playthough From Everland to Reborn ~ A fairytale themed run [Last defeated: Amaria]

[Candy]

The Little Police Officer ~ Part 3 of 3

Happy 2021 eberrybody! Thx for reading this longass fic with its multiple "spin offs". I started it a whale ago, but I was only able to keep writing for this long cause of y'all's comments  Here  is to another good year for us, and maaaybe for Vanilla? Idk.

That being said, I'ma start with the last part of The Little Police Officer, cause that's what I felt like writing lmao. Short and sweet bitter, like Levi.

 

“Dad, I… I’ll join the Everland Police,” I said.

My dad wasn’t surprised.

“That is great news. I’m sure you’ll do an excellent job,” he said. “Now it’s time for me to keep my side of the deal.”

So much had happened since I was 14 and made the promise, that I didn’t remember what my dad’s side of the deal was.

“You asked me why I keep so many men when Everland’s low crime rates don’t seem to warrant it,” he reminded me. “The answer is that it is warranted because the other Everland has a high enough crime rate.”

“The other Everland?” I asked.

The story that my dad proceeded to tell me was almost as unbelievable as the witness testimony in Vanilla’s court hearing had been.

“Underneath the Everland that we live in, we have a subterranean society. We call that place the Underworld, and most of my officers are sent to patrol the place. The people who are enclosed in there have to do mostly agricultural jobs, but there are also factories, refineries and other plants they can work at. Electricity in Everland, for instance, is managed by the Underworld.”

“What?”

“Those people don’t have the privilege of us here in the Overworld, and tend to commit much more crime in the shape of robbery and murder. There are also some groups, that collectively call themselves the Defiance, that attempt to escape oppression by overthrowing our monarchy. They have ransacked factories, and have attempted to poison the food that we would eat, among other less major crimes. They don’t generally harm Underworld civilians but are a pain for us because they target officers to diminish police presence and to steal our weaponry.”

“Wait, wait what? Why does the Underworld exist? And why am I learning about this just now?” I asked, so confused that I didn’t know what other questions needed to be asked.

“In the beginning, there was nothing. No peace. No hope. No freedom,” my father said, quoting the first sentences of the Book of Influx. “I am sure there was also no Underworld. The Book of Influx doesn’t tell you much, but what it tells you is what the author thought Everland must represent: peace, hope and happiness. I believe the Underworld exists so that our Overworld can attain those ideals. Peace cannot exist in a place with too many people, especially people that aren’t satisfied with their lives. Hope cannot exist where despair abounds. And happiness cannot exist in a world where people are forced to do jobs they don’t want, or where they don’t obtain enough of what they want.”

“Is that what you were told officially, or just a deduction based on an old scripture?”

“The latter. What we are told officially is that this is how Everland was designed so that they could create a region that was as great as a region could be. The reason that it isn’t publicly available knowledge is also that. If the 300,000 habitants of the Overworld knew of it, I’m sure some of them would start revolting to advocate for the Underworld’s better quality of life. You couldn’t call a region with unrest a peaceful, hopeful or happy region.”

“That’s insane,” I said. “And I’m supposed to keep the secret too. And I’m supposed to be part of an organization that keeps those people enclosed down below. How does that match with the values you’ve taught me?”

“You have valid criticisms. However, you must’ve realized… that is, you must know that there is a limit to how much evil we can correct,” he said.

He was saying a similar thing to what he said after Vanilla’s trial half a year ago, so I assumed he was referring to that.

“I am not talking about you cheating in the tournament, but of the Leiderhosen court hearing,” he said, confirming my thoughts.

However, once I replayed what he had just said in my head, I knew I was in trouble. My eyes felt like they were going to fall off their sockets when I stared at my dad.

“So you knew? I… I can explain…”

“There’s no need to explain. I was unhappy that you’d broken our promise not to use your ribbon in the match, but I was hoping you’d learn from the experience. At that moment, you got away, just like you suspect Vanilla did. We as police officers can’t make every wrong right, for we are not God or the Queen. We cannot track every single person in Everland to see whether they commit a crime, as much as we do not have enough political power to make changes in the region’s structure. Keeping a functional society, just as Everland has been for the years it has existed, is our real objective.”

“No way…”

I slumped to my chair. My dad slowly stood up and placed a hand on my head.

“I know you’re a righteous kid, Jasmin,” he said. “And an idealist. However, I don’t want you to choose to be an officer by the ideals of the profession, but by the profession itself. Can you keep the Underworld a secret, can you keep enforcing the law, and can you keep protecting the Queen, despite knowing that the laws of the world you live in aren’t perfect? Can you do that, in order to keep a functioning society? If the answer is no, tell me at once. I will not be disappointed.”

I did not answer right away, but by the same night, I had formed a reply. 

That’s because the moment that my dad told me about how the majority of the Police force was used to protect us from the people of the Underworld, I overcame every insecurity I’d felt in joining in the first place. I no longer felt ashamed to join law enforcement while having cheated in front of a multitude and having lied to get away with it. I had actually made the incorrect conclusion. It wasn’t that it was impossible to correct every evil; while that was still true, I had to add a second part to it. 

“It’s impossible to correct every evil, even if one is aware of all the evils.”

The Police made the choice to turn a blind eye to the evil that our society imposed on the people of the Underworld, much as I tried to ignore the evil I committed in the tournament, or the judge pardoned Vanilla’s crimes. As long as we were human, we could never reliably choose between what’s correct and what’s convenient for oneself.

 

That day onward, I started to wear my hair up, tied in a ponytail with my ribbon. It had stopped being a “third arm” or the reminder of my sins. Now, it was a potential weapon I could use to fight and capture criminals, but which would be most useful if used on an ignorant target. As such, I never used the ability unless really necessary. I admit I used it a few more times during martial arts battles, but only when my ability being found was the least likely.

 

My dad taught me more about the Underworld and the Defiance groups. My initial shock on finding out about the subterranean society was gradually watered down as I started to understand that I wouldn’t be able to keep my current convenient lifestyle unless the Underworld existed. Soon enough, the Defiance had turned from victims of oppression to a threat to my and my loved ones’ well-being, and I decided I wouldn’t rest until I had gotten rid of all of them. That would be my life’s goal- a challenge that I was willing to give myself, even if correcting every evil was truly impossible.

“If you manage to do that, you’ll become as big a legend as Yveneas The First,” my dad said, jokingly.

 

As for Vanilla, I kept an eye on her, but it wasn’t until one time, when I was taking a stroll at night, that I saw anything suspicious. When I saw her going down a rabbithole carrying a sizeable bag on her back, I thought I had hit the jackpot. I just needed more concrete proofs to support what Officer Woods had said in the trial. I needed more evidence… like fingerprints or video recordings… stuff that I could only acquire if I had a trusty infiltrator.

[Evi Crystal]

Wow. The more I'm reading about Jasmine's backstory and reasons, the more I starting to respect her much. No offense to Vanini. And I think, I pierced the puzzles with the whole V. J. A mystery together.

 

Also happy (late) new year 2021

[Aphelli]

Happy new year Candy! 

That’s a very fitting end to J’s origin story arc. It puts it inside the main continuity and provides her with (sadly) very understandable motivations about her place in Everland. 
 

