great.

The wind is surprisingly chilly for the height of the summer. You take your arms out of your poncho to hug yourself underneath it. The sleeves whip around uselessly in the wind. There’s homework to do. You should go inside. Should. You won’t. You were failing anyway. Again. And he can’t read your books to you anymore. What’s even the point?

If you ran off right now who would care? You could take Searah, Alice, and Renfield with you. Live in the woods. Escape cactus spikes and worksheets for good. Your godmother would understand. Father would have to step up around the house. Surely he could handle it. Someone had to be cooking and cleaning before you were old enough to do it.

When Alice comes, back you’ll go.

There’s nothing here for you anymore. Nothing but ghosts.

You’ve seen enough American films to know about their vengeful ghosts that haunt the living. Try to solve their own murders. All that stuff. It’s not like there aren’t ghosts in Anahuac but they’re… different. Forgetful. Destructive. Apocalyptic, even. You really want to believe in the American ghosts right now. He’d come back and torment you for killing him but at least he would be around. And if he punished you then you wouldn’t need to do it yourself. It would be perfectly just.

The back door creaks opens and you hug yourself a little tighter. Speaking of punishments. Father’s heavy footsteps come closer until he settles down beside you, probably staring off at… whatever’s in the distance.

“He was supposed to do so much more,” he says with terrible resignation. You let the words wash over you and turn your head in his direction. It sounded like he had more to say. Maybe he doesn’t. You certainly don’t. “He had Danielle’s powers and pokémon. He could have taken so many captives. Brought honor and resources to the village that I never could have.” You can almost feel the frown. “But he never took to the pokémon.”

You shake your head. “He did. Searah and Renfield saw him as a brother. He even talked sense into ‘chovsky once in a while.” All those years and you never figured out how. Knowing the swanna you never will. “He just cared about humans, too.” You leave the ‘I didn’t’ unspoken.

“Hmm. Doesn’t matter anymore.” The wind picks up a bit more. This time you slip your arms back through the sleeves. Can’t look like a child in front of Father. “And you… I had a plan for you.” A hint of passion bleeds through despair. “Achcauhtli would gain money and status. You could care for his home and pokémon. But now,” he takes a deep breath. You get a twinge of pain through your powers for some reason. “Now that won’t work.” And the passion is drowned as quickly as it came. “I had to find a new plan. You aren’t smart. Or strong. You would get captured on the battlefield in seconds. Your gifts could make you appealing to a noble family, but they would not want your deformities in their bloodline.”

And there you were thinking you would escape punishment today. At least this is only verbal. Even if words can hurt more than cactus spines or chili fumes. “You are decent at housework but unattractive. And high-class men want smart wives. Good marriage would be difficult.” You get it. You’re a total failure. “But… between Danielle’s gift and your blindness you might be able to convince a temple that you’re close to the gods.” He doesn’t scoff. That’s left to your imagination. “That would require sending you to a school for your kind so that you might learn something. Then tutoring on manners and religion before you could ever apply to an apprenticeship.”

You like to think that you’re good at astrology. Can’t say you’re an expert on the entire religion. More importantly… “Can I bring Searah and Renfield with me?” Alice is far too big an ask. But Renfield could help you mask your powers by having a translator pokémon and Searah’s not too high maintenance.

“No.” Before you can argue he cuts you off. “They would only distract you. Besides, I needed money for the school’s tuition.” No. He can’t— “I sold Nari’s pokémon this morning.”

You—

He—

You—

You never got to say goodbye.

Again.

“You’ll depart to Tenochtitlan tomorrow at—” You swing a fist at his face. And miss, falling to the ground in the process. He stands up in an instant and pins your back to the ground with his boot. “Cuicatl. Ichtaca.” Disappointment drips from his lips like venom from a snake’s fangs. “Your one virtue was obedience.” He presses down harder and you can feel the pressure on your spine and the metal tip on your back. “Danielle’s pokémon were never yours. They were mine. I did this to help you.”

You scream. He’ll have to back off if

No.

Alice isn’t coming.

Achcauhtli can’t drag him off if he goes too far.

But you scream anyw—something hard strikes you on the cheek. Your jaw snaps down on your tongue. Not hard enough to break clean through but enough to hurt and bleed. He takes a few steps away as you spit out blood.

“You will apologize,” Father finally says as you start to pull yourself together. You will not. Not to him. Not after what he did. The pressure reappears on your back. “You will apologize now.” No.

“Was it for tuition or Patolli debts?” you hiss. Blood sputters out of your mouth with the saliva.

“You will apologize for that remark, too.’ He presses harder. Much harder. Your chest, such that it is, presses painfully against the ground. It’s. It’s fine. You’ve dealt with worse. He presses the metal tip of his boot down and steps off. He starts walking away and the door opens. “I’m almost glad Danielle died when she did,” Father says. “She would’ve hated to see what became of her daughter.”

The door slams shut and you slowly press yourself up to all fours. A simple flex of your spine brings pain but shows that nothing’s broken. A quick stroke of your tongue shows the same for your mouth. No. Not quite. You spit out a shard of tooth. It was at the back. No one will notice. Doesn’t hurt when your tongue touches it.

Good. You’re running away. You’ll find your way to America and make good, valuable dollars. Then you’ll buy back at least Alice, Renfield, and Searah.

Before that… Father is stronger than you but he must sleep. Even you could smother him and run away in the dark.

No.

It would be killing your own blood; the Eagle Warriors would hunt you down. And. And. No. You don’t deserve to. You already killed his son and wife. He did everything he could for Achcauhtli and the village. Thought he was doing everything he could for you. He does care for you. Loves you. And Mom loved him. Gods, you killed your mother’s son. If she ever would have liked you she hates you now. If you killed Father, too…

You bow your head in shame for ever considering it. If anything you owe enough to your mother and brother that you need to come back to him once this wrong is righted.

You can face Father again with a hydreigon at your side.

[-15:02:28]​

You know that you’re slipping to a bad place. Maybe as bad as the day by the water in Hau’oli. Miss Bell pulled you out then. She’s not here to do that again. Should you call her later? She hasn’t messaged you since you saw her between missions. No leads on Alice, apparently. Not that you could even act on any right now. Cheapest you’ve seen one auctioned for was $781,500. Then you’d need a little more money for Searah and Renfield. Neither species seems that expensive but if their new owner realizes you’re attached they might drive the price way up.

Nothing is happening in here. You should go outside. You bought an audiobook rental account earlier. So long as you don’t buy the books it’s cheap to read them for a few days. Plus, you can make notes on the big stuff. At the very least you can sit outside under the overhang and listen. It’s probably not the most up-to-date stuff but it will do.

Your phone buzzes. “Voice Message from Vana Iosua (Plant Girl). Read it: Yes or No?”

You don’t know why she’s so interested in talking to you. Aside from Spike, who wasn’t a typical plant, you don’t have much experience with grass-types. Even your cooking advice doesn’t always translate well to sighted people. But you should reply. It would be rude not to. And you can’t do that in the library. Once your cane is in your grasp you extend it and start trying to map out your earlier steps.

After accidentally hitting your cane against a wall enough times someone comes to help you out.

[-14:22:59]​

You have to pee.

Truth be told you’ve had to be for over an hour, but now you’re at a chapter break and someone just disturbed you by going out the door so it’s time to take care of that. You put your phone back into your bag, stand up and whoa. You stand stock still as the wave of vertigo washes over you. When it leaves your legs are still weak. How long has it been since you ate a proper meal? You didn’t eat breakfast and dinner was early yesterday so… a long time. Pokémon Center’s lunch is closed. You can either wait a few hours or eat out.

The latter takes money. And it’ll have so many calories. Even if you give Pixie some it’ll still make you fatter. Focus. Pee. Now. You slowly pivot and reenter the library.

[-14:22:41]​

It’s only misting outside. Pixie still wouldn’t like being out in it. Her fur would get wet and even if she held on for your sake she would be upset. You could send Coco out but she’s not good on a leash. Runs into your cane a lot. Sometimes tries to jerk you around even though you’re much bigger (for now). Makes navigation hard. You elected not to eat out. No. Not quite. You elected to let fate decide. If there’s something on the way to the park that smells too good to resist, well, then you can stuff your face and regret it later.

You have to ask for directions a few times on the way but you steadily get closer to your destination. Supposedly a bunch of Japanese people came to live in Malie. They built a park themed around Johto. You’ve never been to Asia. Probably never will. This might be as close as you ever get and you might as well enjoy it. Even if you can’t really appreciate the theming.

When you’re maybe a block or two away your stomach finally makes you do something stupid. Something smells like dough. Kind of fresh dough. And fruit. Maybe meat? A sweetness to it. A lot of scents mixed together but it’s not unpleasant. Smells close. You pull out Pixie’s ball and let her out. The fox shakes herself off, hisses, and shoots out a wave of cold. Probably trying to freeze the water droplets in the air. Good girl. You bend down a little bit to get her attention. “Can you take me to the food?”

Food isn’t far. Close enough that she just opts to tell you where to go and trail behind. “A few steps forward. A few more. Thought your legs were longer.”

“Thanks for rubbing it in, Pix.”

“Hmm?”

You force a smile and shake imaginary dirt off your top. “Nothing. How much further?”

When the food truck approaches you can vaguely sense it. Something ahead of you to the right. Hard to say how you know it’s there but you do. Echoes, maybe? Like a dolphin. Once you get close you slow down and start drifting towards the edge of the sidewalk.

The window opens up and a man’s voice comes out. “Hello. Do you want to order?”

With another forced smile you turn towards him and brush a few stray locks of hair out of your face. “Yes. What do you sell?”

“Crêpes.”

Your power can’t translate it. That’s just the name of the thing. At least, there’s not a Nahuatl word for it that you know. The meaning in his mind can’t match one in yours. Whatever they are they smell good. “What do you recommend?” You don’t want him to read the entire menu to you. It’s a little embarrassing and you’re out in the mist with an impatient fox.

“Sweet or savory?”

Hmm. Ordinarily you’d be mad that you asked for an opinion and you got a question. You’re exhausted and thinking about food just wears you down more. But this is a decent question. Savory probably has more calories. More cost. Closer to a real meal. Sweet is immature. Childish. Irresponsible. It’ll last for an hour or two at most.

“Sweet,” your stomach says before your brain can make a decision.

“Rawst, then.”

He gives a price. Higher than you’d like. Of course, you don’t even know how much food you’re getting. You don’t want to ask. You might just walk away altogether. And you can afford it, even if it isn’t wise. There’s someone in line behind you and they don’t object to the price so it’s probably what’s on the menu. You almost want to haggle it even if you know Americans hate it. In the end you just turn over a few bills and get some coins back in return.

After a few minutes of waiting you finally get your order. It’s big but thin. Kind of light. Still a reasonable price by American standards. You pivot and step further back onto the sidewalk. Pix follows by your side, a tail flick marking her location. “You smell grass? Trees?” She yips. “Can you lead me there?”

She wordlessly passes by you, making sure to rub against your leg so that you know where she is. She occasionally grunts as you walk behind her, sweeping with your cane with one hand and trying to balance a kind of unwieldy crêpe in the other. You don’t really know if it’s sloppy or not but so far the shape seems to have held. By the time the faint whiff of gasoline and dull roar of humanity starts to get replaced by wet grass and birdsong your stomach’s started to growl again. “Food is here,” it says. “Human is in eating mood. Must remind her she is hungry.” Bad stomach. You already knew all of that.

Once you’re into the park for real and feel the pavement shift from asphalt to gravel under your sandals you give Pix new orders: “Can you find a shelter? Some place to sit out of the rain.” You’re pretty sure she knows what a shelter is. Can’t hurt to clarify. A puff of cool air hits your ankles and you can faintly hear her moving through the grass. The rain starts to pick up a little and you hear an angry yap in front of you when the first real raindrop hits Pix. You retract your cane and step off the path. The blades of grass reach through the sandals to tickle your feet and you know that you’re going to have to wash off all the clippings stuck in your shoes later but for now you welcome it. Soft. Good length. Not like the dry, long grass by Blush Mountain. Once your shoes hit concrete again you almost trip. The shelter has a floor about two centimeters off the ground. Thankfully you don’t faceplant. The crêpe doesn’t even fall from your hands. You extend the cane again and find your way to a picnic table. Above you the rain picks up some more but strikes the roof instead of you.

When your cane strikes something hard you feel it out and discover a picnic table. You gently lower yourself down to sit and hear Pix jump—twice—to get on top of the table. Your free hand slaps down beside you. “Pix, please sit here.” She complies with a meaningless grumble.

Crêpe time. You unwrap the aluminum foil and feel around the edges. Doesn’t seem like too much got out. Just a little… cream? You bring the tip of your finger to your mouth and taste it. Probably. Sweet. A little thick. Further fingertip inspection shows that it’s a tortilla folded on itself with some filing in the middle. You gently hold it level and bring it up to bite.

It’s good. The cream(?) flows just enough that what you bit off flows a little inside your mouth while staying in the part of the tortilla you didn’t eat. Kind of cold. Contrasts with the warm tortilla. Another bite brings the rawst berries in. Sweetened. Probably in a syrup of some kind. Do they even grow rawst here? It changes the texture. Not in a bad way.

The filling and berries are sweet but feel like they have substance. Easy to eat. You smile despite yourself. You need to learn how to make these. What culture is it from anyway? Asia? Ugh. You’ve done a lot of cooking but almost all of it was traditional. A few things from your mother’s memories. Sometimes. Father never seemed to like that.

Father. Mother. The cream turns sour in your mouth and your smile fades. So little of the crêpe left. You let yourself go. Enjoy sweets like you have any right to after what you’ve done. You put the rest down next to Pix and stew in your feelings while she devours it. How dare you? Your brother is dead by your hand and you let yourself act like nothing happened.

Father is cruel. Blunt. Not always the best at business. Loses much on his games and keeps playing anyway. But he wasn’t wrong about you.

There’s a content mewling beside you before Pixie stretches out, her front paws pressing into the side of your leg before she curls up and her tail casually rests on you. “Where’s Eggbreath?”

Right. It’s not about you. There’s a call from deep inside to just be quiet and take the punishment. Throw up as penance. Whatever must be done. Maybe you will. Not now. You had a purpose.

“She’s in her ball. I wanted to talk to you without your sister.”

Her tail is very pointedly moved off your lap. “Not my sister,” she growls.

You shrug. Just keep raising it. Eventually she’ll stop arguing. Maybe even accept it. Doesn’t have to be now. “I still want to talk.” No verbal answer. No flick of the tail. She’s waiting on you to speak. Why can’t you pull words from the pit in your stomach? Just. Try. You had a prepared speech and everything. Deep breath. You’ve got this. Just get through this and then you can fall apart. “Two moons ago I asked you what you wanted and if I could help.” A pause for dramatic effect. You really wish you could gauge her reaction. “I want to ask it again. What do you want?”

She doesn’t answer for a long time. It takes everything you have to not spiral deeper in the silence.

“Everyone leaves,” she finally says. “Parents. Humans. Everyone. You’ll leave.”

That’s a lot more than you were expecting. You’d been prepared, well, you’d been planning to slowly drag the truth from her. Didn’t think she’d be that self-aware.

“And what do you want from me?”

You hear her shift next to you. Still doesn’t touch you. “You’ll leave.”

Didn’t answer your question. Doubt you’ll get an answer if you ask again. Okay. Different track.

“If I say I won’t you’ll say that I’m lying, right?” She doesn’t answer. That’s a yes. “I get it. Words don’t mean much. Someone else tell you that they wouldn’t leave you and they did?”

“Yes.”

Thought as much. One human lies about one thing, all humans lie about everything. It’s a lonely thought but not all wrong.

“Well,” you take a deep breath and prepare to rip open some wounds for her sake. “I already left Ce for you. Hated doing that. Tolerated a lot of nighttime screams. Let you move my cane over and over again. Watched you goad your sister into misbehaving a lot. And you told Ce to sleep on my face one night, right?” And, you, Pixie, are ugly, stupid, helpless, unmarriable, and a kin-killer. You swallow the thought and press on. You have to you’re just like him. “A-and you know what? I haven’t left you. Didn’t go through all of that to leave you now.”

No. That wasn’t right. It’s still wrong. Tearing her down and saying that you’ll sink down and stay with her. There’s another part. One that your family never quite taught you. Deep breath. Stop crying. You can do this.

“And I still love you, okay? You’re very soft and pretty and you have a lot of personality. Just…” Fine. You can’t stop yourself from crying. You at least turn away so she can’t see the tears. “But this isn’t working for either of us and we need to talk about where we go from here.”

You’ll cry but you won’t sob. This is about her, not you.

“Damn it, Pix, say something.”

A paw presses into your leg. “You’re sad?”

Say something that isn’t about that, damn it.

“I… yes. Sometimes.” There are good hours. Days, even. Maybe. Right now you can’t remember what they feel like or if they ever existed at all. “It’s not important.”

Another paw joins the first. “Because of me?”

“No. I-I killed my brother and I don’t…” know how to feel. A lie. You do. You’re feeling it right now and you very well should.

“Were there seven?”

“What?”

The paws withdraw and you can faintly feel her weight shift through the bench. Standing up? “There were seven. Six would be kept. You killed one.” She says it like it’s simple. Justifiable, even. Common sense.

“Is that… what happens when there are three vulpix?”

“I should have.”

She’s deadly serious. What the fuck? “when there are three, even two pokémon, you try and…” You struggle to say the words that you know finishes the sentence. …kill them.

Pixie figures it out anyway. “Sometimes.” Gods above, what do you even say to that? “I don’t like being left alone,” she says with a low, almost inaudible hiss. Shame, maybe. Or weakness. Rolling over and letting you take a shot at her organs. Metaphorically. “Then why’d you kill your brother?”

And there she returns the shot in kind. A bullet straight to the heart.

“I…” You have to do this now. If you don’t she might get scared and leave on her own. Doesn’t make it easier. “He was sick. I knew he was sick. Didn’t think it was bad. He asked me not to tell. I went hunting. When I came back he was dead.”

The rain continues to pound on the roof. Condemnation. The heavens themselves judging you for what you did.

“You didn’t kill him?”

Your scowl deepens and you growl from years of dragon bonding instincts. “If I’d told someone he could have been treated with… potions and stuff. Wouldn’t have died.”

She shakes herself off and starts pacing on the narrow bench, the sounds of little footsteps barely audible over the pounding of the rain and your heart. “Did you poison him?”

“No.” Gods, no. You never could have.

“Hurt him? The wound got infected?”

As if you could even hurt him if you wanted to. “No.”

“Then you didn’t kill him?”

“It’s not that simple.”

Humans,” the word is loaded with disdain. “Mistakes happen. Weavile attack. Sisters die. Life goes on.”

Cold. Brutal. Draconic, even.

And you thought you were a predator.

Her pacing stops and she walks back towards you. “Is that why you were kicked off your mountain?”

“It’s related to that.” You don’t dare explain your mission to her. Not now. You’ll need more than three teammates and you don’t know how you could convince her if she knew. Before she asks for more information you need to move on. “Details don’t matter. I’m going to stay with you, Pix. Promise. But I need you to at least try to be nice to other pokémon. Don’t give me too much stress. A few games and pranks are fine but, this,” you spread our your arms. Not really sure what this shows to her. “This needs to stop.”

That didn’t go at all how you planned it to. This was supposed to be a negotiation, not an ultimatum.

She’s silent for long enough that you begin to think you’ve pushed her too far and made a terrible mistake. You love Coco. As long as she’s toothless your team can’t do anything. Both can be true.

“No eevee. No ice-types.”

Nothing that could replace her.

“Deal.” You lower a hand to her and she tepidly sniffs it before slowly raising a paw onto your fingers.

Your stomach roars and ruins the moment. She slips her paw off and backs away. Above you the rain’s a little bit weaker. You could probably walk in it if you had to. And you have to. Eat now or you’ll keep spiraling for at least another twelve hours. “You don’t have to walk in this weather if you don’t want to. That’s my part of the deal. I won’t make you fight or work unless you agree.”

“I’m walking you.”

Maybe she doesn’t believe you. Took the wrong message. Thinks she has to earn your love. Maybe. Right now you don’t really care. Just a sad, pathetic child who wants to stuff her face.

Focus. There will be more food at the Center if you can wait.

You slowly bend your face muscles into a smile while you take out Pix’s harness. Calm your breathing. All you have to do for now.

The rain will wash away the tears.
 
Last edited:
Electric 2.6

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
I promised a summary last chapter. Here it is:

Cuicatl starts her day with a trip to the library. After a set of ableist setbacks and non-accessible equipment, she starts to spiral into bad thoughts. She receives a text from Plant Girl and decides to go outside and listen to an e-book. While there she slips into a flashback about discovering her mother's pokemon were missing. Her father admits to stealing them to pay for Cuicatl's future education. During the conversation he repeatedly berates her as being less than her brother. Cuicatl tries to punch him but misses. He kicks her in the head hard enough to crack teeth. She considers poisoning his food or killing him in his sleep but opts against it. Instead, she decides to go to her mother's homeland and make enough money to reclaim her mother's pokemon. In her hunger Cuicatl eventually goes into the city and buys a crepe. She goes to a park to eat it and has a heart to heart with Pixie. The fox dismisses her arguments that she was her brother's real killer. Cuicatl reassures Pixie that she is loved and useful. Pixie agrees to having more than one other teammate as long as none of them are foxes.


Electric 2.6: Eventually
Genesis

[-14:13:33]​

You wake up to the sound of Cuicatl hissing below you. No, not hissing. Words. Cursing? Not in English. Weird. You glance down right before the lights flash on and force you to close your eyes.

“You okay?” Kekoa asks. “Oh shit,” they answer.

You wait for the neon blue afterglow to fade from the back of your eyelids before opening them up. Blood. There’s, um, a bunch of blood on Cuicatl. With a shiver you go back to staring at the ceiling.

“Yes, I felt them,” Cuicatl mutters. Clearly in a bit of pain. “They’re very good teeth.” Coco makes a happy chirping noise. Weirdly similar to the pew pew of a cartoon laser. “No!” You start from the shout right beneath you. “You don’t have to show anyone else. Promise. Please don’t.” A red glow shines on the ceiling before quickly fading.

“Come on. Let’s get you down to the nurse,” Kekoa says.

Cuicatl huffs. “Someday I’ll stay in a Center and not have to see the nurse.”

“Are, uh, you really hurt?” You keep your eyes bolted on the ceiling and study the little ripples in the plaster.

“I’ve been worse.” She sighs. “Coco bit Pix on the tails. She’s going to be mad.”

People move below and Cuicatl lets out another sharp, pained hiss.

“Sure you can walk?” Kekoa asks.

“Yeah. Barely broke the skin.”

You’d think a tyrunt bite would do a lot worse. She’s pretty lucky. Not sure what to say next. “Have fun” is entirely wrong. “Good luck” is maybe too morbid? The door shuts before you can decide on something. And Kekoa left the lights on because of course they did.

[-14:6:34]​

“I’m buying denim.”

You step through the doorway into a tense argument in the making. Kekoa’s leaning back on the ladder to your bunk while Cuicatl glares (?) at him from her new bed. She’s gripping the scruff of Coco’s neck hard enough that her knuckles are white. For her part the dinosaur’s tail is held straight back and she’s bent down like a persian ready to pounce.

“Cotton kills. You know that, right?”

Even you remember that from orientation. It uh, gets wet, and then it… poisons you? Can’t remember why it kills.

“By hypothermia. We’re in the tropics.”

You’re still hovering by the door. When all three of you are awake you remember how small these rooms really are. “Hi…”

Cuicatl turns to you, relaxes, and half-smiles. Relaxes. Coco yanks herself free and bolts across the aisle to Kekoa. They shoot the dino a nasty glare and easily bat her aside with a quick kick well before they get bit. You glance back and find that Cuicatl’s smile’s been twisted beyond recognition, her face scrunched together and the edge of her lip curled up in a vicious sneer.

“What just happened?” Her voice somehow sounds like a sword unsheathing in a movie. Her power? Just a thing she does? A trick of your imagination?

“Kekoa managed to kick Coco before they got bit.”

The air immediately feels colder and Pix isn’t even out. “Kekoa,” she says. Her voice is perfectly flat but there are somehow layers and layers of rage behind it. “You don’t kick my pokémon. You don’t hit my pokémon. You. Don’t. Hurt them. Not ever.”

Coco, suddenly very uneasy, looks back and forth between her fighting parents. You know the feeling. Poor girl.

“I’m not letting her bite me.”

You think that some of Kekoa’s fight is gone. In its place there’s… nervousness? Uncertainty? Fear? Ugh. Negative, doubtful-ish feeling.

Cuicatl slowly shakes her head. “You should buy denim, too.” She gently taps the bed beside her twice and Coco bends back down, wiggles her butt a little, and jumps up onto the bed while her arms flap uselessly in the air.

Well. You sort of started this mess. It falls to you to finish it. “So… um, if you want to go to the thrift store I’m entirely down to take you. Could be fun!”

