CW: 09/11/01 mentioned
THE BRAKER TIMELINE
ARC 1: THE PRE-GALAR AND GALAR ARC
CHAPTER 1
9/11/01, Wyndon
This wasn’t the Braker family’s first time having seen a Unovan tragedy.
Elijah Braker’s adoptive Unovan father, Donald, had been there at the scene in Driftveil City when the Unovan president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, had been assassinated in front of millions of people when driving along in a motorcade. His father had relayed the story to him well: he’d gotten so choked up on the news that day that he openly cried talking about what he had seen. Elijah thought it was a bit of a pity that Donald had had no Pokemon; they definitely could have helped him after he had gone through something like that. Even so, the story touched him so much that when he eventually married his future wife Maria McCullough, a Crown Tundraner, and the two of them had a kid together, he named said kid in part after the deceased president.
He named his child Leonard Kennedy Braker, who was at the moment… not doing much of anything, really, except staring at the family’s television screen with very little emotion on his face. That was, of course, the complete opposite of his father, who was glancing at the screen with his jaw dropped, watching in horror as clips played of members of Team Plasma destroying the Battle Company, with a Latias and Latios shooting off Dragon Pulses and Ghetsis’ Hydreigon launching a Tri Attack that froze the top of the building. People were running out of the Battle Company for their lives, planes were running into it, and all the while Elijah continued watching, transfixed with horror; his eyes widening; his breath catching in his throat…
“MARIA! MARIA, GET DOWN ‘ERE! YOU NEED TO SEE WHAT’S ON THE BLOODY TELLY!”
There was a pause from upstairs, before a Black Crown Tundraner with messy long brown hair and blue eyes frantically came running downstairs into the living room, dressed as practically always in her pink Crown Tundra parka, black pants, and bright blue sneakers. She looked around for a few moments, practically rattling things off a mile a minute and barely even seeming to pay attention to the television.
“Wha’?” she asked frantically. “Wha’ is it; did Cir United finally win the–”
“No, nothin’ about that,” said Elijah, practically out of breath as he pointed at the television. “Look what’s happenin’ in Unova.”
“Unova?” asked Maria, laughing a bit. “Why d’we need ta worry about Unova; we haven’t been there in–”
And then she saw the destruction on the television and her eyes widened in shock.
“...oh,” she said simply.
Elijah nodded gravely.
Dumbfounded and horrified, Maria went over to the couch to sit down, and the two of them continued to watch the news for about 10 more minutes, neither one of them saying a word. They watched, struck, as headlines reading BATTLE COMPANY DESTROYED BY PLASMA; TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE AND POKEMON KILLED flashed at them on the screen.
Their son, meanwhile, was still watching the news and all of its devastation with what one would initially assume to be no emotion whatsoever– though this had been fairly common with him despite him being only 3 years old. In truth, however, he was feeling some level of emotion, though what it was he didn’t quite know. Sadness, yes. Fear, yes. Anger… well, he didn’t have any real idea yet as to who Team Plasma were, so he didn’t really feel any anger, but all of a sudden he wanted to know more. Clearly they didn’t like the Battle Company, for some reason– likely because they didn’t like battles– but why didn’t they like battles? Even more puzzling than that, he noticed that both of his parents– who were still staring in shock at the telly– were crying, for some reason, as if they had had some kind of connection to the Battle Company. And yet, how could a company devoted to Pokemon battling have that much of an impact on his parents, neither of whom had any Pokemon– or, for that matter, an impact on every other person on the planet? Especially those that didn’t really battle that much, since he knew that those people existed– he knew his parents, after all.
None of it really made that much sense to him. And he wanted to know more.
After around 10 minutes of staring had passed, Leonard Braker suddenly heard movement coming from behind him; Elijah and Maria had shifted. A bit uncomfortably, at that. The two of them slowly stared at each other, not sure what to do or say, before Maria spoke first.
“...Doesn’t your father work there?” she asked.
“Yeah, ‘e does,” said Elijah, his breath still a bit caught in his throat. “I’ve got to give ‘im a call. See if ‘e’s safe and all that.”
“That’s a good idea,” said Maria. “Wouldn’t want to know the worst has happened.”
Choking back a few sobs, and with great panic, Elijah stood up and started looking for the phone in an attempt to try and call his father. Braker, meanwhile, looked up at his father and blinked, slowly coming to a bit of a realization. That was right. His grandfather did live in Unova, and work at the Battle Company. He was starting to get a bit concerned now. Granted, not too concerned, but definitely a bit. He at the very least hoped his grandfather was alright, especially given the fact that he didn’t have any Pokemon of his own.
After a few more moments, he saw Elijah come forward, with tears in his eyes, holding the phone, which was attached to a long spiraly-looking cord. Elijah hit a few buttons, and within seconds, a ringing sound emerged from the phone; Maria looked over at Elijah with great concern evident on her face. Elijah held the phone up to his ears, all while Braker tried to multitask, his eyes flipping between his concerned father and the immense destruction that was occurring on the television, intercut between stern, serious-looking newscasters intoning the grave news as if they hadn’t just been witness to a national tragedy.
Ring. Ring. Ring…
“...Hello?” Elijah asked, his voice trembling. “Dad? You there…?”
From Braker’s perspective there was absolute silence, but the immense sigh of relief that Elijah let out after the silence had ended told Braker everything he needed to know. Good, his grandfather was alive. Now back to the news…
While Braker was fixated, Maria heard the sigh of relief and lit up instantly.
“‘E… ‘e’s alrigh’?!” she asked. “Is tha’ wha’ yer sayin’?!”
Elijah nodded in Maria’s direction, and the latter grinned.
“Oh, that’s a relief to ‘ear!” she said.
Elijah momentarily nodded, before turning his attention back to his phone conversation with his father.
“So, you got out of there…?” he began.
Maria was watching the whole thing with relief and worry for a few moments, trying to focus on her husband’s conversation with his father– only for her mind to suddenly wander all of a sudden as she turned her attention back to her son, who was absolutely engrossed in a world that, in Maria’s opinion, he didn’t really need to be engrossed into at that age. The screen was cutting back and forth between droning newscasters and endless amounts of death and destruction, but Maria just knew she wanted her son to just… be a kid. That was something he’d never really been that interested in doing, really. Her son loved to read, but didn’t really enjoy doing things like playing with toys, even when he was a baby. His main concerns were “sleep”, “eat”, “learn to crawl”, “learn to walk”, and then– once all that was done– “learn to read”, something he was still doing at that moment. Sure, she was proud of him for all of those moments, but it almost seemed like Braker wanted to work more than he wanted to play– and now, here he was, watching endless amounts of destruction and horror on the news and not being scared by it in the least.
From behind her, Maria could hear the conversation between Elijah and his father continue:
“...where are you at now?
“...huh. Really?...
“...well, glad to see you’re safe, anyways. Hope you have fun at Mum’s….
“...Oh, no, don’t worry; we’re fine.”
Eventually, Maria shrugged. It sounded like everything was going well. Turning her attention back onto her son for the moment, she grabbed the remote control.
“Now, now, Len,” she said, “are you sure ya wanna watch this? You’re only 3 years old, sweetie; you should watch something fun instead!”
Braker just stared up at her, seemingly uninterested. Maria promptly grabbed the remote control and switched the channel; within a few moments Binka began to play on the screen. Braker stared at it for a few moments, almost as if he didn’t know what to think, before eventually responding with three words:
“Change it back.”
Maria blanched.
“‘Change it back?!’” she blurted out. “A-are you sure? There’s a lot of things you won’t be ready for that are on that screen, Lenny.”
“Change it back,” Braker repeated, nodding.
Maria blinked for a few moments, looking back and forth between the cute fat Galarian Meowth on the screen and Braker himself, before eventually shrugging.
“Alrigh’ then,” she said. “If that’s what you want to do.”
She hit another button on the remote, and soon afterwards the news came back on, with all its headlines and destruction intact. Braker nodded, then resumed his watch. From behind her, Maria heard Elijah breathe another sigh of relief, followed by a slam; when she turned back to face her husband, he had gotten off of the phone.
“Well?” she asked. “‘Ow did it go?”
“He’s alright,” said Elijah happily. “Left before Team Plasma even got there; saw a Latias and left within seconds. He doesn’t think some of his colleagues were so lucky, though.”
“‘E’s with your mum now?” asked Maria.
“Yep,” said Elijah.
He turned back to face the television, only to blink when he saw what was on.
“The news is back on?” he asked. “I thought you turned it off so that Len could watch Binka .”
“I did,” said Maria, looking towards her son, “but… he wanted to watch the news.”
Elijah blanched a bit, not quite believing what he was hearing.
“He wanted to watch the news?!” he cried. “He wants to watch all that destruction? You sure that’ll be good for ‘im?”
Maria shrugged. “It was what he wanted.”
Elijah paused for a few more seconds, then shook his head in disbelief before exhaling.
“A-alright, then,” he said. “I just… don’t want him to be traumatized too much by this, y’know?”
“Ah, ‘e’ll be fine!” said Maria. “He’s still got lots of time ta watch other shows; what’s the worst that can happen? I didn’t think he was ready to see that stuff on the screen, but apparently he is; and he’s only 3 years old.”
She sighed.
“But yeah… I get what you mean,” she said. “I hope things don’t turn out too badly for him, either.”
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The events that followed over the next 7 years of Braker’s life would, to any normal parent, not be considered “too badly” at all; as a matter of fact, if someone who wasn’t Braker’s parents had looked at him, they would have deemed him a child prodigy and someone who was incredibly smart and mature for his age.
From that fateful day in 2001, Leonard Braker became absolutely obsessed with the news, and finding out as much information as he could about the events that were going on in the world. Nothing at all fazed him; not destruction, not death, not anything else, and very quickly he began to develop some very mature and complex perspectives on life that would make most people do a double take. At 7 years old he developed a celebrity crush on Anderson Cooper, and that was how he realized he was gay; he came out then and there and his family, of course, supported him. As the years went by he became so obsessed with reporting the news that he made a family newspaper, and would give it to all of their neighbors; this continued weekly. Before he had even entered middle school he had already decided he wanted to be a journalist.
And he was exceptionally hardworking. He took notes on every single thing he saw and rarely used the computer for note-taking even once. He bought encyclopedia after encyclopedia and went to the library numerous times a day. He was exceptional in school, and teachers praised him repeatedly. Any other parent would have been showing off their child and calling them the next big thing. Any other parent would have been drowning in accolades and posting pictures on social media. Braker and his family lived in Wyndon; people would absolutely want to see this.
But Elijah and Maria Braker were not most parents.
They absolutely loved and supported their son and were willing to do whatever they could to support him, but they kept noticing every time their son left school and did his homework that he would then spend time watching the news and continuing to take notes and do work. They offered to play games with him; watch a television show with him; do something with him, and every single time, Braker would always respond with the same thing:
“I’d love to, but I can’t. Too much work to do.”
Braker, of course, meant no offense by this, and his parents understood that, but that didn’t mean they weren’t still concerned. Sometimes Braker would have fun days at school, and his parents would be incredibly happy for him.
“Wasn’t that fun?” they would ask, and Braker would respond:
“It was fun, in the moment, but I would much rather be doing work. Death is going to get us all eventually; can’t have fun for very long.”
And then he would go upstairs and immediately get to work on his homework, and his parents would just stare at each other in equal parts concern and pride for their son. Clearly, they figured, he had a thing for the news, and was very obsessed with journalism and getting the latest stories, but it was practically the only thing he enjoyed doing. He also, funnily enough, did not enjoy fictional shows; he found them too unrealistic and immature for the most part. That being said, however, there was one major exception to the rule: a show that started airing in 2002 called Galamory, which he absolutely adored to no end. If he wasn’t watching the news, he was watching it– but eventually he outgrew Galamory and just switched straight to the news.
Of course, the one thing people were wondering during this time was what would happen when Braker would turn 10, and what his first Pokemon was going to be. His parents were wondering it too; they knew that you could get a Pokemon license and a Pokemon anytime after he turned 10, but given how much work he was putting himself under, they figured that he wouldn’t live up to the expectations of his neighbors and family members.
Which was a shame; they– especially Maria– wanted Braker to get a Pokemon.
They wanted him to have fun.
But Braker, so it seemed, already knew what he wanted to do in life– and all that was confirmed when he turned 10 years old.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8/19/08, Wyndon
On the morning of August 19th, 2008, ten-year-old Leonard Braker woke up to find a massive surprise waiting for him. Upon him coming down the stairs, he was absolutely shocked to find him being greeted by his absolutely ecstatic parents, who had already prepared for him a massive cake decorated to look like a newspaper, with the headline LEONARD BRAKER 10 YEARS OF AGE; ELIGIBLE FOR FIRST POKÉMON on it in big bold lettering. There were also a ton of newspaper balloons, as well as the GBC being on. Nobody else had come to the party; Braker didn’t really have any friends. The most surprising thing of all, at least to Braker, was the fact that in the middle of the room, underneath the cake, was a glass container holding a ton of PokeBalls.
“SURPRISE!” they cried out. “Happy birthday, Lenny!”
Braker looked around for a few moments, not knowing what to think, before eventually bursting out into a grin and running towards his parents.
“Thank you,” he said eventually. “I love it so much! Especially the newspaper; how on Earth did you manage to make the headline that bold?!”
He approached the cake a bit more, only to break out into an even bigger grin when he saw the rest of the cake.
“More than that, even,” he said, “how did you make the text legible ?!”
Maria smiled.
“We got a bit o’ ‘elp from a local cake decorator,” she said.
“Well, at any rate, I absolutely adore it,” he said. “That being said, though, can we eat the cake and open the presents after lunch? Later on after dinner I’ll be making a newspaper for the event.”
“Of course,” said Elijah. “Still trying to work hard as always.”
“Then after that I have homework to do,” continued Braker, “then a trip to the library to get more journalism books, and journalism business books, and—”
“Wait a second,” said Maria, suddenly interrupting. “Journalism business books?”
“Yeah,” said Braker.
Maria and Elijah took a look over at the giant container of PokeBalls.
“You’re going to go into a journalism business?” Elijah asked.
“Well, not right away, but I at least want to prepare for it,” said Braker. “Oh, and I also want to learn how to invest in stocks and what-not so that I can make enough money to get into a good journalism school in the future so neither of you have to work harder than you already are to pay.”
“Give yourself a break, sweetie!” Maria laughed. “Haven’t you done enough?”
“No,” Braker responded simply.
Maria and Elijah glanced at each other.
“Well… alright, then,” said Elijah. “If that’s what you want to do, we’ll take you to the library as soon as you have your cake.”
“Thanks,” said Braker, smiling. “Oh, and while I do appreciate the offer… I don’t want a Pokémon.”
Maria looked down, heartbroken, while Elijah just winced.
“You… don’t?” Maria asked.
Braker shook his head. “I don’t want it to be compounded with all the other responsibilities I’ll eventually have to do. With all of the horrors happening in the world I find the idea of owning a Pokémon… a bit immature.”
Maria and Elijah were so shocked they could barely speak, and both of them turned to look at each other with great concern. The former was especially concerned: this had already been going exactly as she had feared, and now her son was saying he was too immature to own a Pokémon, too?
She would have forced him to pick a Pokémon then and there had Braker not intervened.
“Don’t worry, I’ll pick one when I feel ready to,” he said. “I know that I’ll be studying Monese in high school and college anyways, and Kyrellik in the latter as well, so I’ll probably get something by then. Just… not at the moment. I know how much you wanted me to though.”
Elijah looked over at the PokeBall container again.
“Well, then… what are we going to do with all of these PokeBalls?” he asked.
“Keep them,” said Braker simply. “You need Pokémon of your own, don’t you? Or, better yet, give them away to the neighbors who’ve bought copies of The Braker Telegraph . Perfectly fine with me, really.”
With that said, he started to head into the kitchen, all while Maria and Elijah Braker continued to look at each other in concern.
“I’m going to make my breakfast and then head upstairs,” he said. “You two can call me down when it’s lunchtime.”
“A-alright then…!” said Maria, trying to hide her concern with a cheerful smile. “Happy birthday!”
“Thanks, mum!” said Braker, before heading into the kitchen.
For the next few moments a tense silence fell over the Braker parents, who were standing there stock-silent in their living room. Within a few moments, however, the silence was broken, as Maria burst into tears then and there. Elijah looked at his wife in immense concern.
“W-what’s the matter?” he asked.
“Our son doesn’t want a Pokémon…!” Maria bawled.
“Yeah, but… we expected this, didn’t we?” asked Elijah. “We’ll be fine.”
“I know that, but…” Maria paused for a few moments and held back a bit of tears. “I just… I was ‘opin’ ‘e’d get one. ‘E’s become so obsessed with the news, and all of these mature things; I just want ‘im to ‘ave fun for once in his life! I figured a Pokémon would be the best way for him to do that!”
“I know,” said Elijah, patting his wife on the shoulder, “but our son has other goals, and we should try and support them. He said that he’d get a Pokémon when he was ready.”
“I know…!” sobbed Maria. “But… I don’t want him to become too invested in his work. I… I fear what ‘is adulthood is gonna be like, y’know…?”
Elijah just shrugged, then held his wife as she continued to sob.
About 5 minutes later Leonard Braker came out with a fully-cooked waffle and a bottle of water. He promptly went upstairs and didn’t come out until lunch.
Later that night, he used what he had learned from the books he had gotten in the library to invest in his first piece of stock at just 10 years old:
The Geographic Society.
His course was set.
THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
Every chapter of the WAAPT Continuums, set in the Gisnepverse, will go here.
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Goldenheart388
- Posts: 17
- Joined: 2021-Jun-26 21:16
Re: THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
BRAKER TIMELINE
ARC 1
CHAPTER 2
5/7/18, Wyndon— The Braker Household
Leonard Braker was, of course, busy. Immensely so.
He’d spent the last 10 years of his life trying his best to get a career in journalism. He’d gotten quite a lot of stock from his GeoSoc investment, he was now in college, and as he had promised he would do in college, he was studying journalism as a major, along with Monese and Kyrellik. For the last ten years now he’d done practically nothing but watch the news, take notes, write his newspaper, ask people if they wanted to be interviewed, and studied like crazy.
At the moment, though, he wasn’t studying for journalism.
He was studying Monese.
He’d been given an assignment to watch Gym Battles at home and translate the Monese found within it. This was fairly interesting, given that Monese wasn’t a phonetic language like Kyrellik was and as such was a lot harder to translate. Thankfully, though, he was taking notes like crazy, all the while watching some random Trainer with a gray jacket and red headphones on battling Acerola in the Elite Four. That being said, though, the information he had was… limited.
He didn’t know the Trainer’s name, and neither the Trainer nor the mon had said much of anything the entire time. He didn’t know what other Pokémon the Trainer had, besides the Delphox that was currently out on the field. It was the only good battle that was on, and he had turned on his TV midway through the battle— though it was more accurate to say the end of the battle. All he knew was that it was currently Delphox vs. Froslass, and given the type advantage, the former was likely to win.
For a few moments, he considered turning the match off and switching to another battle, one that had more dialogue and— crucially— more Monese, since it wasn’t really being spoken at all.
And then he heard something from the screen.
“ This one goes out… ”
He glanced up at the screen and saw that the Trainer and his Delphox were preparing a Z-Move— and knew that Monese would be evident at any moment. This was clearly a cue. The good news was, though, this was a lyric— and for lyrics, anyone could guess the song if they could play “Name That Tune”.
Well. Thank goodness his parents watched it, then.
And especially thank goodness that he knew the song.
He glanced down at his paper and continued writing, absentmindedly singing the next lyric along with the Delphox on the screen:
<“to the one I love…”>
He paused, watching as the Delphox subsequently let loose with an Inferno Overdrive that hit the Froslass and knocked her backwards, causing her to faint.
“Huh,” he muttered, as he continued writing. “Call-and-response songs for Z-Moves. Unconventional, but enjoyable.”
He stopped writing after a bit and looked up.
“Though… considering the song, would the next lyric after that be ‘this one goes out to the one I left behind’ or ‘fire!’?”
—————————————————————————-
5/8/18, Wyndon— The Braker Household
Another day, another battle with… whoever this was.
As before, the mons and the Trainer were mostly silent, so Braker wasn’t really paying attention to the fight on screen. He only knew two things: the strange Trainer was A) battling Olivia and B) had a Blaziken who was currently out on the field against an Armaldo.
From what he could tell, they were probably a Fire-type monotyper, but he didn’t want to assume anything. Yet.
Of course, his time was split between his assignment and the battle itself, so he didn’t hear much of anything, until:
“ Face down in the dirt, she said— ”
He didn’t notice the Blaziken on the screen start glowing with an orange light, nor did he see the Trainer hold up his Mega Stone— which was in his headphones for some odd reason— but Braker responded along with the Blaziken in an instant:
<“—this doesn’t hurt—“>
He kept going, not noticing the Blaziken’s shape start to change.
“—-she said, ‘I finally had enou—’”
He looked up, and saw that the orange light had faded; a Mega Blaziken was now on the screen to a mass cheering crowd.
“…oh,” he said. “The Blaziken Mega-Evolved. Neat. He does it for Megas, too.”
He paused, then shook his head.
“…dang it, this is distracting me…” he muttered, turning all of his attention in that moment back to his work.
He was so distracted by his work, in fact, that he failed to notice the Sneasel evolution that subsequently occurred on screen, denying his Fire-monotyper assumption.
——————————————————————————————
About halfway through Braker’s work, he started to get hungry, so he began to head downstairs in order to see if he could go and get himself some lunch. Upon him getting downstairs, he saw his parents eagerly watching something on the television. Maria, in particular, had an expression of extreme cuteness proximity on her face, but Braker didn’t pay much note to either the television or his mother’s expression.
“Hello there,” he said simply as he headed over to the kitchen. “I was getting pretty hungry; figured I would go downstairs and get something to–”
He turned his head to face the screen and paused when he saw who they were looking at– it was the same Trainer from before, now battling Kahili. Apparently, this channel was broadcasting this Trainer’s entire Alola League run.
“Oh, you’re watching the Fire-type monorainer, too?” he asked. “Funny; I just saw him on the TV for my homework assignment today; he’s got a Mega Blaziken.”
“...Fire-type monotrainer?” asked Elijah, tilting his head in confusion. “What are you–”
He was about to say something else when the television interrupted:
“ Look at me now, I’m making my play! ”
“‘Just’,” Braker added, knowing full well where this was going and recognizing the lyric as being from one of his parents’ favorite songs.
Sure enough, within a few seconds, his parents were on their feet and screamed so loudly that Braker couldn’t hear the television:
“ DON’T TRY TO PUSH YOUR LUCK; JUST GET OUT OF MY WAY! ”
Braker, startled, turned to face the screen and saw a massive Gigavolt Havoc move hit Kahili’s Toucannon for a few moments, all while his parents continued to sing “Back in Black”. Loudly . He rolled his eyes a bit, smirking at them.
“Ah,” he said. “So he’s not a fire monotyper. Alright, then.”
He left and headed off to the kitchen to go make his lunch, never seeing the Pokemon that had made the move. By the time he was midway through making a ham and cheese sandwich, his parents were on their feet whooping and cheering like crazy.
“‘E WON, BABY!” cried Maria.
“Put on some AC/DC!” Elijah shouted. “We’re CELEBRATING!”
Braker rolled his eyes, and went back to making his sandwich. Ten minutes later he had finished, and promptly headed upstairs to get back to his work.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He got an A on the assignment, of course, despite the relative lack of speech on the part of the Trainer he’d seen. Of course, he’d watched other battles, too, so he presumed that would have helped. For whatever strange reason, though, he found himself very much intrigued by the mysterious gray-shirted Trainer, and figured that the next time he showed up in a League, he would continue to watch his fights in order to get more Monese lessons in him. He loved the assignment so much, in fact, that even after that he continued to watch battle after battle, writing down everything in Monese that he could find and translating it.
Of course, it was a lot harder to do that than it was to translate Kyrellik. That came really easy to him. It was speaking it for him that was the problem— and that proved, ultimately, to be his class undoing.
On one particular day of his Kyrellik courses, his teacher announced a special guest would be giving a lecture on the language for the day. He didn’t know who it was, but he made sure that he would give his full attention to the guest, and dressed accordingly.
When he eventually came into the room, the last thing he expected to see was a massive Paldean Tauros towering over him, giving him a steely glare that gave him a lot of pause. For a few moments, he considered interviewing him, but eventually after a few moments thought better of it and instead sat down in his seat, equal parts awed and terrified by the giant bull in front of him. Around him, the rest of his fellow students seemed equally on edge.
“ This is going to be our guest speaker?” muttered one of them.
“I would have liked it better if it were a human…” said another.
“That Paldean Tauros looks so scary…”
“I wonder who he is?”
More whispers continued amongst the students, but in a matter of moments all of them were interrupted with a loud thud that hit the floor. The students quickly fell silent and turned to face the direction of the thud, only to find that it was the Paldean Tauros’ hoof that had hit the ground. Said Paldean Tauros was continuing to stare everyone down with his intense glare. Finally, after a few moments, the Paldean Tauros finally spoke up.
< Prïket ,> he said, a bit harshly. (Hello.)
“… Prïket, ” the students responded, still a bit caught off-guard.
< Sü jok sois Rancorpüjin, > said the Paldean Tauros. < Sü jok sois au prasidepaïk yü au IPPA, et sü jok wou sois parleptük yü tok tadar. > (I am Rancorpujin. I am the president of the IPPA, and I will be your lecturer today.)
Braker’s eyebrows instantly raised upon hearing those four letters. He had heard of the IPPA before— it had been mentioned previously in the Kyrellik class as the main linguistic hub for Pokémon. He promptly raised his hand, noting something else.
< Cheüt? > Rancorpüjin asked. < Hokt-sois tok? > (Yes? Who are you?)
Braker responded— in Kyrellik, of course, since the class was almost entirely in it.
“ Sü jok sois büreka, ” he said. “ Sü nom yü tok… sü nom yü tok sois ‘brutal with words’?” (I am Braker. Your name... your name means "brutal with words"?)
<“ Phrases ”,> snapped Rancorpüjin. < Rancor pü jin, ne rancor pü palabt.> ("Phrases". Brutal with phrases, not brutal with words.)
“ Tümil ,” Braker apologized, meekly, embarrassed that he had forgotten his Kyrellik lessons. (Sorry.)
< Chok cheüt, > said Rancorpüjin, turning to face the group of students, < sü nom yü mok de sois ‘brutal with phrases’, et sü jok autik ta sois plü rancor mit ka tadar. Kot tadar, sü kirümetük yü tok fragüt mok ta donüs tok qükü… palabparlüs testi. > (But yes, my name means "brutal with phrases", and I will be very brutal with them today. For today, your teacher has asked me to give you all... a pronunciation test.)
A pronunciation test.
Braker shuddered. Pronunciation in Kyrellik was not his strong suit, and he knew that. Yes, he could form sentences; yes, he could write things down in Kyrellik; but he couldn’t pronounce some of the stranger sounds for the life of him. Just earlier, he couldn’t correctly say “tümill”!
The entire class began nervously muttering amongst themselves again, but were quieted eventually by a hoof being stomped on the ground by Rancor.
< Sü kirümetük yü tok parlük mok zjït tok qükü sois rellachük ou tok benkit, > Rancor said sternly. < Sü chob woüt permït zjït deromp, et ne wou jok. Sü jok sois autik ta testüs tok qükü ou tok palabparlüs, et palabt, et si tok fallit…> (Your teacher told me that you all have been slacking off on your studies. She will not let that happen, and neither will I. I am going to test you all on your pronunciation, and your vocabulary, and if you fail...)
He glared up at the class.
< Sü ro sois au kirümetük yü bittüs zjït tok autik.> (It is the teacher's request that you leave.)
That last word reached Braker’s ears and caused him some amount of dismay. It was true, to some extent; he had been slacking off a bit on his Kyrellik lessons— but that was only because of the rest of the immense amount of work he had to do that he knew he couldn’t slack off on. His pronunciation wasn’t too great either. And worse of all, this was a general Ed class that directly counted towards his major, meaning if he failed this, he probably wouldn’t be graduating. Still, though, he knew there were a lot of kids that were doing worse than him, and he knew that. So long as the vocabulary section was long enough, he would be fine.
That didn’t mean he wasn’t nervous and intimidated by Rancor though.
More importantly than that, though, he could barely believe that this was apparently done on request of his Kyrellik teacher, a person who he’d never seen angry before in his life. Were the rest of the students really doing so bad that she had to bring in the IPPA president to set them straight?!
A quick look at the horrified faces of the rest of the students, and then at the extremely disappointed looking face of their Kyrellik teacher who was right next to Rancor, told Braker everything he needed to know.
Hoo-boy.
This was going to be a nightmare for him.
———————————————————————————————————————
By the end of Rancor’s absolutely brutal test in pronunciation and vocabulary that he had promised, there were only 4 students still standing.
None of those 4 students included Leonard Braker.
The test, as it turned out, was mostly pronunciation, and was conducted one student at a time. Leonard Braker, who was not good at reading things in Kyrellik and who was not used to being in such a stressful environment, wholeheartedly failed his Kyrellik exam and— as had been promised— was kicked out of the class. Sure enough, he ended up failing that class— the first one he had ever failed, as well as what would eventually be the only one.
Still, the Rancorpüjin lesson made a massive impression on him, and Braker only worked even harder than he ever had before. His parents didn’t even mind that he had failed Kyrellik, but Braker certainly did, and practically threw himself into study for the next 3 months, going on even until the summer break happened. His daily schedule now really could not involve much of any fun time: he had to review his journalism stuff, watch the news, continue writing his newspaper, and now he had to study both Monese and Kyrellik like crazy. It got to the point where he only ever came out of his room for food. Maria and Elijah were so worried about him that they frequently went to check on him, but Braker wouldn’t come out.
He only allowed himself a few short breaks, and regretted the fact that he had ever been interested in that one gray-shirted Trainer from those battles.
As the start of his birthday month came around, however, he would soon find himself right back where he had started.
——————————————————————————————————————
08/03/18, Wyndon— Braker Household
Still no word yet on a name , Braker thought to himself as he watched the battle on the television in front of him, taking notes for the sake of Monese study and review.
It had been a few months since he’d last caught up with the “Fire monotyper”’s battles, and apparently the Trainer had beaten the Alolan champion, because now he was in Sinnoh, battling against Roark’s Rampardos with a Weavile. Once again, he’d turned the television on mid-battle, and once again he was taking notes on any Monese used.
There still wasn’t much of any.
That being said, it was a bit fun, if also a bit distracting, to try and guess the next lyric.
Unfortunately, though, today he’d have to do it the other way around.
He glanced up again at the screen, and was taken a bit off guard by the Trainer’s Weavile grabbing a Z-Crystal. What he heard next was something that was clearly a lyric, but also something he couldn’t get right away. Either he wasn’t very well-versed in Weavile-based Monese, or he just didn’t recognize the song at the time.
The Trainer’s response, however, cleared everything up at once:
“ Something lost and never seen. ”
Braker snapped his fingers in recognition as the Z-Move went off.
“Ah,” he said, taking down notes. “It was ‘Freak on a Leash’.” He chuckled. “Good thing that’s the only lyric from that song I know…”
———————————————————————————————-
08/04/18, Wyndon— Braker Household
Eterna and Veilstone? Nothing. What a shame.
Pastoria, Braker figured, might be better. Of course, when he turned on the TV again later that night, Braker was a bit confused by what he saw. Instead of the Trainer with the gray jacket, he was now looking at someone about 13 or so— some pop-idol princess with a Sylveon theme, he figured.
And for whatever reason, this girl had a Galvantula— who she was currently returning— and a Luxio, who she was just now sending out. For a moment or two, as the Luxio struck Crasher Wake’s Quagsire with an Ice Fang, he asked himself why someone clearly choosing to model her performance look after a Sylveon was an Electric monotyper, but then he shrugged. Maybe she just liked Electric-types.
Seconds later, though, he was broken out of his reverie by a female voice singing:
“ Was this over before~… ”
He shot up instantly; this was one of his favorite songs.
“<Before it ever began?>/Your kiss, your calls, your crutch, like the devil’s got your—”
He glanced at the screen, stopping as the Luxio hit Quagsire with a Breakneck Blitz.
“—ohhh, she’s gone for Normal,” he said. “Interesting.”
He paused for a few moments, wondering how this Sylveon cosplayer knew about the two-way call-and-responses, but eventually shrugged.
“She probably just saw his battles and was inspired by him,” he said. “Pop idol, after all. Wonder how he’ll react though.”
—————————————————————————————————-
08/05/18, Wyndon— Braker Household
The next day, the gray-shirted Trainer was back, and had fought against Fantina and won— with a Staravia, along with an assortment of other mons— including a Sylveon, funnily enough. He had been slightly disappointed when no call-and-response cue happened during Hearthome, and even more disappointed by the fact that no one spoke at all during the whole thing. He was begging for some kind of change— but alas, this Trainer was very much the silent type. Hopefully, Canalave would give some kind of reprieve— and in one way it did.
This time, the challenger on screen was instead a 30-something year old man with red glasses, a mustache, a track shirt, and katanas— and he had a Luxio too, funnily enough. This was was a far better battler than the Sylveon-themed pop idol was, though— she’d paralyzed Aggron with Spark and prevented a Metal Burst in the process.
