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Pokémon Broken Things

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
  9. celebi
It would appear that this fic has roughly doubled in length since I last said anything that wasn’t a shitpost; I’m sorry lol. It’s been a good read! Bear in mind this review is in this weird schrodinger’s state of trying to pretend not to know some of the lategame stuff, and also knowing what used to be here (I reread everything prior to reviewing, and also I’ve forgotten a lot of what used to be there on first read) while also coyly doing the exact opposite of that. This ended up grouped more by character than by chapter, mostly for the same reason.

Also, hey, a flying in the dark reference. As (probably) the only person left to read the rewritten version who gets that reference, I see u.

Fighting
(to whom it may concern, this is for 3.8 - 3.20 + Recap 2)

Cuicatl
On your journey you’re supposed to see Unova in all of its glory: the pleasant and unpleasant alike.
Swap out Unova for Alola and this is a pretty apt summary for Cuicatl’s BT experience, yeah? I was going to look really hard to find relevant quotes for each character, but this one was right here, lol, though this one suits more from a meta perspective than a strict one imo. I think Cuicatl spends a lot of time in the present specifically chafing against what she’s supposed to do–she certainly does it, but there’s a lot more grumbling if she remembers what she’s supposed to be grumbling about, and encouraging others to grumble. Or, hmm, less chafing, more resignation–Cuicatl’s had her fair share of hunching over various pokemon and sobbing into them, but once Kalani shows up and Pixie stops showing up, it becomes pretty clear that this where karma is coming to collect for Cuicatl. I found this to be something enjoyable about the unique, serialized nature of this rotating cast–the tone of the story remains pretty consistent, and no one ever really has a great time, least of all in the darkness arc, but individual characters end up in different places in their journey.

As several characters point out, this is the time for Cuicatl to practice what she preaches, and to see if she can make good of the things she’s been asking others to do–and the answer is yes, but not happily. Again I think the ties to duty and what other people call right are strong; this is what you’re supposed to do; glory means you’re supposed to feel good about giving your pokemon agency; life means you’re supposed to come to terms with death and loss–but it’s often more unpleasant than pleasant.

Despite the incredibly rough hand she’s been dealt, I think Cuicatl’s only now (at least in the recent timeline) coming to terms with this, whereas Kekoa and Gen feel like they’ve been doing this a lot more. I think it’s a good use of the story structure, though one that does sometimes make it harder to feel like anyone individually is progressing quickly within arcs. I think Cuicatl (and by extension Pixie) felt a little stagnant in the earlier parts of this arc, but wow do things really take a sharp nosedive for them around the middle. I do feel like some of her broader strokes feel a little repetitive–even in the arc about how she needs to confront how she deals with her pokemon, she’s still emotionally supported by her other pokemon and reassured by them as she hugs them crying (it’s just a different pokemon). I don’t think it’s unrealistic and I’m not really sure if I’m advocating for cutting it for that reason, but it does make her feel chapters feel a little less cathartic when the catharsis is largely the same. It’s a tough line to juggle, since “simply do not feel bad” and “simply do not make the same mistakes you made before” are both deeply unrealistic and also deeply antithetical to interesting to storytelling, but I think we’re averaging to more than one hug pokemon and cry Cuicatl chapter per arc, which is a lot given that she’s only got so many chapters per arc to begin with.

I admit I wasn’t sure what to make of the “flashbacks”/memories. They don’t really foreshadow much to me, even knowing what they’re for. I think the main takeaway I ended up having was that the world has always been shitty, both in the past or in faraway worlds; the only universal constant is racism and if you aren’t one of the lucky few it’s an endless uphill grind to exist, with a handful of lights at the end of the tunnel. Pleasant and unpleasant alike. This is largely something that Cuicatl has already learned/is already constantly tackling with in the present, so I found myself questioning the purpose of interspersing the flashbacks so heavily. Probably something I’ll revisit at the end of Arc 5 and re-feel how I feel, though.

To the surprise of no one, I find myself drawn most to the shitshow that starts when Kalani shows up. I’ve been expecting her to pop in for a while; she was one of the most interesting parts of Guidance for me and I enjoy how much she challenges both Cuicatl and Pixie directly. I think this is another instance where I really expected Cuicatl to empathize and was really surprised/disappointed that she didn’t (almost all her Kekoa interactions way back when stands out most sharply as another instance)--surprised/disappointed in the sense that I think it’s good and realistic character development for a traumatized, violence-prone, single-minded teenager, just not what I’d been hoping for her. Turns out there’s still a lot of growth to be had when you’re only halfway through your character arc. But really, Cuicatl’s deeply familiar with what it’s like to lose your home and want your family back; she’s deeply familiar with what it’s like to feel the toxic weight of wanting to please a parent who wants one specific behavior from you and refuses to accept anything else; she’s even deeply familiar with what it’s like to have cross-species found family that other people of her species side-eye but are afraid to question, and yet still yearn for something more closely resembling a loving birth family even despite the love she feels for that cross-species found family. That she’s unable to empathize is quite the point, I imagine, and that she’s unable to produce an answer that would satisfy both herself and Pixie is certainly part of the point, I imagine. It’s a lot easy to chafe against the people who are mean to you, and a lot harder to realize that you might’ve become the person who’s being mean to someone else.

And like. Cuicatl is clearly a beleaguered party; it’s not actually fair to walk up to a blind child on a beach and violently attack them; it’s not fair to racially profile your challengers even if you’re doing so in an anti-colonizer way; there’s some argument that humans simply are not as durable as pokemon (though this is consistently not universal; maybe it’s because Pixie really gets the shit beaten out of her frequently and recently, but I’m not really convinced that Pixie is actually better defensively than Cuicatl). But it’s really telling that to her Kalani is a violent thief and Hala is * vaguely makes motion of ripping heart out of chest and crushing it to let the blood drip onto the stones and appease the angered gods *. But if she’s going to stop hating the people who resemble her, she might also stop hating herself, and we can’t have that now, can we.

Putting on my “spoilers ahead are known to me” hat for a sec; I do wish there was a little more conclusions on this at the end of the tunnel. “Will you become your abuser or be better than them?” is a deeply complicated question, and in this case it’s quite likely that to become better than her abusers Cuicatl will also have to be them–some of the characters in this story are not conferred the same rights as others. Alice (apparently) has to be purchased; Pixie can be “stolen”; both of these are valuable to Cuicatl as emotional bulwarks and also tools of war, but ultimately they live in a society (heh) that sees them as property, and unfortunately Cuicatl lives there too. I think it’s hard to convey how deeply love and friendship is felt, and it’s even harder when it’s necessary to turn to the camera and say it, and imo it’s probably hardest of all to say it right after “your hair is starting to frizz so you know it’s got to be really bad for Pixie. Poor girl. You’ll give her a long brushing / cuddles session later”--it feels transactional. Everything about potentially losing Pixie is either framed around how awful Kalani is or how it’s just someone else leaving Cuicatl like everyone else–which makes sense in what’s effectively Act 2 of this arc, where things are known to not be addressed in a healthy way, but it’s treated like inevitable villainy of the world rather than the reality that Cuicatl probably does need to change too.

With Hala and the whole V-Star thing, while the subtext that V-Star is pretty awful to the pokemon they capture and those fifty-seven butterfree are basically being trafficked and honestly a lot of Cuicatl’s talking points would be pretty horrifying if phrased from a human villain to a human protagonist, I think there’s at least more of a grey area–there is no happy ending for a lot of the parties involved, and that Cuicatl gets involved just means that she’s doing it instead of someone else doing it more violently. Comparing this with Pixie’s arc from Cuicatl’s POV–obviously from Pixie’s chapters we know that going with Kalani is a terrible idea, but there’s really not much of that conveyed to Cuicatl, and it’s hard to disentangle how much of Cuicatl’s reactions are because she’s genuinely trying to make sure Pixie doesn’t run headlong into an abusive environment vs her being mad that someone’s taken her stuff. In calling Kalani a “violent thief” instead of, like, “a really bad mother” it seems like the latter, for what it’s worth. For me the V-Star stuff is very much a forgiven thing for me because Cuicatl is pretty open about the fact that she’s doing this selfishly and for her own gains (and because maybe this will all end in a sickass fight where Cuicatl punches Victini in the face)--the transaction is acknowledged, as are its justifications, and there’s no pretending that she’s actually trying to be the butterfree’s friends or that she’s helping anyone but herself when working with V-Star.

And again, all of this complexity is really fun I think, it’s definitely not unrealistic and it’s good character conflict, and we’re certainly in the part of the story where people are inclined to make bad decisions on the situation rather than good ones. Just writing out the things that I would expect to see addressed for her in the next arcs as things begin to resolve.

Integration Attempt 10111: Aborted.

Beginning Integration Attempt 11111…
I don’t think I’m going to have a section for Noci; she’s very good at lying and very clever. I’m really curious why space metagross is deeply invested in gaslighting her about her heat vent tho lol. That definitely feels Important. I wasn’t sure why the integration attempts jumped by 8 here instead of 1?

Kekoa
“You are all born in bloody soil. How could you not become bloodstained?”
Metal af ngl.

Jumping a little back to that thread about how the tones match but where characters are in their arcs feels very different, for better and for worse–Kekoa feels pretty stagnant this arc; mostly his new conflicts are comforting Cuicatl when she’s clearly going through the thing she lectured him about, and not making snarky comments to Lyra. Both, I think, are good conflicts for him to face and delve a lot into the heart of his own issues–facing hypocrisy and self-righteousness; not alienating your potential allies and learning when you should and shouldn’t hold your tongue–but both feel more like B-plots than anything else. The rufflet gets kind of dropped in his lap, and is something I could forgive if it ended up really important to him in later chapters–but he sorta vanishes for the rest of his arc. That his totem and grand trial fights were so uneventful that they happened off-screen is the point, and also I understand both why you wouldn’t want to show twice as many fights here and why Cuicatl’s were more important both times, but it doesn’t really leave Kekoa with much to do except continue to question if he should join Skull or not. Honestly I think Hala’s conflict of if it’s better to crush people now or if it’s better to let them get crushed later, if the current cruelty justifies both vengeance and helping the future, is something that feels a lot more deeply relevant to Kekoa than to Cuicatl, which is also why I found myself liking their conversation at the end of the chapter most interesting–so it feels weird to have so much of that conflict focused around Cuicatl ig.

(Again from a pacing perspective I really get why you wouldn’t want him to do this, why what might work on a story that’s just about Kekoa really doesn’t work in a story that’s about Cuicatl, Genesis, Pixie, and Kekoa. I’ll check back in at the end of Arc 4 and see if I have some more constructive thoughts here.)

I did like the various people Kekoa interacts with, even if they more question his ideals rather than challenge them (to the point that he changes in a major way). Florges and drifloon are both really fun; there’s something deeply pokefic-core about a supernatural revolutionary symbol. Kekoa’s struggle has often been one about heritage and home, so for him to run into forces older than him and have to hear what they have to say adds another dimension on that struggle. For them both to find him questionably worthy is also a lot of fun. I liked the somberness of drifloon just showing up and agreeing to show him the way to the graveyard; that felt like a really magical, weighty kind of scene that only happens in whacky fantasy and I really enjoyed it. I also enjoyed the alternate take on why drifloon is bad, or why orphan kids might actually want a drifloon–and it makes sense for Plumeria to be deeply affronted by the idea that someone else is just going to show up and take you from your shitty life, since everyone who’s showed up for her seems to have only made it worse. Flying-type specialists + that one rock who we decided not to sell into slavery, let’s go.

The florges chapter is delightfully creepy and also weighty, though for different reasons. Like with Cuicatl, Kekoa also has to confront the idea that his actions with V-Star are going to cause him harm; his conflict is more centered around whether the ends justify the means, as he believes his actions are for the good of Alola rather than for his own personal gain. Likewise though I find his conflict more sympathetic, probably because the antagonists/alternatives that Kekoa faces–impoverishment, powerlessness, cultural erasure, and colonialism–feel much larger than this own personal struggles. Even if Kekoa also stands to benefit from his very possible goal of ending capitalism and colonialism, it’s a lot easier to find this desire selfless, and as a result a lot easier to view him as conflicted rather than a guy actively participating in trafficking people for use or for murder, which is also something he’s doing.

Plumeria and Kanoa also provided nice, conflicting voices for Kekoa’s struggle. Fire/blood vs the establishment and all that. What I liked the most between all of them (Plumeria, Kanoa, and also Florges) is that none of them approve of Kekoa’s actions and all of them think his arguments are incoherent. Based. In trying not to pick a side he’s also picking a side, and he’s being pretty loud for someone who’s trying to grind exp on the sidelines lol. I found those bits of conflict the most interesting for him, even if he doesn’t change his mind based on anything yet–he’s trying and failing so hard to figure out what the proper course of action is, and in all of his gripes about how alienated and choiceless he feels, he’s burning most of his bridges (besides extremism. Extremism is always here for u kekoa).

I really liked the restaurant scene at the end of 3.19. Lyra, especially non-antagonistic Lyra, is a really good addition to the group dynamic in the absence of Gen imo. She still provides a lot of the main conflicts that Gen did–she’s fundamentally biased/bigoted against one of the main cast (though Cuicatl/psychics this time instead of Kekoa), she’s very serene about her statements that are actually hurling grenades into dumpsterfires, and she’s genuinely earnest that she wants to help. The dinner bit was a nice bow on all of that, and I think having the anniversary of Hoenn’s massive ecological collapse/Kekoa’s origin story right around the ending of Alola’s crisis is a nice way to show how the world sort of rolls on through a litany of disasters. I also liked how Lyra’s shown to have her own conflicts about the Hoenn events, even if she’s functionally far away–that kind of guilt for feeling bad about a thing that happened, and feeling its loss while being well aware that a whole lot of people felt that loss a whole lot more, felt very quiet and realistic. It’s a nice little cap on Kekoa’s arc, and also it’s great to establish both how other people are trying to extend him laurel branches and how much he’s about to throw those into the dumpsterfire with the rest.

Gods, I’m never going to be able to eat inkay again.
Honestly for a dude in his pokethics route, and for a dude who loves feeling self-righteous about things, I feel like this would’ve been something he did way earlier. There’s a ton of non-pokemon options for meat, many of which he already eats in the fic. I feel like the natural progression of recognizing pokemon personhood puts not eating them long before asking if they like their nicknames or are happy with you–cannibalism was frowned upon long before slavery, bacon is delicious but what kind of monster would eat a puppy, sorta thing.

Genesis
Genesis has a lot of really definitive quotes in her chapters. All of them make me feel terrible.

Admittedly I found myself really appreciating how awfully you made her behave towards everyone in the early chapters–I thought it was realistic then too, but now that she’s twisting as hard as she can to justify backsliding on the hard-earned character development, it really feels so much worse. There’s a lot more tension because we’re aware of how much more she has to lose, what kind of a person she stands to become. I was really impressed by how tense these chapters felt; I didn’t really know what to expect from what’s basically a modernized princess locked in a tower section, but there’s a lot of urgency and stakes even if people only really stay in one place. I think you also do a wonderfully gross job of juggling how hurt/comfort the Gages are; they’re actively abusing their daughter and are also actively planning to even more abuse their daughter, but they also shower her with praise, talk about how they’re looking forward to what a wonderful lady she’s going to become, how surprised they are at how strong she’s become on her journey. The talk with her dad where she gets Oliver really drove that grossness in for me–it’s less that I needed to be convinced that her parents think this is for her own good (I do not care, though I also understand why some readers would benefit from this), and more that I needed to be convinced what Gen thought she stood to gain, since she’s spent a lot of her bigoted time being on the road, away from her parents, and learning/growing. And I thought that second bit landed quite nicely.

Likewise, I think couching her downtime in terms of childhood fantasies, and also emphasizing how childish her pokemon nicknames and how much she just wants to curl up in a bed of stuffed animals, was a really effective move. It’s easy to get wrapped up in Kekoa and Cuicatl’s narratives that they’re definitely going to overthrow the system and buy a hydra, and uncritically I can believe them, and also forget that they’re very smol teenagers. Both in terms of efficacy and emotional capability. So to have Gen locked in her room like a child and craving for little more than to hug her smelly leafeon is a really effective way to ground things. I also liked the physical/mental journey parallels–Gen’s gotten stronger on the road, the books don’t feel as heavy any more, the bigotry isn’t rooted quite so deep. Likewise I found it very fitting that her fantasy involves her being an important warrior, and yet at the core of her fantasy backstory is being betrayed and failing everyone else. The being betrayed bit feels old and the failing everyone else feels new, which I found fitting. I liked the sense of time passing here–it’s hard to do that in fic, especially in one that’s simultaneously really long and also really narrowly-focused–Gen returning to her childhood fantasies and wanting them deeply, while finding that they don’t quite fit, really conveys the growth she’s experienced on the road.

And this lovely dilemma of personhood and growth matters approximately zero in a world where psychic-powered conversion therapy exists. It’s so gross and yet such a “sigh but of course they would” moment, both in the sense that the Gages immediately seize on the opportunity, that this kind of practice exists in the first place, and that only the most truly abhorrent people would do it. It’s so fucking vile to watch.

Pixie
Maybe mothers just don’t know their children very well.
Honestly, most of what I wanted to type here I’d already found myself saying about Gen. I’m sure this is not at all intentional and also a sign of really good things to come.

I really like the idea of the mountain, this ideal homeland you can’t return to. In a fic that’s undeniably inspired by modern american events I think that’s deeply intentional. More on this in Arc 5 undoubtedly.

Likewise I found myself sold more on the ancestor stories as time progressed. In the early chapters they feel a bit like filler–Pixie as a character inherently has a lot less agency than the main human cast, so her POV often feels like she’s got to monologue a lot more to make up for it, especially in the stories–but I think the mother’s breath and green-eyes stories in particular feel a lot more linked to Pixie’s conflict/agency. It’s the kind of thing that only really happens once she has conflict, so I don’t have good advice for how to change things pre-Kalani rn. I really liked the added dimension of xeno–Pixie can tell these stories, and Cuicatl can listen as diligently as she wants, but ultimately the weird hobo ninetales is probably on to something when he says that humans capitalism have built their system on the idea of limitless gain, and as such they don’t understand what it means to have a finite end to things. It’s a nice conflict of values that gives Pixie something more than just something to say, and sets up the groundwork for this whole question of Cuicatl can give her a home–can someone who’s so fundamentally different than you still offer you solace?

And on the question of home, I do think it’s telling in the types of comfort that Cuicatl and Pixie give each other, and how they react. Pixie receives nice-to-haves, pets/checking for injuries that she explicitly doesn’t have and just likes because she likes being pet, blood popsickles that make her feel like she’s actually hunting for real. Cuicatl receives what’s borderline on needs, therapy that keeps her from completely spiraling, a shoulder to cry on/sob into. And it’s not like Pixie is Fine and emotionally able to give this kind of support–she’s neither, both in the sense that she’s actually really emotionally devastated and also finds human sorrow borderline incomprehensible. And it’s also not like Cuicatl is actively a bad trainer, both by the scale presented in-universe and from some sort of vague generalized fanfiction scale of morality–she’s trying, and definitely trying a lot harder than most. And-and, what Pixie wants most of all right now is really toxic and unattainable, so it’s not like anyone is going to give her that kind of closure, even the best mom ever. But part of what made Kalani such an interesting antagonist to me, and why Pixie’s chapters are so fun to read, is that rn the answer to “can Cuicatl give Pixie a good home?” feels almost like … no. Which is kind of devastating to admit.

And on some levels I think it really all goes back to the mountain. There’s no limitless growth and no idealized place where everyone gets exactly what they want. There’s no perfect family. There’s just what you have right now, and what you stand to lose.

-

Worldbuilding continues to be on-point. Some misc things I really enjoyed that didn’t end up in any of the major headers–Hala’s obstinate refusal to recognize wrongdoing, Tapu Koko’s takes on modern warfare constituting being anggy at big companies, everyone flopping around on the ice, that small trial captain really digging her hole super deep, hivemind metagross vs Tapu Bulu, castform as a vital part of post-apocalyptic life. Odd gripes and personal inability to maintain a consistent review schedule aside, I think this fic is really something special, and I’m impressed and grateful that you continue to hammer away at it so much. See you in Arc 6. Er, 4 and 5 first, but eventually.
 
Fairy 6.10

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
Fairy 6.10: Nurture
Lyra

June 24, 2020

Bells Toll 4 U: Are you serious?

Justin, Site Admin: I’m sorry. I don’t like it either.

Bells Toll 4 U: What rule did I even break?

Justin, Site Admin: Impersonation.

Bells Toll 4 U: First, I never claimed to be anyone in particular. Second, I have made it abundantly clear that I can prove my identity. Has Mired offered to do the same?

Justin, Site Admin: I’ve spoken with Mired. She had some interesting evidence that she didn’t want to share in public.

Bells Toll 4 U: Like?

Justin, Site Admin: She works at a tech company. She decided to run a recognition algorithm and found a 98.6% likelihood that you’re actually a porygon or a rotom.

Bells Toll 4 U: What tech company?

Bells Toll 4 U: Do you know what a recognition algorithm even is?

Bells Toll 4 U: Have you double checked with a public one or are you just taking her word?

Bells Toll 4 U: Wasn’t one of her sockpuppets accusing me of being a grown man pretending to be a teenage girl just a week ago? It’s clear that she’s just throwing anything at the wall to get people mad at me.

Justin, Site Admin: Please stop accusing people of breaking the rules without evidence.

Bells Toll 4 U: WHAT DO YOU THINK EVERYONE ELSE HAS BEEN DOING FOR THE LAST WEEK?

Bells Toll 4 U: WHAT DO YOU THINK MIRED IS DOING?

Bells Toll 4 U: “Trust me, bro, my uncle works at Sylph.”

Justin, Site Admin: I would appreciate it if you could not make this harder than it has to be. You’ve become a major distraction on the site and still have not set up any kind of confirmation of your claims.

Bells Toll 4 U: I have confirmed my identity, have I not? Cuicatl doesn’t like dealing with the press any more than she has to and I’m trying my hardest to keep her out of social media drama like this.

Justin, Site Admin: It isn’t that bad. I think she would like it here.

Bells Toll 4 U: “Isn’t that bad.” “I’m banning a user because some lurker and her sockpuppets got an online hate mob to go after someone for being connected to some girl she doesn’t like.”

Bells Toll 4 U: Be real, how much vitriol do you let stand on your site because you don’t want to be controversial by policing the actual racism, xenophobia, sexism, and ableism that runs rampant every time that Cuicatl gets brought up? Is that the kind of environment she would find to be “not that bad.”

Justin, Site Admin: Please clam down.

Bells Toll 4 U: I haven’t had an infraction in three years and suddenly you’ll turn on me because, what, it’s easier than going against the majority of your users?

Justin, Site Admin: This is absolutely uncalled for. I would back down if you could just get me on a call with Cuicatl to clear things up.

Bells Toll 4 U: And when Mired tells you that video was porygon edited?

Bells Tolls 4 U: Also do you think alienating her friend is going to make her give you exclusive interviews or whatever the fuck?

Justin, Site Admin: Will it come back as porygon edited?

Bells Toll 4 U: …you don’t know a goddamn thing, do you? A coward and an idiot.

***You have received a two-year ban from Justin’s Journal. The ban cannot be appealed.***


2010

You always wanted to meet your father. Everyone else had one. You didn’t. Mom told you it was for the best. It wasn’t possible to believe that. Some days you and Hibiki would play in the basement and act out his adventures exploring the jungle or stuck at the bottom of the ocean or going back in time to see the dinosaurs. You would write letters to him that would never be sent. Asking him who he was and what he was doing. Telling him about you.

It’s still a surprise when he actually showed up to your home. You and Emi were watching cartoons in the basement when you got bored and hungry and went upstairs to get a snack. Mom was there with a strange man. When she heard you she jolted and looked through you like she’d seen a ghost. The man was wearing dark clothes, the kind that adults wear on the TV when they’re working. His eyes bored into you in a way you didn’t like but couldn’t put into words.

“Kotone, right?” he asks.

You glance at Mom. You aren’t supposed to talk to strangers. She gives you the smallest of nods while still looking at you like you’re scary. Like a spider or a monster. It’s weird. Everything feels weird.

“Yes,” you tell him. “Who are you?”

He smiles. You like smiles, like smiling, but you aren’t sure if you like this one. He’s doing everything right but it feels wrong. “Your father, my darling.”

*​

You and Hibiki have questions for him. Many. What he does. He tells you he works at the radio station. But he doesn’t make music or talk on the radio. He won’t tell you anything about what he does at all. You move on to where he’s been. Just a city over. Not even any time travel. He was boring. And he wouldn’t even read you bedtime stories. Or play. Soon he was just there and it was normal. You didn’t bother him much. He didn’t bother you. Just stared at you like he couldn’t believe you were real.

*​

In the fall you don’t start school with Emi. Instead, he sends you to a different school downtown. One full of kids like robots. They all dress the same, and you have to dress like them, and they know a hundred little rules that you don’t. When to talk. When to repeat what the teacher said. What fork or spoon or chopsticks or whatever to use when you have more than one of each. You asked one of the girls how she knew. They had all gone to the same school before this, learned all the same rules. Even before Grade 1.

The teacher talked to you after class every day about what you’d done wrong. When you were doing one thing and should have done another. Why you shouldn’t have giggled when you thought of a joke while she was trying to teach numbers or books. Your name was always written on a board at the side of the room. A mark of shame. That you weren’t as good as the people around you. And they knew it.

You weren’t good enough for them. And you were too good for others.

Dad is helping you practice your signature when there’s a knock at the door.

Mom opens it. You hear Emi talking to her and freeze up. You feel Dad’s eyes on you. He’s told you what you’re supposed to do. And if you don’t do it maybe your name will be on the wall at home, too, and you’ll be treated like a bad girl everywhere you go.

Emi plods over and stops. You can’t bring yourself to look at her.

“Where have you been?” she asks. “You haven’t come over.”

You take a breath and slowly breathe out.

“We can’t be friends anymore,” you mumble.

“What?”

“We can’t be friends anymore.”

It takes her a moment to respond. “Why not?”

“Because you’re poor.”

“No, I’m not.”

You glance at Dad. He shakes his head.

“Yes, you are.”

“How come?”

“Dad says so.”

You can hear Emi turn towards him. “What?”

“It’s nothing personal,” he says. “Dear Kotone is simply having trouble adjusting to her new status. It would help her to cut out the things holding her back.”

“And you agree with him?”

No. But he’s talked to you about your name on the wall. Your teacher has talked to you about your name on the wall. Most of your class has, too. You don’t want to be there anymore. You want to fit in.

“Yes.”

“Fine, then.” Her voice is cold. You still can’t bring yourself to look. “See you never.”

She stomps off and you slowly relax your shoulders. Dad gently runs a hand through your hair.

“I’m proud of you,” he says. “I know it’s hard, but I have no doubt that you will learn in time. You’re my daughter, after all.”

*​

You do get better with time. By the time the next year rolls around you’re cringing at the new students who don’t know the rules. Not that you help them. They’ll learn in time. Until then, they’re beneath you and you shouldn’t be friends with them.

You don’t want to go back on the wall. You don’t want to be a disappointment to your family.

Hibiki doesn’t understand. That’s… okay. He’s your brother. You love him. You just don’t understand why he won’t go along with everyone else.

*​

2014

You don’t want to leave.

You have to leave.

Two gods fought in the south. You didn’t feel any of it. They don’t live where you do. Up here you have gods of sun and moon, fire and water, but not those gods of fire and water. Well, people used to say they were the same gods. But they aren’t. Ho-oh and Lugia have never hurt you.

Your father hired a Galarian tutor and you’ve had daily lessons ever since. He wants you to fit in. You’re supposed to fit in. The people in your new home speak Galarian. You should, too. The people in America don’t have names like Kotone. You’ll have another one.

It’s a new chance to make an impression. Father and the people he hires keep lecturing you about what you should want to eat or wear in America. How to be Lyra instead of Kotone. Who you should want to be friends with. How to go on like nothing changed. Like you’re not Japanese. How to be the girl who reflects well on her father. How to fit in with other girls who are trying to reflect well on their fathers. How to handle every friendship, every talk, every meal like a game with points to be won. You remember having to do this when you were younger and trying to get your name off the wall. But you still got to be Kotone. You still got to worship the same gods and go to the same festivals and be called the same name. You had to follow the rules and fit in but you didn’t have to be someone new.

“I’m going on a journey the moment I can,” Hibiki—Ethan—grumbles to you. “Get away from all this.”

And you want to go with him. You promise yourself that you will leave this place, someday, and be free. Be Kotone. Be yourself. But right now? One of you needs to follow the rules. You’ve seen what happens when rules are broken. You have dozens of diaries under your bed to show for it. And if you follow all the rules, maybe they’ll stay away from Ethan.

*​

You’re learning to find your way to the top at the new school. Your Galarian still isn’t perfect, and that will hold you back for a year or so, but it’s not so bad that it dooms you. Being smart and pretty does a third of the work. Carrying yourself well, another third. Time and luck, the last. You thought not knowing anything about the school’s religion would be a problem. It is not. Most of the students don’t care all too much. It’s easy enough to avoid those that do.

At home you join Hibiki in pouring over the books he finds about the Amazon and Antarctica Mammoth Cave and the ocean floor and the moon. You tear through many notebooks each making maps and figuring out what pokémon are the best for every environment. And the best overall. Six is such a small number for your requirements. A dark-type, obviously, to deal with psychics. You’re hoping to get a starter to train soon. An absol would be good. You’d at least know when things are about to go wrong. Then a water-type for oceans and rivers—they should be able to handle both. Something for caves. Something for mountains and tundras. Maybe split that in two? A grass-type for rainforests. Utility would be good. A porygon or rotom. A ghost for company and haunted places. And then… salazzle? Lucario? Something to help with people. Any explorer knows that people are every bit as dangerous as nature.

Your two worlds stay separate. At home you can be Kotone and at school you have to be Lyra.

Then you meet the girl in the castle.

Everyone insists that it’s not a castle. Just a very large building that happens to look like a modern castle. Brick and concrete instead of granite blocks. Windows and balconies instead of portcullises and drawbridges. A fence instead of a moat. Probably not cold, dark, and damp instead. What a rich person builds when they want a castle but don’t want to live in one.

You’ve even heard that it belonged to a king.

It’s owned by one of the businessmen who runs Alola while letting the governor handle the parts he doesn’t want to micromanage. You shake his hand and follow along with your father while you both get a tour of the inside. Hibiki wasn’t invited. He might know how to keep a small smile at all times, how to keep his back straight, how to decide if you should speak or stay silent. Even if he knows it all he won’t do it. It’s frustrating. You don’t like it either. But everything will go easier if you just play along until you can leave.

After a long time taking everything in while saying nothing, Mr. Gage finally seems to remember that you’re tagging along. “Oh, miss, Lyra, was it?”

You nod.

“I have a daughter about your age. Perhaps you could meet her while I talk business with your father.” You agree. That’s what you’re supposed to do. And this does seem more interesting. He only mentioned one daughter. Your father told you he had a second just a little younger than you. Will you meet them both?

*​

The girl in the castle is strange. In a good way. She’s from the most powerful family on the island, but she’s not like the robot girls. Not like you. It’s clear that they’re trying to make her that way. She constantly starts doing one thing only to stop and correct herself when her tutor gives her a look. At first you wonder how she didn’t learn this at school, either through teaching or punishment. Turns out that she doesn’t go. She doesn’t see anyone other than her family, the help, and a few kids at the temple. You don’t think you would mind. People are more trouble than they’re worth. But she’s desperately lonely. She has wonderful toys. And she won’t judge you if Kotone slips out every now and then. Sometimes her eyes even light up when you act like the child you were a very long time ago.

She quickly becomes your best friend. You read her books, she listens to you talk about the wilderness, you make up games or talk about life, everything a normal kid would do. Everything Kotone would have done.

*​

It’s around the time that Ethan leaves to be Hibiki that you realize Kotone is never coming back. It takes work to relax now, even around Genesis. Figuring out what people want and how to give it to them is second nature. Some days you wake up, go to school, and go to bed without ever dropping the act. And you’re fine with that. How many times would Kotone have been hurt by now? Would she even still exist? Would a psychic have killed her in all the ways that count? No. She’s gone, now, but at least she died on your terms.

With Ethan gone you only have Genesis left. Every other friendship is a game to be won. Only with her can you really relax. And maybe you want more than friendship. She’s very pretty. One of the prettiest at school. Her mother was a model before she got deep into the Church of Life.

Genesis kinds of hates that she’s attractive. You think she knows, but she refuses to acknowledge it. Shuts up whenever someone asks her about boys. Just gives a brief reply about sin. You’re pretty sure you know why. As an experiment, just to see, you play rougher than usual and get your clothes ruined in mud. She tries very, very hard not to look at you when you just have your underwear on. Another experiment with a white t-shirt on a rainy day shows similar results.

She must know, right? She finds you attractive. But she’s not good with people. Maybe she thinks you’re straight? Or maybe, just maybe, the girl raised in a prudish cult doesn’t like gay people. Doesn’t want to be a gay person. Wouldn’t want to be friends with you if she knew.

So you put it off. Mostly. You take her to a dance. She doesn’t say anything. Even when doing something that should make it obvious that, yes, you do see her that way.

Sophomore year ends. You manage to test out of the rest of secondary school with diligent study. It’s time to go.

And you don’t want to leave with regrets.

*​

June 28, 2020

Genesis does not look impressed. Her arms are crossed and she’s been pacing on and off through the story. Cuicatl is harder to read but not as agitated. She’s sitting on her bed, legs crossed, with Pixie in her lap receiving slow pets.

When Gen realizes that you’re done she just turns to you and glares. “You half got it. I don’t know if that makes it better or worse.”

“Explain.” You need to hear her out. Even if you really, really doubt you’re going to like this.

She sighs. “You can’t just hide in the Amazon or wherever from your problems. Because you’re the problem. Let someone else warp your mind and they didn’t even need to be a psychic to do it. Someone asked you to be a bitch and you leapt headfirst.

“Genesis,” Cuicatl interjects.

You don’t really process it. You knew it would sting to be called out by the girl you love. Hearing her curse made it worse. You know what it takes for her to use those words. Her not being wrong is the third strike.

“You aren’t seriously on her side, are you?”

“She’s getting better.”

“By not using the rape perfume on her friends? What a saint.”

“You might not remember what you said to Kekoa when you found out he was trans. I can remind you. People grow.”

Gen’s glare is absolutely wasted on Cuicatl. It’s about the most murderous you’ve ever seen her. Guilt? Anger? You could probably try to work it to your advantage. But you don’t. You don’t say anything. Being a manipulative bitch got you into this mess, you can only truly get out by letting nature take its course.

“I cared about his soul. I was wrong, but I was coming from a place of love. I’m not sure she’s even capable of acting out of love. Just her own wants and fantasies.”

Cuicatl barely even reacts. Just keeps petting her fox. Pixie looks a little upset at the raised voices around her. Ms. Lepo is probably hearing some of this. Should you have had this conversation outside? You’d thought it was too hot, too likely to make them more and more upset as a long talk unfolded, but this might be worse.

“She was going to get you killed,” Genesis says.

Cuicatl shrugs like she already knew. “And she’s saved my life. It works out.”

Perhaps you should have expected that. All of the love she’s ever received has come with caveats. She was loved as long as she didn’t take up too much space, didn’t act out. As long as she did everything she was supposed to do and nothing more. As long as she didn’t demand that someone sacrifice their own comfort for hers. You understand her. She grew up pleasing everyone around her, too. Except, her father wanted her to hurt herself and yours wanted you to hurt other people. That’s how you ended up nothing alike. How she ended up better. Is it better? You get burned and flinch. You’ll do anything to end the pain, even spreading the fire to someone else. That’s normal. That’s human. Cuicatl gets burned and wonders if the flame should’ve been hotter. And it’s not like she isn’t hurting the people she cares about. They don’t have to stay awake at night wondering if you’re finally going to do something stupidly heroic and meet their end.

The door slams shut. You look up and see that it’s only you and Cuicatl (and her pokémon) in the room.

She gives you a sad smile.

“Gen hates me. Cool. Glad that’s out of the way.” You try not to show your emotions. Try to keep it a joke. Or at least a statement of fact. But your voice still wavers and breaks when you say it.

“You did something dumb and hurtful. You won’t do it again. She’ll get over it. We’ve all done dumb and hurtful stuff.”

You won’t make the same mistake again. But you will probably push both their boundaries past the breaking point. It’s who you are. It’s what you do. And Cuicatl will always let you do it. It’s who she is. It’s what she does.

“Do you want to talk?” she asks. “I… I don’t really know how to comfort you.”

Like you’re the real victim.

“Gen’s not mad about the imorin.” You pause to correct yourself. “Gen’s not just mad about the imorin. She’s mad because she cares a lot about being good, being true to herself, cares so much that she’ll go through hell on earth for it, and I just told her that I’m a piece of shit who killed the girl I used to be. That’s not something we can come back from. Once the island challenge is over…”

Cuicatl slumps her shoulders. Like she’ll be sad to see you go. Maybe she will be. It’s been—holy shit, it’s been six months. How did that happen? And she just lost Kekoa. And her brother before that. Almost lost Gen forever.

Look at you. Hurting the people you care about. Again.

“I’ll talk to her. Try to make her understand. And if the worst happens.” She sighs and looks down into her lap. “We’ll keep in touch. Promise.”

You shouldn’t accept the promise. You’ll keep hurting her and she’ll let herself be hurt. But you want the companionship. You’ve come to like her despite everything. So you’ll accept it. You’ll hurt her. It’s who you are. It’s what you do. You can try to get better. You will try to get better. But you doubt you can reinvent yourself a second time.

For now you just need to grieve on your own. But you pause at the door. Even if she won’t listen, she should hear it.

“Someday you’re going to realize what you’re worth and you’ll be angry as hell at everyone who kept you down.”

She laughs. A small, hollow thing.

“Maybe.”

*​

June 29, 2020

You set out before dawn. This is it. Vast Poni Canyon. One of the most daunting challenges of the island challenge. A deep canyon with steep paths down and winding caves. Lycanroc stalk their prey day and night while dragons lurk around every corner. Survive until the end and you’re faced with a giant kommo-o and the task of doing it all again, uphill. You should be excited. Your nerves should be buzzing with excitement and fear. You should have spent the last two days making very, very sure that everyone in your team is ready for the most dangerous part of Alola’s most dangerous island.

Or at least you should have been hyper focused on making sure that Ankā the dhelmise, your newest team member, is integrating well. You could have been making a training plan. Doing anything to gear up for the final challenge before the rest of your life can begin. This is everything you’ve ever wanted and you should be on top of the world.

Instead, you laid in bed for hours on end as your life fell apart around you.

The next morning isn’t better. Breakfast passes in silence with Gen shooting you hateful glares as Cuicatl busies herself with her food. At least she’s eating. Once you get going you give your team their orders. Set out into danger.

And then nothing happens for at least an hour. A few wild pokémon stir around you but most give a wide berth to the procession of over a half dozen trained pokémon on high alert. There will probably be more fights in the canyon. Some pokémon in places like this see fighting trainer’s pokémon and winning as a way to prove their strength to mates and competitors. Your team can handle it. Even with Jishin the mudsdale more focused on carrying weight than fighting enemies, you still have Mirai the absol and Ankā as heavy hitters. The dhelmise might not be trained, but she still put up one hell of a fight yesterday. You’ll trust her against almost anything in this canyon. Rigan-ryū isn’t very mobile – she’s a pyukumuku on land – but she can fuck up one enemy per fight. That’s invaluable if used well. Subarashī can breathe fire and, if worst comes to worst, charm her enemies with imorin. And you’re hardly fighting alone. Coco and Leo join the heavy hitters on Cuicatl’s side. Gen’s team aren’t well trained but are at least fully evolved. And there’s a togekiss flying somewhere above you that could probably take any pokémon in this canyon without any real danger. But she’s staying away for now. Something about giving the nestlings a chance to fly.

You silently agreed that Cuicatl should be between you and Genesis on the trail. She took the lead, you’re bringing up the back. So mostly you’re just left to brood and look ahead at Cuicatl. She’s put on weight but it’s gone to good places. And her hair’s getting longer. She showed you a picture of what it looked like before she got it cut and, well, you get why she was proud of it.

Are you attracted to her? It would make everything messier than it already is. Give you more attachments to someone you probably won’t be able to speak to once her girlfriend draws a line in the sand. Not to mention that she’s psychic and might pick up on something that should stay private for everyone’s sake.

It doesn’t matter. You’re not going to act on it. Not going to make this any worse than it already is.

It’s a genuine relief when a lycanroc pack try to surround you. At least you know how to deal with that.

*​

Most of the day is pretty boring. You got lost in the action during the lycanroc fight. it was fun, though. They were more interested in pressing your defenses than going for a kill. Mirai still left one with a nasty scratch. One tried to sneak up on Jishin and the mudsdale almost kicked him off the canyon’s edge. The pack backed off after a few minutes and you treated your injured. Genesis insisted on using a potion on the lycanroc that Jishin fucked up. You’d argue but you really don’t want to get into it with Gen. Cuicatl took her side. You’ll have to go back out this way in a few days and you don’t want the lycanroc swearing vengeance against you if the pokémon died. Or maybe she was just appeasing her girlfriend.

Hard to say. You don’t really want to think about it too much.

The few stops are quiet. Sometimes Gen will tell Cuicatl about the views she’s missing. And they are gorgeous. You can clearly see the geological layers in the canyon. A history of the island laid bare. That’s enough to distract you.

It’s mostly pretty boring, though. Endless switchbacks to get halfway down the canyon. You aren’t bothered too often by wild pokémon. A few mienshao bound down the slope to try and steal a pack and run. Unfortunately for them, Mitsuru got bored and decided that her desire to fight something outweighed her desire to let you sink or swim. You’re pretty sure all the mienshao survived her wrath. Pretty sure.

The togekiss spent the next few minutes preening herself and talking to Cuicatl in her sing-song voice before taking back off.

*​

“Are you worried?” Cuicatl asks.

The question isn’t meant for you. She’s huddled up with Coco maybe thirty meters out from camp, just at the edge of the terrace you’ve set up on.

You can only hear half their conversation but it seems somber. Private. Cuicatl idly runs a hand through Coco’s feathers. They aren’t all white anymore. Most are buff, now. Almost orange. The fringe is a deep purple, almost black. Probably from her father. She’s not much like the movies. Or even the first few specimens they revived. Now they have feathers instead of leathery scales, flesh instead of stone.

“It’s alright to be nervous,” Cuicatl responds to a question of squeaks and growls. “I would be. I was when I started growing up. But you’ll still be you. And I’ll still be here. Promise.”

Coco responds in a language you don’t understand but Cuicatl would, even without her abilities. Then she leans down and embraces the tyrunt. Cuicatl’s almost the smaller of the two now. Will be by a lot when the everstone necklace comes off.

When the two separate Cuicatl stands up and looks over towards you. Did Coco tell her you were there? Did she hear you approach? Suddenly you feel even more like an interloper.

“Need something?”

“Wanted to borrow Noci for a bit. Talk to my team.”

She nods. “Could we swap for a bit? Metang for absol. I’m going hunting. Might need some extra protection.”

Right. Hunting. She has her whole plan with the skarmory.

“Sure. Good luck and good hunting.”

When she leaves you can finally talk to Subarashī. You promised her that she’d get social manipulation lessons. She’ll act up if she doesn’t get them. Even if right now it feels like you know far too much and far too little to be her teacher.

She reforms from her afternoon nap in the ball and stretches out. The salazzle barely afford a glance to either you or the metang above her.

You can feel the imorin send a shiver up your spine. “We had an agreement.”

The salazzle huffs. “That was hardly anything.”

“Just don’t do it around the other humans.”

She shoots you a withering glare before laying flat on the rock to bask.

“The first lesson I want: how do you keep your other subordinates in line?”

You want to correct the word ‘subordinate.’ But it’s not really wrong. You try your best. Maybe. You’re at least better than most.

“Pyukumuku don’t seem to want much. I make sure that he’s fed and hydrated and he doesn’t care.” Well, not entirely. He’s a little annoyed at you. He’s a little annoyed at everyone and everything, though. You’ve never heard him not complain about something in his own simplistic way. Kind of a bummer to talk to. “Jishin was separated from his mother. He’s hoping that we’ll run across him somewhere in Alola. We do check if any trainer staying with us in the Center has a mudsdale.”

“And that works?” Subarashi asks. “Oh, don’t worry, I will definitely find your mother somewhere in these giant islands. And then you just don’t find her, ever. Doesn’t even have to be on purpose. What an idiot.”

You take a moment and carefully consider how to explain Darwinian evolution to a salamander.

“Children are like their parents in some ways. More like their parents than the average member of the species. Humans learned that. So we started intentionally breeding some pokémon to enhance certain traits. We eventually made pokémon that were almost nothing like the wild originals. Mudsdale are one of those. Jishin knows it and wants to give humans the benefit of the doubt.”

Subarashi pushes off the ground until she’s standing. “Does that work for all pokémon?”

“Most. Probably not rocks. Probably not ghosts. Uh. Maybe some other exceptions.”

You don’t really want to get into porygon right now. Not important.

“So we could make different ponds and put big fish into some, making more big fish, and keep doing that until every salandit has lots of big fish to eat?”

Oops. You’ve just altered the ecosystem of Mauna Wela. You aren’t even sure if you should lie to her at this point. If they’re smart enough to do farming, well, is it humanity’s right to tell them no.

“Theoretically, yes. It would just take a lot of salazzle lifetimes.” Her head lowers towards the ground. “And you wouldn’t be able to eat as many any big fish of your own in that time. You’d be eating up smaller fish so your distant descendants who won’t even remember you have bigger ones.”

“How many human lifetimes does it take?”

“I don’t know. At least ten? Probably more.”

That gets her attention again. “And humans will do that?”

Well. Not for mudsdale. It’s not like you were trying to eat them. Something like tauros, yeah. Or you could eat the big tauros but they had to reproduce first. Close enough.

“Yes.”

“And is that how you took over the world? Giving things up to help other humans you’ll never meet? Acting like you’re all enthralled to each other?”

Enthralled. Hah. No, definitely not. At least not in the way that she understands it. “Don’t misunderstand me, we can be horribly selfish. We usually are. But sometimes we work together across continents and generations to do stuff.”

“That’s the problem with humans. It’s easy to kill a human. Enthrall them. Anything. But then they keep coming back with more and more humans and you lose. Like fighting a whole hive of insects. Annoying.”

“And social tricks are how we get people to do that.” You pause and look towards a loud, echoing noise in the canyon. Seems two kommo-o are going at it. You can barely see them but can definitely hear them. This is just about the only place a major dragon species is native to. And you get to (barely) see them here. It’s incredible enough to make you feel something but dread and despair. So, naturally, it’s time to bring that back. “Humans don’t like it when you use them and they catch you, though. I’m fighting with Genesis, the light-haired human, right now. I told her some lies. Didn’t tell her I was using perfume you made. She likes to make her own decisions for herself and got mad at me.”

She snorts. “You didn’t enthrall her enough. If you did, she wouldn’t be mad.”

“Humans have rules. That breaks them. Break a rule and the swarm of humans will come after you.” There’s no point explaining ethics to her. Just power. Even if you’re lying. Her parents could have done it, pretty much did it, and won’t face any consequences for it.

“And what are the rules?” she looks at you with mischief in her eyes. Probably wants to know so she can find a way to make someone break them or go right up to the line.

Fuck it, what’s the worst that can happen by indulging her? Keeps your mind off of other things.

“Well, to start with, you’re not supposed to kill other humans…”

*​

The sun has fallen beneath the canyon rim when you get back. There’s still light diffused in the sky and it’s easy to navigate, but you cut it too close. Walked too long today, stayed up too late afterwards. You’ll fall asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow or pay for it tomorrow. Or both. Genesis isn’t out when you return to the campsite. Probably asleep. Cuicatl is sitting down in a weird chair Shirona got for her. It only has two points of contact with the ground. Her feet make the third and fourth. It would be really easy to tip over, but it’s also easy to rock. She seems to like rocking in it. So does Genesis. You’d prefer something more sturdy.

“Sorry for worrying you. Back now.”

“I wasn’t worried. Noci said you were fine.”

“Right.” How far is her range when talking to the metang? You weren’t too far, but you were hardly in earshot. “How’d the hunt go?”

“Got a few rattata. Attracted two skarmory. One told me no, the other one will keep talking to me as long as I give her more food. I’ll keep doing little hunts throughout the canyon. See if I can change her mind by the end. Similar situation with the machoke. Neither can be caught in a day.”

Right. A longer campaign of manipulation. You… have a question.

“What if they don’t want to be caught?”

“I can bring them around. Almost always have.”

That didn’t answer your question. But you suppose it did by omission.

“Do you think it’s in their best interest to be caught?”

She turns her head to look towards you. It’s unnecessary. Even a little unnerving with her blank stare in the dim light. Not that you’ll tell her that. “Was it in the rattata’s interest to be killed? No. I did it anyway.”

Predators. Prey. You can believe she’s on board with that. But not everyone.

“And your vegetarian girlfriend is okay with that philosophy?”

She tenses up and for a moment you can really see the definition in her arms. Girl grew up used to physical work. It shows.

“Gen doesn’t want to push it.”

Is what she’s doing worse than what you did? You don’t think you ever really hurt her aside from the imorin. And you didn’t do that for long before stopping. Fine, you did push her boundaries a little because you wanted more than she did and didn’t know how to ask directly. No, you knew how. You just didn’t want to. And no one got hurt until the end. She probably enjoyed herself at the dance. Getting Cuicatl roped in to your half-baked rescue plan would’ve been bad, sure, but in the end you didn’t do it. The kiss was really shitty, too, especially with the benefit of hindsight. You aren’t a saint. Gen hates you and you know why. But is lying to humans and playing social games worse than condemning pokémon to death and servitude to pay down a debt?

She gets to her feet and stretches. “I’m going to bed. See you tomorrow.”

“Wait.”

…you’ve already burned all your other bridges. Why not burn this one, too? You wouldn’t be a good friend if you didn’t make her grow when she refuses.

“I don’t think you should be working with VStar at all.”

She groans and turns around. “You know why I’m doing it.”

“I know why you say you are. Money. But, hear me out, a multimillionaire has offered to adopt you. What’s the point anymore?”

“She won’t,” Cuicatl whispers. “She can’t. That’s not how things work.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake. You take a deep breath and try to calm your rising temper at—her, yourself, your father, everything—and fail. “I can’t wait to see you realize your worth. I meant that. But you need to hurry up. Your own insistence that things can’t get better, that you aren’t worth anything? That’s about to potentially ruin the lives of a machoke and skarmory. You aren’t doing this because you have to. You’re doing this because you’d rather kill and capture than—what, accept that people care about you? I do. Gen does. Lots of people do. Is it unreasonable to think that Shirona does, too?”

Her back straightens. Her right fist clenches and her left reaches for her sash. Should’ve remembered before that the girl has a serious temper boiling away beneath the surface.

“Is fighting me going to make my words untrue?”

You will if she wants. Can probably even win. It would just be a waste of everyone’s strength when you can’t afford to be off your game.

You’re saved by the togekiss chirping. The tension immediately leaves Cuicatl’s body and suddenly she just looks a little pathetic. Like a child that’s been caught and scolded. She goes into her tent and zips it behind her without another word.

Great.

Just great.

In some ways this is easier. She doesn’t have to choose between being friends with you and keeping Genesis happy if she hates you.

A lot of people hate you these days. Turns out that you can only have friends when you’re carefully curating the version of you that people meet.

Who cares.

You don’t need friends in the wilderness.

It’s. It’s going to be fine. Eventually.
 

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
  9. celebi
This arc starts with such a good header quote. Most of them are really good but this one feels deeply, uncomfortably on point. Mostly because I find it incredibly wrong, and yet also incredibly right. Because, goodness, does family not work out for a lot of people here.

Perhaps it’s because I read things a little more in-one-sitting this time, or the edits felt a little less substantial and as such easier to track, but I found this arc to be really tight. Broadly I think it’s because there’s a little less sitting around for everyone–Pixie’s in a situation where she’s got a lot more agency, which I think helps speed up both her chapters and the sense of Cuicatl’s arc; Kekoa’s got some interesting progress to make. I think the climax here feels a little more cohesive too, as the shit hitting the fan with Genesis really draws the cast back together in the last few chapters in a way that the Hala chapter really can’t. I think I’m also able to be a lot more sympathetic with these kids than when I was, like, six hours ago–I think a lot of it is because there’s a much more obvious, much more impactfully evil villain/stakes for them to face. There’s some compelling side characters who got dealt rough hands and didn’t end up doing things with V-Star, so while it’s likely that while doing the morally dubious/hypocritical things they were doing in Arc 3 probably is necessary to survive in this world, it’s a lot easier to sympathize with the gang when they’re going Nancy Drew-style after the massive bigots than it is * waves hands vaguely in the direction of colonialism *. Something about punching up, too–I imagine I’m hit supereffectively by it so keep that in mind, but I find I’m very much okay with Lila threatening the big bigots with a metagross than I would be the main cast doing lesser things to each other, for example.

All-in-all it feels like things really hit their stride in this one, and a lot of the groundwork/promises made in Arc 3 really get to come to light here.

(For whom it may concern, this review is for chapters 4.1-4.18, and Recap 3.)
Rock

The World
(Rachel, 4.1)
I continue to appreciate the decision to open/close arcs with a viewpoint character outside of the main cast. I think it helps you cut to the themes nicely and also gives a bit more grounding in the sense of the broader world. For Rachel’s intro it ends up coming in the form of the news articles; it’s always delightful to see these little spins on how people view major events and a bit of the fallout. Rip Dr. Brinner, long live Tyrantrum Girl. The little memes and various recurring news/internet communities are a fun way to sneak in some exposition without feeling overly beleaguered. It’s also darkly comical to see not-Elon Musk decide to just lie to his own people on the zoom invites; I think you really conveyed how utterly frustrating it would be to work for him and how delicately those eggshells really are.

And I think Rachel is also really effective at broadly establishing a broader world in a microperspective–she’s quite emblematic of the flaws of the main cast, and what they stand to lose, what the end of the road could look like if they don’t change course. I liked how there was particular attention given to Rachel being a people-pleaser–while Gen’s probably the most people-pleasing of the main cast, Kekoa is constantly frustrated that no one ever approves of his sickass plan to liberate Alola, and Cuicatl’s stuck walking on eggshells so that she can get what she wants. It’s a relatable gateway drug into doing morally regrettable things–stop standing up for yourself, and stop standing up for others. And of course Rachel’s the ultimate V-Star sellout, fixing things while both acutely hating Chris and her role in helping him, while still making peace with what she’s doing. She’s not explicitly evil, per se, but she’s definitely a V-Star bad ending and I think it’s fun contrast to some of the angst Kekoa and Cuicatl, especially Kekoa, have been facing in their role in poaching.