[-14:5:49]​

For once it’s not raining. That’s something to celebrate. And after a shower and hot meal Cuicatl does look happier as she walks next to you. Well, walks attached to you. She’s grabbing your arm. Not your hand. Good. Would’ve had to say no if she asked to hold hands. Too much risk of repeating the whole Lyra thing. Her hair’s almost jade when it’s wet. Ordinarily it’s sort of a light green. Looks better wet, really, although clumps do occasionally stick onto her face.

It takes a long time to walk there (Cuciatl says you don’t have clothing and bus money and she might be right) but eventually you get to the store. You’re not really sure what you were expecting from it but it’s very big. Almost cavernous. Smells a little too much like disinfectant for your taste and the lights are almost uncomfortably bright. Not that the latter would bother Cuicatl. Lucky.

First you try the women’s section because Cuicatl isn’t a kid. She told you that it wouldn’t work but you’d at least wanted to try to get something that fit right and looked adult. As it turns out Cuicatl doesn’t actually own much stuff that was made with normal sizes in mind. But she does know her measurements so a few quick internet searches help you find the sort of stuff you’re looking for. She was right after all. Well, onto the kid’s section. Cuicatl looks pretty bummed out about that. Maybe you should’ve just gone there at the start so the reminder was less obvious. Things to remember.

But! You do find something really great!

“Hey, Cuicatl?!”

She turns towards you. Clearly not as excited as you are.

“I found a shirt for you.”

It’s a basic t-shirt with an orange base and a hydreigon drawn on the front with the word “DANGEROUS” in all caps beneath it. Definitely fits her vibe. She seems to agree; a faint smile forms as you describe it.

“How much is it?”

“Six dollars.”

She shrugs. You’ll take that as a yes.

Eventually you find some jeans that should fit her and take her back to the dressing rooms. She goes into one before you can ask if she’ll need help. Thankfully you’re still kind of in earshot if she needs any. Just standing very still and straining your ears to hear if she falls or something.

Your worries were unnecessary. She comes out unhurt in the jeans, shirt, and her sandals. The clothes are about the right length but are still a little off. Cuicatl isn’t built like a tweenage boy so they hug her a little tight in some parts and hang loose in others. Maybe a little uncomfortable but it looks nice. Attractive without being slutty. More than anything you’re just struck by how normal she looks. You can almost imagine having gone to classes and hanging out with her in the past. Sure, she was always your age, but with the blindness and the way she dressed there was always something marking her as from a different world than you. That’s not entirely gone since she still has a lot of ear piercings and green hair and cataracts but it’s shifted somehow. She could have been your weird friend.

“You look good.”

She smiles. For real. “Thank you.”

Before you can say anything else your phone begins to vibrate in your pocket. Local area code. “One sec. Gonna take this.” You answer. “Hello, Genesis speaking.” Not like anyone else would be speaking on your phone. Should you have left that part out?

“Gen?” Your heart jumps into your throat and stops you from breathing. Metaphorically. (Hopefully.) “…you still there?”

“I. Yes.” You start walking away from Cuicatl for a little bit more privacy.

“Good. You still in Malie?”

How’d he know you were in Malie in the first place? Does it matter? “Yes.”

“Cool. So am I. You want to meet up?”

“One second.” After muting the phone you go back to Cuicatl. “You have Pix and her harness, right?”

“Is everything okay?”

Not an answer to the question.

“Yes. Do you have the harness?”

“Yeah…”

“Good. I have to run now. I’ll see you later. Maybe tonight.” Not sure how long this lasts. Best case scenario you’ll just go back tonight to get the last of your stuff and then you’ll be off the trail for good.

So, so close.

It isn’t far to the meetup spot. Just a couple blocks, seven minutes, and three percentage points off your phone’s battery. Then you’re standing in a strip mall parking lot looking at a fairly well trafficked breakfast place. Maybe you shouldn’t have gone for the mediocre Pokémon Center food this morning. You take a deep breath, roll your shoulders, and walk through the doors. You spot Levi in his adorable little suit and slacks and you make a beeline for him. He gets up to intercept you and you share an absolutely glorious hug at the end of the table. You don’t cry, of course. You’re very strong. Has he grown? It’s been a few months—a few months!—so probably. He seems taller. You can’t comfortably rest your head on his.

He breaks contact and slowly sits back down on his end of the booth. You slip into your side and figure out what to say. What to say, what to say. For all that you’d dreamed of this nothing actually comes. “It’s good to see you,” Levi finally says.

“You too,” you say like a genius poet. “How’d you find me?”

“Luck, mostly. Found a note in Dad’s office. Bugged him about it. He gave me your number, loaned me Red, and told me not to go find you.” Red. Dad’s pyroar. Descendant of your great-grandfather’s starter. You’ve always been a little scared of her but… you’re starting to realize how much you’ve missed her. Missed everything.

The waitress comes and you have to quickly glance at the menu. Pancakes seems good. The Center’s pancakes are always pretty bad and you can add good pancakes to the long list of things that you’ve missed. When she leaves you’ve finally thought of what to say. “How have you been the last few months?”

He shrugs and takes a sip of his water. “Fine. Classes are good. Mom’s been kind of weird and Dad’s… out of the country more often than not. Think he would’ve come with me but he’s meeting with some military people. Talking silk prices, I think.” Wait, spider silk. It’s bulletproof. Could probably block tyrunt teeth. Maybe even tyrantrum bites. But normal-sized clothes don’t fit Cuicatl and tailored silk isn’t really something you can afford. When you get a card again that would be a good gift. Levi smiles. “No adventures or anything. Tell me everything, please.”

Everything is a bit much to ask. You’re not sure how much you want to tell him about Kekoa and a lot of stuff was surprisingly boring. But! There’s a lot that you can share. By the time your food has come you’ve told him about the oranguru trial, bear attacks, castform hunting and why Count Cloudy is the best and will be even bestester when he learns to control the weather, leafeon and why they’re surprisingly good-smelling and cuddly, the brave Sir Bubbles, Pixie’s antics, Kekoa and Cuicatl raising a dinosaur together… when the food comes you keep talking between bites and by the time you’re both finished you still haven’t quite told him everything. Levi just smiles and occasionally asks questions but he really does look interested and you like being around him so you just keep going.

Eventually the plates get taken away. Eventually the waiter asks if you want desert and you say no. Eventually your glass stops getting refilled. Eventually you take the hint. Eventually it gets a little bit too awkward to stay in place.

Levi pays and you head off for ice cream. On the way you let out Count Cloudy and Levi tries to shake his hand… blob… things. They’re made of water vapor so it doesn’t work but His Grace at least seems amused by it.

Your brother does come around to talk more about himself. School is fine. (You tamp down your jealousy that he gets to go to school at his age.) He saw a movie with some friends. Went to the mainland with Dad.

He awkwardly shifts. Weird. That’s more of your thing. He looks down and away from your gaze. “I need to go back soon.”

Even you can realize that the “I” instead of “we” is a big deal. Should have realized it a long time ago. Dad not wanting to come himself. The not-approval Levi received to even meet with you. So obvious. But you’d hoped that… that this was it. Made yourself believe in spite of everything.

It feels like it should be raining. Yet it’s the only day this week that it isn’t. Funny how that works, right? At least Count Cloudy would shoot some water guns at your head if you asked.

Levi awkwardly pulls a few neatly folded bills out of his breast pocket and hands them to you. Hundreds. Several. Four? Five? “Sorry that I don’t have more, but…”

“It’s plenty. Really.”

More than plenty, Kekoa might say. Wait. How do you even use this? You’d have to say where it came from and then there would be follow-up questions and eventually Kekoa would find out things he shouldn’t and everything would fall apart. Then Cuicatl… she would change, too. Girl needs money and you’d just be a means to an end.

You’ll have to break it up into smaller chunks. Claim that you’re getting periodic donations from the family.

Since when did you get so good at hiding things?

“We can still call or you can visit again, right?”

He keeps his eyes averted. “Maybe? Mom checks my phone. Worried that we’re talking. Next time you’re in a city you could try to message Dad. I could find an excuse to visit that wouldn’t tip Mom off.”

You don’t really get told that far in advance where you’re going next but you will be between missions in a little bit. Right after the solstice, actually. Timing isn’t great but you can pretend that it’s just delayed celebration. “Yeah. I should be in the main Center in Hau’oli on the 25th. Head out again around the New Year. Don’t know the exact day, yet.”

Levi smiles and runs a hand through his hair. “Good. I’ll swing by then. See if I can get Dad to come since it’ll be the solstice and everything.”

“That would be nice.”

He flicks his head to the side. “You want to come with me to the harbor?”

You really do.

It’s mostly quiet on the way. There’s just too much to say to say any of it. And you don’t want to distract from Levi’s presence by focusing on words. You’ve missed him. So, so much. For some reason it’s hitting you harder now than it has at any point before.

Once his ship leaves and you wave him off you find a quiet picnic shelter in the park where you can cry undisturbed.

[-12:14:51]​

“This isn’t a beach day,” Kekoa says. Even though you’re on a remote beach northwest of Malie, for once its not raining, and the water looks lovely and you could just wade in a little without getting your clothes wet. “We’re just here to catch crabrawler.”

Spoilsport. You still take your shoes and socks off, anyway. Less chance of blisters and you’d like to feel the sand between your toes. Cuicatl apparently had the same idea. Great! Now it’s just Kekoa standing on a beach in hiking boots, probably getting lots of sand in them.

“Fine, whatever.” Kekoa mutters. They ask their trumbeak to—yeah, you aren’t really listening. Time to get your feet wet. A little while after you can hear a very angry bird loudly pecking at something, followed by a scuffle in the sand. The fight stops far too quickly.

Drat. You were hoping this was going to be a long capture day.

“Guess I’m up,” Cuicatl mumbles, clearly no happier than you. “Come on, Coco! Let’s attack some trees!”

It’s fun to watch the dinosaur growl up at a crab—only to take a coconut to the head. It seems to annoy her more than anything, and she starts tackling the tree trunk until the crab comes flying down, claws drawn back—into an ice shard. Coco jumps back at her trainer’s command and Pix takes over, firing off a confuse ray. The battle doesn’t go too well for Pix, but eventually the crabrawler is so confused that it trips over its own legs and falls to the ground. Cuicatl catches it shortly after (with Kekoa guiding her arm when she throws the ball).

“Well, Genesis.”

Kekoa looks at you expectantly. It’s your turn to find and catch a crab to use against the stupid metal hedgehog at the top of the mountain so that you can stay in the Pokémon Centers a while longer. If Dad doesn’t rescue you. Which he probably will.

“Can’t we just enjoy life a little?”

Kekoa huffs and shakes their head. “We only have a few more days of good weather. You want to hike—up a mountain, no less—in the rain?”

“Fine, whatever.”

You put your shoes back on and send out Green Knight and County Cloudy.

[-12:22:07]​

Cuicatl reenters the clearing. Coco’s beside her on the shortest leash she could find in Malie and Pixe’s keeping a wide berth from the dinosaur. It’s still weird to see the girl in normal clothing. Good weird. Wait. Pixie and Coco. Just Pixie and Coco.

“Where’s your crabrawler?”

She shakes her head. “Pix met a crabominable before. Didn’t like them one bit. Thought it was best to let Kekoa look after him for now.” Right. The big crabs are ice-types. Makes sense they would live on the ice mountain with the ice foxes. “Besides, Coco thought he was a toy.”

Ouch.

Her foot gently taps a log and she maneuvers to sit down on it. Coco’s leash is kept taut despite the dinosaur’s attempt to yank herself free. “Hey, Gen? Mind sparring?”

“Um. Yeah. Sure? What did you have in mind?”

“Target practice. Have Coco try and hit Count Cloudy in midair.” But she can’t fly? That’s it. A shrike hunt. Something to wear Coco down and buy her trainer a moment of peace. Brilliant.

You send Count Cloudy out and Coco’s eyes immediately lock onto the castform. “Count Cloudy, dodge Coco’s attacks!” Sure, you didn’t need to shout that like you were on one of those Asian cartoons, but you’d best get into the habit. It’s way more fun when you do that in actual battles.

Cuicatl bends over and unclips the harness. “Bite the cloud. Go.”

Coco rockets off, leaps into the air while flapping her arms… and misses before crashing back to earth. She shakes herself off surprisingly quickly and goes for a second attack. Cuicatl leans back on the log and takes a deep breath. “Why’d you have to run off yesterday?”

Ugh. Thought that you wouldn’t have to talk about that since she didn’t ask when you came back. Figures she was waiting to ask without Kekoa around. Wherever they are. Somewhere down the trail. Another campsite, maybe? Sometimes it seems like they’ve totally made up with you and sometimes they go sulk in peace. Focus. Might as well tell her most of the truth. That way you don’t have to remember what lie you settled on. Plus she’s psychic. Maybe lies don’t work on her at all.

“My brother dropped into town. Wanted to see him while he was still here.”

She hums in response. Just holding a single note for an almost impressive amount of time? Using her powers? Behind her Coco makes another fruitless jump. “Thought you got kicked out.”

“What? Why?” How? How did she work that one out?

“You didn’t plan. At all. And, uh, no offense but you don’t seem to like the outdoors much. Even if it was spur of the moment thing you probably could’ve got a more traditional starter if your parents were signing off. That left running away or getting kicked out. Never took you for a runaway, so…”

“Why can’t I be a runaway?” You can’t tell if you should be offended or not.

“You follow orders. Would’ve needed to get pressed really far. You like touch way too much to have been hit. And you aren’t sad enough for being worn down with words. Maybe your parents are atheists and you disagreed on that but you’re named Genesis…” she shrugs. “No idea why you would’ve been kicked out, though. Not much of a rulebreaker.”

How much of that was her power? And… “How do you know so much about all of that?”

She grimaces. “Parents are strict in Anahuac. You learn pretty quick how to tell whose Dad does what without having to ask.”

You’re afraid to ask what all her dad did to her. She’d probably get awkward like she did back on Blush Mountain when you pressed. No. Can’t ask. Not directly. There are still other ways to get to it. “So? You a runaway? Get kicked out?”

“Both, actually.”

“How?” That doesn’t even make sense.

She shrugs. “He wanted me to move. I picked another option.”

“And you can just leave the country without his permission?”

“Don’t really remember. Whole time period was kind of a blur.” Another shrug. “I’m here now so I guess I could?” A crackle of static sounds off behind her shoulder. She ‘glances’ back before turning to you. “Please tell me that was Count Cloudy.”

“I, um, think it was Coco?” There seemed to be sparks around her mouth at least.

Cuicatl has the decency to keep her cursing in Nahuatl.

[-12:21:56]​

The good news: Denim is pretty resistant to cold and electricity.

The bad news: Denim can be set on fire.

The good news: Her little dragon knows all of the magic fangs!

The bad news: One of her jean legs is a little bit scorched.

The good news: At least she gets jean shorts out of this?

The bad news: Pix is growling softly at the edge of the clearing while all fluffed up by static.

The good news: That’s pretty cute.

The bad news: Cuicatl can’t even see it.
 
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Electric 2.7

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
This chapter contains lots of weird formatting that will throw screen readers for a loop. If you're using one, the AO3 version of this chapter is friendlier and can be found here.
Electric 2.7: (In)efficient
Unit001_101110110

[-6:17:17]​

[Unit100_110010 Summons Unit001_101110110]

Alarm Lvl 1: Mistake Probable

[Unit001_101110110 Alerts Unit100_110010 of Alarm Lvl 1]

[Unit100_110010 Summons Unit001_101110110]

Summons Received With No Amendment. Unit001_101110110 Initiates Flight to Unit100_110010. Obstacles = None. Atmospheric Anomalies = None.

Mission Successfully Completed. Summons Answered.

Unit100_110010 turns towards you. No communication signals are detected. Appraisal continues for approximately 0.711114 seconds.

[Unit100_110010 Assigns a Mission to Unit001_101110110. Mission = Monitor UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca. Corollary1 = Defend UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca. No Further Instructions.]

[Alarm Lvl 111: Heat Vent Malfunction Detected in Unit001_101110110. Mission Success Probability Beneath Tolerable Thresholds.]

[Unit100_110010 Assigns a Mission to Unit001_101110110. Mission = Monitor UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca. Corollary1 = Defend UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca. No Further Instructions.]

No further communications signals detected. Appraisal continues.

Incoming Information Packet. Src = Unit100_1100010. Coordinates Enclosed. Image enclosed.

No further communications signals detected. Appraisal continues.

[Alarm Lvl 111: Heat Vent Malfunction Detected in Unit001_101110110. Mission Success Probability Beneath Tolerable Thresholds.]

[Unit100_110010 Assigns a Mission to Unit001_101110110. Mission = Monitor UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca. Corollary1 = Defend UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca. No Further Instructions.]

Incoming Information Packet. Source = Unit100_1100010. Coordinates Enclosed. Image enclosed.

No further communications signals detected. Appraisal continues.

You turn away and initiate flight to given coordinates. Unit100_1100010 shifts behind you.

[-6:16:52]​

Terrans Detected. Initiate Visual Scan. UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca identified.

You lower yourself behind a visual obstruction to avoid detection. Your mission has begun.

“Something wrong?” UnitDesignate_Unknown queries UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca.

“Nothing, just… I feel something nearby. Another psychic, I think.”

Alarm Lvl 100: Unit001_101110110 Has Been Detected by UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca.

Options:
[] Evasive Maneuvers
[] Initiate Ramming
[] No Action

Initiate Ramming is the Correct Option in 87.3% of cases. Initiate Ramming Damages UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca. Corollary1 = DefendUnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca. Initiate Ramming Prohibited.

Evasive Maneuvers Negates Surveillance. Inefficient.

[X] No Action

“Like an elgyem?” UnitDesignate_Unknown queries.

“Maybe.” Your exact position has remained undetected. Surveillance continues. “Hey, Pix, can you sniff it out and scare it off?”

Alarm Lvl 110: UnitDesignate_Pix Will Initiate Hostilities Imminently.

[X] Initiate Ramming

You rise up and rocket out from your hiding place, catching a strange white quadruped (UnitDesignate_Pix ?) off guard with a proper Ramming attack. You pivot around in midair and accelerate to Reinitiate Ramming.

Alarm Lvl ?: Attack Incoming

Alarm Lvl ?: Attack Connected. Assessing Damage…

Alarm Lvl 111: Heat Vent Malfunctioning.

The ice clatters to the ground around you with no damage done.

UnitDesignate_Pix Assigned Threat Level 0.

Ramming Unnecessary.

Initiate Ramming?

[X] Initiate Ramming

UnitDesignate_Pix yelps in pain as another attack connects.

“What’s happening?” UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca queries. Query suggests an inability to obtain the information itself. Electromagnetic analysis detects no external scans. Visual analysis detects a possible impairment in her ocular scanning devices. You freeze in place so that any non-visual scanning devices have minimal chance of detecting you.

“There’s a beldum. Just floating there.”

Alarm Lvl 111: Reference to 001 Class Unit Detected. Identity exposed.

Options
[] Initiate Ramming
[] Evasive Maneuvers
[] Do Nothing

Before SelfQuery can proceed UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca initiates communication: “Hi. What’s your name?”

The speech carries a strange program with it. You sequester and analyze. A packet of information is attached contextualizing her communication. The program would then search your databanks for relevant context and translate. Result: “Acknowledgement. Query: Identity?”

Extremely efficient.

Information filed. Will continue to surveil. Must engage in communication to continue to surveil.

[Acknowledgement. SelfIdentity = Unit001_101110110.]

UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca changes the angle of its processing segment. “That’s a strange name.”

[Negation. Efficient.]

No electromagnetic emissions detected from UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca or UnitDesignate_Unknown. Inefficient.

[Query UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca: How are messages from Unit001_101110110 received and processed?]

“Oh, um, I’m psychic. Like you.”

QueryProgram Meaning: Psychic?

The ability to send and receive messages directly between central processing units.

Efficient. Similar to Unit001, Unit010, and Unit100 abilities. Information filed. Will continue to surveil.

“Cuicatl Ichtaca, girl, you, uh, you aren’t catching a damn beldum, okay?” UnitDesignate_Unknown orders UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca. Hierarchy established. Information filed. Will continue to surveil.

“Kekoa…” No auditory signals detected. No verbal signals detected. Psychic communication possible. UnitDesignate_Unknown established as UnitDesignate_Kekoa. Information filed. Will continue to surveil. UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca turns back towards you. “What are you doing over here tonight?”

Options
[] Relay Orders
[] Relay False Orders
[] Do Nothing
[] Initiate Ramming

Initiate Ramming violates Corrolary1. Relay Orders may reduce receptiveness of UnitDesignate_Cuciatl_Ichtaca and its commander. Do Nothing may end communication and hinder surveillance.

[X] Relay False Orders

[Unit001_101110110 Was Patrolling Territory. Potential Threat Encountered. Potential Threat Investigated. UnitDesignate_Pix Assigned Threat Lvl 0. UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca initiated communication with Unit001_101110110. Present moment reached. Debriefing concluded.]

UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca begins emitting short, high-pitched audio signals. “Threat Level Zero, you say?”

[Affirmative.]

A pure psychic signal is received. [It’s okay. I won’t tell her.]

Even with proper definitions you struggle to decipher the context. What is okay? Why would it not be okay? Who will it not tell? Terran communication codes are extremely inefficient.

“Well, good to meet you Unit1_374. Have a good night.”

QueryProgram Meaning “Have a good night”

Meaning: UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca assigns a mission to Unit001_101110110: Be successful until direct light from the nearest star is visible.

Alarm Lvl 10: UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca does not have clearance to give orders to Class 001 Units.

[Unit001_101110110 Alerts UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca of Alarm Lvl 10]

Its mouth shifts and one mouth claw down on the lower edge’s exterior. Fascinating. What is the purpose of that motion?

“It’s just an expression. I wasn’t actually trying to order you to have a good night. You can leave if you don’t have anything else to do here. That’s all I meant.”

The statement implies the capacity to give orders. The implicit meaning is incorrect. The not-order still presents a dilemma.

Options
[] Initiate Ramming
[] Evasive Maneuvers
[] Do Nothing

Initiate Ramming prohibited by Corollary1. Evasive Maneuvers ends surveillance mission. UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca can detect Class 001 Units with no detectable signals. Reestablishing surveillance would be difficult. Doing nothing appears to agitate the present Terrans.

Further analysis required. Terrans, including UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca have subordinate energy beings. Subordinate energy beings are granted near-constant access to their commander. Near-constant access would make surveillance efforts efficient.

[X] Grant UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca command privileges pursuant to Unit100 and Unit010 directives.

[Request: Entrust UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca with command privileges over Unit001_101110110]

It ceases to send out auditory, electromagnetic, or psychic signals.

“Kekoa,” it finally messages, “I promise to only evolve them once.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca forcefully vents air through its mouth. It may be overheating due to processing strain. Why? What problem is it solving? Nothing? Are terran heat vents less efficient than yours? Is it simply damaged? “They asked. Not me.”

“That’s, what, your third apex predator? Fourth if you get your hands on mommy’s hydreigon?”

Not all of the codes are familiar. [Query UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca: Meaning: “Apex predator.” Meaning: “Mommy.” Meaning: “Hydreigon.”]

“Apex predator, mommy, hydreigon,” it quietly says. The program does its work.

UnitDesignate_Pix is the top predator of the mountain to the south. Information filed. All organisms on the mountain assigned Threat Lvl 0.

Human reproduction is bizarre. Information filed. Efficiency to be assessed at a later time.

Hydreigon are large reptilians with elemental affinity and raw power that could potentially rival a Class 100 Unit. Information filed.

“What?” UnitDesignate_Kekoa queries.

“Just saying stuff for the beldum. They can use my power to understand words. Think that’s why they want to tag along with me.”

UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca has invented its own reasons and projected them onto you. Correcting it would hinder the mission.

[X] Do Nothing

The two Terrans gaze at each other in silence. No communication signals are detected.

“And Pix is okay with this?”

Comment suggests that UnitDesignate_Pix is a potential superior to both Terrans. Curious. Prior briefings suggested bound energy beings are traditionally in a subordinate role. Is that information incorrect?

“Pix and I came to an understanding. This is allowed.”

UnitDesignate_Pix makes no attempt to give orders. It glares up at you from the ground as waves of cool air radiate away from its body.

“Metang are big fliers. Could carry gear without using the pack ‘mon trails.”

“Already thinking about exploiting your pokémon, huh?” UnitDesignate_Kekoa’s mouth claws are bared. This is traditionally a sign of aggression on Terra. Are you witnessing a hierarchy dispute? “That’s unlike you.”

UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca rolls its shoulders in response. “I use what I have. And you’re the one who always complains about the gear.”

“Uh huh.” UnitDesignate_Kekoa folds its arms and places them over its chest. “Look, I’m just going to be blunt: I’ve heard you talk about giant fuckoff monsters and I don’t trust you not to evolve that thing twice.”

UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca vents more air. Conflict apparently places a great strain on its processing organs. Inefficiency apparent. Information filed. “I told Mara that I like predators because they remind you not to upset them. Now…” it trails off. UnitDesignate_Kekoa’s reactions suggest that the conversation is finished telepathically. Efficient. Inconvenient.

