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

[Candy]

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 87

While I told Julia and Archer about all that related to Taka and his demise, Julia gasped a few times, but neither of them spoke a word until I was done. And once I was done, too, they were silent for a minute.

“I was here the whole time,” Archer said at last. “He went to sleep, and I helped Stethoscope in mapping the exact location of the cave that contains a water source. That took us shy of half an hour, but when I came back into our train car, he was gone. I thought he might’ve gone for a walk nearby… I never expected…” 

“I can’t believe it. How could Lin… How could anyone do such a thing,” Julia said. “Next time I see her, I’ll boom her face. No one messes with my friends, and this went way beyond mere messing.”

“If we charge without a plan, this’ll happen,” I said, and then remembered Devon. “And if we plan something, she’ll have a strategy to still get the upper hand.”

I clenched my skirt and bit my lip.

“I couldn’t save… yet another person. When will I ever be strong enough?”

 

We had dinner with the rest of the town. Then, at night, when I thought all our moods were good enough to talk again, I told Julia that Titania indirectly agreed to pay Amaria a visit soon. 

“Ehh? She’s not gonna join us on the way back then?”

“No,” I said, trying to hide my honest relief.

“Bummer! But I guess she also needs some alone time. You know, after what she did, albeit accidentally.”

I nodded, but didn’t comment on the degree at which Titania regretted Taka’s death. It wasn’t my place to do so.

We all went to sleep, and as was always the case, Julia was knocked out in a few seconds after lying on her train seat. I couldn’t sleep as quickly or as peacefully as her, however, so I stayed awake with my eyes closed.

An hour must’ve elapsed, when Archer suddenly spoke up.

“You can’t sleep?”

I couldn’t see in the dark, but I assumed, from the direction his voice was coming, that he was talking while still resting on his seat.

“Yeah. You can’t either?”

“Sometimes I get insomnia, even on regular nights, but today I have a reason to get it,” he said. “I’m unable to switch my brain off easily, unlike Julia.”

Though we were talking in a rather audible volume, Julia didn’t seem bothered by it one bit. 

“It was a short acquaintance, but it’s hard to wrap my mind around the fact that a person who was with us only yesterday, is gone today.”

“Yeah.”

“But, in your case-” he started, but took a pause too long for me not to inquire after.

“In my case, what?”

“It’s just a gut feeling so I may be wrong. I think you’re quite easy to read, but even then.”

“If you’re going to say something, say it right away.”

“My bad,” he said, and took a deep breath before continuing. “I felt there was something more, an additional layer to your mourning. You seemed upset not just because of his death, but by the fact that you couldn’t save him.”

“... Yes, what about it?”

“This is something that I- as one of the few people who truly know what you are- can tell you,” he said. “You can’t expect to be The Savior all the time. The nature of the path you’ve chosen, both in Everland and Reborn, forbids you from it.”

“I already know that.”

“You do?”

I felt annoyed that he replied as though he expected me to be an ignorant idiot, to whom he had to teach even the most basic of concepts in my own life.

“Who do you think I am? You might remember that we killed many of your comrades, but we didn’t always escape unscathed either. Over the years, I’ve lost many whom I esteemed more than I did Taka.”

I fell silent. Unsurprisingly, this talk had resurfaced my memory of the person I had esteemed the most, Wolfie.

“All their deaths have one thing in common: they died due to my ineptitude.”

That was right. 

When I heard from Wolfie that our base had been raided, my mind went blank. I was the leader. I should’ve foreseen something like that and planned ahead, but I had not. All I could do was blindly run after Wolfie, hoping that she could save my fatal mistake. But even with her quick wits, it had been too fatal a blow for a comeback.

The officer did deal her the deadly shot, but really, the one who killed her was I. I killed her, because I wasn’t a strong enough leader.

“The present me is no different. Had I reacted faster, had I realized Lin’s trap, Taka would be alive right now. He died in front of my eyes, and all I did was kneel on the ground and watch,” I said. “His death is unfortunate, and I feel it, but it is nothing compared to how angry I feel at my own incompetence.”

“I won’t say you shouldn’t feel that way, but really, you shouldn’t forget you’re human in the end. It’s not so much about incompetence, but more the limits of being a mere mortal.”

“With what authority do you tell me this? Have you ever even tried to surpass the said limits you think exist?”

“Why, of course not, but I don’t need to test its existence. It’s all basic physics,” he said and laughed from his nose. “Say, if two people were about to get killed at the same time in different places, there’s no way you could save both at the same time, since you can’t divide yourself.”

“You’re wrong. I could still save them, if I had enough foresight to prevent such a scenario from happening in the first place.”

That shut him up for the time being.

“I came to Reborn because I had to leave Everland, but I’ve tried to make the most out of it by training every day. The day must come when I’ll become both an unstoppable sword and an impenetrable shield, and if that means breaking through the limits of my humanity, I’ll do it. I will save all who need saving, and defeat all that stand in my way.”

Archer said nothing in response, and we both maintained civil silence. Whether he fell asleep soon after the conversation, or took long hours to do so like I did, I couldn’t tell. Yet, at some point we must’ve slept, for, at least in my case, I dreamt. Even in my dream, the events from Titania’s enchanted palace, combined with the events from my last day in the Underworld, flashed in my imagination. Needless to say that they cooperated to nullify any prospect of my feeling refreshed from the few hours of sleep.

 

The next morning, as I expected, I felt so tired that it was as if I hadn’t gotten any sleep at all. I sat on my train seat to let the blood rush down from my head.

“You don’t seem to have had a good night’s sleep,” I heard a voice in my mind say sarcastically. “I know the seats aren’t the most comfortable things, but I’d say they’re much softer than the ground.”

I looked over my shoulder, to the seat on which Taka used to sleep. It was, of course, empty.

I sighed. My mind appeared to still be wishing to drag things from the previous day.

“Come on. Forget it,” I said to myself.

Pikachu growled softly next to me. I placed a hand on his disguise’s head.

“Don’t worry. I’ve lost people that were more important to me before, and this won’t be the last time either, I presume. By now, I should be used to this sort of thing.”

I laughed through my nose.

“Wishing I could change the past is a waste of time. All I can do is try to become stronger, so that one day I can boast about not having a next time to regret.”

Pikachu climbed on my shoulder, I grabbed my bag and left the train car.

 

Outside, Archer and Julia, along with everyone from Train Town, were gathered.

“Thanks so much for your hospitality,” Archer said.

“The ones who are grateful are us,” Bill said. “Thanks to you, we can live much more comfortably.”

“Yeah. Brenda and you guys have all been such a blessing, ain’t that right, Al?” Europa said, and Al nodded next to her.

Stethoscope didn’t say anything, but bobbed her head when she locked eyes with me.

“And we’re really sorry about… well, ya know, you friend,” Europa added.

There was a moment of awkward silence, which Archer then broke.

“Well, we should be going now. Thanks again, and best of luck to you.”

“The same to you.”

“Bye-bye!” Julia waved, as she made her way out.

 

Unlike how it went on the way to Train Town, the way back was rather quiet and uneventful. Julia refused to drink half the amount of coffee she usually drank, and even on the days that we had to spend half of the day in each other’s company due to a sand storm, she didn’t ask us to play games. Archer noticed this, and went out of his way to ask her if she didn’t want to play chopsticks, and her reply was that there were too few players to make it fun.

 

We boarded the train on the way back. When the giant walls that separated the city from the desert became visible, I felt as though I was returning after spending ages in the desert. It was almost surreal that I had lived through so much, and yet nothing in the city really marked the passage of time. I guess it could be called a reverse-Urashima-Taro* experience.

I wondered how the Gym leaders were doing. Enough time had passed between when I left Calcenon and now, that I was curious to know whether they had been able to decipher the source of the sleeping signal, or found a way to bypass the barrier between Calcenon and Labradorra. Perhaps the latter was least likely, given that I knew Team Meteor was still operating, and I assumed they wouldn’t be able to if they weren’t so well-guarded by the barrier. In either case, Florinia had joined the group in Calcenon last I was there, and if she really was as great a technician as people said, I hoped she could be of some use in that front. 

