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Synopsis:
Venira is a seraph, a formless Pokemon in "training" to become a legendary. However, her time spent under her creator, Father Arceus, has not been grand. As she slowly learns more about the concept of "emotions," she's come to understand that she wants more for herself.
When she discovers her sole reason for stomaching her abuse is nothing more than a façade, she decides the only thing left to do is disobey every rule that had been set for her, starting with the first, and most cardinal...
Do not ingest blood.
~ Of Mon's First Disobedience
A story of fear and disobeying what needs to be disobeyed...
Hello! Welcome to my entry for the 2023 One-Shot Contest. The theme was "Legendary POV" so I took a risk and wrote about the only legendaries I really care about: the fakemon legendaries I created after the seven deadly sins for my fic, White Swan, Black Swan.
This tale serves as the origin story for Venira, whom you might know as Odile if you're on the Discord server a lot. I initially wrote this about 2,000 words longer than the 10,000 word limit set for the contest, but I made the decision to edit the original longer version based on the notes I received, as I felt the uncut version did my idea more justice. As a result...well, now it's about 15,000 words long. And I have plans to continue it. So, I will be posting it in chapters and will continue it as inspiration allows.
You do not need any prior knowledge of White Swan, Black Swan to read this. This is the origin story of all my occult bloodmon bullshit so please don't feel the need to look at the parent story if you're not inclined to otherwise.
THIS STORY IS FLAGGED FOR THEMES OF ABUSE, BODY HORROR, AND A WHOLE LOT OF BLOOD. PLEASE READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.
I did my best to take all the notes I agreed with into account, but I know it's still not perfect. I don't know what kind of crit I'm looking for on this, so, really, I'll take anything. Go nuts. Although, if I am to be as politely blunt as I can be, I do not want to hear anything about why you don't like fakemon or why you think it's stupid that the characters here are in human forms. The former is a personal preference, and the latter is my own stylistic choice that you can either take or leave. Simply put, I didn't want to write about Pokemon forms, so I wrote about Pokemon in human forms :)
As always, thank you so much for reading and for any constructive and polite critique you might offer!
Specific content warnings will be listed at the beginning of every chapter, but in general, this story is flagged for:
Themes of abuse
Discussion of body horror
Body horror
Strong language
Table of Contents: 1 ~ Bored
2 ~ Disappointment
3 ~ Fear
4 ~ Love
5 ~ WRATH
6 ~ rebirth
"Of Mon’s first disobedience and the fruit Of that forbidden tree, whose immortal taste
Brought Wrath into the world, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Mon
Restore us and regain the blissful seat, Sing, O heavenly Muse…”
*** Bored
CW: Strong Language, Themes of Abuse
I was BORED–feeling a sense of weariness from lacking activity.
It smelled bad, and I was fucking BORED.
Father Arceus said I wasn't permitted to curse as such, but did I care? Absolutely the fuck not. It smelled bad; I was ANNOYED–slightly irritated–that it smelled bad, and as always, I was really.
Fucking.
BORED.
Something in my chest started to bounce around and made me feel the urge to get violent. I wondered if there was a point where perhaps he had stuck something in there, but it didn't come to mind…not that I had any reason to put it past him; he had no issues morphing my form around as he saw fit. That was ANNOYING.
I didn’t like it. I hated it.
Right now, I was in the shape of something called "human girl," and getting into it was what I would call "a bitch and a half." Something to emphasize ANNOYING.
It was awful. It hurt. And he didn’t care how much I screamed.
A shudder shook my slender shoulders, and I pressed my hands against the window I stood in front of to get a grip on myself. I tried my hardest to forget the sound of my form breaking and reforming, the feeling of my voice tearing against the back of my throat, and the insistence from Father Arceus that I be quiet lest I alert the others. Not that they also didn’t experience the same pain, because they had also been made into these things called humans.
Father Arceus always changed all of us one at a time. Something about “making sure he got the forms right when he created the creatures in real time.”
I hate it.
Whatever was manifesting in my chest that was giving me the urge to cry out and punch the glass before me wasn't tangible. But it had a name. It was an emotion. One that I could not name yet, but it was an emotion no less.
Emotions. Father Arceus said they all had names. I'd started to gain a knack for identifying them, even in the middle of lesson time. We were going over more things about how the multiverse was laid out, but I couldn't care less about where all the assorted worlds were located versus actually visiting one.
"Venira, are you listening to me? Can you look at me?"
I heard Father Arceus' command, but my face scrunched at the thought of listening. I knew I was supposed to; he'd made that perfectly clear. But I felt momentary BLISS—perfect happiness—at the idea of being able to say 'no.' To soar away from Eden, away from everything that made it fucking reek, like black holes and being made into things I wasn’t meant to be.
"Venira."
I jumped under the force of Father Arceus' voice, which shook the throne room. As my urge to throw an object at his head flared, it was accompanied by another unnamed feeling, this one far more overpowering. It made my chest feel like a pit and like my insides were in tight, coil-y knots.
I didn't have a name or clear understanding of this emotion yet, but I was certain that I hated it just as much as I hated the forced transformation. In fact, it liked to rear its fucking head whenever it happened, too.
Out of all of them, both the ones I could name and not, it was by far the fucking worst. It made my body feel tense, no matter what form I was in, and sometimes even caused me to shake. What kind of emotion caused you to lose all control of your body?
All the more reason why I felt so much BLISS at the idea of saying 'no.' If I could say 'no,' Father Arceus couldn't give me whatever this was.
Luckily, it quickly returned to ANNOYANCE, and I whipped my head around to look at him. The white hair on my head was long enough to where it tickled my back as I swung around, and it ended up falling in my face. I scrambled to push it away so I could narrow my eyes.
"I heard you," I thundered, resisting the urge to drop a vulgar word. "I just cannot think over that black hole smell."
Father Arceus was far bigger and far scarier than I was. He always presented as a giant white quadruped with a slender body that allowed him to run after whoever he wanted to. He dedicated himself to constantly being on top of everyone (in a figurative sense; he'd crush anyone he actually stood on top of), so I supposed there was some merit to being able to move fast.
He also wore gold around his rump–a belt, he called it. But I thought it looked stupid because it looked like it was impaling him. Who the hell would want to wear something that impaled them? Was the sensation something that good? Or was it why it made him such an asshole? I often thought about looking into being stabbed myself, just to see what it was like.
Father Arceus' eyes, ever beady, narrowed in return, and he lowered his head. "Watch your tone."
The lingering urge to yell surged, but a moment of silence allowed me to keep it at bay. "Sorry, Father. I cannot think over the black hole smell."
Father Arceus gained a look in his eye. THOUGHTFUL. Absorbed in thought.
I watched his eyes move off me and toward the window I'd been staring out. I followed his gaze but looked back just in time to watch him nod at it. With that single motion, the hole zipped away to cause someone else odor problems. I wondered if Palkia would be upset because that would be a joy to witness.
THANKFULNESS—a feeling of gratitude—came on as I inhaled a clean, sulfur-free breath and enjoyed a full, non-obscured view of the multiverse before me. It was the one thing about the spacious throne room that I actually liked. The big windows allowed me to see the expanse of space from the discomfort of Father Arceus's resting place, but at least it was wondrous enough that I could forget that he was there.
Now, I could think better. Indulge myself in my domain fantasies while Father Arceus blabbered on about the locations of important stars, the galaxies and timelines that rotated around them, and everything else in between that made me feel EXHAUSTION; a state of extreme fatigue.
But, my thoughts were interrupted as I soon began to register another smell. Not the stench of black hole sulfur, but something far more enticing.
It was nothing like the deep, robust scent of a star's death. Not as assaultive. No, this one came on a little softer, more gradually, coating my senses with a dusting of something redolent of…metal. I'd even call it caustic, but that only started registering with me the longer I indulged in the aroma.
My stomach began to flip in ways I didn't think a stomach could, and my mouth began to secrete saliva. Everything in me wanted to go toward the scent, and I knew what I was experiencing immediately.
HUNGER. Having a strong desire or craving.
The feeling showed up every time I picked up this mouth-watering fragrance. It always made my stomach feel bottomless and neverending, but it filled my chest with something warm as I considered ingesting what was causing it.
I felt my eyes grow and my lips tug upward.
I really liked HUNGER.
"Mm, you are smelling the asteroid belt aroma again, I see," Father Arceus noticed. The scorn in his voice made me want to curse out loud, and I hastily wiped the drool off my chin.
He had told me long ago--when I and some of the other seraphs started salivating over the smell--that it was coming from the nearby asteroid belt. Minerals within the hovering masses were causing the odor, and solar winds had a knack for pushing it over into Eden, leaving us more than eager for a mere taste.
I knew one thing for certain: when I became a full god, my first act of freedom would be to visit the asteroid belt and ingest as many of them as possible. Thinking about it was the one thing that helped keep BOREDOM at bay sometimes. I even dreamt about it when I slept; it had infiltrated every corner of my mind.
"That will be yet another thing you can indulge in once I bless you with your full powers," Father Arceus said in a short, derisive sigh. I bit down on my tongue to refrain from grunting in ANNOYANCE.
"Yes, Father," I huffed.
I didn't like the way he spoke to me. I knew I was still a seraph with no real aim, but I didn't ever appreciate how he talked to me like I was small. I mean, in comparison to him, I was small, but it always felt like he was doing it in a figurative sense rather than a literal one.
"It is beautiful, though, isn't it? Our multiverse," he said. A subject change that I was glad to honor. I pressed my forehead into the glass, trying to focus more on the view than the sound of his voice.