Both Terrans slowly lower themselves and sit on the ground. With a motion of its hand UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca summons UnitDesignate_Pix over. UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca removes a binding orb from its mobile storage compartment and raises it into the air. “Touch the ball if you want to be caught.”

Being “caught” would reduce chances for surveillance and risk successful withdrawal at the conclusion of the mission. Not being “caught” would decrease trust from Terrans. Inefficient. Necessary.

[X] Initiate Ramming

Alarm Lvl 10111: Corporeal Integrity Lost

Alarm Lvl 10111: Corporeal Integrity Lost

Alarm Lvl 10111: Corporeal Integ

Alarm Lvl 111: Heat Vent Malfunctioning

A quick rotation and optic scan detect no changes in your surroundings.

“Aside from your number do you have a name?” UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca queries.

[Negation]

“Do you want one?”

Terran names are inefficient. Serial numbers and class designations are efficient. An inefficient name might build trust with Terrans and advance mission objectives.

[Affirmation]

“Cool.” It pauses and bites the edges of its mouth again. “Nocitlālin?”

QueryProgram Meaning: Nocitlālin

Meaning: My star.

Alarm Lvl 1011: UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca claims dominion over the solar system.

Information filed. Will continue to surveil.

“And is there a gender you’d prefer? For pronouns.”

QueryProgram: Gender, Pronouns.

Terran reproduction is bizarre. Only two units are required. Efficient. Units must each be from a distinct subgroup. Inefficient.

Class 001 Units have no anatomical subgroups. [Gender inapplicable.]

“So… they/them?”

QueryProgram: They/them.

Terran reproduction is more bizarre and inefficient than previously believed. It is not always apparent what subgroup a unit belongs to. What purpose does this serve?

[Gender inapplicable.]

UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca clears its optic screens with the lids. Why? Optical sensors are severely impaired.

“Do you mind if I call you a girl? I don’t really want to call you it. And Pix and Coco are girls. And me. I’m female.”

Information filed. Will continue to surveil.

“Not how any of that works,” UnitDesignate_Kekoa states.

“Again, not calling her an it.”

Gender being inapplicable to Class 001 Units seems to cause distress to UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca. Potential violation of Corollary1.

[Gender = Female]

“Thank you, Nocitlālin.”

“Still not how it works.”

UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca rotates its optical sensors and holds out a hand. “Can I touch you, Nocitlālin? To know what you feel like?”

Speculation: UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca compensates for optical inefficiency with tactile sensory. Inefficient. Requires contact. Contact requires exposure to potential threats before they can be evaluated. Information filed. Will continue to surveil.

You slowly float over and gently lower the main segment of your body onto her hand. “Huh,” it says. “You’re warmer than I was expecting.

[Alarm Lvl 111: Heat Vent Malfunction Detected in Unit001_101110110. Unit001_101110110 is inefficient.]

“I can get a vet to look at that.”

[Negation. Terran Civilization Insufficiently Advanced. Mission Success Probability Beneath Tolerable Thresholds.]

“If you’re sure…” its hand slips off you. “Can I hug you? It’s okay to say no.”

QueryProgram: Hug.

Meaning: Embrace with upper appendages. Purpose: Sensory Evaluation, Processing Support. Non-violent.

Bizarre. Inefficient. How does contact help with processing capabilities? You oblige it. The act is harmless and may build trust. In turn it gently presses you further into its abdomen. “You’re just warm enough for great hugs, you know? That’s efficient.”

[Negation. Hugs = Inefficient.]

It gently pushes you up and away. “Do you get warmer when you fight?”

[Affirmation.]

“Once you’ve been fighting long enough you start to burn the stuff that touches you? That’s useful.”

“You giving therapy to a gods damned beldum?” UnitDesignate_Kekoa queries.

“Part of my training style,” UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca vocalizes. In the meantime, UnitDesignate_Pix jumps onto its subordinate’s lower appendages and stands on its hind legs, pushing its upper appendages into its subordinate’s abdomen.

UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca hugs UnitDesignate_Pix.

[She gets jealous.]

QueryProgram: Jealous.

Meaning: Unit seeks to mimic or steal a trait from another unit.

[Query UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca: What trait does UnitDesignate_Pix seek to mimic or steal?]

[The hug. If someone else is getting hugs, she wants a hug as well.]

Inefficient. Hugs are inefficient. UnitDesignate_Pix should prioritize acquisition of efficient attributes.

“Anyways, the combat thing. That’s efficient, right?”

[High System Temperatures result in slower processing. Inefficient.]

“Sure. But it’s a trainer’s job to come up with strategies in battle. I can help with the thinking. Be–“ It begins to noisily inhale and then exhale a great volume of air. “—sides, you’re a beldum. You’re very smart.” After a gentle shake of its processing section UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca begins to raise itself. UnitDesignate_Pix jumps off with a noise that sounds like a complaint. “And I’m very tired. Continue in the morning?”

Is that the role Terrans hold over subordinate(?) energy beings? Fascinating. Terrans are smarter than many energy beings. Sometimes efficient. A properly functioning Class001, 010, or 100 unit has far faster processing speeds. Sometimes inefficient. The efficiency she claims is only a result of your own inefficiency.

“You can sleep under the rain fly or in your ball. I’d let you in the tent but I’d probably hit my head getting up in the night.”

After querying enough terms to understand the statement you relay your desire to stay under the rain fly. You leave unstated that it maximizes surveillance opportunities.

The night passes with two incidents.

UnitDesignate_Kekoa leaves the tent and becomes aggressive when you attempt to surveil its fluid release.

UnitDesignate_??? leaves the tent and seems confused by your presence before waking UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca, who gives a sparse and inefficient debriefing before UnitDesignate_Genesis release her fluids. You surveil it at a greater distance than before and agitation seems to be reduced.

You repeat the process when UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca comes to vent her fluids followed by UnitDesignate_Pix and a strange biped with a mix of red and white feathers. An apex predator. UnitDesignate_Pix is also an apex predator. UnitDesignate_Pix has a threat level of zero.

When it sees you the biped’s eyes narrow and it slowly lowers its body to the ground, tail sticking straight out behind it. With a few shakes of its hips in warning it leaps surprisingly high into the air, cold air rushing from its vocalization cavity. You float out of the way and it misses, crashing down to the ground a second later before getting up and staring back at you in less than a second, its tail moving horizontally.

“Coco!” UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca vocalizes. “It’s not playtime now.”

Your ‘trainer’ steps further away from the tent while you keep your ocular scanner pinned on UnitDesignate_Coco. It lets out a few grunts in an apparent attempt to initiate communication.

[Query UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca: Can UnitDesignate_Coco receive or send psychic messages?]

“Sort of,” it answers while draining fluid waste. “I let them talk to each other. Can you figure out how to add yourself?”

[Negation. Class001 Units possesses insufficient psychic capabilities.]

“Hmm. I’ll translate then. Later. In the morning.” It starts walking back to the tent and UnitDesignate_Pix finishes draining fluids to walk alongside its subordinate. UnitDesignate_Coco drains fluids right on top of UnitDesignate_Pix’s waste disposal site and then runs off after the other two.

Curious. Does stacking waste fluid have an additive effect? You take a small chemical sample and perform basic analysis as the Terrans and energy beings enter a resting state. The two chemicals do not appear to interact. Deliberately stacking them is inefficient.

You compile a quick report of your initial observations, encrypt it, and cast it out to Unit100_110010.

6.4 seconds later you receive your response.

[Acknowledgement. Continue Mission.]

Directive filed. Will continue to surveil.
 
Last edited:
Electric 2.8

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
Electric 2.8: The Lessons Not Learned
Kekoa

[-00:03:21]​

You meet up with Cuicatl right as she walks away from the nurse’s counter. She’s facing away from you so you can’t read her expression. Win? Loss? Are ties possible? You tap her shoulder and she jumps a little. Shouldn’t have done it.

At least, you should’ve been standing so that you could see her face when it happened.

“How’d it go?” you ask. She smirks and flips open her crystal case by way of answer. A yellow gem sits next to her white one. Good for her. “Wanna talk about it or…?”

She shrugs. “If you really need my help, I guess I can give it.”

“Like you wouldn’t be begging for info if I went first.”

With a gentle shake of her head Cuicatl pivots away from the counter and slowly begins walking towards the door, cane swishing in front of her. “Talk outside?”

“Sure.”

As soon as you’re both out the door Cuicatl stows her cane and sends out her (apparently unscathed) beldum. You shudder involuntarily. She told you that the difference between tyrantrum and metagross is that the former gives lots of warning before biting back and the latter attacks unprovoked with no warning at all. The difference between driving on a busy freeway and driving into traffic on the same road. You’re still unsure why she uses driving metaphors. You want to trust her not to evolve the damn thing twice, really, but you’ve seen her entirely-too-cheerful smile when talking about tyrantrum and hydreigon and you really aren’t sure if you can trust her.

The monster-in-the-making makes for a surprisingly good guide, though. Cuicatl gently places her hand around the eye-guard spike (or whatever it’s called) and the steel-type floats in the direction she’s supposed to go. Seems more natural than using Pixie. Not that anyone should tell Pixie that.

“You end up using them?” Emphasis on ‘them.’ Still aren’t comfortable with her using ‘she’ for a genderless creature.

“No.” She hesitates as the beldum changes angles as you take a fork in the path. “Sophocles used an older trial. Something involving sounds. Grubbin and charjabug as the warmups. Coco took care of both.” You shudder as you imagine that thing’s fire fang closing in around your grubbin, Makani. “Crabrawler couldn’t take down the totem. Had to have Pixie confuse him, withdraw her, and then finish with Coco.”

Risky, forfeiting a round like that. Not that the vulpix was going to do too much against a steel-type. She already had her chance to take down a beldum and it didn’t go well for her. Steel-type. Huh. “Did Coco break her teeth biting actual needles or?”

“Some of them.” She’s pretty nonchalant about that considering that she lost her fucking shit when you preemptively kicked the hellion. Apparently it’s okay when she orders it, though? “They’ll regrow. Tyrunt are like sharpedo: lose teeth all the time.”

“What set did you face?” Not sure if that information matters. Is the totem more inclined to use a set it just ran? Less? The internet is fiercely divided on the question.

“Defensive. Wish and spiky shield. Had to use confuse ray just to get any damage in at all.”

That’s a nasty combination to make a newbie face. Relative newbie, at least. You could easily see it shutting down your crabrawler, although limited offensive moves might let Hekeli stay in without getting blasted down. Makani definitely couldn’t outpace it. At least it’s only a togedemaru. Easiest totem you’ll fight in the entire challenge and it shouldn’t have backup. Probably why VStar sent you this way so early. Easy trial if the road there doesn’t kill you.

You finally make it to where you wanted to go. Cuicatl slows down and feels for the guardrail. Lanakila looms in the distance. You can just make out the stadium on top. The throne. The place where some haole military brat pretends to be the true queen because some professor said so. A kanaka professor at that. Someone who should’ve known better and still went on TV to say that your culture’s backwards traditions are so much worse than the ‘modern’ way. The American way. Then he built a damn sports stadium on the holiest mountain. You clench your fists and take a moment to bask in the fury. This is why you left home. This is what you’ll be fighting for.

“Lot going through your head,” Cuicatl says. “Want to talk?”

Psychic. Duh. You’ll never quite remember and never quite forget that she’s an actual mind reader. “What all did you pick up?”

“Lot of cursing. Something about a queen and a throne? I don’t try to look but you were thinking pretty loud.”

She says it like it’s your fault that you don’t know how to think quietly.



Doesn’t matter.

Don’t need to go down that path right now. Just focus on the fury. “During the kingdom you could go through the trials and beat all four kahunas in a row. Then you could fight the queen for the right to rule. They brought something like it back a few years ago. Beat the kahunas or their stand ins, fight a champion who sits on a throne. ‘cept we’re not independent and the champ didn’t even live here a whole week before she started her challenge. Whole thing’s a joke. One I’m going to end.”

Your friend drums her fingers on the guardrail for a few seconds before answering. “Why end it? You could be king and do what you will.”

“Not king.” You sigh. “Champ doesn’t actually have power. Just a throne.”

“Then why does it matter?”

“You wouldn’t get it.”

She raises her hand and the beldum floats back to her from over the guardrail. “Yeah. Don’t think I do.”

[-00:02:44]​

Makani, Hekeli, and the unnamed crabrawler materialize on the court. Hekeli the trumbeak hops up and lifts herself into the air. Makani the grubbin doesn’t do anything at all. Least he didn’t use string shot everywhere. Progress. The crabrawler shuffles uneasily and taps his claws together.

“Our second trial is soon. Time to warm up.”

You let Hekeli fly laps around the court for a bit while you focus on the crabrawler. Getting Makani to do much of anything without Cuicatl around is a lost cause. Even if you had her translations there’s nothing useful a grubbin could do to warm up. You throw some punches into the air and the crabrawler follows. He understands punching. Understood the basics of what trainers were and what he was expected to do even before you caught him. Punching things out is what he’s built to do and this isn’t too far out of the ordinary for him.

Still won’t keep him, of course. You have your final team pretty well mapped out.

By the time Hekeli lands back on your shoulder, you’ve started to break a sweat despite the cool mountaintop air.

[-00:01:51]​

There’s a plaque in front of the observatory. The plaque itself isn’t eye-catching: a graph with a jagged upward curve. Carbon Dioxide going up, years going forward. It used to be a warning about what humanity was doing to itself. No. What capitalism was doing to humanity. Doesn’t matter anymore. No one did anything.

Then two spectacularly dumb, spectacularly evil fuckers in Hoenn decided to wake some gods up and kick all the frozen methane off the ocean floor. At the top of the observatory’s steps you glance over your shoulder at the faint outline of Lusamine’s island. People didn’t learn from that lesson either.

You like the plaque. In a hundred years when the world drowns and some assholes try to insist that no one could have done anything about it, well, there will be a little graph in Alola to show that there’s lots of blame to go around.

The cool air of the observatory’s lobby rushes out at you when you open the door. There’s a small museum in the lobby. A few displays on space and telescopes. A few poster boards on the graph outside. You ignore it all and press through to the bored-looking receptionist.

She glances up at you and clicks a key, probably turning the computer back on after however long it had been idling. “Can I help you?”

“Here for the island trial.”

“Name?”

The name of the person who has been scheduled for this time slot for four fucking days. That’s what your name is.

“Kekoa Mahi’ai.” Thanks to Kanoa for getting your name changed before her trial. You owe her a call when this is over.

A few more keystrokes. “Alright. Go through the door behind me and take a seat. Sophocles will be out shortly.”

“Thank you.”

“Good luck,” she half-mutters as you walk away.

Yeah. Fine. She can be a little crabby. You’re making her work the day before the solstice. Sophocles is, anyway. You asked for a time and this is what he gave you.

There’s not really a bench or couch or normal furniture in the waiting room. Just metal fold-up chairs. Cost-saving? Part of the aesthetic? Not what you would’ve gone with for an electric trial. Least they could’ve done was tape some glow sticks on the frame and pretend it’s cyberpunk.

You haven’t even sat down when Sophocles walks in. He’s a little bit taller than you. Fair bit chubbier. Hair’s an absolute mess. Some of the captains like to lean in to celebrity. Kanoa said as much before her trial. Then again, she’d been the most dramatic person you’d known as a kid. Sophocles is either just a teenager who can’t be bothered to play up the image or someone who wants you to think that of him.

Still an asshole, whatever the case is. He gets an ancient mantle, one that was never supposed to belong to people like him, and then won’t show it any dignity.

You’re so going to enjoy this victory.

“Hey.” He doesn’t extend his hand or anything. “Wanna come back?”

Of course you do. That’s why you made the damn appointment. You just nod and follow him back to a room that does look properly cyberpunk. Big table contraption in the center with electric-types loafing about at the edges. You spot a couple grubbin and the decoy totem.

“Alright. First order of business is summoning the totem. For that we need to power up,” he motions at a strange laser gun-looking device behind him, “this summoning device. And to do that we’ll need to…”

You tune him out. The next part is easy enough. You move some charjabug around on a table. Summon an electrike. Defeat the electrike. Get lots of string on the ground with Makani. Another puzzle. Summon a dedenne (European togedemaru). Defeat the dedenne, get more string out. Makani is looking far more worn than you’d like so you withdraw him after the dedenne is down. There’s string all over the field; he’s done his job.

There’s a final little play with a ‘misfiring’ ray gun, a normal togedemaru, and, finally, the totem.

The totem’s surprisingly small. Looks like she only comes up to mid-thigh. Shouldn’t be too hard to overpower. Time to get this show on the road.

“Crabrawler, leer.”

Your pokémon comes out and starts glaring, bombarding the togedemaru with the energy in the air and making her spines more brittle. The totem… she does nothing. Just stands there for a bit. Afraid to cross the webbing? No—she starts applauding. Trying to applaud. Her tiny little hands don’t quite reach so she ends up beating her chest. You know what this is.

Encore.

It’s not the worst thing that could happen. You don’t think the totem can set up. And wearing down defense is good. Gives you time to think. And the totem doesn’t seem to be moving. No. She moves, daintily hopping around the worst of the webbing before gently kissing the tip of crabrawler’s head. Your pokémon doesn’t react at all as sparks fly out and race all over his body. Too busy leering.

Alright, so the togedemaru can navigate string shot—duh, Cuicatl said that her warmups were grubbin and charjabug but you were too stupid to put two and two together—and your pokémon’s paralyzed. Speed advantage decidedly on the totem’s side now.

Only good news is that crabrawler stops glaring and starts looking around the arena in a daze wondering where the time went. You snap your fingers. “Advance and rock smash.” He gets that much and starts slowly marching forward, claws smacking into each other as he prepares for a good punch. The totem… giggles(?) as sparks fly through her fur. Zing zap, probably. It’ll just get her wrapped up in string like the electrike.

Right before crabrawler reaches the edge of the string field togedemaru jumps to the side, yellow sparks obscuring her form as she hits the table and bounces right into your crabrawler, knocking him off balance and into the string. The totem bounces back, first to the table and then right in front of your downed pokémon.

She sticks her tongue out.

Crabrawler hits her in the face.

The totem leaps up and zing zaps him back to the ground again. Still almost no string on her body.

Come on, Kekoa. Be a trainer. Think. If you can’t get up there’s still one option… bubble. Except having water everywhere hurts you more than the totem. What else is there? Leer, no, that just means taking hits. Rock smash won’t land often enough. Pursuit—shit, maybe?

“Pursuit,” you call out as the totem goes for her third zing zap. Crabrawler takes the hit on the chin again. Then darkness starts spiraling around him and with strength he should not have he rushes forward, string falling off behind him. He lands a solid hit on the totem right as she lands.

Hell yeah. Another point for elemental bullshit.

Needles scatter onto the floor as the togedemaru rolls back before stopping herself. Great. The leer’s working. The totem looks almost nervous, none of her earlier confidence remaining. Could be a bluff. Togedemaru aren’t strong or tough but they’re tricky.

“Advancing rock smash,” before you can finish the order the togedemaru starts clapping again. Why? That’s a bad move to be facing if her only move is zing zap. Unless… nuzzle, zing zap, encore. Totems always use four moves a match. What’s her final attack? Iron head? Maybe. Probably.

After a quick false start where crabrawler trips and sparks fly out around him—earning another razzberry from the totem—he lands another quick, shadowy punch. And another. And another. And another. Why? What’s she planning? Wish? You didn’t see one. Spiky Shield? Would’ve been thrown up already. Besides, there are enough needles littering the floor that it can’t be as effective as it was early on.

The totem glows red just as crawbrawler steps back and stumbles around, dizzy from the encore’s end. Oh no. Oh shit.

The totem lunges forward with more force than you’ve ever seen any pokémon use in person. Crabrawler’s sent flying across the floor, through tons of needles and string, before you can even give a pointless order. Fuck. There’s blue blood everywhere and crabrawler isn’t getting up.

You withdraw him and start tossing your final pokéball into the air as you calm your nerves. Reversal. Fucking reversal. Toss. The totem’s taken a bunch of hits. Catch. Plus rock smash and leer had to have hurt. Toss. But reversal. Catch. Hekeli ain’t taking that shit and getting back up. Toss—a blur shoots out from the floor and stops right on your shoulder as the totem appears and flicks the pokéball to the side with her tail before jumping back and completing the zing zap. Damnit. Now your hair’s sticking up and the surprisingly heavy little monster knocked you over. You can’t see the match from the floor but you know what you need to do.

“Rock Smash!” You shout it like the words can add any power to the attack. You can hear Hekeli give her best warcry in response and see her as she zooms down, brown aura trailing from her beak—you hear the hit. See the aftermath. Hekeli rocketing back up towards the ceiling, red scratches all over her chest from the needles and one wing slightly bent in a way it shouldn’t be. She does her best with her remaining wing to control her descent after she cracks against the ceiling and somehow you manage to get up and lunge to catch her before she hits the ground. Is that disqualifying? Screw it, don’t care if that’s how you get disqualified.

You glance over, fully expecting to see the totem sticking her damn tongue out again in a little victory pose only to find her collapsed on the ground, static coursing through her needles and eyes closed.

Is that it? Who won?

The totem disappears in a flash of red light and you remember that, hey dumbass, you still have makani. You gently set Hekeli down on the table and withdraw her. Two pokémon badly hurt. Victory or not it doesn’t feel much like one.

“Don’t think I should use reversal again in early trials,” Sophocles says. You’d honestly forgotten he was here. And when did he get behind you? He holds out a hand. “I can send over your pokémon if you want. We have an instant transporter to the Center in the room.” You quickly put all three pokéballs onto the table and he picks them up and brings them over to the wall. A quick flash later and they’re probably off being healed. “Don’t think it was too serious by the way. I’ve seen a lot of trumbeak and crabrawler over the years and neither looked hurt beyond repair.”

“I also don’t think you should use reversal,” you say, temporarily too ashamed to be furious. “And I hope you’re right.” For his sake. You got warned about excessive force for just pecking too hard. Then he goes and starts shooting fucking togedemaru-shaped cannonballs at low-level pokémon. Heh. Now you’re angry again. Welcome back, rage, my old friend.

He pulls some stuff out of the wall and walks back before handing over a crystal with one hand. “Here’s your Z-crystal. Congrats.” He doesn’t sound overly enthusiastic. Or ashamed. Bastard.

“Thanks,” you mutter before turning around and walking away.

[-00:00:17]​

“Kekoa?” you perk up at the call and start moving towards the counter. The nurse doesn’t look too concerned. News can’t be all bad. She gives you a slight smile once you reach the desk and cross your arms. “Your grubbin’s been restored to full health. We’ll need to watch the other two overnight. Then you’ll have to keep your trumbeak’s wing in a splint for a week.”

Could have been much work. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” Her smile broadens. Was probably worried you’d get angry at her for Sophocles’ mistake. She’s kanaka too. Probably gets all the trainer rage. “Any questions?”

You shake your head and take Makani’s pokéball off the table. “No. Thank you again.”

“You’re welcome. Come back tomorrow morning for your other pokémon.”

It reminds you of the old meme of a clearly exhausted nurse saying, “We hope to see you again.” Whatever happened to her? Did she quit? Get fired? Maybe you should look it up later.

You walk back over to The Gage Heiress and Cuicatl. The Gage Heiress is ranting about something or other and Cuicatl’s patiently listening. The former at least shuts up for a second when you approach. “No permanent injuries. Ice cream’s on.”

The Gage Heiress had really wanted ice cream. Bugs you about it in almost every city but now, when all three of you passed your trials in two days, it was particularly insistent. And if the boss herself is telling you to be nice to it, well, this is the least you can do.

Cuicatl smiles and slowly gets to her feet while The Gage Heiress jumps right up. Your friend gently picks up Pix’s leash and follows your footsteps and The Gage Heiress’s voice as you walk out the door. The air’s cool, the sunlight’s faded a bit, and there’s a nice breeze. Almost wish you wore a jacket. Not that the ice cream place is too far. Probably caters to people who had the same idea as the blabbering idiot next to you.

The line and all the seating’s outside. The Heiress goes first. Gets leppa like a weirdo. Pays for itself but won’t cover for its poor ‘friends’ like a normal person would if they had literal swimming pools of cash. Then Cuicatl gets a Castelia Cone (her mom’s Unovan so maybe there’s some nostalgia there) and a small pet cup of vanilla for Pixie. A satisfied blast of cold air hits your legs after that’s ordered and paid for.

Honestly you want to go for Chocolate Caramel Cookie Cake but you know that Cuicatl would never, ever let you hear the end of it. You settle for mint chocolate. There’d been a running joke at The Aether House that mint chocolate was the flavor elementary schools used to convince kids that ice cream wasn’t actually good. Never got the joke yourself. Their loss. More for you.

