Can you even fucking imagine if I had done what I originally planned and not shared ANY of my crochets online until I finished them ALL?

au verses added  /  updated  /  still in the work  !

♡     ⸻     𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐓 𝐇𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐚𝐮:   a woman with neither past nor future,  she is lamentably part of an ancient lineage of servants and gisaengs who never bothered to fight for a better present,  for a brighter future.  even in the current day,  with naught but few houses still working in the business of entertainment,  that’s where she has grown up and that’s where she will die:  there is no need for humans in the chambers where she dances and sings and performs,  for humans break easily and can never be truly fixed  ;  what is needed is a doll,  one that can be torn apart just as many times as it is necessary to do so,  only to easily put her jagged pieces back together.  but what happens when the doll becomes a monster,  a half-monster  ?  ever since the entity took residence in the depth of her mind,  ahri understood that this was her one and only chance to be more than a fragile little woman wearing garments of silk and velvet:  this was her one and only chance to have others beg at her feet.  and thus,  with a subconscious much too twisted and fragmented to be wholly dominated by the entity,  ahri is slowly learning how to control her monstrous self,  her freshly birthed desires,  her vicinity to the freedom that she has dreamt of for the entirety of her life.     

***   [   i miss my sweet home oc a lot but i don’t think i have time to be on so many blogs at the same time so this felt like the best solution to my love & adoration for this media  !  obviously,  ahri’s monster form revolves around the features of the nine tailed fox:  when she is only partially transformed,  she will have a constantly changing amount of tails and only when she will be wholly transformed,  will she actually resemble the beast of the myths.   ]

♡     ⸻     𝐏𝐒𝐘𝐂𝐇𝐎-𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐒 𝐚𝐮:    a criminally asymptomatic woman,  who once foolishly dreamed of becoming a famous pop singer:  unfortunately,  due to the inability of the sibyl system to properly scan and categorize her value and thus decide on a path for her,  ahri soon became an achromatic ghost in a colorful society where everything was strictly and ultimately decided by the artificial mind & heart of the city.  thrown to the side and cruelly shunned by everyone around her,  ahri struggled for many years,  fighting against an impending sense of doom and drowning in an ever-haunting loneliness,  searching for a place in which she could finally be herself,  a place in which her colors could have shone as bright as those of anyone else.  in the end,  she found what she had been looking for in the illegal underground,  where anyone willing to oppose the dictatorship of sibyl gathered.  there,  she started performing for her “comrades”,  donning a fox mask in pursuance of concealing her real identity and focused on gathering as much information about the system as she could  ;  with her knowledge about technology and especially drones / bots,  she built herself a little family of artificial foxes that now serve as spies,  defenders and even hunting beasts.  although she does not have a real purpose in her life,  she is continuously searching for new stimuli and experiences,  intoxicated by the awareness that she can easily avoid the lethal shots of the dominators thanks to her curse,  thanks to her blessing. 

♡     ⸻     𝐆𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄 𝐚𝐮:   a creature of old,  one that hauntingly lingers in the most ancient of legends and in the most gruesome of tales narrated to naughty children before their bedtime:  ahri is an ancient creature,  a fox who has lived long enough to accumulate an enormous amount of mystical power within herself and who is now capable of freely molding her physical self at will.  her little home,  situated in the heart of an “enchanted” forest,  is rarely treaded ‘pon,  for the inhabitants of the nearby villages have yet to forget and move on from the inhumane screams that sometimes echo throughout the entire land.  in order to earn her favor and hopefully soothe her childishly irritable disposition,  each month the villagers leave jewels and incenses and books and exquisite fabrics in the outskirts of the forest:  truth to be told,  she does appreciate these little offerings a lot.  believed to bring good luck to lovers and dismay to hunters,  it is not too unusual for desperate lovestruck souls to seek for her help,  for the miraculous love potions that she is said to be crafting...  unfortunately,  one may never know which side the fox will take,  nor whether she will be willing to help or not.  despite her desire not to engage with the power plays between the royals and the grisha,  she is not against the idea of lending a hand   /   for the right price,  of course. 

***   [   ahri is ancient and capricious,  someone who has observed the world change from the comfortable safety of her little forest.  despite her innate hostility towards humans,  she is easily intrigued by the desires and goals of others,  especially if they are harbored by peculiar hearts:  the only way not to be eaten by her is indeed this,  to pique her attention.  she could be a valuable ally,  but is it really a good idea to trust a fox  ?   ]

♡     ⸻     𝐈𝐍𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐂𝐘𝐂𝐋𝐄 𝐚𝐮:  tba,  because i’m really struggling with this.  on one side,  she could easily be a “werefox”  (  since we canonically have werecats in the novels  )  but i don’t know if this sounds interesting...  or,  maybe she could simply be a spirit who has taken on a humane physical appearance to mingle with mortals  ?  still thinking about this,  might even re-read the books to see if i get any sudden inspiration.  one thing that i might work with is the fact that in the first book,  it is said that “The Spine was one of the only places that King Galbatorix could not call his own. Stories were still told about how half his army disappeared after marching into its ancient forest. A cloud of misfortune and bad luck seemed to hang over it.” so maybe that’s where ahri resides  ?  far from everyone,  in her own little realm,  ready to eat anyone who dares interrupt her peace. 

♡     ⸻     𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐚𝐮:   an ancient and malicious sorcerus hailing from the forgotten kingdom of ashkahi,  ahri has sacrificed her humanity in the name of the moon and his cult in pursuance of earning the abilities to manipulate the hearts and souls of others.  once her beloved home was lamentably eradicated from existence by the falling of the deity’s skull,  she began traveling across the world,  earning riches and breaking hearts and painting her hands in red whenever the situation called for it  ;  left without a purpose and without a hearth to ever come back to,  the soulless woman began to ultimately lose herself,  becoming naught but the selfish and hollow ghost of who she once was.  things,  however,  changed once she was requested to become part of the red church.  even though she currently does not appreciate the ones who rule over the church,  she remains loyal to the murderous cult of the mother...  waiting for something to happen,  for a reason to finally breathe again.

♡     ⸻     𝐏𝐎𝐊𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐍 𝐚𝐮:   a coordinator with a dark past,  ahri is continuously struggling to find her place in the world.  after leaving floaroma town,  she and her vulpix were scouted by the team galactic with deceitful promises to create together a better future for everyone.  she fought hard and did her very best to blindly obey to every order that she was given but after the first real defeat of their leader,  she ended up abandoning the team out of all-devouring guilt.  in order to try and cleanse her hands from all the crimes that she had naively committed,  she started traveling from one region to the other,  capturing new friends,  strengthening her own mind and slowly growing interested in the world of contests:  rather than relying on violence,  these contests relied on beauty and grace and that felt like the fastest way to move away from all the pain and ache that she had previously caused.  currently, she is pursuing a career as a coordinator and is chasing the dream of spreading the traditions of the pokemon festivals across the other regions, as well  ;  her couple of ninetales has become two of the hardest foes to defeat in the field.

more tba. 

Stumbling: Chapter 12

Pairing: Raihan X Reader X Leon

Your life hadn’t gone exactly as you planned…

This is why when an old rival walks into the coffee shop you work at he gives you an offer you just can’t refuse. Finally, a chance at the League. Suddenly you are thrust into the spotlight and a world you thought you had left behind. Dreams aren’t always what they are cracked up to be though, especially when you find yourself the tangled up with the champion and a certain gym leader.

Has all your dreams come true?

Or is this your worst nightmare?

Masterlist

Chapter 12: Invisible Chains

You heave a sigh as you roll over in bed, your arm coming to rest on your forehead before you run your hand down your face. Your eyes are swollen from crying and feel dry and scratchy. You feel stuffy and sniffle a few times before you cough trying to clear your throat of the congestion. Letting out a groan you roll over once again and pull the pillow towards your face and bury yourself into the softness. Maybe, if you hide long enough the world will forget that you exist. 

You blink into the morning light a few times and you feel yourself slipping farther away and you fight it, you really do. The darkness that you feel and for a moment you are surprised at how fragile you are. How one experience can break you into pieces once again. You heave another sigh as you sit up in bed, the sheets pooling around your waist and you lean forward. Your head is in your hands and you feel heavy. The kind of heavy that comes with too much crying and not enough sleep. The kind of heavy that comes with feelings that are a little too much sometimes. You rub your eyes and blink away exhaustion the best that you can and slowly drag yourself out of bed. 

“I’m going to need better glue this time…” you mutter as you head for the shower. 

After you’ve gotten ready for the day you stumble out of your room and gaze around the living area. Both Leon and Raihan are there and stop talking the minute you open the door. 

“How are you feeling?” questions Leon as he walks over to you. His large hands are on your arms and he’s gently rubbing up and down as he attempts to comfort you. You give him a hesitant smile and nod, not really ready to talk about anything yet. 

“You want coffee? Breakfast?” questions Raihan from his place on the sofa, he gets up a moment later, “What do you want? I’ll grab it for you.”

“I’m okay…” you mutter as you avoid his eyes. 

“Hey… please talk to us…” Leon pleads.

“What do you need, princess?” 

“I don’t really know…” you say with a shake of your head. You gaze out the window to the blue sky outside. It’s going to be a beautiful day. 

You shake off Leon’s hands and ignore the hurt on his face as you cross your arms and lean against the counter in the small kitchenette. 

“I want to try to get some training done today…”

“Someone needs to go with you,” Leon says before you can even finish your thoughts. 

“I know… I just… would rather it not be either of… you…”

You look away to avoid the looks of surprise and hurt on their faces.

“Look we get that you need your space right now, but I would really feel better if we came with you,” Raihan says slowly, carefully choosing his words. 

You hug yourself tighter, you don’t want them to see you like this.

“I would just-”

“We’re coming with you. Those bastards have gotten to you twice and I don’t trust anyone else to watch out for you. I went to the Board yesterday to talk to them about this situation and we’re going to be working closely with the police. You’re a confirmed target and the only reason you haven’t talked to the police yet is because I know you don’t want to right now. If you need some time that’s fine, but we will always be within earshot, okay? You can’t be alone right now,” Leon asserts.

You just nod, you know he’s right and to argue with him would be fruitless especially after what happened yesterday. You could practically feel the eggshells the guys are walking on around you. You don’t want to be delicate. You don’t want to be someone that has to be taken care of. You don’t want to be broken anymore…

“Alright, let’s get breakfast and head out. You can shoot some footage for your fans today while you train.”

“Is that really important Raihan?” Leon asks in exasperation. 

“If she’s going to be one of the top trainers in the League then it sure is! Plus the more of a following she has the more people there are around her and the fewer chances these assholes have of getting her alone.”

“I hadn’t thought of that…”

Raihan taps his head with a smirk as he wraps an arm around your shoulders and pulls you against him. 

“Come on, princess. We’ve got to make you invincible.”

You smile a little as he leads you outside. You release your current team and the guys gasp as they see the changes that befell them yesterday. 

“Whoa! Half your team evolved!” exclaims Raihan as Leon smiles brightly at you. 

“You’re getting stronger mate! I’m going to have to watch out!” Leon says a smirk as he glances over at you, before going back to studying your team. 

“Yeah… they all did amazing yesterday…” you say softly a small smile on your face as you regard your team. They all perk up at the compliment. 

You get to work training your team and thankfully it takes your mind off of yesterday’s events. You rotate out your team in order to train some of your other pokemon as well. Queenie, your Vespiquen, and Zuko, your Charmander, along with Bastet your Eevee.

The day ends with the guys setting up a picnic on the hill overlooking the ocean. The sun is setting and you gratefully take the food the guys got for you as you sit on a blanket. 

Bastet and Nile are frolicking a little ways away, Arum, Serenity, and Queenie are chatting among themselves as they watch over Zuko and Axel as the duo tumbles around in the grass. Hades and Davine are lazing next to one another under the setting sun. Davine having warmed up to the well-meaning dragon after his heroics yesterday. You assume she has forgiven him for biting her nose.   

“You know… If you caught a Ralts, Gothita, and Snorunt, you could have a pretty cool team of kick-ass ladies.” Raihan says out of nowhere. 

“Maybe I will…” you say as you watch your team. 

“You’ve got a pretty good lineup so far… plus the training you did today seemed to do a lot of good!”

“It’s not enough…” you say as you glare into the sunset. 

The guys glance over at you in worry and surprise, “You really shouldn’t-” 

You cut Leon off, “I have to be hard on myself Lee… if I’m not how am I ever going to get stronger? You guys can’t protect me forever.”

Leon looks away as he gazes out at the ocean and grits his teeth. You can feel the anger coursing off of him. A cloud of gloom has enveloped the three of you as you watch the sunset. What should be a relaxing time is ruined by your foul mood and you feel guilt eat you up. You’re lost in thought when you feel a force hit you from behind and send you flying forward, face-first into the soft grass. The guys land next to you with angry and indignant cries. You all turn around to see Serenity glaring at you all. You blink at her for a moment before a laugh escapes. You glance over at Raihan to see his beanie almost over his eyes with grass stuck in his dreads and Leon’s hat tilted at an odd angle with a leaf stuck to his face, and you laugh some more. The guys look to one another then back to you before they join in. A squeal of delight can be heard over the hills as Queenie rushes up to Leon and grabs his hat off his head before flying off. 

“Hey!” he laughs before he climbs to his feet and chases after the bee pokemon. 

Hades rushes up to Raihan and tackles the Dragon Tamer to the ground and the two begin to play wrestle. Serenity bounds up to you and gazes up at you with happy eyes as you laugh at the antics around you. 

“I’m okay… I used stronger glue this time…” you say as you pull her towards you. She happily snuggles against you before Davines rushes up to you both and leaps onto your back and chirps happily as you greet her. The rest of your pokemon soon join in either dogpiling Raihan or chasing after Leon and Queenie. Eventually though, they all drift over to you and you feel them one by one curl up as close as they can to you and drift off to sleep. As you gaze around your team and your friends you realize that you aren’t alone this time and that makes all the difference in the world. 

A sudden jolt from your bag has you glancing down at it. Your eyes widen as you take the egg out of your bag and place it into your lap. Nile and Bastet have their paws on your thighs as they gaze intently at the egg as it rolls and wiggles around. Suddenly the top of the Egg cracks. 

“It’s hatching!!” Yells Raihan as he commands his phone to video the whole thing. 

The top of the egg suddenly pops off and gazing up at you with big brown eyes is a tiny Eevee baby. Bastet and Nile are nuzzling the baby happily as they all crawl into your lap. They begin to lick the baby happily, cleaning her and grooming her. You gently lift her from the shell and allow it to fall to the blanket. 

“Aren’t you two proud?” you ask them happily. They chirp up at you before going back to grooming their baby. 

A ping alerts you to a notification on your phone. You see where Raihan sent you the video and you smile up at him. The guys are leaning over your shoulder gazing happily down at the tiny family. 

“She’s going to be the luckiest Eevee in the world,” chuckles Leon. Your other pokemon gather around to greet the newest addition. 

“Looks like you have another Eevee to evolve,” Raihan murmurs as he stands up and crosses his arms. 

“She just hatched, it’s a little early for that don’t you think?”

You all stay a little longer, until the chill of the night gets a little too much for you and the guys are arguing over whose jacket you are wearing back to the Inn. You ignore them and give Charmander a piggy back ride which keeps you warm enough.

“You know you look good with a Charmander, love…” Leon says, a heat to his gaze that wasn’t there before as he watches you carry the fire lizard back to the Inn. You blush as you glance over your shoulder at him.

“You think so?”

“I do…” he says with a nod and a content smile. 

Raihan frowns at the realization that you are training Leon’s signature Pokemon. 

“You know you could always train a Trapinch…. I could get you one…” Raihan supplies while he crosses his arms behind his head. You know he’s trying to be nonchalant about it, but you can hear the slight tones of jealousy in his voice. 

“Don’t you think I have enough dragons to train Rai?” you ask as you glance back at him. 

“Char!” Zuko agrees from your back as he snuggles closer to you. 

Raihan scoffs, “You can never have too many dragons to train.” 

“Raihan…” you mutter with exhaustion, “I’m good, but thank you. Maybe I’ll train one later after I feel good about my current team. 

“But Trapinch is a Ground type! You could use a good ground type!”

You roll your eyes, “That evolves into a dragon/ground type.”

“What, you aren’t… jealous… that she’s training a Charmander are you?” Leon asks slyly a look of amusement on his features. 

“Of course not!”

“Sounds like you are…”

You glance over your shoulder to see the tables turned for once. Leon has a smirk on his face and he looks like he’s enjoying the scowl on Raihan’s. You’ve now been traveling with the duo long enough to realize when Raihan is hurt though. The man is cocky and prideful, so you know his incessant losses to Leon grate on him, even if he doesn’t show it. You can see in the slump of his shoulders that your refusal to train his signature pokemon hurt his feelings. 

With a sigh you turn back to the front, “I’ll consider training a Trapinch Rai…”

“You will?!”

“If we can find one…”

“Oh I can find one alright!”

You shake your head as you glance back at him once again. This time there is a grin on his face and when he catches your eye he winks at you. 

“You know, if she trains too many dragons she just might take your gym, Raihan,” laughs Leon as he smirks at his friend and rival. 

“She can have my gym when I take your title. What do you think all of this is for?” Raihan smirks back. 

“Oh boy…” you mutter to Zuko, “Here they go again…”

“How long have you been trying to take my title? Six years now?”

The fire lizard nods sympathetically at you. The two of you ignore the duo and continue down the lane until you get back to the Inn. You are pleased the day turned out how it did. The storm clouds might still be in your mind, but you are coping better with them. You know it has a lot to do with your team and support you have from Leon and Raihan. Shutting yourself off like you did before isn’t going to help you.  

“I think I really want to open a rescue…” you say softly as you stop and gaze up at the moon that’s hanging low in the sky. The two men behind you abruptly stop arguing at your statement and turn to face you. “Maybe I could be a gym leader too… You guys house abused and abandoned pokemon right?”

You glance over your shoulder at Raihan and regard him curiously. 

“Uhh yeah, we do a lot of rehabilitation and rehoming in the off season especially,” Raihan says as he scratches the back of his head. 

“Hmm…” you hum as you gaze back up at the stars, “Yes… that sounds like a good idea…” 

You nod to yourself as if to show that your mind's made up before you head into the Inn, the duo following close behind you. 

When you get to the room you post the video of your newly hatched Eevee and watch in amusement as the comments are flooded with fans cooing in awe over the baby pokemon. You thought about posting some photos of your newly evolved pokemon but think better of it. You don’t want future competition to know your team too early. 

A pair of arms wrap around you and you lean back into a strong chest. 

“You did good today, Princess.”

“Thanks, Rai,” you say as you feel his arms give you a gentle squeeze. 

He hums in your ear as the two of you settle against one another, his presence giving you a sense of peace. The sound of steady breathing and his heartbeat soothes your turbulent mind. There is still so much going on in your head that it’s hard to focus on one thing. 

“What are you thinking about?” he softly asks, his fingers running through your hair. .

“So many things…” you murmur with a sigh.

“Like what?”

“Like…” you pause in thought trying to gather your words, “Like how I need to be stronger, not just my team but me. I let the pressure get to me too much. I need to be stronger menatally and emotionally for them and for myself. What’s going to happen with you and Lee… Will it destroy my friendship with one of you, will it destroy your friendship with each other? What is going to happen with the League? What does my future hold? Can I really do this? How do I deal with the organization? Will they steal my team? Will they hurt my friends or family just to get to me? How far will they go? Why me?”

By the end of your rant tears have welled up in your eyes as they threaten to fall. You feel Raihan gently turn your face to his. He wipes your cheek gently with his thumb and you feel your heart race. 

“I can’t promise that nothing is going to happen or that your fears aren’t unfounded, but I can promise you I will do everything in my power to make sure that nothing happens to you. Those assholes aren’t getting anywhere near you while I’m around. And to take at least a little bit off your mind. Even if we don’t work out, I wouldn’t stop being your friend. I can’t say it wouldn’t be hard, because we’re going to be great together,” he says with a wink as you giggle, “but I won’t let that get in the way of our friendship. I meant what I said when I told you I would be there for you. As for Lee and me… don’t even worry about it. We’ve already talked and we respect your decision regardless of what it is and it’s not going to affect our friendship.”  

“I’m glad… I was afraid that regardless of what happens in the future that I would lose one of you… or both of you…”

“Not gonna happen.”

You turn and bury your face in his chest and just inhale his scent. He smells like pine mixed with his cologne, a clean yet spicy scent. Your arms wrap around his chest and you allow yourself to just be for a moment. 

“You know you’re getting stronger everyday, just be patient…” He murmurs against your hair.

“I don’t have time to be patient Rai… What if something happens? What if next time I’m not so lucky?”

