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The crowd chattered relentlessly around Scurlock and Bryon, though it did part easily for Scurlock’s massive form. The two brothers strode side by side, enjoying the mild spring weather during some much-needed time off from their respective jobs. With the carnival in town, they had decided to pay it a visit together, taking in the colorful tents and numerous craft stalls. Bryon, it seemed, had another agenda in mind.

“So when are you going to begin courting somespire?”

Scurlock did a double take, frowning.

“You know I don’t do well with all that… romance stuff,” he said, shrugging. “Besides, the Academy keeps me busy. I don’t have time for that.”

“Eh? Weren’t you the one going on about family lines and noble obligations the other day?”

“I didn’t mean both of us have to find someone! Just… one of us, and you’re the one who likes to attend social gatherings and parties and all that stuff.”

Bryon scoffed.

“Come on, there has to be someone who’s caught your eye. What about Bramble? He’s into all the gym stuff like you. Or Sadine, they’ve been eyeing you pretty blatantly the last two times you were in the same room. Or-”

“I said no, Bry!” Scurlock growled, rage suddenly roiling in his chest and forcing the glowing markings of his furnace to ignite and spark with energy. “I don’t want to pursue any of that romantic junk. Just because you want to doesn’t mean I have to. Now drop it.”

Bryon raised an eyebrow, taking one step back at the display of anger.

“I didn’t realize how strongly you felt about this.”

“Neither did I,” Scurlock admitted, taking a deep breath to calm his furnace. “Sorry. Can we move on to something else?”

visibility156

Wingman by family_staralternate_emailFelspring

posted last year, edited last year

Prompt: Twitter and a Flitter
Featuring: Scurlock (Vesp-1341), Bryon (Vesp-1493)
Word Count: 291 words

bellacoste pouflons writing

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Always Gold, Part 2 by @Felspring

Always Gold, Part 2“What a boring party. Dad keeps saying we have to socialize and ‘get ourselves out there’, but I don’t see him talking to a bunch of windbags all night!” Bryon swayed in place a little as Scurlock ranted, still lightly buzzed from the vintage the host of the affair had handed out. Whatever it had been, it had been potent and unlike his older brother, his slight form couldn’t handle liquor that strong. He closed his eyes as Scurlock went on, enjoying the way the breeze cooled his flushed face. Behind them, the mansion of a much older Vespire flooded light into the backyard garden they had fled to for some relief. Even then, Bryon heard others muttering and talking in low murmurs elsewhere in the garden. Dim fairy lights illuminated the small patio they had found, catching the gilding on the ornate bricks beneath their claws. In the distance, Bryon could still hear the violinist playing a slow, elegant tune. “At least this gala isn’t breaking out into a fight like the last one,” Bryon said at last, snorting as he thought back to two weeks ago. “Hey, I’d give anything for a fight!” Scurlock replied, flexing his large claws. “Maybe if someone challenged me to a duel in dad’s honor, we’d actually get somewhere tonight.” “No one would challenge you, Scur,” Bryon said, this time laughing heartily. “You scare half the nobles just by walking into a room!” The violinist’s song drew to a close, and Bryon felt the air of the party start to pivot behind them. He rolled his shoulders and butted his head against Scurlock’s burly shoulder. “Come on, I think the party’s winding down. Let’s say our goodbyes to the host and then we can go for a round of Cliff Swooping before we go home.”

Always Gold, Part 3 by @Felspring

Always Gold, Part 3Shaking his head clear of the wine’s influence, Bryon perched on the very edge of a familiar cliff. Looking down, two miles of sheer cliff face stretched out before him, ending in a crystal-clear lake. The lake reflected the stars overhead, blazing a trail through the deep indigo sky and illuminating the night. Pine trees crowded around the lake’s edge, creating a dark mass of spectators for the stunt they were about to pull. “Ready?” Beside him, Scurlock scratched at the edge of the cliff, sending pebbles flying down. His older brother’s eyes glinted as he smiled at him, and Bryon shot back an equally crooked smile. He nodded, bracing himself against the cliff, waiting for his brother’s signal. “Go!” Scurlock shouted, and both Vespires threw themselves over the cliff's edge and into a free fall. Twisting in midair, Bryon’s coiled tail bounced with his maneuvers as he worked his way over to the left side of the lake and turned himself rightside up, claws facing the ground. Gravity propelled them faster and faster, both of them rocketing towards the frosty surface of the lake. Just as he passed the very tips of the treeline, Bryon’s wings shot out from his sides, sucking in air from the sudden force and pulling water up from the lake into a wave. On the other side, Scurlock did the same, and both of their waves came crashing down in the middle where they collided with a loud slap. “Ha! Perfect!” Scurlock whooped from the other side of the lake, gliding his way down to meet Bryon on the shore. The gravelly sand crunched beneath their claws as they watched the aftershocks of their stunt still rippling through the lake, coming to sit side by side. “You really know how to cheer me up, Bry,” Scurlock said. “Of course I do! I’m your brother,” Bryon said, shoving Scurlock in the side, though the behemoth of a Vespire didn’t feel the force at all. “And I couldn’t have asked for a better one!”

