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teshamerkel · 3 years

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Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Seekers of Soul

[Chapter 23] (29 Pages)

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It’s finally time for the human convention!

“I’m ditching you both if you don’t hurry up!” Tobias shouts at the open window of their room at the inn. The round, stony Pokémon at the front desk gives him a scolding glare through the building’s open door, which he ignores.

Nia pokes her head out the window to yell, “Hang on, we’re almost ready!” before ducking back inside. She must be too excited to worry about being her usual overly-polite self.

Tobias rolls his eyes. Maybe if the riolu and their annoying rookidee tagalong hadn’t stayed up half the night whispering and giggling like children they wouldn’t have overslept. Tobias had gone to sleep much earlier, when the two started discussing aura and Nia had shown Junie her progress on making solid forms with it.

Finally, Nia and Junie scramble past the disgruntled innkeeper and join Tobias outside, blinking in the harsh noon sun.

“S-Sorry!” Nia puffs. “Thanks for waiting.”

“Let’s just go,” Tobias grumbles.

“Right!” Nia turns to Junie. “Could you lead the way? I’m terrible with directions.”

Junie blinks, then looks to her right. Then her left. A little crease furrows her brow. “Yeah, just...gimme a sec to figure out which way we need to go.”

“Oh, for the love of...” Tobias spins on his heel to lead the way. “You’d get a lot better at situating yourself if you’d actually fly, y’know.”

“You’d be a lot less insufferable if you’d shut up!” Junie chirps back as her and Nia follow. Tobias snorts. That was weak, even for her—she must be too distracted by the day ahead to be her fully irritating self.

Tobias leads the way back towards the convention center, enjoying the deep blue sky and warm weather enough that the loud, jostling crowds seem less awful than yesterday. Nia and Junie chatter behind him, and Tobias adjusts the bag around his shoulders as he tries to drum up the patience to get through the day. Sure, the magic show later on might be kind of cool, but Tobias isn’t sure how to feel about whatever they’re about to walk into. What does a “convention” about humans even involve? He still doesn’t trust Will, and wants to listen to the ghost type ramble on about weird human stuff even less.

But this is important to Nia, so it has to be important to him, too. Part of the deal. Tobias had considered asking if he could go do something else while she attended, especially since they got stuck with Junie for company, but he doesn’t want a repeat of the meltdown at Afon’s Cap. Plus, between Junie’s freak-out at the restaurant last night and Nia’s own words, Tobias isn’t sure either of them are emotionally stable enough to weather another possible breakdown without wandering off and getting trampled or something.

Not that Tobias wants that job either, but…well.

He can’t help thinking about Nia’s shaky smile as she talked Junie down, or how quiet she’d been as she confessed her own fears out loud. He can’t help thinking about Junie trembling and blinking back tears, so different from her usual attitude.

And that makes him think of Maggie in the weeks after they’d first met, when she was still a stranger to him. When she curled around him and soothed his nightmares with her sweet scent. He thinks of the meganium’s sad, knowing eyes and how much safer he’d always felt when he trembled against her side. He thinks of Nia wearing that same expression as she reassured Junie. Thinks of how her smile fell and her gaze grew distant and glassy as soon as she thought no one was paying attention, how her paws clenched against the wooden tabletop.

He knows what it’s like to feel alone and vulnerable and lost. He didn’t think he would ever understand why Nia was so upset about becoming a Pokemon and coming to their world, but...maybe he understands it better than he’d thought.

So he’ll go to the human convention with them, and he’ll hate it, but he’ll deal. And after today, they can spend the rest of the trip focusing on finding info about the outlaw trio, too. A tolerable compromise.

Soon enough their group reaches the plaza from the day before, except today the decorations and stalls are finished and already attracting huge flocks of Pokémon. Banners and flags and flowers are everywhere, tents and wares carefully lined up in a bright storm of movement and voices.

Nia and Junie both stop talking to make awed sounds behind him, but Tobias doesn’t hesitate as he weaves through the many different Pokémon—fire types and heavy ground and rock and steel types, Pokémon that Tobias is unfamiliar with after living in Bethoc’s Haven for so long. He stays locked onto the convention center at the edge of the plaza, grateful that Nia and Junie only slow down a little to gawk at the attractions as they tail him.

“Hurry up. Most of this stuff is either garbage or overpriced anyways,” Tobias says to them, ignoring the offended look a shop owner sends him. He’s been to a few cities before with Maggie, so he’s been warned about how big groups of merchants like this mean there’s always a few bad ones in the mix. “There’s a reason they set up camp where it’s easy to catch tourists’ attention and coin without anything of actual value.”

“But some of it’s so pretty,” Nia protests quietly as they pass an ampharos selling homemade fleece blankets.

“Look, you wanna shop for stuff you can’t afford or go to your dumb convention?”

“The convention, of course! I just thought since we’re still pretty early...” Nia trails off, but doesn’t protest further.

Luckily, it doesn’t take long for them to reach the convention hall, where a huge, purple Pokémon is sitting at the doors like a guard, a grouchy expression on his face. A nidoking, if Tobias remembers correctly. He doesn’t think he’s ever seen one before outside of books. Why would the human convention need a guard of all things?

The nidoking grunts as they approach, but steps aside to let them through with no issue. Maybe he’s just here to keep the merchants out? As they pass, Tobias notes the heavy scars cutting though the Pokémon’s armored hide, the weight behind his movements. Not someone to get in a fight with if you want to win.

Tobias stops as they step inside, surprised by the sheer number of Pokemon milling about. The crowd is giant, filling the entrance hall entirely as they talk and move about in a loud, cheery mass. There are Pokemon here of all types, stages of evolution, and ages, too. An elderly-looking dubwool is guiding a young, bright-eyed lillipup along nearby. A yanma buzzes by overhead, nearly knocking a lost-looking drifloon out of the air. A round, coal-like Pokemon and what might be a curled-up togedemaru roll by in a blur, weaving between the forest of legs.

“Is everyone here a human?” Junie asks, fluttering up to perch on Nia’s shoulder. The riolu, busy looking around in slack-jawed awe, doesn’t respond.

“I think we’d hear about it happening more often if there were this many,” Tobias says, more unsure than he sounds.

“I mean, no one outside of Stonebrook knows I’m human,” Junie points out. “Maybe there’s more of us around than we thought!”

Tobias makes a noncommittal noise in his throat, not sure how to feel about that thought. Nia, however, looks like she’s moments away from bursting into tears.

“Now what?” Tobias groans.

Nia laughs, wiping at her eyes. “S-Sorry, I’m good. It’s just…I feel kind of bad for thinking it because everyone else is stuck here too, but it’s nice. Knowing there are so many other people in the same situation as us. Makes me feel less alone.”

Junie chirps a quiet sound of agreement, and Tobias frowns. After last night, Tobias can kind of understand where Nia is coming from, but she still doesn’t have to make it sound like she’s completely on her own. Half the guild would trips over their paws to help her, for Entei’s sake. Maggie takes care of her, Val is doing her best to train her, and he’s seen firsthand how protective Xander and that deerling’s teams are of her already. Even acquaintances throughout the guild always seem happy to talk to her.

She’s had a much warmer reception than he did.

“Are we gonna go in or stand her and get stepped on?” Tobias grumbles, moving aside as a distracted girafarig nearly trips over the three of them.

“Yeah, let’s go!” Junie cheers, ruffling her feathers but not moving from her spot on Nia’s shoulder.

Nia smiles, nervously, then gives Tobias an expectant look, as if waiting for him to lead the way.

He snorts. “This is your thing. I don’t know where you want to go.”

“O-Oh! Right.” Nia looks more nervous at that, but then takes a deep breath and moves forward through the crowd with a litany of apologies and “excuse me”s.

Further in the building, they find the space opening up to what must be the main room, where the crowd is even more lively than before. Makeshift stands line the walls, and Pokemon crowd around them, talking and laughing. The rich scent of food wafts over them, only adding to the overwhelming energy of the place.

“Where do we even start?” Nia asks, looking torn between excitement and nerves. Her tail wags cautiously behind her as she scans the room.

“Hmm…” Junie hops onto Nia’s head to look around at a slightly higher angle. Then she points with a wing. “How ‘bout we just start over here in one corner and then go around the room? Then we won’t miss anything important!”

Nia lights up and immediately takes the suggestion, leading their group over to the first booth, where a small table is set up with a pile of pamphlets. A scizor and an archen are handing them out to the visiting Pokemon, chatting with them as they do so. Junie flutters forward to grab two of the pamphlets before hopping back to Nia, who catches her in her arms. Junie and Nia both look to Tobias, so he sighs and takes the pamphlets, flipping one open and holding it so all three of them can read it.