"I suppose the visual does wonders when trying to grasp concepts. The idea of such a large network of worlds and timelines is difficult to wrap one's head around, but I have no doubt you can make sense of it, my Venira."
I turned my head and offered him remnants of a smile. "It's not hard," I said. "I don't think there's much to it."
I watched his lips flatten into a tight line, and his eyes narrowed. "Well, perhaps if you listened to me in our lessons, you'd understand how untrue that statement is, dear."
I had to resist the urge to frown before I looked back toward the window again. He didn't like it when I frowned at him. He called it an "attitude" and liked to get loud about it, and I was not in the mood to hear him get loud.
Awe took over again as my eyes bounced between worlds. Some were mere specks on the space horizon, but the ones closer were glorious to behold. They looked like small explosions of light and stardust, just rotating in place. If they were this wondrous to look at from Eden, I could only imagine how they looked up close.
There was one world in particular, though. I frantically searched, having to strain my eyes like usual. I soon managed to zoom in on what I wanted: a speck of pure, deep blue. It was the prettiest blue I'd ever seen since my conception, and it had yet to be topped.
Earth.
Father Arceus told me it was called Earth one day while I was in the form of something called a dragonair. I hated being in that form because I lacked arms and had to slither everywhere. I had been quite upset about it, but I remembered taking solace in hearing about what Earth was and used daydreams of such a world as a distraction from my lack of limbs. Since then, I longed to see it myself, in my true body.
"That one," I murmured.
"Which one?" Father Arceus spoke, effectively jolting me from my trancelike state. I hadn't realized I'd spoken out loud until his booming voice pierced my psyche. Shit.
"Uh, the world called Earth," I said hastily. "I just want to see it one day."
It certainly wasn't the best explanation I could have given, but I hoped it was enough that he'd accept and drop it. However, when I heard his heavy footsteps approaching, I felt something icy run up my back, and both ANNOYANCE and that one unnamed awful feeling started swirling around in the middle of my being.
"I see. Perhaps one day, you can enjoy Earth," Father Arceus continued. The pause that followed was too long for my tastes. He simply stood there, making no move to do anything except stare. It caused another feeling to break through. DISCOMFORT. A sense of anxiousness or uneasiness.
"For now, however," he finally said, "you understand why you must remain here, right?"
The answer I wanted to say, as always, was 'no.' Instead, I remained silent. That was the best response to a question I had no interest in fibbing about.
"I do not enjoy keeping you and the others restricted," he said. "It does not provide me with any pleasure. I do it out of a desire to protect you. If I wasn't fearful for your safety, I would let you visit Earth as you are."
I couldn't count on my human fingers and toes how many times I'd heard this explanation. If I'd been in the form of maybe, a tentacruel, as they'd been called, I'd have enough appendages to do so.
"But, you are a seraph. You are a danger to both yourself and the others if left unchecked. You are still in your rawest form as a god, and I need the time to properly observe you and ensure you're ready to receive and handle a gift from me. I have plans for you, my Venira. I have plans to make you a very powerful entity, but please have patience. Your powers and domain will come with time."
No matter how often he felt the need to explain it to me, it never sat any better in the recesses of my mind. If anything, it only kept increasing my DISDAIN; the feeling that someone or something was unworthy of respect.
I'd been stuck as a seraph for a long time. So long that I'd stop counting the seconds. There had been many of us to start, and Father Arceus had already bestowed their domains upon them, and now only seven of us were left. The others had already had the opportunities to go and venture to the very corners of space and time and do as they pleased (with Father Arceus' obnoxious meddling, but still), and yet, I was still curtailed to Eden.
Wouldn't a seraph with no clear direction be better suited to explore? An untrained power had room to grow out there. What good was I getting out of imprisonment that I couldn't get out of freedom? I never understood Father Arceus' reasoning, and I never would.
But that would need to be left unsaid. Arguing with his law was a sin in his eyes, and again, I was in no mood to hear him get loud.
I must have gone too long without responding because his sigh made the floor beneath us vibrate. I braced for a tongue-lashing, hoping it would be quick.
"It would be best to end our lesson here. You have the most difficulty concentrating when it is one-on-one, so you are excused."
BLISS found itself back to me at the sound of those words. It was no domain bestowment or permission to visit Earth. But, being excused from a lesson was a close third.
"Thank you, Father," I said, bowing my head as I was demanded to whenever I thanked him.
I didn't hesitate to turn on my human heels and bolt for the door out to the garden.
While it was still confinement, Eden's garden was still my favorite area. Every smell could reach me far better. That metallic, rusty stench danced a waltz around me as I moseyed down the paved pathway as I always liked to do when there was nothing else to be done.
Though, even though there were no walls, there were still the fences. They gave the illusion of more freedom, but the purple barrier that vibrated between the imposing iron bars said otherwise.
All the possible exits in the castle had that barrier, set in place by Father Arceus to keep us from getting any ideas about escaping out into space ourselves. It was handy at keeping seraphs in, and I had enough experience accidentally burning myself on it to know firsthand. Still, it didn’t do anything to obstruct the view of the planets on the horizon.
“Father Arceus said it was called Earth,” I recounted, pointing out that dot of blue off in the distance.
“That’s a stupid name,” Avareed replied dismissively. His human face barely moved under the derisiveness of his words. “Was there no room to come up with something better?”
I was amazed at how good Avareed was at remaining totally expressionless. I found it easy to maintain a certain look if I were in a body that resembled a Pokemon, but…human faces were much harder to control. I didn't say a word as I slowly reached out and pinched his cheek.
"You're good at keeping your face still, you know that?" I told him. He grunted, baring his teeth at me as he leaned away and swatted me off.
"That is uncomfortable, Venira, please," he whined. When I let go, he began to rub the skin I had grabbed, which had flushed a light pink. His black hair fell in his face as he glared at me. "I don't go around pinching your skin when you're not expecting it."
"You could if you wanted to," I said. I would have let Avareed stomp on my human foot if he wanted to. That's not to say I wouldn't do it back harder, but if it was what he wanted, he was someone I never minded saying 'yes' to.
His presence made my chest feel warm, in a similar manner to how BLISS did. But this warmth was accompanied by a fluttering feeling in my stomach. Unlike the strange pit I got whenever Father Arceus got loud or the bottomlessness that came on when I felt HUNGER, this made my stomach feel…light.
Avareed's eyes got wide. It was the first change I'd noticed in his face since we started our stroll. The tip of his nose also turned pink, but I hadn't pinched it, so I didn't understand why it also changed color.
"That's stupid. I don't understand why you'd invite me to make you feel uncomfortable," he grumbled. As we walked under a tree that had grown over the pathway, he plucked two starfruits off a low-hanging branch. He took a bite from one as he handed me the other.
"Eat and cease your nonsense."
The defiance in his tone was endearing, and I gave him my fullest smile as I snatched the glowing treat from his hand and bit it.
I tried to be mindful of the stardust and flares that dripped down my chin. It was as sweet and sticky as every other one I'd ever had. I'd say it was even sweeter since it had been gifted to me.
"Do you think asteroids will taste better than starfruit? I would think so," I said, my large bite making it difficult for me to talk. I tried to wipe some of the mess with the sleeve of my tunic, grinning at the glittery streaks of celestial purple and silver that stained the fabric.
"You are such a slob," Avareed scoffed. I hadn't realized he'd stopped walking until he spoke, which also prompted me to slow to a stop. He was only a few bites into his piece, but he'd prevented it from staining his face or clothes well. "The pulp is supposed to go into your mouth."
"It did," I snickered, swallowing the bite I was chewing on. "It's just really juicy. You picked a good one!"
He rolled his eyes. That was the one thing he really liked making his faces do, no matter what form he was in. I was to the point of wondering if it just felt good for him or if he just did it out of habit. I wanted to ask him, but he wordlessly handed me his fruit, looped his hand behind my head, and pulled me toward him before I could.
"Are you going to eat what's in the belt in the same boorish manner? Gods shouldn't be slobs; you're far better than that," he said, lowering his volume to a tender murmur. He wiped the glow off my cheeks and chin using the cuff of his sleeve. The way his white eyes were narrowed let me know he was very concentrated on the task, and it caused the warmth in my chest to come to a blue-hot boil.
"When we go to the asteroid belt or even visit Earth, we might not be in very close proximity at all times. So you should tame your manners in case I'm not around to aid you."
For a moment, I forgot how my human vocal cords worked and stood there stupidly with my mouth agape before they started functioning again. My stomach felt like it would explode but in a good way.
"You want to come with me to Earth?" I said.
Avareed pursed his lips and averted his gaze, yanking his hands back to cross them over his chest. "Well, you've been blabbering about it for so long, I feel it's only fair that I at least try to see what all the fuss is about. Despite its stupid name."
His features softened there, and he looked me in the eye once more. I had to squint to see it, but the smallest of grins caressed his normally taut lips.
"Besides, it is a lovely shade of blue. I'm interested in knowing if everything in that world is also blue."
Heat traveled up to my cheeks, and I suddenly couldn't stop smiling. Even though I felt like I would melt, it somehow felt good. I liked it. None of the other seraphs ever made me want to melt (in a good way, at least), nor were they as good at helping me forget the time spent with Father Arceus.
I liked him. He was just neat. He was my friend.
As it felt like my lips would tear under the force of my smile, another one of the other remaining seraphs, Lexuria, poked her head into what was left of the space between us. As we jumped apart, I noticed a wry smile on her face.
“I didn’t know we were cleeeeeaaaaaning each other now,” she whined, magenta eyes sparkling with a hint of mischief. “Are you both truly that boooorrrrreeeed?”
