Thanks so much to @WildBoots and @rimly for all the lovely comments you've been leaving recently! I'm hoping to get more proper replies typed up soon, but I wanted to at least acknowledge all the awesome feedback you've been providing and let you know that it's been a real pleasure reading through them all. It's always a joy to see people catching up with the story.
In the meantime, I did want to post this special extra for @Dragonfree , whose birthday was last week! I haven't posted extras to this thread in the past, but I hadn't realized that there's a built-in way to mark them separately in the threadmarks system. So here we go: a little extra scene that would naturally fall somewhere around Chapter 63 or Chapter 64. Happy birthday, Dragonfree, and I hope you enjoy your Blitz art prize plus a little something extra to go with.
Kid notices when the great Nathaniel Morgan shows up to watch, even though it pretends not to. It lets him sit a while, observing its process, before it asks, "What do you want?"
"Nothing much. Just curious what you're up to."
"I am drawing Steelix."
"I can see that," the great Nathaniel Morgan says with a smile. "You got like all his spikes and shit. Plus the birdbath he knocked over. Pretty good drawer, ain't you?"
"I am a really good drawer." At least nothing else has touched this. Kid adds a few more spikes, blunts the end of Steelix's nose a bit. Then it tears the page out of its notebook and passes it to the great Nathaniel Morgan.
"For me?"
Kid shrugs. "I did a bunch already. I will make more."
"Well, thanks." The great Nathaniel Morgan smoothes the drawing out and gives it a fond smile. "Steelix can't even see for shit, really, so it don't mean nothing to him. But Mightyena, well, she's the jealous type. She'd be mad that nobody was making drawings of her."
"I mean, I could draw her," Kid says uncertainly. "I do not think she would want me to, though."
"Yeah. Probably not. Well, her loss, then. She can't get mad about getting no art if she's not gonna let nobody draw her."
"Right," Kid said, but somehow it feels like it's doing something wrong anyway. It scratches nonsense grids of lines in the corners of its paper while the great Nathaniel Morgan watches Steelix rumbling around the yard.
Then Kid realizes. It's so simple. So obvious. "So you should draw her!"
"Huh?"
"You should draw Mightyena. And the rest of your pokémon, too. I mostly only get to see Steelix."
"I mean, if you want to do pictures of Graveler, you know she'll sit still for you. It's kind of what she does."
"No, it should be you. They would like that better, would they not? A gift from their trainer is better than one from me."
"I can't fucking draw, though."
"Sure you can!" Kid tears a piece of paper off the notepad and hands it to the great Nathaniel Morgan along with the pen.
"Look, I really don't even know what to do with that shit," the great Nathaniel Morgan says. He tries to dodge the supplies, but Kid keeps pushing them at him until he's forced to accept them out of self-defense.
"It is easy! You just look at something and then you make the shapes on the paper. Like with Steelix, I start with a bunch of circles..." Kid draws its finger across a blank sheet of paper, smeargle-paint welling from the tip to form a thick blue oval. "Then I add some spikes!"
The great Nathaniel Morgan watches, face all squished up in concentration, then draws a shaky circle on his own paper. He slowly adds a couple smaller squiggles--ears?
"Look, you gotta be, like, watching me?" The great Nathaniel Morgan grumbles, pulling the paper away and holding it practically up against its chest so Kid would need to climb all over him to see it. It shrugs and goes back to painting Steelix, changing colors as it goes so the big steel-type is curled amidst a swirl of rainbow blots.
It's hard not to watch the great Nathaniel Morgan, though, even if Kid can't see what he's drawing. It can see how tight he grips the pen, how he scowls down at the paper, how angrily the point of the instrument digs in to scribble. He scratches something out and swears under his breath.
The suspense is too much. Finally Kid has to reach out and grab the corner of the paper, pulling it down just enough to see what's on it. It can't help but snicker. "Looks like Mightyena's nose is pretty sharp!"
The great Nathaniel Morgan snatches the paper back and crushes it in a fist. "I fucking suck at this," he snarls. "What a fucking stupid idea."
Kid realizes its mistake too late. "No, no! It is good already. If you want, I can help you with it, too."
"Oh, fuck off about it," the great Nathaniel Morgan says. He gets up and stomps off, leaving Kid with a painting slowly dripping into its lap and a piece of paper crumpled on the floor.