“Tips for adapting to your new body,” Nia reads. “Huh. Wow, there’s all kinds of different sections and stuff too. How to write with no arms, controlling tails and other extremities…”

“Oh, look! There’s a section just for flying type Pokemon!” Junie chirps, leaning closer to try and read it. “Does it say anything about being afraid of heights?”

“You’re afraid of heights?” Tobias blurts, bewildered. Nia shoots him a warning look not to push, but he’s too baffled to even make a jab about it. That explains why Junie’s been so evasive about flying low to the ground, but how can a flying type be afraid of heights? Nia at least makes sense--she’s a fighting type. But a rookidee?

Junie’s feathers fluff up as she glares at him. “S-So what? I’m doing just fine!”

Nia cuts them both off before Tobias can retort, voice disappointed. “Oh. Doesn’t look like they say anything about not knowing how to use moves.”

Before anyone can respond to that, they’re distracted by an elekid at the booth talking about accidentally shocking other Pokemon. Everyone around the elekid takes a nervous step away, leaving a ring of space around the electric type.

“Looks like you can ask Pokemon handling the booth some questions,” Tobias points out, nodding to where a krabby is speaking with the scizor. The scizor is demonstrating how he’s holding one of the pamphlets in his giant pincer with a gentle grip. The krabby tries to imitate it with his own claws, and clips the paper in half.

“I guess we just…get in line?” Nia asks more than says. Their group steps up behind an ekans, who slithers forward to take the krabby’s spot after the little water type is given a few more words of advice and encouragement.

“I hate not having arms,” The ekans snaps immediately, not even bothering to introduce herself. The scizor leans back, clearly caught off-guard.

“Oh, mood,” Junie mumbles.

“And legs!” The ekans hisses before the scizor can respond, voice growing louder and more upset like she’s just been waiting to unleash her fury onto someone. “I didn’t even like snakes when I was human—why did I have to turn into one?!”

The scizor shoots the archen a pleading look, but the other Pokemon is busy trying to help a haunter pick up a pamphlet without letting the object slip through intangible hands.

“I’m afraid we don’t know why we turn into the Pokemon we do,” the scizor finally says to the ekans, voice soothing. “But we do have a lot of tips for helping humans who have different physiology. And I know there’s a seviper here who has become really adept with using their tail and mouth instead! She—”

“Where is she?” The ekans hisses, slamming the end of her tail onto the tabletop and cutting him off.

“The typing booth,” the scizor says hesitantly, pointing to a spot several setups down. “She—”

The ekans makes an impatient noise and slips away before the scizor can finish. The bug Pokemon slumps as she leaves, gently rubbing the blunt of his claw over his face.

“Yikes. Looks like the hell of customer service carries over to here too,” Junie says, face screwed up in sympathy.

The quiet chuckle of the scizor catches them off guard. “Yes, in my experience it’s rare to come across someone so…pushy, here. But apparently any kind of human can show up. Do you three have a question I could help you with?”

“O-Oh.” Nia glances at Junie. The little flying type shakes her head no, so the riolu looks back up at the scizor. “Well…do you know if any other Pokemon have had problems, um…using moves?”

The scizor blinks. “You…can’t use moves? Any moves?”

Nia shrinks back. “U-Um. No. I can use aura! B-But…”

The scizor seems to notice Nia’s distress, because he softens his tone. “I haven’t heard of that issue before, no. I could use moves right away, and all of the other humans I’ve spoken to could as well. How long have you been here?”

“A-About a month?”

“Ah. Maybe it’s just taking you a bit longer to adapt to your body then,” the scizor suggests. “Tell you what, there’s a bronzor here named Seiji working somewhere around the typing stall, and I know he’s a psychic type, which sounds like it could be similar to what you’re working with. He’s smart, too. I think he used to be a scientist, and he loves a good puzzle. You should ask him about it, see if he has any ideas on what may be wrong.”

“Thank you,” Nia says, offering a smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. Tobias is guessing that she’s thinking of Val, and how if she couldn’t help then some other random psychic type probably won’t be much better. Then again, this is a psychic Pokemon who was human beforehand. Maybe that makes a difference somehow

“Excuse me, rookidee?”

They turn to look at the archen, who is using the lull in conversation to smile nervously at Junie.

“I heard you earlier,” the archen confesses. “Sorry for eavesdropping. But I just wanted to say that it took me a long while to be able to fly, too.”

Junie perks up. “Really?”

Archen nods, looking relieved at the rookidee’s interest. “Yes! It took me months before I could finally get myself into the air. I met a kind pidgeotto willing to help teach me, actually—”

Junie wiggles out of Nia’s hold to hop onto the table, closer to the archen, and listen to his advice.

The scizor is busy asking Nia if she’s struggling with anything aside from her moves, and she asks him about getting better control over her ears so they don’t broadcast her emotions quite so openly.

Tobias, a little bored, idly flips through one of the pamphlets in his claws. On the second page, he pauses as he sees…pictures. Of humans, he supposes. They’re sketched out in quick, messy strokes—they’d have to be, to be drawn onto so many pamphlets—but they’re skillfully done. Maybe drawn by a smeargle? Curious despite himself, Tobias peers closer at them.

He’d thought idly about what humans looked like before, of course. All Pokemon did. There’s probably imagery of them in some old books somewhere since humans have been showing up for so long, but he’d never really gone looking for them, even after Nia showed up. Nia has always just been Nia, a (mostly) regular riolu. It’s weird to think of her as one of these strange creatures instead.

There’s two of them in the drawing, smiling at each other. They have a build somewhat similar to him and Nia—two legs, two arms, a face with two eyes and a mouth. There’s a strange mane of hair on top of their heads, and something like a second skin—like a throh or a hitmonchan has—on their torsos. Huh. If this is how humans usually look, he can see why so many of the humans here are having issues adapting to such different body types. Nia’s lucky that she got a body kind of similar to her old one.

“Tobias?”

Tobias flips the pamphlet shut, looking up to see Nia and Junie watching him.

“You ready to move on?” Nia asks, laughter in her voice.

“Unless you want to stare at how hot we used to be as humans some more?” Junie teases.

Tobias growls at her and shoves the pamphlets into the satchel at his hip. “Trust me, if you used to look like that then this is an improvement.”

Nia looks like she isn’t sure whether to be offended or not, and Junie laughs.

“Takes the sting out of it when you’re literally a talking lizard,” the flying type chirps. “Now c’mon, they said the next stall is about evolution, right? I wanna check that out!”

Nia nods at her and they move on to the next booth. While they wait to get closer, Nia catches Tobias’ eye and grins. “I used to be much taller as a human, y’know.”

Tobias squints at her. The picture didn’t give any hints for the humans’ heights. “…How much taller?”

“Probably as tall as that red Pokemon back there,” Nia says, giggling when Tobias blinks at her, gobsmacked. She was as tall as a scizor!?

“Me too!” Junie chirps, delighting in Tobias’ shock.

“Are all humans giants?!” Tobias demands to know.

Both girls laugh again. Tobias glares at them as his face heats up.

“N-No,” Nia finally answers. “I mean, sort of, but adult humans are mostly all the same size? Like, we don’t have nearly as much diversity in body type and stuff as Pokemon do. I feel like I was probably somewhere around average height.”

The conversation gets derailed as a booming shout comes from the booth they just left.

“I HAVE TROUBLE LOWERING MY VOICE SOMETIMES—”

Everyone in the vicinity flinches, glaring over at the loudred who was cut off by the archen frantically waving his wings.

Nia, who’s holding her ears with a particularly pained expression, whimpers, “Ouch. Maybe I should take it as a blessing that my only real problem is not being able to use moves.”

Junie laughs.

It doesn’t take much longer to reach the front of the evolution booth, where a machamp greets them with a giant grin.

“Welcome to the Evolution Booth, kiddos! Or as I like to call it—” He pauses to flex all four of his arms. “The Gun Show! Any questions for your main man here?”

“W-Well,” Nia squeaks, looking like she wants to join in on the machamp’s enthusiasm but is a little too afraid to do so. “We can’t e-evolve, right? So, uh. Should we have questions? It doesn’t seem like something we should worry about?”

“Correct!” The machamp booms, flexing into a new position. “But it’s always good to be prepared if that changes in the future!”

Nia exchanges a doubtful look with Junie. “I…I guess so.”

“All right then—what’s it like to evolve?” Junie asks, hopping onto Nia’s head again so she doesn’t have to look up so far to meet the machamp’s eyes.

“Evolution is awesome!” The machamp answers, slamming his hands down onto the table. “I was beefy before, but now I can bench so many boulders.”

“I—um. Congrats?” Nia offers.

“You too could bench boulders one day!” The machamp says, pointing at each of them with one of his arms. Tobias pointedly swats the fighting type’s finger away from his face.

“B-But isn’t it hard to get used to one body and then have to get used to an entirely different one all over again?” Nia asks.