“I was just assisting her. It’s odd that you took the time out of your day to watch our exchange in the first place,” Avareed shot back, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Your domain is going to have something to do with voyeurism. I’m sure of it,” I declared.
Lexuria appeared tickled by the prospects. She brought her hands up to cover her mouth, muffling a shrill giggle. “I’m sorrryyyyyyyyyy. I particularly enjoy your tension soooooooooo I can’t help but observe.”
“I have a hard time believing any of the others are doing anything more menial than strolling and having a snack,” Avareed said. I noticed that the same hue of pink had taken hold of his nose again.
Lexuria rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Iiiiiiiiiiiiii haven’t noticed them today. Buuuuuuuut we can go find them together, perhaps?”
If I was to be honest, I liked the time I spent with Avareed alone. That unnamed feeling, not the one that made me shake, but the one that made me want to scream and throw things, bubbled in my chest, and I frowned. If I wanted to go speak with the other seraphs, I would do it on my own.
However, Avareed’s long huff and accompanying nod were there to pop my reservations. I silently willed him to backpedal, but it looked like his mind was already made up. “Fine. I suppose I can’t adequately relax until I can pinpoint where Inviderus is spending his day.”
That intense blue-hot feeling surged into something that felt far more menacing. It didn’t just stay concentrated in my chest, but instead flooded into every nerve I had. It made my whole existence feel hot. I wanted to ball my hands into fist, and perhaps yell at Avareed for agreeing to go with her. Maybe even kick him.
I didn’t know how to feel about this emotion yet, either. The heat it instilled me with was the most severe, and the urges it gave me sometimes felt empowering. But I knew kicking and getting loud with Avareed weren’t good things, so I truly felt at odds with myself.
But, Avareed’s sidelong glance at me was just as tender as the way he’d spoken before we were interrupted. Something about it was apologetic; even indicative of some reservations on his end. I wasn’t sure why he would agree if he was hesitant in any way, shape, or form, but I made the internal decision to just follow along with him. If it was really what he wanted to do, I didn’t want to tell him ‘no.’ I wanted to tell him ‘yes’ whenever I could manage it.
“Alright, fine,” I said. I took another bite from my starfruit piece for good measure.
To my lacking surprise, the other seraphs were in the large garden clearing, lingering and meandering around the twinkling shrubbery and gazebos. Hubrias was in the middle of picking some blinking blooms off of a bush and decorating her orange human hair with them, while Tristace was lying just several paces away with his face down in the grass. Inviderus had settled himself on one of the gazebo domes, legs crossed as he eyed the garden and other seraphs accusingly, probably deciding on who he was going to pick on today. Meanwhile, Gulattive was leaning against a bush, open book in one hand, and three large starfruit in the other.
“Oh there you are,” Inviderus spat as Avareed and I approached. “I was wondering where you two solicitous ninnies ran off to.”
“They were likely eager to get away from you,” Tristace mumbled, just loud enough for me to hear. As always, he sounded quite SAD—feeling sorrow. I remembered asking him what he was so down about, and he could not tell me. I never asked again.
“I don’t blame them. You talk too much,” Tristace continued.
“I’m a god, I’m allowed to talk too much,” Inviderus shot back. “You say it like there’s an issue.”
“Father Arceus would have an issue,” Tristace sighed. "And I'm tired of him getting loud with us."
“Fuck Father Arceus,” Inviderus declared loudly. I was inclined to agree with him, for once. Inviderus never had any issue masking his dislike for Father Arceus, which of course, got him into the most trouble. It was actually watching Inviderus get disciplined that led me to refrain from being more vocal about my DISDAIN.
A chill ran up my back. I hate it.
“When you get smited for your continuous need to speak ill of the Father, I’m going to laugh at your expense,” Hubrias said. She was in the middle of running a brush through her hair, which looked reminiscent of the silky curtains that hung in the throne room. I wondered why she would want her human hair to look like curtains. “Why not work on yourself instead of constantly being disgruntled by what the Father is doing?”
“Because what Father Arceus is doing is riding our asses, you egoist twit.”
“Yes, but why continue to jostle him when you know he’s just going to pull you apart?” Gulattive questioned pointedly. His mouth was full of starfruit, and he chewed and swallowed his bite before speaking again. It seemed like every time I looked over at him, he had something in his mouth. I was certain HUNGER might have been one of his favorite emotions. “You’ve just proven that you’re an idiot.”
“And you’ve proven that you’re a coward,” Inviderus seethed. “You would rather use your mouth to stuff your face than say anything of substance.”
“There’s nothing of substance to say to one who won’t retain it, idiot,” Gulattive menaced. “And for what it’s worth, which I assume isn’t much because you’re, again, an idiot…you are not a god yet.”
By the way Inviderus narrowed his eyes, I could tell he’d picked his target for the day cycle. He said nothing as he launched himself off the gazebo, diving straight toward Gulattive and tackling him with such force, they rolled four times toward the fence before coming to a stop.
Inviderus was on top of Gulattive, punching and clawing at the latter’s face. Gulattive was no pushover, though, because he was returning the attacks with the same amount of fervor. They were yelling expletives at each other, but they were so garbled I could barely make them out.
I heard a soft sigh come from Avareed, and I turned to study his face for any sign of REGRET—feeling repentant or disappointed—but found that his features were as unruffled as ever. But it shone in his eyes. Good.
“Well,” Avareed said flatly. “There he is.”
Nobody made any moves to break them up. We all knew better than to get in-between their fights, lest we end up part of it. Though, if I had to be completely honest with myself, I quite enjoyed getting in on their spats. Usually because I ended up winning, and neither of them liked that one bit. But, my time with Avareed was far more important than leveraging my strength against them.
I watched fondly as Gulattive managed to wrestle himself out from under Inviderus, doing so with enough flourish to get the other in some sort of head lock. He yanked the other to his feet, and before I could pick up on what he was trying to do, he was pushing Inviderus’ body against that burning purple barrier.
I jolted at the agonized sound that came out of Inviderus, my mind flashing back to the last time I had touched the barrier myself. Recalling the burn that was left on my hand for the day cycles following made me cringe. It didn’t hurt as bad as when my shape was forcibly shifted, but it certainly wasn’t pleasant. Father Arceus had to have known that when he erected it.
I hate it.
“Gulattive, that’s enough,” Avareed shouted, exasperated. Gulattive didn’t appear to listen, because I watched his grip on Inviderus tighten.
“You don’t tell me what to do, pissant,” Gulattive hissed. “I–”
He barely made it into his statement before Inviderus reached back and, in one single motion, forced Gulattive up against the barrier and quickly maneuvered himself around to hold him there. I could see the burn marks that singed through his tunic and tainted the otherwise flawless skin on his left arm, neck, and cheek, but he looked no less deterred.
“You what?” Inviderus screeched over Gulattive’s sudden cry of pain. “You’re? You’re an idiot for fucking with me? Is that it?”
Now I was smiling. Somehow, watching them brawl so violently settled that raging warmth within me. I supposed there was something about watching others act out in ways I longed to that left me feeling content.
“Forget it,” I heard Avareed say. “Neither of them have high enough brain function to comprehend anything I say, anyway.”
As I was about to recommend we run off, I heard a "pssssst." Avareed must have heard it too, because I noticed him jolt. I tried to follow where the sound came from, only to be met with yet another "pssssst." That, however, was what led me to see it.
Behind a fat tree trunk, several feet away, I could see Giratina's eyes. I saw Yveltal poke her head out in a small motion just beneath him. When I made eye contact with them, they nodded in a way that said, "come over!"
I felt EXCITED—eager and enthusiastic—to see them. They were also my friends, though they didn't give my stomach the same airy feeling Avareed did. But I did enjoy being around them, nonetheless. When they came to visit, I smiled quite a lot.
I nudged Avareed with my leg, but there wasn't a need. He'd already seen them too. After exchanging glances, we peered back at our brethren one last time, before quietly, yet hastily, making our way toward the tree.
“What the hells was that about?” Yveltal queried, referring to the duo who were still going at it. I could hear them screaming over one another even from several yards away.
“The usual,” I giggled. “Inviderus talks, Gulattive answers, they try to kill each other.”
“And that’s funny?” Yveltal scoffed.
“Of course it’s funny.”
"Yeah, yeah, forget that,” Giratina interjected. “I want to know what Father Arceus has done to you?" He flared his wings at us incredulously. "I know he's off his rocker, but what could you be getting out of the human form that you wouldn't get out of being a gardevoir? Or a lucario?"
"We've learned it's best not to question his motives," Avareed said, raising a hand to silence him. I picked up the sheer unease in his voice, and it made my shoulders shudder again. Avareed didn’t like the transformations any more than I did.
"Besides, I find humans much more dynamic than gardevoir and lucario, so perhaps don't listen to this lug," Yveltal said, rolling her eyes to peer questioningly at Giratina. "Not that I'm ever inclined to agree with anything Father Arceus ever does, but I still prefer this choice."
There was an air of comfort in her voice that served to calm my nerves while simultaneously causing them to flare up. Yveltal had been a seraph at one point, and had also fallen victim to the non-consensual shape changes. She knew the pain it caused. What a bitch and a half it was.
But, she had the liberty of a promised form now, so she no longer had to live and wonder when the next change would come, and it filled me with a sense of JEALOUSY; feeling discontent with another being's possessions or qualities.
"I was just making an observation, no need for you lot to double down on me,” Giratina huffed.
"Regardless of the form, I would rather be left alone," I said. I watched as the sympathy practically oozed from their looks, and it was enough to end the conversation right then and there.