But now, I’m wondering what kind of society Vanilla wants to make when (if?) she comes back to overthrow the Queen... if the “compromise” (well, not that everyone had a choice in the matter) was that the Underworld suffer for the Overworld, is she going to make everyone equally miserable? Or does she (or someone else) have a better plan? (I’m pretty sure that we could suggest a few ideas after two centuries of political reflections and experimentation)

[Candy]

37 minutes ago, Evi Crystal said:

Wow. The more I'm reading about Jasmine's backstory and reasons, the more I starting to respect her much. No offense to Vanini. And I think, I pierced the puzzles with the whole V. J. A mystery together.

 

Also happy (late) new year 2021

I’d written Jasmin as “an unstoppable force” that is bound to be hated due to how merciless she is against the protagonist, but writing her backstory made me like her. It’s interesting to think about how different a story FEtR would be if it had been told from Jasmin’s perspective. The way I’ve written the story, the readers (I’m making a sweeping assumption here) would support Vanilla in her endeavor to get revenge. However whose morality is more correct? Probably neither  but these are the types of conflicts that exist and are the reason why wars can’t be avoided.

 

10 minutes ago, Mindlack said:

Happy new year Candy! 

That’s a very fitting end to J’s origin story arc. It puts it inside the main continuity and provides her with (sadly) very understandable motivations about her place in Everland. 
 

But now, I’m wondering what kind of society Vanilla wants to make when (if?) she comes back to overthrow the Queen... if the “compromise” (well, not that everyone had a choice in the matter) was that the Underworld suffer for the Overworld, is she going to make everyone equally miserable? Or does she (or someone else) have a better plan? (I’m pretty sure that we could suggest a few ideas after two centuries of political reflections and experimentation)

I like your thinking, fren. So far I’ve not gone into what kind of society Vanini wants to create once she overthrows the Queen, and there’s good reason for that which will be covered in a season or two if and when she returns to Everland (wow I’ve used the word Everland so much that autocorrect actually corrected me on its spelling lmao).

[Evi Crystal]

6 minutes ago, Candy said:

I’d written Jasmin as “an unstoppable force” that is bound to be hated due to how merciless she is against the protagonist, but writing her backstory made me like her. It’s interesting to think about how different a story FEtR would be if it had been told from Jasmin’s perspective. The way I’ve written the story, the readers (I’m making a sweeping assumption here) would support Vanilla in her endeavor to get revenge. However whose morality is more correct? Probably neither  but these are the types of conflicts that exist and are the reason why wars can’t be avoided

Well I still hate her for invoking some tragedies, but it makes her a human with real goals and not a heartless monster, like most of poorly cliche stories.

 

Also one question: What Pokemon would Jasmine use, if she had a team like Vanilla? Like some dog themed mons like Stoundland, Arcanine, (Mega) Houndoom or even a Grandbull. Not some glamour ones, because she doesn't has the "Mean Girl Bully" vibes in my opinion

 

My moneys on the the first 4 Pokemon, because she's an officer like her father and most officers mainly used Grownlithe or Herdiers. Add at a Liepard and Altaria in.

[Corso]

47 minutes ago, Candy said:

Probably neither

 

1 hour ago, Mindlack said:

is she going to make everyone equally miserable? Or does she (or someone else) have a better plan?

Some months ago I've watched an interesting documentary about how Mao Zedong reformed China: the general impression was that Mao was the spokesman and the one good at "destroying" the old system, but once the new society was eastablished his second in command (I forgot the name sorry) was the only one with the necessary know-how to get things running. That is to say I believe Vanilla is a lot like Mao: she's an idealist, mesmerized by the encounter with the old Defiance leader (forgot the name), aspiring to be a heroine not because of the people suffering but because she wants to prove she can do it. As a matter of fact, her fight against Team Meteor has always been a method to train her team and never a fight for justice or for the people of Reborn. Besides, early Vanilla has often showed enjoyment in humiliating her opponent, both physically and in pokemon battles.

Vanilla doesn't know and isn't interested in what will come after her revolution. She just chose the side that would have given her the best opportunity to shine. Or at least that was her initial motivation, things may have changed in the last part of the season.

As for Jasmine, she chose the opposite side but I don't think her motive is that different from Vanilla's. To be fair, her father mentioning the chance to become a hero like whatever-the-first may have had on Jasmine the same effect meeting the old Defiance leader had on Vanilla.

That brings me to the first message I quoted: I don't believe there is any morality involved in this. They are fighting for their own egoistical needs (to be a force to be reckoned with for Vanilla, to be a hero / to preserve her privileges / to impress her father for Jasmine). In fact, I don't think I'm wrong when I remember both of them using cheap tactics against their opponents. And while Jasmine has the blood of the rebels on her hands, Vanilla would have probably accepted the blood of the rich overworld-ers (?) killed by the group she was supporting.

 

It's quite a long text and it's probably full of typos or badly expressed concepts but I'm not going to edit lol. Btw bla bla this is my opinion bla bla.

 

And if Jasmine doesn't use Sylveon I'll make my own Defiance against Candy. I wonder if there are other pokemon with weird limbs and tentacles, maybe Tangrowth? Tentacruel?

[Evi Crystal]

16 minutes ago, Corso said:

And if Jasmine doesn't use Sylveon I'll make my own Defiance against Candy. I wonder if there are other pokemon with weird limbs and tentacles, maybe Tangrowth? Tentacruel?

Haha, I forgot that Sylveon has the ribbons. Sorry

 

I think Sylveon, because it fits more better with it. Tentacruel could be also as an alternative from the word "cruel"

[Candy]

58 minutes ago, Corso said:

That brings me to the first message I quoted: I don't believe there is any morality involved in this.

Thanks for the thorough analysis, and you're pretty spot-on on everything you said. I don't know much about Mao, but fiction tends to resemble reality. The duo of Vanilla and Wolfie might've been almost exactly as Mao and that second dude were.

I don't know if I have a writing style, but I like to write about raw human-human interactions in their various complexities (as far as the limit of my imagination will allow me to). FEtR is, at the same time, all about morality and not about morality at all. Every major character thinks they are in the right, or at least don't think they're wrong, or think that the ends justify the means, but they're all too young (18-22 y/o) to have enough understanding of politics and sociology to think of anything more than "enemy is bad, I gotta get rid of enemy and everything will be good".

 

1 hour ago, Corso said:

And if Jasmine doesn't use Sylveon I'll make my own Defiance against Candy.

 

2 hours ago, Evi Crystal said:

Also one question: What Pokemon would Jasmine use, if she had a team like Vanilla? Like some dog themed mons like Stoundland, Arcanine, (Mega) Houndoom or even a Grandbull. Not some glamour ones, because she doesn't has the "Mean Girl Bully" vibes in my opinion

:fufu:

Jasmin has a tiger in Disney's Aladdin, so I imagine she'd have quite a few felines, if she had the luxury of choice.

[Corso]

7 hours ago, Candy said:

you're pretty spot-on on everything you said

I-it's not like I like your work and your character development or anything, b-baka!

[Aphelli]

13 hours ago, Corso said:

Vanilla is [...] an idealist, mesmerized by the encounter with the old Defiance leader (forgot the name), aspiring to be a heroine not because of the people suffering but because she wants to prove she can do it. As a matter of fact, her fight against Team Meteor has always been a method to train her team and never a fight for justice or for the people of Reborn. Besides, early Vanilla has often showed enjoyment in humiliating her opponent, both physically and in pokemon battles.

 

I'd need to check it again, because it's been a while, but I think the humiliation is for people who antagonized her (Fern, the jerk barring the way to Opal Bridge, etc -- not unlike a bunch of "better" characters in terms of alignment, in different stories). [Warning: this is a tvtropes link]

She's (I think?) the one who escalates the confrontation, but not the one who starts it. I don't think she humiliated (or liked humiliating), say, Shelly.