Ambush! by @Felspring

Ambush!Scurlock’s eyes darted back and forth, searching through the pine trees surrounding the carriage he and the other trainees were protecting. The dusk sky lit up orange before dying into an indigo at the horizon, forcing the trees to cast long shadows that stretched out over their forms. His ears perked up at the sound of something crunching- was it pine needles on the forest floor? He stopped and peered closer, tracing the outline of every tree to look for abnormalities, yet the pines gave up no sign of an unwanted intruder. The crunch didn’t repeat itself, leaving only the sound of the carriage’s wheels turning and creaking. “Ambush!” A fellow trainee in the front screeched as they were jumped, a form darting forward to kick out their legs. Scurlock bolted to go help his teammate, but another Vespire intercepted him, smashing into his shoulder at full force. He instinctively tightened his muscles and dug his claws into the dirt, holding steadfast as the attacker bounced off his shoulder. “Uh, this might have been a bad target! He’s like, three times my size-” Scurlock whirled around on the attacker, confused as the Vespire seemed to be talking to nobody in particular. The Vespire bore a red coat with a black mane like Scurlock’s, though his chest shone a bright white. Golden claws tipped his feet, and a unicorn horn crowned his forehead. Even as the attacker crouched low in preparation to spring, his face seemed uncertain, eyes shifting uneasily. “Not on my watch!” Scurlock yelled, slamming one massive paw down in front of the attacker. The Vespire lept back in response, then sprang forward, using Scurlock’s leg as leverage to rush up and onto his back. His claws ripped and tore at the fur there, digging just a little too deep and lacerating Scurlock’s skin. Scurlock screeched at the pain, but his fury overrode whatever he was feeling. With a ferocious roar, he bucked, tail tip swinging in a wide arc to connect squarely with his opponent’s jaw. “Ye-ouch! I told you he’s too much for us!” “Shut it, you!” Scurlock whipped to the side, using the momentum of his weight to hurl the attacker off of him. His opponent crashed into the forest floor and rolled back onto his feet, his three tails lashing in unison. Scurlock stepped forward, black and yellow pneumir spouting from his mouth and ears. His attacker growled back at him but held his ground, both Vespires staring each other down. “STOP!” The tension in the air shattered as their Captain shouted and jumped between them, snapping both of them out of the bloodlust. Scurlock loosened his shoulders and coughed, while his opponent cowered at the shouting. That’s hardly the Vespire that was trying to flay my back two seconds ago! “This was a practice scenario, need I remind you!” the Captain scolded, looking at both of them with fury. “I expect better composure from you, Scurlock, and you need to control yourself, Eternity.” “Ah- I’m sorry, I don’t know what overcame me,” Scurlock muttered, ears flattening as he felt his cheeks flush and warm. “I-I’ll do better next time,” Eternity said, avoiding both the Captain and Scurlock’s eye. “Good,” the Captain growled. “Now go get checked out at the infirmary for any injuries, and then I want twenty laps around the lake from both of you!”

Always Gold, Part 1 by @Felspring

Always Gold, Part 1A sound. Frantically, the Geode within pecked and harried at the shell surrounding him, instinct driving him to push against the rough lining. It yielded slightly, the crack above him widening by the tiniest margin, but still held steadfast. Frustration and desperation grew in equal measure, fear clutching at the Geode’s rapidly beating heart. Oxygen, though he didn’t know that it was, ran out fast and he understood that to be dangerous. Another sound, closer. Chirping and shuddering, the Geode curled up his stumpy limbs together, gathering all of his dwindling energy. With a mighty shove, the Geode burst outward, coiled tail springing out and slamming into the shell. The crack suddenly exploded through the Geode’s shell, shearing it clean in two and allowing the now-hatched Geode to flop out onto the cavern floor. The shell lay split and motionless, lined with golden crystals that sparkled. Above him, a dimmed lantern crackled with a faint heat, casting a dull glow into the gloom. His eyes adjusted to the new light slowly, even painfully despite how low it was. The cavern seemed to stretch out and above him for miles, the walls eventually vanishing into darkness he couldn’t see beyond. The Geode shivered as a chill wind settled onto his fur, and he crouched low, instincts screaming at him of danger. “Hello?” From just beyond the lantern’s circle, a broad head poked out of the darkness, eyes lighting up with recognition. The Geode barely had time to understand what he was looking at before the larger Vespire rushed him, towering over him by several heads. The Vespire circled around him a few times, sniffing at him and nudging him with a snout much larger than the Geode’s body. “Hey, look at you, little buddy! You got mom’s whiskers!” The Vespire curled down around him, long fur draping over the Geode and instantly warming him up. The Geode chirped and moved in closer, his wide eyes trying to take in all the details. It overwhelmed him, but he recognized one thing: the Vespire’s tail coiled in a corkscrew, just like his own. “Don’t worry, little bro!” Scurlock said, his voice pitching up. “Mom and dad will be here soon.”