Giratina and Yveltal appreciated being friends with Avareed and me enough that they often returned from their adventures to discuss and reminisce. But, while I valued their willingness to visit, JEALOUSY trickled into that aspect of my relationship with them too.
They both had everything I wanted. Freedom, and a true form. They could finagle their way through the barrier as they pleased, because it would not sense their permanent god forms. They could touch it without being burned, even if they weren’t supposed to.
I was HAPPY–feeling or showing contentment–for them. But I longed for that same state of living someday.
"What brings you here? You've already come once this week, so I'm surprised to see you again," Avareed said.
Yveltal suddenly gained a wry look, and she peered over her shoulder as if checking to see if anyone was nearby.
"I have some interesting news," she announced. How she said it caused my stomach to lurch with anticipation. My sense of EXCITEMENT surged with it.
"Do you recall how Father told us of that scent? The one coming from the asteroid belt?"
Avareed and I exchanged quick glances. "Yes?" I replied.
She leaned in closer to us, lowering her voice. "He was lying."
I truly wanted to be SURPRISED–feeling astonishment—at this revelation, but I suddenly also had the urge to roll my eyes because I felt the exact opposite. Father Arceus stretching the truth seemed in line with what I expected from him.
However, I felt a sense of CURIOSITY—a strong desire to know—mixed with a dash of DISAPPOINTMENT–a sense of displeasure. I'd been so dedicated to visiting the belt when Father Arceus made me into a full god, and now that plan seemed entirely shot.
"I wish I could tell you I was shocked," Avareed said. "But…what was there to lie about? It seems like such a trivial thing."
"I'd had my suspicions for a while now and was biting my tongue until I was certain." She paused as if debating whether to say what was on her mind. "I was also admittedly waiting for you two to get your domains, so I could show you in myself."
"You seven have been here far longer than I ever expected," Giratina interjected, earning him a nudge from Yveltal. However, I didn't see the need for it because he was right.
"But, I'm weary of waiting, and I can hardly contain myself anymore, especially because many of the others won't listen to me," Yveltal said. "Rayquaza, Eternatus, Solgaleo, some of us are in agreement my findings are odd, but the likes of Dialga and Palkia are staunchly against my commentary, and—"
"I hardly want to hear what those two or any of their ground-kissers have to say about anything," Avareed spat. "So, cut to the chase."
Yveltal nodded in agreement, and she inhaled a deep breath.
"That smell is coming from many of the multiverse worlds. It's caused by a substance called blood."
Blood. The thing I had really been smelling had a specific name.
"What is blood?" I asked in a small gasp. I liked how it sounded against my tongue. Blood.
"It's kind of like our ichor," she said. "You know how it seeps out when we get cut?"
I nodded slowly, cringing at the thought. It always came out in troves when Father Arceus rearranged me. It was to the point where the sight of too much of it would make whatever stomach I had lurch.
I hate it.
Did that mean blood was similar? I would also be averse to it?
Avareed was the one who answered, because I was taking too long to categorize my thoughts. "Yes. I'll admit it's a rather unpleasant sensation."
"Truth. But, blood to mortals is like ichor to gods, though they look nothing alike. It's a product of their life and serves as a connection between them," she explained. "They see it when they get hurt, too. It also sometimes spills upon death."
"It spills? At death?" I sputtered. That alarmed me above everything else because the death of stars smelled so foul. I couldn't imagine how something as fragrant as blood could come when a mortal died. What if mortal death smelled just as bad and tainted the bloody scent for me?
Blood was starting to sound far less fascinating the more I heard about it.
"Don't worry, mortal death is a lot different than what you see here," Yveltal said. "They don't expand into black holes; they simply return to the land they live upon. It's quite peaceful, actually."
I exhaled in relief. That did sound peaceful, and I started to wish stars perished similarly. Just disintegrating into dust instead of making a big smelly spectacle out of themselves.
Now that that fear had been quashed, I returned to the more pressing subject. "So you're saying that the scent we were told that was coming from the asteroid belt is actually mortal blood?" I queried.
"Indeed," Yveltal said with a nod. "It's everywhere I go, on account of my domain. It's burned into my senses, and I smell nothing like it when I visit the belt. He was definitely lying to us."
"Well, have you tasted it?" Avareed asked. "What is so special about blood that Father Arceus would lie to us about it being the source of that smell?"
I watched as Yveltal and Giratina looked at one another in slight disgust.
"Neither of us could tell you," Giratina spoke. "I've told you I'm no longer drawn to the scent; neither is Yveltal. We also discovered, from those we've managed to converse with about it, that they aren't either."
That was news to me. Nobody else ever came to visit because Father Arceus forbade anyone with a gift to enter Eden unless invited. Yveltal and Giratina simply liked pushing the boundaries of the rules.
"Nonetheless, some of us have attempted to ingest it and it…." Giratina trailed off.
"It tastes vile," Yveltal finished. “And does nothing special.”
The EXCITEMENT drained from my shoulders, and DISAPPOINTMENT took over entirely. I suddenly felt like my day couldn't have gotten much worse. The thought of something I'd been yearning to taste for so long actually being awful? It felt like I’d been hit with a devastating solar flare.
"I don't understand…" I murmured, touching my finger to my lower lip. "Why do we feel such HUNGER toward something that supposedly tastes so bad?"
"More importantly, why are you who have your domains no longer drawn by it, but Venira, I, and the rest of us here are?" Avareed mused.
A tense silence began to build between the four of us. I was stuck in my DISAPPOINTMENT haze, all, while Yveltal and Giratina sent us looks of grim sympathy. Avareed looked like he had entered a trance of deep thought, and I stared at him until he decided to speak again.
"I wonder…" Avareed eventually muttered, "...if the sensation of smelling this blood and feeling HUNGER is purely a seraph trait."
"We came to that conclusion ourselves," Yveltal said. "Rayquaza surmised that something about the Father bestowing us powers eliminated our HUNGER for blood and even made it repulsive to us."
"But why?" Avareed questioned. I could hear a sense of frustration leaking into his tone. "What is so important about this blood? Why hide it from us? Why take away our HUNGER for it? What does he have to gain from that?" He paused, seemingly mulling over the questions that were undoubtedly rattling around in his head.
All Yveltal could do was shrug. "There is just something about it Father Arceus wanted to keep from us.”
"I assume it's a matter of our powers," Giratina said. "Our ichor holds power, so perhaps mortal blood does too. If you’re in a raw form, that is."
“But if it’s powerful enough to be a problem for us, why did he create it in the first place?” Avareed asked.
That gave Giratina and Yveltal pause. They looked at each other for what felt like an eternity.
“A fluke, I reckon. We all know, even though he acts the opposite, that Father Arceus is not infallible. I have an idea that mortal blood was one of his mistakes he couldn’t erase,” Yveltal said. “So he counteracts it in something he does when we get our domains.”
“Don’t say that ‘infallible’ garble too loud,” Avareed warned. “You’ll end up yanked limb from limb like Inviderus.”
“He’ll already yank us limb from limb by just being here,” Giratina chided. “At least in this case it’s happening because we’re poking holes in his facade.”
The more I thought about the questions Avareed had asked, the more I listened to Yveltal and Giratina add more speculation, the tighter my chest became.
If only seraphs were enticed into HUNGER by the smell of blood, was that the reason Father Arceus wouldn't let us leave? Is that why we were doomed to be stuck on Eden until we were no longer seraphs ourselves? Is that why he lied about where it was coming from in the first place?
“But then why keep us seven as seraphs for so long if he has a reason to erase our sense for it?” I asked.
When neither Giratina or Yveltal answered, I was quick to understand that it was because they had no way to. I was forced to fill in that blank myself.
Is it because we were just playthings that he tortured for the sake of his creations? We were merely his throwaways he kept on the side for experiments? If he had no seraphs, he had nothing to morph and shift into forms he was testing. He had room to make more mistakes if he didn’t have things to test his ideas on.
Were we doomed to a life of being his molds?
My fists started to ball up, and I felt my lips curl back over my teeth. I still couldn't name the emotion, but it was strong now. Stronger than anything else I had ever felt. I knew it wasn't logical, but I was certain that this emotion was engulfing me, and I had no reason, or even will, to stop it.
For the first time in a long while, I didn't feel any aversion to the thought of Father Arceus getting loud.
I don't know if Avareed, Giratina, or Yveltal tried to stop me from barging back into the throne room because all I could hear was a shrill ringing in my ears. It almost seemed like my human body was moving independently, so even if I wanted to stop, I didn't think I could. This unnamed emotion was a strong one. It was another one where I felt like I had no control, but it didn't make me cower.
It made me want to fight.
As I pushed open the doors, the sound of Father Arceus' offended gasp finally tore me out of my hot trance.
"Venira, what do you–" he tried to say, but I didn't want to hear it.
"What the fuck is blood?" I barked at him, completely unfazed by his glare. I watched in momentary GLEE—a feeling of great delight—as his expression fell into one I'd very rarely seen him make before. A look of shock.
"Is it something important? Is it why you've trapped us here until you allow us to fucking leave? If you ever let us leave, that is? Is that why you're lying about it?"
His eyes were wide. I adored seeing him look so perturbed, and BLISS came back effortlessly. "Does blood worry you, Father?”
He said nothing. All he did was stare.
“I don’t understand why you would work so hard to keep us confined here if it didn’t cause you some concern. Not to mention, it’s no secret to anyone we’re overdue for our gifts, yet you’ve kept us here far too long,” I accused. “Do you ever plan to let us go? Or are we here for your molding pleasure forevermore?”
