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

[Candy]

6 hours ago, Corso said:

I know, I was talking about THAT thing

Ooo  It's because i don't want it to be too obvious, you know... and this time I felt it'd be too visible xD

[Candy]

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 24

Upon entering the wastelands, two things struck me simultaneously: the first was the pungent smell of something like vinegar, and the other, the amount of trash that made up all of the town. Some trash, such as the old machines, had remained practically intact with some wear and oxidation, but much more of it had degraded to the point that I could not tell what every piece was from anymore.

I tried biking, but soon realized that the goo was going to end up destroying the wheels, so I stopped pedalling. The long way to wherever this Gym was, I would have to go by foot.

I started walking over the trash, which was gooey at some parts and brittle at some others. I chose to walk over the places where I could see distinctive shapes of trash, finely crushed into small pebbles, rather than over the sticky pulp that threatened to steal my shoes.

“It was incredible to see trees and vegetation in Azurine Island,” I recalled. “But the fact that there are trees in this junkyard is even more astonishing.”

I saw almost no houses, as expected, and the few that I passed by had been morphed into disorganized storage rooms. On the south of the town, if the place could be called that, I found some buildings that looked like apartments. They were all in terrible shape, but one was especially bad because it had broken and fallen on its side. If I thought Jasper looked like Satan’s abode, this place was Satan’s cat’s sandbox.

“Perhaps it would have been interesting to know how the place looked like in the past,” I commented.

 

On the far northwestern edge of the wasteland, I found the only house that had people living in.

“Yeah, just come right in, will you?” said a middle-aged woman with purple hair that was starting to turn gray. She was visibly unhappy with the intrusion.

“Excuse me?” I asked, and the woman sighed.

“Sorry, I guess I should start getting used to this,” the woman rolled her eyes. “After all, the living room’s now a Gym now. Goodness!”

I spoke a little more with the woman, who apparently could not speak without irony. She told me she was the Gym leader, Aya’s mother, and went on rambling on about how the house had been full of noise and strangers while the Gym’s field was set up. Finally, when she noticed she wasn’t getting appropriate response from my part, she called Aya, who was in the living room.

“I’m a little busy right now,” the girl shouted back.

“I guess she hasn’t finished the Gym battle with that rude green-haired guy.”

So I wasn’t wrong to assume that the trash would call more trash. Fern must’ve moved at snail’s speed, if he is only now battling the Gym leader after rubbing the wasteland key on my face just before all that storming the orphanage happened. Talk about pathetic.

“I’ll be back,” I told Aya’s mother, and went out to the wasteland to train my pokemon.

Of course, my main players for this battle would be pretty much the same ones I sent in the battle against Corey: Aladdin, Prince and to a lesser extent, Golden Key. I wondered if Aya would also have a crobat, in which case Wolfie would also be great help.

When I came back, I downloaded the Field Effect read-out for the wasteland field. Ame told me about how this Gym was new, and was telling me some advice about Aya’s team (for instance that she was also a double-battler), but her mother interjected.

“I didn’t know the machine had been installed to tell trainers how to beat my daughter,” she said in her usual sarcastic tone.

Ame apologized and shut the communication. I didn’t need much advice, anyway.

Looking at the Field Effect read-out, I found out that Wolfie and Golden Key could become more handy than I initially thought, since it said that Stealth Rock and Spikes would cause damage at the end of the turn. Not that Wolfie needs that, given it has the powerful rock-type move Rock Slide.

 

Entering into the Gym field, also known as the living room, I found Fern receiving the badge from Aya.

“Yo, Vanilla. Late to the party as usual,” Fern said. “You’re lucky. This Gym leader? Total noob, so it’ll be an easy badge unless you lose, since you’re another noob.”

“Excuse you? I beat you once before this,” Aya said. She was a skinny girl with a voice that seemed to come out of her nose. Given that she was Cain’s sister, I expected her to be as unique as Cain, but she seemed to be the average teenage girl. I could have sworn Cain wears more makeup than her.

“Yeah I was caught off guard by you fighting in doubles,” Fern made an excuse.

“That’s why there’s a display to ask Ame those questions,” I shrugged.