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Heart of the Storm - Chapter 4 - Ninjago Fanfic by @Ivyprofen_0

Heart of the Storm - Chapter 4 - Ninjago Fanfic“FAMILY MEETING!” Following the day’s events, everyone needed to take a moment to settle down and process it. But Jay’s idea of “processing it” was forcing everyone to stay put in the living room so they could watch him pace around and complain. Cole and Lloyd sat by each other on the couch, faces still covered with their face masks. Kai sat on the other side of Lloyd, basically attached to him at the hip. Zane sat on the ground in front of them, his eyes following Jay as he paced. And Nya was on her feet, following behind Jay, trying to get him to calm down. “Calm down? Calm down?” Jay asked her. “Calm? Down? That THING made it onto the BOUNTY and ATTACKED!” “But it didn’t attack, it just kinda took up space,” Nya pointed out. “It didn’t cause harm.” Kai scoffed and mumbled, “Physical harm.” “It also left as soon as I hit it with water!” Nya grabbed Jay’s shoulders, stopping him in his tracks. She tilted his head upwards slightly so that she could meet his eyes. “We are all still okay. We’ve dealt with worse.” Jay leaned into her touch, melting in her hands. “I’m scared, Nya. What do we do if it comes back?” “I hear pans work great!” Cole teased. Nya shot him a dirty look, then turned back to her lover. “Then we will cross that bridge when we get there.” She pulled him into a hug. “We will be okay, I promise.” Cole raised his hand. “Can Lloyd and I be excused? This face mask is starting to burn a little.” Lloyd nodded in agreement. Finally noticing, Jay stopped and looked between Lloyd and Cole. “Why are you guys wearing face stuff?” Nya turned his head to face her again. “How about you come stay in my room so that you aren’t alone? Would that help put you at ease?” He sadly nodded, then laid his head on her shoulder. “I just want everyone to be okay.” “And we will be. I promise.” Nya wrapped an arm around him to guide him down the hall, offering a friendly smile to the boys as she left. “This is a truly confusing….thing we have on our hands,” Zane said quietly as he stood up. “I’m going to spend some time tonight studying the information we have and hopefully by morning I can have some sort of answer.” Lloyd stood up behind him and grabbed his shoulder. “Don’t overwork yourself, okay? We’re in this together and we can figure this out together too.” Instead of any sort of comforting words, Zane responded, “You should go wash your face before your skin burns.” He then left quietly, his mind obviously already distracted. Lloyd and Cole silently separated, headed towards their own respective rooms. Lloyd opened his door and stepped into his small bathroom to wash his face. He bent down and cupped his hands to fill them with water, then dipped his face in. When he stood back up to look in the mirror, Kai was leaning against the bathroom door, his arms crossed tightly and his head hanging low. “I’m okay, Kai,” Lloyd reassured, “really. I promise.” Kai didn’t respond, he just continued looking at the floor. Lloyd continued washing his face, the two standing in silence. He finished and dried his face off, then looked back at Kai. “Dude, I promise. You should go get some rest.” “I saw things when the mist touched me,” Kai whispered. “It wasn’t like you and how you were just blinded. I saw you as a child. I saw how scared you were. I was reliving that moment at the volcano before I found my true potential.” His sniffling started again as he tried to hold back tears. “I tried to save you, but I dropped you on my way out. I begged for you to come back to me, but you were just…gone. It all felt so real.” “I get it, mine felt real too. I can’t even imagine having to see visuals of all that.” Lloyd guided Kai towards his bed and the two sat down together. “We could hear you mumbling while you were in the mist. We heard everything you said. I figured out that you were seeing a memory quite fast, but my experience didn’t include a memory at all.” “It’s good to know that we’d be able to hear each other if this were to ever happen again,” Kai responded. “Having one-way communication is better than none at all.” Lloyd looked at Kai, grabbing his hands. “These were a problem, though. When you used your fire in the mist, you used it in real life too.” “I figured when I saw the rug was charred.” “We’ve got to come up with a way to get through the mist without using our powers. Or at least, lethal powers, like fire.” Kai started counting on his fingers as he made his list. “So Cole can use his strength, Nya can create puddles, Zane is still incredibly intelligent, and you can use your shield and levitation.” His face fell. “Jay and I are screwed. Offense is kind of our whole thing.” “We’ll figure it out, okay? We don’t need all of the answers. Zane is spending some time looking into all of this and I’m sure he’ll come at us with some wisdom tomorrow.” Lloyd squeezed Kai’s shoulder. “Until then, get some sleep. And remember, we are both safe and okay.” Kai nodded, giving a forced half smile. “See you tomorrow, kid. Sleep well.” Kai left the room stoically, but Lloyd heard him begin to cry again as soon as he left the room. Lloyd didn’t go after him. Kai was always trying to be tough and unshaken, but he was hurting. And he needed space to feel that hurt without feeling the need to protect everyone else. —- “Hey I’m off to the coffee shop!” Lloyd called out, stepping out of his bedroom with his boots in hand. After last night, he just needed an excuse to get some fresh air and go on a walk. As he sat down on the couch, he caught a glimpse of Kai eating cereal straight from the box. When Kai saw him, he tossed the box onto the counter and reached for the cabinet to get a bowl. Lloyd smiled to himself and rolled his