What a strategy, Braker thought to himself— and then he noticed a glowing blue Z-Crystal behind the Luxio’s ear.
Like in Oreburgh, the mon went first.
Unlike in Oreburgh, though, Braker recognized this melody straight away; his parents had put on All-Unovan Rejects for him all the time in his youth.
< You never seemed so tense, love~ >
And then, along with the jock on screen:
“Never seen you fall so hard; do you know where you are?”
Braker grinned as the Luxio bit and froze Aggron, and continued singing to himself as he went into a bit of a nostalgic reverie.
“And truth be told I miss you/And truth be told I’m lying…”
< BREAK! >
Braker laughed.
“No time for those, Luxio; I’ve got work to do,” he said. “I’ll note your contribution, though.”
———————————————————————————————————————-
08/06/18, Wyndon— Braker Household
The next battle happened early the next morning; Braker was unfortunately still asleep by then. Even so, though, Braker had a feeling the “Fire-type monotyper” would win fairly easily, given that he knew Snowpoint was next.
He even knew what the call-and-response song was, if only because he heard Maria squee like a baby and then proceed to play and sing “Misery Business”— one of her favorite songs— at the top of her lungs.
He had a lot of work to do, though. He couldn’t be distracted.
Yet for the rest of the day, as Braker studied, wrote, and watched, the song kept playing in his head on repeat.
That was, until later that afternoon, when Braker once again went down to get lunch.
————————————————————————————————————————
Braker happened to come downstairs at precisely the right moment, as it turned out.
His parents were eagerly watching a 20-something year old man wearing fingerless gloves and a blue shirt taking on Volkner’s Electivire with a Dusk Lycanroc. Braker turned to face them.
“Hi there,” he said. “Just getting lunch; I have a lot of Kyrellik study work to do after this.”
“Alright then,” said Elijah.
He paused, looking at the screen again.
“Heh,” he said. “Shame ‘e’s not Ground-type; isn’t it, Len?”
“Indeed,” said Braker stoically, getting out a loaf of bread from the kitchen to make another sandwich with, and not really sharing his father’s enthusiasm.
That was, until a male voice came from the screen:
“ I~ wanna rock and roll all night… ”
Instantly, the Braker parents shot out of their seats, and Braker joined them from the kitchen, raising his fist eagerly:
“ AND PARTY EVERY DAY! ”
The Braker parents erupted in screams and cheers, while Braker went back to work in making his sandwich. By the time he came out, “Rock and Roll All Nite” was blaring, the TV was off, and Braker had missed some major revelations about the Trainer he’d gotten to know from the television.
Namely, with one touch of a special Sun Stone, invented by Gisnep, the Dusk Lycanroc had revealed that he was the Trainer all along, that the other Trainers Braker had seen were all his Pokémon, and that the two Luxios he had seen were one and the same.
It would take Braker 4 years to figure that information out.
BRAKER TIMELINE
ARC 1
CHAPTER 2
5/7/18, Wyndon— The Braker Household
Leonard Braker was, of course, busy. Immensely so.
He’d spent the last 10 years of his life trying his best to get a career in journalism. He’d gotten quite a lot of stock from his GeoSoc investment, he was now in college, and as he had promised he would do in college, he was studying journalism as a major, along with Monese and Kyrellik. For the last ten years now he’d done practically nothing but watch the news, take notes, write his newspaper, ask people if they wanted to be interviewed, and studied like crazy.
At the moment, though, he wasn’t studying for journalism.
He was studying Monese.
He’d been given an assignment to watch Gym Battles at home and translate the Monese found within it. This was fairly interesting, given that Monese wasn’t a phonetic language like Kyrellik was and as such was a lot harder to translate. Thankfully, though, he was taking notes like crazy, all the while watching some random Trainer with a gray jacket and red headphones on battling Acerola in the Elite Four. That being said, though, the information he had was… limited.
He didn’t know the Trainer’s name, and neither the Trainer nor the mon had said much of anything the entire time. He didn’t know what other Pokémon the Trainer had, besides the Delphox that was currently out on the field. It was the only good battle that was on, and he had turned on his TV midway through the battle— though it was more accurate to say the end of the battle. All he knew was that it was currently Delphox vs. Froslass, and given the type advantage, the former was likely to win.
For a few moments, he considered turning the match off and switching to another battle, one that had more dialogue and— crucially— more Monese, since it wasn’t really being spoken at all.
And then he heard something from the screen.
“ This one goes out… ”
He glanced up at the screen and saw that the Trainer and his Delphox were preparing a Z-Move— and knew that Monese would be evident at any moment. This was clearly a cue. The good news was, though, this was a lyric— and for lyrics, anyone could guess the song if they could play “Name That Tune”.
Well. Thank goodness his parents watched it, then.
And especially thank goodness that he knew the song.
He glanced down at his paper and continued writing, absentmindedly singing the next lyric along with the Delphox on the screen:
<“to the one I love…”>
He paused, watching as the Delphox subsequently let loose with an Inferno Overdrive that hit the Froslass and knocked her backwards, causing her to faint.
“Huh,” he muttered, as he continued writing. “Call-and-response songs for Z-Moves. Unconventional, but enjoyable.”
He stopped writing after a bit and looked up.
“Though… considering the song, would the next lyric after that be ‘this one goes out to the one I left behind’ or ‘fire!’?”
—————————————————————————-
5/8/18, Wyndon— The Braker Household
Another day, another battle with… whoever this was.
As before, the mons and the Trainer were mostly silent, so Braker wasn’t really paying attention to the fight on screen. He only knew two things: the strange Trainer was A) battling Olivia and B) had a Blaziken who was currently out on the field against an Armaldo.
From what he could tell, they were probably a Fire-type monotyper, but he didn’t want to assume anything. Yet.
Of course, his time was split between his assignment and the battle itself, so he didn’t hear much of anything, until:
“ Face down in the dirt, she said— ”
He didn’t notice the Blaziken on the screen start glowing with an orange light, nor did he see the Trainer hold up his Mega Stone— which was in his headphones for some odd reason— but Braker responded along with the Blaziken in an instant:
<“—this doesn’t hurt—“>
He kept going, not noticing the Blaziken’s shape start to change.
“—-she said, ‘I finally had enou—’”
He looked up, and saw that the orange light had faded; a Mega Blaziken was now on the screen to a mass cheering crowd.
“…oh,” he said. “The Blaziken Mega-Evolved. Neat. He does it for Megas, too.”
He paused, then shook his head.
“…dang it, this is distracting me…” he muttered, turning all of his attention in that moment back to his work.
He was so distracted by his work, in fact, that he failed to notice the Sneasel evolution that subsequently occurred on screen, denying his Fire-monotyper assumption.
——————————————————————————————
About halfway through Braker’s work, he started to get hungry, so he began to head downstairs in order to see if he could go and get himself some lunch. Upon him getting downstairs, he saw his parents eagerly watching something on the television. Maria, in particular, had an expression of extreme cuteness proximity on her face, but Braker didn’t pay much note to either the television or his mother’s expression.
“Hello there,” he said simply as he headed over to the kitchen. “I was getting pretty hungry; figured I would go downstairs and get something to–”
He turned his head to face the screen and paused when he saw who they were looking at– it was the same Trainer from before, now battling Kahili. Apparently, this channel was broadcasting this Trainer’s entire Alola League run.
“Oh, you’re watching the Fire-type monorainer, too?” he asked. “Funny; I just saw him on the TV for my homework assignment today; he’s got a Mega Blaziken.”
“...Fire-type monotrainer?” asked Elijah, tilting his head in confusion. “What are you–”
He was about to say something else when the television interrupted:
“ Look at me now, I’m making my play! ”
“‘Just’,” Braker added, knowing full well where this was going and recognizing the lyric as being from one of his parents’ favorite songs.
Sure enough, within a few seconds, his parents were on their feet and screamed so loudly that Braker couldn’t hear the television:
“ DON’T TRY TO PUSH YOUR LUCK; JUST GET OUT OF MY WAY! ”
Braker, startled, turned to face the screen and saw a massive Gigavolt Havoc move hit Kahili’s Toucannon for a few moments, all while his parents continued to sing “Back in Black”. Loudly . He rolled his eyes a bit, smirking at them.
“Ah,” he said. “So he’s not a fire monotyper. Alright, then.”
He left and headed off to the kitchen to go make his lunch, never seeing the Pokemon that had made the move. By the time he was midway through making a ham and cheese sandwich, his parents were on their feet whooping and cheering like crazy.
“‘E WON, BABY!” cried Maria.
“Put on some AC/DC!” Elijah shouted. “We’re CELEBRATING!”
Braker rolled his eyes, and went back to making his sandwich. Ten minutes later he had finished, and promptly headed upstairs to get back to his work.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He got an A on the assignment, of course, despite the relative lack of speech on the part of the Trainer he’d seen. Of course, he’d watched other battles, too, so he presumed that would have helped. For whatever strange reason, though, he found himself very much intrigued by the mysterious gray-shirted Trainer, and figured that the next time he showed up in a League, he would continue to watch his fights in order to get more Monese lessons in him. He loved the assignment so much, in fact, that even after that he continued to watch battle after battle, writing down everything in Monese that he could find and translating it.
Of course, it was a lot harder to do that than it was to translate Kyrellik. That came really easy to him. It was speaking it for him that was the problem— and that proved, ultimately, to be his class undoing.
On one particular day of his Kyrellik courses, his teacher announced a special guest would be giving a lecture on the language for the day. He didn’t know who it was, but he made sure that he would give his full attention to the guest, and dressed accordingly.
When he eventually came into the room, the last thing he expected to see was a massive Paldean Tauros towering over him, giving him a steely glare that gave him a lot of pause. For a few moments, he considered interviewing him, but eventually after a few moments thought better of it and instead sat down in his seat, equal parts awed and terrified by the giant bull in front of him. Around him, the rest of his fellow students seemed equally on edge.
“ This is going to be our guest speaker?” muttered one of them.
“I would have liked it better if it were a human…” said another.
“That Paldean Tauros looks so scary…”
“I wonder who he is?”
More whispers continued amongst the students, but in a matter of moments all of them were interrupted with a loud thud that hit the floor. The students quickly fell silent and turned to face the direction of the thud, only to find that it was the Paldean Tauros’ hoof that had hit the ground. Said Paldean Tauros was continuing to stare everyone down with his intense glare. Finally, after a few moments, the Paldean Tauros finally spoke up.
< Prïket ,> he said, a bit harshly. (Hello.)
“… Prïket, ” the students responded, still a bit caught off-guard.
< Sü jok sois Rancorpüjin, > said the Paldean Tauros. < Sü jok sois au prasidepaïk yü au IPPA, et sü jok wou sois parleptük yü tok tadar. > (I am Rancorpujin. I am the president of the IPPA, and I will be your lecturer today.)
Braker’s eyebrows instantly raised upon hearing those four letters. He had heard of the IPPA before— it had been mentioned previously in the Kyrellik class as the main linguistic hub for Pokémon. He promptly raised his hand, noting something else.
< Cheüt? > Rancorpüjin asked. < Hokt-sois tok? > (Yes? Who are you?)
Braker responded— in Kyrellik, of course, since the class was almost entirely in it.
“ Sü jok sois büreka, ” he said. “ Sü nom yü tok… sü nom yü tok sois ‘brutal with words’?” (I am Braker. Your name... your name means "brutal with words"?)
<“ Phrases ”,> snapped Rancorpüjin. < Rancor pü jin, ne rancor pü palabt.> ("Phrases". Brutal with phrases, not brutal with words.)
“ Tümil ,” Braker apologized, meekly, embarrassed that he had forgotten his Kyrellik lessons. (Sorry.)
< Chok cheüt, > said Rancorpüjin, turning to face the group of students, < sü nom yü mok de sois ‘brutal with phrases’, et sü jok autik ta sois plü rancor mit ka tadar. Kot tadar, sü kirümetük yü tok fragüt mok ta donüs tok qükü… palabparlüs testi. > (But yes, my name means "brutal with phrases", and I will be very brutal with them today. For today, your teacher has asked me to give you all... a pronunciation test.)
A pronunciation test.
Braker shuddered. Pronunciation in Kyrellik was not his strong suit, and he knew that. Yes, he could form sentences; yes, he could write things down in Kyrellik; but he couldn’t pronounce some of the stranger sounds for the life of him. Just earlier, he couldn’t correctly say “tümill”!
The entire class began nervously muttering amongst themselves again, but were quieted eventually by a hoof being stomped on the ground by Rancor.
< Sü kirümetük yü tok parlük mok zjït tok qükü sois rellachük ou tok benkit, > Rancor said sternly. < Sü chob woüt permït zjït deromp, et ne wou jok. Sü jok sois autik ta testüs tok qükü ou tok palabparlüs, et palabt, et si tok fallit…> (Your teacher told me that you all have been slacking off on your studies. She will not let that happen, and neither will I. I am going to test you all on your pronunciation, and your vocabulary, and if you fail...)
He glared up at the class.
< Sü ro sois au kirümetük yü bittüs zjït tok autik.> (It is the teacher's request that you leave.)
That last word reached Braker’s ears and caused him some amount of dismay. It was true, to some extent; he had been slacking off a bit on his Kyrellik lessons— but that was only because of the rest of the immense amount of work he had to do that he knew he couldn’t slack off on. His pronunciation wasn’t too great either. And worse of all, this was a general Ed class that directly counted towards his major, meaning if he failed this, he probably wouldn’t be graduating. Still, though, he knew there were a lot of kids that were doing worse than him, and he knew that. So long as the vocabulary section was long enough, he would be fine.
That didn’t mean he wasn’t nervous and intimidated by Rancor though.
More importantly than that, though, he could barely believe that this was apparently done on request of his Kyrellik teacher, a person who he’d never seen angry before in his life. Were the rest of the students really doing so bad that she had to bring in the IPPA president to set them straight?!
A quick look at the horrified faces of the rest of the students, and then at the extremely disappointed looking face of their Kyrellik teacher who was right next to Rancor, told Braker everything he needed to know.
Hoo-boy.
This was going to be a nightmare for him.
———————————————————————————————————————
By the end of Rancor’s absolutely brutal test in pronunciation and vocabulary that he had promised, there were only 4 students still standing.
None of those 4 students included Leonard Braker.
The test, as it turned out, was mostly pronunciation, and was conducted one student at a time. Leonard Braker, who was not good at reading things in Kyrellik and who was not used to being in such a stressful environment, wholeheartedly failed his Kyrellik exam and— as had been promised— was kicked out of the class. Sure enough, he ended up failing that class— the first one he had ever failed, as well as what would eventually be the only one.
Still, the Rancorpüjin lesson made a massive impression on him, and Braker only worked even harder than he ever had before. His parents didn’t even mind that he had failed Kyrellik, but Braker certainly did, and practically threw himself into study for the next 3 months, going on even until the summer break happened. His daily schedule now really could not involve much of any fun time: he had to review his journalism stuff, watch the news, continue writing his newspaper, and now he had to study both Monese and Kyrellik like crazy. It got to the point where he only ever came out of his room for food. Maria and Elijah were so worried about him that they frequently went to check on him, but Braker wouldn’t come out.
He only allowed himself a few short breaks, and regretted the fact that he had ever been interested in that one gray-shirted Trainer from those battles.
As the start of his birthday month came around, however, he would soon find himself right back where he had started.
——————————————————————————————————————
08/03/18, Wyndon— Braker Household
Still no word yet on a name , Braker thought to himself as he watched the battle on the television in front of him, taking notes for the sake of Monese study and review.
It had been a few months since he’d last caught up with the “Fire monotyper”’s battles, and apparently the Trainer had beaten the Alolan champion, because now he was in Sinnoh, battling against Roark’s Rampardos with a Weavile. Once again, he’d turned the television on mid-battle, and once again he was taking notes on any Monese used.
There still wasn’t much of any.
That being said, it was a bit fun, if also a bit distracting, to try and guess the next lyric.
Unfortunately, though, today he’d have to do it the other way around.
He glanced up again at the screen, and was taken a bit off guard by the Trainer’s Weavile grabbing a Z-Crystal. What he heard next was something that was clearly a lyric, but also something he couldn’t get right away. Either he wasn’t very well-versed in Weavile-based Monese, or he just didn’t recognize the song at the time.
The Trainer’s response, however, cleared everything up at once:
“ Something lost and never seen. ”
Braker snapped his fingers in recognition as the Z-Move went off.
“Ah,” he said, taking down notes. “It was ‘Freak on a Leash’.” He chuckled. “Good thing that’s the only lyric from that song I know…”
———————————————————————————————-
08/04/18, Wyndon— Braker Household
Eterna and Veilstone? Nothing. What a shame.
Pastoria, Braker figured, might be better. Of course, when he turned on the TV again later that night, Braker was a bit confused by what he saw. Instead of the Trainer with the gray jacket, he was now looking at someone about 13 or so— some pop-idol princess with a Sylveon theme, he figured.
And for whatever reason, this girl had a Galvantula— who she was currently returning— and a Luxio, who she was just now sending out. For a moment or two, as the Luxio struck Crasher Wake’s Quagsire with an Ice Fang, he asked himself why someone clearly choosing to model her performance look after a Sylveon was an Electric monotyper, but then he shrugged. Maybe she just liked Electric-types.
Seconds later, though, he was broken out of his reverie by a female voice singing:
“ Was this over before~… ”
He shot up instantly; this was one of his favorite songs.
“<Before it ever began?>/Your kiss, your calls, your crutch, like the devil’s got your—”
He glanced at the screen, stopping as the Luxio hit Quagsire with a Breakneck Blitz.
“—ohhh, she’s gone for Normal,” he said. “Interesting.”
He paused for a few moments, wondering how this Sylveon cosplayer knew about the two-way call-and-responses, but eventually shrugged.
“She probably just saw his battles and was inspired by him,” he said. “Pop idol, after all. Wonder how he’ll react though.”
—————————————————————————————————-
08/05/18, Wyndon— Braker Household
The next day, the gray-shirted Trainer was back, and had fought against Fantina and won— with a Staravia, along with an assortment of other mons— including a Sylveon, funnily enough. He had been slightly disappointed when no call-and-response cue happened during Hearthome, and even more disappointed by the fact that no one spoke at all during the whole thing. He was begging for some kind of change— but alas, this Trainer was very much the silent type. Hopefully, Canalave would give some kind of reprieve— and in one way it did.
This time, the challenger on screen was instead a 30-something year old man with red glasses, a mustache, a track shirt, and katanas— and he had a Luxio too, funnily enough. This was was a far better battler than the Sylveon-themed pop idol was, though— she’d paralyzed Aggron with Spark and prevented a Metal Burst in the process.
What a strategy, Braker thought to himself— and then he noticed a glowing blue Z-Crystal behind the Luxio’s ear.
Like in Oreburgh, the mon went first.
Unlike in Oreburgh, though, Braker recognized this melody straight away; his parents had put on All-Unovan Rejects for him all the time in his youth.
< You never seemed so tense, love~ >
And then, along with the jock on screen:
“Never seen you fall so hard; do you know where you are?”
Braker grinned as the Luxio bit and froze Aggron, and continued singing to himself as he went into a bit of a nostalgic reverie.
“And truth be told I miss you/And truth be told I’m lying…”
< BREAK! >
Braker laughed.
“No time for those, Luxio; I’ve got work to do,” he said. “I’ll note your contribution, though.”
———————————————————————————————————————-
08/06/18, Wyndon— Braker Household
The next battle happened early the next morning; Braker was unfortunately still asleep by then. Even so, though, Braker had a feeling the “Fire-type monotyper” would win fairly easily, given that he knew Snowpoint was next.
He even knew what the call-and-response song was, if only because he heard Maria squee like a baby and then proceed to play and sing “Misery Business”— one of her favorite songs— at the top of her lungs.
He had a lot of work to do, though. He couldn’t be distracted.
Yet for the rest of the day, as Braker studied, wrote, and watched, the song kept playing in his head on repeat.
That was, until later that afternoon, when Braker once again went down to get lunch.
————————————————————————————————————————
Braker happened to come downstairs at precisely the right moment, as it turned out.
His parents were eagerly watching a 20-something year old man wearing fingerless gloves and a blue shirt taking on Volkner’s Electivire with a Dusk Lycanroc. Braker turned to face them.
“Hi there,” he said. “Just getting lunch; I have a lot of Kyrellik study work to do after this.”
“Alright then,” said Elijah.
He paused, looking at the screen again.
“Heh,” he said. “Shame ‘e’s not Ground-type; isn’t it, Len?”
“Indeed,” said Braker stoically, getting out a loaf of bread from the kitchen to make another sandwich with, and not really sharing his father’s enthusiasm.
That was, until a male voice came from the screen:
“ I~ wanna rock and roll all night… ”
Instantly, the Braker parents shot out of their seats, and Braker joined them from the kitchen, raising his fist eagerly:
“ AND PARTY EVERY DAY! ”
The Braker parents erupted in screams and cheers, while Braker went back to work in making his sandwich. By the time he came out, “Rock and Roll All Nite” was blaring, the TV was off, and Braker had missed some major revelations about the Trainer he’d gotten to know from the television.
Namely, with one touch of a special Sun Stone, invented by Gisnep, the Dusk Lycanroc had revealed that he was the Trainer all along, that the other Trainers Braker had seen were all his Pokémon, and that the two Luxios he had seen were one and the same.
It would take Braker 4 years to figure that information out.
-
Goldenheart388
- Posts: 17
- Joined: 2021-Jun-26 21:16
Re: THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
BRAKER TIMELINE
ARC 1
CHAPTER 3
05/16/19– Wyndon Stadium– Graduation Day
Unfortunately for Braker, he never saw another battle with that Trainer again. Not because he didn’t want to see it, but because he had so much work to do. According to his parents, though, that Trainer won the League and sang two Nine Inch Nails songs that Braker had never heard of in his life.
The good news, though, was that his fall semester went very well, and he passed that Kyrellik class with flying colors. The even better news was that the spring semester was also his last semester, and that meant he was going to graduate soon– assuming, of course, that that semester went well.
Fortunately for him, it did, and now here he was at Wyndon Stadium, surrounded by all of the other members of the Class of 2019 from Wyndon University, dressed up in his cap and gown, waiting for the president of the university to bring him and the others up on stage to receive their diplomas. The wait ended up being incredibly long due to the massive amount of guest speakers that were there: for one thing, every single Gym Leader in Galar gave a speech congratulating the class of 2019, then someone from Feluv came in and talked about them graduating from Wyndon University, moving to Feluv, and joining the MTI; then Leon came and gave a speech; and then, finally…
“Alright, it is now time for the conferring of the degrees. Will the class of 2019 please stand up?”
Braker smiled, as he and the rest of the class stood up and basked in the mass amounts of applause and cheers that emanated from the stadium. For a few moments, he looked around, trying to see if he could find his parents, but the mass amount of people in the crowd made it incredibly difficult to find where they were. Still, though, he had a feeling that both of his parents were there, cheering for him. Maria probably had tears in her eyes seeing it.
Even better yet, he was in the first row. He was going to get his degree very, very soon.
After the applause and cheering finally died down, the president of the university stepped forward and gave the announcement that Braker had been waiting for.
“Will the first row of students come forward and have their degrees conferred.”
Braker wasn’t the first one in the line– he was behind a few other students in the first row– but he was still very happy. Fairly soon, the line began moving, as the people in charge of announcing went through the names of a few people that Braker did not know. Eventually, Braker found himself next up in the line, with a woman next to him; instantly Braker knew that this woman was the person who would be announcing his name. He got out the graduation card with his name on it and handed it to the woman, who knelt down next to him.
“How’s your name pronounced?” she whispered, while the other person kept going through names.
“Leonard Braker,” said Braker. “Exactly as it’s spelled.”
The woman nodded. As the last person in front of Braker left the stage to head back to their seat, Braker stepped forward and the woman next to him turned to the stage.
“Leonard Braker!” she announced.
Braker shook the president’s hand as the crowd cheered and more names began to get called, before the photographer in front of them motioned for them to turn to face him. The president and Braker both turned to face the photographer and smiled as the photographer took a few photos of the two of them. Once the photos were done, Braker promptly left the stage and went back down to sit in his seat. As soon as he was once again seated, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Thank goodness.
He had finally done it.
Even so, though, he knew that his work wasn’t done. He knew full well his parents would want to celebrate his graduation, and he was definitely happy to, but he knew what he was going to do once he got home.
First things first– he was going to show his parents his home.
His investment in GeoSoc had paid off and paid off incredibly well, as Braker had made enough money from the investment to buy himself a house, which meant that he was going to emancipate himself from his parents that day . After that, he was going to go right to work, and try to apply for journalism school after journalism school after journalism school to see if they would accept him. Money definitely wouldn’t be an issue, since his GeoSoc investment had paid off so well, and the vast majority of his grades were good save for that single Kyrellik fail, so that wouldn’t necessarily be an issue.
Something told him he was going to be accepted fairly quickly.
It wouldn’t really matter to him if most of the journalism schools rejected him, though, because there was one single journalism school that he wanted to get accepted into: the PEFE School of Journalism. It was his dream journalism school and one that he’d been researching for a very long time. According to numerous reviews, it was the best journalism school in the entire Pokemon world, and was part of the greater PEFE University on the Sevii Islands. If he got accepted into that school, it would be massive.
The rest of the names passed very slowly, but eventually, after a long, long while, the last student got off of the stage and went back to their seat. The president of the university turned to face the students, all of whom were still standing.
“As of now, you have all officially been conferred your degrees from the university,” he said. “Congratulations to the Class of 2019.”
The crowd roared. Braker, and a few others, waved at them.
“And now,” said the president, “you are allowed to mark this momentous occasion and cement your status. Please indicate your new status by transferring your tassel from right to left.”
Braker was so distracted by his thoughts of showing his parents his new house, and of the many letters he would be sending to various journalism schools, that he almost forgot to turn the tassel, but eventually realized what was happening. Quickly, Braker grabbed his tassel and turned it to the left, being careful not to accidentally pull the tassel off of his cap.
The crowd, once again, lost their minds and roared. Braker glanced around happily at the crowd, still unable to believe that he had actually done it.
The president spoke some final words of encouragement to the students that Braker didn’t hear, as he was once again distracted by what was going to happen after the graduation ceremony was over, before eventually he heard “Pomp and Circumstance” playing again and the sounds of all the various students around him getting up to leave the room. Braker got up out of his seat, grinning and tossing his cap in the air before running it over to pick it up and exiting the stadium pitch.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Braker re-entered the stadium waiting room, looking around for a few minutes for any sign of his parents. He took a deep breath, his entire body practically pulsing with excitement.
“Okay,” he muttered to himself, “where are they…? I know that they had to have come to this; neither one of them would just up and leave me like tha–”
“LENNY~!”
Ah. There they were.
A bit startled, Braker turned around, and sure enough saw his parents running towards him with massive grins on their faces. As he had expected, Maria had tears in her eyes, and ran up to give her son a big hug. Elijah, meanwhile, merely put his hand on Braker’s shoulder– though as Braker looked up he could also see tears in his father’s eyes too.
“You did it~!” Maria exclaimed, letting go of her son. “Oh, we’re so proud o’ you, Lenny!”
Braker smiled.
“Thanks, mum,” he said.
“Well done, Len,” said Elijah. “When you get home, we’re going to celebrate as much as possible, you ‘ear me?”
Braker, in response, just laughed.
“Oh, the celebration’s going to begin a lot earlier than you would think,” he said.
Elijah paused.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“You remember that investment I made in GeoSoc stocks when I was 10, right?” Braker asked.
“Yeah,” said Elijah. “What about it?”
“Well…”
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wyndon, Braker’s House– After the Ceremony
“SHUT UP!” Maria shrieked with joy.
Braker just nodded.
The three of them were standing in front of a 2-story blue house with a black roof and four windows visible from the outside. Maria was absolutely flabbergasted with joy, while Elijah grinned, staring up at the house and nodding.
“You’re kidding,” he said. “Man… I can’t believe you actually got enough money for this.”
“A-are you going to be moving out?” asked Maria.
“That’s the thing,” said Braker. “I’m already moved out.”
Maria stood there in shock for a few moments. “W-wha–?! But– we saw–”
Braker smiled.
“As soon as we left early for the graduation, I headed off to the bathroom and called moving truck people to move everything from my room out of your house and into mine,” he said. “You can go home and check the interior of it for yourself; my room’s all barren.”
Elijah glanced over at his son. “Seriously?”
Braker nodded again.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” Elijah asked. “Can we go inside and see it?”
“Of course,” said Braker. “That’s why I brought you here.”
“Alright, then!” said Elijah.
Maria squealed, and the three members of the Braker family headed into the house.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When Maria and Elijah entered Braker’s new house, they were absolutely stunned by what they saw at the front door.
The front door, which was black, led to a massive corridor surrounded by walls and pictures of Braker with his parents. That, in turn, led to the living room, which had brown wooden walls, blue carpet, and all the things that would normally be expected of a living room. There was a massive television, a couch, and a chair– the last of those two things were both orange in color. The most impressive thing, however, was what was on the walls– namely, every single edition of The Braker Telegraph, the family’s newspaper, was hung up on the walls in order of publication.
Elijah and Maria were stunned.
“No way… ” muttered Elijah.
“Is– is that every single edition?!” cried Maria.
“Every single one,” said Braker. “This was why I kept all the editions in a safe place.”
“Wow~!” cried Maria, jumping up and down and clapping her hands enthusiastically.
“Is that the kitchen?” asked Elijah, pointing over to an orange-walled room with a small table, a stainless-steel refrigerator, a stainless-steel microwave, a stove, an oven, and a ton of cabinets.
“And the dining room, yes,” said Braker.
“Huh,” said Elijah. “Looks nice.”
“Can we see your room?!” Maria cried excitedly.
Braker chuckled. “It’s the only other room in the house, besides the bathroom and laundry room, so yes. All my stuff is in there.”
Maria once again squealed with joy and practically ran up the stairs that were next to the massive corridor. Elijah and Braker, both of whom were watching, laughed a bit, then went over to follow her.
—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Suffice it to say, Braker was not joking about his room being the only other one in the house besides the bathroom and laundry room (and the rooms downstairs), because– as Braker’s parents would both discover– Braker’s room was absolutely huge.
It had blue walls, much like the downstairs living room, an absolutely massive bed with teal sheets and white blankets, multiple cabinets and doors, a huge television, a giant desk for Braker to do his work on, and a bunch of objects that had been transferred over from Braker’s house. Namely, books. Journalism books, investment books, and the like galore were sprinkled throughout the bookshelves in Braker’s room– and neither Elijah nor Maria could get enough of it. They complimented Braker on his room, asking him why it was so big; Braker responded:
“Oh, that’s to make room for any Pokemon I get… assuming, of course, that I get any.”
Of course, the idea of Braker having Pokemon was enough to make both Maria and Elijah even happier.
After the house tour was finished, the Braker family went straight to their son’s celebratory graduation lunch, where Braker’s parents shared the happy news with their parents. Braker’s grandparents were absolutely delighted by the news, and were quick to congratulate Braker, both on the graduation and on the new house.
Once the Braker family finished their lunch, they went back to Braker’s house for something a lot sadder, at least to them: saying goodbye to their son now that he was fully emancipated.
Of course, Braker had to remind his parents multiple times that they weren’t actually saying goodbye and that their houses were literally a few miles apart from each other. That being said, though, even he had to admit that this was hard for him. He’d lived with his parents for the longest time, and even though he was busy working most days, he’d still had some great memories with his parents– namely working on editions of The Braker Telegraph , which he took seriously, but his parents enjoyed reading. Once Maria and Elijah had hugged and kissed and cried multiple times over their son, they finally left the room to head back to their house.
“Good luck, Lenny~!” Maria cried. “Don’t forget to call us!”
“I won’t,” Braker responded. “You can rest assured of that.”
With that, Elijah and Maria waved at their son a few times, and he waved back, and the three of them stared at each other for a very long time until eventually Elijah shut the door.
And Braker was left alone.
Braker stood there for a good few moments after his parents had left the room, not knowing what to think or what to feel. He was feeling all sorts of emotions at the moment: happiness, sadness, pride, a bit of regret for not interacting much with his parents, immense satisfaction at the fact that everything he had been working towards was finally coming to fruition and that all that workaholism from his childhood hadn’t been for nothing.
Yet at the same time… he also had another feeling.
Namely… one of dissatisfaction .
Something, he felt, was missing in his life. What that thing was, he didn’t know yet, and it didn’t make any sense to him. He knew it couldn’t be Pokemon– he was getting one when he was ready to, and that wasn’t going to change anytime soon. Besides, he’d survived without one for this long; he could last a bit longer. Maybe it was something else.
He blinked, suddenly feeling something in his eyes, which he wiped away. As he looked closer, he realized, to his slight shock, that he was crying. Not that he had never cried before… but it certainly wasn’t something that happened often.
Maybe he just missed his parents?
…Yeah. That had to be it, he figured, nodding to himself. That was all it was; he just missed his parents. He’d get over it eventually.
He glanced over at his desk, shaking his head and wiping his tears away as best he could.
“Who am I kidding,” he said to himself. “I have work to do; acceptance essays to write. I can’t just be standing here missing my parents and grappling with my feelings; that can wait until afterwards.”
