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“Everything is Blacklit nowadays,” Astrid giggled. “You guys are, my friends are, and our enemies are. The stuff is everywhere. Usually when it’s something trying to kill me, I can feel a difference…” Their talk continued for a while after, comparing experiences and getting a feel for one...

At least this guy understood. Maybe there was hope still that other places such as this existed in the multiverse. She would not entertain the absolutely nightmarish thought that she was the only exploding Ninetales out there. “No, I guess not,” Astrid said, giggling a little. “In the first...

“Mhm. Mhm.” Astrid nodded. She took a moment to finally appreciate the crater she’d just made. “Just depends on what you mean by ‘killed’, I guess. Because I’m pretty sure I’ve died, like, a couple times. I actually am used to it in that sense, if that makes any… sense. “But, I haven’t been...

“Eheh. Did someone actually die?” Astrid shifted in place and tensed a little. Probably not, honestly. She was pretty sure the Gardevoir was pulling her tail, but well, she’d gone and brought up the subject anyway. “We had a few people bite the dust. Y’know how warfare goes, and stuff, ha ha…...

Ultimately, Astrid wasn’t able to move her jaw in a way that would allow her to properly recreate those sounds. Oh well. She wiped her face and nodded. “Mergo it’ll be. Of course I’m full of energy, I’m out here to exercise!” What if they were spying on her? She’d heard whispers of an Aria and...

Fascinated, Astrid pawed at the ground. “Woah, you guys have such… um, cool nicknames! What other names do you have? Do you have, what are they called, the ‘sound’ names? Like, okay, mine is—” deep breath, “—AAAAAAAA!!”

He wasn’t wrong. The Pines were vast, and it certainly took a while to get around, but she was familiar with its outer limits by now and wouldn’t be surprised if a bird’s-eye view, notwithstanding the canopy in the way, would produce imagery similar to that of the damn moon. How about that. Too...

“Yeah. It went down… something like that.” Now that they’d spent some time talking, the dust seemed to have settled completely. “…I fought the Blacklight out here. Even more than I fought it on the moon… I think, I think thisplace is where I fought with it the most. The energies in my body are...

“Apparently it sells enough tickets for them not to care!” Astrid laughed briefly. “…Months ago, things were a little different. I wasn’t able to control it like this, and… well, I didn’t have someone like you around to help. I hurt myself a lot.” A sober pause. “And others. Kinda wakes you up.”

‘Volatile.’ That would describe her, surely. Suddenly she wasn’t sure who she was more interested in talking to: those volatile folks like her (were they anything like her?) or this mysterious Lucario who—aaand just like that, her Radiance was gone. Huh. “Thanks!” Astrid chirped, carefully...

“Don't worry about it,” Astrid quickly said, “I’m just… caught off guard. I chose this place for its remoteness.” And maybe, she realized, that might be why someone from a world exactly like this one would have done the same and found her out here. The more land she claimed, the more likely it...

Astrid became acquainted with the new arrivals through word of mouth, through the local news, and eventually one by one as she ran into them. She’d lost track of the order, and knew she’d yet to meet them all, but it was coming along well enough. She was being social again. For now, it was...

“Honest with myself,” Astrid scoffed. “What do you mean by that?” Myles skipped a rock twice as far as her last one. “I dunno.” Rolling clouds absorbed the pinks and oranges from the beginnings of a sunset. It reflected off of the lakewater across from them, disrupted by Astrid’s next...

She was starting to feel warm already, but Brisa was correct. ‘S fuckin’ cold indeed. Boy, she’d missed hearing that drawl… Her tails lashed with excitement. “I’d be thrilled to!” she said. “Prooobably better to test our mettle there than, um, here. Yeah, definitely.” They needed to get back...

Astrid noticed it too—the distance between their paws closing in. But it wouldn’t last. A wayward spark, the slightest imbalance, forced her to let go and smile innocently before they could touch, right through her fear, right through her aching heart. But Brisa was smiling back, and her smile...

Astrid kept her paw loose, never gripping too hard. With each surge of Radiance that flowed through her, she injected some of her own. But the Whiplash—it had grown shorter. Suddenly Brisa was only a meter away. You’ll… support me? It wasn’t a plea. Astrid’s mouth set in a hard line as she...

But that word. Love. Love. Someone loved her. No. She didn’t understand it. Astrid only understood wanting to be around someone, seeing the best in them, complimenting them, validating them, taking on anything with them, and, and… and… Is that what love is? Something vile swirled inside her...

Astrid frowned at the snow, upset. “You were caught in the blast once,” she mused— —“so you know exactly how much it hurts. Well, fine, I admit it. It hurts. And it works in battle all the same. I’m not as strong as you, or, or Starr or Owen so… I do what I have to! It—it works! It makes me...

It was the notion that she’d forgotten something on her bedside every morning that had first started to bug Astrid. Sometimes drifting off, forgetting where she was walking and having to reroute was part of who she was—always had been—but wasn’t it happening more frequently? Wasn’t it? Or was...

“You didn’t exactly make it easy, did you?” Her chest was going to explode. The walls couldn’t hold her thumping heart. With how quickly she’d spun around on Brisa, she’d surprised even herself. And then it was over, just as quickly. Her knees faltered. “…Fuck. Sorry, I j—I barely even know...