Steelix is surprisingly quiet for somebody so big, but Kid can hear the whisper and crunch of sand beneath his armor as he comes closer. "Did something happen?" he asks.
"It's just your trainer. Being stupid," Kid says. It goes to pick up the great Nathaniel Morgan's crumpled drawing and smooths it out again. Well, it is bad. Even the two times he started it over. He can't get mad at Kid for pointing out the obvious.
"What is that?"
"It's a drawing. One of the picture things humans look at with their eyes."
Steelix rumbles a note of understanding. "Ah, yes. They do think those are important, don't they?"
"I guess." Kid grips the edges of the paper tight. So stupid. Mightyena wouldn't even be able to tell the drawing was bad.
Steelix swings his big head around, maybe listening to something inside the house. Kid imagines the great Nathaniel Morgan fuming up and down, probably getting himself a beer. "Nate seems to, at least."
"It's stupid. I didn't"--Kid bites back its words. "He's being dumb. That's all. You know how he is."
"It's true. Nate doesn't always have the best sense of proportion." Steelix rests his chin on the ground nearby, so his head's right up next to Kid. "I suppose he's angry whether he has reason to be or not."
"He doesn't." Kid scowls down at the paper again. It doesn't know what Steelix wants from it, hovering over it like this. Like there's anything it should be doing. Like any of this is Kid's fault.
"I guess if he's going to be stupid about it, I'll just have to fix it for him. He's never going to do it by himself," Kid says at last.
"Well, that is Nate's nature, I suppose. To have other cleaning up his messes," Steelix says, and Kid doesn't bother to wonder why he sounds amused. It's already set pen to paper again.
"I drew your pokémon."
"Cool. Fucking great for you."
Kid marches over and slaps the paper down on the coffee table next to the great Nathaniel Morgan's boots. "Now you can give it to them. Say that I ruined it for you."
The great Nathaniel Morgan stares. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"
"Tell them you were drawing them, but then I stole the paper from you and scribbled all over your work. Say you were trying to make them a present and then I ruined it and you're mad about it."
"The more you talk, the less sense you fucking make." The great Nathaniel Morgan picks up the paper and examines it.
"They want me to be the bad guy anyway. It will make them happy. Especially Mightyena. And they will get a picture."
The great Nathaniel Morgan gives it another weird look. "Yeah, sure, they'll be super happy I made up some random fucking lie about the present I got for them. Fucking brilliant."
Of course he'd be like this. He just wants to be mad. He always wants to be mad instead of happy. So stupid.
"Well, since you are so bad at drawing, I thought maybe I could make something actually nice for them. Something they would appreciate!"
But the great Nathaniel Morgan doesn't seem to hear Kid's comment. He's looking between Kid and the paper as though he's seeing something there something that's got him inspired. Kid's glare only seems to amuse him. "No, hang on. I think I've got it. Where's the goddamn pen?"
The great Nathaniel Morgan scribbles away for a few seconds, then passes the paper back to Kid. "There. It just needed something extra."
Kid's fingers clench deep furrows in the paper. "What is this? Is this supposed to be funny?"
"Dunno what you're talking about, Kid."
"So is your plan to make your pokémon happy by making fun of me?" Mightyena probably would think it was great.
"Nah. It's for you. It's mostly yours, ain't it?"
"I do not want it."
"So chuck it, then." The great Nathaniel Morgan gets to his feet and slouches off, grinning all the while. He clearly considers himself the funniest person alive.
"You are bad at drawing!" Kid yells after him.
"Just had to find a subject that was worthy of my fucking talents!" And then he's gone, off down the hall.
Kid stands there a couple seconds longer, seething. It glares down at the drawing again. Stupid human. Can't draw. The infernape looks even more ridiculous next to Kid's Steelix, which is probably the best one it's done yet. And Graveler came out really well, too.
But the great Nathaniel Morgan's infernape looks so goofy--so bad--that Kid can't even stay mad at it. So what if the great Nathaniel Morgan is smug about it? At least he's not being weird and sad anymore.
It's a good drawing, or Kid's part is, at least. The great Nathaniel Morgan's addition doesn't even really ruin it. Kid smiles at last and tucks the paper into a pocket. This isn't over. The great Nathaniel Morgan's about to discover just how many embarrassing outfits Kid can imagine to draw him in.