eyes. “Can I get an iced mocha with an extra shot of espresso?” Kai asked, his mouth still full of cereal. “Oh, I was going to take a quick walk-“ “You’ll be back quick? Awesome!” Kai poured his cereal into a bowl and Jay walked in, stretching and yawning. “Thanks for getting me coffee!” “Lloyd’s grabbing coffee?!” Jay asked, suddenly wide awake. “Caramel latte. Whipped cream. Sprinkles!” “Guys I’m just-“ “NYA!” Jay yelled down the hall. “LLOYD’S GETTING COFFEE! WHAT DO YOU WANT?” “ICED AMERICANO WITH VANILLA!” She yelled back. Jay turned to Lloyd. “She’ll have an iced ameri-“ “I HEARD!” Lloyd shouted. He finished lacing his boots, irritated at everyone, but not enough to correct them. He walked out onto the deck shielding his eyes from the sun, running into Cole in the process. “Oh hey, I was just looking for you!” Cole said happily. “Kai texted me saying that I needed to give you my coffee order. I’ll make it easy for you and just ask for a black coffee. No sugar. No nonsense. Just a coffee.” Lloyd glared. “How kind of you.” Cole gave him a friendly smile in response as he wandered back towards their living quarters. Behind Lloyd, Zane was writing in a notebook, leaning against the ropes they all used to repel down the ship. As Lloyd approached, Zane’s eyes darted up for a moment, then back down at his notebook. “Going somewhere?” he asked. “I just wanted to go for a walk and somehow got suckered into buying everyone coffee.” “How unfortunate it is to be misunderstood,” Zane giggled slightly. “I’m sorry your morning has been thrown off.” Lloyd shrugged. “With this group? It happens. It is what it is. I don’t remember their orders, though, so they probably won’t be too happy.” Zane ripped the paper he was writing on out of the notebook, folded it up, and handed it to Lloyd. “It’d be a shame if the orders were wrong.” Zane then marched off in the same direction as Cole. Lloyd unfolded the piece of paper and found it contained everyone’s order, finished with a “Flat White :D” at the end of the list. He couldn’t help but smile at the note before grabbing the ship’s repel gear and jumping off. Lloyd landed gracefully on a rooftop and peeked over the edge to see if he was spotted. The Destiny’s Bounty is kind of hard to miss if you’re in Ninjago, but Lloyd always tried to make sure he could make a quiet exit to avoid crowds of people swarming him. And thankfully, there was a nearby alleyway empty, allowing him to jump down and silently sneak out. Lloyd took a deep breath and put his hands in his hoodie pockets, enjoying the bustling ambiance around him, as he walked towards the nearest coffee shop. He loved the little moments like this where he could just be a normal person and not have to worry about saving the world again. And with this new mist shit, his much needed break was still way out of reach. Lloyd pushed the coffee shop door open and got in line, fiddling with the note Zane had given him. He tried to memorize the note, but he was so scatter-brained in that moment that it just wasn’t working. By the time it was his turn, he had given up. The barista offered him a smile. “Hi, there! What can I get started for you today?” Her short brown hair framed her face and her smile had a warmth Lloyd hadn’t been expecting. “Can I get a-” “WAIT!” The barista yelled. Lloyd braced himself, ready for her to publicly out him as the Green Ninja, but she instead said something he wasn’t expecting. “I HAVE YOUR COMIC BOOK!” “You what?!” Lloyd squinted his eyes at her. “You were the fox?” “A wolf, but yeah!” She became extremely giddy. “I’ve been asking around to try to find someone who got their autograph swapped by accident, but I couldn’t find you.” “Okay! Wow, I honestly have been so busy that I haven’t had the time to even try to find you.” “Oh I was so broken up about it! I wasn’t even upset that I didn’t have my own, I was just sad that I was keeping someone else from having something so special.” She tucked a tuft of hair behind her ear. “God I was just having a bad day yesterday. First you, then my brother, then the Green Ninja-” Lloyd hesitated for a moment. “What happened with the Green Ninja?” “I got him caught in that smokey stuff!” Her face grew bright red. “After you ran into me, my brother and I went to see a panel, but suddenly everyone started running and screaming. My brother and I got separated in the lobby area. I turned around and he had vanished in the cloud stuff. I tried to run to him, but the Green Ninja had his shield stuff up. I begged for him to go help my brother, but I think I threw off his focus or something because his shield fell and the smoke got him. I got away before it got me, though.” “Did he get out okay?” Lloyd asked, playing dumb. “Yeah!” The woman smiled. “His friends saved him. And my brother got out okay too, he was just confused why everyone seemed so scared. He said he was scared, but people around him were utterly terrified.” She stopped speaking and grabbed a cup. “I am so sorry! What would you like?” “Can I get a medium matcha latte, please?” The woman wrote it down. “Okay! Anything else?” Lloyd looked down at his note. “Can I just hand this to you and you tell me what I owe?” The woman laughed at the list. “You grabbing coffee for your coworkers?” Lloyd nodded. “Yeah, something like that.” The woman wrote down all of the drink orders, then slid the note back to Lloyd. “That’ll be $44.50.” Lloyd cringed and dug his wallet out of his pocket. “Damn, okay, they owe me.” The woman giggled as she ran his card. “Want a receipt?” “Please! I need to make sure they pay me back.” The woman laughed, printed his receipt, then walked away to make the drinks. As he walked away, Lloyd took one last look at Zane’s note, but felt his face getting hot when he saw what was written on the note- Call me for comic book swap! 555-6324 <3 Akita