Likewise, closing with Valerie really works too. At first I thought “and then everyone gets therapy and things are fixed” was a bit too clean of an ending, even if things were fixed, but by the end of the chapter when Valerie and Lila are talking about how things really could go either way, I felt sold on the structure. It’s a needed breather after an incredibly dark string of chapters, but again it helps ground things in addition to helping things tonally. There are CPS and mechanisms in place to stop things like this from happening to kids like Genesis. There are very few people who are able to perform psychic conversion and the ones that do are bad at their jobs, everyone give three cheers for the power of the free market and lack of regulations bay-bee. The Gages simply do not care because they are shielded from the consequences of their actions and have the resources to avoid what the rest of us decry as “illegal” and “unethical” and “what the fuck”. They will, however, care about threats from an alakazam–which is nice closure, though part of me is sure we won’t see the last of them.

But still, there was something intensely cathartic and comforting about the closing chapter of this arc, something that probably wouldn’t have hit as hard coming from the main cast (who aren’t really in the position to understand as clearly where they stand in this situation).

Cuicatl
“Just stop thinking about pain?” he suggests, like it’s the easiest thing in the world. “Then you won’t be broken.”
shitpost quotes for these sections or we bust

It’s kinda funny to me that the best mother in this fic is a t-rex who never really shows up again and maybe ended up killed by not-Elon Musk. But she’s so proud of Coco’s teeth and she’s mostly just here to knock over some power lines (she’s watched Jurassic Park) and inquire about her daughter. I also thought it was funny that the most accepting person is a tiny t-rex who’s over the moon that she’s got two moms lol. Really sold the whole “deserving” thing for me at the end.

I find myself with a lot less to say about Cuicatl in this arc, which is odd since she’s got so much going on. I think a lot of it is just because she’s not being terribly challenged this arc, which is fine–again I think it’s hard to give everyone equal tones/things to do and by nature some characters end up with a little less focus than others. There’s a lot of cathartic moments and a lot of therapy and understanding and conversations about guilt and deserving, and I think those functioned well in the story–mostly I’m just finding myself retreading old ground in typing this up and I’m not sure what else new I have to say. 90% certain I will remember all of it the instant I start writing the Arc 5 review. Can’t believe Pixie leaves her for twelve seconds and she almost immediately turns around to get a liar betrayer espeon.

“But you’re still a child. You didn’t deserve to lose your brother.”
I thought this came a little early in the scene–as a reader I understand Cuicatl’s hyperfocused on deserving and guilt and blame, and I also understand how a therapist would be primed to look for that kind of thing, but I think at least Cuicatl mentioning offhand that she deserves something bad (that she clearly doesn’t) to help Valerie make this gap would help a lot.

My mom hatched some pokémon of my own. They’re my siblings.
Bit of a slip here on “pokemon of my own”, yeah? Unsure if this was intentional.

Pixie
Everything’s okay.

It’s the best mom ever!

Shitposts aside I do like how Kalani is actually really effective at teaching things to Pixie, in a way that most of the humans in this fic haven’t been. It makes a lot of sense that the best teacher for an orphaned vulpix would probably be another orphaned vulpix, at least initially, do not read into this for cycles of generational trauma, everything’s okay, honest. But at the root of all this is a question about what trainers actually provide, what training actually means, and it’s a question Pixie has to answer before she’s ready to go back. If it’s about getting stronger, then Kalani is undoubtedly the better trainer. If it’s about getting stronger without immediately getting the shit pummeled out of you, Kalani sorta wins again. If it’s about being loved …

“Think of a better curse and I will cast it” is a really brilliant conflict. I like how it immediately pulls Pixie in the two directions–she realizes she doesn’t actually want to hurt Cuicatl, but she also doesn’t want to disappoint Kalani. Unfortunately all of Pixie’s ideas are lame and boring and not THE MOUNTAIN’S CURSE, sad. I do think it’s a delightful exercise in having your cake and eating it too, or in vulpix terms having your litter and not kicking most of them off the mountain. And while it’s not as blatantly AAAAAAA as Kalani yelling at the purple-haired trainer’s ninetales, it’s not like Pixie’s going to be fixing much on her own, really, ever. Sometimes you really have to choose.

Serena coming back was really fun, unexpected but welcome. I like what she brings to Pixie’s narrative, and how she doesn’t really spend time fussing over the semantics of “you’ve abandoned me”, and instead just admits blame and says what’s up and then tries to make things right. And I like how Kalani convinces Pixie it’s still a good idea to curse her anyway; I think Kalani needs something really unreasonable to be angry against to emphasize that her opinions come from a place of spite and vengeance rather than just wanting to protect Pixie (by making her sleep outside). I was kind of expecting the forgetting curse to be some sort of Chekhov’s gun where Serena forgets the HM for Waterfall or something and can’t make it to the champion match in the finale, but I suppose it does make a lot of sense to have Lunala just nope.jpg the shit out of that. The image of Kalani/Pixie sitting outside and watching The Moon in awe is also a really pretty one.

I also like how we start to see the darker aspects of Kalani’s adoption policies coming into play. I don’t think there’s a lot of bad ones in Arc 3, and I kinda get why–there’s really only two or three Pixie chapters to dig into it, and as such not a lot of words–but it does make everyone’s reactions feel a little less fair to Kalani (even though everyone besides Kalani is ultimately correct about Kalani). “My kit is perfect; when this one is not perfect she is not my kit” or whatever is really fucked lol! And I think necessary to start getting across the idea that it’s not just Pixie who had these ideas of fostering and family wrong, but yeah the entire network of kicked-out abandoned kids who can summon blizzards might not actually have good ideas for the right way to treat people.

Though I do think some of this is a little undermined by how fucked up Pixie gets at the end of Arc 3 and how much she needs to recover going into Arc 4. Saw your Discord message and agree–not entirely sure how you’d change this without altering the end of Arc 3 too much, but it’s hard to see Cuicatl as trying to rescue Pixie from Kalani when the abuse score is basically “six broken ribs and almost a punctured lung” vs “a ton of emotional abuse and sleeping outside”--neither is good, Kalani is arguably the lesser of two evils (at the moment; I know later she really gives Pixie an earful), but I don’t really think it’s a heartwarming pitch to be the less abusive one (even if it’s Cuicatl). Kalani is deeply wrong and abusive about a lot of things, but she’s really right about being mad at Cuicatl for Pixie’s injuries–this is something that happened because Cuicatl explicitly asked for it, and Pixie wasn’t going to do it anyway. That the match was pitched as a way for Pixie to impress Kalani, that Cuicatl claims she’s just giving her pokemon choices and it’s not her fault if they accept or not–is not convincing to me (though again I don’t find it unrealistic; just, difficult behavior to unpack for a protagonist who eventually gets proven right in this). Compared with, like, Gen, who’s also leaving her deeply abusive home–she’s going to some friends who sometimes side-eye her for deadnaing them or calling them heathens, not going to some friends who are going to pay someone to kick her in the shins for internet views or something and lyra is there too.

Small grammar thing–There’s an occasional flip between nine-tails and nine-tales that I don’t think is intentional

Genesis
Something I forgot to mention in Arc 3 is that, for how “Xerneas loves sinners sweetie” and “I just don’t want the gayness shoved down my throat” the Gages are, they really are the most awful kind of worst in how obsessive they are in sexualizing their daughter, showing her pictures of genitals, having someone watch her undress and shower. It’s grossly realistic and I hate it. Hard same to Mrs. Rivers’ casual “I was a homosexual too”, that’s just so unfair how dare you lol. In a fic where I’m constantly screaming at people to punch up instead of down, Mrs. Rivers is really just putting on her gloves and going to town down there.

I also liked (in the sense that I disliked everything about Gen’s arc but it’s wonderfully written, just, so icky) how the Gage parents end up disgusted with Mrs. Rivers. There’s a lot of, idk, infighting in those kinds of communities for how gender roles should even work. A real man should know how to change a car tire, a real woman should know how to bake bread or whatever–vs nah fuck it we’re rich this is all beneath is. It’s a nice way to work a little classism into the whole shitshow, while also leaving me utterly devoid of sympathy for any of the parties. I was definitely wondering why her parents would want her to know how to clean things off of the floor (when clearly she’s just learning for the first time how brooms work), so that was a nice bit of closure.

Ollie’s a tiny welcome window of light in this incredibly rough time for Gen, and I really liked how his stuff played out. “Was he just raised different or” is such a fun question when working with Gen, and I like how there’s not really an obvious answer, nor is there really any obvious doubt. He’s just a sweet round duck who wants to feed his new friend some seaweed. He comes from a long line of assholes and is literally the symbol for a huge society of enormously gross people. Papa Gage seems to be hoping that maybe this is will be a way to convince Gen that she can grow out of being cursed by Yveltal to be a sinner or whatever, but I like the alternate read that this is more akin to Gen learning that she can grow out of her parents’ shadow. Since honestly she’s also just a sweet round duck who wants to feed her friends some seaweed. I was really dreading that Ollie was going to be some sort of secret trap, either in the sense that he was actually a plant for her father or he was going to end up taken away while quacking frantically for Gen to help, and I’m really glad that neither of those ended up happening–there’s already so much drama in Gen’s arc and I think it’s nice to just have an uncomplicatedly nice person on her side in the darkest and shittiest part of her life. Even if he’s just a lil plapping duck. I appreciate him so much.

Papa Gage being confused at the dumpsterfire that he commissioned exploding in his face is a nice touch. I’m glad that that wasn’t foreshadowing or something.

I’m glad Levi and Exodus are back. Sidenote really what were her parents thinking naming her Exodus; what did they think was going to happen here? It’s such a rough hope spot too; I really thought that Levi might’ve been able to talk her down since sometimes only family really understands family, he’s definitely aware of how to better behave around his parents and maybe if he can figure out how to stay sane in the face of it all, he can figure out how to get through to Gen. But ultimately it turns out he gets a lot of slack because he’s the heir and he gets his way by throwing that weight around. Realizing that was such a deflating moment for me, and was what really emphasized for me that there wasn’t going to be someone to save Gen from this before it was too late. I was still so sad too learn that Levi used his birthday present to try to stage an intervention for her, though, my god. It’s honestly the saddest fucking thing, and for me really emphasized how outgunned the kids are in this situation–they’re going up against illegal mindwipe shit with, checks notes, a twenty minute zoom call. They never really stood a chance, but that they tried is so earnestly heartwarming.

Speaking of earnestly heartwarming, I felt whatever we would call the exact opposite of that in the final climax. Her dad carrying her to the conversion therapy that at the very least will destroy a part of her and at the worst will just destroy all of her, and Gen gaining some comfort from how nice it feels to be held, is, ugh, so fucked, I love it, I hate it. Him grunting when he realizes how big she’s gotten and how hard it is to carry her is such a perversion of what should be a tender moment–the correct thing to do when your kids outgrow them is to let them, but literally and metaphorically Papa Gage is going to carry her down the path he’s set out for her. And I really love/hate how the Gage parents break ranks on how many changes are “acceptable” for their daughter in the final chapter, how far they’re willing to go to make her pure or whatever. It’s gross and transactional and “is there a man we’re preparing her for” and Papa Gage going through and pointing out the potential qualities in Gen’s choice in partner, Mama Gage just hoping to make her just a little bit more racist … it’s so gross. I like how this is kind of an “oh shit” moment for Gen too on top of all of the other ohshit moments that she’s let pass her by; and, like with all those moments, she lets this one pass her by as well. It’s really not fair to her, and it really works as a capstone for all of the shit she’s gone through in the past two arcs. I didn’t really think I’d be rooting for the bigot heiress but here we are stanning.

Cuicatl has pink memories in addition to green ones, hmm? I did think it was kind of a missed opportunity for Tapu Lele not to mention something obtuse about this in the Olivia chapter actually.

My heart skipped a beat when Gen’s recap wasn’t a prayer to Xerneas. That’s the kind of understated catharsis that necessitates thousands of words between interludes to pay off, lmao. I know things aren’t really going to get great for her, but at least they can get slightly better.

Skitter
Hoho i understood that reference

What I did not understand was the concept of kecleon, and the utter horror of these weird invisible aliens with their creepy tongues going around and kidnapping people. Read the bulbapedia article the second time and all of this made a lot more sense.

My notes for this section are just “Leo is such a gem”, which is so true. I like him as a metaphor for, idk exactly who or what in the main cast, but it’s really heartwarming to see someone get a W in this section, especially if the W is growing massive flesh swords and crushing your enemy underfoot with them. There’s something really nice about the conclusion to no one believing in him, including himself and also his trainer, ending with Cuicatl prepared to throw his match and him kicking ass anyway. Sometimes no one believes in you and sometimes it doesn’t matter, fuck you, I’m a giant water crab now. I was going to make a zodiac joke but I’m 99% sure that Leo is the lion and not actually the watercrab, but also, I do not know zodiacs.

“If you were small enough to climb into the hole where would it take you” INTO ULTRASPACE PROBABLY

One thing I also forgot in Arc 3 that I got reminded of here–babby Leo is deeply okay with being in his pokeball, and I think you sell that very well. There’s a compelling argument that his species and also he in general would be totally fine with it, and I think that’s made. I do remember getting a little tripped up on the pokeball ethics in Arc 3, and continuing into Arc 4, with Kukui’s special ice balls that simulate real environments, let the pokemon think they’re walking around and experience some sort of passing of time, and also apparently let their bodies experience changes in real time ? (Pixie mentions getting hungry after leaving the ball the first time). I think this is arguably more dubious than just having them unconscious tbh; if they’re conscious it’s like a lot of solitary confinement and I could really see that causing a lot of psychological damage? Plus there’s some weird brain-fucky implications for if the pokeball is capable of making them experience (hallucinate?) fictional environments. I get those cute little images of the pokemon in their simulated cozy cuddly cottagecore pokeballs with the clear lids, I get that they’re cute in artistic form, but it’s kind of a weird can of worms to open in a more grounded fic setting. If they can continue to think in there, can they also experience mental distress and isolation? Does time map 1:1? If they can get hungry, does this mean that injuries sustained prior to entering can also get worse? It’s kind of a set of questions that I’m not sure is worth opening, especially since so far it’s only really relevant to show that Kukui is not literally the worst trainer–which can also be shown by him buying Pixie some special “welcome to the best home ever” ice cream and stuff.

Kekoa
I found myself a lot more interested in Kekoa’s stuff this round, maybe because he has more physical things to do? I also liked how these physical things ended up with him running into people who succeed where he’s failed–Kiawe’s a big cool macho guy and that’s obviously a whole Thing, but also Kiawe’s getting people to pay attention to the historical dances/culture of Alola, Kiawe’s got a whole stage bit where he introduces his pokemon by name and even has a totem pokemon who fights alongside her kid. Kanoa’s a good friend who Kekoa decries for having some centrist takes, but she also deeply understands that she needs to coach her parents into not being massive assholes and dinner goes off without a hitch. It’s refreshing to see the other side of the coin play out, all these chances Kekoa could have to succeed like they are, all these chance that are not going to be taken because buh-bye it’s Skull time. At least he learned a tiny lesson about not hauling another sacred pokemon to an environment they hated and then being surprise pikachu’d when they inevitably left, rip dugtrio we never knew ya.

“Good job,” you tell the carbink before withdrawing him.
Admittedly i haven’t been flagging line-by-lines very diligently but there was a whole her/they debate in this chapter for this character

My notes for the fire trial–Kiawe was a really nice quasi-antagonist to have in this section because, again, he’s just a really nice dude, and that’s kind of the perfect antagonist for Kekoa right now. I also noted that marowak the size of humans is absolutely terrifying, as is human-sized marowak playing baseball with raw elemental energy, deeply unsettling lol. And also that cubone would make a good pokemon for anyone on the team, wouldn’t it … nah I jest I don’t think the tiny orphan dino who uses its trauma as armor would really mesh well with the gang now that they’ve got therapy and things are fixed now.

I like how Kekoa’s still not really learning empathy–again it’s frustrating to watch but feels realistic here, especially when he’s got such a fluidly evolving list of targets. Jabari’s wrong for joining the military (ok he left but he should’ve! Just! Had an older brother who joined the military and made him realize it was fucked, did he not consider that before getting a ton of PTSD), Cuicatl’s wrong for not understanding the bigger picture (simply open your eyes larger??). It works for him and it works in the context of the main cast imo. I liked the “what punishment would be good enough” conversation from the lens of it being told to Kekoa, though I did feel like it didn’t quite ring as true coming from Cuicatl–this feels really deeply not her current worldview right now, so it doesn’t quite feel as genuine since I can’t quite believe she’s able to mean it. Contrasted with Jabari’s too-dark eyes when talking about the military and how sorry he is for things like that, where it feels like he’s learned a lot more–I think that conversation felt a lot more earned to me, though tbf I’m not sure if Jabari immediately went to therapy and recanted most of that growth off-screen.

Again, I think these conversations are really fun, and I can’t pinpoint exactly why I felt like Arc 4 Kekoa had a lot more going on for him than Arc 3 did–maybe it’s the physicality of the trials? Maybe the lack of darkness meaning he gets to see more things happening? My brain is pretty close to fried on reviews for the day tbh but I think it’s probably that Kekoa gets to talk and lash out a lot more in these, and as such the conversations feel more two-sided–with Florges and Plumeria there’s a power dynamic that Kekoa is really cognizant to tread around; with Florges it’s literal, vine on the shoulder thing, not to mention everything about fey pacts; with Plumeria it’s less life or death but it’s pretty clear she has a lot of things Kekoa wants and he’s not going to be as open to her. And with Kanoa in Arc 3 it feels like he’s mostly pulling his punches as he sees if she’s the Right kind of revolutionary. Whereas here he’s a lot more free to speak his mind, and as such feels like he’s got a little more agency going. Not strictly something I’d advocate for changing in Arc 3, since I think him feeling trapped there is part of the point, most just trying to pinpoint why I felt like these chapters read more dynamically.

I also liked Kanoa’s interactions in these chapters, both how she’s shown to have the emotional capacity to be good and kind to Kekoa, and also how she’s shown that having the trial captain seat/being successful on the island trial/getting the power Kekoa seems to want, isn’t really good enough and she’s still got to stay up all night killing 90% innocent herdier. Like Rachel it’s a nice counterpoint to the end of the road. And ultimately I think it ties into Kekoa’s closing sentiments about the original Kekoa, who chose glory–young!Kekoa thinks old!Kekoa should’ve chosen justice, old!Kekoa didn’t seem to regret choosing glory, and neither Kekoa ever considered choosing family or happiness. It’s a fun, somber way to tie up the end of this arc and launch him into the next one of good decisions only. Also, misc other notes on Kanoa’s trial–Kanoa is great because she doesn’t understand the baffling genius of string shot everything, that punctured drifloon go zoooooom is a really funny detail.

I kind of wanted a bigger ohshit moment for Kekoa realizing what’s about to happen to Gen–I think you’re already up to the gills in tension so it doesn’t really have to linger, but there’s no Lyra POV and Cuicatl doesn’t really take this as deeply awful until she actually faces it. I get that Kekoa’s pretty blase (at best) towards Gen, but I was sort of hoping that they’d be able to bond over the shared need to punch up at the bigots or something lol.

Lyra
“Asshole,” Lyra agrees.
Lyra’s gotten the memo about punching up.

Won’t give you shit or get in your way when Gen comes back. It’s probably the best outcome.
yup mhmm

I’d misremembered how many chapters Lyra got in this before dividing up headers, but yeah, in hindsight makes sense that a lot of her conflict gets gated behind getting Gen back in the crew. I do like the little hints about her upcoming, incoming hypocrisy–which I’m beginning to realize is kind of core to how you challenge characters, and is really fun. But no guys pheromones aren’t mind control, the psychics are bad because they manipulate your minds, I just manipulate, idk, I kinda forgot the nuances of this argument because I realized it was going to end up with everyone bullying Gen again rip lol.

And buried in this, Lyra’s the first one to get through to Cuicatl about eating disorder things. I thought that was a nice touch–she really does mean the best, I liked how her first instinct was to have Cuicatl touch her since she’s able to immediately understand that experiencing eating disorders is probably a lot different if you can’t experience sight. It’s a nice moment of empathy that she immediately pushes too far by accusing Cuicatl’s father of lying to her, which, understandable.

-

ok. this is several textwalls for the day and I'm quite sure bits of this last one were incomprehensible; definitely let me know. at the very least I think this story is really well done and I think you're cooking some great shit, even if I'm coming in for the two year old leftovers at this point lol
 
Fairy 6.11

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
Fairy 6.11: Precipice
Pixie

Skysong is giving the other pokémon their orders. “Coco, you’re with me as a guide. Noci, carrying supplies and looking for danger. Leo, you’ll be in your ball. If a fight breaks out, you’ll stay close to me and the other humans and block any attacks you can. If anything slips past Coco and the outer guard, knock it out. The pokémon in the canyon will be the strongest we’ve seen. Stay alert and give it your all. But if you can’t win, tell me. I can figure out what they want and hand it over if we have to.”

The others understand their orders. They have jobs. Ways to help.

“What am I doing?” you ask.

“Keep the food cold. I’ll send you out throughout the day to keep freezing it.”

You can do that. You have been doing it. None of it puts you at risk. It feels… well, you can’t fight. Even a grass eevee managed to hurt you.

You don’t want to help just because an eevee and a bird told you. But. It might get you love? Nothing else has worked.

“Can I stay out?” you ask Skysong. Surely you’ll find something to do then.

The human stands still for a moment. She does that sometimes when she’s thinking. Usually there’s some movement. Swaying, moving a limb, fidgeting with something in her paw. Stillness is strange for her.

“It will be very hot,” Skysong says, “and a difficult path. I won’t judge you for staying in your ball. Might be best for your injuries.”

You puff your fur out. No. You refuse to be nothing more than an injured fox forever. Nothing more than useless prey. You can carry on like any other pokémon. You have to.

“…okay. I’ll let you stay out for a little bit. I’d you’re hurting or hot, let me know. It’s fine. Promise.”

*​

In the blissful cold of your ball, you wonder why you even care about being helpful. You never wanted to live with humans. Never wanted to care about what they think. Never asked for it. If you could still be on The Mountain, you would be. But there isn’t a way back. Not even Kalani could find one with all of her power.

You’re stuck at sea level for good. Skysong is probably the best human to be stuck with. You could go out and try again, and again, and again, but… you don’t think you’d do better. She can listen to you. Even if she doesn’t always. That’s still more than most humans.

You don’t understand why being helpful makes people love you. Or how love works. Did Avalanche love you? Then why did she leave you? Why do the nine-tails have to leave anyone? During the wonderful dark and cold you met a nine-tails in the cave beneath the flowers. He asked you why the nine-tails couldn’t just grow the mountain. Not the rock of the mountain, but the cold of it. You could make all the islands cold and then live there without getting rid of any vulpix. At the time you thought that you could, that you were strong enough. And then Shirona’s dog tossed Kalani around like a rodent before snapping her neck. Do the humans keep you from expanding the cold with threats? If so, you don’t want to help them. Not when they’re responsible for everything.

You need to get that question answered. You’ll have to talk to the nine-tails in the cave or maybe the one mated to the ugly ice eevee. Until then you can keep trying to be helpful.

*​

You try. You really do. You walk beside Skysong, easily keeping up with the slow humans. Then the sun rises. It’s fine for a while. Your abdomen is a little sore from Kalani’s scars.

Then your body starts to burn inside of your fur. Even the stone beneath your paws is blazing hot. Skysong stops the group to drink. You try to keep trudging on because you’re not sure you’ll be able to start again if you stop. “Pixie,” she calls out. “Leo’s in his ball. It’s fine if you want to be. Really. When we get to someplace cold, I’m sure Coco will want to stay in hers.”

You don’t want to admit defeat. You’re trying. How is she supposed to know how loveable and helpful you are if she can’t see you trying?

She bends down and holds out a hand for you. It is ignored. “If you get hurt out here, I won’t be able to fully heal you for a long time.”

That makes you reconsider. You already have so many wounds. The last one still hurts when you wake up in the morning. Could you survive more? You can’t be helpful and loved if you’re dead.

“Fine.”

“Good. I’ll send you out later to help keep things cold.”

You lift your paws to take another step and set them back down in the snow. Getting better at managing that. A few tight turns and a sweep of your tails makes a nice spot to sit in. The heat in your fur goes away and is replaced by marvelous cold. This is better. You would rather be here. Is that why no one’s loved you?

*​

The heat abruptly returns. Skysong sits beside you. In front of you is a big crack in the earth. It’s not nearly as deep as The Mountain is tall, but you can only barely see the pokémon at the bottom.

Skysong gestures to the cold box on the other side of you. It only takes a few seconds to re-freeze the melted water. “Good girl. I appreciate it.”

It was barely anything. You don’t acknowledge the praise.

“If you ever feel bad, I can let you back in. The others liked the view. Thought I should share it.”

It’s not bad. Just not what you saw on clear days growing up. From up high the trees on the ground blurred together and the ocean stretched out forever down below. There was only The Mountain beneath your paws and the green and blue stains beyond it. This is big but there’s just more earth on the other side. The river at the bottom isn’t even impressive. Not like the meltwater streams that slowly built up the further down The Mountain you went.

And you’ll never see any of those things again. There’s no going back. No matter how powerful you get. Is this the best you can get now?

Skysong’s hand brushes against your side. “What are you thinking about?”

You don’t want to tell her. She wouldn’t get it. But. Kalani did give her The Nine-tails’ Curse. Or something like it. Maybe she does?

“Home,” you answer.

She hums in response.

“I don’t know where home is anymore. It was always the people for me. And the people are… they aren’t there anymore.”

“Some are.” Her dragon. The blob thing. The fire-type.

“Maybe,” she says. “But. I think Dr. Karashina knows something and isn’t telling me. She shuts down her mind whenever I ask about it. Has since the start. Whatever she knows, I doubt it’s good.”

You release a pulse of snow to sit in. It’s more tolerable without hot stone right beneath your feet. Still aren’t sure how much longer you can take this.

“What if they aren’t there?” you ask. It’s not something you’ve heard her talk about. You never thought about not being able to return until someone who would know told you that it could never, ever happen.

She takes a loud, shaky breath. “Then this was all pointless, wasn’t it? Coming here, getting the money. Should have just stayed and… no. At least one of them is out there. At least one. Probably two. Maybe all three.”

You wonder what the curse meant. If home was people and she can’t go home. Curses can be clever. Almost as clever as the fox who cast them. Sometimes more. You don’t tell her that. It’s a bad time.

You glance down the cliff.

A bad place, too.

“You don’t have to prove yourself to me,” she says. “I already like you. If I want you to do something, I’ll ask. If I don’t want you to I’ll let you know. You can do the same with me.”

You just stare at her. Liar. She has always wanted you to prove yourself. Your strength. Your obedience. Your softness. That is all humans want. For you to be better.

…it’s all Kalani wanted, too.

You aren’t sure how to get better. But you’re trying, and she’s telling you to stop.

“Can I go back?”

Skysong smiles even though nothing good is happening. “Of course. I’ll send you out for dinner. After the sun sets. When it’s cold.”

You sneeze. “It’s never cold.”

She smiles more. Why? “Cooler, then.”

“Fine.”

And you go back to being alone.

*​

The caves are far better than the surface. The entire group is cutting through one rather than doing more of the endless lines back and forth across the canyon edge. Just looking at the lines makes your legs ache. Now the other two humans are hanging back while you help Skysong, Eyerock, and Eggbreath find a ‘machoke.’ You saw a picture. It was like a human, but three times as ugly. You almost met one before. The man with the terrible bird had used one in the fight. It was before you came out. You can only remember the reptile smell on the wooden boards. No. Not quite reptile. Not quite anything. They smell as ugly as they look.

The caves aren’t like the ones on The Mountain. Too wide. Too tall. Too smooth. You can hear water far below, but there isn’t even a dry riverbed in this tunnel. Sometimes there are human lights flickering into the dark. Sometimes you have to rely on your excellent night vision.

“Who made this?” Eggbreath asks. Huh. Maybe she isn’t that dumb if she’s keeping up with your thoughts. Someone must have made this. The humans? Could they even do it?

Skysong hums in thought. “I think the machoke. The tunnels are big enough for them. They like being underground. The bottom caves are probably normal. Then they made the rest. They’re strong enough to do it. Humans wouldn’t need to if we had the trail outside.”

That’s impossible. Lizards aren’t smart enough to build something like this, even if they were strong enough.

Just as you’re about to tell Skysong which way she should turn to follow the scent, Eggbreath nudges her down the correct path. How? Okay, fine, you know she isn’t nose-blind, but she shouldn’t be as good as you. Not if you’re supposed to be useful. And the dark isn’t even bothering her! You know she can’t see as well as you, maybe not even as well as Skysong, but she keeps going in a straight line even when you duck through a path that’s dark and too narrow for all three of you to walk side by side. You can at least flick Skysong away from a ledge in the next room. The cave just suddenly has two levels in this tunnel, one three tail-lengths higher than the other.

The tunnel splits again. The higher and lower levels leading into their own tunnels. You stop. The scent is stronger near the lower path. You tell Skysong while Eggbreath is still babbling on about the lizards she believes built the tunnels. You can’t help her get down, though. Eyerock ends up picking her up and dropping her down. Then the rock comes back to you like a mountain fox needs help with a little slope. You move down with careful movements and a small jump. Then Eggbreath runs off the top and lands at the bottom with a thud. Something stirs from down in the tunnel. A lot of somethings.

Wings. In a cave.

“Bats,” you tell Skysong.

She nods and her face shifts towards battle. Hunting. The one she wears when she’s dealing with things she doesn’t care about hurting. “Coco, stealth rock. Pixie, roar.”

You don’t have to be asked to scream. You pour all of your frustrations into it. Maybe an eevee can hurt you right now, maybe you’ll never go home, maybe you’ll never be loved. But the bats don’t have to know it and if they come for you they will die, slowly and painfully, no, quickly because you’re such a good hunter—

They’re here.

Some turn back from your scream. Others fly straight into the rocks and pause in pain. The rocks start moving in midair and hitting more. You look back. Eyerock. Shattered Eyes is wrapped around Skysong, lashing out at anything that flies down. Eggbreath bites at any that come close. Attack time. Fine. You can do that. You look back up and see a whole river of bats. Like the ones that flew out of caves on The Mountain.

You use weaker attacks, the little puffs of cold instead of bolts of ice in the sky. No point wasting a full attack when this will do. You knock bat after bat after the sky. It doesn’t matter. You still can’t see the ceiling. And now they notice you. Two dive down. You manage to shoot them. Then three, led by one as big as you.

It makes you hesitate. That could hurt you. Do you want to get hurt for this?

You’re interrupted when Eggbreath rushes over and sinks her teeth into the bat’s leg before it can touch you. It lets out at a terrible screech and tries to bite her before she moves her jaws and breaks its spine with a sickening crack.

“ENOUGH,” Skysong yells.

The sound echoes through the cave and, somehow, the bats slow down or even still.

“I’m sorry for disturbing you. I don’t wish you any harm, but if you keep going we will kill a many of you as we can. Your choice. You can have a few bats stay to watch us as long as they don’t attack. And we’ll go the opposite way of the rest.”

There’s a great deal of chatter above. Skysong goes back and forth with them for a while before most of the bats retreat. Eyerock and Skysong go around, spraying potions on some of the injured-but-not-dead bats, and you once again feel useless. She even defrosts one that you’d frozen! All of your hard work undone.

*​

“Strength is all the machoke value,” Skysong said. “They don’t care about anything else. We have to show them that humans can make them strong.”

“Why do they need to be strong?” you’d asked. “What will they use it for? Making their home bigger? Hunting? Not being hunted?”

“Not really any of that.”

The plains stretched out around you. Stony cliffs rose up in the distance like a barren, pathetic imitation of the mountain. The sea roared somewhere behind.

“I’ve heard that being stronger is the point. It makes them happy, I guess? I don’t understand. I don’t need to.”

Fools. If power made someone happy, then Kalani would have been happy. You knew they were stupid –they’re almost lizards – but that takes it too another level.

*​

There’s a large chamber with a hole high above. Light trickles down to form a crude circle in the center of the cave. The two machoke are fighting there. One’s far larger than the other. An adult and a baby? The adult is clearly holding back. And he’s outsped. The baby can duck beneath attacks and hit back. He’s striking the torso. Not the legs. Does he not know how to fight bipeds? Skysong says that she’ll talk to them but she doesn’t. Just stands in the entrance until the fight finishes with a glancing blow to the baby.

The machoke turn towards you. One steps forwards. Not the largest, but far from the smallest. A line of two parallel scars run up her abdomen onto her neck. You assume it’s a her. The others respect her.

Cuicatl still doesn’t say anything. Just reaches to her sash and lets Shattered Eyes out. The lead machoke steps back into the light. He’s followed by the bug’s eyes but not his body. Until he lunges. It’s quick, even for you, and the machoke barely reacts in time. Shattered Eyes follows up with a slash of a claw, water running off of it like a rapids. The machoke steps out of the way and Shattered Eyes steps forward, now with two claws of water slashing like mad. A fist flies out and the bug rolls her head down so that it strikes the armor behind her head. Then he dives down all the way, wrapping himself around the machoke’s legs and thrashing until she falls to her knees. Yes! That’s how you fight a biped! A kick sends him flying back but he just rolls on the ground and comes up in his usual crouch. If he’s hurt, he doesn’t show it. Just clacks his mandibles and hisses.

It occurs to you that Shattered Eyes is fighting because Skysong thinks he’s strongest. Even stronger than you.

…that isn’t very hard right now.

At least Eggbreath is too stupid to realize that. She might get upset. And Skysong cares a lot when Eggbreath is upset. Or pretends to. No mother would actually care that much for their child. Especially a pretend mother. Screaming without a cause just makes them annoyed. That’s what you do to those beneath you, to humans, not to someone above you.

Skysong puts something onto her bracelet. The fight’s still going. Shattered Eyes has landed some hits and doesn’t seem to mind the punches too much. His armor isn’t bent or anything. But his attacks also haven’t done more than annoy the machoke. The bracelet gives her power. The bracelet hurts her.

Eggbreath snorts and gently clamps her teeth around the bracelet so Skysong can’t move the arm. “Stop.”

And Skysong lowers her arm and stops. She didn’t need to do that. Shouldn’t have done it. Shouldn’t have let a child boss their parent around. You never would have done that with Avalanche. Not since you got your second tail and became more than a baby. Certainly wouldn’t have done it to Kalani.

The machoke grabs Shattered Eyes’ largest claws and tries to wrestle him. This just gets the bug to lash out with all of his smaller legs. It turns into a mess of kicks, scratches, and even a bite or two on the floor where neither side actually seems to be hurt. Until the bug suddenly goes limp. The machoke abruptly drops him and rises to her feet. Then he snaps back to life and runs away. A challenge is bellowed out, one that you don’t need translated: Fight, coward! Shattered Eyes stops. Turns. Looks at his opponent with his creepy inspect eyes. And he jumps. It’s at least half his height fully off the ground. You didn’t even know he could do that. The machoke tries to knock him out of the sky but Shattered Eyes spears one of his hind legs down hard enough to anchor in his enemy’s skin as his head keeps flying forward. He stops when his mandibles are just above the machoke’s eyes.

The machoke finally turns to Cuicatl and complains. It sounds like a complaint. A low grumble with her head turned down. One of the babies jeers. You’re not sure who he’s insulting.

“That’s how golisopod fight,” Skysong says. “And I won’t apologize. Down in the ocean battles aren’t casual tests of skill and strength. They’re contests where one fighter lives and the other dies. You could learn from him. Positioning. Feinting. Critical strikes. Or you could dismiss anyone who can beat you just because they didn’t fight you like a machoke should. Your choice.”

The machoke snorts and asks another question.

“He wasn’t hurt. It didn’t decide the fight. He would have won eventually. You lost whether you want to admit it or not.”

Her face stays neutral. Still. So does her voice. Stillness means that something’s off. She’s acting. Skysong was never the best huntress, or even a good one, but she’s great at getting prey to capture themselves.

The machoke takes two steps forward and Eggbreath dashes in front of Skysong. Her teeth are bared and she snarls like a mad beast. Her fangs are twice as long as yours. Too long, really. But it makes the snarl impressive.

“Do you want to fight again, or will you drive me away and save yourself the embarrassment?” Skysong asks. “I still have more pokémon.”

One of the mid-size ones steps forward, Coco advances, and the fight begins again. Coco is relying more on her new move, her close combat, flailing against her enemy while shrugging off weaker hits. She gets a good bite in and shocks her opponent. The two back up, Coco roars, and Skysong whistles. And says nothing. Finally, she hunches over and stares at the ground.

“Coco, come back. We’re not doing this.”

You almost hurt your neck snapping your head to look at her. What?

“I’m sorry, there are some humans who will try to find you and sell you to another human you’ve never met. Don’t listen to them.” She sounds tired. Hollow. Lifeless. “Thank you for the battle. We’ll be going.”

Even Coco looks confused. You’d thought that she understood her so-called mother.

Skysong holds out her hand, Coco hurries to meet it, and she turns to walk back into the tunnels.

“Wait!” you call. And she stops. “Can you ask them a question?”

She tilts her head. Good enough.

“What are they getting stronger for?”

Skysong turns back around and repeats the question.

The biggest one steps forward and groans out a response. It even sounds ugly.

“To get stronger.”

“Why, though? What do they need to defeat?”

The response is much longer this time.

“No one. Everyone. Strength can be measured. It can always be improved. Being stronger is a goal they can always work towards and know they’re advancing.” She pauses. “I’m sorry if that doesn’t make sense. He doesn’t know how else to explain it.”

That feels almost human. Like how one of your first trainers tried to explain it. Is that a good purpose? To fight over and over again for nothing? No. You don’t think so. It might be fun to lord your strength over your enemies, but it’s not a purpose.

*​

You wait until you’re almost out of the caves to challenge your trainer.

“What was that about?”

“I made a mistake.” Her voice is still low and dull. Very unpleasant. “Lyra called me out on it. I don’t think I’m going to do any more VStar hunts.”

“Can you still get food?” Shattered Eyes asks. Good. He has the right priorities.

“Yes.”

There’s a quiet moment where the only sounds are your steps.

“Can I go into my ball now?” he asks.

Skysong withdraws him. And that’s all the questions he has.

“How are you hunting then?”

“Don’t know. Dr. Karashina talked about some ways. Uh. Lots of people with more money than fear buy dragons. Even if they have a translator they don’t understand them. I can help. Or, if you’re willing, most of you are rare pokémon. I could show you off or something. If you want to. That shouldn’t be your job. Money is mine.”

“I will help,” Eggbreath says. Like there was ever any doubt.

“Thank you.”

You walk along in silence. A few bats are still watching from the ceiling but they don’t dare approach. Skysong wouldn’t let you eat any of the downed ones. A shame. You liked them a lot on The Mountain.

“Your thoughts, Pixie?”

“Humans are easier to fool than pokémon. It’s a good idea.”

Less dangerous, too. And if there isn’t fighting.

Fighting would make you stronger. The machoke seemed to like being stronger. That gave them purpose. Purpose. You had one. Go back to The Mountain, kill or exile one of your siblings, have things return to the way they were. That can’t happen. You don’t know what you want anymore. Do the nine-tails on The Mountain have a purpose? Or are they just living the life they are supposed to. Is that enough? It is, right? You don’t know what else a nine-tails would even want to do.

Then what’s the next best thing?

*​

The humans are all distracted. Liar is doing some light training with her team, Eggbreath, and Eyerock. Skysong and her mate are quietly talking about something dumb and unimportant in their tent. The remainder of the pokémon are asleep or scattered around.

The eevee is curled up in the late day sun at the edge of the campsite. You approach him. Even if you hate it. You’re trying not to cause problems. Trying not to start fights. The eevee had an idea about what you should be doing. You will listen to what he has to say. And then, probably, do the opposite. Eevee are useful like that. Give advice so bad you can use it to make good ideas.

He glances at you and then lowers his head back to the ground.

“You’ve been less of a nuisance,” he says. “It’s strange.”

You grit your teeth and try not to lunge. “I decided to help my trainer. What do you even do to help yours?”

He swishes his stupid, stupid leaf tail as he takes forever to think. “Not much. She never asks for much. I spent all my life growing up to join a human as their first pokémon. I did. He wanted something from me and I couldn’t give it to him. I wanted to. Just couldn’t. And then he left.”

You’ve been there. Except you never liked those humans in the first place.

“A new human found me. Left me for a while. She’s explained it. I don’t really mind. She doesn’t want anything from me. Just lets me lie in the sun and eat her food. All I have to do is sometimes sit in her lap and let her pet me.”

“And that’s all you want?” you ask. “You don’t even want to be loved? Feared?”

“She won’t shove me away. That’s a good start. I can figure out love later.” He swishes his leaf. You cringe away on instinct. It’s cut you deep a few times. “I teach people who attack me not to do it. They learn. I don’t need to remind them.”

“So you don’t do anything and don’t care about being loved?” How predictably eevee.

He just stares at you before settling back down on his side. “How has doing everything and obsessing over it worked for you? Are you happy, yet?”

Your fur puffs up and a low growl leaves your mouth before you can consciously think about whether you want a fight or not. The eevee ignores it. And you want to pounce. Even if your scars scream not to.

“You have a trainer that won’t send you away however much you mess up. That’s a lot better than I got first time around. Just relax. Heal. Make friends. You have the time. Vulpix live very long lives, right?”

You have no idea where he heard that. But, yes, you will outlive that stupid plant and every other eevee. If you evolve. And maybe if you don’t.

If you stay you’ll probably tear the eevee’s throat out and Skysong’s mate will be upset. Best to leave. You turn around with a very dignified huff and walk back towards Skysong and the cold air of your ball. You’ll show him. You’ll find purpose and love while he’s just sitting around doing nothing.

Somehow. Still not sure how you’re going to do it. But you will! If only to prove that smug eevee wrong.
 

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
  9. celebi
what's up youtube this arc is named "dark" and that's a sign of only good things, I'm sure
(for chapters 5.1-5.10)

I admit I’m always curious when there’s a big change in format to fics–here’s an arc with half the chapters that are roughly twice the length, what happened to bring that about? I’m personally in the camp of “fuck it, line break” when I get stuck on things, so I read the paradigm shift to less frequent, longer chunks as a sign that you were pretty locked-in for your chapter topics this time around, esp given the number of breaking things.

And on the other side of reading, I’m pretty interested in the long-term implications of things. I still ended up splitting this review out by character rather than by chapter, but a growing theme here seems to be that everyone’s more or less lost their motivations for doing the island challenge. Which, in a fic about doing the island challenge, does leave a lot of loose ends …

Shirona
Shirona gets her own section here because fuck convention, she’s awesome. I think it’s nice to have an adult in the room who’s distinctly an Adult (™) presence and can warn the kids about how absolutely teenage goblin they’re being, but who also distinctly understands the severe levels of trauma that they’re going through. A lot of the previous arc opener/closers have been a lot less sympathetic towards the main kids, because, yeah ok mood sometimes tbh everyone besides the therapist really has no background for this, and while that works in its own way it’s definitely nice to see someone who gets it. Also it’s somewhat reassuring to see someone come out on the other side of that trauma who’s, you know, mostly intact. It felt like kind of an interesting take on a beach episode, if the beach episode was mostly brought about as probably a means to discourage a really powerful hypercapitalist bigot from exacting revenge on a bunch of children.

Shirona doesn’t cast a shadow. Kagetora gets smeared across centuries for trying to fight fucking Dialga. I think this was roughly the perfect amount of information to have on the Spear Pillar backstory stuff; there’s enough to know that a lot of things went a lot of directions past south, but Shirona’s not entirely the main character here even if she’s the coolest. I’m also pretty tickled that she’s such an archaeologist nerd; this tracks with both her abilities and her backstory, but gosh if I had a nickel for every suave champion pseudolegendary trainer who gets distracted to the point of endangering children over the prospect of looking at some slightly older slightly more interesting rocks …

Pixie
Things really come to a head for her here, and in a good way imo. Well. Good for the audience. Bad for her.

I like how quickly and obviously the train wreck comes together, too. Kukui’s, uh, not the best at forestalling the disaster and certainly not the most proactive ninetales trainer, seriously, I get that freezing people is an effective way of stopping the fight, but it seems like with Kalani around he’s just got a walking nuke that he’s sternly wiggling a finger at. And also actively making things worse, lol. I’m not entirely clear on how Kalani found them/escaped though–Pixie seems to think that since Kalani can break Pixie’s ball, Kalani could break her own, but I would imagine the scenario is very different given who’s inside/outside of the ball? I don’t actually think this detail matters at all to the plot.

There’s a lot of good throughlines that reflect so well on the broader themes of the story with Pix here, though, and I think the pieces really come together. “Kalani is strong, and you’re her daughter” drives home this (misinformed) idea of inherited strength, earning rights to being by belonging to someone else. “Who you are didn’t matter, just what you are to her” aptly summarizes most of the plot for everyone, and also really outlines the shape of the train crash as it’s happening–it’s this toxic mentality of loving the idea of someone, the idea of going back to the mountain, the idea of a place where you have everything you need and as such don’t need to think about hobbies or fulfillment for yourself. The ninetales/mountain metaphor is really poignant in a story about people who are all rejecting or have been rejected by their homes in some way, and I really love when stories start to toe the metaphorical line as with the actual literal ninetales’ curse just being a recognition of what their way of life ended up turning them into. It’s really poignant while also being, and I find myself saying this a lot about this chapter in this review fair warning, metal as fuck. I think the Kalani confrontation ended up really tightly paced and tense, we know disaster is coming for Cuicatl and we know Pixie could maybe help but doesn’t really stand a chance either, but it’s such a banger when they finally choose each other.

I’m also curious for what this means for Pixie now. Obviously you can’t just shake free from this entirely massive toxic mindset that’s raised and consumed her life, and to a certain extent I’m not really sure if she’s mentally capable of understanding all of it in terms that I will understand, but she made a lot of character-growth-ish decisions and I wonder how many of them end up sticking. Thinking about others! Dirtying her fur! But also like shitposts aside, I think the core of “will you become X or will you be better than X” has a messy, long ending–it’s easy to slip into someone else’s footsteps, but when you have to chart your own path and your role models are also kinda not quite figuring out what they want, it’s a lot harder. I do think Pixie’s earlier chapters are often emblemized by a lot of questioning if things are working, rationalizing (incorrectly) why people are doing things, not entirely thinking about why someone else could be doing a thing differently than she would–so the ending lines of the Kalani fight chapter, where Pixie talks about deserving and more or less gets to the heart of the matter in what I felt was a pretty accurate way, recognizing what Kalani has done while still being sympathetic to her, felt like a big step forward, and leaves me curious as to where she ends up now.

Genesis
At the end of Arc 4 I was curious where she was going to go after all of this–so much of her arc has been built around either running towards or away from her parents, and now that that’s, at least in the literal sense, settled … where does she go now? What do you do when all you have to do is live?

And, yeah, narratively that’s a bit hard I think. It makes sense that she’d be pretty low-key and focused on the actual literal physical recovery she also needs to be doing, and a lot of her chapters focusing on the literal mental damage she has to undo. In the broader sense of the Arc/with how frequently you update, I think this works, but I feel like this arc was a lot of filler for her–which is crazy, since like, literally gets a girlfriend–but those revelations seem a lot more centered on Cuicatl for the time being (which also makes sense, as this arc is largely focused on Cuicatl. Multi POV struggles lol).

I did like the kind of detached view she has on Lyra retelling their relationship, how it all just feels like a good story to her but she can’t quite make it come true. Not being able to believe exactly what she’s told is pretty much Gen’s whole thing, isn’t it? But it’s sad and really gets to the heart of what’s been taken from her, even if she didn’t lose everything. It looks like she’s pretty much done with the island challenge, and she’s definitely not going home, so I’m curious what she’ll be up to once things have settled down a little for her, or if they even do by the end of the story. I also thought it was cute that she asks Sir Bubbles what his favorite type of big frog is.

I admit I’m not entirely sold on this relationship being good for them haha. I think that’s also kind of the point, we can’t go ten seconds without making a decision that impacts ourselves and others. The therapy scenes are good at getting to the heart of how people feel about things, while also giving you a clinical environment where another trustworthy character can gently push back on some of the misconceptions. I was curious about some of the misconceptions Gen has about Cuicatl (like the knight in shining armor), how much she actually knows–“she doesn’t seem to care what people think” seems patently untrue, being glad Cuicatl can’t see how much she’s blushing (despite being a telepath). I think they could be a good couple, but I also think everyone saying that they both need a lot of therapy to live with themselves before they’re ready to be in a healthy relationship has a point, lol. I’m optimistic that they don’t end up completely broken by this, at least …

Cuicatl
diggity damn i got the champion to kill some guy’s ace

I think the climax of the Kalani arc is really cool for Pixie, but I think it works really well for Cuicatl too and it’s good that they get their badass moments, even though realistically someone a lot more powerful than them ends up being the solution. It’s a really metal chapter and it works well to get the gang back together in a way that feels believable. Threatening to take her hope, maybe succeeding, lol, metal as fuck.

I think tying together the self-acceptance with Pixie’s forgiveness makes them both a bit muddled–she’s right to apologize for getting Pixie hurt, and she’s not right to blame herself for her brother. That they’re presented as equivalent feels like a misconception on Pixie’s part, or doesn’t quite feel like the complete catharsis is being made. And I guess realistically I’m not sure if anyone gets any further understanding out of reiterating this conversation again–it’s not like Cuicatl feels any less guilt when Pixie goes with her “but why tho” again, and I guess Pixie brushing off Cuicatl’s apology emphasizes how little self-respect Pixie is able to generate vs how much she relies on others’ perceptions to fuel herself, but neither of these feel like new knowledge even though they’re being presented as such. I think for Cuicatl’s arc this chapter the Kekoa conversation furthers her releasing that guilt a lot more clearly, since it’s a conversation with someone who’s a lot better equipped to understand both her as a person and her own guilt.

Tbh at first I wasn’t sure what to make of the whole faller reveal. Cuicatl has always been far from her family and distant/unconnected from the place she’s at; getting back Alice has always been her core focus, but it’s always felt like an impossible goal that she’s still taken steps to prioritize over everything else, and because of that it’s always felt like she’s distant from things in the moment. So I like the structural/cluefinding elements of this, but I’m not entirely sure what the takeaway is, especially since she doesn’t yet know (and I don’t think suspects), but I’m actually not sure what her finding out will meaningfully change about her struggles vs if she just had her original backstory the entire time. Will she turn on V-Star now or will she still need to justify having ludicrous amounts of money to feed her growing tyrantrum? Will she forgive herself for the people she couldn’t save or will she now just have the same type of guilt but now with more wormholes? I think some of the things like her relationship to her mother/father, her relationship with Gen/Lyra, her unvoiced answer to “what would you want if you could have anything” feel like they could change, but those were more fringe than core to her, I think.

The ambiance in the desert chapter is rad af btw.

Kekoa
In a story full of kids making bad decisions, we can always rely on Kekoa to make the worst.

I like the quiet bits he has before yeeting here. The Kanoa and Kiawe chapters were pretty quiet last arc compared to the rest of the stuff, as was the death anniversary chapter stuff he had in this arc, but I think it really does work. As an old wizened adult these moments feel imperfect but kind of just the Norm for adult life; I can imagine, though, how a small child who wants to take on the System with a chunk of rock would see all of these things as deeply flawed and necessary to yeet into the shredded. I liked how quickly Kekoa is able to put two and two together for Cuicatl’s brother, and how he’s kind of a shitty therapist but he’s not entirely the worst about it. And all things considered he’s really on his best behavior for a lot of this arc, which is, honestly very concerning and that concern pays off with dividends almost immediately. The dramatic voicemail that quickly devolves into fumbling around, yeah, really checks out as his sort of thing. Do kids these days even know what voicemails really are? Lol.

I think it’s funny that he points to the Gage incident as his reason for doing things. I didn’t really believe him–the moral of “rich people can get away with a lot of shit with no consequences” seemed a lot more proven in other parts of his story, all of Hoenn, his brother works for Chris Foster …–but I believe that he believes that, I think. And it makes sense that he’d want to pin this on something more noble than himself, that he doesn’t want to just admit that this is a thing he wants to do for his own personal reasons (that are arguably more noble than “one of my friends got really screwed”) even if it’s kinda comical that it ends up with him pearl-clutching over Genesis of all people. Definitely wouldn’t have had this on my Arc 1 bingo card.

I also like how his Big Moment joining Skull is actually super underwhelming and they just drink water, not even beer, beer would probably be cooler but they’ve still got budgets and the budgets don’t have room for that, no matter what the mansion says. It undercuts a lot of the drama that Kekoa’s been setting up for himself, as do most of the other interactions at the Skull Mansion–I particularly liked how you played the nicknaming thing, how no one in cults/the military/fun buddy buddy band of brothers sort of things actually gets cool nicknames, and that’s quite the point.

I thought that the Skull translation stuff came a little out of left field. If they were super into their recruits having consenting pokemon, I feel like they’d chew Kekoa out for not talking to his team before he did this whole thing, it’s not really consent if you ask after the fact–like even from an ethics standpoint aside, is Skull prepared to have him release a pokemon here if it turns out that one of them wants to stay? A lot of Kekoa’s team is native but he’s also been on the news for the island challenge, so if two of his pokemon showed up in the woods right after he vanishes, even if it’s woods teleported 100 miles away from their base, that would probably draw a lot of attention, yeah? Can pokemon be mind-read/tracked or could they otherwise give away the base’s location? And if it’s more of an ethics thing Plumeria would probably take a few more jabs at him in their earlier conversations, idk. I might’ve also read after you made some edits to those conversations, so who knows! I admit I didn’t really expect Skull to be hyper-compassionate to pokemon here based on the other things we’ve seen about them, like they’ve got a ton of issues and aren’t actively trying to harm pokemon but their priorities are more focused on Alola in general (and also specifically human)–but I could see either way ig. I think a pro-pokemon consenting Skull world would need Kekoa to ask for translation skills, explain (100% honestly no massaging of the truths) that ofc he’s talked to his pokemon about things before, it’s just in this exact case he had a translator on his behalf and he didn’t want to get her involved for obvious reasons, could he borrow one of theirs now that he’s here? And a more neutral-pokemon consenting Skull would probably just, not think about it, and the conversation could probably still play out largely the same since there’s a fair amount of information conveyed in the body language and the abra translation didn’t add too much that Kekoa couldn’t have intuited on his own imo. Maybe in this one Hatterene walks in at the end of Kekoa doing caveman translations and is like, damn man, you could’ve just asked.