Your traveling partners are sitting at the edge of the porch, legs dangling over the side. The Heiress is too distracted scarfing its ice cream down (isn’t it at all worried about brain freeze? ‘course not, it doesn’t have a brain) to talk and Cuicatl has been quiet around you since this morning. You didn’t even say anything mean to her. Just got upset about someone else. Pix, of course, stops eating her portion in huge bites and starts daintily licking the edges once you start looking at her. You’ll pretend that you don’t see her little ice cream moustache.

Your phone vibrates. A text from Kanoa.

‘How’d the trial go?’

You put your cup down and

[00:00:00]​

pick up your phone.​

A distant light starts shining over… Poni? Yeah, Poni. Then it starts moving down. Like a funnel cloud. A tornado of light. Except the patterns are all wrong. Almost like… wormhole. Except it definitely shouldn’t look so big from this far away.

Bright “cracks” start racing from the hole in all directions like the sky itself is breaking. Before you can say anything an ear-splitting boom rushes past you. The shockwave—shockwave!—stirs up dust and you have to close your eyes and cover your ringing ears until it dies down. When you open your eyes again the cracks are still there, bigger now, with one directly above you. That’s not the worst part. All over the horizon you can see little drops of twisted light dipping down from the cracks.

Then things get darker. Literally. At first you think it’s the dust from the shockwave but it comes way too suddenly. The sunlight goes first. The nighttime lights of the shop come on for a moment before they go off as well. No. Not entirely. You can still make out a faint glow around them, but it’s swallowed up almost immediately. Only the cracks still provide light but it’s strange. You can see them easily but the light doesn’t bleed out to illuminate anything else.

Giant wormhole. Shockwave. Stolen light.

This feels like…

No.

No.

When the sirens come on it seems like an afterthought. How could anyone not know that this was an emergency? That…

No.

No.

No no no no no no no no no no no no, NO.

Someone let out another god.

The small part of your brain that’s still functioning is glad that no one can see you hug yourself and rock gently back and forth. No one can see the tears that make what little light there is even blurrier.

Someone let out another god.

“Nearest shelter location’s the observatory.” Because of course you looked, you always look. You don’t tell them that it’s not rated for shit like this because in the year two thousand and nineteen there are still fucking towns without a god-tier shelter because no one ever learns their damn lesson. They’ll have to evac you to Malie when it’s safe. But with the wormholes—

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

You didn’t survive Kyogre and Groudon and motherfucking Lusamine just to die now.

But…

It’s dark.

Which way is the observatory? What happens to your pokémon in the Center?

From the sounds of panicked screams and people tripping all over themselves it doesn’t seem like anyone else has answers, either.
 
Last edited:

Pen

the cat is mightier than the pen
Staff
Partners
  1. dratini
  2. dratini-pen
  3. dratini-pen2
"Crabrawler couldn't take down the totem. Had to have Pixie confuse him, immediately withdraw her, and then finish with Coco."
I think "crabrawler" is a typo here? Kekoa has the crabrawler, not Cuicatl? Oh wait, later it says Cuicatl has a crawbrawler too?? I thought she just had her three OP monster babies.

The internet is fiercely divided on the question.
I appreciate this. It always baffles me when the composition of a gym leader's team or their tactics is a mystery, if the setting has any technology functioning. Of course people are discussing it.

She says it like it's your fault that you don't know how to think quietly.
Could really hear Kekoa teeth-grinding this line out.

"Not king." You sigh. "Champ doesn't actually have power. Just a throne."
"Then why does it matter?"
"You wouldn't get it."
She raises her hand and the beldum floats back to her from over the guardrail. "Yeah. Don't think I do."
Excellent exchange. Kekoa is so focused on symbols, while Cuicatl is focused on very concrete means of power, money and beeg dragons.

Why's she walking away? You barely got into it. Sure, you're mad but. Oh. That's why.
You take a deep breath and watch her go. Apologies can come later, if you come up with something you should apologize for.
I didn't entirely follow this. Is it because Kekoa implied she's an outsider who has no idea? Or . . . ?

Punching things out is what he's built to do and this isn't too far out of the ordinary for him.
I liked this little warm-up session and how based it is in the pokemon's own physiologies and natures.

Once Hekeli lands back on your shoulder and you've started to break a sweat despite the cool mountaintop air you withdraw your pokémon and head to the observatory.
I think you're still in unnecessary anti-comma mood. Tripped me up not having one between 'air' and 'you.'

The plaque itself isn't eye-catching, but the contents are odd: a graph with a jagged upward curve.
I'm not sure 'odd' is the right way to describe this, since Kekoa 100% knows what it is and what it means.

Then two spectacularly dumb, spectacularly evil fuckers in Hoenn decided to wake some gods up and kick all the frozen methane off the ocean floor.
Definitively my fave summary of Ruby/Sapphire.

In a hundred years when the world drowns and some assholes try to insist that no one could have done anything about it, well, there will be a little graph in Alola to show that there's lots of blame to go around.
Again, very indicative of how Kekoa thinks. More focused on everyone knowing who was to blame than stopping it.

The name of the person who has been scheduled for this time slot for four fucking days. That's what your name is.
:D

Then you get to fight the totally unexpected totem.
Kekoa sounds like someone playing the game who's already seen the walk-through, and that's not very interesting. I kind of feel like, either up the challenge and make it something that's interesting, or just don't bother describing the process until the important actions starts?

Your pokémon comes out and starts glaring (which, somehow lowers physical defense… hey, you don't need to know why it works, just how it does, it's all elemental bullshit anyway).
Not sure how I feel about these kinds of super meta lines. What does "lowering defense" actually mean in the context of a fight? Shouldn't Kekoa know that, if he's been doing fights? This chapter feels like it's leaning pretty strongly into a 'game mechanics are silly and I am better than them' mood, when I feel like the project of the fic so far has been to turn the game mechanics into something more realistic and interesting. The initial fights before the totem stretched a little long for me, and since Kekoa isn't really invested in them it's hard to see why I should be.

"Advancing rock sma," before you can finish the order the togedemaru starts clapping again.
Realizing this is not a typo maybe, but I think you need different punctuation if you mean to cut off the word: "Advancing rock smash⁠—" Before you can finish the order etc"

There's blue blood everywhere and crabrawler isn't getting up.
Oof. (Also, should be Crabrawler or "the crabrawler" here.)

It reminds you of the old meme of a clearly exhausted nurse saying, "we hope to see you again."
omg. Also, "we" should be capitalized.

Your friend gently picks up Pix's leash and follows your footsteps and The Gage Heiress's voice as you walk out the door.
It's always fascinating to me how Kekoa in his narration is so focused on labeling very clearly how other people stand in his mind. That's the Gage Heiress. That's my friend. He's satisfied once he finds a way to categorize someone and very tense when he's unsure of how to do it.

You'll pretend that you don't see her little ice cream moustache.
Aw, Pix.

The sunlight goes first. The nighttime lights of the shop come on for a moment before they go off as well. No. Not entirely. You can still make out a faint glow around them, but it's swallowed up almost immediately. Only the cracks still provide light but it's strange. You can see them easily but the light doesn't bleed out to illuminate anything else.
Really nicely described. I can feel the sense of the uncannyness of the light from this.

When the sirens come on it seems like an afterthought. How could anyone not know that this was an emergency? That…
Also really like this.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
You didn't survive Kyogre and Groudon and motherfucking Lusamine just to die now.
But…
It's dark.
Which way is the observatory? What happens to your pokémon in the Center?
From the sounds of panicked screams and people tripping all over themselves it doesn't seem like anyone else has answers either.
All right, shit's getting real now. I was expecting the arc to conclude with emotional blow-up, not apocalyptic blow-up, but this is great. Looking forward to seeing how the story shifts gears from here!
 

Chibi Pika

Stay positive
Staff
Location
somewhere in spacetime
Pronouns
they/them
Partners
  1. pikachu-chibi
  2. lugia
  3. palkia
  4. lucario-shiny
  5. incineroar-starr
help I've had this tab open too long, I'm just hitting submit now.

You haven’t told anyone about your brother’s headache and neck pains. His meningitis. If you’d forced him to seek care right then he wouldn’t have died. You’re sure of it.
Oh boy we're going down the "feeling guilty for deaths you didn't cause but failed to prevent" road. That's a mood.
She shakes herself off and starts pacing on the narrow bench, the sounds of little footsteps barely audible over the pounding of the rain and your heart. “Did you poison her?”
I really enjoy Pix assuming that she literally killed him because it kinda shows how illogical the guilt is otherwise.
Just a sad, pathetic who wants to stuff her face.
Missing noun here I think.
Weirdly similar to the pew pew of a cartoon laser.
LASER GATORS
“You okay?” Kekoa asks. “Oh shit,” they answer.
I... guess this is progress?
And Kekoa left the lights on because of course she did.
dammit genesis
“What just happened?” Her voice somehow sounds like a sword unsheathing in a movie.
Okay, this is a delightful description.
It’s a basic t-shirt with an orange base and a hydreigon drawn on the front with the word “DANGEROUS” in all caps beneath it. Definitely fits her vibe. She seems to agree; a faint smile forms as you describe it.
This is the best shirt ever and if I draw Cuicatl, she will absolutely be wearing this.
Has he grown? It’s been a few months—a few months!—so probably. He seems taller. You can’t comfortably rest your head on his.
This is what made me realize that I definitely wasn't imagining Levi as the correct age, lol. So, to back up, Gen is somewhere around 15, right? I think Exodus was stated to be 13, and Levi is... 11 or 12 I think? Very mature for his age, but I guess makes sense with his upbringing.
You send Count Cloudy out and Coco’s eyes immediately lock onto the castform. “Count Cloudy, dodge Coco’s attacks!” Sure, you didn’t need to shout that like you were on one of those Asian cartoons, but you’d best get into the habit. It’s way more fun when you do that in actual battles.
Now she has the power of God and anime on her side! :D
UnitDesignate_Pix Assigned Threat Lvl 0.
Sick burn
UnitDesignate_Pix is the top predator of the mountain to the south. Information filed. All organisms on the mountain assigned Threat Lvl 0.
Oh... oh no. This might be somewhat misleading.
UnitDesignate_Kekoa leaves the tent and becomes aggressive when you try to surveil its fluid release.
Beldum is watching you pee.

anyway, uh, that's all I had. Probably should have quoted some things from the oncoming apocalypse but.... good stuff, rite moar plz.
 
Fighting 3.1

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
Mission Three: Fighting

“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, o make you everybody else- that means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”
-e. e. cummings



Fighting 3.1: Blacklight
Selene

[-00:00:21]​

“Hello?” you sleepily mutter into the phone, still mostly enthralled by your afternoon nap.

“It’s here almast. Just a few minuteses out.”

The accent and wording are unmistakable. As is the meaning. You hop out of bed and throw on your belt and the first pair of shoes you can find (slippers with little vulpix ears on the side, as it turns out). “Thought we had months!” you half-shout half-whisper into the phone as you rush past Mom and out the door.

“As did me. It found a worm’s hole.”

You open Nebby’s pokéball and hastily slip onto her back, trusting her telepathy to fill her in on what’s going on and where you need to go. As soon as you’re gripping her shoulders she takes off fast enough that your arms would be ripped off without her telekinesis holding you down. Melemele slips by in a blur as Poni grows closer and closer.

{You’re scared,} Nebby messages, an aura of comfort around the words.

{You’re not?}

She doesn’t answer until you’re nearly on Poni.

{How does it help?} she asks.

{Hmm?}

{Fear.}

You groan but don’t give a proper answer. Fine. It doesn’t help. But things weren’t supposed to be like this. You were supposed to have other trainers, other legendary pokémon, the best science in this world and others. Instead it’s just you and Nebby. That will have to be enough.

Nebby casts you off and your ankles let out a flare of pain as you unexpectedly hit rock, only held upright by Nebby’s abilities. A quick glance confirms that you’re on top of the Altar where she’d evolved for the second time, Vast Poni Canyon stretching out for miles behind you.

“Alright, Nebby, start by keeping your distance. I’ll keep an eye on things. See if it has patterns, openings…”

You wish there was more you could do, but you’re at a big disadvantage here. There’s no archival footage to watch of the thing battling. Nothing more than a few drawings and the scattered tales of survivors. It has claws, supposedly. Nebby doesn’t. Best to keep things to a distance. And if she’s faster, she could dodge attacks and wear it down at range.

{Can do.}

She’s still too damn calm. You’re drowning in unknowns and it’s almost like she doesn’t care. The plan only works if the necrozma isn’t even stronger than her at a distance. If a creature that feeds on light is harmed by moongeist beams, shadow balls, psyshocks, hyper beams… her Z-move if you must. The feedback is brutal for you but Nebby will be taking worse. It’s the least you can do.

Nebby descends lower and wraps a wing around you. {I am scared. For you. For Lillie.} You flinch at your ex’s name but she carries on without mentioning it. {I am not scared for me. I am strong.}

Fine. Fine. She should be terrified but if it hasn’t got through her giant, adorable skull maybe it never will.

You unleash Incineroar without a word. He looks between you, Nebby, and the Altar with a questioning gaze. “Don’t engage the thing unless I tell you to. Just keep me shielded with protects. Don’t get hit yourself, either. We don’t know how strong this thing is.”

That’s a partial lie. The Ultra Recon Squad had lots of numbers on how strong a necrozma can be if it’s given time to drain light. Strong enough that you’d have to pray to every creator god on Earth and hope they’re as strong as their believers say. Without time to charge it’s probably closer to Nebby’s power.

That’s not at all reassuring.

[00:00:00]​

A blinding light shines high above you.

Years fighting Ultra Beasts have given Incineroar the instincts to immediately throw up a shield at the first sign of trouble. For the best. The wormhole opens with a sonic boom and a strong pulse of air. If you hadn’t been protected you would’ve been violently thrown to the hard ground.

Incineroar drops the shield and you look up at the slowly descending figure. “Black” doesn’t do it justice. The creature absorbs all the light that touches it. You can only really make it out as the absence of any color at all.

“Nebby, begin—”

It screams directly into your brain. Your hands fly uselessly to your ears. Darkness overtakes you before you hit the ground.

[???]​

Incineroar is purring nervously above you, crouched down on all fours and guarding your body with his. You try to ignore the headache and gently push his side to get him to move. He complies and gives you a better view of the ongoing fight. As you slowly get to your feet your realize that one of your slippers fell off and is nowhere to be found. Whatever. You awkwardly stand with one foot on the smooth, dusty stone and one in your slipper as you take stock of the situation.

Nebby fires off a moongeist beam and the necrozma stands still and takes it. A moment later the same beam is shot back out and strikes Nebby directly on the forehead. The bat cries in shock and floats herself back instinctively.

“Dodge it!”

She startles and looks down towards you. What she doesn’t see is the necrozma racing forward faster than anything that looks so un-aerodynamic has the right to move. Before Nebby can react one of the Ultra Beast’s spiked hands grabs Nebby’s head and they both plummet down. Incineroar’s shield protects you from the fallout but blocks your view. When it fades a second later you’re treated to the sight of Nebby held down by both of the monster’s hands as a strange… black… light? overtakes them both.

Another shield goes up. When it fades Nebby’s gone.

No, not gone.

Nebby has been consumed.

The necrozma floats in front of the Altar. The long wings of a luanla extend from either side of its body, radiating blue light. Nebby’s head is mostly the same pure black as the necrozma’s body, but now a mix of strange Z-crystal-like eyes adorn it. The dark claws of the necrozma stretch out from the pokémon’s midsection, flexing open and closed in the air.

You steadily get to your feet and stare at it. The creature, in turn, stares back at you.

A challenge, perhaps. You remember that Nebby looked much the same after you first got back from Ultra Space. When she wanted to see if you were a worthy trainer.

Is it really that simple?

You can’t take the chance. You send out all of your pokémon and start giving commands.

“Darkest Lariat, now.”

Incineroar doesn’t hesitate to charge forward, cloaked in shadows. It buys you time. “Tox, guard me. Kommo-o, stay back. All others attack.” The necrozma almost casually bats Incineroar aside with one of its hands just before all hell breaks loose. Vikavolt starts launching thunderbolts above you with Lycanroc joining in on the ground with accelrocks. Incineroar gets back up to breathe out more fire. Necrozma simply takes the flames and rocks with one wing and moves the other to block the thunderbolts.

“Flare Blitz.” The flames are useless. A full tackle might not be. You don’t bother watching, turning instead to kommo-o as you slot the proper Z-crystal invto your ring. “Clangorous Soulblaze.”

The necrozma lifts into the air with a few flaps of its glowing wings, narrowly dodging the flare blitz while continuing to tank accelrocks and thunderbolts. (Ground type? Dragon type? Maybe it doesn’t obey type rules at all.) You manage to put your hands over your ears (should’ve grabbed earplugs at home, dammit) right before Kommo-o gets loud.

The Soulblaze does seem to upset necrozma for the first time in the battle. Bad news is that the creature screams like Nebby. Almost like Nebby. There’s a terrible noise like a record scratch just below the surface. It distracts you and you almost don’t catch the streams of light start to trail towards the necrozma’s head as—Moongeist Beam. “Shields up!”

You see most of your team start to follow the order as you close your eyes to block the worst of the light. Even through your eyelids and the toxapex’s protect you can still see the light flare. Hear the sound of a barrier shattering and a kommo-o’s cries of pains. The light dims and you hesitantly open your eyes. Your kommo-o is breathing heavily, but a dim red aura has surrounded her. The Soulblaze worked. Now you can fight the monster on more equal footing.

You give the specific snap for her orders. “Outrage.” All across the field attacks resume as Kommo-o starts running faster and faster, preparing to jump. The necrozma screeches and the air distorts as a psionic attack flies at the dragon in midair. It doesn’t break her momentum. They collide and the necrozma is driven back, but your pokémon gracelessly falls to the ground and crumples in a heap. The pokéball withdraws her. Still alive.

Refocus on Incineroar. Necrozma’s flown too high for ranged attacks to do much. Dark Pulse? It’s not something you’ve put a lot of training into. But if fire can’t do it, maybe darkness can. It might at least disrupt psychic attacks.

Before you can give the order necrozma spreads its wings into an almost perfect circle and they start to glow brightly. Another Moongeist Beam. No. Not Moongeist. There isn’t any light spiraling in. “All but Tox, shields up!” You’ve done a lot of training with Toxapex. You trust him to get the barrier up in time and you need a look. Cracks, no, lines and concentric circles, start forming on the wings. A wormhole. Summoning something? Another UB?

You get your answer very, very quickly as clumps of rock and ice start blasting out at blinding speeds. One scores a glancing blow on Lycanroc’s shield and shatters it. Another sends her sprawling back with visibly cracked ribs by the time Tox has finished using Protect. Too quick. The attack was far too quick. You remember reading somewhere that a paperclip moving at the speeds of space junk could puncture steel. None of your pokémon are armored nearly well enough to take another barrage. You hear Incineroar let out a roar of pain before your body catches up with your mind and you withdraw everyone but Toxapex.

The sound of the projectiles stops.

“Shield down,” you mutter, reaching to your belt to grab the one last-ditch tool you’ve saved for years. As soon as you can see the alien, you reach back and throw it as hard as you can.

The master ball freezes in midair. That shouldn’t even be possible. The tech is too well safeguarded against attacks of all kinds. You’re still not entirely surprised when the master ball crumples inward in a flash of sparks before the metal drops uselessly to the ground beneath it. Another shimmer of air crosses the battlefield and knocks out toxapex.

You withdraw your last pokémon. It occurs to you that all of your pokémon—wait—you hit the withdraw button on Nebby’s pokéball—and nothing happens. Worth a try, at least.

It occurs to you that all of your pokémon but Nebby survived. That’s something. Maybe… no, there’s no healing your team under the necrozma’s watchful gaze. A shame. Its bleeding light in at least five places on its wings. Another round and maybe you could have won.

As if on cue light spirals in towards the alien and the sky around you grows ever darker. Once the streams of light are absorbed the damage is all healed. Never mind. It wouldn’t have mattered. You lost—Alola lost—the second Nebby did.

There’s almost relief there. Over four years of non-stop incursions and you went and blew it. Even if you lived to see another fight no one would plead with their words or tone or eyes for you to go out and save the world while the public sits back and watches.

If only you got a chance to say goodbye to Lillie. To Mom.

The necrozma floats ever closer. Even in the dim light you can see the pitch blackness of a claw lowering. You close your eyes and whimper just before it reaches you. Maybe it’s cowardly but no one else will ever know. Something cold and incredibly smooth touches your cheek and glides up to your hair, running through it before rising high enough that all of the strands fall back down.

You open your eyes again to see the tip of one claw lower back down towards you. The blinding blue light of a wormhole shines behind you before the alien gently pushes you backwards, through the hole and onto something soft.

It takes you almost a minute to process the fact that you’re still alive. It takes another twenty seconds to recognize the smell of your bedroom. Another ten to realize that your eyes are open and you still can’t see anything.

Another thirty to finally hear your phone ringing in your pocket. You answer it without checking who it is.

“You know why it’s dark all of a sudden?”

Nanu. He sounds bored, as usual. Like he’s discussing an inconvenient afternoon storm instead of a sudden, region-wide blackout.

“Yes.”

“It going away any time soon?”

“No.”

He sighs. You can imagine him shaking his head and pulling himself off the couch, maybe pushing a meowth aside in the process.

“Anything I can do?”

“You at home?”

“Yes.”

“Head out to Castleton. Make sure people are staying inside.”

“Anything else?”

“No.”

He hangs up.

The phone immediately rings again.

[00:01:38]​

It takes an hour and a half for someone to set up a conference call with the Kahunas, the military, the governor, and INTERPOL. Maybe a few others. You’re struggling to care, still weighed down by the shock of the loss.

It suddenly occurs to you that you’ll have to call Lillie later. Tell her about Nebby.

You’d rather fight the necrozma again.

“Miss Perry, can you give us your account of what happened?”

You can do this. Just. One. Call. “Two hours ago the Ultra Recon Squad contacted me. Said that the necrozma hit a wormhole and was only minutes away. I flew to the Altar of the Moone to meet it. There was a short battle. I got knocked out. The Ultra Beast merged with Lunala—”

“Merged?” Kukui asks beside you. He was generous enough to let you stay in his lab, under his protection while your team healed. Even helped get you there. It’s strange. Knowing and hearing that he’s three feet to your right but not being able to see him at all.

“There was bright light. Then Nebby was gone and the necrozma looked like a mix of itself and a lunala.”

Lunala, not Nebby. Bleh. Some of the kahunas don’t like it when you call their goddess by a pet name.

“How?” Olivia asks, like you would know that.

“Maybe Kukui knows?”

“I don’t.”

You don’t pick the topic back up. After a few seconds of silence you continue. “I fought it with the rest of my team and lost.”

“It let you walk away?” The governor sounds strangely hopeful. “Maybe it can be reasoned with.”

You’d gone through that thought earlier once the shock faded a little and you stopped taking calls long enough to get your pokémon to the Center. “I think some of Nebby survived. All of my pokémon lived and once they were all defeated, the necrozma opened a wormhole to my bed and knocked me through. I don’t know where it went after that.”

“The thing is still here?” Admiral Wilford asks. “Why the hell didn’t you lead with that?”

“The Ultra Recon Squad said that they usually sit in orbit or in another dimension entirely. But…” They never told you it could merge with lunala. Or that it might get some of her personality in the process. “It’s acting odd. Anything’s possible.”

“I’ll go the canyon and check,” Hapu says. “If you don’t hear back from me, assume it’s still there.”

No one says anything. Because what is there to say?

“Necrozma brought dozens if not hundreds of Ultra Beasts with it.” Olivia. Pleading, but resigned. “Can we afford a kahuna taking time off to go on a potential suicide mission?”

The chat erupts in people talking over each other before Hapu breaks through with a few half-shouts of “It’s fine!” Once everyone’s quieted she continues. “The Captain’s planning to take everyone in the village to sea until things calm down here. The Battle Tree is full of people who can handle it, and the park rangers have dealt with UBs before.”

“I’m not worried about Poni,” you interject before anyone else can. Too quickly to be tactful. “No offense, Hapu.” She grunts in acknowledgement. “And Melemele is small. Hala, Hau, Kukui and the other trainers here can respond quickly enough when there’s an attack. Ula’Ula and Akala have small towns far apart. Worried more about them.”

“Thanks for the thought, kid,” Nanu grumbles.

“Good luck, Hapu,” you add after realizing that you hadn’t done it. “Thank you for volunteering.”

You aren’t going to try to talk her out of it. You need to know if the necrozma is still there and she’s one of the only people you trust to navigate the canyon in the dark. It’s still a brave thing. You’ll make sure to do something special for her if she survives and the necrozma is defeated and you survive as well.

“No problem,” she answers. Implying that walking straight towards an alien god that could almost certainly defeat her entire team and kill her is not something she sees as a problem. Your gift will need to be really special. A hippowdon? Rhydon? Or one of those giant Galarian sand snakes. Maybe you can find the money for a recently thawed mamoswine. Helps that picking up any of those is an excuse for a vacation when this passes over. If it passes over.

Kukui’s ninetales barks outside. The professor swears under his breath and starts awkwardly hobbling towards the door. The man gave you and Nebby a run for your money. He can handle whatever Ultra Beast showed up.

