Sixth Anniversary Speed Catnip

[Negrek]

Sixth Anniversary Speed Catnip​

To close out this year's docket of Discord events, get ready for a round of Speed Catnip! This fast and furious event lets you sample several fics in a short period of time, while also getting super-quick feedback on your own stories. It's perfect for swapping drabbles and seeing what else other people wrote for their bingo!

How it Works

Come join us in the Discord server's Speed Catnip thread under #reading-chat when the event kicks off. I'll roll random pairings between everyone who signs up, and then you'll have fifteen minutes to read your partner's excerpt and make a brief comment (three sentences tops!) on it. They'll read yours and do the same when they finish. If you've got extra time, you can chat a little bit or simply wait for the next assignment to be rolled. Once fifteen minutes is up, I'll randomize another set of pairings and start things over again! We'll play five rounds of this--sampling five fics in about an hour and a half real-time. Not bad, huh?

When Will the Event Take Place?

The event will take place Saturday, May 10th at 4:00 PM EST (8:00 PM UTC).

How to Sign Up

First, choose an excerpt of a larger story, one-shot, or combination of drabbles that works out to about 1000 words. Since the speed catnip rolls will be made without regard for content warnings, please make sure your selection is PG in terms of subject matter and does not include any major content warnings--no violence or blood beyond what you'd see in a Pokémon battle in the anime, no major character death or suicide/suicidal ideation, sexual assault, or substance abuse. Post your excerpt below (or a link to it, if it's something like all the drabbles in a thread). That's it! After that, all you need to do is show up for the event.

If you have multiple fics and want to showcase more than one, you can prepare a second excerpt to offer an alternative choice for whoever rolls you to read. Since these rolls will not account for who's familiar with your story already, if there are people in the participant pool who are already caught up on your fic, it might be a good idea to have something available for anyone who's caught up on your story to enjoy. But this is all optional--to participate, all you need is one ~1k word snippet that meets the guidelines.

 

[CuteBunnyGirl]

Here's my excerpt, it's closer to like 700 words but i hope that's alright.

Spoiler: The excerpt

“So, which one of these pokemon would you like? You can only pick one of them.”

Juliana pondered the question for a while. All three of the choices looked excellent, and it was difficult to only choose one of them. Eventually, after a long while of thinking, she was ready to make her decision.

“I’m afraid I must visit another student now. You may meet me at that house over there once you’ve made your choice.” Clavell stated, pointing at a nearby house.

At the nearby house, Juliana saw Clavell alongside the three pokemon and another student, who was presumably also going to choose one of the starters. Clavell introduced the two to each other.

“Juliana, this is Nemona. She is a powerful champion-ranked trainer.”

“Nice to meet you, Nemona.”

“Nemona, this is Juliana. She is a new student at Naranja Academy.”

“Nice to meet you, Juliana! Would you like a battle?”

“I know you’re excited, Nemona, but Juliana hasn’t picked her starter pokemon yet.”

Looking at the three pokemon, Juliana finally made her choice. She made eye contact with Quaxly, deciding to pick it as her new starter.

“I would like to pick Quaxly.”

Clavell gave Juliana Quaxly’s pokeball, before Nemona replied:

“Can I pick one too?”

“Don’t you already have one?” Clavell asked.

“Yes, but I’d like to pick one in order to have it grow alongside Juliana. We can’t really be amazing rivals if my team is too strong for her to defeat, after all!”

“Sure, you may pick one of them.”

“Great! I’d like to pick Fuecoco!” Nemona requested.

“Understood. Sprigatito will be coming with me.”

“Now, Juliana, would you like to battle me?”

“Sure thing!”

Juliana followed Nemona to a beach near the house, seeing a battlefield where the two were to have a great battle together. Clavell also arrived, stating to both of them:

“I will be observing the battle in order to make sure it is fair for both of you.”

“Alright then, which pokemon should I choose…” Nemona wondered before Clavell requested:

“I would advise using the Fuecoco you just received, as a less experienced pokemon would give a fairer fight for Juliana.”