He glanced over at the numerous papers that were on his desk, as well as the computer that was on it. Wasting little time, he got onto his computer, headed straight to Goodrle, and typed in:
journalism school acceptance applications
—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next few days– the next week – was nothing but a total workload for Braker. Over the course of the next week, he wrote essay after essay and applied for practically every single journalism school that he could think of, in the hopes of him eventually getting accepted. He wrote out every single essay on a piece of paper first, revising it and revising it, until he thought it looked good enough for him to send– and then he sent it.
And sent another.
And another.
And another.
By the end of the week, Braker had sent out applications to 30 journalism schools across the Pokemon world– and the only one he hadn’t tackled yet was the PEFE School of Journalism.
That was about to change.
—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
05/23/19
PEFE School of Journalism (PEFE University) Application Form
Full Student Name: Leonard Kennedy Braker
Preferred Name: Braker
Date of Birth: 19/8/98
Sex: M
Gender Identity: Gay
Preferred phone number: +44 020 5555 5555
Preferred email address: programusinterruptuslb@goomail.com
Permanent home address: 45 North Road, Wyndon, Galar, N64 4FY
Citizenship status: Galarian
Language proficiency:
Galarian
Monese
Kyrellik
Demographic Information: Afro-Galarian; Unovan grandfather
Family:
Parent 1: Mother
Is Parent 1 living?: Yes
Parent 1 full name: Maria Elizabeth Braker
Parent 1 former name, if any: neé McCullough
Birthplace of Parent 1: Crown Tundra
Parent 1 preferred contact method: Phone
Parent 1 preferred phone number: +44 020 1234 5678
Parent 1 occupation: Cartoonist (retired)
Parent 1 college attended: None
Parent 2: Father
Is Parent 2 living?: Yes
Parent 2 full name: Elijah Donald Braker
Parent 2 former name, if any: None
Birthplace of Parent 2: Wyndon
Parent 2 preferred contact method: Phone
Parent 2 preferred phone number: +44 020 8765 4321
Parent 2 occupation: Carpenter
Parent 2 college attended: Wyndon University
Education:
Secondary/high school: Wyndon High School
College: Wyndon College
Degree Achieved: BA
Cumulative GPA: 3.488
Writing: Personal Essay
Please choose from one of the following categories.
- Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
- The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
- Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
- Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?
- Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
- Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
- Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you've already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.
Response (Question 2):
I don’t consider myself to be a failure, by any stretch of the imagination. As a matter of fact, I’m quite possibly the hardest-working member of my family, which is saying a lot considering how hard my parents and especially my grandfather have worked for many years. I’m very proud of the work I’ve done, both at home and at school, and I have always done my absolute best every single year.
That being said, however, as you may have noticed, there’s a reason I don’t have a 4.0 cumulative GPA.
The story begins in 2018, towards the end of my junior year of college. At that time, I was taking a Kyrellik class, which I was– for the most part, anyways– doing fairly respectably in. I had a B at that time, which of course wasn’t good enough for me, though my parents were more than happy with it. The main problem was my pronunciation. I did all of my assignments and got fairly good scores on my vocabulary tests, but reading tests weren’t my strong suit. I am not a linguist. I couldn’t pronounce some of the harder sounds in Kyrellik, namely the Q, the H, and especially that tricky double LL, widely regarded as one of the most difficult sounds in Kyrellik, and as such was docked plenty of points for my reading tests by my teacher. My Kyrellik teacher was very nice, and treated me well, yet as the semester went on I could tell she was decidedly starting to get frustrated with the other members of her class, who were– from what I could tell– very much decidedly unstudious. Still, though, she never actually snapped at any of us, and I couldn’t recall a day when she had gotten angry in her life.
That was, until May 10th, 2018.
That day, I entered my Kyrellik class to find Rancorpujin, the strict, severe Paldean Tauros CEO of the International Pokemon Phonetics Association, or IPPA, standing in front of all of us. I was rather intimidated, but even so, figured that he was just there as a guest speaker: that was what our Kyrellik teacher had told us the day before, after all.
Unfortunately for me, I was wrong.
My teacher, as it turned out, had lost her patience, and had brought in Rancorpujin to settle things. He told us all that he was giving us a pronunciation and vocabulary test, and that whoever failed would be asked to leave and would end up failing the whole class. This greatly unnerved me, but I naively told myself that the test would be mostly vocabulary based as opposed to pronunciation.
Unfortunately for me, I was also wrong.
It was mostly pronunciation, and by the end of it, I was one of all but 4 students who ended up failing their Kyrellik class.
Logging on to the computer a few days later and seeing a massive “F” next to Kyrellik shook me to my absolute core. Prior to this, I’d gotten an A in every single class. I’d never failed a class before– much less a linguistic one– and my heart practically sank to the bottom of my chest seeing that I had. What on Earth was I going to tell my parents? How was I going to fare for the rest of the summer? I’d been slacking off a bit on my Kyrellik work due to all the other work I had to do taking up my time, especially after the excitement of seeing some Trainer with a gray shirt and red headphones whose name I never got going through the entire Sinnoh League. This was solely on me, I realized. If I was going to be a better student and be able to graduate next year, I needed to study and study hard .
Reluctantly, I called my parents that day to tell them I had failed my Kyrellik class. To my slight shock, they weren’t nearly as disappointed as I’d figured they’d be. I explained to them what happened and why I had failed, and if anything they were more upset with the teacher and especially the IPPA and Rancorpujin for it. My father explicitly told me over the phone that he was going to sue the IPPA and Wyndon University for it, which I thought was a bit much.
I, of course, didn’t see it like that.
Rancorpujin, for all of his intimidating harshness, taught me something very important that day: you can’t let anything distract you from doing what needs to get done. Not other work, not battles on the television: nothing is more important than the work you’re doing right now. I studied Kyrellik like crazy during the summer break, focusing especially on pronunciation, and it paid off: I got an A that semester, graduated, and am now sending you this college application form right now.
Of course, even if I hadn’t failed Kyrellik, I would still probably be applying for this school. But if that failure in Kyrellik hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have learned what I know now: nothing is more important in your life than the work you’re doing right now. You can’t be focused on other things. You can’t be focused on all the other work you have to do. That can wait until you’ve done what you’re done right now. Nothing is more important than work, and nothing is more important than present work.
I hope to bring that ethic to your school of journalism should you choose to accept me.
Legal and Financial Information: Lorun ipsum blah blah blah tuition stuff blah blah blah here are the fees you must pay blah blah blah you are responsible for any accidents blah blah blah I the undersigned agree to all of this.
– Leonard K. Braker
Send application?
> Yes
Your application has been sent. You should hear back in 14-15 business days.
BRAKER TIMELINE
ARC 1
CHAPTER 3
05/16/19– Wyndon Stadium– Graduation Day
Unfortunately for Braker, he never saw another battle with that Trainer again. Not because he didn’t want to see it, but because he had so much work to do. According to his parents, though, that Trainer won the League and sang two Nine Inch Nails songs that Braker had never heard of in his life.
The good news, though, was that his fall semester went very well, and he passed that Kyrellik class with flying colors. The even better news was that the spring semester was also his last semester, and that meant he was going to graduate soon– assuming, of course, that that semester went well.
Fortunately for him, it did, and now here he was at Wyndon Stadium, surrounded by all of the other members of the Class of 2019 from Wyndon University, dressed up in his cap and gown, waiting for the president of the university to bring him and the others up on stage to receive their diplomas. The wait ended up being incredibly long due to the massive amount of guest speakers that were there: for one thing, every single Gym Leader in Galar gave a speech congratulating the class of 2019, then someone from Feluv came in and talked about them graduating from Wyndon University, moving to Feluv, and joining the MTI; then Leon came and gave a speech; and then, finally…
“Alright, it is now time for the conferring of the degrees. Will the class of 2019 please stand up?”
Braker smiled, as he and the rest of the class stood up and basked in the mass amounts of applause and cheers that emanated from the stadium. For a few moments, he looked around, trying to see if he could find his parents, but the mass amount of people in the crowd made it incredibly difficult to find where they were. Still, though, he had a feeling that both of his parents were there, cheering for him. Maria probably had tears in her eyes seeing it.
Even better yet, he was in the first row. He was going to get his degree very, very soon.
After the applause and cheering finally died down, the president of the university stepped forward and gave the announcement that Braker had been waiting for.
“Will the first row of students come forward and have their degrees conferred.”
Braker wasn’t the first one in the line– he was behind a few other students in the first row– but he was still very happy. Fairly soon, the line began moving, as the people in charge of announcing went through the names of a few people that Braker did not know. Eventually, Braker found himself next up in the line, with a woman next to him; instantly Braker knew that this woman was the person who would be announcing his name. He got out the graduation card with his name on it and handed it to the woman, who knelt down next to him.
“How’s your name pronounced?” she whispered, while the other person kept going through names.
“Leonard Braker,” said Braker. “Exactly as it’s spelled.”
The woman nodded. As the last person in front of Braker left the stage to head back to their seat, Braker stepped forward and the woman next to him turned to the stage.
“Leonard Braker!” she announced.
Braker shook the president’s hand as the crowd cheered and more names began to get called, before the photographer in front of them motioned for them to turn to face him. The president and Braker both turned to face the photographer and smiled as the photographer took a few photos of the two of them. Once the photos were done, Braker promptly left the stage and went back down to sit in his seat. As soon as he was once again seated, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Thank goodness.
He had finally done it.
Even so, though, he knew that his work wasn’t done. He knew full well his parents would want to celebrate his graduation, and he was definitely happy to, but he knew what he was going to do once he got home.
First things first– he was going to show his parents his home.
His investment in GeoSoc had paid off and paid off incredibly well, as Braker had made enough money from the investment to buy himself a house, which meant that he was going to emancipate himself from his parents that day . After that, he was going to go right to work, and try to apply for journalism school after journalism school after journalism school to see if they would accept him. Money definitely wouldn’t be an issue, since his GeoSoc investment had paid off so well, and the vast majority of his grades were good save for that single Kyrellik fail, so that wouldn’t necessarily be an issue.
Something told him he was going to be accepted fairly quickly.
It wouldn’t really matter to him if most of the journalism schools rejected him, though, because there was one single journalism school that he wanted to get accepted into: the PEFE School of Journalism. It was his dream journalism school and one that he’d been researching for a very long time. According to numerous reviews, it was the best journalism school in the entire Pokemon world, and was part of the greater PEFE University on the Sevii Islands. If he got accepted into that school, it would be massive.
The rest of the names passed very slowly, but eventually, after a long, long while, the last student got off of the stage and went back to their seat. The president of the university turned to face the students, all of whom were still standing.
“As of now, you have all officially been conferred your degrees from the university,” he said. “Congratulations to the Class of 2019.”
The crowd roared. Braker, and a few others, waved at them.
“And now,” said the president, “you are allowed to mark this momentous occasion and cement your status. Please indicate your new status by transferring your tassel from right to left.”
Braker was so distracted by his thoughts of showing his parents his new house, and of the many letters he would be sending to various journalism schools, that he almost forgot to turn the tassel, but eventually realized what was happening. Quickly, Braker grabbed his tassel and turned it to the left, being careful not to accidentally pull the tassel off of his cap.
The crowd, once again, lost their minds and roared. Braker glanced around happily at the crowd, still unable to believe that he had actually done it.
The president spoke some final words of encouragement to the students that Braker didn’t hear, as he was once again distracted by what was going to happen after the graduation ceremony was over, before eventually he heard “Pomp and Circumstance” playing again and the sounds of all the various students around him getting up to leave the room. Braker got up out of his seat, grinning and tossing his cap in the air before running it over to pick it up and exiting the stadium pitch.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Braker re-entered the stadium waiting room, looking around for a few minutes for any sign of his parents. He took a deep breath, his entire body practically pulsing with excitement.
“Okay,” he muttered to himself, “where are they…? I know that they had to have come to this; neither one of them would just up and leave me like tha–”
“LENNY~!”
Ah. There they were.
A bit startled, Braker turned around, and sure enough saw his parents running towards him with massive grins on their faces. As he had expected, Maria had tears in her eyes, and ran up to give her son a big hug. Elijah, meanwhile, merely put his hand on Braker’s shoulder– though as Braker looked up he could also see tears in his father’s eyes too.
“You did it~!” Maria exclaimed, letting go of her son. “Oh, we’re so proud o’ you, Lenny!”
Braker smiled.
“Thanks, mum,” he said.
“Well done, Len,” said Elijah. “When you get home, we’re going to celebrate as much as possible, you ‘ear me?”
Braker, in response, just laughed.
“Oh, the celebration’s going to begin a lot earlier than you would think,” he said.
Elijah paused.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“You remember that investment I made in GeoSoc stocks when I was 10, right?” Braker asked.
“Yeah,” said Elijah. “What about it?”
“Well…”
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wyndon, Braker’s House– After the Ceremony
“SHUT UP!” Maria shrieked with joy.
Braker just nodded.
The three of them were standing in front of a 2-story blue house with a black roof and four windows visible from the outside. Maria was absolutely flabbergasted with joy, while Elijah grinned, staring up at the house and nodding.
“You’re kidding,” he said. “Man… I can’t believe you actually got enough money for this.”
“A-are you going to be moving out?” asked Maria.
“That’s the thing,” said Braker. “I’m already moved out.”
Maria stood there in shock for a few moments. “W-wha–?! But– we saw–”
Braker smiled.
“As soon as we left early for the graduation, I headed off to the bathroom and called moving truck people to move everything from my room out of your house and into mine,” he said. “You can go home and check the interior of it for yourself; my room’s all barren.”
Elijah glanced over at his son. “Seriously?”
Braker nodded again.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” Elijah asked. “Can we go inside and see it?”
“Of course,” said Braker. “That’s why I brought you here.”
“Alright, then!” said Elijah.
Maria squealed, and the three members of the Braker family headed into the house.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When Maria and Elijah entered Braker’s new house, they were absolutely stunned by what they saw at the front door.
The front door, which was black, led to a massive corridor surrounded by walls and pictures of Braker with his parents. That, in turn, led to the living room, which had brown wooden walls, blue carpet, and all the things that would normally be expected of a living room. There was a massive television, a couch, and a chair– the last of those two things were both orange in color. The most impressive thing, however, was what was on the walls– namely, every single edition of The Braker Telegraph, the family’s newspaper, was hung up on the walls in order of publication.
Elijah and Maria were stunned.
“No way… ” muttered Elijah.
“Is– is that every single edition?!” cried Maria.
“Every single one,” said Braker. “This was why I kept all the editions in a safe place.”
“Wow~!” cried Maria, jumping up and down and clapping her hands enthusiastically.
“Is that the kitchen?” asked Elijah, pointing over to an orange-walled room with a small table, a stainless-steel refrigerator, a stainless-steel microwave, a stove, an oven, and a ton of cabinets.
“And the dining room, yes,” said Braker.
“Huh,” said Elijah. “Looks nice.”
“Can we see your room?!” Maria cried excitedly.
Braker chuckled. “It’s the only other room in the house, besides the bathroom and laundry room, so yes. All my stuff is in there.”
Maria once again squealed with joy and practically ran up the stairs that were next to the massive corridor. Elijah and Braker, both of whom were watching, laughed a bit, then went over to follow her.
—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Suffice it to say, Braker was not joking about his room being the only other one in the house besides the bathroom and laundry room (and the rooms downstairs), because– as Braker’s parents would both discover– Braker’s room was absolutely huge.
It had blue walls, much like the downstairs living room, an absolutely massive bed with teal sheets and white blankets, multiple cabinets and doors, a huge television, a giant desk for Braker to do his work on, and a bunch of objects that had been transferred over from Braker’s house. Namely, books. Journalism books, investment books, and the like galore were sprinkled throughout the bookshelves in Braker’s room– and neither Elijah nor Maria could get enough of it. They complimented Braker on his room, asking him why it was so big; Braker responded:
“Oh, that’s to make room for any Pokemon I get… assuming, of course, that I get any.”
Of course, the idea of Braker having Pokemon was enough to make both Maria and Elijah even happier.
After the house tour was finished, the Braker family went straight to their son’s celebratory graduation lunch, where Braker’s parents shared the happy news with their parents. Braker’s grandparents were absolutely delighted by the news, and were quick to congratulate Braker, both on the graduation and on the new house.
Once the Braker family finished their lunch, they went back to Braker’s house for something a lot sadder, at least to them: saying goodbye to their son now that he was fully emancipated.
Of course, Braker had to remind his parents multiple times that they weren’t actually saying goodbye and that their houses were literally a few miles apart from each other. That being said, though, even he had to admit that this was hard for him. He’d lived with his parents for the longest time, and even though he was busy working most days, he’d still had some great memories with his parents– namely working on editions of The Braker Telegraph , which he took seriously, but his parents enjoyed reading. Once Maria and Elijah had hugged and kissed and cried multiple times over their son, they finally left the room to head back to their house.
“Good luck, Lenny~!” Maria cried. “Don’t forget to call us!”
“I won’t,” Braker responded. “You can rest assured of that.”
With that, Elijah and Maria waved at their son a few times, and he waved back, and the three of them stared at each other for a very long time until eventually Elijah shut the door.
And Braker was left alone.
Braker stood there for a good few moments after his parents had left the room, not knowing what to think or what to feel. He was feeling all sorts of emotions at the moment: happiness, sadness, pride, a bit of regret for not interacting much with his parents, immense satisfaction at the fact that everything he had been working towards was finally coming to fruition and that all that workaholism from his childhood hadn’t been for nothing.
Yet at the same time… he also had another feeling.
Namely… one of dissatisfaction .
Something, he felt, was missing in his life. What that thing was, he didn’t know yet, and it didn’t make any sense to him. He knew it couldn’t be Pokemon– he was getting one when he was ready to, and that wasn’t going to change anytime soon. Besides, he’d survived without one for this long; he could last a bit longer. Maybe it was something else.
He blinked, suddenly feeling something in his eyes, which he wiped away. As he looked closer, he realized, to his slight shock, that he was crying. Not that he had never cried before… but it certainly wasn’t something that happened often.
Maybe he just missed his parents?
…Yeah. That had to be it, he figured, nodding to himself. That was all it was; he just missed his parents. He’d get over it eventually.
He glanced over at his desk, shaking his head and wiping his tears away as best he could.
“Who am I kidding,” he said to himself. “I have work to do; acceptance essays to write. I can’t just be standing here missing my parents and grappling with my feelings; that can wait until afterwards.”
He glanced over at the numerous papers that were on his desk, as well as the computer that was on it. Wasting little time, he got onto his computer, headed straight to Goodrle, and typed in:
journalism school acceptance applications
—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next few days– the next week – was nothing but a total workload for Braker. Over the course of the next week, he wrote essay after essay and applied for practically every single journalism school that he could think of, in the hopes of him eventually getting accepted. He wrote out every single essay on a piece of paper first, revising it and revising it, until he thought it looked good enough for him to send– and then he sent it.
And sent another.
And another.
And another.
By the end of the week, Braker had sent out applications to 30 journalism schools across the Pokemon world– and the only one he hadn’t tackled yet was the PEFE School of Journalism.
That was about to change.
—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
05/23/19
PEFE School of Journalism (PEFE University) Application Form
Full Student Name: Leonard Kennedy Braker
Preferred Name: Braker
Date of Birth: 19/8/98
Sex: M
Gender Identity: Gay
Preferred phone number: +44 020 5555 5555
Preferred email address: programusinterruptuslb@goomail.com
Permanent home address: 45 North Road, Wyndon, Galar, N64 4FY
Citizenship status: Galarian
Language proficiency:
Galarian
Monese
Kyrellik
Demographic Information: Afro-Galarian; Unovan grandfather
Family:
Parent 1: Mother
Is Parent 1 living?: Yes
Parent 1 full name: Maria Elizabeth Braker
Parent 1 former name, if any: neé McCullough
Birthplace of Parent 1: Crown Tundra
Parent 1 preferred contact method: Phone
Parent 1 preferred phone number: +44 020 1234 5678
Parent 1 occupation: Cartoonist (retired)
Parent 1 college attended: None
Parent 2: Father
Is Parent 2 living?: Yes
Parent 2 full name: Elijah Donald Braker
Parent 2 former name, if any: None
Birthplace of Parent 2: Wyndon
Parent 2 preferred contact method: Phone
Parent 2 preferred phone number: +44 020 8765 4321
Parent 2 occupation: Carpenter
Parent 2 college attended: Wyndon University
Education:
Secondary/high school: Wyndon High School
College: Wyndon College
Degree Achieved: BA
Cumulative GPA: 3.488
Writing: Personal Essay
Please choose from one of the following categories.
- Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
- The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
- Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
- Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?
- Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
- Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
- Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you've already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.
Response (Question 2):
I don’t consider myself to be a failure, by any stretch of the imagination. As a matter of fact, I’m quite possibly the hardest-working member of my family, which is saying a lot considering how hard my parents and especially my grandfather have worked for many years. I’m very proud of the work I’ve done, both at home and at school, and I have always done my absolute best every single year.
That being said, however, as you may have noticed, there’s a reason I don’t have a 4.0 cumulative GPA.
The story begins in 2018, towards the end of my junior year of college. At that time, I was taking a Kyrellik class, which I was– for the most part, anyways– doing fairly respectably in. I had a B at that time, which of course wasn’t good enough for me, though my parents were more than happy with it. The main problem was my pronunciation. I did all of my assignments and got fairly good scores on my vocabulary tests, but reading tests weren’t my strong suit. I am not a linguist. I couldn’t pronounce some of the harder sounds in Kyrellik, namely the Q, the H, and especially that tricky double LL, widely regarded as one of the most difficult sounds in Kyrellik, and as such was docked plenty of points for my reading tests by my teacher. My Kyrellik teacher was very nice, and treated me well, yet as the semester went on I could tell she was decidedly starting to get frustrated with the other members of her class, who were– from what I could tell– very much decidedly unstudious. Still, though, she never actually snapped at any of us, and I couldn’t recall a day when she had gotten angry in her life.
That was, until May 10th, 2018.
That day, I entered my Kyrellik class to find Rancorpujin, the strict, severe Paldean Tauros CEO of the International Pokemon Phonetics Association, or IPPA, standing in front of all of us. I was rather intimidated, but even so, figured that he was just there as a guest speaker: that was what our Kyrellik teacher had told us the day before, after all.
Unfortunately for me, I was wrong.
My teacher, as it turned out, had lost her patience, and had brought in Rancorpujin to settle things. He told us all that he was giving us a pronunciation and vocabulary test, and that whoever failed would be asked to leave and would end up failing the whole class. This greatly unnerved me, but I naively told myself that the test would be mostly vocabulary based as opposed to pronunciation.
Unfortunately for me, I was also wrong.
It was mostly pronunciation, and by the end of it, I was one of all but 4 students who ended up failing their Kyrellik class.
Logging on to the computer a few days later and seeing a massive “F” next to Kyrellik shook me to my absolute core. Prior to this, I’d gotten an A in every single class. I’d never failed a class before– much less a linguistic one– and my heart practically sank to the bottom of my chest seeing that I had. What on Earth was I going to tell my parents? How was I going to fare for the rest of the summer? I’d been slacking off a bit on my Kyrellik work due to all the other work I had to do taking up my time, especially after the excitement of seeing some Trainer with a gray shirt and red headphones whose name I never got going through the entire Sinnoh League. This was solely on me, I realized. If I was going to be a better student and be able to graduate next year, I needed to study and study hard .
Reluctantly, I called my parents that day to tell them I had failed my Kyrellik class. To my slight shock, they weren’t nearly as disappointed as I’d figured they’d be. I explained to them what happened and why I had failed, and if anything they were more upset with the teacher and especially the IPPA and Rancorpujin for it. My father explicitly told me over the phone that he was going to sue the IPPA and Wyndon University for it, which I thought was a bit much.
I, of course, didn’t see it like that.
Rancorpujin, for all of his intimidating harshness, taught me something very important that day: you can’t let anything distract you from doing what needs to get done. Not other work, not battles on the television: nothing is more important than the work you’re doing right now. I studied Kyrellik like crazy during the summer break, focusing especially on pronunciation, and it paid off: I got an A that semester, graduated, and am now sending you this college application form right now.
Of course, even if I hadn’t failed Kyrellik, I would still probably be applying for this school. But if that failure in Kyrellik hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have learned what I know now: nothing is more important in your life than the work you’re doing right now. You can’t be focused on other things. You can’t be focused on all the other work you have to do. That can wait until you’ve done what you’re done right now. Nothing is more important than work, and nothing is more important than present work.
I hope to bring that ethic to your school of journalism should you choose to accept me.
Legal and Financial Information: Lorun ipsum blah blah blah tuition stuff blah blah blah here are the fees you must pay blah blah blah you are responsible for any accidents blah blah blah I the undersigned agree to all of this.
– Leonard K. Braker
Send application?
> Yes
Your application has been sent. You should hear back in 14-15 business days.
Last edited by Goldenheart388 on 2025-Apr-29 18:28, edited 1 time in total.
-
Goldenheart388
- Posts: 17
- Joined: 2021-Jun-26 21:16
Re: THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
BRAKER TIMELINE
ARC 1
CHAPTER 4
06/06/2019, Wyndon– Braker’s House
It had been 2 weeks– 14 whole business days– since Braker had sent in his application to PEFE University’s School of Journalism. In that time, he’d been thinking about what he wanted to do now that he was fully emancipated from his parents. His first thought was ending The Braker Telegraph , since now that he was emancipated the neighbors didn’t need to hear about the stories of his family anymore. Instead, he had a different idea for how to get the news out to people.
Livestreaming was becoming a thing, so… why not go onto a streaming site, or onto UTurn, and broadcast there?
Of course, though, it wasn’t going to be that easy, Braker thought to himself as he sat in his desk chair in his room. There were still plenty of work-related things that he had to do– namely, he first had to get an education in journalism, see if he could find an audience, and then he had to find a way to format his content in such a way that it would get out to a mainstream audience. Of course, though, there was no better way to get an education in journalism than to see if anybody had accepted him.
Which, he figured, he might as well do right now.
His heart pounding, Braker got onto his computer and logged on to his email address, eagerly waiting to see if anybody responded to him. He actually knew a few of the universities he had sent applications to had – and they had all rejected him. Still, though, he didn’t mind too much– none of those universities were PEFE, which was the main one that he was hoping for.
He checked his inbox, and instantly his heart rose when he saw a notification with the email address:
PEFEU@goomail.com
To make things even more exciting, the subject read “Application Response.”
Braker’s heart started pounding even harder now. This was it. His dream university had sent him an application response, and he was about to find out if he had to go on a plane to the Sevii Islands.
He clicked on the email, opened it up, read it over, and–
…Oh.
Dear Leonard Braker,
Thank you so much for your application to be accepted into our college’s School of Journalism. Unfortunately, however, we regret to inform you that you have been rejected. Your essay was incredibly compelling, but unfortunately your GPA did not meet our standards for being accepted into our college. Still, we hope that you will come and visit us one day.
Sincerely,
PEFE University Staff
Braker sat there for a good few minutes in silence, disappointment and sadness welling up inside him.
He hadn’t been accepted after all.
He wasn’t going to his dream university.
It didn’t make any sense to him. Sure, he had failed one Kyrellik class, but that was it! He had a 3.4 GPA! He had graduated cum laude from Wyndon! There was no way that PEFE University would reject him just on the basis of that alone!
He shook his head profusely, then opened up a new tab in his Goodrle. It didn’t make any sense. His hands shaking as he tried desperately to stop himself from breaking down, he typed in:
is PEFE university a selective college
Within seconds, a link to the PEFE University website came up, labeled “Admission Questions”. Braker stopped shaking a bit. Finally, he thought to himself, this would be the answer he needed. He clicked on the link and read through it, eventually coming to a section that read:
Q: How good of a GPA do I need to have to come here?
A: PEFE University is not selective with their students. So long as your application is good enough, we will accept you so long as your GPA is 3.0 or higher.
“I knew it,” Braker muttered to himself, his face turning grave.
So he did have a high enough GPA after all, and it was apparently the application that was the problem. He couldn’t think of where he might have gone wrong, though. He began to wonder for a few moments if he had made his college essay too impersonal, or not descriptive enough, or anything similarly to that, but then shook his head. No. That couldn’t be it. He’d seen people with– at least according to the standards of college essay websites, anyways– much worse personal essays make it into certain colleges. So, if that wasn’t the issue…
“...oh no ,” he suddenly said to himself, as the horrifying thought came to him.
He hadn’t even considered the possibility of it at the time, but now the idea felt so convincing to him as to be real. He had a very good feeling now. It wasn’t his grades that led to his rejection. It wasn’t his essay, either. No, it was something else entirely.
It was his sexuality .
He knew that PEFE itself had a ton of LGBTQ+ members, but he also knew that the people in charge of PEFE University were A) all white and B) all straight, and that in the past the university had come under fire for their anti-LGBTQ+ stances. It had to be the fact that he was gay. There was no other option he could possibly think of. Instantly, all of Braker’s sadness faded away, instantly replaced by a righteous anger. How? How could PEFE University reject him for something like that ?! Something he couldn’t possibly change?! It was horrible! The only thing he could do about this was get the news out there and speak out about this!...
…and yet he couldn’t. He didn’t have the training. He didn’t have the formal education.
No journalism group was ever going to hire him for anything.
His anger faded away, replaced again by intense and immense sadness, and almost immediately he got up and sat on his bed.
“I… I can’t ,” he muttered. “I want to do something… but if the most respected journalism school in the entire Pokemon world doesn’t want me… then…”
He was so devastated he felt tears coming to his eyes again. He knew very well that he had to call his parents and tell them the bad news, and that there was no way that he was going to ever be an effective journalist. Saddened, he pulled out his phone and dialed his father’s number, then waited while it rang.
Ring…
Ring…
Ring…
Ri–
“ Hello? ” Elijah’s voice asked from the other end of the line.
“Hi, Dad,” said Braker sadly.
There was a pause on the other end of the line.
“ Woah… uh… y’alright, Len?” asked Elijah, immediately noticing his son’s devastation. “ You sound upset. ”
“I got the letter back from PEFE University that I told you about,” said Braker. “And… well… they rejected me.”
“ Aw, that’s awful, ” said Elijah. “ Sorry to hear that. Did you at least get accepted by the other schools you applied to? ”
“No,” said Braker.
“ Oh, ” said Elijah.
“They said that the reason why was because of my grades, but I don’t believe that for a second,” said Braker. “I looked online, and their website says that so long as you have above a 3.0 GPA and so long as your essay is good enough, they’ll accept you.”
“ Hm, ” said Elijah. “ Maybe your essay was the issue? ”
“No, I don’t think that was it, either,” said Braker.
“ Well, then, what do you think it was? ” asked Elijah.
“My sexuality,” said Braker.
There was silence on the other end of the line.
“...Hello?” asked Braker.
More silence, and then eventually:
“ ...who the bloody ‘ell do they think they a– I’m going to sue them, too, ” said Elijah, his voice trembling with rage. “ I’m going to sue the ‘ell out of them and make them wish that they ‘ad never reje– ”
“I… don’t think that’s worth it, Dad,” said Braker suddenly. “I don’t want you to lose any money, and besides, this is PEFE we’re talking about. They’d probably beat you within seconds.”
“ That doesn’t matter! ” Elijah protested. “ They shouldn’t reject you just because of your sexuality! ”
“Yeah, but what am I supposed to do about that?” asked Braker sadly. “You can’t change people’s minds. If PEFE University doesn’t want me, then I don’t think any journalist or journalism organization is going to want me either.”
“ Oh, don’t say that, ” said Elijah. “ There could still be a chance that someone out there hires you. ”
“...No,” said Braker sadly. “No, I don’t think there is.”
“ What about CNN?” asked Elijah.
“That’s the exception that proves the rule.”
There was once again silence on the other end of the line.
“...I’m going to go,” said Braker. “Thanks for trying to lift me up, but I really don’t think anyone’s going to hire me for anything. Journalism is a competitive business; that’s just the truth.” He sighed. “Bye.”
Before Elijah could say anything else, Braker hung up from the phone and put it down. Subsequently heartbroken, he shut his computer down, sat on his bed, and cried.
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From that day on, Leonard Braker fell into a deep and inconsolable depression.
Braker had practically given up on any intention of being a journalist and doing anything even remotely related to journalism, and he definitely wasn’t given any confidence by what was going on now. Everywhere he looked, he saw a ton of news related to absolutely terrible things and people: people were dying at young ages; natural disasters were practically everywhere, and perhaps worst of all, there was still the Second Skybreak, and all of its natural consequences. From what he’d read, it’d been caused by an evil team of Pokemon from Feluv known as Team Folklore, though one of its members, a Hydreigon named Trapper, had no involvement in it. It had apparently broken the multiverse, causing people to fall through Ultra Space and/or get transported directly to the Kyrell Archipelago– and the last thing Braker wanted was for people to get trapped, neither in Ultra Space nor as a Pokemon. Worse yet, Braker was reminded of it every single day whenever he went outside– up above him was a crack in the sky that he figured would suck him in at any moment.
So for practically an entire year, Braker, downtrodden by everything going on in the world, stopped going outside, or doing anything related to the news at all.