Finally, the machamp’s expression shifts to something almost thoughtful. “It can be tricky to get used to…but humans are tough, right? We’re nothing if not adaptable! Soon enough it feels like you’ve been in your new form your whole life. We’re humans—no matter what, we can always change and find a new way to live!”

Nia blinks, as if surprised that the machamp made such a good point. “O-Oh. I…guess that’s true?”

“Wait, so you evolved, right?” Junie asks. “But that had to happen a long time ago, right? Before evolution stopped working?”

“Right again!” The machamp crows. “I showed up in this world as a machoke, then evolved to a machamp a few years later!”

“Did it hurt?”

“No more than a good workout!” The machamp says with a grin and another flex. Tobias wonders if he’d get kicked out if he lit this idiot on fire.

“Huh.” Nia looks like she wants to ask the machamp a few more questions, probably just for curiosity’s sake since they can’t evolve anyways, but catches Tobias’ eye and gritted teeth. “W-Well, I don’t think I have any other questions! Junie?”

“Nope!”

“Thank you!” Nia says, grabbing two pamphlets before hurrying Tobias away from the booth.

“Tell me he’s the exception to the rule and not the norm when it comes to humans,” Tobias growls.

Junie laughs. “Yeah, he was pretty weird. Seemed nice enough, though. Total himbo.”

“…Himbo?” Tobias echoes cautiously.

“I am not explaining the concept of a himbo,” Nia says flatly. Junie laughs.

Before Tobias can press, a little shape darts into their path, nearly tripping him onto his face.

“Hey! Watch it!” He snarls, turning to the idiot who can’t watch where they’re going—

Oh. It’s a kid.

A growlithe pup.

Tobias freezes, snarl dying in his throat. At first glance, the striped orange coat and fluffy white tail calls up a memory of too-hot flames and a giant paw on his chest and sharp eyes—

No. No. This isn’t him, this isn’t then. It’s not even an arcanine.

“Sorry!” The growlithe says, scrambling to his paws and giving Tobias an apologetic grin. “I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

“Clearly,” Tobias mutters, backing off and crossing his arms to keep from shaking.

“I’m just so excited I can’t sit still!” The growlithe continues, looking around. “I’ve been waiting for this for forever!”

“How long have you been in the Pokemon world?” Nia asks, voice soft and sad.

To their surprise, the growlithe cackles. “Twelve years!”

Junie squints at the kid. “Wait, how old are you?”

The growlithe’s grin grows. “Twelve!”

There’s a moment of silence, then Junie laughs. “You aren’t human, are you?”

“Nope!” The growlithe barks, puffy tail wagging lazily.

“Why’re you here?” Nia asks, sounding less heartbroken now that she knows a little kid wasn’t dumped into the Pokemon world like her and Junie.

“I’m here with my dad!” the growlithe says. “Oh! Actually, I’m sorta hiding from him right now so he doesn’t make me stay in one spot, so I gotta go. Bye!”

The growlithe turns and bounds back into the crowd without another word, and Tobias stares after him. He’s not trembling, but it’s a near thing. His heart is pounding. He has to get himself together—just because he sees some random growlithe doesn’t mean he can freak out like this. One of the outlaws is an arcanine, sure, but he can’t lose it every time some random arcanine or their kid shows up.

He must be more obvious than he thought, because Nia touches his arm with a quiet, “Tobias? You okay?”

He jumps, yanking his arm away.

“Whoa! What’s your problem?” Junie asks, blinking down at him.

His tongue still feels like a rock in his throat, so he looks away with a wordless snarl.

Tobias can feel Nia’s gaze burning into him, and he hears her sharp inhale when realization dawns. It’s been a while since she saw the outlaw trio’s wanted poster, but she still must’ve made the connection.

“I’m fine,” Tobias finally manages, hating how his voice shakes. “It’s stupid. He wasn’t even an arcanine.”

“Still,” Nia says, voice quiet and sympathetic. “It makes sense to be afraid—”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Tobias snaps, turning to look around. “Where are we going next?”

“Excuse me.”

They all turn at the voice, only to find a familiar ponyta trotting up to them, his colorful, puffy mane and tail floating along behind him. Oh, great. What was this guy’s name again?

“Hello, you three,” The ponyta greets, a harried smile on his face. “You were speaking with Will yesterday, right? Sorry for not introducing myself then. I’m Fidel—a close friend of his.”

“Nice to meet you,” Nia says, shooting Tobias one more worried glance before smiling at the ponyta. “I’m Nia.”

“Junie!”

Once again, Tobias doesn’t answer, just narrowing his eyes at the ponyta. Like Will, the ponyta accepts his silence with a small dip of his head.

“I’m sorry to keep our introductions so short, but you didn’t happen to see a zorua slip by here, did you? Little thing on four legs? Dark gray fur with red paws?”

“No, but an orange puppy tripped Tobias,” Junie offers, sounding delighted at the memory. Tobias shoots her a glare.

Fidel sighs. “That sounds like him.” Nia and Junie must give Fidel a confused look, because he quickly adds, “The zorua line can transform. Well, they can create illusions at least. He probably changed to a growlithe to try and shake me off his trail.”

“You helping his dad track him down?” Junie asks.

Fidel looks out at the crowd with exhaustion. “Something like that. Did you happen to see which way he went?”

All three of them point in the direction the “growlithe” escaped to, and Fidel thanks them again before rushing off.

“Well, that seems like a fun time,” Junie jokes.

“Can we just move on already?” Tobias grumbles.

“Wait,” Junie objects. “What was with you a minute ago? You got all weird and quiet and—”

Without looking, Tobias uses an arm to sweep the rookidee off of Nia’s head, smirking at her startled squawk as she flaps to catch herself. While the flying type is distracted, Nia glances at Tobias again with a furrow in her brow. Tobias’ smile drops as he shakes his head. No way is he talking about this. Not now, not here.

For a moment Tobias fears she’s going to push. But then the riolu claps her paws together with a cheery, “Right! To the typing booth next?”

After Junie reclaims her perch on Nia’s shoulder with a glare at Tobias, the three of them make their way over to the next booth, where a bronzor hovers beside a weary-looking seviper. Seems like that furious ekans already got to her, if her expression is anything to gauge by.

“That’s a bronzor,” Tobias says quietly, elbowing Nia and pointing at the psychic type.

The riolu perks up at that, following his gaze and weaving her way to the front of the crowd. By the time they make it to the booth, the seviper is pointing at a color-coded diagram to explain type advantages to a couple of gathered Pokemon. The bronzor turns to them as Nia finally frees herself from the crowd, almost collapsing against the booth’s wooden surface.

“H-Hi!” Nia pants. “Hi.”

“Hello,” the bronzor says, blinking at their group. Tobias is growling at a spheal to roll over a bit and give them some room while Junie leans over to peek at the seviper’s typing chart with interest.

“I, um, have a question, if you don’t mind?” Nia stammers. “The Pokemon from the—the first booth told me to ask you, I think. Are you Seiji?”

The bronzor’s eyes light up with interest. “I am. What did you want to discuss?”

“I can’t use moves,” Nia blurts, ears flicking back in embarrassment. “I can use aura, though, s-so he thought you might be able to help since you’re a psychic type? I mean, my mentor is half psychic too but she isn’t human, so…”

“Oh, interesting,” Seiji murmurs. His blue, plate-like body tilts back and forth as he thinks. “I haven’t heard of humans experiencing issues with their movepools before. Could you explain your aura powers to me in more detail?”

Nia does as asked, even holding out her paw to conjure up a small ball of aura. It looks much more solid than it did during their last training session with Val. Nia must’ve been practicing even when Tobias wasn’t around.

“Fascinating,” Seiji says, once Nia is finished demonstrating. “I haven’t done much research into aura—not that there’s much available, to my knowledge—but I wonder if your aptitude for aura could be making it more difficult for you to access your fighting type power.”

Nia perks up. “What do you mean?”

Seiji spins as he hums with thought. “Well, am I correct in guessing that aura doesn’t have a ‘type’ like other Pokemon abilities?”

Nia blinks, then glances at Tobias. He shrugs.

“I—I’m not sure,” she admits, looking back to Seiji. “Wouldn’t it be fighting type?”

“Ah, but aura abilities are specific to only a few species of Pokemon, yes?” Seiji says, sounding excited. “If it were a fighting type ability, more fighting type Pokemon should naturally learn how to wield it.”

Nia’s brow furrows. “I…I guess?”

“More importantly, you said all Pokemon have aura, right?”

Nia mouth drops open. “You’re right! I can read other Pokemon’s aura, even if they’re not a fighting type.”

“Then perhaps your aura and your fighting type powers are entirely separate!” Seiji suggests, sounding thrilled. “Perhaps attacks such as aura sphere are simply a combination of the two? If aura is inherent to every Pokemon, would that make it some sort of life energy? That would explain how it changes to an individual’s personal character—”

“And how does all of this help Nia use her moves?” Tobias drawls.