“I understand. Now, Juliana, let’s start the match! Go, Fuecoco!”

As Nemona sent out her new partner pokemon, Juliana also sent out Quaxly, as it was the only pokemon she currently had.

“Go, Quaxly! Use Pound!”

The Quaxly started off the battle by attacking the Fuecoco with a pounding attack, dealing some damage to it. Now, it was Nemona’s turn to attack.

“Fuecoco, use Tackle!”

The Fuecoco attacked by tackling the Quaxly with its body, dealing a decent amount of damage. The attack was more powerful than the one Quaxly used, as while the pokemon itself had not battled before, Nemona had more experience commanding a pokemon in battle.

Juliana had to think of a strategy if she wanted to win this battle. She tried to recall the things she had learned from her late brother, Florian.

Around five years ago, Florian was sitting on a bench alongside Juliana talking about his day at school with her.

“So, if you wish to be a strong pokemon battler, you should know how different types of pokemon work against each other.” Florian said.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, some types have attacks that deal more damage against certain types of pokemon. For example, water type attacks are super effective against fire type pokemon.”

Then, Juliana knew what she had to do. She would use a super effective attack.

“Quaxly! Use Water Gun!”

As the Quaxly squirted a blast of water, it hit the Fuecoco with precision and power due to the type matchup. In fact, the attack was powerful enough to knock out the Fuecoco, winning Juliana the battle. Nemona looked at Juliana excitedly.

“Wow! That was an awesome battle! Maybe you’ll even be strong enough to defeat my real champion team someday!”

Juliana was quite proud of herself. She had won her first pokemon battle, this was absolutely an amazing start to her pokemon journey. Perhaps she could even become a champion-ranked trainer one day, just like Nemona.

 

[canisaries]

I would like to join with this drabble! It's only 600-700 words, but I think there's enough there for 1-3 sentences of feedback.

 

[candycanearter07]

Hi, where is the discord link?

 

[Negrek]

Right here: https://discord.gg/BeWCYxk

Here's mine if needed: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33501907

 

[Shiny Phantump]

I’ll offer up reader’s choice from Memories of Spirits aka my bingo prompt minifics.

They’re 700, 900, and 1100 respectively so be keep the length in mind if you’re a slower reader. On the other hand, by way of coincidence I think the longer ones ended up feeling a little better to me. Do with that info whatever you will, I’m happy with any of ‘em.

 

[elyvorg]

A little over 1000 words, at 1034, but I assume that's acceptable!

Spoiler: Excerpt from Nothing Fickle About Loyalty

The next thing you know, you’re barely done materialising into Kieran’s room before he breaks into an excited stream of chatter. “You guys! Oh, man, today was like the best day ever! We got to battle Juliana – twice! – an’ I even told her all about how much I like the ogre and took her to see its den, an’ she didn’t even get mad at me! And then – and then! – she said that we’re friends! I mean, wowzers! Friends with someone as cool as her! I can’t believe it!”

Blinking in the artificial light of the room, you scramble to keep up. The whole group’s here and some of them look different, but more importantly than any of that, Kieran is smiling, the biggest smile you’ve seen on him in… perhaps forever.

“Friend? You made a friend! A human friend!” Sentret – no, Furret – exclaims in delight, his new longer body twisting this way and that around Kieran’s legs.

A human friend…? Kieran’s never had one of those before, never even really talked about wanting one. But you’re pretty sure humans usually have friends among their own kind, and the smile on his face certainly tells you this is a good thing. His eyes are practically sparkling.

Overhead, Yanma’s zipping around even faster than usual. “You’re happy! You’re happy! I’ve never seen you so happy!”

Kieran glances at both of them and chuckles. “Then we went to the Festival of Masks together,” he goes on, “me an’ her an’ Sis, and it was a lotta fun! Well, mostly…” His beaming grin falters for a moment, and his next words come out mumbled. “Sis and Juliana were acting kinda weird near the end, like they were makin’ fun of me… I-It’s probably nothin’, though…”

Your tail twitches at that, but then Kieran shakes his head and puts his smile back in place, turning to face you. “A-Anyway, look, Applin! We got a little stronger, too – Sentret and Big Sis Poliwag evolved! Isn’t that awesome?”