I was set on paying the Fiore Mansion a visit, as I had told Titania I would do, to get a badge from Amaria, but to be honest, I just wanted to return to Calcenon as soon as I could. Sure, I was completing my objective of getting stronger by fighting the Gym leaders, but this was doing very little to help liberate the region from the terrorists. On the contrary, every minute I spent away from the battle front, the enemy could be snatching our allies or whoever they thought held bargaining value. They did us a number by capturing Aya, and, unless things didn’t change dramatically in the last few weeks, it wasn’t farfetched to suppose they also had Charlotte’s sister, who had gone missing for days. Then, they chose him as their next target, which, really, I couldn’t fathom what arts Jasmin could’ve used to sell that one as a useful hostage, but they did take him in. Perhaps their strategy wasn’t to bargain with us using hostages, but instead to cage all of us up one by one, until we had lost everyone who could fight.

Maybe even now, as I thought from the comfort of this train car, they were capturing Charlotte, Cain, or even Shelly. I have to hurry up.

 

“What will you do now, when you return to the city?” Archer asked Julia, bringing me back from a nightmarish daydream.

“I’ll go check on Amy, and reassure her that Tania’s coming to visit her. Poor thing lost her memory, and all she asks for is her company.”

“Must be rough for her.”

And for Titania, perhaps.

“What about you, Vanilla?”

“I’ll head there with Julia. Amaria is the next Gym leader I need to battle.”

“Oh, so ‘Amy’ is a Gym leader. Water type, if I understood correctly?”

“Yep~ Her gym is a large pool. We went swimming on it often, but I don’t think Vanini would like to swim in there,” she said, surely remembering the time she almost drowned me. “And you should be careful, too, if your pokemon don’t like swimming. If you aren’t careful, Amy could be like one of those mermaids that lure you into the water and drown you.”

Julia laughed at this, but the imagery wasn’t all that cheerful to me.

“Well, as you know, I’m fond of water. At first, it was because I was chasing and fighting the Magma gang, so having pokemon with type advantage against Ground and Fire was strategic. However, now I like the water type due to their versatility. Just like it is both necessary for survival and is potentially deadly, the pokemon can make use of the water’s softness or literally turn it into icicles to attack hard.”

“Well, electric types are also versatile,” Julia argued. “They can both provide light and make things go kaboom!”

“There’s no arguing with that, if you qualify that as being versatile,” laughed Archer.

“What about you, Archie? Where are you headed to once you return to the city?”

Archer glanced at me, for some reason, before answering.

“As you know, my gang has been dismantled, and Vanilla and Candy, with your cooperation too, of course, have helped them reintegrate into society,” he said. “I think it’s time I attempted doing that myself.”

Archer explained to Julia that when he had come to Reborn City over a year ago, he had struggled to find a job in the profession he had in Everland. As she had overheard, he had been exiled from his hometown, and so didn’t have the cleanest record to apply for a position in law enforcement.

“Yet, for better or worse, the situation has dramatically changed since then. A great number of police officers lost their lives due to Team Meteor’s attacks, and I think that means they’ll be recruiting more than usual. Perhaps they’ll be too desperate to care about my background. I’ll return home, and apply to as many positions as I can.”

“When you say home, do you refer to…?” I said.

“Yes. Hazel’s. It’s the only home I have, now that our base has been renovated into a small park.”

Hazel’s home didn’t bring me any pleasant memories. Perhaps my feelings showed on my face, and in a different time, Archer might have teased me about it. Instead, he went ahead and talked at length about Hazel and her family to Julia, who knew nothing of them, but never dropped a hint about the young man and his Articuno, who temporarily stayed at their place.

 

The train finally came to a full stop in Grandview station and the people aboard the train, most of whom had boarded from regions far away, exited with us. Perhaps it was due to word getting out about the renovated city, but there were more visitors and returning citizens than I expected there to be.

Since Hazel’s home was at the base of Ametrine mountain and Fiore Mansion was on the way, we walked together until we had to part ways.

“This is where we say goodbye,” Archer said. “Even though it was a wild roller coaster ride, from how it started until how it ended, I’m glad I got to go traveling the desert.”

“But we’ll keep in touch, right?” Julia asked, and when Archer didn’t reply at once, repeated her question.

“Yeah. Sure. You can visit me anytime. I’m unlikely to get a job very quickly. The house is located just through the Celestine Cave, and it’s pretty much the only one in the area.”

Archer sent out a Sharpedo into the river and jumped on top of it. 

“In the end, we couldn’t understand each other completely,” he said looking at me. “But I think, if we compare to where we stood just a couple of weeks ago, we made progress. At least, on my side of things. Farewell.”

He waved at us, as his pokemon carried him into the cave. Julia waved her pom-poms until he was out of sight.

“It’s such a shame,” she said, still looking where Archer disappeared to. “I felt as though I was a character in an adventure book, exploring the desert with 3 friends. ‘Through hardships and collective effort, they get to know each other better and become closer, and then they finally return to their homes as changed people’. That’s how I thought the story would go, but…”

Julia turned around and smiled, but there was a hint of gloom in her expression.

“I’m kind of salty that we couldn’t get a happy ending, all four of us together.”

“I agree, it’s a shame.”

“But! I mustn’t be such a downer for long. It’d be more shameful if a cheerleader couldn’t cheer herself up!” she said and moved her pom-poms up and down.

“Being sad when an acquaintance dies… I think that’s normal for anyone,” I said. “Even cheerleaders are human, after all.”

Julia stopped her cheer dance, batted her eyes in a way that made me question if she understood what I said, but then nodded deeply. “Yeah. That’s true!”

“Now, let’s go up this hill,” I said, bobbing my head in the direction of Fiore Mansion.

 

VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS

Spoiler

• Archer (+0.9): 3/10 Guess I should be generous, since I won't be seeing him again
• Julia (+1): 7/10 (Not really a canon thing but) she showed dimensionality to her character due to Taka's passing

 

By this point, y'all shouldn't be surprised when I promise something for next episode and it isn't in the next episode  I did finish writing the Gym Battle, but the theme in that part and this part didn't really match, so I opted to upload them as separate episodes lol I do think I'm kinda on a roll here, updating "regularly" in my standards lol

 

*Urashima Taro is a forkloric tale of a man who goes to a kingdom under the sea, passes a night with them, then returns back to the surface, only to find that decades had passed while he was gone. This is a very minor detail, but Vanilla's friend, nicknamed Kame, is a descendant of this dude and is off on a pilgrimage to the kingdom under the sea, and won't be back until decades later.

 

QUICK LINK TO NEXT EPISODE

[Corso]

7 hours ago, Candy said:

literally turn it into icicles to attack hard.”

“Well, electric types are also versatile,” Julia argued. “They can both provide light and make things go kaboom!”

So you're freezing the field, uh? That's what I did. And I don't remember electric types on your team

[Candy]

7 hours ago, Corso said:

So you're freezing the field, uh? That's what I did. And I don't remember electric types on your team

Yep lol I tried not to change the fields too much to keep the challenge so far, but I just couldn't win without freezing Amaria's field 

[Aphelli]

I did not expect to ever hear again of Urashima's story, to me it was more like a children's book someone told me they read in grade school. I didn't expect it to actually a "folkloric tale", with the importance that it implies. 

 

I like Vanilla's approach to responsibility, although it is probably terrible for her own mental health and long-term improvement. Then again, in her choice of 'career', long-term prospects are uncertain, aren't they? 

But in this respect, losing her mortality could very well be the worst thing to ever happen to her (after all, now, everything bad would be her responsibility... forever -- because these always happen eventually).  

 

I'm also noticing a certain confusion in Vanilla's thoughts about strength. Wolfie didn't die because she wasn't strong enough. It would take tremendous strength (we're speaking of state-moving power, like serious blackmail or a huge support for an open movement) to prevent her base from being raided. If one insists on pinning the blame on Vanilla, then perhaps Wolfie died because she wasn't prepared enough. Which has little to do with becoming an unstoppable sword or an unpenetrable shield. At least, you don't get cunning plans when training for strength. 

 

A question I'm thinking about is "whether Vanilla could have actually saved Taka". That implied realizing that it was Taka in the armor, speaking in Lin's voice with her patterns and her demeanour. And conveying the message to Titania... when she didn't even know Titania's intention! This would be an egregious breach of Lin's invincibility if it were allowed to happen. And, certainly, of Titania's more... pro-active attitude. Funny how Vanilla's conflicted about that too (she says "I could have saved Taka" and a few paragraphs later "nah, she would have found a way to one-up us anyway"). 

 

Now that we know Silver to be a ghost, I like the mention that he's a 'terrible quitter'. Not even his unhappy ending could prevent him from trying to decipher the mysteries of this old mystic who could be a seer? 