Seiji pauses.

“Oh. Yes. I suppose while it’s a fascinating subject, the possibility of aura lacking a type doesn’t solve your problem, does it?”

“I still appreciate your theory,” Nia says, offering the bronzor a small smile. “Even if it won’t help me in battle, it’s super interesting to think that my aura powers might be different than normal moves somehow. I’ll have to do some research and ask my mentor about it when we get home!”

Seiji floats up and down in something vaguely resembling a nod. “I may look into it myself as well—the idea is fascinating! As for your fighting type moves…I’m afraid I don’t have any solutions for you at the moment. Your best option would be to find a natural riolu or lucario and ask them for assistance.”

“Have you seen any around?” Nia asks hopefully.

Tobias isn’t surprised when the bronzor gives her a disappointed expression. “Unfortunately, no. Certainly none that used to be human. I don’t know if I’ve even seen a natural riolu or lucario, either. I believe they’re typically more of an isolated species.”

“Oh,” Nia says, voice small as her tail droops. Tobias knew this was coming—remembers Maggie mentioning the same thing—but he can’t really blame her for being disappointed, either. He hasn’t seen another charmander or charizard since moving to Bethoc’s Haven with Maggie, and even without Nia’s conundrum he often finds himself wishing for more fire types around the guild to train with.

“I apologize that I couldn’t be more helpful,” Seiji says. A blue glow envelopes two of the pamphlets on the table and lifts them closer to Nia.

“It’s fine,” Nia says, managing a smile as she takes the pamphlets. “Thank you for trying.”

The three of them step out of the way for other Pokemon to crowd closer, and Nia looks a bit happier when she and Junie glance over the pamphlets. A smaller version of the typing chart Junie had been checking out sits on the page, along with some descriptions and tips for remembering the different matchups.

“Oh! There—what’s it say about flying being good against grass?” Junie asks.

“Birds often eat plants and seeds, and use plant material to make their nests,” Nia recites, making a disgruntled face. “I mean…I guess that kind of makes sense? But don’t a lot of other animals—and other Pokemon, for that matter—also do that?”

Junie twitters a laugh. “So it still doesn’t make sense!”

Nia looks at Tobias, but he just snorts. “Don’t look at me. Flying’s good against grass—it’s just a thing.”

The riolu smiles and shakes her head, folding up the pamphlets and handing them to Tobias to stuff into the satchel alongside all the others.

“Where next?” Nia asks, looking around the crowd.

“Oh! Let’s get some grub!” Junie chirps, hopping back onto Nia’s head. She points with a wing. “I think I see food stalls over that way!”

“I am hungry,” Nia admits. She glances at Tobias, and he shrugs. He got up early and ate something this morning, but he could still snack. Whatever they’ve made definitely smells good.

“All right, then. Lead the way, Junie!” Nia says.

The rookidee does so with little incident, guiding them through the crowd and to where a couple of stalls are giving out food for free. It smells delicious, but Tobias frowns as he realizes he doesn’t recognize any of the meals listed on the booths’ menus. Nia and Junie make little noises of excitement, though, apparently more familiar with the names. Human dishes, then?

“What in Arceus’ name is a…hot dog?” Tobias grumbles, only half-asking.

Nia and Junie gasp as if he’d just confessed to some scandalous sin, and Tobias gives them both a glare.

“Oh, we’re getting you a hot dog for sure,” Junie says with a decisive nod.

“It can’t be made of the same things though, right?” Nia asks, suddenly sounding a little unsure. “I mean…hot dogs are already, uh—”

“Unhealthy monstrosities?” Junie offers.

“Y-Yeah. But how would they even make them here?” Nia looks a little queasy as she glances over to where a tauros and a pignite are happily picking out some sandwiches.

“You two are not selling this well,” Tobias grunts.

“It’s probably a veggie dog or something!” Junie says, sounding much more confident than Nia looks. “Look, how about we ask when we go up to order? I wanna try one now!”

Tobias is more than a little wary after that discussion, but when they reach the front of the line, the breloom behind the counter pales at their question before assuring them that they are indeed “veggie dogs.” Tobias stays skeptical as the three of them move to a dining area in another room and sit at one of the tables there. The food in his hands is unfamiliar: a cylindrical, pink chunk of…something, wrapped up in a piece of bread with a smattering of condiments on top. It smells good, though.

Nia and Junie bite into their food, chewing thoughtfully. Then Junie tweets a wordless, happy sound and digs in wholeheartedly. Nia smiles as she chews, looking a little misty-eyed and distant like she does when she’s trying to remember something. Well, they aren’t spitting it out, so…

Tobias takes a hesitant bite of the food, pleasantly surprised by the flavor that washes over his tongue. Savory and warm, with a variety of complimentary tastes thanks to the toppings. The bread seemed like a strange addition, but it adds a nice texture to everything.

“You like it?” Nia asks, looking hopeful.

Tobias hums an affirmative and takes another bite, relaxing. Okay, it’s pretty good.

Nia looks thrilled at his response, and the three of them dig into their meals in near-silence, the only noise coming from the Pokemon around them talking and eating their own food in a low murmur of sound. Tobias takes the opportunity to listen in on a conversation to the left of them, where a sinistea is rambling in a serious tone to a staravia.

“Okay, so I think I’ve connected the dots.”

“You haven’t connected anything,” The flying type says with an amused expression.

“I’ve connected them,” the sinistea insists. “Hear me out. I think we’re in a video game.”

The staravia barks a laugh, and the sinistea makes an offended noise before continuing, louder, “Think about it! We’re magical creatures with magical powers—I’m a teacup, for God’s sake. Wouldn’t it be weirder to not be in a video game!?”

Tobias doesn’t know what a video game is and the sinistea sounds a little crazed, so he quickly tunes out that conversation and instead looks around the room they’re in. Like the previous rooms, this one has a high ceiling with surprisingly intricate architecture made of stone and wood, elegant support columns interspersed throughout the space. He wonders how big this building really is—they’ve only been in three of the rooms so far, but there’s definitely more, if the exterior is anything to judge by. Are there more areas to see for this convention, or has it all been cordoned off? They aren’t even done going through all of the booths in the main area yet. The next one for them to hit apparently talks about the similarities between Pokemon and “animals”, which Nia is excited about. She claims they’ll be able to explain the concept of animals to him much better than she did.

Tobias is almost done with his hot dog when he pauses, a memory coming back to him. “Hey, these are called…hot dogs, right?”

Nia, already done wolfing down her food, nods, looking curious.

“Didn’t you call yourself a ‘dog’ at one point?” Tobias asks, squinting at the remains of his meal with renewed suspicion.

Nia barks a startled laugh. Junie almost chokes on her food.

One slightly unnerving conversation later—

(“Humans eat animals!?”

“Most humans do, but it’s not the same! I told you animals are different from people or Pokemon, a-and--Oh my God, Tobias, please stop looking at me like I’m a cannibal.”)

--they return to the main hall. The animal informational booth only confuses Tobias further. Only Nia, Junie, and both Pokemon running the stall assuring him that they would never eat a Pokemon keeps him from feeling a lot more uneasy about it.

Other than that debacle, they visit other stands that discuss a range of topics made to help humans settle into the Pokemon world easier. They’re set up to discuss what abilities are, how to navigate the slowly increasing number of natural disasters, guesses at how humans physically became Pokemon, guesses at how to return to the human world, guesses at how the humans are or aren’t affecting the Pokemon world…

“For being this big important informational thing, it feels like no one here actually knows what’s going on,” Tobias comments eventually.

Nia gives him a pouty look, but doesn’t argue.

Junie shifts uncomfortably on Nia’s shoulder. “Yeah…I mean, don’t get me wrong, I definitely appreciate all the information and even just meeting other humans is awesome! But the way Will talked yesterday, I thought they had everything all figured out already.”

“Maybe they’re getting close but don’t want to get everyone’s hopes up yet?” Nia suggests, sounding just a little desperate. “O-Or maybe Will knows some things that these guys don’t. I mean, most of them seem like they’re just human volunteers, right? We haven’t heard from Will yet.”

“And that isn’t strange at all,” Tobias grumbles.

This time, Nia does give him a heated look. “Why do you hate him so much when you’ve only had one conversation?”

“Call it intuition,” Tobias huffs. “Why do you like him so much after one conversation?”

Nia hesitates. “I…I guess he just feels really genuine, y’know? Like, he’s been through the same thing I have and he’s working hard to find a way back home for everyone. So he just…makes me feel a lot more hopeful that someone will actually figure it out, I guess.”

Tobias makes a doubtful noise but doesn’t argue as they make it to the next booth. Their group is almost finished with their circuit around the room and back at the entrance when a loud voice calls from somewhere above them.