His confidence completely shaken, he stopped searching for journalism jobs, and instead tried to look for anything he could do online. Every time, though, he was disappointed whenever he found nothing. He still called his parents every day, and both Elijah and Maria were shaken by Braker’s depressive state. They tried to cheer him up by mentioning various things they had done, such as going to a Weird Al concert– but when they revealed that he’d been sucked through the skybreak and woke up in the Kyrellik Archipelago’s Grass Continent Irforki as a Dracovish, all of Braker’s spirits were lost. Nothing his parents did made Braker feel any better, nor did anything, really.
The one thing that would have even remotely come close was a single headline, on January 8th, 2020:
WILLIAM GISNEP, GISNEP CORPORATION DEFEAT FANATIC; CLOSE MULTIVERSE RIFTS; SKYBREAK OVER
…but Braker didn’t see that headline, he was so depressed.
Eventually, however, after a long time, Braker finally had accepted the fact that nobody was ever going to hire him, and decided to go outside for the first time.
He left his house and headed straight to the Wild Area on a Flying Taxi, not taking any notice of the fact that the sky above him had been repaired.
That was in May 2020.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
05/13/2020, Near Motostoke– The Wild Area
Leonard Braker was sitting in the Wild Area, looking out miserably at the Pokemon that were near him. Once again, he never stopped to take any notice of the fact that the Skybreak had been repaired, or the fact that Trainers around him were dropping Gisnep’s name left and right– all he could think about were all his shattered dreams.
He never imagined in a million years that anyone could possibly serve to restore his confidence.
Meanwhile.
On the other side of the Wild Area, a Wobbuffet and a Galvantula were walking side by side and glancing up at the sky, with both of them having very different reactions to the event. The former looked almost too serious regarding the whole thing, though of course, given that he– and it was a he, for the lack of lipstick– was a Wobbuffet, it was only natural for him to look as he did. He had on square glasses and merely took a few cursory glances at the sky, mostly looking over at his arachnid companion. Said Galvantula, meanwhile, looked absolutely delighted– and also very, very fluffy and soft, softer than probably any other Galvantula known to mankind. He turned to face the Wobbuffet, practically boiling over with joy.
<Oh, thank the stars!> he said. <Isn’t this amazing?! Nothing strange or freaky has happened for months now, and it’s all because of Gisnep! Oh, he’s such a good Pokemon! Why, if I were to meet him, I’d thank him personally, and then give him the biggest, floofiest hug in the world!>
The Wobbuffet sighed.
<Cuddles,> he said, <you do remember you liked all the strange and freaky things that happened as a result of the Entralink skybreak, correct?>
The Galvantula– Cuddles– paused.
<...oh, right,> he said. <I did like a lot of the sillier things that happened, didn’t I?>
He giggled to himself a bit.
<Still, though,> he said. <I’m just happy that nobody really got hurt, and that everything’s back to normal again.>
<Yes,> said the Wobbuffet. <I’m especially happy with that– I didn’t like seeing things that were simultaneously true and untrue at the same time.>
Cuddles tilted his head.
<True and untrue?> he asked. <What do you mean by that, Walter?>
<As in, both physically real, and yet at the same time unrealistic,> the Wobbuffet responded. <Your concern was that no one got hurt; my concern was normalcy. We are very much not the same.>
<Oh,> said Cuddles.
He paused suddenly, then looked up at Walter with big sad puppy-dog eyes.
<...is that a bad thing?> he asked. <That’s not a bad thing, is it?>
Walter laughed a bit.
<Oh, no, Cuddles, you don’t have to worry about that,> Walter said patiently. <No, it’s not a bad thing at all. Both of us are different; both of us have different concerns; yet both of our concerns are valid to an extent. The Skybreak was an absolutely traumatizing event for many people, and in that regard, it is good to be concerned about other people getting hurt.>
<Oh!> said Cuddles, brightening pretty quickly. <Well, thank goodness for that!>
<Yes,> agreed Walter, <thank goodness for that indeed.>
The two of them continued walking along, before Cuddles suddenly noticed something out of the corner of one of his Compound Eyes.
<…Hey, Walter?> Cuddles suddenly asked.
<Yes?> Walter asked.
<I-if nobody got hurt,> Cuddles continued, pointing over to a nearby tree with a sad expression on his face, <then… what’s that person doing over there? He looks sad…>
Walter tilted his head and turned to face in the direction of where Cuddles was pointing with his pedipalp, and while it wasn’t visible on his face, what he saw concerned him greatly.
Sitting down in front of a tree was a young, early-20 something Afro-Galarian man… and he looked absolutely miserable.
Walter glanced over at the man, who didn’t appear to have any Pokémon.
<I’m not sure,> he said.
<D-do you think he might have been hurt?> Cuddles asked, his voice trembling with concern.
<…He doesn’t look hurt,> Walter said, taking another look at the man.
<Well, do you think he might be sick, then…?> asked Cuddles. <Clearly something happened to him…>
<I don’t think it’s that, either,> said Walter. <At any rate, I think he’s just… sad, for some reason.>
<Should we help him?> Cuddles asked.
<I don’t know,> said Walter. <He might have some personal problems that he doesn’t want to get in to.>
Cuddles paused for a few moments, as if considering Walter’s words, before gaining a determined expression on his face.
<…Well, I already told myself I wasn’t leaving anybody behind again!> he declared. <I’m going to go help him!>
With that, he went off in the direction of the Afro-Galarian man, leaving Walter behind. Walter blinked for a few moments, looking after Cuddles, before raising his hand up.
<…alright, then,> he said. <If that’s what you want to do, I’m not going to stop you.>
He was about to head off on his way before he stopped to take another look at the man. Now that he thought about it… the man did look miserable, for whatever reason. He had always told himself to stay as far removed as possible from other’s situations, and not try to pry into things without their express permission. That’s how the great news anchors conducted themselves, after all. And yet, at the same time… it didn’t feel right to him to not help this man. He looked too miserable to not have had anything happen to him.
Perhaps there was a story here, after all.
<…on second thought, actually…> he muttered to himself for a bit, before eventually nodding as he came to a decision.
His mind made up, he followed Cuddles as he approached the man sitting by the tree.
BRAKER TIMELINE
ARC 1
CHAPTER 4
06/06/2019, Wyndon– Braker’s House
It had been 2 weeks– 14 whole business days– since Braker had sent in his application to PEFE University’s School of Journalism. In that time, he’d been thinking about what he wanted to do now that he was fully emancipated from his parents. His first thought was ending The Braker Telegraph , since now that he was emancipated the neighbors didn’t need to hear about the stories of his family anymore. Instead, he had a different idea for how to get the news out to people.
Livestreaming was becoming a thing, so… why not go onto a streaming site, or onto UTurn, and broadcast there?
Of course, though, it wasn’t going to be that easy, Braker thought to himself as he sat in his desk chair in his room. There were still plenty of work-related things that he had to do– namely, he first had to get an education in journalism, see if he could find an audience, and then he had to find a way to format his content in such a way that it would get out to a mainstream audience. Of course, though, there was no better way to get an education in journalism than to see if anybody had accepted him.
Which, he figured, he might as well do right now.
His heart pounding, Braker got onto his computer and logged on to his email address, eagerly waiting to see if anybody responded to him. He actually knew a few of the universities he had sent applications to had – and they had all rejected him. Still, though, he didn’t mind too much– none of those universities were PEFE, which was the main one that he was hoping for.
He checked his inbox, and instantly his heart rose when he saw a notification with the email address:
PEFEU@goomail.com
To make things even more exciting, the subject read “Application Response.”
Braker’s heart started pounding even harder now. This was it. His dream university had sent him an application response, and he was about to find out if he had to go on a plane to the Sevii Islands.
He clicked on the email, opened it up, read it over, and–
…Oh.
Dear Leonard Braker,
Thank you so much for your application to be accepted into our college’s School of Journalism. Unfortunately, however, we regret to inform you that you have been rejected. Your essay was incredibly compelling, but unfortunately your GPA did not meet our standards for being accepted into our college. Still, we hope that you will come and visit us one day.
Sincerely,
PEFE University Staff
Braker sat there for a good few minutes in silence, disappointment and sadness welling up inside him.
He hadn’t been accepted after all.
He wasn’t going to his dream university.
It didn’t make any sense to him. Sure, he had failed one Kyrellik class, but that was it! He had a 3.4 GPA! He had graduated cum laude from Wyndon! There was no way that PEFE University would reject him just on the basis of that alone!
He shook his head profusely, then opened up a new tab in his Goodrle. It didn’t make any sense. His hands shaking as he tried desperately to stop himself from breaking down, he typed in:
is PEFE university a selective college
Within seconds, a link to the PEFE University website came up, labeled “Admission Questions”. Braker stopped shaking a bit. Finally, he thought to himself, this would be the answer he needed. He clicked on the link and read through it, eventually coming to a section that read:
Q: How good of a GPA do I need to have to come here?
A: PEFE University is not selective with their students. So long as your application is good enough, we will accept you so long as your GPA is 3.0 or higher.
“I knew it,” Braker muttered to himself, his face turning grave.
So he did have a high enough GPA after all, and it was apparently the application that was the problem. He couldn’t think of where he might have gone wrong, though. He began to wonder for a few moments if he had made his college essay too impersonal, or not descriptive enough, or anything similarly to that, but then shook his head. No. That couldn’t be it. He’d seen people with– at least according to the standards of college essay websites, anyways– much worse personal essays make it into certain colleges. So, if that wasn’t the issue…
“...oh no ,” he suddenly said to himself, as the horrifying thought came to him.
He hadn’t even considered the possibility of it at the time, but now the idea felt so convincing to him as to be real. He had a very good feeling now. It wasn’t his grades that led to his rejection. It wasn’t his essay, either. No, it was something else entirely.
It was his sexuality .
He knew that PEFE itself had a ton of LGBTQ+ members, but he also knew that the people in charge of PEFE University were A) all white and B) all straight, and that in the past the university had come under fire for their anti-LGBTQ+ stances. It had to be the fact that he was gay. There was no other option he could possibly think of. Instantly, all of Braker’s sadness faded away, instantly replaced by a righteous anger. How? How could PEFE University reject him for something like that ?! Something he couldn’t possibly change?! It was horrible! The only thing he could do about this was get the news out there and speak out about this!...
…and yet he couldn’t. He didn’t have the training. He didn’t have the formal education.
No journalism group was ever going to hire him for anything.
His anger faded away, replaced again by intense and immense sadness, and almost immediately he got up and sat on his bed.
“I… I can’t ,” he muttered. “I want to do something… but if the most respected journalism school in the entire Pokemon world doesn’t want me… then…”
He was so devastated he felt tears coming to his eyes again. He knew very well that he had to call his parents and tell them the bad news, and that there was no way that he was going to ever be an effective journalist. Saddened, he pulled out his phone and dialed his father’s number, then waited while it rang.
Ring…
Ring…
Ring…
Ri–
“ Hello? ” Elijah’s voice asked from the other end of the line.
“Hi, Dad,” said Braker sadly.
There was a pause on the other end of the line.
“ Woah… uh… y’alright, Len?” asked Elijah, immediately noticing his son’s devastation. “ You sound upset. ”
“I got the letter back from PEFE University that I told you about,” said Braker. “And… well… they rejected me.”
“ Aw, that’s awful, ” said Elijah. “ Sorry to hear that. Did you at least get accepted by the other schools you applied to? ”
“No,” said Braker.
“ Oh, ” said Elijah.
“They said that the reason why was because of my grades, but I don’t believe that for a second,” said Braker. “I looked online, and their website says that so long as you have above a 3.0 GPA and so long as your essay is good enough, they’ll accept you.”
“ Hm, ” said Elijah. “ Maybe your essay was the issue? ”
“No, I don’t think that was it, either,” said Braker.
“ Well, then, what do you think it was? ” asked Elijah.
“My sexuality,” said Braker.
There was silence on the other end of the line.
“...Hello?” asked Braker.
More silence, and then eventually:
“ ...who the bloody ‘ell do they think they a– I’m going to sue them, too, ” said Elijah, his voice trembling with rage. “ I’m going to sue the ‘ell out of them and make them wish that they ‘ad never reje– ”
“I… don’t think that’s worth it, Dad,” said Braker suddenly. “I don’t want you to lose any money, and besides, this is PEFE we’re talking about. They’d probably beat you within seconds.”
“ That doesn’t matter! ” Elijah protested. “ They shouldn’t reject you just because of your sexuality! ”
“Yeah, but what am I supposed to do about that?” asked Braker sadly. “You can’t change people’s minds. If PEFE University doesn’t want me, then I don’t think any journalist or journalism organization is going to want me either.”
“ Oh, don’t say that, ” said Elijah. “ There could still be a chance that someone out there hires you. ”
“...No,” said Braker sadly. “No, I don’t think there is.”
“ What about CNN?” asked Elijah.
“That’s the exception that proves the rule.”
There was once again silence on the other end of the line.
“...I’m going to go,” said Braker. “Thanks for trying to lift me up, but I really don’t think anyone’s going to hire me for anything. Journalism is a competitive business; that’s just the truth.” He sighed. “Bye.”
Before Elijah could say anything else, Braker hung up from the phone and put it down. Subsequently heartbroken, he shut his computer down, sat on his bed, and cried.
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From that day on, Leonard Braker fell into a deep and inconsolable depression.
Braker had practically given up on any intention of being a journalist and doing anything even remotely related to journalism, and he definitely wasn’t given any confidence by what was going on now. Everywhere he looked, he saw a ton of news related to absolutely terrible things and people: people were dying at young ages; natural disasters were practically everywhere, and perhaps worst of all, there was still the Second Skybreak, and all of its natural consequences. From what he’d read, it’d been caused by an evil team of Pokemon from Feluv known as Team Folklore, though one of its members, a Hydreigon named Trapper, had no involvement in it. It had apparently broken the multiverse, causing people to fall through Ultra Space and/or get transported directly to the Kyrell Archipelago– and the last thing Braker wanted was for people to get trapped, neither in Ultra Space nor as a Pokemon. Worse yet, Braker was reminded of it every single day whenever he went outside– up above him was a crack in the sky that he figured would suck him in at any moment.
So for practically an entire year, Braker, downtrodden by everything going on in the world, stopped going outside, or doing anything related to the news at all.
His confidence completely shaken, he stopped searching for journalism jobs, and instead tried to look for anything he could do online. Every time, though, he was disappointed whenever he found nothing. He still called his parents every day, and both Elijah and Maria were shaken by Braker’s depressive state. They tried to cheer him up by mentioning various things they had done, such as going to a Weird Al concert– but when they revealed that he’d been sucked through the skybreak and woke up in the Kyrellik Archipelago’s Grass Continent Irforki as a Dracovish, all of Braker’s spirits were lost. Nothing his parents did made Braker feel any better, nor did anything, really.
The one thing that would have even remotely come close was a single headline, on January 8th, 2020:
WILLIAM GISNEP, GISNEP CORPORATION DEFEAT FANATIC; CLOSE MULTIVERSE RIFTS; SKYBREAK OVER
…but Braker didn’t see that headline, he was so depressed.
Eventually, however, after a long time, Braker finally had accepted the fact that nobody was ever going to hire him, and decided to go outside for the first time.
He left his house and headed straight to the Wild Area on a Flying Taxi, not taking any notice of the fact that the sky above him had been repaired.
That was in May 2020.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
05/13/2020, Near Motostoke– The Wild Area
Leonard Braker was sitting in the Wild Area, looking out miserably at the Pokemon that were near him. Once again, he never stopped to take any notice of the fact that the Skybreak had been repaired, or the fact that Trainers around him were dropping Gisnep’s name left and right– all he could think about were all his shattered dreams.
He never imagined in a million years that anyone could possibly serve to restore his confidence.
Meanwhile.
On the other side of the Wild Area, a Wobbuffet and a Galvantula were walking side by side and glancing up at the sky, with both of them having very different reactions to the event. The former looked almost too serious regarding the whole thing, though of course, given that he– and it was a he, for the lack of lipstick– was a Wobbuffet, it was only natural for him to look as he did. He had on square glasses and merely took a few cursory glances at the sky, mostly looking over at his arachnid companion. Said Galvantula, meanwhile, looked absolutely delighted– and also very, very fluffy and soft, softer than probably any other Galvantula known to mankind. He turned to face the Wobbuffet, practically boiling over with joy.
<Oh, thank the stars!> he said. <Isn’t this amazing?! Nothing strange or freaky has happened for months now, and it’s all because of Gisnep! Oh, he’s such a good Pokemon! Why, if I were to meet him, I’d thank him personally, and then give him the biggest, floofiest hug in the world!>
The Wobbuffet sighed.
<Cuddles,> he said, <you do remember you liked all the strange and freaky things that happened as a result of the Entralink skybreak, correct?>
The Galvantula– Cuddles– paused.
<...oh, right,> he said. <I did like a lot of the sillier things that happened, didn’t I?>
He giggled to himself a bit.
<Still, though,> he said. <I’m just happy that nobody really got hurt, and that everything’s back to normal again.>
<Yes,> said the Wobbuffet. <I’m especially happy with that– I didn’t like seeing things that were simultaneously true and untrue at the same time.>
Cuddles tilted his head.
<True and untrue?> he asked. <What do you mean by that, Walter?>
<As in, both physically real, and yet at the same time unrealistic,> the Wobbuffet responded. <Your concern was that no one got hurt; my concern was normalcy. We are very much not the same.>
<Oh,> said Cuddles.
He paused suddenly, then looked up at Walter with big sad puppy-dog eyes.
<...is that a bad thing?> he asked. <That’s not a bad thing, is it?>
Walter laughed a bit.
<Oh, no, Cuddles, you don’t have to worry about that,> Walter said patiently. <No, it’s not a bad thing at all. Both of us are different; both of us have different concerns; yet both of our concerns are valid to an extent. The Skybreak was an absolutely traumatizing event for many people, and in that regard, it is good to be concerned about other people getting hurt.>
<Oh!> said Cuddles, brightening pretty quickly. <Well, thank goodness for that!>
<Yes,> agreed Walter, <thank goodness for that indeed.>
The two of them continued walking along, before Cuddles suddenly noticed something out of the corner of one of his Compound Eyes.
<…Hey, Walter?> Cuddles suddenly asked.
<Yes?> Walter asked.
<I-if nobody got hurt,> Cuddles continued, pointing over to a nearby tree with a sad expression on his face, <then… what’s that person doing over there? He looks sad…>
Walter tilted his head and turned to face in the direction of where Cuddles was pointing with his pedipalp, and while it wasn’t visible on his face, what he saw concerned him greatly.
Sitting down in front of a tree was a young, early-20 something Afro-Galarian man… and he looked absolutely miserable.
Walter glanced over at the man, who didn’t appear to have any Pokémon.
<I’m not sure,> he said.
<D-do you think he might have been hurt?> Cuddles asked, his voice trembling with concern.
<…He doesn’t look hurt,> Walter said, taking another look at the man.
<Well, do you think he might be sick, then…?> asked Cuddles. <Clearly something happened to him…>
<I don’t think it’s that, either,> said Walter. <At any rate, I think he’s just… sad, for some reason.>
<Should we help him?> Cuddles asked.
<I don’t know,> said Walter. <He might have some personal problems that he doesn’t want to get in to.>
Cuddles paused for a few moments, as if considering Walter’s words, before gaining a determined expression on his face.
<…Well, I already told myself I wasn’t leaving anybody behind again!> he declared. <I’m going to go help him!>
With that, he went off in the direction of the Afro-Galarian man, leaving Walter behind. Walter blinked for a few moments, looking after Cuddles, before raising his hand up.
<…alright, then,> he said. <If that’s what you want to do, I’m not going to stop you.>
He was about to head off on his way before he stopped to take another look at the man. Now that he thought about it… the man did look miserable, for whatever reason. He had always told himself to stay as far removed as possible from other’s situations, and not try to pry into things without their express permission. That’s how the great news anchors conducted themselves, after all. And yet, at the same time… it didn’t feel right to him to not help this man. He looked too miserable to not have had anything happen to him.
Perhaps there was a story here, after all.
<…on second thought, actually…> he muttered to himself for a bit, before eventually nodding as he came to a decision.
His mind made up, he followed Cuddles as he approached the man sitting by the tree.
Last edited by Goldenheart388 on 2025-Apr-29 18:28, edited 1 time in total.
-
Goldenheart388
- Posts: 17
- Joined: 2021-Jun-26 21:16
Re: THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
BRAKER TIMELINE
ARC 1
CHAPTER 5
Leonard Braker was still sitting down by the tree in the Wild Area, looking absolutely miserable, and not really saying much of anything. He had no idea what to think anymore, or what to believe in, or whether or not he truly was going to ever become a journalist. To him, everything seemed far too bleak for him to keep going. On the other hand, though, he was at the very least very happy that he had gotten outside; surely this would be a better fit for his mental health than staying inside his house the whole time. He took a few deep breaths, and while it did make him feel a bit better… in the end, it didn’t really accomplish much of anything, really.
He looked away for a few moments, opting to focus on the scenery for now, when all of a sudden:
<Excuse me?>
Braker stopped upon hearing a high-pitched, innocent-sounding, childlike voice coming from near him, though of course to any random person it would sound like a bunch of cheetah-like squeaks and chirps. He turned back in its direction, expecting to see some poor, innocent child, but instead saw only a Galvantula, looking up at him with big, sweet puppy-dog eyes and what looked to be incredibly soft and fluffy… hair? Fur? What exactly was it that a Galvantula had, anyway?
Well, at any rate, whatever it was, it certainly looked fluffy.
The Galvantula blinked and tilted their head.
<Are you alright, mister?> he asked– for it was a male, as evident by the voice. <You looked really sad over there, so I wanted to see if I could come and help!>
Immediately, Braker found himself smiling despite his incredible sadness at the moment.
“Well, thank you,” he said. “That’s… rather kind of you, actually.”
<Awww, you’re welcome, mister!> said the Galvantula.
“But yes, I am sad,” said Braker, sighing afterwards. “As a matter of fact, I don’t really feel anything but sadness right now.”
Immediately, the Galvantula’s eyes widened in horror.
<Oh no!> he said. <W-what happened? Are you okay?>
Before Braker had a chance to respond, he noticed a male Wobbuffet wearing glasses coming up in his direction, following the Galvantula and seeming to have concern for Braker’s state of mind as well. Clearly, Braker figured, these two mons had noticed Braker in his upset state and had come over to help. The Wobbuffet glanced down at the Galvantula for a few moments.
<Cuddles?> the Wobbuffet asked. <What’s going on?>
Instantly, the Galvantula– whose name, apparently, was Cuddles– turned to face the Wobbuffet. Upon seeing him there, Cuddles brightened immediately.
<Walter!> he said. <Thank goodness; you decided to come and help after all! This man over here is quite sad for some reason; I don’t know what’s going on…>
<I see,> said Walter. <Well, then, in that regard, I suppose it’s a very good thing I came over.> He turned to face Braker. <What exactly is the issue here, young man?>
“Well,” said Braker, “I… I tried to apply for the PEFE University School of Journalism about a year or so ago after I graduated from college, and… I didn’t get in.”
Upon hearing that, Cuddles covered his mouth with his pedipalps in shock. Walter, meanwhile, merely adjusted his glasses.
<Oh no…!> Cuddles gasped.
<A shame,> said Walter. <At any rate, I suppose you could theoretically try again next year.>
“I could ,” Braker admitted, “but why bother, really? If PEFE University, the biggest school in the entire Pokemon world doesn’t want me as a student, and all because of my sexuality at that, then why even bother with becoming a journalist in the first place? Besides, the world is just getting worse and worse, every single day, and nothing anyone ever does is going to cha–”
<Hold on a second,> Walter suddenly broke in. <Am I hearing this correctly? You were rejected because of your sexuality?>
“Well… that wasn’t what they said in the letter they sent me,” said Braker. “The letter told me that I was rejected because my grades weren’t good enough, but I looked up how high your GPA has to be for PEFE to accept you, and they said they accept any GPA higher than 3.0.”
<And your GPA was…?>
“3.4,” said Braker.
<...I see,> said Walter. <Well, then. They’re clearly fraudulent. That is something I won’t stand for in the least. I’d definitely report this, Mr…?>
“Braker,” said Braker. “Leonard Braker.”
<Braker,> repeated Walter. <Well, then. As I said before, this is absolutely something that needs to be reported. This has to go on the news immediately; I simply cannot accept fraudulence like this, and to reject you from attending on the basis of your sexuality… > He shook his head. <Simply unacceptable.>
“I know that,” said Braker. “My father said he wants to sue them.”
<He should,> said Walter.
Braker laughed a bit, the first time he’d done so in a while, before eventually sighing.
“Even so…” he said, “what on Earth am I to do? I had a dream of wanting to be a journalist, but now… if PEFE won’t hire me… then surely I doubt anyone else will…”
<W-what?!> cried Cuddles. <Y-you can’t give up! I’m sure someone’s going to hire you for journalism work someday!>
“It’s too late,” said Braker. “I already gave up a year ago.”
<D-do you need a hug?> asked Cuddles, coming forward. <O-or a cookie? Or anything else to–>
He was suddenly stopped by Walter raising an arm.
<I don’t think he needs those things right now, Cuddles,> said Walter.
<Oh,> said Cuddles sadly, putting his head down. <Sorry.>
Braker glanced at the downtrodden Galvantula for a few moments, not wanting to see the poor thing sad at all. He paused for a bit.
“Actually,” he said, “I could probably use a hug.”
Cuddles instantly brightened upon hearing this, and ran up to Braker in delight.
<Really?> he asked.
Braker nodded, and Cuddles became so excited he jumped up into the air.
<Yippee!> he said. <Huzzah~! Oh, thank you, Lenny~!>
Braker laughed again, and Cuddles ran right up to him and wrapped his legs and pedipalps around him in a giant hug.
“My mother calls m–” Braker began– only for him to suddenly stop.
He suddenly felt like he was being surrounded by a massive comforter on all sides, and the resultant hug felt so warm, soft, and relaxing that he barely wanted to let go. Hesitantly, he reached out to touch Cuddles’ fur, and was shocked by what he found– Cuddles’ fur was so soft and warm and fluffy that some part of him almost wondered if Cuddles wasn’t a real Galvantula, and was instead a plush toy. But no, he could feel him breathing. He was definitely real. Braker looked down and once again found himself staring at adorable Galvantula puppy dog eyes, giving him a head-tilt.
<What were you going to say?> Cuddles asked.
Braker, caught off-guard by the hug, didn’t respond initially– but eventually managed to say:
“...M-my mother calls me Lenny.”
Cuddles giggled. Braker’s heart melted almost immediately by how absolutely adorable it was.
<That’s so sweet!> he said.
“...a-anyways,” Braker began, “as I was saying before, I already gave up a– dear Arceus , your fur is soft! A-are all Galvantula this soft or…?”
<He’s far fluffier than average,> said Walter.
“I– I can tell!” Braker sputtered out. “This feels so nice I almost don’t want to let go!”
Walter smiled a bit. <He has that effect on most people.>
Eventually, after a long while, Braker finally pulled away, and glanced down at Cuddles in awe.
“...Cuddles, was it?” he said eventually.
<Yep!> said Cuddles.
“I… hoo !” Braker said, breathing a sigh of relief. “I can see why your name is Cuddles; dear Arceus! That felt really nice, thank you!”
<You’re welcome!> said Cuddles.
“But anyways,” said Braker. “As I was saying before, I’ve already given up on becoming a journalist. I gave up on that a year ago. The world is just too harsh and unforgiving for that kind of thing.”
Walter and Cuddles blinked.
<Well, that’s not true at all,> said Walter simply.
“...well, there’s been nothing but bad news everywhere I’ve looked,” said Braker.
<That’s not true, either,> said Cuddles. <There’s been a bunch of good news recently! You just haven’t seen it!>
<You never see it, unfortunately,> said Walter. <Practically all that the news wants us to see is bad things, because they’re far more newsworthy nowadays. It is very sad and unfortunate. I remember back in the old days when they would report on actual newsworthy events, many of which were good news events. Not anymore.>
“Exactly,” said Braker. “Nobody wants to see good news anymore.”
<No, that’s not true!> said Cuddles. <A lot of people want to see good news! Just because PEFE rejected you doesn’t mean you have to give up on being a journalist! In fact, I think you could be the person the world needs right now by reporting all the good news in the world!>
Braker stopped short for a few moments. He hadn’t thought of that.
“...really?” he asked.
<Really,> said Cuddles.
Braker paused, looking down at Cuddles and over at Walter in shock.
“I– I don’t know if I can do that,” he said, “where can I find–”
<Lenny?> Cuddles suddenly asked softly.
“...what?” Braker asked.
<Look at the sky,> said Cuddles, pointing directly up at it with a pedipalp.
Braker slowly followed Cuddles’ gaze, looking up at the sky above him for the first time in a long time. He blinked for a bit, not seeming to notice much of anything.
“...what is it?” he asked. “I don’t see anything.”
<Exactly,> said Cuddles.
Braker glanced at him, a bit confused– and all of a sudden his eyes widened and his heart raced with excitement as he slowly began to realize it.
“Wait a minute !” he said. “They– they closed the Skybreak!”
<Yes!> said Cuddles happily. <That’s what I wanted you to see!>
Braker looked over at Walter in absolute shock.
“How… how on Earth– when did this happen?!” he cried out.
<You didn’t see anything about this, did you?> asked Walter.
“N-no!” Braker said. “Not at all!”
<It happened in January 2020,> said Walter. <Only a few months ago. Gisnep and the Gisnep Corporation defeated this thing called the Fanatic and closed up the gaps in the sky.>
Braker stood there, mouth agape, looking up in awe at the now-closed sky he had failed to notice all those months ago in the midst of his depression. He looked over at Walter and Cuddles in utter disbelief.
“W-why– why on Earth didn’t I see anything about this?!” he asked. “This sounds like major breaking news!”
<It was ,> said Walter. <Just about every major news station posted about it, and it was all over Chatter and UTurn and other social media sites. The only problem was that people weren’t clicking on the good news stories, and if they did see it, they were mainly focused on the one bad aspect of it.>
“Which is…?” asked Braker.
<That the infighting between the members of the Gisnep Corporation led to the Fanatic’s summoning,> said Walter.
“Oh,” said Braker.
<Everybody on social media was sending death threats to executives of the Gisnep Corporation,> Cuddles added. <It was awful.>
“Death threats?!” cried Braker. “And for what?! Nobody deserves death threats for anything!”
<Precisely my point,> said Walter.
At once, Braker rose, incensed by the whole thing.
“T-this is huge !” Braker cried out. “This news is so good it deserves to be reported! Nobody should be sending Gisnep executives death threats! I can’t believe that nobody saw this!”
<Well, would you like to report it?> asked Walter.
“Y-yes!” Braker said. “Absolutely! If anyone’s going to report this news it’s going… to be… me…”
He suddenly trailed off, hit by a realization as he stared over at Walter and Cuddles in shock. After a few moments, he laughed in uproarious joy the likes of which he hadn’t felt since he had graduated high school.
“Well, what do you know!” he said happily. “I– I think I’ve got my confidence back!”
<Huzzah~!> Cuddles cried out.
<That,> said Walter, <is precisely what we wanted to achieve. I’m happy to hear it, Braker.>
Braker grinned.
“Oh, thank you!” he said. “Thank you two so much! I… I really needed that!”
<You’re welcome!> said Cuddles.
<Same here,> said Walter. <Well, then, in that regard, I suppose we should be on our way now. We’ve done what we came here to do.> He started off, motioning for Cuddles to follow him. <Farewell.>
Braker was about to say goodbye to them and see if he could go and record something about the good news of the Fanatic’s defeat– but all of a sudden he stopped.
He felt like he owed something to the two mons he’d just seen right now. They had, in more ways than one, helped to bolster his confidence back up: Walter by giving him the straight truth of the world and empathizing with Braker’s plights about the news, and Cuddles by showing Braker the sun that was hidden underneath all of the clouds. There was absolutely no way he could leave those two mons behind– especially poor Cuddles, who he didn’t want to see sad in the least!
He reached into his pocket and pulled out an OB-1 and two PokeBalls. He hadn’t used that OB-1 since the day he got it, since it had something he couldn’t yet use, and didn’t feel very comfortable using.
Now, however… now. Now he felt ready.
He clenched onto both of the PokeBalls and nodded, then stepped forward.
“Hold on!” he said.
Walter and Cuddles both turned to face Braker, who was walking towards them with a grateful smile on his face.
<Oh?> asked Walter.
<Is something the matter?> asked Cuddles.
“No… nothing’s the matter,” said Braker. “As a matter of fact, I think both of you really helped me today.”
He held up his two PokeBalls.
“I’ve always said I would get my first Pokemon when I was ready,” he said. “How’d you two like to celebrate the occasion?”
Walter stood there in absolute shock, while Cuddles’ reaction was enthusiastic and immediate– he ran forwards, and started jumping up and down in pure joy.
<Yes, yes, yes~!> he said. <Oh, thank you thank you thank you sooo much! We’re going to have an absolutely great time together! I’m going to give you so many hugs, and tons of cookies, and lots of warm soft blankets to snuggle on, and–>
<A-alright, Cuddles,> said Walter, approaching him, <let’s not get overboard, now.>
He turned to face Braker.
<You want us to be your starter Pokemon?> he said simply.
“Yes,” said Braker.