Furret proudly stretches himself out to his full height, while beside him, the now-Poliwhirl flexes one of her new arms. “Knew we could do it if we tried,” she says.

Her little brother, still a Poliwag, peers up at her, his eyes shining.

“And Yanma’s been workin’ really hard as well,” Kieran adds as the bug Pokémon lands on his head. “Seeing Juliana made me really wanna try, y’know? So, um, at the festival…” He rummages through his bag and pulls something out to show you. “I finally went an’ did it! I bought a Syrupy Apple, so you can evolve too!”

Your eye-stalks stand straight up in amazement, staring at the glistening fruit before you. He’d mentioned this once or twice, a special apple from the festival that lets an Applin evolve, but you’d never thought – you never dreamed—

Kieran holds out his free hand towards your perch on the window ledge. “How about it, Applin? Do you wanna get stronger with me?”

You’ve never wanted anything more.

You roll onto his hand and fix him with a determined gaze. “Of course!”

“All right!” You don’t need to be able to read Kieran’s expression to know that he’s matching your determination. “You got this, Applin!”

With a burst of courage, you launch yourself out of the apple that’s the only home you’ve ever known, and burrow into the new one. A blinding surge of power overwhelms you, along with a spark of eager curiosity. You’ve never seen this ‘Dipplin’ for yourself – what kinds of changes might be in store for you? A different shape, like Furret? Or perhaps new limbs, like Poliwhirl?

As the rush of power fades, you take in the room, towering over you. You’ve shrunk? No, you’ve just dropped to the floor. You are bigger, but not by much – even Poliwag’s still taller than you. Other than a new antenna, your body hardly feels different. Your tail isn’t even long enough to poke out of this larger apple.

“Wowzers! Way to go, Dipplin!”

But none of that matters, because Kieran is thrilled, kneeling down to your level with a huge grin. Perhaps it’s that he can tell you’re stronger now, despite your size. You can feel it, too: the sweet, sticky goodness of your new apple filling you with power like you’ve never known.

And there’s something else new, something your tail keeps bumping up against, shifting within the core of this apple. No… someone else? Another wyrm, just like you. Where did they come from?

“Ah, hehe… you’re all sticky! Guess I won’t be pickin’ you up as much any more, huh?”

You barely noticed Kieran try to touch your apple, too preoccupied with probing at this new creature who’s inexplicably here with you. But you don’t want to let on to Kieran that anything’s wrong, so you hide your alarm and hiss at the newcomer, “Who are you?” For once, you’re glad Kieran can’t understand you.

“…Who are you?” the new wyrm responds.

“But man, I can’t wait to start trainin’ you tomorrow!” Kieran goes on, oblivious. “I bet you can learn all sorts of cool moves now! Maybe you can even go up against Juliana!”

“Juliana…” mutters the new wyrm. “Didn’t he say… she was making fun of him earlier?”

“Why would you bring that up?!” you splutter. “Besides, it’s fine! Kieran said it was nothing, so it’s nothing.” Who does this wyrm think they are, barging into your apple and being a downer in what ought to be the greatest moment of your life?

“Kieran’s happy,” you insist, keeping your gaze on that beaming smile on his face. “He’s happier than I’ve ever seen. That’s what counts.”

“I know,” the other wyrm says quietly. “I wish I could see him.”

It strikes you only now that, down there in the apple’s core, they can’t see a thing.

…Which is fine, because you’re the one who’s Kieran’s friend. More than that, he’s your trainer now. You’re strong enough to battle for him, at long last.