Pokéumans re-lived part 1 "From parallel worlds" Chapter 1: "Waking up from a dream" by @Lexezlao

Pokéumans re-lived part 1 "From parallel worlds" Chapter 1: "Waking up from a dream"I am not happy. I suppose you’ll want me to elaborate on why, well, first things first, introductions: I am Lex, that’s what everyone calls me (or at least what I try to get people to call me) Physically wise I have tan skin and dark very unkept hair, notable eye bags on my face, unusually long limbs and I’m slightly chubby. I’m 14 years old and I currently live in Mexico City. It is the year 2022 and the month of September, Today is Monday of my first week of high school which I absolutely wasn’t looking forward to, I was barely able to graduate from middle school pretty much because of the pandemic and although i had high hopes to be able to recover myself in high school, the fact i basically chose my school at the last minute and i still have no idea what i want to study really doesn’t make me feel assured. Anyhow, I was woken up by my little brother’s alarm at 6 o’something while my mum was making breakfast, dad was preparing for work and my brother was... Not waking up, I felt a little disoriented as I’m used to having to be ready by this point but since high school is at the afternoon instead of the morning I didn’t need to yet, anyway, i waited until everyone was gone and the sky changed from night to day to eat my breakfast my mother left me and shower, I put on regular clothes, an interesting deparute from the uniforms I’ve had to wear all my life, though my wardrobe isn’t exactly the most... Flattering, I only wear what makes me comfortable in my weird autistic sensibilities, and spent the morning trying to prepare myself mentally for 3 years of hell, and that’s if all goes well and I don’t end up repeating a year, anyway, nothing really interesting happens in this point so I’ll just talk about myself more. I’m into a lot of things and not many things at the same time, it’s hard to explain but basically I don’t get into any kind of media beyond small hyper-fixations, however there are a few exceptions though, if I have to give an example of one then I’ll probably go with pokemon, I love Pokémon, although I’ve never been able to afford a single game, still I’ve enjoyed it since I was 8 right when pokemon go came out and just before sun and moon were announced, with my favourite Pokémon being toxtricity, a recent addition from a frankly mixed generation but still ended up quickly rising the ranks on my list of favourites and I honestly don’t even know what’s about him that appeals to me so much, maybe its design? Its ability? It’s connection with music (I always have a song stuck in my head after all) Or maybe it’s just the general vibe? Even though I’m not punk even in the slightest I still find myself connecting to him for some strange reason. Like he speaks to me somehow. Anyway. Back to home, My mum came back in time to cook lunch so that afterwards I would head to school, my high school is a decent 30 minute walk away from my home, and I can go there by myself however I only walked the route once and it involves a lot of pedestrian bridges which absolutely terrify me as I have a fear of heights. Still there weren’t any major issues as I went there and I arrived in good time despite not knowing where a single thing was on this new building. Classes went about as well as I expected. It was the first day so it was only introductions but I still struggled having to join each teacher’s Google class, writing down the names of the books i had to buy and organising my notes since we didn’t have the time and money to buy notebooks for each subject yet so I had to use an old folder. Classes ended (at 9 pm I might add Jesus Christ) and right as I left I encountered with an old friend from my old school that also decided to be in this high school. “Alex!” “Lex, you know I hate having to remind people about it right?” She corrected herself. “Oh right, Lex, so how are you doing?” “Eh. Weird dreams I suppose.” “Really? How so?” “Hard to describe, nothing special anyway.” “The usual huh?” I nodded. “You shouldn’t come to expect more from me, Fer.” From then onwards the conversation faded into simple noise as we left towards home, she with her parents, I by myself. Now I’ve been friends with this person since the beginning of middle school and even though she’s nice and energetic and really my only option for socializing I still don’t feel close to her like other people would wrongly (and overconfidently) assume. Especially now that we’re not in the same group and in general our friendship has gotten a bit distant since the pandemic, and I’m just not a fan of being social anyway, I keep to myself and generally dislike others, i did not learn a single name of my clasmates and teachers and i have a feeling i won’t learn any till I’m gonna guess next month, Anyway I came back from school, had dinner, went to bed and ignored my parents when they asked me how it went and the rest of the week went flying by both astonishingly quickly and irritatingly slowly, that is normal for me though as i’ve never really led an interesting life, I really just stay on my room on my computer and never leave the house unless I’m forced to or become desperate, and usually when I do it’s to the same places every time, if it ain’t school which I’m forced to go it’s either the nearby park/market or the centre of Mexico city and it’s usually because my parents want to eat outside and if I don’t go I don’t eat, otherwise I would just stay, I’m not the adventurous type and I usually don’t like to get out of my comfort zone because honestly? Why should I? It’s called a comfort zone for a reason, oh well, I’ll move on to the weekend that went as uneventfully as the week did and eventually it became night time of sunday, where I just jumped into my bed, sighed after a long 7 days that weren’t awful but I knew was just the beginning, i mean I didn’t even have homework but I knew things were going to chane as I doze off... Unfortunately I never knew how much things would really change in the next few weeks. The sound of the crowd screaming barely registers to me as I walked into the side of the battlefield, with a massive gyarados as my opponent. I don’t even need to hear my trainer shout a command for me to start attacking, not that I could with all the noise granted, although the details of the battle escape me since I was never really invested in that stuff, I was able to decimate my opponent and bask in the glory of my victory, granted it wasn’t the cleanest and quickest fight in the whole world but I was still the decisive winner none the less, I felt the people in the stadium cheer me on and I instinctually played a short bass riff using the protrusions while letting out a loud cry“TOOOOXXX!!!”