Either way it’s fun to see Kekoa realize what the rest of us did long ago–the badge quests are the most boring parts of journeyfics and we should all just skip to doing crime. I don’t see this backfiring on him at all.

Lyra
I have fragmented memories of these chapters not at all looking like this, and also “Lyra decides that pheromones and preying on mental trauma is based and natural while the psychic abilities some people are born with are evil and the worst” is the kind of not-entirely-irrational teenage think I would’ve expected from this story, so I think I was pretty primed for things to go south here. Which is to say I was genuinely surprised when they didn’t.

And there’s something that’s still really teenage drama-y about the unique heartbreak of having enough single friends in your friend group that you can actually have love triangles like this, the uniquely young adult feel of looking up at the wide wide stars and deciding it’s a good time to make a decision you’re going to regret. Lyra’s speech really lands here in a way that I didn’t think Pixie’s did, though–and to draw a bit of an abstract metaphor imo, I think it’s for the same reasons that Pixie realizes Kalani doesn’t love her. Pixie’s the one saying “you’re based and cool and did nothing wrong” and Lyra’s the one saying “here’s all the reasons that you’re worth something, here’s all the reasons the world made you feel like you didn’t”. The second one has firm legs in a way that the first one doesn’t, and perhaps even moreso because we know all the explicit reasons Lyra doesn’t want to say these things but still decides to. Feels like a lot more holistic character assessment from one fleshed-out character to another, and feels a lot more earned as a result.

Idk. I think I was expecting another shit hand to be thrown towards the group, so I was braced for impact and really blown away when it didn’t come, but I liked this version a lot.

-

In general I think this arc feels a lot tighter, a lot less room to breathe (except maybe with Gen?)–understandable, since several of the major plot points are capitalizing off of ground work you either spent all of Arc 4 laying or just all of the entire fic laying. The climax set of chapters is hella banger, and there’s a lot of catharsis in seeing how badly things can go wrong before getting a little taste of what happens if, just maybe, sometimes things go right.

some misc grammar things i noticed:
“She usually wants cuddled when she’s like this. Do you?”
You screech and flair your tails. “Don’t touch me!”
He does catch it, once, when it falls into her open mouth and takes her completely by surprise.
It’s not a full, proper scent but Lyra has inexplicably good since you had your blowup
You don’t want to be tied up in their strings. Just trust me on that”
eventually.” your heart flutters.
“She does a lot for the people she’s closed to.
She’s known for for almost half her life and she’s never been able to speak a word to you.
Maybe play on her problem’s with her brother.
Your mother had a good eye so you never looked poor, but if your clothes came from secondhand stores.
Hibiki thinks you’re a hypocrite or a sellout for taking advantage your father’s money knowing it’s source.
With everything you can control out handled, you head out to face the things you can’t.
You know Gen’s complains about those types of menus because there might not be something he likes.
Mother is still lavishing her with praise and anger writhes under your skin like a parasite.
The fat boy who laughed at a male miltank is cranidos ‘cause he kept charging in instead of using his head.
The last girl, an Asian who only whispered her name and said nothing else, was named loudred.
“No more than I am,” you tell her You don’t want to bring her back to earth but being royalty of a lost kingdom isn’t actually being royalty.
I haven’t forgotten what just happened, Cuicatl, and it needs addressed.”
 
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Fairy 6.12

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
Fairy 6.12: Silent World
Genesis

July 1, 2020

The canyon looms above you on all sides. Not that it’s too cramped. Some of the Pokémon Centers you’ve been in could fit in the bottom twice over. Lyra and Cuicatl didn’t want to camp right by the water. Too much traffic from wild pokémon. Almost everything down here needs to drink and the big footpaths, the ones that the kommo-o and machoke and the other giant pokémon take, those run by the river.

Your pokémon need the river. Half of them are water-types. Bubbles bounces around the shallows, bellowing at anything he can find that will listen. Oliver swims laps across the river and back. Ferny is looking around for threats while Cloudy happily bobs in midair, embers flickering within his body as his clouds glow a dull red.

There aren’t too many wild pokémon around this late in the afternoon. A basculin school in the river. One swam up to Oliver and gets blown back with a kick. There was a tense standoff for a moment before the fish go on their way. A few corpish sit on the riverbed by a really deep part. You think it goes into a second canyon or maybe even the caves. There’s a pack of mienfoo and mienshao jumping along the canyon wall. Too far away to be of much concern.

The only wild pokémon that have come close to you are murkrow. Bubbles annoyed them into leaving. The real threats are either sleeping, hidden in the caves, or far away. And if anything did approach you could call Cuicatl over.

Something catches your eye in the river. At first you think it’s just a trick of the light or the rippling surface but, no. You’re increasingly sure it’s something down there. The basculin see it, too, and give it a wide berth. It’s thin. Snakelike. Dark blue. Blends in really well. Are there snakes down here? You thought that Alola didn’t have that many. Serperior, arbok, and dunsparce don’t swim. Way too small to be a gyarados or milotic. Do huntail and gorebyss go into freshwater? You call Oliver back just to be safe.

The creature swims closer to the surface. Its breaks out of the water and it turns to look directly at you. Its head is framed by big, adorable gills. The back is dark blue, but the stomach and face are almost pure white. You know this one. It’s a dratini. And it’s really cute.

You glance back at camp. Cuicatl’s too far away to come and catch it in time. And you think she would like a dratini. She’s been talking about expanding her team and this is one of the few cute dragons. It would work well. Thankfully you have an extra ball. You can just catch it and let Cuicatl talk things over. Release it if the dragon doesn’t want to stay.

“Oliver, zen headbutt,” you whisper. He gets the memo and dives beneath the dratini before surfacing with a strong hit. It tries to dodge but isn’t nearly maneuverable enough. Oliver jumps out of the water and slaps the dragon before they both fall down. Not sure how effective the slap is but, sure, you’ll take it. Go Oliver!

“Seismic toss to land.”

When he tries to grab the dratini the dragon grabs back, wrapping itself tightly around his torso and not letting go. Oliver squirms and the water thrashes around him.

“Zen headbutt!” Hopefully that will confuse the dratini. Or something. Psychic stuff. It seems to work. The dragon slackens and swims off. Wait, no!

Something dark rises out of the depths. Big. Fast. All your attention goes to it as the dratini swims away.

It breaks the surface quickly and doesn’t slow down as it literally flies out. Water splashes you as it unfurls its small wings and rises up to glower down at you. Orange and white scales and antennae-like horns that on any other day in any other context would be adorable. Instead, you’re frozen in fear as you stare down a very, very angry dragonite.

Okay. Um. Shit. Cuicatl’s told you a little about dragons. Well, a lot, but you only absorbed a little.

You back away and look down at the ground. “I’m sorry,” you tell it in a low voice that’s as calm as you can make it right now. “I have a friend who can talk to dragons. She would have talked to your kid and let them go. Promise.”

The dragonite snorts. Good or bad? Coco’s snorts usually are more annoyance or interest, but she was raised by a human (who was raised by a dragon). You look up. Not quite to the eyes but enough to see the body language. Is Cuicatl coming?

{Cuciatl!}

{I know,} she responds. {Figuring out how to approach. Why are they angry?}

{I tried to catch its kid.}

She doesn’t answer for a few terrifyingly long heart beats. You’re guessing that’s very, very bad.

{Did you fight it?}

{Yes.} You brace yourself for the worst. For death. After everything you went through, this is how it ends.

{Good. You followed custom. They didn’t kill you immediately. They probably aren’t going to.}

Wait. It’s better if you attacked?

{Did they have the chance to escape?}

Um. Well. They attacked rather than swimming away?

{You’re good. Dragonite are nice. Almost there.}

You don’t dare look back to check. The dragonite is looking past you at something. Maybe something above the ground? Is Shirona’s togekiss coming? You hadn’t seen her in a while.

The winds abruptly still. And then the sky roars. There’s the sound of cannon shot in front of you and you’re stumbling backwards before you can even figure out what’s going on. You take one step back, two steps back, three—your foot falls onto a rock and pushes it down and away. Next thing you know you’re twisting with the stone and falling down. You hit the ground and a pulse of agony surges up from your ankle.

You manage not to scream. Just whimper / yelp. And Cuicatl’s there a second later.

{Are you hurt?} she asks.

“Ankle. Broken? Twisted? Sprained? Don’t know.” Your words are quick, sharp, full of tension. Trying to force them out without devolving into panicked shouts or crying.

And you can’t hear them. There’s an ever-shifting cacophony of ringing and whistling but no actual words. Just the buzzing of your ears.

Cold panic washes over you as Cuicatl curses in Nahuatl, still audible. “Lyra! I need you over here!” Then she lowers her voice in volume and tone. “It’s probably fine. I’ve hurt my ankle more times than I can count in the last year. Haven’t been seriously injured yet. It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s going to be fine.”

You reach out and grab onto her hand. She squeezes back and slowly sits down beside you.

“I think they went supersonic. They’re really fast when they want to be.”

You would not associate dragonite with being that fast. You’d heard something like that before but you thought it was a joke. Or, like, something a cartoon made up. But they did. And now you can’t hear and—

“It’s going to be okay,” Cuicatl whispers. “We’ll get it fixed.”

You know you aren’t hearing her for real. That it’s just a psychic illusion, same way she can mask her accent or talk to pokémon in a way they understand. It’s still the only thing keeping you together.

“Please keep talking.”

It takes Lyra about a minute or so to get over. In the meantime, Cuicatl has stayed huddled close to you, murmuring on about her theories on how dragonite can fly with small wings. She’s clearly thought a lot about it. Maybe you weren’t too far off the mark in thinking she’d like one. Both your teams form a defensive perimeter, yours watching the water and hers the land. Mitsuru touches down a moment after Lyra arrives.

Lyra says something. You don’t hear it, obviously.

“Dragonite scared her by going supersonic. Hurt her ankle. Don’t think she can hear.” Cuicatl answers.

Lyra’s eyes widen. Fear? Should you be more afraid. She asks Cuicatl something.

“Total deafness?” Cuicatl repeats.

“Yes.”

Another question.

“Are your ears ringing or is it just total silence?”

Ringing.

She relaxes a little bit. You do, too. Can’t be too bad, right? Lyra slowly reaches a trembling hand out towards your head, pausing as if to ask permission. You nod. She probably knows what’s happening better than you. Had to have taken first aid classes if she’s serious about exploring. She presses a hand to your ear. Doesn’t reach inside. Puts another hand on the other side of your head and gently tilts it to one side and then the other. Kind of weird but not like… that.

She backs away and talks to Cuicatl. You can make out one word, maybe, over the ringing and sloshing behind your eardrums.

“No bleeding. Probably no permanent hearing loss. She wants to look at your ankle now.”

You let her, begrudgingly, because what else are you going to do? You don’t like being touched but you know that not being able to walk in the middle of Vast Poni Canyon is serious. It hurts when she presses it. The dull, throbbing pain becomes sharp and stabbing and you fail to stifle a choked sob.

“The good news is that it isn’t broken. Bad news: probably shouldn’t walk on it for a while. Don’t worry. You’ll be safe. We’ll figure something out.”

So. It’s bad. But not irreparable. Both your ears and your foot. You’ve been there before, with your body instead of your mind. You can make it through this. It’s fine. It’s fine.

“Would a hug make it better or worse?” Cuicatl asks.

“Better.” You think. Unless it’s constricting. Do you want to be constricted? You aren’t sure and—

Oh. This is nice. She’s basically pulling you into her. Kind of doesn’t work since she’s so small but you’ll take it. She seems relaxed. Eyes closed, deep breaths. That helps you calm down.

“I hurt my feet all the time. Happens on the trail. You’ll be okay.”

Lyra paces nearby while on the phone with someone. She stops, stamps a foot, keeps moving. The hand not holding the phone is gesturing even though the other party can’t see it. That doesn’t seem good.

Cuicatl starts singing. It’s soft and quiet but beautiful. You don’t know the words. She isn’t translating them. It sounds like a lullaby. And it works.

Lyra stomps over and says something to Cuicatl. She opens her eyes for some reason and tilts her head. Her lips are pursed. Annoyed, but not angry. You think. You’ve gotten a lot better at reading her than most people but you’re still not great at this.

“Annoying, but expected.”

Lyra turns around and throws her hands up and Cuicatl stays fairly calm.

“We can free up one of the pack pokémon. Just have to carry more ourselves.”

…help isn’t coming, is it? You’re stuck here. In the most dangerous spot in Alola. Unable to hear or walk.

Cuicatl presses into you a little harder.

“Would you rather go forwards or back uphill?” She tilts her chin up. “Lot of vikavolt up there. I wouldn’t airlift anyone, either.”

Lyra whirls around and. You don’t know if it’s a yell or a scream or just a very frustrated normal word. Cuicatl doesn’t flinch. Probably fine, then. You know she hates being yelled at. Hasn’t happened much since you… got back… but when it does happen she goes quiet for a long time.

“It’s just one day out. Even the league trainers should let us pass if we tell them why we can’t stop.”

Another exchange. Cuicatl’s arm slides off your back and she leans forwards. You already miss the touch.

“Do you really want them to send an alakazam to move her?”

You freeze up. You don’t want to be paranoid. Don’t want to be like Lyra. You’re dating a psychic and you adore her. But you could go your entire life without meeting another one of those things and be happy. He… he only had a kadabra and…

Cuicatl’s hand is on your back, gently stroking you as she whispers words you can’t make out even though they’re literally in your head. She must think you’re pathetic. Brought to this by. Not even a memory. Just a mention of a species and. It’s fine. It’s over. You survived. You healed.

It’s over.

It’s over.

It’s over.

Why—why doesn’t it feel like it’s over?

Cloudy bobs into view. He looks very concerned. That’s.

Breathing. Why is breathing hard?

Are your lungs broken, too?

You’re dimly aware that Cuicatl is still leaning into you, still whispering about everything being okay.

Cuicatl.

She fought him off.

It’s okay.

It’s okay.

She’s here.

You take a deep breath and it feels like a measure of clarity returns. And with it, pain. Your ankle still throbs. You’d suppressed that when dealing with everything else.

“Can you go to the tent?” Cuicatl asks. Gently. Softly Like you might break again at any moment. She’s not wrong.

“Can’t walk.”

“Of course. Noci can carry you.”

“Safe?”

Cuicatl looks towards Lyra. She nods. Useless. Still hasn’t learned how to deal with a blind girl. She must realize it, too, because she opens her mouth and speaks.

“Yes,” Cuicatl repeats. “It’s safe. Just be slow and cautious.”

“Okay.” You take another deep breath. “I can handle that.”

Noci should unnerve you more than she does. You relax into her invisible grip as she slowly lifts you up, locking your leg into place without ever touching any of it, and places you on her back. If kadabra terrify you then she should, too. You’ve heard the stories about metagross. Everyone has. But she’s warm and kind of goofy. And Cuicatl trusts her. So it doesn’t make you panic. Even though it maybe should.

You don’t claim to understand any of this.

It’s jarring when she finally lowers you back down at the tent entrance and lets you crawl in while your legs are still floating in midair. She lowers them back to earth as slowly as she can. Gently. It doesn’t matter: the moment she lets go your ankle screams in protest. You barely stifle a gasp and someone—Lyra—is by your side in an instant. You push her away. Insist you’re fine. Where’s Cuicatl? You look around and see her lagging behind. Lyra left her alone? Well, not alone. Her golisopod and tyrunt are standing beside her and Bubbles is bouncing along behind as he brings up the rear. You see him bellow at something. Or at nothing. He likes screaming after he evolved.

Not hearing him is an unexpected perk of being deaf.

Temporarily.

It’s temporary.

It’s going to be fine.

Cloudy floats a little closer and you pull him towards your chest. He gets denser the more pressure you apply. Still feels like water vapor, but it’s a very thick cloud. You hope he doesn’t mind. You try not to compress him often.

Cuicatl zips up the door behind her when she walks in. You slowly move back, trying to get comfortable on top of your sleeping bag. You’re still wearing your outdoor clothes. You know you aren’t supposed to do that. It tracks scents into the tent. Of all the times and places to be attacked by wild pokémon, this is at the bottom of the list. Then again, Cuicatl’s settling in and she isn’t changing.

It takes you a moment to realize there’s something strange.

“Didn’t bring any pokémon in?”

She shakes her head. “Coco and Noci are outside standing guard. Leo and Pixie asked to be in their balls.

“Do you need both of them and my team to do that?” It’s a genuine question. You aren’t sure how much risk you’re in.

“Probably not.” She hesitates. {Coco’s still young and excitable. I’m afraid she’d brush your ankle and hurt you on accident.}

Oh. Probably something similar for Pixie, then. Leo just doesn’t like being out of his ball. You’ve asked Cuicatl about it a few times since it’s weird to see any of her pokémon actually confined, but she said that golisopod are just weird like that. Like how castform are weird. Which she still hasn’t fully explained to you. No time with the canyon and the intra-group conflicts.

You won’t speak with Lyra unless you have to. Not after she tried to use the rape perfume on you. After she did use the rape perfume on you. Cuicatl didn’t seem bothered by it for—honestly you have no idea why and her explanations make no sense. “She can be trusted” doesn’t work when she already showed you that she can’t be. Then they finally blew up at each other early in the canyon over VStar which, you have complicated feelings on that. Cuicatl not working for a company that wants her to do questionable stuff is good. Cuicatl and Lyra fighting is good. But Lyra was right. And then Cuicatl did it. And now they, well, there’s still some tension but they’re cooperating. Which directly helped you.

Again, it’s complicated.

Cuicatl reaches over and nudges you with her elbow. “You’re quiet. Anything I can do to help?”

You don’t know. Well, one thing, kind of rude though. But she doesn’t usually mind?

“How do you adapt to losing a sense?”

“Dunno. I was born blind. I have seen through other people’s eyes, but my brain literally doesn’t have space to handle seeing things so it’s super disorienting and I always get a migraine.”

Right. You’re pretty sure she told you that before. Should have remembered. After all the things you’ve forgotten about her you can’t afford to forget even more.

“I did make my brother blind once.”

Wait. What? She can do that? She would do that? Everything you’ve heard her say about him made it sound like she idolized him hard. Lyra and Kekoa were… unkind. You overheard them talking to each other in hushed tones a day or two after the anniversary of his death. They didn’t like him. Lyra called him a parasite. You didn’t know what to do about that so you didn’t tell anyone. Not even Cuicatl.

Not the point. “Why would you do that?”

“Some of his friends were making jokes about it. He fought them for a few weeks and then he gave in and made one himself. I was already in pretty much all of his mind so it wasn’t that hard to do. And he was pathetic. Had to have someone else walk him home from school and still tripped every few steps. Couldn’t do anything. Couldn’t play sports. Couldn’t eat cleanly. Couldn’t do his homework because it was all written down. Dad made me stop it before he failed a test he couldn’t read.” She purses her lips. “I failed a lot of tests. Even when they read things out to me. I couldn’t do the reading, couldn’t do the homework. They held me back twice before they gave up and just let me pass grades I shouldn’t have.”

You reach out and hold her hand, jolting when you try to lean over towards her on reflex. It. It’s fine. That one didn’t really hurt. And Cuicatl’s in a bad mood. The kind where she frowns a little and stares into space more aggressively than usual. She doesn’t usually show things by half. Either it’s barely there to see or she’s explosive in anger or sadness. But sometimes you can tell when she’s upset but won’t let herself show it.

“I’m sorry you went through that. You’re smart. Like. How many languages do you speak?”

“One well.”

“Draconic? Galarian? Paldean?” She understood an add in the language once while Shirona was flipping through channels in her car. Said that the ads were just as useless in that language, too.

“I can understand the draconic languages but my pronunciation is terrible. Trust me, every dragon takes the chance to remind me. I’m barely understandable in Galarian without my power. Just picked up a little Paldean from television. Please don’t ask me to speak it. I can’t even make a sentence half the time.”

“I heard you on the television once,” you tell her. And you’re pretty sure it’s true. It was… recent. After the trail. But before it got really bad. “You sounded fine. Cute, even. I’d like to hear your real voice more.”

She rolls her eyes but doesn’t argue. You aren’t sure how to press it. If you should press it. So things lapse into total, complete silence. Your thoughts drift back to her brother’s helplessness. At least you don’t have it that bad. You can still see where you’re going. But, uh, can’t really talk to people without Cuicatl’s help. You should pick up lip reading. How do you do that, though? Are there tutorials online? How effective are they?

Cuicatl squeezes your hand a little tighter.

“You should rest. Helps you heal.”

She’s right. It’s just hard not to spiral into your thoughts when you can’t hear anything to distract from them. If you close your eyes the world’s just gone.

“Just for a day. Maybe two,” Cuicatl whispers. “I’ll take care of you until then.”

You nod, even if she can’t see it. Everything’s going to be fine. She’s helped you before. She can do it again.

“Can you sing for me?” you ask. “To help me sleep?”

She’s silent for a few moments and you wonder if you did something wrong. And then she’s singing. A different song, this time. Still low and almost somber. The words aren’t translated. You can only guess what it’s about. But it’s noise. Pretty noise. And that helps you turn your focus away from your thoughts.

Somewhere in the middle of the second song you slip into the world of dreams.

*​

July 2, 2020

It wasn’t very comfortable on Nocitlālin. You have to constantly shift around to sit semi-comfortably on a sheet of metal. And then the sun comes out and that metal gets hot. At the first stop Lyra notices your pain and sets up a chair for you to sit on. That makes things much better.

She’s awfully considerate for a monster.

You feel guilty as you watch the other girls put their packs back on. All the stuff on Noci and most of the stuff you were carrying had to be given to them. Except for food meant for a skarmory and machoke. That got left behind. You’re pretty sure you aren’t supposed to feed the wild pokémon but, well, you can’t complain about it. Cuicatl doesn’t seem to care about the extra weight but her pack’s almost as big as she is. And, yes, she has muscles – but they’re girl muscles. She’s not a bodybuilder or anything. Lyra seems to struggle more despite her size. Not that she says anything.

The pace is also painfully slow. It’s not that bad when you’re walking because then you can feel yourself moving as fast as you reasonably can. Or close to it. Cuicatl needs some extra time to navigate. But when you’re hovering above the ground in direct sunlight and are held back by the humans plodding along – that makes it feel so, so slow.

And it keeps getting delayed by wild pokémon. At first it’s a band of hakamo-o trying to make a run for Lyra’s mudsdale. A few get violently kicked way. Coco gets into a brawl with one while the golisopod charges in. The salazzle comes out. You wish she didn’t. Barely even does anything except a few small jets of flame that barely seem to slow the dragons down.

You can hear the fight. Parts of it. You thought you could at least hear your own words this morning, or at least the vibration in your chest, but now you’re definitely getting something. The clanging of scales, the muffled shouts of orders. It’s good. You aren’t totally broken forever. It gives you more hope than you thought it would.

The dragons give up after a minute or two and run away with their wounded. They take their sound with them.

Mostly it’s a boring hike. You can’t even nap for fear you’d fall out of the chair. And, well, it would feel wrong to nap while your girlfriend is hiking with a heavy pack. Your eyes wander to the canyon wall. Someone (Lyra, probably) told you about a deep canyon with bands of color, each from a different era from a long time ago. Maybe from before Xerneas created the universe. Your teachers were split about that or why there were really old things if the world was young. Your parents didn’t seem to care when you tried to ask them. Anyway, in this canyon you can kind of see the layers. Things seem to flow or cool or break in different directions. But all the rock kind of looks the same.

You want to ask about it. It wouldn’t matter, though: you couldn’t hear the answer. Not even sure you’d want one from her.

Down the road you come across a woman with a golem and a mandibuzz beside her. She talks to Lyra and Cuicatl.

“Can’t battle, sorry,” Cuicatl answers. She gestures towards you. “Wounded. Need to get to the Center as soon as we can.”

More words are said. Lyra takes a step forward looking very serious. “…oking…ears…ite…”

You can make out syllables. Enough to guess that the whole is “not joking, hurt her ears, dragonite.” Or something. Maybe. You could maybe get good at this if you had to do it for long enough.

You do not want to get good at this.

“…you?” the woman asks.

“Yes. She went supersonic right in front of her. She twisted her ankle and can’t hear.”

The woman’s lower lip tugs down expressively on one side. She waves you past with an inaudible apology.

The mandibuzz stares at you as you walk away. You can’t fathom why.

It’s already been a long day by the time you stop for lunch. You’ve passed two more trainers and had a few standoffs with wild pokémon. Only a single mienshao tried their luck. Lyra’s dhelmise dealt with it easily enough. Still not sure what to make of it. She got it right before you found out about everything. It’s weird how the seaweed floats up and away from the anchor, bobbing in invisible waves. And it doesn’t have a real eye. Just a pressure gauge that looks like it sees nothing and everything at the same time.

Cuicatl approaches you when you’re done with your nuts and crackers. You can barely finish it. Haven’t had to move much at all in the last day.

“You can nap if you want,” Cuicatl reassures you. “Noci can keep you gripped to her.”

“How did you know I was tired?” you ask.

She shrugs. “Out in the sun doing nothing? I would want a nap.”

That sends a surge of guilt through you. Everyone would like to rest. Why do you deserve to?

You’re kind of surprised when Cuicatl doesn’t respond to that. You look up towards her expectantly.

“Did you hear that?”

She shakes her head. “You have to aim it at me. Or be loud. Or be touching me. Ideally two. Three can be too much.”

“I don’t want to nap while you’re working.”

“Oh.” She tilts her head and gives you a wry smile. “Not that bad. Had to haul durant at home. That was heavy. The pack? Not really.”

“Still feels wrong.”

“Would it change anything?” she asks. “Hurt me?”

You try to think of something. It’s not like you’ve actually been seeing threats as they approach. Noci would be better than that. She doesn’t get tired or distracted.

“I’ll wake you up every hour to drink. Speaking of, do you have to pee?”

“Um. Kind of?”

She frowns. “You should. Been almost three hours. You’re not drinking enough.”

“Fine.”

You’ve been avoiding drinking too much just for this. It turns out that it’s really awkward to pee when you can’t walk. It involves more telekinesis than you’d ever expected it to and well, you’d rather not talk about it ever again.

*​

The afternoon goes faster since it’s spent half asleep. By the time you finally arrive at the Center the sun’s gone down over the rim of the canyon. The sky is still light but the ground is wreathed in shadow. It’s a strange aesthetic. You doubt you’ll see it again.

It isn’t one you like, though. Too gloomy.

The Center itself is the smallest you’ve seen. Cuicatl mentioned that it was just a place for the nurse to live and one or two groups of travelers to sleep. A small hearth at the end of the road. It’s made of stone blocks stacked together with a chimney built in. it looks like it’s been there for centuries. Maybe it has.

There’s electric lighting when you get in through the surprisingly wide doors. Noci can just float through without dropping you off. A bell chimes as the doors shut behind you. A blissey waddles into the doorframe behind the desk, glances between you and Cuicatl, and goes back to get the nurse.

Lyra handles the check-in. Cuicatl’s said that she doesn’t like to. You don’t like people. It’s a natural fit, even if you don’t want to be reliant on her.

You can actually make out most of the conversation. Some words are fuzzy, especially when they get a little quieter, but as long as both of them are projecting and you’re focusing in you can hear it over the ringing.

The nurse comes back with some crutches. You follow her back. Lyra and Cuicatl are left to set up your room.

*​

Cuicatl’s gone when you leave. Lyra’s sitting on a bench, reading The Cawdet’s Eye. You freeze when you see the book and the blissey almost walks into you.

“Where’s Cuicatl?” you ask.

She slowly closes the book and slips in her bookmark, a slip of plastic with a floral pattern, before looking up with a smile.

“Out talking strategy with her team. Everything alright?”

“Fine. Just a sprained ankle and a little hearing loss. Ears should be all the way better tomorrow.”

“Good.” Lyra stands up and holds open the door to your room for the night. You slip by her as quickly as you can on crutches without a word. And then follows you in. Looks like she’s set up on the top bunk opposite you. Great. Just great.

You sit down and wait in silence for—something. Cuicatl’s return, probably. And Lyra just sits down in her bunk and opens her book back up. Seems like she’s almost done. You could keep sitting in silence but. It’s kind of awkward. And you did have a question.

“The canyon walls are the same color.”

She glances up at you. Probably doesn’t understand what you’re getting at.

“I thought the layers were different?”

Her eyes light up and she sets the book back down. “On the continent, absolutely. There, you’re seeing …story. Every layer from a different era, carved by different rivers or deserts …logic time. Here? It’s all made by the same volcano spitting out the same rock in a blink of an eye to the planet. It’s all recent. Might as well be the same layer.”

You think you got that? The continents are old, the island is new. She’s really happy to explain this. Like Cuicatl with her dragons. You with your stories. Your eyes are drawn back to the book in your lap.

“Do you actually like the books or are you reading that for me?”

“Kind of both?”

She sighs and mumbles words that don’t register above the background.

“Didn’t hear that.”

“Ah, sorry.” Now she’s almost too loud but you can deal with it. At least you can hear. “I used to love these. Not as much as you, but they were well-written and interesting. I’m not getting that with the last one. I don’t think the books have changed. It’s the same style. Breezy and funny. Just. I think I’ve grown and they haven’t. This is probably my last one.”

“Oh.” That’s kind of sad. Should you have grown out of them, too? Ms. Rivers didn’t say they were childish. Maybe too adult, even, with a version of the world that wasn’t her dollhouse society where everyone is always what they’re supposed to be. She was mad that it was a girl rescuing a prince from a tower, not that there were knights and towers in the first place.

You would rather talk about anything else. So you leap to what’s on your mind.

“Why did you think it was okay to use the perfume?” you ask her. “Like, in what world is that the right thing to do?”

“…” You can’t hear her response. She’s looks down at the book before gently pushing it off her lap. It falls over and the bookmark slips out as she turns to look at you.

“I didn’t hear that.”

“It wasn’t okay,” she repeats. Not loudly like before. You can just barely make it out. “I get that now. Maybe I understood at the time.”

“Then why’d you do it? And don’t give me your entire life story like I’m supposed to be—”

You don’t know what she was going for. Were you supposed to pity her? She changed all of herself because her father wanted her to and then—you stopped. You stopped. And she wasn’t forced. She did it herself. You’re nothing like her.

“I was scared,” she says. “I was scared and I thought that if I just did one thing or another it would keep me safe. I was fine with that. Even if people got hurt. Even if people I cared about got hurt. I think most people would make that choice. …wrong. I’m trying to be better. Trying not to make that choice again. I don’t expect forgiveness. But I’m trying.”

She sounds like she’s trying to convince herself. Hurting the people you care about because, what, you’re scared? No. She’s wrong. Most people aren’t like that. You’re not like that. Never have been. Never will be.

“What are you even doing to improve as a person, then?”

Lyra takes a deep breath. She’s kicking her legs a little now. Or rocking them. Out and back until they hit the bedframe. Then out again. You wonder if it hurts.

“Accountability helps. Cuicatl’s good for that, usually. She has her own blind spots.”

You bristle for a fight but Lyra must see it. She moves on before you get a chance to object.

“I’m also trying to be more open about things. It’s hard. I’ve never been open. Not even with you. I guess that’s why psychics are so terrifying. Because they make you be open. And, uh, after going through that, maybe I want to stay closed because at least it reminds me I’m in control? I’ve talked to my therapist a little bit. Took me a while to get a new session booked—she’s busy, even for returning clients—but I’m hoping that helps.”

Lyra’s legs stop moving and she looks you in the eye. You promptly look back down. “Are you still … therapist? I … met with Cuicatl’s a few times. She seemed nice.”

“No. I don’t need one.” Don’t want one. She did seem nice but. So did a lot of people. You don’t want anyone else trying to get into your head and change things around. Don’t need another Ms. Rivers.

“You … panic attack yesterday.” It doesn’t sound like an accusation, but you know it is.

“I’m fine.”

“She’s already traveling to see your girlfriend. It wouldn’t be any extra trouble for her to—”

“I’m. Fine.” There is not a tear on your cheek. You don’t want to deal with this and you. are. fine.

You can feel her eyes boring down on you even as you look away from her.

“Okay, okay. You could also just talk about the future. What happens afterwards if Cuicatl goes to Sinnoh—”

“If she what?” Your head snaps up so fast that your neck hurts.

Lyra’s face shifts through a half dozen emotions before settling on—ugh, you don’t know and don’t care. “Did she not tell you about that?”

“No. What do I need to know?”

Lyra flicks her head towards the door and moves towards the bunk bed’s ladder. “I’d talk to her about it. Let me get the door for you.”

You get your crutches in order while Lyra opens the door. You pass in silence. Twice. She has to help you with the exterior door, too.

It’s very dark outside. There are still stars above, flanked by dark canyon walls, but the bottom of the canyon is nearly pitch black. Cuicatl’s sitting on a bench stroking Pixie. Coco is curled up at her feet while Leo stares into the darkness as he watches for threats. You wonder if he can actually sense anything out there.

Something screams in the darkness. Inhuman. Almost a roar. It cuts off abruptly. Unlucky prey. Cuicatl barely reacts.

“Did you need something, Gen?” she asks.

“How’d you know it was me?”

“Crutches.” Oh. Right. Obviously.

Lyra closes the door behind you. As tempting as it is to stay standing, you’d really rather not have to balance on one foot. You sit down on the bench with a gap between you. It’s not really a cuddling conversation.

“Lyra said you were going to Sinnoh?”

She takes a deep breath and straightens her back. “It’s an option. Dr. Karashina offered to take me with her. Or there are people I could stay with here. I don’t know them very well, though. I thought they were all just playing a prank on me. Lyra doesn’t think so. Mitsuru doesn’t think so.”

The togekiss warbles a slow, trembling tune from the roof. Sounds like she’s half-asleep.

“Oh.”

You’re glad for her. It sounds like Shirona’s pretty much offering to adopt her. Or at least make Cuicatl her protégé. After pretty much raising herself and her brother she deserves it. But Sinnoh is far, far away. And there are still people here who would hurt you.

“I’m not sure I want to go,” it’s barely a whisper. She keeps stroking Pixie uninterrupted as if she never said anything. “What if she gets bored of me and I’m stuck there?”

“Why do you think she would?” Shirona seemed pretty defensive of her on Ula’Ula. Even lent her one of her pokémon to keep her safe in the canyon.

Cuicatl shrugs. “Everyone leaves eventually.” It’s said evenly. Casually. “Why would she be any different?”

Why would she think—Kekoa. You are going to punch Kekoa in the face at least twice when you see him again.

You don’t want to encourage that line of thought. And you know that she would be best off in Sinnoh. Away from you. Leaving you stuck unprotected on an island with your parents. You should encourage her to cast her fears aside and seek the best in life.



That’s not what you do.

“I won’t leave you.” It seems like a good time to finally scoot over and wrap an arm around her. “I’d like you to stay.”

She leans into the touch, resting her head against your shoulder. “Okay.”

Your stomach flips and your blood runs cold. That was easy. So, so easy. Hurting someone you love so that you never, ever end up in the same position again. Part of you wants to take it all back. Apologize. Put her on the best path for her. Cold fear drowns out the idea before you can act on it.

Cuicatl yawns and stretches out against you.

“Tired. Can we go in?”

“Certainly.”

It’s well after midnight by the time you finally pass out, not from restful calm but emotional exhaustion.
 
Fairy 6.13

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
Fairy 6.13: True Potential
Cuicatl

July 4, 2020

There isn’t a proper captain for the dragon trial. The totem has made it clear he doesn’t need or want one. A nurse is nearby running the smallest Pokémon Center in the region, but she’s only there for the challenger’s sake.

“I have a camera watching to see if anything goes wrong. But you’ll be alone in there with the totem and whatever help he brings.”

“That’s fine.”

It’s just a dragon. It’s possible you can talk your way out of the trial entirely. Which is good because you have very little confidence in this working out. You’d hoped to have a skarmory and machoke on your side. With your current team, well, you might be able to take down the totem alone. If he has any support at all your odds evaporate like the morning dew.

“Good luck.” Gen gives you a quick hug. You lean into the touch.

“You’ve got this,” Lyra lies. She has to know that you don’t with her full team and diverse strategies. You should have picked up another permanent team member by now. But that would take another slot away from your mother’s team. And. You don’t want to let it go. As long as there’s hope you must keep going.

You aren’t sure you could if you weren’t doing it for them.

“Thank you,” you tell them. Sincerely. You like having multiple human people who want good things to happen to you. It’s new. Pleasant. You don’t want to let them down, even if you know you probably will.

You’re not entirely sure if it matters whether you can make it to the finish line of the island challenge. Nothing you’ve heard about the Class V license says that completing it is a requirement. There are still ways to make money even if you’re terrible at battling. Mostly? You’re worried that Dr. Karashina or Kahuna Rodriguez or whomever you end up with will be disappointed in you. That whatever respect they have now will be gone if you can’t defeat this kommo-o. That you’ll lose the people who want good things for you.

At least the stars are good. A trenca for challenging the old and serious. A day for challenging the impossible and finding glorious victory or honorable defeat. You could not have asked for a better day.

And you have a plan. Or the skeleton of one with all the details unfilled. Details you’ll struggle to fill in on the spot. Too loud. Won’t be able to follow things. It’s. You’ll see how it goes. And if the stars are mocking you and you still fail and then everyone hates you and your life falls apart at least you’ve been there before.

You walk into the cave at the end of the canyon with Coco by your side. She’s quiet. Probably nervous. You’re pretty sure she believes in you, fully, even now.

You’re going to disappoint her, too.

The echoes of your footsteps clash with the ominous silence around you. No wild pokémon. No humans. No machines. Not even a breeze. Nothing. The ground is smooth and unyielding beneath your boots. There’s no sun on your back. And the air gets more and more humid and heavy the further you walk.

The cave is much longer than you’d thought. Even if it feels like you’re not even going down that much. Just boring straight into the rock.

You can sense the change in the atmosphere. The echoes take longer. The space feels less suffocating. You’re pretty sure there’s even a trickle of water. You’ve made it to the arena. Time to put your ear protection in.

“Good job. I’ll see you soon.”

Coco nods beneath your hand. You move it to your sash and withdraw her. She’s not held in the top slot anymore. Pixie retook it. Coco hasn’t said much but you know she’s annoyed. You just have no idea how Pixie would feel about the slight. She’s hard to predict. Almost like a human child. Almost like a dragon hatchling. Completely alien to both.

You can hear the whistling of wind before a deep, shocking vibration races through the ground and up your legs. It’s accompanied by the deafening clanging of plates that hurts your ears through the protection Dr. Karashina got for you.

You greet the totem by looking slightly down and towards the noise. It’s relatively easy to make the growl-purr for submissive acknowledgement. It means you’re standing before someone stronger or with a better claim to the territory. You’re not sure he’ll even hear it over his own noise. But Gen heard you when she was deaf? You… really need to do some tests on your gift.

The dragon just clangs at a greater volume and pace. “ARE YOU HERE TO FIGHT OR YIELD?” he asks. “YOU CANNOT DO BOTH.”

“I will fight,” you answer. “I just wanted to talk first.” See if you could maybe get some mercy. If you were interesting enough to go easy on you or earn the crystal through an exchange of stories. The plant-eating dragons will settle arguments like that.

Alice thought they were cowards unwilling to bloody their teeth. Maybe you are.

“THEN SPEAK TO ME THROUGH BATTLE. SHOW ME YOUR DETERMINATION, YOUR WIT, AND THE COMPANIONS YOU KEEP. THEN I MAY KNOW YOU AND SPEAK IN PEACE.”

Your head is already pounding and you haven’t even done anything telepathic yet. That’s going to give you a brutal migraine but. Can’t just let your pokémon suffer while you get off unharmed.

“Fine.” You reach for the third ball from the top and send out Nocitlālin. “Let’s go.”

{Is it just the kommo-o?} you ask her. You didn’t hear anyone arrive, but you wouldn’t have.

{Negation;

Supporting unit of Class_Hakamo-o present.}

Great. He brought his kid. You take a deep breath, lean back against the cave wall, and brace yourself for the fight ahead.

Now, who do you go for first? Father or child? Damage the bigger threat or knock out the smaller one to let your other pokémon fight one on one? The latter. You’ll pick on the child. Might even distract the father.

{Psychic, hakamo-o.}

Noci can stay above the battle and attack. Her telepathy isn’t the best and it won’t be quick, but it doesn’t come with much risk. The kommo-o booms louder than ever and you hold your hands over the earplugs, knowing it won’t do much.

{Alarm Lvl 8: Class_Kommo-o Using Attack_Clangorous_Soul}

Bad. By the time the hakamo-o is down you’ll be facing an even stronger dragon. Coco and Leo won’t be able to handle that.

{Switch targets.}

There shouldn’t be that much the smaller dragon can do to Noci, anyway. She can fly and they can’t.

The noise gets a little quieter until you hear something clang off of Noci’s armor. Probably switched to some kind of projectile. Damn it. You were really hoping they were both going to be melee fighters. Guess it was too much to ask for.

{Alarm Lvl 3: Class_Hakamo-o Using Attack_Substitute}

Both are boosting? You’re sure that the hakamo-o is setting up bulk up or dragon dance behind that substitute. Either way, whoever you focus on, the other will be boosted up. At least soulblaze hurts the user. Shatters plates and scales from vibrating too much. You’ll take that over whatever hakamo-o is doing.

{Switch targets again.}

It’s not like hakamo-o can even do much back to Noci. And the very, very loud soulblaze means that it is a one on one for now.

And then, nothing. Just the growing roar of the soulblaze. Nothing else over it.

{Update?}

{Class_Hakamo Has Attempted to Scale Wall 3 Times;
Attempts Unsuccessful;
Substitute Armor Broken;
Class_Kommo-o Continues To Use Attack_Clangorous_Soulblaze}

No damage, then. Maybe she’ll even be able to knock the hakamo-o out before the kommo-o finishes setting up. They’re a fighting-type. Can’t take too much punishment, right?

The roaring stops. Shit.

{Protect!}

It doesn’t really mean much. She can hear it stop, too, and is way faster at thinking. Hopefully it helps. You hear something strike against a barrier, hard. Good. She got the protect up. You’ll remember to thank Dr. Karashina for the TM. What was the totem’s attack? Aura sphere? Focus blast, even? You hope it wasn’t an aura sphere. Then all your dodgy plans go down.

{Status update!}

{Alarm Lvl 6: Power Reserves at 71%, Malfunctioning Heat Vent}

What? It’s doing that much to her power? You knew protect was exhausting but… maybe it’s just better to let her armor take the damage.

{Zen headbutt hakamo-o, finish them off!}

{Initiate Ramming}

The reply is instant. Your thought ends and her response begins. What a good metang. So, so eager to ram things.

Hopefully he won’t attack so close to his kid. Hopefully. Hopefully…

You hear another metallic clang and the sound of something shattering.

{Alarm Lvl 9: Carapace Dented, Power Reserves 50%, Heat Vent Malfunctioning}

{Why did the power go down?}

{Attack_Aura_Sphere Partially Bypasses Carapaces, Targets Power Reserves.

Shit. Like dark-type moves. Better and better.

{Grab hakamo-o. Zen headbutt the totem.}

Hopefully he won’t attack his own child head on.

{Affirmation}

The hakamo-o clangs in alarm as Noci scoops him up. His fists clang off her armor as he charges. The energy changes as an aura sphere is launched. There are two big impacts one after another.

{Status update?}

{Alarm_Lvl_11: Deformation Across 17% of Carapace; Power Reserves 28%, Heat Vent Malfunctioning}

“Okay. That’s enough. Thank you.”

You withdraw her. Still two on one. The kommo-o is boosted. You don’t know how hurt the hakamo-o is. The match is lost. Only thing you can do is play it out and try to salvage some honor. Maybe if it’s close Dr. Karashina will give you another chance before dropping you.

If the aura sphere tracks your pokémon, dodging goes out the window. If it goes through armor, then Leo and Coco can’t take them well. You made the wrong decision. And you’re not going to let your pokémon pay the price alone.

You send out Leo. You’ve tried something with him and Coco briefly in the last few days. Something you could do with Searah and your brother. Sharing impressions. Not senses, those make no sense at all, but a general idea of what the world around them is after it’s all been put together in their head. It’s useful. It hurts. You’re doing it.

{First impression, hakamo-o.}

You finish slipping your mind around his as the first slash connects. The dragon is drooping a little, swaying on his feet. Almost trips over himself as he tries to shield. Psychic damage. Some physical. A few broken armor plates. The totem moves behind him, vibrating his plates as the noise assaults Noci’s ears. And probably yours. You aren’t really in your own body right now to check. Energy fills the air. Clanging scales, not soulblaze.

Noci lands a vicious slash to the chest alongside a gap in the plates. Blood flows down. The scent dominates his impression of the scene. You urge him to move forward. Slash. Deeper. He obliges and the dragon howls in agony as his father roars behind him.

Close combat. He hesitates a fraction of a second and then does it. He hates exposing himself fully to slash with all arms. It still works. Shatters more armor plates, digs deeper into flesh. The hakamo-o cries out a plea for mercy and droops down to all fours. Fall back. Give him time to retreat. He slinks off the sidelines, defeated.

One on one.

The totem throws out a fast projectile—aura sphere—protect. The barrier comes up just in time. You feel the strain in Leo’s body, feel the shield come down, see him blast forward towards the totem. He screams again and Leo can feel his own armor vibrate and his senses blur. He lunges. He slashes. He draws blood again and again. The totem jumps, physically flying over his head as he ducks down to dodge. A ball of energy slams into his back and shakes you out of his mind.

You gasp in pain and reach to your eyes on reflex. Everything hurts. How did you not notice that everything hurt? Your ears feel like they’ll give out if the totem roars one more time, your eyes feel half-melted, your brain is on fire. The fight is going on out there. Leo is still going at it. You can salvage this. Maybe. Get in, attack, protect when the totem jumps. He’ll still be worn down by clanging scales filling the air but—maybe—

You take a deep breath and dive back in. He’s up against the totem drawing blood. Good. He knows what to do. You relay the plan and pause. Slip out? No. You need to see if the totem changes the pattern. He doesn’t. Jump. Immediate protect. Burning muscles, less than last time, no damage. Leo turns—smaller aura sphere, straight to the face.

“I.” Shit. Back in your own body. Hurts even more. {Close combat. Armor can’t stop him.} Not entirely. You slump against the wall and try to focus on your breathing instead of the loud loud loud scales clashing. You want to cry. Why? Nothing. Nothing has happened. Just hurts. You can deal with hurt. You’ve always dealt with hurt.

Leo’s clever. He doesn’t need your help, right? No. He’s getting beaten up out there. For you. You should. Help him. Again.

Figure out a plan first. Can’t dodge. He’s learned to use small aura spheres on the protect and then another small one after. Slashes can cut around plates but there weren’t many gaps. Soulblaze broke a lot of armor. Maybe just close combat? Yes. Just close combat. Can’t dodge, anyway. Sound or aura.

{Just keep using close combat. Tell me when you have to stop.}

There. Simple plan. You don’t need to supervise. Just. Break. Then help Coco. You take a deep breath and release it through your nose. Doesn’t help your head. Just distracts you a little.

What can Coco even do? Also close combat? Ice fang? Dragon tail? She’s not big enough for dragon tail to do a lot. What would she get her head around for ice fang? No. Probably close combat. She wouldn’t let you use a Z-move. Should you be using one now? A finger brushes along your forehead. Yours. Didn’t realize you were moving to touch it.

Nope. Not using a Z-move now. Bad idea. Even for you.

You hear something—Leo, probably—crash into the wall.

{Good job.}

You withdraw him. Was about time, even if he somehow wasn’t too badly hurt.

Alright. Last chance. Let’s see what your precious girl can do.

The kommo-o purrs at Coco. “Hello, hatchling. I will not hold back against you. Are you sure that you want this fight?”

She growls in response. “I do! I will win.”

“And what makes you so sure of that?”

“Mother doesn’t lose.”

Your heart drops. Oh. You do. You have. Badly. She’s going to be very disappointed with you when she figures that out.

No point stalling. You link minds and prepare for battle.

The big dragon has a lot of armor broken. A few deep slashes. Lot of blood. (It stands out to her more than Leo.) Arms held in front of legs. Hard to trip. Big. Hard to bite. Can still bite. Can always bite. Close combat. Get close, break more armor. Then bite? Then bite.

Coco runs forward, ready to strike. A blur of silver runs towards her and she stops just in time. Hits ground in front of her. Lot of dust. Something rushes through and hits her on the head.

You recoil into your own senses and hiss. Not getting better. But you don’t feel it when you’re linked and Coco deserves every chance she has.

She’s attacking the big dragon close up. Thrashing against. Plates break. Not trying to dodge. Air is loud and filled with dragon feeling. Painful. Hits in waves. Every wave hurts. Big dragon jumps. She lunges forwards and weaves around a silver blast. A sliver hits. Feels like Nocitlālin’s metal attacks. Flash cannon.

His arms are still up from the jump. Get under. Get in. He swipes down. She avoids. Dragon tail the legs. The tail swipe hits—and the big dragon gets knocked into the arena wall. Good. Bite. Somewhere. Anywhere. Ice fang. The attack hits on the arm. The big dragon screams. And flails. And Coco flies. You feel her hit the rock and slide down. Wait, are you sliding down? Where—who are you?

“ENOUGH,” the totem bellows. “You fight well, hatchling, but you lack the power to finish this battle.”

Coco—you—she growls in defiance even as blood trickles past her eye.

“Watch me.”

“I do not mean to insult you.” The dragon walks closer. No clanging scales. No booming voice. No attack. “You are simply being held back from your true potential. It is not your fault, but hers.” He gestures towards Mother. You. Her. “Allow me to free you from the limits the humans placed upon you.”

He reaches down to your throat. You bite. He hisses but ignores it and cuts. Something falls to the ground. The rock on your necklace. The… the ever…?

Everstone.

Energy surges through your body like you can’t possibly imagine, filling every scale, every blood vessel, every cell, and building and building until you can’t fit inside of you anymore. Then it bursts and burns and grows.

You, Cuicatl Ichtaca, gasp. Your body is curled up on the ground. There’s blood on your chin. You brush it off with a trembling arm. Everything hurts oh gods does it hurt so much too much you want to die. This was a mistake. You shouldn’t have done it. You won’t do it again. Z-power hurts but this is far, far too much.

You. Coco. She—evolved? You hear a roar. Not the kommo-o’s roar. Then you hear armor shatter and smell the tang of blood fill the air. The two clash. Slam each other around. To the walls. To the ground. The kommo-o screams. Coco roars in triumph and anger and it sounds nothing like her. It sounds everything like her. Just more so. You can barely focus on it. Barely think. Just exist. Breathe. Try not to die. This was stupid. You were stupid. You are stupid. Could have broke yourself even more. For what? For…

“I YIELD!” the totem screeches. “I YIELD.”

You struggle to move. Your hearing feels weakened, though not gone. Your head still burns in pain. Not even a migraine. Hot iron poured directly on your brain. Even your eyes hurt. You’re not in a good spot to do anything. You still want to curl up and rest and die. But you have to. So you will.

A kick off the wall leaves you standing. A few wobbly steps bring you closer to Coco. And then she breaks into a run and your legs turn to goop as you fall onto your ass.

She slows down. Lowers her head down towards you. The world feels like it’s spinning and the only things grounding you in place are her breath in front of you and the ground below. You lean forward and wrap your arms around her snout, doing your best not to throw up directly into her nostrils as your stomach suddenly jolts. She’s probably not as big as her mother. Tyrantrum still have some growing to do after they evolve. It’s hard to imagine her bigger than she is now; your arms can’t even reach to the back of her head.

“I’m so proud of you.” It’s true. You are. The license problems, getting food on the way out — that’s for later. When you don’t want to curl up into bed and die. “You’re so strong.” No. Then she might think you only love her strength. You swallow down bile and keep talking. “You’re also kind. And clever. And curious. Whatever happens, I’m proud of you.”

She rumbles in contentment and you can feel your bones rattle in response. So big. Bigger than Alice with room left to grow. More like a force of nature than a hatchling confused and curious about everything around her.

“See how long my teeth are,” she rumbles.

Oh. Well. Not too much different from before.

You hesitantly hold out a shaky hand towards her. You can feel her massive lips pull apart as you reach out, trying to keep your hand towards her lower lip. Don’t want to hurt yourself on the serrated tips. When you find the bone you slowly trace your finger up. And up. Until you finally reach the tip. Curious, you put the base of your hand at the bottom of the tooth. Your fingertips can barely, carefully curl around the top. Probably won’t be long before that changes.

“They’re very good teeth.”

She gently pulls back. You can feel her radiated joy.

You slowly pull away and walk towards the totem. Early in your journey you tried to walk on a boat after a near-sleepless night. This reminds you of that. Just worse.

“I’m completely blind,” you tell the totem. “Can you help me find the crystal?”

He barks (booms). Your mind, still stretched too far out of your body, can feel something approaching quickly. Next thing you know there’s something small nudging your leg. You reach down with a cupped hand and the crystal falls in. Coated in saliva. Was that… did a dragon carry that in their mouth? It’s fine, your hand was just in Coco’s mouth, it’s just kind of weird.

“YOU WISHED TO SPEAK AFTER THE FIGHT.”

You wince and try to shuffle muddled thoughts into place. “Tomorrow?” you ask. “I…have a headache…now and need to heal my team.” You don’t want to admit to being psychic right on camera. Helps that your excuse is true. Even thinking hurts.

“VERY WELL. RETURN IN PEACE WHEN IT PLEASES YOU. A WATCHER OF THIS PLACE SHALL SUMMON ME.”

He bounds off, scales continuing to clang without meaning and echo off the walls. It shakes your bones and stomach and your brain still feels like it wants to melt away and seep out of your nose. Walking isn’t going to happen.

“Coco?” you ask gently. “Do you think you can fit through the face.” It didn’t feel cramped and the totem must walk through. Should be fine, right?

“Yes.”

“Good. Can you let me onto your back?”

She gasps in excitement and lowers herself to the ground with a thud that would’ve knocked you back over if you bothered to stand back up.

“Thank you.”

You have to stand before trying to pull yourself onto her back. It’s not too hard. When she’s sitting down like this, belly to the ground, you’re still taller than her. That’s going to change. Even if you do keep growing a little bit. (Up two centimeters since the journey started!)

Then you kind of have to pull yourself onto her back, face down, arms and legs wrapped around her like a baby to their mother. You’ll figure out how to sit up, eventually, but you aren’t feeling up to it today. Should probably get a saddle first.

Not sure how you get one. Last you checked, and you did check, no tyrantrum was registered as a ride pokémon. Which. Waste of potential. Why would you bring back giant dinosaurs and then not ride on them? Assuming her spine can take it. There was a lot of disagreement on how their bones would even support their weight. Some scientists talked about the largest copperajah in comparison and you’ve heard they can’t really hold riders on their back well because they didn’t evolve to do that. That one still hasn’t been solved because the earliest tyrantrum were still mostly rock and the latest ones haven’t reached old age and died yet. Point is, you’ll have to make sure Coco isn’t being hurt by this.