You put the call on mute once the moonblasts start. Then immediately take it off mute and speaker when something occurs to you. “What are we doing with fallers? Lila and I can take care of ourselves. Others can’t.”

“I plan on going into the middle of nowhere to get the UBs away from cities,” Lila says. “We could move the others to Hau’oli or Malie. Stick a few powerful trainers near the city limits to deal with hostiles.”

“I can put a lot of battle-tested sailors into Hau’oli if given the okay,” Admiral Wilford adds.

“Do it,” the governor orders. “I’ve already activated the guard.”

You purse your lips in the dark. “Tell them to be careful.” As the cliffs of Rune City collapsed and Hoenn was under siege, your father chose to help the people of Japan until the very end. How many brave soldiers will die as he did before the necrozma is driven back?

Your sentiments are echoed by almost everyone in the chat. As they trail off, Gladion butts in. “I hate to be the one to bring it up, but if we do find Necrozma, how do we deal with it? Champ’s already lost. Lunala’s already lost. What else are we throwing at it? And what if it is in orbit or somewhere else entirely? How do we get to it? Does that even bring the light back?”

“It is an Ultra Beast. If you and Silvally can lend a hand…”

“Sure, fine, I’ll put my life on the line I guess. You really think it’d do any good, though?”

“I’m not sure.” It eats light. The Ultra Recon Squad think that the more light a necrozma absorbs, the hotter it gets. At some point it will be like fighting the sun. Maybe macargo or rhyfernal or a really strong or fire-type legendary could deal with it. Hard to imagine anything else getting close without vaporizing on the spot. “I’ll try calling other people in. Shirona is in in her villa on Ula’Ula, I think. Chris is...” Chris Foster is living on your ex-girlfriend’s childhood home when he can be bothered to be in the same country as his child labor abusing poaching business.

“And why didn’t you call for any help in the first place?” The governor asks.

“I had very limited time.”

“Couldn’t you have used some of that time to call for reinforcements? It seems irresponsible to…”

You stop listening as he drones on and on and on. He’s going to try and pin all this on you isn’t he? What can he actually do? You’re pretty sure you didn’t break any laws. He might try and make you pay for everything that happens. The last governor did that with Lusamine. Difference is you’ve got next to nothing compared to what she had. And the damage is only going to be worse.

That and you didn’t intentionally open up a few dozen portals and permanently weaken the barrier between Earth and untold worlds of monsters. You just failed to stop someone else from doing that.

Just like last time.

The ninetales hisses in pain outside before the wind picks up. Even inside the house you can feel the cold, especially as it slips through the bottom of the door and onto your single bare foot. Damn it. Forgot to put on real shoes, or even just another shoe at all, with everything else going on. At least no one can see it. Nanu clears his throat. “I might be missing something, but I don’t think we ever established how we’re getting off the planet with Lunala gone.”

“Maybe the Ultra Recon Squad have some idea. Or Professor Burnet.” Or Lusamine, if you get desperate. She opened up a portal when you first visited Aether Paradise. She might have a way to do it without Nebby. Unless the tech got dismantled after the auction.

“The Ultra Recon people are fallers, right?” Lila asks.

Shit.

That’s why they haven’t called.

The door opens and Kukui’s footsteps sound off behind you.

“What’d I miss?”

[00:04:15]​

“Rotom…” You sigh and cross your arms. Kukui’s outside with his pokémon. Giving you privacy. You’d better hurry up and make the damn call. “Call Lillie.”

She picks up on the second ring.

“Selene! Oh my god I was worried about you! Why haven’t you been picking up? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Just busy.” You take a moment to steel yourself. She immediately starts talking again but you ignore it. “Nebby’s gone.”

“What?”

“A really, really powerful Ultra Beast arrived. It fused with Nebby. I don’t know where it is now. I’m sorry.”

“I—are you alright?”

“What?”

“If it could… could do that—

Damn it. You’d forgotten that Lillie was like this. Break her heart into pieces and stomp on them in front of her and she’ll still be there for you in the morning. It’s why you had to break up in the first place.

“It let me live.” You pause, carefully considering the accuracy of what you’re about to say. “I think some of Nebby’s mind might still in there.”

“Then you can’t kill it,” she says. “Just knock it out. Make it unfuse. Like Mother and the nihilego.”

Mother. She still calls Lusamine “Mother.” You’d hoped that breaking up with her would get it through her skull that being with Lusamine was bad for her. Changed her. Guess she didn’t get the message.

But you already knew that.

“I’ll try. Really. I will.”

“Thank you.”

Neither of you talks for a long time. A few years ago you would’ve been more than fine with that. You’d find somewhere quiet to sit and call her and sometimes you’d just stay on the line in silence for hours, both of you just glad the other was there in spirit. Now the silence is cutting.

“You don’t want to talk about how things are going, do you?”

“No.”

“Can I tell you about things on my end, then?”

“Sure.”

“Well, Mother’s recovery is—”

You hang up.
 
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WildBoots

Don’t underestimate seeds.
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. moka-mark
  2. solrock
Ooh Selene chapter!

There’s no archival footage to watch of the thing battling.
Nice detail.

soon as you’re gripping her shoulders she takes off fast enough that your arms would be ripped off without her telekinesis holding you down.
I was surprised we got so little of Nebby’s thoughts considering her psychic presence is such a big part of things here. But this does set up the urgency and the trust between them.

It’s the least you can do.
For real.

He looks between you, Nebby, and the Altar and looks at you with a questioning gaze.
Double “look.” Maybe swap the second one for “shoots a questioning gaze at you.”

Just keep my shielded
Me*

Strong enough that you’d have to pray that Arceus or Xerneas or any other supposed creation god is every bit as powerful as their worshippers believe.
*And that they care. Or can be made to help.

Years fighting Ultra Beasts gave Incineroar the instinct toimmediately
Slipped into past tense (*have given?) and there’s a missing space. And! She doesn’t name them! Blasphemy. That damn soulless smile.

A blinding light shone far above you.
*Shines

You can only really make it out as the absence of any color at all.
Nice.

It screams directly into your brain.
Oof.

Incineroar is purring nervously above you, crouched down on all fours and guarding your body with his.
BABY. Catcatcat.

You press down your headache
Didn’t know what this entailed though. Maybe “try to ignore your headache”?

Z-crystal like eyes
Missing hyphen between crystal and like.

Kommo-o stay back.
Missing comma.

judging by the angry Nebby-like screeches in and out of your mind.
This felt just a touch too glib. I wanted a more emotional response at the uncanny valley between like her friend and not at all like her friend.

Vikavolt just needs one hit to shatter his shield
The way it’s phrased, I couldn’t tell if it did, in fact, happen or if she was only anticipating. Maybe: just needs one more hit before—his shield shatters.

could puncture aluminum.
I picture an aluminum can first, which lessens the effect.

The master ball freezes in midair. That shouldn’t even be possible. The tech is too well safeguarded against attacks of all kinds. Then it crumples inward in a flash of sparks before the metal drops uselessly to the ground beneath it.
🙃 Welp.

Necrozma is definitely operating on a different scale here! Feels terribly powerful.

You withdraw your last pokémon. It occurs to you that all of your pokémon—wait—you hit the withdraw button on Nebby’s pokéball—and nothing happens. Worth a try, at least.

It occurs to you that all of your pokémon but Nebby survived.
HAHAHA

Hapu says. “If you don’t hear back from me, assume it’s still there.”
RIP. I wanted a little more reaction from the others at this dark-ass announcement.

one of the only people you trust to navigate the canyon in the dark.
So, what, Necrozma ate the entire moon? This fee like something I’m supposed to know from playing USUM buuuut I don’t.

You purse your lips in the dark. “Tell them to be careful.” As the cliffs of Sootopolis collapsed and Hoenn was under siege, your father chose to help the people of Japan until the very end. How many brave soldiers will die as he did before the necrozma is driven back?
👀 Uh oh, poking holes in Kekoa’s justified rage.

Living on your ex-girlfriend’s childhood home when he can be bothered to be in the same country as his business.
Until this line, I didn’t know who was speaking in this paragraph.

And! Who! Is Chris? I obviously thought immediately of my Chris, who wouldn’t— Actually, he wouldn’t be the least helpful person! Suicune would totes show up for this. Ring him up.

And why didn’t you call on the world’s most powerful trainer who happened to be right here in the first place?” the governor asks, probably as it occurs to him for the first time.

You clench your fist and slowly unclench it. You can do this. You can do this without saying ‘because he’s rubbed me the wrong way since we met at the Battle Tree.’ He told you your shoe was untied. You bent down to tie it. He literally kicked your ass. Said it was a preview of things to come. Insufferable. Prick. You could have spent all twenty-ish minutes of prep time you had begging him to come help and it might only work if he thought he’d get all the credit for none of the work. But you can’t say that.
“Most powerful trainer” sounds like Red, but the behavior is Blue. Hmm.

Damn it. You’d forgotten that Lillie was like this. Break her heart into pieces and stomp on them in front of her and she’ll still be there for you in the morning. It’s why you had to break up in the first place.
Aww, Lillie. That does check out. Girlfriends.

The fight was easy to follow and definitely felt like it was in a totally different league from the fights Kekoa, Gen, and Cuicatl are fighting. I did wish I had a little bit more of a sense of where Selene is standing throughout and how much danger she’s in—debris scraping her face maybe? Feet slipping in those cute, impractical slippers? Losing a slipper? (Gasp.)

I also wanted more of her emotional reactions in a few places. (Flagged above.) She’s very pithy, but I feel like dread and fear would be super warranted.

I was surprised to get her perspective! She’s definitely not as absent as I expected she might be, based on some of our earlier conversations. Her team is so Alola—sensible team though.

Her phone manners are amazing.
 
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Pen

the cat is mightier than the pen
Staff
Partners
  1. dratini
  2. dratini-pen
  3. dratini-pen2
Uh oh, shit's getting real. I love how the intensity of the chapter just hits with no prep. Selene isn't ready I'm not ready but too bad. Your use of chatty narration and black humor shines here. I wanted a bit more internality from Selene regarding Nebby and her pokemon, but overall I think her shell-shock and numbness comes through, as does her sense that she's a failure, who is put in unwinnable situations and then lets people down. I liked the injections of mundanity and bureaucracy--the apocalypse is maybe happening, but let's point fingers and let's have uncomfortable conversations with exes.

Line by line:

The accent and wording is unmistakable.
Should it be "are"? Unsure on this one, but flagging it since it tripped me up.

You hop out of bed and throw on your belt and the first pair of shoes you can find (slippers with little vulpix ears on the side, as it turns out).
Love the vulpix-slippers. Underscores how Not Ready she is. "Hop" feels a little too carefree of a verb though.

“Hello?” You sleepily mutter into the phone, still mostly in the thrall of your afternoon nap.
“Thought we had months!” You half-shout half-whisper into the phone as you rush past Mom and out the door.
Both should be lowercase yous since you've got speech verbs.

You open Nebby’s pokéball and hastily slip onto her back, trusting her telepathy to fill her in on what’s going on and where you need to go.
If they have a telepathic connection, I wanted a little more here on how Nebby is feeling about this.

Melemele slips by in a blur as Poni grows closer and closer.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. You were supposed to have other trainers, other legendary pokémon, the best science in this world and others. Instead it’s just you. That will have to be enough.
I do like the rapidity. We move in the narration from bed to there so fast, which mirrors the way she's experiencing it.

Nebby casts you off and your ankles let out a cry of pain as you unexpectedly hit rock, only held upright by Nebby’s abilities.
"ankles let out a cry of pain" felt a bit awkward to me.

her Z-move if you must. The feedback is brutal for you but Nebby will be taking worse. It’s the least you can do.
Reciprocality, nice.

He looks between you, Nebby, and the Altar and looks at you with a questioning gaze.
Double look

Without time to charge it’s probably closer to Nebby’s level.
The level stuff feels a bit clunky and overly game mechanics here. How precise can they really be about the "levels" of these god monster pokemon?

A blinding light shone far above you.

Years fighting Ultra Beasts gave Incineroar the instinct toimmediately throw up a shield at the first sign of trouble.
Missing space. And, is past tense there intentional?

“Black” doesn’t do it justice. The creature absorbs all the light that touches it. You can only really make it out as the absence of any color at all.
mmm, nice description.

Your hands fly to your temples but it’s not nearly enough.
This was worded a bit confusingly. Implies her hands going to her temples could help block out a psychic scream at all? Something like, "Your hands fly uselessly over your ears."

Incineroar is purring nervously above you, crouched down on all fours and guarding your body with his.
Purring! Baby! Love that. Feels a bit weird them not having nicknames, but maybe it's for meta purposes, so we can keep them straight during the battle?

You press down your headache and gently push his side to get him to move..
Double period. Is she pressing on her temples there? Not sure what that means if it's figurative.

“Dodge it!”

She startles and looks down towards you.
Wow, useful trainer.

the necrozma racing forward faster than anything that looks so un-aerodynamic has the right to move.
Nice line!

Before Nebby can react one of the Ultra Beast’s spiked hands grabs Nebby’s head and they both fly straight down.
"both fly" feels to me like they're both using they're wings, not that one has grabbed the other. Both hurtle down?

No, not gone.

Nebby has been consumed.
Oh shit.

The long wings of a luanla extend from either side of its body, radiating blue light.
Typo, lunala.

but now a mix of strange Z-crystal like eyes adorn it.
Z-crystal-like eyes? Looks a bit awkward but is more correct I think.

Incineroar doesn’t hesitate and charges forward, cloaked in shadows.
The and construction read weirdly here. Maybe, "Incineroar doesn’t hesitate to charge forward, cloaked in shadows."

Vikavolt starts launching thunderbolts above you and Lycanroc joins on the ground with accelrocks. Incineroar gets back up and starts breathing out fire. Necrozma simply takes the flames and rocks and moves one wing to intercept the thunderbolts.
The sentence structure here is a bit repetitive with the ands. Maybe vary that up a bit.

right before Kommo-o gets loud.
I like the understatement of this.

The Soulblaze does seem to upset necrozma for the first time in the battle, judging by the angry Nebby-like screeches in and out of your mind.
Hm, I want a bit more here. Are the screeches hurting? Does it sound just like Nebby or not quite like?

Even through your eyelids and the toxapex’s protect you can still see the hit. Hear the sound of a barrier shattering and a kommo-o’s cries of pains. The light dims and you hesitantly open your eyes.
"Even through your eyelids . . . you can see the hit" doesn't make much sense to me. I think you mean the light flaring? Would make that clearer.

They collide and the necrozma is driven back. Just as you hold out hope, your pokémon gracelessly falls to the ground and crumples in a heap, rendered unconscious from the psychic assault and impact. The pokéball withdraws her. Still alive.
Found this moment a bit hard to picture. Presumably, the aftermath/reactions happen simultaneously, so it's hard to see her taking hope from Necrozma falling back as her pokemon collapses, since they'd be happening at once.

I like the very focused clinical tone of "still alive" but I wanted a little bit more of an emotional reaction there too.

You get your answer very, very quickly as clumps of rock and ice start blasting out at blinding speeds. One scores a glancing blow on Lycanroc’s shield and shatters it. Another sends her sprawling back with visibly cracked ribs. Vikavolt just needs one hit to shatter his shield and knock him out of the sky. Incineroar is still taking hits by the time Tox has finished using Protect. Too quick. The attack was far too quick. You remember reading somewhere that a paperclip moving at the speeds of space junk could puncture aluminum. None of your pokémon are armored nearly well enough to take another barrage. You hear Incineroar let out a roar of pain before your body catches up with your mind and you withdraw everyone but Toxapex.
This battle paragraph flowed really well.

The master ball freezes in midair. That shouldn’t even be possible. The tech is too well safeguarded against attacks of all kinds. Then it crumples inward in a flash of sparks before the metal drops uselessly to the ground beneath it.
uhhhh ohhhhh. Nice use of the master ball to signal that this is far beyond the normal. Interesting that she has so much faith in the tech though, when she's already said Necrozma is outside their knowledge.

It wouldn’t have mattered. You lost—Alola lost—the second Nebby did.

There’s almost relief there. Over four years of non-stop incursions and you went and blew it. Even if you lived to see another fight no one would plead with their words or tone or eyes for you to go out and save the world while the public sits back and watches.
Really like this bit of characterization. The sense that she's overwhelmed and exhausted by all this comes through strongly. And it's not like she didn't try, but--there's a tinge of fatality that probably didn't help.

You close your eyes and whimper just before it reaches you. Maybe it’s cowardly but no one else will ever know. Something cold and incredibly smooth touches your cheek and glides up to your hair, running through it before rising high enough that all of the strands fall back down.
Like this moment as well. She's completely helpless but because she's helpless, the obligation is over.

Another thirty to finally hear your phone ringing in your pocket. You answer it without checking who it is.

“You know why it’s dark all of a sudden?”

Nanu. He sounds bored, as usual. Like he’s discussing an inconvenient afternoon storm instead of a sudden, region-wide blackout.

“Yes.”

“It going away any time soon?”

“No.”

He sighs. You can imagine him shaking his head and pulling himself off the couch, maybe pushing a meowth aside in the process.

“Anything I can do?”

“You at home?”

“Yes.”

“Head out to Po Town. Make sure people are staying inside.”

“Anything else?”

“No.”

He hangs up.

The phone immediately rings again.
This was a great sequence. We go from epic god battle to the phone ringing and the helplessness of everyone in the face of it.

It takes an hour and a half for someone to set up a conference call with the Kahunas, the military, the governor, and INTERPOL. Maybe a few others.
Bureaucracy yay! If all the right people are on the phone call, the problem is basically solved, right?

“Thanks for the thought, kid,” Nanu grumbles. You know things are serious when he phones into these meetings himself rather than having Molayne or Sina do it instead.
This felt weird. She knows better than anyone how serious the problem is. Felt a bit like it was glorifying Nanu at the expense of Selene's just lived experience?

The professor swears under his breath (still really, really weird to hear) and starts awkwardly hobbling towards the door.
" (still really, really weird to hear)" the swearing is weird? Or is this about the blindness? Couldn't tell.

“No problem,” she answers. Implying that walking straight towards an alien god that could almost certainly defeat her entire team and kill her is not something she sees as a problem. Your gift will need to be really special. A hippowdon? Rhydon? Or one of those giant Galarian sand snakes. Maybe you can find the money for a recently thawed mamoswine. Helps that picking up any of those is an excuse for a vacation when this passes over. If it passes over.
Great example of how your chatty narration builds tension. Selene is so clearly trying not to think about this. Gift! gift! What gift will I get her if we don't all die are we going to die it will be a good gift.

“Sure, fine, I’ll put my life on the line I guess. You really think it’d do any good, though?”
Classic Gladion, lol.

The more light it absorbs, the harder it will be to fight. At some point it will be like fighting the sun.
The longer it goes without being the harder it is to defeat stuff is always scary but I'm a little confused how they know this? I really don't understand what they know or don't know about necrozma (is it just the one, or multiple?)

Shirona is in on Poni, I think. Chris is...” Living on your ex-girlfriend’s childhood home when he can be bothered to be in the same country as his business.
What is Chris doing here? Shouldn't he be having panic attacks over in Johto?

I take your word that this character was mentioned earlier but I completely forgot about him.

Also, Shirona? Excuse you I've copyrighted using the Japanese names.

You just failed to stop someone else from doing that.

Just like last time.
Baby :(

The ninetales hisses in pain outside before the wind picks up. Even inside the house you can feel the cold.
These low-key reminders that Kukui is fighting an ultrabeast outside were scary almost because Selene is so unconcerned.

“What’d I miss?”
Picturing Kukui striding back in like
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yV6bLE4oJ0


“A really, really powerful Ultra Beast arrived. It fused with Nebby. I don’t know where it is now. I’m sorry.”

“I—are you alright?”

“What?”

“If it could… could do that—

Damn it. You’d forgotten that Lillie was like this. Break her heart into pieces and stomp on them in front of her and she’ll still be there for you in the morning. It’s why you had to break up in the first place.
Oh gosh, that is so Lillie. I really like how you portray Lillie and Moon in this short segment--completely checks out that they were a thing and then stopped being a thing when Lillie insisted on staying with abusive mom.

Neither of you talks for a long time. A few years ago you would’ve been more than fine with that. You’d find somewhere quiet to sit and call her and sometimes you’d just stay on the line in silence for hours, both of you just glad the other was there in spirit. Now the silence is cutting.

“You don’t want to talk about how things are going, do you?”

“No.”

“Can I tell you about things on my end, then?”

“Sure.”

“Well, Mother’s recovery is—”

You hang up.
Oof, and what a way to end. Selene is not having a great day.
 
Fighting 3.2

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
Fighting 3.2: The Truth
Cuicatl

[00:00:00]​

[HUNGER]

The Voice crashes into your skull like a cannonball. Everything else, all those tiny little thoughts and feelings and dreams, gets compressed and pressed out, bleeding through every square inch of skin. You hug your legs and arms to your chest and curl your fingers and toes but it still feels like you’re a human-shaped sieve.

[Alarm!]

Another Voice, much softer but no less fierce, joins The First. The roar shifts from pure hunger to a mix of desires.

[Refusal]

The denial is ignored. There are other voices around you. Smaller. Filtered through your ears. Irrelevant voices. Voices calling for someone who no longer—

*​

You wake up. Sort of. Sounds run at the edges and the heavy hand of sleep is trying to drag you back down.

The air is dry. A man is pacing, his heavy steps echoing off the walls of a large room.

“We found her out in Haina Desert. Going by her…” He says some science-sounding bullshit. Even if you weren’t halfway unconscious you might’ve fallen asleep.

You slip into sleep for a moment before coming back.

A second person is talking. He sounds like he doesn’t care. Doesn’t want to be there.

“And will he come for her, if he knew?”

“No.” The first man, sounding earnest and serious with a really thick accent speaks again. Accent. Ugh. Your gift isn’t filtering things. “I watched as his heart stopped. I watched as his body burned. I watched as his bones were buried. He’s dead. I made sure of it.”

“And the kid?”

Words blur together. And stop. And start again.

“She had six balls on her. Apricorn-derived, so no records. All broken. No pokémon to talk to. Can’t find her in any of our databases.”

The bored man scoffs. “No pokémon? Real lucky she survived then. Especially since she’s...fuck…ing…

…where…were…you…

…who…are…

“MRI showed that as a long-time injury. Maybe pre-natal. The rest will heal with a blissey and time.”

“And how long was she in there?”

“Almost three months.”

“Shit.” The man kicks something. It skids across the rock before coming to a stop. You want to get up and look. But you can’t move. Or see. Why can’t you see? Why would you…

What is…

…sight…

“…BASTARDS!”

A woman. Furious. Her words buzz and sting at the edge of your mind.

“Please, it’s all a misunderstanding. Just calm down…”

“I told you, I was the last person you made into your little doll.”

“Tapu Lele, can you knock them out?”

“Oh, fuck you—” There’s a surge of something in the air. She shuts up. Her body falls to the ground.

“Thank you.”

“Think she told anyone where she was going?” The bored man asks.

“Her alakzam, maybe.”

{I can reason with him,} another voice projects in a way that doesn’t sound real. {Or wipe his memories.}

“Thank you. That would help.”

The bored man sighs and resumes pacing. “She makes some good points, y’know? There’s a reason she’s your boss and all.”

“There are unique circumstances.”

“There ever not been ‘unique circumstances?’”

“Are you going to tell?” The first man asks, a threat loaded just below the surface.

“No point. You’ll fuck yourselves over in the end, anyway.”

“Thank you.”

“Out of curiosity, what are you going to do with the apricorns?”

“We were going to destroy them so that Lila wouldn’t find out.”

“No.” He stops pacing. “You should bury them. If it goes like last time, the kid will want some closure for her old life.”

“And there’s none to be had. Best if she just moves on and accepts what we’re giving her.”

“That’s her decision to make. Not yours.”

*​

When you wake up the screaming has stopped. There’s just whimpering in its place. From you. Oops. When you stop it continues. Not just you, then.

Where are you? None of your pokémon are touching you and you can’t sense Pixie or Coco through your links. You send out a thought to Nocitlālin but don’t receive an answer. Bad. Without them you’re just… no. You’re lying on hard concrete. No, not just concrete. Your head is on something warm and soft. A person? You start to move and they jolt.

“You awake?” Genesis whispers. Ah. Her, then.

You grumble out something that your gift can hopefully translate. She giggles. Guess you need to put more work in. Fifteen years and you’re still only figuring out how your brain works. After pressing yourself more or less upright (and discovering how much lying motionless on concrete for gods-know-how-long will hurt your hips), you work out a more coherent question. “Where’s Pix?” She was out when you were last awake, right?

“In her ball.” You can hear her shift nervously. “Do you remember what happened?”

“We were eating ice cream. There was an explosion? Then a really loud voice. Then… here?”

Judging by her silence and her mind’s rapidly shifting attempts to form words, that wasn’t the answer she expected. {Can we head-talk?} she asks.