For the first time in your life, there’s something you can do to help keep him smiling.

~~~​

When you see Kieran again the next day, his smile is gone.

 

[Flyg0n]

Excerpt from the next chapter of LA 'Verity Verity, I Say Unto You:

Spoiler

The trees finally thinned and Koa emerged onto the shore of Lake Verity. Glistening blue water spread out before him, so far he could only barely see the other side. Water lapped gently on the rocky shore, and the only other sound was the occasional chirping of Starly. A small colony of Bidoof gnawed at some trees.


Kitto had chosen to wait a short ways further inland, not wanting to disturb the pokemon or the ceremony.


After a moment's hesitation, Koa withdrew the copy of the journal pages Dragonwood had sent over. He’d already read through the packet twice before. It was short, little more than a few pages compiled. The author never named himself, instead focusing on his journey and explaining he only wished to provide instruction to others seeking knowledge and understanding of the world.


Particular detail was given to the ceremonial arrangements prepared. There were apparently three main parts to each, and each was slightly different depending on the lake. Verity’s included a selection of plants that were tied closely with different kinds of emotion.


Little sketches of local pokemon and plants filled much of the page, along with sketches of the lakes and what appeared to be fanciful drawings of the lake spirits themselves. The prayer itself was recorded in neat, looping handwriting towards the bottom of the page.


Alongside it were detailed instructions on how to prepare the ceremonial arrangement and the berry offering to go with it. The names of the berries were different, but Professor Dragonwood had identified them as Yago, Touga and Pumkin berries. For Azelf, Uzi and Mesprit respectively.


After preparing the arrangement, the pilgrim would place the berry in the midst and recite the blessing. The blessing wasn’t only about the words, though, but was to ‘come from the soul’, according to the author. A “prayer from the heart”.


He read through the passage one last time.


“Where water meets earth, lay forth the Spirit’s favored offering.


Close thine eyes to the world, turnback upon the gift and look not.


Bare thy soul, Speak softly truth from the heart and seek with unselfish intent;


Valor to face challenges unyielding,


Compassion to grace to the broken,


Wisdom to act upon the truth.


Spirits, grant to me these attributes and guide my steps.”


Supposedly after finishing, ancient travelers would turn around again to face the lake and find the berry gone. He had no idea if it actually worked exactly like that, but he was curious to try.


Koa set down his backpack and retrieved the Pumkin berry, along with the rest of the supplies from Dragonwood. Though the actual arrangement was simple, the significance was important. He laid everything out neatly. With the journal as a guide, he carefully began assembling the offering.


As he did, he turned his thoughts to the legends. To the spirits of the Lake, Sinnoh’s guardians.


Mesprit represented emotion. Empathy. The ability to connect through shared feelings. To feel emotions. Like... Zeraora’s burning gaze flashed through his thoughts. As did the memory of that night in the storm, when he threw that ball.


His grip on one of the plants he was weaving together tightened. What he’d done that night had been nonsensical. It wasn’t as if he could have actually caught it. Pokeballs would only work if the pokemon accepted it, and a legendary would surely never just accept him without doing anything. And it went against everything he planned. Against battling one, earning its respect.


Stupid... Would Mesprit sense he had made a mistake with Zeraora? But Zeraora had forgiven him. Would that be enough? How much did legendaries even commune with each other anyway?


He pushed aside his fears and tried to focus on his goal. This was about Mesprit and the lake Spirits.


They were said to be the reason human and pokemon alike could have a spirit. A soul. Thanks to Mesprit, he’d bonded with Echo, and Hazard, and the whole rest of his team. Kitto and him had different goals, but they shared a passion and a drive. Without Mesprit, he’d be... Just emotionless. Like-


Blinking, he turned his thoughts back to the task at hand. Emotion drove him, gave him strength in the face of the doubts and skepticism he’d heard much of his life. And yet... Too much emotion was just as dangerous. That flash of desperation had made him throw a ball at Zeraora. And getting caught up in his emotions had made him snap at Kitto.