The green-haired jerk sent a sharp look to me, but said nothing. In the end, he’s just another coward.

“Anyway-”

Just then, Aya’s mother announced that there was another visitor.

“They’ll have to wait,” I said.

However, the visitor happened to be someone who hadn’t come for a Gym battle. The guy was tall but with red hair so abundant that it made him look like a lion.

“Oh, it’s you,” Fern said with a monotonous voice and expression.

“Yeah, it’s me,” the stranger replied. “What’re you doin’ here?”

“Sweepin’ scrubs. How about you?”

“I heard there was a new Gym letter, so I figured I’d come down and welcome her to the club,” the lion guy said, and walked over to Aya.

He introduced himself to the girl as the rock-type Gym leader, Hardy.

“Yanno, the plan was to give you a warm welcome, but,” he glanced over at Fern. “Looks like you kinda already got a sour one, huh, mate?”

“You can keep your snide comments to yourself, thanks,” Fern retorted.

“So you two know each other?” Aya asked, and the two guys sighed simultaneously.

“Unfortunately. I had the misfortune to be stuck in the same class as Fern at OTS.”

For a moment I felt a little sick just thinking what going to school with Fern would’ve been like. If my school life was a nightmare, I couldn’t imagine adding an all-talk narcissist.

“In short, Hardy’s jealous because I was the top dog and he was just one loser more,” Fern sneered.

“Keep tellin’ yourself that, mate.”

The two also went over briefly about their sisters’ friendship but Hardy ended the conversation prematurely.

A small silence ensued, and Fern, who could never stop talking, decided that he’d battle me right then.

“Why?” I asked. “You know, you don’t have to battle me every time you see me, just to lose and be bitter about it.”

“I’m never bitter. Why should I be bitter when I lose against beginner’s luck?”

I shook my head. Whatever. I guess an extra training session won’t hurt.

I led off with Anna, since Fern had a higher ratio of grass types, but he read me and sent Rhyhorn. As expected, the foe tried to get my fire pokemon knocked out with Stone Edge, but I had quickly switched Anna with Prince. One Muddy Water was enough to destroy the Rhyhorn. Against roserade, I sent out Aladdin, but he was outsped. Giga Drain, however, doesn’t do as much damage as I feared, and Pure Power Aladdin takes out the roserade with a single critical-hit Psycho Cut. Fern flashed a new addition to his team - a scyther, but just moments after it got knocked out by Anna’s Heat Wave. By this point, I could see frustration in Fern’s eyes at having all his pokemon OHKO’d. He sent out a krookodile, and again, I took it out by sending Prince to Muddy Water him once. Once the last pokemon, his started that had evolved into decidueye, was in the field, I felt like having a little experiment. I wanted to see whether it was true that the Stealth Rocks get absorbed and expelled by the wasteland field, so I sent out Wolfie despite the foe being a grass type, and set Stealth Rock. Of course, Wolfie went down to one Leaf Blade, but on the same turn, I saw the pebbles shoot out of the ground like small bullets. It did some damage, not as much as I would’ve liked, but at least I felt it was something you don’t see everyday. I sent out Anna and finished the battle.

 

“I think seein’ Fern get beat is worth the trip out here in itself,” Hardy clapped at me and Anna.

“Stow it, rocky. I was going easy on Vanilla, since I’m a gentleman unlike you.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Shall we have our battle?” I asked Aya, who shrugged and nodded.

“I wanna see this,” Fern said and ran over to the spectator seats.

Hardy volunteered to be the referee.

Once we took our places, the battle was served on a… well, toxic plate.

Spoiler

 

 

The battle itself wasn’t hard, as, and I hate to admit this, Fern had told me. Only once, when Sludge Wave was used, did I doubt my odds at winning. However, with a team as well-trained as mine, it was hard to steal my win.

“So I lost,” Aya murmured. “At least that means I don’t have to deal with you again, I suppose.”

“Hah, what a joke. The Gym leader is even more of a noob than Vanilla,” Fern laughed as he reclined his arms on the bar.

“Cut it out, alright?” Hardy scolded him, but Fern had no intentions of letting it slip.

“I’m out now. I’ll go tell my pals that if they want a free badge, they should head over here,” he said and stretched his apparently sore neck muscles. “Peace, losers.”