<Well, then,> said Walter. <In that case, I would be honored.>
Braker smiled.
“Thank you…” he said. “...Walter, you said it was?”
<Yes.>
“As in Cronkite?”
<The very same.>
“Well then!” Braker clapped once, then held up the two PokeBalls. “That’s all I need to know!”
With that said, he threw both of his two PokeBalls into the air, and simultaneously Walter tapped it with his arm and Cuddles tapped it with his pedipalp. Just as simultaneously, the two mons got sucked into their PokeBalls, and they fell to the floor within seconds. Braker watched, his heart racing, as the two PokeBalls began to shake.
1.
2.
3.
… click !
Braker instantly broke out into a massive grin, pumping his fist enthusiastically as he pulled out his Pokedex.
“Yes!” he said. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes~! Hahaaaaa!”
Immediately, he scanned both of the PokeBalls, and within a few seconds information about them popped up onto the screen:
Name: Walter
Gender: Male
Species: Wobbuffet
Nature: Calm
Characteristic: Sturdy body
Current moveset: Counter, Mirror Coat, Destiny Bond, Encore, Safeguard, Amnesia
Name: Cuddles
Gender: Male
Species: Galvantula
Nature: Jolly
Characteristic: Impetuous and silly
Current moveset: Electroweb, Volt Switch, Thunder Wave, Electro Ball, Swift, Facade, Protect, Disable, Giga Drain, Rain Dance
Braker nodded upon seeing the information.
“Hm,” he said. “Calm and Jolly. I suppose those fit well enough.”
He reached the Pokedex for his pocket. “Now to call my pa–”
DING!
DING!
“Hm?”
Braker instantly pulled his Pokedex back to himself, and all of a sudden saw two notifications that made his jaw drop.
Hasslemon handle: trustedAnchorman (TA)
Hasslemon handle: floofSpooder (FS)
He laughed a bit upon seeing Cuddles’s handle, then sighed with contentment as he put away his Pokedex.
“Well!” he said. “I suppose I’ll talk to them later. For now, though…”
He pulled out his OB-1 and hit the button labeled CALL, before inserting his father’s phone number. Excitedly, he held the OB-1 up to his face for a few moments while it rung; seconds later his father’s face appeared on the other end of the line.
“ Hello? ” Elijah asked.
“Hello, dad,” said Braker.
“ Oh, hey, Len! ” said Elijah happily. “ Calling me on your OB-1, I see! ”
“Yes, there’s a reason for that,” said Braker. “Remember how I said that I’d capture my first Pokemon when I was ready?”
Elijah paused for a bit and stopped short.
“ Y-you didn’t!” he said.
Braker nodded. “I got two in fact; a Wobbuffet named Walter and a Galvantula named Cuddles.”
“ No way! ” cried Elijah. “ That’s amazing, Len! I gotta tell your mother; she’ll go crazy to hear you have a Galvantula on your team. ”
“I’m sure she will,” Braker responded, laughing.
“ So… did you get these two mons today? ” Elijah asked. “ Or… ”
“No, I got them today,” said Braker. “And needless to say… I think they restored my confidence.”
“ Well, that is wonderful news ,” said Elijah. “ So now that you have them, are you planning to do anything with them? ”
“I don’t know,” said Braker; “I think I might just come back home and show them to–”
He stopped all of a sudden, pausing and glancing back towards the massive city of Motostoke that was near him.
…no, he realized. No, he couldn’t just come back home. He was a Trainer now; he had two mons.
And there was only one thing a Trainer with two mons could do in this day and age.
“ ...Hello? ” Elijah asked from the other end.
Braker grinned.
“Actually,” he said, “would you mind doing me a huge favor?”
“ Oh, yeah, sure! ” said Elijah. “ What is it? ”
Braker turned back to Motostoke Stadium in the distance, all the while still on the phone.
“...would you mind sponsoring me so that I can register for the League?”
BRAKER TIMELINE
ARC 1
CHAPTER 5
Leonard Braker was still sitting down by the tree in the Wild Area, looking absolutely miserable, and not really saying much of anything. He had no idea what to think anymore, or what to believe in, or whether or not he truly was going to ever become a journalist. To him, everything seemed far too bleak for him to keep going. On the other hand, though, he was at the very least very happy that he had gotten outside; surely this would be a better fit for his mental health than staying inside his house the whole time. He took a few deep breaths, and while it did make him feel a bit better… in the end, it didn’t really accomplish much of anything, really.
He looked away for a few moments, opting to focus on the scenery for now, when all of a sudden:
<Excuse me?>
Braker stopped upon hearing a high-pitched, innocent-sounding, childlike voice coming from near him, though of course to any random person it would sound like a bunch of cheetah-like squeaks and chirps. He turned back in its direction, expecting to see some poor, innocent child, but instead saw only a Galvantula, looking up at him with big, sweet puppy-dog eyes and what looked to be incredibly soft and fluffy… hair? Fur? What exactly was it that a Galvantula had, anyway?
Well, at any rate, whatever it was, it certainly looked fluffy.
The Galvantula blinked and tilted their head.
<Are you alright, mister?> he asked– for it was a male, as evident by the voice. <You looked really sad over there, so I wanted to see if I could come and help!>
Immediately, Braker found himself smiling despite his incredible sadness at the moment.
“Well, thank you,” he said. “That’s… rather kind of you, actually.”
<Awww, you’re welcome, mister!> said the Galvantula.
“But yes, I am sad,” said Braker, sighing afterwards. “As a matter of fact, I don’t really feel anything but sadness right now.”
Immediately, the Galvantula’s eyes widened in horror.
<Oh no!> he said. <W-what happened? Are you okay?>
Before Braker had a chance to respond, he noticed a male Wobbuffet wearing glasses coming up in his direction, following the Galvantula and seeming to have concern for Braker’s state of mind as well. Clearly, Braker figured, these two mons had noticed Braker in his upset state and had come over to help. The Wobbuffet glanced down at the Galvantula for a few moments.
<Cuddles?> the Wobbuffet asked. <What’s going on?>
Instantly, the Galvantula– whose name, apparently, was Cuddles– turned to face the Wobbuffet. Upon seeing him there, Cuddles brightened immediately.
<Walter!> he said. <Thank goodness; you decided to come and help after all! This man over here is quite sad for some reason; I don’t know what’s going on…>
<I see,> said Walter. <Well, then, in that regard, I suppose it’s a very good thing I came over.> He turned to face Braker. <What exactly is the issue here, young man?>
“Well,” said Braker, “I… I tried to apply for the PEFE University School of Journalism about a year or so ago after I graduated from college, and… I didn’t get in.”
Upon hearing that, Cuddles covered his mouth with his pedipalps in shock. Walter, meanwhile, merely adjusted his glasses.
<Oh no…!> Cuddles gasped.
<A shame,> said Walter. <At any rate, I suppose you could theoretically try again next year.>
“I could ,” Braker admitted, “but why bother, really? If PEFE University, the biggest school in the entire Pokemon world doesn’t want me as a student, and all because of my sexuality at that, then why even bother with becoming a journalist in the first place? Besides, the world is just getting worse and worse, every single day, and nothing anyone ever does is going to cha–”
<Hold on a second,> Walter suddenly broke in. <Am I hearing this correctly? You were rejected because of your sexuality?>
“Well… that wasn’t what they said in the letter they sent me,” said Braker. “The letter told me that I was rejected because my grades weren’t good enough, but I looked up how high your GPA has to be for PEFE to accept you, and they said they accept any GPA higher than 3.0.”
<And your GPA was…?>
“3.4,” said Braker.
<...I see,> said Walter. <Well, then. They’re clearly fraudulent. That is something I won’t stand for in the least. I’d definitely report this, Mr…?>
“Braker,” said Braker. “Leonard Braker.”
<Braker,> repeated Walter. <Well, then. As I said before, this is absolutely something that needs to be reported. This has to go on the news immediately; I simply cannot accept fraudulence like this, and to reject you from attending on the basis of your sexuality… > He shook his head. <Simply unacceptable.>
“I know that,” said Braker. “My father said he wants to sue them.”
<He should,> said Walter.
Braker laughed a bit, the first time he’d done so in a while, before eventually sighing.
“Even so…” he said, “what on Earth am I to do? I had a dream of wanting to be a journalist, but now… if PEFE won’t hire me… then surely I doubt anyone else will…”
<W-what?!> cried Cuddles. <Y-you can’t give up! I’m sure someone’s going to hire you for journalism work someday!>
“It’s too late,” said Braker. “I already gave up a year ago.”
<D-do you need a hug?> asked Cuddles, coming forward. <O-or a cookie? Or anything else to–>
He was suddenly stopped by Walter raising an arm.
<I don’t think he needs those things right now, Cuddles,> said Walter.
<Oh,> said Cuddles sadly, putting his head down. <Sorry.>
Braker glanced at the downtrodden Galvantula for a few moments, not wanting to see the poor thing sad at all. He paused for a bit.
“Actually,” he said, “I could probably use a hug.”
Cuddles instantly brightened upon hearing this, and ran up to Braker in delight.
<Really?> he asked.
Braker nodded, and Cuddles became so excited he jumped up into the air.
<Yippee!> he said. <Huzzah~! Oh, thank you, Lenny~!>
Braker laughed again, and Cuddles ran right up to him and wrapped his legs and pedipalps around him in a giant hug.
“My mother calls m–” Braker began– only for him to suddenly stop.
He suddenly felt like he was being surrounded by a massive comforter on all sides, and the resultant hug felt so warm, soft, and relaxing that he barely wanted to let go. Hesitantly, he reached out to touch Cuddles’ fur, and was shocked by what he found– Cuddles’ fur was so soft and warm and fluffy that some part of him almost wondered if Cuddles wasn’t a real Galvantula, and was instead a plush toy. But no, he could feel him breathing. He was definitely real. Braker looked down and once again found himself staring at adorable Galvantula puppy dog eyes, giving him a head-tilt.
<What were you going to say?> Cuddles asked.
Braker, caught off-guard by the hug, didn’t respond initially– but eventually managed to say:
“...M-my mother calls me Lenny.”
Cuddles giggled. Braker’s heart melted almost immediately by how absolutely adorable it was.
<That’s so sweet!> he said.
“...a-anyways,” Braker began, “as I was saying before, I already gave up a– dear Arceus , your fur is soft! A-are all Galvantula this soft or…?”
<He’s far fluffier than average,> said Walter.
“I– I can tell!” Braker sputtered out. “This feels so nice I almost don’t want to let go!”
Walter smiled a bit. <He has that effect on most people.>
Eventually, after a long while, Braker finally pulled away, and glanced down at Cuddles in awe.
“...Cuddles, was it?” he said eventually.
<Yep!> said Cuddles.
“I… hoo !” Braker said, breathing a sigh of relief. “I can see why your name is Cuddles; dear Arceus! That felt really nice, thank you!”
<You’re welcome!> said Cuddles.
“But anyways,” said Braker. “As I was saying before, I’ve already given up on becoming a journalist. I gave up on that a year ago. The world is just too harsh and unforgiving for that kind of thing.”
Walter and Cuddles blinked.
<Well, that’s not true at all,> said Walter simply.
“...well, there’s been nothing but bad news everywhere I’ve looked,” said Braker.
<That’s not true, either,> said Cuddles. <There’s been a bunch of good news recently! You just haven’t seen it!>
<You never see it, unfortunately,> said Walter. <Practically all that the news wants us to see is bad things, because they’re far more newsworthy nowadays. It is very sad and unfortunate. I remember back in the old days when they would report on actual newsworthy events, many of which were good news events. Not anymore.>
“Exactly,” said Braker. “Nobody wants to see good news anymore.”
<No, that’s not true!> said Cuddles. <A lot of people want to see good news! Just because PEFE rejected you doesn’t mean you have to give up on being a journalist! In fact, I think you could be the person the world needs right now by reporting all the good news in the world!>
Braker stopped short for a few moments. He hadn’t thought of that.
“...really?” he asked.
<Really,> said Cuddles.
Braker paused, looking down at Cuddles and over at Walter in shock.
“I– I don’t know if I can do that,” he said, “where can I find–”
<Lenny?> Cuddles suddenly asked softly.
“...what?” Braker asked.
<Look at the sky,> said Cuddles, pointing directly up at it with a pedipalp.
Braker slowly followed Cuddles’ gaze, looking up at the sky above him for the first time in a long time. He blinked for a bit, not seeming to notice much of anything.
“...what is it?” he asked. “I don’t see anything.”
<Exactly,> said Cuddles.
Braker glanced at him, a bit confused– and all of a sudden his eyes widened and his heart raced with excitement as he slowly began to realize it.
“Wait a minute !” he said. “They– they closed the Skybreak!”
<Yes!> said Cuddles happily. <That’s what I wanted you to see!>
Braker looked over at Walter in absolute shock.
“How… how on Earth– when did this happen?!” he cried out.
<You didn’t see anything about this, did you?> asked Walter.
“N-no!” Braker said. “Not at all!”
<It happened in January 2020,> said Walter. <Only a few months ago. Gisnep and the Gisnep Corporation defeated this thing called the Fanatic and closed up the gaps in the sky.>
Braker stood there, mouth agape, looking up in awe at the now-closed sky he had failed to notice all those months ago in the midst of his depression. He looked over at Walter and Cuddles in utter disbelief.
“W-why– why on Earth didn’t I see anything about this?!” he asked. “This sounds like major breaking news!”
<It was ,> said Walter. <Just about every major news station posted about it, and it was all over Chatter and UTurn and other social media sites. The only problem was that people weren’t clicking on the good news stories, and if they did see it, they were mainly focused on the one bad aspect of it.>
“Which is…?” asked Braker.
<That the infighting between the members of the Gisnep Corporation led to the Fanatic’s summoning,> said Walter.
“Oh,” said Braker.
<Everybody on social media was sending death threats to executives of the Gisnep Corporation,> Cuddles added. <It was awful.>
“Death threats?!” cried Braker. “And for what?! Nobody deserves death threats for anything!”
<Precisely my point,> said Walter.
At once, Braker rose, incensed by the whole thing.
“T-this is huge !” Braker cried out. “This news is so good it deserves to be reported! Nobody should be sending Gisnep executives death threats! I can’t believe that nobody saw this!”
<Well, would you like to report it?> asked Walter.
“Y-yes!” Braker said. “Absolutely! If anyone’s going to report this news it’s going… to be… me…”
He suddenly trailed off, hit by a realization as he stared over at Walter and Cuddles in shock. After a few moments, he laughed in uproarious joy the likes of which he hadn’t felt since he had graduated high school.
“Well, what do you know!” he said happily. “I– I think I’ve got my confidence back!”
<Huzzah~!> Cuddles cried out.
<That,> said Walter, <is precisely what we wanted to achieve. I’m happy to hear it, Braker.>
Braker grinned.
“Oh, thank you!” he said. “Thank you two so much! I… I really needed that!”
<You’re welcome!> said Cuddles.
<Same here,> said Walter. <Well, then, in that regard, I suppose we should be on our way now. We’ve done what we came here to do.> He started off, motioning for Cuddles to follow him. <Farewell.>
Braker was about to say goodbye to them and see if he could go and record something about the good news of the Fanatic’s defeat– but all of a sudden he stopped.
He felt like he owed something to the two mons he’d just seen right now. They had, in more ways than one, helped to bolster his confidence back up: Walter by giving him the straight truth of the world and empathizing with Braker’s plights about the news, and Cuddles by showing Braker the sun that was hidden underneath all of the clouds. There was absolutely no way he could leave those two mons behind– especially poor Cuddles, who he didn’t want to see sad in the least!
He reached into his pocket and pulled out an OB-1 and two PokeBalls. He hadn’t used that OB-1 since the day he got it, since it had something he couldn’t yet use, and didn’t feel very comfortable using.
Now, however… now. Now he felt ready.
He clenched onto both of the PokeBalls and nodded, then stepped forward.
“Hold on!” he said.
Walter and Cuddles both turned to face Braker, who was walking towards them with a grateful smile on his face.
<Oh?> asked Walter.
<Is something the matter?> asked Cuddles.
“No… nothing’s the matter,” said Braker. “As a matter of fact, I think both of you really helped me today.”
He held up his two PokeBalls.
“I’ve always said I would get my first Pokemon when I was ready,” he said. “How’d you two like to celebrate the occasion?”
Walter stood there in absolute shock, while Cuddles’ reaction was enthusiastic and immediate– he ran forwards, and started jumping up and down in pure joy.
<Yes, yes, yes~!> he said. <Oh, thank you thank you thank you sooo much! We’re going to have an absolutely great time together! I’m going to give you so many hugs, and tons of cookies, and lots of warm soft blankets to snuggle on, and–>
<A-alright, Cuddles,> said Walter, approaching him, <let’s not get overboard, now.>
He turned to face Braker.
<You want us to be your starter Pokemon?> he said simply.
“Yes,” said Braker.
<Well, then,> said Walter. <In that case, I would be honored.>
Braker smiled.
“Thank you…” he said. “...Walter, you said it was?”
<Yes.>
“As in Cronkite?”
<The very same.>
“Well then!” Braker clapped once, then held up the two PokeBalls. “That’s all I need to know!”
With that said, he threw both of his two PokeBalls into the air, and simultaneously Walter tapped it with his arm and Cuddles tapped it with his pedipalp. Just as simultaneously, the two mons got sucked into their PokeBalls, and they fell to the floor within seconds. Braker watched, his heart racing, as the two PokeBalls began to shake.
1.
2.
3.
… click !
Braker instantly broke out into a massive grin, pumping his fist enthusiastically as he pulled out his Pokedex.
“Yes!” he said. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes~! Hahaaaaa!”
Immediately, he scanned both of the PokeBalls, and within a few seconds information about them popped up onto the screen:
Name: Walter
Gender: Male
Species: Wobbuffet
Nature: Calm
Characteristic: Sturdy body
Current moveset: Counter, Mirror Coat, Destiny Bond, Encore, Safeguard, Amnesia
Name: Cuddles
Gender: Male
Species: Galvantula
Nature: Jolly
Characteristic: Impetuous and silly
Current moveset: Electroweb, Volt Switch, Thunder Wave, Electro Ball, Swift, Facade, Protect, Disable, Giga Drain, Rain Dance
Braker nodded upon seeing the information.
“Hm,” he said. “Calm and Jolly. I suppose those fit well enough.”
He reached the Pokedex for his pocket. “Now to call my pa–”
DING!
DING!
“Hm?”
Braker instantly pulled his Pokedex back to himself, and all of a sudden saw two notifications that made his jaw drop.
Hasslemon handle: trustedAnchorman (TA)
Hasslemon handle: floofSpooder (FS)
He laughed a bit upon seeing Cuddles’s handle, then sighed with contentment as he put away his Pokedex.
“Well!” he said. “I suppose I’ll talk to them later. For now, though…”
He pulled out his OB-1 and hit the button labeled CALL, before inserting his father’s phone number. Excitedly, he held the OB-1 up to his face for a few moments while it rung; seconds later his father’s face appeared on the other end of the line.
“ Hello? ” Elijah asked.
“Hello, dad,” said Braker.
“ Oh, hey, Len! ” said Elijah happily. “ Calling me on your OB-1, I see! ”
“Yes, there’s a reason for that,” said Braker. “Remember how I said that I’d capture my first Pokemon when I was ready?”
Elijah paused for a bit and stopped short.
“ Y-you didn’t!” he said.
Braker nodded. “I got two in fact; a Wobbuffet named Walter and a Galvantula named Cuddles.”
“ No way! ” cried Elijah. “ That’s amazing, Len! I gotta tell your mother; she’ll go crazy to hear you have a Galvantula on your team. ”
“I’m sure she will,” Braker responded, laughing.
“ So… did you get these two mons today? ” Elijah asked. “ Or… ”
“No, I got them today,” said Braker. “And needless to say… I think they restored my confidence.”
“ Well, that is wonderful news ,” said Elijah. “ So now that you have them, are you planning to do anything with them? ”
“I don’t know,” said Braker; “I think I might just come back home and show them to–”
He stopped all of a sudden, pausing and glancing back towards the massive city of Motostoke that was near him.
…no, he realized. No, he couldn’t just come back home. He was a Trainer now; he had two mons.
And there was only one thing a Trainer with two mons could do in this day and age.
“ ...Hello? ” Elijah asked from the other end.
Braker grinned.
“Actually,” he said, “would you mind doing me a huge favor?”
“ Oh, yeah, sure! ” said Elijah. “ What is it? ”
Braker turned back to Motostoke Stadium in the distance, all the while still on the phone.
“...would you mind sponsoring me so that I can register for the League?”
-
Goldenheart388
- Posts: 17
- Joined: 2021-Jun-26 21:16
Re: THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
BRAKER TIMELINE
ARC 1
CHAPTER 6
Of course, Elijah Braker immediately accepted his son’s request.
With the help of his father’s law firm, Leonard Braker was allowed to sign up for the Galar League, obtaining the uniform number 63– Anderson Cooper’s birthday was June 3rd– in the process. Things didn’t seem to go very well for him initially, though.
At first, people saw that he had solely a Wobbuffet and a Galvantula and figured that Braker’s team was going to be completely finished after Kabu, and that Leonard Braker was going to give up the Gym Challenge after that. As a matter of fact, not even Braker himself had any idea of how good he was going to do. Before he had even completed his first Gym Challenge puzzle in Turffield, he had been talking to Walter and Cuddles via Hasslemon, now that he knew that he could access it, and the talk beforehand was… very unsure, on his end of the conversation.
—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONVERSATION TAKEN FROM OB-1
programusInterruptus (PI) joined the conversation.
PI: Walter? Cuddles? Are you two there?
trustedAnchorman (TA) and floofSpooder (FS) joined the conversation.
TA: Yes, Braker, we're here.
FS: is anything wrong, lenny~?
PI: Well, there's nothing necessarily wrong , per se, it's just that... I don't know how well I'm going to do, exactly? I have only two Pokemon, and one of them can't even do physical damage to anyone.
TA: Oh, trust me, Braker; things are going to go fine. Cuddles is a Bug-type; he'll do very well against any Grass-type Pokemon that happen to Come his way.
PI: I know that. It's not him I'm worried about. It's you .
TA: i appreciate your Concern, Braker. But you needn't worry about me, either. i think i'll do just fine for myself if Cuddles happens to faint.
PI: How would you know that? All you can do is counter attacks.
TA: Exactly.
PI: ...?
—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That said, however, soon afterwards Braker would find out exactly what Walter meant.
Upon completion of the first Gym Challenge, Braker approached Milo in the Turffield Stadium, and the end result was something that neither he nor anyone else could have predicted. As this was Braker’s first ever Gym Battle, Milo started things off with his usual picks for weaker Trainers– his Gossifleur, followed by a Gigantamax Eldegoss.
Braker, meanwhile, led with Cuddles, who he had taught Bug Buzz to prior to the battle against Milo.
Gossifleur did not even get to attack before Cuddles hit him with a Bug Buzz and knocked him out in one hit.
Milo, Cuddles, and especially Braker himself were caught off-guard, and Braker, thinking Cuddles was a bit too strong for this fight, switched in to Walter while Milo swapped to his Eldegoss– which, of course, he promptly Dynamaxed. Braker, of course, thought he was done for– he had absolutely no way of Dynamaxing any of his Pokemon, but regardless, he somehow trusted Walter– and it paid off in a very big way he was not expecting in the least.
Milo’s Eldegoss hit with a Max Overgrowth– and Walter, without even being commanded to, instantly struck back with a massive Counter that almost immediately knocked Eldegoss out and reverted him back to regular form.
Braker was struck absolutely dumb by this, and did not even know what to think.
One Grass Badge later, and when Braker left the Turffield Gym that day and reconvened with his mons on Hasslemon…
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONVERSATION TAKEN FROM OB-1
TA: Told you.
PI: H-how?! How on Earth did you--?! I didn't even get to command you!
TA: You don’t have to. I have an innate encyclopedic knowledge in my mind as to which moves are physical and which moves are Special, which means that I will Successfully know when to hit with Counter or Mirror Coat every Single time.
PI: Seriously?!
TA: Yes.
PI: ... Every single ti--
TA: Every Single time.
PI: ...
: TA: And they thought a Wobbuffet Couldn't Sweep the league. >ww<
PI: My word!
TA: >WW<
PI: ...well, I'm sorry I doubted you.
TA: It’s alright, Braker. To Be quite honest, I’m a Wobbuffet; it happens far more frequently than you would think.
FS: i never doubted you~ ^::^
TA: Of Course you didn’t, Cuddles. Thank you for that. Now… we Should head to Hulbury as immediately as we Can; Nessa awaits.
—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From there, Braker and his two mons headed to Hulbury to take on Nessa, and that battle lasted just about as quickly as the Milo battle had. Cuddles absolutely demolished Nessa’s Goldeen and Arrokuda, taking out both of them with Electro Balls in one hit. The two mons didn’t even get to do a thing.
Afterwards, Nessa pulled out her Drednaw, and Braker– knowing it was part Rock-type– swapped in to Walter. Nessa promptly Dynamaxed her Drednaw, who hit Walter with a Razor Shell-boosted Max Geyser; within a matter of seconds Walter had Countered, Drednaw found herself on the floor, and Braker walked out of the Hulbury Gym two Badges down.
News of Leonard Braker and his crazy-accurate Wobbuffet spread far and wide throughout the Galar region at this point. Sports podcasters everywhere were beginning to talk about how crazy good Walter and Cuddles were, and advised any future Gym Leaders to watch out for them. Of course, Braker heard this and knew full well that the next Gym would be taking advantage of this, so he decided to defeat Kabu with Walter and only Walter, not wanting Cuddles to be burnt up by a bunch of Fire-type Pokemon.
Sure enough, when Braker met up with Kabu in Motostoke, he brought him his full team of five, reserved only for the best of the best Trainers. Braker, meanwhile, met those five mons with a single Wobbuffet– and, well…
Torkoal used Earthquake; Walter Countered; Torkoal was defeated.
Ninetales used Quick Attack; Walter Countered; Ninetales used Fire Blast; Walter Mirror Coated; Ninetales was defeated.
Arcanine used ExtremeSpeed; Walter Countered; Arcanine was defeated.
Salazzle used Dragon Pulse; Walter Mirror Coated; Salazzle used Foul Play…
Walter somehow survived and Countered; Salazzle was defeated.
Kabu, shocked, sent out his Centiskorch, who he promptly G-Maxed. Walter tried a different tactic, knowing full well he’d be going down soon; instead of waiting for the opponent to make a move, he Destiny Bonded. One G-Max Centiferno later, Walter was defeated…
…and immediately afterwards, so was Centiskorch.
Braker walked out, a Fire Badge now in his possession, absolutely and utterly dumbstruck by how well Walter had done. Walter had completely and utterly swept every single one of Kabu’s Pokemon, Cuddles hadn’t been damaged once , and Braker had defeated Kabu’s Champion team .
Everybody began paying attention to him after that.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
For Braker’s fourth Gym, he knew he had two choices– Allister or Bea, both in Stow-on-Side. He decided to battle against Bea, this time using both Walter and Cuddles. It went exactly the same as the rest of the battles had, and Bea barely even stood a chance.
Like Kabu before her, she used her Champion-level team, starting with Hawlucha while Braker sent in Cuddles, who he had also taught Bounce to. Hawlucha was faster, and began with a Hi Jump Kick– to which Braker immediately had Cuddles counter with Bounce. Cuddles promptly jumped up into the air, Hawlucha crashed, and one Bounce later, Hawlucha was down without even having made a move on Cuddles.
Immediately, Bea switched to Grapploct while Braker switched to Walter, and instantly Bea had her Grapploct use Detect, thinking that Walter was going to use Counter. Walter, however, had instead gone for Safeguard, seeing through that trap right away. Grapploct promptly switched to Close Combat, but one Counter later he was defeated.
Sirfetch’d was, funnily enough, the quickest to be defeated– he used a supereffective First Impression move on Walter, but Walter immediately Countered and Sirfetch’d was on the floor within seconds.
From there, Braker swapped back into Cuddles to allow Walter to recover, and Bea switched to her Falinks, who set up a No Retreat immediately. Cuddles, however, used Bounce, and Falinks was almost defeated, but struck back with a Megahorn… which did practically nothing. One Electroweb later and Falinks was done for.
Finally, Walter defeated Bae’s G-Max Machamp with the same Destiny Bond strategy he’d used to defeat Centiskorch, and Braker walked out of the Gym halfway through his Badge quest.
By the time he made it to Bede, a month had gone by since Braker had caught Walter and Cuddles, and Bede was absolutely terrified of him. Braker, however, was not, and had a feeling that this would be another battle that he could sweep with Walter, knowing full well that each of Bede’s Pokemon save for Galarian Rapidash had a move super-effective against Psychic. As such he had brought Hyper Potions with him to heal up Walter at each turn.
Sure enough, the strategy worked exactly as Braker had planned.
Mawile used Crunch; Walter Countered; Mawile was defeated.
Gardevoir used Shadow Ball; Walter Mirror Coated; Gardevoir was defeated.
Walter was healed up; Galarian Rapidash used Horn Drill; Walter Countered; Galarian Rapidash was defeated.
Sylveon used Shadow Ball; Walter Mirror Coated; Sylveon was defeated.
Hatterene G-Maxed; Hatterene used Max Darkness; Walter hung on and Mirror Coated; Hatterene was defeated.
It was an absolute onslaught .
As soon as Braker left the Ballonlea Gym on June 13, 2020 people began asking him for interviews. Of course, Braker was happy to answer everyone’s questions, but later on he had a call with his parents, and…
“I must admit, it is a bit strange being the one people interview, instead of it being the other way around,” he had said.
To which Elijah had laughed and said, “ Yeah, I can imagine. ”
Braker’s battles against Gordie and Marnie were both similar onslaughts, but with Cuddles instead of Walter; every single one of Gordie’s mons were defeated in one hit with a Giga Drain with the sole exception of Coalossal, and even then Coalossal couldn’t do much to Cuddles because his sole Fire-type move was Disabled. This was despite the type advantage of Rock over Bug; Cuddles was so fast that he just Giga Drained before the Rock-type mons had a chance to hit.
Spikemuth, of course, was just as easy, and all the mons were defeated with a Bug Buzz from Cuddles, including the G-Max Grimmsnarl.
With seven badges now in Braker’s possession, it was now time for Braker’s hardest Galar League challenge– his double battle against Raihan.
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
06/17/20– Hammerlocke Stadium
…Of course, “hardest” was still an overstatement.
Unlike every other Gym Leader since Kabu on, Raihan used his main team of 4, which meant that 3/4ths of the team were weak to Grass. That being said, though, Raihan did not let up– as soon as he sent out his Gigalith and Flygon against Cuddles and Walter, he sent up a Sand Stream that caused a Sandstorm, and then Gigalith hit both Cuddles and Walter which a Stealth Rock. The whole time, Braker was smirking to himself, knowing that that wouldn’t work in the least bit since he didn’t have any other mons he could switch in to.
Walter promptly set up an Encore on Gigalith, while Flygon hit Walter with a Breaking Swipe. Soon afterwards, Walter Countered the Breaking Swipe, and very soon afterwards Flygon found himself almost fainted. Gigalith then used Sand Tomb on Cuddles… which did not do nearly as much as Gigalith thought it would, because Bug resists Ground. That allowed Cuddles to Giga Drain the heck out of Gigalith, promptly fainting him. Flygon, meanwhile, in retaliation, hit Walter with a Thunder Punch… which Walter Countered instantly.
Flygon fainted shortly thereafter.
Now officially two Pokemon down, Raihan sent out Sandaconda and Duraludon, the latter of whom he promptly Gigantamaxed. After Duraludon was Gigantamaxed, Braker had Cuddles hit Sandaconda with a Giga Drain– which worked to perfection, as Sandaconda fainted shortly thereafter without even managing to make a move on Cuddles. Walter, meanwhile, tackled Duraludon, who hit him with a G-Max Depletion instantly; within seconds Walter Countered the move and hit Duraludon for massive damage.
Duraludon, however, still wasn’t done.
It hit Walter with a Max Rockfall, hoping to get him out of the way first so that he could deal with the comparatively weaker Cuddles. Unfortunately for him, though, Walter had enough HP to the point where he could tank the hit, Counter, and defeat Duraludon soon afterwards.
Just like that, it was all over.
To a massive cheering crowd of fans, Raihan handed Braker the Dragon Badge, and Braker returned both his mons and left the room.
—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As soon as he left Hammerlocke Stadium, Braker pulled out his OB-1 and hit the CALL button. A few rings went by before a voice came in on the other end of the line and Elijah’s face appeared.
“ Hello? ” he asked.
Braker smirked and held up his finished League Medallion. Elijah took a look at it, then grinned.
“ No way! ” he cried out. “ That’s amazing, Len! And with only two Pokemon?! Oh man… your mother and I need to see this; that’s incredible! Congratulations! ”
“Thanks,” said Braker. “I must admit, though, Walter did most of the work here.”
“ Fair enough, ” said Elijah. “ So… what now? Knowing you, you’re probably going to go straight to challenging the League. ”
“Actually…” said Braker, “I don’t think I will. At least, not yet.”
“ Oh? ” asked Elijah. “ Are you going to catch more Pokemon first? ”
“No,” said Braker. “Remember how a month ago I caught Walter and Cuddles because they helped me to get my confidence back?”