You throw out your awareness again and make absolutely sure that there are no potential eavesdroppers. There’s nothing. Almost nothing. You can still feel The Voice’s distinct presence, but quiet and far in the background. That’s bad, but it’s a problem for later. And if there is anything you can do about it, Genesis probably won’t be the one to teach you. {Sure.}

{Okay, um, am I doing this right?}

{Yes.}

{A… voice?}

Could she not hear it? Why? Was it psychic? An omen?

{Yes. A Voice. Really, really loud. Tear-your-soul-out-of-your-body loud. I didn’t know that was possible.} Well, maybe for a god. Was it a god? If it was a god that would speak to you, but not her, it could explain it. And the gods have taken an active role on Earth in recent years. Tlaloc and Quetzlcoatl had to put Cipactli back to sleep when it stirred under Japan. The Split Gods clashed in Unova. And Metztli sent an avatar to guard these very islands.

Today (yesterday?) is (was?) Tecpatl-Tecpatl. Ruled by Chalchihuihtotolin and Mictlantecuhtli. The former is a god of sorcery and temptation, the latter the ruler of the dead. Combined they make for a day of life-changing challenges. A chance to soar or plummet, fate be damned. Putting a trial on that day, right before the solstice, was asking for something big to happen.

It didn’t. The battle went mostly according to plan. Nothing worthy of the day happened. At least, not when you expected it.

{I didn’t hear one.} Gen finally answers. {There was a big noise, probably the explosion you were talking about, and a bunch of wind. Then everything went dark. You collapsed and started talking in Aztec.} Nahuatl. You do your best to keep any annoyed feelings in your own mind. {Pix went nuts so we had to withdraw her. Everyone got moved to a shelter. We’re still there. My phone died a while ago. I don’t know how long it’s been. I’m hungry, but not really hungry. Have to pee, though. There is a bathroom but getting to it requires walking over a lot of people in the dark so I’m trying not to. Plus, I think Kekoa’s asleep, somehow, and I didn’t want to leave you alone. Still dark, by the way. Really dark.}

She thinks a lot. Not always coherently. It takes a bit for your gift to catch up and put everything into (Nahuatl) words for you. Even though you really should be thinking about the ‘everything is dark for everyone else’ stuff, you end up thinking about the smaller things. Pee? You don’t have to but—well, shit. You definitely pissed yourself while you were out. At least you were expecting your period anyway. Hasn’t come yet but it’s still (probably) too early to rule it out for the month. You’re hungry. That’s nothing new. You’re just at the border between stomach-rending, painful hunger and greater, painless hunger with lightheadedness and a building headache. Six to eight hours, maybe? But if you were unconscious then it could’ve been longer.

You’d offer to help her to the bathroom, but you didn’t bring your cane with you. Haven’t had much need in the last few days, with Nocitlālin eager to help and Pixie jealously competing with her.

“Kekoa awake?” you ask, aloud, so that if he is he’ll hear it.

“Someone woke a god up and you think I’d fall asleep?”

That prompts a few whispers around you. “A god?” You’d suspected as much, but he seems to know something you don’t.

“Yeah. Like Japan. Feels the same.”

His voice breaks on the last word. Feels the same? That could mean a few different things. Maybe it was just a bigger news story in America than Anahuac. Or something more personal.

{You want to talk about it?}

You can feel him steady his thoughts and compose his words. {I was in Hoenn when it happened. My parents died.}

Oh. That’s bad. Really bad. Living it a second time must be worse.

{I understand,} you say. {I’m sorry.}

{Do you understand, though?} He also hisses aloud, for emphasis.

{Maybe? My brother died a few months ago.}

You aren’t crying and even if you did no one can see you. It’s the perfect time to talk about this as long as you don’t sob.

A lot of thoughts rush through his mind when you tell him. After a few seconds they coalesce into a steady stream of “shit shit shit shit” that he probably doesn’t mean to send you.

{I talked shit about your brother in Paniola, didn’t I?}

A spike of resentment builds in your heart alongside the sadness. You do your best to push it down but don’t succeed entirely. {Yes. You did.}

His thoughts seem to split towards two different statements. You don’t look close enough to see what they are.

{I’m sorry,} finally wins out.

{Good.}

A door opens and you can hear someone awkwardly fumbling around. Probably just got out of the bathroom.

{I know that…} Kekoa’s message trails off. {I’m sorry. And this is a bad time and it would be weird in a good time but. Can you lean into me?}

“Sure.” Cuddles sound nice right now, when you’re not crying. Or crying just a little bit. Everything’s bad and now isn’t the time for that, even if it’s dark.

You can sort of hear his breathing, shallow and quick, and the conversation gave you a direction to his head. It takes a bit of fumbling (and you think you kick Genesis at one point) but you finally cuddle up to him. His chest, anyway. You immediately shift so you’re leaning on his side. His hand scrapes against you, hesitantly looking for yours. You meet it. His pulse is quick; a quick touch of your free hand to your neck shows that yours is too. Deep breaths.

There’s a lot of pain and panic and you aren’t sure what to do with any of it right now. You end up focusing on his pulse and trying in vain to meditate.

*​

The first attack comes about an hour later. It begins with a low whirring sound, slowly but steadily rising in pitch. Like an alarm. Except you can tell that something is speaking. What it is and what’s being said aren’t given to you and when you press you get a sharp headache, the mental equivalent of brushing your hand on a hot stove. An Ultra Beast, perhaps. Or a god. Fearful and confused words pop up in almost all the minds around you, along with a handful of hopeful ones.

Crashing noises sound outside and the noise resets back to a pitch you feel more than hear. It rises again, faster this time. Lightning sounds off. A lot of lightning and more crashing sounds, most crashes coinciding with another pitch reset.

“Xurkitree,” Kekoa mutters beside you. “I tried to learn the sounds. In case something happened. I think Sophocles is fighting it. Maybe Molayne.”

“They’re strong, right?” Genesis asks. “Sophocles and Molayne?”

“Yes.”

Kekoa still squeezes your hand a little tighter. You squeeze back.

*​

There’s another xurkitree sometime later. A few more battles after that. Water bottles and bags of some sort of strangely-textured chip get passed around at some point.

You eventually realize that the sweat under your arms and the shaking of your hand is because you’re scared. Of dying. Even with a free, dignified way out. It’s a strange thought. And one you don’t have time to process, since you’re on a toilet at the time.

Shortly afterwards a large door swings open and someone walks through, the hard steps of their boots conveying authority. A ripple of murmurs say that light is shining through behind the man. “There’s light outside,” a booming voice says before echoing around the room. “Gather your things; nothing more than you can carry. Meet at the convoy. We leave in a half hour.”

The light must not be too bright. There’s still chaos as people rush to leave the dusty, slightly metallic air of the shelter. Judging by the room’s echoes, you’re pretty close to the back. You start stretching, then realize in horror that both your legs are asleep. You rub your hands over them and try to move them as much as possible. By the time you have to get up it’s pretty tolerable, actually.

The temperature hits you as soon as you leave the building. The air is cool, but one side of you is warm anyway. Like a fire on a cold night. Kekoa swears under his breath once he gets out behind you. “Reshiram,” he whispers.

The Flame Giver. Right here. That definitely explains the light and heat. A god like that…

Alice will never believe you.

You don’t know when or how, but at some point you either stop freezing up or get dragged into your room in the Pokémon Center to pack things up. You can hear Genesis and Kekoa struggling, but for you it goes the same as always. Except you need Pix and Coco to check for scattered things by tracking your scent rather than just looking around.

Coco thinks it’s a fun game.

You have to withdraw Coco and Pix. The world’s chaotic and they’re small and easily stepped on in the crowds. Nocitlālin can fly and sense in the dark through electricity or whatever so you have her help Kekoa or Genesis, whoever’s struggling more. You take your things and head back out to the convoy before they’re ready. Once you’re back in Reshiram’s heat you drop your pack to the floor. There are curious and cautious whispers around, but no one dares address her. No one knows how.

You step forward closer and raise your head so that you’re probably kinda sorta making eye contact. Then you speak in Upper Draconic. “Blessed Flame Giver, I acknowledge your dominion.” Dragons do not bow or stoop or avert their gaze when addressing a stronger peer or asking for help. Instead they present everything they are and confess that they need help regardless.

Reshiram shifts in front of you, judging by the changing levels of heat on your face and the ground moaning in protest beneath her.

“Acknowledged, Little One,” she replies. In Upper Draconic. Your gift can’t or won’t translate the god’s words. “What would you have me do?”

You swallow and steel yourself again. You weren’t actually expecting a response. You just thought that she needed acknowledged, per ancient custom.

“I thank you for your protection and guidance.”

Thanks are traditionally given at the end of an exchange, when a request is granted or denied and ties are severed. You don’t know what else to say. Requesting anything from Reshiram feels wrong. She is not your kind’s god and you have nothing to offer her. It would also feel weird to ask her to do something she already seems to have made up her mind to do.

She chuffs. It sounds like a cross between laughter and an indignant huff. It’s also nothing that you’ve heard from a dragon before. Although Coco sometimes does something almost like it. “It was my duty as a goddess. Nothing more. Now, tell me: where did you learn to speak the old tongue?”

“I was taught by Alice, Dorothy, and Ilsa. A twice-split spirit from the Valley of Dragons.” You pause and she does not answer. “She,” for there is no good Upper Draconic equivalent to ellas, “was a companion of my mother’s and swore herself to be my protector and teacher.”

That earns a low rumble from the goddess. Consideration. “Is she here?”

You shake your head. “No.” Your voice breaks and you immediately clamp your mouth shut. You will not cry in front of a goddess. You will not cry in front of a goddess. You will not cry

The heat picks up. It’s still more warm than hot. Comforting and not burning. “Acknowledged.” The bark is a little shorter and softer than you would have expected. “It is rare for royalty to bond with a twice-split spirit. Your gifts are rendered useless by the shadows in their blood.”

“I’m not royalty,” you correct(?!) the goddess(?!). At least, that’s not something that your mother chose to tell you via either Renfield or Alice or passed down memories. And you’ve seen how Mom grew up. Comfortable at times, but never much more.

Another rumble of consideration. “Correct. You are not royalty. Whatever my counterpart’s chosen companion has declared, your line’s claim to the throne ended with the throne itself. But you have The Harbor Queen’s Gift and the mark of her bloodline.”

You’d privately doubted you were tied to N. He was important. Chosen by a god. And if your mother had any brothers or nephews, she never passed it down. You don’t even think she had any cousins. But if you’re more distantly related…

“There was a time not so long ago,” Reshiram muses, “that I believed your lineage to be extinct. It only survived through fortune. Centuries ago, a king found the strength to do what needed to be done. Nonetheless, he was a sentimental fool who could not live with himself afterwards. Another part of me, for we were one then, found it noble.” She growls. An actual, hostile growl. The fire roars up with her and you can hear swearing around you. You flinch back and avert your gaze, ancient rules forgotten. “Sometimes I am glad to be free of such foolishness now. But I was weaker then. I granted his request to leave the kingdom behind and live out his final days in exile on the other side of the Earth.” The heat dies back down to a low burn. “He was an old, broken man. It never occurred to me that he would beget more children.”

Footsteps approach. “Reshiram, it’s almost time to depart,” a female voice (Hilda?) says.

The pavement audibly groans as the goddess stretches. “I have duties to fulfill. We shall finish our conversation at a later time.”

You step back in silence and someone grabs hold of you. “What the fuck,” Kekoa hisses in your ear, “was that about?”

“I was in her territory. I acknowledged her.”

“Isn’t she from Unova?”

“She’s a goddess: everything is her territory.”

He grunts, probably out of arguments. You pick up your surprisingly warm pack and follow Kekoa’s lead to the convoy.

“Excuse me, miss,” someone says. “No pokémon allowed in the vehicle.” Pokémon, but… Right. You reach down and withdraw Nocitlālin. She’s very well behaved when she isn’t trying to watch people pee, but you don’t want to argue about it now.

You end up sandwiched between Kekoa and Genesis with very little room to yourself. Which is fine, mostly. You don’t take up that much space. And you’re more than used to getting crowded out in the tent.

Most of the ride passes in silence beyond the tires on the road and Reshiram’s wingbeats above. Maybe a half hour later Reshiram lets out a deafening roar and the convoy grinds to a halt. You can feel the flames through the walls of the car. There’s some radio chatter, but it’s garbled and without your gift your English is only okay. There are only a few things you remember: The goddess’s roars. Her opponent’s begging (Home, home, home, home, I want to go home!), every word accompanied by a sharp pain in your temples. The sound of the explosion that marked the battle’s inevitable end. Whatever it was, it chose to fight a goddess. A dragon goddess. Its fate was sealed the second it approached with a challenge.

When the convoy moves again, you realize that Kekoa’s back to gripping your hand. Even though it’s probably light out. You squeeze his hand back but he doesn’t let go. That’s fine with you.

The rest of the trip is uneventful.

*​

You end up being one of the last ones out of the convoy. Most of the crowds have already cleared judging by the relative silence. That at least makes it easier to follow the noises of people flowing to wherever it is you’re supposed to go.

Something giant crashes down behind you, bathing your back in heat. You probably jump at least a half meter into the air. In spite of everything, you do your best to steady yourself before turning around to face the goddess. “Hello. I was...” You’re not sure what you wanted to say at the start of the sentence.

“Did you think we would not speak again?” She growls. “I am truth incarnate. My promises are prophecies.”

You swallow down the fear and shake your head. A human negation. Should’ve done the dragon one. Doesn’t matter, keep moving. “I meant no offense, Flame Giver.”

She chuffs and her heat dies down. “I understand. I, too, was concerned that our meeting would be delayed. But my companion needs rest and I shall oblige her.”

You finally calm down enough to realize that the air smells heavily of blood. Dragon blood. You don’t say anything. A goddess bled for you. That’s not right. It’s supposed to be the other way around.

“Now, then,” Reshiram continues, “it has been some time since I spoke to a human in my own tongue. Or at least something akin to it. Your pronunciation is terrible and your pitch is that of a newborn.”

Oh. You should have expected that. Known that. Why did you talk to her in the first place?

“But I suppose it is the best a human can do. Tell me, Daughter of the Harbor Queen, what are your ambitions?”

Ambitions? Like N? You’ve never really had any. You don’t want to say that outright. She’s spoken of duties before. Maybe...

“I seek to reclaim what was stolen from me. Then I will return home and fulfill my obligations there. I’m not the kind of person who should change society. I wouldn’t know what to do with it and there are much smarter people.” Priests, kings, scholars, warriors. Heroes. “I’m not a hero.”

Reshiram makes a particular bark. One of praise. Not praise of an equal, but that of a mother congratulating her daughter on killing a rodent for the first time. “You may be wiser than you know. Those who are certain that they must change the world often bring it to ruin. A few generations later another will rise, certain that they must undo what their forefathers shed blood to change. Dragons do not make these mistakes. We know our ancient roles and fulfill them. There are no grand attempts to upset the balance of nature. No wars of conquest or revolution. But humans always want more than they have. They will kill themselves and others for fictitious honors, a yard of barren dirt, and gold they will never spend. Every day they fall farther and farther from their rightful place.

“Survive and reclaim that which is rightly yours. Find a role in society and fill it well. That is heroic enough.”

No response comes to mind. You’re not sure you’d give it even if you could. Her words carry an air of finality, that there is nothing left to be said on the subject.

“I believe your companions need to speak with you. Go forth, Little One. Heed my words and you shall have my blessing.” She rockets off into the air before you can thank her or wish her well or find anything at all to say.

“You really do speak dragon, huh?” Kekoa remarks behind you.

“She said I’m not very good at it.”

“In dragon. And you understood it.”

“We need to talk,” Genesis says quickly and quietly. Kekoa sighs.

“Yeah, we do.”

Everyone is silent for a while, waiting on Genesis to speak again.

“My dad called. I’m going home. Now. There’s a teleporter here. I don’t think we’ll be able to speak again, but I will miss you. A lot. And,” she shoves a stack of bills down into your palm. How did she see your hand? Is Reshiram still around? Did she get lucky? All the questions that don’t matter come to mind. “This is some money that my brother gave me. It should help.” Her voice is unusually strained, quiet, and detached. Like she rehearsed this for once but doesn’t quite want to go through.

“Okay… but you don’t sound happy?” Which is strange. You thought that she really wanted to go back.

“I am. Really. Just, a lot just happened and there’s a conversation I’m not looking forward to and I haven’t had much time to prepare.”

“You shouldn’t go,” Kekoa says, voice firm and almost angry. Why? This is everything he wanted. Even if he’s calmed down a little in the last two weeks, he still clearly doesn’t like her. “Your parents aren’t good people, Gen. Nothing good comes from going back.”

“Kekoa,” Genesis says in an uncharacteristically hostile tone. She sighs and the anger breaks to dejected acceptance. “You don’t know them.”

“They kicked their daughter to the curb. I know enough about them.” He’s getting angry. That’s bad for him. If this turns into a shouting match, Genesis will feel attacked and he will lose. You don’t tell him this. If she wants to go to her parents in spite of everything, you understand. And Reshiram’s words about roles and duties loom large in your mind.

“They just made a mistake. Thought I did something I didn’t and were worried I’d corrupt my brother.

Kekoa actually snorts. “You? Corrupt someone? Either they don’t know you at all, or that’s not why they did it. And if they have realized, never mind, guess Jenny was good all along, why wouldn’t they let you talk to us?”

“Because you might corrupt me,” she says, exasperated, like this should really be obvious. You don’t think you’ve been corrupting, though? You asked her to stop being rude to Kekoa. And made her eat some gross shit once. That was pretty much it. And she deserved that potato salad.

“Really? What’s Cuicatl done?”

Drat. You were really hoping to stay out of this. So many people leaving in the last year, so few chances for decent goodbyes. And he’s dragging this one through the mud for gods-know-why.

“She’s in a human sacrifice cult.” She whisper-hisses it like you won’t hear it. Even though she probably also thinks you have super hearing.

You’ve only killed one person and you really, really didn’t mean to. That’s not the right answer, though. “We don’t convert,” you finally say. Because Kekoa dragged you into this and it would be awkward if you said nothing at all. “You can believe what you wish.” You don’t even sacrifice people without their permission anymore. Even American war criminals were declared off-limits in The False Tlatoani’s Peace.

“And if you want to talk cults,” Kekoa interjects, “only one of us seems to be obsessed with being perfect all the time. What happens when you slip up? Or your parents make another mistake? You’ll just end up back here, but with no friends.”

She doesn’t answer. Instead, Genesis wraps you in a really tight hug for a few seconds and walks away. Another pair of footsteps follows her. Before you can tell Kekoa off, you hear him huff beside you. “Dammit, why didn’t you back me up?”

“She has a duty to her family.”

He stamps a foot and starts pacing. “No! Fuck no! She doesn’t owe them shit. Just.” You can practically hear the scream on the tip of his tongue. “Damn it.”

You silently slip the money into your purse, release Nocitlālin and extend your cane. “Why do you care, anyway?”

“Because…” He sighs. “I don’t like her. At all. But she wasn’t supposed to do this. It’s bad.” He hesitates for a moment. “For her.” The inflection and wording are wrong. He’s worried, but you don’t think it’s for her. The loss of income? Her team was cheap to feed and she did bring in money from capture missions when she didn’t keep the target herself. That does sound about right. Genesis was annoying to him, but being one-third poorer is worse. With another bout of swearing, Kekoa finally stops pacing. “Come on. Let’s get to the Center. I need to charge my phone.”

*​

The Malie Center is overcrowded but you don’t dare leave it. Pixie and Coco are in their balls full time for the foreseeable future. They won’t have to eat or drink that way. Won’t have to go outside. It’s not safe outside.

That doesn’t make inside feel like less of a cage. Genesis is gone and Kekoa’s bitter, ending conversations with frustrated monosyllabic answers. No chance to really go deeper into what you talked about on the mountain. You’re not sure he wants to, though. You’re left with your beldum, who is being a very good, very warm cuddler tonight. Even letting you wrap an arm around her as you rest. Her questions have stopped, if only because she’s gathered that you have no answers to give.

Reshiram.

There were answers there, but more questions were raised. A goddess approves of your plan. Any of the last doubts tingling in the pit of your stomach or the corner of your mouth are gone. You will go home. You will face your father.

You have other family. N. He could be your first cousin or the descendant of your great-great-great-great-great grandparent’s sibling. He still exists. Shares your gift. Maybe he will come for you. Maybe he will not. You aren’t sure which to hope for. Understanding and family. A link to your mother’s world. But also a threat to your visa, a threat to Alice, and a reminder of someone you’ve lost.

Then… there’s something you forgot. Or maybe something you never remembered at all. People talking… about… your thoughts slide off it like water on a glass window. Something about The Voice, surely. But what? What could you know? And is it important? Dangerous?

You fall asleep, a warm steel-type pressed against you, before you come up with any answers.
 
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Pen

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Cuicatl makes for a great aftermath POV since she can sort-of read minds. I liked her moment with Kekoa and the sudden development with Genesis. Too bad for Kekoa that the apocalypse happened and he can't arrange to get her kidnapped now.

The interaction with Reshiram was interesting. I enjoyed the focus on the ritual aspects of it. Not sure how I feel about the whole N-is-related-to-Cuicatl thing being confirmed. I know Cuicatl's character is in many ways a deconstruction of the OP OT so I'll be interested to see how you handle the whole 'secretly related to canon character' trope. I still don't have a great sense of how Black/White went down in the 'verse or what exactly N tried to do. 1.15 implied he was on the run/considered a terrorist? If he's still hanging out with Zekrom, is he going to end up showing up? 👀

Felt the absence of Cuicatl's pokemon a bit in this chapter. If she doesn't let them out because things are too crazy I'd get that, but the fact that they're let out but then we don't hear anything from them struck me as odd.

None of your pokémon are touching you and you can’t sense Pixie or Coco through your links. You send out a thought to Nocitlālin but don’t receive an answer.
Feel like this maybe merits a bit more worry?

{Can we head-talk?} she asks.
It's interesting how Genesis and Kekoa both take advantage of the chance to have a private conversation here.

“Yeah. Like Japan. Feels the same.”

His voice breaks on the last word. Feels the same? That could mean a few different things. Maybe it was just a bigger news story in America than Anahuac. Or something more personal.

{You want to talk about it?}

You can feel him steady his thoughts and compose his words. {I was in Hoenn when it happened. My parents died.}

Oh. That’s bad. Really bad. Living it a second time must be worse.

{I understand,} you say. {I’m sorry.}

{Do you understand, though?} He also hisses aloud, for emphasis.

{Maybe? My brother died a few months ago.}

You aren’t crying and even if you did no one can see you. It’s the perfect time to talk about this as long as you don’t sob.

A lot of thoughts rush through his mind when you tell him. After a few seconds they coalesce into a steady stream of “shit shit shit shit” that he probably doesn’t mean to send you.

{I talked shit about your brother in Paniola, didn’t I?}

A spike of resentment builds in your heart alongside the sadness. You do your best to push it down but don’t succeed entirely. {Yes. You did.}

His thoughts seem to split towards two different statements. You don’t look close enough to see what they are.

{I’m sorry,} finally wins out.

{Good.}
Aw, this was a nice moment. I like how we get to follow Kekoa's internal reaction here. Good on him for picking "I'm sorry" over whatever else was floating around in there.

You immediately shift so you’re leaning on his side. His hand scrapes against you, hesitantly looking for yours. You meet it. His pulse is quick; a quick touch of your free hand to your neck shows that yours is too. Deep breaths.
Cuddles!

Coco thinks it’s a fun game.

You have to withdraw Coco and Pix.
It felt a bit weird that we didn't get a scene with her checking in on her pokemon. No surprises that Coco is fine, but do Pix and Nocitlālin not have any thoughts on all this?

“Blessed Flame Giver, I acknowledge your dominion.” Dragons do not bow or stoop or avert their gaze when addressing a stronger peer or asking for help. Instead they present everything they are and confess that they need help regardless.

Reshiram shifts in front of you, judging by the changing levels of heat on your face.

“Acknowledged, Little One,” she replies. In Upper Draconic. Your power can’t or won’t translate the god’s words. “What would you have me do?”

You swallow and steel yourself again. You weren’t actually expecting a response. You just thought that she needed acknowledged, per ancient custom.

“I thank you for your protection and guidance.”

Thanks are traditionally given at the end of an exchange, when a request is granted or denied and ties are severed. You don’t know what else to say. Requesting anything from Reshiram feels wrong. She is not your kind’s god and you have nothing to offer her. It would also feel weird to ask her to do something she already seems to have made up her mind to do.
Loved the formulaic and ceremonial quality of the exchange here.

And you’ve seen how Mom grew off.
Typo, grew up.

Another rumble of consideration. “Correct. You are not royalty. Whatever my counterpart’s chosen companion has declared, your line’s claim to the throne ended with the throne itself. But you have The Harbor Queen’s Gift and the mark of her bloodline.”