Once the guy was out of the room, I walked over to Aya to collect my badge.

“Don’t listen to him, alright Aya?” I heard Hardy as I walked. “He’s just a plain jerk. Also, don’t take a couple’a losses too hard on ya either, ya hear me?”

“I don’t care,” was Aya’s response.

“C’mon, there’s no reason to be so distant about it,” he insisted.

“No really. I don’t care,” the girl also pressed. “I never wanted this. It was never my job, but now it is thanks to my stupid baby brother. And I don’t care what anyone says about me, either. I know I’m a bad person anyway.”

“If you don’t fight for respect, you’ll never earn it,” I said once I was close enough to Aya. “And if you don’t earn respect, then you’re as pathetic as Fern.”

Aya looked at me as though I’d just killed her mother.

“What, you didn’t expect me to say that? Did you expect me to lick your wounds like lion-head over there is trying to do?”

“Hey, girl you-” Hardy tried to say something to me, but Aya cut him short.

“If you want your badge, take it and leave me alone.”

“What about you stop whining about getting a job you don’t want? If you don’t want it, leave it to someone who wants it. It’ll be better for you and all of us if we don’t have someone half-assing their job.”

Right then, Aya slapped my cheek. Her pointy nails probably left pink scratch marks.

“Ah,” she exclaimed, as though she couldn’t believe what she just did.

Instead of making a revenge, as she surely expected me to do, I just smirked.

“At least you do care about your ego,” I said. “That’s at least better than some people I know.”

Aya was completely puzzled, and not following what I was saying by now.

“I don’t even know what to say,” she said.

“Nothing. Train harder,” I said, as I picked up the badge and TM disk she was holding absentmindedly.

I looked back at Hardy, who had stopped on his way to stopping the fight he thought was about to errupt moments ago.

“If you want to help her, let her decide whether she wants to give up the job or give 100% to it.”

I left the wasteland hideout behind.

 

VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS

Spoiler

• Fern (-1): -1/10 Inb4 he gets negative infinity.
• Aya: 4/10 I don't like people who half-ass stuff for petty reasons. However, she isn't too bad.
• Hardy: 3/10 I can tell he's a good person, but he's being too kind and hence not being helpful.

 

TEAM RECAP

Spoiler

 

QUICK LINK TO NEXT EPISODE

[J-Awesome_One]

I TOLD YOU FERN WOULD GET NEGATIVE POINTS! HA! Anyways, this was more interesting than I thought it was going to be. Was not expecting the slap from Aya to Vanilla and deff was not expecting Vanilla to not slap back. You are doing good at faking me out which is a good thing. Can't wait for the next update! SAVE THE CHILDREN! BUT WITH ATTITUDE!

[GenEric]

knew vanilla will dislike aya for being emo

i didnt expect vanilla to rate aya 4/10 since thats pretty high for someone as spiteful as candy lady

[Candy]

10 minutes ago, J-Awesome_One said:

I TOLD YOU FERN WOULD GET NEGATIVE POINTS! HA! Anyways, this was more interesting than I thought it was going to be. Was not expecting the slap from Aya to Vanilla and deff was not expecting Vanilla to not slap back. You are doing good at faking me out which is a good thing. Can't wait for the next update! SAVE THE CHILDREN! BUT WITH ATTITUDE!

Ha! You psychic! But even if you're psychic... fake out is a priority move

This episode was difficult to write. I had to go through some of the older chapters to understand Vanilla better. At first glance, I thought Vanilla would like Aya, because they're both apathetic... but this wasn't the case. If you remember, Vanilla had a confrontation with Florinia because she wanted to 'quit the job' rather than do something she doesn't care about in a "half-assed" manner. I realized Vanilla is the type of person who is all-or-nothing.

On the topic of respect, which has come across several times already, Vanilla has always made herself be respected- even if she is a child, woman or petite sickly-looking girl. However Aya just lets Fern's comments pass, unlike Vanilla who struck back at him and now he doesn't dare disrespect Vanilla too much.

Those two reasons are why I changed my mind and gave Aya a 4/10.