In the meantime, I did want to post this special extra for @Dragonfree , whose birthday was last week! I haven't posted extras to this thread in the past, but I hadn't realized that there's a built-in way to mark them separately in the threadmarks system. So here we go: a little extra scene that would naturally fall somewhere around Chapter 63 or Chapter 64. Happy birthday, Dragonfree, and I hope you enjoy your Blitz art prize plus a little something extra to go with.
Art Lessons
Kid notices when the great Nathaniel Morgan shows up to watch, even though it pretends not to. It lets him sit a while, observing its process, before it asks, "What do you want?"
"Nothing much. Just curious what you're up to."
"I am drawing Steelix."
"I can see that," the great Nathaniel Morgan says with a smile. "You got like all his spikes and shit. Plus the birdbath he knocked over. Pretty good drawer, ain't you?"
"I am a really good drawer." At least nothing else has touched this. Kid adds a few more spikes, blunts the end of Steelix's nose a bit. Then it tears the page out of its notebook and passes it to the great Nathaniel Morgan.
"For me?"
Kid shrugs. "I did a bunch already. I will make more."
"Well, thanks." The great Nathaniel Morgan smoothes the drawing out and gives it a fond smile. "Steelix can't even see for shit, really, so it don't mean nothing to him. But Mightyena, well, she's the jealous type. She'd be mad that nobody was making drawings of her."
"I mean, I could draw her," Kid says uncertainly. "I do not think she would want me to, though."
"Yeah. Probably not. Well, her loss, then. She can't get mad about getting no art if she's not gonna let nobody draw her."
"Right," Kid said, but somehow it feels like it's doing something wrong anyway. It scratches nonsense grids of lines in the corners of its paper while the great Nathaniel Morgan watches Steelix rumbling around the yard.
Then Kid realizes. It's so simple. So obvious. "So you should draw her!"
"Huh?"
"You should draw Mightyena. And the rest of your pokémon, too. I mostly only get to see Steelix."
"I mean, if you want to do pictures of Graveler, you know she'll sit still for you. It's kind of what she does."
"No, it should be you. They would like that better, would they not? A gift from their trainer is better than one from me."
"I can't fucking draw, though."
"Sure you can!" Kid tears a piece of paper off the notepad and hands it to the great Nathaniel Morgan along with the pen.
"Look, I really don't even know what to do with that shit," the great Nathaniel Morgan says. He tries to dodge the supplies, but Kid keeps pushing them at him until he's forced to accept them out of self-defense.
"It is easy! You just look at something and then you make the shapes on the paper. Like with Steelix, I start with a bunch of circles..." Kid draws its finger across a blank sheet of paper, smeargle-paint welling from the tip to form a thick blue oval. "Then I add some spikes!"
The great Nathaniel Morgan watches, face all squished up in concentration, then draws a shaky circle on his own paper. He slowly adds a couple smaller squiggles--ears?
"Look, you gotta be, like, watching me?" The great Nathaniel Morgan grumbles, pulling the paper away and holding it practically up against its chest so Kid would need to climb all over him to see it. It shrugs and goes back to painting Steelix, changing colors as it goes so the big steel-type is curled amidst a swirl of rainbow blots.
It's hard not to watch the great Nathaniel Morgan, though, even if Kid can't see what he's drawing. It can see how tight he grips the pen, how he scowls down at the paper, how angrily the point of the instrument digs in to scribble. He scratches something out and swears under his breath.
The suspense is too much. Finally Kid has to reach out and grab the corner of the paper, pulling it down just enough to see what's on it. It can't help but snicker. "Looks like Mightyena's nose is pretty sharp!"
The great Nathaniel Morgan snatches the paper back and crushes it in a fist. "I fucking suck at this," he snarls. "What a fucking stupid idea."
Kid realizes its mistake too late. "No, no! It is good already. If you want, I can help you with it, too."
"Oh, fuck off about it," the great Nathaniel Morgan says. He gets up and stomps off, leaving Kid with a painting slowly dripping into its lap and a piece of paper crumpled on the floor.