“You weren’t lucky this time. You’re a great trainer, you’re skilled and your team loves you. They would do anything for you.”

“It still feels lucky Rai… Like at any moment I could have been defeated and then I would have lost Davine or one of my other Pokemon. I was almost helpless.”

“You know he wants you to doubt yourself right? Because if you’re confident in yourself and your abilities then you don’t need him. He needs you to need him. That’s the only way this is going to work.”

He pulls you against him and presses a soft kiss to your forehead as you close your eyes as you nod against him. 

“I’ll be okay…” you whisper.

“I know you will.”

You feel yourself relax against him and slowly drift off to sleep. 

Yes… things are definitely different this time.

*~*~*~*

Over the next few days you continue your training and watch happily as your team improves. When you are finally sure that your Pokemon are ready to face Kabu the three of you leave Hulbruy. Nessa and Sonia happily see you off stating they will see you soon and you wave with a bittersweet smile on your face. 

You end up heading through the caves in order to get back to Motostoke. 

Raihan shivers as he regards the dark and damp surroundings. 

“I don’t like this place…” he winces as a droplet of water assaults his head and he brings his hand up to rub in annoyance at the wet spot before putting his hood up. He crosses his arms against the chill in the air and you giggle as you watch him pout.

“Isn’t this the cave you fell into the water in?” asks Leon after a pause, laughing as he does so. 

Raihan whips his head around to face his friend, “What are you laughing about?! The only reason I fell in was because I was looking for your lost ass! How did you even manage to get on the other side of the pond?”

“What?” you questions looking between the two men in confusion.

“Leon was calling out for help because he got lost in here and I heard him so I went looking for him. It’s dark so I didn’t see the water when I found him, so I walked right into the pond and tripped. I was soaked and there Leon was just dandy as he laughed at me after I went to go find him!”

Leon laughs at the memory as Raihan swipes at him, “Not funny bro!” But there is a smile on his face as he does so. You shake your head at their antics as you make your way through the cave. You accidentally step on one of those weird looking pokemon, scaring you half to death and battling it.

“I hate those things!” you say skirting around another one. 

Leon casually wraps his arm around you as he guides you away from another one. You shudder as you lean closer to his form and he presses you happily against him. He leaves his arm around you as the three of you continue to the end of the cave casually batting the inhabitants of the cave but not really seeking out battles. You giggle as a Noibat swoops down around your head and you bat it away. 

“You don’t want to catch one?” Leon asks glancing up at the tiny bat like pokemon. 

It swoops down again and ruffles your hair as you duck. You chuckle as you glance up at the playful pokemon. 

“No way!” exclaims Raihan suddenly, “No more dragons until you get a Trapinch!”

“They’re so cute though!” you exclaim looking up with a giggle at the purple bats flying around. 

You don’t notice the way both men’s gazes soften as they watch you hold out your hand a Noibat smaller than the others lands on your arm. The tiny bat chirps up at you with big eyes before it jumps up into your hair. 

“Oh!” you exclaim as the pokemon makes himself or herself comfortable on your head and looks around in wonder at the others flying around. 

“I swear you’re the pokemon whisperer… “ Leon says as he regards the creature on your head with wide eyed wonder.

“They know she’s meant to be a Dragon Tamer, only certain people are you know…” Says Raihan pride dripping from his voice as he can’t help but chuckle at the tiny pokemon on your head. 

“Is that true Rai?” you ask curiously.

“Sure is Princess, there is this old legend that dragons can sense the heart of trainers. You don’t just train a dragon they have to choose you. They say that back before Pokeballs were even thought of that those training dragons were revered because they so rarely choose a trainer, but when they did the trainers were said to be extraordinary.”

You blink in wonder at the story, “They choose you?”

“Of course, didn’t both Davine and Hades choose you?”

You blink at the man before you. Did they? You recall your meeting with both dragons before your thoughts are interrupted as a Noibat dives down and nips at the one on your head. You duck and let out an annoyed ‘Hey!’ but you can sense the tension in the tiny bat like pokemon now nestled in your hair trembling slightly. As another one drives down to assault the tiny Noibat, you realize that it’s a runt and they are picking on him. Your arms go up defensively to shield it from its attackers as you glower at the pokemon in the vicinity. 

“They are attacking it?!” Leon shouts in surprise, swatting another one that dove down almost knocking into him. 

“Oh absolutely not,” you murmur as you pull out a pokeball from your hip. Axel is out in a moment the cocky tilt of his head showing his confidence in himself. Perhaps it wasn’t fair of you to sic your amped up Toxtricity on the Noibat in the area, but they were being mean!

You know that this little guy will be coming with you, you couldn’t just leave him here! You order Axel to attack the group picking on the tiny creature perched on your head. After letting out a shock you watch as several of the Noibats fall out of the sky with cries of pain. 

You humph as you cross your arms, “Maybe next time they won’t be so mean…” 

Your triumph is interrupted by the sound of beating wings against the cave walls and the next thing you know a swarm of Noibat swoops down on you all. With cries of panic you all start to run away from the swarm due to the amount of pokemon filling the cave you can hardly see anything. A hand clamps around your wrist and you are led through the cave swatting and squealing at the pokemon surrounding you. When the pokemon finally calm down and you are able to stop running you look up and see Leon next to you. You glance around and see no sign of Raihan. 

“Where’s Raihan?” you ask looking around the cave.

“I don’t know… I thought he was following us…”

“Where even are we?” you ask looking around the dim and damp cave. 

“Uh…”

That is the moment you realize your mistake. Leon is awful with directions even when he can see let alone when he can’t. 

“We’re lost aren’t we?” you ask looking around with a monotone voice. 

“I’m sure we can find our way back!”

“That’s… not what I asked…” you say as you slump your shoulders feeling quite deflated. There is a tiny squeak that comes from the top of your head and your hand flies up to gently stroke the tiny pokemon still perched there. 

“I forgot you were there!” you exclaim as you stroke the soft fur under your fingers. 

“Hey! Do you think he will help us get out? He must know his way around the cave!”

The Noibat gets up and flutters before the two of you before sinking to the floor and holding a tiny claw up to his small chin. He looks around before starting off down a tunnel and the two of you follow along behind him. In the meantime you take out your phone and send Raihan a text. When he doesn’t answer after a few minutes you try calling him. 

“What are you doing?” Leon asks as you pout as Raihan’s voicemail picks up. 

“Trying to call Rai… He’s not answering my texts…” you murmur furrowing your brows as you regard your phone. 

“Raihan!” calls out Leon his voice bouncing off the walls in the cave. You frown when you don’t hear an answer. 

“You think he’s okay?” you ask as you grow more worried by the minute. 

“Of course he is! Raihan is a great trainer, I’m sure he’s fine!” Leon reassures you with a hand on your shoulder. You nod as you look away from him. 

“I’m just worried… what if something happened to him?”

“Like what?”

“What if when he was running from the Noibat he tripped on a rock and fell and now he’s bleeding! Or he’s unconscious and he fell into the water and he’s drowning!” you say in horror.

“Well uhh… That got dark really quickly…”

“Leon!”

“I’m sure he’s fine! You know him, he probably just got lost,” Leon says as he adjusts his cap nervously. 

“Lee… Sweetie… that’s you… you’re the one who gets lost…” you say in a delicate tone. 

“I’m not the only person in the world who can get lost!” he says defensively. 

“I know that I’m just saying that between the two of you… the more likely to get lost is… you.”

Leon looks ahead with a sour look on his handsome face. It isn’t long until you’re back where you started from with no sign of Raihan. 

“Maybe he’s at the end of the cave. He probably figured he would just meet us on the other side…” He murmurs but you can hear the concern in his voice. 

“Yeah, you’re probably right…” you crossing your arms.

The two of you nod to one another as you make your way to the end of the cave. When you make it out to the other side there is still no sign of Raihan. 

“It’s still daylight…” you say in wonder looking up at the bright sky. 

“Yeah I couldn’t tell what time of day it was in there, I thought it was way later…” 

“We should go back and look for Raihan,” you say, turning towards Leon with a slight fear in your eyes. 

He just nods his agreement and the two of you turn around and head back the way you came. The tiny Noibat jumps back onto your head he seems far happier riding with you than flying or walking, but you don’t mind. He’s too cute for you to say no to. You search the cave for hours with no sign of Raihan and with a defeated sigh you suggest setting up camp for the night, worry eating away at you from the inside out. 

The two of you are unusually quiet as you set up a makeshift camp since Raihan has the tent you all usually share. You make a small fire with Zuko’s help, the small fire lizard happily trailing along behind Lee’s Charizard everywhere he went after his job was done. You notice that Chaizard seems happy to have another of his kind and spends the evening showing the tiny lizard new moves and the correct way to breath fire. After Leon finishes setting up your sleeping bags he comes up behind you and wraps his arms around your waist as you cook dinner. He presses his face into your neck and tightens his grip when you lean back into him. 

“How are you holding up?” Leon asks softly, his lips tickling your neck. 

You shiver in his grasp before you nod softly, “I’m okay… my thoughts ran away with me earlier..”

“I figured they did…” he murmurs as he presses a soft kiss to your hair.

“I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be… You’re worried and you have every right to be. This is also on top of everything else that’s happened in the past few days,” he murmurs against your hair as his hands run up and down your arms. You like his hands. You didn’t know it was possible to like another human’s hands so much but you love his. You love how safe they make you feel.

“Arceus… I freaked out about that too…” you grumble in embarrassment. 

“Hey…” he says softly, “It’s okay… you don’t always have to be the strongest person in the room you know?”

You hang your head and vaguely wonder when Leon figured you out. 

“It feels like I do…”

“You don’t… it’s okay for you to rely on someone else every once in a while,” his voice is soothing as he holds you close. 

“I’ve just… been on my own for so long that… it’s hard… It’s hard for me to let you and Raihan do things for me. It’s hard for me to let you guys protect me. I’m used to it only being me. I’m used to being the only person I can rely on…” you look to the side avoiding his gaze. 

He buries his face in your neck again, “But you're not alone anymore. You have me… You’ve always had me, even when you didn’t know you did.”

“Lee…” you murmur with tears in your eyes. You turn in his arms and wrap your arms around his middle burying your face into his chest. He hugs you close to him and the two of you gently rock back and forth. 

Dinner that evening is a quiet affair even the Pokémon aren’t their usual rambunctious selves. You know you all feel the void that Raihan’s presence fills. Leaning into Leon you rest your head on his shoulder as he pulls you close to him. 

“I’m worried about Raihan,” he says, interrupting the silence, “but I’m glad I get you to myself tonight.”

You giggle as you glance up at him through your lashes.

“Oh really?” You challenge, “What are you going to do now that you do?”

He leans in until his face is inches from yours. You can feel his breath fanning over your face, but you are too lost in the golden hue of his eyes to notice. 

“This…” he whispers as he inches closer to you. 

“There you two are!” Exclaims a familiar voice.

You both jerk away from one another like you had been caught doing something wrong. A moment later you both leap to your feet and rush towards the figure making his way towards you in the dark. Raihan’s arms are behind his head as he casually walks up to the two of you.

“Where have you been!? We were so worried!” You exclaim as you wrap your arms around him. 

“Yeah… you looked really worried…” he says his eyes catching Leon’s, a hard edge to his gaze. 

“Rai! We spent all day looking for you! What happened!?”

“Ughhh… my phone broke… so I went to go get a new one…”

“And you didn’t think to find us or tell us… or call us when you got your new phone?” You ask anger tinting your voice.

“I did try to call! I tried to let you guys know I was already in Motostoke, but there must not have been a signal where you were because it kept going to voicemail. So I came back to find you guys.”

“Raihan I thought something terrible happened to you! Like you were seriously hurt! Or dying!”

“Hey now I-“

“No. You should have found us, we could have gone together to get a new phone for you, instead we spent all day wandering the caves looking for you thinking the worst. We were really worried and scared and you literally left us here with no indication that you were fine. I honestly can’t believe you right now.” 

Raihan looks away from you with shame on his face, “you’re right… that was really thoughtless of me… I’m sorry.” 

You sigh as you run your fingers through your already disheveled hair, “It’s fine… let get some sleep…”

You turn and head towards your sleeping bag as the two men exchange concerned looks. Neither of them have really seen you mad and they vaguely wonder what that means for tomorrow.

Notes: Hey everyone I hope you enjoyed this chapter! It’s sooo long! I didn’t mean for it to be this long! Expect updates on my other works soooon! Also, if you’re a Reno lover from FF7 check out my new story with him! Also (x2), @peachdevilart​ did a coool drawing up Aaron that you should totally check out! Drop some love and tell me what you think!

Taglist: @shinsvu-talks @eeveesjourney @cherryrocks505 @exoticxchicken8 @spilltheearlgrey @marydragneell @quincymaru @zebrabaker @ct9ner@Ichigokage @pinktowne @marina-and-the-memes @ssskeletonsoffun @secretly-a-weeb @duizhangdeluxe @swiftly-heart @invaderbekk @crowkie @narees17 @skinklady @nerdyeldritchhorror @wthyuta @serendipityseoul @crescentrax @ninjarose23 @chiizwiz @cherryrocks505 @just-a-dregular @bonniestreet @theofficialkanekibarbie @maryry24 @zea-is-amazing @loch-monsta @artisticchihuahua @hadeselegy @rociomz @emeraldluna

Surveys #431-432

two biggins’ in one, beware the long post.

Do you own any Funko Pop! figurines? No. How many cats and dogs have you had as pets in your lifetime? I couldn't possibly count the cats. A lot. We've had I wanna say eight dogs through my entire life. Can your mom and/or dad play any instruments, or how about anyone else in your family? No. My older sister played the clarinet in school, though. Have you ever colored in an adult coloring book as a stress reliever? I have, but they don't really affect my stress level. Can you crack crab legs without a tool? UGH EW I hate crab legs. So mushy and just... ew. I don't think I've tried to without a tool. How many light sources are in the room you’re in? Excluding the natural light out my windows, three. What’s your favorite thing to put on bagels? Just your usual cream cheese. Who’s your favorite director? Tim Burton. I love his style. Bats: cute or gross? Bats are SO goddamn cute. What was the last really intense pain you felt? I had a sudden pain in my chest the other day that scared me quite a bit. Would you rather vacation by a beach or a lake? A lake, for sure. How would you feel about traveling abroad alone? I'd be way too lonely. What is your father's middle name? John. Where did your last kiss take place? The airport. Which movie villain do you find the most terrifying? Probably Jason. A masked guy just casually pursuing you with a knife is horrifying to me. If you married your favorite celebrity what would your last name be? Fischbach alskdfla;wer;lkwera;wle Do you stick your tongue out often in pictures? No. Which one of your family members are you closest to? My ma. Would you rather have name brand shoes or name brand clothes? Shoes. It's very important for them to be comfy for me. Are you a good liar? Yes. :x Are you proud of your parents? Yeah. If you could get backstage tickets to ANY concert - which would you pick? If Mom was with me, Metallica. She would actually fucking die if she met them. Like she cried and laughed with joy when she found out about the concert in Raleigh some years ago, and we thought we were going to go, but yeah, money. Which is better: orange or grape soda? Orange cream soda. Grape soda is so gross. Was the last thing you ate hot or cold? It was room temperature. Who was the last person in your house who isn’t family? Our landlord/family friend. I think. What color was the last swimsuit you wore? Black. Can you remember the last song you listened to? I'm listening to "Thoughts & Prayers" by Motionless In White right now. Have you ever been dumped really harshly? Ha, that is a colossal understatement... Can you do a back flip, or anything else of that sort? Definitely not. I couldn't even do stuff like that as a kid. Do you have any exes you can’t stand anymore? No. What happened to cause you to feel that way about them? ^ Are you more of a phone or a computer person? Computer, for sure. Do you have a job, and if so, where do you work? No. If not, do you want one? Not right now. I want to focus on the gym and getting in shape. Do any medical afflictions run in your family? A whole lot. What’s your favorite Mexican dish? Shrimp quesadillas. Or rice with cheese sauce. Have you ever been to a professional sports game? Yeah, hockey and baseball. Do you prefer pads, tampons or something else? I'm actually conflicted on this right now. I use tampons, but there are reasons I don't really like them and am considering something else. Have you ever ordered a specially made cake from a cake shop? Not me myself, but Mom has. What months were you and your siblings born in? My two immediate sisters were born in April and June. What did you have for dinner last night? Uhhhhh... I want to say I had a chicken pesto bowl? Have you ever had sex in/on a vehicle? No, that sounds so uncomfortable. Do you do anything to groom your eyebrows? No. I don't care about that anymore. Has your town ever flooded? Oh, for sure. Hurricane Floyd from when I was... I wanna say two or three WRECKED my area. Have you ever played at the McDonald’s play place? Yeah. That was a blast as a kiddo. Have you ever taken a picture of snow? Yeah. Do you cry easily? Very. Are you happy with where you live? No. The suburbs suck. I miss living in the country so much. Do people ever mistake you for being a different race? No. Do you hate the last person you kissed? No, she's my best friend in the whole world. What genre is your favorite movie? I actually don't know what it's considered? It's a kids movie, though. Who was the last person you were in a car with? My mom. Do you like the picture on your license/I.D. card? My permit picture is fucking hideous. When was the last time somebody hit on you? *shrug* Was the last person you met a male or female? A guy - my personal trainer. What brand is your underwear? I'm in my pjs, and only a madman would wear underwear to bed. What’s your favorite Thanksgiving food? Just the rolls, really, lol. I'm not a big fan of Thanksgiving foods at all. Do you have a TV in your room? No, because I don't watch TV. Are any of your electronics charging right now? My laptop always is, though I know you shouldn't do that. I need to charge my phone, too. What was the last video game you played? Video game, not computer, I want to say uh... The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon? What’s the biggest promise someone’s ever made to you? Did they keep it? To never leave me. He didn't. Google, Bing, or Yahoo? Google. What was the last song you had on repeat? The song I mentioned earlier. Who is your favorite person to watch on YouTube? Markiplier. :') How many college degrees do you want? It'd be nice to have a Bachelor's in SOMETHING, but I'm not returning to school. Three tries was enough money down the drain. Can you wink? Yeah. Do you own any jerseys? No. Have you ever tried to snort Pixie Stix as a child, or even an adult? Uh, no. Do you like going to baby showers? Do you go only for the cake? No. The last time Jason and I hung out in any capacity was his brother's wife's baby shower, and it's a bad memory. As well, it just reminds me of what I once wanted with him. I'll go to them and be okay, but definitely not thrilled. Has there ever been a time in your life, you felt sexually undecided? Yes, especially in the I want to say 8th grade. I had an inescapable crisis that literally lasted a whole week (or maybe more) forcing myself to believe I was straight, despite already showing but denying bisexual attractions. I was religious back then, so believed if I wasn't straight, I'd go to Hell. Then I came out as bisexual in uhhhh... 2018 I wanna say, and that was a long examination of my feelings. It felt like a massive weight off my shoulders when I accepted it. I felt legit happy. Do you think tattoos and piercings are sexy on the opposite sex? ugggghhhhh yes Do people ever ask you to do things they’re too short to accomplish? No. What color are the headphones you have at this moment in time? My earbuds are pink and white. Ever choked severely on something during lunch at your school? No. Do you eat more vegetables or fruits? What’s your favorite fruit/veggie? Fruits, for sure. My fave is strawberries. What would you say is the color of your favorite bra? I have a pink and black lacy one that is super cute, but it's too small for me right now. It just stays in my drawer. Is anyone in your family a firefighter? Who is it anyway? No. What do you usually buy when you go to the dollar store? If I'm stopping there for a snack (which is usually the only time we stop by one), I tend to get a honeybun. Ever peed in the pool? Be honest! No, that is so gross. When you’re older, what kind of house do you want to live in? I want a medium-sized house that's semi-isolated in the woods. I'd love a nice path to walk down and take photos, a catio for Roman or whatever cat I may have in the future... stuff like that. I need lots of nature. Where do you want to get married? In some sort of gothic building, though I'm sure that would be a WILDLY expensive venue, so I doubt that'll happen. Realistically, either in the woods or even a massive flower garden. Do you plan on having both your parents at your wedding? Yes. What is your favorite childhood TV show? Pokemon. Honestly, do you like school? No, I didn't. Last thing that made you cry? PTSD. Honestly, are you keeping a big secret right now? No big secrets, no. Last person you took a walk with? Sara, years ago. Have you ever liked someone who didn’t like you back? Oh, have I... Who was the last person to actually pick you up in the air? Probably Jason, honestly. Does any part of your body hurt? My non-existent abs are killing me from exercising yesterday. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to change a regret what would you do? While it's tempting, hand me the cash. Can you keep a secret? Absolutely. You tell me a secret, you can guarantee I'll be keeping it between you and me. Your favorite romantic movie? The Notebook. How do you feel about Valentine’s Day? I honestly like it. I love the aesthetic of it, and I know people say "well you should celebrate love every day," and while that's right, what's so wrong about nationally designating a specific day to appreciate it? I think it's a very cute holiday. Who was the last person you took a picture with? My sister Katie. Do your jeans have rips, tears, and holes in them? I haven't worn jeans in yeeeeaaaarrrrssss. When I did though, I loved jeans like that, especially for skinny jeans. Do you celebrate 420?No. Have you ever kicked a vending machine? No. How do you eat Oreos? I prefer to just dip them in milk. If that's unavailable, I separate the two parts, eat the cream, and then the two cookies. Do you wear your shoes in the house? No. Would you survive in prison? Absofuckinglutely not. It's dark, but just to be entirely honest, I'd probably find a way to kill myself. Ever been to Georgia? I've been through it. Do you get your hair cut every month? Not every month, no. It needs a trim right now badly, though.