I was also surprised Vanilla didn't hit Aya back. But then I realized, Vanilla doesn't use violence unless 1. She is disrespected (remember she clearly states the importance of fighting for respect in this episode), 2. She wants to protect, or 3. She has been rendered without other choice (aka Victoria vs Vanilla). Here she wasn't in any of the three scenarios, so she needed not to slap back.

Sorryto for a long-ass analysis but the more I think of Vanilla, the more I see the glamour of this interesting character.

[Candy]

Just now, ArcherEric said:

knew vanilla will dislike aya for being emo

i didnt expect vanilla to rate aya 4/10 since thats pretty high for someone as spiteful as candy lady

Sorry for double post but comment was made just when I sent mine in lol

She was going to earn 3/10 like Hardy but she showed ego in the slap, so Vanilla rated her higher.

[J-Awesome_One]

7 minutes ago, Candy said:

Ha! You psychic! But even if you're psychic... fake out is a priority move

This episode was difficult to write. I had to go through some of the older chapters to understand Vanilla better. At first glance, I thought Vanilla would like Aya, because they're both apathetic... but this wasn't the case. If you remember, Vanilla had a confrontation with Florinia because she wanted to 'quit the job' rather than do something she doesn't care about in a "half-assed" manner. I realized Vanilla is the type of person who is all-or-nothing.

On the topic of respect, which has come across several times already, Vanilla has always made herself be respected- even if she is a child, woman or petite sickly-looking girl. However Aya just lets Fern's comments pass, unlike Vanilla who struck back at him and now he doesn't dare disrespect Vanilla too much.

Those two reasons are why I changed my mind and gave Aya a 4/10.

I was also surprised Vanilla didn't hit Aya back. But then I realized, Vanilla doesn't use violence unless 1. She is disrespected (remember she clearly states the importance of fighting for respect in this episode), 2. She wants to protect, or 3. She has been rendered without other choice (aka Victoria vs Vanilla). Here she wasn't in any of the three scenarios, so she needed not to slap back.

Sorryto for a long-ass analysis but the more I think of Vanilla, the more I see the glamour of this interesting character.

Hey. It's cool. I like reading what you have to say so it's all good. I like knowing what you're thinking. Makes the story way more interesting. Although, even if you didn't, it'd still be really interesting.

[RadomusPsy]

This is amazing so far

 

[Candy]

40 minutes ago, RadomusPsy said:

This is amazing so far

 

Thx for reading~

[RadomusPsy]

2 hours ago, Candy said:

Thx for reading~

Hey don't worry about it.  The spoilers just for fun you don't have to participate if you don't want to

Spoiler

Dear Cannula, 

Since you have been raiding the people around Reborn we thought it would be interesting rate You. Feel free to rate us in retur. 

Alice- Cold and rude. Your not very nice to the people around you and are trying to be your friends. Your also berry bitter. 3/10

Decible- Something happened to you. I haven't fully figured out what nut I can't exactly fault you for not trusting people. You could be a bit nicer but we have a very similar view on Fern so good job (5/10)

If you do not wish to rate us that will be respected. Thank you for your time,

Decibel and Alice

 

[Candy]

4 minutes ago, RadomusPsy said:

Hey don't worry about it.  The spoilers just for fun you don't have to participate if you don't want to

  Reveal hidden contents

Dear Cannula, 

Since you have been raiding the people around Reborn we thought it would be interesting rate You. Feel free to rate us in retur. 

Alice- Cold and rude. Your not very nice to the people around you and are trying to be your friends. Your also berry bitter. 3/10

Decible- Something happened to you. I haven't fully figured out what nut I can't exactly fault you for not trusting people. You could be a bit nicer but we have a very similar view on Fern so good job (5/10)

If you do not wish to rate us that will be respected. Thank you for your time,

Decibel and Alice

 

Spoiler

First of all, Cannula? Who the heck is that. Second, who are these random strangers and why do they feel entitled to judge me?

Well they asked for it.

• Alice: 3/10 You're probably a good person, but so flat. Not shocking, since you seem to be a prodigy, judging from your career so far. Your life must've been quite easy.
• Decibel: 4/10 None of your business. Trusting people is risky. I was under the impression that you were smart enough to understand this.