Balance.


If Mesprit could show him anything, it was how to balance emotion. To have none was to close himself off, as he had so many months back at the beginning of his journey. When he’d cared nothing about Echo and only about his own goal. But to be ruled by it would be to hurt others...


As he considered the thoughts, he put the finishing touches on the arrangement. It was a bit clumsy but still an aesthetically pleasing arrangement of branches and plants wrapped delicately within a round clear bowl. The pink and red flowers and silvery gray bark of the branches evoked the colors of Mesprit.


Pushing down any lingering worry, he turned around and closed his eyes, kneeling on the damp earth. His fingers reached up to the feather he carried, warm against his skin and soft still to the touch. The image of Ho-Oh soaring above him filled his thoughts. He exhaled, listening to the sounds of the lake as he tried his best to empty his mind. Emotion. Empathy. Connection. Balance.


In a whisper, he repeated the words in the blessing, focusing on each one, on what it meant and what it signified.


He waited another few seconds, then took another breath and rose to his feet, turning around.

The berry hadn't moved.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Aight, I'm in.

I've chosen a 1150-word scene from Chapter 8 of my fic, Different Eyes.

The context, in brief, is that pokémon have been turned into 'mon/human hybrids, aka 'pokémorphs', by a corporate organisation for an unknown purpose. One of the protagonists – a sneasel-morph named Dusk – is struggling with the pressure she's under to train hard, and with painful memories of her previous life as a sneasel, both of which are exacerbating by a corviknight-morph who's taken a disliking to her.

Spoiler: Excerpt

Two hours of Whiskey instructing her – and a class of other morphs – on pokémon abilities in their endless variations hadn’t left her with a clearer answer. Between the dour absol’s presentation on the virtual whiteboard, discussion exercises with a pair of unfamiliar classmates at her table, and all the rest, there’d not been much chance to let her mind wander.

Save for towards the end of the seminar, when their instructor took questions. An eevee boy – barely more than a cub, by the look of him – had raised a paw to ask, “What are we learning all this for, Absol Whiskey?”

What for? To understand battle better, of course. Couldn’t they read the posters up on every wall?

That was the answer given by a couple other fresh-faced hybrids, at least. More or less. Dusk bit her lip. Maybe she could refuse to answer if called on…

“Sure,” said the eevee kid. “But why… make morphs, and teach us like this?”

Whiskey looked at Dusk, and tipped his chin at her.

“I expect you can answer this one, Sneasel Dusk?”

Damn it.

“Hybrids don’t need trainers,” she muttered. She cleared her throat, feeling the pressure of Whiskey’s raised brow. “Pokémon need trainers to instruct them, humans need ‘mon to fight for them. A pokémorph can do either. Or both at once.”

The absol gave her a sharp nod. “This is the chief reason why pokémorphs have such great potential in battle,” he finished for her. “Which concludes our time. Well done today, everyone.”

“But what battles are we supposed to fight?” asked the eevee, his question lost in the rustle and jumble of other hybrids standing to leave the room.

Dusk hurried out ahead of them, pushing between hybrid bodies to leave first, slipping into the corridor to head away. Somewhere. Anywhere the rest of the morphs weren’t. The atrium, why not. High ceiling, windows, lots of space and light…

What battles were the pokémorphs made for? Whatever battles would pay the debt of being made a morph. Obviously.

That was the deal Dusk had made, anyway. No point thinking about it now, though. All that mattered was training, learning, testing…

She put her mouth to the nozzle of the water fountain on the atrium balcony and sucked cold water. She thought of ice rivers, and northern winters, and slipping under the surface—

She spluttered and coughed, leaving a dark spatter on her tank top’s white.

Fuck.

Once her airway was clear and she’d caught her breath, Dusk heard the scraping of metal feathers and clicking of talons on polymer tiles a few paces away. Veracity. Here to make her day worse, surely...

“Your distress becomes evident,” croaked the corviknight, one scaly hand resting on the shaft of a long, loose feather, hung at her hip like a sword. “It must be harder to pretend you are indifferent, now that you show real effort.”