Current relationship in detail. I'm single and should be. If you were kicked out of your house, who would you call/go to? My dad. List things you spend money on in an average week. Nothing. Rate each of your sexual partners (if any) from 1-10. He was honestly a 10 lmao like I don't have a lot of experience at all, but yeah. Post the last FB group/page that you joined. I actually don't remember because I've been on break from Facebook for around a month. Would you parents be mad if you were in a relationship? No... Think of the last person you had sex with. Do you think they’ve slept with anyone else since they last slept with you? I'm sure he has. He dated someone right after me for like... eight months or something? Is there someone that you believe you will always be attached to? I think that's very obvious by now. What board games are you good at? Idk, I don't really enjoy board games. Is there a sport/hobby you keep thinking about taking up, but that you’ve never quite gotten around to starting? Definitely no sports, but I've been wanting to get back into video editing. I just... haven't, even though I have the software. Do you think pranks like egging/toilet-papering someone's house are funny or immature? They're incredibly immature. I see zero humor in them. Do you think “sleeve tattoos” are a good idea? They're hot as fuck, man. Is there anything in particular that your parents argue about? What? I'll just say they're divorced for good reasons. Do you ever actually read the “Terms and Services” when you sign up for websites and such? No. If you have a handheld games console (a DS or GameBoy, for example), how often do you use it? Almost never. Your phone is ringing. It’s the person you fell hardest for, what do you say? Realistically, I wouldn't answer because I don't answer numbers I don't recognize. Hypothetically, if I knew it was him, I'd probably say something along the lines of, "Hey J, are you okay?", because something must be seriously wrong if he wants to talk to me of all people. If your best friend was kicked out, would your parents let him/her live with you? Mom absolutely would. Are you afraid of falling in love? I'm terrified of it. Is there anybody you wish you could be with right now? I wish I didn't. Have you ever kissed someone & wished you didn’t? Yes: Tyler. Did you get kissed last night? Haven't been kissed in years. Do you enjoy going through a carwash? Bring out the rainbow soap and it's hype lmao. How did you get most of your scars? My cat, ha ha. He sometimes plays way too rough, and I just scar very easily. Ever had to take an inkblot test? Yes, when I went to a psychologist. Have you ever been in trouble for something you honestly didn’t do? Maybe? Have you ever seriously slapped someone in anger? My sister as a kid on her arm. Safe to say I got in trouble for it. What/who woke you up this morning? Just my body. Who was the last person to be in your bedroom besides you? Mom. What’s one of your locked text messages? da;lsd;fakwer I have one locked from Sara that says something like, "You are so beautiful." I cried. Have you ever finished a game of Monopoly? I think? Jason and I used to play the digital one you could download on the PS3. Is there anyone you know who’s in any way paralyzed? No. I mean, I know of a girl who went to my school who was paralyzed from the waist down in an accident, but I didn't/don't know her personally. She was a MASSIVE deal in my education community. Like you would see "prayers for (name)" on school and church signs. The truth all comes out when someone is drunk, true? Usually true. I sometimes think back on the one time Jason was drunk, and he just told me in the most adoring voice, "I love you, Brittany." It's painful as fuck to remember. I really do wonder if he meant it, given this was in the later half of our relationship. When was the last time you felt disappointed in yourself? Constantly. How about feeling disappointed in someone else? I dunno. For you, do you commonly feel more jealousy or envy? I definitely experience envy more often. Do you rely on the heads/tails flipping of a coin sometimes for decisions? No. Do you have any specific chores you do around the house? I'm supposed to empty the dishwasher in particular. For you, does comfort or fashion come first in dressing? Comfort, 100%. Have you had two friends that absolutely hated each other? No. Do you like Laffy Taffy? I do. That sounds pretty good right about now. Do you prefer electric or manual pencil sharpeners? Electric. Are your biceps at all noticeable? Yeah, no. Have you ever seen a walrus? Yeah, at SeaWorld as a kid. Did you ever have one of those Easy Bake ovens as a kid? Yeah. My little sister in particular was obsessed. Does your bathroom have a theme to it? No. From inside of your house, how many doors lead outside? Two. Are there a lot of trees in your yard? No. :/ I miss that. Have you ever liked someone that treated you like crap? No. Have a best friend? Yeah. :') Does it bother you when your best friend does stuff without you? That is so childish. Everyone needs space sometimes. But to answer the question, considering she lives many states away from me, obviously not. Is there a secret you’ve never told your parents? Yes. Does anyone hate you? I wouldn't at all be surprised if Jason does. Colleen might, but I really don't give a shit if she does. What’s the one thing you regret more than anything? The way I spoke to Jason after the breakup. If only I could take those letters back. Do you remember important dates? I am VERY bad at dates, doesn't matter how important they are. What’s some lyrics from a song that means a lot to you? "For such a little thing, you sure are in your own way" from a Mother Mother song. Who gives the best advice? Sara. Who do you usually see in your dreams? :) Jason is nearly a permanent fixture. Jeez, I'm bringing him up a lot in this one. I'm surprised my PTSD isn't dragging me into a pit for it. What type of cake did you last eat? Uhhh I wanna say double chocolate? Mom got two slices from the store for me and herself a long time ago. How many of your friends are gay or bisexual? A large number. I don't feel like counting. What’s your favorite type of sandwich? Just your usual peanut butter and jelly. When was the last time someone asked you out? Did you accept or decline? Years ago by Girt. I accepted. Do you like The Offspring? Sure, I like a handful of their songs. One pillow or two? I sleep with two. Do you like Mad Libs? Sure, they can be funny. Are you suicidal? Well damn, just throw that in there. Anyway, no. I'll admit I've had very brief, passive thoughts very rarely as of the late, just wondering if there really is a point to me being here, but I'm not actively suicidal at all rn. Where do your grandparents live? They're dead. When alive though, they lived in Florida and Michigan. Do you cut yourself? And this one? No, I haven't in many years. What is your pet’s name? Roman and Venus. Have you ever been to Canada? No, but I'd love to visit. Aren’t babies overrated? "Overrated" is definitely the wrong word... I don't particularly find a lot of babies cute and I don't want my own, but they're not overrated. Have a built-in pool in your backyard? Never have. Ever won yourself a stuffed animal? Yeah. Ever had someone else win you a stuffed animal? Yes. Ever been to a circus? No. I wouldn't set foot into one. Ever shot animals? I never, ever could. Do you consider yourself intelligent? I USED to. I think I'm dumb as shit now. School knowledge did not latch onto me well, I guess. Have you ever run away from home? Yes. It was so overdramatic. I came back hours later because I had my phone and Mom texted me threatening to call the cops. Do you put family first, friends, relationships, school, or something else? I will never put my mental health behind anything/one again. What’s something you’ve stood up for in the past? When Colleen and I were friends in middle school, we both spoke before the class in absolute disgust at how our classmates were treating our poor substitute teacher. Colleen had AT them, while I was more tame about it but still wanted to bash into their heads that they were all being absolute trash to the poor man. What’s something you worked extremely hard to get? My mental wellbeing. Granted, I'm not exactly "well" now, but once upon a time I was living in the deepest ocean trench as far as depression goes. Are you satisfied with your body image? Hell no. I really, really, really hope loyally going to the gym will help me with that. Have you ever been labeled negatively or otherwise been called something extremely derogatory? Not that I know of. Have you ever seriously taken advantage of someone or been taken advantage of? No. Have you ever been seriously ill? Mentally, immensely. Physically, not really. I've had some nasty stomach bugs, but nothing truly severe. Have you ever befriended a former enemy? Ha, it's funny, I used to hate Jason's first ex/heartbreak for how badly she hurt him. Like she could've been falling off the face of the earth with only me to save her, and I'd let her keep falling. I hated her. Yet now we're Facebook friends and comment on each other's stuff like it's nothing, ha ha. She reached out to me a few years ago to apologize for high school stuff (she also hated me for Juan - her ex or something along those lines - being interested in me instead of her), we chatted a bit, and now I think she's great. If you’re not religious, would you ever pray as a last resort? If you are religious, do you often pray for other people? I don't pray anymore. That's all I'll say to keep this from becoming potentially very offensive. Have you ever dated someone, then after you dated they came out of the closet or switched (for lack of a better word) sexual orientation? I'm pretty sure my middle school boyfriend Aaron is gay, but I'm not certain. He vanished from Facebook a long time ago. Has a boy/girl ever walked a ridiculous distance just to see you? How about vice versa? I tried doing that the night of the breakup. By car, I know it was a seven-minute drive, but walking there, never mind at night, was ludicrous. I only didn't manage because after a few minutes, Mom came after me and kept cutting me off with the car. When was the last time you felt really uncomfortable? Right now. My abs REALLY hurt, and I'm also cramping like a motherfucker after not having a period for 3+ months because of TMS therapy. I'm still pissed about how it had a physical effect on me, but didn't mentally do what it was meant to. Is there anything that your mom is really known for as to how she is as a person? She is very, very loving and lives to help others. Who have you been talking to the most today? Nobody, really. I've spoken with Mom obviously, but for the most part, today's been quiet. Are you nosy? I can be pretty damn nosy, yes. What’s the meanest thing you have done to a friend? Consistently flirted with her boyfriend behind her back. I was 12, okay? If your ex called you crying, what would it most likely be about? THE ex, I have no idea. I don't know what's going on in his life, besides his mother dying quite a few months ago, but I don't see why he'd contact me about that. Who was the best kisser out of all the people you have kissed? Jason. Have you ever been told that you have an annoying laugh? No, but I think I do.

One Trainer’s Trash is Another Pokemon's Family

So if you didn't know, i ended up taking a hiates from writing ANYTHING for a bit, but I was just sitting around earlier and thought "huh, there was that oneshot I kinda wanted to write" and BOOM im formating this at 2am when I finished writing so I can just post this in the morning.

Also note me writing this does not mean I'm fully back to writing because I tbh have no clue when I'll be back in full writing mode, a lot of stuff is going on irl around health issues (I'm good dont worry, just trying to figure out this issue so we can fix it) and my mind hasn't been able to put words together into written sentences well recently for anything, so exspect everything and nothing!!

So @sugarglider9603.... enjoy! If anyone seems off its probably because I haven't wrote in like 4 months :D

Ao3 link

Ao3 series link

Master Post

Words: 1,651

Summery: ' "I found a child in the trash!" Trash Eevee declared happily. The Eevee on watch somehow looked skeptical from behind, but curiosity got them to turn around.

Green and brown surprised eyes hit his own, he felt as the others eyes looked him over from his unnaturally purple eyes to dark brown fur.

"I.. I-" the other stammered in surprise.

"Can we keep him?" His founder vibrated, excited. '

 

A chance encounter is about to change three lives forever

“Slow down!” the Eevee hissed to his companion, running through the crowd of humans to catch up. His green and brown eyes swept the crowd, making sure no one grew suspicious and followed the two Eevees, sighing as he thankfully saw everyone's gaze sweep past them, uninterested.

There had been a few incidences when a trainer or a ‘nurse’ had tried to catch them, whether for his strange fur markings, trying to get his friend’s fur cleaned (no one held him for long once that information was leaked), or purely for them being Eevees. He’d heard it all, common lines being “hey are you lost?”, “where is your trainer?”, “is that a wild Eevee?” and of course, the most common

“I’ve got to catch it!”

Heh, no one had succeeded yet, and he didn’t plan that to change any time soon. Or ever.

“Not sorry” the simple line snapped him out of his thoughts as he looked over to the grinning Eevee that probably did need a bath “but I heard yelling in the back alley of the Good Place, and I just have to see if it's new!” The ‘Good Place’ was a restaurant the two constantly saw in their travels from town to town. While they couldn’t read the written name, and wouldn’t dare get close enough to a human to simply know the name when it had no use to them, it always had an identical symbol at every location. It was his trash loving companions (and though he would never admit it, his own as well) favorite location to get food.

“Very well, lead the way” with a flick of their tails, they rounded the last few corners to the back alley where two large dumpsters lay. As a Trubbish scurred off at the sight of them they both leapt up, balancing as they opened one off the lids.

He sat watch as the other squealed and dove in, rummaging through and ripping open plastic bags with sharp teeth. They always had the same parts when working together, he would keep watch making sure no one saw them from the regular path or had any workers walk out the door, while the other would search, eating what he wanted and tossing stuff up to save for later. They had tried to swap jobs once, but it was a mess that nearly got them caught if it wasn’t for his own keen ears, so they kept to their own and worked together.

He glanced at the door, the symbol imprinted on it. Doing this dumpster diving always reminded himself when he was alone. How he’s grateful to have a friend. Actually, doing it at the Good Place always reminded himself when he met the trashy Eevee. It was just after-

A paw swatted at his face, causing him to dodge. He seemed to be falling into nastolga easily today, he thought shaking it out of his fur.

“Did you hear me? I said all these bags have already been looked through” the other huffed “they must have used the other one, which is weird because they usually use the one closer to the door first….” he frowned, confused before brightening “anyways can you help me open the other lid?”

The clean Eevee nodded, hopping across to the other dumpster.

______________________________

 

Sta- he shivered, the angry yells still echoing in his ears. She was so mad when she discovered there was no dragon evolution, when she finally discovered he was completely useless. He glanced at the snapped pokeball at his paws, fallen through a space between a few garbage bags.

 

He knew he had to get out of here, but what was the point? He was with a trainer up till now, and while she was horrible he was still at least alive. But to try and survive on his own? No, he might as well just curl up on this garbage, might as well just

A scene flash in his mind, of a Pecha bush laying under a sprawling indigo sky. Two other faces similar yet different then his, laughing, smiling.

 

He couldn't give up, not yet, not until he could find them again.

 

Chatter and a crash of heavy plastic hitting a wall distracted him from the thoughts racing through his head. He pressed low against the bags, ears flat as he waited. Were there people taking trash out? No.. that didn't sound human, that sounded

 

The lid thunked twice, before late afternoon light poured down onto his dark brown fur. He froze as another pokemon fell down in front of him, another Eevee.

 

He was bigger, though everyone was bigger. His fur seemed to be a normal shade of brown, yet it was hard to tell with all the dirt and dust coating it. He looked up into the newcomer's eyes, surprise and delight filled them to the brim.

 

"Oh? OH!" The other gasped for only a moment before flashing forwards, grabbing him lightly by his scruff and before he knew it St- he was in open air and sat on the hard plastic lid.

 

"Hey hey!" The Eevee scrambled across to another Eevee, his turned back to the both of them. The third Eevee's ear twitched to show they were listening, watching the humans walk by.

 

"I found a child in the trash!" Trash Eevee declared happily. The Eevee on watch somehow looked skeptical from behind, but curiosity got them to turn around.

 

Green and brown surprised eyes hit his own, he felt as the others eyes looked him over from his unnaturally purple eyes to dark brown fur.

 

"I.. I-" the other stammered in surprise.

 

"Can we keep him?" His founder vibrated, excited.

 

"Hmm" seemingly gaining his composure, the one on watch came over to inspect him further, sniffing curiously at his fur "I don't think so, he smells too much of humans" the trash Eevee visibly shrunk.

"No!" He cried, snapping his jaw closed at the sudden speaking "I, I me- mean no, I had a trainer, but I don't have one anymore" he attempted to explain, hissing at himself for stuttering.

 

"I uh" he coughed, attempting to clear his throat, "I, I'm sorry for disturbing your search" he flicked his tail toward the two before curling it around himself, finally looking into the others faces. It was at the moment he noticed the strange markings around the single green eye on the watcher.

 

"It's no problem," the calmer one replied. He looked as if he were about to continue, before the trash Eevee popped "hey, have you gotten food today?"

 

He blinked, thinking about all that happened since dawn. Dawn, when his trai- ex-trainer had learned the news.

 

"I.. haven't?" He tried, not wanting to test his luck. They were strangers, he had to be cautious.

 

"Here!" The other dove back into the trash. He leaned over frantically, thankful to see the pokeball halfs had sunken out of sight. If they ever asked why he was in there, he would just tell them he was looking for food.

No one would find out the true reason. Well.. maybe two others, but that would have to wait till he found them again. He would find them again.

 

The walking trash pile hopped back up, dropping what seemed to be a freshly thrown away berry skewer at his feet.

 

He looked up, alarmed "no, I couldn't-" "oh don't worry" the other's purr sounded like a motorcycle "we'll survive without a few berries."

 

While he was still uncertain, his stomach grumbled with hunger so he bent down and took a bite of closest fully intact berry. When the sweet familiar taste hit his mouth, he barely stopped the tears. Arceus really had to do that, didn't they.

 

"Everything ok?" He looked up from the Pecha berry, the special marked Eevee looking at his watery eyes with concern.

 

"Y-yes, just haven't eaten anything this sweet in a while" he lied quickly, finishing what he could before pushing towards the others "here, might as well not let this go to waste" he smiled.

 

The marked Eevee hummed before taking a bite from a nearby Oran berry.

 

After a bit, the dirty Eevee spoke a question he knew was coming "so, you said you had a trainer, do you have a name?"

 

He paused, thinking, before shaking his head "she never gave me one."

 

The others nodded in understanding. He looked out at the people walking in the street, passing by with no clue of the trio sitting on the dumpsters.

 

He didn’t have a name, not to them at least. To them, he would be the Eevee that they found, the Eevee they took in, the Eevee one day they would realize they see as a brother, the Eevee that would inevitably disappear in the back of a truck

One day there would be another family, they would know him as Virgil, Virgil who they found in the forest, Virgil who followed them everywhere, Virgil who got caught finally by his own free will

But no one would know him as Star but his original family. No one would know him as Star, the being who hatched into the world with an angry scream that was not his own, Star, the one who fell in love with the sky on his first night of his existence, Star, the one who found family and then was ripped away from it in his sleep

Star, who would keep searching till the ends of the Earth to find his family.

 

But for now, he was just a strange looking Eevee in a strange situation, hiding his name from everything and everyone, and that was ok.

 

He glared at the crowd of humans walking by peacefully. There was only one thing left from his life with.. with the Dragon, one thing he would keep

He would never trust another human again.

Pip Story Chapter Three

It was early in the morning, really early. Pip was having a frustrating sleep. Trying to shake off the annoying Pokemon and the ones that made her feel awkward. She sits up hearing a noise in the next room. She carefully peeks around the doorway to see...Nuzleaf writing something on a piece of paper.

He put it on the floor then left the house. Pip quickly reads the paper. Then leaves.

She was a child.

A curious child.

So naturally she wondered where Nuzleaf was going.

-

Pip mysteriously had disappeared for a few days so surprised to see her walking up for school.

"Pip, what's with those papers in your bag? We're not THAT kind of school." Meg meant in a teasing manner, but Pip reacted with panic, shoving the papers fully in her bag.

"It's nothing."

Pip wandered into her thoughts on her way to school.

There was a small crowd of Pokemon apparently talking about honey. A Budew had stepped forward, wondering about. Pip didn't blame her, she was curious too. But school awaited.

The next day while Pip was nervously glancing at her papers, either someone might see what's on them or the teacher talking about health. She froze in her seat when she said the word 'evolving'. Something about the word nerved her. Fuzzy images, but she couldn't see them clearly. She zoned out of everyone's talking to focus on the faint images. Maybe her memories were slowly coming back.

"E...Excuse me."

Pip looks up, a Roselia had spoken. Pip does not recall seeing her around, then again she's not in the village for long.

"I'm sorry, but have you seen Budew today?"

"Huh? Little Budew? Here? No I surely haven't. Isn't it still another year before Budew is due to start school?"

"Oh...what am I to do? I've searched all over our neighborhood but found no sign of her."

Goomy reacted first. "What? You mean Budew has gone missing?"

"I'm sorry for interrupting your class like this."

Roselia began to walk away but nearly fell over.

"Oh my! Are you alright?"

"Yes...It's just I've been getting so dizzy lately..."

"You come with me sweetie, I want you to rest a bit."