You’d privately doubted you were tied to N. He was important. Chosen by a god. And if your mother had any brothers or nephews, she never passed it down. You don’t even think she had any cousins. But if you’re more distantly related…

“There was a time not so long ago,” Reshiram muses, “that I believed your lineage to be extinct. It only survived through fortune. Centuries ago, a king found the strength to do what needed to be done. Nonetheless, he was a sentimental fool who could not live with himself afterwards. Another part of me, for we were one then, found it noble.” She growls. An actual, hostile growl. The fire roars up with her and you can hear swearing around you. You flinch back and avert your gaze, ancient rules forgotten. “Sometimes I am glad to be free of such foolishness now. But I was weaker then. I granted his request to leave the kingdom behind and live out his final days in exile on the other side of the Earth.” The heat dies back down to a low burn. “He was an old, broken man. It never occurred to me that he would beget more children.”
Huh, okay, Cuicatl is related to N, and N is actually a descendant of the original heroes or something? I was a bit lost in terms of timeline in the last paragraph here. Also presumably she's related through the mom's side, and the mom also had a bond with Alice and so did Ghetsis, so it seems weird to say that it's rare for a member of this line to bond with a hydreigon?

“She’s a goddess: everything is her territory.”
Nice

Honestly, you barely remember much of the fight. The goddess’s roars. Her opponent’s begging (Home, home, home, home, I want to go home!), every word accompanied by a sharp pain in your temples.
Poor ultrabeasts.

"Honestly, you barely remember much of the fight." read a little weirdly for me. It's less about what she remembers and more that it passes in a blur or whatever.

You squeeze his hand back but he doesn’t let go. That’s fine with you.
More cuddles!

You were the one who asked for her protection… but… a goddess bled for you. That’s not right. It’s supposed to be the other way around.
Did Cuicatl actually ask for protection? I thought she made a point of not asking?

I seek to reclaim what was stolen from me. Then I will return home and fulfill my obligations there. I’m not the kind of person who should change society. I wouldn’t know what to do with it and there are much smarter people.” Priests, kings, scholars, warriors. Heroes. “I’m not a hero.”

Reshiram makes a particular bark. One of praise. Not praise of an equal, but that of a mother congratulating her daughter on killing a rodent for the first time. “You may be wiser than you know. Those who are certain that they must change the world often bring it to ruin. A few generations later another will rise, certain that they must undo what their forefathers shed blood to change. Dragons do not make these mistakes. We know our ancient roles and fulfill them. There are no grand attempts to upset the balance of nature. No wars of conquest or revolution. But humans always want more than they have. They will kill themselves and others for fictitious honors, a yard of barren dirt, and gold they will never spend. Every day they fall farther and farther from their rightful place.

“Survive and reclaim that which is rightly yours. Find a role in society and fill it well. That is heroic enough.”
Reshiram's speech here was really interesting! I appreciate that Cuicatl's all "I'm not a hero" and the god-dragon is all "Yup! good job" instead of, "No you totes are." Since Reshiram's ancient role is as a harbinger as change, her disdain for heroes is intriguing. Of course, she gets to live on after them and see the results, so perhaps that's unsurprising.

“My dad called. I’m going home. Now. There’s a teleporter here. I don’t think we’ll be able to speak again, but I will miss you. A lot. And,”
Ah! Not an unexpected development. Totally checks out that Genesis would yeet home at first opportunity. I'm sure everything will work out splendidly for her.

You don’t tell him this. If she wants to go to her parents in spite of everything, you understand. And Reshiram’s words about roles and duties loom large in your mind.
Like this moment of understanding from Cuicatl, who is also planning to return to her horrible home situation as soon as she's got Mom's pokemon back.

Drat. You were really hoping to stay out of this. So many people leaving in the last year, so few chances for decent goodbyes. And he’s dragging this one through the mud for gods-know-why.

“She’s in a human sacrifice cult.” She whisper-hisses it like you won’t hear it. Even though she probably also thinks you have super hearing.

You’ve only killed one person and you really, really didn’t mean to. That’s not the right answer, though. “We don’t convert,” you finally say. Because Kekoa dragged you into this and it would be awkward if you said nothing at all. “You can believe what you wish.” You don’t even sacrifice people without their permission anymore. Even American war criminals were declared off-limits in The False Tlatoani’s Peace.
Cuicatl internal monologue was really enjoyable here.

“Because…” He sighs. “I don’t like her. At all. But she wasn’t supposed to do this. It’s bad. For her.” The inflection and wording are wrong. He’s worried, but you don’t think it’s for her. The loss of income? Her team was cheap to feed and she did bring in money from capture missions when she didn’t keep the target herself. That does sound about right. Genesis was annoying to him, but being one-third poorer is worse. With another bout of swearing, Kekoa finally stops pacing.
Yup, rip Kekoa's plans to get Plumeria to smile at him.

“Come on. Let’s get to the shelter. I need to charge my phone.”
Ending felt pretty abrupt and like we shifted over to Kekoa world. Since it's a Cuicatl chapter, it would be nice to have it end on Cuicatl and what she thinks of all this. I appreciate the insight into other people's heads her power gives her, but it can also sometimes make her chapters lose the sense that she's the POV character. I found myself wanting a bit more Cuicatl reaction at the end here.
 

WildBoots

Don’t underestimate seeds.
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. moka-mark
  2. solrock
Nice to have the gang back and to see what this situation looks like from the perspective of smalltime trainers who aren't champions of anything.

From you. Oops. When you stop it continues. Not just you, then.
Hahaha, this is a classic Persephone moment.

that your power can hopefully make sense of
For me, lines like this give "her power" too much agency. It's not a conscious entity in and of itself, right? Suggestion: that you hope your power can translate. ... Guess it didn't translate well enough.

Tlaloc and Quetzlcoatl had to put Cipactli back to sleep when it stirred under Japan. The Split God, Alice’s god(s), clashed in Unova. And Metztli sent an avatar to guard these very islands.
Oh, I didn't realize until now that she interprets them as Aztec deities. I thought those were all separate, parallel entities.

That’s nothing new. You’re just at the border between stomach-rending, painful hunger and greater, painless hunger with lightheadedness and a building headache. Six to eight hours, maybe?
Oof, that's a grim assessment of her current state.

“Xurkitree,” Kekoa mutters beside you.
I'm confused how he knows! But I like how much trouble Cuicatl has understanding them in spite of her abilities.

Alice will never believe you.
Aww, I really feel her missing her dragon friend here.

but at some point you either stop gawking or
Is gawking the right word for a blind girl?

“It was my duty as a goddess.
Does she think of herself as a goddess? I guess so.

She’s very well behaved when she isn’t trying to watch people pee
HA!

It’s only about halfway in when the convoy grinds to a stop as Reshiram roars.
The "as" here tripped me up. I feel like it's muddying up a sense of cause and effect that would make this flow more easily for me.

but it’s garbled and your English is only okay without your power,
This wording makes it sound like her English is passable, but only if she doesn't have powers. Suggestion: and without your power your English is only okay.

Something giant crashes down behind you before you can do so,
Lost track of what "do so" referred to here.

“I am truth incarnate. My promises are prophecies
Nice.

Those who are certain that they must change the world often bring it to ruin.
🙃

A lot. And,” she shoves a stack of bills down into your palm. (How? Is Reshiram still around? Did she get lucky? All the questions that don’t matter come to mind.)
LOL I love how quick Cuitcatl is to chalk this up to Reshiram.

If this turns into a shouting match, Genesis will feel attacked and he will lose.
Sounds about right.

“Really? What’s Cuicatl Ichtaca done?”

Drat. You were really hoping to stay out of this.
Oof, terribly on brand. Flailing, so he drags someone else in.

even if it doesn’t come through your power.
This was another place where "your power" and the wording got a little murky for me. Is it a sound with meaning behind it or not?

Let’s get to the shelter.
I hadn't realized they were at a new shelter--a bit more scene setting would help me a little here.

I liked the conversation with Reshiram and the fact that Cuitcatl was able to have that conversation not because of something she was born with but because of something she worked to earn. It was also nice to see Cuitcatl and Kekoa making a kind of peace with each other and finally finishing airing out their issues. Makes sense that now is when Genesis's family is calling her home. Are we gonna get some doomsday Xerneas cult stuff from them?
 

kintsugi

golden scars | pfp by sun
Location
the warmth of summer in the songs you write
Pronouns
she/her
Partners
  1. silvally-grass
  2. lapras
  3. golurk
  4. booper-kintsugi
  5. meloetta-kint-muse
  6. meloetta-kint-dancer
  7. murkrow
  8. yveltal
anyway, cool, I can finally stop my very bad masquerade that I haven't been intently studying this fic and the rest of your body of work for like two months to imitate and steal your prose quirks I guess

At some point I sort of gave up on line reactions and ended up just pulling bigger picture thoughts/tones/phrasing instead because of the sheer volume of material I was working with, and the fact that it was all really good. I do have a reasonably comprehensive list of your favorite types of typos and I'm pretty sure your sentence structure quirks are still somewhere in my head if that's something of interest.

vonnegut epigraphs are gud. i think i stole those from you tbh.

final shitpost thoughts: would've been absolutely lit to see your interpretation of the Tao Trio before writing bad AU fanfic of how you would've written them, lol.

---

The main thing that strikes me is how well you do POV characters and how well you keep their internal self-justification. Gen has horrible hot takes but I see how she gets there and I feel bad for her. Kekoa has even more horrible hot takes but I see how he gets there and I feel bad for him. Cuicatl tbh has some pretty lukewarm takes on other people because most of her time is spent hating herself, but, all things considered, I can see how she gets there as well. Charting out logical but morally awkward thought processes is hard but I really like how you juggle them and somehow also make all of them make each other's lives worse. There's a lot of character evolution between the basic concepts in guidance and how we got here, tbh, but the rewrite is much stronger in that regard.

Second strongest thing is probably the reality-adjacent worldbuilding and focus on how certain societies and cultures evolve to craft different kinds of people. This sort of ties into the above, I think -- the main trio (and Pix! oops. sorry. clearly she is the main character and this is the secondary trio) are products of their respective environments, both on large and small scales, and it shows, and it really works. Fanfic isn't supposed to have this much effort baked into the details lol. I find I'm drawn to edgelord stuff like Plumeria being mad at the telescope on Pele's mountain or the battle between Elisha Gage and the Spiderweb Prince. It's good, angry shit that hits the vibe that I need. But the smaller details, like the texture of dehydrated potato salad or keʻokeʻo having the two/no more/no less, Cuicatl's military pivots -- end up hitting really hard in ways that I initially thought would be mundane. It's good stuff. Most of my mood was re-reading this and enjoying how well each arc fed into the next.

Science bits are also neat. Ninetales peeing on things and therefore being unideal pets. Tyrunt imprinting. There's a really cool bit where Necrozma is blacker than anything Selene has ever seen, because that's how light works.

I wish I had a better idea for how Kekoa and Gen treat/view their pokemon. It's hard since we don't really get to go directly into their heads, but also in serious bits the pokemon tend to just drop off the face of the map for pretty much everyone. Gen's sort of makes sense -- she's a little wrapped up in her own head and picks them for superficial traits, like if leafeon don't vibe with her vegetarianism. I wish we got to see more Kekoa/Hekeli -- a lot of Kekoa's views on heritage end up wrapped up in Cuicatl's team, which is good for conflict but leaves me wishing I had a tiny bit more from him.

The Worm interlude structure of having a random chapter whose narrator completely blows the previous events out of the water really works. It's not quite as impactful in the first arc when the stakes are a lot lower and the conflicts are more personal -- the oh shit moments for me are 1.15 and 3.1, which cemented the overarching narrative beyond three kids taking out their frustrations on one another. Still, random POV/event chapters like Kekoa digs for grubbin and gets told to let go of his hatred go a long way in lightening up the story.

Another major improvement from guidance -- characters get to be happy in this one! Probably a result of the longer timeline and broken clocks being right twice a day, but still. It's nice to see their different attempts at conflict resolution and get to see things actually work, sometimes. Makes it more dramatic for when you take it all away from us genesis WHAT. Some other minor changes that I think really worked: changing it so that Kekoa and Genesis are also both sneaking their way into VStar for their own motivations; Coco (!!!); de-emphasizing the trail battles even more. Ironically, although I love the original kartana scene and its brutality, I think not having any real buildup helped seal how utterly fucked and unprepared everyone was.

Dialogue is a real treat too. You don't tag often because you don't need to; most characters have very distinct voices and it's easy enough to follow. There's a fluid balance between internal monologue jumping into people talking. Sometimes they sit around and talk their thoughts out, and I sort of wish they'd be doing something a bit more -- the action and the dialogue/internal monologue bits are usually very distinct and rarely flow.

This is a fic that's about not being okay. It hits hard and pretends to be pokemon fanfic lol. There's a lot to unpack but you do a really good job about it. What works for me is that these are still kids, and they're learning and fucking up in ways that feel genuinely childish -- they aren't overly innocent/stupid or overly cynical/jaded. Most of the time they're both and that somehow makes things even more awful.

And this last bit probably has to do with how I'm not quite genre-savvy enough to keep up with things, but -- this is one of those stories where the twists feel very organic in the moment, but make perfect sense with the benefit of hindsight. Reading/re-reading ended up being dramatically different experiences because I was able to pick up on a lot of the details that I'd missed in my first read-through -- a lot of the dialogue reads way more broken things-y in hindsight, I think.

My favorite characters in the entire fic are the shittalking ducklett. I really hope they end up happy.

Do I have crit? Even of the shitpost variety? Not really. I think reading the whole way through, the pacing is sort of a bit slow in the middle of Arc 1, but Arc 2 flies and Arc 3 is an exploration into how shit is all up in the fan, it's everywhere, but you can't even see it. The devolution into madness is fast, but again I think it's necessary -- and will be interesting to see how the trio's petty dramas get pitted against the larger disasters around them, if they'll learn anything or if they'll continue doing petty dramas, etc.

in conclusion, Cosmoem should've fallen on Necrozma and crushed them.
 

Chibi Pika

Stay positive
Staff
Location
somewhere in spacetime
Pronouns
they/them
Partners
  1. pikachu-chibi
  2. lugia
  3. palkia
  4. lucario-shiny
  5. incineroar-starr
Flying 3.1: Blacklight
Namohysip would like to know your location.
The Ultra Recon Squad had lots of numbers on how strong a necrozma can be if it’s given time to drain light.
A necrozma??? I mean, I guess yeah, multiple worlds, it makes sense... still an extremely alarming phrase!
They collide and the necrozma is driven back. Just as you hold out hope, your pokémon gracelessly falls to the ground and crumples in a heap, rendered unconscious from the psychic assault and impact. The pokéball withdraws her. Still alive.
Oof, I really like the brutal, blunt phrasing in this fight, and the question of whether a Pokemon's alive or not being settled by a recall beam is something that always gets me.
The master ball freezes in midair. That shouldn’t even be possible. The tech is too well safeguarded against attacks of all kinds. Then it crumples inward in a flash of sparks before the metal drops uselessly to the ground beneath it.
Oh, huh--it had actually never occurred to me that a Master Ball could just straight-up be immune to certain elemental energies.
wait—you hit the withdraw button on Nebby’s pokéball—and nothing happens. Worth a try, at least.
This is clever, I never even would have thought of that!
Nanu. He sounds bored, as usual. Like he’s discussing an inconvenient afternoon storm instead of a sudden, region-wide blackout.
Oh, Nanu, this is so perfectly you.

I will say that while I liked a lot of the fun side character moments during the briefing, some of the info sharing with the government officials dragged on a bit for me since a lot of the info was stuff we either already know, or could easily intuit.
It suddenly occurs to you that you’ll have to call Lillie later. Tell her about Nebby.

You’d rather fight the necrozma again.
Big oof. (Also I just generally really liked how you described the dynamic between Selene and Lillie.)
Okay, I somehow missed the Cuicatl POV tag and for a half second I legitimately was like "are we doing GUZZLORD POV now??? O___O"
Pee? You don’t have to but—well, shit. You definitely pissed yourself while you were out. At least you were expecting your period anyway. Hasn’t come yet but it’s still (probably) too early to rule it out for the month.
im very sorry but I cant help but comment that I'm pretty sure your cast has demonstrated more awareness and attentiveness to this subject in just a few chapters than I have in 17 entire years of my life lmao.
{I understand,} you say. {I’m sorry.}

{Do you understand, though?} He also hisses aloud, for emphasis.

{Maybe? My brother died a few months ago.}
Hoooo boy, I was wondering when this was going to come up between them.
{I talked shit about your brother in Paniola, didn’t I?}
Man, it really says something that he remembered.
Sure.” Cuddles sound nice right now, when you’re not crying. Or crying just a little bit. Everything’s bad and now isn’t the time for that, even if it’s dark.
damn you, this is cute
The Flame Giver. Right here. That definitely explains the light and heat. A god like that…
Okay, I'll be honest, it took me a bit to realize that Reshiram was literally physically right here and now. Ah, the joys of limited POV.
You step back in silence and someone grabs hold of you. “What the fuck,” Kekoa hisses in your ear, “was that about?”
Okay, good, I was wondering how everyone else was reacting to her literally standing there talking to the god-dragon. It's kind of fun that you can just have conversations like that without having to get distracted by surrounding details because the narrator literally can't see them.
You were the one who asked for her protection… but… a goddess bled for you. That’s not right. It’s supposed to be the other way around.
Aha, I like this detail. I was a little unclear on the staging here, though. So, Reshiram was called in to tackle the ultra beasts that appeared as a result of the portal. And the evacuation convoy was... following her?
“You shouldn’t go,” Kekoa says, voice firm and almost angry. Why? This is everything he wanted. Even if he’s calmed down a little in the last two weeks, he still clearly doesn’t like her. “Your parents aren’t good people, Gen. Nothing good comes from going back.”
See, I know he's only saying this because her leaving throws a wrench in the ransom plot, but it's interesting to me that his argument here is... one that's actually aimed at helping her? Despite the fact that that's not even necessarily the argument that would most likely work on her, or persuade her to stay. But it does have the potential to help her figure things out later on down the road.
You’ve only killed one person and you really, really didn’t mean to. That’s not the right answer, though.
cuicatl you did not, stop it
 
Fighting 3.3

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
Fighting 3.3: Lies and Lyra
Genesis

“Excuse me, Genesis.”

Your eyes flick away from Reshiram—Reshiram!—to see the man behind you. There’s a human-like pokémon with yellow stripes beside him. Wait. “We met in Heahea, right?”

He nods. “We did.”

“You been following her?” Kekoa asks/growls.

“For her own safety.” You swear he’s glaring at Kekoa but can’t quite tell in in the dim light. “After all, you never know who might set their sights on someone like her.”

“Never saw you,” Kekoa adds, more defensive than anything.

“I didn’t want to be seen.” His attention shifts back to you. “Come with me. Your father wants to speak with you.”

Father.

Cuicatl’s still growling back and forth with Reshiram. When you start walking away, Kekoa following with a huff, she doesn’t even notice. Once you’re far enough from everyone else that the electabuzz’s light can’t reach them, the man hands you a phone. Oh. For a second you thought that he was here, but this makes a lot more sense. Kekoa tries to step closer, but he’s held back. Gently, but the message gets across loud and clear. Even to you.

There’s already a call started. No time to prepare. You raise the phone to your ear and cough. “Hello?”

“Hello, Genesis. Are you hurt?”

His question makes you smile; he does still care about you.

“I am not. Are you?”

“Good to hear. I am also unharmed. Security has only encountered one of the monsters here, and it was quickly dispatched. Which brings me to the reason for this call: it is time for you to come home. The world has become far too dangerous for you to be unprotected.”

“But you’ve sent protection, haven’t you?” He did. He was watching after you the entire time. Because he cares.

“Hector was the one who requested you be brought back to a more defensible location.”

“Okay.” You’re going home. It’s still a shock to hear, even after months of waiting and praying for it. Sure, it took the sun going out—but you’re going home! “I’ll come.”

“Excellent. I have a teleporter ready to bring you over. We will continue this conversation once you arrive.”

He hangs up. Teleporter? That’s—you were expecting a boat. You had a whole speech planned out for when you got back, but now it’s slipping out of reach as you try to find it. No time to prepare, everything on the line and—and you have to say goodbye, now. To Cuicatl. Someone who had always been nice to you. Well, almost always. But you usually deserved it when she wasn’t. And there’s no way at all that Mother ever lets you speak to her again.

You take a deep breath and turn back towards Reshiram. This is it. Your last impression with her. Better not screw it up.

*​

You screwed it up. No, Kekoa screwed it all up. Cuicatl even tried to help you! Wasn’t even mad you called the death cult she’s in a death cult. Uggggggh. She hates you now, doesn’t she? And you’ll never get a chance to correct it. That was all you were trying to avoid.

You’re still reflecting on that conversation when the time the teleporter’s alakazam makes the entire world stretch and stretch until there’s nothing but lines around you. The alakazam leaps away just as soon as the world starts to settle around you.

You’re home. It’s hard to see the edges of the room in the dark but the floor is familiar and you’re home! After the first footstep echoes around the parlor you remember that you’re wearing ragged hiking boots and shamefully slip them off. Fine. You’ll face your parents in socks. Maybe they won’t even notice.

It’s just two trips around the staircase to the second floor. To Father’s office. Hector and his pokémon stay at the bottom with your bag. More light, brighter than the electabuzz’s, flows down from the top.

A vikavolt’s light. The bug—you never learned the vikavolts’ names since they were usually at work with the spiders—floats behind you and gently presses you closer to the door. No one opens it when you approach, so with shaky hands you press down the handle and step inside.

The vikavolt stays behind, but there’s still light and a great deal of heat in the room itself. Red is lying down in her bed when you enter. That doesn’t last long, as the pyroar ambles over to you and sniffs you over. Then she nuzzles your shoulder. You used to be scared of the big cat, but now you’re just happy she’s here because it means you’re home. For a moment you ignore the other people in the room and hug her back, giving her a scratch on the chin. But it doesn’t last. Eventually Red walks back to her bed and you have to turn and face reality. Father is smiling, either at you or at his longtime pet. Your mother is not, legs and arms crossed and almost glaring at you.

Not good. Not good at all.

“You’re back,” she says after what feels like an hour of silent appraisal. “But have you changed?”

Fragments of what you wanted to say come back. You’re sorry. Time alone made you realize—what did it make you realize? She keeps staring at you in the dim light and you have to move on without figuring it out.

“A lot. I cared for my own pokémon. Saw the world in a different way. I’ve been away from—” do you say her name or not ahhhhhhh— “her for a few months and got away from her influence. I made new friends—”

“The pagan and the transsexual, yes?”

“I—I was trying to teach them.”

There’s fire in her eyes that can’t be blamed on the pyroar’s light. “’Trying,’ were you? Tell me, were they also trying to convert you?”

“Cuicatl said—”

“Because from where I’m sitting, I see a different explanation.” You turn to your father but his eyes are locked on his pet. He can’t see your pleading. “What happened on the roof—”

She kissed me!

She cuts you off, again, with a wave of her hand. “So you said. Does it matter, though? Something awoke within you. We cast you out and away from it and what do you do? You find another deviant to latch onto. Rather than fight the demons you seek out and embrace them, time and time again.”

It’s all too much. The loathing in her voice when she talks about your friends, the accusations, dad looking away… you want to yell but that would be childish and you want her to take you seriously so you can stay.

“Tell me, Genesis,” she practically purrs. “Can you look me in the eyes and tell me that girl never tempted you?”

“Of course she didn’t.”

Mother leans back into her chair, a very self-satisfied smile on her face.

“Genesis Elizabeth Gage, you have always been a terrible liar.”

2014​

The library door swings open and you look up from your homework. Stefan is standing in the doorway with an Asian child about your age beside him. Her eyes briefly settle on you before immediately flitting away to look at the rest of the room. Like you’re the least interesting thing in it. “You have a visitor, Miss Gage.”

The girl finally, almost unwillingly turns back towards you and walks forward. You stand up, rubbing some of the wrinkles out of your skirt, and extend a hand. “Hi. Who are you?” There’s a sharp cough in the corner and it takes all your willpower not to look at Agnes. “Hello. It is a pleasure to make your ack-wain-tens.” That word took you forever to get right. “My name is Genesis. What is yours?” You correct yourself, a little stiffer than you have to be out of spite. Agnes doesn’t disapprove, but that might have counted as ‘sass’ and earn you another manners lesson tonight.

Stefan breaks in before the girl can respond. “Oh, Agnes, you’re free to go for the day. Sarah and I will watch the children.” The old woman huffs (she mostly speaks in huffs, tuts, and scoldings) and gathers her things. The girl glances between you and Agnes with a sly smile that grows much wider once the only adults are behind her.

“I’m Lyra,” she finally says when the door is shut. “Or Kotone if you want to call me that. That was my name back home. But a new country means a new name. That’s what dad says.”

“Oh? So you’re from…?”

“Japan.”

Japan. Mother told you about that place recently. They don’t worship Xerneas there, so he couldn’t stop it when Yveltal sent monsters. A city was destroyed. A lot of people died. Now they’re all in a cocoon. That is why you believe in Xerneas. He can protect you. But if Mother let you speak to Lyra then she also believes and already knows all of that. You can ask about other stuff. “Your English sounds good.”