“Fuck off,” muttered Dusk, wiping her mouth with the sleeve of her jacket.

The raven morph blinked, and clacked her beak. The mass of beard-like feathers at her throat – her hackle – puffed up. Probably a threat display. (As if it mattered.)

“You should quit the captaincy track,” said Veracity, sharply. “Before you run out of tricks. Before you can no longer pretend not to care.”

Dusk wondered how much trouble she’d get in for breaking the bird’s beak with a well-placed Ice Punch. She could do it. Easy.

“Nah,” hissed Dusk. “You quit, bird, if you’re not happy on the course. Are you happy? I think maybe you never learned how.”

The atrium was empty. Most morphs were in classes, or the dining hall. Had Veracity followed her? Would she follow if Dusk were to just jump over the mezzanine railings and land in one of the leafy plant beds below? She couldn’t fly without proper wings, and she was heavy with the metals in her feathers.

“I learned discipline,” she said, the word sounding somehow bladed. “I have a purpose in being captain. You—”

The corvid stepped forward, her beak stabbing the air. Dusk’s lip pulled back over her teeth. Her hackles had been up since the first sound of scraping metal.

“You must have a reason. For changing.”

“You’re still mad I stopped messing about and started winning?” mocked Dusk.

“Changing from sneasel to human,” clarified Veracity. “Why did you become a hybrid? What was your reason?”

Dusk took a step back. “You first, bird. What was yours?”

Veracity angled her head and clacked her break again. Avian morphs could make human-like facial expressions – to an extent – but she hardly seemed to.

“…To have control,” she said, in a low voice. “Of my life. Of my body. Of my mind.”

“Is that all? I had all of that in the first place!”

“Truly? Did you?”

Another clack of her beak. Dusk couldn’t shake the feeling she was being laughed at.

“You wouldn’t become this without good reason,” pressed Veracity. “Not if you were something as intelligent as a sneasel. Extraordinary choices must come from extraordinary need. Therefore. You must have needed something very much. Needed it enough to leave everything behind. If you had anything to leave behind. Did you have no pack to hunt with?”

Fuck you. Shut up. Shut the fuck up.

Dusk grit her teeth until she felt it in her temples.

“This is telling me so much about you, bird!” she quipped, dodging the question. “What was that you said – ‘extraordinary need’? Wow, I didn’t know being a morph made you feel so bad! Have you asked if they can change you back? I can ask for you!”

Veracity’s eyes narrowed. Finally something got a rise out of the corviknight.

“Dishonest creature,” she rasped. “Hiding behind jokes and lies and nonsense.”

“It seems to work okay,” snapped Dusk.

“It won’t work forever. Nothing does.”

Alright. Enough of this.

She forced a fanged smirk. “Sounds like you have figured out every thing, bird! Don’t worry, you’ll definitely beat me in training next time, because you’re so right about me, and what works, and all other things. And guess what?”

While Veracity puzzled over this with her head cocked to one side, Dusk reached forward and jammed the button down on the water fountain. With a growl, she sent ice-type energy down her arm and first sealed the mechanism in place, then froze over the drainage bowl. Water pooled, overflowed, and spilled onto the polymer floor below.

“What?” cried Veracity. “Why do this?”

“Your problem now! See you in class, bird,” taunted Dusk.

Without waiting for a retort, she darted to the railings and swung herself over the side, leaving Veracity to hack away at the obstructing ice and make protesting caws.

She landed with a roll, bounced to her feet, and headed off somewhere without overbearing birds and their unwelcome fucking questions.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Alllllright, sadly I haven't written drabbles yet, so I'll share a more lighthearted scene from my fic that's hoooopefully enjoyable even without a metric ton of context.

(Context: two friends just watched a TV broadcast about the Pokemon League cooperating with Team Rocket. Everyone is stressed out and having a bad time.)

Spoiler: Excerpt

It wasn’t too hard to find where Starr had gone off to. Sounds carried from around back—energetic footsteps crunching the leaves, grunts of exertion, the occasional dull impact. I rounded the edge of the cabin to find Starr circling Feraligatr in a fighting stance, punching at the latter’s open palms. The gator lazily moved her arms with every punch to give a different target each time, eyes half-lidded like she’d done this hundreds of times.