 

Fair point for Reborn, but not sure about the original Defiance motivation. That may have been a part at the start, but now?

 

Quote

Vanilla doesn't know and isn't interested in what will come after her revolution. She just chose the side that would have given her the best opportunity to shine. Or at least that was her initial motivation, things may have changed in the last part of the season.

 

That might be a bit too cynical. Then again, I'm not the one comparing Vanilla to Mao.

 

Quote

As for Jasmine, she chose the opposite side but I don't think her motive is that different from Vanilla's. To be fair, her father mentioning the chance to become a hero like whatever-the-first may have had on Jasmine the same effect meeting the old Defiance leader had on Vanilla.

 

Yes, that makes sense.

 

Quote

That brings me to the first message I quoted: I don't believe there is any morality involved in this. They are fighting for their own egoistical needs (to be a force to be reckoned with for Vanilla, to be a hero / to preserve her privileges / to impress her father for Jasmine). In fact, I don't think I'm wrong when I remember both of them using cheap tactics against their opponents. And while Jasmine has the blood of the rebels on her hands, Vanilla would have probably accepted the blood of the rich overworld-ers (?) killed by the group she was supporting.

 

It's always about morality, or at least morality as they perceive it. As Candy said, with large doses of "ends justify the means", and you're probably right about the bloodshed they're willing to accept. I'm afraid I also have to disagree on the "cheap tactics". I don't think they're a kind of weakened morality, just a logical necessity. Both Vanilla and Jasmine know for a fact that their opponent hates their guts, wants them dead, and does not fight honorably. They want to live. Ergo, they have to defend against the treachery that they know is coming. And the best defence is, well...

 

12 hours ago, Candy said:

Thanks for the thorough analysis, and you're pretty spot-on on everything you said. I don't know much about Mao, but fiction tends to resemble reality. The duo of Vanilla and Wolfie might've been almost exactly as Mao and that second dude were.

 

Uh... Are you sure that's what you mean? What Mao did makes me very nervous about Vanilla now... (short version: the death toll that can be blamed on him easily rivals that of WW2).

 

Quote

I don't know if I have a writing style, but I like to write about raw human-human interactions in their various complexities (as far as the limit of my imagination will allow me to). FEtR is, at the same time, all about morality and not about morality at all. Every major character thinks they are in the right, or at least don't think they're wrong, or think that the ends justify the means, but they're all too young (18-22 y/o) to have enough understanding of politics and sociology to think of anything more than "enemy is bad, I gotta get rid of enemy and everything will be good".

 

Yes, and it's very good (and probably very realistic, mindset-wise) this way! It would be strange if some of the characters believed they were evil and not justified in their actions, because few people do.

[Candy]

1 hour ago, Mindlack said:

Uh... Are you sure that's what you mean? What Mao did makes me very nervous about Vanilla now...

As I said idk wtf Mao did (rn anyway, if I remember I’ll check those links xD) but I was just referring to the dynamic of Vanilla-Wolfie duo. Vanilla is not a deep thinker (unlike Gabriel for instance) because she’s a doer and relied on Wolfie’s brain for most of her life.

But whether or not Vanilla planned to go full-on Mao, I wonder if the circumstances would even allow that to even happen...

[Candy]

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 82

I wanted to make a meme about this part of the story, but I don't have time so maybe I'll hafta make it for next episode lmao

 

The sandstorm came on and off intermittently, probably all throughout the night. I couldn’t make sure of it, however, because once I tucked myself under the blanket, I was pretty much a goner.

However, at one point during the night, I woke up to Taka trying to sneak under the blanket.

“Ah, sorry. Did I wake you?” he asked.

“Yes. What time is it?”

Taka squinted and checked his watch.

“It’s 2:15 am.”

“Why are you awake so late?”

“I was actually asleep until Julia’s arm hit my face,” he said, snickering. “She’s as terrifying asleep as she is awake.”

“What? We placed Archer between you two so that you wouldn’t have to get hit. I guess she doesn’t stop at anything, even when asleep.”

However, as soon as my eyes got used to the dark, I realized there was a better explanation: Archer wasn’t sleeping next to Julia. In fact, he wasn’t in the tent at all.

I sat upright, and instantly looked away from where Archer was supposed to be, to where all our bags were gathered. His backpack, which was the biggest of them, was gone.

“God damn it,” I exclaimed. “I should’ve seen this coming.”

I tried to jump out of the blanket but Taka pushed me down on my shoulders. I was reminded of my stupid sunburn by how much my skin hurt on my knees and shoulders despite the ointment.

“Vanilla, calm down. You’ll wake Julia.”

“What are you saying? Do you think this is time to be sleeping? That asshole just up and left with all of our water supplies.”

I slapped Taka’s hand off of me and I crawled over, not without pain, to where my bag was, waking Pikachu in the process. He watched with drowsy confusion as Taka crawled after me and grabbed my arm.

“There’s no need to do that,” he said. “Why would you jump to that conclusion first? Shouldn’t you give him the benefit of the doubt? After all, if it wasn’t for Julia and him, we’d be goners by now.”

“You literally know nothing about that guy. Why’re you defending him now? Stop being an idiot and wake Julia up. He shouldn’t be too far gone if we follow him now.”

I ripped his hand off my arm, probably hurting his hand as much as I hurt my arm. He held his hand with his other one, and squeezed it a few times.

“Calm down. I know where he is,” he said. 

That made me stop my movements. I looked back at Taka.

“What?”

“I said, I know where he is,” he repeated. “He’s pretty close by and not escaping by any means.”

I moved closer to him.

“If you know where he is,” I said quietly, and said the next part louder: “Why the f*ck didn’t you say that right away?”

Taka fell back on his butt from being shouted at from a short distance. My shout also reached Julia, for, even though she was very deeply asleep, she twisted and turned a couple of times.

“Calm down. I tried to tell you, but you didn’t even give me a chance to speak before you started packing up.”

“Fine... alright... I’m sorry. I’m just too on edge when it comes to Archer. I always have to worry about what he might do next to get at me, you know?”

“I don’t know. He doesn’t seem like a mean person to me.”

I glared at Taka, but I sighed. It wasn’t fair for me to judge him when he was just plain ignorant. 

Besides, it was also true that Archer was only mean to me, not to anyone else.

“Anyway, what on earth is Archer doing at this goddamn hour? You said you saw him. Did you see what he was plo-”

“I don’t think he was plotting anything, if that’s what you were wondering,” he said, cutting me right off. “I saw him. He was… dancing in the rain.”

“Dancing? In the rain?”

I checked the transparent plastic ‘window’ on our tent. There were no water drops on it, which I would’ve expect to see if it were raining. I looked at Taka for an explanation.

“Well, it’s naturally not raining here. I mean we’re kind of in the middle of a desert,” he said. “He’s dancing with his water type pokemon to make it rain. He’s managed to accumulate the clouds to a little patch on the sky, and to make them rain.”

“So he’s taking a shower in the middle of the night? What an ass. Making it look like our water supplies were limited when he literally could make it rain whenever.”

“I think you mistake him, but it’s my fault for not telling the story well. I’m sorry, let me try again,” Taka said and cleared his throat. “He had all the water bottles open and gathered in the center while the pokemon and him were dancing around. In simpler words, Vanilla, I think he was making it rain to replenish our water supplies.”

“Oh.”

I didn’t know what to say. If this was true, it would mean that I had yet one more thing to thank him for. I wondered if that was his actual goal: to annoy me by constantly putting me in his debt.