“Attention, everyone!”

It’s a noibat, flapping hard to stay floating in place as he addresses the quieting room.

“Will, the person behind today’s event, would like to give an address to everyone! If you could all follow this hall—” Here, the noibat flaps towards the back of the room and gestures down a large hall that was previously blocked off. “—to the auditorium area, he’ll speak to you there and answer any questions you might have for him! The booths won’t be shutting down immediately, so you’ll be free to return to them afterwards.”

The noibat flutters down the aforementioned hall, and the room explodes into a slowly-rising murmur of voices.

Nia, of course, is bouncing on her toes, scooping Junie into her arms and making an excited noise. “Told you! Will must have been waiting to tell us the important stuff himself.”

“Sure,” Tobias snorts. “Whatever. You’re going to make us listen to his dumb speech, aren’t you?”

“Sure am!” Nia chirps. Shifting Junie to one arm, she links the other with Tobias’ and drags him along with the crowd towards the hallway. Tobias growls at her, but otherwise doesn’t put up much of a fight. Maybe if he can hear Will talk some more he’ll be able to pinpoint what it is about the yamask that he doesn’t like.

The crowd is even louder than it has been the entire day, but once they enter the auditorium the noibat mentioned, it becomes more pronounced in the huge, open space. The room itself is semi-circular with rows of seating, built like a cone for sound to travel from the stage out to the audience. The walls seem to be insulated from outside noise, reinforced with stone and plantlife that covers the edges of the room in a bed of soft green. Despite his reluctance to be here, Tobias has to admit the room is impressive, and he stops his meager struggling to instead gaze around at the elegant rafters and the carvings in the exposed stone. Light pours down from a giant lattice of woodwork in the ceiling, like a much larger version of the windows at the Lexym guild, lighting the stage up bright but leaving everything else in shadow.

Nia guides them to a seat relatively close to the stage, squeezing them in between a psyduck and a granbull. Tobias sighs and settles in as Nia looks around excitedly, Junie seated in her lap and eyeing the riolu with amusement.

For a few minutes, there’s nothing but the crowd of Pokemon slowly shuffling into the room and sitting down, a babble of noise as everyone tries to talk over one another. Then, there’s a familiar ponyta clicking onto the stage and looking out at the crowd.

As the talking slowly dies down, Junie whispers, “I wonder if Fidel ever found that growlithe kid?”

Tobias shrugs, not really wanting to think too hard about it.

Once the room is almost silent, Fidel smiles and calls out in a voice that projects loud and clear, “Welcome, everyone! We’re so happy to have you all here today. I hope you’ve enjoyed speaking with each other so far and found our informational booths helpful. I know you still have a lot of big questions you want answered, so without further ado, I leave you to Will.”

Fidel takes a few steps back, out of the sun’s spotlight. A beat of silence. Then there’s Will, melting out of the shadows and into the sun. His form stands out like a blot of ink against parchment, golden mask gleaming in the light and ruby eyes warm and bright as he smiles.

Immediately, the crowd of Pokemon—of humans, Tobias suddenly remembers—starts cheering and clapping and whistling for the yamask, making the charmander startle. He looks around, noting only a small scattering of Pokemon who seem as confused as he is. Is this just a…human thing, then? Nia is clapping with a huge smile on her face, and Junie is tweeting a sharp, positive note. Will doesn’t look at all perturbed by the wave of noise, and lets it go on with a patient smile for a few moments longer before raising a hand for quiet. The noise slowly dies down again.

The yamask floats forward, a gleam in his eyes and arms spread wide. “Welcome, everyone! To the first meeting of The Humans Movement!”

#pmd #pokemon mystery dungeon #pokemon #yamask #pmd seekers of soul #tesha draws #tesha writes

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melonsmessymusings · 3 years

Text

Preventing ‘Dark Willow’

This essay is based off an argument with my brother a long time ago. The question is if Giles staying in Sunnydale in S6 would have prevented Darth Rosenberg. There are many thoughts on this, but I’ve probably put my foot in my mouth as per usual and made a mess.

No. Giles staying in S6 would not have prevented Willow from being a magic junkie.

Throughout the show, magic is used as a metaphor for drugs and sex, albeit ham-handedly. In this case, it’s about drugs. With this in mind, let’s focus firstly on Willow. From as early as S1, Willow expressed an interest in learning magic. Her relationship with Jenny Calendar and her Technopagan badassery led to her forming what seemed at first to be a harmless interest in magic and Paganism. Towards the end of S2 in I Only Have Eyes For You, Willow admits to Giles: “I found loads of websites and stuff on paganism and magic... it’s really interesting.” which demonstrates her interest may be a little more than purely ‘educational fun’.

Her first taste of powerful magicks was restoring Angel’s soul at the end of S2. In Becoming Part 1, Giles warns Willow of the consequences of such mystical forces: “Channelling such potent magicks through yourself… it may open a door you won’t be able to close.” The Passion of the Nerd touched upon it briefly and explained the choice of phrasing is especially key here. It’s not as simple as a one-off spell that has no ramifications, the nature of the Soul Restoration uses a kind of magic that will stay with the caster forever. It leaves a mark. As we know, Willow does the spell anyway after waking up from a coma (don’t even go there) and successfully restores Angel’s soul. This is how her addiction started and it is the ONLY explicitly direct warning of the impact caused by using magicks that Giles gives her.

In Faith, Hope and Trick, Willow tries to persuade Giles to let her help him with the ‘spell’ to bind Acathla and lets slip that she knows more about the black arts than she’d originally led him to believe. There’s an interesting bit of dialogue between the two:

WILLOW: Are you mad at me?

GILES: No, of course not, no.

It’s obvious that Giles is anxious about this but because of his well-established role and priorities at this point, he’s not going to dwell on it too much, despite it being a genuine concern. Later in the episode, Willow also says, “Giles, I know you don’t like me messing with mystical forces…” so it has evidently been the topic of discussion previously. In Gingerbread, Willow is messing with magic again trying to make a protection spell for Buffy. The symbol used by Willow, Amy and that other kid is one commonly associated with human sacrifices according to Giles. The Black Arts. Even if that isn’t the spell they were casting, the symbol had other less pleasant implications. And so, it continues. By S4, Willow is doing much more than floating a pencil, progressing alarmingly quickly and becoming highly proficient by the end of the season. Giles reminds her of the dangers of magic subtly, “I don’t think it’s wise for you to be attempting spells, your energy is too unfocused” and Willow is still doing magic that is both powerful and harmful enough to have caught the attention of D’Hoffryn, Lord of the Vengeance Demons despite his apprehensions.

In S5 we get a first look at ‘Dark Willow’, when Tara gets brain sucked by Glory. There’s no way the whole gang didn’t know about that. Not a chance. Yet oddly, it’s never mentioned? Obviously, the writers had other priorities with the main plot and Glory etc. but it was criminally neglected. Willow used extremely dangerous dark magicks to go after Glory for hurting Tara at incredible risk to herself and the others who ended up having to rescue her. Justifiable or not, her actions were a reckless abuse of power that very nearly had fatal consequences. How any of them just let it slide without so much as a comment is infuriating. In The Weight of The World, Giles says to Xander, “It’s extraordinarily advanced” when he learns that Willow is trying to enter Buffy’s mind yet again, concerned. Also, we start to see the black eyes when Willow attempts more advanced spells, like teleporting Glory away in Blood Ties, or casting the protective wards in Spiral so it can be theorised that the magicks Willow evokes are steadily darkening.

Roll on S6. Set after Buffy’s death, a huge trauma for all the characters. Willow raising Buffy is evidently a massive achievement from her perspective. She considers herself to be a God. In Flooded, she gets the gut-punch from Giles that he is not in fact pleased with her at all. She’d expected him to be “impressed or something” which he was, but in the wrong ways.

GILES: The magicks you channelled are more ferocious and primal than anything you can hope to understand, and you are lucky to be alive you rank, arrogant amateur!

He blames himself for not stopping her, and rightfully so... to an extent. He failed to provide her with proper guidance or even show an interest in the types of magic that she was engaging with. If he had done so at an earlier stage, then perhaps Willow would not have taken things as far as she did. One interpretation of the argument in Flooded is that Giles is lashing out at Willow because he’s frightened. Most likely for Willow instead of Willow herself. He makes a point of saying that she was “the one [I] trusted most to respect the forces of nature” and bringing Buffy back defies the laws of nature. She had no respect for these forces, bending them to her will which is a scary concept. The argument that the Scoobies were selfish for bringing Buffy back notwithstanding, Willow was the one that actually performed the spell, hell bent in succeeding. That horrifies Giles and if anything, is a wakeup call for him to pull his head out of the sand and deal with this seriously. Willow meanwhile doesn’t want to hear a word of it, pacifying him instead of actually understanding the implications of her actions and listening to anything beyond his anger. There’s a lot that could be dissected in this scene but that’s unnecessary at this moment.