They watched as Roselia was led to the nurse's office.

Pip was looking at her desk.

"What could have happened to Budew?"

"It makes you worry, doesn't it?" Deerling spoke next.

While Deerling was getting angry over Pancham's insensitivity over a child, Pip came to a horrifying realization.

Budew. She was interested in the topic about honey...

And if her mother couldn't find her...

Pip shot up, "Budew! She's in Nectar Meadow!" She's off before anyone can comment. Lunar and Meg look at each other.

She huffs, making sure she didn't lose any papers.

"Pip!"

She looks over to see Lunar and Meg running after her.

"You...can't get through there by yourself!" Meg panted.

"So we're going too!"

The Piplup didn't say anything but didn't object.

-

Those honey makers weren't going to hurt Budew on Pip's watch.

"You put one scratch on that kid and I'll tear you to pieces!" She switched one of her blades out.

"Pip, we can do this-without really hurting anyone." Lunar didn't dare to try to grab her blade.

She continued to give her most fiercest glare. "Budew, get behind us so you don't get hurt!"

After that fight, she was sure more fighting would go on.

Pip did not expect the Vespiquen.

"Your opponents are mere children! They are not thieves."

Pip made sure to hide the knife.

"I hope you can forgive such a rude welcome. This happens to be our honey-making season. We are terribly busy this time and everyone's emotions tend to turn hot."

Pip was surprised at Budew's explanation of why she wanted some honey.

Sweet.

But amazed how Budew got through the dungeon. It was rather tough.

-

Pip was so happy to see Budew back with her mom, she was tearing up a bit. Not that she would admit it.

"Thanks to you three, my child is safe."

Though Pip felt some sort of...jealousy.

But why?

Did she have a bad mother in her memories?

Pip just did not have the answers.

"Pip, it was amazing that you were willing to skip school to save Budew and that you cared so much-"

Pip holds her flipper up to silence Meg. "Don't...do that. It makes me embarrassed. But I'm glad Budew is safe."

On the way home (since they lived close) Pip pulled her papers out and shuffled through them, pulled a pen and note something next to a sentence. Meg only saw what Pip had wrote.

Ask Nuzleaf about it.

Meg was curious, but Pip was a private Pokemon and didn't even like sharing her own name. So fat chance on asking her about the papers.

-

"Hey Pip!"

Pip quickly puts her papers away when she heard Lunar. "What?"

"Why do you disappear a lot?"

Pip blankly stares at Lunar and Meg. "Um, to help Nuzleaf."

"Oh is that why you have those papers you keep hiding? You're some kind of nerd?" Lunar laughs, Pip folds her flippers.

"I'm not a nerd, I'm the QUEEN of nerds. If there was a galaxy of smart Pokemon, I'd be the mastermind." After that Pip ran off.

"She's really weird." Meg comments.

"Tell me about it, but I guess she is helping him since she's going the way Mr. Nuzleaf went when he left."

-

"I'm sorry, you all want to what?!"

Pip had been updated on the ghost mystery and seriously unamused at Pancham's idea.

"What, are you too scared to go?"

"NO, it's because ghosts aren't even real! Everyone faints because it's hot! The dark place the teacher ended up in, obviously a trick of the mind! Everyone hearing a 'ghost' talking? Hearing things!" Pip sounded very confident about her idea in ghosts.

"If you're so sure, prove it." Meg sweat drops at Pancham's probably winning trick to get Pip to come.

"Fine! I'll sneak out...to prove you all wrong!"

Meg shakes her head as Lunar clings to her.

I thought you didn't like to prove things.

-

Pip knows she should be looking over the papers, not these stupid fake mysteries. But her pride has been challenged and as a Piplup, they have pride. So in her angry mind, she was going to sneak out. And show everyone, ghosts aren't real.

After arriving in their seats, everyone was wondering what they were supposed to do.

"Wait for the ghosts to appear!"

"You mean the supernatural that doesn't exist?"

Pip presses a flipper to her face hearing Pancham yelling for the ghosts.

Hot...

Pip's face goes blank.

Ugh obviously a prank.

"Shelmet? Did you say something?"

"It wasn't me."

So hot...

It's a prank.

"Was that..."

"There's someone here! Someone besides us!"

Pip rolls her eyes at Deerling. "Yeah, who are pranking us."

Hot...It's so hot...

"Who is that? Who's there?!"

Pip is surprised when a blue flame appears.

We're...seeing things.

"The...Blue flames."

All of a sudden, there was a lot of blue flames.

Pip's head had gone blank of excuses.

Was it you?

Was it you that summoned me?

You have some nerve!

The area grows purple and dark.

"Uh...This is uncomfortable...unsettling..."

Come child!

I'll give you a taste!

Come and learn...

What true fear tastes like!

"UGH! PANCHAM! LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE!"

GHOSTS AREN'T REAL!  It's surely a Pokemon of some kind!

Everything seemed to go dark and she hears Pancham scream. She waves her flipper as if trying to brush away smoke. Everyone seemed to have fainted. Meg was the first to slowly wake up.

"Guys! Shelmet and Pancham are gone!"

"Espurr too!"

After Lunar got updated, surprise Espurr was completely fine. Then she told them all what she saw.

"Still, no ghosts." Pip muttered to herself as she followed everyone where Pancham and Shelmet had been dragged.

-

They could hear them...but then the shadow.

Pip squints up, it looked like...a Pokemon she's seen before, maybe in a book...

Pip didn't know what she was more shocked by, Lunar's outburst, that the blue flames were really Litwicks, or...that a legendary Pokemon could be here.

No wait, that's impossible. THAT Pokemon lives in a dimension-not our world. It would only leave it on necessary terms.

After that fight, the explanation, Pip got into a happy mood. Not because their two classmates were fine now.

"I told you guys! Ghosts don't exist!"

...It wouldn't last for long.

"You...You little fools!"

Pip was hiding Nuzleaf, scared out of her wits.

"What do you think you're doing, running around in the middle of the night?!"

Nuzleaf tried to soften the situation...but Lunar's Pops parenting method were obviously different.

"When a child steps out of line, a scolding is what you use to get 'em back in line! Now step up to the task!"

"EEP!" Pip wishes she could disappear.

"Um, Pops I'm really sorry..."

Meg glares at him.

"I don't know, maybe its all the nerves...but I'm suddenly bushed...so I'm going to sleep...goodnight!" Just like that, Lunar fell asleep on the spot.

"Lunar!" Meg huffed.

"N-Now just a minute, Lunar! We're not done talking about this! Wake yourself up!"

Lunar doesn't respond.

"Argh! Convenient time to pass out!" He looks at Meg. (He couldn't get Pip in his sight since she refused to budge from Nuzleaf's side) "I guess you and Pip get the pleasure of being lectured by me!"

"EEK!"

Meg winces at Pip's frightened squeal. Guess this is one of the things Pip actually fears.

"I hope you two are ready!"

Pip squealed and squeaked during the whole lecture. (Meg thinks she started crying out of fear too) Meg's head just hurt from the lecture.

==> - a Miss

An excited purr escapes your throat as you pick up the attuned Tuning Fork, okay, okay. Okay. You.... you needed to get ready for this! Oh, yeah you weren't prepared. Kicking at the chalk you’d used in your ritual a bit to muss up the lines (not that they could be used for anything else), you note to clean up your mess later as you run about collecting what you need. Your travel coat, your shoulder bag, your sword, all things you kept in your work room. The last thing you needed, however, was the watch Star was attached to. 

Star was technically all over your hive now a days. An AI who use to go by the name Mabel, given to you by a long lost friend, she now called herself Star and had made a home of the computers and surveillance systems your brother, Calib, once had rigged through the hive for more nefarious purposes.She still, however, frequented outings with you held within the high-tech watch she originally was homed in. The watch itself has seen a few upgrades since, all thanks to Star’s own technological prowess. Truly an heir of Harley genius. Generally you kept the watch upstairs, in your room next to your main computer because Star had the ability to interact with it there.  “✨- Omg omg omg omg!!!!” A chime like an old videogame twinkle effect sounded over some speakers, signalling Star was taking them over to speak. She could technically reach you in the basement, but didn’t have cameras down there to see what you had been doing. Regaurdless, she sounded excited. “✨- This is it this is it!!  ✨- You’re finally gonna go find her! It’s been like, elevendy billion years Callie!  ✨- I bet she’s gonna be like! SO SO HAPPY! When you find her I mean. YEAH!” “heh, maybe? i mean i hope so. i’ve missed her, bUt it’s still kinda weird she’s never tried to come back on her own.”   “✨- She’s going to be so happy that you’re RESCUING HER!” “star, i really don’t think she needs rescUed. i mean droog didn’t, she’s every bit as capa-” “✨- Then how come she never came home?” “that’s... that’s what i was getting at. i don’t know.” You sigh, shutting off the doorway to your workroom for now and going over to unplug the smartwatch. It was fully charged and perfectly synced with Star’s main hub, and wouldn’t start diverging until you left the area of Wi-Fi. A bright blue hologram of Star’s current fursona popped up above the watch’s screen, barely showing off the sheer sparkle-dog-ness of her current avatar: The frutiest fruit bat to ever fruit. It changed often, but there were always some giveaways it was Star. The fun sweaters were usually the key focus. As well as the blue colouration, as the hologram projector has always had the ability to produce other colours. Blue was just.... easiest? You don’t actually know. “✨- She isn’t avoiding you, you know that right?” The hologram spoke, fluttering itself up to get right in your face about it. “it’s! it’s not really me i’m worried she’s avoiding! it’s-” “✨- Dumbra! I know, I know! But don’t forget you talk to me too when you’re drunk and yo-” “ANYWAYS, star, i need yoUr help. i know i asked yoU this before, bUt yoU really don’t mind coming along to help me figUre oUt where all this thing is going to take me? i’m not bUgging?” “✨ - Hmph! But no, of course not silly! This is the only way I can, you know, stretch my legs!” The hologram flapped up further to wiggle it’s anatomically incorrect ‘bat’ legs, laughing at her own joke before receding back to the space just above the watch.  “✨ - Besides, you know I love helping you. It’s practically what I was created for!” You’re not sure why you think it would be better to try this outside than in your already magically charged basement, but you head out the front door. You’ve called out to Chess to let her know you were leaving, as well as texted Davara. As soon as the cool night air hits you you’re pulling the hesitantly dubbed Travel Tunner from your sylledex and removing your wand from your strifedex. You stand at the edge of the plateau your home is situated on, holding both instruments out in front of you. You only give yourself a moment’s more hesitation before you hit your wand against the metal fork, hard.  The sound it makes is loud, you can feel it reverberating not just in the air around you but up your arms as well. Your vision starts to swim, and you feel almost vague and fuzzy for a moment, like you were fading out of existence. Simultaneously fading back into existence elsewhere. Where exactly, though, is unclear. It takes a moment to reorient yourself from the travel, but.... looking around, you really can’t see anything. You’re in.... some kind of room? A really big room. Not completely devoid of light, either, but what light was coming through was from.... from.... You had to squint, but there was light coming from the ceiling. The ceiling itself seemed to be made of some sort of round crystal or glass, but the natural light that would normally be filtering through was clouded over by a dark storm. Thunder could be heard in the distance, and.... you strain your ears because there’s something else you can’t quite place. But before you can place it, you become acutely aware you’re no longer a troll. You’re human. Which means.... this was a world inhabited by Pokemon, based on your previous use of Human transformation spells. “meenah?”  You call out, taking a few steps forward. The dim, barely there light didn’t give you much to go on, but you think there was some kind of chair on one side of the room. A hallway on the other. Still.... there was a sound. Like... like..... It was water sloshing! Beneath the floor, actually. You snap, realizing where you were. Or at least, a version of where you were.  This was the Alolan Champion’s room. Your own time as the Kalos champion had you learn the ins and outs of the special stadiums needed for league battles. And while it wasn’t the most common, there were trainers who used exclusively Water-residing pokemon, like Goldeen and Finneon who, while they could battle on land, were at a severe disadvantage when fighting. Thus the floors were set up in such a way that half the arena could open up to a pool, or even the whole arena dependent on the teams battling. Still, this was only half the puzzle of where you were, and unfortunately you’ve got a sinking feeling you know why you were brought here instead of to Meenah. “okay star, coUld yoU check where we are in the mUltiverse right now?” “✨- Sure thing just give me a moment....” You can’t help but get a feeling of being watched, and you wonder if there’s cameras set up. The shadow overtaking the room was probably in your better interest then, because you’re not sure how you’d explain sudden teleportation in.... actually, no, you could technically use your Gallade as an excuse but- “✨- OMG CALLIE! You’re never gonna believe this. We’re in our pokemon timeline! Like, the very exact one! You’re coming up as the Kalos champion an everything!” Ah... yeah, you were correct. You sigh, looking down at the fork. This.... was probably your fault. “what about anything on meenah makara? can yoU check?” “✨- Mmmmm nope, nothing on Meenah is showing up. There’s a Mina who’s apparently the Fairy not-gym leader for Alola but that’s the only result I’m finding.”

You sigh heavier, yeah, you did this. Reaching up you run a hand through your hair, groaning. Still, on the bright side at least it didn’t teleport you off to like. The 1920s again or some such. Still, you know what happened. “when i attUned the tUning forks i mUst have imprinted my more recent associations with meenah into the ritUal. when i played sUn and moon, i was whistfUlly playing as if i were her, so of coUrse it takes Us to the most familiar variation of the alolan champion’s room. caUse that’s where i’d have last really.... felt connected to her. stUpid.... stUpid, hUh?” More sighing. Well, at least you know what went wrong, and how to get out of here too. You were either going to have to practice tuning without letting associations get in your way, or try and find something of Meenah’s to use with the ritual instead. Both were viable, but first.... you really needed to get out of here. And home.  “✨- Nooo! Not stupid. You’re being really hard on yourself Callie! This was your first time out!” You put your wand and fork away, relying on tried and true methods of teleportation to get out of here. Turning on the ball of your foot, you zap away to the Pokemon Center in Tapu Village only a few miles out from here. You had a transportalizer set up there, so it was easy to get home. “mmmmaybe, it’s fine. i’ve got some ideas on what to do next, bUt i think one go roUnd is enoUgh for tonight, don’t yoU?”

Father Son Lesson?! (One shot based on the Dorkly series Pokemon Ralphie)

Read Part One Here!

It was afternoon now, the sun was settling behind the clouds. Red had brought Todd to the middle of Route One as all the wild Pokemon walk about in the tall grass. He may have not dimention hopped, but at least seeing something so nostalgic made him smile great big. There was a sping in the boy’s step as Todd went along behind him.

There was something odd about this boy...he looked exactly like someone, in fact he was named after his dad! But that couldn’t be it. Time travel didn’t exist and this must have been some fan of his father’s or something.

Red steped on the grass of Route one seeing a brown tail move in the grass. The perfect target. “Alright Todd, watch what I’m ‘bout to do, okay? I know this isn’t the best starter Pokemon, but...”  Since his Pokemon were all high leveled he had to teach at least one of them false swipe. That would leave the other Pokemon with one health point and in turn he could teach Todd how to catch and battle Pokemon. Maybe they should go to the Pokemon Center first...

“So you’re not going to teach me?” Todd asked seemingly pouting and crossing his arms. Red shook his head and rolled his eyes. This kid was a bit of a brat. “No, I am going to teach you. I just gotta get a Pokemon out of the computer that knows false swipe or at least low leveled. You can’t catch a fainted Pokemon.”

Todd scoffed and took out a tablet looking thing from his bag. “Computers? That’s so old. You just use this tablet and you can withdraw and deposit Pokemon whenever you want.” The boy acts like this was comon knowledge. He was just trying to help him, no reason for him to be so stuck up. “The heck? When did they invent this? Jeez you all sure have it easier than I did!” The younger boy tilts his head. “How old are you?”

“I’m eleven! How old are you?” “Eleven!” “Then what year is this?” “20XX!”

And then it hit him...he didn’t travel to any present dimemsion, he traveled into the future! It sort of scared him how the same most of everything looked. Red felt like he was going to faint. He just felt dizzy out of nowhere.

“Hey! Red! Earth to Red!”

The champion quickly shook his head to get out of his daze. “...y-yeah?” Todd hands his tablet to him a bit forcefully trying to get him to take it. He looks down at the tablet and back up at the other as if he didn’t know what to do. This just irritated Todd even more. “Sign in and take out a Pokemon already! I don’t have all day.” Ah so you sign in just like you do with the computers back home? Alright so let’s see if his old account still worked.

As he typed his information, the Pokemon Box came up very quickly. There were probably more than a hundered and fiffty-one Pokemn in there! There was even some he didn’t see before! A lot of them were level ninty-nine or level a hundred Pokemon. There was no way he would use such strong Pokemon against such weak Route One Pokemon. So instead he got an egg from the box. What egg was it? He didn’t know. Maybe walking around would catch it. And just like that with a press of a finger the egg was in Red’s team. It looked nothing like the eggs he’s seen in Kanto...wonder what it was...

Red cradled the egg in his arms and showed it to Todd. “It was just in my box I have no idea where it came from.” Todd looked at the egg then back to Red. He didn’t look happy. “YOU MORON YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO GET A POKEMON NOT AN EGG!” Red stepped back feeling a bit intimidated by the angry kid.  “I-I couldn’t find any that weren’t really high leveled so I-” “IT’S AN EGG! YOU CAN’T BATTLE WITH AN EGG YOU IDIOT!”

As Red backed up from the other’s angry outbursts, he steped on a rock and fell backwards on his behind. That was when the egg began to crack. Oh no! Did he hurt it? Another crack and another, when finally a big shining light came from inside the eggshell. Red and Todd sheilded their eyes from the blinding light as more and more light come eminate from it. Soon though the light had decipated. Should Red dare open his eyes? Has he hurt this poor Pokemon by accident?

“Mew~!”

Something soft was rubbing his face. It also seemed to have a tail since it was rubbing it’s tail against the end of his nose. “KACHUU~!” 

“Mewmeewmewmeew~!” That almost sounded like laughter.

Red opened his eyes and the first thing he was met with was Todd’s jaw dropped to the ground. He blinked out of bewilderment before finally shaking his head and looking angry again. “HOW THE HECK DID YOU GET A MEW OUTTA AN EGG!? AN’ A SHINY ONE AT THAT?!”

“Wait....it was a shiny Mew?” Red asked with a confused face. “YES YES IT’S RIGHT THERE RESTING ON YOUR HAT!” On his hat? A blue Pokemon looked down at him with a smile. “Meew~!”

Red was silent for a second as his brain processed this information. Red hatched a Mew, the last Pokemon he needed to complete his Kanto Pokedex. He quickly looked at his Pokedex. One hundred and fifty-one Pokemon caught. He could feel happy tears lining his eyes. “AHAHA! I FINALLY CAUGHT THEM ALL! AFTER ALL THE YEARS OF SEARCHING! I GOT A MEW!” The sudden outburst made Todd jump a bit, but there was something about this dude that just made him smile. “Heh, congradu-”

That’s when he was cut off by Red wrapping his arms around him. Todd was as shocked as he was before, not saying anything. “I wouldn’t have completed it if it wasn’t for you...thank you Todd!” This was odd...he looked like his father, he almost sounded like his father, and he kinda smelled like his father. This was...kind of a weird feeling. He never had gotten a hug from...no this wasn’t him. There was no way it was him! This guy is just some dude who likes his father and wanted to take one of his Pokemon. Good. Let him. Serves the old man right. Todd won’t say anything to him. And the fact this was the one Pokemon his dad has been looking for was now given to a fan of his, that just was icing on the cake in his opinion.

“Hey man, you’re welcome. No problem.” Todd patted him on the back as the smile never left his face. Red let go at the last moment feeling a little awkward for hugging him for so long. “Ah...*ahem*....t-thanks. Anyway, I’ll teach you how to catch a Pokemon now.” With the Mew following Red from behind they come across another Pidgey. False Swipe was now taught to the newly hatched legendary and it quickly made the flying type lose all but one health point. A Pokeball was tossed before catching it with a loud click sound. 

Mew happily did cartwheels in the air proudly as Red went and grabbed the Pokeball. He sprays it with a Potion and hands it to Todd. “Here you go! You do need a Pokemon to catch others with. Unless, you want Mew. I don’t mind giving you them.” Mew looked at Todd and back to Red. They were so sure Red was his mama though. Aww...they have drawn onto Red. “N-No thanks. Mew already seems to really like you.” Mew rubbed it’s face against Red again with a happy gurggle. The Kanto champion giggled rubbing the Pokemon’s chin. “Are you sure? Well okay. I already healed your Pidgey. Oh and here!” Red handed him some Pokeballs. “You can have these too!” 