Starr’s punching gradually began to slow. Her breathing grew heavier. And then she paused for juuust a moment too long, and Feraligatr took that as the cue to swing her tail around, knocking her trainer clear off her feet. With an awkward thud, Starr landed flat on her back in the leaves, swearing incoherently.

Feraligatr chuckled a bit before extending a claw to help her up. Starr reached up to grab it… but then used the momentum to throw herself over the gator’s back, putting her in a headlock. Feraligatr waved her arms in a half-hearted show of resistance for a few seconds before flopping to the ground, ‘defeated.’ Starr then slid down from her starter’s back, reclining against the scaly hide.

I leaned against the wall of the cabin, waiting for nothing in particular as I watched the two. Then, without warning, Starr locked eyes with me and said, “Hey, I want to battle.”

I blinked. “What?”

“You heard me.”

I hesitated for a bit, but then… Aros was probably the best fit. It took a minute to track down the Flygon, and he seemed mildly confused by my tone, but he wasn’t one to ever turn down a battle. We returned to Starr picking herself up from the leaf-strewn ground and giving Feraligatr an expectant look.

“*Suppose a real workout would be good,*” the water-type grunted, lifting her weight from the ground.

There was no fanfare. Starr and I both pointed, and the two Pokémon collided in a rough heap, pushing and clawing and tussling back and forth in lieu of elemental techniques. Not a lot of real strategy to be found. What started as the occasional command devolved into a whole lot of shouting and random encouragement, and by the end I was yelling as loud as I could until my voice went hoarse, and my blood pounded and all the anxious tension from before had faded into a dull afterthought.

It ended with the heavy thud of both reptiles flopping onto the ground, sending a wave of leaves fluttering out from under them. Feeling almost as winded as the two Pokémon, I sank back against the nearest tree as my pulse slowly returned to normal. Without a word, Starr slumped to the ground next to me.

“Thanks,” I murmured.

She tapped a fist against my upper arm. “Figured we both needed that.”

I wrapped my arms around my legs and took a few moments to center myself in the outdoor environment. The rustling of wild Pokémon through the undergrowth. The breeze carrying pine scent through the air. The rough bark against my still-sensitive back.

“I’ve been starting to wonder if we’re on the wrong side in all this,” I said in a low voice, idly tearing up bits of grass and letting them fall through my fingers.

“That’s idiotic.”

I winced. “I just… I always thought that protecting the Legendaries was obviously the right thing to do. But now…”

“Jade,” Starr said, giving me an impatient look. “Don’t tell me after all this, you’re gonna start saying the Rockets were right just because of some shit that happened before either of us were even born?”

“I’m not saying they’re right,” I replied defensively. “I’m just saying it’s hard to argue against some of what they’re saying.”

“Welcome to my world,” Starr said coolly. “Reason number 87 why it was hard to walk away from them. So you don’t get to change your mind about this.”

I put a hand to my forehead. “I’m not… I’m not changing my mind, I just…”—I slammed my fist against a root—“the Rockets aren’t right, but neither are the Legendaries! But I’m supposed to protect them! And then I find out about all this crap and that it’s kind of their own fault? Am I supposed to just ignore it all?”

Starr exhaled roughly, running a hand down her face. “Are you forgetting that I’m signed up for all that crap now too?”

My gaze slid away from hers. I unclenched my fists, now feeling the sting in my right hand. “No, I didn’t forget, I just…” I inhaled slowly. “I’m sorry. I know this has gotta be ten times more frustrating for you.”

Starr was quiet for a long moment, brow furrowed. “I wasn’t trying to make it a competition,” she muttered. “I get why you’re confused. It sucks all around. Just part of the fun of growing up.” She threw an arm upward with a dramatic twirl.

I gripped my knees tighter, sinking a bit lower before finally leaning my head against Starr’s shoulder. She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye, then put her arm around my shoulders without saying anything.

 

[icomeanon6]

I'm late to the party, but here are my Anniversary drabbles if the party's still going: https://forums.thousandroads.net/threads/anons-bingo-drabbles.1888/ .