 

[RadomusPsy]

1 minute ago, Candy said:

  Hide contents

First of all, Cannula? Who the heck is that. Second, who are these random strangers and why do they feel entitled to judge me?

Well they asked for it.

• Alice: 3/10 You're probably a good person, but so flat. Not shocking, since you seem to be a prodigy, judging from your career so far. Your life must've been quite easy.
• Decibel: 4/10 None of your business. Trusting people is risky. I was under the impression that you were smart enough to understand this.

 

I love Vanilla 😁 

[Candy]

35 minutes ago, RadomusPsy said:

I love Vanilla 😁 

She's a pain in the butt to write but I can't say I dislike her either 😂

[RadomusPsy]

9 minutes ago, Candy said:

She's a pain in the butt to write but I can't say I dislike her either 😂

I'm gong to PM you when I finish this planing draft. I also get pains to write. I normally go darker so for me Alice is really hard but what I have planed might be a shocker.

[Candy]

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 25

The issue now was whether to go help the kids, wherever they are, or tell Cain to go find someone else to help. My rationale was that I had already saved those kids, who are neither related by blood nor by friendship to me, once when we stormed the orphanage to save shy girl’s headstrong friend. That wasn’t my business, and yet I did it because of solidarity to Heather - even if I disliked her attitude, I wasn’t going to stand by while she got her brains fried by thunder shock.

Now, I wasn’t being a hypocrite when I told Aya not to be a half-assed Gym leader. If I’m going to be the gifted kids’ guardian, I would have to do it no matter how many times they got their stupid selves caught by the same lab-coated psycho.

“That also is to put myself in danger,” I sighed, as I sat on a chair in the small connection between Obsidia and the wastelands.

I had already put myself in enough danger, and as a result almost gotten myself killed once. Yet, could I ever become stronger if I don’t train myself in the face of danger? After all, I only knew one way to train - the way that King built my current self from the ground up.

“King,” I whispered, remembering the old man’s face.

It had been a long while since I last visited his grave, but the recollection of him reminded me of another grave I could visit. As I set foot on the way to Beryl, my mind drifted to the long lost days of my childhood.

 

The fateful day of my encounter with King had come by thanks to my nosey curiosity at the young age of fourteen.

“Wolfie, look,” I pointed to a crack in the ground, somewhat resembling a rabbit hole. “I wonder where this path leads to.”

“Haven’t you paid attention in class?” Wolfie sighed and shook her head. “Professor Wonka warned us about rabbit holes. You never know which one leads to Wonderland.”

“I think they exaggerate how bad Wonderland is,” I shrugged.

“You’re always such an irresponsible optimist, aren’t you, Vanilla?”

Wolfie pinched my hose, as she used to do when I was being ridiculous. In revenge, I would sometimes tickle her, but that day I just pushed her doggy nose.

“I’m going in, for nothing scares me more than boredom,” I said and crawled into the hole. Before I went completely in, I turned to see whether Wolfie was following me.

“Sweet Red Riding Hood, brave Huntsman, o my misunderstood ancestor Wolf. Please don’t leave me as I give in to peer-pressure,” she said, looking at the sky.

Perhaps the problem had been that Wolfie’s ancestors turned a blind eye to her back then, but at the time we would have had to be psychics to know it.

The narrow rabbit hole became even narrower as we crawled in, until I noticed that the consistency became more of a metal feel than supposed ground. Just as I was inspecting the parallel walls, though, the whole tube or whatever I was in made an awful cracking sound and went falling down to what I thought would be my death. However, the fall, though painful, hadn’t been long enough to cause more than a sprained arm.

 

I was glad to realize that I could still feel my surroundings and see with my eyes, because that meant I was alive. I pulled myself out of the metallic box, which turned out to be the external portion of an air duct. Apparently, the hole that had started from a corner of Red riding hood forest in Everland was connected to an unused air duct of wherever place we now were.

“Vanilla, are you ok?” Wolfie asked. I saw her looking down from what remained of the broken air duct.

I showed her an okay sign, and she carefully came down from the air duct’s opening, taking balance with her long and fluffy tail. Her touchdown was definitely more graceful than mine had been. I took her hand with the arm that wasn’t lesioned, when she offered it for me to stand right up.