“Well, it’s obvious he should be getting us water. After all, the whole reason Julia insisted we brought him was to secure a water source and to fight off ground-type pokemon,” I said. “Anyone would try getting water at any cost if it was crucial to keep people alive. Are you going to tell me you wouldn’t?”

“No, I would. How about you, Vanilla?”

“Of course, I would. Even if the thirsty person was Archer or Fern or Blake or Aladdin… you get the idea.”

I felt like I was reaching too far now. I couldn’t be absolutely sure that I wouldn’t just turn a blind eye to at least some of those people.

Taka wasn’t convinced about downplaying Archer’s generosity, but let the topic rest for now. Instead, he tucked himself under the blanket, and I did the same after giving Pikachu a couple of headpats to reassure him everything was alright.

 

“Can I ask you something?” Taka asked.

“What is it?”

“Are you related to Candy Leiderhosen? I mean I saw you two together and you both being from Everland and all. I hope it’s not an impertinent question.”

“Yeah. We’re cousins.”

Taka didn’t make a comment, but I believed I could guess his thoughts. Most people I met who were made aware of my kinship with Candy had a similar response, so it wasn’t a hard guess.

“You think it’s incredible that we’re cousins? Because I’m not the kind-hearted optimist she is?”

“I was surprised, but not because of that. It’s just that you two don’t really look related, apart from maybe your hairstyles.”

“Albinism is a recessive trait.”

“I guess that plays a big part. Don’t mind me.”

There was a pause here. I attempted to fall asleep with little success, but was brought back to full awakening when Taka spoke to me again.

“Candy was the one who told me to let our battle decide for me what side to choose,” he said. “She’s kind hearted, as you said, but also quite simpleminded.”

“It doesn’t surprise me in the least,” I snorted.

“But that was exactly what I needed. To think in simple terms. I think I over-thought about my responsibility as my father’s son and my wish for everyone’s peace and safety.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Here, another pause. I still couldn’t sleep. I shifted positions thinking that perhaps the subtle pain of my blisters was keeping me awake.

“You want me to shut up now?” Taka asked.

“I don’t know. Do you?”

“I think I have a few more questions I could entertain us with.”

“Fire away, but I won’t promise I’ll answer all of them.”

“It’s mostly about your home region, Everland,” he said. “I heard bits and pieces about it, but I’ve never been outside of Reborn. I hear it’s very nice?”

I was surprised that he had chosen this topic, but I assumed he had because he was brainstorming places to escape from Lin’s unforgiving radar. If that was the case, I would have to disappoint him.

“Everyone and their mother who has visited Everland will tell you that it is the closest thing to Utopia that exists on this planet,” I told him. “However, they have a very strict immigration policy, so if you aren’t born there the chances of you being admitted to live there are pretty slim. If you were thinking of staying there for more than a month, I’d suggest you look elsewhere.”

“No, I wasn’t planning on international travel when I said I’d look for a place to lay low,” Taka said. “I was genuinely curious about a region that isn’t Reborn. Is it true that the region is a literal oasis in the middle of the desert?”

“Yes.”

“And how about the shape of the region. Is it really roughly a circle?”

I explained that the region was indeed roughly circular, with the Queen’s palace sitting at its center.

“But there are no pokemon?”

I said there weren’t, but there were other types of small animals and plants.

“Amazing,” he said. “You know, I hope that one day I can visit Everland, or actually, any region abroad. Maybe I’ll register as a league challenger in Hoenn, since it’s the closest region that has pokemon.”

“You do you.”

“Yeah. Hoenn sounds nice too, from what I heard from Candy,” he said, and paused before continuing. “Oh? I think I hear Archer’s footsteps. Do you want me to fake being asleep while you talk?”

“Huh? Why’d I want to talk with him?”

“I don’t know. Maybe about the water? Isn’t it why you’ve kept awake?”

I glared at Taka, but I didn’t think he could see it in the dark.

“Don’t be stupid. It was just my blisters keeping me awake.”

I turned away from Taka and closed my eyes.

“Good night, then,” he whispered.

A few seconds later, I heard the tent being zipped open very slowly, but I didn’t move an inch. 

In the end, I didn’t notice when I’d fallen asleep.

 

The next day, we were unable to make a move because the sandstorm raged even stronger than any of the previous days. I thought that the tent might get buried completely in the sand, but fortunately that wasn’t the case: it was only buried two thirds of the way. When Julia opened the tent at night, sand came gushing in and we had to spend the next hour cleaning up the interior, the blankets and some of our belongings.

Given that we were all stuck inside a small tent, it was not surprising we were mighty bored the whole of that day. And when I say mighty bored, I mean it. Otherwise, I’m sure Julia wouldn’t have convinced me to play ’Chopsticks’ with them and later ’Drop Handkerchief’ when Pikachu and Zorua agreed to join.

“Why am I playing this? I’m not a kid,” I said occasionally. Ironically, though, it was the two eldest that were having the most fun. Even Taka allowed his eternal-insomniac face to smile from time to time. If someone were to pass by and see us, I’m sure they wouldn’t have guessed that we were a group composed of a pyromaniac, a sadist, an ex-terrorist and whatever I was.

For better or for worse, the next day was clear of sandstorms, and we were back to our normal dynamic again.

 

My blisters weren’t getting better but at least they weren’t getting worse. The pain had become a little more bearable, which was all I really needed. However, Julia didn’t allow me to walk yet, so I had to keep relying on Bambi for a while longer.

Archer led the crew northward. This wasn’t different from the other day, but what was different was that we saw something that wasn’t hills of sand for once.

“What is that?” I said, squinting my eyes. It was difficult to make it out, for the day was hot like always and the heat waves never helped my vision.

“I think it’s the scrapyard,” said Taka. “I don’t know the reason why, but I’d heard a bunch of broken trains were grouped in the north of the desert.”

I squinted harder, but I still couldn’t discern whether those things were trains.

“Should we still be heading north? We are looking for Titania’s Gym, not a scrapyard.”

“I’ll be honest with you. I don’t really have a clue,” Archer said, and my pull on Bambi’s horns caused everyone to come to a halt.

“Hold on. What?” I said. “What do you mean you don’t have a clue?”

“I know that Titania’s Gym is in the north, but none of the maps indicate the entrance to it.”

He handed me one of the maps, and I snatched it from his hands. I scanned the paper and found Titania’s Gym. It wasn’t marked off as an area, but the letters “Titania’s Gym” were floating on the upper right corner of the 1R253 Scrapyard that Taka was most likely referring to.

“See what I mean? I’m not entirely sure whether Titania’s Gym is inside the scrapyard, or right outside of it.”

I gave Archer his map back.

“Fine. So we should head to the scrapyard first?”

Archer nodded. So we resumed our trip northward.

 

“Wowowow, I mean wow! There’s so many of them trains!” Julia said when we reached the southmost edge of the scrapyard.

“Yeah, this is larger than what I’d expected,” Taka said.

“It’s difficult to believe there isn’t a reason for having this many trains in one place,” Archer added.

I didn’t think much of it, other than that it was a pain in the neck to have to navigate our way through the trains to get to Titania’s Gym. Bambi didn’t share my opinion, however. He was quite pleased to be able to walk on something that wasn’t sand.

We walked through the narrow path between seats, but sometimes on the windows, if the train car happened to be lying on its side. Whether the car was upright or not, the windows and parts of the floor were cracked or broken, so we had to be very careful not to hurt ourselves. The cars that had damage to their ceiling were more difficult to navigate than the rest, because months or years of sandstorms had caused them to be filled with sand. 