Now a whole flurry of emotion’s filled Todd’s heart. As he looks at Red he sees his dad smiling back at him. He blushed a bit and twiddled his thumbs. “H-Hey Red? Can you watch me catch a Pokemon and then we can go see my dad?” Red tilted his head. Wasn’t he annoyed with him before? No matter, he kind of wanted to stay with someone who knew this time period better than he did anyway.

“I got some time. Sure!”

This gave Todd an urge of excitement for some reason and a look of determination went over his face.

“Right! I won’t let you down!”

The Pokemon were still bountiful so he easily encountered a Rattata. After a few tackles and a throw of the Pokeball, Todd had caught his first Pokemon. “Congrats Todd!” Red gleefully stated as he wrapped his arms arround the other. Again he was as still as a board. What was wrong with this kid? Red let go of him in case he was uncomfortable. Todd was quiet as he stares at his tablet. It wanted him to give him a nickname. He hesitated, but put the letters        “R E D” into the imput. Red noticed this and gave a sly smile. “So you named it after me, eh? Thanks!”

“I didn’t name him after you, I named him after my dad! Because I’m gonna rub his nose in it that I caught a Pokemon without his help.” Red laughed and slapped Todd on the back making the boy yelp. This kid was strong. “Ahahaha! Yeah! An’ I wanna see the look on his face too!” A moment of silence. “Ya know, you’re a pretty cool kid, Todd. I know how it feels when your dad is away....” He looks down at the ground. Todd looks up at him for a second before quickly pulling down Red’s hat over his eyes and taking a running start.

“And you’re a dork!” For the first time Todd was giggling. Red was about to tell him off after fixing his hat, but noticed the playful intent in the other’s eyes. Red and Mew chased after him playfully. “Who you callin’ a dork, ya dweeb!”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An email popped up on a desktop computer. Being a busy guy, he had hardly any time to look at fan emails. That’s what interns are for. But this caught his attention. The sender was from BILL’S PC INC. 

Concerned, he clicks on the email.

“There has been multiple log-ins on this account. We are informing you in case this was not you. If you have any questions call us at ____________ or visit us at _______________”

Someone was using his Pokemon storage account? Who could have done this? He quickly checked his box to see everything was in place, but there was one Pokemon that was missing. An egg he was going to hatch...

This won’t do...someone had went into his account and stole his Mew! In a rush of anger he pushed the things off his desk as they scattered to the ground. This alarmed an assistant who went in to check on him.

“Mr. Red? Is everything okay?”

“I need to speak to Bill. In person. Send him to me.”

catching up ya’ll. you’ve realized by now I don’t take many of the prompts literally but rather more abstract by now i hope. it might not be this way for all of them but for now it’s working for me in helping me finish things that have been sitting around for a while! 

Prompt/Title: Sharp

Pairing: Prof Aurea Juniper/Fennel (Scientificshipping)

Rating: G

Fandom: Pokemon

It usually took quite a bit of force to rouse Fennel from her sleep in the morning. But the rare occurrence struck here and there; that night in particular being one of them.

The dream scientist had lost track of the number of times she felt her wife leave the bed in a short span of time, after what felt to be hours of her tossing and turning. Fennel had the professor's process down to a science after the third time; she'd begin coughing before rolling over multiple times, eventually deciding to get up entirely, only to return a few moments later and begin the procedure all over again.

She had complained the past evening that she hadn't felt well, neither of them thinking on it much and Fennel assuming she had recovered slightly after drinking the tea she prepared for her. She felt somewhat guilty in not realizing that Aurea was sick sick. Not that she'd ever admit she was sick, not outright, anyway.

If she was sick, it didn't seem fair to kick her out of the bedroom entirely. But Fennel was far too aware that they both had work in the morning, hours that loomed ahead, announced by the digital clock acting as a count down in the moment rather than the sudden alarm Fennel was used to.

“Aurea,” Fennel groaned, only realizing how strained her voice was when she went to use it. “There's cough medicine that will knock you out in the bathroom cabinet. Go take it.”

The professor's voice sounded equally as labored, “I already did, two or three times, I think...”

“Okay, good,” Fennel was too tired to worry over the matter. Typical of the professor, really, for her to grow impatient on waiting for medicine to take their intended effects and take more than the recommended amount more than once. Stupid of her, as Fennel had told her more than once as well, but four in the morning wasn't the time for lectures.

It was the other woman's alarm that sounded and stirred Fennel from her sleep the final time. For some reason, she had expected Aurea to silence it and lay back down, but when she felt the weight shift on the bed, she knew that wasn't how it was going to play out.

“What are you doing?” the dream scientist mumbled, forcing herself upright and pushing her hair out of her eyes.

“Getting ready for work,” the professor stated, mimicking Fennel's actions in brushing the bangs that were matted to her forehead behind her ear. She remained on the edge of the bed for the moment, one arm around her middle as she attempted to stifle another violent coughing fit with her free arm, clearing her throat and preparing to hoist herself up to ready herself for the day. But there she remained against her will;  her head too dizzy to make any sense and her muscles too weak in the moment.

“No, don't do that. Go back to sleep,” Fennel attempted to convince her in trying to make it sound like an order rather than a suggestion, patting the space next to her.

“I have to. Professor Birch is coming to the lab today...”

“Well, tell him to come another day, you're sick.”

“I'm fine.”

Fennel crawled over the bed space and leaned forward, pressing the back of her hand to the other woman's forehead, repeating the motion on her cheek. “You're burning up, Aurea. And you took all of that medicine last night, you're going to pass out at some point.”

“I can sleep when I get home, I can manage for a few hours.”

“You took, like, half of a bottle of sedative cough medicine, I'm pretty sure you shouldn't be driving.”

“Then you drive me.”

“No,” Fennel sat up properly now, annoyed.  “I know you don't want to hear it, so I'm not going to lecture you, but you really need to rest.”

Even without her glasses, Fennel could see the brunette visibly shaking from across the bed.  She knew Aurea would fight her every step of the way in this, and Fennel could only come to one conclusion.  

“I'll do it for you.”

“No, Fennel, you have your own work to do.”

“But I don't have any appointments today with professors who traveled from other regions to see my lab.” It was a fair point to be made, and lost in the moment, Fennel saw it as a great idea. “Please, trust me with this. I can handle it, I promise. Bianca will be there, too, and I'll call you if he asks anything I don't know the answer to. I'm going to be there, anyway. I’ll just tell Professor Birch to e-mail you if he has any questions. I’m sure he’ll understand, he’s a really easy going guy, if I remember right.”

“I’d rather put on some make up and get through the day."

“You look horrible, Aurie, and you don’t need to be getting everyone else at the lab sick.”

“Do I really look that bad?” Pressing her own hand to her forehead didn't provide her with any sort of answer, clammy hands against skin that matched the tone. Certainly no way to present herself to esteemed colleagues. For the first time in their interactions that morning, Juniper conceded, twisting her hips and pulling her knees back on to the bed and under the covers. She refused to view the situation as admitting defeat, instead, realizing that, perhaps it wasn't as big of a deal as she had initially thought.

Aurea gave some sort of apprehensive shrug in resignation, allowing herself to slink further under the covers. “Fine, okay.”

Birch had been to her lab before, a few times, actually. The sole reason for his visit wasn't a tour of her lab, but to retrieve the Unova starters he asked her for to distribute in the Hoenn region. He had other business in Unova, she was sure- and Fennel and Bianca could handle three Pokemon. Or at least, she hoped they could.

With that decided, Fennel pat the other woman's thighs. “Poor baby,” Fennel smiled slightly. “I can't remember the last time you were this ill.”

“Can you at least bring me my laptop so I can get some work done?”

“No. You sleep.”

Fennel arrived at the lab, late by Aurea’s standards, but early by her own. It was weird having to enter the code to unlock the door, having been used to it already being done by the time she arrived. At least she remembered it and didn’t have to call Aurea.

She wasn’t quite sure what to do next. Bianca would arrive soon to tend to the Pokemon, as Fennel knew nothing about the routine. Instead, she sat at the reception area that trainers used when they were waiting. It would feel weird going in to the professor’s office, and she didn’t know what she’d do in there, anyway, besides play games on the computer. Did her computer even have any games? It didn’t hurt to check. There was internet access, and that was all she needed, really.

Thankfully, the office door wasn’t locked, and she could look important when the Hoenn professor arrived. She had been in her wife’s office countless times, but still felt as if she were intruding on her by looking around. There were papers scattered all over the desk, along with sticky notes and even some photographs of various Pokemon. Fennel didn’t know if any of it was crucial, but it didn’t seem to be in any order. This office was so boring compared to her own.

She tried to sign on to her computer, realizing she didn’t know the password. It only took her two tries to guess, noting to herself to reprimand the other woman about this another day. It wasn’t worth the little trouble it caused, anyway, she didn’t even have Solitaire on the desktop. What computer didn’t have Solitaire? If such one did exist, of course it belonged to Professor Juniper. The internet it was, then.

For some reason, she was expecting to hear a knock on the door, as if she were expecting a guest to arrive at home. When there wasn’t one, and Bianca simply came sprinting across the room to announce the Hoenn professor’s arrival, she felt caught off guard.

“Hi,” Fennel reached her hand out, shaking his hand firmly like Aurea had taught her, nodding for some reason. It felt proper. “I understand that you’re here to collect the Unova starter pokemon that Professor Juniper had left for you.” It felt weird referring to her wife by a title, but it also felt like the professional thing to do. She was going to be the sharpest, most professional she had ever been in the lab. For Aurea.

The male professor didn’t seem at all surprised, returning the hand shake and grinning. “Ah, yes. Professor Juniper had informed me that you’d be assisting me with this today.”

“She...talked to you?”

“I received an e-mail from her just a bit ago. She just said that something came up and she wasn’t able to make it to the lab today. I hope everything’s alright, I was looking forward to catching up with her.”

Fennel knew Aurea would be less than pleased if she shared the details of their morning with him.

“Right, then.” Fennel attempted to shrug it off. “She isn’t feeling well today, but I assure you, Bianca and I will be able to assist you with any questions you might have.”

Just then, her Xtranscieiver buzzed, alerting that she had a phone call.  Aurea’s picture popped up on the screen, and Fennel did her best to hide her annoyance while excusing herself politely. Really? Already?

“Did Professor Rowan find his way to the lab alright? He should be there now.” She didn’t enable the video chat, should Fennel show the other professor who she was speaking to, so surely Aurea knew that she didn’t look her best.

“Professor Birch is here. I had to step away from him to answer your call, you know.”

“Okay, that’s all. The starters I wanted to give him are in the back room. I put them in the first pen right there as soon as you walk in, Bianca knows where. She should have tended to them already, I don’t want-”

“It’s fine.” Fennel interrupted her. “I’ll talk to you when I get home, okay?” Maybe it was rude, but she hung up on her. There was a guest here, after all, who she had kept waiting.

“Everything all right?” Birch seemed alarmed by her sudden exit, but not annoyed.

“All good.” The dream scientist tried to shake it off. “The starters are in this back pen. Bianca fed them earlier and made you up a few bags of their food to take with you. They’re all ready to go!” With this, she led the way to the back of the lab where the Pokemon were kept. She rarely ever went back here, only to coo over the baby Pokemon every once in a while.

Bianca seemed to sense Fennel’s uncertainty, quickly pointing at the three Pokemon. “The grass type is called Snivy, the fire type is called Tepig, and the water one is Oshawott. Aren’t they all just adorable?” As if to prove her point, the blonde grabbed the Oshawott, who was in the middle of finishing a biscuit, and snuggled it against her face. The Pokemon didn’t seem to mind, Fennel assuming because he was used to this behavior from her.

“Very good, then! I can’t wait to get these guys back home and start our breeding program.”

Before the raven haired scientist could question this, her Xtransceiver dinged again.

“Aurea, stop calling me. Get some sleep. Everything's fine.”

“Make sure you tell him that those starters have rare abilities. It took me a long time to breed them, and-”

“Okay, I will. Go to bed.”

Fennel was positive that she gave the wrong impression this time, being unabashedly curt with her wife over the call. What happened to trusting her in handling it?

“Professor Juniper just wanted to make sure you knew that she bred these starters to have rare abilities,” she felt she recovered well. After repeating the information, she thought for half of a second she should have just let the professors speak to each other so she would stop bothering her.

It would feel rude to rush him, but the sooner he left the lab, the better.

Birch seemed satisfied with the Pokemon, giving them each a pat, even opening one of the bags of treats Bianca gave him and presenting them to his new friends. Nor did he seem at all affected by Fennel’s interactions with the professor, despite it getting more and more difficult for Fennel to hide her annoyance with her.

“Can you transfer them over the PC boxes?”

“Er...do you have a trainer code?” Fennel’s sister invented the Unova storage system, and Aurea was able to register new trainers to it, but she didn’t have much knowledge of how any of it worked besides the basics.

“Not on the Unova system. Professor Juniper just usually has them sent to my lab through the Internation system.”

This was the one thing Fennel herself couldn’t do. Only her wife could create new profiles in the system for trainers, she honestly had not much idea at all how it all worked. And she’d rather call Amanita than deal with Aurea at this point.

“Not to worry! I’ll let my sister know when you’re in Castelia, and she’ll be able to help you with that, if that’s okay.”

“I’m afraid Amanita might not be much help here. The regional professors and League offiicials are the only ones that can access it. The Pokemon are being sent back to Hoenn, not somewhere in Unova.”

Fennel’s face fell at the realization. Surely he wasn’t judging her for not knowing any better – why would she? This was far from her area of expertise. She really did need Aurea for this. Maybe she was foolish for volunteering to go in her place.

“It’s not that big of a deal, Doctor,” he smiled, shrugging. “I’m going to be in Unova for a few more days, and I don’t have any other pokemon with me. I’ll be able to take them in their pokeballs just fine. I just thought it would be easier to have them sent to my lab so that my assistants could begin breeding them sooner.”

Her Xtransceiver buzzed again. At least she had a plan this time.

“Listen, Aurea,” Fennel turned the video chat on, despite how the other woman might have felt about it. “I’m just going to hand you to Professor Birch. Tell him everything you need to tell him. I don’t want to be in the middle of this anymore.”

She unhooked the device from her wrist, shoving it in to the man’s hand before she could hear any protests. “Aurea is on the call. She’ll be able to explain it to you.” Fennel didn’t care if it came across unprofessionally addressing the other professor by her first name in the moment, it wasn’t a secret that they knew each other outside of the science realm. She was pretty sure he attended their wedding. Maybe this wasn’t as serious as Fennel, or even Aurea, was making it out to be.

“Hello, Professor! Sorry to hear you aren’t feeling well,” he didn’t seem at all taken aback by the sudden change in events, taking a seat on one of the benches nearby and settling down to their conversation. She should have just done this the first time.

Fennel tried not to eavesdrop out of respect, but she couldn’t help but hear Aurea coughing in between her explanations. Why hadn’t she gone to sleep yet? Why hadn’t she just rescheduled this? What’s done was done now.

After a few minutes, Professor Birch handed the Xtransceiver back to Fennel as he made his way over to the transport station.“She needs you to connect her laptop to the transport computer. She said you’d know how to do it in a jiff!”

For the first time that day, she didn’t feel completely useless. Even Aurea couldn’t screw this up if she listened carefully. They had done this countless times when the professor traveled, though Fennel was usually the one in front of the laptop. It had been trial and error the first few times, but she had the process down to a science now. She texted the professor EXACTLY what she needed to do on her end while still on the video chat, and in a few moments, she had gained control of the computer from her laptop.

“You should be able to transport the Pokemon to Hoenn now,” Juniper stated after entering a few queries.

“I'm turning my phone off now, and my Xtransceiver, so you can't bother me anymore and go to sleep.” Fennel was stern with her, but not as annoyed as she was in previous conversations. Birch clearly knew the deal now, there was no point in putting pressure on herself anymore.

“I, um...forgot this might be an issue. My apologies, maybe we should have rescheduled,” she seemed to be addressing both of them now.

“No worries at all, Professor. Hope you’re feeling better soon.”

“See you later. Get some rest, okay? I love you.” The brunette had embarrassed her enough that day, and adding a personal touch to the end of the conversation was the easiest way for Fennel to enact it back on her.

It was Aurea who ended the conversation that time, but not without rolling her eyes first. Or maybe her eyes finally rolled back in to her head and she was passing out.

“I’m sorry today didn’t quite go as you had planned, Professor Birch,” Fennel stood awkwardly at the lab’s exit with him. “She’s really sick...I volunteered to go in her place so she could stay home and rest, but I don’t think it worked out well for any of us.”

“No need to apologize, Doctor, these things happen. I was just picking up the Pokemon, it wasn’t that big of a deal.”

“I apologize for not knowing about this lab as much as Aur-Professor Juniper does, wish I could of showed you what she was working on, or something.”

“Your lab is upstairs, yes?”

“Correct.”

“I’d love to take a look around, if you have time. I heard you were successful in using dream mist, they tried doing that in Hoenn, a long time ago...”

Finally. She was in her element once again. Nor did she plan on attempting to be a Pokemon Professor ever again.

Relief washed over her when she returned to the sight of her wife sleeping soundly, covered in three or four blankets. She was snoring, so it meant she was breathing, and didn’t overdose on the medicine that was her source of impatience. Cinccino was curled up against her side. At the sound of the other woman entering the room, the pokemon stirred, making a few quiet squeaks in greeting to her, though not moving from his spot.

“She's going to be just fine, Cinccino,” the dream scientist comforted him with light strokes on his silky fur. “Your mommy's just not feeling very well today.” The pokemon seemed to accept that, nudging against her hand momentarily before returning to his position curled against his master.

She had attempted to work at some point, her laptop screen still lit on her night stand – clearly something research related, and not at all what she was doing earlier. Fennel shook her head at this, not sure how she managed to focus on the screen for that long when Aurea couldn't see straight a few hours prior.