“ Yeah, ” said Elijah. “ What about that? ”
“The way they did that was reminding me that there was plenty of good news in the world,” said Braker. “The only problem is that nobody hears anything about that, because they’re far too focused on the bad things.”
“ Yep, ” said Elijah. “ It’s honestly a bit of a shame. You know, your mother really wants to see more good news stories— there’s so much negativity on the news nowadays that it freaks her out. ”
“I know that,” said Braker. “That’s why I want to be the person who actually delivers the good news to people.”
“ Well, that’s quite a noble goal, Len, ” said Elijah. “ How do you plan to accomplish it, though? ”
“If I can, I’ll see if I can find a professional-grade camera, and stream news recordings to UTurn,” said Braker.
“ I’ve got a news camera that your grandfather gave to me, ” said Elijah. “ I don’t really use it anymore, though; would you like to have it? ”
Braker instantly lit up and started nodding.
“Yes!” he said. “Yes, that would be perfect! Absolutely! Thank you so much!”
Elijah laughed a bit on the other end of the line.
“ You’re welcome, ” said Elijah. “ I’ll send it to you via the mail if you want me to. ”
“Oh, no,” said Braker. “I’ll come to Wyndon personally. I can introduce you to Walter and Cuddles then.”
“ ...are you sure? ” asked Elijah.
“Yes,” said Braker.
Elijah, happy that his son’s mind had been made up, smiled.
“ Alright, then, ” he said. “ In that case, I’ll see you there. ”
“Same here,” said Braker.
“ So… after you’re done with the news, are you going to take a break and sit down? ” asked Elijah. “ Maybe do something else? ”
Braker laughed. “Nope,” he said. “You know me; I have no time for any breaks. If I’m not broadcasting the news, I’ll be travelling the world searching for it.”
“ Well, then, ” said Elijah. “ I guess that’s fair enough. See you back home? ”
“Yeah, see ya,” said Braker. “I love you, Dad. Bye.”
“ Bye! ”
BRAKER TIMELINE
ARC 1
CHAPTER 6
Of course, Elijah Braker immediately accepted his son’s request.
With the help of his father’s law firm, Leonard Braker was allowed to sign up for the Galar League, obtaining the uniform number 63– Anderson Cooper’s birthday was June 3rd– in the process. Things didn’t seem to go very well for him initially, though.
At first, people saw that he had solely a Wobbuffet and a Galvantula and figured that Braker’s team was going to be completely finished after Kabu, and that Leonard Braker was going to give up the Gym Challenge after that. As a matter of fact, not even Braker himself had any idea of how good he was going to do. Before he had even completed his first Gym Challenge puzzle in Turffield, he had been talking to Walter and Cuddles via Hasslemon, now that he knew that he could access it, and the talk beforehand was… very unsure, on his end of the conversation.
—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONVERSATION TAKEN FROM OB-1
programusInterruptus (PI) joined the conversation.
PI: Walter? Cuddles? Are you two there?
trustedAnchorman (TA) and floofSpooder (FS) joined the conversation.
TA: Yes, Braker, we're here.
FS: is anything wrong, lenny~?
PI: Well, there's nothing necessarily wrong , per se, it's just that... I don't know how well I'm going to do, exactly? I have only two Pokemon, and one of them can't even do physical damage to anyone.
TA: Oh, trust me, Braker; things are going to go fine. Cuddles is a Bug-type; he'll do very well against any Grass-type Pokemon that happen to Come his way.
PI: I know that. It's not him I'm worried about. It's you .
TA: i appreciate your Concern, Braker. But you needn't worry about me, either. i think i'll do just fine for myself if Cuddles happens to faint.
PI: How would you know that? All you can do is counter attacks.
TA: Exactly.
PI: ...?
—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That said, however, soon afterwards Braker would find out exactly what Walter meant.
Upon completion of the first Gym Challenge, Braker approached Milo in the Turffield Stadium, and the end result was something that neither he nor anyone else could have predicted. As this was Braker’s first ever Gym Battle, Milo started things off with his usual picks for weaker Trainers– his Gossifleur, followed by a Gigantamax Eldegoss.
Braker, meanwhile, led with Cuddles, who he had taught Bug Buzz to prior to the battle against Milo.
Gossifleur did not even get to attack before Cuddles hit him with a Bug Buzz and knocked him out in one hit.
Milo, Cuddles, and especially Braker himself were caught off-guard, and Braker, thinking Cuddles was a bit too strong for this fight, switched in to Walter while Milo swapped to his Eldegoss– which, of course, he promptly Dynamaxed. Braker, of course, thought he was done for– he had absolutely no way of Dynamaxing any of his Pokemon, but regardless, he somehow trusted Walter– and it paid off in a very big way he was not expecting in the least.
Milo’s Eldegoss hit with a Max Overgrowth– and Walter, without even being commanded to, instantly struck back with a massive Counter that almost immediately knocked Eldegoss out and reverted him back to regular form.
Braker was struck absolutely dumb by this, and did not even know what to think.
One Grass Badge later, and when Braker left the Turffield Gym that day and reconvened with his mons on Hasslemon…
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONVERSATION TAKEN FROM OB-1
TA: Told you.
PI: H-how?! How on Earth did you--?! I didn't even get to command you!
TA: You don’t have to. I have an innate encyclopedic knowledge in my mind as to which moves are physical and which moves are Special, which means that I will Successfully know when to hit with Counter or Mirror Coat every Single time.
PI: Seriously?!
TA: Yes.
PI: ... Every single ti--
TA: Every Single time.
PI: ...
: TA: And they thought a Wobbuffet Couldn't Sweep the league. >ww<
PI: My word!
TA: >WW<
PI: ...well, I'm sorry I doubted you.
TA: It’s alright, Braker. To Be quite honest, I’m a Wobbuffet; it happens far more frequently than you would think.
FS: i never doubted you~ ^::^
TA: Of Course you didn’t, Cuddles. Thank you for that. Now… we Should head to Hulbury as immediately as we Can; Nessa awaits.
—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From there, Braker and his two mons headed to Hulbury to take on Nessa, and that battle lasted just about as quickly as the Milo battle had. Cuddles absolutely demolished Nessa’s Goldeen and Arrokuda, taking out both of them with Electro Balls in one hit. The two mons didn’t even get to do a thing.
Afterwards, Nessa pulled out her Drednaw, and Braker– knowing it was part Rock-type– swapped in to Walter. Nessa promptly Dynamaxed her Drednaw, who hit Walter with a Razor Shell-boosted Max Geyser; within a matter of seconds Walter had Countered, Drednaw found herself on the floor, and Braker walked out of the Hulbury Gym two Badges down.
News of Leonard Braker and his crazy-accurate Wobbuffet spread far and wide throughout the Galar region at this point. Sports podcasters everywhere were beginning to talk about how crazy good Walter and Cuddles were, and advised any future Gym Leaders to watch out for them. Of course, Braker heard this and knew full well that the next Gym would be taking advantage of this, so he decided to defeat Kabu with Walter and only Walter, not wanting Cuddles to be burnt up by a bunch of Fire-type Pokemon.
Sure enough, when Braker met up with Kabu in Motostoke, he brought him his full team of five, reserved only for the best of the best Trainers. Braker, meanwhile, met those five mons with a single Wobbuffet– and, well…
Torkoal used Earthquake; Walter Countered; Torkoal was defeated.
Ninetales used Quick Attack; Walter Countered; Ninetales used Fire Blast; Walter Mirror Coated; Ninetales was defeated.
Arcanine used ExtremeSpeed; Walter Countered; Arcanine was defeated.
Salazzle used Dragon Pulse; Walter Mirror Coated; Salazzle used Foul Play…
Walter somehow survived and Countered; Salazzle was defeated.
Kabu, shocked, sent out his Centiskorch, who he promptly G-Maxed. Walter tried a different tactic, knowing full well he’d be going down soon; instead of waiting for the opponent to make a move, he Destiny Bonded. One G-Max Centiferno later, Walter was defeated…
…and immediately afterwards, so was Centiskorch.
Braker walked out, a Fire Badge now in his possession, absolutely and utterly dumbstruck by how well Walter had done. Walter had completely and utterly swept every single one of Kabu’s Pokemon, Cuddles hadn’t been damaged once , and Braker had defeated Kabu’s Champion team .
Everybody began paying attention to him after that.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
For Braker’s fourth Gym, he knew he had two choices– Allister or Bea, both in Stow-on-Side. He decided to battle against Bea, this time using both Walter and Cuddles. It went exactly the same as the rest of the battles had, and Bea barely even stood a chance.
Like Kabu before her, she used her Champion-level team, starting with Hawlucha while Braker sent in Cuddles, who he had also taught Bounce to. Hawlucha was faster, and began with a Hi Jump Kick– to which Braker immediately had Cuddles counter with Bounce. Cuddles promptly jumped up into the air, Hawlucha crashed, and one Bounce later, Hawlucha was down without even having made a move on Cuddles.
Immediately, Bea switched to Grapploct while Braker switched to Walter, and instantly Bea had her Grapploct use Detect, thinking that Walter was going to use Counter. Walter, however, had instead gone for Safeguard, seeing through that trap right away. Grapploct promptly switched to Close Combat, but one Counter later he was defeated.
Sirfetch’d was, funnily enough, the quickest to be defeated– he used a supereffective First Impression move on Walter, but Walter immediately Countered and Sirfetch’d was on the floor within seconds.
From there, Braker swapped back into Cuddles to allow Walter to recover, and Bea switched to her Falinks, who set up a No Retreat immediately. Cuddles, however, used Bounce, and Falinks was almost defeated, but struck back with a Megahorn… which did practically nothing. One Electroweb later and Falinks was done for.
Finally, Walter defeated Bae’s G-Max Machamp with the same Destiny Bond strategy he’d used to defeat Centiskorch, and Braker walked out of the Gym halfway through his Badge quest.
By the time he made it to Bede, a month had gone by since Braker had caught Walter and Cuddles, and Bede was absolutely terrified of him. Braker, however, was not, and had a feeling that this would be another battle that he could sweep with Walter, knowing full well that each of Bede’s Pokemon save for Galarian Rapidash had a move super-effective against Psychic. As such he had brought Hyper Potions with him to heal up Walter at each turn.
Sure enough, the strategy worked exactly as Braker had planned.
Mawile used Crunch; Walter Countered; Mawile was defeated.
Gardevoir used Shadow Ball; Walter Mirror Coated; Gardevoir was defeated.
Walter was healed up; Galarian Rapidash used Horn Drill; Walter Countered; Galarian Rapidash was defeated.
Sylveon used Shadow Ball; Walter Mirror Coated; Sylveon was defeated.
Hatterene G-Maxed; Hatterene used Max Darkness; Walter hung on and Mirror Coated; Hatterene was defeated.
It was an absolute onslaught .
As soon as Braker left the Ballonlea Gym on June 13, 2020 people began asking him for interviews. Of course, Braker was happy to answer everyone’s questions, but later on he had a call with his parents, and…
“I must admit, it is a bit strange being the one people interview, instead of it being the other way around,” he had said.
To which Elijah had laughed and said, “ Yeah, I can imagine. ”
Braker’s battles against Gordie and Marnie were both similar onslaughts, but with Cuddles instead of Walter; every single one of Gordie’s mons were defeated in one hit with a Giga Drain with the sole exception of Coalossal, and even then Coalossal couldn’t do much to Cuddles because his sole Fire-type move was Disabled. This was despite the type advantage of Rock over Bug; Cuddles was so fast that he just Giga Drained before the Rock-type mons had a chance to hit.
Spikemuth, of course, was just as easy, and all the mons were defeated with a Bug Buzz from Cuddles, including the G-Max Grimmsnarl.
With seven badges now in Braker’s possession, it was now time for Braker’s hardest Galar League challenge– his double battle against Raihan.
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
06/17/20– Hammerlocke Stadium
…Of course, “hardest” was still an overstatement.
Unlike every other Gym Leader since Kabu on, Raihan used his main team of 4, which meant that 3/4ths of the team were weak to Grass. That being said, though, Raihan did not let up– as soon as he sent out his Gigalith and Flygon against Cuddles and Walter, he sent up a Sand Stream that caused a Sandstorm, and then Gigalith hit both Cuddles and Walter which a Stealth Rock. The whole time, Braker was smirking to himself, knowing that that wouldn’t work in the least bit since he didn’t have any other mons he could switch in to.
Walter promptly set up an Encore on Gigalith, while Flygon hit Walter with a Breaking Swipe. Soon afterwards, Walter Countered the Breaking Swipe, and very soon afterwards Flygon found himself almost fainted. Gigalith then used Sand Tomb on Cuddles… which did not do nearly as much as Gigalith thought it would, because Bug resists Ground. That allowed Cuddles to Giga Drain the heck out of Gigalith, promptly fainting him. Flygon, meanwhile, in retaliation, hit Walter with a Thunder Punch… which Walter Countered instantly.
Flygon fainted shortly thereafter.
Now officially two Pokemon down, Raihan sent out Sandaconda and Duraludon, the latter of whom he promptly Gigantamaxed. After Duraludon was Gigantamaxed, Braker had Cuddles hit Sandaconda with a Giga Drain– which worked to perfection, as Sandaconda fainted shortly thereafter without even managing to make a move on Cuddles. Walter, meanwhile, tackled Duraludon, who hit him with a G-Max Depletion instantly; within seconds Walter Countered the move and hit Duraludon for massive damage.
Duraludon, however, still wasn’t done.
It hit Walter with a Max Rockfall, hoping to get him out of the way first so that he could deal with the comparatively weaker Cuddles. Unfortunately for him, though, Walter had enough HP to the point where he could tank the hit, Counter, and defeat Duraludon soon afterwards.
Just like that, it was all over.
To a massive cheering crowd of fans, Raihan handed Braker the Dragon Badge, and Braker returned both his mons and left the room.
—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As soon as he left Hammerlocke Stadium, Braker pulled out his OB-1 and hit the CALL button. A few rings went by before a voice came in on the other end of the line and Elijah’s face appeared.
“ Hello? ” he asked.
Braker smirked and held up his finished League Medallion. Elijah took a look at it, then grinned.
“ No way! ” he cried out. “ That’s amazing, Len! And with only two Pokemon?! Oh man… your mother and I need to see this; that’s incredible! Congratulations! ”
“Thanks,” said Braker. “I must admit, though, Walter did most of the work here.”
“ Fair enough, ” said Elijah. “ So… what now? Knowing you, you’re probably going to go straight to challenging the League. ”
“Actually…” said Braker, “I don’t think I will. At least, not yet.”
“ Oh? ” asked Elijah. “ Are you going to catch more Pokemon first? ”
“No,” said Braker. “Remember how a month ago I caught Walter and Cuddles because they helped me to get my confidence back?”
“ Yeah, ” said Elijah. “ What about that? ”
“The way they did that was reminding me that there was plenty of good news in the world,” said Braker. “The only problem is that nobody hears anything about that, because they’re far too focused on the bad things.”
“ Yep, ” said Elijah. “ It’s honestly a bit of a shame. You know, your mother really wants to see more good news stories— there’s so much negativity on the news nowadays that it freaks her out. ”
“I know that,” said Braker. “That’s why I want to be the person who actually delivers the good news to people.”
“ Well, that’s quite a noble goal, Len, ” said Elijah. “ How do you plan to accomplish it, though? ”
“If I can, I’ll see if I can find a professional-grade camera, and stream news recordings to UTurn,” said Braker.
“ I’ve got a news camera that your grandfather gave to me, ” said Elijah. “ I don’t really use it anymore, though; would you like to have it? ”
Braker instantly lit up and started nodding.
“Yes!” he said. “Yes, that would be perfect! Absolutely! Thank you so much!”
Elijah laughed a bit on the other end of the line.
“ You’re welcome, ” said Elijah. “ I’ll send it to you via the mail if you want me to. ”
“Oh, no,” said Braker. “I’ll come to Wyndon personally. I can introduce you to Walter and Cuddles then.”
“ ...are you sure? ” asked Elijah.
“Yes,” said Braker.
Elijah, happy that his son’s mind had been made up, smiled.
“ Alright, then, ” he said. “ In that case, I’ll see you there. ”
“Same here,” said Braker.
“ So… after you’re done with the news, are you going to take a break and sit down? ” asked Elijah. “ Maybe do something else? ”
Braker laughed. “Nope,” he said. “You know me; I have no time for any breaks. If I’m not broadcasting the news, I’ll be travelling the world searching for it.”
“ Well, then, ” said Elijah. “ I guess that’s fair enough. See you back home? ”
“Yeah, see ya,” said Braker. “I love you, Dad. Bye.”
“ Bye! ”
-
Goldenheart388
- Posts: 17
- Joined: 2021-Jun-26 21:16
Re: THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
BRAKER TIMELINE
ARC 1
CHAPTER 7
06/18/20, Wyndon– Braker’s Parents’ House
After a long day’s worth of travel, Leonard Braker, now a Galar gym champion (though not yet a Galar champion) finally arrived back in Wyndon and headed towards his parents’ house.
Walter and Cuddles were both outside of their PokeBalls, and upon making it to the house where Braker’s parents lived, they glanced up at it– one rather matter-of-factly, the other with awe. It didn’t matter a bit to Cuddles how absolutely boring the house looked on the outside– completely beige, with brown trim on the black door and windows– to him, this was absolute heaven, and he ran up to the house as though it was the nearby stadium.
<Woahhh~!> he cried out. <This is where your parents live?!>
“Yes,” said Braker, stifling a laugh, “it is.”
<This place looks amazing!> Cuddles exclaimed. <I can’t wait to meet your parents~! Is that the only thing we’re going to do when we’re here?>
<It’s not,> said Walter. <Braker told us he came here because his father wanted to give him something, remember?>
<Oh, yeah,> said Cuddles. <I forgot about that.>
<At any rate,> said Walter, turning to face his Trainer, <it is a very impressive house your parents have.>
Braker smirked. “Just wait until you see mine. I’ll show you that later, though; for now, let’s head inside.”
The three of them promptly headed into the Braker parents’ household, where both Elijah and Maria Braker stood in the living room waiting. Upon seeing Braker, both parents let out a cheer of joy and ran towards their son; Maria in particular gave her son a massive hug.
“There ‘e is~!” she cried out. “Our Galar champion!”
Braker laughed, hugging her back.
“Not quite yet, mum, but thank you for that,” said Braker.
Immediately, Maria pulled away from the hug upon seeing Walter and Cuddles standing in front of her, the latter jumping up and down happily. The moment Maria saw Cuddles, she squealed and ran up to him.
“Oh~! These must be your Pokemon~!” she said. “Is this Cuddles?!”
“Yes,” said Braker.
“Oh my goodness~!” she squealed. “Your father told me you ‘ad a Galvantula on your team and I knew ‘e’d be cute, but I didn’t realize ‘e’d be this cute~! Awww, look at ‘is big puppy dog eyes! Isn’t ‘e just the cutest thing?!”
“You should hug him,” said Braker.
“Oh, I will!” said Maria, turning to face Cuddles. “Do you want a hug, little guy…?!”
<Yaaaay~! Of course!> said Cuddles, immediately jumping into Maria’s arms and wrapping his legs and pedipalps around him.
Maria, engulfed in a massive Galvantula hug, initially squealed and laughed at first– but then suddenly stopped, and practically sank to the floor in pure unbridled bliss and euphoria when she realized how soft and warm and huggable Cuddles actually was. She let out an elated gasp, then repeatedly nuzzled Cuddles happily.
“Elijah~!” she squeed. “You need to come over ‘ere and hug this Galvantula; he’s so soft and fluffy! I’m not even sure ‘e’s real!”
Elijah smiled, as he approached Braker and Walter while carrying a massive professional-looking film/newscaster camera.
“I’ll do that in a bit; don’t worry,” he said. “And I’m pretty sure he’s real.”
He set down the camera and knelt down in front of Walter, petting him on the head.
“So this is the Wobbuffet that pretty much won you the League!” he said with notable intrigue. “Walter, you said his name was?”
“Yes,” said Braker.
<Correct,> Walter responded, <and for what it’s worth, do give credit to Cuddles as well.>
“Well, hello there, Walter!” said Elijah, not understanding any of the Monese used. “It’s nice to meet you! I’ve never met a Wobbuffet with such an incredible knowledge of counterattacks before!”
<It’s nice to meet you as well,> said Walter, extending an arm which Elijah promptly shook.
Maria, meanwhile, had finally gotten up off of the floor and was carrying Cuddles in her arms while running over to her husband. Elijah turned to face her and found himself face-to-face with a squeeing Afro-Galarian and an innocent Galvantula.
“Look at ‘im, look at ‘im, look at ‘im~!” Maria squealed. “Hold ‘im! Isn’t he just the cutest thing in the world~?!”
Cuddles blinked up at Elijah and tilted his head. Maria, in response, screamed in happiness. After a few moments, Elijah blinked, then shrugged, then grabbed on to Cuddles and held him— only for his eyes to suddenly widen in shock. He held on to him for a few moments longer, then glanced up at Maria.
“You were right,” he said, “he is soft .”
“I told you!” said Maria. “Come on, just ‘old him a bit more, wontcha?!”
“...A little bit more,” said Elijah. “But remember, I still have to get to the–”
<WOAH!>
Cuddles suddenly jumped right out of Elijah’s arms and ran over to the massive camera that he had set down, catching both him and Maria off-guard. After a few moments, Elijah blinked.
“...well,” he said. “I guess he doesn’t want any more hugs, then.”
Cuddles happily looked up at the camera in adoration.
<What’s this camera doing here?> he asked. <By the gods, it’s huge ! Do you think I could crawl up into it and take a picture for myself?>
Walter just laughed, going up to Cuddles and picking him up off the floor.
<Actually,> said Walter, <I think that might be for Braker.>
“It is,” said Braker, approaching the two of them. “That’s my grandfather’s camera, after all.”
“Oh yeah!” Elijah suddenly cried out. “I can give you this now.”
He promptly walked over to the giant camera and lifted it up, before handing it over to Braker. Braker, in return, took the camera and almost fell over because of how heavy it was.
“Here you go,” said Elijah. “This was your grandfather’s camera, and now it’s yours. I hope you’ll treat it with the care it so deserves.”
Braker, in response, began walking around with the camera, still nearly falling over a few times due to its weight.
“Thank you– Dad– but–” He groaned, setting the camera down. “Is there any way I can move it around with more ease? That thing is really heavy…”
Elijah paused– he hadn’t thought of that.
“Hm…”
Elijah thought to himself for a few moments, pacing around the room. Eventually, after a bit, he snapped his fingers.
“Got it!” he said, reaching over and taking the camera from him. “Let me just… take this for a few moments, please.”
“What are you going to do with it?” asked Braker.
“You’ll see!” said Elijah, carrying the camera away.
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About 10 or so minutes later Elijah came back, with the camera now propped up on a tripod that was on wheels. Braker, Walter, and Cuddles all looked on as Elijah handed Braker the tripod camera, with Braker looking down at it in shock.
“Alright,” said Elijah, “here you go. That should be light enough.”
Braker, a bit confused, grabbed on to the tripod– and to his delight, found that he could move it a lot more easily now that it was on wheels. He experimented for a bit with moving it around, and realized that it was a lot lighter now– in fact, it was able to move as easily as if he was pushing a stroller around. He grinned.
“Oh, this is a lot better,” he said. “Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome!” said Elijah happily. “Now you can go out there and do your whole ‘broadcasting good news live’ thing!”
“What are you going to do first?” asked Maria.
Braker smirked. Ever since he had met Walter and Cuddles, he knew full well what his first topic was going to be about.
“Oh… I think I know,” he said.
Elijah and Maria glanced at him in confusion.
“What do you mean?” asked Maria.
Braker glanced over at his two mons knowingly.
“You’ll see.”
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<Lenny~?> Cuddles asked Braker as he pushed the massive tripod camera through the streets of Wyndon. <What are we going to do with that thing, exactly?>
<Yes,> Walter agreed. <I’ve been wondering that myself as well.>
Braker smiled, eventually finding a place to put his camera down. He reached into his pocket and took out his Rotom Phone before heading over to UTurn- and subsequently, his UTurn channel, which as of yet had no videos. By now he had said goodbye to his parents, who had wished him luck on his journey in the future– Maria had told him to come back numerous days, especially if he caught any more mons.
“Simple,” he said. “We’re going to start making live news recordings.”
Upon hearing this, Cuddles let out a gasp of delight and ran over to Braker happily.
<Really?!> he cried out.
“Really,” said Braker.
<Can I be in the video with you?> Cuddles asked. <Please please please please please …?!>
“Of course you can, Cuddles,” said Braker. “As a matter of fact, I was planning for both you and Walter to be in the news video as well.”
Walter paused at this, slightly skeptical.
<You were ?> he asked.
“Indeed,” said Braker. “You two will be my ‘news assistants’, as it were. I’ve given you and the channel a name, even: GBC-2.”
Walter’s eyes lit up in recognition. <Oh, like how the news channel on TV usually is GBC-1!>
“Exactly,” said Braker. “And also because there’s two of you.”
<Thank you, Lenny~!> said Cuddles happily– before he paused, suddenly looking down a bit and looking sad. Braker looked at him in concern and knelt down to his level.
“Cuddles?” he asked. “Is something wrong?”
Cuddles looked up at Braker with his massive eyes, which were starting to well up.
<Lenny…> he said, <do you think they’ll be able to understand me?>
Braker smiled and pet Cuddles on the head gently.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ll tell you what, though; I can add subtitles to the UTurn video later on in editing.”
Cuddles brightened almost immediately.
<Really?> he asked. <You can do that?>
Braker nodded. “It’s been a feature in UTurn for years now.”
<Yaaaaay~> said Cuddles happily, jumping right into Braker’s arms. <Thank you, Lenny~>
Braker smiled and hugged him. “You’re welcome, Cuddles.”
After a few more moments of the two of them hugging– and Braker struggling incredibly hard to let go– Cuddles finally jumped down to the floor, while Braker walked over to his phone and began to set up the phone/camera sync. After a few more moments, everything was ready to go, and Braker turned to face Walter and Cuddles.
“Alright,” he said. “Are you two ready?”
The two mons nodded. Braker, taking that as his cue, started up the stream and pressed the play button.
He stood back, waiting until he was sure someone was watching.
“...is anyone here?” he asked. “Walter, are there people here?”
Walter went over to the phone and took a look. Sure enough, a few people were in the comments section, eager to see what was going on. A few of them, upon seeing the Wobbuffet, said hi.
<Yes,> said Walter, nodding.
“Good,” said Braker.
He straightened himself up, in an effort to appear more presentable.
“Good afternoon, viewers,” he said. “I am Leonard Braker, and I will be your anchorman and presenter for this first edition of GBC-2, providing the best there is to offer in the seldom-seen good news in a sea full of bad.”
He suddenly paused, wondering why this was coming so easily to him. Yes, he’d made an entire newspaper before, but he’d never actually anchored any news in his life, and certainly not live. Even so, though, he had a feeling that this… sudden charisma he’d gotten came from what he had learned in his childhood, from watching the newscasters there.
He motioned to Walter, who returned to his side, and Cuddles, who was on his shoulder.
“These are my co-anchormons,” he said, “my Wobbuffet, Walter, and my Galvantula, Cuddles.”
<Hello~!> said Cuddles.
“We will be bringing you the absolute best in good news every week, and today’s top story is absolutely an incredible piece,” Braker began. “For our top story this week: the sky has finally been patched. Yes, you heard that correctly. If you haven’t already found out from the countless news articles or from just looking up at the sky yourself, the Second Skybreak, caused a few years ago by the Feluvian evil Pokemon team known as Team Folklore, has finally been patched as a result of the efforts of William Elliot Gisnep and the Gisnep corporation. For approximately three years now the Skybreak caused all sorts of strange and unusual shenanigans to occur, including the breaking of the multiverse and the transporting of numerous people to the Kyrellik peninsula, including famous celebrities. The most prominent executives of the Gisnep corporation, however, led by Gisnep himself, defeated the Fanatic and patched the sky using multiversal Mobius technology as well as technology created by the Gisnep corporation. Every single person trapped in the Kyrellik Archipelago at that time was also subsequently returned. The Gisnep Corporation’s officially-sanctioned 5-person band known as the J-Team had no involvement at all with the patching– official sources have told me that the J-Team were explicitly told by Gisnep not to get involved.”
It was true– Braker had read the full article a few days prior.
“Our second story,” Braker continued, “is far more personal. To anybody who has seen Pokemon battle channels in recent months, I am very pleased to announce that the person you are currently watching on your screen has received a full Galarian badge medallion. Yes, I defeated Raihan a few days ago. I don’t necessarily know why I felt the need to bring up that piece of information; it seems like a vanity project; let’s move on now.”
<Wait a minute, there’s more?> asked Cuddles.
“Yes, absolutely,” said Braker. “For our third story…”
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And on it went.
For the next 20 or so minutes Braker, Walter, and Cuddles bombarded their captive viewing audience with all the good news stories they had heard over the past few months while they were battling the Gym Leaders. A Faller had been saved. The members of heavy metal band Disturbed (who had also been sucked through the Skybreak and transported to the Kyrell Archipelago) had stopped their show to perform CPR on someone before a lead-in into “The Light”. People were cleaning debris out of the Hoennian oceans. Finally, Walter and Cuddles gave a weather report and a pop culture report, respectively, and by the end of it all…
“That’s our show for the week. For GBC-2, I’m Leonard Braker.”
<I’m Cuddles~!>
<And I’m Walter, and that’s the way it is, June 18th, 2020.”
“Ha!” said Braker, laughing a bit as he recognized the reference. “Well, anyways, we’ll see you next week, same time, same day, same channel. This is GBC-2. Goodnight.”
With the broadcast now over, Walter went over and stopped the stream.
For the next 10 minutes or so afterwards Braker, Walter, and Cuddles all stared at each other in shock, wondering how on Earth they were able to pull that off. Eventually, however, Braker burst out into a fit of uproarious, upbeat laughter, grabbed his phone, detached it from the camera, and cried out two simple words:
“ONE TAKE!”
He burst into laughter again, then stared down in absolute shock and wonder at his phone. Walter and Cuddles came near him, both just as delighted.
<Well, that went very well,> said Walter.
“Y-you tell me!” said Braker happily. “I don’t even know how I just did that!”
<You have a natural on-camera charisma,> said Walter simply. <It suits you very well.>
<I can’t wait to see what the comments are~!> said Cuddles.
“Oh, I predict they’re going to be very positive,” said Braker. “I will admit, though, given that the whole broadcast was live, it almost felt like… like it was missing something.”
<Yes, I felt the same way,> said Walter. <You had to improvise a lot of the news stories, or at least your delivery for them. Do you think perhaps that next week you could script the video instead?>
Braker found himself instantly intrigued by the idea.
“Yes!” he said. “Scripting the video would be brilliant! I could do some editing at home every week– it would give me more work to do, and I quite like having a lot of work–”
<You like doing work?> asked Cuddles. <I thought this was supposed to be fun…>
“Well, it is fun,” said Braker. “For you, at least. For me? Oh, this is something I absolutely am going to keep doing. Just watch, Walter, Cuddles; next week we’re going to go to Feluv, and we’re going to get an interview with Gisnep; and it is going to be great …!”
—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And so it went, every single week, for almost a year or so.
Braker, Walter, and Cuddles traveled to region after region, city after city in the Pokemon world, spreading all sorts of good news. They did, in fact, get that interview with Gisnep, along with many, many other people– though they still never did get a chance to interview that one Trainer Braker had seen all those years ago. Over time the channel, GBC-2, grew in popularity, and soon enough millions upon millions of people were tuning in to see Leonard Braker, the person who had swept the Galar League gyms with a Wobbuffet and a Galvantula, deliver all the good news that they had missed alongside said Wobbuffet and Galvantula. Many people appreciated the Monese subtitles, and many more appreciated Cuddles and the fact that he was absolutely adorable.
As time went on, the videos kept getting better and better, with more scripts and editing– and yet, in the midst of it all, Braker did not take a single rest. Every single moment of his days he kept working and working– and while Walter was concerned, Cuddles knew that it all was worth it for Braker, because he knew that the end product would become something great.
That being said, things would eventually change.
—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
04/10/21, Ballonlea
There wasn’t much good news out of Ballonlea, Braker thought to himself as he left the city.
The last he’d heard of anything that had happened in Ballonlea, some Trainer had lost to Bede in dramatic fashion and given up all of their Pokemon. That certainly wasn’t good news– and it decidedly wasn’t going to make that week’s broadcast.
Braker was seated on a bench in the middle of the route, not sure as to what he was going to do or how he would proceed. He was sitting there, editing his script for that week, when all of a sudden, he saw somebody run past him, crying out:
“Breaking news out of Circhester! Breaking news out of Circhester!”
Immediately excited, Braker rushed to his feet and grabbed the person in question’s coat. The person, a man, stopped dead upon seeing him.
“Excuse me,” asked Braker, “but did you just say ‘breaking news out of Circhester’?”
The man took a few breaths.
“Yes, I did,” he said. “Are you Leonard Braker?”
“I am. Is it good news?”