 

I didn’t know about the rest of the group, but I never let down my guard. I was sure that an eerie place like this would probably have skeletons of dead passengers, thugs that had nowhere to go, or both.

“Waah,” Julia shouted, nearly making me lose my balance and fall off Bambi.

When I looked at her, however, she just stuck her tongue at me and smiled.

“Did I scare you?”

I might’ve punched her if my hands weren’t full of second-degree burns.

 

“Look at that. Someone forgot their… Pokegear?” Taka said, picking up a rectangular thing off a seat.

Archer moved closer to him, and took a look at it.

“It doesn’t exactly look like a Pokegear. I’m not sure I’ve seen this before.”

Zorua, however, jumped off my shoulder and also checked the unidentified object. As soon as he got a sniff of it, he started jumping like crazy. What could this be about?

“I’ll hold onto it,” Taka said. “Maybe we’ll find its owner somewhere.”

When he said that, Zorua jumped on his shoulder instead of mine.

We carried on with our trip, with Julia occasionally jumping from in between the couches to scare us, or exiting the windows and rejoining us from another broken window further away. I started to question Archer’s decision to bring so much instant coffee in his bag.

 

From train car to train car, we went. Some of them were not just any car, they were the ones with an intact conductor area. Julia never missed the chance to sit on the driver seat and pretend to drive the train. Although he didn’t particularly show it much, I could tell that Taka also had curiosity about the stuff that was in the conductor’s area. I guessed there were buttons and levers and what not.

However, in one of such instances, Julia somehow managed to start the train. The movement was so sudden that Archer fell to the floor and Bambi and I to a nearby seat. 

“Julia, what are you doing? Stop the car,” I yelled.

“Ehhh, can I be honest?”

The car started moving faster.

“I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Spoiler

I saw Taka and her pressing all the buttons and moving all the levers or something, but the car only knew how to speed up.

“Hold on tight,” Julia shouted.

I really don’t know how we made it alive out of this one, but we did. The car sped up and tripped, apparently, into a large rock, which derailed it and made it spin round and round out of control. We were holding tight, and I held as tight as I could to Pikachu as well, but when the train came to a stop, we were all dizzy. I tried standing up from the seat, but immediately collapsed on the floor. I couldn't help but miss the times when I had traveled mostly peacefully and safely with Shelly.

“Woaaah, okay crazymaker, watch where you’re steering that thing,” Taka said, still clutching the grab rails at the front, even though the train was no longer moving.

“I think I’m going to puke,” Archer said, also on the floor but luckily far away from me.

The only one that didn’t seem to be affected by the dizzying spell was Julia.

“That… was… awesome! I want to try that again!” she said, jumping off of the driver’s seat.

“I’ll smack the living daylights out of you if you sit on the conductor’s seat again after this,” I told her.

The dizziness slowly wore off, but I called Bambi back to his pokeball because he was hitting himself from the confusion. 

“Vanini, you shouldn’t be walking. Your skin-”

“Yeah, just for now. Bambi needs to rest more than I.”

We exited the train and realized that we were standing on a hill of sand, which I believed were just a bunch of train cars buried underneath the sand that our train car had showered the surroundings with. We got off of them, and walked further north.

 

We entered some more trains, but Julia dared not sit at the driver’s seat under my watch. 

At some point, after going through an endless labyrinth of trains, Julia brought us to a stop.

“Waah,” she shouted again, like she’d done countless times.

“Don’t you have any more tricks, Julia?” I said.

“No no no, that’s not it, Vanini. Hurry up and come over,” she said. “Lookie! There’s people out here.”

“People?”

The three of us rushed to the exit and joined Julia in being surprised.

The people weren’t many but were, in fact, there. Here, in the middle of the desert. I thought they might be traveling like us, but their countenance didn’t make it seem like it.

 

“Well, howdy, partners! Are you guys joining our little community here?” one of the ladies asked.

“No,” I replied.

“Actually, not all of us. These three are just travelers. The two girls here are looking for Titania’s Gym, and Archer is helping them. I’m looking for somewhere safe to stay a while, though, so maybe I’d like to join if you don’t mind,” Taka said.

“Oh! That’s great to hear, friend,” she said to Taka and then looked at me head to toe. “But girl, what happened to you? Don’t tell me. Sunburn, ain’t it? The sun around these parts are unforgiving to a pale girl like yourself.”

She then asked me to sit down on her seat, opposite this other man who was just looking at us quietly.

“Hey, Bill! Bill!” the woman shouted and waved her hands to nobody in particular.

“What’s that?” a voice answered, but the owner of it wasn’t in sight.

“Come ‘ere a sec, will ya? And bring some sunburn ointments, ya know, from the stock.”

A moment later, a man came out of one of the train cars that surrounded us, and walked over to us.

“Here you go, Europa,” said the man and gave her a small hastily labeled container and a roll of gauze.

“This thing right here is great for blisters,” Europa said. “And don’t thank us. It was Brenda who brought a bunch and gave it to us from out there in the ‘abroad’. She is surveying the area for us now, but she’ll come back soon. You can thank her then.”

Europa carefully removed the gauze from my limbs and started applying a thick layer of ointment. It didn’t look much different to the one Julia and Archer had brought, but I could tell it was a different thing from the potent smell.

“And hey, while I slather your friend with this goodness,” Europa said. “What’s your names?”

“I’m Taka. This is Julia, the electric type gym leader of the Reborn League, then that’s Vanilla and this is Archer.”

“Nice to meet y’all. I’m Europa and this here is Al. Y’know Bill,” she said but Bill had already gone back to his train car. “... Oh well, you saw Bill. There’s also Stethoscope in the back, and Brenda, who is up in the air somewhere, is a traveler like y’all.”

Europa pointed at one of the train cars when she mentioned Stethoscope and the sky when she mentioned Brenda.

“And that’s it. This is Train Town for you. We’re just a buncha people that couldn’t find our place in society back in the city, so we made our own little place out here in the desert. Make yourselves cozy, won’t ya?”

 

“Now that’s done,” said Europa, covering the last patch of my skin with clean gauze. “But I think we should measure your temperature just to be safe.”

She then called for Stethoscope as she’d done Bill.

The woman who exited a train car in response to being called was wearing a lab coat. I didn’t remember her name, but I vaguely remembered her face.

“What’s the matter now?” she asked drowsily, but one look at me and she was jolted fully awake. “Oh no. Don’t tell me it’s your ultimate goal to see all of us humiliated.”

“No, but I’m curious what you’re doing here. Didn’t you have a job to tend to?”

“You’re acquaintances?” Julia asked.

“Well, I didn’t really care to continue working for Dr. Connal once he decided to team up with the terrorists,” Stethoscope explained. “In short, I’m no longer with them. You don’t need to fight me off.”

“Fight? You shouldn’t fight a girl covered in secondary-degree burns, hun. Can you take Vanilla’s temperature?” Europa said without understanding the context of our conversation.

Stethoscope took a thermometer out of her lab coat’s pocket and gave it to me so that I could place it under my armpit. While they waited for the thermometer to give a temperature readout, Stethoscope asked Europa a question.

“Hey, has Brenda returned yet?”

Europa shook her head.

“The sun is beginning to set, so I think she’ll come back soon, though.”

“Ok,” she sighed. “I hope she bears good news but I am 90% sure she won’t.”

“Now now, we got to send good vibes so strengthen that 10% of optimism in you.”