. After that small celebration solo, I was quickly recalled into my pokeball to rest as I grinned to myself in uncharacteristic confidence… I woke up yet again to my alarm as my first conscious thoughts of the day were: “Huh, that was a weird dream.” Not weird in the sense that it was strange, far from it actually as my dreams often don’t have any cohesion and are meaningless bizarre images conjured up by my mess of a brain, honestly to have a simple and, quite frankly generic dream like that is unusual on my part but oh well, that’s irrelevant for now, I thought to myself as I washed my body with soap and other cleaning products while showering, expecting the dream to fade with time though it never happened. As the second week went by not much actually changed yet aside from the homework and getting more used to the route and the layout of the school like i predicted and, I dunno, breathing differently, I guess? In any case I went through all my classes of every day and met up with Fer once or twice on recess where we didn’t really talk about much and it was very clear we didn’t have much to talk about. “Hey Alex- sorry, lex!” Sigh “Hey...” “Just wanted to check up on you, homework is only just beginning and it’s already hell.” “Tell me about it.” From then on we just stood in silence, ate lunch and sometimes one of us would draw, I have to admit I don’t mind doing stuff in silence, but it’s clear I’m alone in that and I guess i would appreciate a deeper connection with someone but it’s just not gonna happen, I’ll difficultly find someome to be more friends rather than just barely not acquaintances. As the week passed and I suffered through stuff I didn’t enjoy, aka school, I thought back to my dream, honestly the fact I remembered the dream for more than a day shows how special it is, I was showing off impressive battling skills for everyone to see, I remembered the confidence I had during that dream, like I was used to the battle, like it was my calling, what I was meant to do with my life, and i was good at it! ... Of course, these feelings are not here in the present, I’m not a confident person in the slightest, nor am I talented or skilled in any way, even though most people i knew like my friend Fer or even my dad were not that much different from me I knew they have a lot of hobbies and pastimes and interest that they were fairly good at (enviously so sometimes) like for example, me and Fer liked to draw but she clearly has more talent and experience than me, she already has a developed style while mine only just graduated from stick figures, my mum and dad are grown adults who already have careers and jobs and stuff to do with their life, while I’m just here going through the motions. And I think it’s starting to get to me. The week ended, in the weekend mum and I decided to buy some of the stuff I still needed, i had barely been able to finish my homework and i was only able to get a few books and notebooks but not all of them so that’s gonna screw me over, but in the meantime I’ll just learn to deal with it, I went to bed on Sunday night, not looking forward to the future. Being a solo explorer was a though job, even for a medium-ranked one like me. Although I would often partner up with other teams I still preferred to go on adventures solo as I’m not the best at working with other people, especially at the guild, I won’t lie however that sometimes I would struggle with a mission and end up needing rescue myself, but I managed, I was keeping up and that’s what matters. While I looking for a special artifact deep in the dungeon I found myself battling a rampant Aggron standing in front of the artifact, possibly protecting it? now even though the aggron was a lot larger physically and seemingly stronger I was still beating him rather easily, dodging most of his attacks and giving a good punch here and there, I did still struggled with a few of his attacks, including an earthquake that almost wiped me out (darn ground type moves), but apart from that the aggron was putting up way less of a fight than I expected, once the aggron fainted I smirked to myself and I grabbed the artifact, which was an orb of unknown effect. I was about to leave the dungeon to inspect when suddenly: “Shock wave!!!” A wave of thunder suddenly hit my entire body, luckily since I was an electric type it wasn’t very effective against me but I was unable to look at my attacker until it stopped, and when I did I found myself with another toxtricity, who immediately charged at me before I could react and I blacked out. I woke up like last Monday, same hour, same way, but with yet another dream that wouldn’t escape my waking mind, however unlike the last one this had me a lot less intrigued, guess I was getting used to it, still, I found myself thinking back to it throughout the day, and the next, and the next, and most of the week until in the middle of it where i had a repeat of the previous dream... only I was a little less confident than I remembered, i ended up going back to the versions of myself from that dream, an explorer similar to the ones from the pokemon mystery dungeon games, and a pokemon more akin to the base games, I never found it weird that i was a pokemon in either dream, honestly I wouldn’t mind it if I was a pokemon in real life, it’s a weird fascination of mine that probably came thanks to the pmd games, like I said before I never got to buy them but i heard their premise and so I saw a lot of gameplays of them and I enjoyed their plot a lot, and I would often imagine myself as a protagonist of those games (though I would never be able to choose a pokemon form, probably because the toxtricity line didn’t exist yet), however I don’t actually have any aspirations of becoming an explorer in real life, with my allergies and my sedentary habits? Hell no. It’s a little weird to me how I can know things I don’t want to be when I’m older but not things I do want to be, I sometimes feel like i don’t know anything about myself and not knowing what to do with your life feels like a problem since it seems everyone should have this figured out and everyone else around my age already has. Except for me. Well, in any case, school started to get a lot more settled in and routinary, assignments started to become hell and the days faded into the same of always that I’ve experienced all my life, aside from the minor changes from this new school, I could not tell you how many times I’ve had the same breakfasts of cereal or eggs, or the same meals of badly cooked rice, or just the constant over and over mundanity of everything, I know I’m not adventurous, but I’m also tired of this repetition, it feels like i live in the background sometimes. And as for how I’m doing, well? Unfortunately I’m starting to fail to keep up with the many assignments and constantly having to get new materials and things, I’ve already forgotten to do several homeworks and it’s awful, not only that but I’m already starting to hear about the coming exams, oh well, at least the month’s over. Weekend passed and I was avoiding answering my parents about how I’m doing constantly, I’ve not talked about them much or my close family but while I love them and all I’ve slowly started to feel disconnected from