 

Speaking of which, I can't help but think of the Queen's special interest in Vanilla even in exile and her peculiar letter to Candy (btw, why not make her demand appear magically in Meteor headquarters? that would have been far more spectacular, no?)... this could indicate that Vanilla was lied to regarding her family... which still seems really unlikely, since Candy would have to be complicit. 

 

 

And, since you've established that the most shocking parts of canon remain canon, I'm very worried about what happens at the Fiore Mansion... even though with Julia already there, Vanilla shouldn't be in too much trouble... should she? 

[Candy]

4 hours ago, Mindlack said:

I did not expect to ever hear again of Urashima's story, to me it was more like a children's book someone told me they read in grade school. I didn't expect it to actually a "folkloric tale", with the importance that it implies. 

There are like a few folkloric tales which are told over and over when you're a Japanese child. Urashimataro's story is just one of them so when stuff happens where things changed drastically while I was away, I instinctively remember that story lol It's not so important but for consistency's sake, Vanilla had a fren who went away when she was young so her remembering this tale should be in-character.

4 hours ago, Mindlack said:

I like Vanilla's approach to responsibility, although it is probably terrible for her own mental health and long-term improvement. Then again, in her choice of 'career', long-term prospects are uncertain, aren't they? 

But in this respect, losing her mortality could very well be the worst thing to ever happen to her (after all, now, everything bad would be her responsibility... forever -- because these always happen eventually).  

Very good point, but Vanilla doesn't know the concept of mental health, really. To her, if she wasn't able to achieve something, it's her fault for not being strong enough. If her mind can't take it, it's because it's weak. That's just one of the examples in which her black-or-white thinking doesn't help her. But she's only like 19, and that's all she's thought so far. Something would have to happen that makes her realize the flaw in her thought process.

4 hours ago, Mindlack said:

I'm also noticing a certain confusion in Vanilla's thoughts about strength. Wolfie didn't die because she wasn't strong enough. It would take tremendous strength (we're speaking of state-moving power, like serious blackmail or a huge support for an open movement) to prevent her base from being raided. If one insists on pinning the blame on Vanilla, then perhaps Wolfie died because she wasn't prepared enough. Which has little to do with becoming an unstoppable sword or an unpenetrable shield. At least, you don't get cunning plans when training for strength. 

Strength in Vanilla's mind is very loosely defined. It's like this magical thing that if she obtains, all her problems will go away. Wolfie wouldn't have died, she would've been able to save Taka, and she would be able to defeat the Queen and her allies to emancipate the Underworld citizens. It's also probably true that Vanilla still underestimates the power of strategy (though she's slowly improved from the days when she just punched everything in her way because she is learning to use her brains more through pokemon battling) because she thinks she can overcome the lack of good strategy (her strats buddy, Wolfie is dead after all) with excessive strength. 

4 hours ago, Mindlack said:

A question I'm thinking about is "whether Vanilla could have actually saved Taka". That implied realizing that it was Taka in the armor, speaking in Lin's voice with her patterns and her demeanour. And conveying the message to Titania... when she didn't even know Titania's intention! This would be an egregious breach of Lin's invincibility if it were allowed to happen. And, certainly, of Titania's more... pro-active attitude. Funny how Vanilla's conflicted about that too (she says "I could have saved Taka" and a few paragraphs later "nah, she would have found a way to one-up us anyway").

Yep, totally impossible to do, but Vanilla thinks that if she thinks the way you and I are, that's just making excuses when her weakness is actually to blame.

She's conflicted because she feels she had enough time to one-up Lin (Taka was standing there while Lin spoke, and Vanilla was there just watching the armor while it "spoke") but also doesn't want to lament the past, and also she knows Lin is "stronger" than her, so she always has the upper hand in the end. 

Tl;dr she's confused and doesn't know what to think.

4 hours ago, Mindlack said:

Now that we know Silver to be a ghost, I like the mention that he's a 'terrible quitter'. Not even his unhappy ending could prevent him from trying to decipher the mysteries of this old mystic who could be a seer? 

Silver being a terrible quitter is pretty much why he's a ghost instead of going to the afterlife. He has several regrets, one of which is that he wanted to keep studying his books, and another, well, I don't know if it'll be clear enough in the next episode but at least it's hinted at.

4 hours ago, Mindlack said:

Speaking of which, I can't help but think of the Queen's special interest in Vanilla even in exile and her peculiar letter to Candy (btw, why not make her demand appear magically in Meteor headquarters? that would have been far more spectacular, no?)... this could indicate that Vanilla was lied to regarding her family... which still seems really unlikely, since Candy would have to be complicit. 

At this point, it's great that you've sensed something fishy going on. I love dropping hints that really mess with my readers' minds as they try to piece everything together 

 

As for Fiore, it'll be quite dramathicc or at least one can hope it is when reading it lol 

[Candy]

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 88

Well, usually I don't have this sort of thing but I felt this song kinda went well with this episode so I'ma link it:

Spoiler

But also it's in Japanese so y'all aren't gonna understand anything  At least you can use it as BGM, maybe? lol

 

The inside of Fiore Mansion was full of water, just as I’d left it. Amaria was mopping the hardwood floor around the pool, somehow not bothered by the fact that the majority of the room, and practically all their wooden furniture and electronics had been destroyed by the flooding.

“Tania?”

She raised her head in response to us opening the door, but looked disappointed that we didn’t enter with Titania.

“Hi hi~ Amy. How are you feeling?”

“I’m good, thank you, Julia,” she said. “And you are… Vanilla, was it?”

“Yeah.”

“I see. Welcome. Please make yourselves at home,” she said dryly.

“Tania will come soon,” Julia said. “Vanini made her promise that she’d come, so don’t be so gloomy.”

She shook her pom-poms to cheer for her friend, but it had no effect on Amaria’s mood. Particularly, the glances she sent me made me question whether I had personally done something to piss her off.

“Thanks, Julia. I’ll go for a swim, to relax myself while I wait for Tania to show up.”

She propped the mop on a wall, and entered the enclosed area that housed her Gym.

“She didn’t even let me ask her for a Gym battle,” I said.

“Maybe you can go tell her now. You can do the battle while we wait for Tania.”

That seemed like a plan I could get behind, so I changed up my team to battle a water-type leader and headed into the Gym area.

 

The Gym area was a gigantic pool on which a few large, unstable boards floated. This much, I had expected, ever since Titania broke the floor and a tsunami of water gushed into their living room. Of course, battling in water was the most tactically logical thing for a water-type trainer: most pokemon couldn’t hold their breaths underneath water, so pulling them down would be enough to cause great damage.

I waited a couple of minutes for Amaria to come back to the surface for some air, but she never did. I worried, knowing that she was prone to suicidal thoughts and behaviors, she may have gone ahead and drowned herself while I prepared my team.

I sent out Kame and hopped on his back.

“Let’s dive and find Amaria,” I told him.

Kame growled loudly and dipped us in the water.

I wouldn’t have guessed it unless I saw it, but the pool was so deep that I almost thought the entire Ametrine Mountain’s altitude could sink in it. Perhaps that was an exaggeration, but it was deep enough that I found a light show illuminating the glass floor, which was not visible from the water surface.

Colors after colors of light showered us as we navigated a maze of glass-enclosed rooms. It was somewhat scary, because if one forgot where the exit was, one could be trapped down there forever. Yet, I continued my search, hoping that at the end of it, I wouldn’t have to pull up a soggy corpse.

About 10 minutes elapsed. We had to go to the surface to re-oxygenate our lungs, and had just come back down to the depths when we found Amaria. She was swimming with an oxygen tank on her back. No wonder she never came up to get a breath of air, but more than anything, I was relieved that she hadn’t drowned.

We couldn’t talk underneath the water, so I couldn’t directly communicate to her that I wanted a pokemon battle. She tried to carry on swimming, but I blocked her way a few times until she, probably unwillingly, understood my meaning and exited the maze with me.

 

She took off her gear and squeezed her hair after she had pulled herself up one of the unstable boards. I also pulled myself up from the other side of the same board, so that we could keep the board somewhat balanced. The water weighed me down, especially because the bubblegum dress had soaked up a lot of it.

“So you were saying? I don’t want to be rude, but I don’t like to be bothered during my swim sessions,” Amaria said.

“I came for a Gym battle,” I said. “I won’t bother you anymore once we’re done with that.”