His silence was as golden as a red giant’s rays.
“Was blood a mistake you’re afraid to make again?”
"Enough!"
I'd insisted to myself that I didn't mind how loud Father Arceus got. However, as his volume broke the absolute limit of all sound I'd ever heard, that blue-hot feeling that sent me on my rampage deflated into a frigid chill that left me shaking instantly. My human heart leapt into my throat, and I had every instinct to bolt back in the direction I'd come from. But, as Father Arceus rose and bounded to me, I realized I could not move. It was like his yell had encased me in ice.
"How dare you rush in here asking me of such vulgar nonsense," Father Arceus growled, his lips curling back over his much sharper teeth. "Who spoke of blood to you? Have you discussed it with the others?"
Even though my whole being felt frosty, I still had enough thawed-out thought to know that I couldn't answer in truth. Avareed, Giratina, and Yveltal were my friends, and despite everything, I would not throw their names out. The emotion making me feel so cold also left me perturbed at the idea they would be under the same scrutiny.
"I-I…" I hated how I sounded under a stammer. "H-eard it…in pa-assing."
"From whom?" Debris fell from the ceiling as the room quaked under the force of Father Arceus' voice. I flinched involuntarily but did not take my eyes off his. I was wary about what would happen if I did.
"I cou-uldn't tell you," I gulped. Awful. I sounded pathetic. This emotion, it was horrid. "And I've s-said nothing of it to anyone."
"Oh, are you afraid now, my Venira? Has your audacity come back down to size?" Father Arceus asked in a mocking whisper. It was then that I had a realization.
The unbearable, uneasy feeling I hated so much. The sensation that I was trapped in ice despite not being at all. I knew its name now.
FEAR. To be afraid.
I was in FEAR of him. Whenever he got loud, whenever he decided to force me into a new form, whenever I was in his presence too long. It was FEAR that loomed over me. It was FEAR that gave me the desire to get away from him.
I hate it.
I hate him.
"Never," I managed. I could lie about that. It might have shown in my human form and the meek way I spoke, but he would never get me to admit it. Not even as he looked ready to smite me out of existence.
FEAR was the worst of them all, but I was still certain of one thing: I could manage it.
Father Arceus didn't like that answer, as indicated by how he leaned closer to me. His enormous snout was nearly touching my button-esque nose. Everything in my head screamed for me to step back, but I both couldn't and didn't want to.
"Then allow me to give you something to be afraid of," he said. The breath in his voice sent my hair flying, but I held my ground.
"Since you had the nerve to ask; yes. Blood was a mistake,” he said. “I created it as a parallel to ichor—something to suit mortal flesh—without realizing what an abominable substance it is. It entices you with a sweet scent, and ingesting it dooms you to a life of damnation and a never-ending thirst for it. But by the time I had come to understand this, there was no way for me to eradicate it without destroying everything I had built.” His teeth gnashed with every passing word, and I began to FEAR he would swallow me whole in one fell swoop. But all he did was keep talking.
“There were other seraphs, long before you, long before your friends, long before the gods who exist now, that had the unfortunate fate of ingesting blood. Do you know where they are now?”
I didn’t answer.
“Damned. Gone. Never to be seen or heard from again. I made sure of it, for the sake of this multiverse I set out to create,” he menaced. “I did not want any one of you to be subjected to the same fate, so I've kept you here for your own protection and have done what I could to keep you from knowing of its wretched existence. But it seems your patience is still lacking, my Venira."
My hands were balled into such tight fists, and I felt my ichor starting to seep out from gashes in my palm that I had made with my nails.
"I can forgive, for you are merely a brainless speck of dust among my cosmos. Your punishment, for now, shall be living with the knowledge that you assumed you knew more than I, your creator. That you tried to speak out against facts you are still too daft to know and assumed I didn't have your best interest at heart."
Pressure was building up in the lower part of my stomach. I felt like I would regurgitate the fruit I'd eaten with Avareed earlier. My eyes even stung, and every breath I took shook as it tried to wrestle with FEAR.
On top of the chill, I was feeling pain.
“And since you must know, I already have made mistakes since I created blood.”
The pause he gave me was torturous. I knew he wanted me to stew in it.
“You and your fellow seraphs are some of them. You are the beacons of everything bad in my cosmos, wrapped up into single, lowly entities. I set out to right you myself, but it isn’t going as well as I’d hoped.”
He finally leaned away from me, leaving me to stand there and feel my insides get swallowed up by the metaphorical hole that opened up within me.
Everything bad?
We were just another round of his errors?
“You’d be wise to put any ideas of gaining your domain out of your head. You will not see the light of space any time soon. Especially not after this,” Father Arceus said.
The threat hit like he’d just kicked me with one of his hind legs. Though, I knew it wasn’t a threat. It was nothing less than a promise.
I had single-handedly fucked myself. Fucked all of us more than we already were.
"Now get out of my sight. And if you speak one more word of blood to the others or me, it will be the last words you utter."
He abruptly turned away, and I suddenly felt like I could move again. I wasted no time scrambling out the door, and it was only then that the pinpricks in the corners of my eyes were sated by the arrival of tears.
***
I had never cried before. I only knew what crying was because I had seen Hubrias do it so much. As I sat in a bush, far away from where I had last seen Avareed, Giratina, and Yveltal, heaving over sobs, I felt just as ridiculous as I always thought Hubrias looked whenever I caught her with puffy eyes and wet cheeks.
I wasn't sure what I was crying over anymore. The lasting sense of FEAR, or the flame that reignited my nerves as I remembered how Father Arceus spoke down to me and how distraught I felt. I was even perplexed by my feelings of GUILT—the feeling of having done wrong—because I didn't think it should have been there.
Something in me had also snapped after hearing him explain what blood was. What I was. I kept repeating what he said repeatedly, trying to pick apart every last word he'd used.
It entices you with a sweet scent, and ingesting it dooms you to a life of damnation and a neverending thirst for it.
You are the beacons of everything bad in my cosmos, wrapped up into single, lowly entities.
I’d been wondering for the longest time what I needed to do to convince Father Arceus that I was ready to be a god. There was nothing I wanted more than for Avareed and I to ascend into our domains and live eternal lives free of periodic pain and uncertainty. I now knew that I had been foolish to think that there was anything he or I could have done to make him believe we were ready.
In his eyes, we never would be. We were just new mistakes he was very keen on not letting out into the cosmos.
I was left considering what a life of damnation would be like. Because I was far more keen on the idea of ingesting blood now than I was before. Would I be able to handle an unquenchable thirst? I supposed I'd been able to handle a rather insatiable HUNGER for a while, but a thirst…
I didn't just feel DISDAIN for Father Arceus anymore. I felt HATRED–intense dislike and ill will–and the more I thought about my HATRED, the more the flames within me surged. But I knew I was too afraid to go back to him and attempt to speak my mind again. I wouldn't be able to handle him in my state. He would step on me, and that would be the end of it. I almost wished it would be.
But…no. What was the point of living with so much FEAR? What kind of existence was that? Stuck being afraid of Father Arceus, living under his reign, taking his word as is? What was the point of being a god, even if I was never to be a full one, if that was all eternity was anyway?
That couldn't be. He kept the existence of blood a secret until I confronted him. What more could he be hiding that something like FEAR would keep me from uncovering?
With an aggressive, shaky inhale, I steadied my sobs. I forced FEAR out of my head. And I let that unnamed flame take me in a firm hold.
At the end of the day cycle, I was supposed to return to my chambers. I wanted to, for the sake of figuring out what I needed to do next, even though nothing was coming to me. But Avareed was so desperate to hear what had happened that he pulled me into his room and refused to let me leave until I spoke.
He had some sort of mental grip on me, because I told him everything without much of a second thought. When I watched the melancholy twist his face, I felt something in my chest shatter.
“So that’s it. We are just his throwaways,” he said as he broke his eye contact with me. I was so used to him being stone-faced, that seeing him actually look distressed just added onto mine. I felt REGRET–feeling repentant–for telling him, but I’d have surely felt GUILT if I didn’t.
“I’m sorry,” was all I could say. I could barely make eye contact with him either, so I settled for moving my eyes over to his window, fixing them on the vibrating purple barrier that would keep us confined to the room.
I’d always known, but now it was certain: Eden truly was a prison.
Avareed speaking again brought me back to reality. “No. You didn’t do anything,” he said. His tone was thin, but there was a weight behind the words I had a hard time missing.
I was forced to meet his gaze again when he approached me and put his hands on my shoulders. “You got the truth. And you got out in one piece. Those are the only things I cared about.”
If I hadn’t been so buried under the weight of a thousand emotions, I would have surely reacted stronger than I did. All I could do was stare at him.
I knew my state of togetherness likely wouldn’t remain so if we continued the conversation. But, I didn’t care. It would be a decision I made, and I wouldn’t be taking my own decisions for granted anymore. It was clear to me now that I had very little say in my own existence.
“At least you had something to care about. I certainly don't anymore,” I lamented, acquainting myself with the floor of the bedchamber. I started counting speckles of stardust that were embedded into the tile Avareed and I were standing on, keeping the number going even as I spoke.
“I want to find the means to defy him, but…I’m lost. I don’t think there is one.”
Even with the resolution to fully submit myself to the unnamed flame, nothing had come out of it except the increasing desire to scream curses to the space wind. That desire only grew with each passing second I was left without a plan to metaphorically tell Father Arceus to go fuck himself.
“There is, Venira,” Avareed said. For a moment, I stopped my count, and my breath, and simply stared at our feet. When I looked up at him again, my eyes were narrow.
“And why do you sound so sure of that? What would it be?”