Fennel had decided that morning that she would sleep in the guest room that night. Or maybe fall asleep on the couch eating snacks. Either way, there was no way in hell she was catching whatever Aurea had, or dealing with her tossing and turning all night. She’d probably catch it in a few days anyway. And Aurea was the worst nurse ever. It wasn’t that she didn’t try, she was just terrible at it. She’d order take out that upset her stomach. She never bought the right medicine. She had no bed side manner or maternal instincts. She’d sit with her in the bathroom and hold her hair up for her, at least

i was at northeast trek con this weekend, if you couldn’t deduce it from my posts that must have sounded like they were coming from some sort of hallucinatory trip. to say i had fun would be a wild understatement. if you slot this con on an alignment chart, it would be wall-to-wall chaotic good. the theme advertised was celebrating the 25th anniversary of ds9... and boy did we celebrate.

what follows is everything i feverishly tweeted about the wildest 72 hours of my life.

the only reason i went to this con at all was @thylekshran, who wanted to see one mr. jeffwey combs very badly. @jadziadax happened to say to me one night, “hey you should go to this con happening where you live to see nicole,” and i said, “wait a minute, isn’t this the con dylan wants to go to? what if i actually Did go to this?”

friday: i grabbed dylan, somehow, from the bus stop that i think didn’t quite exist on this plane. we get to the con and we walk into the exhibit hall. nicole is right by the door and i cannot look at her, so we beeline for vendor tables, and suddenly before me is an extremely familiar spread of colorful images. it takes me a minute to process it, and then i’m pointing to this table and rushing toward it going, “OH MY GOD. IT’S HER! FROM TUMBLR! OH MY GOD WHAT.” it was none other than @abravenoise selling prints!!!! i had no idea she would be there since i didn’t look at anything before i left the house. just fyi she is irl just about the nicest person i’ve ever met!!!!!! and i’m so glad we got to hang out as much as we did!

we spent the day mostly going to panels and being big baby chickens regarding jeff’s and nicole’s tables, respectively. we did end up at jg hertzler’s table A Lot, because dylan, like, is recognized?? by him and his wife??? idk dylan’s just out here charming the pants off everybody, so i was like, okay cool, this is the first thing that is Totally Fine, just chilling with martok. we also met two cool dudes through jg who really enjoyed hanging out with us, and that was great! making friends all over the place! not the first and not the last!

one thing dylan and i were bummed about was that the klingon meet & greet party that night (where jg and robert o’reilly would get in costume as martok and gowron and duel to the death) was sold out. we really really really wanted to go... so dylan just... straight up asks jg if he can get us in dhfklshdfd. and you know what? he fucking does. just... put our names right on that list! O K A Y!

the friday panels were a sign of what would be to come, every one we went to was crazy. this was my first real trek con, so of course i have never seen hertzler and o’reilly in a room together, but now i have and my third eye is open and all that. not to mention: learning that garrett wang plays pokemon go, nicole cracking up at poop jokes like i said, hertzler doodling a little shran with glasses on jeff’s sign, the con’s power point file just being named DRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. everything that was happening was so good.

chase masterson had a panel about her pop culture hero coalition, and currently working for a non-profit myself, i was really curious about what kinds of programming they do, so i went to her table to talk to her about it. chase ended up talking some about the why’s of starting the coalition, what it meant to her, her own struggles with depression, and i’m thinking to myself, “uhhhhhh well if chase is gonna share about her mental health struggles, then... i... will also do this.” the nanosecond i said something about experiencing difficulty with self-love, she was zeroed in on me like a cruise missile. i spilled everything to her about my job and how my old boss was basically the meanest, most miserable person alive, and how much she got into my head and how now that i was out of that department, i had to pick up the pieces and it was proving to be much harder than it has been in the past. well, god almighty, chase just had the nicest things to say in return, and we commiserated over being your own worst critic, and how ridiculously hard it is to have this fight against yourself over and over again, but that we deserve so much and going forward is worth it. jesus christ! i got a big hug and said to myself, “holy shit i can’t wait to tell my therapist that a star trek actor talked to me about mindfulness and now i want to learn the hell out of it.”

oh but then it was time for the klingon party that we were now going to thanks to jg hertzler. this thing was off the chain immediately, martok and gowron had their duel, first with sparkling bat’leths that fell apart, and then with whole baguettes, and i can’t believe i got to watch this with my eye parts. and that was the beginning; the party would go for another 3 hours, almost all of which i spent dancing with the most generous people i’ve ever met, who went out of their way to welcome everyone they could onto the dance floor, regardless of physical ability or skill level. there was one woman in particular who, if she saw even the slightest twinkle in your eye and you weren’t already dancing with her, she’d be like, “you, get over here!” i don’t know how my body did that for all that time without falling apart.

our esteemed guests began showing up, and garrett wang leapt into the middle of our jump around circle and gave each one of us a vulcan high five. jeffrey combs showed up which of course sent dylan over the moon, and he said, “you go, girl!” to her dancing. max grodenchik gave dylan one of his drink tickets and then asked us whether or not we thought the existence of god could be proven. chase found us and reached out her hand over a couple people’s heads to give me a supportive hand squeeze (!!!???). aron eisenberg, i don’t know what the hell he was doing, but i feel like maybe somebody asked him about terry, because all of a sudden i hear something like, “terry left because she was in love with nog and couldn’t take it anymore.” garrett has three pokemon go accounts, which he showed off at my urging, and let me tell you, don’t encounter him at a gym because he has three dragonites, two tyranitars, a monster blissey, and god knows what else. dancing, dancing, more dancing. then it was time for it to be done, and time to go home. we watched reanimator. i was wired as hell and barely slept.

and THAT. was only friday.

saturday: i had kept my eyes open for a copy of the lives of dax the day before, but didn’t see anybody selling one. this morning, i walk by a booth we went to the previous day and all of sudden, on top of a bunch of other books in a big tub, there it was!!! couldn’t have forked my money over faster if i tried.

then i had this bright idea. hey... here’s a copy of lives of dax... and nicole is here... and she should sign it... and then in the future i can get terry to sign it... boom, bang, let’s do it, right? i had dylan drag me to nicole’s table because i was like, “i am never going to make even eye contact with her if you do not physically take me there,” and one of us brought up that we missed her at the klingon party. it’s cool, we all gotta sleep, right? well, it turns out nicole had gone out with the gaaays in spaaace people to the bar where they were going to have their party later. so she says garrett texts her, “uhhh hey you know you’re kinda supposed to be making an appearance at this thing, right?” nope! no clue. so she texts him back, “hmmm uhhh well,” takes another sip of her drink, “i think i’m doing good work here.”

the thing about nicole that i somehow missed in my drinking in of all ds9 actor content is that she embodies pure shitposter energy, but if the shitposts were coming from a wine mom. she’s hysterical, 50% intentionally and 50% unintentionally. an extremely excellent human. she signed lives of dax, i had my tribble photo op with her later (that i almost missed due to getting into a conversation with larry nemecek!) and she said she was going to the gays in space party later. helllll yes. i hope somebody puts up her q&a because she told a RIDICULOUS story about auditioning for ezri and creeping on jeri ryan on a plane. i can’t do it justice, there are movements that have to be seen.

we went to combsland finally, and i grilled him about whether or not herbert killed the cat, and we learned jeff has two cats! show them off, man! where are the vids! then, and i had never planned to do this, i bought an autograph from him, and the shran i bought it on ended up selling out! crazy.

hertzler had doodled a martok above his table, and so this combined with the little shran from yesterday led me to these words coming out of my mouth: “can i pay you for a drawing? can i pay you for a drawing of jadzia and martok brofisting?” he gave it very serious thought, said he was gonna have to look at a lot of pictures of terry (relatable), and told me to give him my e-mail. between him and his wife, i hope to god one of them remembers my e-mail is in his wallet. let me give you money!!!

my next tweets jump right to gays in space - again, dylan knows a lot of the gis folks, so i didn’t feel like i was going into this totally unawares. we’re chilling at the bar, i’m drinking my cranberry juice, and then o’reilly, aron, and nicole arrive, telling everybody that jg’s probably going to be late because a bouncer pushed his wife and he might go to jail. like, kidding, but also... it’s jg hertzler and he could legitimately fuck you up. so he was gonna be late, regardless.

nicole sees dylan and me and comes to say hello (????!!!!!) and somebody ends up saying, “get this lady a drink!” yeah, dylan and i were on that. in fact, i pulled my credit card out like i cared not one bit about identity theft, fico scores, my own personal finances; i would purchase this alcohol in an alley from a guy using a card skimmer. few minutes tick by and then i’ve officially bought a drink for nicole de boer (?????????!!!!!!!!) and i’m giving it to her (????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and we’re clinking our glasses together (?????????????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) i’m clinking glasses with nicole fucking de boer and somehow managing to be normal about it. i’m not altogether convinced i didn’t exit the universe entirely by this point and end up in another one.

the gays in space party was AMAZING, it was just as fun as the klingon party! if you have a chance to go to one, please do, there’s like no way you could ever regret it. you get treated to star trek-themed drag shows, get to mingle, there was a raffle, the people were just as friendly as the previous day, it was so great. we were out very late for my old lady body clock but it was worth every bit of exhaustion we felt the next morning, after the saga of actually getting home past a blocked off road and dylan slicing herself open on the bottom of my passenger seat.

sunday: nicole sees me, mid-yawn, and gives me one of those, “eyyy you and me went through some shit last night huh?” looks and tells me good morning. ( ? ? ? ? ? ! !  ! you know this drill.) combs ended up on the escalator behind us after his panel and i turned around and i said to him, “hey jeff, you got any pictures of your cats with you?” (no, but he has a black cat and a very vocal calico.) i went to chase’s table again and got another hug right out of the gate, we took a pic together, and she told me i was powerful! yo! or rather yooooooooooooooooooo!

the con was winding down at this point, but there was one more thing left: jeopardy. the jeopardy game was done at the first northeast trek con and was so popular they did it again, and i really, really hope someone uploads it to youtube because it is beyond description. first of all, the whole draw were the contestants: you could enter a raffle to end up on either hertzler’s, aron’s, or garrett’s team. the champion from the last game ended up buying half the tickets, so he was on it again, and not on aron’s team, much to aron’s annoyance because god almighty did he want to win. he was about to commit murder in there. someone said nicole was upset that she wasn’t in the game because she really wanted to play, lmfao. so the guys running it were like, “well, go get her, she can be on garrett’s team!” which sent aron into a fucking tailspin. now we got a team with two people on it?! they got nicole and drew the other winners, and the game began. 

one of the rules was “this isn’t going to be fair. at all.” actually, it was two of the rules. despite this, you’d have thought aron was bitten by a rabid raccoon. every lost question almost got him flipping the table over. nicole belatedly, i’m talking like 5 minutes into it, realizes she doesn’t understand the rules of jeopardy and can’t figure out why “their” question was answered by someone else. she can’t believe someone knew what voyager’s registry number was. one of the questions was, “a young kid called ensign kim this name instead of ‘ensign’,” and with no hesitation, she answers, “asshole,” and wasn’t even joking, that was her actual guess.    R E A L    W I N E    M O M    H O U R S

the winner was hertzler and the previous champ. aron wants to ban the guy from buying tickets ever again. we head to the closing ceremony but it doesn’t happen? lmfao. well, guess the con’s over!

@abravenoise, one of our other con pals, and dylan were all taking the same bus that night, so we all went to grab dinner with two other guys, one who was a con pal and one i hadn’t encountered at all, and halfway through our dinner larry nemecek strolls in and sits down with us. things just keep happening, huh? the guy i hadn’t encountered at all was really impressed with me unhinging my jaw to consume my burger, and halfway through doing this i have to stop because he says, “hey, why the HECK did jadzia die?!” ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh here go hell come. my time to shine.

larry like looooves asking people what brought them to star trek, and this time he was asking us the -whys- of what brings us to star trek. i said the characters, for sure. he asked us about our favorites. i told him mine had changed throughout my life, but that when i was a kid, dr. crusher was my first favorite. he said, “in high school?” i said, “no, i mean, when i was REALLY little. like 4 or 5.” he asked me, “wow, have you ever met gates at a con and told her that?” pfft well, no, but first of all, now you got me wanting that, second of all i said what i really wanted was to swap cat pictures with her.

that was the end. i took everybody to their bus, went home, snuggled up in bed, and just asked myself, “what the fuck happened?” i still don’t know! but it was fun as hell, and amazingly impactful, if i’m being honest with you. i was surrounded by so many people brimming with enthusiasm, so many people who were happy. then there’s me, a curmudgeon who’s done everything in her power to stamp down her happiness all in the name of being ~cool or whatever. and it hasn’t made me very happy. i mean, i am also clinically depressed, there is that. but i’ve stopped sharing the things i enjoy with others, especially in recent years. i’ve closed myself off, mostly out of fear and attempting to survive my old job, but even here, i tend to keep myself at a distance, and i thought it was just because i’ve run the whole gamut of loving something before and just want to hang out with my friends. i think it’s more than that, though. i think it’s more of a defensive posture, and it’s that same posture which is running my life right now. it’s exhausting. this weekend wasn’t exhausting. it was in the sense that the human body needs rest and sleep and food and i wasn’t getting nearly enough of any of it, but emotionally, i was unburdened.

it would be nice to be that way all the time. i don’t know if it’ll be possible to be happy again like the people i met this weekend, but i do know that i want to experience this over and over and over again.

now, next time, maybe @rootmacklin and @jadziadax will be with me and we’ll be showing off our friendship necklaces to a very tall lady. that would be a good step toward unlocking my happiness...

GOOD. TO. SEE. YOU. FRIENDS!!!

Here we are! The first post of Summer Season 2018 and we’ll be covering Planet With. This series is released on Sundays and can be watched on Crunchyroll. 

Okay, so let’s cover what we learn from the first two episodes of Planet With.

In episode one we’re introduced to Souya, a young amnesiac who dreams of horrifying giant draconic creature attacking a city and some one flying off to confront it. See it’s shit like this that causes dragons to have a bad reputation. Seriously I can’t believe these assholes who go around burning whatever the hell they want just because they can breath fire. If it weren’t for them dimensional travel wouldn’t be such a daunting prospect for me. I never know when some one is going to have a traumatic flashback and attack me all because some scaley clown got it into their head to “burninate” something.

Sorry, I’m digressing again. After waking up from his ptsdream Souya prepares to have a normal breakfast with his perfectly normal housemates of a large cat-person and green-haired maid. 

Oh wait... My bad. See I’m used to hanging out with a Teddy-Bear whisperer with the ability to access the life’s memory of a version of herself in any given universe, an elf who ONLY exists in the metaverse of the Akashic Record, and most recently a shadow-monster who spent three months pretending to be Swole-Bear. There was also that time I tried to hang out with a copy of a video game character, but we’re not considering that canon anymore. At least not entirely for legal reasons. Oh! There’s also the British man who tears holes in dimensions to fight against “unfair fates” who I’m apparently hosting a podcast with now? My point being that to me the above image is perfectly normal. To most anyone else this is probably at least a three on the Sir Memery WTF chart.

After finishing his veggie breakfast Souya sets off for school complaining about wanting to eat some meat where he bumps into his class rep whose name he has forgotten. You’d think this is just an excuse to set up Tsundere vibes with her, but no it’s far FAR worse than that. See her name is: Kagaratamaha? [wrong buzzer] Hakatamagara? [wrong buzzer] Ta-ka-ma-ga-ha-ra? [Correct Tone] 

So Nickname Pending is worried about Souya and how he doesn’t make friends at his new school. This is because she knows what it’s like to be the new kid, and has apparently never watched an anime in her life so she doesn’t quite grasp the concept of “Leave the mysterious blue-haired transfer alone”.

Side Note: This character’s introduction marks the first time I’ve ever gotten a Japanese pun without some one explaining it to me. So allow me to ruin it for you all by explaining it. She offers Souya some of her Hamburger Steak to which he replies with tears of join “Megane-sama” which she mishears as “Megami-sama” and sheepishly replies that she doesn’t think she’s a goddess before immediately realizing what he’d actually said. This leads into the reveal of her actual name which I refuse to ever use the entirety of again because I honestly don’t think the joke is that funny.

Later that day Souya’s shounen receptors begin to tingle as he picks up on the impending conflict of the story. A UFO is sighted offshore headed towards the city. When the air-force is deployed to deal with the object (Picture in header) they find themselves the victim of some strange joyous delusion and leave the object alone. it’s only when seven strange people, apparently psychics of some kind, utilize their powers to confront it is it stopped. We see one of these people enter the object through a “Weak Point” and have his own delusion.

See, his mother was killed in a fire when he was a little boy causing him to become a firefighter. The UFO hits his brain with a delusion of child him being held back from the blaze by a firefighter only for that firefighter to turn out to be adult him. Adult Firefighter Psychic dude runs into the fire, saves his mom, and the two of them walk through the cherry blossoms as he sorts through all the pent up regrets he has about not being able to save her when he was a kid. Only after we’ve conveniently gotten to know this character’s defining trauma does his squad get through to him and break the delusion, then he uses his Psychic Golem Powers to wreck the hell out of the UFO causing it and copies of it that had appeared around the world to disappear all at once. The same can be said for the Psychics who all blast off to separate places to avoid the fate of E.T. one presumes

While all this was going on Souya got a call from Ginko (That’s green-haired maid lady for those not following the series who also don’t care about spoilers). She tells Souya that he has to defeat “it”, but contrary to what everyone in the audience thinks it turns out that “it” refers to one of the Psychics and not the UFO thing. After Ex-Firefighter current world-saver exits the bushes onto a highway he encounters Souya the cat-man and Ginko. Souya is sporting a mask and being basically lead by the nose at the behest of Catman and Ginko. Now hold onto your seats because this is where shit gets REALLY weird. 

Catman swallows Souya turning into a mech in the process that Souya is now piloting. They get into a fight with Firefighter dude who summons up his psychic golem thing. After fumbling around at Ginko’s direction Souya manages to pilot the Catmech to victory over Psychic Fireman and retrieves a vial of star-shaped dust that is the “source of his power”. At which point I’m lead to believe that Souya recovered his memories because he shouts at Firefighter to tell his friends that Souya is going to kick their collective asses. This is presumably because he believes them to be behind his ptsdream.

After the credits roll we see a scene where a guy I can only describe a scruffy Alder from Pokemon Gen 5 says ominously that Firefighter dude had been taken out.

So, before even watching episode two I can already hands-down predict that this guy is the Draconic asshole from Souya’s ptsdream. Not sure how everything fits together but my working theory is that Souya’s from another planet that Earth governments or some shadowy organization somehow invaded and stole something from. Souya is a sleeper agent and the “Peas” balloon things are meant to lure out those in possession of the Stolen Macguffin or whatever.

There we have Episode One. Please excuse me now while I go watch Episode Two. Well... I mean you can just keep reading by the time this goes up but... BRB!

[Approximately 30min later]

Well my theory from about two paragraphs ago is up in smoke as soon as the opening scenes of this episode roll in and further dashed upon the rocks by Ginko later in the episode. All things in their proper order.

So Torai (That’s firefighter-guy’s name btw) makes his report to dragon-man about his encounter with Soya and company. The other six Psychic warriors all make jabs at him as though he died even when he’s sitting right there in an example of a gag that is legit funny unlike Tara’s name from last episode. While we’re talking about the exposition meeting may I just say that I feel BETRAYED!

See Dragon CEO guy is as nerdy as I AM! He’s the one who found out that the enemy force is called Nebula. He called the giant abominations “Nebula Weapons” gives Soya and Company the name Nebula Soldiers, and what does he call the Psychic Golems his crew uses to fight? Psychokinetic Mega-God Photon Armor. If I didn’t know better I’d think my pops made him from the same mold as me no less. Oh, and their little world-saving club? It’s the Citizens' Safety Center Special Defense Section: "Grand Paladin". I’m in tears, people, this is a Draconid after my own heart.

So, the “Grand Paladin” peeps implement the buddy system in case they run into Soya again. Meanwhile Soya’s having a sulk because apparently Ginko and “Sensei” dragged him to Earth to be their soldier. He goes out on a walk in Iron Clogs (I’m guessing this is a joke I’m not getting). On the run he meets up with Torai who just happens to have purchased a bunch of meat buns from a convenience store. They have a conversation because Torai is a nice guy (that’s a legit nice guy not the version that’s been turned into a derogatory term by certain groups online). See Torai, while out looking for his attacker couldn’t help noticing what he thought was a middle-schooler sitting on a random bench crying and came over to see if there was anything he could do to help.

He gives Soya a bun they chat for a bit with Soya desperately trying both not to give away who he really is as well as to eat the bun because dammit he just wants some MEAT for once! All of a sudden the evacuation alarm is sounded because this wonderful abomination has appeared off shore.

Nebula really needs to consult a different artist about their designs. I personally recommend @dashfox1artwork. 

Robin: Shamelessly plugging your internet friends are we dragon-boy? 

Fic: If you’re not going to show up and fight keep your mouth shut Shadow-bear. I’m just doing my part to show that not all Dragons are assholes. Robin: Whatever you say.

So, the six remaining Psycho-God pilots attack the Ugly Bacon Idol and the pink-haired girl of the team, Miu, is the one to enter the core. The hallucination she sees is of her beating her friend Harumi (Pilot of the Bear-armor) at apparently a Judo competition. We find out that Miu has always just wanted to be strong, and we also learn that she IS strong being able to break through the illusion of the Nebula Weapon with relative ease and destroy the thing. It’s at this point that I should mention that a message has flashed before each of the characters who take one of these things out. In Miu’s case the message was “It’s okay to be weak”. For Torai in episode one the message was “I forgive you” presumably preying on his regrets about his mom.

After Piggy McHideous is dispatched the group separates into its pairs and as we expected Soya and Co target the pair with a member who just fought a battle, but let’s back up for a second because there’s some exposition from Ginko during the fight with the Baconator that needs addressing.

She reveals to Soya that Nebula is indeed the name of the group they work for, but there are multiple faction. Ginko and “Sensei” are with the “Pacifist Faction” whereas the Monuments to terrible design sense that have been popping up in the harbor belong to the “Sealing Faction”. Basically think of this as political parties. One wants to prevent humanity from rising up against them one day by brutally suppressing their ability to advance and keep them in a state of complacency, while the other just wants to take away any dangerous toys that humanity might come up with and hope that they can “guide” humanity onto the path of “Love” rather than “Power”.

Hmmm one group bent on maintaining their personal status quo at the cost of anyone else and another that wants to control precisely what power the general populace has access to in order to “guide” them on the “right path”? I wonder where I’ve heard that one before?

Sorry about that. The Writer is coming through me a little strongly there. Point is that Ginko is using Soya to enact social and ideological control... I MEAN to take away the magical stardust that allows the Psycho-God Pilots to do their thing... yeah. Back to the proper progress of the episode: Soya once again pilots his cat-mecha-sensei to fight against Miu and Harumi. It is a pretty fun fight, but all things must go as has been foretold. So after being on the ropes for most of the conflict Soya turns everything around at the last second with a miracle uppercut against the Bunny-god armor. As Miu is falling back to Earth Ginko appears and grabs the stardust vial away from her. Apparently Ginko can just Mary Poppins herself to wherever she pleases? They all land and Ginko’s like “That’s all for today”, but Soya’s having none of it. He’s ready to take the fight to Bear-mech too when all the other Psycho-Pilots show up including CEO Dragonface to say “Checkmate”, and that’s where our story concludes for now.