“What’s this about?” Julia asked when the rest of us dared not.

“Oh, well. As you can already tell, we live in the middle of a desert, so we were hoping that Brenda could find a reliable water source for us,” Stethoscope said.

“Huh? You guys are short on water?” Julia asked Stethoscope and then to Archer, “Can we give some of ours?”

“Don’t mind,” Stethoscope answered before Archer could say yes or no. “We’re trying to look for a permanent water source, so that we could fully wean ourselves off of Reborn City. However, as you can imagine, it’s not easy to find something like that in the desert.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Julia said, looking uncharacteristically sad.

At that moment, the thermometer beeped and Europa took it.

“Nope, no fever. You’re all set now, pal,” she gave me a light pat on my shoulder, taking care not to touch the damaged area.

I stood up from the chair so that Europa could sit down, when Taka decided to open his big mouth.

“How about we look for a water source?”

“Taka, don’t give them false hope,” I said. “You can't seriously believe we could find water in a desert. It’s the con of living in a place that people aren’t supposed to live in.”

“Vanilla? I can’t believe it’s you saying that. Only the night before last you told me you’d try getting water at any cost if people’s lives depended upon it.”

I flinched at this sudden reference to what I had said on a whim.

“That… and this aren’t the same,” I complained.

“Well, since I’m going to be staying here, I’d like to make sure I and these people won’t die from dehydration,” he said. “I think it’s quite a similar situation, but I can understand if you want to retract what you said back then.”

Taka’s expression didn’t betray any malice, but for some reason I could feel there was malice in his words. Retract what I had said the night before last? I looked at Archer and then at Taka. And give Archer credit for volunteering to replenish our water supplies? I gritted my teeth, but I found an escape.

“We don’t need to find any such place,” I said. “Archer, you know how to dance and make it rain. Why don’t you teach these people and their pokemon to do it?”

Being addressed out of nowhere, Archer was startled but also flustered for some reason.

“Y-you saw me? Why didn’t you say anything?” he blurted out.

“It was Taka who saw you, not me,” I said.

Archer looked at Taka.

“It was a… uh, very elegant dance. Yeah, very elegant.”

There was a pause there, one long enough for Archer to speak with composure.

“Unfortunately, that’s not something these people could rely on,” he said. “The desert just isn’t an environment that supports the creation of clouds, and Rain Dance relies on being able to gather clouds to make it rain. Even with all my pokemon, I could only generate enough rain to fill little less than half of our water bottles.”

“Well then, that settles it,” Taka said. “Vanilla, you’re going to go look for a water source for us?”

I glared at Taka, and this time he could see it clearly.

“Fine. I’ll do it. As I said, anyone in my position would do it if they had common decency,” I crossed my arms.

“You really are something,” Taka laughed.

And just like that, my plans to beat Titania in a Gym battle had to be postponed for an engagement that my pride wouldn’t allow me to disengage.

 

“Well, I really couldn’t follow what y’all were about, but if y’all gonna look for water in these parts for us, we’re eternally grateful, don’t ya agree, Al?” Europa said.

Al nodded.

“And so we’d like y’all to join us for the farewell party we’re having tonight for Brenda,” she added. “A lot of food and fun should help y’all relax for your next sandy adventure, I’m sure.”

“A party?” Julia’s eyes glimmered. 

“We wouldn’t want to be a burden to you,” Archer said. “We have enough food left.”

“Nonsense. It’s a farewell party for Brenda, and if there’s something we know, it’s that she always likes over-the-top. Soon she gonna arrive with ungodly amounts of food. Am I wrong, Al?”

Al shook his head sideways.

“Yeah, stay I guess. It’s going to get dark soon, so you wouldn’t be able to find anything even if you departed now. We can also hear what Brenda’s got to say about her survey,” Stethoscope said.

“Yay! A party! That’s what this camping thing was missing,” Julia danced.

“If you insist, we can stay for the party,” Archer shrugged.

Taka only smiled.

And I only frowned.

 

VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS

Spoiler

• Taka (-1): 2/10 He gets points off for something he's done non-canonly. Poor Tacos.
• Archer (+/-1): 2/10 Gets us water but also gets us water.
• Julia (-1): 4/10 She literally almost killed us.

 

QUICK LINK TO NEXT EPISODE

[Corso]

2 hours ago, Candy said:

we were a group composed of a pyromaniac, a sadist, an ex-terrorist and whatever I was.

Uh I can't really tell who is who, isn't Vanilla supposed to be the ex-terroritst (Taka too)?

[Candy]

1 hour ago, Corso said:

Uh I can't really tell who is who, isn't Vanilla supposed to be the ex-terroritst (Taka too)?

Pyromaniac = Julia

Sadist = Archer

Ex-terrorist = Taka

these are all in Vanini’s POV (I don’t think terrorists think of themselves as terrorists)

[Corso]

Mh according to wikipedia, pyromania is the impulse to start fires, but I'd say Julia is more fond of explosions. 

[Evi Crystal]

1 hour ago, Corso said:

Mh according to wikipedia, pyromania is the impulse to start fires, but I'd say Julia is more fond of explosions. 

 

Kaboommania stands for Jules

[Corso]

"Kaboom?"

"Yes Julia, kaboom"

[Candy]

6 hours ago, Corso said:

Mh according to wikipedia, pyromania is the impulse to start fires, but I'd say Julia is more fond of explosions. 

Yah! I wanted to find a word for someone who likes explosions but this was the closest I could find (in my brain lmao). I’m not sure that all explosions result in fires because I found a paper that says the term isn’t even clearly defined

[Candy]

 

A little early in my timezone but it's April 1st somewhere in the world so all es good uwu

Happy International Candy Day, my dearest loveliest fools

Donut fret, this time I actually have the next episode written and will post it right when our annual celebration of idiocy is over. But it'll be a lil short&sweet chapter...

But guess WHAT, I actually have the next^2 episode written too so I'll post back-to-back. When has such miracle ever happened? It's almost as if DIO had used ZA WARUDO to give me time or something...

[Aphelli]

8 hours ago, Candy said:

Donut fret, this time I actually have the next episode written and will post it right when our annual celebration of idiocy is over.

So that means no surprise barely-averted incinerations for Vanilla this year? That’s good news to her, right? 
 

 

8 hours ago, Candy said:

But guess WHAT, I actually have the next^2 episode written too so I'll post back-to-back. When has such miracle ever happened? It's almost as if DIO had used ZA WARUDO to give me time or something...

I’ll admit I was quite thrilled to read that. But then I remembered which day we were and that a little dose of skepticism was necessary, however appealing it was to take it at face value. 
 

(no, I’m not trying to make you post the chapters sooner, of course!)

[Candy]

On 4/1/2021 at 5:28 AM, Mindlack said:

So that means no surprise barely-averted incinerations for Vanilla this year? That’s good news to her, right? 

owo good memory, or was it that memorable xD

 

On 4/1/2021 at 5:28 AM, Mindlack said:

I’ll admit I was quite thrilled to read that. But then I remembered which day we were and that a little dose of skepticism was necessary, however appealing it was to take it at face value. 

Haha I'm not so mean as to do an April Fools prank-ception... Although it might've happened without meaning to because I'd forgotten to edit pictures  Fortunately the short episode didn't need too many images so I'll be posting it shortly, all according to keikaku :3

[Candy]

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 83A

Now, the promised episode... It's actually ~1/3 of an episode I wrote but since the episode was long I said "why not post them back to back" (As someone who isn't fond of reading, this is preferable to getting a yuge block of words). So Episode 83B will be coming tomorrow if I finish editing images on time lolol

This one finally ends the Zorua subplot. Yeah since we're quickly approaching Pokemon Reborn's end, I gotta start tying all the loose threads...