“I see. So you’re a League challenger,” she said. “In that case, I really wished Ame wouldn’t have re-opened it. We were all doing just fine without it, so what’s the point?”

“What’s done is done. We all have had things not go the way we want them to. There’s no point in regretting the past, if you’re not going to make an effort to move forward.”

“You’re wrong. I don’t regret the past; I regret the present. I regret that you’re standing in front of me right this second, without understanding how Tania has moved farther and farther from me, ever since you appeared in our lives.”

What? So her hostility… is because of that? 

“Your cause and effect is distorted. I had nothing to… or if I did play a role, it was a minor one. Sooner or later, the result would’ve been the same, whether I had come into your lives or not.”

“You say that to escape responsibility. But that’s fine. I didn’t expect more from the antagonist of my story,” she said. “If you don’t understand it, I’ll show you… I’ll show you my pain. Then you’ll understand how it feels to be losing one’s air.”

Before I could restate that I am not her antagonist, or ask what she meant by the last bit of her speech, she jumped up and landed on the same spot, making the board we were on shake vigorously. I tried balancing so as to not be thrown overboard, but she kept jumping on the opposite edge, nullifying my efforts. 

“Hey, stop that!”

I felt myself lose balance backwards when my muscles could not hold the weight of my head, and I quickly made a decision to throw Pikachu to the board so that he would not drown with me.

Amaria kept jumping, and the waves resulting from it didn’t help me because they bumped into my face and made it harder for me to keep breathing. I wasn’t sure if this was just imagination stemming from distress, but I felt as though my dress wrapped around my legs, making it even more challenging to keep kicking myself afloat.

I saw Amaria’s blue silhouette approach me, but if she said something, I couldn’t hear her through the sound of splashing water.

When I had drunk enough water from both mouth and nose, I felt my conscience slipping, and, though there were thoughts that could’ve been much more fitting to the situation, my last thought was whether this would be the last time I ever lost consciousness.

 

It probably would not be, since I woke eventually, proving that I still wasn’t dead.

I woke up because I heard voices arguing very loudly, and found Pikachu resting on my stomach. Then, I looked to my side and saw the pair whose voices had awoken me. One look and I assumed I understood why they were arguing… but no, I wasn’t quite right.

“You f*cking tried to kill Vanilla!” Titania shouted.

Really? She’s angry because Amaria tried to kill me?

“I don’t know what happened,” Amaria replied. “Vanilla was standing on the board when I left her. She must’ve lost her balance by accident.”

No I didn’t, but there was no time for me to interject in this heated conversation.

“You were there and didn’t help her out of the water. You tried to drown her.”

“No, Tania. I didn’t know! I was swimming and didn’t notice she’d fallen in.”

“That’s a lie!”

The conversation continued a few more seconds in that same vein, but then Amaria noticed that I was awake and listening.

“Ah Vanilla, you’re awake! Thank goodness you’re okay,” she said, with a degree of hypocrisy that was almost palpable.

“Your mimikyu pulled you out from the water and I gave you CPR. We’re even,” Titania said to me, then turned towards Amaria once more. “Are you really going to keep on like this even now that Vanilla is awake and listening?”

“Listen,” Amaria said and tried to take one of Titania’s hands, but she slapped her hand away. Amaria bit her lips and the area around her eyes gradually turned pink.

“You don’t understand either,” she said. “You pretend to listen. You pretend to care whether I live or die. But it’s all pretend for you. It hurts me, because my love is not pretend. You wouldn’t know how it feels to have one person be your entire world, and for them to only pretend to care about you.”

A tear fell down Amaria’s eye, then another followed.

“Tania, you’re all I have. I can’t live without you.”

Amaria took a quick couple of steps towards Titania, and surrounded her in her arms. Her long turquoise hair flapped about, which for a second made me think I saw Titania’s head being engulfed by ocean waves.

Titania didn’t reciprocate the embrace, but she remained immobile for a while, looking down on Amaria’s head with a look that bordered endearment and disdain.

Yet, when I was just beginning to contemplate whether I should leave the room or not, Titania pushed Amaria away.

“Why…” Amaria said with her eyes wide open.

“For the longest time, I wanted to avoid becoming that person. No matter the cost, I just didn’t want to become her,” Titania responded in a low voice. She looked at nobody or nothing in particular, but the half of her face that wasn’t covered by hair was wrinkled in the angriest expression I had ever seen her in.

“But… It’s impossible. I struggled and struggled, but I couldn’t change my fate,” she continued, and looked at Amaria. “You said you only have me, but I also only have myself. This is the end of the fairytale.”

Titania said that, impulsively opened the door to their veranda, and shut the door behind her.

 

A very awkward silence remained together with Amaria and me.

“I am the worst,” Amaria said. “I am a... but it doesn’t matter what I am. She won’t come back to find out.”

Then she looked at me with her bloodshot eyes.

“I’m sorry about earlier. I’ll be waiting for you in the Gym.”

She went down the stairs and left me alone with Pikachu.

Taka’s death and now this. It’s like Arceus doesn’t want me to concentrate on my Gym battles.

“I… also once had someone that… I loved dearly, who pretended to reciprocate my feelings. Even if I tried, I couldn’t stop seeing the parallels,” I said to Pikachu. “However, that person wasn’t all that I had. I still had a goal to keep pushing me forward... something that I needed to accomplish however much I suffered. Amaria might be odious, but she has it worse than I did.”

I stood up, and was about to go down the stairs, when I stopped and looked at the glass door that led to the terrace. I stared at it for a while before I carried myself over there.

 

Titania was standing outside, looking away into the distance. She heard the door open and close, and quickly turned around. On seeing that I was not Amaria, her shoulders relaxed.

“Sorry you had to witness that,” she said. “But for once, I feel… refreshed. I said it, at last. I don’t know if that was the best thing to do, but I finally made a choice.”

“She’s hurt, but there was no easy way out. One could say that you shouldn’t have let it get to this point. That you shouldn’t have lied to her about your feelings at all. But I guess you’re already aware of it, and don’t need a third party repeating it to you.”

Titania snorted with no enthusiasm.

“If one tries to avoid a mistake, one makes a different mistake. That’s the story of my life, it seems.”

She sighed and faced the mountains again. We were silent for a moment, until Titania broke it with a seemingly unrelated topic.

“I… had an elder brother. This much, you seem to already know, though I don’t know how,” she said.

“How, you ask? I mean, I’ve met him.”

Titania paused for a moment, and I thought she might get offended again like last time I mentioned her brother’s name, but she didn’t. Instead, she carried on talking.

“He was 16 years older than me, and cared more about me than my own parents did. He taught me to read and write before I began to be homeschooled. He taught me pokemon battling too. He was a steel type trainer, a member of the Elite 4 to be exact.”

The way she always spoke of him in the past tense was eerie, but Silver had hinted that he and Titania had had a falling-out, and thus perhaps Titania currently considered him equal to a dead person.

“As a ten-year-old, he was the hero that excelled in everything he did, and I really admired him for who he was. But…” here, she sighed. “But perhaps that perfectionism and pride of his was too much, and ended up stabbing him in the… front.”

“What happened?” I said and was surprised that I did.

“He had a fiancée, whom he deeply loved. Yet a month before the wedding, she called it off because she realized she loved a different man. My brother couldn’t get over that and… well… the next day, my mother found him lying in his room with a fatal wound to the stomach, and Aegislash quivering with blood on his blade.”

This last bit was especially hard to swallow. I had literally seen this man, the one she just implied killed himself, still moving around in her castle. I most definitely saw him and even talked with him. 

She and I were close a long time ago. It is not surprising if she still resents me for abandoning her. It is a long story, most of which I cannot tell you due to the nature of my existence.

I remembered Silver saying that when I was leaving their castle. What could all this mean?

“I deeply despised the woman who, by not making up her mind about her feelings, made my brother make a rash decision. In my mind, she should’ve stayed with my brother and married him. They had been together 3 years already, so how could it be so difficult?” Titania snorted. “But those are things that are easiest said from an outsider’s perspective. I can’t talk like that anymore, since we’re no different now.”

So, that had happened. Whatever the truth was concerning Silver’s vitals, I could now understand why Titania had acted the way she did with Amaria. It made me feel a little awkward that I had always openly disdained her whenever the subject of her lie resurfaced, thinking she was the same sort of traitor like Aladdin had been. 