He answered faster than I expected him to. Like he’d come to this conclusion long before he dragged me into his room. “We find blood. Whatever blood gives us cannot be worse than the fate Father Arceus has. Whether it’s damnation or full eradication, whatever either means, at least we made that choice ourselves.”
The thing in my chest that had shattered began to reform, and I felt it shudder against the back of my human skin. No amount of emotions could ever hide the fact that Avareed and I always ended up back on the same page somehow. His words were beautiful, and for the slightest BLISSFUL moment, I forgot my own anguish.
“I agree,” I said with a loose nod. “But how? He’ll never let us leave Eden, so how are we supposed to get to it?”
I started to consider the options, moving out from under Avareed’s grasp to pace around. “We could ask Giratina or Yveltal to bring some?” I suggested after thinking about it for a few minutes.
“You know none of the gods can bring outside substances into Eden,” Avareed said.
“Then we would need to meet them outside of Eden,” I shot back.
Avareed paused, seemingly to consider my words. “Or we can just get outside of Eden and find it ourselves,” he said, and I watched him snap his attention toward that same window I’d been looking out of just moments before. “I don’t wish to drag our friends into our predicament. They have far more to lose.”
I agreed with that too. There was not much to be said about a seraph with no gift. At the end of the day, we were just as lowly as Father Arceus had said we were. But gods like Yveltal and Giratina had so much further to fall.
“I also believe the less involved, the better,” Avareed continued. Also a truth. The more in on our scheming, the harder it would be to keep it under wraps.
However, after applying the caveats, we weren’t left with much to go off of. “Then how do we go about getting out? It’s not like there is a door we can walk out of, or a window to jump from.”
All possible means of escape were sealed over with those barriers that prevented our bodies from bypassing them. Giratina and Yveltal had been able to finagle their way in from the outside, being they were no longer seraphs themselves. For us, the aimless, it was a different game. A painful one if we weren’t careful.
Avareed regarded me with a wary glint in his eye. He’d gone back to his stone-face, but I could still tell there was something he wanted to say to me. I furrowed my brow at him, hoping it would be enough to urge him to speak.
He didn’t speak, though. He rushed over to his bedside table and picked up what I soon realized was a silver tray. He fiddled with it between his fingers, as if he were testing to see if it was real, before he turned back to me and motioned to the window with his head. I wordlessly followed him over to it.
“Don’t get cross with me,” he started. That immediately gave me grounds to get cross with him.
“What,” I said. Not as a question, but as a warning statement. He didn’t flinch, but I watched his brows lower for the briefest second.
“I didn’t disclose this to you sooner because I was still testing the theory. I felt it was safer that you didn’t know until I was sure,” he said. “But now I have to be sure, because it’s all we have.”
He kneeled in front of the window, hovering dangerously close to the barrier. I had half a mind to pull him back myself, but now he looked focused. So, I mimicked him and sat close as well.
“You know how Yveltal and Giratina are able to slip past the barrier with little harm?” he said. I nodded, and he huffed to himself before going back to fiddling with the mirror.
“I suppose we always knew that that happens because they’ve been given their gifts, and Father Arceus simply tailored the barriers to block out seraphs somehow,” he explained. This was nothing new to me, so I nodded a little harsher that time around. I wanted him to get to the point, and he seemed to understand that.
“But then I got to thinking…” he said, quieting his voice. I had to lean into him to hear it. “What if the barrier was simply designed to block out things he hadn’t yet bestowed his direct power on? Yveltal and Giratina were touched by his blessing, and they can get through. We haven’t, so we can’t. And then I realized, on a technicality, he had made everything in this castle. Made it to his liking, which subsequently means the items within must have some version of his blessing within them, right?”
Now I was lost. “What are you on about?” I asked. “He made us just as he made Giratina and Yveltal and that tray you're holding. What difference does it make?”
Avareed shook his head. “He formed us, yes, but not to his liking. Seraphs are the raw material of the gods he wants to make, but until he does something with that raw material, that’s all we remain, right?”
I didn’t like being referred to as a “raw material,” as it only solidified my view that we were just molds. But I understood where Avareed was coming from. I just nodded again.
“So, the barrier serves to block out that raw material. Giratina and Yveltal are no longer in that raw form, so they can get through. If this tray here were in some sort of raw, deconstructed form, I imagine it couldn’t get through. But because Father Arceus meticulously crafted it as is…”
He finished his statement by slowly reaching up and sticking the tray into the barrier. I watched in complete awe as the purple shroud parted around its circular shape, effectively creating a slim opening. There was no pushback, no spark, so smoke. Just an opening.
A way out.
Avareed pulled the tray back, and the barrier reformed as if it had never been there in the first place. I regarded his stoic face with my wide eyes.
“How long have you known about this?” I said.
He didn’t say anything for a beat. “Some time,” he answered.
This felt like a good time for that flame to show up. This felt like a time where it would have been warranted to kick him or throw something at him. I felt like I would be justified in getting loud at him.
But, I didn’t. All I could feel was relief. Reprieve. There was an escape option, right in front of me. And my friend Avareed had found it.
He really was so cool.
I hurriedly climbed to my feet, that unnamed flame morphing into EXCITEMENT. My human form must have had a spoink in it, because I was jumping up and down without any intent to stop.
“What are we waiting for?” I gasped. “We need to go. Now!”
I tried to run for the door, but was pulled back by Avareed, who grabbed my forearm. I stopped, turning to look back at him with incredulous confusion.
“What? Is there something else you need to say?”
“Venira, we need to think about this rationally,” he said. “How big was that opening?”
Truthfully, I didn’t know. All I had seen was a spot with no barrier in place. “Big enough.”
“Big enough for one,” he corrected.
“So, let’s get something bigger.”
His face changed for another brief second. I registered it as ANNOYANCE.
“How would you reckon we do that without getting caught? I’ve tested this theory with brushes, mirrors, books, hairclips. But the biggest thing I’ve managed to get ahold of without drawing suspicion was this tray, and I’d say it’s just big enough to create an opening for you alone.”
All coherent thoughts left me. For a moment in time, I was left a shell of myself, staring at him unblinking.
“You’re…saying I have to go alone?”
Avareed rolled his eyes, but it wasn’t out of ANNOYANCE. It was out of something different. Now that the emotion had a name, I could pick up on it easier.
FEAR. He felt it too.
“We could try to get through together, but I imagine it won’t be…clean. One of us could get burnt, to the point where finding blood might be difficult. We’re already in a difficult position in these bodies,” he said. “If it’s just one of us, we’ll have more freedom to move. Less room to get hurt. The other can stay back. Stall Father Arceus if needed.”
I didn’t like how that sounded. “But if he finds out whoever stayed back helped whoever leaves get out, then–”
“That won’t happen. I can play to him and keep him engaged.”
I was shaking my head. This wasn’t something I wanted to tell him “yes” for.
“No,” I said.
“Venira, you must,” he urged.
“Not without you.” I could feel tears coming back again, on account of the FEAR that exploded in my stomach. The starfruit I’d eaten earlier felt like it was going to come up. “This was your idea, your discovery, I can’t–”
He grabbed my shoulders again, and leaned in so his nose touched mine. His eyes were wide, and there was a look of conviction plastered upon his face. One I had never seen before, and one that I could not bring myself to look away from.
“You can. You set all of this into motion, Venira,” he said. You confronted the Father, now you have to be the one to defy him.”
I couldn’t shake my head anymore, but I definitely wanted to. “What about you? What if you get caught?”
“I’m smart,” he said simply. “Don’t worry about me. Worry about finding blood.”
“None of this is going to be worth it if you get caught,” I said without thinking. Suddenly, my mouth was running on its own. It said things I wasn’t ready for it to say, but I didn’t care anymore. “There is no point if you’re no longer with me. We’re supposed to leave together, see Earth together, enjoy–”
Avareed silenced me by reaching behind my head and pulling me closer. Our foreheads touched, and I felt the obnoxious thing in my chest settle. My eyes slipped shut, and all traces of tension in my human muscles vanished. FEAR didn’t have me anymore, and I soon felt like melting in a good way again.
The word for that emotion trickled into my brain like a slow, welcome leak.
LOVE. Feeling a strong affection for another.
In the face of the rest of the emotions I knew, it was small. I still wanted to feel INDIFFERENCE for it. But I held it in my chest and felt it start to settle within the core of my being, and I soon understood just how good it felt. It really was like HUNGER, but at least LOVE felt like it could be sated. So as long as I was with Avareed.
“It will be fine,” he whispered. “We will be fine. But we have to do this.”
I also started to realize LOVE compelled me to say some dumb mushy things. “It’s not going to be freedom if it’s without you,” I protested.
“It won’t be.” I hated how assured he sounded, because it made me want to believe him. I knew if I did, there was a chance it could all go wrong, because belief didn’t equate to fact.
However, he was right. We had to do this. If only to exercise our last chance at making choices for ourselves.
My eyes opened, and my gaze bore into his. I hoped it wouldn’t be the last time I could do that, but I decided that wasn’t the time to think about it.
He was right. We had to do this. I had to do this.
Avareed had obviously been testing his theory with the tray for a while, because he had no issue holding it in place for me under the barrier while I slipped through and wriggled the window open. I was a little more forceful than I should have been, and accidentally caught my right elbow under a corner of the parted barrier. The burn still smoked as I stood on the windowsill and beheld the sight of the space before me. That pain didn’t matter, now that I was face-to-face with freedom.
I was very high up, but I had never been afraid of heights. In fact, they were quite exhilarating. And as I looked out over Eden, the grounds, castle, and all, I saw how well this worked for me. The fences were high, but Avareed’s quarters were even higher.