them, on top of our current living spsces being so tight I’m just too used to having to tune them out constantly, I much preferred living back in Guadalajara in our own house, not in a single room of my grandmother’s house, having to share a two-floor bed with my little brother who i never got along with, luckily with my new schedule he and my parents are mostly not at home in the morning and I’m not at home at the evening, which helps in giving us space, but not in connection. Oh well, not much i can do about it. Sunday night came and I fell asleep but not before pondering if I would have another one of those dreams, they’ve definitely taken my attention as i feel something different from them, something from deep within me rising, am i going insane? Eh, who cares right now, although apart from that intrigue, another feeling washed over me that I’ve been feeling a little bit throughout the week when i was outside my home, I don’t know where this came from, I have no reason to suspect it and yet... Was I being watched? This time my dreams strayed further from anything I recognized from any of the pokemon games, I was still a toxtricity however I appeared to be in a hollywood looking high school, filled to the brim with locker rooms, and like me the students seemed to be pokemon too. As I was heading to class, waking aimlessly across endless halls, I was harshly stopped in my tracks by a massive paw slammed in front of me crushing the locker it landed on into scrap. “Well, well, well, look what we have here.” I looked towards the person talking to me and I quickly recognized him as a VERY imposing pangoro, who looked at me with a cocky yet hateful smirk. “Ughh, listen, can you just let me go to my class for once dude?” I responded annoyed, not wanting to deal with dumb artificial drama like this. “Woah, woah, woah, don’t you dare dude me, you know you’re an embarrassment to all of your species? instead of a proud and tough rebel you’re a weak and wimpy loser that everyone laughs at, you should be ashamed of yourself.” Where is he even going with this? “I don’t care?” The pangoro smirks “Well, since I couldn’t very well stand and watch your pathetic ass walk around freely, I decided it was about time to teach you a lesson.” As soon as he says that I notice him charging an attack, I immediately jump to dodge it, turning this encounter into a full-blown battle, unlike the previous dreams I was struggling much more to dodge and resist his punches, beams and other attacks but eventually I was able to paralyze him and using one of my moves I eventually made him faint, I looked to the hallway assuming the other classmates had watched this but the whole area was strangely devoid of anyone, the hall’s lights suddenly deemed and I could no longer see anything beyond a certain point making it look infinite, save for one toxtricity, the same one from the other dream, he immediately tried to attack me only I was able to move away from it just in time, he kept charging at me and I wasn’t able to keep dodging and resisting his attacks like with the pangoro bully so I wasn’t able to stop myself from blacking out. I had woken up slightly earlier than normally, sweating, this dream was FAR from enjoyable as the previous ones, and it got me worried, taking my attention the whole week. And it was so weird too, I’m not an idiot, I could clearly tell my previous dreams had some unexplainable symbolism involving some of my struggles, yet this dream was different, because being a toxtricity was the center of it, and how despite toxtricity being a punk I’m far from it, I mean, I have a resting bitch face and eye bags similar to toxtricity and that clashes with my reserved personality but it’s not something that I focus on much, and yet that dream and those emotions still managed to get my attention for this week. Why? And what a bad week to be distracted in. Schoolwork was absolutely infernal, with exams right around the corner suddenly every class was demanding homeworks, projects, guides, etc. And I completely failed to keep up I had nothing and I got nothing done. And to think that there was a time where I did average at school and never missed an assignment, heh, what happened to me? My parents got fairly angry with me but I really just ignored them and tuned them out extra hard. On top of that the dreams repeated again and more often, and this time I wasn’t as succesfull in them, I struggled in the battle and failed the exploration, I didn’t see the other toxtricity however. I was so stressed that I ended up doing something I very rarely do and directly looked for my friend to talk to, unfortunately she came with... Mixed news. “Fer?” “Oh! Hey Lex!” she ran over and hugged me, she’s touchy like that and I don’t mind, aside from the fact it makes people think we had a thing, frankly I’m not interested. “How have you been?” she asks. “Oh awful, this week has been so bloody stressful.” “I can agree, I’m not doing too well either, I talked about it with my parents and, well, I actually was looking for yoy to tell you about something.” “Hm?” This intrigued me somewhat. “So... My parents found this new private high school that focuses on the career I’m interested in, remember those tourism classes in middle school? It specialises in that, well I ended up getting in which means I’m gonna leave this school next semester.” “Oh...” I felt... Complicated, on one hand, it sucked that the only person I was somewhat comfortable with is no longer going to be in the same school and talking to them will get harder, on the other, we were already growing distant, plus this is a really good opportunity for her and I’m excited! Maybe this was simply meant to happen. “I’m happy to hear that, it’s a bit of a shame that we won’t be in the same school anymore but it’s good for you, I’m probably gonna stay here, don’t plan on going anywhere since there doesn’t seem to be a better option for me.” “Yeah... I’ll still miss you though.” She hugged me again and then the bell for next class rang so she started leaving. “Well, see ya!” “Bye.” I responded. The week eventually ended, the weekend was even more stressful as a bunch of extended family was over and I don’t even want to get into the drama of it all, I fell asleep on Sunday tired and not looking forward to... Anything. …Various gunshots could be heard throughout the night as various groups of pokemon could be seen attacking each other through the city, I was in one of those groups, an army that was currently on a battle against an enemy group where we used a brutal combination of firearms and moves, and when I say brutal I do mean it, whatever was left of the city we were in was quickly replaced with more and more rubble as everything was blown up by the crossfire, there were several casualties, I could notice each time a pokemon, whether from our side or the enemy’s, fell to the ground in defeat, I don’t even have to look at them to know that they didn’t just faint and would never recover. We moved through the ruined city trying to avoid as many