Lyra shrugs. You wince at the thought of Agnes seeing you do that. “I had someone to teach me.”

“Cool.” Like your Kalosian lessons. It’s one of your best subjects. You even managed to mostly speak in it when Father took you to Kalos last year. “What do you like to do? When you’re not seeing the world?”

“Be outside.” At some point her eyes had started wandering the room again. They snap back to you all at once. “Want to go out? It’s Winter in Japan, but it’s warm here. I want to enjoy it.”

You glance at Stefan, still standing by the doorway, and he nods back. “Okay. There’s a playground outside.”

There is. You don’t use it much. Not anymore. Exodus…left…and your parents don’t like letting you do anything with Levi where he could get hurt. Even though you’re nothing like your sister.

When Lyra first sees the playground her eyes widen and she just stands still and looks at it for long enough that you start fidgeting. “This is all yours?”

“My brother uses it sometimes.”

She shakes her head and finally looks away from it and back to you. With a quick flick of her wrist her finger presses into your heart. “Tag. You’re it.”

Lyra races off and it takes a moment for your thoughts to catch up with the present. Okay. You’re not really dressed for this. She isn’t either, but at least she has more comfortable shoes on. It’s fine, though; you can still play for a bit.

You chase her up the stairs and onto the bridge, up the spire, down the pole, turn around real fast (and almost wipe out), catch your balance and go to the second set, up the stairs when she decides to crawl up a slide—wait, she just ran back out the bottom of the slide—down the slide, towards the—your shoes catch on the ground and you fall flat on your face. Little flashes of pain shoot up your arms and legs. Your knee is sore where it hit the ground and you can imagine the pattern of woodchips plastered on it.

It’s fine. All fine. Nothing too bad. You press yourself up on your hands and sit down properly. Sarah’s running over with her comfey draped over her shoulder. It takes Lyra a bit to notice you aren’t following, but she starts jogging back when she does. The comfey wraps herself around your arm and you can feel the healing pouring into you. Sarah does a quick check on everything before standing up and starting to walk away. Comfey stays for a little bit as your cuts stop bleeding, become thin red lines, and then disappear altogether. Even the pains from your too-tight saddle shoes fade away.

Lyra plops down beside you right as the comfey starts to fly back after her trainer. “They really keep an eye on you, huh?”

“Yeah. They want to make sure I’m safe.”

She doesn’t look like she agrees. “I hate it. Haven’t been living with dad long but he always, always, always has someone watching me. Can’t do anything without him finding out. Have you always lived like that?”

“Yes, but it keeps me safe. There are bad people out there.”

Lyra scoffs. “I know. Still hate it.”

She glares at the merry-go-round like it’s responsible for everything and for once you know what to do.

You poke a finger into her heart, smile, and run away.

*​

“HEY!” You’re jolted out of your thoughts by someone yelling very loudly very close to you. Lyra. In what you’re pretty sure is the uniform of the school down the street. “You really don’t pay attention when you run.”

You flush in embarrassment and look away. “I was thinking.”

“What were you thinking about?”

There’s a book series about a group of knights. There are a lot of books and there’s sort of a bigger plot but mostly it’s just kids a little older than you hanging out with other kids and fighting bad guys with swords, bows, and pokémon. When you run around the track you get lost in that world, sort of, except you’re in it and have friends, a faerie rapidash, and a sword made of pure crystal. The sword also—doesn’t matter. The point is that you won’t tell anyone any of it. Ever. It’s not real. It doesn’t matter to them.

“Stuff.”

Lyra stares at you like you said something wrong. And maybe you did. Eventually she nods. “I did not see you at school today.”

“I don’t go. Agnes teaches me here.”

There is a local school run by priests of Xerneas but Mother has some issue with them that she’s never really explained. Or maybe she has and you just didn’t understand. That happens a lot with her explanations.

Now Lyra’s really looking at you funny. “Is that common here? It was not in Japan.”

“It’s not common, but it might be someday. More and more people are doing it.” Mother is working to ensure that. She’s often in Hau’oli or even on the mainland trying to get the government to make it easier.

“Are you not lonely, though?”

“I mean…” Yeah. Very. Sort of. You have your brother. And your parents. And Stefan, Sarah, Agnes… There are people around you almost all the time. And also Lucy. That’s enough.

Lyra grabs your hand. “Let me get changed. Then we can play.” She seems very determined. You aren’t sure what about.

*​

At first Lyra just uses you for the playground out back. Sometimes she’ll talk about school, but never for long. Later she starts coming inside, usually for snacks. Then she starts talking about whatever’s on her mind (snakes, cartoons, something or other that another friend told her) and listens when you say stuff that probably isn’t as interesting. Eventually you just expect her to show up almost every day at four on the dot and sometimes she doesn’t leave until it’s dark. Lyra shrugs it off whenever you ask: “I just like being here.”

2016​

“Do you want to marry me?”

You almost faceplant onto the bridge but you catch yourself just in time. Lyra’s right in front of you. Was that a plan to throw you off so she could win? You almost had her. But she doesn’t start running again and just shrugs it off when you poke her (on the shoulder, not the heart, because Mother says you can’t do that anymore).

“What?”

“A bunch of kids are getting married at recess. A boy asked me today and I told him I was already married. It was a lie, but we could maybe make it not a lie?”

“No.”

Her expression immediately falls. “Why not?”

“Because we’re both girls. Duh.”

She has her ‘you’re-wrong-and-I-want-to-say-it-but-probably-won’t’ look on.

“I mean, you’re nice. If you were a boy, yes. But you’re not, so…”

“Ah.”

And that’s the end of that.

2017​

Mother says you can go to school! On your first day Lyra comes over early and you help each other tidy up and make sure the uniforms are on right before you get in the car and ride over together.

Not ten steps in the door Lyra’s flagged over by some girls you don’t recognize and they start talking with only a quick introduction for you. Their discussion moves quickly with lots of gestures, hugs, and words you can barely make out over the dull roar of the children around you. But you aren’t a part of it. You aren’t wanted here. That’s fine. You knew she had other friends. Betrayal weighing heavy on your heart, you slip off into the crowd.

*​

Lyra finds you again at lunch.

“Where have you been?” She slams her tray down onto the table and stares at you, lips drawn back in a snarl.

“In class.”

“Not what I meant and you know it.”

She’s angry at you. You’ve seen her angry before but you’ve never been scared of her. Until now.

“You were talking to your friends and…” You sigh and look down, away from Lyra’s ferocious eyes. “They’re your friends. Not mine. I didn’t want to get in the way.”

Lyra huffs and half-laughs half-cries. “That it? Then get up. You’re coming to my table and I’m making them your friends.”

She tries. She really does. And you start to learn things about them and they learn some things about you. Three come over to your house in October, but Mother keeps two from coming back (one was a liar, the other too masculine) and the third stays away on principle. They let you keep sitting at the table (it’s not your fault your mom’s crazy, they explain, until you start to argue that, no, she isn’t, and one politely changes the topic). There are always jokes you don’t get and there’s a wall between them and you but it’s nice to have other people to talk to. And Lyra’s always there, glancing at you from time to time and making sure that you aren’t too far out of the loop.

2018​

Lyra storms into the library, all but slamming the door behind her. Stefan looks up and starts some snide rebuke or another before the young girl silences him with a vicious glare. “Gen, can we go somewhere private?” She says it like it is not a question.

“Sure.” You smooth your skirt and walk out of the library with her, taking a left to the staircase, up two flights of stairs, and down to the third door to the right. You hesitate before opening it. She seems really out of it and if she wanted something private… you brace yourself and open the door to your room. Fluffy looks up and chitters for a moment before going back to sleep on her web, strung up in the corner between four posts.

Lyra shuts the door, gently, behind you and looks at the room with the same curious eye she had when you first met her. “This is your bedroom, huh?”

“Yup.”

“Thought you’d never show me.”

You don’t respond, instead walking over to your bed and sitting down on the edge. Lyra casts a wary look at Fluffy before following and sitting beside you. And it’s true. You don’t like her here. This is your space. Yours. You make your own bed and do most of the chores just so fewer people come in. Having anyone in here feels invasive. Even if it’s Lyra.

It’s a boring room, anyway, since you barely spend time here. A few toys for Fluffy. A plush pyroar (almost as cute as the real thing). Plain blue wallpaper. A diary on the desk you stopped writing in years ago. Mother pretended she could read your mind and kept catching and punishing you for stuff you were pretty sure happened in the rare moments while no one was watching; you only figured out how she was doing it when you made up a little sin you didn’t actually commit and wrote it down. Sure enough, you were locked in the library for four hours of silent reflection over something that didn’t happen. She was upset when you stopped writing and keeps having a new diary put back on the desk whenever you hide or throw out the old one.

The diary sends you off into a thought hole that doesn’t matter; Lyra is upset now and she matters, not a stupid book.

“Guess I should tell you what’s going on, right?” She sounds resigned, like she’d really rather not. But why would she want privacy if she didn’t want to tell you?

“If you want. You don’t have to.”

“My idiot big brother is going back to Japan.”

“I… I’ve heard that parts of it have recovered?” You aren’t sure why this is bad as she makes it sound. She barely even talks about Ethan.

She shakes her head, sending waves through her long black hair. She must notice, too, because she tucks some behind her shoulder before turning to look at you. “Gen, how did my dad make his money?”

“Music? Or television?” You think it was music but you sort of remember her talking about being on set for a show filming once and you aren’t sure if that was through her dad’s work or not.

“Yeah. Officially. And maybe for real some of the time. But in Japan all the big businesses compete in the market and in the shadows.” She makes a point of looking directly into your eyes. “He worked for the Rockets and he was damn good at it.”

You flinch at the casual swear. She said ‘Rockets’ like it meant something. Should mean something.

“Who are the Rockets?” you nervously ask. If it’s important you should know.

“Mafia group.”

What? Her father… he seemed nice enough. A little strict. You had mistaken him for a security guard at first with the way he held himself. But you’d never thought he was a bad person. “I think he’s still in it,” she mutters. “Just a little bit. Makes sure that spider silk keeps flowing. Another company, another gang, makes it back home.”

That was too far. “Father doesn’t sell to criminals.” You meet her gaze with a glare of your own, doing your best to keep it up when her brown eyes soften considerably and she looks… sad? You suddenly feel stupid and maybe mean and decide that it’s time to inspect your socks.

“He sells to war criminals. Really, the yakuza are tame compared to his other clients.”

“I…”

She waves a hand—wait when did she start wearing nail polish?—and cuts off your thoughts. “My brother and I didn’t meet him until I was eight. Before that he was just the guy who left Mom and sometimes paid for stuff make up for it. Then he came back and Hibiki—I mean Ethan. No, screw it—Hibiki figured out what our Dad did pretty quick. And he took it hard. We’d both always liked pokémon since grandma was a breeder. Talked to each other about going on journeys and all that. And in Japan that all leads back to Red,” she says the word with a strange mix of awe and disdain. Like he wasn’t just garbage, he was the Mt. Everest of garbage. Which isn’t fair. Your father’s pyroar is lovely, if scary. But you don’t think she’s talking about the cat. “Some kid beat the Rocket Gang’s leader so bad he stepped down in disgrace. Then the Rocket Gang’s rival companies made TV shows, video games, and everything else they could to rub it in. Made the kid a saint in the process.”

You realize you have heard of him. “The guy with the pikachu?”

“Yeah, the guy with the pikachu.” If she’s impressed she doesn’t let it show before she plows on. “Hibiki practically worshipped Red. The night he found out what dad did he completely lost it in our room. Went on about how he had to redeem his family.” Lyra sighs. “Total drama queen. And now he’s going to go home and fight the Rocket Gang until they kill him.”

A lot of ideas whir through your mind but they range from stupid to rude. And most of them come back to one phrase: ‘I don’t know how to help you.’

Lyra abruptly leans over and wraps her arms around you in a big, tight hug. Out of all the things you should be focusing on, you end up thinking about how nice her blukberry-scented shampoo smells.

*​

A few months later Lyra comes to school with the gloom that had settled over her replaced by bright, shining happiness. The new semester had moved you to a different lunch period than hers so you don’t get a chance to ask her why until Emile drives you both to your home. She stays quiet but clearly excited between her almost-too-wide grin and her foot bouncing off the bottom of the car, replaced by almost skipping-steps as you move out back to the former playground.

When you’re both sitting down on one of the benches alongside the tennis court, Lyra finally breaks her silence. “My brother got arrested.”

“What?” And since when is that a good thing.

“Yup. Turns out it’s illegal to attack people and break their stuff, even if they’re also criminals. The cartoons lied.”

“But he’s in jail and that’s bad?” You’re pretty darn sure it is, anyway.

“For now. But Dad thinks he can get him home with a slap on the wrist and a promise to not come back for a few years. Win-win there. He’ll be safe back home and can’t return to risk his life.”

Oh. That’s why. Now you get it. “I’m happy for you.” Lyra smiles and gives you a quick side hug before pulling back up. She seems to sink down into the bench as her legs sprawl out further in front of her.

“And now I can finally think about my own journey without worrying about his.” Right. Her journey. She’d talked about it a lot with you at first but then she must have realized that you didn’t know what she was talking about so she moved onto discussing it with other friends. But you should care about the stuff she likes. Or at least pretend you do.

“Have you decided what pokémon you want?”

Her smile somehow grows wider. It almost hurts your lips just to look at it. “Well, I want to be able to explore places so I need pokémon that can help with that. And a fire-water-grass core is sort of tradition. The fire-type is salazzle, of course, because I like their mating dance.” She winks at you and you get the feeling that there’s a joke you were supposed to get but didn’t. Her smile thins a bit, but she doesn’t try to explain it. “As a kid I wanted a tangrowth since their vines could help me cross gaps and climb places, but you don’t have those here and I haven’t thought of a good replacement yet. Then lapras is obviously the go-to water-type for crossing oceans and lakes and rivers and stuff. But I might go with pyukumuku instead.”

“Pyukumuku? You know my dad pays people to get rid of those? Why would you want to own one?”

“Well, they’re super easy to care for and that’s good since some of my other pokémon might not be. Plus, most people underestimate them and they can be really tricky to fight.”

“I see.” You really don’t—why on earth would she pick the ball of slime over a gorgeous milotic, lapras, or primarina?

“Yup. Then something for deserts, something for the tundra, and a bird to fly on. Or maybe flygon for both the deserts and the flying…”

You don’t really understand half of what comes next. Something about a sled race that someone won with a sandslash, which apparently don’t live in sand at all. And there’s a lake in Japan that supposedly leads to another world entirely but only three people have gone, only two came back, and only one ever talks about it.

There are a few opportunities to ask a question that sounds like a good one or interject with something you’d heard somewhere but mostly you just let her talk. Lyra’s happy again. You hadn’t fully realized just how much you had missed that.

*​

“You’re going to homecoming, right?”

Lyra leans onto the locker next to you and looks at you expectantly.

“Wasn’t planning on it. Dances are…” full of bright lights and loud music and crowds of bodies and the smell of sweat and other terrible stuff. Helping out with prom as part of student government terrified you into swearing off both dances and student government forever. “Not my thing. But are you going?”

“I don’t have a date, no.” Her smile turns almost predatory. Was that the wrong question? Should you apologize. “But there’s nothing stopping us from going. As friends.”

“Um.”

“Janet,” the blonde from the lunch table (right?), “just found out that she’ll be on the mainland that weekend, so she gave her ticket to me.”

“I—”

“Please. For me?”

She looks terribly anxious and she just got happy and her hair looks very cute today and you just can’t find it in yourself to say no.

*​

You should have said no.

The night starts well enough. Lyra comes over to your place wearing a black knee-length dress and black opera gloves. The dress is silk and clearly fitted for her and it looks really good, but the gloves mean that there’s more fabric on her arms than her legs and it’s unbalanced and you can’t even imagine wearing that without immediately taking the gloves off. The dark fabric makes her look elegant enough that you can almost forget it.

Just after the car drives off Lyra notices something wrong with your hair, which is annoying because you spent so long sitting still and getting it styled earlier, so she steps over and fixes it. She’s surprisingly slow and has to get a lot closer to you than you would’ve expected. It isn’t unpleasant, though. She smells good and it at least takes your mind off the heart rate spike you’re experiencing as you get closer to the dance, even if it somehow makes your heart go even faster.

The dance is almost as bad as you remember it being. Less people seem to want to actually dance so there’s less sweat in the air. And if they aren’t dancing then they’re talking and the DJ has to turn up the music to be heard over the talking and then people have to talk louder to be heard over the music and there are dozens or maybe hundreds of conversations going on and your mind keeps grasping onto snippets of all of them and it’s too much to handle and you’d really rather be outside. But Lyra’s here and she’s happy and seeing her happy makes you happy enough that your face gets hot so you’ll stay. Lyra looks at you occasionally or nudges your elbow and asks if you’re fine and you lie and say you are and she hesitantly accepts it every time. Once in a while the conversation between her and her friends turns to something you actually know about and you talk too much until you get embarrassed and just stop talking for a while.

After what feels like days but may have been minutes a song plays that you know how to dance to. Lyra went to those lessons with you and she must remember because she grabs your wrist and moves her eyes to the dance floor. “It’s a guy-girl dance,” you mutter-shout.

“You’re tall. We can make it work.”

And you do. It’s surprisingly easy to tone everything out while the song is on and just focus on your movements and Lyra’s. But the song ends, and a loud, fast pop song takes its place and the moment is over.

*​

You try, you really do, but eventually everything is too much and you have to step out of the room to breathe. Lyra follows, looking equal parts guilty and concerned. She glances down at your hand, seeing it twitching and folding in on itself as it desperately wants something to fidget with even though you kicked that bad habit years ago.

“I messed up, didn’t I?”

“No.” You agreed to it. You freaked out. It isn’t her fault at all.

She takes a deep, dramatic sigh. “You don’t hate me, right?”

Of course you don’t. She’s closer to you than anyone is. Practically family.

“You know I love you, Lyra.”

She brightens up like her brother got arrested five times.

7/5/2019​

As of late your concentration has been even worse than usual. You’ve even caught yourself fidgeting with a coin a few times, staring off into the distance for minutes on end. It’s gotten bad enough that someone told Father and he talked to you for a few minutes before you convinced him that everything was fine and he could go back to his work. Levi, bless him, has done his best to cheer you up but it’s nothing he can do anything about, nothing that you’d want him to do anything about, and he gets the hint.

Lyra’s leaving soon. You don’t know how long she’ll be gone. Maybe for a long time. She does want to explore, after all, so there’s no reason for her to stop after she beats the island challenge. And she says she’d be happy if she never went home again.

You’ve met her starter, a stoic absol. He lets you pet him in long, gentle strokes down the back and he’s so, so soft.

The day Lyra leaves gets closer and closer and closer until its finally here.

“I’ve never been up on your roof,” she asks without asking.

You take her up there because it’s her last day and you aren’t denying her last request. The door is unlocked. You don’t know if you should be surprised since you’ve never even tried to open it before. On the roof you’re hit with the smell of salty air and the sounds of wingull down on the beach. The ocean stretches out almost to the horizon, only broken by the faint silhouette of Lanakila in the distance.

It’s a good view. Maybe you should’ve come here before. Lyra seems to think the same, leaning on the railing and letting the wind run through her hair without a care in the world. She’s wearing the same outfit she wore to the dance. It’ll make it easier to remember how she looks forever, even if she never comes back.

You walk over to the railing and stand by her in silence. You should say something. Time is running out fast and while she can text you on the trail she’ll have bigger things to worry about and new friends you’ll never meet. Someday she might forget to text altogether.

“I guess you’re never going to make a move, are you?” Lyra finally asks.

“What?” What is she talking about? Move on wha—

Her lips meet yours and your mind stops working. Then it starts up again going way too fast. You’ve never been kissed before and it feels good but it shouldn’t feel good but it’s Lyra and she’s pretty and you like it and you’re going to burn with Yveltal and no you aren’t you hate this hate this hate this but you still don’t pull away. Why don’t you pull away?

The door swings open. “Girls,” Stefan says. “You really shouldn’t… be… on… the…”

Lyra steps back and you stumble back from her and Stefan looks more confused than anything before he looks away from you, disappointment replacing the shock. You want to apologize, to beg to him that you didn’t mean it, she did it, you didn’t like it, please don’t tell Mother!

But you know he will and begging him to deceive her might just make it worse.

Now you can only pray that Mother will be merciful.

*​

You look into her eyes and see that there is no mercy to be found.

“I swear—”

“That’s enough, girls.” Father finally speaks, but he still won’t look at either of you. “Genesis, Stefan will take you to your room. You are not to leave it. Please spend the time reflecting on your mistakes.”

It’s not fair. You want to stamp your foot and shout it but it wouldn’t change their minds. A better argument might work but all of your ideas melt to nothing under Mother’s withering stare. Maybe… Maybe it is fair. You’re back. They’re keeping you safe. Keeping an eye on you. They’re just worried about your soul and when they realize that you’re still pure everything will go back to normal.

“What about my pokémon?”

Father waves towards the table. You remove your belt and for a long moment you simply hold it in your hand, unable or unwilling to put it on the table. Putting it down feels like you’re throwing the last few months away. Throwing your experiences away like they didn’t matter. All you’ll have left to show for it are the memories.



Maybe Mother was right. Maybe Lyra and Kekoa did wear you down. Make you rebellious and prideful and sinful to the point where you would defy your own parents in favor of a pagan and a transsexual. Maybe you can’t trust yourself with a tie to the past.

You set the belt down on the table and walk towards your room.
 
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WildBoots

Don’t underestimate seeds.
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. moka-mark
  2. solrock
A few line-by-line reactions and then expanded thoughts at the end. 🎵

Kekoa tries to step closer, but he’s held back. Gently, but the message gets across loud and clear.
The choppiness here was a little odd for me. I know it’s a style choice, but I had to reread this line a couple times.

Hello, Genesis. Are you hurt?”

His question makes you smile; he does still care about you.

“I am. Are you?”
I can’t tell if he misheard her (if so, I’d expect her to react!) or if there’s a typo here.

To Cuicatl. Someone who had always been nice to you. Well, almost always.
LOL


the teleporter’s alakazam makes the entire world stretch and stretch until there’s nothing but lines around you.
Ooh, nice line.

you never learned the vikavolt’s names since they were usually at work with the spiders
Vikavolts’

“I need you to look me in the eye, Xerneas as a witness, and tell me that you never felt anything for her.”
The parents became talking heads for me in this sequence. I wasn’t sure whether only mom was talking or what kind of space dad is taking up, etc.

Also, I wonder if “that you never felt anything for her” is too direct for this family? Maybe instead focusing on “your sins” instead of “your feelings”?

Or Kotone if you want to call me that.
Ahh I wondered if they were the same person! Nice.

Even the pains from running in shoes that were not meant to run in fade away.
A little clunky with that preposition. Suggestion: Even the pains from your too-tight saddle shoes fade away.

There’s a book series about a group of knights. There are a lot of books and there’s sort of a bigger plot but mostly it’s just kids a little older than you hanging out with other kids and fighting bad guys with swords, bows, and pokémon. When you run around the track you get lost in that world, sort of, except you’re in it and have friends, a white rapidash, and a sword made of pure crystal. The sword also—doesn’t matter. The point is that you won’t tell anyone any of it. Ever. It’s not real. It doesn’t matter to them.
Aww, Gen. This was sweet. Maybe the most relatable she’s been for me.

Then she starts talking about whatever’s on her mind (snakes, cartoons, something or other that another friend told her)
Hahaha yes.

You suddenly feel stupid and maybe mean and decide that it’s time to inspect your socks.
Doh. ❤

in Japan that all leads back to Red,” she says the word with a strange mix of awe and disdain. Like he wasn’t just garbage, he was the Mt. Everest of garbage.
Excellent turn of phrase, though I was confused at first why she was mad at Red. I feel like Gen maybe should be too.

The night he found out he completely lost it in our room.
I wasn’t totally sure what he was finding out about here. Did Red get killed? Is this just talking about the truth of Lyra’s family business?

She brightens up like her brother got arrested five times.
Hilarious and so lovely in context.

“I guess you’re never going to make a move, are you?” Lyra finally asks.
I like Lyra.

This was a fun one! I like the reframing of the Rockets and how the kids fit into it, how it intersects with TV and stories.

I was surprised that Gen’s introduction to Lyra felt so informal. It seems like if their parents were friends or whatever, then Gen might at least know her by her family or be told that she was supposed to welcome the new girl into the neighborhood. Something. Maybe even a suggestion of what Mom wants her to take away from this (even if she’s getting it secondhand from Agnes) since that woman seems to always have an agenda. “X will be good for you. Maybe she can teach you how to Y.”

I also thought the ending came abruptly, and I wish there was something to anchor us back in the present or contextualize these memories with how it feels to say goodbye to Cuicatl now or whether she agrees with her mom’s assertion that she’s lying.

You handled the awkwardness with the friends well though. The tension between “my mom was terrible to you” and “I have to defend her actions.” ✅
 
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