Y’know I’m coming more and more around to the opinion that we should be routing for “Grand Paladin” here rather than the lady influencing Soya or the massive, faceless organization that wants to turn us all into Proles from 1984. I mean, yeah, they do have the snake-eyed dude. They meet in what appears to be some sort of board room, and the writing seems to indicate that they’re the “Antagonists” if not the villains, but so far they don’t seem to be anything but a collection of well-intentioned if somewhat zany people. Even the big CEO-type with the intimidating presence, as was discussed earlier, is a lovable and hammy goofball. 

I love any series that makes its antagonists human. Granted cartoonish villainy and even edgelordiness has its place in stories, but when you can make your antagonists and especially your villains feel human and relatable it just rings home that nobody is the villain in their own story. Everyone has reasons for what they do. They may not have excuses or justifications, but they all have reasons.

For instance, I have a reason for breaking my own rules here by reading my political views into the story.

[pauses for dramatic effect]

Yes, yes I’m sure you’re all very shocked at this revelation. I mean I was so subtle about it (/s). My reason is that when I went back and really thought about what the “Sealing” and “Pacifist” factions of Nebula stood for I (and this is really the nerd behind The Nerd speaking) couldn’t help but see parallels to some of the more distasteful extremes of Conservative and Liberal politics at work. Both sides seek to impose their morality upon others. While one does so by attempting to keep people complacent with the status quo, the other does it by appealing to the rebellious nature inherent in people and channeling it into “causes”.They use guilt and peer pressure to convince people that their way of thinking is correct and I absolutely cannot stand seeing it happen. Especially when they prey upon others using causes that need legitimate champions! 

The goals of the “Pacifist” faction are arguably “good”. They are part of a group that has watched humanity evolve and they only want the best for us. They “keep their involvement to a minimum”, but at the end of the day they’re doing the same thing that the “Sealing” faction is doing. They’re enforcing their own will on humanity by taking away humanity’s means to fight against them, or anyone for that matter.

In the anime this is likely because the “Pacifist” faction is short-sighted and hasn’t stopped to consider what will happen to humanity when they take away the only weapon they have against the “Sealing” faction, but in reality? In reality groups like the “Pacifist” Faction either are themselves or contain an element that wants the people they’re disarming to become reliant upon them for what they need. They take away that person’s own weapons and replace them with their own. They dictate the rules of battle and push you to come to them for aid and defense. They accrue personal power and influence at the cost of their followers’ freedom of thought.

These are important things to think about and be on the lookout for, and it’s an issue that is very prevalent in my own life and dealings online. So those are my reasons for why I read political allegory into the factions of Planet With. Now am I justified for doing this when I so often decry others for “reading shit that isn’t there into stories”? No, of course I’m not. Or rather I’m not justified using that argument against people who dropped a show as a result of what they read into it. 

I’m not going to lie. I’m inexperienced with expressing views on creative work online, and am overly sensitive to certain things. I’m just as flawed as anybody else. It’s hard for me to understand when people see “bullshit” in something that I didn’t see. It’s hard for me to accept some one calling a show (particularly one I like) “Garbage” when really it’s just not clicking with them. I know that I’ve been guilty of calling a show “Garbage” in my time, but it’s a term I hope to avoid moving forward. I want to live up to my professed belief that there is good to be found in all fiction, even the “bad” fiction. Part of that is accepting the responsibility I tell others they need to accept. To practice what I preach.

If I’m determined that the Audience has just as important a role in creating art as the Authors then I need to learn to accept the interpretations of my fellow audience members, and to feel free to express my own interpretations of things.

[stops to take a break and slide back into character]

Wow... That ended up being a lot heavier than I imagined. What a way to kick off the summer season! There’s more to come but for now I need a break, and the writer could probably use a nap.

Until next post keep talking fiction, friends! I’ll see you soon

20 questions with Dr Ferox #2

 Greetings Vetlings! Ready for a second round of 20 questions (and answers) as I work through my inbox? If you’re not sitting comfortably, doing so now would be a good idea. these are in no particular order. If you’ve asked on anonymous, see if you’ve been answered below.

@sckoviaaccords​ asked: My cat had bladder stones, the dissolvable kind with medicine and proper food fortunately, but she got in the habit of peeing everywhere because it hurt her. The stones are gone, but she's still peeing inside, when she used to use the doggy door. My mom keeps saying that we'll have to get rid of her if she keeps peeing on the carpet. How do I stop her from doing this?             

First make sure the stones are actually gone, and that there are no crystals remaining, or residual pain. Contact your vet about this. Cats may avoid where they used to toilet if they have associated that place with pain. Then consider using litter trays inside, especially if there is a particular spot the cat is already frequently urinating. Different cats may prefer different styles of litter tray, or different types of litter, so use one she prefers (offer her two, then stick with the one she chooses). If she will use a litter tray inside, you can then slowly move it a foot or so each week closer to a more appropriate location. As a cheap trick you can also put down tin foil (aluminium foil) where she is urinating. You can also make decoy food plated by gluing some dry food to a paper plate, adding some loose food and leaving them where the cat is urinating. Most cats only urinate where they can get food, but this may only deflect her to another inappropriate location on its own.

@in-a-drought-lioness asked: What kind of bladder stones are there? I've heard there are up to 6 different types? I answered the last question tax but I think there was an old one about pokemon? I would say you remind me of Tauros, because in the latest game they seem to be protector pokemon and you are a protector of animals.

There can be several different types, and it’s not impossible to get a mix of two. the most common ones are struvite and calcium oxalate. Urate, cystine, calcium phosphate, sillicate or drug residue stones/crystals (looking at you trimethoprim sulphonamides!) can also occur, but are less common. 

@rarmeowz​ asked: Do lungworms cause any long term damage in cats? My cat was a stray, and when we took her in she had lungworms. She was quickly and successfully treated and has been worm free for over a year, but I'd like to know if there's anything I should look out for, or if her lungs could be potentially damaged somehow

Aelurostrongylus abstrusus is the species usually referred to as cat lungworm, though other parasitic worm species exist which live in the lung. They don’t seem to cause long term damage in my experience, though incompletely treated infections can predispose to chronic bronchitis. Affected cats often have an elevated eosinophil count on hematology. This parasite is not always detected with faecal flotation, you often need a Baermann technique.  

@thehollowedangel​ said: Hi! I love your blog and was wondering if you had any other veterinary blogs to recommend? Thank you, hope your doing well!

Confession. I don’t actually...follow...any...veterinary blogs. They are just too reminiscent of work and don’t let my brain switch off and relax. i pop in on some sometimes when I’m in the mood, but don’t want unexpected random rants or clinical pictures popping up on my feed and forcing me to think. I do try to relax in my downtime

One place I do recommend checking out though is Dean Scott’s FunnyVet.com as the cartoons are funny, but very accurate.

Anonymous asked: Do you find that any dog sports are more dangerous to dogs than others? Thank you for the wonderful blog, since I'm curious, do you play D&D currently?

Not particularly if you’re talking about endangering their life. Anything that involved jumping or sudden turns if you’re talking about injuries. But in perspective, more dogs tear their cruciate ligaments around the home than they do at an event. Racing greyhounds are an entirely different topic.

And unfortunately no, I’m not playing D&D at the moment. But I am being involved in a sci-fi podcast.

@mygearsarestartingtotremble​ asked: I started getting curious about heartworm in Australia and if you guys had it and you do! Which surprised me. How big is preventive care in your hospital?             

Why would it surprise you? Lots of things try to kill things down here, and we most certainly have the mosquitoes! Prevention is very big in more northern states, but down here it’s not as big. There is even one local clinic who actively claims other vets that push heartworm prevention are ripping you off! I always advise people that prevention is so easy, and while the risks may be low locally, the consequences of infection can be catastrophic. I suspect it will be more common here with climate change, the disease already seems to be moving south.

Understandably Anonymous asked: (cw: animal death, uh... taxidermy?) When my cat dies, I think I want to keep his pelt (in the least creepy way possible - of course I would get a professional to do it). Is this Too Weird to talk to a vet about, and I should make some vague noises about taking the body home to bury if we ever have to put him down, or are the odds high that my vet has Seen Everything and won't be fazed by That Weirdo Who Wants to Skin Their Cat? I don't anticipate this being relevant soon, he's only 11ish.            

That is certainly a weird one, but not that extra weird. I don’t know whether your vet would be fazed with this knowledge at all, but you are certainly within your rights to take a deceased pet home, usually for burial. Most vets will shave a patch of fur on a leg for catheter placement or intravenous access though, you might have to address this if you’re not okay with that.

@vantastrophe asked: Anything cool happen to you this week? :) Hope you have a good day!             

I had a public holiday last Monday and discovered red velvet ice cream. That’s pretty cool.

@lapras-defense-squad asked: Hello Dr. Ferox :) I was wondering if you could please provide some advice on how to approach vet clinics in order to get a volunteer position. I am an undergraduate with no clinic experience, so I am really nervous about calling. Would asking for a volunteer position immediately (after submitting a resume and cover letter though) be too ambitious? Should I ask to shadow first? Thank you!            

I suspect things work a little differently where you are, but generally in Australia we have students for work experience, which is unpaid. There’s a relevant post here. Asking to shadow before asking for a volunteer position is probably prudent.

Anonymous asked: Have you done anything on harpy or half-human/half-bird biology?

No I have not. I don’t know when I might either, that will depend on my Patreon supporters asking or voting for it.

@a-floral-ghost asked: Is it true that when a dog or cat has an upset stomach it'll eat grass? Or is that just a weird myth

It’s half true. Some dogs and cats will eat grass just because it’s there, at a chewable height, or because they investigate the world with their mouths. Some will chew grass when they feel nauseous. It’s not so much a matter of eating grass makes them vomit, but more they felt like vomiting anyway so ate grass.

Anonymous asked: Could I ask you about cats that have shorter limbs? More specifically, the issues that you commonly see in cat breeds that have shorter limbs (those munchkins cats) and those that "naturally" have a larger torso to limb length ratio". (Question tax: Came for animal facts. Stayed for Sass and "WTH does that happen in Aussie?!") Thanks for taking the time to answer~

I’m not sure what you mean by the ‘natural’ cats, but I’ve written about Munchkin cats here.

Anonymous asked: In your hospital (is a vet's office called a hospital) have you encountered any amazing dog rescues and recoveries? They're just so heartwarming to see

Not much from the dog rescues here, but I was involved with more in Tasmania. My favorite animal sanctuary is Big Ears, and I heartily recommend everyone check them out.

@gram-stained-paws asked: In what dilution do you use salty water for wound flushing?

In the clinic I use sterile saline. For at home I tell people to use a teaspoon of salt to a cup of water (ideally pre-boiled). It’s easy for them to remember that way.

@bi-furiosa said: Hi! I wanted to recommend, if you haven't already seen it, a channel on YouTube called VetRanch. They're a charity of sorts that pull unwanted dogs in need of medical attention from local shelters, help rehabilitate them, and then work to get then adopted. They video the full process, including surgeries. They also frequently feature animals with demodex, and since that's what you're favorite parasite is, I thought you might be interested. Love your blog, and your patience with asks!

I’m sure that will appeal to a lot of people, but it doesn’t appeal to me at all. It’s work, and I get enough of it at work. I don’t need to be watching more veterinary cases, exposed to the compassion fatigue that’s likely to generate, and assess or critique everything that’s done or said. It’s just not going to be relaxing, but that you for thinking of me.

Another Anonymous asked: Okay! You're a vet so you obviously talk about living animals a lot, but if you could chose one extinct species to bring back, which one would it be??

I would have to say thylacine. They’re pretty special to me, unlikely to be a threat to humans, and only went extinct recently so their habitat would probably still support them if they were to be released. It’s also entirely our fault they went extinct, so I feel it’s only fair if we were to bring them back.

Anonymous asked: Kind of a stupid question but is it possible for a lizard to be warm blooded? Also, what is the difference between red and blue blood and can a mammal evolve with blue blood?

Warm and cold blooded are a bit of a misnomer. Ectothermic animals, like reptiles, are dependent on external heat to maintain their body temperature. They can get quite warm! It’s certainly possible for a lizard to evolve endothermic capabilities, if that’s what you’re asking.

The difference between red or blue blood is the metal ion in the oxygen carrying molecule. Mammals have haemoglobin which contains iron, producing the red color. Some insects and molluscs have haemocyanin which contains copper, causing the blue-green color. Haemocyanin is not present in mammals, and if a mammal-like creature did evolve it, I would question whether it truly was a mammal.

Anonymous asked: One of my rats is rather fat, and also blind. This is a problem, because it seems she doesnt use the enrichment i have for the rats as much (especially the wheel) maybe because she is blind? All the rats get is a constantly full bowl of oxbow rat food and occasional treats of plain cheerios and very rarely (maybe once a month) chickpeas. I give two of my rats other, higher calorie treats because they are so active they have problems being too skinny. Is there anything i can do to help my fatrat?

I really don’t see a huge number of rats to be able to offer you advice. If she’s blind she may not be able to use enrichment objects that require movement, but may still be able to enjoy enrichment objects with different textures or smells to explore. There’s bound to be better ratty folks to ask than me though.

@und1ne-prince asked: What/which is your favorite dog and cat breeds?

There are lots of dogs I like, including greyhounds, JRTs, Dobermans, and Swedish Valhunds. For cats it’s the humble moggy.

The last Anonymous said: Wait, what? There are people who think vets should work free? Why? It should be obvious that you're practicing actual medicine, not just randomly pulling diagnoses and treatments out of your ass.

Ah, but they say that if we really cared about animals we’d treat them for free.

Dreaming

Leon x Reader

Summary: You’ve fallen into a world that you’ve only ever dreamed of. You may have also met the man of your dreams...

Wait... Are you dreaming?

A Bad Day

Today was a bad day. 

You woke up late and ended up rushing around to get ready. Your shower was cold. When you tried to put the lid on your coffee it was too full and it ended up popping out of the spout and erupting like a volcano all over the counter and yourself. You forgot your breakfast, but it’s too late to turn back. You are late to work and you got yelled at by your boss. You were blamed for a mistake you didn’t even make. What makes today even worse is you know there is no one waiting at home for you. You’ve been pretty lonely lately and your singledom has made cold nights and lonely meals the norm. You don’t hate your life, but having someone to come home to would make days like today more bearable. When it’s finally time for you to go home you rush from the office. Once in your car you head off down the road and not a mile or two down the road… it happened… you ran out of gas. 

Sitting behind the wheel of your car you just gaze out the window and heave the biggest sigh of your life. 

“Of course…” you groan as you forcefully open the door and step out. You slam the door and lock it knowing that the nearest gas station isn’t too far, but still. You didn’t have time for this before and you certainly don’t have for this now. With a groan, you head off down the road hoping against hope you can make it home soon. 

You are too busy typing in the location of the nearest gas station to notice the puddle on the ground and the sudden sensation of falling takes you by complete surprise. Your yelp of surprise turns into a screech of fear as you are plummeting through the sky and towards the earth. At this point not only are you scared shitless but you are confused as hell. The confusion is quickly overridden by sheer panic as you realize you’re going to die. 

A moment later you land haphazardly on the back of some creature and coast to the ground all while holding on for dear life. Your eyes are wide in shock and you just gaze at the large orange lizard… no… not lizard… dragon in front of you. Then you scream.

The dragon thing backs up and makes gestures to try to calm you down all while looking around. You turn around in your panic and begin to run only to hit a hard chest. You grasp onto the man in your terror and turn to face the creature behind you.

“It’s a dragon!!”

“Oh… Charizard isn’t a dragon… He’s a fire type!” You gaze up at him in bewilderment.

“Char-izard?” you ask in bewilderment, “Like... the pokemon?”

He furrows his brow, “Of course, like the pokemon…Are you okay?”

“I think I hit my head… I need to sit down,” the male panics as you drop to the ground and begin to breathe rapidly.  

“Ok… just take it easy there…”

“I don’t know where I am…”

“Look it’s going to be okay… We’re going to figure this out together.”

“I want to go home…” you say panic and tears filling your eyes.

You don’t have to worry about your panic attack for too long, because you promptly pass out. 

The world around you is blurry as you blink yourself back into existence. It takes a moment but your vision finally clears. Gazing around you notice a sterile white room and that you are lying on the most uncomfortable bed you’ve laid on. 

“Oh good! You’re awake!” Your head whips around and you notice the man with long purple hair? Also, why is everything technicolored? It’s brighter… Why are you technicolored? Oh dear…

“Are you sure?” you ask as you turn your attention outwards. 

“Yes?” he questions with a laugh. He’s a jolly fellow, isn’t he?

“My head is pounding…”

“Well, you did take quite a fall. I don’t know where you were falling from though…” he says as he scratches his head in confusion, “No matter! The doctor said you don’t have a concussion. She should be in here to check on you soon!”

Almost as if his words summoned her, the doctor walks into the room briskly and begins to exam you. She asks many questions, none of which you know how to answer, and those that you do know how to answer, you simply lie. You know the truth would most likely end with you in the psych ward. 

“You should go home and rest! Nothing really seems to be wrong with you, perhaps a mild form of amnesia, but your memories should come back with time. Mostly like stress moreso than injury. 

You just nod dumbly at her hoping that you can leave soon, even if you don’t have anywhere to go. 

Once discharged from the hospital you take your things and notice for the first time Pokemon nestled in the backpack that isn’t yours but is apparently yours. Your surprised when you find a Pokedex along with many other items one would have on their journey. 

“You seem to be on a journey! Do you have a place to stay tonight?”

“Oh… I’m sure I can afford a room somewhere…” you murmur as look at the amount in ‘your’ account.

“Is there anyone you can stay with?”

“I don’t know anyone here…”

“I don’t mean to be presumptions, but perhaps you should stay with me tonight? I would feel better knowing that you have someone with you.”

You gaze up at the man before you, “You… don’t even...know me....”

He shrugs, “That doesn’t mean that I can’t help you.”

What crazy world have you landed in?

“Umm… well…”

“Oh! I guess that sounds odd coming from someone you don’t know, do you? I’m Leon, Galar’s Unbeatable Champion!”

“You’re the champion?”

“Yes!”

“Oh… Well…” you ponder your options before you pull out your phone and begin to look up Champion Leon. Sure enough, a picture of the man before you floods your screen. 

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt…”

It’s not like you have anywhere else to stay and having someone with connections around could be good. 

“Great! We will head to mine then! Do we need to stop for anything on the way?”

“Umm…” you dig around your bag to find a change of clothes and some basics, “no I should have everything I need for tonight. I only have one outfit though I should probably get more clothes tomorrow…”

“We will go shopping tomorrow!”

“Oh no! You don’t have to!”

“Of course I do! Plus I want to!”

“Oh… Umm… okay…?”

You’re surprised when you get to Leon’s place. It’s just outside of the city of Hammerlocke with a spacious yard and cottage-like feel. You weren’t expecting something so homey. 

“Here we are! Home sweet home!”

“It’s beautiful…” you murmur as you gaze around the exterior. 

“It’s a little big for just me, but I really liked the land when I bought it. Plenty of room for my larger pokemon to roam around.”

“Makes sense,” you murmur as you follow him into the spacious home. 

The inside feels very staged, more like an interior decorator designed the place. 

“It’s beautiful,” you say as you look around. 

“It’s stiff,” He says with a laugh, “I didn’t have the time to decorate so I paid someone to do it… It’s not really my style but it’ll do for now.”

“What is your style?”

“Something warmer.”

You give him a soft smile, “I can see that…” 

He smiles back happily, “Well make yourself at home! The guest room is upstairs to the left and you’re welcome to anything in the kitchen!”

“Do you mind if I check on my pokemon? I don’t…”

“Don’t?”

“I don’t remember them…”

He gets quiet for a moment, almost as if understanding the gravity of the situation. 

“I’ll go with you,” he says with finality leading you out into the yard.

You heave a sigh as you release your first Pokemon, it’s a fire rabbit! A David Beckam bunny if you will. He rushes up to you and wraps you in a hug his face nuzzling against yours. You laugh as you hug him back.

“It’s okay buddy… I’m okay,” he pulls away and gazes up at you with large worried eyes and stays by your side. 

The next out is a large gothic-looking bird. Well, Edgar Allen Poe would have a field day with this raven rapping at his chamber door. The large bird lands before and greets you by leaning its head towards your own. You pet his feathers and he coos happily at you. 

“I know…” you say softly, “but everything’s okay now…” 

You don’t know how you know how they are feeling, but instinctively you do. 

Next out is a cotton candy unicorn that gallops up to you and rests her head on your shoulder. You stroke her neck and she quietly whinnies at you. 

Your eyes widen as a giant white moth pops out of the next Pokeball. She alights on your shoulder and begins to use her antenna to make sure you are okay. You giggle at the contact and she stops but remains balanced on your shoulder. 

“I’m fine! I promise.”

Next is a large lizard-like creature that seems to want to be the next Jimmy Hendrix lumbers towards you and wraps himself around you making the moth alight into the air in annoyance. He ends up resting his head on your shoulder happily. 