Later.

You’re not walking back right now.

Like, you don’t think you physically could.

It’s fine, thrilling, even, when Coco lifts you up. And up. And up. Until it finally stops. You press into her skin a little more tightly. Leathery. Not really scaly. A few feathers beneath your head. Uh. Your head is probably above her arms? You weren’t paying a lot of attention to where you were on her back. Just that you were on it.

It’s only when she starts moving that you realize the problem. Vibrations surge through you. To your stomach. And with your head and the Z-move and the totem—

{Stop!} She does. Suddenly. And it throws you over the edge. You manage to lean over just a little, push some hair out of the way, but you can’t stop yourself from vomiting. On your precious Coco. Not a lot. Genesis didn’t police you this morning so you didn’t eat. But. A little. And it’s gross and embarrassing and she deserves better.

“Are you… trying to feed me?”

You giggle and your head pounds in time. {No. Just sick. One of Gen’s pokémon will clean it off. Will also clean any blood you got on you.}

She’s too big for your baths, now. You don’t want to think about that.

She pauses for a few deep breaths that lift you up and down. {Did you use a crystal?}

{No.} Worse. She doesn’t need to know that since you’ll never do it again. Neither does Gen. It’ll just be your secret.

{Then why are you sick?}

“I don’t like loud noises.”

She rumbles. “Should have drawn more blood. Shown him how good my teeth are.”

{Would’ve just made things louder.}

“Fine.”

Coco stops at the end of the tunnel and slowly lowers herself to the ground. You push yourself up, rub her back, and slide off. You fall to a crouch and then manage to push yourself upright. And immediately get pulled forward into someone aa they wrap their arms around you. Person is soft. Hair is where you would expect. Smells like you would expect. Gen. Just. Wish she didn’t startle you like that.

“That was incredible,” she gushes. “You did so well.”

You roll your eyes. Not that she can see it since your face is tucked beneath her head. You hate that she can do it. She loves doing it. You don’t say anything. Being pressed close, there, isn’t all bad. I barely did anything. All Leo, Noci, Coco.”

“And you.” She relaxes a little. You pull back and lean into her side and she wraps an arm around your shoulder. Good. Soft. Warm. Helps with balance.

“I’m so sorry, Miss Ichtaca. I know it wasn’t your fault.” What? Why is the nurse apologizing? You search your memory for something but just thinking too hard hurts so you stop.

“What?”

“The everstone. You don’t have a license for a tyrantrum and, well, it’s on video. You didn’t intentionally evolve her. I’ll write up a formal request for a short-term waiver for you, at least until you can apply…”

You stop listening to her words as your mind begins to try and work faster than it should right now. No license. No Coco. You’ve applied. Waiver. Keep her? For now. If they grant it. If they don’t then no Coco and no Alice and no Searah or Renfield or no no no no no no no no no no no—

You’re lying down. There’s something soft and warm beneath your head. You try to lift it and remember that everything in your brain still burns.

Delicate fingers run push the hair off of your forehead. “It’s okay,” Gen whispers above you. “I’m here.”

“What…” your throat is dry. You have to swallow to make it less painful to talk. “…happened?”

“You had a panic attack. We brought you inside. You feel asleep. The nurse took your hurt pokémon to look at them. Pixie’s here, if you want.”

You idly tap your stomach. A fox pounces onto it and, well, maybe having her lying on you there isn’t a good idea.

“Can you lie on my legs?”

The fox whines but does curl up there. Good.

“Don’t worry,” Gen says. “We can take care of everything for a while. Just rest.”

You yawn. Rest. Good.

You can do that.

*​

July 5, 2020

You still don’t feel like a living person yet. But there’s work to be done. A little. You still spend most of the day alternating sleep and being pampered by your girlfriend, but there are a few things you need to do.

“Do you have to molt?”

Leo shifts with the soft clack of chitin.

“No.”

Really? You’d thought she’d taken some strong hits.

“Not now.” Oh. That makes more sense. “Will after the canyon. Not safe here.”

You take a deep breath. Moment of truth. He might leave you just for asking this. “Could I cut back your food a little in the canyon? Maybe once every three days instead of every other. Coco evolved and she needs more food than we have. I don’t want to starve you and can figure something out. Just. Never mind. This was a bad idea. I shouldn’t have asked.”

“Will it take as long to leave the canyon as it did to enter?”

“Probably a day more.” Slow uphill, you won’t be rushing to get Gen to safety. Hopefully.

“Feed me today. Let the Coco fight instead of me. I won’t need to eat until we leave.”

“That’s a lot of time, Leo. We can take it slower. Maybe skip three days at first—“

“I do not need to eat if I do not fight.”

You know what he’s doing. It’s what you do. And you’re not going to let him. “I know that isn’t true—“

“No. It is. Here you have more food than you would ever need. Down in the ocean, where most of the other-me’s live? I’ve never been there. I know, though, that there’s nothing. Not for months. Or years. I could go that long without eating if I had to.”

Oh. You’d read something like that. But you’d thought that he was different. Maybe a different species entirely. He’s always been very food motivated.

“You’ve been eating whenever I’ve fed you.”

“Was afraid there wouldn’t be food the next time I need to eat. There will be. I trust you.”

You start to tear up. You shouldn’t. Of course your pokémon trust you. But. You crouch down and hold out a hand. He scuttles under it and you pet his head with the pressure he likes. “Thank you. I won’t let you down.”

Food. You can do food. That’s such a small thing to want. Almost too small. You’ll make sure it’s there.

*​

July 6, 2020

Noci slows to a stop and lets you off. She’s a smoother ride than Coco. Almost too smooth. You rode on her again this morning and it was a lot more enjoyable when you were only half-dead. It felt real. The rise and fall of her chest. The blood flowing beneath her scales. It felt like Alice. You’re glad that she’s bigger. That she’s grown. But a part of you wished that she was still smaller. That you could still take care of her, physically. She’s too young, even if she’s evolved. She shouldn’t be the person other people look up to yet, literally or figuratively. It’s exhausting. It’s terrifying. Realizing that there’s no one else to catch you if you fall. And that if you go down, so will the other people you love. You were at least eight when that happened. She’s not even a year old. It’s not fair.

You’ll still do everything you can to protect her and care for her. Maybe even more than you were before. She should still be a child. You hate the totem for making her grow up that fast. Even if it’s natural for tyrunt—tyrantrum.

There’s a rumble nearby. The clanging of scales. The totem is coming. You put your ear protection back on. You’ll definitely still hear him through it.

“You came,” he rumbles. “I did not think you would.”

“Why not?” You weren’t sure you were going to, either, but it felt rude not to accept the totem’s invitation after saying you wanted to talk.

“You were only speaking to me in hopes of getting an easier match.”

Oh. He noticed. You don’t want to lie to him. Don’t want to confirm it.

He clacks his scales together in a way that sounds like laughter. “Tell me, how did you learn the ancient tongue?”

“Alice, a twice-split spirit raised by my mother. Ellas was my main caretaker.”

“And do you think this gives you the right to our tongue? Or customs?”

“Ellas gave them to me. Reshiram talked to me in the language. If I’m around dragons, I want to talk in their language.”

“You shouldn’t.”

He stops vibrating entirely. No clashing plates. No sound at all.

“Isn’t that rude?”

“Not as rude as pretending to be one of us.” He’s still quiet, for a kommo-o. Barely audible over your earplugs.

“Excuse me?”

“FOOL.” Oh. There’s the volume. “WOULD A DRAGON MOTHER STRANGLE HER OWN HATCHLING? WOULD THEY HOLD BACK THEIR PROGRESS OR CELEBRATE IT?”

The everstone. “I wasn’t allowed to raise her yet! I still need a few weeks. Then I was going to remove it.”

“WHO WOULD NOT ALLOW YOU? THE HUMANS?”

“Yes!”

“THEN YOU FOLLOW THEIR RULES, SUBMIT TO THEIR SYSTEMS, BENEFIT FROM THEIR STATUS. YOU WANT TO BE A DRAGON BUT YOU WILL NOT ACT LIKE ONE. WILL NOT BE GOVERNED LIKE ONE. WHAT USE IS KNOWING THE LAWS AND THE LANGUAGE IF THEY DO NOT BIND YOU?”

You growl. A warning. It’s pathetically small compared to his. You can’t really bring yourself to notice.

“A REAL DRAGON WOULD BURN DOWN CITIES TO PROTECT THEIR HATCHLING’S GROWTH. WOULD FEAR NO HUMAN LAW IF THEY HAD THE STRENGTH TO DEFY IT. YOU DO NOT HAVE THAT STRENGTH. ALL YOU HAVE IS THE POWER OF A REAL DRAGON YOU HELD BACK FOR YOUR OWN CONVENIENCE, ONE YOU FORCE TO LIVE BY YOUR OWN SPECIES’ CODES.”

You clench your tiny, human fist. “I’ve always liked dragons more than humans,” you growl. “I couldn’t choose how I was born.”

“THEN MAKE YOUR OWN SPECIES SOMETHING TO BE PROUD OF. DO NOT STEAL OUR BLOOD.”

He leaps away with a massive, echoing crash. The conversation is over. He didn’t want to talk to you. Didn’t see you as worth talking to. Saw you as beneath him. Weak. Scaleless. Human. You lower your head.

“The humans never wanted me,” you tell nothing and no one. “And I guess you won’t take me, either.”

You turn around and start walking back. Noci hovers behind, offering to guide. You don’t care. She has her place in whatever hierarchy the metagross have. She’s never dealt with this. For now you just want to be as alone as you can safely be.
 
Fairy 6.14

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
Fairy 6.14: The Healing Arts
Sitrus

The lucario and lycanroc packs on the eastern edge got into another tussle. It feels like they’re always fighting for territory. It’s pointless, too: the boundary line never goes more than a hundred yards in either direction. The lycanroc have the canyon edge and a small patch of land at the top. The lucario hold the remainder of the plateau and the edge of the grove beneath it. The lucario have never pushed the lycanroc into the canyon for more than a week and have never been pushed off the plateau in turn. You swear they’re just doing it for fun. Personally, you cannot fathom the joy in being injured at least once a month. Even if they know you’ll do your rounds eventually.

None of them are worth today’s egg. The worst injury is a broken leg that you could set and provide berries for. His packmates can bring him food and he’ll be healed in a few days. Maybe this will teach him to think twice before picking stupid fights.

“There are young humans in the canyon again,” one of the less injured dogs tells you. “Saw them yesterday. Fought us off.”

“Are there? I thought they had stopped.”

It’s not entirely true. There has still been a slow stream. Just not as many as you would expect. You’re a month past peak season and you had two groups come through. The darkness must have scared off a lot of them. Good. You never understood the point. The canyon is dangerous for them and Ironscales will defeat half, leaving them to go back the way they came with nothing at all.

“They had weird companions. There was a big white bird that just watched. I could tell she was scary, though.”

“I could have taken her,” the pack leader grumbles.

“And a dragon. Not a small dragon but not huge. Never seen or smelled anything like it. Had sharp teeth. Broke the rock on my leg. Do you want to see it?”

You doubt he means medically. You glance at it once you’re done making sure the berries are rubbed against the wound you’re treating. Oh my. Puncture wounds. Serrated. Fractures in the rock spanning out from it like an ariados’s web. What could bite that hard while being small? A krokorok? Croconaw? No, they would know what those are. The flesh beneath it seems to have healed already with just a slight scar.

“It’s really cool, right? Will the armor cracks heal? I hope they don’t. I like it this way.”

“The scar will get less noticeable and the hole will heal over. Give it about three weeks.”

“What’s a week?” he asks.

Right. Never lived with humans. “Seven days.”

He perks up like that’s the coolest thing he’s ever been told. “Thank you, Sitrus!”

“Always my pleasure. I’ll see you again in a few days.”

And hopefully they won’t have found another stupid way to injure themselves.

You walk away from the pack towards the canyon rim. Who do you visit next? The murkrow? They always find the most interesting things to show you. You can usually explain what it is, although it’s just as fun to let them believe what they want. Sometimes even you’re stumped. The mienshao? They don’t get hurt that often. But maybe the humans would have injured them. Ironscales would have told you if the dragons needed something. Or Whisper. It’s odd having a dragonite close by again. Not unpleasant. If she didn’t live underwater you would talk to her more often. She can go anywhere in the world in a matter of days and always has stories to tell. You know she won’t stay for long. Just until her kids mature.

Should you visit Brightness? Make sure the lucario are healed? No. Of course they are. You taught one of their elders how to heal and she taught her children and they taught theirs. And Brightness knows what she’s doing. You taught her well. So well that she sees it as an insult when you come. Last time you tried to talk to her for half a day and she just stayed still, puffed up as tall as she could, silently ordering you to leave. And you did. It was heartwarming that she’s come so far.

You still miss her. Deeply. Sometimes you think about having another child just to have someone close again. But there are never any good donors in your territory and now is a bad time. The humans are hunting wild pokémon even more than usual. You could hatch an egg and experience pure, overwhelming joy only for your baby to be stolen away in the night. You don’t know what you would do. Probably something unbecoming of your kind.

You suppose you can visit the machoke. They’re also idiots who constantly pick fights, but at least they’re built for it. The only time you had to give an egg to them was when a machamp had just evolved and didn’t quite know his own strength.

*​

The tunnels are one of your favorite parts of the canyon. Out of the sun. Quiet. Easy walking. It used to be a lot rougher before the machoke smoothed things out for you. They felt you were owed after the machamp incident. It made things easier for them, too. Fewer trips, falls, and scrapes.

You can hear the fights before you get there. In the summer they stockpile food and retreat into their cool caverns during the day. Machoke being machoke, the moment they’re stuck inside they get bored and start fighting each other. You stay to watch at the edge. One of the younger machop – still nameless, per tradition – is sparring against her elder sister, Crystal. You watch. It ends bloodlessly with Crystal giving tips to her sister. She doesn’t resent being corrected. Actually seems eager to learn. You always liked that about them. Few injuries and fewer hurt feelings.

Their leader steps forward when the combatants part. “Sitrus.”

“Tremor.” Your eyes are drawn to a set of scabbed-over puncture wounds that weren’t there last time you saw him. What could even do that around here. “How did you get hurt?”

He grunts. “Strange bug. Stranger human. Started out with a challenge, then backed down and warned us that the humans were going to try and capture us. Let them. We’ll fight.”

“They might not fight fair,” you warn him. You remember The Old Land and the migration. The humans wanted your kind to live everywhere and didn’t really care what you wanted. Some of you went willingly. Some didn’t.

“The human showed that. Her bug, big, armor, you know of it?”

“What color was the armor?” You’re pretty sure machoke can see in color. But in all your years you don’t think any have ever confirmed it.

“White.”

“Golisopod. Sea bugs. Big claws? Fast when they want to be?”

“Yes. He lunged and retreated before climbing over me and almost eating my eye.”

A shudder wracks your body. They’ll do that. In The Old Land your territory was on the coast. You met a gyarados once who had his tongue eaten and replaced by a wimpod. The bug was evicted but there wasn’t much you could do. The stump had already scarred over. Never liked sea bugs after that. You heal them. Of course you do. But you’ve never wanted to socialize with one.

“How many humans were there?”

“Just one.”

“How old?”

He pauses. “Don’t know how to tell. She was small. Does that help?”

Maybe. Some females can be short. The humans catching lots of pokémon they don’t want to keep are mostly young. Challengers. You’ve rarely known challengers to come through the canyon alone. She probably had friends she left behind.

Wait. What did the machoke say? “How did she warn you? I know you don’t speak human.”

“I don’t. I understood her. Don’t know how. Don’t care.”

How typical. They’re very curious about things that matter in a fight. Oblivious to everything else.

“Do you want help getting to the high rock?” Tremor asks.

How long has it been? Two months? Three? You visited after the darkness lifted to make sure that it was still there. You know it will be the same. No one will be there. Nothing will have changed. You will make yourself sad for nothing.

“…yes.”

But your judgment was always at its worst when The Captain was involved.

*​

Tremor has to carry you up the side of the canyon in his arms while walking up the steep incline without looking down. If I was anyone else you would be fearing for your life and his. You did the first twenty times. But the leader of the machoke has made sure their successor could do this for three generations. They know what they’re doing. He sets you down on the ledge in front of the high rock. It’s a slab of basalt standing upright at the end of a ledge one hundred yards above the canyon floor. You can see everything from end to end here. He adored it. You did, too. And it was so simple to get up here when Capricorn was alive. The words on the slab are too far weathered for anyone to read. It’s getting harder and harder to tell that there’s supposed to be anything written on it at all. But you know what it says. You were there when they were written.

“Cpt. Ernest Sephton, 1815-1905, Twenty-Sixth Kahuna of Poni Isle”

*​

Lightning had always been fascinated by humans. Every time the dragonite came home to visit he would tell you about massive structures of metal and stone that were being built across the seas. Wars on scales you could never imagine. Equipment to seal giant creatures in devices smaller than your egg. It sounded terrible. You preferred the humans here. Clever enough to be worth visiting for a story and trade. Not so ambitious that they drove away all the pokémon around them or killed each other by the thousand. It was better that the humans who did arrive did so on lapras-back, any grand ideas they brought with them failing in the face of the harsh climate they found themselves in.

You have always loved your land. But, more than the tales of the humans, you’ve always loved the stories of the land the dragonite brought back. Deserts larger and hotter than the ones you knew. Fields of grass as far as the eye could see filled with hunters and prey larger than what you knew. Wide rivers surrounded by dense forests where the air itself felt like you were underwater. A vast island made of ice.

You would like to see it someday. Even if you know deep down that you’ll never get on a canoe or a lapras and seek it out.

The humans come, anyway. A little to the north. In Oran’s territory. It’s significant that your daughter even came to visit you, even though it had been many years after she had left your side.

“I saw one try to catch a trapfleur in a net,” she tells you. “He ended up being the one snared.”

There are dozens of them, almost all male, arriving on the largest canoe anyone had ever seen. After a few too many bites and a tussle with the local kangaskhan they pack up and leave, taking a few local creatures with them. Sandstone, your second-cousin-once-removed, goes missing around that time and is never seen again. You all figure she went with the humans and go along with your lives. Surely one of them was damaged enough to be worth attending to.

It’s four years before the humans come back. This time they land far to the south. There are far more of them. Curiously, you hear that the ship leaves them behind. Like they were simply left there to figure things out. The local blissey, one whom you’ve never met and do not know your relation to, is caring for them. If they’re like the first group then they will need it.

These humans stick around. More ships arrive and drop more humans off. In time it becomes normal enough that the birds stop commenting on it and it fades to the back of your mind. Then more humans show up to the north. And the southwest. Rumors spread that they have claimed the entire island and all of its creatures for themselves.

You hear a fearful whisper that they see even the other humans as nothing more than creatures to be rounded up and used.

In time a ship drops off humans to the south. Your sister’s territory. After a year or so you walk into the edge of her territory just to make sure she’s still doing okay. She never comes to kick you out. Even after you start healing her old ward. You do your utmost to avoid the humans after that, even warning Oran not to engage with them, either. She doesn’t appreciate being mothered when she’s a mother herself to an adorable little happiny. At least she indulges you long enough to play with her child and hear your full warning. It’s almost half a day before she puffs up and stops talking, her child doing her best to do the same.

A pelipper flies to meet you one morning. His flight is even. Color normal. Hard to tell what’s wrong with him. He lands in front of you and bows low. Odd. His kind doesn’t beg. “Sitrus, please, there is a plague we need help with.”

That happens sometimes with the seabirds. They travel far and wide and bring all sorts of infections back with them. “Just the young and old? Or also healthy adults? Does it make breathing hard? Flight?”

“I do not know,” he says. “It is not the birds. It is the humans.”

You immediately lose interest. “Let them figure it out.”

“Please,” he begs. “My trainer. He is dying. I do not know what I would do without him.”

You give him a firmer look. He’s young. It’s possible he was born in the human settlement and never left. No survival instincts. A pity. And he radiates hurt and worry so strongly that it makes your own stomach turn.

“Fine. Show me.”

*​

The settlement hardly looks like the wonders Lightning has told you of. It’s almost all wooden frames bolted together, individual shelters scattered about with no apparent order. Open metal streams carry fecal matter and water. You scrunch up your nose and walk faster. You’re going to guess that’s why they’re sick. For such ‘intelligent’ creatures they really should know better.

The pelipper leads you into one of the larger shelters. There’s a young male in a raised bed, glancing through a bound collection of white leaves. Paper. Books. Lightning told you about this. One of the few human things you found to be of interest. He sets the book down onto his chest. “Echo,” he breathes out. “You came.”

He seems surprised. Did he not expect you to come? You step forward as the two talk. His breathing is more erratic than it should be. The skin is particularly troubling. A mix of scales and blisters. Not normal for humans. Not even normally abnormal: you have no idea at all what this is or how to treat it. The only thing you can do is give him an egg and find water. Clean water. You desperately hope they are not drinking out of the metal streams.

“Find me water. Good water. In a container,” you tell the bird. He looks at you in shock as if he forgot you were there before bowing and waddling out to find something. You turn back to the human and produce your egg. “Eat,” you tell him, knowing he can’t hear.

He takes it with shaky hands and looks it over from all angles. He gives it a tentative sniff and a lick before biting into it. He mutters something between bites. You don’t understand the words, just the tone. Curiosity. Gratitude. You’ll have to wait until the pelipper comes back to have a deeper conversation. He finishes the egg quickly enough, but not so quickly that you’re worried about vomiting. Not that it’s common with eggs. They seem to suppress the urge in most species. Haven’t tested enough humans yet to know how strong it is with them.

The pelipper comes back with two humans carrying a cask of water. You inspect it. Seems to have come from the river. Hard to tell if the bad smell comes from the water or the refuse outside. “Do the humans put their dung into the river upstream or downstream of this?” you ask the bird.

“Downstream.”

They know the very basics of sanitation. Surprising given everything you’ve seen.

“Good.” You gesture towards the human. “Drink.”

He does. And he already looks better. “Now, I need to speak to whichever human is in charge.”

The pelipper raises a wing towards his human. “In charge of you or the other humans?”

“Both.”

Awfully young for that.

“Find me a translator.”

The go-between is a giant bird. Like a magthree but far larger and coated in metal feathers. His eyes glint with predatory intelligence. Magthree are often unkind but they know to respect the basic rules about attacking your kind. Does he? What language does he speak? One of the avian tongues you know? Something else entirely?

“Good afternoon. What is your name?” you ask.

“Cancer,” he responds. In a very human tone. How interesting.

“I’m Sitrus. Now, we need to talk about sanitation around here.”

The human is very receptive to your ideas and increasingly animated as the conversation goes on. He sketches diagrams in his book, calls other humans in and orders them out, and asks many follow-up questions.

“What if the pipes were underground?” he asks. “They would not smell so much.”

“Would they get into the underground waters?”

He blinks. “Like the ones beneath the wells?” Cancer translates.

It takes a few more questions to establish that the humans dig down to find the water like the crocomire do in the dry season.

“I do not know,” you have to admit. “I have never built something like that.” You’ll have to ask Lightning about it. Maybe he’s seen something in his travels. Eventually he has to go asleep. He still implores you to come back the next day. Even if you can’t heal more than one person you can help with his ideas for water movement and treating the ill.

*​

You learn Captain Sephton’s language in time. Learn more about him as a person. He is young, exceedingly so for his rank, but he proved himself back home as an exceptional trainer of pokémon and used his connections to get himself a ship and a colony. He wanted to explore the world. Understand it. Perhaps, someday, improve it.

Together you move the sick into more organized care. Stop taking their blood with leeches. First close the pipes and move them underground, away from different pipes carrying water. Some of the other men sneer about him taking advice from a pokémon be he waves them away. Even tries to get you a human title that you repeatedly decline. You still care little for humans. But you have a duty to help the poor creatures when they’re hopelessly ignorant of the healing arts. Lightning says they have an unmatched ability to learn and innovate. Hopefully if you help then others of your kind won’t have to waste their time.

And there are visitors to see how his humans are doing things. First from across your land, then the surrounding islands, and finally from his home. He gets recalled shortly after to fix his homeland in person.

*​

You don’t like Galar. It’s everything Melbourne was but far worse. Crowded, smelly, suffocating, unnatural. In Melbourne the residents at least looked at you with respect. Almost like a proper ward. The visitors always directed questions to The Captain, looking at you like you were either beneath their notice or a factory of miraculous eggs rather than a person like them. The Captain always apologized afterwards, stroking your fur and apologizing for his species. He was a confident man. Arrogant, even. Thought he could change the entire world, or at least his kind, for the better. Somehow, he could make you believe it.

Galar is full of men who look at The Captain like they look at you. He wasn’t born noble. He had to prove his power to the world until it could no longer ignore him. They responded by letting him rule a rock two oceans away. Even though they were the ones to call him back, even though they asked him to build the water system, they still looked at him like a fool. Changed his plans behind his back. Spoke to each other like he wasn’t there during meetings. He had always been fond of books and boxing. Now he punched with anger rather than joy and read like he thought he had to.

Things were worse for you. When the pompous men found out what you could do they tried to steal you away at least once a fortnight. Those that did not try to seize you still demanded your eggs, setting schedules for distribution like it was their decision and you would meekly oblige. No, The Captain would meekly oblige and you would unquestioningly follow his orders.

As the years moved on and the project inched slowly closer to completion, you started to see more and more of your kind in the clinics. The clinics! Oh, the clinics! Full of useless humans who insisted they knew more than you on account of a few years training and a sheet of paper. More than one refused to work with you when you insisted they wash their bloody hands. A few of them later got blissey. You don’t know if they changed their procedures or if the poor abducted creatures simply could not make demands. None of them would talk to you. They knew who had shown the Galarians the healing eggs. They knew why they were locked in a building in a noxious city rather than roaming free with their ward in clean air.

You had scarcely seen The Captain so happy as when he was hauled in front of a panel of self-important men in powdered wigs and fancy seats and told he would no longer be tolerated.

“Alola,” he announced to you and the birds. “I should like to go to Alola. The sailors speak of beautiful weather and leaders who know how to build a nation without breaking its land.”

It sounded lovely. And you had long sense moved on from caring for the humans as a whole to caring for a ward of one. You wanted to see what this strange human would do.

*​

You were all much happier in Alola. He would fly off to new places every day, often bringing you along. He would draw rocks or pokémon. You and Capricorn (Cancer having long since passed) translated other species’ languages to learn of their habits and resolve the odd conflict. The Galarians briefly made him their ambassador to the kingdom before dismissing him when they decided the land was too important to leave Galarian interests in the hands of a man who sympathized with the locals. To the great consternation of the new ambassador, The Captain still dined at the palace far more than the nobleman who had replaced him.

In time you all settled down in the interior of the smallest Tapu Island and The Captain devoted himself to the study of the canyon in its center. He was insatiably curious, always asking questions of the pokémon he found. On one occasion you and a team of three translators had to speak for days with a gigalith just to get a basic question answered. The answer revolutionized the field of geology, but only decades after The Captain had passed. During his life not a single scientists in Galar would accept it.

You became the go-betweens for all conflicts on the island, between the inland tribes and the seafolk, the tribes and the king, different species of pokémon, the tribes and the pokémon. The pokémon saw you as their representative and the humans saw The Captain as theirs. Officially becoming Kahuna changed very little about what he actually did.

Poni was always removed from the other islands. Few humans lived there. A handful of ranchers, a secluded clan of warriors, the ever-moving seafolk. One of the trials never even had a proper captain, the dragons being too proud to accept one. A human kept the hearth at the end of the canyon. The totem fought. You healed any injuries. After all that was over The Captain would escort his challengers to the great dais for the entertainment of the slumbering sun and moon. You swore that the light waxed and waned with the pace of the match. The gods indeed looked on.

Your trips to Hau’oli were infrequent. You noticed a difference every time. More people, but fewer native Alolans. The shops were nicer and had entire Galarian and American clients. Even the queen’s court became swarmed with light brown men when it had previously only been The Captain and an ambassador or two.

Eventually a man comes to visit you on Poni. He has short yellow hair and blue eyes that somehow look as if staring into them too long could cut you. Those eyes wander around your dwelling, lingering on the unpainted dried mud walls and the small, unkempt beds. The Captain pretends not to notice. “Now, what can I do for you, uh, sir?”

“Elisha Gage,” he says drily. “My secretary should have sent you a letter. Not that I trust the postmen here to deliver.”

“I got it. Kind of skimmed. The machamp and mienshao were causing a ruckus and needed a referee. Hardly got any sleep that week.”

The visitor purses his lips. “How unpleasant.”

“No, not at all. Everything got worked out in the end. Just had to let the tournament play out and adjust some boundaries.” The Captain laughs it off. You disliked the whole thing. It was dangerous and unnecessary, even if the parties seemed more amused than upset about the whole thing. You’re half convinced the casus belli was a simple excuse to have an organized brawl.

“Good to hear. Did you at least read the core of the proposal?”

“You wanted me to challenge Her Majesty, right? I’m humbled you think me capable, but I’d much rather manage this isle than the whole kingdom. Wild pokémon can be reasoned with. Men? Not so much.”

“That is disappointing to hear. I had hoped you would be amenable to my cause. This island has potential. The weather is fair and the land fertile. The restrictions on it are simply too onerous. Large tracts are only available for taro, a crop with no market value whatsoever. The luxury goods, pinaps and silk, those are exorbitantly taxed. The kingdom is incompetent. Shouldn’t be surprising when its members have no financial or industrial instincts.”

“I think they know what they are doing,” The Captain replies. His voice is no longer so easy. The words carefully selected. “They’ve been working this land long enough.”

The two stare each other down with narrow eyes. “Perhaps. If there is nothing further to discuss I shall be on my way.”

The Captain sighs and turns to you when he’s gone. “We’re going to have to tell Her Majesty about this. He won’t stop here.”

“Who is he?” You don’t make a point of knowing individual humans. Especially the ones who live off of this island.

“Some American businessman. He farms ariados. No, that is not quite right. He owns rents land on which other people farm ariados. Then he sells the silk.”

Farming spiders like wooloo. How far the humans have come.

“However far we run from Europe, she always seems to find us. Not bloody well abandoning this place, though. Just have to make sure we don’t end up as Galar or America’s next meal.”

*​

“Your majesty, you cannot—”

“We can. We must. We will.”

The Captain takes a deep breath. “He will not fight fairly.”

“No. He has not.”

Past tense? Has there already been a conflict.

The Queen gestures towards a ship in the distant harbor. “We are not fighting him. Not just him, anyway. He has every intention to seize this land by any means available. This way there are rules. Witnesses. If he cheats, we will voice our objections. Should we fail at least the people of the kingdom will not pay the price.”

“And if he fairly wins?”

She continues to gaze out at the water. “Win or lose, we are in the last days of the kingdom. The Tapu refuse to act. The Americans and Galarians will not let us continue. Our cities are in range of their gunships. This way the kingdom ends in honor.”

The Captain takes a deep breath. “The Fallen Army—”

No.” The Queen steadies herself and turns to glare at your trainer. “Where did you learn of this?”

“I read. I ask questions. Sometimes I find answers. On the best days I find more questions.”

“It should not be so easy to learn. Some things are too dangerous to let fall into enemy hands.”

“Why can we not try it? You have royal blood, I would provide a willing sacrifice.” Your heart almost stops and you grab onto him. He shakes you off. You grab again. “We only—”

“We only need the blood of a skychild,” she finishes. “We have searched. It cannot be found. Even if we could produce it, we would rather risk Gage’s ire than the help of the dead.”

Captain Sephton leans into your touch and shifts to look out at the sea. For a time the three of you stand in silence and watch the waves roll in and out as the stars shine overhead.

“If we fall, we need you to continue watching over Poni. Salvage whatever you can.”

“I will. I promise.”

You (gently) slam Ernest into a wall when The Queen leaves. “What were you thinking?” you hiss. “I have not spent decades of my life saving you just for you to throw your life away.”

He closes his eyes and tilts his head down. “I am not immortal like you,” he says. “I will meet my end someday. Might as well be for a cause I believe in.”

“No. You are not going to die. Promise me.”

There’s a great sadness in his eyes as he slowly shakes his head.

*​

You don’t know for sure how old you are. It’s not normal for your kind to count. The last few decades have been the most eventful of your adult life. That makes them feel longer. Yet at the same time, you’re sure that it’s not the majority of your life.

Centuries. Maybe millennia. Time doesn’t matter much to you. Your attachments have always been more to species than individuals. That’s not how it works for humans.

You can treat all of The Captain’s injuries. You can make sure that he stays in good health. Even as wrinkles overtake his face. Even as he hunches more. Even when he rarely enters the canyon. Even when enough of his pokémon have passed on or left to lead their own lives that he steps down as Kahuna.

You and Capricorn are all that are left in the end. And even Capricorn is looking more and more like his father did at the end.

A morning comes where you bring The Captain his egg as always. He gets all of yours now. He used to insist they go to the injured. That changed with time. That morning he puts a hand on yours and gently pushes you away. “No,” he whispers. “It’s time for a new adventure.”

He takes you and Capricorn up to his favorite viewing place. Meets the totem there. Visits Tapu Fini and the seafolk. For a few days he’s as active and alive as ever. And then he’s no more.

The Captain did not leave a child. Even if he had you aren’t sure you would have followed them. For a long time you stay put. In denial. Making sure an unoccupied house is tidy. Then you have a child, desperate for someone to cling to. She leaves you in time. Capricorn’s children are all skarmory. You care for them and their children, even when they cannot remember why. You don’t bother explaining. Too painful. In time your ward expands to all of the pokémon of the canyon and the humans who visit. The nurses can’t remember why you do that, either. Try to bring in one of their own. You stare them down and they eventually leave. This was his home. This is your duty.

You have nothing else left.

*​

The beacon at your side rings. You’re needed at the trial site. Probably the humans you’ve been hearing about. It will take you a few days to reach it. You take a path on the rim. It’s a little shorter. You’ll just have to convince someone to help you down. Maybe Whisper? The dragonite usually comes within an hour when you whistle and she’s more than strong enough to carry you.

She does take you down in the end. And apologizes. This is probably his fault. A human tried to catch her son and she retaliated. Just stunned her. Got loud. She forgot that even that could be dangerous to humans.

“Did they have a strange dragon?” you ask. You’re curious what the lycanroc were talking about.

“I didn’t get a good look. Don’t know what it was. Nothing I’ve seen.”

She’s a dragonite. They’ve seen everything. Curiouser and curiouser.

You great Emily in the Center. No humans here yet. She confirms that one of the humans is partially deaf. Looks up their records for you. Some interesting pokémon between them. The odd dragon must be a tyrunt. A long-extinct creature the humans revived. You can’t figure out how to feel about that. It was done by humans. You assume they did it horribly wrong. But it’s a nice thought, isn’t it? That even the dead can be healed.

The human’s other pokémon are also interesting. A golisopod, an alien, and a keokeo. Your eye is drawn towards one of the other humans. The one not on the challenge. Her hair. Her eyes. Her face. You’ve seen it before. The American King. She’s one of his. And she’s the one injured. You swallow your anger and pride. She has done nothing to you, yet. It would be wrong to withhold your healing because of something her ancestor did. Yet you cannot promise to provide it if you see the same cutting cruelty in her eyes and hear the same callous disregard in her voice.

*​

You don’t see her ancestor in her. The physical resemblance is there. Yet she spends most of the session apologizing for being stupid and getting hurt. Insists that she’s getting better. That she could maybe recover on her own. It’s impossible to imagine The American King doing anything but demanding an egg for whatever ailed him. You give her one. Humans are fragile. Best not to risk further degradation.

The humans with her are mostly fine. One is emotionally distressed but not to the point you would intervene on all but the slowest of days. The other is. Well, she’s a mess. Probably blind from her eyes lack of tracking. She doesn’t seem in immediate distress so that must not be new. Not much you can do there. Or want to do there. Chronically injured humans can be oddly fond of their injuries. Another maddening thing about them. She’s a little underweight but otherwise fine, physically. Emotionally she’s a mess of issues. Maybe even psionic damage. Another of your kind gave her an egg a few months ago. You can understand why. Humans have their own drugs for fixing emotional problems these days. Not someone you would waste more than an egg or two on.

You check all of their pokémon as a matter of course. Most are… fine. A few injuries typical of the canyon. Some distress typical of captive pokémon. Except the dragon. Aside from a few superficial injuries she doesn’t even want treated she’s completely fine. Well adjusted, even. You have no idea how a human pulled that off with a long-extinct dragon and you’re curious to know.

Then there’s the keokeo.

You pity the keokeo. Almost every one you’ve met on the surface was profoundly disturbed. The majority of exceptions were born at the surface and see their deprivation as simply the normal condition of their kind. This one is worse in some ways. Grievous injuries that have only partially healed. Better in others. An existential dread looming over her rather than the unshakable confidence of the rest of her kind. That signals the possibility of accepting the ninetales’ curse as others have before. Perhaps even without the crushing guilt of the fallen voice.

You should visit him some time. He was always one of your favorite conversation partners on Melemele. The only one you ever spoke to about your role in the exile of your kind. The only one who looked at you like you did not bare the slightest shred of guilt. Perhaps you do not in comparison to his sins. Although you would scarcely have known how to do better in his position.

The other members of the green-haired human’s team are all relatively well-adjusted. It seems even she has no idea what to do with this one.

“Where and when did you get your wounds?”

“…you speak canine?”

“I’ve learned a lot of languages. Now, tell me about your wounds.”

“Another nine-tails. About a moon ago.”

Recent, then. She did receive at least one egg around that time. Probably why she’s still here.

“Why?”

She huffs out cold air and starts to tell you a story. A long one. It lasts well into the night.

It begins the same as every other keokeo story you’ve heard. A relatively happy childhood followed by an abrupt exile. Humans who mistreated her. Humans who tried to heal her. One who genuinely did, before she disappeared. Going between different humans. Finding them unworthy. Being found unworthy in turn. One final chance. A strange human. One who could speak to her, even if she did not truly understand.

A chance encounter with the fallen voice. She recognizes your recognition. You keep quiet. His secrets are his own to share. She seems to respect that.

An encounter with a ninetales you have met. One belonging to the man who changed the current league. You met her the first time as a nine-tailed keokeo when she passed through your canyon. How strange. That feels like yesterday. The ninetales wanted to make the vulpix her pup and did everything right except actually loving her. The exiled keokeo are almost universally bad at that. The ninetales on the mountain seldom show love until their offspring are exiled or otherwise reduced to two. It is painful to let go of something loved. Far easier to lose and lose and pretend that you never felt a thing. Perhaps in time the exiles learn how to give it, but they rarely learn to recognize it. To trust that someone cares. That they will not leave them. To know how to tell when someone should not be trusted.

An escalation. Doubts growing. An acceptance that she wanted more. That she deserved better. A confrontation with the support of others against her own kind. You are pleasantly surprised that her trainer took blows for her. It’s something The Captain would have done without hesitation that you have scarcely seen since. It didn’t matter in the end. They both would have died absent the intervention of another canine that shattered all of the keokeo’s confidence in her kind’s invulnerability in time with the shattering of the ninetales’ bones.

Then, a return to a past pattern. His human, Skysong, Cuicatl, whichever you end up calling her, you get the feeling that she tries. She is still a child. A distressed child. Was it fair to expect her to be able to help her alone? Did she disregard that by making herself the fox’s entire support network? Would she have had one without her? She seems capable of caring for other creatures. But the keokeo are beyond her. They can only help themselves and they must do it alone.

“Thank you for telling me this.”

She huffs again. “Skysong has her human she tells things to. I can do that, too.”

Ah. Simple jealousy. That’s what she tells herself, at least. She seems to be breathing easier. Muscles relaxed. This was helpful even if she will deny it.

“Thank you nonetheless. You should get back to your human. I have more tasks to attend to.” It is a lie. Unless thinking is counted as a task.

“No problem.”

You find your way outside. Under the stars. They’re not the same stars as your birthplace. At least you can see them. Under Galar’s smog you could scarcely make anything out but the streetlamps. And under those stars live the same species living the same lives generation after generation. You tend to them, alone. Like The Captain would have wanted. While he got to move on to his next adventure. A final, monumental cruelty. You cannot bring yourself to hate him.

The fox will not get the help she needs. It is possible she finds her way to a satisfactory ending, but the vast weight of past evidence suggests otherwise. A single unraveling human is unlikely to do what even you might struggle to accomplish. You could stay here. Attend to your canyon. Do the same things ad infinitum like you did in the old land.

You could leave.

Go on your own adventure.

Help someone who will otherwise not receive it. Change your world rather than maintain it. Like The Captain would have done. The humans will find another blissey for the trial. Someday Brightness’s daughter will enter the canyon and take it as her own.

Do you dare leave this place? Leave him? Go into a world that could be Alola or Galar, possibility or disappointment? Trust your care to a human you do not know? Against the backdrop of the stars you see a dragonite descend. They can travel the world. Why can you not see what these islands have become in The Captain’s absence?

You will speak with Cuicatl before she leaves. Perhaps you will leave with her.
 
Fairy 6.15

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
Fairy 6.15: Fairies and Dragons
Coco

You stretch out your long, long body after exiting the ball. It feels a little cramped now when it was close and warm and nurturing before. Mom’s already told you that you’re getting a new ball when you get back to the floating city.

There’s a blissey beside Mom. Weird. They usually don’t go outside their building.

“Coco, this is Sitrus. She’s going to be traveling with us for a while.”

She leans slightly forward like the humans sometimes do. “It is an honor.”

“You speak dragon?”

“A little,” she says. “I’ve lived a long time.”

Your eyes widen and you look at her more closely. “Long enough to meet other tyrantrum?”

“No, child.” She sounds sad. You’ve never seen one of them sad before. “The only creatures long-lived enough to have seen your kind are the most ancient of the gods.”

“Quetzlcoatl would have. He… ended the first age of dragons. Might not want to speak with you even if it were possible to draw his interest. I don’t think it is.” Mom presses her lips together like she does in deep thought. “Maybe Reshiram could if we see her again. I don’t think she would. Best to keep the boss far away.”

Right. Mom told you about this. The first dragon and her three kids. They killed their mother. Unforgivable. You would not speak with their leader even if he hadn’t killed off your ancestors.

“Don’t want to.”

Mom relaxes. “Okay. Good.” She smiles faintly and looks between the two pokémon around her. You have no idea why she does that. Does it help with hearing or smelling? “She wanted to talk to you. I’ll let you do it alone unless you need help.”

Good. It will also give you a chance to interrogate this stranger.

“She did not say you were joining the team,” you ask as soon as Mom goes indoors. “Are you?”

She hums idly. “Cuicatl will be taking care of food acquisition and logistics. I may formally become her partner in the human records. But I refuse to acquiesce to all of a child’s demands or engage in unnecessary combat. I shall not even permit her to hold my pokéball absent extraordinary circumstances.”

“Then why are you here?” There’s always a reason. Even for temporary teammates. Mom is very particular about that. You will ignore her calling your Mom a mere child or implying that she cannot be trusted. She’s a little young for her species but very responsible.

“I wish to help Pixie with her problems. Cuicatl and I worked out an arrangement.”

She’s not claiming to be loyal. Still. You have never known a blissey to hurt anyone. You will watch her but do not need to threaten her. Yet.

“I will help Cuicatl, too, but she is my secondary priority. She already has a therapist. I do not want to accidentally undo their work before I know more about what is going on in her life.”

Good. Mom could use more help.

“Now, may I ask you a personal question?”

You lower your head down towards her. Why wouldn’t she be allowed to?

“You do not seem unhappy. Why is that?”

Sometimes you try to tilt your head like Mom does when she is confused. Then you remember that your head is much larger and neck very different and have to stop almost immediately. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

She stares at you with her mouth slightly open. Is this normal for blissey? You haven’t seen it before.

“You are millions of years out of your own time and were raised by a human.”

Oh. That. “I would like to meet more tyrantrum,” you admit. “I met my egg layer. I like her. Mom says that I can see her again once she gets her license.” The second part of her question is trickier. You do not know if Mom was a good tyrunt mom. Does anyone even know what that means now? She told you stories that you should know as a dragon. Never got mad when you bit her. Was always there when you wanted to show off your new moves or even bigger teeth. Always had food for you, even when she wasn’t eating. When she wasn’t currently paying attention to you it still never felt like you were ignored. She would talk to you or play if you asked, unless it was a really bad day. Even then she would usually do something. Maybe just a story or a walk but she tried to give you time. She is not a tyrantrum. You have still never felt like you wanted a better Mom.

Dad… Kekoa… you saw what he did and did not do for Ihe. For you. He was useless. You would not have liked having him as your only parent. Or even your main parent like Mom told you was supposed to happen. If that is what most humans are like you can understand why Sitrus is confused.

“Some humans are bad parents. Mom’s a good parent. I love her.”

Sitrus takes a hesitant step forward and presses herself against your leg. What is she doing? Now you have to stand still to be sure not to hurt her on accident.

“You’re very lucky,” she says. “I’m happy for you.”

She walks off towards the entrance of the Pokémon Center leaving you with no idea what that was about.

*

Mother does not question your teammate’s loyalty, even when they allow her to be hurt. As her longest-serving pokémon it falls to you to do what she will not.

“Why should I trust you?”

Noci continues to hover in place as if she didn’t hear the question at all. You growl and bare your teeth rather than repeat yourself.

[UD_Mitzcocotonaz Subordinate To UD_Cuicatl_Ichtaca;
Unit2_263 Subordinate To UD_Cuicatl_Ichtaca;
UD_Mitzcocotonaz Subordinate To Same Administrator As Unit2_263]

“She’s told me you aren’t. That you report to a metagross.”

[Negation]

“You were made by a metagross.”

[Negation]

“How were you made, then?”

[Alarm Lvl 3: UD_Mitzcocotonaz Seeking Restricted Information]

You stamp your foot and enjoy how long the earth rumbles in response. Living up to your second mother. First mother? She was your mother first from her perspective, but Cuicatl was from yours.

“Who restricted the information?”

[Alarm Lvl 3: UD_Mitzcocotonaz Seeking Restricted Information]

“Does Cuicatl know?”

[Alarm Lvl 3: UD_Mitzcocotonaz Seeking Restricted Information]

Trapped. So much for being a smart machine. “What if I ask her and she tells you to tell me? Can she do that?”

[Alarm Lvl 3: UD_Mitzcocotonaz Seeking Restricted Information]

She’s taunting you. Challenging you. Unacceptable. Before she can react, you lunge forward and grab her in your jaws. And press. You’re not trying to rip her in half. Just slowly increasing the pressure until she remembers who’s in charge. You can feel her struggle against your muscles and mind. It’s fine. You’re sure she’s hurting more.

{Is the information still restricted?} you ask through thoughts. You hear something pop and give way and practically purr with excitement.

[Negation.]

You let her go. She instantly bolts two body lengths away and one above you. The top of her body is bent and dented. Teeth marks are clearly visible in it. One even broke off and stayed lodged in the metal. You spit out the tips of five or six more broken teeth. Worth it. They’ll be back before the next big fight and you have plenty more in the meantime.

“What does the metagross want with Cuicatl?”

[Fluid Release Data Unnecessary;
Purpose of Directives Unclear]

“Guess,” you growl.

[UD_Cuicatl_Ichtaca Has Unknown Relationship To UD_Natural_Harmonia_Gorpius;
UD_Zekrom Subordinate To UD_Natural_Harmonia_Gropius]

“Who is that?” She talked about Zekrom. He was with a human named N. Not whatever Noci said.

[UD_Natural_Harmonia_Gropius Also Known As UD_N]

There you go.

“And what do they want with him? Keep Cuicatl away? Close?”

[Unknown;
Awaiting Further Directives]

You can’t tell if she’s lying to you or not. And you shouldn’t bite her again, even if you want to. She still has to carry things and be useful.

“Tell Cuicatl this.”

[Orders Received]

“Are you going to hurt her?”

[Mission = Monitor UnitDesignate: Cuicatl Ichtaca;
Corollary1 = Defend UnitDesignate: Cuicatl Ichtaca;
Harming UnitDesignate: Cuicatl Ichtaca violates Corollary1;
No Further Instructions Applicable]

Sounds like she’s safe. For now. If Noci isn’t lying. You should warn her about that. “I’ll kill you if you’re lying.”

[Orders Received as Relayed]

Good. You’ll leave her be. Or destroy her if you have to.

*​

You reform under harsh midday sunlight and smell another dragon. Your attention snaps towards it. Blue. Lots of spikes. Red head scales. Wings too small to fly with. Smaller than you, but not by much.

“I tried to tell her that we were just passing by,” Mom explains. “She only wanted to talk to you.”

Oh? You can talk. You open your mouth and roar, feeling the entire canyon vibrate and echo in response. This is how good you can talk! The dragon immediately lowers her wings, turns around, and runs away. You stop the roar and give one last victorious bellow. Then you look down at Mom for approval. She looks… pained? Is she hurt?

{No,} she tells you. {You did very well. So proud of you. Always proud of you.}

She reaches out like Sitrus did and leans against your leg {Do you want to stay out for a while? Or go back inside to rest? We’ll be along the canyon floor for a while. Still room to walk.}

You aren’t hungry yet. At the Center you got one last good meal before you left. Apparently cleared out most of what the Center kept on hand, but Sitrus and Mom assured you that they could refill. No one was going hungry because of you. It wasn’t all good food. A little bit of lots of things. You think you would like a lot of one thing. More like how you’ve eaten before.

If Mom’s telling you that it’s okay to stay out then food probably isn’t too much of an issue. And it’s better than being in the cramped ball.

“Okay. I will.”

She wraps her arm around your leg before pulling away. “Thank you.”

You’re not sure what you’re being thanked for. It’s also a boring walk. Nothing even comes close. You were hoping to protect her from something. Oh well. You can still walk beside her to keep her in the shade. You even like the feeling of warm light on your scales.

*​

Noci was easy enough to scare. He could hurt Mom and you knew she wasn’t loyal. That made her your first priority. You would go after Pixie next but Mom has very clearly asked you not to do that. Besides, you already bit her before she came back for real. Hopefully she remembers.

That leaves Leo. You still aren’t sure what to make of Leo. Mostly he just rests in his ball or hugs the ground. He tracks passing humans and pokémon with his eyes but rarely lunges. He probably isn’t going to hurt Mom. Best to make sure that he knows that he can’t. Not without dying. Because you’d kill him.

Once you’ve reached the top of the canyon and have enough room to walk again you approach the bug as he basks in the evening sun. He turns half his body around towards you. Doesn’t say anything.

“We need to talk.”

“Okay.”

He keeps staring at you. Waiting for more.

“Why are you traveling with us?”

“Food. Warmth. Safety. There is not much food underwater. It is cold. There are predators that would try to eat me. Just hurt me a little up here. Much better.”

Very practical. About what you were expecting.

“What do you think about Cuicatl?”

“She gives me food. Helped me get stronger. I would not have done it without her. Would not have known I could be more without her. Told me we can go back to the glowing gun game. I want to. It was fun.” His head swivels up to look at you. He rarely makes eye contact like this. “What do you do for fun?”

You used to play with Ihe. Now… you like listening to Mom’s stories. And you like fighting. You think you will like fighting a lot more now. “Battles.”

He lowers himself back to the ground. “Yes. I like those. Want to keep doing them. Challenge. Good challenge.”

What else are you supposed to say? He probably isn’t going to hurt her. Biting him feels pointless. Kind of cruel. Even just threatening to bite him feels wrong. Fighting would waste food when you don’t have much to spare.

“I’ll fight you, later, when we get more food. If you want.”

He rubs two legs together. “Good.”

You end up basking side by side in the dying light until you fall asleep.

*​

“Why do you have to be strong?”

You shift your head to look towards Sitrus and Pixie. They’re talking again. The blissey loves talking. Almost as much as Pixie does. Maybe more. Many of her questions are dumb. You have to be strong to protect yourself and the people you care about. Obviously.

You’re sure Mom would still love you if you weren’t strong. She still cares for Pixie despite everything. Let Sitrus in even though she won’t fight. And her mate is weak. You might be able to beat all of her pokémon by yourself. They’re huddled together under a tree nearby. Lyra is already resting in her tent. You should talk to her, too, but don’t know how to do it. You do not want to use Mom to translate and Noci would probably report everything back to her. And the metagross.

Her salamander is not to be trusted. It never should have been trusted. You never liked her. At all. Lyra finds Mom attractive. Mom already has a mate. Salazzle could change some of the things that Lyra does not like. Even though you have been very, very clear to the salazzle that if she does anything to Mom, you will eat her. Now you can do it in a single bite.

“Because I’m the best. I should be the strongest,” Pixie finally responds. Her answers are as silly as Sitrus’s questions.

“What would happen if you weren’t the best?”

You tune them out. It’s private, anyway, like Mom’s sessions. She usually doesn’t let you out during them. Just gets very cuddly afterwards. Won’t even talk about what happened.

The tone of Sitrus’s conversations feels like she’s trying to mother Pixie. She won’t succeed. Shouldn’t even bother. Pixie never gave Mom a fair chance when she tried to help. Why would this be different?

It does get you thinking about mothers. When you found out about grandparents you were so, so excited to meet even more family. You learned then that Mom never had her own mom. Everything that you’ve learned about her father since then, mostly through listening to conversations between her and other humans—you’re going to kill him if you ever meet.

Mom never had a mom. Her dad made her be mom to him with all the mom things she does for you and the others. The closest thing she had to her own mom was a dragon she met when she was already much older than you are now. And Alice left.

So did Shirona.

They might come back.

They might not.

It’s unfair that you have three parents and she didn’t have one.

You can’t do anything about that. Can’t help her with mom things. Just keep her safe and help her make money for food. You will do that. You will do everything that you can.

It’s still not what she needs. That has to come from other people. And you can’t bite them into doing it.

You can still talk to the fairy bird. Try to get Shirona to come back.

If it works Mom will have her own mom and you will have a grandparent you can actually talk to.

*​

Mitsuru comes and goes as she pleases. Sometimes she’s never more than two body lengths away for a full day and sometimes you can barely see her as she soars high above the canyon. She’s come back now that the canyon turns into flat, rocky ground.

She keeps preening as you approach. And as you loom over her. You think about snapping your teeth to get her attention but pause. You know how strong Genkei and Kagetora are. She might kill you on accident if you startle her.

Eventually she looks up and stares at you.

“Is your human coming back to Cuicatl?” you ask. You’re not sure if she can understand dragons. You can understand her. Close to Ihe’s words. Hopefully she’s learned to understand you from Wakumi and Kagetora.

“Yes.”

Good. Simple. Not like the fairies Mom tells you about. “When?”

“Soon. A few more days.”

“Is she staying after that?”

“If Cuicatl wants her to.”