“I hadn’t told this story to anyone except Amaria, and, in retrospect, I think she was the one person I shouldn’t have told it to. I don’t think she manipulated me with it, but knowing that I wanted to save her from the same fate as my brother, at any cost, was definitely a weakness that she could rely on to keep me close.”

Titania sent out a Skarmory and readied herself for flight.

“Then why have you told the story to me?”

She shrugged.

“It’s been a while since I began to feel I was the antagonist of this story. I thought I didn’t mind it, but maybe I actually did want someone, anyone, to know that I wasn’t cruel for the sake of being cruel. That I really did the things I did with misguided compassion,” she said. “And the reason you were fitting to hear it was that… Well, you witnessed everything, and despite that, you’re still here.”

Was that… a smile on her face? Yet, I couldn’t ascertain it because Titania immediately took off and looked at me from above.

“Take care of the Sapphire bracelets. Or not. Do whatever you want with them. I’m freeing myself from any responsibility regarding those and Amaria.”

She gave me no time to contradict her and elevated farther up into the sky. 

“I am exceedingly sorry you had to hear all that from her mouth and not mine.”

Silver appeared right behind me without any precaution, which made me scream.

“I also must leave. Wherever Aegislash goes, I must go too, for as long as he lives,” he said. “But let me thank you, Miss Vanilla, for watching over Tania in the manner I would have liked to… and would have, had I not forgotten everything I still wanted to do in that one decisive instant.”

“What are you saying? I didn’t-”

But before I could finish my sentence, he vanished into thin air right in front of my eyes, confirming that he had really been, all along, a ghost.

I stood there in such awe that I forgot to even watch Titania disappear into the horizon. When I looked up to the sky, she had already become nothing but a speck among the clouds.

 

I went back into the house and ran down the stairs to finally get on with the Gym battle. 

Julia had taken Amaria’s “make yourselves at home” quite literally and was now lying on a bright pink float in the middle of the flooded living room. She had shades and headphones on, so I wasn’t sure she was even awake. All she’d have needed was someone to bring her a pina colada to complete the picture of laid-back carefreeness.

 

I went into the Gym arena without being noticed by Julia. Amaria was standing on the floating board from which she had shaken me off earlier in the day. I wasn’t dumb enough to possibly repeat the same mistake, and opted to stand on a different board from hers.

“Sorry again for earlier. I think I let my emotions get out of control, and I almost committed something I would’ve regretted,” she said. “But I did end up cutting the last thread of hope that tied me to Tania in the process. It really is the end, in more ways than one.”

“You relied too much on one person to guide your life. That was your mistake.”

“For people like me, who inherently don’t have motivation to do anything, relying on her was the only way I could get out of bed every morning, and nourish myself so that I could live one more day alongside her,” she said, looking at her hands. “I’m back to my original self.”

How would I describe it… She wasn’t crying or anything, but something about the way that she swayed in the unstable board, or the abundant blue waters that surrounded us, made me feel as though her whole being turned into grief itself. She was above water, but sunk in an all-consuming sadness, just because her purpose of living was snatched away from her.

I must, at all costs, prevent that from happening to me, I thought with utmost conviction.

“You’re here for a Gym badge, though. Not to hear me crying over spilt water,” Amaria said. “Shall we get on with it?”

Amaria sent two pokemon into the water, signaling to me that this would be a double battle. There was a part of me who hesitated to take a pokeball in hand, but I pushed those feelings down and sent my first two fighters into the water as well.

Spoiler

Pretend Vanini isn't kicking Amaria's ass in this vid lmao

 

This battle was difficult, even though I was prepared to fight on water. Fighting against water pokemon in an arena that was vastly prepared in their favor, felt like an impossible battle to me, and it went without saying that I was in a pretty bad position during the first third of the fight. She supposedly lost her memory, but I didn’t think her fighting skills were harmed in any way.

I cannot lose like this, being drowned totally one-sidedly, I thought. 

I desperately tried to think of a strategy on the spot, because just adding both water types in my team wasn’t cutting it. Realizing that one of the remaining pokemon in my team was Elsa (A-ninetales), I remembered something Archer mentioned in passing during our train ride here. 

However, now I like the water type due to their versatility. Just like it is both necessary for survival and is potentially deadly, the pokemon can make use of the water’s softness or literally turn it into icicles to attack hard.

But what if, instead of turning water into icicles to attack, we froze the water to battle on top of ice? I wasn’t sure that change alone could throw the balance of the match overboard. Even then, I had to try it.

I sent out Elsa and ordered her to freeze the water in the arena. Amaria did not give us unlimited time to work on that, but at least she was able to create a thin sheet of ice to cover the area we were fighting in. This prevented Amaria’s pokemon from diving and taking my pokemon with them to the depths of the pool, but it did increase the power of ice-type moves, which wasn’t totally helpful considering I had grass pokemon in my team. Yet, the balance, though not thrown overboard, was at least leveled between the two of us now.

In the end, the remaining pokemon in my team managed to pull through when it mattered most, and- not without a lot of struggle and mental math- were able to faint all of Amaria’s pokemon.

“Misery loves company just as I love her,” she said when she had lost. “That’s why we’re alone from now on.”

She jumped from her white board to the one I was standing on, almost knocking me over again. With quick steps she approached me, and I raised my fists to prepare for a possible fight. I wouldn’t be caught off-guard twice in the same day. 

Yet, instead of trying to push me overboard, she extended her hand towards me. In it was the Torrent badge. She also gave me the TM Scald, which I thought would be a better move than Surf on some occasions.

“Now go,” she said. “I set you free. Both you and her.”

I nodded and started to leave the place.

“And if anything happens to me, know that I’ll finally be at peace.”

I stopped walking and turned around.

“I can’t tell you what to do, since I’m nothing but a third party in all of this. Do what you must, to the extent that you’re satisfied,” I said. “But also remember that there was someone willing to jump a waterfall and nearly starve for your sake... to save that life you so under-appreciate.”

Amaria said nothing in reply, and I left the arena behind.

 

VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS

Spoiler

• Amaria (-2): 2/10 She very literally tried to kill me
• Titania (+1): 2/10 Still hate her, but at least I see her side better (through the lens of non-canon content)

 

TEAM RECAP

Spoiler

 

QUICK DIVE TO NEXT EPISODE

[J-Awesome_One]

Yay! So I have to say the way you had Amaria trying to kill Vanilla was... interesting to say the least. xD I'm glad she got the badge though! Can't wait for the next episode!

[Candy]

1 hour ago, J-Awesome_One said:

Yay! So I have to say the way you had Amaria trying to kill Vanilla was... interesting to say the least. xD I'm glad she got the badge though! Can't wait for the next episode!

Lol I just can't imagine Titania making it in time to save Vanilla in the canon way of drowning (the thing is like a maze down there, how did Tania know protagonist was trapped down there?) so realistically speaking, she'd die which ain't what I need lmaoo

The method I chose is more "visible" when Tania comes into the arena, and I did drop the hint a few chapters back that Vanini doesn't know how to swim, especially while wearing normal clothes 

[J-Awesome_One]

41 minutes ago, Candy said:

Lol I just can't imagine Titania making it in time to save Vanilla in the canon way of drowning (the thing is like a maze down there, how did Tania know protagonist was trapped down there?) so realistically speaking, she'd die which ain't what I need lmaoo

The method I chose is more "visible" when Tania comes into the arena, and I did drop the hint a few chapters back that Vanini doesn't know how to swim, especially while wearing normal clothes 

Lol. I mean true but... jumping up & down on a platform wasn’t what I had in mind for someone trying to drown someone.

[Candy]

35 minutes ago, J-Awesome_One said:

Lol. I mean true but... jumping up & down on a platform wasn’t what I had in mind for someone trying to drown someone.

Yeah, when I hadn't played E17 and people were saying "Amaria tried to drown me", I actually imagined her taking us by the shoulders/neck and pushing us into the water while we struggled in vain xD but after playing, I realized the next scene with Amaria and Titania arguing about her "supposed" murder attempt doesn't work if Titania actually saw Amaria trying to drown us.

The version I chose is much less dramathicc than my initial imagination, but well, Vanini did almost drown just by being pulled into the water the other time, and she was within reach distance of the pondside then 

[Evi Crystal]

I'm pretty suprised, you have managed to publish 2-3 chapters in such short time, but I kinda enjoyed them despite what happened. #RIPTaka&Silver

 

The current chapter pretty sad because of that and yet I cannot wait for Vanilla to enter the notorious Glass Factory due to a certain gauntlet, that takes your sanity in a few rounds.