 

Europa acted as though she was obliged to be our hospitable host. She guided us to a train car, which she said we could use to rest up until Brenda eventually came back. We thanked her and went inside it.

The first thing Archer did was to lie down on one of the benches.

“I’m so tired, though it’s not even close to night yet,” he said. “I’ll have to take a nap if I want to be awake for the party.”

“It’s not like it’d make a difference whether you are awake or not,” I said for the sake of saying, but was also making myself comfortable on a bench, and let Zorua and Pikachu sit on my stomach. The ointment was numbing the ache of my burns, so I felt I could sleep nicely if it was now.

“Look who’s talking. You barely even talk when you’re awake.”

“Well, I’m also going to take a nap. After that wild train ride, and all the walking we’ve done in the heat, that’s the thing I want to do the most right now,” Taka agreed.

“What? Why are you guys all so tired? I can’t relate,” Julia said.

“You run on coffee, not on actual physical endurance,” Archer replied.

“Ehh, bummer. What am I going to do while you all take a snooze?”

However, everyone was too tired to make anymore reply, so Julia left us be and exited the car.

 

I don’t know how many hours passed since I fell asleep, but I was woken up by the sudden increase in volume of the chatter outside. This was quickly followed by Julia’s completely loud shout, which scared off the two pokemon who were sleeping on me.

“Everyone, wakey-wakey! Right now! You don’t want to miss the sight outside,” she said, and then, since everyone didn’t seem to want to move from their places, she went from bench to bench to shake us awake.

“Come, Vanini, Tacos and you too, Archie,” she said and pushed us.

 

There was nothing outside. Or that’s what I thought initially. The sun was setting, but there was some blurry shadow zooming from one side to the other and, really, in every direction.

“Look up,” Julia said.

I did as instructed, and saw a black thing far up in the sky, but coming down to where we were. It’s blurry shadow grew larger and more defined as it made its descent to this sandbox. As it got closer, I could discern that it was a large dragon pokemon. Not as large as Candy’s Rayquaza, but quite large nonetheless.

Once the dragon made a touchdown, not without exposing us to a cloud of sand, its trainer and a pokemon jumped off of it. Their backs were facing us, but whoever the redhead was, I had never seen someone’s hair as tangled and uneven as the bundle that was sticking out of her white cap.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, it’s Zekrom,” Julia said jumping and shaking me by my arm.

“Hello, I am back,” the redhead said. “This is Brenda and Ren for you!”

The two of them twisted their upper bodies in opposite ways so that both their faces were finally visible. Their arms were stretched out, one in our direction and the other away from each other. Brenda’s face and arms were covered in freckles, and her eyelashes and brows were barely visible against her sun-tanned skin. Ren, on the other hand, was in a contrasting blue color. I remembered that the pokemon was a Lucario. It was one of the first pokemon saw when I had just arrived in the region, since Victoria had used one to fight the bullies that were annoying Pikachu.

Their show didn’t end there, however. Zekrom sent an electric shock down to the ground, making the sand behind them explode and shower us yet again.

They kept the pose for a few more seconds, but eventually she broke down to the floor. Ren didn’t, and just stretched his back and rotated his torso a couple of times.

“Ay ay, my back hurts,” Brenda complained.

“What’s this weirdo?” I asked Europa, who was grinning at her and clapping.

“Shh, do her a favor and just clap,” she said.

“Eh? Weirdo?” Brenda said, raising her head. “Hmmm. That’s not the response I was going for. When I did this at the Alolan beaches, the kids really liked it.”

“Y’all, this is Brenda and her pokemon, Ren,” said Europa. “Brenda, these are Vanilla, Taka, Archer and… eh, Julia?”

Julia was now attached to Zekrom, hugging him. Zekrom seemed not to know what to do and just growled softly.

“New faces! I guess my farewell party will be fun after all,” Brenda said, standing back up and clapping the sand off her hands.

 

Brenda unloaded the food items from Zekrom’s back one by one, showing off each item as though all of them were her absolute favorite food.

“Brenda, were you able to find a water source?” Stethoscope asked once she was done unloading. This made Brenda’s beaming facial expression cloud up.

“Well, those muddy ponds on the south east are still there, but other than that, I couldn’t find anything, sorry.”

“It’s okay, thanks for trying to help.”

“But! I did find two caves, one south-east of here and another one somewhat west. I didn’t get off Zekrom to check them out, but maybe they have water hidden inside,” she said with renewed enthusiasm. “If I weren’t leaving tomorrow, I’d have gone exploring in them, but alas. Maybe you can send a group to check those out.”

Stethoscope sent a meaningful look our way, especially at me.

“I think we can work that out,” she said.

 

Temperature began to drop as quickly as the sun was setting on the horizon. I always found it ironic that daytime in the desert was scorching hot, yet we needed to light up a fire to keep warm at nighttime. As it was necessary, Europa, Bill and Al started building a campfire for us to sit around. Julia volunteered to help out, but Taka pulled her away from it and instead gave her a cushion to sit calmly on.

When it was dark enough, Europa asked everyone to sit down. It was time to start the party.

“Tonight we’re bidding farewell to our dear friend Brenda,” she said. “Y’all new peeps won’t know this, but Brenda’s spent a month with us and boy did she help us out. First she brought us that magical medicine from the ‘abroad’ which was, and I ain’t exaggerating when I say this, a true blessing for our damaged skin. Then, her mighty strong pokemon helped us move the train cars a lil farther apart so we could have more space to live. Ah, and she’s been mighty helpful bringing us water and other stuff from Reborn City. Not having to carry or pull heavy stuff in the heat has been a nice vacation for us. As for water, she’s also helped us look for a permanent source. Even though that wasn’t fruitful, it’s the intent that matters, y’know. Someone wanting to help us, the outcasts of Reborn City. We’re mighty thankful, for real.”

“Well, you guys let me stay here while I surveyed the region. Help and get help, that’s how it should be. Am I wrong?” Brenda, and Ren who was sitting next to her, stretched an arm towards Europa and closed their hand and paw into a thumbs-up.

“If that ain’t true. Anyways, that’s enough talking and not enough eating. Let’s get feasting, friends!”

“Yeah! Let’s eat!” Brenda said.

She pulled out a party popper from what seemed like thin air, popped it and showered us with glimmery confetti. Bits of it fell into the fire, making a satisfying sizzling sound.

 

We stood up to place food on our plates and sat back down to eat.

Julia sat next to Brenda, and didn’t miss a beat to ask her some questions.

“So you’re leaving, huh? Where are you going?” she asked.

“I’m headed back to Unova, my home region,” she said. “It’s been 2 years, I think, since I left. It’s about time I show my face there.”

“You’re from Unova! Zekrom is from Unova too, right? How did you two meet? How did you catch him? Have you-”

Before Julia could finish asking all her questions pertaining to Zekrom, Taka stood up from his cushion and walked over to Brenda.

pretend there's food on those tables uwu

“Is this yours, perchance?” he asked, showing her the pokegear-like thing we had found in one of the train cars.

Brenda took a look at it under the dim light of the campfire. Then, she widened her eyes and checked her pockets, which were apparently empty save for a few coins and another party popper.

“Ahaha, it seems I’d dropped my X-transceiver and didn’t even notice,” she said. “I don’t get signals unless I’m in Unova so I totally forgot about its existence.”