You think Mom wants that? She’s bad at doing things that are good for her. She would rather do things for you. Maybe you will tell her that you want a grandmother and hope she agrees to stay with Shirona.

“Do you think you could teach me to speak bird?” you ask her. Spur of the moment. It’s something you would like to surprise Ihe with when he comes back.

She tilts her head. “Do you think you’re a bird?”

“Kind of? I have feathers.” Mom explained it a few times but you never fully understood. You’re a very old bird. Something like that.

She makes a noise that sounds a lot like a human laugh. “How cute. A dragon who thinks she’s a bird raised by a fairy who thinks she’s a dragon.”

“What?”

“You’re not a bird. Something close. But you can’t fly.”

“There are other birds that can’t fly!” Ihe barely can.

“You don’t even have wings.”

That’s true. You’re not a proper bird. You can admit that. But. More importantly. She insulted Mom.

“Why are you calling Mom a fairy?”

She laughs again. “Is it not obvious? The poor girl was rightfully rejected by the dragons. The noisy guardian has lived long enough to recognize the enemy when it stands before him. Dragons are all brute force. Would sooner burn a town down than talk to anyone in it. Cuicatl is small. Frail. Cunning. Hunts not with force and fear but with cleverly worded pacts. Even came from the stars. She’ll be a great fairy in time. Just needs some nurturing for now.”

“The stars?”

Mitsuru opens her beak and promptly closes it without making a sound. “Across the ocean,” she finally says. “As close to the stars as humans get.”

Lies. “They went to the moon once.”

She trills indignantly. “Ten of them, decades ago, and the rest of them won’t shut up about it. Fairies have made the jump for millennia and then lived, loved, and died on the other side.”

“And metagross.”

“Not from the moon.” She looks around for Noci and awkwardly settles back down. “Further out.”

Beyond the moon? The sun? “Where from?”

“Don’t know. Somewhere far.”

Huh. Maybe Mom knows?

*​

“I have no idea,” Mom says. “Not our solar system. Probably in our galaxy? Unless they came from a wormhole or something. That’s possible.”

Really, really far. Your stomach rumbles and you freeze up in embarrassment. It’s just a little further. You don’t want to worry her.

Mom steps back and frowns. “I wanted to talk to you about that. I was reading about how tyrantrum might have hunted. Had an idea that might get you a tauros or two.”

*​

The tyrantrum in movies are not stealth predators. They come in, roaring, and bite things to death. Why else would you have thick scales and sharp teeth? You’re too big to hide. This shouldn’t work.

It does. Kind of. The tauros know that something big is there as you slink through the nearby trees. You try not to knock down too many but it’s inevitable. They don’t know what you are. Think you’re something that has to sneak. Something that can be fought. A few males stand in front of the females and slam their hooves into the ground while the young and females retreat. Good. Better than all of them running.

You get as close to the edge as you can before roaring and breaking into a run. Some turn around when they hear the roar. Others wait to see how big you are before deciding whether they run forward or away. That’s all the time you need. You catch one mid-turn and get your jaws around his ribs before breaking them all with one bite. One charges. Brave. Stupid. He gets a tail swipe that sends him flying before falling on his side. The rest start to run. You could trip them up. Make the ground vibrate so much they fall, just like Mom suggested. You won’t. One is a good meal. Or two. You stalk towards the second one as he struggles to get up on a broken leg. Slam the ground hard enough with your left foot he collapses all the way, then lean down to bite his head off. Ugh. The horn catches against the roof of your mouth and sticks. Takes some effort to lick it out. You spit out the head before it can get stuck inside you. Lesson learned.

Leo scuttles over towards the second kill while you eat the first. You growl. You’re hungry. He can hunt his own food. He gets the message and backs away.

You’re still hungry when you finish the first tauros but leave close to satisfied halfway through the second. It doesn’t taste quite right. The texture feels off. Mammals always have. They barely existed when your kind last lived. Nothing a giant like you would have hunted. They still have warm blood and flesh and you can get it down. Even if it’s not as good as bird meat. You’ll have to get used to it: there aren’t many birds alive that can feed you now. You let Leo tear chunks out of the leftovers when you’re done. Pixie daintily licks out some of the blood before taking a few bites. Then you let Lyra’s noivern eat the rest. Not the salazzle, though. She doesn’t get anything. You would rather leave it for the gathering mandibuzz. They will at least feed some rufflet. As long as the rufflet have food they won’t need to go to bad trainers who take them away from you.

Mom approaches with Noci when you’re done eating. “Good job. I’m very proud of you.”

You preen under the attention. And then glare at Noci.

{Information Relayed to UD_Cuicatl_Ichtaca}

Good. You’ll make sure of that later.

“I will tell Earthshaker about this.”

“I’m sure she’ll love to hear it.” Her smile fades slightly. “Just a little longer. It’s going to be okay.” She whispers it so quietly you wonder if she meant for you to hear. You pretend you didn’t.

The weather is nice that night. She sleeps on your back. It’s the closest you can get to sleeping beside her now.

*​

You’ve been putting it off the whole way to the floating city. Pixie isn’t loyal. You know this. She will keep hurting Mom with words if not fangs. It’s time to remind her of the consequences if she goes too far.

Your footsteps catch her attention as you approach. Sitrus and Mitsuru look up from the place they’re sitting but don’t advance. Don’t interfere. Pixie huffs and stands up to look into your eyes. Brave for bite-sized prey. You stare each other down. She doesn’t blink until you stomp the ground. That causes her to jump high into the air before quickly trying to recompose herself when she lands.

“You’ve hurt Mom,” you growl. “Left her.”

She hisses. “This again? She took me back.”

“Why did you do it?”

The fox looks away. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“I’ll try.”

She’s quiet for a long time. Mitsuru fluffs out her wings but doesn’t actually take off to intervene. Sitrus is glaring at you but also doesn’t move. You ignore her. Can’t hurt you. Won’t interfere. You won’t let her.

“I can’t go back to the mountain,” she finally says. “Not even Kalani could. I was happy. Wasn’t good enough to keep it. Now I just have to stay here with humans on the too warm surface and act like I’m happy. Skysong is—she’s not bad for a human. She’s not as good as a nine-tails. There won’t be another nine-tails.”

She’s much quieter than normal by the end. Sad. Defeated.

Pathetic. You laugh. Can’t help it. Seems to terrify her with the grating, choking roars and low vibrations.

“All this because you can’t go home?”

“You wouldn’t—”

“YOU CAN SEE YOUR HOME,” you roar. Mom can definitely hear. Let her. You don’t care. “I’ve seen it, too. The big mountain. Noci can look up at the stars, Leo can stand at the edge of the sea. It’s there. It exists. It’s real. My home only exists in movies made with drawings and puppets. No one can tell me about it. I can’t go back. No one can.”

You take a deep breath. The fox is staring at you with wide eyes and ears slicked back. Never been properly roared at.

“This is all I have. All I will ever have. I can’t go into the wild, either. There are thirty-seven other tyrantrum and they’re all owned by someone. Our wild is gone. I don’t care. I’m happy here. I’ve decided I can be. You don’t think you can. You won’t be.”

You lean in and watch Pixie shake just a little while trying to stay very, very still. As you get closer she takes a few steps back and trips over herself. “You want to be miserable? Fine. It’s your own fault. Don’t take it out on Mom or I will take it out on you. Understand?”

She doesn’t answer. You lean down a little more and bare your teeth.

“I know,” she finally says.

“Good enough.”

Sitrus is still giving you a hard look. Mitusuru looks oddly pleased. Great. What did you do to make the fairy happy?

You walk away and move closer to Mom’s tent. She’s outside with her mate. Definitely heard it. Don’t care. She looks towards Genesis and whispers something. She leaves the two of you alone. You finish walking closer and stop right in front of her.

“Coco…” You wait. Is she going to berate you for attacking Pixie? Did Noci tell on you? It hardly matters. You did what needed done. “Can you sit down?”

Not what you were expecting but you can. You do. She steps forward and feels out your face before running her hand over the top of your jaws. “If you want a place to go I can try and make one,” she finally says. “I don’t know how. It won’t be soon. But someday I will figure it out. Just tell me what you want and I can try and make it happen.”

That’s very sweet. But she cannot wind back time. This is all there is. All there can be. Maybe you’ll change your mind someday. You’ve already changed a lot from when you first hatched. For now, though? You’ve already found a place to call your own.
 
Fairy 6.16

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
Fairy 6.16: Confrontation
Kekoa

June 27, 2020

“And another thing,” Armoranth says. “We need floral scented candles here. Humans stink and I don’t want to deal with it.”

“Why would you want to smell dead flowers? Or be near fire? I don’t want to smell burning corpses.”

There was a fire in Minamo just before you finally got out of Hoenn. They had to do something with the bodies. Jabari kept you far away from it. You try not to remember.

“They aren’t actually burning flowers. Just wax.”

“And what’s wax made of?” You don’t actually know. Probably plants. Doubt they’re getting it from vespiquen or whatever.

The flower huffs in annoyance. “Oil. I’m not happy about it, but you humans make nearly everything from oil. Can’t live with you without burning the planet down.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yes, really.”

“Huh.” You set your book down and turn to actually look at her. “That’s kind of fucked.”

“Thank you!”

Plumeria will probably stop that when she’s in charge. Well, not drilling. They don’t do that in Alola. But she’ll do something to fix all the plastic and oil and stuff.

“What type of flower are you, anyways?”

“Excuse me?”

You glance at her. You’ve never really been a flower person. Hard to tell anything about a literal flower person. “You heard me? What kind of flower are you holding?”

She huffs. “That’s racist. You can’t just ask a floette what—”

“You’re literally white. You can’t talk about racism.”

“Well, it works differently with floette! We’re the ones everyone hates from the moment we pick the stupid flower—”

“Now the flower’s stupid—"

“Not what I meant!”

“Dunno, sounds a lot like you’re saying the whites have it worst.”

Armoranth growls. Adorably. “Those humans aren’t even white! They’re light brown. You’re all just different shades of brown. Mindbogglingly stupid you get mad about shades. We don’t even care about colors.”

“Fine. We’re stupid. Now what flower are you?”

“…I’m bonded with a hibiscus.”

“Cool. So do you want this place to smell like you or something different?”

“Allamanda, if you can find it.”

“I’ll see.” Or someone will. Probably Hatterene. You handle cleaning, not supplies.

“It reminds me of home. Mom kept a lot of them in her garden.”

You look at her. Really look at her. She’s small. Just a waif gripping onto a flower for dear life. And she misses her home and her mother. “How old are you?”

“Sixty-eight.”

“Days? Months?”

“Years.”

Holly shit. Maybe not a child, then. Even if she looks and acts like one. Still. You feel bad for her. This is kind of your fault.

“Sorry for taking you away from your mother.”

“It wasn’t you. Well, it could have been you, but…” She sighs. “I got careless. Thought no humans would be out in the dark. I was seen and they got away. The humans would have come for me, over and over again. If it wasn’t you, it would’ve been one of them. My aunt wasn’t even that mad at you.”

“Literally owns me and isn’t even mad.”

“Hmph. That was because you made a bad deal. You deserve it, falling for wording like that. She let your friend go without a problem.”

Right. Lyra. Not sure you would call her a friend. She wasn’t bad. Especially towards the end. But you could never really come around to liking her. Cuicatl wasn’t from Alola but she’s still blind, broke, and abused. Gen went through enough to deserve a little pity. Lyra? She is the system. Proudly. Even if she’s not a total bitch herself she supports her parents’ right to do whatever the fuck it is they got rich doing.

“She was too afraid to talk.”

“Should have been! My aunt can be scary.”

There’s a quick set of three knocks on the door.

“Yeah, come in.”

Machoke enters. He looks between you and Armoranth. “Sorry, heard you talking to no one. Got a little concerned.”

“I understand. I will endeavor to broadcast my conversations to all others in the vicinity in the future,” Armoranth responds. Wait. Right. Telepath. You’d honestly forgotten that she wasn’t speaking aloud. With Cuicatl there was a clear difference. None at all for Armoranth. Difference between a human and a pokémon.

“That’s, uh, you don’t need to do that. This is fine.”

“It would be no trouble.” Armoranth bats her eyelashes. She knows humans surprisingly well for living apart from them.

“Nope. Don’t need to. Forget I said anything.”

“If that is what you truly wish.” He turns around and makes to leave. “Oh, wait! My servant wished to speak with you about the rufflet in his care.”

He raises an eyebrow. “You work things out?”

“Not… quite.” He stays calm when you explain your terrible plan. Seeking out someone who probably hates you and Skull now and just handing a pokémon over. You know that this needs to be done but part of you hopes that he vetoes and just tells you to mail the pokéball or something. You even offer the idea. You can feel Armoranth’s glare on you.

“No, I can arrange it. Plumeria’s tracking her anyway. Won’t be too much trouble to find out when she gets back to society.”

“Wait. Why is she being tracked?”

He shrugs and offers open palms. “Again, I don’t know much. Most of what I do know I only learned after you joined. We aren’t doing anything to her. Just keeping watch.”

{I have an inkling,} Armoranth murmurs in your head. This time it feels like she isn’t speaking. {It’s nothing sinister. Just an intriguing possibility my aunt had discussed with Plumeria and... ah, forget I said anything.}

{What? Why is your aunt involved?}

You can hear her focus as the link becomes more solid. {Forget I said anything.}

Machoke snaps. Right in your face. You wake with a jolt.

“You alright?”

“Yeah. Just. Zoned out or something.”

Armoranth shies away when you look at her. What’s that about?

“Okay. Just take it easy, alright? I’ll let you know when Cuicatl gets back to Seafolk.”

“You’re really doing this?”

He shrugs. “Far as I see it, takes some stress from you and might win over someone of interest. I’ll have to run it by the boss lady but it should be fine.”

“Yes,” Armoranth whispers. “I imagine so.”

*​

Hatterene glares at you for a moment before taking out her notepad and scribbling something down. “I’ll see what I can do.” She glances down at Armoranth who bats her eyelashes.

“I’m sure that with your capabilities it—”

“Can it. I’ll do what I can. Or our purchase team will. Never even heard of that flower. I’m not sure we’ll be able to get it. We aren’t the profitable kind of gang.”

“Thank you for your efforts all the same.” You stare down at the floette. Why is she so polite to her but not you?

Hatterene goes back to her med kit. “Pull up your shorts.” You do. No point being awkward during shots. And she’s very professional. Even has her chansey standing behind her in case something somehow goes wrong. You doubt it. Only happened once before. Not your fault you managed to poke a blood vessel.

She glances at the stack of books you’re reading for Moe while she kneels down. “True Love’s Embrace, huh? Never took you for a romantic.”

“I’m not. Transitioned to get away from that shit.”

The needle enters your skin. You do your best to pretend it isn’t there.

“What, too good for stable relationships?”

“Never had one.” Never really had a chance. Moved around too much.

The needle slides out and the cap goes back on. Hatterne reaches for a bandage. Picks it up. Puts it down and pulls out another one. A Hello Skitty one. She ignores your eyes widening in fear. “Neither have I, but a girl can dream.”

You try your best to ignore the bandage, too. Just immediately straighten out your shorts to cover it. “Really? What’s your type?” You can ignore it and then it pretty much isn’t there.

She twists the needle off the syringe and puts it into the sharps bag. “Tall. Sorry, kid.”

Rude. You open your mouth to bitch about it but she cuts you off.

“Yours?”

You blank. Really don’t want to talk about this with a girl. Like, how do you even do it without sounding like a creep? You were a girl and have no clue.

“Poison,” Armoranth answers. “He’s a poison-type.”

Oh, nice save. Even if it was probably meant as an insult.

Hatterene rolls her eyes and picks up her first aid kit. “Sure. I’ll try to get you your candles, Amorant?”

“Armoranth,” you correct her.

She mouths the word a few times. “Got it. Thanks.”

“Humans,” Armoranth whines the moment the door is shut. “No respect for their elders.”

“I think it was an accident? Or she’s mad about the candles.”

The fairy looks down to the ground. “I was not too particular, was I? I do not mean to overburden the poor child.”

“So you won’t overburden her, but—”

“You? At every possible opportunity.” She shimmies closer to her flower and hovers further off the floor. “I do not owe you an explanation as to why.”

“Fine. Let’s just talk to Mahina.”

How is that better than whatever this is?

*​

The toucannon flaps her wings and shakes her head as she adjusts to being outside her ball. Then she turns to look at you.

This is fine. Cuicatl lost her starter. There’s no shame in this.

There isn’t much shame in this.



You can deal with the shame.

“So, uh, Mahina…” She looks at you but doesn’t say anything. You glance down at Armoranth. She waves a hand to tell you to get a move on. “Do you want to leave? I won’t stop you.”

She clacks her bill once.

“Yes,” Armoranth translates.

You swallow. You knew this was coming but it still hurts.

“Was I a bad trainer?”

She tilts her beak down and clacks it a few times before trilling in a long pattern you can’t make out.

“She got what she expected to get. Food, training. She’s thankful for the fruit during the darkness. This was never going to last forever. She would like to find a mate now.”

“Okay.” You pause. “I’m going to meet Cuicatl soon. Do you want to say goodbye to any of her pokémon.”

She slams her bill shut angrily and makes a few bellows. Armoranth looks at you questioningly. “She says that she’s seen this before and knows how it ends. Wants to leave now.”

Seen this…? Cuicatl. Pixie. Hala. Right.

“That’s fine. Uh. Any last rituals or anything? Want to talk to Vengeance or any of the others?”

“No.”

You don’t even need Armoranth to translate. Weren’t expecting it, but she never has been very close to any of them. “Want me to take you anywhere?”

The same loud clack. No. Then a soft vibrating screech.

“Grew up here. Knows the way back.”

It’s probably suspicious if your toucannon just shows up in the wild. Might give away your location. She’s a toucannon, though. There are lots of those in Alola. Odds are no one tries to catch her and finds out about your ownership.

You take a deep breath. Is there anything you would like to say now? What should you?

“You’re strong. Always have been. I liked traveling with you.” Maybe that’s a lie. You never really talked to her. Even when you had the option.

She nods, turns around, and flies away. Is that it? You were expecting… more.

(It’s more than you gave Cuicatl before leaving her.)

At least there aren’t any more of these talks for a while. Your drifblim and carbink are fine as long as you keep taking care of them. Miltank just wants to battle. Leilani the charjabug is a glorified paperweight for now. You’ll talk to her again once she evolves.

You will have to say goodbye to Vengeance eventually. But you’ve already learned and accepted that. Even if you still feel kind of shitty about it.

It’s another hour before the abra comes back. Hatterene must have thought this would be a lot more involved than it was. That’s fine. It’s nice to just stand outside. Let Vengeance chase Moe around like he has any chance of catching the ghost while Anuenue peacefully grazes. Never realize how cramped you are with everyone in the house until you’re alone outside of it.

*​

July 1, 2024

Loudred helps you with the dishes when it’s your turn. She doesn’t have to. Never speaks to you. Simply does it and leaves without saying a word. You’ve never seen her help with the dishes like that.

“Does she like me now? Hate me less?”

Armoranth huffs. “How should I know? She’s a human. You’re a human. Your guess is better.”

“Florges seem like the silent, stoic, scary types. Thought maybe you’d picked something up.”

“They only seem like that to you. Trust me. They don’t shut up when talking to each other. Just days and days of gossip before one gets bored and leaves.”

“Huh.” You’re not sure if that’s ever going to be useful. Worth filing away for later.

“Maybe she’s trying to bribe you?” Armoranth suggests. “She did something for you. Now you’re in her debt. But there was no bargain in advance and you didn’t thank her—” She whips her head around to face you. “You didn’t thank her, right?”

“No?” You’re pretty sure you didn’t. it was kind of awkward.

“Good. That would have formalized the debt. Because you’re my property that debt would pass to me. I forbid you from taking on debts without my express permission.”

This is fairy bullshit, right? Debts, bargains, the kinds of things that you really should have paid more attention to before you got snared by a flower.

“Humans don’t work like that. We, I mean it would be nice to pay someone back, but unless there’s a contract or something it isn’t required. Thanking someone is just polite.”

“Useless, all of you. This is why the fey avoid your kind. No more intelligent or entertaining than your livestock. The only interest comes from the mismatch of your self-perception and reality”

There’s a knock on the laundry room door. You’d holed up in here because Cranidos was already asleep in the bedroom. Migraine or something. “You decent?” Golbat asks.

“Yes?”

“Good.” The door opens and she steps in.

“Why wouldn’t I have been decent? It’s the laundry room.”

“Dunno. House full of teenagers. I’ve learned to ask.” She closes the door behind her and lowers her voice to a whisper. “I hope that Loudred didn’t give you too much trouble.”

“No. Never said a word. Just helped and left.”

Golbat relaxes a little before leaning against the wall. “Good. That’s as close as she’ll ever come to an apology. Machoke and I talked to her and it seems to have gone through.”

“She came around on me? Cuicatl? Both?”

“You.” She walks past you and opens the window before fishing a cigarette out of her pocket. Armoranth recoils.

“Excuse me!”

Golbat glances at her before putting the lighter away. The unlit cigarette stays in hand. “Convinced her that it was good you were loyal to people. Reduced the risk of you selling the rest of us out if you get captured. She’s still convinced that Cuicatl’s going to come at us with a metagross. Told her I’d be more worried about the ex-cop with a metagross or the tech bro with a god.” She twirls her cigarette around before idly putting it into the pocket of her jeans. They’re shitty girl jeans with fake pockets. The cig still sticks out. “Didn’t get into this shit to kill kids, you know? If the boss wants it done, she can do it herself. I’m not getting involved with it.”

Good. That’s good. Really good. People have standards here. Except maybe Loudred. Armoranth has levitated up to look out the window. She’s blocking herself off from you with her flower. It’s not strange for her.

“We usually go this long without a mission?” you ask.

“Nah. First it was to let you get adjusted, now we’re lying low so your brother doesn’t cause trouble. Can’t risk going to Melemele again so our usual targets are off-limits. There is something coming. Team meeting later.”

Good. You could use a chance to let loose and break things.

*​

July 3, 2024

Feels like half of Skull is out at Ula’Ula. There are at least two fires burning and a group at the docks for distraction. The rest of you are hitting other targets while the cops are busy. Your team is at an accountant’s office for… emails. The boss wants to steal some emails. Cranidos asked and was told that he didn’t need to know.

Moe floats out through the front door and softly moans.

“He wasn’t seen. One guard at the back of the first floor,” Armoranth translates.

“Good. Pory?”

A borrowed porygon2 floats from his place beside Machoke and slips into the security system panel. It flashes from red to green a few seconds later. Then Machoke gets a text.

“Boss was right. They have their own rotom in the server. We’ll have to lure them out.”

And that falls to you.

“Gumshoos: watch the entry and the scanner. Loudred, Simisear: take the guard. Cranidos, Golbat: smash shit. Hatterene, Pory, and Jigglypuff with me.”

You silently climb the stairs with the team’s medic and leader. Moe and Armoranth float beside you. Once you’re on the second floor Machoke takes the lead and sends out his scrafty to walk in front of him. It’s kind of a stereotype for him to have one but whatever. You don’t doubt he’s good in a fight. Certainly looks strong with visible muscles under the tighter parts of the skin. You can hear fighting and breaking below you. Hear one of the smash team run up to the third floor shortly after you’ve left the stairs. When he gets to the security door you expect the porygon to just wizard it open again, but, no. The scrafty steps forward, looks the door up and down, and tears it straight off its hinges before tossing it to the side. Huh. Well, that works, too.

“No stealth?”

“Nah. The rotom would let them know we were here.”

“Got it.”

Moe floats forward and prepares to do his thing. “Phantom force.”

He blips out of existence for a moment. And then reappears as a faint outline over the whirring server. There’s an electronic screech and the rotom rushes straight out. Towards the scrafty. You didn’t think the fighting-type would be quick, but you’re pretty sure the ghost never saw what hit him.

“Cool. Pory?”

The porygon floats towards the server and dissolves into a cloud of polygons. Machoke turns back towards you. “Jiggly? Make sure everything’s going good downstairs.”

“Got it.”

Well, at least you had a small role to play. Even if it was mostly Moe’s. You turn back towards the ghost following behind you. “Good job.”

There’s a quiet groan of acknowledgment. Armoranth doesn’t bother to translate.

The fighting’s over downstairs. Simisear’s scyther is cutting into filing cabinets while her houndoom burns the paper inside. She seems bored. Only spares you a glance before going back to idly staring at the cabinets. Cranidos is spray painting something on the wall. Tax Cheats… you can’t read the rest.

“Hey, Jiggly! How’d it go?” he calls back.

“Fine. What do you need down here?”

“Uh.” He glances around before shrugging and turning back to his art. “Just send your miltank out and have her—him—use rollout all over.”

“Okay. I can do that.”

You tell him it’s obstacle training. See how much shit he can smash as quickly as possible.

(A lot. He can smash a lot of shit. He’s already knocked over half the cubicles on the second floor when Machoke and Hatterene step out of the server room.)

The boss seems surprised at how smashed everything is. Gives a long whistle as he looks around the room. “Huh. Good work.”

“Thank Anuenue.” You really didn’t do anything today.

“Sure, we’ll get him some treats or something.” He cups his hand in front of his mouth and shouts. “Let’s get moving people. See you all at the rendezvous in five minutes.”

You leave separately so you don’t get spotted. With the baclava off you’re just some kid wandering around the city at night. Kind of suspicious but not a crime. One by one you find your way to the unlocked door of an abandoned grocery store and wait for the abra to pick you up.

Mission accomplished.

Whatever the mission was.

*​

July 4, 2024

The mission had something to do with the library, probably. It’s the odd one out for targets that got hit. Skull’s statement talked about a few artifacts they had in the collection but, like, nothing on the level of the art museum or anything. Acerola’s quoted saying that everyone loses when books are stolen. It feels weird to see her in the news. She was a constant presence at the orphanage. Not one you really interacted with, she was always more focused on the younger kids or her work, but she was there. Just. A normal person.

A few Skull members got arrested at the beach. Maybe you’ll be tasked with breaking them out.

In the end no one confirms or denies anything to you because of op-sec.

July 6, 2020

Almost everyone in the room loses their shit when Coco evolves. Almost everyone. Loudred glares at you for a moment, the “I told you so” left unspoken. And you… well it is really cool. Cuicatl finally has her giant fuckoff dragon. It’s for the best you gave her the egg back on Akala. You wouldn’t have known what to do with a tyrunt. No one would have. Jabari was out of his fucking mind when he gave some random teenager a dinosaur egg without telling them what it was.

He wouldn’t have known how to handle Coco, either, going by her mom’s rampage. You’d be surprised that no one went to jail if it wasn’t so, so predictable.

When the hype wears off you get to thinking. It’s cool that she has the dragon but, like, what does that mean? She still has to feed the thing and she’s already struggling to keep herself afloat. Will she dip into her hydreigon money? You know she hates doing that. Is she going to use all the time she has between now and the elite four to go on a poaching spree? Does she even have a Class V yet? You haven’t seen anything about it online so you’re guessing no. What happens if she can’t get it?

You want to talk to her. You know you threw that right away. When you do talk to her, she’ll probably just take Vengeance and immediately tell you to fuck off. It’s what you would do.

Later that afternoon you show Vengeance the video. He’s fascinating to watch. Eyes darting over the screen as things move, chirping or hissing with joy and annoyance as things unfold. But that all gets so much more when Coco comes out. He hops around from side to side, even lunges at the screen so abruptly that you’re worried he’s actually going to attack it. Starts crowing mournfully when Coco gets knocked down.

And then just stares when she gets back up, bigger than ever. Watches most of the rest in silence.

The battle cuts out and it goes back to the host’s commentary. He kept it light during the battle itself. Very light after Coco evolved. Still doesn’t really know what to say about the giant dragon fight he just witnessed. It doesn’t happen every day or even every year on the island challenge. He says that line about four times in five minutes.

Vengeance eventually loses interest and hops away from the phone.

“Do you want to talk about it.”

He shakes his head. No.

“Okay. Uh. You’ll see her again in a few days.”

He stays silent. Just keeps staring into the middle distance.

“I’ll, uh, I can let you and Armoranth talk about it? Or maybe Simisear’s murkrow.”

A sharp caw of protest.

“He doesn’t want to.”

“Okay. Okay.” Fuck. You have no idea what you’re doing here. {Any ideas?} you ask Armoranth mentally. Hopefully she can pick up on it.

{Nope. You fucked up and now we all have to live with it. That’s just how it goes.}

{Thanks. Real helpful.}

{Any time. And do remember not to thank people going forwards. Especially fairies. I would hate to find myself embroiled in my own custody dispute.}

*​

July 11, 2024

The Pokémon Center sits in front of you. It’s fixed to the ground. All the platforms around it rise and fall gently in the evening waves. If it comes down to a fight the water’s a little too deep for Coco to be effective. That puts you against her golisopod and metang. And also Pixie. You think you can handle it, even without your starter.

Moe drifts up towards her window and catches Noci’s attention. Or Pixie’s. Someone’s. She usually has a pokémon awake at night. You don’t want to have to call her. If it’s just Noci waking her up then you can keep things one on one.

The ghost drifts back to you. Mission accomplished. You take a deep breath and steel yourself. Fuck. You hate it when your own bad decisions come back to bite you in the ass.

It’s a few minutes before the Center door swings open and Cuicatl walks out. Pixie’s acting as her guide. No leash. Just pressed against her dangling hand. Noci floats out behind her. Her sash is draped over a long nightshirt that almost reaches her knees. Probably one of her girlfriend’s.

“What do you want,” she finally says. She doesn’t sound angry. Upset. Just a little lifeless. That’s somehow way worse.

“To talk.”

She scoffs. “Why now? Why not before you ran away?”

“I…” Vengeance bolts and saves you from answering. He hops, runs, and flutters until he’s right in front of Cuicatl. Then he shrieks in challenge before breaking into lower, faster cries. Almost like begging. It’s… really unlike him.

Cuicatl seems taken aback, too. Like this took a turn and suddenly she has no idea what she’s doing here. Maybe that helps you? Maybe not. You still aren’t sure what you want to happen here.

“Calm down,” Cuicatl finally says. “I still don’t have the approval of a priest. But, if someone sacred to the gods insists… I guess that’s close enough.” She looks up at you. “Either break his ball or give it to me.”

You toss it over. And misjudge the breeze and distance. It plops into the water. Cuicatl sighs in frustration and reaches for her sash. Shit. You reach for your belt and prepare for a fight. She just sends out her golisopod and asks him to find the ball on the seafloor. You stay tensed. She was raised by dragons and fascists and you’ve seriously offended her. Obviously there’s going to be a fight.

There isn’t. She still seems more resigned than anything as she takes the ball from Leo.

“He goes by Vengeance now,” you tell her.

“The Galarian word or the concept?”

“Uh…” you glance down at Armoranth. “Concept?”

The fairy doesn’t correct you.

“Is…” she shakes her head. “Later. Now. You.”

She finally takes a step forward, left hand on Pixie and right hand stabbing towards you.

“What do you think you’re accomplishing?”

“We’re taking the fight to the Americans. Didn’t think you’d mind.”

She growls. “I don’t. Fuck them. No. You get your war. Fine. Now what? What are untrained children doing that the armies of Anahuac could not?” She finally stops and throws out her hands in a dramatic gesture. “Do you know what they did to us? Ruined everything. Border cities destroyed or captured. The economy tanked. Military crippled. Multiple rulers dead and their heirs fighting for years. Thirty years later it still hangs over us. Is that what you want? Go from things being kind of shitty to your whole country being nothing but blood and ash?”

“Plumeria has a plan. It’s not going to end that way.”

She makes a bitter, strangled laugh. “A plan? Fine. What is it?”

“I don’t know. Op-sec.”

A strangled snort. One of her fluid pivots, a full 180 degrees. Away from you. “You’re all going to die.”

“It’s not fair. That Gen’s parents can just—”

“I. Fucking. Know,” she growls. “They almost killed her. Almost killed me. Hate them. Hate this country. I just. I don’t want you to die or spend your life in prison. How hard is that to understand?”

“If no one takes the risk, nothing will change.”

“If no one punches the hurricane, we can’t beat it. You die and nothing changes, anyway.”

“That’s it, then? I should just give up? My entire people should give up?”

“No. You should just wait until it isn’t suicide.”

“People will die in the meantime.”

“Help them. Survive together. Don’t just die to prove a point.”

Movement catches your eye. On top of the Pokémon Center. A bird. A togekiss. Shirona’s?

…if it is, you’re fucked. Worse than with Jabari’s gengar.

“I’m not built for that. Sorry. This is what I’m supposed to do.”

“You would literally rather die than help someone.” She gives another sad, bitter laugh, before turning back to face you. “Come back. Please. We didn’t tell anyone you joined Skull. No one’s making you stay.” She pauses. “If someone is making you stay, Coco can have words with them. She has very good words now.”

“My brother knows. He’s almost certainly told the cops about it.”

“No. He wouldn’t do that to you.”

She sounds certain even though they’ve met one or two times, tops. Never for long. It’s not about him, is it? It’s about her brother.

“We don’t all have families like yours.” Thankfully. Jabari was bad but the worst thing he did was leaving you alone. And at least your parents were just dead rather than going out of their way to destroy your self-confidence. Maybe Cuicatl’s picking up on this. Fine. She should know it.

She glowers at you. The most upset you’ve seen her this entire confrontation. Yeah, she heard some of that.

You’re interrupted by more movement. The togekiss flies down on quiet wings and lands beside Cuicatl. She chirps something at you. No. To the pokémon beside you.

“Hello,” she responds. Finally speaking up for the first time. “I am Armoranth of the Yellow Field. I have no quarrel with you and will be leaving shortly.”

Oh. Just some fairy bullshit. Probably doesn’t even care about you.

A chirrup from the togekiss.

“Bound? No. Never. This human bargained his eternal service to me.”

“What?” Cuicatl raises her voice for the first time. “You bargained with a fairy? Is that why you did all of this?”

“Oh, no. We met after he left you.”

Cuicatl turns to the togekiss. “You can’t allow this, right? You’re doing something?”

The togekiss just looks at you sadly before pushing herself into the air and flying away.

“It is not a fairy’s place to interfere with another’s bargain,” Armoranth answers on her behalf. Oh thank fuck. That could have been really, really bad.

“Not a fairy’s place…” Cuicatl says before shaking her head, turning around, and walking away. When she’s almost back to the center she abruptly stops and pivots back around. “Fine. Never liked you and your bullshit deals. Ownership doesn’t come from words. It’s what you’re able to defend. You want him? Defend it.”

Noci rushes forwards with more speed than you’ve ever seen. Right at you. In a moment Anuenue is out and ready to fight. The metang pulls up and suddenly Leo is right there, lunging at the miltank. He tries to bring down a hoof on him but the bug stops and pulls back at the last moment before slashing into his opponent’s side. Anuenue snorts in rage and headbutts the golisopod. He just takes it before lashing out with another slash.

At least they’ll be stalemated for a while. “Moe, fight—”

Noci rushes past you in the chaos and Armoranth yelps. What? You look up to see the metang hovering over the water, a very upset floette grasped in one of their claws. The golisopod and miltank keep fighting, unaware or uncaring of the hostage. Thankfully Moe has stopped and is ignoring your orders. Good. You’re pretty sure floette can’t swim.

“You can’t do this!” Armoranth calls while struggling against unyielding steel claws. “My aunt will find and kill you both for this. She has that kind of power!”

“I’ll deal with her when she comes,” Cuicatl responds, voice eerily, icily calm. “Now, release him.”

“Can’t. I wasn’t the one to make the bargain. My aunt could just find someone else who matches the words and transfer his service. Now, let me go or I’ll order my servant to slit his throat.”

Could she? You’ve never felt magically compelled to do her bullshit. Would she? It’s a lot more than anything she’s ever done to you.

You only have a pocket knife on you. Hatterene wouldn’t let you carry a real one unless she was confident you wouldn’t slit your own wrists with it on accident. Might save your life.

She shrugs. “Do it and you die screaming.” Cuicatl’s voice is way too casual for her words.

“Let her go,” you ask. “Please. She hasn’t hurt me. Just kind of annoying.”

She sighs. “Fine. This isn’t a fairy’s bargain, but a dr—but an understanding. You harm him, in any way, ever, I will find you and kill you in a way that’s far, far worse. Got it?”

The golisopod leaps back out of combat while Anuenue stamps a hoof into the floating walkway. There are a few more gashes on his side. The golisopod’s armor seems scuffed but it’s hard to tell in the dim light. “Lay off him,” you tell your pokémon. “Not the time. Just don’t let him pass.”

Fine,” Armoranth spits. “I understand your intentions. Now let me go.”

“As you wish.”

The fairy gasps as Noci’s grip abruptly opens and she starts to fall. Over the water.

“Moe!”

He’s not fast. You reach down to send out your carbink but they aren’t fast, either. Armoranth ends up saving herself by using the flower like a parachute to catch her fall. Moe reaches her in time to gently blow her back onto the path near you.

“If you’re quite done, I would like to take my leave.”

“Almost.” She withdraws her golisopod and takes a hesitant step forward. Anuenue bellows at her. Cuicatl just stops and stares at him before looking back towards you. “Hug? Please.”

You withdraw your miltank and step forwards. Even give her a little help because she’s blind. After cautiously wrapping an arm around you she pulls in and presses herself into you.

{If you ever need help, call me. I’ll be there.}

{I will.}

After honestly a little too long she finally pulls away. With one last pivot she begins to walk back towards the Pokémon Center. Noci and Pixie follow. Vengeance gives you one last glance before barely making it through the closing door.

“Armoranth, what the fuck was that about slitting my throat?”

“I panicked, okay?” she huffs. “I thought that she would have a modicum of civility.”

“She was raised by dragons.”

“I did not properly understand what that meant. I know, now, that she’s completely insane.”

Not how you would describe her. Usually. “Could you do it?”

“I could give the order, yes.” Carefully not saying if you would be forced to follow it. “So far you have done nothing to warrant it. Good job. You have done the bare minimum to be worth more alive than dead.”

Maybe you’ve been letting your guard down a little too much around her. Turns out she can do worse than literally owning you. “Right…” You’ll have to figure out a way to deal with that eventually. Maybe involves Cuicatl, maybe doesn’t. For now… for now it’s late and you want to go home.

The light’s on in Cuicatl’s room. She doesn’t need it. Means that Gen or Lyra is awake. Best to go before you have to talk to them.

The door opens again just as the abra takes you away. You don’t get to see who was coming out.
 
Fairy 6.17

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
Fairy 6.17: Fairy Tales
Pixie

It’s nice having someone who’s only here for you. Skysong has her mate and Shirona and her “daughter” and whatever Liar is. You just have some of her attention. Now someone gives you all of theirs. It’s like Kalani. Except Sitrus also doesn’t want to own you or tell you what to do. Almost better. She’s not cold, though, and while she isn’t ugly she’s also not beautiful.

You don’t trust her. Not entirely. You can’t after even a nine-tails hurt you. But she’s nice. For now. Three of your tails are swishing just from talking to her.

“What do you want in life?” Sitrus asks.

Skysong asked you that question a long time ago. You don’t think you’re answer has changed. “I want to be loved.” It didn’t work last time. Or with Avalanche. But someone will love you.

It’s possible to love you.

“Is it not enough to love yourself?” Sitrus asks.

You swish a fourth tail, this time from deep thought rather than happiness. Is it? It doesn’t feel the same. Is it as good to wrap your body in your own tails as it is to be wrapped in someone else’s? No. There’s no protection. No love.

“You do love yourself, right?”

“Obviously.” Why wouldn’t you? Just because you were kicked off the mountain and abandoned by human after human and then a second nine-tails? Just because you’ve never done anything big? Why wouldn’t you love yourself? Why wouldn’t someone love you? Why wouldn’t…

Why can’t you be loved? Why aren’t you ever good enough?

Sitrus doesn’t notice you’re unsure. Good. You don’t want to deal with that.

*​

It was bad before. Eggbreath never liked you and now she’s unreasonably big. And she pushed you around in front of everyone. Now they probably think they can do that. Then Bloodrage came back just to dump his stupid bird on Skysong. You should probably give it a new name. Something particularly embarrassing.

It comes to you when you see Eggbreath charging forward with the bird sitting on her head, flapping his wings like he’s the one moving. Birds. So dumb. He can be Flightless. Because he can barely even do the one thing birds are supposed to.

It takes a while for you to find him without Eggbreath or Skysong. That’s necessary. Skysong would keep you from fighting and Eggbreath would fight you herself. They’re off doing whatever they do together. Left the rest of the team to wander around a field near the floating city. Now you’re alone and can teach Flightless and everyone else that they can’t push you around. You’re better now after a few eggs from Sitrus. Moving doesn’t hurt. You can even run. Ear hasn’t come back. Sitrus doesn’t think it will.

You flick the remaining one in annoyance. Some things feel far too loud. Some things too quiet. Now the ocean feels very, very close with waves crashing right on top of you, but if you turn around it feels far away. Your ear keeps trying to swivel to catch sounds and it just can’t. You have to move your entire head. Sometimes even your entire body. How dare Kalani do this? She… she lost more than you, in the end. And you still hear her neck snap in your nightmares.

Flightless looks up as you approach. You don’t know where Eggbreath is. Don’t really care.

“You. What do you want?” So annoying how you can understand him now. Skysong put him in the mind link. You couldn’t think of a good reason she shouldn’t. Even Sitrus wanted it. You aren’t sure how to answer him, either. You want him to stop thinking you’re weak.

“Fight.”

He spreads out his wings. “Finally.”

You nail him in the chest with an ice beam. There. That should be enough. Just a bird. He shrieks in surprise and looks down at the mass of ice on his chest before glaring and charging. What? Fine. You widen your eyes and try to put him to sleep. He misses a step, almost trips, and keeps charging with his eyes half-closed. No! You run to get a little more distance and he follows. If that’s what he wants. You turn back around and shoot another ice blast at his feet.

He stops. Looks down at the ice with slow blinks. Then he looks back up at you, hisses with clear eyes, and starts to thrash. It looks like… did Eggbreath teach him one of her tricks? Close combat, Skysong calls it. You pull and disable that before he can hurt you. But the ice is already broken and he’s charging in too fast to dodge or throw up a shield. Pain erupts in your shoulder and you blast out cold in all directions as you yowl. He just strikes you again.

No.

You are not losing.

With a mighty growl you prepare one more ice beam and shoot it straight into his dumb, ugly face. You keep roaring until his face is covered in frost and icy patches. There. Serves him right. Stupid bird. He panics and starts bashing his head into the ground to break the ice off. Funny to watch. You walk away to get some distance in case he goes in for another try.

He doesn’t. Just looks at you with a predator’s gaze. “When can we do that again?”

What?

“I need to think. Then we fight again,” he says.

Is he… what? “Why?”

“So that I can learn to fight ice users.”

“That’s not what this was about.”

“What?”

“You can’t mess with me. That’s what you should have learned.”

He keeps staring. “Have I done something to you?”

“No. Not yet.”

“Huh.” He turns and starts to hop away. “You’re weird. Let’s fight again after the trial.”

You liked him a lot better before you had to share a trainer.

Eventually you find your way back to Sitrus. She takes one look at your shoulder and gets concerned in the way that she does. “How did you hurt yourself?”

“The bird.”

“Cuepiltia,” she murmurs. “What did he want with you?”

“I fought him. Won. Proved that I could.”

And now she gets annoyed in the way that she does.

“Why did you have to prove that?”

You like Sitrus. Better than the other pokémon around Skysong. She still doesn’t understand. “Showed that I was strong. That I can win. That I can do things.”

“And do you need that to love yourself?”

You huff. Obviously. “Why would I love myself if I’m no good to anyone. If no one else does? If everyone keeps pushing me away? That’s just… I’m useful. I love myself. Everyone else should.”

“I admire how you’ve kept going, no matter what happens. A lot of people wouldn’t. It’s admirable. You should be proud of it.”

“What was the choice? Die?” You’ve thought about it. Almost let it happen before Firemane. No. You had to live to prove that it was wrong. That none of this should have happened. You had to…

“Sometimes that’s the choice that people make.”

Fools. If they die, they reject themselves. Prove that everyone was right.

“You know there are people who care about you, right? Me. Cuicatl. I’m sure there would be others if you let them.”

“Why? What have I done for them?”

“Love doesn’t require you to do things. It just requires you to be.”

You sit down. Do your best to push cool air through your fur. It’s getting unbearably hot at this time of year. Soon you’ll have to go back indoors or find Skysong to take you into your ball. You look out at the beach. Fine sand that gets in your fur. Salt water that soaks it. Bright sun that burns. The humans love this place. This? This is agony. It must have been specifically made to torture your kind.

“What should I be, then?” you ask. Maybe someone comfortable here. Then Skysong could bring you more places. You could better pretend like she can give you a home. Maybe you could even make yourself into something worse, a not-vulpix, something like Eggbreath. Something that could find a home where there never was or will be one.

“You have to figure that out yourself.”

No. You don’t want to be here. Don’t want to be someone who wants to be here. You’re Pixie, Sixthborn of Avalanche, Firstborn of Kalani. You’re not giving that away for humans. For anyone.

“I want to be home.”

She steps forward so that her shadow falls on you and blocks out the worst of the sun. “You can make homes. For yourself and for others.”

Here? In this terrible place? Really?

“You can tell Cuicatl and I what you need to feel at home. We can help.”

Everyone tells you not to be a pain. Don’t be annoying. And now Sitrus says that you should bother her or Skysong about everything that feels wrong like she can change the weather—

Well, her mate’s cloud thing can.

Would he?

“I have an idea.”

*​

This is your best idea.

There’s not quite enough snow to fully bury yourself in but you can still lie down on your back and spread out your tails and feel the cold breeze running over your belly. You focus and add more snow around you until it’s nearly up to your chest. Eventually you’ll need to figure out how to do this yourself. The nine-tails can and you will not be outdone by a living cloud that just bobs along with everything.

But this is very nice.

You will be polite to the cloud.

Someone jumps into your snow pile and sends it flying up and out. You make a very dignified and not at all scared screech of protest before looking at the culprit. Oh. Flightless. The bird dove right in and is flapping his wings around in it. “What are you doing?”

“Playing.” He pauses, thinks, and then uses a wing to flick snow into your face. You close your eyes and just lick it off. “What’s wrong with that?”

“Birds don’t like snow.”

“I do.”

He really is a true Flightless. You spit a gob of snow into his face. He blinks, caws, and lunges in for another fight. It’s less serious. Neither of you really use moves or claws, just trying to force the other down into the snow. The cloud just twirls in midair nearby.

Growlsleeper laughs. You ignore her and focus on the game. Which you win. Obviously.

*​

Skysong wakes up and can’t get back to sleep. She offers to take you on a walk. For once it’s at a reasonable time when the sun is less bright and the air is cooler. This is a good thing. If you woke her up more—she might get annoyed and leave. You could ask her. Sitrus says so. Would she…

“Can we do more night walks?”

She hums. “Maybe? Not on the trail. I need to sleep through the night there. If I’m already awake in the city, fine.”

It’s maybe something. Not a yes, not a no. You’ll press again later.

The streets of the floating city sway beneath you. The ocean salt is everywhere, the spray getting stuck in your fur and clogging your nose. The moon’s reflection on the water is pretty. But it’s not calm and clear like light in a mountain spring. Constantly broken up, shaking, reforming, breaking.

A shadow blocks out the moon’s reflection. Something approaches. Something big. You growl and Skysong stops walking.

It sounds like a bug. It’s far too big to be a bug. It smells far too sweet, like flowers pressed together. There are fur-like hairs on its head and constantly beating wings behind it.

“Ah, you! I had been looking for you!”

She’s looking down. To you. Not to Skysong.

For some reason you can understand her. Even though she isn’t speaking a language you know. A trick. Like Skysong.

“Why?”

“I had a question! You have nine tails but have not ascended. Why?”

You can’t help but look back at your tails. You have eight. A ninth growing. About halfway done. Not a full nine as you count them. That’s not what’s important.

“Ascend?” Does she know how?

“Evolve, grow, embrace your heritage, become more. Whatever you wish to call it. The difference between having nine tails and being a ninetales.”

“Can’t. I’m not on the…” Kalani. Eggshell. They were kicked off the mountain, too. “How do you do it?”

She giggles. It’s uncannily human. “Nuh uh! Not just going to tell you out of the goodness of my heart.”

A bargain, then. Is the information worth paying for? You could get it from Openliver. Eggshell. Maybe even Sitrus would know. You don’t need to bargain for it. You couldn’t even use the information yet. But the idea of growing, of finally being truly strong and beautiful, it could drive you to it. If you were desperate. You will not seem desperate.

“What price do you want? I do not need the answer from you.”

“Aww, you’re no fun.” She holds a thin black limb to her mouthparts. So, so human. “Maybe I should tell you. Tapu Fini placed me in charge of the island’s fairies in her absence. But the humans want something different of me. They want me to test their challengers to see if they are worthy. Take the test. With or without your human. Prove yourself worthy. Then I will give you the information you seek.”

Skysong finally speaks. “You’re the totem, then?”

“Oh? You can understand me? Tell me, human, what is your name?”

“I don’t know yours.”

“An exchange, then. Very well. I am The Swift Lady of The Meadow, Ascended Fairy of Alola. Now, what is your name?”

“A daughter of the Harbor Queen.”

“That’s not a name.”

“It’s a title. Like what you gave me.”

“Fair, fair. Yes, I am the totem of the fairy trial. Will I be seeing your companions in battle?”

“Soon.”

“Excellent, I look forward to it. Goodbye, Daughter of the Harbor Queen. Goodbye, fledgling fairy. When next we meet, I shall hold nothing back.”

Fledgling fairy.

The nine-tails have powers that the vulpix do not. Powers over light. Curses. Fairy magic, although Avalanche never called herself a fairy. Is that why the totem knows how to ascend? There’s only one way to find out.

“I’m fighting in the battle.” You can’t leave this to chance or to someone else. You have to take it for yourself.

“If Sitrus approves.”

Not a yes. Not a no. You will press Sitrus. Surely she will understand.

*​

Sitrus is sleeping on the first solid ground outside the city. Can’t sleep in the building because the blissey there keeps following her around and huffing and neither of them can work. She doesn’t lie down. Just sort of sits and closes her eyes. She sleeps a lot. All the night, some of the day. Skysong says it’s because she’s old. Sitrus laughed when you told her but never gave the real reason.

It’s probably because she’s old.

“Sitrus.” Her eyes immediately fly open and focus on you. She glances at Skysong behind you but you have most of her attention. As you should. “Can I fight in the trial?”

Her mouth opens, closes and opens again. “Why do you want to?”

“The bee who runs it said that she’d tell me how to evolve if we won. I want to fight.”

“The bee… ah. Yes. And you’re certain she knows?”

“She said she did. They can’t lie, right? Fairy stuff.”

“Depends on the fairy. It’s more self-imposed than anything.”

“Oh.” Good. You wouldn’t want to be forced to tell the truth. That sounds terrible. “Can I fight the bee?”

She sighs and finally stands up. “You still don’t have full mobility and have hearing problems, but you won’t aggravate the injuries taking normal hits. Assuming you take normal hits. This has historically been an issue, yes?” She glares at Skysong. Oh. She blames her for the bird thing. Why does everyone always do that? You wanted to fight and weren’t strong enough. End of story.

“It’s the final trial. They won’t hold back.”

Sitrus looks back to you. “Do not take physical hits.” She looks up to Skysong. “Do not put her on the field until physical threats are dealt with. Vulpix are better at elemental attacks.”

“Will do.”

Sitrus and Skysong hold their gazes in a staring contest. But Skysong always wins. Sitrus blinks first. “Can I speak with you alone?”

“Yeah. Pixie? You okay with your ball for a bit?”

You don’t want to. You want to know what Skysong and Sitrus say about you when you’re not around. Do they actually like you? Are they just pretending? Maybe. But if you want to fight and learn and ascend, you’ll have to do this.

“Yes.”

*​

You don’t know how long it takes. Time is strange in the snow world. You don’t bury yourself. Don’t know if you’ll have the time. You just pace, paws stepping lightly on the surface. They’re talking about you. Making decisions for you. And you don’t even know what they’re talking about.

Maybe it’s not you. Skysong and Sitrus have things they talk about. But why couldn’t you be out for—

*​

“You may fight if you feel you must.”

Sitrus gives one final harsh glare to Skysong before walking off to find another sleeping place.

Skysong starts to take you back to her own bed without a word. And you? You’re a little scared. This is your first real fight since Kalani. Since the bird before her. But if you want to learn the secrets of the nine-tails you’ll have to do it. You’ll have to be as strong as you say you are.

It’s not until Skysong’s asleep with you curled up beside her that you notice the saltwater on her face comes from the eyes and not the sea. And she’s been quiet since…

…what did Sitrus say to her?

*​

“Oh, miss, uh…”

“Ichtaca.”

“Right, that.” The captain shrugs. She’s a strange human with a strange plant odor clinging to her skin and clothes. Her hair is many colors at once and her reactions are a little slow. How odd. “You leading with the vulpix? If not, you should withdraw her before the trial starts.”

“We had a talk with your totem. This is Pix’s fight as much as mine. She should be allowed to watch as long as she does not misbehave

You talked to Skysong. She agreed to let you stay out if she could. That way you could see the fight that determines if you will ascend. It makes you feel better. In control.

There’s a buzzing sound as the totem zips into the field. A pulse of feeling, confidence?, surges through you. “She will not. We negotiated. If the fledgling fairy breaks her word, I will handle the punishment.”

You shiver. She sounded really, really eager when she said that. Whatever her punishment is, you don’t want it.

The captain just stares at her before shrugging. “Alright. If Wendy’s okay with it. Let’s get this show on the road.”

The battlefield is one giant board that rises and falls with the waves. You and Skysong stand on one side of the dock connecting it. The captain stands on a dock off to the side. The other humans are on wooden stands somewhere behind you.

The totem—Wendy—cries out and a deep groan answers from beneath the waves. Something bursts out, spiraling around itself and sending water flying around. A ghost. Like Liar’s. They hit hard enough to break rock. You don’t want to fight it. A much softer murmur answers the ghost. Also familiar. A rock-fairy. Like Bloodrage has.

“Dhelmise and a carbink,” Skysong murmurs. “Not the worst.” She reaches towards her sash and pulls out the middle ball. Eyerock forms above the arena.

All of the opponents can float or fly. That could be a problem. Leo and Coco and kind of Flightless can’t and they like hitting up close.

There’s a small movement at the edge of Skysong’s mind. Giving orders. Eyerock tucks its arms in under it and starts to charge. Wendy rushes off to the side. She’s a lot faster than you would have thought. Hard to even keep track of her. The ghost rises higher to see what happens and the rock—the rock gets hit. Hard. And goes spinning backwards. Eyerock keeps charging and wraps on of its weird hands around the rock before starting to curl its fingers in. The rock lurches away with a tearing sound before Eyerock’s other hand wraps around it.