 

However I'm kinda glad, that Vanilla and Archer made (finally!) peace after so long. But I kinda miss their little fights to be honest, I enjoyed that "rivaly"

[Candy]

20 minutes ago, Evi Crystal said:

I'm pretty suprised, you have managed to publish 2-3 chapters in such short time

LOL me too but now it's back to 2 months wait

20 minutes ago, Evi Crystal said:

The current chapter pretty sad because of that and yet I cannot wait for Vanilla to enter the notorious Glass Factory due to a certain gauntlet, that takes your sanity in a few rounds.

The gauntlet I don't think will be as interesting as the Tourmaline saga but given a certain character is involved in it, it might have its unique charm.

22 minutes ago, Evi Crystal said:

However I'm kinda glad, that Vanilla and Archer made (finally!) peace after so long. But I kinda miss their little fights to be honest, I enjoyed that "rivaly"

Yeah lol I'm proud of my babies growing to accept their differences, even if one's evidently better at it than the other xD 

[Corso]

17 hours ago, Candy said:

I tried balancing so as to not be thrown overboard, but she kept jumping on the opposite edge, nullifying my efforts. 

“Hey, stop that!”

Today's the day I ask you to bring One Punch Vanilla back, incredible!

 

17 hours ago, Candy said:

“It’s been a while since I began to feel I was the antagonist of this story. I thought I didn’t mind it, but maybe I actually did want someone, anyone, to know that I wasn’t cruel for the sake of being cruel.

1) You are one of the antagonists (don't worry, you're not alone. The Dragon girl is with you)

2) You definitely are cruel for the sake of being cruel (and again, that Dragon girl)

 

And now that you've reached the end of E17 I know nothing of what's next. I defeated Amaria on 24th March 2018. Congratulations Candy! Can't wait to see what happens in E18!

[Evi Crystal]

9 minutes ago, Corso said:

1) You are one of the antagonists (don't worry, you're not alone. The Dragon girl is with you)

2) You definitely are cruel for the sake of being cruel (and again, that Dragon girl)

You mean Saphira and Tania? Ah yes, those two have indeed some unlikeable traits, which made them on pair with a few villains there. Despite being on the good guys side. But it would be boring, if we just had only goodie goodie bland heroes only like in the canon games (no offense, I like them as well).

 

As for the "being cruel for the sake of cruelty": I would say that Tania is a sociopath hero with a lack of emphaty and a bad person at a degree (given the noodle incident with Rini), despite having a reason of being stuck in a toxic relationship with Amy. Heck, I'm not even defending most of her actions, despite liking her as a character (due to having deeph).

 

As for Saphnia is the classic "I'm protecting my family at all costs", so we can understand her actions in Tazan Cove, but yes she does come of as a unlikeable as well. Just not so as Tania thanks to her history with a doctor who shocks people on a daily basis as therapy and a fire incident with her sisters.

 

But we'll see what Ame & Co will have us players store for E19.

[Corso]

Ah I wasn't sure Saphira was her name, thank you. And while I still can't accept what they did (if they were real people), I must admit they bring a healthy diversity to the cast

[Evi Crystal]

Well there were two Dragon Trainers: Saphira and Lin (back at the Online League), but both women did questionable actions (to put this simple), but are on different sides so yeah. But at least the cast has enjoyable characters (such as Julia, Florinia, Noel etc.) despite big issues and problems. 

[Candy]

1 hour ago, Corso said:

Today's the day I ask you to bring One Punch Vanilla back, incredible!

 

Lolol have y'all ever been on a float with someone and been thrown off because they started moving like a my madman? No? Well, it's p fun so y'all should try it xD I'd have time to think, "oh no, I'ma fall bois" and then really fall. Ah I miss waterparks.

1 hour ago, Corso said:

1) You are one of the antagonists (don't worry, you're not alone. The Dragon girl is with you)

2) You definitely are cruel for the sake of being cruel (and again, that Dragon girl)

I feel Tania being merciless with Team Meteor and her relationship with Amaria are separate. She might be cruel for the sake of being cruel with the former, but she's an accidental antagonist in the latter me thinks. The additional AU content only amplified what was already there.

1 hour ago, Corso said:

And now that you've reached the end of E17 I know nothing of what's next. I defeated Amaria on 24th March 2018. Congratulations Candy! Can't wait to see what happens in E18!

Yeahhh! Crazy how time flies. What happens in canon E18 and in my story may be slightly different (there's this long part which I think I'll be shortening a tad (I say that, but then maybe I'll add extra stuff, making it longer cause that's how I roll )). Anyway, hope you get to play it too sometime~

 

1 hour ago, Evi Crystal said:

But it would be boring, if we just had only goodie goodie bland heroes only like in the canon games (no offense, I like them as well).

If it wasn't clear with my selection of protagonist, I'm a fan of baddie heroes lol It's one of my favorite things in fan games, since canon games usually have all be super selfless and good and it's boworing. Tbh the more I can hate the character as a person, the more I enjoy the story xD

I think Vanilla is at the same level of merciless as Titania or Saphira, but that isn't well-appreciated in the pokemon setting since you don't really have to kill someone to "win", as in-game Candy reminds us earlier on. Tania and Saphira still do it, but Vanini doesn't find incentive in putting effort when it's not necessary. This might change once the setting is moved out of Reborn, but I do plan on swinging God's hammer in, what I think, is the most cruel way ever to reward the sinners...  Why am I a sadist when writing?

[Evi Crystal]

@Candy Indeed, that's a huge difference between the canon and fangames, despite the former having some dark moments as well (like Gen 5 and 7) but not so much. It makes me wish they could make Silver or Gladion a playable character or even protagonist back then... They do have a nice complex personality compared to the "bland" players. Although I get it, that Pokemon is mostly for children, such as the anime

 

19 minutes ago, Candy said:

Why am I a sadist when writing?

Well misery builds the character so, given then a couple of hardships will bring a lot of challenges and even character development to your OC; for the best or worse. As long, you write it decently and balanced. Not like the Wattpad language (yeah I'm bringing this up, because it's a pretty good example for how poorly books are made here)

 

[Corso]

36 minutes ago, Candy said:

Anyway, hope you get to play it too sometime~

I was following this amazing guide by user named Friz Pokemon Reborn Walkthrough - Episode 17 100% Completion - On the Hunt - Reborn Evolved and before that I followed this A Horrendously Written Guide for Reborn™ - On the Hunt - Reborn Evolved written by Despair Syndrome, she sounds like a very cool person, but unfortunately I've never had the chance to meet her as she had become inactive before I joined.... anyway where was I?

Ah yes, well Friz's guide is tremendously detailed so I've become dependent on guides because I don't want to miss anything (like that time I missed 3 relationship points with Titania because no one told me to get an ice cream before leaving reborn)

tldr I don't think I'll play reborn until a new guide comes out (and it should be as good as Friz's guide).

44 minutes ago, Candy said:

 Why am I a sadist when writing?

Wdym "when writing"?

 

(Are you glad I revealed some exclusive information about why I joined this forum? This is lore no one knows about!) 

[Candy]

1 hour ago, Corso said:

like that time I missed 3 relationship points with Titania because no one told me to get an ice cream before leaving reborn

I expected you wouldn't care for relationship points with her  But also morale of the story: always carry ice cream to sweeten peepos days uwu

1 hour ago, Corso said:

Wdym "when writing"?

1 hour ago, Corso said:

(Are you glad I revealed some exclusive information about why I joined this forum? This is lore no one knows about!) 

Nice getting lore for irl characters hehe

[Corso]

I don't care about her, but I am a perfectionist. And I still like to be on good terms with everyone irl, including people I don't like (although I've never managed to do that) 

[Logan_the_balalaika]

I can see why you split gym battle and tourmaline conclusion into two chapters. Add Silver's backstory to E17 and you have quite a lot of drama in this part. I was silently hoping for "I have scars, you're one of them" line, that one was a BIG OOF.

 

On 7/23/2021 at 1:58 AM, Candy said:

her reply was that there were too few players to make it fun.

Woow, Julia not so oblivious to everything that happens around her? I'd like to see more of that in game. At first when I played E17 I thought Julia will come to the rescue since she's the only one who saw mc entering the gym. Good thing we have plot armor.

 

On 7/27/2021 at 1:17 AM, Candy said:

We couldn’t talk underneath the water, so I couldn’t directly communicate to her that I wanted a pokemon battle.