“Just toward Earth,” Avareed said to me. “However long it takes. Just get there.”
I nodded, despite my lingering FEAR. “Yes. Earth. Blood. Go from there,” I told myself. I finally built the courage to look back at him, still standing in his chambers. I was worried that if I did so, I would lose my nerve and scramble back inside.
I had already promised, though. And I was already out. There was no reason to go back.
“Be careful,” he said. I watched his eyes quickly flick over to my burn, and I was left staring at him warily.
“I should be saying that to you.”
For a moment, I could have sworn I saw a smirk caress his lips. But it was gone as soon as it had appeared. And just like that, he pulled the tray away.
Now, I was truly on my own. I jumped from the windowsill without thinking twice about what was to come. Because I knew I couldn’t.
I had a moment of REGRET as I plummeted toward the points at the top of the fence. In that second, I determined I might discover what impalement felt like, and I'd have to explain how I ended up in such a predicament.
But humans were quite light. All it took was a timed gust of solar wind to carry me across the threshold of the fence and over the neverending void of stars and space matter. FEAR tried to grip me again, but I sucked in a breath and stretched my arms out, clawing further and further forward and kicking my skinny legs for added momentum. I didn't have wings, so I struggled to make many strides, but I made some nonetheless. Inch by inch, I hovered on the low gravity, further away from my prison.
Only then did it dawn on me just how far away Earth was. Even outside the fence, floating against nothing, it only appeared as a pinprick, never getting any bigger.
Now I had an idea why Father Arceus made us humans. They could do quite a lot on solid ground. But in the air, with no direction? It would take me eons to get there of my own volition. Eons Avareed would have to stall Father Arceus from going to look for me. It would be impossible. This was impossible.
REGRET, with an accompanying bout of FEAR, set in. And neither were to be shaken so easily.
"Fuck," I declared to myself.
“Vulgar tongue, Venira!”
I barely had time to gasp before being whisked off onto another presence's winged back. I recognized the wings instantaneously and cried out in EXCITEMENT.
"Giratina!"
"You're a reckless one, aren't you?"
I said nothing more as we soared forward. The breeze of space tearing through my hair as Giratina sped through the cosmos caused a sense of apprehension to rise in my core but it quickly settled as I started to laugh hysterically. It was nerve-wracking, but it was the most joyous sensation I'd ever experienced. It might have been on par with talking to Avareed. Truthfully, it would have been better if Avareed were simply with me.
I couldn’t think about that, though. I had to go forward. And I had to allow myself to enjoy where I was going.
This is what I was missing. This was the freeing feeling I wanted more than anything. And as the sight of Earth seemed to be getting bigger, I was certain of that.
However, FEAR still reappeared as something else dawned on me. "You could get smited for this, Giratina. Father Arceus will have your head."
"Let him have it," Giratina responded. "This is the most absurd thing I've ever seen a seraph do, and best believe I want to be a part of it. Wait until I tell the others."
For a moment, I worried about how easy it was. I expected much more pushback. But that only meant I was in for something more challenging on Earth. So I enjoyed the GLEE for now.
***
Arriving on Earth, I was disappointed that everything about it wasn't blue, but I made a mental note to inform Avareed. The blue we were seeing was just something called "oceans," from what Giratina explained. Everything else, the only areas I could walk in, were mostly green.
As I ventured on, I came to notice how unorganized things were. There were no paved paths, no neatly trimmed topiaries. Not even a gazebo or bench.
The more I beheld it all, the more I loved it.
It was different. It was chaotic. I liked seeing that things could be disorderly and somehow still be wondrous to look at. I saw the same neat bushes and trees and flowers every day. The ones on Earth were just a sight for my BORED eyes.
But, I wasn't as enthralled with the flora as I was with the immediate sounds of struggle I heard. They were all around me, coming from every direction. Grunts, hollers, cries, all of it. They weren't constant, but enough to where I was certain there were creatures near me scuffling.
I bristled at the thought of fighting with something I'd never seen before. I could hold my own against the other seraphs, but what about other Pokemon? Yveltal had said something about humans being more dynamic, but I knew they couldn't withhold power like a Pokemon could. I'd told Giratina to leave me to my devices once we arrived, but that might not have been smart.
And then, I smelled it. That acidic, rusty scent.
Blood.
So close. I began to feel more saliva roll over my tongue and out of the corners of my mouth. It came on so fast I could barely stop before it dribbled over my chin. I could practically hear Avareed chastising me for being a slob, but I didn't care at that single moment. I was the closest to blood I ever thought I could be, and all I wanted to focus on was finding it.
It was dark on Earth, but my eyes adjusted quite well, allowing me to see as I wrestled through thick plants with large flat leaves and bushes of thorns and trees that had been toppled over. At one point, I even stepped in a puddle of thick, blackish mud and stopped to laugh at my own expense.
I might have stayed to play in it longer, just to relish in my surroundings, but the blood was still calling me. It was coming from a direction where I also heard signs of struggle. When I sensed I was close, I slowed to a tip-toe, crouching low. I could see red and orange flares flying around from just over the bushes that had grown so high, and I stuck to their perimeter as I neared.
Pushing back the branches, I soon beheld the sight of two enormous canines. They weren't as big as Father Arceus but far larger than me. Their voluminous coats consisted of several hues of orange and yellow, almost as brilliant as those produced by a red supergiant. However, the colors were significantly tainted by brown and deep red splotches, leaves, and twigs becoming intertwined in the fur strands.
The dogs were jumping around and exchanging rounds of fire and flaming slashes. They gazed upon one another with violent fervor, aiming to close gaps to simply land blows. I knew Pokemon could scuffle like this, but I'd only heard stories. Seeing it in person left me flinching each time they barked and cringing every time one landed an attack. But I was absolutely enthralled with their movements. The fire in me surged with the ones they exchanged.
I wasn't sure how long I'd been watching before one of the dogs managed to get the other by the throat. The caught one released a shrill whine before falling limp. Its eyes were still open but lacked the focus they had just a second before. The triumphant dog shook it around aggressively before letting it fall in a shriveled heap. I saw more deep red beginning to pool around its neck, and the winning canine chuffed before bounding off into the dark.
The one on the ground was completely still. All that moved was the increasing puddle of red around its head.
As I beheld it, my stomach lurched. The rusty scent. It was coming from that puddle. It was blood.
That had to mean that the other dog was dead.
I rose from my hiding spot, walking carefully on the tips of my toes as I circled the lifeless Pokemon. Dead. No smell aside from the one that I'd been following. No sulfur, no black holes. Just a body against Earth's surface, the silence surrounding it for the briefest moment.
Peaceful. Yveltal had at least been right about that.
I approached its head, coming to kneel next to the blood. My hands shook as I lay my palms in it, savoring how warm it felt under my fingertips. How thick it managed to be while looking no different from water. And the smell? It had been so alluring from lightyears away, but up close, with it in my hands, it was nothing short of transcendent. I was entirely awestruck by it, and my HUNGER bloomed.
It was calling to me. And even if it did leave me damned and forever unquenched, enjoying it out of sheer spite was far superior to living under a potential lie.
I cupped what I could in my hands and began to drink.
More.
The warm sensation that traveled down my throat and the salty, acidic taste that spread over my tongue didn't last long enough for me to savor it, so I took another handful. It still wasn't enough.
More.
More.
Before I knew it, I was on my hands and knees, licking every last drop I could get. Even against the dirt, it still tasted divine.
More.
More.
More.
I made it to the bite wound on the dog's neck and began to suck from that. There was so much within its body, yet it still felt like I wasn't getting enough. There was blood left in the flesh, so I gnawed into it.
More.
More.
More.
MORE.
MORE.
I cried out in agony as a sudden cramp locked up my abdomen. Doubling over into what was left of the Pokemon's body, I began to claw into my own skin, drawing my own ichor, hoping that would somehow ease the ache that only grew worse by the second.
The pain seeped into my limbs, up through my neck, before attacking my brain. FEAR pulsed alongside it, but the fire I'd felt ignited into the fury of an exploding star, leaving me feeling like I was entirely swallowed by flame. I screamed; not from the pain, but from my emotions. They all clashed together, morphing into one hot feeling at that moment. I couldn't think straight any longer.
More. More.
MORE.
Stop.
STOP!
Pain.
Fire!
More.
Blood.
Dying.
DYING…
RAGE.
I shrieked again, and a tangible fire sprung to life around me as the cramping ceased. Upon opening my eyes, I could see that my vision had changed. Red danced in the corners, but I no longer strained to see more than a few feet in front of me. I could see hundreds without trying.
All sounds that had come to me in bursts now arrived in a single chaotic cacophony. As I looked around, I also found that I was taller. My line of vision was directly above the trees, which were illuminated by an awesome orange glow.
I felt an empowering heat, and upon looking down at myself, I saw that I had changed.
No longer was I a human. I stood on four gargantuan legs now. The skin against them twisted around and jetted out in jagged shapes, like branches. It smoked with dimming embers from the fires that clawed out from my core. I gnashed my teeth, feeling how long my snout now was; no longer a button. My teeth were no longer square but sharp and plentiful.
And that feeling? The one that made me want to throw things. That made me want to kick and scream and always felt like I was burning, for better or worse?
It now had a name, birthed as fucking brilliantly as I had been.
As I burst through the same windows I'd been looking out just the day cycle before, I grinned ferociously as I met eyes with Father Arceus. I was his fucking height now.
He couldn't talk down to me because I was the same fucking height as him.