Some of the metal pieces on the board start pulling themselves out of the wood and floating. What is that? Eyerock? Why? No, there’s a ghost feeling around them. Wendy flits right by you and a layer of string, no, web, slowly drifts down to the ground.

Eyerock holds the rock in one hand while pummeling into it with the other. It doesn’t seem to do as much. And the rock looks… shiny? You think you remember Bloodrage’s rock doing that in a fight.

“The rock is doing something! So is the ghost!”

“Iron defense. I know. What’s the ghost doing?”

Before you can answer the metal flies into Eyerock and screeches as it tears across its armor, leaving surprisingly deep scars. Is the ghost that strong?

{What just happened?} Skysong asks.

You tell her.

She says one of the angry human words.

{Poltergeist. Bad.}

“Why?”

{Carbink is making themselves harder to hurt. Dhelmise is hurting Noci. Ribombee is laying webs. We’re getting outplayed.}

“Just attack the ghost or the bug?” If the rock is hard to kill she should attack something else.

{Can’t. Rock hurts you, Leo, Cuepiltia. Need to take care of them now.}

Eyerock turns around and charges again. At the ghost. With the carbink still getting crushed in its hands. Dust flies off the rock where Noci’s claws are. It’s still very shiny.

Wendy suddenly stops in the middle of the arena to look at it. She trills something you can’t understand and gets moving again. The dhelmise tries to get underwater but gets clipped. There’s a bang when metal hits metal and then it’s entirely below the water. Eyerock turns around surprisingly quickly and flies away.

There’s a lot more web on the field than there was before. That could maybe be bad. The floating pokémon won’t care. You will.

“Do you think carbink care about being underwater?” Skysong asks.

They’re rocks. Rocks don’t like water. Right?

“Yeah. That’s what I was thinking.”

Eyerock dives towards the edge of the platform and slams the carbink into the water. They start punching down, over and over, keeping it under.

Wendy stops abruptly and begins to screech. The pitch moves up, down, somehow side to side. Skysong covers one ear with her hand and presses the other to her shoulder as she reaches for the ear coverings stored on her belt.

“Going to need—nanamiqui.”

What?

Movement in the corner of your vision. Eyerock fishes out the carbink, now with cracks in its steely skin, and throws it straight at Wendy. She manages to dodge the rock, but then Eyerock rams in behind it and clips her with a punch. The fairy rushes away but there’s a trail of blood in her wake. Eyerock stops and tries to track her as the metal and wood beneath them separate and float.

“Ghost!” you bark.

Eyerock hears you and starts to move, but the wood just follows after them. A few things happen right after each other: the rock fairy stops in midair and starts to charge back towards Eyerock, skin glowing. Eyerock slams a hand into it. The hand… loses? The fingers are bent at odd angles. The other hand digs into one of the cracks, fingers placed together, and starts to spread them out. The rock hisses in pain right as the ghost’s attack reaches Eyerock with more horrible screeching. Eyerock shudders and lets go. The rock fairy floats to the floor and covers its eyes with its floppy ear things. The captain (forgot her) makes the carbink disappear in red light.

“You did your job. Thank you,” Skysong says.

Eyerock seems to nod as they slowly fall down to the remaining platform. Skysong withdraws them before they hit it.

The battlefield’s a mess. The middle is ripped up and thrown around the rest of it. Some floats in the water. What’s left has sticky webbing all over it. The rock fairy is gone. Was this worth it?

{Have to hope so.}

*​

Skysong reaches back up to her sash and pulls off the blue one. A dive ball, she’d called it. Shattered Eyes forms on the platform. Good. Bugs webs probably don’t bother a bug. The ghost floats back into the air and Shattered Eyes charges. He does a good job running. Steps around some webs, cuts others with his claws.

Wendy glows and a beautiful ball of shimmering light forms in front of her. “Light attack,” you tell Skysong.

{From the fairy?}

“Yes.”

You’d seen Kalani use it. What did the humans call it…

Moonblast.

It hits the last segment of Shattered Eye’s armor and forces him off track, getting wrapped up in some of the string. He ignores it and keeps scuttling on towards the ghost.

“Why attack the ghost?”

{Can’t have it on the field when you fight.}

Oh. That’s sweet. She’s doing this for you. It’s. Unexpected. Nice.

The ghost spins and a long vine stretches out. Shattered Eyes jumps to the side and it comes down where he was, splitting open the board in a blast of splinters. Yup. You don’t want to fight that. Good idea, Skysong. He leans back over and slices off the end of the vine with his biggest claws. Then, he jumps. It’s a good jump. Almost as good as yours. He lands on the ghost and immediately starts cutting everything he can find.

It does not like that. At all. The emotions and spirits in the air go wild as it starts to spin around, faster and faster, as more and more of the plants get cut. Shattered Eyes has to stop cutting and just hang on. It works. Until Wendy comes back and dumps yellow spores on top of him. He tries to jump up and get her but just gets hit by the spinning ghost and launched back onto the platform. Webbing latches on to his back and tries to hold him down.

{What happened?}

“Ghost started spinning. Wendy dropped powder on him. Now he’s covered in webs.”

Skysong growls. “Can you get up?”

Shattered Eyes folds in on himself and pulls his body up, slowly. Way slower than you’re used to him moving. A moonblast hits him in the chest and he wobbles before getting back on all fours. He seems weak. Part of his armor is chipped off where he got hit. Bad. Bad bad bad. You don’t want to fight the ghost yourself.

He still moves. More of a walk than a run, but he moves forward. Even rises onto his hind legs, and when a vine whips towards him—darkness lashes out and the ghost floats back, stunned.

{Sucker punch. Big damage if he gets attacked within a half second. Leaves him stunned if no one does.}

Shattered Eyes manages to jump onto the ghost. Even then it feels weak. Slow. Wrong. He slashes more plants and leaves the metal more exposed, but he barely even tries to hang on when a moonblast hits him in the back and he gets thrown into the platform again.

“You did well. I’m proud of you. Always,” Skysong whispers before withdrawing the bug. Her hand hesitates on her sash. “Pixie, do you think you can jump well?”

You want to say yes. Of course you can! But. The fight isn’t going well. Lying might make it worse.

“Still a little hurt.”

She nods and her hand shifts down, to the last ball. “Cuepiltia. Let’s do this.”

Flightless takes shape and flaps his way down to the floor. He’s very careful not to land on the webs. Finds an open spot where another plank had fallen. Smarter than you’d thought he would be. But he does like snow so he isn’t stupid.

“Tailwind.”

Flightless screeches and the sea breeze slows to a halt. You don’t miss the salt in your nose. It’s nice running through your fur, though, if you can just not think about the salt it’s putting into it.

Another ball of light forms in front of Wendy as the ghost rises into the air and… glows? The plants glow. Not the metal. And they seem to be slowly regrowing and reconnecting.

“The ghost is healing.”

{I was worried about that.}

The wind comes back in a new direction. It’s weak at first but steadily grows. Wendy’s moonblast hits into a shield of light as Flightless cries in victory. Protect. He learned it recently and he’s already gotten good. Better than you. Should you ask for help? No. Not from a bird. Even if not getting hit would be nice. Safe. Would make Sitrus happy.

“Is the web getting blown off?”

It’s rising into the air. Blowing around. But it isn’t going all the way off, no. You tell her.

“Shit,” she mutters. “Need to teach him defog.”

As the winds get stronger and stronger, Flightless launches himself up and… flies? What? He’s not very good at it compared to Eyerock or Wendy or any other bird, but he does fly over towards the ghost. Wendy starts shrieking again and your ear clamps down as far as it can go. Are you getting hurt like this? You don’t feel too much worse but it’s annoying and maybe dizzying.

One step forward and you almost fall. Yup. Dizzy. If you want to win, you should go into your ball.

You flick Skysong’s leg with a tail. “Need to go in now.”

She looks nauseous. Even with her headphones. Still reaches to her sash with a shaking hand and sends you back to the world of snow.

Was that the right choice? Now you don’t know what’s happening. Will Flightless win? Get hurt? That ghost was hitting really, really hard and he’s small. You hope he doesn’t get hurt. It was nice playing with someone else in the snow. You’d ignored him before when he was Bloodrage’s but he isn’t that bad. You could accept him.

Will the fight be over entirely? Will you get to do anything at all? Is Skysong saving you to the end because she doesn’t trust you to fight. You flop onto your side. This was a mistake. You’re already feeling less dizzy. But now you’re worried and it could have been seconds or minutes or hours out there. The fight could be over. Nothing could have happened at all.

Even with the sun and the salt and the wind it’s a relief when you come back out.

You immediately realize that everything is different. The ghost is gone. So is most of the platform. It’s broken to pieces, just planks floating in the water. Half are flipped over with no web. Was that on purpose? Who broke it? The ghost? Eggbreath. The air smells like Eggbreath. Probably her. Wendy is floating over the wreckage. Her wingbeats are slower. Her antennae are drooping. The fur beneath her head is stained green and blood is still seeping from a cut.

“What happened?”

“Cuepiltia hit the totem hard. Coco took care of the dhelmise. And the platform. Sorry. I know you… can’t jump well.”

The boards aren’t that far apart. You can do this. You have to.

For ascension!

You blast out an ice beam and Wendy flits out of the way. Still fast, even if she’s hurt. Light forms in her hands and you have to jump off your platform onto one that’s wet but not sticky. It explodes behind you and splinters coat your fur. A few even push into skin.

That’s Wendy’s strongest attack. She only didn’t use it against Eyerock, who is psychic and weak to bugs like Skysong, and when Flightless blocked moonblast. You could disable it now. Make her use her weaker attack.

Skysong would be hurt…

You shouldn’t be dizzy if you have to jump. Won’t disable that one. Now you need to slow Wendy down so you can hit her. Sleep. You widen your eyes and put energy into them. For a moment Wendy dips down. Then she sprays powder in front of her and ducks inside. There! That’s the trick that got Shattered Eyes! You reach for that and pull.

A cloud of spores above you. Ocean around you. Half the platforms will make you stuck if you hit them. Hard battlefield. You need to get a hit. Soon. How?

{Extrasensory?} Skysong suggests. {Won’t knock out. Might hurt?}

Good idea. Not an attack you’ve trained much lately, but Kalani taught you and… something good has to come of that. You find her mind again and start bashing it. Her wingbeats get weird. Too fast, then too slow. Suddenly she darts out of the cloud and starts spraying webs all over you.

You try to attack back with an ice beam but you’re startled and she’s quick. It goes wind. Before you can attack again she pulls back and charges another moonblast. Need to jump! You try to move your paw but now it’s stuck. No jumping. Protect?

{Protect}

The ball of light glows brighter and you throw up your shield.

Nothing hits it. The moonblast is still in front of Wendy.

No. She. She tricked you! And now you won’t ascend. Won’t be smart. Beautiful. Strong. Someone who can be loved.

You drop the shield. The attack crashes into you and pushes you into the water a half-second later.

At least Wendy seems tired. Hurt. Her wingbeats are slower and her head is drooping as she floats above you.

“It was a valiant effort, fledgling. But you have not yet learned the art of deception. At this time I cannot…”

The art of deception. She’s not attacking. Just talking.

Skysong held the fairy hostage. Told you the best way to deal with their words is to cut through.

“…as per custom, you may return and try again in—”

Her eyes go wide. She tries to dodge but with no time and slow wings she isn’t fast enough. The ice hits her wing and freezes it. Wendy tries to flap the other but it’s no use. She crashes into the water.

You swim to a platform.

Her kind can’t swim. She turns red and disappears as you shake yourself off.

Maybe you aren’t a good enough fairy for her. But you won. That’s all you needed to do.

*​

It’s two nights later when Wendy finally approaches you on a night walk.

She crosses her arms and glares at you.

“I had already closed the match,” she says. “Alas, the trial administrator believes that the match only ended when you were withdrawn or knocked unconscious. While I am loathe to acknowledge a victory that broke the spirit of the game, she insists that I much.”

You roll your eyes and splay out your tails. “I never surrendered. And I tricked you. That’s what you wanted.”

She huffs. “Fine. So be it. Miss Ichtaca, this is not information humans are privy to. I must ask you to leave.”

Skysong bends down to unclip your leash. “Will you be okay?”

“Yes.” If the stupid bug tries anything you’ll freeze her again.

She ruffles your fur and strokes your ear before standing back up and sending out Eyerock. “Use the link to tell me when you’re back.”

Wendy waits until she’s a long ways away before speaking.

“Very well. I promised you a story.”

*​

A very long time ago, Alola was born when a rock pushed itself out of the sea. It was empty at first. Just lava and stone. Then some of the ocean life hauled themselves onto its shores. They were Alola’s first inhabitants, but they did not live there. Only visited the edges.

In time birds stopped on the island on their way across the ocean. They brought seeds with them and the first plants grew. In time the birds and the lapras brought more plants and creatures to eat those plants. Beasts of stone crawled out of the stone and lava to join them.

The first humans came from beyond the stars. Some were just humans as we know today. Some were more, with gifts of mind, magic, soul, or body. Some were much, much more, if they were even human at all. These were the island’s first gods. Its first rulers.

The most relevant to you is The Lady of The Frozen Peak, Pol’iahu. She froze the mountain and brought many of her own pets and children to inhabit it. Her favorites were her foxes, the ninetales. She fought on their behalf and as they grew in number more and more of the largest island fell under a never-ending frost.

Then the second gods came, also from the stars. There were four of them. Each claimed an island and fought the gods there. On the largest island there was a great war between the Tapu of Strength and The Lady of the Frozen Peak. The pokémon split into sides. Most sided with Tapu Bulu out of fear of the frost. The ninetales, of course, were loyal to their master and mother.

After two years of vicious fighting, Pol’iahu admitted defeat to avoid seeing more of her children lost in a war that was slowly turning against her. In the peace deal she agreed to confine herself to her mountain and freeze nothing else. The ninetales, powerful spreaders of the snowstorm, were banished there as well.

In time there was strife on the mountain. You doubtlessly know more about it than I. The ninetales grew more and more resentful of their mother with every tragedy, for she had surrendered and left them to slowly starve rather than risking combat for the chance of glory and expansion.

More gods came. A brother and sister. The Tapu fought them and lost. The first lunala to inhabit these islands roosted near Pol’iahu’s mountain, and the ninetales chose to worship her rather than their mother in the hopes that the moon would allow them to expand.

Before this came to pass, solgaleo and lunala were supplanted by Xerneas and his worshippers. In time he will be supplanted as well.

*​

“Where did you hear this?” And how haven’t you? Someone would have told you about an old god.

Maybe one tried to. The nine-tails in the cave, he asked you why the nine-tails couldn’t spread snow beyond the mountain. Is this the answer?

“The florges in the meadow. Tapu Fini confirmed it. I am an elder beyond elders of my kind, but I was not alive when what I speak of came to pass.”

An elder beyond elders. “How old are you?”

“I have now seen the rains come and go twelve times.”

Oh. Not too much older than you are. Bugs. Is it even worth living at all if you’ll die so soon?

“Then lunala lets us ascend, now?”

“No. Pol’iahu.”

“Why? We abandoned her.” Nine-tails do not forgive disobedient kits. They are thrown off the mountain. Or… or they have their ears bitten off. The mother of the nine-tails must be the same.

“You would have to ask her. Or your own kind. She’s still on the mountain. I know that much. Find her and she may grant you ascension.”

Wendy leaves shortly after. She still doesn’t seem to like you or that she had to tell you anything at all. That’s fine. You have more than enough to think about.

Once you have nine full tails you will climb the mountain. Before then, you’re going to need to speak to more nine-tails. The one in the cave. Maybe the one Kalani was mad at? The one who… had kits… with an eevee.

There’s hope, now. A way to grow. A direction to go in.

Even if you don’t know the details, it’s more than you had.
 
Fairy 6.18

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
Fairy 6.18: Island Time
Genesis

July 16, 2020

It’s almost over.

Cuicatl and Lyra completed their eighth trials. Just waiting on the grand trial and then maybe the elite four. Then… you don’t know. Cuicatl doesn’t know. Lyra probably does but isn’t telling. Now there’s a small break before the true, official, final end. The two challengers are probably going to spend most of it training. And you… have nothing to do. Just figure things out.

Well, there is one thing you would like to do. Two things, even, and they can be done at the same time!

You don’t really need a fifth pokémon. Most people would be thinking of downsizing about now. And you will ask your team members if they want to stay and rehome them if they don’t. Obviously. But you kind of want another friend. And more options. More security. A dragon, probably, because you should have one if you’re dating a dragon translator. Problem is, most dragons eat meat. You’re trying to avoid that. Especially if you really don’t need more pokémon. But! There’s a dragon that just eats sunlight! And with Cuicatl clearing her last trial she can visit their home. So can you. And if one of the tree dragons wants to come along you can take one with you.

First, though, the meeting with your team.

*​

“So, um, hi? Team meeting time.”

Noci floats behind you, translating everything telepathically.

Sir Bubbles is sitting down and fiddling with a rock in his hands. Ferny is loafing beside him, leaf swishing from side to side. Oliver is swimming in the seawater at the edge of the floating platform. Only his head sticks above the surface. Count Cloudy just floats above them all, staring intently at you.

“First thing, does anyone want to go? The journey’s sort of over. I know Lyra’s been talking about downsizing her team when she beats Hapu. Want to know if any of you want to go. Totally fine.”

Your pokémon look between each other. Ultimately none speak up. Good. Cool.

“Anyone need anything? If I can get it, I’ll try.”

Ferny stretches out his front paws before settling back down. “More petting. A scratching post.”

“I can give you more pets!” He smells kind of weird and it sticks to your hand. Or bed if you let him in. So you aren’t together as often as Cuicatl and Pixie are. You’ll have to compensate. “I can definitely get something to scratch? Probably not a post. Still traveling.”

For now.

“Ponds!” Bubbles bellows. “Big ponds!” You look around and see a few pedestrians staring at him. One family are obviously tourists in their flower-print shirts and khaki shorts. Most of the people out and about just seem to live here. Normal clothes, a slightly more hurried pace, not stopping to stare at the buildings or the oceans. You try to apologize to them for Sir Bubbles—he’s gotten very loud after evolution—but that would require talking to strangers, admitting you did something wrong, being judged and. You mouth “sorry” and turn back to the team. That’s all you can do.

“Uh. I don’t know where we’re going next. Hopefully there will be ponds?”

Cuicatl’s conference is at the Battle Tower. You’re not going to walk there. Safer to teleport or fly in. After that? The grand trial. Then wherever she decides to train for the Elite Four. If she decides. She isn’t really sure.

“I would like a pond, too,” Oliver says.

Great. Ponds. Something you can’t control. They don’t want it enough to leave (now) but it could be a problem in the future.

“I’ll keep it in mind. Cloudy? You want anything?”

He keeps staring at you but doesn’t respond.

You thought Cuicatl was being oddly rude about him not having much going on upstairs. You’re starting to see her point.

“Next order of business, possible new team member. An exeggutor. A tree dragon. Doesn’t really eat anything so you’re safe.”

“Friends!” Cloudy finally says with a whisper of wind.

“Okay!” You wait for him to say something else. He does not. “Do the rest of you have any problems with it? I can get something else.”

“Will it claim my pond?!” Bubbles asks. You get more rude looks. You try to ignore them.

“No. They don’t live in ponds.”

He bellows in triumph and you cringe. Really should have gone somewhere else for this.

“Sometimes people hurt when they don’t need to eat. Just because they want to,” Oliver says far more quietly than usual. “Are they mean?”

“I don’t think so. Not from what I’ve read.” You’ll have to ask Cuicatl. Maybe Lyra.

He nods.

“Ferny?”

“It would be nice to have someone to bask with.”

Then it’s settled, then. You can go ahead.

*​

You find yourself thinking about the future on your walk back. Ponds. Scratching posts. Settling down. If you’ll ever be able to settle down. Cuicatl says that she’s going to stay in Alola. Probably with Olivia. You don’t know if Olivia would let you stay with her. Probably not. She’s busy and, like, maybe she expects you to have your own money or something. You should get your own money. You’re not in school, won’t be traveling. That’s when people are supposed to get jobs. You’d need it to pay for your own rent. (How much is rent?) Jobs. What kinds of places are hiring a teenage high school dropout with no skills?

One.

The mantine place offered you a job. But, uh, you can’t remember the name of the person who offered you one. They probably don’t remember you at all. Honestly, you’re not even sure that happened. You can’t remember Cuicatl being there which means the memory was altered and now you can’t trust any of it. For all you know you were actually just eating drugs and feeling really good and the seller offered you a job.

You stop walking, take a deep breath, and try to steady your body and mind. They really did a number on you. It’s. You try not to think about it. Try not to remember. Your parents hurt you. They could do it again. Could do it to Exodus or Levi and there’s nothing you could do to stop them. Maybe Cuicatl could.

You hated that Lyra thought about asking Cuicatl to risk her life to fight your parents for you. It’s not something you could ask yourself. There’s nothing you can do about it. Just hope that they don’t do it to your siblings and stick to Cuicatl’s side so they can’t do it to you again.

Nothing to do. Best not to think about it.

*​

Lyra could have gone to the island with you and Cuicatl but stayed back to give you space.

That’s good. Really good. You like having proper dates alone with your girlfriend. Haven’t been able to do that in ages. Problem with traveling with two other people is that you’re always with two other people.

She leans into you as the boat accelerates. Spray whips into your face. Your hair is tied back but Cuicatl’s whips around wildly in the wind. She admitted that she could tie it, and it would at least stay out of her mouth, but that she likes the feel of the wind. You wrap an arm around her and pull her close. You like the wind, too, even as it brings drops of seawater into your face. Yeah. The mantine memory was probably real. Here with your girlfriend beside you, the wind above, and the waves below? This is the happiest you’ve been in a long time.

{I like this,} Cuicatl echoes. {I never thought anyone would want to do this with me.}

Your smile falters. That’s such crap. You don’t know why she hasn’t been asked out, like, ten times before you. But you also don’t want her thinking she could do better and moving on and leaving you alone at your parent’s mercy and—

It casts a cloud on your bright, sunny day.

*​

The island has a little rainforest deeper in and higher up. Where you’re at, though, it’s an open forest with moving trees. Without the exeggutor it would probably just be a big field. Cuicatl is holding your arm as you walk away from the dock. Noci floats near her while Ferny trots at your side. Cloudy has sparks zipping around his body under the summer sun. It’s not that bad, yet. It’s still morning. Give it time.

The island’s really interesting now but you’d prefer not stay past lunch. Or at least be in the forest shade in the afternoon.

Your eyes move between the massive exeggutor. Which one do you ask? How do you even begin to pick? Ferny was adopted, Bubbles was the first thing you caught, Cloudy was the only castform you found, Oliver was given to you. You’ve never really had a choice between members of the same species.

“How do you pick?” you ask Cuicatl. She’s probably good at this stuff. “There are dozens of them.”

“You aren’t looking for a battler, right?”

“I would like it if they could protect me.”

“They’re dragons. They can all do that. Meant that you’re not looking for a competitive fighter.”

“Oh. Not really, no.”

“Then just try talking? You’ll probably be doing that more than fighting.”

Talking. Right. You can do that. With people. Sometimes.

“How do you talk to dragons?”

She rolls her eyes. They’re way clearer than you remember. Even clearer than when you met again after… everything. You can actually see the eyes behind the fog. They’re brown. You were kind of expecting them to be green like her hair. Thought they were for a long time before you actually made eye contact and remembered what you saw. “Tell me when we get closer.”

There’s a bit of an uphill walk from the dock. It’s nothing after the canyon. Hardest part is slowing down for Cuicatl. She’s shorter than you which means shorter legs and shorter strides. She also doesn’t like being dragged around quickly. Cuicatl doesn’t really run. Away from things or towards them.

(Her calves are still really toned despite that. You guess months of walking will do that for a girl.)

You stop about thirty feet away from the first exeggutor. They stretch on even further than you thought. Maybe half of the island is living forest. Well, all forests are living. This one moves.

“Wish you could see this,” you tell her. Maybe that’s mean. But you do wish she could. She misses out on a lot of things. It’s not fair. “Have you ever thought about getting it fixed? Like, you don’t have to, obviously, you’re perfect, but—”

“Stop.” You’re pretty sure she’s blushing. Her cheeks are just a little darker and you’re pretty sure it’s not from the dark sunscreen Shirona bought her so she’d actually wear it. Not that she can see it. Just something she’s sensitive about for no real reason. “They couldn’t. My eyes work. My brain doesn’t.”

She pauses. You realize where she’s going.

“I’d need another psychic to mess with my brain. I don’t want it enough to risk it. Not sure I even want it at all.”

“That makes sense.” You could talk about why she wouldn’t want to be fixed but it’s not really important if it can’t be done.

“We close enough?”

“Probably?” Maybe 100 feet away from two of them. A lot are looking at you. Humans on the island means potential hunters or something. They don’t look threatening. Even though they’re tall. Even though they’re dragons. Cuicatl talked down a tyrantrum. You’re safe if she’s here.

Maybe. Hopefully. The dragonite was, well, she wasn’t right there. You had to do the talking and you messed it up.

“Flat ground?”

“Yeah. Why does it matter?”

“They don’t like walking on slopes.”

Makes sense. They’d probably fall over.

“Okay, uh, how are we doing this?”

“Just have Ferny step forward and make a challenge.”

He flicks his leaf and walks without your order. That’s fine. If he can understand why would you repeat it? You’re just glad he agreed to fight. Cuicatl says that dragons almost always want battles with potential trainers and Ferny’s pretty strong. At least, stronger than Cloudy. Oliver and Bubbles are water-types so they’re out.

One of the largest exeggutor starts to walk towards you. Oh no. He’s, like, fifty feet tall. You aren’t sure Ferny can deal with that. And you just have to sit in that nervousness for a long time as he slowly walks over. His legs aren’t any longer than yours. He doesn’t take full strides. Definitely won’t be able to go on a walk with one.

{What happens if we lose?}

{The challenger won’t be interested. Ferny could get hurt. Just surrendering without a fight will lose you all respect. None will want to go with you.}

Oh.

“You sure you can do this, Ferny?” you whisper.

He glances back at you for less than a second before redirecting his attention to the advancing opponent. Not worried, then.

“He knows synthesis, right? He’ll be fine.”

If they’re both sure.

You just don’t like the idea of battles much. Why would you want to see your friends get hurt? You could kind of ignore it before but after being hurt yourself… no.

The exeggutor stops moving maybe twenty feet away. And all of the trees are watching now. Great. Uh. Time to do this? “Quick attack.”

Ferny darts in between the exeggutor’s legs in less than a second. He barely has time to react before Ferny’s slashing his leaf into bark. The dragon groans and lifts up his tail.

“Dodge it!”

The tail slams down and Ferny ducks out of the way. It still comes way too close.

“Double edge.”

He turns around, unphased by the missed attack, and tackles the exeggutor’s lower body with all his might. The dragon rocks back and forth but. Um. He doesn’t fall over. Or even seem too hurt. The air around him ripples in the sunlight. You don’t know what that is, but it probably isn’t good.

“Get away!”

He does. Ferny moves a lot faster than the tree, even without quick attack. You keep a nervous eye on him but an attack never comes. The light just forms a pink barrier close to his skin. That’s a. Light screen? Reflect? Magic coat? Mirror coat? You remember watching a lot of battles on TV in middle school even though you didn’t really like them. Can’t remember why. Probably Lyra. You learned a few things but not very much. And Cuicatl can’t tell you what it is because she can’t see it…

Bad. It’s probably bad. Shouldn’t have let him set it up for free.

“Magical leaf.”

Keep distance. That’s good if the shield is close range, right?

Ferny stomps and leaves rise up from the ground and begin to spin, wreathed in a mystical red glow. The dragon shakes his head and leaves fall down or form in midair before pointing towards Ferny like an array of daggers.

They look really sharp for leaves.

“Fire and get away!”

Ferny does. His leaves slam into the dragon and are barely noticed. When the counterattack comes it’s like a barrage of guided missiles. Ferny tries to dodge, weaves under and beside one pair of leaves, but others come and dig in. He stops to scream and that just gives time for more hits to land. By the end he’s leaking sap and blood. Still standing, but legs spread wide. You’ve never seen him pant so hard.

“Do you want to be withdrawn.”

He swishes his leaf from side to side, no, before standing taller and growling. It’s personal now.

The shield seems to protect the exeggutor from ranged attacks. You’ll need to get closer.

“Quick attack into double edge.”

Ferny rushes into a tackle and slams into the exeggutor’s leg. He reels back, raises up a leg, and stomps. Your leafeon stumbles. He stomps again, surprisingly quick, and Ferny falls down. Not into the legs. They’re thick. And there’s a lot above them. Would he be crushed? You don’t find out. The dragon steps forward, swings back his tail, and knocks it into Ferny with full force as he starts to get up. He flies twenty feet and lands in a crumpled heap.

You fumble for his pokéball but he looks up at you and swishes his leaf. No. His body starts to glow with photosynthetic light and he lowers his head to the ground. The exeggutor ambles away.

“What happened?” Cuicatl asks. Right. Blind.

“Ferny lost. He’s healing. I, um, I’m not getting an exeggutor, am I?”

Cuicatl slowly shakes her head. “Probably not. But they’re exeggutor, not hydreigon. Maybe…”

She cups her hands in front of her mouth and shouts. “Hey! She doesn’t battle much. Just wants someone to travel with her.”

“Will that work?” you ask.

“Probably not.”

At least she’s honest. You look back out at the trees. A lot of them seem startled. Why? Because Cuicatl could shout?

{Because they understood me.}

Oh. More interested in her than you. Which makes sense! She can speak to dragons. And do psychic things. For pokémon she’s way cooler. To people, too. You’ve never really tried to be “cool.” Friendly. Nice. Smart enough. Pretty without being a slut. That’s what you do. Who you are.

One of the exeggutor is walking over. Slowly. From almost the other side of the island. You should probably meet them halfway.

“Come on.” You gently pull on the arm Cuicatl’s holding. “One wants to talk.”

You start moving before you remember Ferny in the grass. You look at him and open your mouth to ask a question. He just waves towards the exeggutor with his leaf before settling back down to heal. You’re pretty sure that’s permission to leave him behind. It doesn’t feel right to leave him alone and injured, though. You send out Oliver and ask him to watch the fox. He agrees with a small salute and plops down nearby. Good boy.

It takes a few minutes to reach the tree. The island is big and Cuicatl is slow. The exeggutor is still moving towards you but his steps aren’t big and he waits a few seconds between them. He’s one of the smallest you can see. Young? Or just short like Cuicatl?

She flicks a finger against your arm in protest.

“You are short, though.”

Cuicatl doesn’t answer.

“I think it’s cute.”

“Hmph.”

“Good cuddle size.”

“Fine.”

The dragon stops about two hundred feet away from you. The two of you close the rest.

“Hi!” You wave. He doesn’t understand you. Right. “I’m Genesis. My friend’s going to be translating.”

She repeats it. In Galarian. Well, probably Nahua. But it sounds like it to you and thinking too much about that makes your brain hurt. You were expecting her to make her dragon noises.

Its noises are surprisingly high-pitched. Closer to chirps than roars or groans or whatever you were expecting. And they come from the head high above you. Extra weird.

“He’s named after a constellation. I don’t know what they call them in America. It’s the pantherma.”

“I don’t think we have one of those.”

“Can you look up what… Tezcalipoca is here?” She says the name in a whisper. Like she’s afraid.

You don’t know how to spell it. Eventually autocorrect gets close enough. It’s a bear in the West. You can kind of see why they thought it was a pantherma, though. Names… Ursa Major isn’t good for a pokémon. Callisto? You can work with that. Even if it’s kind of a girl’s name.

“Callisto. Good to meet you.”

“Humans call the stars ‘Callisto.’”

He chirps.

{He’s interested. Polite, but not suggesting anything himself.}

Right. So it’s on you.

“I’m looking for another pokémon. I don’t really fight. Might travel for a bit. I’d try to get you everything you need, but you’d have to stay close by.”

“Off the island?”

Obviously? Do any humans live on the island? “Yes.”

“Good.”

He wants to leave, then? Weird. Or maybe he doesn’t like other exeggutor. “Why do you want to leave?”

“The island doesn’t get bigger. There are no more of us on the mainland. Some have to leave for new shoots to grow. I am one of the weakest. It is right that I go so others may thrive.”

Cuicatl translates it and then scoffs. “That a common view here?”

The exeggutor chirps.

“There are other species who would fight to the death not to leave their home. And you’re just walking away by yourself? No one’s forcing you?”

Another chirp.

“You’ll have to talk to my vulpix soon. She would find this fascinating.”

“Right. Uh. Do you want to say goodbye to anyone? Do anything for the last time? We’ll be here for a while.”

He pauses. Looks around. Turns a little. Then makes a long trill, lower in pitch than the chirps. A few exeggutor in the distance respond in kind. Then he turns back around and looks at you expectantly. Is that it? Really? That’s… sad. Really sad. There were so many things you wish you could’ve done in Heahea before getting kicked out. And he’s just walking away with one goodbye.

“Um. We’ll come back for you later. Promise. Just going to be on top of the hill. You can have more time.”

He chirps. Doesn’t move. Even when you walk away. Even when you lose track of which one of the swaying trees he is.

“Is that, uh, normal for dragons?” you finally ask.

“No. Well, maybe? Maybe he lost a territory battle and they made him leave at the first chance. Or maybe the exeggutor are just weird. We’ll figure it out soon enough.”

“Right.” You keep walking through the (stationary) forest, up towards the top of the island’s hill for the best view. For you. Cuicatl doesn’t seem to mind. “You were talking to him in human. Not dragon. Why?”

She lowers her head and looks away. Shame? Is she ashamed of you? Embarrassed by something?

“The dragons have asked me not to do that.”

“Which dragons?” The dragonite? Coco’s mother? The totem? The dragalge? Three of them seemed like assholes.

“A few. And it makes sense. They’re dragons. Being a dragon is being strong. Unbeatable. Invincible. No one can take your things or make you do anything. And.” She takes a deep, shaky breath. It sounds like she’s just holding back tears. You wish her hair was away from her face so you could get a better idea of what was going on. “I’m not a dragon. That’s f-fine. I’m a failure by dragon standards. And human. And…”

Her hand slides off your arm and she slowly lowers herself to the ground in silence. Not crying. Not yelling. Just sitting and being eerily still.

Shit.

You should know how to deal with this. You know why she would want that. Being untouchable. People keep hurting her and she just wants them to stop. You get that. More than you would like.

The least you can do is sit next to her and try to think of something to say. It takes a while. You get distracted by the birds. They’re so loud here. This is one of Alola’s last original forests. No humans around but you and Cuicatl. The perfect place to do a hill-uh-three or a cu-por-ee or a poo-tee-weet. They don’t know or care about what the humans beneath them are going through.

“My dad thought you were impressive.”

She looks towards you. What you can see of her face looks confused. And puffy. You ignore that.

“When, uh, everything was about to happen, the psychic asked if he wanted my preferences changed. My dad said no. Thought that you were a good partner. Or would have been if one of us was a boy. I know he’s kind of a…” You don’t know. The weak words aren’t accurate and the strong ones aren’t things you want to say about your own family. “Yeah. But he thought highly of you.”

“Huh.” She sounds bad. Raspy. Weak. So unlike herself. “I don’t know how to feel about that.”

Come to think of it, they’d said something else around then that you’d kind of forgotten with everything that happened after. “They also thought I was autistic. I’ve never really been tested. How would that even work? Like, is there a psychic involved? Could you diagnose me?”

She shifts in place before slowly tilting over until it looks like she’s going to fall. She does. Just collapses all at once with her head in your lap. Oh. That was planned. You tentatively reach out a hand to run through her hair. She leans into it.

“I don’t know. Your thoughts feel a little different but I don’t know what that means. You’d have to talk to Lila. They do mind systems and stuff like that. I just do language.”

Cuicatl shifts around so she’s lying on her back. With a quick shake of her head she gets most of her hair off her face. Then she lifts up an arm so that it’s resting on your shoulder. “Or.” She smiles. Her eyes are still red but she smiles and moves her hand so it’s on your cheek. “You could go to fucking therapy.”

What.

“I haven’t pushed it. But it’s helping me. Even helping Pixie. You’ve been through a lot, and now there’s this, and I’m not a professional. I can’t even help myself. You should talk to an actual therapist. Please.”

“I don’t want anyone in my head.” Not a psychic. Not even someone like Mrs. Rivers, telling you what to think and how to act and who to be.

You feel Cuicatl’s mind press on yours. It’s not painful. Just a touch. A reminder she’s there.

“I don’t want anyone but you in my head,” you correct yourself.

“Please?” she begs. “For me? I could even go with you for a session or two.”

“I can’t afford it.”

“I can.”

You know she hates spending money. For someone with six figures in the bank she’s really frugal.

“I’d spend it for you.”

“I need to get a job. Not just for this.” It’s deflection. She knows it’s deflection. You hope she’ll let it go.

Her hand lowers back down to her chest.

“Okay.”

Well. You got her mind off the other thing. Even if you’re not comfortable with where it ended up. Emotionally. Physically? Yeah. You’re very comfortable with where this ended up.

*​

Callisto hasn’t moved by the time you get back. He seems relieved that you returned. Did he think you were going to abandon him? Why? You’re the one who wanted his company.

*​

You go to the library to look up information on jobs. You want quiet that your room can’t give you and a bigger screen to search on. The Seafolk Library is small and homey. Just one big room with some shelves and a few computers. The walls and shelves are gorgeous stained wood. A canoe hangs from the ceiling. It’s a nice place. You wouldn’t mind spending more time here. And a computer is all that you need today.

It turns out there are a lot of mantine surfing companies in Alola. Well, five, but you have no idea which one offered you a job. Does it matter? They probably don’t remember it, anyway. The other ones will probably want some proof of skill, though, and you don’t think you were very good at it. Just enjoyed doing it. Is that really all they want?

Flipping between the five websites you don’t know how you’re supposed to figure out which one to apply for. All of them? What if multiple offer you a job? Then how do you pick? Do you just have to accept the first offer? What if it’s the wrong one? No one really told you how this works before. It was kind of assumed that… well, you don’t know what was assumed. Your mother doesn’t really work. She has her gardens and charities. Your aunt does. Something? You aren’t sure what she does. Point is, no one really expected you to get a real job. You weren’t told that outright but you were also never really taught to expect otherwise. If you did get a job it probably would have been at Gracidea and you wouldn’t have had to apply.

You groan in frustration. Is there a guide to this? Someone you can talk to?

As if on cue, someone takes the seat next to you.

Lyra. In one of her city outfits. Black skirt, striped black-and-white top, all of it tight to her skin. Immaculate makeup and a sapphire necklace. Her hair is slicked back and almost sparkles, even in the indoor lighting. You’ve got more to work with if you wanted to be a slut but Lyra knows how to use everything she has to its fullest.

“Like what you see?” she flirts. Quietly. You’re still in a library.

“Stop using the perfume,” you hiss.

“I’m not.” Her smile gets wider and she winks. “Glad to hear you like the look, though. Definitely a keeper.”

She’s… not? Fine. Cuicatl has said she doesn’t consider this cheating on her. This is… fine. Just a few more weeks and you’re done with her. Probably.

“I’m job searching.”

“Cuicatl told me something like that. She didn’t know how to help you. I mean, can you imagine that girl working an office job? Chafing against her adorable little suit, trapped in her drab cubicle, and calling someone about, I don’t know, insurance?”

You snort and quickly cover your face. Library.

“Exactly. She’s who you go to for questions about giant monsters. Human life? I can do that.”

“Thought you wanted to go to the wilderness?”

She shrugs. “Didn’t grow up there. I’ve learned to adapt to the world I had to live in. You? Never did. I admire you for it. Purer than anyone in our position should be.”

You don’t know how to respond to that. You don’t feel very pure, now, right after having bad thoughts.

“Now, you figured out the options you’re looking at?”

“Yes. I pulled up some websites…”

She has to look over your shoulder as you scroll through them. You can feel her presence. Smell her shampoo. She’s using something sharper than usual at the moment. Unnatural, but not unpleasant. It’s a relief when she steps away.

“Okay. The problem with four of those companies is that they’re small. Not part of a giant conglomerate. The problem with the last is that I think Gracidea might own it. I’d have to check their corporate structure again. Fuckers have their hands in everything here.”

Father never mentioned owning a surfing company. But you know Gracidea sells a lot of things. Everything from spider silk to luxury hotels and clothing to alcohol to armed guards. Why wouldn’t they own a few mantine?

“Not that one, then.”

“Obviously. But the others have their problems, too. It would be easy enough for your father to just buy any small business you wanted to work for. If he’s already in the industry he can just say it’s consolidation and no one will bat an eye.”

That’s. You hadn’t even considered—

“Of course, it’s an open question if he wants to. The militaries of the world don’t care what he does at home but the whole scandal has been bad for consumer-facing business. He might just want to put it behind him. Not do anything that risks prolonging the news cycle.”

“He sued the cops.”

“Kind of had to.” You raise an eyebrow. “If he says he’s innocent, then he has to say that INTERPOL lied. So he has to sue them to save face. They’ll probably settle without much money changing hands once the public has moved on.”

Right. It was never going to be easy to escape him. Not unless he wants to. Even if you aren’t physically locked in your room anymore, there are still walls around you.

“Want my advice? Leave the country. Or at least the commonwealth. Go with your girlfriend to Japan, figure things out there. Shirona’s smart. She’ll find a way to make things work.”

“I… don’t think Cuicatl’s going to Japan with Shirona.”

“What?!” The librarian gives Lyra a heated glare and the girl sheepishly, silently apologizes. “I’m sorry, why the fuck isn’t she taking her golden ticket to a better life?”

“I…” This is the hardest part. You look down at your hands on the keyboard. The polish is hopelessly chipped. Barely even there. Just a fleck or two on each finger. How long has it been since you reapplied it? Wasn’t important on the trail. You should touch it up.

“Explain, please.”

How are you supposed to justify it to her when you can’t even justify it to herself.

“I can ask her, you know?”

“We weren’t sure if I was allowed,” you whisper. “I asked her not to.”

You can feel her eyes on you. Can’t bring yourself to meet them.

“And neither of you,” she says in a way that is purposefully even, but barely restrained, “ever bothered to call her and ask?”

“She’s busy.”

“She cares. She’d make time.”

Maybe you’re just scared that the answer is no. Now you and Cuicatl can at least pretend that she’s throwing away the opportunity because she really wants to stay in Alola. If she asked then she’d be staying for you and you would be hurting her and.

You don’t feel very pure right now.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, I’m calling her.”

She storms out of her seat and brusquely leaves the library. You can’t take your eyes away from your nails.

You’re fine. Everything’s fine. You don’t need someone to go back into your head and fix you. You’re perfectly good the way that you are.

Right?
 
Fairy 6.19

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
Fairy 6.19: The Royal
Pixie

Skysong wants you to talk to a tree. Not even a tree on her team. On her mate’s. You barely interact with her pokémon, except when the eevee harasses you. Someday they might leave forever with no warning. You would have no way to stop it. Best not to get attached. That’s how you get situations like Flightless and Eggbreath. None of them are even worth getting attached to anyway. A frog, a confusing bird-mammal, and an eevee.

And the cloud. You will be polite to the cloud.

Skysong says she’ll translate. She usually leaves that to Eyerock. She thinks this is important. Odd. What could a tree have to say? Sitrus tags along when you reach the solid ground where she’s staying. Skysong asks you to find a big, flat, open space. It’s not hard. There aren’t a whole lot of trees near the water. Here. You’ve seen water trees elsewhere. This is more of a sand and rocks beach.

When you find one, she takes a blue, white, and red ball off her sash’s final spot. (She says she’s just storing it there, that it’s her mate’s pokémon, and you believe her… for now.) Red forms on the ground. And goes up. And up. And up. What kind of—

A tree, right. She told you that. You’d just assumed a pokémon tree would be smaller. This one has legs, a tail, and three faces. That’s too many. Multiple tails is perfect. Faces? No. Who would even be in charge?

It’s getting hot and you would like to get this over with. You yip at the tree. He takes a few steps back and bends down to see you. Rude. Showing off how freakishly tall he is. Then he squeaks. What?

{Hello, little one. How may I help you?}

“I don’t know. Skysong told me to be here.”

She sighs. “Tell her about why you left the island.”

He groans softly before beginning to speak in his weird, high-pitched cries.

{A long time ago my kind used to live on all of these islands. Then, slowly, we were removed from all but one. Now we are stuck on one small island with no good way to leave. For some of us to have offspring, others must leave. Otherwise, there will no longer be enough room to stand in the sun.} You’ve realized why Skysong wants you to hear this. She thinks you can be friends with the tree because he also lost his mountain. No. You will not be friends with a tree. They hate the cold. {We must be strong to hold on to our final home. I was among the weakest of my kind. It was right to do so for the good of the species. So I went with Genesis when she offered me a way off the island.}

“Your mom kicked you off?” You don’t really care. You feel bad for the tree but there isn’t anything you can do about it.

{No? I chose to leave because it was the right thing to do.}

Your ears perk up. “No one forced you?”

{No one.}

“What if you hadn’t wanted to leave? Would they have killed you?”

{The others might have judged me. I would not have been attacked or denied light.}

…then…

“Why would you choose to leave home with a stranger?”

{It will help the ones I care about.}

That’s. No. You can’t do that. It must be different. There’s something different.

“Why did you lose the other islands?”

{Humans. The pokémon they brought. The pokémon that were here. The humans wanted more untrampled land with sunlight for planting crops. Their pokémon attacked us for them. Then, when we were weakened, the wild grassland and forest pokémon fought us to expand their own habitats. We lacked the strength to hold onto our land and sun so they were taken away.}

You look towards Skysong. Why are you not surprised it’s the humans’ fault.

{it usually is,} she agrees. You’re glad that she’s reasonable. For a human.

“What if so many of you decided not to leave that you all got defeated and died? Would you start kicking the weak ones out? Killing them?”

The tree shuffles on his feet. It’s so much louder than when humans do it. Even if he’s only moving a few inches at a time. “We have not had to decide that, yet.”

Then he doesn’t understand. There’s something different. He’s not like you.

*​

Sitrus knows the ninetales beneath the meadow. She calls him The Fallen Voice. For a moment after she tells you she’s distant, eyes tracking something that isn’t there before she shakes herself.

“I’m almost surprised he’s still alive. He was already ancient when we last spoke, even for your kind. That was over a century ago now.”

Sometimes you forget that Sitrus is old. Really, really old. So old she can’t even guess how old she is.

“I would like to speak with him when you go.”

You hesitate. Wendy thought that no one but you should hear about Poli’ahu. “It’s about a nine-tails secret. Or a fairy secret. Sorry.”

Sitrus rolls her eyes and huffs. “If the fairy child knew it, I almost certainly will. I was The Overseer of The Great Canyon for decades. I’ve learned most of the secrets there are to know.”

Fine. You can just… see if she’s heard the name. “Poli’ahu.” It’s just a whisper. There’s no one around but you have to be sure it’s not overheard. Wendy seemed very serious about that.

“The snow goddess. What of her?”

“You’ve heard of the old gods?!” Could you use the mind link? Maybe. It’s quieter. Skysong probably isn’t listening. She could. You can sometimes hear her conversations if she’s nearby and you really try to listen. Skysong is not nearby. She and Eyerock are with Shirona working on her dragon care speech. You’re back in the air conditioning of her room. Liar took most of her team as well as Eggbreath, Flightless, and Shattered Eyes for training. Growlsleeper took her team on a walk. Should you risk it…? No. This is fine.

“Indeed. They came from beyond the stars before the Tapu. A few are still around. Some have died or gone back to wherever they came from. I’ve heard that Poli’ahu put up a fight before going back to her mountain. Never met her. The Captain tried, once, but the ninetales got upset when we walked off trail. Almost killed him when he said who he was looking for. He decided to just go back.”

The nine-tails don’t want people talking to their mother. Is that just humans? Will they try to stop you? Maybe you could climb the mountain alone. But not if all the others stood against you.

Kalani could have made it. She was strong…

…a dog beat her bloody in mere breaths and then snapped her neck.

“You want to meet her?” Your eyes snap up to Sitrus. How did she know that? “Just a guess.”

“Wendy said Poli’ahu could help me evolve.”

“I see. I always wondered how the exiled vulpix evolved.”

She didn’t know.

“Don’t tell Skysong any of this.”

She just stares back at you. “You know that she will want to know why you’re climbing the mountain. Eventually, you will have to tell her.”

That’s… you don’t have nine tails. You don’t have to. Yet.

“She doesn’t have to know everything about you, but she should know things that are important to you and will involve her. You would want the same from her.”

Wait. That reminds you.

“What did you say to Skysong?”

“You’re going to have to be more specific.”

“When she asked if I could fight. I got withdrawn. You talked. She was crying afterwards. What did you tell her?”

“Ah, yes. That. I was simply making sure that the battle truly was your decision rather than one she had used her control over your life to influence.”

“And she cried?”

Sitrus shuffles around and faces the window. Away from you. “I was upset. I believed her to be backsliding to old habits and made it clear that they would not be tolerated when your safety was at risk. I would also not give her moral or legal cover from the consequences of her own reckless or malicious decisions. While upset I may have insinuated a certain pattern of carelessness.“

“That’s it?” She insulted her. Lots of people have insulted her. Sometimes she cares, sometimes she doesn’t. When she cares she usually gets angry, not upset. “I wanted to fight. It was for me.”

“Yes.” She sits down. It doesn’t make her much shorter since her legs are so small. “I know that now. I would have known sooner had I simply listened to her. I was venting frustrations in an inappropriate manner at an inappropriate time.”

You sit down. A tail or two swishes nervously. There’s a fight going on and you don’t want to pick sides. “You were angry at her before?”

“She assumed the duty of caregiver with its associated benefits and responsibilities. She learned her charge was suffering from an injury with an unknown cause and proceeded to leave him for an extended period of time without addressing the symptoms or learning the underlying malady. A blissey who acted thusly would be permanently disgraced.”

This is about her brother, right? “They were twins. She wasn’t his mother or something.” You would never have let one of your siblings boss you around. Even if you had lost your mother.

“She assumed the duties by choice, regardless of circumstances. The consequences of her failures are her own. Would have been her own. I… did not have complete information.”

You keep looking up at her. None of this is actually making sense.

“I had presupposed support, training, and maturity that did not exist. In doing so I assigned blame incorrectly and caused undue distress.”

“I don’t know what that means, either.” Sitrus is weird, sometimes. Gets very concerned about things that don’t matter. A lot like the humans.

She takes a sharp breath and starts to slowly shuffle around the room. “I have raised children that grew to be caregivers. There is a method to it. First, the happiny is showered with love and support while still having firm, safe boundaries to learn within. This teaches them the importance of good caring and how to recognize it. As they grow, they are slowly taught the intricacies of the healing arts. By the time they have their own eggs they can maintain their own ward, only coming to me for advice in difficult situations. I had assumed Cuicatl had such training before being allowed to assume a ward. Instead, it appears as if she was never properly cared for herself or given training beyond basic material tasks such as cooking and cleaning. Even after assuming a ward, she did not have a clear figure to seek advice from as needed. The failure to train her is borne by her ward and at least explains her own shortcomings as a caretaker, even if it does not absolve her of all responsibility.”

Your ears perk up. No clear figure to seek advice from? Skysong had people to care for her. Did she lie to Sitrus? “She has a father.”

“No, dear. She does not.”

“She told me she does. Did she lie to me?”

“No. She lied to herself.”

Sitrus huffs and turns back towards you. Her mouth is pursed. She usually ends conversations when she’s like this.

“The Fallen Voice. I will accompany you. If he wishes for me to leave, I will do so.”

*​

Sitrus struggles to walk down the slippery stairs. You simply bounce down a few at a time. This feels like home. Even if the water in the air tastes salty and it smells too much like humans for your taste.

“Slow down, child,” she pleads. “My legs are not long enough for this.”

You curl up and watch her slowly, slowly, slowly descend. Does The Fallen Voice know you’re here already? Should you yip to get his attention? Would that be rude? When Sitrus finally catches up she makes the decision for you.

“I’m not walking further. He can meet us here. Hello! Friend! I have returned.”

Nothing. Sitrus sits down. Still nothing. You look at her. “Should I scream?”

“He heard. Be patient.”

The tunnel lights up in the distance. The light grows closer faster than you would have imagined an elderly nine-tails could move. It softens as the nine-tails stops running and starts confidently striding forwards, as is befitting your species.

“Sitrus. It has been quite some time.”

“Indeed. How do you fare?”

“No younger, but better than I should be at my age. You?”

“Much the same.”

She turns towards you. The Fallen Voice speaks before she can.

“I see you have returned. Tell me, have you found an answer to my question?”

“Yes. Tapu Bulu keeps us from expanding.”

He flicks a tail. Probably in surprise. You’re very smart. “I see. Who told you this?”

“A fairy bug on Poni.”

“A totem,” Sitrus adds. “She heard it from Tapu Fini.”

“Yes. She is correct. Dear, may I see your tails?”

You lay them out. So many. Almost a full nine.

“Not quite ready for evolution, but coming close. Is that why you have come here?”

“Yes.” You have other questions, but those are less important.

“Our mother rests in a temple near the top of the mountain. You will feel its pull as you ascend. Once you have nine tails you must climb alone and face her judgment. Should she find you worthy, you will be granted the proper power and status of a nine-tails.”

“And if I’m not worthy?”

After everything… everyone who’s told you that you aren’t… it’s possible that your species’ mother doesn’t want you, either. Two mothers have already rejected you.

“You may ascend again in a year’s time and argue your case.”

That’s not too bad. More than Avalanche offered.

The elder lets out a long breath and fixes her gaze on your ear. “How did you lose that?”

“Kalani. She adopted me. I tried to get away, and…” Do you tell him that you asked that a nine-tails be killed? That you’re the reason your mother is dead? Would he kill you for it?

“I heard about it,” he says softly. “I’m sorry for what you’ve been through.”

He’s apologizing? To you? That’s not something nine-tails do. Even for things they did.

“Long ago I swore to protect the vulpix who find themselves exiled from the mountain. I have failed in that duty. Failed you. Over and over again.”

Then he’s barely trying. You only met him once. On accident. “What are you doing here, then?”

He lowers himself down. Wraps tails tight around his body. Like he’s cold. Hurt. Scared. “There was a war a long time ago,” he answers. “We had nowhere to expand. Not enough food to support an ever-growing population. It was clear that something had to change but no one wanted to order the unimaginable. So there was a war among our kind over food and offspring. I watched it rage for far too long, unwilling to do what was required. I thought there was another answer. One I would think of with just a little more time. But as blood pooled on the mountain and the rivers turned red, I realized there was no more running from my duty as the Elder of Elders, Voice of the Gods. I called the nine-tails together and decreed that only two offspring would be kept from now on. All others were to be exiled or killed.”