Nonsense. I clearly remember talking to her multiple times while underwater...

Nah but honestly, that's one of the things that don't make any sense to me.  How are we able to dive with a pokemon without an oxygen tank is also beyond me. You could say we share oxygen with the pokemon or something but I don't want to go there.

 

On 7/27/2021 at 6:46 AM, Candy said:

I actually imagined her taking us by the shoulders/neck and pushing us into the water while we struggled in vain xD

That's pretty hardcore but I could see that. Imagine how awkward it would be if someone walked in at this very moment lol. Unless that someone was Julia. Then it'd probably go like this:

*Julia walks in*

Julia: Um, Amy, what are you doing?

Amaria: Ahaha, just giving Vanilla a swimming lesson that's all.

Julia: Oh cool! You two have fun then!

*Julia leaves*

Damn it Julia.

 

 

Since there's also another little discussion here I'll add a thing or two.

 

On 7/27/2021 at 8:53 PM, Candy said:

I feel Tania being merciless with Team Meteor and her relationship with Amaria are separate.

I don't believe so. I think her headstrong personality amplified by frustration originating from all that time spent in the toxic relationship is the main reason why she's on th edge all the time. She seems more chill in E18-Reshi.

 

I like Titania mostly due to her well made character. She's written in a way that wouldn't make you agree with what she does and I dig flawed characters. Killing someone doesn't automatically make you an antagonist. She's an anti-hero, so is the dragon leader.

While I wouldn't say I'm perfectly fine with the fact that "good guys" like Titania and Saphira are murdering meteors I honestly find it frustrating that there are no consequences for meteors when MC beats them in battle. Throughout the game we defeat same grunts time and time again and they don't meet with any punishment or repercussios as a result, they just go on onto the next scheme like nothing happened. It's especially visible later in the game when they often comment on how fighitng us is pointless etc.

 

What I'm saying is while it's not pretty, they do stop grunts permanently and remembering Team Meteor's resume it's difficult to feel sorry for them. Also police in reborn sucks so there's that.

Now that I think about it, it so happens that characters capable of killing tend to give a reality check to more "decent" grunts such as Aster or Simon. Hadn't that happened they would probably still be working for meteor.

[Candy]

7 hours ago, Logan_the_balalaika said:

I can see why you split gym battle and tourmaline conclusion into two chapters. Add Silver's backstory to E17 and you have quite a lot of drama in this part. I was silently hoping for "I have scars, you're one of them" line, that one was a BIG OOF.

Yeah that's a good line, I wonder why past me omitted it lol

8 hours ago, Logan_the_balalaika said:

Woow, Julia not so oblivious to everything that happens around her? I'd like to see more of that in game. At first when I played E17 I thought Julia will come to the rescue since she's the only one who saw mc entering the gym. Good thing we have plot armor.

I'd actually say she feels sad herself, rather than being particularly aware of her surroundings lol Vanini gave her an executive order to stay away from the castle, basically to show how she's appreciating Julia more, and also because I didn't daydream Julia doing anything even if she stayed.

8 hours ago, Logan_the_balalaika said:

Nonsense. I clearly remember talking to her multiple times while underwater...

Nah but honestly, that's one of the things that don't make any sense to me.  How are we able to dive with a pokemon without an oxygen tank is also beyond me. You could say we share oxygen with the pokemon or something but I don't want to go there.

Yeah I really would've liked to have the whole sequence with Amaria talking with MC underwater in my story but the physics bugged my brain a tad bit too much. I can live with people climbing longass waterfalls or not being affected by being electrocuted, even diving for more than 1 minute lol but talking under water? nahhh

8 hours ago, Logan_the_balalaika said:

That's pretty hardcore but I could see that. Imagine how awkward it would be if someone walked in at this very moment lol. Unless that someone was Julia. Then it'd probably go like this:

*Julia walks in*

Julia: Um, Amy, what are you doing?

Amaria: Ahaha, just giving Vanilla a swimming lesson that's all.

Julia: Oh cool! You two have fun then!

*Julia leaves*

Damn it Julia.

Julia come on you're tied 3rd place in Vanini's ratings, why do you forsake her thus T_T

 

And great insight on Tania. I'm also a fan of flawed characters, especially those who are a hot mess despite trying to do "the right thing", of which club I'd say she's a part of lol

[Candy]

From Everland to Reborn ~ Imprisoned

Another "spin-off" before we get on with the rest of Vanilla's story. It was mentioned in passing a couple episodes back that Aladdin got taken hostage by Team Meteor, and you-know-who is already there so I figured why not have them interact in some form, right?

 

"You know, I found something... intriguing in your apartment."

Those words greeted me when I returned to my apartment in Ametrine. Jasmin waved an envelope that was clearly open, and I instantly perceived just how much trouble I was in. Yet, either she couldn’t tell what I perceived, or wanted to humiliate me regardless, because she took the letter out of the envelope and started reading it aloud.

“Dear Vanilla Leiderhosen. If you’re reading this-”

“Jasmin, please. I know what’s written on it. You know what’s on it. If you’ll kill me for treason, just do it. If you’d rather take me back for a proper trial, just do that.”

“I don’t get tired of reading this letter,” she said and laughed. “When I realize the extent to which you betrayed me, it’s almost comical. I couldn’t stop laughing the first time I read it, even though I knew, on the back of my mind, that this was how you felt for quite some time.”

She looked back down on the piece of paper, and carried on reading it.

“If you’re reading this, you must’ve found my room key in Wolfie’s diary. I hope that I have fulfilled my role by then, and am no longer living. Leaving a note like this, intended to be read post-mortem, may seem pathetic, but there were some things that I needed to tell you, Vanilla, which I was too cowardly to say while I was alive.”

“Stop it,” I said. I had intended to say it strongly, but instead my voice cracked.

“It’s been many months now since I left Everland to chase you in Reborn, and even more since that fateful day, but I still haven’t been able to sort my feelings completely. How could doing the right thing feel so wrong? I don’t know if I’ll ever understand. But what I do know now is that I regretted involving myself in Underworld politics. I regretted being the cause that the people I once shared a meal with, died. But most importantly, I regretted betraying your trust.”

I slumped down on a chair. I wanted to cover my ears but I knew that if I did that, Jasmin would only read with a louder voice to still make me listen. So I covered my face instead.

Jasmin saw my action and laughed before continuing to read.

“If I ever found the Genie in the lamp, I wouldn’t care to make three wishes. I’d only wish to go back in time, so that I could prevent this tragic timeline and love you honestly, as you’d deserved from the very beginning,” she read. “Yours truly, Aladdin Ababwa.”

I didn’t raise my head when she was done. I heard her crushing the paper and throwing it into the trash bin.

“You’re right. Leaving this note behind was pathetic,” I heard her say. “You meant to confess your love after you died? I can’t help laughing at how dumb that is. But I’ve gotten to know you fairly well the past year to be aware that being a coward isn’t anything unusual for you.”

“Sure, Jasmin. Call me what you see fit. I know better than you or anyone else, who I am.”

“A coward unable to make any concrete decisions, that’s what you are. Well, that’s exactly why you were useful to me all this time, though, so I wouldn’t consider it entirely bad,” she said. “Now, though, you’re useless to me.”

“What are you going to do? I’m assuming you’re not going to let me walk out of here like nothing happened.”

Jasmin laughed.

“Of course not, silly. Now that I think about it… I lied. You’ll be useful to me one last time.”

She then stretched the ribbon on her head quickly, and wrapped around my wrists first, then all around my torso, leaving me no opening at all to struggle for freedom. 

Not that I wanted to struggle, though. I was so drained by my own existence that I just let her wrap me like a human cocoon as she wanted.

 

I was transported but I couldn’t see where we were headed to until Jasmin let go of me in a very grey-ish room. There were some cells, one of which was open and I was pushed inside it unceremoniously. The bars slid and locked. Jasmin was still standing in the room, alongside two people in dark grey uniforms. I hadn’t seen them in a while, but I remembered seeing some people wearing them when Vanilla came to Ametrine City. That gave me a big hint on where I currently was, but I found myself still paralyzed with disbelief. 

“Why are we here?” I asked Jasmin.

“Since now I’m on my own searching for Vanilla, I figured it was an opportune time as ever to ask for help,” she said. “Team Meteor’s goal and mine happen to be in agreement. They want to get rid of their enemies, of which Vanilla is a big one. And I want to take Vanilla to Everland. We couldn’t get the Reborn police department to help us, but they wouldn’t have been nearly as useful as Team Meteor, anyway. I only wished I’d have known to ask them for support earlier.”