The pissy creator was now at odds with the being he'd called brainless. The same pissy creator who didn't know that a fucking tray could breach his barriers. He'd gotten far too complacent with his mistakes.
Now that I had this power, it felt good to be a mistake.
To announce my arrival, I conjured a ball of fire in my mouth and shot it across the room. I aimed to hit him in his stupid face, but he ducked, and it hit the wall instead and caused some shit to fall.
"Did you miss me, asshole?"
He looked me over, clearly struggling with what to say next. I loved watching him look so utterly taken aback. It was utterly euphoric.
"Venira?" he gasped, taking a step back. I laughed heartily at the sight. Even I had managed to stand my ground when he screamed at me, yet h
"Oh, are you afraid now, my Father? Does my new look piss you off?"
"What have you done?" he gasped. His voice cracked, and it was a sound I didn't think I would enjoy as much as I did. "You weren't supposed to ever come into contact with blood; now you are a tainted god," he said frantically.
FEAR sounded wonderful on him. I had to refrain from giggling as he sputtered out more nonsense.
"No, no, you were never supposed to leave Eden on your own. You’re too dangerous for this multiverse, and now you’ve ingested blood. You disobeyed my order, you’ve–”
"Shut the fuck up!" I roared. Eden, in its entirety, shook, and I saw cracks start to form in the walls. "You have jack fucking shit on me! You FEAR me, don't you? This is why you wanted us to keep away from blood? This is why you lied about it?"
He was shaking his head now. "This isn't what I wanted for you. I was supposed to bestow your domain; I was supposed to make you good! But you've made yourself a monster by ingesting blood. This is what I tried to avoid; this is–"
"I'm the monster?" I said. "You forced me to function and exist how you wanted me to. Us, to. You didn't tell us about blood because you didn't want us to act out in ways you didn't like and couldn't control. You called us lowly entities, and subjected us to pain whenever you felt the desire. And yet I'm somehow the bad one here?"
"Venira—"
"Did you know that it would unlock my true potential? You had to have, or you wouldn't have made me crave eating asteroids all these fucking years."
"You don't know what you are and what you’ve done to yourself; you will never—"
"Did you know I'm powerful enough to put your fucking head through a wall, you lowlife tyrant? Is that why you were afraid? Afraid of a god who could top your power?"
I couldn't hide the wicked smile that curled my new snout as another thought occurred to me. "I'm surprised you haven't zapped me out of existence yet. Why is that? Did you perhaps lie about how you did that to other seraphs that drank blood? If there even were any?"
The castle quaked again under my sound, and as I waited for Father Arceus' response, I heard the throne room doors open. Rushing in were all my fellow seraphs, Avareed at the front. Varying degrees of shock and awe crossed all their faces, but it was how Avareed's eyes widened, and his mouth fell agape that left me tickled.
"V…Venira?" he asked.
"It is! I went to Earth, Avareed," I cackled. "It was wonderful, and I found blood, like we planned! It did this to me. It gave me my purpose! Without any gifts from Father Fuckface."
I paused for a brief moment. "Also, the only thing about it that's actually blue is the oceans. Sorry."
"Do not spout such nonsense to them; they're–"
"I told you to shut the fuck up!" I spat another ball of fire at him, and it struck the side of his neck and sent him topping backward into the wall. Looking back at the other seraphs, I saw them beholding their fallen Father, completely dumbstruck. I approached them and leaned down so they could see me better.
"He kept us here, lied to us because blood gives us power he didn’t want to give us. Drinking blood made me this on its own. Whatever he might have told any of you about gaining your gifts, he's wrong. Blood made me this with no assistance from him."
Avareed's face fell back into something more unreadable. It was a long while before he stepped closer to me.
"You're certain blood did this?"
"Every last drop of it did. And there's more. So much more. You can have some and join me."
"Stop!" Father Arceus called, picking himself up from my attack. "Do not feed them lies!"
"The only lies they were being fed were yours. You have shit all on us now."
I locked eyes with Avareed again. His brows here lowered. THOUGHTFUL.
LOVE came back with vigorous intent. I was glad to know that even though WRATH had become my whole being, I still felt so much LOVE for him.
I wanted him to have what I had. More than anything.
"Please, Avareed. No more lies. Just Earth, and blood, and freedom." I nodded toward the rest of the seraphs. "For all of us who have sat and waited for gifts for so long. We can get them ourselves."
I watched the seraphs exchange looks with one another, but it was Avareed who was the first to put his hand on my new snout. He gave me his sublte almost-grin, and nodded once.
"Earth, blood, and freedom."
Avareed really was neat. He was the first to climb on my back, and it was only a short time before the others followed in quick succession. While I would have prefered some alone time with just Avareed and I, I knew I was going to need the rest of the seraphs too. The more of us, the better.
"No!" Father Arceus begged. "You don't know what you're doing! This will topple everything I worked to build for you all! You will all become monsters I never had any intention of creating! If you ingest blood, your thirst will never be sated!"
I had been set to fly back out the window, but I stopped to look back at him, another vile grin curling my lips back over my jagged teeth.
"If you're that concerned, kill me right now. Go ahead."
He didn't move. He just stared at me dumbly. That look on his face made me shudder in absolute GLEE.
"Nothing?"
His mouth moved like he wanted to speak, but no words came out. Then, I watched one of his hind legs step backward.
My grin had become so big that it was hurting my cheeks now. I didn't care. This was too wonderful. "That answers that, then. A tyrant and a liar; how topical. You knew you couldn't beat back one of us. But seven?" My giggle bordered on hysterical. "Noted."
Flaring my wings, I turned toward the window I'd blown out and jumped. My wings caught the space breeze as I soared away from Eden forever. Back to Earth, to give the last of the seraphs what I now had and what Father Arceus never wanted us to know of.
If there was an issue on his end, we would fight back. I had power now. We would have power now. And I already knew of other gods who would be more than willing to join that crusade.
Hey it's me, reviewing this without looking at the other reviews. This review is a bit weird because I don't know how much story remains to be written and it feels like we kind of have a full story arc already, so I'm more or less reviewing this as if it were a completed thing.
Naive though our protagonist may be, I agree with her decision to escape. It's clear from the start that Arceus is a meanie, and who is to say that he's telling the truth when he says that consuming blood condemns you to damnation and eternal thirst? Seems like Venira is going to be constantly thirsting for blood either way; it's not clear the compulsion got notably worse after her transformation. Arceus also apparently lied about damning the other disobedient seraphs, because it seems like he can't actually do that.
The wacky space garden seems cool; I thought it was kind of a shame the description thereof is on the spare side. Like, what do the trees look like aside from the fruit, what kind of ground cover is there, is it flat or hilly, how far can you see, idk. I suppose in the context of the story you would want to describe it in a way that emphasizes its familiarity/banality to Venira. It could make the relative chaos of earth hit harder later on too.
I am surprised no one escaped Arceus' barrier earlier, or at least found out that other objects can pass through. I feel like it would be pretty natural to try to poke it with a stick or something out of curiosity if nothing else. It's also surprising that Arceus can't stand up to his own creation in the last chapter, but also lmao get fucked.
Also I figured Avareed is supposed to embody greed, because of the name, but I don't remember him doing anything particularly greedy. He kind of seems like just a regular old guy. He even sacrifices his own opportunity to escape for Venira's sake.
Anyway, now that Venira has been reborn as the true embodiment of wrath, I guess she's going to be angry all the time? That seems like it would suck tbh, but I guess it must hit different when you're a supernatural entity.
Anyway, I like Venira's arc of becoming a strong independent seraph who don't need no god, and some of her narration is funny. My biggest criticism is that the first half or so of what has been published so far feels tedious largely because Venira belabors emotions that are obvious to the reader. One thing the story does very well is making Arceus hateable. The heart of the story, to me, was seeing the insufferable jerk get his comeuppance. The revenge might have been sweeter if the escape hadn't been trivial. Perhaps if Venira and Avareed had had to find a way to use Arceus's pride against him somehow?
Anyway, here are some line by lines.
I watched his lips flatten into a tight line, and his eyes narrowed.
"You could if you wanted to," I said. I would have let Avareed stomp on my human foot if he wanted to. That's not to say I wouldn't do it back harder, but if it was what he wanted, he was someone I never minded saying 'yes' to.
Hello I read the first chapter! Took a bit to get the link issue cleared up but I'm ready to read!
Narrator is a little shit already I like it. Getting villain protag vibes right off the bat.
Ohhhh oh nooooo "form breaking and reforming" but that's boring? I wouldn't have thought that would be what you would call such a thing
I wonder why, if they're all transforming and in intense pain, Arceus doesn't want any of them to hear this one. Is this one special or is it a general avoidance, don't share your trauma even though you're going through the same thing?
I wonder what a throne for a quadruped looks like. Love the notion of how even the slightest bit of rebellion is utter bliss.
A black hole smell? Fascinating! I wonder what that would smell like, especially to a creature like this. Even in human form, they're not a human at all.
And a little jab at Palkia. Bad blood?
Capitalizing the emotions is a nice touch. I know this is an original legendary but given what Sinnoh legendaries and emotions have in common, it's a little extra emphasis. Though is hunger an emotion? I suppose either way it would be foreign to a being like this.
Oh, this isn't the first time they've taken mortal form?
Wait, so why turn them human if they can't go to Earth? Quite curious. Makes me think Arceus has a hidden agenda in keeping them there. He already said he's going to watch them closely, but I wonder if it isn't more than that, in whatever way.
An interesting take on an emerging legendary, and the growing hatred for the whims and restrictions of their creator. Very neat.