“Is this Wonderland?” I asked in a low voice.

If the place indeed was Wonderland, then Professor Wonka hadn’t been exaggerating not one bit. The buildings were unpainted, with visible patches of moss and vines ruling over them. Just in the minute that we had been there, we saw giant rats - the type that did not understand human language, cross the street with pieces of trash held in their mouths. We also observed - and smelled - the dumpsters that had been filled to their absolute maximum capacity, which were smelling as though a corpse had been rotting in there for months.

“Vanilla, let’s just go back,” Wolfie suggested, and I had no intentions of disagreeing.

However, when we tried going back up the air duct to rejoin the rabbit hole, the air duct dislodged from its place and fell with us inside. The hole was now too far up to reach, even when I stood on Wolfie’s shoulders.

“Oh no. Now we’ll need a ladder,” as I said aloud, a chill went down my spine.

“Let’s not lose our cool yet. I’m sure we’ll find someone among the residents who can lend us one.”

We walked together pushing against one another, that we could barely walk on a straight line.

“Excuse me,” we said to a very thin and old woman, who was holding her groceries. “Madam, do you happen to have a ladder at your home? We would be grateful if we could borrow it.”

The old woman kept walking, as though she could not hear us. However, she clearly did, since her walking speed increased.

“Please wait,” I called, and the woman stopped.

“I have no ladder for you, pair of scums. Now begone, I have nothing,” she said, but she seemed unable to control her slobber when she did.

“We were going to return it though,” Wolfie shouted after her, but the woman had already found her apartment and gone inside.

We were left alone again, in the eerily empty street. Feeling ashamed about putting Wolfie in this trouble, I couldn’t bring myself to speak like I usually did.

Hoping to find another person, we started walking aimlessly but still taking note of where the rabbit hole was.

 

We rejoiced when we found a young man reclining on a wall, lighting his cigarette. He scared us when we got close to him, however, because he had yellow eyes with red irises, resembling of a dragon’s.

“You need a ladder?” the guy repeated.

“Yes, do you have one we could borrow?” I asked, practically pleading.

“Sure, come with me.”

So we did. We walked about fifteen minutes, seeing more of the hideous place. There were more people in the way that he took us, actually - they were all lying around with half-naked bodies, some waving their hand to shoo the flies but others just letting their rotting skin be covered by them. I wasn’t sure how long I would last before the stench became unbearable enough to make me sick.

When we passed by some more dumpsters, we saw a half-tiger man eating out of it and being defensive, perhaps thinking that we could be interested in stealing his food.

“By the looks of it, you’re not from here,” the dragon-eyed man commented as he saw us react to everything from the corner of his long eye.

“Well, we don’t really know where we are, but we’re from Everland,” Wolfie replied shyly.

“This is also technically Everland,” he shrugged. “Albeit we’re called the Underworld.”

“The Underworld?” I repeated, glancing at Wolfie since she was the knowledgeable one.

Wolfie shook her head.

“There, right at that corner is my apartment,” the guy pointed. “Come on.”

We followed him and made the turn, when out of nowhere two gigantic women with long lilac hair swiftly approached us from behind and locked our arms on our backs. My sprained right arm hurt so much that it almost knocked me unconscious.

 

“What is this?” I exclaimed, but the woman just kicked me on the back without answering. I fell to the dusty ground chest first, unable to move my arms.

“Good job, Roquil. We’ll have a feast tonight,” said a voice, and a floor tile lifted just in front of my face. I saw a bald woman’s face underneath it, but as we met gazes, she spat on my face.

“These Overworld fletchlings smell like losers, but at least they’ll make good stew,” she said and grinned, revealing teeth full of advanced cavities.

The lilac-haired twins and the Roquil guy who set this trap moved us one by one to go under the dislocated floor tile. Underneath was, unsurprisingly, pitch black.

All the while they left me alone in the darkness, my head was questioning what the girl could have possibly meant by “stew”. Just thinking of the possibility that she meant it as is, made my brain go high wire. I remembered the stories of my ancestors - Hansel and Gretel - which were recounted over and over again in family gatherings, formal events and holidays.