Magic is also the primary factor that caused Willow and Tara to split up at the end of Tabula Rasa. Tara had brought her concerns to Willow as early as Tough Love, saying that she was ‘scared’ about how powerful Willow was getting. When Tara tried to explain why she felt this way, Willow refused to listen. Every single time that Tara raised a concern about Willow’s use of magic, Willow either ignored it or reassured her that it was fine, and she was totally in control. But Willow has a history of altering people and their actions to suit her. She attempted to do so in Lover’s Walk by casting a spell on Xander to stop them having feelings for each other. Again, in Something Blue, while unaware of the effects of the spell, she still made the conscious choice to use magic to ‘have her will be done’. She ended up hurting her friends, however unintentionally. Then in S6 when Tara and Willow are arguing about magic, instead of having a proper conversation, Willow uses the Lethe’s Bramble to make Tara forget they were even arguing. A direct invasion of her mind. And Willow didn’t show any indication that she thought it was wrong. Barely two episodes later, Willow then used a spell which caused everyone to forget who they are after promising Tara that she would go a week without using magic. It’s no surprise that Tara wanted to break up.

Willow does get ‘clean’ by Entropy. Subsequently Tara comes back, and it all seems to go well until the brutal, vicious, non-sensical murder that causes Willow to launch herself back into the dark magicks stating, “I’m not coming back.” Only then does Giles do something about it. Only then does he take it upon himself to step up and realise that he has failed her, by which point it was far too late and resulted in her very nearly killing him, a price he deemed a suitable penance for his neglect.

But NOT ONCE prior to this did Giles intervene. He had the resources and was capable of it, and not once did he sit her down properly and say, “Willow, I think we need to talk about your use of magic because I’m a tad concerned.” Even after resurrecting Buffy, he only chastises her for her recklessness, he doesn’t actively do anything beyond this except a few powerful glares. He is watching her make all the mistakes he made as a young rapscallion and doing nothing about it. Then in S7, he fulfils the mentor role to her and helps keep on track of her recovery, an older addict helping the younger. It just highlights that he could have helped her sooner before it was out of control.

This comes back to Giles’ basic structure as a character. He’s a Watcher, the mentor to the Slayer. His purpose is to be in Sunnydale for Buffy. His whole life is revolved around Buffy, she is factored into every single one of his decisions. He never signed up to be the ‘father-figure’, despite appearing to adopt that role very quickly. He never signed up to care for Xander and Willow, he isn’t the Watcher of them. He has never given any indication that he wants that responsibility, and it shouldn’t fall to him to care for a group of random teenagers. It’s this fundamental construction of Giles’ character that means that he’s borderline dependant on Buffy, which isn’t her fault at all. He sacrifices everything, even parts of himself for her and most of the time gets nothing in return. The point is that Giles is so busy being a Watcher that he can’t think of anything else. It’s not necessarily his fault, that’s exactly how he was trained, and arguably after the whole Eyghon debacle, it’s unlikely that he ever truly had faith in his judgement again. Remember when Giles put Buffy before Jenny, the woman he loves? Buffy comes first, always because the mission is what matters.

On a more speculative note, Giles was aware of Willow’s obsession with magic and didn’t know what to do, instead choosing to believe that he wanted to help her, but he didn’t trust himself to teach her the control she needed. It does narratively fit for Giles to be reluctant to help Willow learn the magicks given his past. However, he neglected her and is at least partially to blame for Willow becoming a magic junkie. He had every opportunity over YEARS to step in and offer her a proper education. He had the skills and if he were hesitant, certainly had the connections to find someone who would teach Willow properly, e.g., the Coven in Devon. The audience is acutely aware after The Dark Age that Giles has a history of abusing dark magic. Note that throughout the series, he does not actually use that much magic himself. This abuse led to Giles having to murder one of his friends among whatever else he and his ‘friends’ got up to, which means he knows full well the ramifications of messing with that kind of power and doesn’t want to go down that rabbit hole again. Magic is an addiction and he’s a recovering addict.

Equally, Willow never asked Giles for help. It’s all very well blaming him for being negligent and grossly irresponsible, but she didn’t ask him to teach her. She didn’t ask him for guidance or whatever, at least not memorably. Assume that he did help her. That he trained her and gave her a proper education in the magicks. There’s no guarantee that any of that would have prevented Willow from taking it too far. Willow has an addictive personality and therefore it makes logical sense for her to become addicted to magic. Ultimately, Giles could have spent years training her, but he can’t make decisions for her, nor does he wish to. Willow is her own person, a bright, capable young woman who is an adult. He cannot push her to do anything and it’s not in his nature to do so. Dark Willow is an inevitability in a sense.

Essentially while Giles staying in Sunnydale would’ve been preferable on a personal level, it would have made very little difference as to whether Willow would abuse the magicks. She’d already done so on countless occasions with no intervention therefore he likely wouldn’t have interfered until it was too little too late. It’s not that he doesn’t care for Willow, but he had other priorities, right or wrong. Should he have helped her? Absolutely. But it takes two to Tango...

#btvs #Buffy The Vampire Slayer #rupert giles #willow rosenberg #meta #very long essay that took too long #sorry for my mess

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detectivejigsawpines · 4 years

Text

A Pinesmas Carol-part 3 (Another family reunion)

This chapter might give you a few cavities. In the best possible way. It's definitely not the calm before the storm of impending doom or anything. Honest.

It was a bigger house than Stan was expecting, and very nice-looking, painted a comfortable dark green that reminded him a little of the trees back...back home.

Ford, who had taken the last turn driving, turned off the ignition, but for a minute Stan made no move to get out of the car. His big hands felt clammy, and he began to wish he hadn’t eaten that breakfast burrito earlier because it felt like it was about to come back up-

A warm hand on his shoulder snapped him out of it.

“Come on,” Ford said softly, “Let’s go see everyone.”

Even though he felt a little reassured, Stan allowed Ford to take the lead, after they retrieved their bags, in going up the steps to the door and ringing the bell.

There was the sound of feet pounding, and suddenly Shermie was there and pulling Ford into a hug that combined some affectionate noogying and scolding that it was “about time you came to visit, you knucklehead!”

Stan and Ford were both on the tall side-they’d probably be the same height if Stan didn’t slouch so much-but Shermie was HUGE. The top of his head was literally brushing against the doorframe, and his shoulders seemed broader than they were the last time Stan had seen him. His hair was still cut shorter than theirs, and Stan was alarmed to see that it was going gray at the temples...but it was still Shermie standing there.

Shermie finally released Ford-and his jaw dropped when he saw Stan behind them.

Stan raised his hand, waved sheepishly.

“Hey Sherm-waugh!”

Shermie thundered down the steps and pulled him into a hug that literally lifted him off his feet.

“Ugh-Shermie-need air-release me-” Stan tried ineffectively to squirm loose.

“No,” Shermie growled, only loosening his grip a tiny bit. “Because if I do that I might try to strangle you.”

“...What’d I ever do ta you?” Stan asked, looking over his brother’s shoulder to his twin. Ford gave him an equally confused shrug.

“Besides disappear for five years and make me worry myself sick wondering what happened to you? Oh, not much.” Shermie at least allowed Stan’s feet to touch the ground again, but without releasing him.

Stan stared down at his brother’s sweater so he could avoid his eyes; it was dark green, with a cabled Star of David and a Christmas wreath interposed over each other, and the words “Celebrate ALL the good times!” underneath in gold. It might have looked kind of tacky if it hadn’t been surprisingly well-knitted.

Probably Rebecca’s work.

“I’d gotten the message that I wasn’t wanted in the family until I’d made a fortune.” As soon as the words left his mouth he groaned inside; great, now he was gonna make both his brothers feel bad, and this wasn’t the time of year for stuff like that-

“For cripes’ sake, Stan!” Shermie pushed him back, gripping his shoulders and shaking him a little.

What is it with these guys and feelin’ the need ta shake me every time I say something that upsets them?

“Look at me,” Shermie ordered.

Stan lifted his head enough to indicate that he was listening, though still not meeting his eyes.

Shermie sighed. “I guess I need to say this straight out so you’ll understand it, because I somehow haven’t made it clear to you before: You. Are. My. Brother. I care about you, no matter what Pa said or did. And if you ever disappear like that again I will personally hire a private investigator to track you down, even if I have to dip into Xander’s college fund to pay him.”

Stan’s shoulders hunched up almost around his ears. “You don’t have ta-”

“Not if you don’t disappear I don’t.” With that, Shermie slung his arm around his shoulders and towed him towards the house, snatching Ford under his other arm on the way.