Just as Taka returned the device to her, Ren stood up and started sniffling him. Both he, and I, who was watching from a distance, found it weird, but the lucario eventually found what he was looking for. Zorua had apparently burrowed in Taka’s red scarf, but was pulled out of it by the tail. Ren screeched and laughed, holding the little fox. Zorua, on the other hand, didn’t seem all that pleased to be held in the air by his tail.

“What. Wait, really?” Brenda said and stood up. She took the Zorua on her arms. “Zo, is that you?”

“Zo?”

Ren patted Zo’s head but the fox turned around and bit his hand. The two pokemon shouted at each other.

“Yeah, that’s you alright,” Brenda laughed.

“Do you know this pokemon?” Taka asked.

“Yeah, she’s the pokemon of my… friend,” she replied. “I’m actually looking for him, but had no luck in all the regions I’ve visited so far. That’s why I’m heading back to Unova. How mighty funny it’ll be if I find him there, after spending 2 long years looking for him everywhere abroad, don’t you think?”

“A friend who’s gone missing for 2 years?” Julia jumped in her seat.

“I hope you find him,” Taka said.

“Yeah, me too... obviously,” Brenda said to Taka, and then looked down on the pokemon she was holding. “Hey, Zo? Are you looking for him too? I can’t guarantee we’ll find him there, but if you’d like, we can look for him together in Unova.”

Zo seemed pleased with the proposition. She snuggled on Brenda’s chin.

I was finally able to put 2-and-2 together on the mystery of this Zorua. She had been trying to go back to Unova by crossing Tourmaline Desert, and then passing through Hoenn in a Northeast direction. That would’ve taken her ages on her 4 feet, but that just spoke to me of her determination.

Pikachu sat on my lap and snuggled me. He also seemed pleased that Zo was finally on the path to find her trainer.

 

The party just consisted of us eating food while talking, and Brenda showering us with confetti every once in a while when we least expected it. Julia seemed never to run out of questions to ask Brenda, and she in turn seemed never to run out of patience to answer every one of them. Taka and Archer were talking with the three veteran campers, but I wasn’t seated close to them so I couldn’t hear what they were saying. Stethoscope went back to her train car after serving herself a plate of food. I just sat by myself with Pikachu, eating some and feeding him some.

“Mummy girl, why don’t you sit closer with us?” Brenda said to me.

Mummy girl? I was puzzled for a second, before I remembered that I was practically covered in gauze.

I moved an inch towards them. Brenda laughed but Julia spoke before she could say anything more.

“Hey Brenda? I’d like you to give you a haircut. Can I? Please, please.”

“A haircut? This late at night?” I said. Sure, Brenda’s hair was a mess, but I wouldn’t trust Julia to cut my hair in broad daylight.

“Oh, so you noticed?” Brenda said. “This past 2 years I’ve been cutting my own hair to save money, but I really didn’t know what I was doing most of the time. Besides, traveling with Zekrom makes my hair poofy because of the abundant static electricity.”

“I’m great at giving haircuts,” Julia said. “I could even give them blindfolded. Want to try?”

“Y-”

“Let’s just do it like normal, if you must,” I interrupted. The last thing we needed right now was someone bleeding from the neck.

“Oh? You’re giving Brenda a haircut?” Europa said, taking notice of us. “Stethoscope has scissors and blades. I can pick some up for you.”

 

While everyone was getting hyped for just a haircut, I stood up from my seat to get some more food and drinks. Archer was there also, and he laughed through the nose when he saw me approaching.

“Who doesn’t make a difference whether they are awake or not, now?” he said.

“Oh, shut up.”

I grabbed some more meatballs and walked over to the bowl of potato salad, which seemed to be from the pokemart Meals-to-go section, but was still quite delicious.

“So the tangela-hair girl is getting a haircut? Why don’t you get one too?” he said. “I’ve always found it curious how you keep your hair that long, despite it probably getting in your way… I assume… during fights.”

“That’s the reason I keep it long,” I replied.

“What? What’s the reason?”

I frowned at this showcase of slowness.

“You assume it gets in my way, and so do most of my opponents,” I said. “But that makes their movements predictable. They go for the hair, and that movement makes their stance open up. That makes it easier for me to deal them a blow to knock them out.”

“Huh, that sounds just like you. Do you ever think of anything other than fighting or rebelling?”

I was slightly annoyed that he answered in a belittling tone, when I had been courteous enough to answer his question. I don’t know why I should’ve expected anything else from him, though.

“What do you mean?” 

“A few days ago, you mentioned that you couldn’t achieve what you want to achieve as a one-man army. Are you planning to return to Everland? To continue being a criminal?”

“I’m not obliged to tell you my plans.”

Perhaps that response was too close to an affirmative answer than I should’ve produced. In any case, that made Archer fall silent. I thought he had put an end to the conversation, and took the opportunity to add a few cherries to my plate.

“You could’ve left Everland and your turbulent past behind,” he said after a moment. “Yet you choose to keep dragging it as if it was dogshit stuck to your shoe.”

I motioned to say something reactive, but he cut me off.

“But tonight we’re having a party, and it would be a shame if it ended on a bad note because of us. Just forget everything I said.”

Archer grabbed a napkin from the table and headed back to his seat. Even if he hadn’t asked me to, I was determined to forget his existence for the rest of the evening. 

 

I sat back down, in a fowler mood than usual, to watch Julia cut through Brenda’s hair with bold strokes. The process took time- a long enough time, fortunately, for my mood to recover to baseline.

The end product wasn’t a professional cut, but her hair looked much healthier and lighter than before. Brenda looked pleased with her new hair, so it was good enough, I thought.

Pop! Brenda got us off-guarded again, pulling on the string of her party popper. Julia recovered from the scare and clapped her hands while laughing. 

“My scissor-hands are itching,” she said and glared at the two boys.

They got her message, and started running away from her and a possible mystery haircut. The two were complaining about being chased, but their voices which were mixed with laughter didn’t sound convincing at all. 

Ren, Zo and Pikachu perhaps misunderstood what was happening and joined the game of chasing one another.

On the other side of the campfire, Europa scolded Bill for eating the piece of cake she’d kept for last. Bill said that he hadn’t eaten it and blamed it on Al; however, Europa wouldn’t listen. Al didn’t talk, but wiped a bit of cream from the corner of his mouth.

Pop! Brenda popped another one in front of my face, startling me. She laughed at my reaction.

They really were having a blast. We were.

 

VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS

Spoiler

Will update in Episode 83B since they're a set uwu

 

QUICK LINK TO NEXT EPISODE

[J-Awesome_One]

Yay! Party and someone who owns a Legendary Pokemon! I feel like this hasn't been updated in months. Has it been that long? Well anyways, great episode as always. Or should I say 1st part of an episode. Can't wait for the rest of them to come out.

[Candy]

Just now, J-Awesome_One said:

Yay! Party and someone who owns a Legendary Pokemon! I feel like this hasn't been updated in months. Has it been that long? Well anyways, great episode as always. Or should I say 1st part of an episode. Can't wait for the rest of them to come out.

When I posted my April Fools post, this showed:

Spoiler

And I was like, "geez Forums, I don't need to be reminded of how un-often I update this thing"

[SilverAngelus]

49 minutes ago, Candy said:

 

“Oh? You’re giving Brenda a haircut?” Europa said, taking notice of us.

I'm taking notice of a certain reference.

 

Julia hugging Zekrom seems to be highlight of this half-episode for me. Also I can't imagine her glaring. She's always so peppy!