My mind was just recalling that one time a nasty noble woman had visited us, and I let a giggle slip when she criticized the old witch in the tale as “unpleasant”. My grandmother had to apologize every time she met the unpleasant woman ever since…

Just then, Wolfie and I were picked up with rough mannerisms, moved farther away and thrown onto the floor where there was more lighting. My eyes by then had gotten so used to the dark, that they couldn’t instantly focus on the large figure sitting in front of us.

“Tiny fry,” the unknown individual said with a low and raspy voice. “With them, we won’t be able to feed even half of us.”

“I think it’s better than nothing. I’m starving,” said a female voice, who I recognized was the bald woman who spat on me.

“Indeed better than nothing. I had raised my expectations too high when Roquil said he’d captured Overworlders. The wolf is one thing, but the albino girl can’t be from the Overworld.”

I couldn’t see, but apparently the gazes of everyone had pressured Roquil to explain himself.

“No, King. She is also from the Overworld, for both of them didn’t even know this place existed.”

The large figure stepped into the light, where now I could clearly see him. I believed he belonged to the humanoid class, but in unrefined terms, he looked like a giant toad. Perhaps if I studied more, I would have known exactly what species.

“So there can be exceptions to the rules, huh?” the toad said, for some reason displeased with me.

“A-are you going to eat us?” I blurted out without thinking.

King blinked once and looked down on me with what looked like unfocused eyes.

“But of course. Whether you’re from the Overworld or Underworld isn’t an issue when we’d take any meat.”

Laughter surrounded us. Apparently we couldn’t see them, but there were multiple people around us, looking at how our ends met us.

“Please don’t,” I begged, hoping that there was something I could do to prevent the inevitable.

“I look larger than Vanilla, but actually I’m as skinny as her under all this fur,” I heard Wolfie joining in with tremor in her voice. “I-I am hairy and a carnivore so wouldn’t taste good at all.”

“Silence,” the toad man commanded, and we both fell silent. “You think you have the right to beg for mercy, when you Overlanders have banished us to this Hell without even the chance to say ‘please don’t’?”

“We? Banished you?” I was becoming more confused by the second. “I don’t know anything.”

“Of course you don’t,” the toad sneered. “You live in the bliss of luxurious ignorance, while we pay with our blood and sweat.”

He then stretched his arm, which was shaped more like a human’s, and squeezed my face with his hand.

“Tell me, what would you know about that?”

He let go of me, but the momentum made me hit my nose and forehead on the floor. I felt warmth accumulating on the back of my nose and eventually pouring out in the form of blood.

“I swear, please. Don’t punish us for our ignorance,” I shouted. “If you’re starving, I- I mean- we can help.”

I said that, but really couldn’t tell what I was saying anymore. What was coming out of my mouth was just random stuff that my brain thought could spare my life, or at least prolong it.

However, it seemed to work for now.

King  looked at me with one of his circular eyes.

“And how exactly do you propose to help?”

“I-I’m a… the daughter of a high ranking noble. We have lots of food at home. If you need money, I also have some of that too. I’m sure my parents would pay a ransom to have me liberated.”

“That’s too bad, young one. We don’t have a method of communicating with the Overworld.”

“There’s the rabbit hole from where we came from,” Wolfie suggested.

“Of course we know of it, sweetheart,” the bald lady laughed. “It’s a shame that whoever made it to reach the Underworld didn’t consider the average size of an adult.”

Again, the place was engulfed in laughter. Whatever could be funny about this situation, I could just not fathom.

“I can go through and come back with food,” I suggested, but I only managed to increase the magnitude of the laughter.

“What makes you think we could trust you?” King asked.

Before I could reply, though, a voice I had not heard before interrupted the laughter. The person or magical being seemed to be increasingly shy, because he refused to speak in front of everyone, and instead walked around where the light could not touch him to deliver his message to the toad King.

“Ah, so a prototype of the poison sting bracelet,” King exclaimed with something like joy. “We were going to use these against the police officers, but this whole conversation has given me a better idea.”

King squatted in front of me, and brushed my hair off my face so I could have no choice but to see him.

“Are you sure you will do anything just to save your and your friend’s lives?”

“Absolutely,” I said without an ounce of hesitation.