enemies as we could, the recent fights had left us worn out and tired, but we could not give up yet, the war between pokemon has been going on for many years, more and more is the world losing any sense of order now that the legendary pokemon have abandoned us and any kind of hierarchy or the like has fallen into anarchy, none of us knew what we were fighting for anymore and even though we’ve been here since the beginning of the war all of the other soldiers were little more than faceless people that I was each unfamiliar with. We kept walking until we were able to set up camp for the night, tired and drained as I was it wasn’t easy to fall asleep and no matter how much I tried I was unable to get any rest, the outside of my tent got quieter and quieter until suddenly I heard a bunch of screams, I left my tent only to be blinded by a flash of light, the moment I was able to recover from the sudden burst I noticed that all of the soldiers were on the ground, in the same condition as the fallen soldiers from the previous battle. In a state of shock I unintentionally lowered my defences, which caused me to find myself attacked by the same toxtricity who’s been showing up in all of my dreams and who seemed to have been the one to attack and defeat my teammates, I was able to resist him a lot more this time and put up a fight however I was starting to lose stability due to exhaustion, I kept charging and kicking but I eventually fell to the ground like everyone else and as my vision blurred I was starting to black out, or rather, wake up… I was panting and sweating, I had woken up way early in the morning, and no matter how hard I tried to go back to sleep I stayed wide awake, out of all the dreams this is the one that stuck with me the most, then again it seemed to be a pattern as each dream got more and more intense throughout the weeks, which is the worst thing I needed for this particular one during my morning routine and before the exam I kept thinking on said patterns, what did they mean? They’ve got to lead to something, my body was feeling a little weird that day, the whole day i felt like i was having a constant allergic reaction, ugh, I went back to the dreams to distract myself, how I was never really myself in any of them, even the ones that weren’t about Pokémon had me as a toxtricity which admittedly never felt wrong, sometimes it felt natural, just not like my current self, and how I was in situations that I just never see myself getting into, like the exploration, the battle, the fight, and in the last one I was part of some sort of military, something that I would just never do. Even though I came from a noticeable military background with my dad and both my grandfathers from each side having worked in the army I always vowed to myself I would never join one, it’s just simply a life that even as a toddler i knew was too far removed from who I was and i always saw it as pointless, war was pointless, everything was stupid and I very much don’t look forward to military service and all of this I’ve made very clear to everyone since day one, luckily my dad, compared to most military types is very undestanding about as he’s really just there for the job, and he really can’t blame me for my beliefs (instead he blames having watched the ender’s game movie as a kid, could not tell you a single thing about the film though). As much as I would’ve liked to spend the rest of the week trying to figure out these dreams, what they meant, why did they exist, Where they symptoms of stress, etc. And even though it bothered me throughout the whole 5 days, especially since they now happened every day to the point where my eye bags looked even worse, I simply couldn’t focus on it as I had to pretend to pay attention to the exams, which drove me insane and I don’t think I did good in any of them... except English, there’s a reason you’re able to read this after all. I couldn’t even talk to Fer, and My parents definitely noticed my lack of paying attention, they chewed me out for it several times since they knew it was exam week, but i simply lied and told them I was doing well, I’m not proud of it but I’m simply not strong enough to deal with the consequences, I’m weak. And on top of all of that my sick feelings from Monday stayed and intensified throughout, it was horrible, and like before I started feeling like i was being watched every time I walked outside and I really didn’t understand why. I returned home on Friday night, everyone else was already asleep, so I quickly ate what was on the table for me, sighed loudly and dropped into bed, this time looking forward to the two coming off days, I was going to need it. I did not have a dream that night, Not just a new dream, which was expected since those usually come in Sunday, but any dream in general, which was bizarre after this past week of nonstop pokemon related dreams. And yet it still felt like I was dreaming, but it was all sensatiIons, sensations that I could not describe, it felt like I was changing somehow, like a part of me was escaping some kind of constraint, and it was oddly painful, like it wasn’t supposed to happen, like it should’ve been there from the beginning, the feeling kept getting worse throughout the night, it started as a tingle, but then it changed to an ache directed at my hands, i looked at them but I couldn’t see them, they were mere blurs of colours, and I saw another blur, was that... The toxtricity? Yet... it felt like something else... Then the ache slowly grew into a burning sensation, rising in intensity, burning more and more without me being able to do anything about it until… I woke up dizzy, Saturday morning, rather late, feeling unusually refreshed, maybe it’s now that I’m done with exams at school, at least for the moment, but still, it kinda feels like all of the feelings that have been building up since i came back to school are... gone, released, the stress, the feelings that came from those dreams. Gone. I noticed that my parents weren’t here, I panicked a little but then I remembered a tuned out memory from Thursday that they weren’t gonna be here for most of the day, my brother wasn’t there either, though I was able to notice a half-eaten bowl of cereal on the table near our tiny kitchen so it was safe to assume that he went downstairs with my grandma and whoever other family member was staying in our house at the moment. Although I’ve interacted with them fairly little and so this shouldn’t be much of a change I couldn’t help but feel calm in this peaceful solitude, I didn’t even have those allergic reactions anymore, I smiled against myself. I was feeling oddly happy, I wasn’t even tuning out the day anymore and I was perfectly happy to do stuff like walk around a bit before serving myself cereal as breakfast now being able to forget all about those strange dreams and simply relax on this weekend which feels like it’s the first true weekend since I came back from school, excited, I moved the covers away from my body, hopped out of bed… And then I saw my hands.