Steelix is surprisingly quiet for somebody so big, but Kid can hear the whisper and crunch of sand beneath his armor as he comes closer. "Did something happen?" he asks.
"It's just your trainer. Being stupid," Kid says. It goes to pick up the great Nathaniel Morgan's crumpled drawing and smooths it out again. Well, it is bad. Even the two times he started it over. He can't get mad at Kid for pointing out the obvious.
"What is that?"
"It's a drawing. One of the picture things humans look at with their eyes."
Steelix rumbles a note of understanding. "Ah, yes. They do think those are important, don't they?"
"I guess." Kid grips the edges of the paper tight. So stupid. Mightyena wouldn't even be able to tell the drawing was bad.
Steelix swings his big head around, maybe listening to something inside the house. Kid imagines the great Nathaniel Morgan fuming up and down, probably getting himself a beer. "Nate seems to, at least."
"It's stupid. I didn't"--Kid bites back its words. "He's being dumb. That's all. You know how he is."
"It's true. Nate doesn't always have the best sense of proportion." Steelix rests his chin on the ground nearby, so his head's right up next to Kid. "I suppose he's angry whether he has reason to be or not."
"He doesn't." Kid scowls down at the paper again. It doesn't know what Steelix wants from it, hovering over it like this. Like there's anything it should be doing. Like any of this is Kid's fault.
"I guess if he's going to be stupid about it, I'll just have to fix it for him. He's never going to do it by himself," Kid says at last.
"Well, that is Nate's nature, I suppose. To have other cleaning up his messes," Steelix says, and Kid doesn't bother to wonder why he sounds amused. It's already set pen to paper again.
--
"I drew your pokémon."
"Cool. Fucking great for you."
Kid marches over and slaps the paper down on the coffee table next to the great Nathaniel Morgan's boots. "Now you can give it to them. Say that I ruined it for you."
The great Nathaniel Morgan stares. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"
"Tell them you were drawing them, but then I stole the paper from you and scribbled all over your work. Say you were trying to make them a present and then I ruined it and you're mad about it."
"The more you talk, the less sense you fucking make." The great Nathaniel Morgan picks up the paper and examines it.
"They want me to be the bad guy anyway. It will make them happy. Especially Mightyena. And they will get a picture."
The great Nathaniel Morgan gives it another weird look. "Yeah, sure, they'll be super happy I made up some random fucking lie about the present I got for them. Fucking brilliant."
Of course he'd be like this. He just wants to be mad. He always wants to be mad instead of happy. So stupid.
"Well, since you are so bad at drawing, I thought maybe I could make something actually nice for them. Something they would appreciate!"
But the great Nathaniel Morgan doesn't seem to hear Kid's comment. He's looking between Kid and the paper as though he's seeing something there something that's got him inspired. Kid's glare only seems to amuse him. "No, hang on. I think I've got it. Where's the goddamn pen?"
The great Nathaniel Morgan scribbles away for a few seconds, then passes the paper back to Kid. "There. It just needed something extra."
Kid's fingers clench deep furrows in the paper. "What is this? Is this supposed to be funny?"
"Dunno what you're talking about, Kid."
"So is your plan to make your pokémon happy by making fun of me?" Mightyena probably would think it was great.
"Nah. It's for you. It's mostly yours, ain't it?"
"I do not want it."
"So chuck it, then." The great Nathaniel Morgan gets to his feet and slouches off, grinning all the while. He clearly considers himself the funniest person alive.
"You are bad at drawing!" Kid yells after him.
"Just had to find a subject that was worthy of my fucking talents!" And then he's gone, off down the hall.
Kid stands there a couple seconds longer, seething. It glares down at the drawing again. Stupid human. Can't draw. The infernape looks even more ridiculous next to Kid's Steelix, which is probably the best one it's done yet. And Graveler came out really well, too.
But the great Nathaniel Morgan's infernape looks so goofy--so bad--that Kid can't even stay mad at it. So what if the great Nathaniel Morgan is smug about it? At least he's not being weird and sad anymore.
It's a good drawing, or Kid's part is, at least. The great Nathaniel Morgan's addition doesn't even really ruin it. Kid smiles at last and tucks the paper into a pocket. This isn't over. The great Nathaniel Morgan's about to discover just how many embarrassing outfits Kid can imagine to draw him in.