King and I exchanged gazes for a moment, before his round eyes narrowed and his long lips elongated further into a grin. He grabbed my handcuffed left hand, and slipped the beaded bracelet onto my wrist.

“Then, join the Defiance. You will help us overthrow the Queen of Everland.”

 

Beryl cemetery, as usual, was empty.

“That was the start of my Hell,” I spoke to the tombstone, as though Pikachu was there, listening to me. “King was a merciless instructor. If I didn’t die under the three years of his intensive training, I guess it was because I just hadn’t suffered enough.”

I fell silent, observing the stone in front of me. I could tell that I wasn’t fully operational when I made the stone, for Pikachu’s name was not engraved properly.

“The day he died, he appointed me as his successor,” I closed my eyes, remembering the mixed emotions I felt right at that moment. “I will never admit it to anyone, but I’ll say it now. He made a mistake. How disappointed he would’ve been had he been alive to witness the catastrophe.”

I fell silent again. The degree of quiet when I wasn’t speaking was disturbing. How I longed for Pikachu’s squeaks.

“Pikachu… You would’ve wanted me to rescue the kids, right? You were that type of companion.”

Just then, I thought I saw a shadow cross the tombstone. However, when I looked around me, I found nothing but solitude. It must’ve been my imagination, I chuckled internally. The eerie atmosphere probably makes me hallucinate, since I fear ghosts.

“Fine, I will go. For once, I’ll stop being a disappointment*.”

I walked away from the grave with my chin up high, but then a thought came to mind and I took a half turn to say it.

“And I will live.”

 

VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS - No characters so no rating changes

 

* If I'm allowed to make jokes about my own writing - the field would trigger the quote "Adieu to disappointment and spleen" xD

... Inb4 the real joke is that Wolfie's sprite doesn't look like a wolf :sadpepe:

 

QUICK LINK TO NEXT EPISODE

[GenEric]

you missed the chance to put “i will survive” like from that zootopia meme

and wow just because she fell down a hole she wound up being edgy stronk

[Candy]

3 minutes ago, ArcherEric said:

you missed the chance to put “i will survive” like from that zootopia meme

and wow just because she fell down a hole she wound up being edgy stronk

Wai do I not kno dis meme? Existential crisis switch ON Dx

Moral of the story: 1. be ware of rabbit holes, 2. listen to the wolf

[J-Awesome_One]

Well, wasn't expecting a flashback story but was still a good and interesting read. And PIKACHU! DX Very good. Can't wait for the next update.

[seki108]

30 minutes ago, Candy said:

Wolfie pinched my hose

Vanilla is elephant, confirmed!

 

I did not expect a lore update, but I happy nonetheless, especially since it only raised more questions.  I'm eagerly awaiting when more lore comes.

 

Also, very nice custom sprites and good use of existing game assets.

[Candy]

1 minute ago, seki108 said:

Vanilla is elephant, confirmed!

 

I did not expect a lore update, but I happy nonetheless, especially since it only raised more questions.  I'm eagerly awaiting when more lore comes.

 

Also, very nice custom sprites and good use of existing game assets.

Inb4 the joke ain't the sprite but a typ0 xD

Answer some questions, raise some more. That's how we row this boat

[J-Awesome_One]

So is it safe to assume that this is Vanilla's "fighting for good/my friends" turning point? Or at least the start of it.

[Candy]

2 minutes ago, J-Awesome_One said:

So is it safe to assume that this is Vanilla's "fighting for good/my friends" turning point? Or at least the start of it.

It's the start of it, because she ain't doing it for the kids but for the memory of her long lost companion Pikachu RIP.

[J-Awesome_One]

Just now, Candy said:

It's the start of it, because she ain't doing it for the kids but for the memory of her long lost companion Pikachu RIP.

Yea. That makes more sense. I kinda like that you did that though. Instead of her just going "Ok. I'm gonna save them for myself." kind of thing.

[Candy]

1 minute ago, J-Awesome_One said:

Yea. That makes more sense. I kinda like that you did that though. Instead of her just going "Ok. I'm gonna save them for myself." kind of thing.

Gonna save them for myself... but Vanilla hasn't got any incentives to do that~

[Corso]

IT HAS STARTED HYPE!!!