“Ho’olio,” you whisper. The mother who smothered The Mountain with her love.

“My daughter,” he answers. “I killed my grandchildren. It was necessary. I had avoided the hard but necessary things for too long. But I could not stay after doing it. I left with the exiles to find a new home for them. I was already ancient. So old that I feared I would not live to see it through. I asked Our Mother for her blessing so that I could live long enough to finish my duty. She agreed and continues to preserve me after long, long years of nothing but failure.”

“Why not this place?” you ask. “It’s cold. There’s prey. Good place.”

“I thought so, too. Tapu Koko would not allow it. He granted me a battle for the right to stay with the vulpix. I scratched him. For that he allowed me to stay. I lost. For that he demanded the kits leave. I wandered the islands for years trying to find a place, but none of the Tapu would let me stay. When the humans came they took in a few at a time, but always under their own rule. They would not let us hold our own territory. That has been the most anyone has granted us in centuries. It is still far from enough. Our Mother does not believe I have fulfilled my duty. She curses me to live on until I find a way.”

Oh. Your kind have tried to build a home like Eggbreath and Flightless have talked about. They failed.

“What if we fought the Tapu and won?”

“Then there would still be the humans. They are greedier than the gods.”

Yes. They banished the trees. But if someone was the strongest human, stronger than the Tapu, they could make a home and force everyone to recognize it.

There is a strongest human. The island challenge is about finding one. Skysong is on the island challenge.

“What if we fought the humans, too?”

“Perhaps.”

Then there’s a path to a home, even if you have to tear it away from the gods first.

*​

Sitrus takes her ball back immediately after being let out. She stuffs it into her pouch like having it in the open air burns her hands. Noci could carry it so you could travel to the cave, but that’s the only time you’ve ever seen it used. Shirona and Skysong are in the hotel room. Skysong seems exhausted. Shoulders sagging, head tilted forward. Barely awake. Shirona is sitting in a chair at an odd angle, feet and arms on one side, hips on the other, looking at you with a human expression you don’t know. Her dog stands nearby. Kalani’s killer. You try not to look at him.

“Did you have a good trip?” Skysong asks.

“Yes. I figured out something.” A few somethings, even.

“Oh?”

“How to evolve.” Sitrus is right. You’re going to have to tell her eventually. And maybe if you tell her she’ll trust you enough to help you with the other thing. “There’s a—a very old fox on the mountain. She can help me do it. I just have to get nine tails and climb it.”

“Can I help or do you have to do it alone?”

“Alone.” If the nine-tails don’t want humans to meet the goddess then you won’t take a human there.

“I can help you train if you want. It’s a harsh—well, you know more than I do.”

You never tried to climb the entire mountain at once. Never went anywhere near the peak. Avalanche never invited any of the vulpix to go with her. Are they keeping vulpix away on purpose? The Fallen Voice told you that you would feel the goddess’s presence.

“Yes. I need to be stronger.” You’ve wasted too much time. Kalani helped you grow, but you haven’t trained much since she died. Just a little as the trial approached. That will need to change. Especially if you want to defeat a god and the strongest human. You take a deep breath. “…I have another myth to tell you.”

Skysong tilts her head. Invites you to continue. Shirona sits a little straighter.

You don’t tell her about the goddess. But you do tell her about the war with Tapu Bulu, about Ho’olio, The Fallen Voice, the deal with the humans.

“If I can fight the humans and one of the Tapu, then they’ll have to give us a home. I—we need to be strong enough for that.”

Skysong looks to Shirona.

“I’m not getting involved in Alolan affairs like that. Although I wonder if Lusamine’s oil rig base could work. None of the Tapu would have claim to it, right?”

“But how would we get it?”

She takes a sharp breath in through her teeth. “That’s the problem. I think VStar controls it. They’re probably not going to last too long, but their owner might still hang onto it. It’s an idea. Not one that can be acted on right now, but maybe an opportunity will present itself down the line.”

Skysong turns back to you. “I was thinking about going to Japan after the island challenge is over. But… I guess I owe it to you to stay and at least try to beat Selene. If the others are up for training, I can do it. We’ll need to get a real sixth team member, unless Sitrus is willing to fight…”

“No.”

“Then someone else. And wait until Cuepiltia evolves. After I get my Class V. Now I’m busy and—” She takes a deep breath, holds it, and slowly releases. “We’ll have a team meeting about it.”

*​

You’re a lot less confident about this staring down Skysong’s other pokémon in the park. Most of them don’t like you. Now you’re asking them to fight a god for you. There has to be something to bribe them with, right? What do they want? Eggbreath likes biting things. Maybe you can tell her that gods are tasty? Oh! And the new vulpix home would have lots of snow for Flightless. You have no idea at all what Shattered-Eyes and Eyerock want. They’re weird. Maybe Skysong could give you help, but the meeting is now and she was busy and it’s too late.

“Well, Pixie.”

Focus. Do you tell them? How much do you tell them? There are humans nearby. Not many. Just one running at the other end of the park. It’s dark out and humans sleep at night. Even if no humans hear, Eyerock is a spy. Everyone knows that. You shouldn’t tell it everything. Or really anything. But you need them to fight for you… A little. You can tell a little. What you want.

“I want to make a home for vulpix who get kicked off The Mountain. The Tapus and the humans say no. I want to fight the strongest human and one of the Tapu and then make a home for the vulpix.”

Simple. Three steps. You like threes. It’s just a very hard three steps. Even just the third one is hard to imagine. What would it look like? Who would run it? What happens when the vulpix grow up and have their own vulpix and suddenly it isn’t big enough?

A problem for later. After you fight a god.

“What’s a Tapu?” Shattered-Eyes asks.

“A god,” Skysong answers.

“What’s a god?”

“A really strong pokémon.”

He clacks his mandibles. “Sounds fun. Let’s do it.”

Flightless shrieks and your ear whips down to your head. Too loud. Why is he like that?

“We can do it! I’ll challenge a god and show my parents how strong I am.”

That sounds a lot like something you would say. Before you learned that there’s no going back. “Do you want them to take you back?”

“What? No. If I beat a god then I’ll be way too good for their company.”

That makes sense. If he can beat a god. If.

Not even the Eldest of Elders could do it.

Coco growls. It carries words through the ground and into your bones. “One condition.”

She’s looking at you with one of her too-big eyes. It’s about the size of your head and boring right into you.

“Yes?”

“I make you a home. You don’t disturb mine. No fighting. No marking my things. No insulting me or your other teammates. You try having a home here while you fight for a new one.”

It’s a lot to ask. Too much.

You’re asking a lot, too.

“Fine,” you hiss. You won’t be happy about it, but you’ll do it if it makes a home for all the vulpix kicked off the mountain.

Eggbreath—no, Coco—moves her head towards Skysong—Cuicatl—

{Skysong is fine.}

Forgot she can do that. So annoying.

Coco moves her head towards Skysong. The act is small but still takes more power than you breaking into a sprint. “Who’s the strongest human?”

“The human we’d have to beat is Selene. She has a lunala…”

She keeps speaking. Selene. Firemane. Part of you knew that. You’re going to fight the pokémon she chose over you and see if you were worth a spot on her team. She has the moon. You remember telling Kalani not to fight the moon, that even she wasn’t strong enough—and she wasn’t. Kalani lost when they fought. Are you stronger than her?

Coco snorts. “What does the moon taste like?”

“I don’t know,” Skysong responds. “I’m not sure anyone knows.”

“Then I’ll be the first to find out.”

“Noci?” Skysong asks.

[Affirmative.]

That’s a yes, right? That’s good? You never know with them. They don’t give any reasons for the decision.

“We’ll need to do a lot of training and get a sixth pokémon. But that will start after I get my Class V. It’s just.” She sighs. Her eyes are shut. Her heart rate is slower than usual. Her shoulders are still slumped. Still exhausted. “It’s a lot right now. I can help more in a few days.”

Is that all there is left? That means you’re close to meeting Eggshell and asking what another ninetales, one abandoned as a vulpix, thinks about this. Maybe she can help?

Skysong is tired. Best to end the meeting now.

“Thank you, everyone.”

Cuepiltia shrieks again and your ear flies back down. Why is he like that?

*​

The grass eevee has been staring at you. You’re trying to ignore it. Do what Coco wanted. But surely he can’t mean eevee, right? He’s not even on Skysong’s team. You can defend yourself from him when he’s so rudely looking at you. So you finally approach.

“I heard you’re helping other people,” he says. You just stare at him. See how he likes it. “I’m proud of you.”

You hiss at him. How dare he mock you? You’re not entirely sure what he’s mocking you for, but he’s definitely mocking you.

He flicks its leaf and settles back down into a ball on the floor.

“Guess I couldn’t hope for too much.”

Of course not. Eevees can’t hope for anything. They’ve been cursed since birth.

“Your kind aren’t the only ones who need a home, though. If you just talked to other pokémon with humans you’d find most of them have the same story as you. Just a little different. Will your home let them in?”

“We aren’t taking eevee.”

He gives you one final look. Annoyance? Good. You annoyed the eevee. Then he twists onto his back and pretends to be asleep.

*​

There are far too many humans at the event. Not even the one you tolerate. Well, Skysong is here, she’s just in a separate room with Shirona. She left you with Sitrus to try and find Eggshell. Sitrus can’t move well in the crowd but at least people get out of her way. Not that you’re walking anywhere in particular. It’s hard to pick an exact scent in this mess of humans.

One gets in your way. And doesn’t leave it. She bends down to look at you and you finally focus on her.

Spirits. There are spirits everywhere around her. The black falsefur she wears is practically woven with them. They cling to her skin, hang from her hair, have practically fused with her essence. She might be a spirit herself. “Hello, keokeo. Are you lost?”

You shake your head. You don’t know if the spirit human would understand you.

As if reading your mind, she pulls out a pokéball. “I can have Bailley talk for you if you want.” A ghost forms on the ground. Just a little taller than you. She looks like a human creation. You can practically see the stitches holding her together. Except for her mouth. That’s metal. A long wisp of smoke trails off from the back of her head. You’re not sure you’ve met this type of spirit. You don’t want to meet them again.

“I’m looking for a human.” You don’t know her name. Poison hair is wrong. “Purple hair. She has a ninetales.”

Bailley does not speak. The strange human seems to hear her, anyway, just a second later. “That would be Sina. She should be somewhere around here…” She looks around the room. It occurs to you that she’s short for a human. A little young, too. About Skysong or Growlsleeper’s age. She snaps. “Found her. Come on, follow me.”

She goes slow enough that Sitrus can keep up. You appreciate that. It takes a while to part the crowd around you, but you do find Poisonhair eventually.

“Sina!” the human calls. “I brought you a keokeo. She wants to speak with you.”

Poisonhair looks at her in confusion before looking down. She focuses on your ear. “Oh, Pixie! I take it you want to speak to Eggshell.”

You nod.

“Right, I’ll let her out outside. She can cause trouble in crowds. Or outside of crowds. She loves trouble, that one…”

It’s very rude of her to judge a nine-tails. Maybe things were boring without her? Or maybe she’s just solving problems and the humans don’t appreciate it. She’s a very odd nine-tails with her…mate…but she’s still a nine-tails and deserves some respect.

Eggshell releases a burst of cold air upon coming out of her ball then whips her head around to look at you. Probably not used to meeting unfamiliar vulpix. She leans down to sniff your head. Her breath pushes down where your ear used to be and burns. Not for long. She leans back and looks down at you.

“How did you lose it?”

“Kalani.”

She blinks. Twice. “Tell me.”

So you do. It’s nice to tell someone who can understand. Sitrus is great but she doesn’t get it. Eggshell can. At some point Poisonhair and Sitrus have to go in and listen to Skysong. You should, too, but you don’t know when you’ll get this chance again. You keep going.

As you talk Eggshell wraps you in her tails. You almost purr despite the sad story. So nice. You’d almost forgotten how nice this was. At the very end you hesitate. Should you tell her? An edited version? Would she kill you for approving the death of another nine-tails?

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

Oh. She isn’t pushing.

That’s what makes you tell her.

At the end she leans down and starts licking the fur on your forehead, careful to avoid the scar.

“If she hurt a vulpix, she deserved to die. That was what we were running from. What I have sworn to never do.”

It warms your heart to hear that. You weren’t wrong. Someone—a nine-tails—agrees.

“I still miss her.”

“I will, too. It was good to meet another nine-tails.”

She keeps grooming you. For a few lovely minutes you mourn in silence together.

“I have a plan so this never happens again.”

She pulls back and looks at you. So you tell her. Throughout the entire thing she stays still and passive, betraying nothing. Then, when you’re done, she leans in and resumes grooming.

“Bad plan,” she says between licks. “Impossible. If the elder couldn’t do it, if Poli’ahu couldn’t do it, then neither can you.”

“I’ll have help.”

She growls but moves on to grooming your neck. Not too angry. “Not enough.”

“What else is there? Just suffer on the surface?”

That causes her to fully withdraw and start pacing. “I’m not happy here,” she says. “Neither was Kalani or any other nine-tails I have met. How could I be? But I have my mate and children and can make my own snowstorms. Sometimes I forget that I am unhappy. You can have that much. I think it is enough.”

“And rely on a human?”

She growls. “I do not like it, but mine has done nothing to betray my trust.”

Upset. At you? No. At the world. Best not to make her more upset. How to word your next question…

“You’re mated with an eevee.”

She stops pacing. Was that too much?

“Yes. He’s sly. Empathetic. Clever. I am proud to have him as a mate.”

“An eevee.”

She huffs. “The mountain rejected us. We can reject its beliefs.”

You don’t think you can accept that. Seeing an eevee as… attractive? It makes your fur stand up and your skin crawl.

Eggshell slows down and sits next to you. “Maybe you can’t see it. That’s fine. It took me a long time.”

You find yourself talking about less important things. What you’re saying doesn’t matter. Just that you’re talking to a nine-tails who doesn’t hate you for what happened with Kalani. By the time you’ve almost forgotten about the humans one of the nearby doors is thrown open and Skysong walks out. Her breaths are erratic. You can hear quiet sobs and faintly smell salt. There aren’t any pokémon with her.

That’s concerning.

You look up at Eggshell. You don’t want to go. You should.

She raises up a paw and starts to lick it clean. Permission to go. She’ll be fine on her own.

You get up, brace yourself for the hot air away from Eggshell, and run back to Skysong.
 
Fairy 6.20

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
Fairy 6.20: Hammers and Scalpels
Kekoa

July 11, 2020

Hatterene greets you when you get back. Odd. You were expecting Golbat or Machoke. Or maybe Cranidos. He keeps weird hours. Not the worst roommate you could’ve been stuck with but it feels like he’s always coming or going at 3 a.m. for no goddamn reason.

“How’d it go?” she asks.

You glare at Armoranth. Her arms are crossed and she’s staring down at the ground. “She got into a fight with Cuicatl. And lost.”

Armoranth mutters something about a psychotic brute.

Should you tell Hatterene about Armoranth’s threat to make you slit your own throat? It really feels like someone should know. She hasn’t apologized or confirmed she wouldn’t or couldn’t do it. You like her but now you aren’t sure you can trust her. Who would you even tell? What would Machoke or Golbat know? What could they actually do?

…Loudred, maybe. She knows her way around scary pokémon. Doesn’t really like you but maybe she can help. Just not in front of Armoranth. Things could get bad if she thinks you’re rebelling.

“Well, uh, sorry to hear that?” Hatterne says. “Anyway, your charjabug evolved.”

Your what—

Oh. Oh shit. That’s good? Bad? Exciting. New vikavolt leave their trainers a lot. And ordinarily you wouldn’t care, you don’t need a full team anyway, but if she leaves it means you got bound to Armoranth for nothing and that’s starting to look like a really bad deal.

“Where is she?”

“Moved her to the storage room so Cranidos could sleep.”

“Thanks.”

You power walk over. Armoranth might be following. Maybe she isn’t. You don’t really care. Translator would be nice but you also really want her somewhere else right now. Until you can talk to Loudred and figure out if she can make good on her threat. Would make good on her threat. How much shit you’re in.

You open the door and see the tattered, torn remains of a charjabug’s shell. A new vikavolt is sitting on top of it, wings spread wide. She looks fragile. The hard parts aren’t fully set, wings are practically drooping, body is still coated in fluids. She probably spread out the wings to dry off. Can you help with that? What pokémon would you even use? Ihe can use—Ihe is gone. Anuenue and Kapuna are no help. Could Moe even do anything? Would Leilani think he’s a bird and freak out?

“Aww. They’re so cute as hatchlings,” Armoranth trills. If she’s still mad then she’s doing her best to pretend she’s not. “Hello, little miss. Can we assist you in drying off?”

She flicks her wings and goop flies off. It makes a short buzzing sound.

“Hmm. I think that’s a yes. Kekoa, go fetch a blow drier.”

“Is there even an outlet in this closet? And would he overheat?”

Armoranth looks at you like you’re an idiot. “I can handle the thinking. You can do the errands with your long human legs and big human hands.”

You huff but leave to find one. It’s been a while since you actually minded being her errand boy. Now? Yeah. She doesn’t get to threaten you and then boss you around like this. If you didn’t want to get away from her for a moment you wouldn’t have gone along with it.

Can’t talk to Loudred soon enough.

*​

Armoranth is trapped in a good book. Somewhat literally. She fell asleep reading and the book fell on top of her when her telekinesis shorted out. She didn’t wake up and her petals are still flowing in a nonexistent breeze. She’s alive.

You consider changing that. Then you feel ashamed for the thought. Should you be? It makes sense to do it if it’s her or you. She hasn’t hurt you yet. Maybe she can’t. You don’t want to hurt her for nothing. She’s just a kid.

It still gives you a chance to talk to Loudred.

She’s in the laundry room sitting on a little stool and folding clothes in her lap. She looks up as you enter and then back down as you close the door.

“I want to talk.”

She nods but doesn’t say anything. Just keeps folding a pair of jean shorts.

“I met Cuicatl last night. She got into a fight with Armoranth and she threatened to make me slit my throat. Can she actually do that?”

“Don’t know,” her voice is quiet. “I avoid the fair folk. Hoarfrost might know something.” She sets down the shorts and finally looks back at you. “There would be a price.”

“Trying not to get into any more bargains until I figure out this one.”

She snorts. Smiles, even. It’s faint. A slight movement at the corner of her lip. Still the most you’ve seen from her. “Fixed terms. I ask Hoarfrost and the others when Armoranth isn’t around. You tell me everything about your meeting last night.”

“Right.” You can do that. “Okay. So, uh, I was there to give Ihe to Cuicatl since he wanted to go back.”

She hums. Already knew that.

“I wasn’t sure she would. Ihe was supposed to go to her in the first place but she said no. Needed a priest’s permission under Anahuac’s laws or something. I don’t know. I haven’t checked. Anyway. This time she said yes. Rufflet are sacred and pretty much priests or whatever.”

Her gaze is piercing. You wish she went back to her laundry and just half-listened or something.

“What then?”

“She was mad at me for joining Skull.”

That gets a frown. Far more pronounced than her smile. You hurry on.

“She agrees with us! Just didn’t think Skull would win. Was worried I’d die or get arrested and nothing would change.”

Loudred finally picks up a t-shirt and starts folding.

“She’s smarter than I thought.”

“What?”

“How do you think we win, Kekoa? Burning down hotels won’t make the soldiers leave. We could fight them. Attack their bases, hold the governor hostage, take over another town. Then they could use their army and we would lose. If we stay small, we don’t change anything. If we go big then we also change nothing. Winning isn’t the point.”

That’s the most you’ve heard from her at once and it’s fucking bleak.

“Then why are you even here?”

She shrugs. “Where else would I go?”

“That’s it, then? We just lose? Die or get locked up for nothing?”

“No. Not nothing. They also lose.” She finishes the skirt she’s folding and sets it down. “They want to kill Alola without anyone seeing the blood. They attack us, everyone sees. The Tapu get mad. The community gets closer to revolt. Someone, someday, will win. America does nothing, it looks weak. If we go big, we all die but everyone knows that they can bleed. There are lots of people with nothing to lose. Some will follow us. The occupiers will bleed and bleed and bleed until they leave to make it stop.” Her gaze shifts back to you. Through you. “Are you okay with that? Losing so they lose, too?”

You don’t know. You want to say you have nothing to lose, that you couldn’t leave if you wanted to. You’re not sure about that. Maybe Cuicatl’s right. Maybe you could. But you won’t.

“I think we win,” you tell her. “There are a lot of people who are mad. A lot of pokémon, too. They can’t keep fighting all of us if we go into the forest or something.”

Loudred rolls her eyes but goes back to her laundry.

“Why did Cuicatl attack Armoranth?”

“Well, Shirona’s togekiss showed up.”

That causes her to freeze up. She doesn’t say anything, though.

“Armoranth had to reveal herself. Said that we had a bargain and, uh, Cuicatl tried to free me. Attacked with her metang and threatened to kill her unless she let me go. Armoranth freaked out. Said that her aunt, the, um, the florges we met in Hau’oli, would kill her. That didn’t work. Threatened to make me slit my throat and that got her to back off.”

“And then they let you go? Cuicatl and the togekiss?”

“Yeah.”

“And Cuicatl would risk her life for your sake?”

“Said so.”

“Perhaps she’s usable. I will look into the fairies. Can also help you with the vikavolt. I had one.”

Right. You assume she had six pokémon. Probably finished the island challenge with her strength. Don’t know what the others were but a vikavolt fits her vibe.

“Why’d it leave?”

“They’re not made to be cooped up inside.”

Oh. “Mine’s going to leave, too?”

“Probably.” She looks at you from the corner of her eye while folding up a shirt. “You going to fight it?”

“No.”

“Good.”

She doesn’t really dismiss you. Doesn’t tell you to go away.

“Do you, uh, want help with the laundry?”

Loudred flicks her head between you and the ground next to her. You get the hint. It’s pretty peaceful doing routine work over and over again in silence. You’re not alone or anything. This is probably as close as Loudred gets to group bonding.

You don’t know how to ask her if you can do it again sometime.

*​

July 15, 2020

“You basically have two choices,” you tell Leilani. She stares back with the endless patience of a bug. Her compound eyes bore into yours and you have no idea how she’s feeling. At least Cuicatl could talk to her bug directly. You have to use a translator who still hasn’t made any signs she’s going to apologize. “You can stay here with me. I’ll keep looking after you. Make sure you have food. Protection while you sleep. Give you tips for getting stronger. But you’d have to stay with me. Couldn’t fly too far. Or, you can get your own food and trust that nothing attacks while you’re asleep. You could do go where you wanted.”

She doesn’t respond, even after Armoranth would have long finished translating.

“You don’t have to decide now. Can still grow. Fine if you stay with me for a while and then change your mind. You can do that. The other way, too, if you leave and want to come back.”

After a moment’s consideration, he buzzes his wings.

“Wants to know if he can go flying again.”

“Again? You just went—” You check your phone “—two hours ago.”

You had to follow him outside, of course. Can’t trust him to wander yet like Moe.

“If you spent your life eating dirt and then could fly far above it, would you ever want to stop?” Armoranth asks.

If you could fly…

You’ve thought about what it would be like to have Cuicatl’s powers. Probably could have avoided some fuckups with your team. Could coordinate better in battles. Probably wouldn’t change your life, though. Flight would be cool. But you have planes and flying pokémon and shit. Nah, if you wanted a power you’ve always said you’d go with shapeshifting because—

Oh.

Is that what it’s like for a vikavolt to fly? To finally become the thing they were always supposed to be after a lifetime of wondering if it would ever get better? You wouldn’t accept getting to be a boy twice a day for an hour at a time. You can’t go back once you’ve lived for real.

This isn’t going to work.

“Okay, change in plans. I’m not keeping you in here. You can zip around town. I’ll come out to the field a few times a day to feed you or give you training. Uh, just tell me if you think you’ll be leaving for a few days so I don’t come looking for you. And you can sleep in your ball at night if you want. That good?”

She answers much more quickly.

“Great. I guess I can take you outside?” You don’t really have anything lined today up other than TV. You ran out of good books around and didn’t want to be seen at a library so now you’re just watching long-cancelled shows to the end. Some of the others can join you in that. It’s feeding Moe enough that you can skip out on today.

Leilani buzzes her assent and you withdraw her.

“I think you handled that well,” Armoranth praises.

“Yeah…”

She looks up and leans on her flower. “You’ve been distant. Why?”

You just fucking stare at her. Doesn’t she get it? How would she not? She threatened to kill you this week and hasn’t said a damn thing about it.

“Did your meeting with Cuicatl shake you that badly?”

You blink. Do you even dignify this with a response? Does it help you plan against her if she thinks you aren’t upset?

She huffs. “As your master, I order you to answer me.”

You brace yourself for your mouth to open against its will. For secrets to come out. Nothing does. It’s just the same as your baby sister trying to bully you. If you had a sister.

You do, kind of, and she thinks you’re throwing your life away.

Anyway, it’s good that you don’t have to answer. Means her threats were empty. Unless she’s getting you to drop her guard?

“You threatened to kill me and now you want everything to be normal.”

“I used what leverage I had to get us both out of the situation safely.”

“I think I was safe either way.”

“No, you were not. Letting me die while you stood by and did nothing would violate your bargain and earn the wrath of the fey reserved for oathbreakers. You would have survived the night but not much longer.”

You roll your eyes. “If you’d let me talk it out, she would’ve come to her senses. She’s not that violent.”

Well. She believes in human sacrifice “for the greater good.” And you’ve seen her take a nap next to a tyrantrum with human blood drifting from its mouth. Let her pokémon get beaten up to make a point. Kind of threatened to kill a kahuna during a match. Yeah, she’d definitely kill for you. It’s kind of sweet. Really fucked up though.

“Scratch that she is that violent but now you’ve made her think you’re a threat to me. She’s suicidal. Doesn’t give a fuck if you threaten her. Didn’t get to see you be reasonable. Her first and last impressions were you threatening to kill me.”

“Fairies do not make mistakes,” Armoranth says, every word picked carefully. “As such I made no mistakes. I could see, hypothetically, why someone might think mistakes were made while a blade was at my throat and a madwoman was threatening my life. They would be wrong, but I can understand why they might have those incorrect opinions.”

That sounds as close to an apology as you’re going to get from her.

“Would you have actually killed me?”

“I did not,” she snaps.

She’s floating a foot off the ground now. Hovering closer to your face. If you keep snapping at her and she can kill you with words, might be best to back down now.

“Fine. Let’s let Leilani fly.”

*​

Armoranth doesn’t like the garage. It smells like an old gasoline spill and there are stains on the floor you don’t want to guess the origin of. Not like you actually keep a car here, anymore. Where would you drive it when you don’t want to leave the building? It’s a good place to do dirty work and to talk without Armoranth listening. You can pretend you’re there for the dirty work and actually be there to talk.

“So,” Golbat asks, “why’d you want me here?”

You rub a rag soaked with polish over Kapuna’s rocky shell. They vibrate happily in place before stilling as you hit a crystal. You polish that more thoroughly.

“Armoranth.”

“You have been nervous around her. Now Loudred’s looking at her like she’s a target. Those related?”

“Yeah. Cuicatl sent her metang after Armoranth, she freaked out, threatened to make me slit my own throat. Won’t say if she could or not. I don’t think she could but don’t want to find out. She kind of apologized later, said she was stressed, didn’t actually kill me, wants it all to go away. And I have no idea what the hell to do.” You press down harder in frustration. Kapuna just presses back. Seems to like it. Should you have always been pressing harder?

“Shit’s fucked,” Golbat sagely advises.

“Shit’s fucked,” you agree.

“Do you want advice, a venting partner, something else?”

“Advice, I think. Dunno if you’ve dealt with fairies.”

“Haven’t. An old teammate had a clefairy but we never really interacted much.”

Right. She’s been at Skull for a long time. This wouldn’t be her first squad. Or her second. “What happened to him?”

“Left when Guzma quit.” She shrugs. “Most of us who still had a place to go went to the exits. It’s why Plumeria could make the changes she did. All of the people still left with her didn’t like the way things were in the world, even if they weren’t Alolan themselves.”

You frown. That brings you to another thing that’s bothering you. “Loudred doesn’t think we’re going to win.”

“Define ‘win’ here.”

“Win. You know,” you gesture wildly with your free hand. “Kick the Americans out. Bring Alola back to its people. What Plumeria talks about. Winning.”

Golbat laughs softly. It seems out of place with her scars and missing teeth. That someone who looks so rough could make a noise that delicate. “When Plumeria says it, you can almost believe. But look at us. We’re a bunch of teenagers and twenty-somethings with less than two dozen pokémon between us. It’s enough to do hit and runs, burn down some buildings, harass tourists, whatever. Actually fighting? That’s not what we’re for. I think a lot of people would leave if they expected to get a gun pulled on them during a mission. Take their chances somewhere else.”

Even Golbat doesn’t believe. Then why are you here? What’s the point? She must see the questions on your face.

“I think we’re doing good. I think we’ll keep doing good. But no one thinks we’ll take the whole country, you know? If anyone in the government thought we had a chance they would’ve shot us all a long time ago.”

You turn away from her. Back to Kapuna. Put a little more force into it. They bob up and down. Seem to like it. You do want to get them polished. Talking was kind of a secondary thing. It just took over.

“Back to Armoranth,” Golbat says. “Sounds like she was being childish and scared. But—um, actually how old is she?”

“Seventy.”

“Fuck. Okay, so, she’s not growing up any time soon and she’ll be scared again. Even if you forgive her for this one, what are you going to do about the next time?”

“I don’t know.”

Kapuna twists under you to look straight at you. Wait. Shit. They’re also a fairy.

“You going to tell Armoranth about this?”

They slowly shake side to side. Don’t say anything else. Can’t say anything else. You could get the abra out here but then if Armoranth found out you were using another translator she’d get really suspicious. Damn it having Cuicatl’s power would actually be really nice right now.

“Even if they don’t, you really do need to talk to Armoranth about this. Sounds like you’re stuck together. And unless you want to get rid of her…”

“I don’t.”

“Then you’ll need to talk. Again. About where the lines are. And if she won’t agree to them,” she shrugs. “Hits close to home, you know? Losing control of your body. I’ll do what I have to for you. I hope you know that.”

“Her aunt would kill you.”

Golbat shrugs. “She can try. We stick up for our own. That includes you.”

“Thanks.” You want to say more. Tell her not to? Fuck no. You would like to be avenged. Give advice on fighting The Lady of the Scarlet Forest? You don’t have a clue.

“Don’t mention it.” She says it like she offered to hold the door or something. Not kill and be killed.

You don’t know how to answer that. You don’t. Just go back to polishing Kapuna until you can’t justify staying in the garage any longer.

*​

July 15, 2020

Showers are still uncomfortable. Feeling water on your chest, drying it off, even having to wrap your towel high above your waist can still set you off. And you do have to linger afterwards. Putting on the binder against wet skin feels really weird. You find yourself drawn to the mirror. Ordinarily you know damn well not to look. But it’s an anniversary. Your first, even. Might as well see what a year of testosterone can (and can’t) do. You rub away a patch of fog and—honestly, you’re surprised how little it bothers you. It’s hard to say when it happened, but your face became harder. Rougher. There’s even some stubble grown out. You’ll pretend that’s from six hours without shaving instead of six weeks. Had to trim the moustache, though, since it’s still really damn wispy and you got made fun of at dinner for it. Machoke had to pull you aside and tell you that not everyone can handle facial hair early in puberty. Or late in puberty. He confessed that it still looks patchy and awkward when he tries.

That made you feel a little better.

You skirt your gaze right past your chest to the rest of your body. Wouldn’t call yourself muscular or anything but you aren’t twig-scrawny. The hair on your legs is more of a blanket than it ever was before. And at least you’re trans masc—dressing lazily works in your favor. Couldn’t imagine having to fuss around with makeup just to be validated.

There’s room for improvement. There always is. Always will be. You should probably work out more since you have pretty much nothing else to do. Cranidos invited you to work out with him but he can lift so, so much more than you and you might’ve gotten angry and lashed out. You know you should apologize. See if he’d help you despite it. Maybe you’ll do that tomorrow. Someone bangs on the door. Even the groan you let out is effortlessly deep.

No. It’s not perfect. But it’s night and day compared to a year ago.

*​

July 24, 2020

You had assumptions of how things would go when Machoke told you Skull was robbing an art museum. A crack team dancing around tripwires, opening safes, carefully replacing paintings with forgeries—truth’s way more boring. You’re bringing a hammer instead of a scalpel. Just a ton of trainers are going to swarm the outside of the museum and fight off the cops while non-combatants loot what they can get their hands on.

Golbat asked what the plan was if Selene or Hala or someone like that showed up. Apparently, they used small teams now because throwing everyone in one place hadn’t worked when Selene showed up to Po Town to fight them all.

“That’s the genius,” Machoke had answered with an easy smile. “Everyone scary will be on Poni hearing a thesis defense. We’ll just be stalling out normal cops.”

“Getting out?” Loudred asked. “What if they have mean look. We’re giving them all the time in the world to get their assets together.”

“Boss has a plan. You trust her?”

Loudred had begrudgingly backed down.

Turns out that when Machoke said “a lot of units,” he’d meant pretty much all of them. You’re doing a flash mob sort of thing. The sun went down a while ago but the lights are still on and the streets have enough tourists you can blend in. Simple street clothes with a baclava in your pocket. Machoke says there’s a rotom messing with the nearby cameras.

You’re walking a winding path towards downtown with Machoke and Loudred. The girl’s eyes constantly swivel at anything that moves as she looks for threats. Full mission mode. She practically jumps out of her skin when Machoke puts a hand on her back. “Easy. We’re here for a good time, remember? Just try to relax.”

She hisses quietly but does make an effort to look straight ahead, head locked in place and fists clenched at her sides. Almost looks more suspicious.

“You find anything on Armoranth?” you ask. She’s staying home since she didn’t want to go in a ball. Pretty sure she blew a blood vessel or two when Machoke suggested she hide in a stroller. At least she was yelling at someone else about treating her as a child when she was three times his age. He’d just seemed amused.

“Nothing solid,” she says. “A pink or purple florges might be able to. Maybe a blue. She’s just a floette and neither colors. Seems like whites can do a little of everything. Probably couldn’t make you if you had halfway decent telepathic resistance training.”

“But, like, is the fairy bargain binding?”

“Don’t think so. Otherwise, they wouldn’t need to punish oathbreakers so much. It’s just a contract with the death penalty and a rigged court.”

“Way better.”

She shrugs. “It’s why you don’t bargain with them.”

Your breath hitches when the Royal Museum comes into view. It’s an old stone building with grand columns and bright white paint and all the stuff you’d see in a stuffy building in Washington or Europe. But it’s more open. Breathable. Bigger doors, bigger balconies… look, you’re not an architect. You learned in school that the last queen commissioned a bunch of those things to make Western visitors think that your country was just like theirs.

They overthrew it anyway and turned the buildings into museums.

You look around the plaza in front of the museum. It’s a small park with lawns, a few flower gardens, statues to dead people who probably did war crimes, all that. There are roads on three sides and the museum on the fourth. More people out than you’d expect this time of night. Mostly young people in groups of three or five. A few picknickers. What seems to be a date. A middle-aged man sitting on a bench and staring vacantly into the middle distance. Some homeless people the cops haven’t gotten around to moving out of the tourist area yet. You can kind of guess which are and aren’t Skull, but if you didn’t already know what was going to happen you wouldn’t have a clue.

In the distance you spot Golbat, Cranidos, and Yungoos. You’re pretty sure they’re going in to fight or at least annoy security.

“How much longer?”

“Just a bit,” Machoke answers.

You find a patch of grass towards the middle of the park and just stand around. Someone really should talk or something. This has to look really suspicious. Machoke just keeps an eye on the museum entrance. Looks like you’re supposed to walk in on the second floor. A flight of stairs leads up to it.

The light flickers on the steps and Plumeria suddenly appears with an abra. A gengar forms a moment later, prepares an attack, and shatters the glass on the doors. An alarm begins to blare from inside the museum and a small mob forms to rush in behind her, either through doors on the first floor or up the stairs and into the museum. You do your best to slip your mask on.

It’s uh. You need more practice on whipping it on and off quickly. Machoke is already shouting orders to the crowd by the time you can breathe and have most of your face covered. Loudred rolls her eyes at you. Great. First really big mission and you’ve already embarrassed yourself.

Most of the bystanders leave quickly and without a fight. Some run immediately. Some seem to take a moment to understand what’s happening. The middle-aged man just looks around, gets up, and calmly walks away while muttering something under his breath. There are exceptions. The guy in one couple has sent out a dartrix and makuhita and starts fighting the nearby grunts. A homeless woman is loudly arguing with another about something you can’t hear while the grunt tries to calm her down and get her to leave. Overall, though, it goes pretty smooth. In the park.

Traffic’s a different story. There are instantly, like, three crashes in the confusion. At least one pedestrian gets hit while running away from you. The car alarms are louder than the one from the museum.

Okay. Maybe some more thought should’ve gone into this. You didn’t want innocent people to get hurt.

You gesture towards a pedestrian who got knocked down to the road. “Should we help them, or…”

“Best leave it be. If we help then the cops will think they’re with us.”

“Oh.”

Loudred sends out her froslass and has her start freezing the ground in front of her. Machoke sends out a gigalith, forretress, claydol, and nosepass. Oh. That’s why you don’t see his pokémon much. They’re all rocks. Not great on quick-moving missions and don’t need a lot of attention. Three of them start setting up a ton of stealth rocks while the claydol forms a barrier. You send out Kapuna to help set light screen.

It takes about a minute for the first cop car to show up. They pull up to the square, lights and sirens flashing, and then just sit there. No one gets out.

You look towards Loudred. “Don’t want to fight without numbers on their side.”

“Do we take the fight to them, or…?”

“I’m happy to stall.”

“Okay.” You send out Anuenue and Moe, just to be safe. Loudred follows with her scyther and houndoom.

It takes another few minutes for more cops to arrive. None of them deal with the injured. They just form a line of riot shields facing the museum and start to slowly advance from the street. More cops are streaming in from the sides. “How many cops do they have?”

“Few hundred on the force. Hard to tell how many they send.”

“Anyone they can find,” Loudred answers. Skull’s formed a loose semicircle around the main entrance. The side entrances all have about a half-dozen people guarding them. Probably the same around back. You still have a slight numbers advantage now. That’s changing quickly.

The cops stop about thirty feet away from you. Their pokémon are mostly in front of the shield wall with a reflect or something in front of it from an unseen pokémon. In front are the combat ready ones. A lot of growlithe. A sandshrew. Some machop and machoke. Even a sudowoodo. Behind them are a few birds like talonflame and even a fucking braviary. One takes out a megaphone.

“Stand down and disperse. I repeat: stand down and disperse. Anyone who remains will be charged with trespassing and being an accessory to grand theft.”

No one does.

Someone whistles—you don’t know on what side—and chaos reigns.

The psychic barriers glow even brighter and Skull’s pokémon spend a moment getting the hazards just right. One of the cops does a dance—Z-dance—and the braviary cries out before flapping his wings and causing a massive gust. The other birds help.

The hazards start to drift back towards your line. Shit.

“Moe, gust!” The growlithe run forward and Anuenue barrels into one without orders and just keeps running through the headwind, spikes, stealth rock, everything. He loses steam when he hits the shimmering barrier but keeps going until he slams into a shield and knocks down a cop. Someone pulls a gun—a fucking gun—on him and you withdraw him really quick. Thankfully you didn’t freeze then. You do afterwards. Holy fuck they have guns and are going to use them.

“Focus,” Loudred snaps. Her froslass is icing down no man’s land to make it slippery. Her houndoom is whipping around and snarling at two growlithe. Scyther is dueling the sudowoodo, weaving between thrown rocks and getting in brutal cuts. Machoke’s gigalith and nosepass aren’t visibly doing anything, but the stealth rocks around them stop getting blown back. Beside him, forretress is laying down webs that are harder to blow back. Two dozen other little fights rage all along the line.

You send Anuenue back out. “Stick by me, okay. Just fight anything that gets close.”

He seems reluctant but does stomp his foot and look back out at the cops without charging. There are so many more of them now. They’ve already replaced the ones Anuenue hurt and filled in the line more on all sides. Suddenly a group steps away and leaves a gap. Grass-types take the field. Parasect, shiinotic, a venusaur. Spores fill the air. The tailwind carries them towards you.

“Moe!” He understands. Lowers himself behind you and starts to use gust at ground level to keep them away. Not everyone’s as lucky. Some pokémon and grunts slow down or even fall asleep where they stand. At least it’s nonlethal.

Nonlethal until an overeager growlithe lets loose a flame burst into the cloud. One moment it’s green and hazy. The next there’s an explosion and half the park is on fucking fire. Including some of the grunts. Some of the sleeping grunts. Bastards. Was that on purpose? An accident? Do they care? An abra teleports in to get them to safety. Then another. When the third shows up a murkrow dive bombs him and forces him to the ground.

While you’re busy looking at all that a machop has run closer and Anuenue headbutts him. He dodges out of the way and keeps running towards you. A sudden blast of ice from Loudred’s froslass freezes him to the ground. A shadow ball from Moe hits him in the chest while he’s struggling to get out. Anuenue finishes the job with a stomp.

No one withdraws him. Out of range? Don’t notice? Don’t care?

Skull’s using water-types to keep the fire from spreading. The cops have sent the braviary closer to it to make sure it spreads in the right direction. Towards a fucking museum. Towards people if that matters. Skull’s almost entirely surrounded now by faceless men hiding behind giant shields and literal attack dogs.

A gun fires somewhere. Then another. And another. Guess they’ve given up on the pokémon battle. Machoke slams you to the ground as a bullet flies over your head.

“Reflect should slow them down,” he says straight into your ear. “Don’t panic. They’ll be done soon.” For the first time since you know him he sounds genuinely worried. Is he trying to reassure you or himself? A gun goes off close by and Anuenue roars. They shot him? They fucking shot your pokémon? Was he behind the reflect or—doesn’t matter. You withdraw him. Can look at it later.

“Let’s get behind Onyx,” Machoke says before crawling away. An onix? There’s no onix here—the gigalith. He’s crawling towards the gigalith. You join him. It’s slow going since a lot of spikes and jagged rocks have been blown towards you. A spike pricks your leg but you hiss and get going. Better to bleed a little than get shot. The cops are getting closer as they use their shields to push away the hazards you set. Moe still floats above firing off shadow balls at the advancing police and pokémon. Kapuna body slams a growlithe. It doesn’t matter. You’re slowly losing and they have guns. Maybe they’ll kill you all.

Are you fine with that? Is this what you wanted?

…how mad will Cuicatl be? Won’t even get to tell you ‘I told you so.’

You look back towards the museum and see Plumeria come out. Oh thank fuck. Help. Moe stops firing and slowly turns around to look towards the boss. So do Loudred’s froslass and a half-dozen other ghosts on both sides of the battlefield.

“What’s happening?” you ask him. A feeling crawls through you. Into you. His version of telepathy. The memory of the queen’s grave floats into your head and your eyes are involuntarily drawn towards Plumeria’s hand. There’s something in it. Metallic and sharp. A knife? The fuck does she think a knife will do. She needs to get out here, now—

An abra flickers into being beside her and she disappears.

Did she just—

No—

She can’t—

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“Plumeria ran away,” you tell Machoke.

He swears. Loudly.

Yeah.

You think you might be well and truly fucked.
 
Fairy 6.21

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
Fairy 6.21: Peer Review
Sina

2016

“Sina, Dexio, have a seat.”

Dr. Platane always looked young, even for his age. The last three years changed that. Bags droop where there were none before. His hair and attire are haphazard more often than not. His eyes often bore into nothing with a frightening intensity. No one took The Ultimate Weapon’s collapse well but Dr. Platane took it the worst. Blames himself for not seeing the signs. For not personally stopping his on-again, off-again partner. For getting children killed in the blast radius. His office has a small sleeping area now with an ever-growing pile of personal possessions around it. His walls are filled with theories that had everyone in the lab frantically delving down a bunnelby den before he abandoned the idea just as quickly.

Two years later you’re no closer to figuring out what happened inside the weapon and why. A mushroom cloud of elemental energy. An eighteen-kilometer radius of instant, inexplicable death. A mountain of questions and an anthill of answers.

Dr. Platane gestures towards a wall mounted screen showing blast radii? No, uh…

“Seismograph readings,” the boss says. “They started in Kalos and got deeper and deeper. Then it started moving.” He presses a button and it moves to a map with a series of dots under it. “Paused briefly under Hoenn before moving under Alola and staying there. Came closer to the surface this week.”

“A steelix?” Dexio asks.

“No. Too big. Closer to something like Groudon.”

It takes a moment for that to really sink in. Another threat on that level? What was it doing resting under Kalos? Why would it go to Alola? Could it come back? It’s selfish but you really hope it’s the American’s problem now. Kalos has been through enough.

“The Ultimate Weapon woke something up. I want to know what. Congratulations, you two have just won a vacation to Alola.”

You share a glance with Dexio. “How long?” You don’t really have commitments here aside from Dexio and the lab. Your pokémon just aren’t built for the tropics. You’d rather keep the trip brief.

“Until you can get some answers.”

Your eyes settle on the abandoned projects scattered around the office. This could take a while.

*​

Being a field researcher in Kalos has at least prepared you for the florges. You’re sitting in front of one, drinking your own tea, and having a lovely conversation about why a bunch of foreign researchers need to scour her garden.

“There was an explosion in Kalos two years ago. Dexio and I have been investigating it.”

“Unfortunate,” the purple florges (name not given) says, “but it hardly explains why I should let you trample my precious domain.”

“The explosion was The Ultimate Weapon collapsing.”

Her stem straightens and suddenly she’s towering over you. That always happens when you bring that up to a florges. Whether or not she’ll help is still up in the air.

“A brilliant idiot tried to control The Ultimate Weapon to kill off the people he thought were making Kalos ugly.” Immigrants, mostly, but also the disabled and all the people ‘a civilized society would have pruned from their garden long ago.’ “It literally blew up in his face.”

The florges remains every bit as engaged as before. Strange mists dance over the flowers. You can swear a tree is swaying back and forth. Her gaze is no longer directed your way. Upset but not angry at you. “That’s deeply unfortunate,” she murmurs in the strange way florges do. “To think that humans would, even could, harness it again. You suggested it was destroyed now.”

“Just a crater and some molten metal.”

And a frankly absurd amount of elemental energy.

“And the sigils? They are destroyed?”

The florges in Kalos hadn’t cared about the physical machine. They wanted to make sure the magic was gone. In all your excavations you haven’t found an intact mosaic or altar or whatever it is they’re worried about.

“Yes.”

“I see. What need, then, do you have of my garden?”

You take a deep breath. First part’s over. Now for the harder one. “Something big buried beneath Kalos woke up. It burrowed its way here and is coming to the surface. Seismographs suggest it’s somewhere near here. We want to find out what it was and prevent anything bad from happening.”

The florges closes her eyes and sways on her stem. “My mother was from Kalos. I have never been. I am afraid I do not know what was buried.”

“That’s fine,” Dexio says. “You can just tell us if you’ve seen anything weird lately.”

You glare at them. They were supposed to shut up. Psychics. Have a little trick up their sleeve and it makes them think they’re masters of communication.

“What my associate means is that we are concerned that whatever this creature is could threaten your garden and would love to have either your assistance or at least your leave to conduct an unobtrusive investigation.”

“I see. You had best start in the cave. The ghosts were speaking of something strange they found.”

*​

It’s a cave. Never your favorite part of field work. Too cramped, too dark, too many bats. At least your newest and oldest captures are happy to help with those.

“Try not to be too brutal,” you caution them. “We’re explore at a florges’s pleasure.”

Eggshell huffs but lowers her had in understanding. She’s a fairy. She won’t cross a florges in their garden. Blanc, ever the obedient glaceon, keeps his eyes locked forwards with a confident stride. Dexio sends out their new Alolan raichu. It gives off a soft glow that illuminates the cave. That fixes the bat and light problems. At least the entry isn’t too cramped. For you. Dexio has to duck down a little.

“She could’ve at least told us what we’re looking for,” they huff.

“We’re the ones here to explore. Probably thought we would know.”

There’s nothing in the entry cavern but an annoyed druddigon that backs down after a glare and a pulse of cold air from Blanc and a scream from Eggshell. You have Blanc watch the rear afterwards. Don’t want to risk it sneaking up on you for revenge.

Dexio finds what you’re looking for first and waves you over. It’s smaller than you were expecting for a herald of a Groudon-level threat. Just a small green slug with bizarre, unevenly sized eyes and a dark hexagon on the back. Oddly familiar, too. You purse your lips. Definitely familiar. You’ve seen this before. The only question is where.

*​

As it turns out, you saw it in the National History Museum in Lumiose. It was depicted in an elaborate but previously inexplicable pattern etched onto the side of a Collapse Era urn. The colors are a little off but everything else—the eyes, the hexagon, the shape—is correct. Another link to the Ultimate Weapon. That’s scary. The creature itself… isn’t. It barely reacts to light or obstacles. None of Dexio’s pokémon can sense thoughts in its head. It doesn’t eat. Doesn’t drink. Doesn’t even react when you poke it with a probe. It moves, though, and Dexio’s alakazam swears it’s communicating with something. You’re guessing that’s the real threat. Dr. Platane agrees and sends you back to paradise with the goal of finding more of whatever-you’re-calling-this.

*​

You spend twelve weeks scouring Alola’s caves and finding nine more worms before there’s another major advance. It comes in the form of another worm, a little larger and with a single pupil that disappears from one eye and reforms in the other. This one seems to have thoughts.

It has a goal, Dexio tells you: find the others, reunite, become whole. That’s totally not suspicious. Dr. Platane overrules you. Asks you to put the worms together and see what happens. There are only ten of them. Nowhere near as big as the creature that was moving beneath the earth. Probably not as powerful, either. And if you can gain this thing’s trust, maybe even talk to it, and figure out what’s going on.

You end up sending them all out in a field as far away from civilization as you can get. The new worm recognizes them. Rears up. And then the others seem to have the first strong urge of their lives. They all start to wriggle towards the larger worm, writhing over each other in a mad dash. When the first one reaches it the skin between them dissolves and they merge together. The others pile on and soon there’s one big worm with nine little bodies sticking out. Those are quickly being absorbed. You send Blanc out and the air instantly grows colder in the glaceon’s presence. Dexio sends out their espeon and it immediately sets up a light screen. Good. You never should have done this. Certainly not all of them at once. But, hey, Doctor’s orders…

The worm stares at the two foxes with seven misshapen eyes. Then it slowly rises higher. Limbs drip down from its body and lock into place. Tails stick out from behind it. The front stretches into a more proper neck as a muzzle and ears take shape. It opens its mouth and goo drips down where there should be teeth. Is it trying to blend in with the foxes? Is it some kind of ditto relative? Because a super strong, super murderous ditto is the very last thing you need.

Dexio snaps to attention and tilts their head. Telepathic communication, probably. Can it copy espeon’s abilities, too?

The silent conversation lasts too long to be comfortable and it’s all you can do to keep yourself from ordering Hoarfrost to put it down before things get out of hand.

“She’s grateful for our help,” Dexio finally says. “And she’s agreed to submit to testing and share more information in exchange for help obtaining more cores.”

*​

You’ve learned a lot less than you’d hoped over the last four years. Her name is Zygarde. She isn’t whole. She is nowhere close to being whole. She says she does not want to be whole. She simply wants to know what’s going on in the world. She noticed the debacle in Hoenn. She noticed Kyurem’s rampage. She noticed the firing of the Ultimate Weapon. It caused her to stir in her sleep and send a fragment of her consciousness to investigate. She hasn’t said why she went to Alola of all places. It’s not until 2019 that you get her to admit that her full form is apocalyptically powerful. Zygarde claims that she just wants to make sure her (unknown) creations are flourishing. This isn’t the first time she sent out a probe. The last time was the end of the Cretaceous.

It's probably not a good thing she’s comparing Earth in the year 2020 to the aftermath of a mass extinction.

Zygarde says she doesn’t want to destroy humans. Barely cares about them. Except you. She likes you. Or pretends to. She’s very good at pretending. Her body solidified and now she mostly looks and acts like a normal dog with bizarre colors and a lot of hexagons. She even started sleeping on Dexio’s side of the bed at night. Kicked their espeon out. Tried to evict Eggshell before she made it clear that, ancient god or not, no one was going to remove her. They got into a fight. Eggshell, fresh off of evolution, won. It was immensely reassuring. If Zygarde ever goes rogue you can at least contain it with a decently strong ice-type.

Unless Zygarde’s trying to lull you into a false sense of security.

All that knowledge only cost you four years away from Kalos and feeding thirty-four more ‘cells’ to a creature that might be the end of life on Earth. At least you were back in Kalos when the necrozma came. Zygarde started freaking out about how another dragon was threatening to wipe out life on ‘her’ planet and that she would fix the situation if ‘her eldest daughter’ couldn’t. You don’t want to know what a fully powered Zygarde fighting a necrozma would do to the planet. Might make Hoenn look like a cafeteria food fight.

The years pass. You got engaged and married far away from home. You make more and more bargains with an ancient god and hope the knowledge is worth the risk. Can’t even tell anyone what you’re really doing. Officially you’re just researching a man-made pokémon found in Aether Paradise.

And that’s your life. Honestly? It could be worse. You love your spouse and Alola’s fucking gorgeous.

*​

July 24, 2020

“Mon amour?”

“Yes?”

“We doing anything today?”

Dexio swivels their chair around. You haven’t bothered getting out of your pyjamas yet. You’re hoping you don’t have to today. It’s been quite the week.

“The Class V review?”

“Right.” Honestly you didn’t know one was coming up. “Who’s is it, again?”

“Cuicatl Ichtaca.” Name’s familiar. Can’t place where you heard about her, though. “Did you read her thesis?”

You give him a blank stare in response. That kind of thing reminds you too much of grad school. Unless it’s in your wheelhouse you usually skip them and plan to vote yes. You’ll find out any reasons you shouldn’t vote for them at the actual conference.

Dexio sighs. “It’s on hydreigon care. She claims to speak draconic. I’d say she’s just a psychic making excuses but Zygarde says she’s not speaking gibberish.”

Oh! That’s where you’d heard of her. “Tyrantrum girl?”

“Yes. I was hoping to get her thoughts on our work. The paper says that one of the dragon languages is for mythology and…” They shoot Zygarde a glance. She’s curled up in her bed and licking her paw. Maybe she’s secretly paying attention. Maybe she isn’t.

“It would be quite the breakthrough.”