“Have you lost your mind? Out of all people, I didn’t think you’d be one to ask a terrorist group for help. Don’t you see the irony? That you’re hunting a terrorist by borrowing another terrorist’s hand?”

“That’s ironic, coming from you, who used a Defiance group to take out Vanilla’s. You should know, just like I do, that whether I take Vanilla to Everland alone or with their help is the same result for these terrorists. I’m neither supplying them with military equipment nor information. I’m merely speeding up the inevitable.”

“But-”

She cut me right there. Gone was her disparaging smile, and instead she was looking at me with deep wrinkles on her brow. 

“Besides,” she said. “I’ve told you before. The ends justify the means. The Defiance will end, and I’ll be the one to put an end to it, at any cost.”

I gulped. Even now, when there was nothing else to lose, I still felt intimidated by her look.

“I… I understand. May I ask one last question?”

“What is it?”

“You said I would be useful to you one last time,” I said. “But you’ve brought me here and locked me behind bars. What’s the meaning of it?”

Her disparaging smile returned, and my shoulders could relax.

“I’ve brought you here to give me an advantage when I meet her soon. I’m hoping that she’ll be at least somewhat discomposed if I tell her that her ex-boyfriend has been taken hostage.”

“I doubt that’ll work on her,” I said. “She doesn’t care one bit about me anymore. Don't raise your expectations.”

“We’ll see about that. At the very least, keeping you behind bars will ensure you don’t sabotage me anymore.”

She then left the key to the guards and exited the room.

 

I reclined my back on a wall and sighed. 

I thought that the natural reaction of a person who is locked behind bars like I was would be to shout to demand freedom and to shake the bars that wouldn’t budge under such minuscule force. However, I just didn’t feel like doing any of that. Even if they told me I’d have to live the rest of my life shut away from the world, I wouldn’t even try to escape that fate. 

You’re just glad that you no longer have to take a side, I heard the voice of my subconscious say. You can keep existing, without getting in the way of anyone, or betraying anyone, anymore.

“It’s almost… comfortable.”

I closed my eyes and would’ve drowned myself in thoughts and recollections, were it not for a sudden voice that didn’t come from within me.

“Uh, excuse me,” the voice said. “I believe I have met you before.”

“Have we?”

I couldn’t quite remember whether I had heard their voice before, and I wasn’t paying attention to the neighboring cell when I was brought in.

“My name is Aya. I am… was the poison type Gym leader. I believe we had a battle a while back.”

The sight of a pale girl with striking purple hair scraped my memory. I had tried taking on the League Challenge as part of training up a pokemon team and searching for Vanilla, but I had quit when I wasn’t able to beat her, the poison type Gym leader.

“I remember you now,” I said. “But what are you doing here? Are you held hostage by Team Meteor?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“I’m sorry to hear it. I hope they haven’t treated you poorly.”

“It depends on who’s on guard duty. Some guards are nastier than others. The amenities of each cell aren’t great either. The mattress we must use as a bed is hard, the sheets feel like plastic, everytime I want to go to the bathroom, I have to get a guard to escort me, and don’t expect anything from the food. It’s plain disgusting. But other than that, I wouldn’t say I’ve been treated poorly,” she said. “What about you? I overheard something about Vanilla. Are you... acquainted with her?”

“Are you acquainted with her too?” 

I responded to her questions with a question, because I was taken aback. I didn’t expect to meet Aya here, but I also didn’t expect her to know Vanilla… though, on better thought, I should’ve expected it, since I knew she had joined forces with the Gym leaders of this region.

“Yeah, we met once or twice in the past,” she said. “And you are, if the girl from earlier wasn’t bluffing, Vanilla’s ex?”

I coughed. How much did I wish Jasmin had a little more filter when speaking.

“I guess. It’s a long story.”

“You don’t need to tell me. I’m not interested in poking my nose in people’s private affairs,” she said. “It makes no difference whether I get information about Vanilla’s lover or her enemy, since I’m not going to be able to do anything with it, as long as I’m kept behind bars.”

“Thank you. I wouldn’t hesitate to tell the story, were it not because it’s not a pretty one to tell. Besides, there’s no way I could tell it without being accused of bias. If anyone has the right to tell it, it’s Vanilla.”

 

We were silent for a while after that. I took the opportunity to move things around my cell, mainly just the mattress, because I noticed that the floor was damp underneath it. I pushed it against the wall that separated Aya’s and my cells. I sat on it and reclined against the wall again.

“Have you tried escaping from here?” I whispered so that the guard couldn’t hear us.

“No,” she replied.

“You said you are escorted out to the bathrooms,” I said. “Have you seen what it’s like out of this room? No chance of escaping?”

“Are you going to attempt escaping?”

“No, I was asking, in case I could help you devise an escape plan for yourself.”

“No need. I wasn’t planning on leaving either.”

“What? Why? I’d judged you didn’t like being stuck in here, from what you told me.”

“It’s not the best place I could be in, that’s for sure,” she said. “But at the same time, it’s the most comfortable.”

I raised an eyebrow at this. I was curious to know what her reasons for feeling that way were.

“I don’t know if you’re at all concerned with the politics of this region, but most Gym Leaders have united to fight off the terrorists. If I weren’t in here, I’d be fighting too.”

“Yeah, though neither of us has really involved ourselves with either side- or at least I don’t think in a major way- I have been following what was happening even before coming here. I think you’re pretty even so far, but that balance could tip anytime. Either Calcenon gets destroyed beyond salvation, or the Gym Leaders find a way to get across the barrier.”

“That’s right. I’ve been stuck here for so long. I didn’t even get to do anything to help, like at all,” she explained. “But the longer I thought about it, the more it became clear to me that being here was helping both the Gym Leaders and me. Realistically, what could I do to help? I’m new to pokemon battling, and all I do is be unhappy about everything. It’s a blessing, really, that they forgot I’m even here.”

“You’re new to pokemon battling?” I asked. “I didn’t even notice, because I lost to you.”

“That’s only because you had the disadvanta-” she cut her sentence abruptly.

“Did something happen?” I asked after she remained silent for an unnatural amount of time.

“No. Nothing happened, I just remembered something,” she said. “I was going to downplay my victory again, because in my mind, I won due to unfair advantage.”

“Well, I had a psychic type in my team, which should’ve given me some advantage. I could’ve battled you with a full team of 6, but judged my team was complete with the 5 I had. Those are decisions I made, which impacted the result of our battle. You could always list the external things that might’ve led you to win, and downplay your judgement’s role in all of it. But the truth is, I gave what I thought was enough to win, but it wasn’t enough. You put effort into your battle, and came on top. You’re a stronger pokemon trainer than you give yourself credit for, and you have every right to take pride in your victories.”

“Is that something Vanilla taught you?”

“Vanilla? Why do you ask?”

“Because she told me something similar. To keep giving my best, and that as long as I was giving my best, I should take pride in my accomplishments, however small.”

I laughed. I should’ve known she had told her that already. She was never one to shy away from speaking her mind, whether what came out of her mouth was helpful or rude.

“Vanilla hates people who do things half-heartedly. I’ve known her for years, but I’ve never seen her do something without her full determination. That’s why she hates me with all her might, and probably why I… care about her.”

“Care about her? Or love her?” she asked. “Actually, never mind. You don’t need to answer that.”

I didn’t answer, because she retracted her question, but also, because I hadn’t intended to answer at all.

 

“You should leave this room and fight alongside your allies,” I said. “I must admit, I haven’t interacted with many Gym Leaders. Only 2 before I met you- Julia and Florinia- but they seemed to care about the cause greatly. I also met Heather, who I think is also fighting alongside you. She wanted to help even people she didn’t know personally. I don’t think they’re the type that would forget about an ally that got taken hostage.”

“I don’t know them.”

“But outside there are people who care about you, aren’t there?”

Aya didn’t respond to my question, so I interpreted her silence as affirmative.

“As long as there are people outside who care for you, they’ll be looking for a way to liberate you. We should also see if we can get you out of here by ourselves, in case they can’t find a way in.”

“For you too, right?”

I shook my head, but remembering that she wouldn’t be able to see that, I put it in words: “Sure.”

[Corso]

Didn't Aladdin have an Articuno?

Jasmine = Majin Bu