“Oh, it’s marvelously good news, Mr. Braker, sir!” the man exclaimed. “A woman has just come out of–”
“That’s all I need to hear!” Braker cried, instantly rushing off on his way to the next city, with Walter and Cuddles in tow.
The man, meanwhile, a bit caught-off guard, chased after him.
“W-wait a second,” he asked. “Don’t you want to hear the news?”
Braker just laughed.
“Hear it?!” he asked. “I don’t want to hear the news…”
He held up his phone, showing his UTurn channel– which now had over 1,000,000 subscribers.
“...I want to experience it.”
END OF ARC 1 OF THE BRAKER TIMELINE
BRAKER TIMELINE
ARC 1
CHAPTER 7
06/18/20, Wyndon– Braker’s Parents’ House
After a long day’s worth of travel, Leonard Braker, now a Galar gym champion (though not yet a Galar champion) finally arrived back in Wyndon and headed towards his parents’ house.
Walter and Cuddles were both outside of their PokeBalls, and upon making it to the house where Braker’s parents lived, they glanced up at it– one rather matter-of-factly, the other with awe. It didn’t matter a bit to Cuddles how absolutely boring the house looked on the outside– completely beige, with brown trim on the black door and windows– to him, this was absolute heaven, and he ran up to the house as though it was the nearby stadium.
<Woahhh~!> he cried out. <This is where your parents live?!>
“Yes,” said Braker, stifling a laugh, “it is.”
<This place looks amazing!> Cuddles exclaimed. <I can’t wait to meet your parents~! Is that the only thing we’re going to do when we’re here?>
<It’s not,> said Walter. <Braker told us he came here because his father wanted to give him something, remember?>
<Oh, yeah,> said Cuddles. <I forgot about that.>
<At any rate,> said Walter, turning to face his Trainer, <it is a very impressive house your parents have.>
Braker smirked. “Just wait until you see mine. I’ll show you that later, though; for now, let’s head inside.”
The three of them promptly headed into the Braker parents’ household, where both Elijah and Maria Braker stood in the living room waiting. Upon seeing Braker, both parents let out a cheer of joy and ran towards their son; Maria in particular gave her son a massive hug.
“There ‘e is~!” she cried out. “Our Galar champion!”
Braker laughed, hugging her back.
“Not quite yet, mum, but thank you for that,” said Braker.
Immediately, Maria pulled away from the hug upon seeing Walter and Cuddles standing in front of her, the latter jumping up and down happily. The moment Maria saw Cuddles, she squealed and ran up to him.
“Oh~! These must be your Pokemon~!” she said. “Is this Cuddles?!”
“Yes,” said Braker.
“Oh my goodness~!” she squealed. “Your father told me you ‘ad a Galvantula on your team and I knew ‘e’d be cute, but I didn’t realize ‘e’d be this cute~! Awww, look at ‘is big puppy dog eyes! Isn’t ‘e just the cutest thing?!”
“You should hug him,” said Braker.
“Oh, I will!” said Maria, turning to face Cuddles. “Do you want a hug, little guy…?!”
<Yaaaay~! Of course!> said Cuddles, immediately jumping into Maria’s arms and wrapping his legs and pedipalps around him.
Maria, engulfed in a massive Galvantula hug, initially squealed and laughed at first– but then suddenly stopped, and practically sank to the floor in pure unbridled bliss and euphoria when she realized how soft and warm and huggable Cuddles actually was. She let out an elated gasp, then repeatedly nuzzled Cuddles happily.
“Elijah~!” she squeed. “You need to come over ‘ere and hug this Galvantula; he’s so soft and fluffy! I’m not even sure ‘e’s real!”
Elijah smiled, as he approached Braker and Walter while carrying a massive professional-looking film/newscaster camera.
“I’ll do that in a bit; don’t worry,” he said. “And I’m pretty sure he’s real.”
He set down the camera and knelt down in front of Walter, petting him on the head.
“So this is the Wobbuffet that pretty much won you the League!” he said with notable intrigue. “Walter, you said his name was?”
“Yes,” said Braker.
<Correct,> Walter responded, <and for what it’s worth, do give credit to Cuddles as well.>
“Well, hello there, Walter!” said Elijah, not understanding any of the Monese used. “It’s nice to meet you! I’ve never met a Wobbuffet with such an incredible knowledge of counterattacks before!”
<It’s nice to meet you as well,> said Walter, extending an arm which Elijah promptly shook.
Maria, meanwhile, had finally gotten up off of the floor and was carrying Cuddles in her arms while running over to her husband. Elijah turned to face her and found himself face-to-face with a squeeing Afro-Galarian and an innocent Galvantula.
“Look at ‘im, look at ‘im, look at ‘im~!” Maria squealed. “Hold ‘im! Isn’t he just the cutest thing in the world~?!”
Cuddles blinked up at Elijah and tilted his head. Maria, in response, screamed in happiness. After a few moments, Elijah blinked, then shrugged, then grabbed on to Cuddles and held him— only for his eyes to suddenly widen in shock. He held on to him for a few moments longer, then glanced up at Maria.
“You were right,” he said, “he is soft .”
“I told you!” said Maria. “Come on, just ‘old him a bit more, wontcha?!”
“...A little bit more,” said Elijah. “But remember, I still have to get to the–”
<WOAH!>
Cuddles suddenly jumped right out of Elijah’s arms and ran over to the massive camera that he had set down, catching both him and Maria off-guard. After a few moments, Elijah blinked.
“...well,” he said. “I guess he doesn’t want any more hugs, then.”
Cuddles happily looked up at the camera in adoration.
<What’s this camera doing here?> he asked. <By the gods, it’s huge ! Do you think I could crawl up into it and take a picture for myself?>
Walter just laughed, going up to Cuddles and picking him up off the floor.
<Actually,> said Walter, <I think that might be for Braker.>
“It is,” said Braker, approaching the two of them. “That’s my grandfather’s camera, after all.”
“Oh yeah!” Elijah suddenly cried out. “I can give you this now.”
He promptly walked over to the giant camera and lifted it up, before handing it over to Braker. Braker, in return, took the camera and almost fell over because of how heavy it was.
“Here you go,” said Elijah. “This was your grandfather’s camera, and now it’s yours. I hope you’ll treat it with the care it so deserves.”
Braker, in response, began walking around with the camera, still nearly falling over a few times due to its weight.
“Thank you– Dad– but–” He groaned, setting the camera down. “Is there any way I can move it around with more ease? That thing is really heavy…”
Elijah paused– he hadn’t thought of that.
“Hm…”
Elijah thought to himself for a few moments, pacing around the room. Eventually, after a bit, he snapped his fingers.
“Got it!” he said, reaching over and taking the camera from him. “Let me just… take this for a few moments, please.”
“What are you going to do with it?” asked Braker.
“You’ll see!” said Elijah, carrying the camera away.
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About 10 or so minutes later Elijah came back, with the camera now propped up on a tripod that was on wheels. Braker, Walter, and Cuddles all looked on as Elijah handed Braker the tripod camera, with Braker looking down at it in shock.
“Alright,” said Elijah, “here you go. That should be light enough.”
Braker, a bit confused, grabbed on to the tripod– and to his delight, found that he could move it a lot more easily now that it was on wheels. He experimented for a bit with moving it around, and realized that it was a lot lighter now– in fact, it was able to move as easily as if he was pushing a stroller around. He grinned.
“Oh, this is a lot better,” he said. “Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome!” said Elijah happily. “Now you can go out there and do your whole ‘broadcasting good news live’ thing!”
“What are you going to do first?” asked Maria.
Braker smirked. Ever since he had met Walter and Cuddles, he knew full well what his first topic was going to be about.
“Oh… I think I know,” he said.
Elijah and Maria glanced at him in confusion.
“What do you mean?” asked Maria.
Braker glanced over at his two mons knowingly.
“You’ll see.”
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<Lenny~?> Cuddles asked Braker as he pushed the massive tripod camera through the streets of Wyndon. <What are we going to do with that thing, exactly?>
<Yes,> Walter agreed. <I’ve been wondering that myself as well.>
Braker smiled, eventually finding a place to put his camera down. He reached into his pocket and took out his Rotom Phone before heading over to UTurn- and subsequently, his UTurn channel, which as of yet had no videos. By now he had said goodbye to his parents, who had wished him luck on his journey in the future– Maria had told him to come back numerous days, especially if he caught any more mons.
“Simple,” he said. “We’re going to start making live news recordings.”
Upon hearing this, Cuddles let out a gasp of delight and ran over to Braker happily.
<Really?!> he cried out.
“Really,” said Braker.
<Can I be in the video with you?> Cuddles asked. <Please please please please please …?!>
“Of course you can, Cuddles,” said Braker. “As a matter of fact, I was planning for both you and Walter to be in the news video as well.”
Walter paused at this, slightly skeptical.
<You were ?> he asked.
“Indeed,” said Braker. “You two will be my ‘news assistants’, as it were. I’ve given you and the channel a name, even: GBC-2.”
Walter’s eyes lit up in recognition. <Oh, like how the news channel on TV usually is GBC-1!>
“Exactly,” said Braker. “And also because there’s two of you.”
<Thank you, Lenny~!> said Cuddles happily– before he paused, suddenly looking down a bit and looking sad. Braker looked at him in concern and knelt down to his level.
“Cuddles?” he asked. “Is something wrong?”
Cuddles looked up at Braker with his massive eyes, which were starting to well up.
<Lenny…> he said, <do you think they’ll be able to understand me?>
Braker smiled and pet Cuddles on the head gently.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ll tell you what, though; I can add subtitles to the UTurn video later on in editing.”
Cuddles brightened almost immediately.
<Really?> he asked. <You can do that?>
Braker nodded. “It’s been a feature in UTurn for years now.”
<Yaaaaay~> said Cuddles happily, jumping right into Braker’s arms. <Thank you, Lenny~>
Braker smiled and hugged him. “You’re welcome, Cuddles.”
After a few more moments of the two of them hugging– and Braker struggling incredibly hard to let go– Cuddles finally jumped down to the floor, while Braker walked over to his phone and began to set up the phone/camera sync. After a few more moments, everything was ready to go, and Braker turned to face Walter and Cuddles.
“Alright,” he said. “Are you two ready?”
The two mons nodded. Braker, taking that as his cue, started up the stream and pressed the play button.
He stood back, waiting until he was sure someone was watching.
“...is anyone here?” he asked. “Walter, are there people here?”
Walter went over to the phone and took a look. Sure enough, a few people were in the comments section, eager to see what was going on. A few of them, upon seeing the Wobbuffet, said hi.
<Yes,> said Walter, nodding.
“Good,” said Braker.
He straightened himself up, in an effort to appear more presentable.
“Good afternoon, viewers,” he said. “I am Leonard Braker, and I will be your anchorman and presenter for this first edition of GBC-2, providing the best there is to offer in the seldom-seen good news in a sea full of bad.”
He suddenly paused, wondering why this was coming so easily to him. Yes, he’d made an entire newspaper before, but he’d never actually anchored any news in his life, and certainly not live. Even so, though, he had a feeling that this… sudden charisma he’d gotten came from what he had learned in his childhood, from watching the newscasters there.
He motioned to Walter, who returned to his side, and Cuddles, who was on his shoulder.
“These are my co-anchormons,” he said, “my Wobbuffet, Walter, and my Galvantula, Cuddles.”
<Hello~!> said Cuddles.
“We will be bringing you the absolute best in good news every week, and today’s top story is absolutely an incredible piece,” Braker began. “For our top story this week: the sky has finally been patched. Yes, you heard that correctly. If you haven’t already found out from the countless news articles or from just looking up at the sky yourself, the Second Skybreak, caused a few years ago by the Feluvian evil Pokemon team known as Team Folklore, has finally been patched as a result of the efforts of William Elliot Gisnep and the Gisnep corporation. For approximately three years now the Skybreak caused all sorts of strange and unusual shenanigans to occur, including the breaking of the multiverse and the transporting of numerous people to the Kyrellik peninsula, including famous celebrities. The most prominent executives of the Gisnep corporation, however, led by Gisnep himself, defeated the Fanatic and patched the sky using multiversal Mobius technology as well as technology created by the Gisnep corporation. Every single person trapped in the Kyrellik Archipelago at that time was also subsequently returned. The Gisnep Corporation’s officially-sanctioned 5-person band known as the J-Team had no involvement at all with the patching– official sources have told me that the J-Team were explicitly told by Gisnep not to get involved.”
It was true– Braker had read the full article a few days prior.
“Our second story,” Braker continued, “is far more personal. To anybody who has seen Pokemon battle channels in recent months, I am very pleased to announce that the person you are currently watching on your screen has received a full Galarian badge medallion. Yes, I defeated Raihan a few days ago. I don’t necessarily know why I felt the need to bring up that piece of information; it seems like a vanity project; let’s move on now.”
<Wait a minute, there’s more?> asked Cuddles.
“Yes, absolutely,” said Braker. “For our third story…”
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And on it went.
For the next 20 or so minutes Braker, Walter, and Cuddles bombarded their captive viewing audience with all the good news stories they had heard over the past few months while they were battling the Gym Leaders. A Faller had been saved. The members of heavy metal band Disturbed (who had also been sucked through the Skybreak and transported to the Kyrell Archipelago) had stopped their show to perform CPR on someone before a lead-in into “The Light”. People were cleaning debris out of the Hoennian oceans. Finally, Walter and Cuddles gave a weather report and a pop culture report, respectively, and by the end of it all…
“That’s our show for the week. For GBC-2, I’m Leonard Braker.”
<I’m Cuddles~!>
<And I’m Walter, and that’s the way it is, June 18th, 2020.”
“Ha!” said Braker, laughing a bit as he recognized the reference. “Well, anyways, we’ll see you next week, same time, same day, same channel. This is GBC-2. Goodnight.”
With the broadcast now over, Walter went over and stopped the stream.
For the next 10 minutes or so afterwards Braker, Walter, and Cuddles all stared at each other in shock, wondering how on Earth they were able to pull that off. Eventually, however, Braker burst out into a fit of uproarious, upbeat laughter, grabbed his phone, detached it from the camera, and cried out two simple words:
“ONE TAKE!”
He burst into laughter again, then stared down in absolute shock and wonder at his phone. Walter and Cuddles came near him, both just as delighted.
<Well, that went very well,> said Walter.
“Y-you tell me!” said Braker happily. “I don’t even know how I just did that!”
<You have a natural on-camera charisma,> said Walter simply. <It suits you very well.>
<I can’t wait to see what the comments are~!> said Cuddles.
“Oh, I predict they’re going to be very positive,” said Braker. “I will admit, though, given that the whole broadcast was live, it almost felt like… like it was missing something.”
<Yes, I felt the same way,> said Walter. <You had to improvise a lot of the news stories, or at least your delivery for them. Do you think perhaps that next week you could script the video instead?>
Braker found himself instantly intrigued by the idea.
“Yes!” he said. “Scripting the video would be brilliant! I could do some editing at home every week– it would give me more work to do, and I quite like having a lot of work–”
<You like doing work?> asked Cuddles. <I thought this was supposed to be fun…>
“Well, it is fun,” said Braker. “For you, at least. For me? Oh, this is something I absolutely am going to keep doing. Just watch, Walter, Cuddles; next week we’re going to go to Feluv, and we’re going to get an interview with Gisnep; and it is going to be great …!”
—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And so it went, every single week, for almost a year or so.
Braker, Walter, and Cuddles traveled to region after region, city after city in the Pokemon world, spreading all sorts of good news. They did, in fact, get that interview with Gisnep, along with many, many other people– though they still never did get a chance to interview that one Trainer Braker had seen all those years ago. Over time the channel, GBC-2, grew in popularity, and soon enough millions upon millions of people were tuning in to see Leonard Braker, the person who had swept the Galar League gyms with a Wobbuffet and a Galvantula, deliver all the good news that they had missed alongside said Wobbuffet and Galvantula. Many people appreciated the Monese subtitles, and many more appreciated Cuddles and the fact that he was absolutely adorable.
As time went on, the videos kept getting better and better, with more scripts and editing– and yet, in the midst of it all, Braker did not take a single rest. Every single moment of his days he kept working and working– and while Walter was concerned, Cuddles knew that it all was worth it for Braker, because he knew that the end product would become something great.
That being said, things would eventually change.
—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
04/10/21, Ballonlea
There wasn’t much good news out of Ballonlea, Braker thought to himself as he left the city.
The last he’d heard of anything that had happened in Ballonlea, some Trainer had lost to Bede in dramatic fashion and given up all of their Pokemon. That certainly wasn’t good news– and it decidedly wasn’t going to make that week’s broadcast.
Braker was seated on a bench in the middle of the route, not sure as to what he was going to do or how he would proceed. He was sitting there, editing his script for that week, when all of a sudden, he saw somebody run past him, crying out:
“Breaking news out of Circhester! Breaking news out of Circhester!”
Immediately excited, Braker rushed to his feet and grabbed the person in question’s coat. The person, a man, stopped dead upon seeing him.
“Excuse me,” asked Braker, “but did you just say ‘breaking news out of Circhester’?”
The man took a few breaths.
“Yes, I did,” he said. “Are you Leonard Braker?”
“I am. Is it good news?”
“Oh, it’s marvelously good news, Mr. Braker, sir!” the man exclaimed. “A woman has just come out of–”
“That’s all I need to hear!” Braker cried, instantly rushing off on his way to the next city, with Walter and Cuddles in tow.
The man, meanwhile, a bit caught-off guard, chased after him.
“W-wait a second,” he asked. “Don’t you want to hear the news?”
Braker just laughed.
“Hear it?!” he asked. “I don’t want to hear the news…”
He held up his phone, showing his UTurn channel– which now had over 1,000,000 subscribers.
“...I want to experience it.”
END OF ARC 1 OF THE BRAKER TIMELINE
-
Goldenheart388
- Posts: 17
- Joined: 2021-Jun-26 21:16
Re: THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
BOND TIMELINE
ARC 1: THE SINFUL BEGINNINGS ARC
CHAPTER 1
Nacrene City Library– 04/04/18
In all of its many years of existence, the Nacrene City Library– part of the 3-way massive building that also included the Gym and the Museum– had never experienced so many people coming to it at once.
People were absolutely crowded into that place, and none of them were there for a Gym Battle. Of course, the Nacrene City Gym wasn’t really used that much anyways anymore– Lenora was far too focused on her work as the Museum’s director to bother with that. Still though, even she had to admit that she hadn’t seen the building this bustling with people since the Gym days– and it was all because there was a brand-new book on the market that was going to be presented at this year’s Nacrene City Book Fair.
And it was selling like hotcakes.
Which meant that if David Bond, world-renowned archeologist and linguist, wanted to get his hands on a copy, he, his wife Dinah, and their daughter Kimberly would have to get to it as fast as possible.
The three of them were running as fast as they could into the library– or at least, David was running as fast as he possibly could. Dinah, by contrast, looked a lot more annoyed with the fact that her husband was rushing so much, and Kim…
Well, if anything, she was moreso curious than anything else.
After a few minutes of walking, she eventually tapped her mother on the shoulder. Dinah looked down at her, raising an eyebrow somewhat judgementally.
“Yes, dear?” she asked.
“Mother,” Kim responded, “is it alright with you if I take a look at the book that my Father is getting once he buys it?”
Dinah, in response, just laughed.
“No~!” she said, laughing a bit. “No, sweetie, of course not. That book is blatantly Giratinic; you know that. Don’t even bother.”
“Oh,” said Kim sadly, glancing down at her 2112 shirt. “Right.”
“Besides,” said Dinah, “what on Earth do you even need it for? You’re nothing special, dear; why get yourself invested in all of these new things? You’re going to grow up to be a great linguist one day, just like myself; what on Earth would you need a copy of this for?”
She laughed a bit again.
“Even then, though,” she said, “as great of a linguist you’ll be, I doubt you’ll ever be as good as me. Or your father.”
Kim glanced up at her mother, a bit hurt by that.
“...why not?” she asked.
“Oh, that’s easy,” said Dinah. “We worked as hard as we possibly could to get where we are. We didn’t slack off on our studies because they ‘came easy’ to us. We didn’t envy other people. We didn’t fly into rages whenever things didn’t go our way. We were good Arceans.”
Dinah shot a glare at her daughter upon her saying this. Kim winced a bit, but quickly responded.
“...I don’t think that makes sense to me,” she said. “I still get good grades in school. I’ve gotten all A’s for years.”
Dinah sighed.
“And yet,” she said, “you still haven’t done enough. You still sin.”
Kim sighed, then glanced down at her 2112 shirt again. Her mother was right, and she knew it just as much as everybody else did. Every moment of her life was spent making the wrong decisions, and making bad first impressions on people, and sinning so, so much that both her mother and her Arcean pastor would absolutely berate her for it, and they had every right to. It was true– Kim did great on her homework and tests, but she still didn’t tend to fully pay attention in her classes, and she very often did not study for any of her tests– that was Sloth, right there. She had had a tendency to be very stubborn and driven by things, and often would become very defensive when things didn’t go her way– Wrath and Pride, two sins in one, and one of them was the absolute worst to boot. But most importantly of all, she tended to look up to a lot of people– and wanted to be as great as they were. That, she knew– that was her worst sin of them all.
Envy.
It was something she tried to hide, and yet at the same time it was something she couldn’t fully get rid of. Every single time that someone did something that she thought was cool, she had to get in on it herself. She had to learn how to do it. She had to see if she could do it. Why on Earth she was like that, she didn’t know, but she had a pretty good theory as to why.
“You know that,” Dinah suddenly broke in.
Kim was promptly broken out of her reverie of self-hatred, and glanced up at her mother, who was continuing to glare down at her.
“Don’t you?” she continued.
Kim, rather shamefaced, looked down and nodded.
“I know,” she said.
“Good,” said Dinah. “You know full well I’m going to hold you accountable for these kinds of things. I’m not like your father; he’s far too permissive.” She sighed. “You know, Kim, you really are nothing special. You know that as well as I do. The only thing you know how to do is disappoint people over and over again.”
Kim didn’t say anything else; she was too ashamed to even bother.
By this point, Dinah and Kim had opened the door to the library, only for them to find David at the front desk, having just received an approximately 200-page encyclopedia of sorts that was almost completely black in color with golden text on it. He laughed uproariously, holding the book up in his hands, then ran over to Kim and Dinah with it.
“Hahaaa~!” he cried out. “I got it~! Take a look at this, Kim!”
He showed the title of the book to Kim, whose eyes immediately lit up with wonder. On the cover, written in bright cursive golden text, were the following words:
THE PRAX OBSCURA, 2ND EDITION
COLTON KENDALL REVER
David grinned.
“A copy of Reh-ver’s second edition,” he said. “Pretty neat, right? There’s gotta be at least something mystical and ancient in this thing that I can use for my archeology studies.”
Dinah sighed and held her hand up to her face.
“David, why did you buy that book?” she asked. “There is no way that book has anything to do with your career. Failing that, Kim asked me if she could read it, and there is absolutely no way–”
She was suddenly cut off guard by David lighting up at the sound of Kim’s name.
“Kim?” asked David. “You wanna read this book?”
Kim eagerly nodded.
“Well, then, of course I’ll let you read it!” said David.
“Y-you will?!” asked Kim.
“Sure thing!” said David. “Besides, if there’s any indication my daughter’s on the Auric Spectrum, it’ll be really exciting to see!”
Kim immediately broke into a big grin and ran towards her father to give her a hug, only for Dinah to suddenly intervene, putting a hand between both of them.
“What?!” shrieked Dinah. “No! Absolutely not! I will not have my daughter reading Giratinian books! David, you go and put that back right now!”
“Aww, come on, Dinah,” said David. “What’s the worst that can happen?”
“I’ll tell you!” Dinah snapped. “Our daughter’s already sinned so much already; I’m not going to have her be further corrupted by a guide to literal Giratinist darkness attacks! Much less ones that can, apparently, set you on fire! She could wind up in the Distortion World within seconds!”
“Yes, Firescura is dangerous,” said David, “but it’s the literal last thing in the book, and the author himself acknowledges that it’s dangerous! If anything we can start her off with the easy stuff like Snarl. That’ll be simple! She’s not going to go to the Distortion World or anything like that!”
Dinah sighed, and snatched the book out of David’s hands.
“Well, I’m certainly not having my daughter read a book by this–” –she glanced at the cover– “this ‘Reh-ver’ person!” she snapped. “If I meet him, I’m going to tear his head off!”
She walked off, shooting a glance at both Kim and David.
“Come on,” she said. “We’re getting out of here.”
Kim looked over at her mother, and then sighed with defeat. Things really hadn’t gone according to plan after all. David, however, stood there for a few moments in resolute determination, then grinned and winked over at Kim.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m going to find a way to get that book back from her. I want to see how well my daughter can do at Obscura powers!”
That made Kim smile a bit, though soon afterwards she went back to looking away shyly. David blinked.
“Oh?” he asked. “What’s the matter?”
“...Father,” Kim started, “do you think that Reh-ver’s book is actually Giratinist? Should I… not have it?”
David paused for a bit, before laughing.
“HA…!” he said. “You kidding?! Not in the least bit! Giratina’s not even a Dark-type!”
Kim blinked.
“...why does that matter specifically?” she asked. “Isn’t there such a thing as Ghost-type Obscura, too?”
David chuckled a bit. “You’ll see what I mean when we reach the foreword.”
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As soon as the Bond family got home from the Nacrene Library, Dinah Bond immediately put the Prax Obscura away in a safe place where nobody could find it. Or, rather, almost nobody. As soon as Dinah went upstairs to head to sleep, David Bond eventually found the Prax Obscura copy, and when he brought it over to Kim— who was sitting on her couch listening to RUSH music in her headphones— the latter immediately tore her headphones off and ran down to read the book.
“You got it?!” she cried.
“Yep!” said David. “Go on, open it up to the foreword!”
Kim, in response, happily flipped through the pages of the book, eventually coming to a page labeled FOREWORD. Underneath it, there was the following text:
I know what you might be thinking - “what the hell is a Prax Obscura and how can I use it?” Well, here’s the thing. You’d need to have obscuric potential to use it. And there’s no real way to know if you have the ability to use it without Gisnep telling you - that’s what happened to me, anyway.
But you’re not here for Gisnep anecdotes.
You’re here to learn Dark Pulse.
Kim laughed a bit.
“Reh-ver’s funny,” she said, before she continued reading.
Fortunately for you, this book manages to arrange all the facets of Obscura usage into ascending difficulty, which the original book didn’t really do. Old musty tomes don’t really care for difficulty progression - no test marketing or Quality Assurance whatsoever. And that’s where this book plans to differ - more clear and concise explanations, as well as more techniques than the old book provided.
Of course, that technically means the book is cowritten by my Pokémon, at least the ones with Dark and Ghost-type attacks. As a Dark Obscuric, I’ve left the Ghost Obscurics with the short straw. My bad.
“Ohhhh-!” said Kim, remembering what her father had told her before. “That was what you meant.”
“Yep!” said David. “Go on, keep reading!”
Kim nodded, then continued:
But to all those who think Snarl is easier to perform than Quick Attack, press onward and we shall learn together.
Oh, I never answered your questions on what the original Prax Obscura is. It’s a forbidden tome of manuscripts I found in an abandoned Gisnep studio filled to the brim with explanations on Obscuric techniques. They aren’t even necessarily attacks - more on that later. For now, just know that if you can make use of this book, you have been blessed with a gift. What you do with it is your decision, but know you cannot hold me accountable. The future is yours; carry the knowledge in this book with you.
And if that means you have to lug around a 200+ page encyclopedia with you, so be it. I wish you the best of luck, as I doubt I had it.
- C. K. Rever
Colton Kendall “Talbain” Rever
“Well?” asked David. “What did you think?”
Kim grinned.
“I want to keep going,” she said. “If there’s any chance I can do these things, I want to know exactly how to do them.”
“That’s my girl!” David said. “Alright, then; time for the easiest lesson.”
He turned the page, and directly opposite a blank page was one labeled:
SNARL
Kim blinked.
“Snarl?” she asked. “That’s a Pokémon move!”
“Yep,” said David. “This can be used by both people and Pokémon alike. I’ve got a few Dark-type mons, so I figured this would be a great resource for them to learn Dark-type moves. That’s part of why I got the book in the first place.”
Kim blinked— and then remembered that her father had both a Scrafty and a Hydreigon.
“Right…!” she said. “And apparently if you’re an Obscuric, you can use these moves, too…”
“Yep,” said David.
“Hm,” said Kim. “Well, this is apparently the easiest lesson in the book, so let’s see how well I can do.”
She took a look at the page in front of her, and saw that it read:
If you're anything like me, you have a lot of experience with being frustrated all the time. Sometimes you just want to shout, but maybe it's more productive to scream at something. No need for words, just noises.
Kim’s eyes widened.
“I… don’t quite know if that’s a good sign,” she said. “I’m not really one to get frustrated all the time. Defensive, yes, but constantly frustrated… no.”
“Well, defensiveness can still work,” said David. “Wonder what he’s so frustrated about though.”
Kim shrugged, then continued to read on.
The thing about Snarl that makes it a complete beginner trap sometimes - speaking from experience there! - is that it doesn't require much focusing to perform. It's all loose, disorganized and only gets weaponized proper by being directed in the general direction of your target. Also, it can hurt your throat. Remember to drink water often; using these skills can take a lot out of you when you start practicing.
As soon as she read that, Kim promptly headed out of the room and went into the kitchen; she came back with a bottle of water a few minutes later. David grinned.
“Oh, you’re going to actually try and do it, aren’t you?!” he said.
Kim nodded. “Just as soon as I’m done reading the excerpt.”
With that said, she continued to read:
Now, despite what similar moves like Hyper Voice and Boomburst may show, volume is not equivalent to efficacy. Be smart about the energy you put in to these moves. You're using Snarl, not Roar. The point isn't to make the enemy recoil with the sound of your anger, but to let them know how angry you are.
(Or aren't. Being a Dark-type is all about being deceptive.)
Kim laughed, as she had done before.
“True,” she said. “That is what being a Dark-type is about.”
“Well,” said David, “are you ready to try it?”
Kim was about to say something, but eventually stopped and glanced up at the stairway, in the direction of her mother’s room. From upstairs she could hear her mother, snoring away, and shook her head. The last thing she wanted to do right now was wake up her mother by Snarling repeatedly, both for her mother’s sake as well as her own.
“Not… right now,” she said. “I don’t want to wake up Mother with my repeated Snarling.”
David smiled, albeit a bit nervously as he remembered that Dinah was still upstairs.
“Well… alright, then,” he said. “We should probably continue reading this section, the—”
But Kim didn’t turn the page.
Instead, she started furiously flipping through pages, skipping right past the easier facets and going straight to the middle of the book. David held up his hands, blinking in shock as he stared over at his daughter.
“K-Kim?!” asked David in shock. “What are you doing? Don’t you want to start with the easier stuff first?”
Kim didn’t answer; she just kept flipping through pages until she eventually stopped on one labeled ILLUSIONS in big bold letters. David scratched his head.
“You want to learn about illusions already?” he asked. “A-alright, then… what does it say?”
Kim glanced over at the page and read it over:
So you're walking the forests of Unova, seeking out somewhere quiet, the occasional chatter of the native fauna around you probably starting to grate on your nerves, or just distracting you from your racing thoughts. Next thing you know you've stumbled over a root, and when you pick yourself up off the floor, it's nighttime. Confused and slightly intimidated, you try to turn back, and you hear something giving chase behind you. You make it out alive, but now it's daytime again?
Congratulations, you just encountered a Zoroark and got caught in a—
“—PFFFHAHAHAHAHAHAHA—!”
The relatively blunt timing of that statement made Kim laugh so uproariously that she didn’t even bother finishing the excerpt in her head. David blinked as Kim just continued laughing, then leaned in to the book.
“…That was funny to you?” David asked.
Kim just continued to laugh, albiet less so than she had when she had first read the statement. She handed the book over to David.
“A-are you kidding…?” Kim laughed. “That was hilarious! You need to have a look at it!”
David, now somewhat curious, took a look over at the book and chuckled a bit.
“I mean,” he said “it’s a bit funny, but I wouldn’t want to run into a Zoroark myself. What’s the rest of it say?”
It took Kim a bit of time to recover from how hilarious she thought the author’s timing was, but eventually she finally managed to calm down and continued reading:
The thing to note about illusions is that they can fool the senses, but different illusions need to work on each individual sense. Obscura's only tangible in the same way that smoke is, unless you actively make it hold its shape enough that you can use attacks with it.1
Noticing the footnote, Kim took a look at the bottom of the page and saw-
1- See Night Slash and Dark Pulse.
“Hm,” said Kim. “So there are other moves taught in this book besides Snarl.”
She went on:
So the question remains, how do you create something like what that Zoroark you never encountered did?
The thing about any aura of any Type is that it has the color that you expect it to have. Compare Aura Sphere and Focus Blast, as two examples.
“Oh, I get it,” said David. “They’re both Fighting-type attacks with blue Aura.”
“Correct,” said Kim, “and I assume that Dark-type Obscuric aura is black.”
She kept reading:
The self is an evolving construct, and what can change from day to day varies so wildly that the real color of the soul is all of the colors, and they only have the meaning we ascribe to them.
By belief in what the color of something you make should be, that is what its color is. You hold the brush, so to speak, and with the same focus into something's shape, you can similarly influence its color.