****

“Speak of the devil, where is Xander?” Stan asked, looking around the house. It was still in the process of being decorated for the holidays, he noticed; boxes of blue and white decorations were in the living room, and an unlit menorah sat on one of the tables next to the sofa. There was also plenty of evidence that a five-year-old boy lived there: toys were scattered helter-skelter, a children’s book was lying open on the sofa, an assortment of dirty dishes had been left next to the sink by parents who were too exhausted by other responsibilities to clean them up right then and there. The only thing missing was the actual five-year-old boy. And the boy’s mother, come to think of it.

“He and Rebecca are at the store getting some last-minute shopping done,” Shermie explained, taking their bags for them. “You guys hungry? We made brisket for lunch and there’s a lot left over.”

“Sure.”

While they ate, Shermie asked them questions about what Gravity Falls was like and what they were doing there.

They’d put a lot of thought into how to answer this in the days before and during the car trip. Because on the one hand, Shermie was on the whole a pretty chill, open-minded guy, so it was possible that he would believe them if they told him about their work with the supernatural. On the other hand, it might be better to do it if he came to their town in person, so he could see some absolutely incontestable proof; they could always have brought something from Gravity Falls to show him, but that created other potential dangers…

In the end they just told Shermie that Ford was studying different kinds of anomalies, keeping the details somewhat vague without making it seem too much like they were hiding something, and that Stan was working as a tour guide.

“I thought it was kind of a small town,” Shermie said with raised eyebrows when he heard the last part.

“Yeah, but there’s pretty interesting stuff if you know where to look for it,” Stan countered smoothly.

“Huh. We’ll have to come up and see it during the summer or something.” Then he seemed to hear his own words, and added hesitantly, “...If that’s all right.”

Stan looked over at Ford, deferring to him; he certainly liked the idea of Shermie and his family coming to visit, but it was Ford’s house. It wasn’t up to him.

Ford toyed with his fork for a second, before smiling at him. “That sounds great.”

****

Just as Stan finished cleaning the extra sauce from his plate with his bread, a door in another part of the house opened, and they heard voices, along with the rustling of grocery bags.

“I wanna carry it! I wanna carry it!”

“No, I told you, it’s too heavy for-! Alexander Hershel Pines, let go!”

Stan looked at Shermie with a raised eyebrow. “Hershel?”

“It wasn’t my idea!” Shermie protested. He stood up and left the kitchen, presumably to offer his wife some much-needed assistance.

Stan felt his nervousness rise up again. Rebecca had always been nice enough to him, and when she met Ford for the first time she’d complimented his hands, endearing her to both of them forever...but it had still been a long time since they’d met. And he hadn’t been a gross, greasy mullet-head criminal-

No. No, he wasn’t like that anymore. He showered on a regular basis now, he’d lost the mullet, he was clean and semi-respectable and maybe kind-of sort-of worth something to these people. He still had to unclench his hand from around his fork as his sister-and-law and nephew came into the kitchen.

When the little boy saw them, he froze, eyes widening...and then darted behind his mother’s legs.

“Xander,” Rebecca sighed in a voice of fond exasperation as she put her bags on the counter, “those are Daddy’s brothers. Remember, I told you they were coming today? You remember Uncle Ford, at least.”

Xander didn’t speak; he just peered around her at them, eyes wide and brown.

Stan waved at him, and smiled. “Hey.” Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ford curling his hands, hiding his fingers, and sighed inwardly. Even if it was kind of refreshing to see that he wasn’t the only one having insecurities about this.

“And that’s your other uncle, Stanley.” Rebecca beamed at Stan, and came over to give him a hug as he stood up. “We’re so glad you could make it.”

“Heh. No problem.” The words came out awkwardly, but she didn’t seem to mind as she hugged Ford next and tried to encourage Xander to say hi to his uncles.

It turned out that the guest room had two beds in it, so both of them were being put up in there.

“Heh, if these were bunk beds it’d be like the pawnshop,” Stan said, dropping his bag onto the bed he’d claimed, which was right by the window (old instinct of needing a possible escape route).

“Except better,” Ford replied.

“...Yeah, I guess so.” Stan flopped onto the bed to try it out. “Mmm, nice mattress. Real soft.”

Ford snorted.

“What? It is.” He gave an exaggerated stretch, squashing his face into the pillow.

“You’re a goof.”

“Whatever.”

****

They went back downstairs soon enough; Ford offered to help Rebecca with dinner, and despite warning her that she might regret letting a guy who put dangerous chemicals in the fridge on a regular business hang around the food, Stan instead helped Shermie and Xander with putting up decorations.

“So what’re you even calling this whole shindig?” Stan asked as he wound a string of blue and white lights around the banister. “Chrismukkah?”

“Yes, actually!” Shermie said with a grin. “There’s plenty of other people who celebrate it too.”

Stan blinked. “I had no idea that was a thing.”

“Yup.” Shermie helped his son uncoil more lights and hand them to Stan. “Okay, try plugging them in and see how it looks.”

It looked all right to Stan, but Shermie frowned and unwound them to tighten up a section that he thought was a little too loose. And then he repeated the process two more times before finally declaring he was satisfied, leaving Stan rolling his eyes and singing to himself about sitting here like birds in the wilderness.

And to his surprise and delight, Xander giggled at the song, and gave him a shy smile.

Stan grinned back.

********

Believe it or not, Chrismukkah is actually a thing.

#flipside au #stan pines #ford pines #chrismukkah #shermie pines #OCs #cute fluff

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maple-rose · 7 years

Text

Hoshido Fam Headcanons

Hinoka used to have long hair. She cut it off when she took up the Naginata. Sakura kept her hair short to be like her sister. Ryoma kept his hair long to be like his father (plus it's just the samurai look). Takumi kept his hair long and in a ponytail to be like Mikoto (plus the ponytail keeps hair out of his face, he has no idea how Ryoma manages without putting his hair up, maybe the mask helps)

Hoshido sibs’ mother, Ikona, was a kind, but her body was frail.

Ikona knew Sumeragi was in love with Mikoto. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't jealous at all. But after getting assurance from Sumeragi that he didn't love her any less, she gave blessing to Sumeragi taking Mikoto as his second wife. The two became friends.

(warning: long post is long)

Ikona was a Kinshi Knight; back when she was younger and healthier she was quite the warrior. She wielded the Fujin Yumi, and everyone admired her form and grace. Reina used to be her retainer.

Corrin was about 3 years old when they came to Hoshido. Takumi had recently been born. At that point, Ikona's health was already declining, and Takumi's birth took a lot out of her. Mikoto helped her a lot raising Takumi, who was a rather attention-needy baby.

Corrin would follow Hinoka and Ryoma like a little chick. Hinoka got really attached to them, and would sometimes use them as a dress-up doll. Ryoma liked to show little Corrin all the cool places around the castle.

Ikona died from complications due to childbirth after giving birth to Sakura. On her deathbed, she asked Mikoto to please take care of her children for her.

On her deathbed, Ikona asked Ryoma and Hinoka to please take care of their younger siblings as well as Mikoto and her child. Hinoka was too busy crying her eyes out and begging her not to leave them to really listen to her. But Ryoma wiped away his tears and solemnly nodded.

Shortly after Ikona's death and before The Kidnapping, Sumeragi told Ryoma (who was around 13 at the time) about Corrin not being his child. Then he told Ryoma to "please take care of our family when I'm not there", especially Mikoto and Corrin, who might receive opposition from outsiders. Ryoma replied "What do you mean Father, you'll always be around" because he couldn't imagine his dad not being there. Sumeragi just smiled and patted Ryoma's head.

Ryoma was there when Sumeragi was killed and Corrin was taken away. But he was too frozen in fear to do anything. By the time he thought to take action, it was too late. Sumeragi's retainers and Hoshidan soldiers whisked him away to protect him from harm while he screamed at them to take him back to the battlefield. From then on he developed a sort of complex, blaming himself for not being able to do anything back then, which led to an obsession with getting Corrin back (he couldn't bring his Father back to life), because then he could forgive himself.

Everyone dealt with the aftermath differently.

Ryoma became quiet, he idolized his father, so Sumeragi’s death hurt him the most; also he couldn't forgive himself for being useless, so he vent his frustration by training. He promised his father and mother (Ikona) he'll take care of his family, so he had to get stronger in order to do so.

Hinoka wouldn’t stop crying. She loved her father dearly, and she was mad the Nohrian’s took her sibling away, and mad at herself for being powerless

Mikoto was mourning the death of her husband and loss of her child. But she couldn’t show it in front of anyone. Instead, she had to be strong for the remaining children she promised Ikona she’d protect.

The government needed someone to take charge since they lost their King. Mikoto had to step up to that role because Ryoma was too young. There was dissent among the court and public about her becoming the next queen, but she had to do her best to bear with it.

Ryoma saw this. Realizing she was also suffering, and remembering his promise to Ikona, he went to Mikoto’s defense, and tried really hard to get the people to accept her.