The only humans who might know anything about Zygarde are the various dragon tribes. They don’t talk to outsiders. You managed to confirm that the tribe in Poland at least knew Zygarde’s name. They still wouldn’t tell you anything without a reason. Bringing Zygarde herself was deemed too risky. Best not give the god a god complex by introducing her to a village of worshippers. And if the tribes found out you had one of their gods they might lash out. You’d rather not fight a horde of dragons if you don’t have to.

“You’re sure she’ll talk to us?”

“Maybe. She’s quite mercenary. Works for VStar. We could probably bribe her with a paycheck. But Shirona’s her mentor. Might’ve convinced her not to tell well-connected strangers about potential Category 6 threats.”

Another government you’d have to read in. So. Much. Paperwork.

Something occurs to you. “Her thesis is on hydreigon care? The thesis to get a Class V? Does her Anahuac license not transfer or what?” Because no one should be allowed to have a hydreigon before being licensed. They’re one of the most dangerous normal pokémon in the world.

“She says she was the caretaker of one in Anahuac and was hoping to import it eventually.”

Huh. Mix teenage hormones with a tyrantrum and hydreigon. That’s a great idea.

“And you’re sure we’re not making a monster by voting for her?”

“She can calm down a rampaging dragon.”

“If she’s not the one who sent them on a rampage because she got broken up with or something.”

They’re silent for a long time. “It’s just speculation, but I don’t think she’s going to get it. Too young, too much baggage, her pokémon are too dangerous. And someone has to be salivating at the thought of snapping up her tyrantrum.”

Well. At least this promises to be an interesting night.

*​

You find your seat next to Dexio and lean into them before sitting back up. They give you a quizzical look. “What’d the vulpix want?”

“Dunno. Left her and Eggshell to talk.”

“Unsupervised?” they whisper.

“She’s better.”

Sure.”

The room begins to quiet before you can retort. You look towards the front. Shirona’s entered. She has an undeniable presence. More than anyone you’ve ever met. The girl next to her… doesn’t. She’s tiny. 150 centimeters or less. Her eyes are unfocused and she needs help just getting to the podium. This is the tyrantrum whisperer? She looked small in the meme but that’s because there was a tyrantrum right next to her. At human scale she looks frail. Almost every other dragon tamer you’ve met gave the vibe that they could and would fight their own pokémon if need be. Even Dracena has her moments. It’s hard to imagine this girl being a threat to anyone.

Selene walks over and steps up to the free microphone. Girl looks even more ragged than usual, even if her champion outfit is still about the same. “Thank you all for coming out this evening. We’re here to review the Class V application of Cuicatl Ichtaca from Anahuac.”

You feel bad for her. That’s a bad country to be from if you’re asking a crowd of (mostly) Americans to give her the biggest guns around.

“Miss Ichtaca has completed eight trials and three grand trials on the island challenge. She currently has a provisional Class IV license sponsored by Lila Takeda.” You see the ex-cop sit up straighter in the front row. From what Dexio’s said it seems like they’ve been having a rough time of it lately. Happens when you piss off a billionaire, even for the noblest of reasons. Does Lila’s involvement confirm Cuicatl’s psychic?

You ask Dexio telepathically.

{Yes.}

Interesting. That’s probably how she learned the dragon languages, then. Means she doesn’t have the tribes’ oath to secrecy.

“Her thesis mentor has been Dr. Shirona Karashina, Champion of the Sinnoh League. She’s visiting today to introduce our applicant.” Selene trails off and glances between her notes and the other champion. “So, uh, yeah, take it away.”

There are some mild laughs as Selene almost races back to her seat. Still doesn’t know how to act at these kinds of events. Shirona silences it all with one look up at the audience.

“Good evening. It has been my pleasure the last few months to get to know Ms. Ichtaca. She’s a fearless, compassionate young woman with a rare talent for understanding predator psychology. Her work on hydreigon behavior alone could revolutionize our understanding of the species and save lives in the process. The things she has learned about tyrantrum social dynamics could lead to a reexamination of our views on the species from brutish, angry predators to intelligent and emotionally complex creatures that can be loving and devoted to those they see as worthy of the honor.” Cuicatl frowns and tenses before relaxing a little too forcefully. Oh boy. She’s an academic with a sore spot. They come younger every year. “Finally, her theories on the draconic languages hint at a set of norms, linguistics, and even theology underpinning interactions between some of the planet’s strongest pokémon.”

You’re starting to understand how she attracted the champion’s attention: she knows things about myths. Shirona’s area of expertise alongside battling. And the girl also promises to bring a few shiny new toys into common usage. Appealing to both interests at once.

“Miss Ichtaca also has a wonderful heart.” Heh. The Aztec has a wonderful heart. You turn to Dexio but decide that even whispering the joke under Shirona’s watchful gaze is too much of a risk. “She’s willing to stand up for her friends in even the direst of circumstances and seeks to do the right thing, whatever it costs. I believe that she has already demonstrated to the world through her thesis and her highly publicized calming of a rampaging dragon that she is capable of caring for even the most demanding of pokémon. Her strength of character makes her worthy of being entrusted with this solemn responsibility. It is my honor and pleasure to introduce Cuicatl Ichtaca tonight.”

The applause is surprisingly muted for a full-throated defense from one of the world’s most prominent trainers. You look over at Dexio. Probably should have asked more about the baggage they mentioned. Can’t just be American’s racism, right?

Cuicatl stands and feels out the microphone before stepping up to it. She ends up standing a little too far away. If the room wasn’t kind of small, you’re not sure you’d be able to fully hear her. “Good evening. I’m here to talk about hydreigon care.” The slideshow that’s been pulled up behind her flicks past an opening slide to a page titled ‘Introduction to Hydreigon.’ The slideshow itself looks at least somewhat professional. Lots of pictures without overloading the reader with concise points rather than the text of the thesis. Probably not Cuicatl’s work. Still good she got someone better than Dexio to help. Last conference you attended together you realized the day before his presentation that it had white backgrounds, no pictures, no transitions.

The presentation’s at least interesting. It’s not quite what you were expecting. There are suggestions for favored foods and ideal feeding schedules and a little bit on grooming but she quickly dismisses almost all of that by insisting that hydreigon can take care of themselves and will do so happily. Training them is more about keeping them happy and making sure they at least listen to important orders about laws and property. She goes on a mini-rant about how the conventional wisdom in dragon training—that any weakness is a death sentence—is dead wrong, and reveals a surprising amount about hydreigon’s emotional lives and the way they think about plurality going from one head to two to three. You’re sure the strictly husbandry focused part is a major contribution and all but the psych stuff feels like it’s revolutionary. Fifteen minutes in you’re certain this girl knows more about hydreigon than anyone outside the dragon tribes and probably a lot of people inside them.

Assuming, of course, that she isn’t lying about all of it. There’s no hydreigon with her. No records that she ever had one. She speaks dragon and she calmed down a tyrantrum. It’s enough that you’d probably think she’s telling the truth even if Shirona wasn’t looming behind her. The champ’s smart. She wouldn’t let herself get sucked in by a bullshitter for months and then put her own weight behind it. This is probably all real. And, yes, she’s young and Aztec, but you don’t get why Dexio’s so sure she’s going to blow it. There’s only one real weakness to it.

It gets dug into in the very first question. One of the professors at U Alola you’ve never really gotten to know. Couldn’t say what he studied with a gun to your head. “Fascinating presentation, Miss Ichtaca. I’m sure you’re aware that the biggest controversy around hydreigon right now is whether they should be classified as having human-comparable intelligence. Where do you come down in this debate?”

“If hydreigon aren’t smart enough to be ‘human comparable’ then neither are humans. They don’t have cities because they don’t want to and they don’t have guns or cars because they don’t need them. Tyrantrum, milotic, and garchomp are also human comparable. Probably most dragons. Haven’t worked with them enough to be sure.”

Ah, but ‘human comparable intelligence’ has nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with politics. Once that shiny label gets slapped onto a species suddenly the activists want them to have more and more rights. That could make it harder to deal with nuisance pokémon. Irritating for city planners when it’s oranguru bumming around in public parks, calamitous when it’s a goddamn hydreigon insisting it has the right to get closer to big cities.

“That’s a very bold claim,” Molayne says. “Most people wouldn’t think that hydreigon are, eh, civilized enough for that.”

Cuicatl rolls her eyes as she listens to the questions. Does she know that other people can see her facial expressions? Does she care? “Hydreigon and milotic try to enforce laws on other species. They never break the dragon laws they respect. More civilized than humans. Just a different kind of civilization.”

“And how do you get them to respect human laws?” Nanu. Of course that’s what the cop cares about.

If humans respect dragon law, the dragons might respect human law. There would have to be negotiations and humans would have to stop killing their prey and taking their land. I don’t think humans are willing to do that. Until then, the dragons will punish humans when we do something they see as really out of bounds. Humans will do the same to them. It’s how things work.”

Some guy you swear you’ve never seen before in your life clears his throat. Whole room feels crowded with people who don’t usually come to these things. Interesting. “And by ‘punish humans,’ you mean…?”

Cuicatl opens her mouth before closing it and taking a sip of water. What follows is nearly monotone and obviously memorized. “Hydreigon attacks are undeniably a tragedy and I feel for the victims and their families. I hope we can reduce them in the future through communication and cooperation.”

You can only imagine what her actual answer is. Hopefully not “they had it coming.” You suspect it’s “they had it coming.” Seems she shares some values with the dragon tribes. Might mean she won’t tell you anything about Zygarde. Unfortunate.

The professor you don’t know speaks up again. “Miss Ichtaca, what do you think about Dr. Ruthkay’s work on dragon-fairy interactions?”

Cuicatl stares ahead blankly. Maybe blindness, maybe confusion. “Who’s Dr. Ruthkay?”

“Oh.” There’s a lot of judgment dripping from one word. “I thought that you would be familiar with one the preeminent dragon taxonomist of our time.”

“I can’t read and no one translates academic papers to Nahua audiobooks. I know the stuff that ended up on the internet for free or in books I could get from a rural library. Everything else I know from talking to dragons.”

“I… see.” Doesn’t sound very sympathetic, though. Academics don’t like it when you brush them off. You’d buy the explanation, though. “Essentially, Dr. Ruthkay argues that fairies and dragons have evolved in tandem on, and possibly off, planet, developing—”

“Yes, yes, all well and good,” a man in a military uniform cuts in. You don’t see him here often. Admiral… Wilkins? Weimar? Whitehouse? Something with a W.

{Wilford.}

{Thanks.}

“But this is not an academic discussion, whatever trappings you give it. This is a weapon’s permitting process. Cuicatl—” He pronounces it differently from the way Shirona did. Probably incorrectly. Maybe on purpose. “Why should we give a citizen of Anahuac access to city-level weapons? Even if you don’t use them against us here what’s stopping you from going back and handing them over to their military so they can be used against us?”

Cuicatl’s expression is very carefully schooled. She was expecting this, obviously. Her ability to control herself here mean that rolling her eyes earlier was something she was fine with you all seeing. Curious. “My mother was Unovan. I always respected her more than my Nahua father, even if I had never met her. It was a long-held dream to make it back to her country. I have no intention to go back to Anahuac and will stay here or in Japan after my island challenge is complete.”

That part again sounds a little too scripted. And very convenient for her.

“Thoughts on human sacrifice?” someone you also never see here asks with a sneer. He’s in a cluster off to the side. One of them is wearing a shirt with a Gracidea logo. Gage’s people. The spider handlers or elite security staff.

“Complicated? If it’s a prisoner from Anahuac that agreed to it, that’s one thing. Less sure outside that. I’ve never performed a human sacrifice and never will. I don’t think you could get Anahuac to stop given their importance in the state religion.”

Also scripted even if her delivery’s getting better. You really don’t want to know what the real answer is.

“That’s not good enough,” Wilford insists. “My father fought your people in the Thanksgiving War after they raided Texas unprovoked. As we closed in on Tenochtitlan, they started hauling our prisoners up onto their pyramid and ripping their hearts out. I want assurances that this will never, ever, happen again.”

“As I understand it the Americans signed a law saying that and made us sign it. I don’t make war decisions. Just grew up there.” Her voice is smugly even given the rage in Wilford’s.

Us? And from the way you threatened Hala I’m starting to think you don’t believe in the HavanaTreaty’s terms.”

Cuicatl’s face darkens and she leans closer to the mic. Oh. This could get good. “The Havana Treaty resulted in decades of civil war. Millions of people died because of it. My family grew up without enough food because of it. A lot of families in our village didn’t have fathers because of it. The treaty wasn’t fair. The hawlucha are a small part of it. Just feels like using one is taunting us after everything that happened.”

“Again, us.”

“My father is Nahua. I grew up in Anahuac. Worship the Tezcatlipocas . I don’t agree with a lot of things the government in Tenochtitlan does and I don’t want to go back to living there. Won’t ever fight for them. But I’m Nahua. I don’t like hearing the country and people insulted by the people who ruined us.”

“On the contrary, your civilization was ruined long before the marines ever rolled up on your…”

It occurs to you as voices rise that this has probably gone on longer than the actual discussion of her thesis and is going to have way more impact on whether she passes. Yes, Anahuac’s evil. She still grew up there. Of course she’s going to have some pride, same as an abused kid defending their parents. She’ll probably grow out of it someday. If your country had done some heinous things and the Galarians bombed it all to the stone age you’d probably be mad at them. You think everyone’s overlooking one big thing, too.

“Miss Ichtaca.” You interrupt her going at it with a Gage employee about Xerneas-knows-what. Her head snaps in your direction. “If you really wanted to be a soldier of Anahuac, couldn’t you have just taken your tyrantrum back there with you and gotten proper licensing in that country.”

She relaxes. Her shoulders had gotten very, very tense over the argument and her jaw was clenched tightly enough you were worried about her teeth. Now she’s still on edge but, like, a normal amount. “Yes. I could have. I’m doing this the hard way, the American way, because I want to stay here.”

You aren’t actually sure if you’re going to vote for her but racism feels like a bad reason to vote against.

Selene herself chimes in. Odd. “So you already have the tyrantrum. And you want to import a hydreigon, right?” Cuicatl nods. “Where does that leave your metang? Are you going to try and evolve it into a metagross?”

“No. I know my way around dragons. I’m not as confident with metagross.”

At least she isn’t totally insane.

“Would you surrender the metagross to another trainer if it did evolve?”

She shrugs. Not the right response at all. “I think metagross pick their trainers and not the other way around. It would depend on what she wanted.”

“You keep talking about giving some of the most dangerous pokémon in the world, hydreigon and metagross, long leashes. Do you really think this is a good idea?”

Cuicatl purses her lips. “You can’t win every battle with a hydreigon. I’m not sure you can win a battle with a hydreigon. Anyone who claims they have one totally obedient to them is lying to you or to themselves. That’s just a dragon looking for the first sign that they can break free. Probably going to kill a lot of people when they do. The only safe way to raise them is to give them a reason to stay and condition that reason on good behavior. Restrict them too much and they’ll decide it’s not worth it. Hydreigon like their laws. Rules they freely agree to will be followed. You can set the important lines and they won’t cross them.”

Maybe telling her about Zygarde is a bad idea. She’d definitely argue for giving her even more freedom. Might try to take matters into her own hands.

“And do you think society is ready to accept that arrangement and the risks of it breaking down?” someone, maybe an academic, you stopped paying attention to the individual speakers a while ago, asks.

That seems to give her pause for a while. Either genuinely thinking through it or struggling to remember a line. “It’s the safest way to train dragons. The only safe way to train the big ones. Accepting it makes us safer.”

She’s made a lot of enemies here without realizing it. Called out anyone with a big dragon who uses the normal methods. Said they were, what, “lying to you or themselves.” Said their methods weren’t safe. Some of them might be willing to have an honest discussion with her about ways to improve their training style. Most are going to bristle at being told how to raise their own damn pokémon by a blind child no one had even heard of six months ago.

Hala finally clears his throat. She apparently threatened him or something. Probably a story there. “Miss Ichtaca, you work for VStar. Would you use this license to catch ever more valuable pokémon to sell to outsiders?”

“I don’t work for VStar,” Cuicatl says. “VStar has made it very clear that people like me are not employees. We can also stop taking missions at any time. I have access to more resources now. I don’t need their contracts. I will not be taking any more missions.”

You’re guessing she had not told VStar that from the way Chris Foster starts furiously texting in the row in front of you.

“Good, I guess, but why did you ever think that was a good idea?”

“Money.” At least she’s honest, sometimes. She seems to realize how that might’ve come off and quickly adds in a follow-up. “I was broke and needed more for the island challenge. I’m more stable now. Don’t need to take their jobs.”

“What happens if the good times don’t last and you need money again? Will you just go back to selling wild pokémon for profit?”

“I have other ways to make money.”

“Like what?”

Cuicatl tenses a little. “Working with my tyrantrum, Mitzcocotonaz. I think she’s the tamest in the world. Safest if you want to film a live tyrantrum or something. Consulting. Maybe take contracts to negotiate with wild dragons causing problems for humans.”

“Are you planning to go pro?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know. Haven’t finished the island challenge yet.”

You haven’t seen her battle but with her team she’d be at least a local hero in the minor leagues. For a few years after your journey you were a low level pro coordinator. Hardly on the cover of any magazines but you could pay the bills with local commercials, judging beginner contests, and the occasional paid performance. You know there are battlers who do similar things for similar pay.

Chris finally slams his phone shut. “Dr. Karashina, are you sure we, heh, are you sure you should trust someone who betrays the people who helped them that easily?”

The world’s second or third (who can keep up?) best trainer glares at the first. Spicier drama than other regions have at Class V hearings. “If I recall correctly, Ms. Ichtaca, on short notice and at great personal risk, stepped in and resolved the situation when your Class V pokémon went on a rampage. I think you are lucky that this is not a hearing to revoke your reciprocal Class V license.”

Chris seethes and turns down to his phone. He’s sitting at an angle so you can clearly see what he types. “Ruining this bitch. What have you got?” Sent to someone listed as “Nag 3.”

“Miss Ichtaca, you briefly discuss the Chinese cheri priests in your thesis. Do you think a practice like that could be implemented without expressly religious overtones?”

Cuicatl smiles. Probably glad to be back to actually discussing her thesis. That makes two of you. “Yes. Hydreigon, well, most hydreigon, don’t want to be worshiped or anything like that. Just want some respect. It doesn’t have to be berries. In the United States they could be offered their pick of tauros from a public ranch every year. Or maybe stop trying to kick them out of parks and just let them hunt bouffalant. They would keep the peace and stop attacking humans so they could keep hunting there.”

“Is there a safe way to harvest antivenom from a hydreigon?”

“Maybe? If they like to battle and a rule of battling is that they have to give up some venom every week they might agree. They just don’t like it when deino are kept in small cages. You wouldn’t like it if they stuffed human babies into crates to harvest their spit.”

You’re pretty sure this girl could save thousands of lives if people stopped being racist to her and just listened. That’s probably impossible, though.

Chris glances down at his phone and a genuinely creepy smile spreads across his face. It’s way too wide and the eyes almost glow with hate. You find yourself pushing back in your seat just looking at it.

“Why’d you lie about being psychic on your visa application?”

Shirona almost stands up before forcing herself back down. “Would you like to present a single scintilla of evidence for that or are we supposed to listen to you vengefully throw things at the wall to see what sticks?”

“Shut up and let the girl take this one. We’re waiting, Cuicatl.”

She looks… guilty might be too strong. Confused? Unsure? She’s biting the inside of her cheek and shifting awkwardly in place.

“It was a year ago and I was in a bad place. I barely remember the paperwork or what I put.” Shirona glares over at the four kahunas for some reason. “If I lied it’s because the mail would have been read by the Anahuac government and they draft bloodliners. The head psychic on the islands new I was here within a week. I wasn’t trying to hide from the American government.”

“So you are psychic?”

“Yes,” she huffs, arms crossed. “And I can speak the dragon languages. That part is real.”

“Are you, what, N’s cousin, then?”

“We’re both descended from the old hero-kings. I don’t know more than that.”

“Well, why should we trust another law-abiding psychic after what the last one did?” someone half-yells. And that sparks a shouting match between Lila and some of the Gracidea employees. It goes on for over a minute with no one willing or able to stop it. Honestly you can barely follow it. Something about defamation, improper permits, international v. national regulations… you’re sure it’s fascinating for Dexio but you can’t really bring yourself to care.

“Enough,” Cuicatl finally cuts in with a stern voice. She’s leaned forwards, arms resting on her knees, and scowling. She has more presence this way than you would have expected given her size. “I risked my health to stop that psychic. I’m nothing like him.”

“You were there, then?” you ask. Because, holy shit, plot twist.

“I was. I was… friends with the victim. Wanted to be close in case she needed help. She did.”

“And why didn’t you report this to the police if you knew it was going to happen?” Nanu asks.

“I did.” She throws up her hands in exasperation. “I told the cops, I told Interpol, I told social services. No one did anything until after it had started.”

Well, that’s one hell of an impression of American justice.

Things die down a while after that. Seems like everyone’s already formed their impression of her. It just took about twice as long as the average applicant.

Shirona escorts Cuicatl out of the room and into the hallway where another teenage girl takes her hand. Right. Blind. Didn’t come up much in questioning.

As soon as Shirona sits down, Admiral Wilford speaks up. “I don’t care if she’s the best damn trainer in the world, I’m not giving the enemy a tyrantrum.”

“She’s not loyal to anyone,” Chris adds. “Why would we think she’s loyal to America?”

One of the academics pipes in. “Why are we even letting children have a Class V? There’s an age limit on guns. Why not the most dangerous pokémon? And how much of the thesis work was even hers? Forgive me, but the scholarship seems above what I’d expect from a blind child.”

“I helped transcribe it and suggested more formal phrasing,” Shirona says. “It was necessary since she’s technically illiterate and Galarian is her third language. All of the ideas were hers. She’s brilliant. Just has more of a practical background than an academic one.”

That’s an oblique way to say she’s a high school dropout.

“I thought the scholarship was good.” Someone needs to defend the girl. Might as well be you. “Groundbreaking stuff on pokémon psychology.”

“She’s one of the most competent caregivers I’ve seen.” Olivia. “I saw her tyrunt before she evolved and found her to be shockingly well-behaved. Closer to a devoted rockruff than a spoiled dragon princess. I think she can definitely keep Class V pokémon in line.”

“I think it’s cool that she could bring the bigger dragons into the competitive mainstream,” Ryuki, self-professed gym leader, says. “Those are fearsome beasts. A reliable way to tame them has been the dragon master’s dream for centuries.”

“Plus,” Acerola chimes in with a sing-song voice. She’s looking pointedly at the admiral. “Negotiating with hydreigon has got to be good for national security, right? And there are more tricks she didn’t tell us tonight. Humiliating her and taking her pokémon away isn’t going to endear her to the US of A. Might be someone else learning hydreigon secrets.”

“The very fact that your threat is plausible is enough grounds to reject her license.”

“Do you really know why you’re defending her?” Chris asks. “She’s already been rooting around in your heads. It’s why you didn’t notice the accent she has on film.”

Huh. You hadn’t found it remarkable at all. That’s scary. There’s a lot of murmuring around the room as people reach the same conclusion.

“It’s involuntary,” Lila half-shouts. “And completely harmless. I’ve had it checked by a few different psychics. Ran it by my alakazam.”

“We’re supposed to trust the psychics’ word on that? What if they’re doing it, too?”

You doubt Lila is lying. Dexio only has good things to say about them. It’s not going to change any minds. Most people already think the psychic self-governance is bullshit. The way every bill against it fails behind closed doors does nothing to help their case.

There’s another furor as Lila and some other psychics (including your spouse) try to calm down the reset of the crowd. Goes on for a few minutes straight while Chris sits in place and watches with an unbearably smug grin. A buff native Alolan man beside him looks really uncomfortable about the whole thing. Don’t think you’ve heard him speak up tonight.

Shirona finally speaks again. “Champion Perry, may I ask what the purpose of writing a thesis is if the applicant will not be judged by its quality? If you make your decisions based on unrelated personal matters, as I am increasingly led to believe you do, I would think an autobiography more appropriate.”

Boy does that open the floodgates. Suddenly there’s an entirely tangential conversation about the best way to give out Class V licenses. (The military wants it to work like a security clearance, someone from Gracidea suggests an employer sponsorship option, Hala wants there to be more league influence on the decision. No one seems to like the current system but they also hate everyone else’s proposal. It doesn’t have much of anything to do with Cuicatl. You’re not even sure this body can change how licenses are granted. There’s probably a law or something on it.

A phone alarm goes off in front and Selene stands up. “We’ve reached our allotted debate time. Please take your ballot and write ‘Yes’ to vote in favor of Miss Ichtaca’s application or “No” to vote against it.”

You open up your ballot. How do you play this? You feel bad for the girl. It’s not her fault she’s loyal to home and scared of her powers coming public. It just looks really bad. You don’t want to tear her life apart over it but you’ve worked with teenagers. They aren’t bad people, just prone to dramatic overreactions and stupid decisions. Should you really mix that with a tyrantrum and metagross?

{Is she valuable to interview?} you ask Dexio.

{Yes.}

Hmm. Well, probably best if she’s in an agreeable mood after this. You write out ‘yes’ and close the ballot. It doesn’t take long for Selene to collect and count them. Two, maybe, three minutes. Then she stands up.

“I have the results. Can someone bring Miss Ichtaca back in?”
 

DrThoth

Bug Catcher
Pronouns
he/him
So I saw this story back in 2021 or so and read a bit, but dropped off due to some of the subject material not being the best for my own headspace at the time.

I occasionally read (and always enjoy) Alola Pokedex for its thoughtful and holistic worldbuilding and integration of zoology, anthropology, sociology, psychology, general science/academia processes and ethics to make your work a necessary addition to the 'genre' of Pokemon realism. It led me to pick up this latest chapter of Broken Things and it was a fun experience. I've jumped around in the fic since then, reading things way out of order and skipping over early arcs and some later ones when things got too heavy, though I like to think I'm still able to appreciate them by reading about their aftermath and the characters' reactions and their linear and non-linear paths to recovery.

All this to say, I can't give the most informed opinion of your work since I haven't read the fic comprehensively, and probably won't be able to for the foreseeable future, but I've read enough to know that this is a great story, which reflects reality in all its ups and downs, making the sorrows and traumas all the more heartwrenching and the moments of joy, love, support and healing all the more meaningful. You've crafted a beautifully intricate world where the Broken Things are the people and the systems they (and we) have put in place. Loosely paraphrasing your comments on Spacebattles and perhaps elsewhere, the fic isn't to the tastes of general Pokemon adventure fic enthusiasts and even demographics who like the typical dark/edgy 'realistic' Pokemon violence, but rather finds its audience with those who like character studies and hopefully great worldbuilding. The violence of Broken Things lies not in people or organizations being supervillains, but in them being fundamentally human (which goes for the Pokemon too, in their own way).

Broken Things is a difficult read, says I, someone who hasn't actually and maybe can't ever read the whole thing (though it's been less than a week since I got back into the fic and it IS over 500k words, so maybe I'm jumping the gun a bit). But its difficulty comes from its themes and plot, rather than any major flaw in storytelling, and that's the best kind of difficult there is. I can't think of any other term than personally enriching when I think about the story's worldbuilding, character conflicts, both inner and interpersonal, and the examination of society in all its beauty and brokenness.

Broken Things is above all else an important read. I just wanted to say thank you for writing, and continuing to write, it.

And yes, the cliffhanger is a bitch.
 
Fairy 6.22

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
A response before the chapter;
It led me to pick up this latest chapter of Broken Things and it was a fun experience. I've jumped around in the fic since then, reading things way out of order and skipping over early arcs and some later ones when things got too heavy, though I like to think I'm still able to appreciate them by reading about their aftermath and the characters' reactions and their linear and non-linear paths to recovery.
Fun fact: I once read the first chapter of a web serial, then skipped to its most recent and read every other chapter in reverse order, then read the remaining updates as they were posted. It was definitely not meant to be read that way but it was very fun.
All this to say, I can't give the most informed opinion of your work since I haven't read the fic comprehensively, and probably won't be able to for the foreseeable future, but I've read enough to know that this is a great story, which reflects reality in all its ups and downs, making the sorrows and traumas all the more heartwrenching and the moments of joy, love, support and healing all the more meaningful. You've crafted a beautifully intricate world where the Broken Things are the people and the systems they (and we) have put in place.
Maybe the real Broken Things were the friends we made along the way?
Broken Things is above all else an important read. I just wanted to say thank you for writing, and continuing to write, it.

And yes, the cliffhanger is a bitch.
You're welcome! Have another.

Discussion of Suicide

Fairy 6.22: Unreality
Cuicatl

July 24, 2020

Gen guides you away. It takes a while but you can hear the formerly quiet crowd start to buzz again. Your girlfriend tries to reassure you and you ignore it. You both know how that went. You were there.

“They were so mean,” she huffs. “How is anyone supposed to pass? They’re mad at you because you work with VStar and then they’re mad at you because you don’t.”

VStar. Dr. Karashina and Lyra had argued over how to handle them and agreed that was the best way to handle it. So long as there weren’t any major scandals there were aware of (you’d told them they weren’t) it would gain you more votes than you’d lose.

It turns out the that Miss Bell is paid lots of money because she’s good at her job.

You don’t even remember why you lied. It must have been a thoughtless thing done in the spur of the moment. Just one, tiny little thing that might have doomed you. Did they even ask directly? Did you actually lie or just not volunteer information they didn’t ask for? Why would they even devote a question to asking that? They have limited space in—okay fine you don’t remember how long it took you to fill out the form. Just another careless moment from the careless girl who lost her passport and…

“We’re at the door. Want to go outside?”

“Yes,” you tell her, “Alone.”

Her concern and disappointment ripple out of her mind and through her body into yours.

“I’ll be fine.” You just want time alone with only one voice in your head.

“If you’re sure…”

“I won’t go far.”

“Okay.” She gives you a side hug and you lean in a little despite everything. “Just call if you need anything.”

“I will.”

She opens the door and you step out. You don’t know exactly where you’re going but you walk forward until you reach the softness of dirt and grass. It’s wet from recent rain. Not common in the summer. Grass got lucky. You would like to feel it. You like your sandals so much because you can feel the texture of the ground beneath the soles and the plants around them. When you had to replace them in April you made sure the new ones were the same. Now your feet are shoved into dress shoes that you can already feel giving you blisters. But Dr. Karashina insisted you needed something nicer. Something more formal, more American. Ended up being a dress and tights with blocky, hard-edged shoes and a face caked in powders or creams. At least the dress is flowy.

You flop down into the wet grass. Maybe it ruins the clothes. You don’t care. The people have already made up their minds about you. Seeing grass stains on you won’t change anything. You’d just like to feel something real.

You hear Pixie’s steady trot. Right. She’s out here. “Done with the ninetales?”

“Yes. Why are you sad?”

Right to the point. “I don’t think that went well.”

“You failed?” she asks as she climbs into your lap and curls up. Add white fur to the grass stains.

“I think so.”

“You don’t know?”

“Not yet.” You reach down and she presses her head into your hand. You idly scratch her ear. Her one remaining ear. You don’t think that’s your fault. Yes, you could have sent out Noci, Leo, or Coco, but they probably would’ve been killed. Yes, you could have waited for Dr. Karashina, but then you might not have made it in time to help. You tried to keep her from Kalani. That was a mistake. It’s unfortunate but not your fault. Just a dead fox’s. And maybe Dr. Kukui’s. Dr. Karashina blames him.

“You’re fine,” she says. “You’re smart. For a human.”

You raise an eyebrow. “And for a fox?”

“You would be a bad fox.”

“That’s probably true.”

At least she believes in you. And maybe you do have a chance. Dr. Karashina is in there. She’s persuasive. Chris can’t prove anything, either. Maybe they’re just this harsh to everyone. Lyra was harsh in her questions to you. And you do know a lot about hydreigon care. More than any of them. They couldn’t attack that at all, except to complain that you haven’t read theories by people who also probably know less than you. Dragons don’t even care about what this committee thinks. Alice never asked about licenses. Ellas would think they were silly, human things.

It’s not over yet. There’s still hope. You force out a small smile. Maybe you have this after all.

It takes a long time for the door to open again. You try to see that as not a bad thing. Gen calls out that it’s time to come in. You gently push Pixie out of your lap and rise to your feet, holding out a hand for guidance. She slides under it. At the door you turn down towards Pixie.

“Think they’ll let her in,” you ask your girlfriend.

“Probably not.”

“You want to go back outside or into your ball?”

She thinks for a moment. “Ball.”

“Okay. See you soon.”

You take Gen’s arm and she walks you back to your seat in the conference room. It’s quiet. Very quiet. You extend a small probe to Dr. Karashina and find her mind tightly sealed. Probably didn’t even notice you tried to ask a question.

“Miss Ichtaca,” the champion begins. “The council has considered your application for a Class V Pokémon Training license. And by a vote of 37 to 26 your application was denied. I’m sorry.”

Your heart falls. Your mind falls. The world falls. For a moment nothing exists at all.

“You can apply again in a year’s time…”

She says more things, probably. Your mind can’t understand them. Can’t understand anything. Gods. What happens to Coco? How do you tell her this? Aree you just going to abandon your own daughter to some stranger because you fucked up some paperwork a year ago and. It feels like your world ended again. Like you just flew home and father pulled you aside and you realized that you tore your family apart with a casual decision for the second time in two years.

Once can be a mistake. Everyone can make those. Twice is a pattern of carelessness. Of failure. Of failing everyone who though they could depend on you.

“Thank you everyone for coming. I look forward to seeing you again.”

You want to run. You can’t. The room is unfamiliar. Sending out Noci or Pixie would require answering questions and you don’t—can’t—

People are starting to crowd around you. It’s stuffier. Too many footsteps.

“I’m really sorry about that,” someone says. “Tried to argue for you. I’m Ryuki, by the way. The dragon gym leader. I have a ranch your tyrantrum can live on—”

“That’s quite enough,” Dr. Karashina says. Her voice is lower and icier than you’ve ever heard it. Even when she was discussing Kalani’s killing. A hand falls on your shoulder. “Can I help you get somewhere quieter, dear?”

Maybe you nod. Maybe you don’t. Your hand ends up on someone’s arm and your feet are moving and you’re guided down into a chair in a quieter space. Another chair pulls out. Someone sits down. For some reason you focus on their breathing. Slow. Steady. Wrong pitch for Lyra. Gen would be upset. You flick your mind out and find a solid wall. Dr. Karashina, then.

“This isn’t your fault but mine,” she finally says. “I assumed too much of others and failed to anticipate that proper documentation would be a problem.”

Oh.

She thought too highly of you.

You always knew she did. Just didn’t expect her to say it.

“Not you,” she interrupts. “I just told you that. Your case is…” She leans forward and rests a hand on one of yours. “There are things going on that they could not have known about. I will tell you as much as I can soon. I promise. In the meantime, there are steps we can take to minimize the damage.”

Straight to business. Ready to move on. You don’t think you can. Not yet. You still haven’t fully accepted what happened. A dream, maybe. Everything’s blurry, it could be—it’s a dream. You can wake up. You can learn.

“What should I have done better?”

“Nothing,” she says. “All of this was set in place as soon as you entered Alola. Others failed to care for you.”

“There had to have been something—”

She moves her chair closer to you and wraps an arm around your shoulder. “No. There wasn’t. Now, this isn’t ideal.” You snort at the understatement of the calendar round. Snot comes out. You don’t, can’t, won’t, lift a hand to remove it. “I can still promise that your worst fears will not come to pass. I’ll have to move some timeframes around and call in a few favors. It’s possible you’ll have to drop out of the island challenge. But I promise that things are going to be okay in the end, however hard it is to see that now.”

There are a few quick knocks at the door. Shirona says something in Sinnish under her breath. “Busy!” Something soft is pressed against the snot on your face and quickly moved away.

The door opens anyway. A few people walk in. Two, three, or four. The door is slammed shut behind them.

“Nanu, I swear up and down the pillar that if you’re going to take her pokémon right now I’m going to—”

“Calm down. This has nothing to do with that.”

Lila. And… the words don’t translate. That happened with the dark kahuna. His words sound similar. Probably him? Chairs are pulled out and pushed back in at… three different times.

“Nanu, are you really trying to do this now,” Dr. Karashina hisses. “Read the room.”

“Told you that I’d have everything ready by the conference. I can leave the stuff here and go home if you’d prefer. It’s already late and I don’t teleport. I’d really rather get on the road if it’s all the same to you.”

There’s a tense silence in the air. Someone finally breaks it with a sigh. Someone else. Male. Not Nanu. “I can stay and overtake the case if liked.”

It takes you a moment to understand. Even through your gift it’s… off. That almost never happens.

“No, he’s not getting out of this that easily. Tomorrow—”

“Golfing,” Nanu drawls. “Sorry, doc.”

“The day after.”

“Busy.”

“With. What?”

“Out of the country.”

Another tense pause. “You’re a fucking asshole, you know that?”

It’s strange to hear Dr. Karashina swear. You don’t think you’d heard it before.

“Heard it all before. Now, do you want to do this now or later?”

“What are you talking about?” you finally ask. Dr. Karashina knows about this. It involves a kahuna for some reason. And Lila. Why are they here?

“Some other bad news. Mostly unrelated to this. It isn’t urgent but it is something you should know eventually. If you can’t handle anything else right now, we can wait.”

“Just tell me.” Not like things can get any worse.

“Cool. You’re a faller.”

Lila’s chair rapidly pulls away and they slam their hands on the table. Psychic energy flares against your defenses. “You sick fuck—"

“Calm down.”

“You promised that this wasn’t going to happen again.”

I didn’t.”

“We had an understanding.”

“Tell that to Tapu Lele.”

“At the very least you could have told me.”

“You found out almost immediately.”

The onslaught of psychic power pauses. “What?”

“Tapu Lele mindwiped you.”

“Bastard,” they mutter. “Should have at least told me during The Blackout. What if she was attacked?”

“We had Reshiram on site within four hours. It was fine.”

Lila finally sits down. “When?”

“The wormhole storm back in September. She showed up on Ula’Ula while you were busy with the ‘cephs on Akala.

You once again have no idea what they’re talking about. “What’s a faller?”

“You know the wormholes that Ultra Beasts come from?”

“Yes?” Sort of. You’ve picked up some secondhand. Not like you’ve heard a full lecture or anything.

“Sometimes they connect to other Earths. Sometimes those other Earths have humans on them. Sometimes a human comes through from another Earth. Most of the time they’re fine. Just a little shaken. We get them a new ID and a place to stay for a few months. But psychics? You lot get fucked up in Ultra Space. Come out with minds torn to pieces. For centuries Tapu Lele’s been stitching their minds back together into something coherent. She likes to see how long it takes people to figure it out. How good her work was. Looker and I are just the saps who have to help her.”

You blink. Okay. Psychics. Ultra Space. He’s saying… you’re not from here? And your mind… your memories…

“Are my memories real?”

“Some of them,” Nanu says. “Some aren’t. Some are probably just close. She took the pieces and tried to complete the puzzle but some were missing and she likes to, well. You’re probably mostly the same person. Close enough for government work.”

You try to think through all of that and immediately fail. It’s. How do you even start to understand that? You find yourself focusing on the smaller things. If you’re not from here, if you’re from another dimension, that’s why Miss Bell couldn’t find your pokémon.

“My pokémon are in another universe?”

Nanu sighs. “No, kid. You had six apricorn pokéballs on you when you came through. Nothing in them. Their inhabitants had died.”

This isn’t real. You already thought you were dreaming and nothing after that has made any more sense. Something slides across the table and you reach out instinctively. A bag. Something hard in it. Are these—

You reach in. Grab one. It fits well in your palm. Wood. Smooth, mostly, with some uneven paint beneath the release. What pokéballs are supposed to feel like. Renfield’s. You reach in and grab one that gives you a tiny splinter just for touching it. The first. ‘Kovsky’s. Horror grows with each one you pull out. You know these instinctively. Better than you know your current set. These are real.

This is real.

The final one has little iron studs running along it in an x-pattern. The highest rated ball on the market.

This is Alice’s pokéball. A year has passed and you’ve finally found it again.

Ellas is dead.

They’re all dead.

You drop the ball and it starts rolling towards the edge of the table. Your hand clumsily shoots out to grab it but it just sends it flying off. No. This. No. Alice. Renfield. Searah. Coco. Everyone. Everything—

The fox snarls and spit flies onto your face. Her sharp claws easily shred through your top and dig into your chest. “You will die alone.” The ninetales’ curse. Dying alone with no way home. Did she cause this, somehow, or was she just unlucky enough to waste her final breath?

Two nightmares in an hour.

The first.

“The visa,” you somehow choke out. “It didn’t exist. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. Had a week to get lots of shit in order and both Looker and I have jobs. State department wasn’t being helpful, didn’t have much time or the right connections to force something through. We can help you get a passport if you want one.”

“You could have said something! I could have passed.”

“Listen, kid, did you really want to have this conversation in front of dozens of people?”

“If I’d known sooner—” You whirl around to face Dr. Karashina. “You knew about this?”

“I found out shortly before you left for Poni,” she answers. “I’d thought it best not to stress you before the thesis defense. I was wrong.” Her usual level, imperious tone wavers. “I’m sorry. Truly.”

You remember the dragon gym leader who immediately wanted to take Coco. Was she just doing that with extra steps? You press your seat back and stand up, stuffing the apricorn balls into the holding bag. Something nudges your hand. Hard, round. Alice’s. You take it and put it in the bag, too, before sending out Noci. She’s less likely to ask questions—less likely to ask the wrong questions—than Pixie. You need to be somewhere else. Somewhere where the walls aren’t closing in and everyone hates you and it’s all so, so wrong.

{Take me. Somewhere else.}

{Query: status.}

{Somewhere else.}

{Query: Status:UD_Cuicatl_Ichtaca.}

{Somewhere. Else.} You send a scattershot of feelings of the wet grass and honestly you don’t know you just need need need to not be here.

You hear a door open in front of you and step through.

“Cuicatl, is everything alright? What—”

You step past Genesis. How do you explain this to her? She didn’t even know who she was dating. It’s all built on lies.

Someone reaches out to stop you and you just keep going. They don’t try to hold you back but they do walk behind you.

“Babe, we can talk about it—”

{Not now. Not yet.} The burst is harsher than it should have been. Maybe even a little painful. Good. It’s best if she just leaves now before you get her hurt, too.

Once you step through another door and finally feel moist, real air on your skin you signal Noci to dip lower.

“Cuicatl!”

You slip onto Noci’s back. {Somewhere we won’t be bothered. Please.}

She hesitates. She never hesitates. She’s betraying you, too. Not the best time for it but with your luck it makes sense. Three tragedies, one hour. Then she slowly begins to rise and your body gets telekinetically pulled down into hers.

Genesis keeps shouting beneath you and maybe Lyra says something but you don’t care. Can’t care. How do you deal with something, anything, else when you can’t even deal with half of what just happened?

It could be a minute or an hour or an eternity before Noci slows and descends to let you off. The ground is hard under your shoes but a little uneven. Natural rock. The winds aren’t much stronger so you aren’t too high up. You crash down onto the ground and sprawl out, back against the stone.

{Query: Status}

You sigh / sob. Probably no putting it off.

“I’m from some other world. Fell through a wormhole. Tapu Lele fucked all my memories up and. And. And…” No. You can’t do this. Not aloud. {My mom’s pokémon are all dead.}

In half a second Noci’s arm is pressed against your side. It’s warm. You lean into it. She wraps the other around you.

The dam breaks and you sob. Loudly. Constantly. Until you have no more tears left in your body. Even then you still heave and whimper to try and dig more up.

“And I didn’t get the Class V license,” you whisper in a cracked voice. “Dr. Karashina—Shirona—she knew and set me up to fail. Probably going to take Coco with her. Then Cuepiltia will go with Coco. I can’t evolve you so I can’t beat the League. Pixie will find someone who can. Sitrus will follow. Leo will get bored and go back to the ocean when the fights stop. You aren’t loyal to me in the first place. And when I have no pokémon I can’t protect Gen so she’ll leave. Probably date Lyra. Good. She deserves better. They both do. And then I’ll be alone, for real, even more than last time and I don’t think I can do that again.”

{Assessing Probability… Processing Large Amounts of Data… Querying Greater Network… Likelihood of Suggested Causal Chain Roughly 1.668%}

“How could you possibly know that?”

{Unit2_263 will not abandon UD_Cuicatl_Ichtaca}

Great. Because she’s totally incapable of lying.

“Did you know I was a faller?” You wouldn’t put it past her. She might have been keeping that secret, too.

{Negation.}

“So there was something you didn’t observe.”

{Unit2_263 has failed observational duties. Suggested action?
[] Decommission
[] Order Upgrades
[] Change Behavioral Programming
[] Initiate Ramming
[] Do Nothing}

It almost makes you laugh in the face of everything. You assume that was a joke. Should make sure of that. “Do nothing.”

{Orders received.}

The air grows colder and you can feel a new presence nearby. Breathing. About human volume and height. You thought you went pretty far. Why is someone bothering you out here? Who dares to bother you out here?

“Making yourself a little hard to find, princess.”

The voice is feminine. About your age. Mostly unfamiliar? Maybe you met her or heard her talk during the review.

“What do you want?”

Should you have Noci do something? She probably isn’t a threat but you don’t want her here. Not now. The metang pulls away on her own. Good. Makes responses faster.

“Heard you’d cut everyone off to mope on your own. Been there, done that, found that it never helps like you think it would. Wanted to make sure you had someone to talk to, princess to princess.”

“I don’t know you.” And that’s the second time she’s used that word. “And I’m not a princess.”

“You’re Unovan royalty, aren’t you? I like to think that royal lineages continue on after white people overthrow a kingdom. They would really like you to think otherwise, which probably means it’s a good idea.”

You stay silent. Who is this person and what does she want?

“Oh! How rude of me. I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Acerola Aholo, great-granddaughter of Alola’s last queen and the rightful heir to the throne.”

“You were the ghost trial captain?”

“Yup! You just missed out on fighting me by the sounds of it.”

“Do you want Coco or something?” Still have no idea why she’s here. Or why she hasn’t left yet. You’ve been trying to keep any hint of friendliness out of your voice. It isn’t very hard.

“No. I really am here to just talk. You don’t end up as a ghost specialist without going through some hard times. Wanted to make sure you weren’t… doing something rash.”

“I’m not killing myself.” Yet. That will probably come when everyone’s left you and there’s no one around who would mourn. “I have Noci here. I’m fine.”

“Good to hear it. And she seems like a very nice metang.” You hear her settle in against the rocks. How do you make her leave? She has ghost-types. Noci couldn’t overpower her. Could Coco? You really don’t want to send her out yet. Haven’t even thought about how to explain everything. “Under Alolan law you wouldn’t have a license review, you know? Trainers were allowed to raise anything they could keep willingly serving alongside them and nothing they couldn’t.”

“American law applies now.” Maybe too harsh to tell to the lost princess or whatever but you really do just want her to leave.

“Yeah. Even though a lot of people have tried to change that.” She sighs. “America likes to talk about being a nation of free speech and peaceful protest and fair laws. That’s not how it works, though. My great-grandmother convinced the president that the takeover was wrong and Congress and the army just ignored it. Took us over without even passing a law. My mom went to the U.N. and the FBI shot her. Barely even tried to make it look like an accident. Declared the rest of my family unfit to raise me and shoved me in an orphanage just to show that they could. That there was no hope. That Alola was never coming back peacefully. And I did learn. You can’t win peacefully when the enemy won’t let you.”

That’s Skull rhetoric. Nahua rhetoric, even. “How did they let you get a Class V license?”

She laughs. It’s whimsical. Captivating. Deeply sad beneath it all. “I didn’t just come out and tell them all that! I learned to play the game. Got the kahuna to take me under his wing. Became a trial captain. Started making friends in the shadows and in the light. Read everything of my mother’s I could find. Have nothing but smiles for the Americans until it was too late to stop me. And I’ve found a lot of allies along the way! I’m hardly the only person the colonizers and their government have screwed over.”

The Gages getting away with everything. Kekoa growing up in an orphanage while his brother was away in their army. Now you losing Coco and being lied to for almost a year.

“I know.”

“See! When I was reading and exploring, I found something. Just cryptic mentions in a few books and on a gravestone, but I got Nanu to tell me a little and the ghosts to tell me a lot and I figured it out! One of Nanu’s ancestors was—they call them fallers, now, people from another world.” You freeze up. Does she know? How could she possibly know? She continues, though, like it shouldn’t mean anything to you. “They had a whole civilization with lots of magic. Set up a small city in the desert.”

“I think I stumbled into it.” The place with the golett and baltoy. They recognized you as a citizen. Is that when Shirona figured it all out?

“Cool! It’s buried pretty deep in there. Anyway, the spacefarers and the royals were friendly. Intermarried. Traded things. They gave us things we couldn’t find on Alola and we gave them some of our harvests when they didn’t have enough food. One of those gifts was this lovely obsidian dagger. I think it’s obsidian, anyway. Smooth black rock.”

“Sounds like obsidian.” You’ve held a few of those daggers. Old ones, mostly, when they let you into the temple for a little training.

“Yeah. Anyway, there’s an army of ghosts around Alola. My family can summon them. But we also need blood from a third person and, well, a faller. To make sure we didn’t use it against the spacefarers.”

Your blood stills again. You know why she’s here.

“You knew?”

“For a while, yeah. Had Plumeria reach out to you in Heahea. See if you’d be in a really bad place if we told you.” The Skull boss. She’d had a weird alarm, one you remembered from somewhere, and then asked what you would do if your mom’s pokémon never showed up. You thought she was threatening you. Might’ve threatened her. Probably threatened her. “Glad they’d told you about it. I saw Nanu and Lila go in after you so I figured you were about to find out, but, like, if they didn’t and you found out from me it would’ve been kind of awkward.”

You grip the bag in your hands a little tighter. You know why she’s here. It doesn’t sound good. {What pokémon does she have out?}

{One froslass. Five additional balls visible on belt. Initiate ramming?}

{No. Not yet.}

“Are you going to kill me? Take my blood?”

Woah, no! Has to be consensual. And I need, like, two drops. Five, tops.”

“It’s not just blood, though, is it? I’m Nahua. I’ve heard things about blood magic.”

“A little bit of essence. You’ll be sluggish for a few days. Might feel a little colder than usual. The blood and essence aren’t powering the ritual, just removing the locks on it.”

You snort. A lot of snot comes out because of all the crying. You quickly wipe it up like that didn’t happen. Acerola doesn’t comment on it. “Why should I believe you?”

“Because you have a lot to gain?” The sing-song melody of her voice dips and levels out. “I told you, licenses aren’t a thing under Alolan law. You hate the Gages? I hate them, too. They won’t be able to hurt you or your girlfriend ever again. I can set aside some hunting lands for your tyrantrum. Even the florges your friend sold himself to is in on this. She’ll release him if you help us.”

“Fairies don’t give that kind of thing up without a price.” This is still too good to be true. You’ve heard enough stories to know that you don’t ever gain everything you want without losing everything you have.

“I’m paying it. Don’t worry. Didn’t take much to convince her, though. A white florges never saw a military occupation she liked.”

“And why would you pay?” Maybe you’re still mad she barged in. Maybe you’re mad she knew and didn’t tell you. Maybe you just can’t imagine anything ending this well for you. Whatever it is, you can’t bring yourself to trust her. Not yet.

“Girl, I’m getting my entire country back. I can afford to set aside some land and pass a law or two when we win if it gets your support.” She pauses and continues with a softer, less confident voice. “I really need you here. If you say no I’m back at square one. Might not get another chance in my life. Please. If there’s anything you want from me, I’ll do it.”

What do you even want? You can’t get your mom’s pokémon back. They’re…

You want to keep Coco. You want to stay with Genesis as long as she’ll let you. What you want most is what you have. But you can’t keep it. Not without making this deal. Even if this deal costs you everything you have, you’re already going to lose it.

“Will you kick all the Americans out?” you ask. For Gen’s sake. And Lyra’s.

“Not unless they fight us or ask to leave.”

“And there will be enough food for Coco?”

“Yes. I promise.”

“Would you change your mind if I fought the Tapu?”

She shifts in place. “What?”

“The Tapu are preventing the vulpix from making a sanctuary. Pixie, my vulpix, she wants me to try and fight one of them so that the rejects can have a place. Would you stop me?”

“Huh. Didn’t know all of that.” There’s a long pause. Probably not, then. Maybe you couldn’t keep Pixie. But if it’s her or Coco—you don’t want to choose, you’ve made promises to both you want to keep—but if you have to, you’re siding with your daughter. “Wait until the war’s over, please. Or at least let me try and negotiate with them first.” She rests a hand on your thigh. You want to slap it away. Touch. Now. From a stranger. She removes it quickly and keeps talking like nothing had happened. “I have sympathies for them. Losing everything and being in an unfamiliar home. I will help if I can, but I need to secure our independence first.”

She sounds so confident she can beat the Americans. You’re less sure. Maybe she fails. Maybe they find out you helped. Maybe they kill you. If you do nothing and everyone leaves you might kill yourself. You wouldn’t have the goal of saving mom’s pokémon keeping you going. No home to return to someday. You’d have nothing. No one would even miss you.

Even if you don’t trust Acerola, your only glimmer of hope is in her hands.

{What do you think?}

{[X] Accept offer.}

“Fine. I’ll do it.”

*​

End of Arc Six.

Broken Things will return Fall 2024.
 

DrThoth

Bug Catcher
Pronouns
he/him
Fun fact: I once read the first chapter of a web serial, then skipped to its most recent and read every other chapter in reverse order, then read the remaining updates as they were posted. It was definitely not meant to be read that way but it was very fun.
That's how I started this reread too. Kekoa's most recent chapter was VERY interesting because I thought he'd fallen in with actual Pokemon Loudred and Golbat who happened to train Pokemon of their own. I believe you wrote Oranguru sometimes become trainers in Alola Pokedex so I just rolled with it. Finding out later they were just nicknames was very amusing.

Also is this just a massive cosmic Solgaleo-Lunala alignment coincidence or did my comment somehow prompt the release of a chapter?

Either way, thank you! Time to read and feel ahead of things for once.
 

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
That's how I started this reread too. Kekoa's most recent chapter was VERY interesting because I thought he'd fallen in with actual Pokemon Loudred and Golbat who happened to train Pokemon of their own. I believe you wrote Oranguru sometimes become trainers in Alola Pokedex so I just rolled with it. Finding out later they were just nicknames was very amusing.

Also is this just a massive cosmic Solgaleo-Lunala alignment coincidence or did my comment somehow prompt the release of a chapter?

Either way, thank you! Time to read and feel ahead of things for once.

LOL okay best payoff of the code names ever. The chapter was scheduled for Saturday but I figured, hey, why not? Going to be on vacation then, anyway.
 
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