The final pokemon you release is a Drakloak. You blink at the ghostly airplane like pokemon in confusion, but he doesn’t seem to care. He rushes over to you happily and nuzzles his snout against your hand. 

“That’s a good team! And they seem to love you!” 

You glance over at Leon and nod happily. You spend a little time playing with them and feeding them. 

“How about we grab something to eat? They can hang out in the yard with my team. I’m sure everyone will get along just fine!”

You bid them good night and you aren’t really surprised when your Cinderace refuses to leave your side. 

“He can come in, I’m sure he’s worried about you.”

“Thank you…” you murmur as the bunny like Pokémon follows you into the house. 

You take your things upstairs and marvel at how large the house is. The guest room is pretty generic, with a bed, side table, and dresser. The colors are all neutrals and while it isn’t very cozy it’s a guest room what do you expect? You are pleased to discover an en suite bathroom though.

When you return downstairs Leon is cooking some pasta and greets you when you arrive. 

“Hope you like Pasta!”

You just nod happily and watch while he heats the sauce and boils the noodles. You giggle as he pulls out a pair of potholders that look like a Charizard head. He sends you a dazzling smile before he plates the food and sets it in front of you. 

You happily dig into the dish and compliment him, thanking him for taking care of you.

“So do you remember where you are from?”

You feel a full stop in your head as you try to remember any details about where you are from, or at least any details about where you could be from. You blink for a moment as you stare off into space. 

“Umm… it’s fuzzy… but Unova sounds… familiar…”

“Ahh! That must be where you are from!”

It’s not. He doesn’t need to know that though.

“Yes… it must be.”

“I bet Scorbunny was your first pokemon, he seems really attached to you.”

Images of a small white bunny pop into your mind. You recall the small pokemon jumping up to give you a fist bump or running around your feet as you walked down a path. A path you’ve never walked down, but it feels so familiar. You remember he would ride on your shoulder and play with your hair, mussing it whenever he felt mischevious. 

“He was… his name is Dash.”

The bunny-like pokemon perks up at his name as he thrills happily at you. 

“Next came Titan the Rookidee…” you murmur as images of a tiny bird flitted across your mind. He would ride on your head and anytime that Dash got jealous he would peck at the stubborn bunny. You remember having to comfort him when he became too big to ride your shoulders anymore. That’s odd… how do you remember that?

“A Toxel… Nirve… he’s next…he evolved into a low key Toxtricity…” He’s such a big baby, even to this day his favorite place is curled next to you when you are relaxing at night.

“Flossy came next… she was a Ponyta when we met. She loved to run around the camps, challenging everyone to a race. Dash always liked racing with her.” 

“You’re remembering…”

“It’s faint… but its there…”

You are a little scared since there is no way these are your memories, and yet they are so familiar. Like wrapping yourself up in a blanket on a cold night. You know these belong to you…

“Who was next?”

“Gyspy… She was just a Snom when I found her. She loved to sleep and would always sneak away for a nap when we would be training.”

“Your Drakloak is last?”

“He was a Dreepy. He got lost in the Wild Area, he wasn’t supposed to be there but there was a huge storm the night before. I think he got blown into the area I was in. He was so small and so scared… He happily joined me and ended up hanging onto Nirve a lot… His name is Dart…”

Leon chuckled, “Were you trying to collect the gym badges?”

“I think so…” you mutter in confusion.

“Do you have any badges?”

“I’ll have to check my bag, I haven’t really looked…”

“Things seem to be triggering your memories, we can take a look later if you want. You should probably rest though, it’s been a long day for you.”

“A very long day…” 

“You’re right… I think I’m going to head up to bed.” 

“Good night!”

“Good night!”

You head up to bed and Dash follows along behind you. When finally are settled in Dash is curled up at your side on top of the sheets. You can feel his heat radiating off of his body as he sprawls himself out after drifting off to sleep. Despite how tired you are your mind is racing. How can it not be? You have memories that aren’t yours and that scares you. You finally calm your racing mind down enough to convince yourself to fall asleep. 

You wake up the next morning to the smell of breakfast. When you head downstairs Leon is setting a plate of eggs on the table and looks up when you come down. 

“How do you take your coffee?”

“Oh? Umm… cream.”

“How are you feeling this morning?” he asks as he walks over to you with a cup. 

You take it with a smile and quietly thank him. 

“I’ve got some work to do this morning, but I figured we could go out to lunch then get you some clothes?”

“You don’t have to worry about me… You’ve done more than enough to help me!”

“Well, I don’t like the thought of you out on your own while you’re trying to remember everything. Please stay with me until you get your memories back.”

“I don’t want to burden you…”

“Burden me? I live in a huge house all by myself having some company that isn’t trying to use me or battle me will be nice.”

You frown at his words, “Use you?”

“You would be surprised at the agendas everyone is always pushing… Last night was nice. Actually, I had more fun spending time with you and our pokemon than I have in a long time.”’

“You’re just saying that so I won’t leave yet…”

“No! Really, it was nice! I would love it if you would stay a little bit longer.”

“Fine… but I leave when I get things figured out okay?”

“Okay,” doesn’t fight you, but you can see a little twinkle in his eye.

“You look like you’re up to something…” you say suspiciously. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about! I just want a lovely lady to come home to every once in a while… I don’t know what’s so suspicious about that.”

“Oh… Like you would have a problem finding a girlfriend.”

“It’s… not as easy as you would think…It gets lonely around here sometimes,” he scratches his head nervously. 

You give a soft smile, “It must be hard to be so famous.”

He shrugs, “It comes with the territory… Oh! I have to go! I’ll come back and pick you up around noon!”

You wave goodbye as he rushes out of the door. You feel yourself relax as you lean against the doorway and sip your coffee. 

‘Someone to come home to huh?’ you can’t help but think that you wouldn’t mind the exact same thing.

Notes: Welcome to my mini-series with Leon! I haven’t decided precisely how long this is going to be... I’ll let you know... Please as always let me know your thoughts! I love reading what you guys have to say about my work! Expect the next chapter of Stumbling soon! Can you believe we’re already on chapter 8! 

WELCOME TO MONLEON:

FULL NAME: Natalie Nordegraf

OCCUPATION: Musician, Record Producer and DJ

AGE & D.O.B.: 26 / March 10th, 1994

RESIDENCE: Foncebadón

ORIGINALLY FROM:  Monleon, Florida

HOW LONG THEY’VE BEEN IN TOWN: 17 years

BIOGRAPHY:

TW: light mentions of drugs and abandonment

Raised between New York and Florida, Natalie Nordegraf’s life was always a dichotomy of pushes and pulls, but then again, they were the type who loved working against the status quo. Their earliest memories were of white picket fences, people coming to their beck and call, and the quaint, pictorial scenes from their bedroom balcony―marble fountains and a great verdant lawn where they usually ran about, lost in a world of their own. Their early life was very much a spectacle: behind the scenes, nannies and professional caretakers played the part of their mother, and in the spotlight, on dark stages before the flashing paraphernalia of paparazzi, their mother played the part she had forsaken for the sake of freedom. Natalie, far from being a true conglomerate of Charlotte’s ornamental grandeur and Thomas’ natural born charisma, tried to smile through it all despite their discomfort with being in the spotlight, both a shot of malt and its remedy combined in a sweet dose, auburn-haired and brown eyed, a flaming glory which was only waiting for morning to bloom.

A pop of color in any landscape and incredibly ironic in a sense that was often viewed as different; they were the giggle at the funeral, the kid living in the phrase “go big or go home”. Growing up as a small celebrity in a big state, it wasn’t only the family money (vintage Porches, two rugged Golden retrievers, a snapping flagpole in the circular drive through), but the reputation which preceded them; which came to define the Nordegraf’s only child. Their family had long forged a straight and scenic path before Natalie, smoothing out every possible inconvenience that could have risen. Thomas was the money and the name, Charlotte his beloved, docile wife; and Natalie—well, Natalie was the one who seemed to break up the image of their perfect family, the one who appeared in the doorway, bright-eyed and tousle-haired, clothes stained with grass stains. Wild, unrefined.

Natalie was born with the kind of brain that took some growing into. Not necessarily on their part; they never questioned their own peculiarity when it was the rest of the world that seemed to lag a pace behind. Truthfully, Natalie was happy to be Natalie, but they were never happy being lonely. They loved having friends, few as they came, fleeting as they were. Lanky for their age and awkward, they sought out human connections eagerly and did not fail for lack of trying; making other kids like you was just a little harder when they seemed to exist on a different wavelength, and communication across frequencies didn’t come easily to them. When everyone else rushed outside to play kickball or hopscotch, Natalie spent their recess indoors—tapping at the glass of the classroom’s monarch tank, craning their neck nearly ninety degrees to solemnly peer at the hanging chrysalises. When the girls were chatting away about TV shows and giggling about their classroom crushes, Natalie tried to join in with a lively discussion about the latest Lord of the Rings book they’d just finished or their current favorite band to listen to—but got nothing but dirty looks in return. Once, after watching everyone else trade Pokemon cards at lunch, Natalie had brought in hand-made cards of their own creature inventions and shared them around happily. They’d found them all crumpled in the trash at the end of the day, the drawings crudely vandalized. At the time, they didn’t really understand it, but the reason for their ostracization was simple: “gifted” did not cancel out “weird” in the eyes of other fifth-graders.

So like most oddballs and offbeats, childhood was simply a waiting game for Natalie. There eventually came a time when being different was no longer the leprosy of the playground, and dragging around an over creative mind didn’t always get in the way of every social interaction they attempted. Being quirky was no longer weird; it was admirable, enviable, a label that came with it’s own inverted cool factor even in the face of the letterman-wearing jocks and pony-tailed cheerleaders. Now that the barriers had been lifted, their friendly and extroverted personality left them with no shortage of friends. Their quirks flourished in the company of those who could appreciate them. High school was also an era of enlightenment for Natalie in other ways; with their extraordinary knack for learning multiple instruments and blossoming love of all things artistic, they’d never even realized how starved they’d been on the music and art curriculum of their previous years until they started teaching themself. From the first time they learned to read sheet music to holding a guitar in their hands, they felt the click of something falling rightfully in it’s place. It didn’t get much closer to love at first sight than that.

For someone who’s brain had seemed to have a decent enough start, their personality took longer to fully bloom. Maybe it was those early years of classroom and home isolation that had stunted it, or the fact that even their identity needed some time to catch up with their creative flow; whatever the case, only by their last years of high school did the “weird girl” start to resemble the real Natalie Veronica Nordegraf: finally coming out as queer and non-binary, of eccentric style, multiplying tattoos, and the speaking rate of a NASCAR engine. The strange, colorful appearance gave off one impression; opening their mouth into an excited conversation about making synthesized music beats or the latest episode of Attack on Titan turned it into entirely another. By the time they embarked upon their four years at University, Natalie had self-actualized into such a bundle of contradictions that everything about them seemed designed purely to baffle people—but truthfully, they were never the kind of person to blueprint their personality.

Their parents decided that it was better off keeping their one and only child away from the spotlight for fear of extreme scrutiny concerning their peculiar nature. Unsurprising as Natalie hadn’t ever truly felt seen by their parents—especially after coming out. Their relationship with Charlotte and Thomas was always a difficult one, if anything non-existent. Still, when Natalie was just a freshman in college, their mother had a mid-life stroke and it affected them all the same. Natalie was ready and willing to drop all their classes and fly home on the next available flight, but their father assured them there was no need for such drastic measures—they were to stick to their studies, and things would be just fine at home. And they were, for a while. Charlotte battled her way through a long, slow recovery to retrain some of the functions she’d lost, and regain pieces of the charismatic, sharp-witted woman she’d always been—until the second stroke blindsided them all. This bleed was worse than the last. It was a hemorrhage Hiroshima that wilted Charlotte Nordegraf overnight, and wiped her personality clean like a hard drive. Natalie didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to their mother—the real Charlotte, not the empty husk that had replaced her by the next morning.

Their mother’s steep and sudden decline was a fissure that would eventually crack the family completely in two; Natalie, helpless and frustrated in grief, found themself blaming their father for not prioritizing their own mother over a year or two of school. Maybe being at home would’ve helped her. Maybe it would’ve changed things. The crack soon widened into a chasm when their father admitted that he was looking into long-term care facilities that could provide for his wife better than he could; Natalie protested vehemently, but argument after argument amounted to nothing. From that moment on, Natalie let the distance between them grow without so much as another phone call. Taking on one part-time job, then another, Natalie found that a constant stream of work kept their brain a little too exhausted for them to continue on with their studies. Eventually, instead of becoming a security blanket school became a burden; and Natalie found themself dropping out.

The next three years passed by in a blur after that; they shacked up with some friends turned roommates, got a few new tattoos, learned more instruments, and tried to focus more on their passions despite the unresolved trauma they carried with them. Eventually, Natalie moved inside the old house that their father never frequented and that they grew up in—entirely too large for one person but they found a small solace in the space surprisingly. Ever since, Natalie has tried to anchor their life as best as they could in their hometown. Though their family is now a family of their own choosing: people who love them as unapologetically as Natalie loves them. Though their heart may still ache for what has been lost, it’s a pain that will soften with time; for now, they are content to find comfort simply in belonging. All those years of loneliness, all that time spent hungering for friends to call their own, and it’s back home in Monleon that they’d found their place—and the utmost fulfillment of a puzzle piece that’s finally discovered where it fits.

They prefer to dwell in the positive. Natalie’s passions include music, playing gigs with their band Dommy Mommy Propaganda, gaming, learning to play new instruments, animals, burgers, fries, beer, and lots of weed. On a typical night out, Natalie will be amiable, easygoing, give off a lot of himbo/bimbo energy while being effortlessly awkward. As they talk weightlessly, you may notice a sadness lurking behind their eyes. As they swig their beer, you may also notice them absently thumbing the tiny, claw-machine silver pendant that hangs around their neck—the rare gift from their mother. Though they still dare to dream big; they are currently getting into producing and putting more of their music out there.

NATALIE NORDEGRAF is portrayed by BRIGETTE LUNDY-PAINE and written by TOMMIE.

Gaming in 2018: The Good and Bad

2017 is largely considered an awesome year for video games as a whole. Plenty of fantastic titles and the impressive debut of the Nintendo Switch certainly meant that 2018 had a LOT to live up to. This past year has certainly been interesting in a great many ways; some of it’s good, some of it’s bad and a lot of it is just…business as usual. As the year is winding down, let’s take a look at some of the notable releases and happenings in the video game scene. Take it away!

The year starts off fairly strong, the first few months having a fair amount of quality titles, some even potential “Game of the Year” candidates. Both Monster Hunter: World and Dragon Ball FighterZ released not only to high acclaim and sales, but on the same day no less! A wide variety of games from several different franchises and genres dot the calendar. Co-op adventure games like A Way Out in March, the return of God of War in April competing with Nintendo’s odd Labo line of potentially over-priced cardboard and the controversial Detroit: Become Human in May. The summer saw a slew of releases, from a new entry in the Mario Tennis series with Aces, Octopath Traveler in July, and Spider-Man on the PS4 in September. The last three months see a sudden explosion of hotly-anticipated titles from some mega-franchises. Everything from Assassin’s Creed to Call of Duty to Pokemon and Super Smash Bros. sees a release, not to mention Red Dead Redemption 2 right at the end of October. Just looking at things generally, there’s a good spread, but let’s look at things more in-depth.

Fighting games had quite a few releases this year, though sadly I’d say most of them were considered underwhelming for one reason or another. Another entry in the Dissidia series was absolutely crushed by FighterZ and Monster Hunter to kick the year off, while niche fighting games like Blade Strangers, Fighting EX Layer, SNK Heroines and BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle were met with mixed reception overall. The anime crowd also got a 3D Brawler based on the My Hero Academia license…that launched the same day in the West as Red Dead Redemption 2 so…ouch. The year does see a bit of a rebound with titles like SoulCalibur VI and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate being fairly well-received. It’s nice to see the fighting game genre continue onward, and at the very least I’m glad to see attempts at innovating or just new ideas being thrown out, but they can’t all be winners.

Unfortunately, I’d say there were also a fair few stinkers released this year, or games that just failed to capture much of an audience. February saw a double-whammy of Dynasty Warriors 9 and Metal Gear Survive, two games that are largely viewed as massive step backs from their previous entries. Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Sushi Striker and Just Cause 4 released and were quickly forgotten by the general public. You have some games that received at least SOME coverage and potential success, like Ubisoft’s toys-to-life Starlink game likely being the closest thing we’ll get to a new Star Fox game for quite a while (on the Switch version at least), and a fair number of indies came out this year too, or in some cases, came to consoles and boosted visibility. Hollow Knight came out last year on Steam, but is now out on everything and that thing sold like crazy on Switch at the very least. Then you have things like Dead Cells or The Messenger, Celeste and Guacamelee 2 that also received rave reviews. While last year we had Crash Bandicoot’s remakes and Sonic Mania appealing to nostalgia, this year we saw Spyro get his turn at a remake trilogy, as well as Mega Man 11 and an 8-bit, classic-Castlevania styled throwback in the form of Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon. All that said, let’s talk the big dogs.

Nintendo didn’t have nearly as many heavy-hitters in comparison to last year, though honestly I think it’d be hard to top that line-up anyway. The Switch’s library has ballooned since last year, a lot of that coming from ports, with that trend likely continuing into next year as well. The third party support is certainly welcome and fills out the Switch’s catalogue, though there’s an awful lot of first-party Wii U ports too. Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, the Captain Toad game, as well as the first two Bayonetta games and Hyrule Warriors graced the system. Even the 3DS seems like it’s getting the shaft in terms of huge titles. Outside of a “greatest hits” of microgames with WarioWare Gold, there was a Luigi’s Mansion remake/port and…I guess Yo-Kai Watch still exists, so there’s that? The 3DS is clearly slowly being phased out, so as long as it still prints money, we’ll be seeing these strange remakes and ports…like…Kirby’s Epic Yarn coming next year…for some reason. As far as NEW titles, entries like Kirby: Star Allies and Mario Tennis Aces can be considered somewhat lacking, but it’s balanced out by a return to form for the Mario Party series, a great third-party exclusive in Octopath Traveler, a well-received DLC expansion/pseudo-sequel to Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and, of course, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Actually, I’d say that tips them back over into pretty darn good overall.

Sony did pretty well this year, though honestly they only saw TWO major exclusive releases. However, both God of War and Spider-Man, despite having uncreative names, are clear “Game of the Year” contenders, and it surely reaps the benefits of the various third-party hits on the platform…and Detroit: Become Human, I guess. Shame about Xbox though; as far as exclusives went there was Rare’s Sea of Thieves, seen by many as too devoid of actual content to play for very long. Its E3 show was good at least! Good at showing off a bunch of games that will also be on other consoles!

Industry-wide, the year was a bit of a downer though, with some notable layoffs and studio closures, some very close to one another. Cliff Blesinski of Gears of War fame, closed down his studio, Boss Key Productions, following two back-to-back flops with Lawbreakers in 2017 and Radical Heights in 2018. As the year winded down, Capcom Vancouver closed its doors in September, with Telltale Games following soon after, generating a fair amount of media buzz over the volatile nature of employment in game development and the concept of “crunch” time in games as well. Right as Red Dead Redemption 2 came out, Rockstar also received flak for their workplace conditions when news of employees working “100 hour” work weeks was brought up as if it was some sort of positive thing.

The game industry isn’t all sunshine and rainbows; for every success story, you have a studio closing, for every hit, you have a game that crashes and burns on release. It can be hard to tell what to expect in a given year with video games, what big franchises will do and what new tent poles might pop up in the meantime. Fortnite is suddenly among the most popular games right now, and after Nintendo’s last console flopped, the Switch is on the warpath to reclaim that status Nintendo has always been known for. In this year alone, we saw several sequels to iconic, major franchises. It can be easy to forget them all, but it’s important to soak all that variety in. New Far Cry and Assassin’s Creed games, Mario Party and God of War, for starters. There are toys-to-life games and cardboard creativity, alongside your annual Madden and Call of Duty and Battlefield games, and TONS of fighting games. Capcom in general seems to be on a hot streak of hits, which considering the reception of Street Fighter V and Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite last year, is saying something. I haven’t lost my love for gaming, though I do somewhat worry how certain modern monetization trends will affect things going forward. But there are also tons of things to be on the lookout for. PS4 and Xbone are going to be on their way out someday soon (relatively speaking anyway), Nintendo always seems to have surprises under their sleeves (like announcing and releasing a SMASH BROS. game all in the same year, for one) and there exist plenty of talented developers both large and small that continue to innovate, making fun, new ideas. Here’s to 2019 hopefully continuing the trend of being mostly good!

Happy Gaming, and until next time.

-B