Ryoma would often get hot-headed over this

Mikoto was grateful for Ryoma’s help. And seeing Ryoma’s struggle with getting his emotion under control, she asked Kagero to teach Ryoma how to meditate

As Hinoka got older, she saw that Ryoma and Mikoto were trying to hold the family together. Knowing her gentle nature, Ryoma protected her from everything and she was starting to see the toll it was taking on him.

So one day, she decided to cut her hair, and told herself in the mirror that she would stop crying and start taking action. She decided to become a pegasus knight so she could fly to Corrin.

After Hinoka took up the Naginata, she was quite reckless. Mikoto was quite worried about her, but she still hasn’t accepted Mikoto as her mother, so she was quite obstinate and would argue with her saying things like “you’re not even my mom”

One day Hinoka heard soft sobbings from Mikoto’s room; the door was ajar, so she peeked inside and saw Mikoto crying over a picture of Corrin. Hinoka felt really bad and came to realize that Mikoto was suffering just as much as she was over the loss of Corrin. From then on she tried to be more sensitive and considerate of Mikoto’s feelings

Hinoka was the only sibling that Ryoma felt he could really open up to. He felt like he had to act as a role model for the younger ones, so he tries to never depend on them.

At the same time, Ryoma was the only one who knew Hinoka back when she was a crybaby. While everyone else admires her for her battle prowess and fiery nature, Ryoma still remembers when she would cry over the smallest things

Sometimes he teases her about it, and she would get all embarrassed or angry. But it’s not like she doesn’t have ammo of her own. Before Sumeragi died, Ryoma was pretty reckless and hotheaded and got into all sorts of trouble, and Hinoka has stories from those days

Reckless Hinoka caused Ryoma a lot of grief. He often ended up having to rescue her, or reassure Mikoto when she got worried. He would get mad at Hinoka and give her long lectures. Throughout the whole thing, Hinoka would keep quiet. She’s the only one who’s seen Ryoma actually angry, and is rather afraid of him.

They saw how each other changed and grew from the events of losing their parents, and share a special bond (which is why I think Conquest!Ryoma was most affected by the news of Hinoka’s “death”)

Takumi grew into quite the momma’s boy. He was pretty clingy when he was younger, but would never admit it when he got older.

Takumi was too young when his father died so he doesn’t have many memories of him. His older sibs and Mikoto would tell him stories of Sumeragi

When he was younger, Takumi wanted to be a swordsman just like his father and big brother. But after trying out the sword and watching Ryoma practice, he saw the huge gap in skill (even though he just started and Ryoma had been practicing for years) and decided to stop pursuing the sword. Mikoto suggested trying out the bow, and offered to teach him. He seemed to have a natural talent for it, and liked getting praised. He also liked the time spent with Mikoto

Ryoma tried his best to be a father figure to him, making time to spend with Takumi. But Ryoma was also a genius and a natural and seemingly good at everything he does, which Takumi can’t match. But unlike Leo, who tries his best to beat Xander, Takumi’s inferiority complex made him quickly give up at trying to beat Ryoma. Instead, he puts Ryoma on a pedestal, thinking that “my brother is amazing, nobody can be like him, so I don’t feel bad that I can’t be like him either”. He treasures his time with Ryoma as well, and likes the fact that he is Ryoma’s only little brother (that is, until (male) Corrin decides to come home)

Takumi respects Hinoka, but not quite the same degree as he has for Ryoma. Often he doesn’t understand her drive for this “Corrin” sibling he’s never met, and they get into arguments a lot. But then she often gets worried about him when he stomps off in anger and makes sure to make up with him (often with a peace offering of food)

Sakura also sort of has an inferiority complex as well, being the youngest and really shy. But instead of giving up like Takumi, she thinks she always needs to do better

She respects Hinoka and admires her drive and fighting prowess. Ryoma would tell her stories about crybaby Hinoka (and if Hinoka overheard, she would always bat at Ryoma to stop (with no avail)), but Sakura doesn’t really believe him.

She respects Ryoma a lot, seeing how much he’s doing for his family and country, and looking at how much she’s doing, she never feels like it’s enough. She also never knew her father, so Ryoma sometimes feels like a father to her.

Ryoma worries about her, but she would always smile and put up a wall of “I’m fine, you have a lot to worry about, so don’t worry about me”, and when she becomes like that, he’s unsure how to reach her. Instead he pats her on the head and says “well, let me know if you need anything” even though they both know she wouldn’t, because she’d feel like being a bother. Instead he makes sure Sakura’s retainers take good care of her, or sometimes asks his ninjas to secretly check up on her.

Maybe because she’s the youngest or maybe because he sees her always doing her best, but Ryoma kind of dotes on Sakura. Whenever he travels somewhere for any reason, he would bring back a box of local sweets for her, which would always delight her.

Sakura is Takumi’s ear when he wants to complain about stuff, esp when he becomes sick of hearing about Corrin. He sees Sakura as an ally who also doesn’t know or care about Corrin.

Sakura actually is very curious about Corrin and wants to meet them. But she knows not to say anything when Takumi is ranting, and just smiles and offers him a sweet.

Takumi is actually pretty overprotective of Sakura. It’s his only chance to be a big brother and he likes to exercise it whenever he has the opportunity to. If anyone makes Sakura cry, they’re going to face the wrath of Takumi.

Sakura liked to hear stories about Ikona, but Takumi refuses to listen to any, saying “Mikoto is my mother, she’s the only mother I know”. Mikoto felt happy hearing that, but also a little sad and he would never get to know Ikona.

When Azura arrived at Hoshido, she looked like a doll, her eyes lifeless.

Ryoma tried his best to get her to open up. He took her to festivals, put all sorts of food in front of her, but she acted disinterested

This was before Hinoka decided to take up the lance. When she first met Azura, she said “you’re not Corrin.” Ryoma berated her for saying that, but Azura just stared back at her blankly. Hinoka tried, awkwardly, to share her dolls with Azura, to no avail, and Hinoka quickly gave up

Takumi was too young to really understand anything, but he would instinctively cling more to Mikoto every time he sensed Mikoto gave Azura attention.

Eventually, with Mikoto’s coaxing, Ryoma’s persistence, and general calmer environment, Azura started to relax and open up. She still acted distant, but at least she started to smile.

Takumi never learned to trust her though, always suspicious of her as he learned of her Nohrian origin

Hinoka tries to dote on Azura (taking her shopping or to festivals), perhaps to make up for being mean to her when they first met. Azura would smile and accept her kindness. They sometimes practice using lances together.

It took Sakura a long time to properly start talking to Azura; she was intimidated by her aloof aura. But once Sakura got over her shyness, the two actually became pretty close. Sakura loved to hear Azura sing and would often ask her to sing her to sleep. Azura liked to tease her with scary stories.

Mikoto’s death affected everyone differently

Ryoma stayed calm during the event, barking out orders to evacuate the citizens and deal with the enemy threat. He had become really good at keeping his emotions in check, but if you looked closely, you could see his hand shaking. After the event, he went to his parents’ (Sumeragi and Ikona) grave and apologized for not being able to keep his promise to them. He cried later in the privacy of his room.

Hinoka’s knees gave out and was in a daze. Ryoma had to snap her out of it a couple of times to not get killed by the enemy. Tears streamed down her face as she fought; she tried not to let anyone else see and kept wiping them away, but they saw anyway. Afterwards, she was solemn. She reflected on and regretted all the mean things she said to Mikoto. She would often go fly on her pegasus, letting the wind dry her tears.

Takumi openly wailed and kept trying to go to Mikoto’s body, his retainers had to pull him back. He also tried to shoot Corrin, and Ryoma had to physically stop him. Afterwards, he took it pretty hard; he was closest to Mikoto. He blamed himself for not being there to protect her, but then started channeling all his feelings into hostility towards Corrin.

Sakura managed to hold it together during the event. She was crying the whole time, but kept calm and did her duty. The number of injured citizens probably distracted her. But afterwards, she was inconsolable for many days, refusing to eat or leave her room. It was the first time she really lost anyone close to her (since she doesn’t remember her birth parents). Hana stayed with her the whole time and let her cry on her shoulder.

Azura was busy trying to calm down Dragon Corrin during the event. Afterwards, she mourned Mikoto in private, but was her usual aloof self in public. So much so that Takumi lashed out at her saying “why don’t you care that our mother is dead?!”

Corrin blamed themselves, even though Azura and Kaze assured them it wasn’t their fault. They felt guilty seeing Sakura and Hinoka cry, and tried to avoid Takumi, who was constantly glaring at them.

Well, that ended sad. I have more hc about these dorks, but I think this post is already too long as it is.

#fire emblem fates #fe fates #fe fates headcanon #fire emblem fates headcanon #hoshido family #fates hoshido royals #fe14

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