“Well, then I suppose that if I were to use a Dark-type Obscura move,” said Kim, “it would be black. I’m fairly certain I’m reading that correctly.”
“I think so,” said David.
Kim blinked.
“Hold on, though,” she said. “If Snarl is the easiest part of the book… then what’s the hardest?”
She flipped around in the book for a bit, eventually stopping when she came to the end of the book and saw, in big bold letters, the word:
FIRESCURA
David leaned over.
“That… is very dangerous,” he said. “Are you sure you want to attempt that, Kim?”
“Ohhhhh no,” she said, almost immediately. “This is the hardest skill in the book and it has the word ‘fire’ in it. If I did this without substantial practice Mother would certainly tell me I would be going to the Distortion World.” Kim signed a bit, then went back to the book. “I merely want to see what this consists of. Now then…”
She turned her attention back to the book and saw that it read:
So you've either diligently studied everything this book has to offer, read it through without practicing, or came here to the back to see how to perform the hardest thing this book has to offer so that you could see how much progress you're going to make after actually studying this thing.
“The last one,” said Kim.
Well, I got some bad news for you. We're going to have to start this off with a chemistry lesson, so unless you have the patience and know-how for that you're going to be in a serious Bind.
“Hah!” Kim laughed again. “He makes dumb puns, too?”
“I took a chemistry class,” said David. “Whatever he’s teaching, I should know this.”
So let's review the three things necessary for the creation of fire—
“Heat, fuel, and oxygen,” said David, laughing. “Did he really think I didn’t know that…?! Too easy. In the hands of a well-trained Obscuric with a chemistry degree, this would be a cinch.”
That last part is easy enough, take a breath and you have one of the three things necessary for fire.
But here's where things start to get a little tricky.
“…a little?” asked Kim. “This is the hardest thing in the book!”
The thing to know about obscura, and illusions as a whole, is that they aren't just hard-light creations that can be dispelled. They require dedicated focus and effort, energy, to be held together, such that they can influence the world, either by what people see or what you strike people with.
Throughout this entire book the finer details of Obscura have been played so fast and loose that your First Impression was likely that it was just something that existed within you.
“Heh, more puns,” said David.
Nope, it's all conscious, and the reason it appears so loose is exactly because you've been playing fast and loose with it the entire time. I told you to focus at the beginning of this book, and if you didn't you have no one to blame but yourself.
Kim stopped.
David stopped.
The two of them looked at each other, then back at the book, then back at each other.
“—hey wait a minute!”
Without any hesitation, Kim immediately flipped back to the beginning of the book, reading through the foreword and the passage on Snarl, until eventually she stopped.
“…Oh,” she said. “Never mind; there it is.”
“Huh,” said David. “I could have sworn that he didn’t say anything about focusing at the beginning of the book…”
“Can I keep reading?”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
“Alright then.”
With that said, Kim continued to read:
Anyway, the thing about fuel is that, in its purest form, it's energy stored in the form of some kind of substance; your energy put into making it take some sort of solid form. So if you've been holding it together well, instead of just manipulating black smoke and only focusing when you need to, then you've got the fuel variable of this equation solved for.
And as for heat, there exist tactile illusions that can create the illusion of heat, but don't let yourself be fooled. The uncaring universe will not fall for illusions like our fallible human minds can. If you want to light that fire, you will need actual heat from some sort of source.
“Well, that should be simple,” said David. “We have matches and a fireplace.”
Luckily, the human body, at 37 Celsius—
Kim paused.
“What’s that in Fareinheit?” she asked.
David shrugged.
—has its own supply of energy able to be transferred into heat at a moment's notice. However much energy you put into keeping your "fuelscura" stable is the amount and intensity of heat with which it will light up. So be very, very careful, and maybe just don't bother practicing this unless you have someone on standby with a fire extinguisher, lest you Wish You Were Here yourself so hard you become the cigar they tell you to have.
“Heeey! Pink Floyd fan!” David cried. “Nice!”
This is going to drain you very fast, and very hard, if you don't have proper control. You will most likely burn your hand at least once and feel cold everywhere else for a while once or twice. You're a Dark-type, not a Fire-type.
“Unless you’re a Houndour or Houndoom, in which case you’re both,” said David.
Treat secondary types with great caution, and remember the illusion of fire can become very real, very fast.
Dispelling the flame is as easy as cutting off the heat by letting the flame float away, or by cutting off oxygen by closing your fist on the flame. If you cut off the fuel by losing focus, your fire will spread, and it may even spread on to something you care about. By attempting to create fuelscura and/or light it you waive all legal liability against me and my publisher.
“…I am not even going to bother with that,” said Kim simply.
“Me either,” said David. “Last thing I want to do is be involved in any kind of legal troubles.” He turned to face Kim. “Do you want to see if you have Obscuric potential now?”
Kim paused for a few moments, then nodded. “I think I’ll need something to Snarl at, though.”
Before she could have a chance to think, though, she suddenly heard footsteps coming from upstairs. Recognizing the sound of them in an instant, Kim turned to look over at David.
“It’s Mother,” she said. “Quick! Put the book away! I can’t let her find it!”
David nodded and grabbed the Prax Obscura— but he was a bit too slow.
Within a matter of seconds, Dinah Bond had made her way down the stairs– and when she saw David, Kim, and the Prax Obscura together in the same room, there was only one conclusion in her mind. She pointed at Kim, her eyes widened in horror.
“H-how did you find that?!” she exclaimed. “I told you not to get your hands on that Giratinist tome!”
Kim instantly found herself looking down, shamefaced; David, seeing this, sprang to his feet.
“Hey, I told her she could look at my copy of the book,” he protested. “That isn’t going to harm her in any way.”
“Oh, yes it is!” Dinah snapped. “You’ve corrupted her, David! Sooner or later she’s going to get sent to the Distortion World, and it’ll be all your fault!”
David just laughed. “How can the simple act of reading a book send my daughter to the Distortion World?”
“If it’s reading a book like that it can! Now I need to make sure she hasn’t been corrupted!”
David smirked. “Good luck with that.”
Dinah didn’t say anything at first, she just continued to glare at her husband, before turning her attention to her daughter. Her face softened for a few moments, before she reached into a bag that she had on her and pulled out a PokeBall.
Soon afterwards, she threw it out.
“Lo!” she said. “Behold, Indeedee!”
The PokeBall hit the floor, and in a flash of blue light a female Indeedee emerged from it. Kim looked up for a brief second, not knowing what to think other than that the female Indeedee was cute. Indeedee waved at Kim, only to be suddenly interrupted by Dinah, saying something to the Indeedee in Kyrellik that Kim couldn’t understand. After a few moments, the Indeedee nodded, before her eyes began to glow blue.
Soon afterwards, Kim herself began to glow blue, and she felt her mind suddenly begin to clear, almost as if someone– or something– were reading it. Horrified, she began to realize what was happening, and frantically began to tell the Indeedee mentally to not read her mind– and yet it didn’t work.
The Indeedee’s eyes suddenly began to glow brighter and brighter as Psychic power flooded through her. David’s eyes widened with rage, and Dinah’s with horror.
“What?” she suddenly asked, in Galarian now. “What’s the matter?! Is she corrupted?!”
The Indeedee dared not answer; her eyes instead continued to glow brighter and brighter. Dinah looked over at her stunned, slightly panicking daughter for a second, then nodded.
“If that Giratinian tome has corrupted her,” she said, “then there’s only one way to find out! Hit her with everything you’ve got! We must remove the corruption!”
“Dinah!” shouted David. “What the hell are you–?!”
Before he got to say anything further, though, the Indeedee suddenly released a massive amount of Psychic energy, which hit Kim, threw her against the wall, and knocked her backwards. Kim herself found herself lifted up off of the floor, she felt her head hit the wall… and then everything around her went black.
—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“...Dear Arceus, let it be known you have brought upon us a great miracle tonight; that my daughter Kimberly Bond has not, in fact, been corrupted by the Giratinian tome of darkness known as the Prax Obscura…”
“Kim! Kim, can you hear me?! Say something!”
“Urrghhh…”
Kim slowly blinked and opened her eyes, only to find staring down at her both of her parents, who were eyeing her with two different expressions. David’s was one of concern– and eventually, upon seeing Kim open her eyes– one of immense relief– while Dinah remained relatively stoic the entire time, albeit with her hands clasped and with her muttering prayers under her breath. David ran up to her, delighted.
“Kim!” he cried out. “You’re alive! Thank goodness!”
Kim blinked, then fully opened her eyes. From what had hit her she half-expected that she would be in the hospital, but she was pleasantly surprised to find herself in her own bed. Dinah scoffed.
“Of course she’s alive,” said Dinah. “I told you that she would be. At the very least, I’m just happy to know that that book didn’t corrupt my daughter.” She turned to face her Indeedee, who was standing right next to her. “Come on, Indeedee. Let’s go.”
She and her Indeedee promptly left the room, and as soon as the door had shut behind them Kim went up to her father and gave him a massive hug.
“Oh, Father!” she said. “Thank goodness I didn’t wake up in the hospital; with the way that Psychic-type move hit me I would have thought myself dead.”
“Yep,” said David, giving her a bit of a sad smile.
Kim looked down– and all of a sudden something came to her.
“...wait a minute,” she said. “That Psychic-type move hit me.”
David nodded.
“T-then… then that means…” Kim muttered, a sense of dread welling up in her chest as she realized the full extent of what that meant.
“I’m afraid so.”
Kim blinked, and looked down, and noticed the Prax Obscura sitting on her bed, knowing full well that she could never use it. In a matter of a few seconds, tears started to come to her eyes.
Her mother had been right.
She really was nothing special.
She felt her father put his hand on her shoulder, but it did nothing to prevent the tears from flowing, most of all because she felt that feeling again.
Whoever this person was– this “Colton Kendall” person– he was an Obscuric. He had powers that she would never be able to access. She would never be able to experience things like illusionary creation or even Snarling at people for as long as she could live. She had absolutely nothing.
…except envy, of course. And all the other sins in the world.
She kept sobbing, trying desperately to push the envy out of her mind, but it didn’t work. She had no choice. Whoever this person was– this author of the Prax Obscura– she was going to find him one day, and she was going to learn something from him.
Clearly– clearly– he had a lot of potential that she didn’t.
Clearly he didn’t disappoint everybody, including himself, at every turn.
Clearly he wasn’t a sinner.
BOND TIMELINE
ARC 1: THE SINFUL BEGINNINGS ARC
CHAPTER 1
Nacrene City Library– 04/04/18
In all of its many years of existence, the Nacrene City Library– part of the 3-way massive building that also included the Gym and the Museum– had never experienced so many people coming to it at once.
People were absolutely crowded into that place, and none of them were there for a Gym Battle. Of course, the Nacrene City Gym wasn’t really used that much anyways anymore– Lenora was far too focused on her work as the Museum’s director to bother with that. Still though, even she had to admit that she hadn’t seen the building this bustling with people since the Gym days– and it was all because there was a brand-new book on the market that was going to be presented at this year’s Nacrene City Book Fair.
And it was selling like hotcakes.
Which meant that if David Bond, world-renowned archeologist and linguist, wanted to get his hands on a copy, he, his wife Dinah, and their daughter Kimberly would have to get to it as fast as possible.
The three of them were running as fast as they could into the library– or at least, David was running as fast as he possibly could. Dinah, by contrast, looked a lot more annoyed with the fact that her husband was rushing so much, and Kim…
Well, if anything, she was moreso curious than anything else.
After a few minutes of walking, she eventually tapped her mother on the shoulder. Dinah looked down at her, raising an eyebrow somewhat judgementally.
“Yes, dear?” she asked.
“Mother,” Kim responded, “is it alright with you if I take a look at the book that my Father is getting once he buys it?”
Dinah, in response, just laughed.
“No~!” she said, laughing a bit. “No, sweetie, of course not. That book is blatantly Giratinic; you know that. Don’t even bother.”
“Oh,” said Kim sadly, glancing down at her 2112 shirt. “Right.”
“Besides,” said Dinah, “what on Earth do you even need it for? You’re nothing special, dear; why get yourself invested in all of these new things? You’re going to grow up to be a great linguist one day, just like myself; what on Earth would you need a copy of this for?”
She laughed a bit again.
“Even then, though,” she said, “as great of a linguist you’ll be, I doubt you’ll ever be as good as me. Or your father.”
Kim glanced up at her mother, a bit hurt by that.
“...why not?” she asked.
“Oh, that’s easy,” said Dinah. “We worked as hard as we possibly could to get where we are. We didn’t slack off on our studies because they ‘came easy’ to us. We didn’t envy other people. We didn’t fly into rages whenever things didn’t go our way. We were good Arceans.”
Dinah shot a glare at her daughter upon her saying this. Kim winced a bit, but quickly responded.
“...I don’t think that makes sense to me,” she said. “I still get good grades in school. I’ve gotten all A’s for years.”
Dinah sighed.
“And yet,” she said, “you still haven’t done enough. You still sin.”
Kim sighed, then glanced down at her 2112 shirt again. Her mother was right, and she knew it just as much as everybody else did. Every moment of her life was spent making the wrong decisions, and making bad first impressions on people, and sinning so, so much that both her mother and her Arcean pastor would absolutely berate her for it, and they had every right to. It was true– Kim did great on her homework and tests, but she still didn’t tend to fully pay attention in her classes, and she very often did not study for any of her tests– that was Sloth, right there. She had had a tendency to be very stubborn and driven by things, and often would become very defensive when things didn’t go her way– Wrath and Pride, two sins in one, and one of them was the absolute worst to boot. But most importantly of all, she tended to look up to a lot of people– and wanted to be as great as they were. That, she knew– that was her worst sin of them all.
Envy.
It was something she tried to hide, and yet at the same time it was something she couldn’t fully get rid of. Every single time that someone did something that she thought was cool, she had to get in on it herself. She had to learn how to do it. She had to see if she could do it. Why on Earth she was like that, she didn’t know, but she had a pretty good theory as to why.
“You know that,” Dinah suddenly broke in.
Kim was promptly broken out of her reverie of self-hatred, and glanced up at her mother, who was continuing to glare down at her.
“Don’t you?” she continued.
Kim, rather shamefaced, looked down and nodded.
“I know,” she said.
“Good,” said Dinah. “You know full well I’m going to hold you accountable for these kinds of things. I’m not like your father; he’s far too permissive.” She sighed. “You know, Kim, you really are nothing special. You know that as well as I do. The only thing you know how to do is disappoint people over and over again.”
Kim didn’t say anything else; she was too ashamed to even bother.
By this point, Dinah and Kim had opened the door to the library, only for them to find David at the front desk, having just received an approximately 200-page encyclopedia of sorts that was almost completely black in color with golden text on it. He laughed uproariously, holding the book up in his hands, then ran over to Kim and Dinah with it.
“Hahaaa~!” he cried out. “I got it~! Take a look at this, Kim!”
He showed the title of the book to Kim, whose eyes immediately lit up with wonder. On the cover, written in bright cursive golden text, were the following words:
THE PRAX OBSCURA, 2ND EDITION
COLTON KENDALL REVER
David grinned.
“A copy of Reh-ver’s second edition,” he said. “Pretty neat, right? There’s gotta be at least something mystical and ancient in this thing that I can use for my archeology studies.”
Dinah sighed and held her hand up to her face.
“David, why did you buy that book?” she asked. “There is no way that book has anything to do with your career. Failing that, Kim asked me if she could read it, and there is absolutely no way–”
She was suddenly cut off guard by David lighting up at the sound of Kim’s name.
“Kim?” asked David. “You wanna read this book?”
Kim eagerly nodded.
“Well, then, of course I’ll let you read it!” said David.
“Y-you will?!” asked Kim.
“Sure thing!” said David. “Besides, if there’s any indication my daughter’s on the Auric Spectrum, it’ll be really exciting to see!”
Kim immediately broke into a big grin and ran towards her father to give her a hug, only for Dinah to suddenly intervene, putting a hand between both of them.
“What?!” shrieked Dinah. “No! Absolutely not! I will not have my daughter reading Giratinian books! David, you go and put that back right now!”
“Aww, come on, Dinah,” said David. “What’s the worst that can happen?”
“I’ll tell you!” Dinah snapped. “Our daughter’s already sinned so much already; I’m not going to have her be further corrupted by a guide to literal Giratinist darkness attacks! Much less ones that can, apparently, set you on fire! She could wind up in the Distortion World within seconds!”
“Yes, Firescura is dangerous,” said David, “but it’s the literal last thing in the book, and the author himself acknowledges that it’s dangerous! If anything we can start her off with the easy stuff like Snarl. That’ll be simple! She’s not going to go to the Distortion World or anything like that!”
Dinah sighed, and snatched the book out of David’s hands.
“Well, I’m certainly not having my daughter read a book by this–” –she glanced at the cover– “this ‘Reh-ver’ person!” she snapped. “If I meet him, I’m going to tear his head off!”
She walked off, shooting a glance at both Kim and David.
“Come on,” she said. “We’re getting out of here.”
Kim looked over at her mother, and then sighed with defeat. Things really hadn’t gone according to plan after all. David, however, stood there for a few moments in resolute determination, then grinned and winked over at Kim.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m going to find a way to get that book back from her. I want to see how well my daughter can do at Obscura powers!”
That made Kim smile a bit, though soon afterwards she went back to looking away shyly. David blinked.
“Oh?” he asked. “What’s the matter?”
“...Father,” Kim started, “do you think that Reh-ver’s book is actually Giratinist? Should I… not have it?”
David paused for a bit, before laughing.
“HA…!” he said. “You kidding?! Not in the least bit! Giratina’s not even a Dark-type!”
Kim blinked.
“...why does that matter specifically?” she asked. “Isn’t there such a thing as Ghost-type Obscura, too?”
David chuckled a bit. “You’ll see what I mean when we reach the foreword.”
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As soon as the Bond family got home from the Nacrene Library, Dinah Bond immediately put the Prax Obscura away in a safe place where nobody could find it. Or, rather, almost nobody. As soon as Dinah went upstairs to head to sleep, David Bond eventually found the Prax Obscura copy, and when he brought it over to Kim— who was sitting on her couch listening to RUSH music in her headphones— the latter immediately tore her headphones off and ran down to read the book.
“You got it?!” she cried.
“Yep!” said David. “Go on, open it up to the foreword!”
Kim, in response, happily flipped through the pages of the book, eventually coming to a page labeled FOREWORD. Underneath it, there was the following text:
I know what you might be thinking - “what the hell is a Prax Obscura and how can I use it?” Well, here’s the thing. You’d need to have obscuric potential to use it. And there’s no real way to know if you have the ability to use it without Gisnep telling you - that’s what happened to me, anyway.
But you’re not here for Gisnep anecdotes.
You’re here to learn Dark Pulse.
Kim laughed a bit.
“Reh-ver’s funny,” she said, before she continued reading.
Fortunately for you, this book manages to arrange all the facets of Obscura usage into ascending difficulty, which the original book didn’t really do. Old musty tomes don’t really care for difficulty progression - no test marketing or Quality Assurance whatsoever. And that’s where this book plans to differ - more clear and concise explanations, as well as more techniques than the old book provided.
Of course, that technically means the book is cowritten by my Pokémon, at least the ones with Dark and Ghost-type attacks. As a Dark Obscuric, I’ve left the Ghost Obscurics with the short straw. My bad.
“Ohhhh-!” said Kim, remembering what her father had told her before. “That was what you meant.”
“Yep!” said David. “Go on, keep reading!”
Kim nodded, then continued:
But to all those who think Snarl is easier to perform than Quick Attack, press onward and we shall learn together.
Oh, I never answered your questions on what the original Prax Obscura is. It’s a forbidden tome of manuscripts I found in an abandoned Gisnep studio filled to the brim with explanations on Obscuric techniques. They aren’t even necessarily attacks - more on that later. For now, just know that if you can make use of this book, you have been blessed with a gift. What you do with it is your decision, but know you cannot hold me accountable. The future is yours; carry the knowledge in this book with you.
And if that means you have to lug around a 200+ page encyclopedia with you, so be it. I wish you the best of luck, as I doubt I had it.
- C. K. Rever
Colton Kendall “Talbain” Rever
“Well?” asked David. “What did you think?”
Kim grinned.
“I want to keep going,” she said. “If there’s any chance I can do these things, I want to know exactly how to do them.”
“That’s my girl!” David said. “Alright, then; time for the easiest lesson.”
He turned the page, and directly opposite a blank page was one labeled:
SNARL
Kim blinked.
“Snarl?” she asked. “That’s a Pokémon move!”
“Yep,” said David. “This can be used by both people and Pokémon alike. I’ve got a few Dark-type mons, so I figured this would be a great resource for them to learn Dark-type moves. That’s part of why I got the book in the first place.”
Kim blinked— and then remembered that her father had both a Scrafty and a Hydreigon.
“Right…!” she said. “And apparently if you’re an Obscuric, you can use these moves, too…”
“Yep,” said David.
“Hm,” said Kim. “Well, this is apparently the easiest lesson in the book, so let’s see how well I can do.”
She took a look at the page in front of her, and saw that it read:
If you're anything like me, you have a lot of experience with being frustrated all the time. Sometimes you just want to shout, but maybe it's more productive to scream at something. No need for words, just noises.
Kim’s eyes widened.
“I… don’t quite know if that’s a good sign,” she said. “I’m not really one to get frustrated all the time. Defensive, yes, but constantly frustrated… no.”
“Well, defensiveness can still work,” said David. “Wonder what he’s so frustrated about though.”
Kim shrugged, then continued to read on.
The thing about Snarl that makes it a complete beginner trap sometimes - speaking from experience there! - is that it doesn't require much focusing to perform. It's all loose, disorganized and only gets weaponized proper by being directed in the general direction of your target. Also, it can hurt your throat. Remember to drink water often; using these skills can take a lot out of you when you start practicing.
As soon as she read that, Kim promptly headed out of the room and went into the kitchen; she came back with a bottle of water a few minutes later. David grinned.
“Oh, you’re going to actually try and do it, aren’t you?!” he said.
Kim nodded. “Just as soon as I’m done reading the excerpt.”
With that said, she continued to read:
Now, despite what similar moves like Hyper Voice and Boomburst may show, volume is not equivalent to efficacy. Be smart about the energy you put in to these moves. You're using Snarl, not Roar. The point isn't to make the enemy recoil with the sound of your anger, but to let them know how angry you are.
(Or aren't. Being a Dark-type is all about being deceptive.)
Kim laughed, as she had done before.
“True,” she said. “That is what being a Dark-type is about.”
“Well,” said David, “are you ready to try it?”
Kim was about to say something, but eventually stopped and glanced up at the stairway, in the direction of her mother’s room. From upstairs she could hear her mother, snoring away, and shook her head. The last thing she wanted to do right now was wake up her mother by Snarling repeatedly, both for her mother’s sake as well as her own.
“Not… right now,” she said. “I don’t want to wake up Mother with my repeated Snarling.”
David smiled, albeit a bit nervously as he remembered that Dinah was still upstairs.
“Well… alright, then,” he said. “We should probably continue reading this section, the—”
But Kim didn’t turn the page.
Instead, she started furiously flipping through pages, skipping right past the easier facets and going straight to the middle of the book. David held up his hands, blinking in shock as he stared over at his daughter.
“K-Kim?!” asked David in shock. “What are you doing? Don’t you want to start with the easier stuff first?”
Kim didn’t answer; she just kept flipping through pages until she eventually stopped on one labeled ILLUSIONS in big bold letters. David scratched his head.
“You want to learn about illusions already?” he asked. “A-alright, then… what does it say?”
Kim glanced over at the page and read it over:
So you're walking the forests of Unova, seeking out somewhere quiet, the occasional chatter of the native fauna around you probably starting to grate on your nerves, or just distracting you from your racing thoughts. Next thing you know you've stumbled over a root, and when you pick yourself up off the floor, it's nighttime. Confused and slightly intimidated, you try to turn back, and you hear something giving chase behind you. You make it out alive, but now it's daytime again?
Congratulations, you just encountered a Zoroark and got caught in a—
“—PFFFHAHAHAHAHAHAHA—!”
The relatively blunt timing of that statement made Kim laugh so uproariously that she didn’t even bother finishing the excerpt in her head. David blinked as Kim just continued laughing, then leaned in to the book.
“…That was funny to you?” David asked.
Kim just continued to laugh, albiet less so than she had when she had first read the statement. She handed the book over to David.
“A-are you kidding…?” Kim laughed. “That was hilarious! You need to have a look at it!”
David, now somewhat curious, took a look over at the book and chuckled a bit.
“I mean,” he said “it’s a bit funny, but I wouldn’t want to run into a Zoroark myself. What’s the rest of it say?”
It took Kim a bit of time to recover from how hilarious she thought the author’s timing was, but eventually she finally managed to calm down and continued reading:
The thing to note about illusions is that they can fool the senses, but different illusions need to work on each individual sense. Obscura's only tangible in the same way that smoke is, unless you actively make it hold its shape enough that you can use attacks with it.1
Noticing the footnote, Kim took a look at the bottom of the page and saw-
1- See Night Slash and Dark Pulse.
“Hm,” said Kim. “So there are other moves taught in this book besides Snarl.”
She went on:
So the question remains, how do you create something like what that Zoroark you never encountered did?
The thing about any aura of any Type is that it has the color that you expect it to have. Compare Aura Sphere and Focus Blast, as two examples.
“Oh, I get it,” said David. “They’re both Fighting-type attacks with blue Aura.”
“Correct,” said Kim, “and I assume that Dark-type Obscuric aura is black.”
She kept reading:
The self is an evolving construct, and what can change from day to day varies so wildly that the real color of the soul is all of the colors, and they only have the meaning we ascribe to them.
By belief in what the color of something you make should be, that is what its color is. You hold the brush, so to speak, and with the same focus into something's shape, you can similarly influence its color.
“Well, then I suppose that if I were to use a Dark-type Obscura move,” said Kim, “it would be black. I’m fairly certain I’m reading that correctly.”
“I think so,” said David.
Kim blinked.
“Hold on, though,” she said. “If Snarl is the easiest part of the book… then what’s the hardest?”
She flipped around in the book for a bit, eventually stopping when she came to the end of the book and saw, in big bold letters, the word:
FIRESCURA
David leaned over.
“That… is very dangerous,” he said. “Are you sure you want to attempt that, Kim?”
“Ohhhhh no,” she said, almost immediately. “This is the hardest skill in the book and it has the word ‘fire’ in it. If I did this without substantial practice Mother would certainly tell me I would be going to the Distortion World.” Kim signed a bit, then went back to the book. “I merely want to see what this consists of. Now then…”
She turned her attention back to the book and saw that it read:
So you've either diligently studied everything this book has to offer, read it through without practicing, or came here to the back to see how to perform the hardest thing this book has to offer so that you could see how much progress you're going to make after actually studying this thing.
“The last one,” said Kim.
Well, I got some bad news for you. We're going to have to start this off with a chemistry lesson, so unless you have the patience and know-how for that you're going to be in a serious Bind.
“Hah!” Kim laughed again. “He makes dumb puns, too?”
“I took a chemistry class,” said David. “Whatever he’s teaching, I should know this.”
So let's review the three things necessary for the creation of fire—
“Heat, fuel, and oxygen,” said David, laughing. “Did he really think I didn’t know that…?! Too easy. In the hands of a well-trained Obscuric with a chemistry degree, this would be a cinch.”
That last part is easy enough, take a breath and you have one of the three things necessary for fire.
But here's where things start to get a little tricky.
“…a little?” asked Kim. “This is the hardest thing in the book!”
The thing to know about obscura, and illusions as a whole, is that they aren't just hard-light creations that can be dispelled. They require dedicated focus and effort, energy, to be held together, such that they can influence the world, either by what people see or what you strike people with.
Throughout this entire book the finer details of Obscura have been played so fast and loose that your First Impression was likely that it was just something that existed within you.
“Heh, more puns,” said David.
Nope, it's all conscious, and the reason it appears so loose is exactly because you've been playing fast and loose with it the entire time. I told you to focus at the beginning of this book, and if you didn't you have no one to blame but yourself.
Kim stopped.
David stopped.
The two of them looked at each other, then back at the book, then back at each other.
“—hey wait a minute!”
Without any hesitation, Kim immediately flipped back to the beginning of the book, reading through the foreword and the passage on Snarl, until eventually she stopped.
“…Oh,” she said. “Never mind; there it is.”
“Huh,” said David. “I could have sworn that he didn’t say anything about focusing at the beginning of the book…”
“Can I keep reading?”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
“Alright then.”
With that said, Kim continued to read:
Anyway, the thing about fuel is that, in its purest form, it's energy stored in the form of some kind of substance; your energy put into making it take some sort of solid form. So if you've been holding it together well, instead of just manipulating black smoke and only focusing when you need to, then you've got the fuel variable of this equation solved for.
And as for heat, there exist tactile illusions that can create the illusion of heat, but don't let yourself be fooled. The uncaring universe will not fall for illusions like our fallible human minds can. If you want to light that fire, you will need actual heat from some sort of source.
“Well, that should be simple,” said David. “We have matches and a fireplace.”
Luckily, the human body, at 37 Celsius—
Kim paused.
“What’s that in Fareinheit?” she asked.
David shrugged.
—has its own supply of energy able to be transferred into heat at a moment's notice. However much energy you put into keeping your "fuelscura" stable is the amount and intensity of heat with which it will light up. So be very, very careful, and maybe just don't bother practicing this unless you have someone on standby with a fire extinguisher, lest you Wish You Were Here yourself so hard you become the cigar they tell you to have.
“Heeey! Pink Floyd fan!” David cried. “Nice!”
This is going to drain you very fast, and very hard, if you don't have proper control. You will most likely burn your hand at least once and feel cold everywhere else for a while once or twice. You're a Dark-type, not a Fire-type.
“Unless you’re a Houndour or Houndoom, in which case you’re both,” said David.
Treat secondary types with great caution, and remember the illusion of fire can become very real, very fast.
Dispelling the flame is as easy as cutting off the heat by letting the flame float away, or by cutting off oxygen by closing your fist on the flame. If you cut off the fuel by losing focus, your fire will spread, and it may even spread on to something you care about. By attempting to create fuelscura and/or light it you waive all legal liability against me and my publisher.
“…I am not even going to bother with that,” said Kim simply.
“Me either,” said David. “Last thing I want to do is be involved in any kind of legal troubles.” He turned to face Kim. “Do you want to see if you have Obscuric potential now?”
Kim paused for a few moments, then nodded. “I think I’ll need something to Snarl at, though.”
Before she could have a chance to think, though, she suddenly heard footsteps coming from upstairs. Recognizing the sound of them in an instant, Kim turned to look over at David.
“It’s Mother,” she said. “Quick! Put the book away! I can’t let her find it!”
David nodded and grabbed the Prax Obscura— but he was a bit too slow.
Within a matter of seconds, Dinah Bond had made her way down the stairs– and when she saw David, Kim, and the Prax Obscura together in the same room, there was only one conclusion in her mind. She pointed at Kim, her eyes widened in horror.
“H-how did you find that?!” she exclaimed. “I told you not to get your hands on that Giratinist tome!”
Kim instantly found herself looking down, shamefaced; David, seeing this, sprang to his feet.
“Hey, I told her she could look at my copy of the book,” he protested. “That isn’t going to harm her in any way.”
“Oh, yes it is!” Dinah snapped. “You’ve corrupted her, David! Sooner or later she’s going to get sent to the Distortion World, and it’ll be all your fault!”
David just laughed. “How can the simple act of reading a book send my daughter to the Distortion World?”
“If it’s reading a book like that it can! Now I need to make sure she hasn’t been corrupted!”
David smirked. “Good luck with that.”
Dinah didn’t say anything at first, she just continued to glare at her husband, before turning her attention to her daughter. Her face softened for a few moments, before she reached into a bag that she had on her and pulled out a PokeBall.
Soon afterwards, she threw it out.
“Lo!” she said. “Behold, Indeedee!”
The PokeBall hit the floor, and in a flash of blue light a female Indeedee emerged from it. Kim looked up for a brief second, not knowing what to think other than that the female Indeedee was cute. Indeedee waved at Kim, only to be suddenly interrupted by Dinah, saying something to the Indeedee in Kyrellik that Kim couldn’t understand. After a few moments, the Indeedee nodded, before her eyes began to glow blue.
Soon afterwards, Kim herself began to glow blue, and she felt her mind suddenly begin to clear, almost as if someone– or something– were reading it. Horrified, she began to realize what was happening, and frantically began to tell the Indeedee mentally to not read her mind– and yet it didn’t work.
The Indeedee’s eyes suddenly began to glow brighter and brighter as Psychic power flooded through her. David’s eyes widened with rage, and Dinah’s with horror.
“What?” she suddenly asked, in Galarian now. “What’s the matter?! Is she corrupted?!”
The Indeedee dared not answer; her eyes instead continued to glow brighter and brighter. Dinah looked over at her stunned, slightly panicking daughter for a second, then nodded.
“If that Giratinian tome has corrupted her,” she said, “then there’s only one way to find out! Hit her with everything you’ve got! We must remove the corruption!”
“Dinah!” shouted David. “What the hell are you–?!”
Before he got to say anything further, though, the Indeedee suddenly released a massive amount of Psychic energy, which hit Kim, threw her against the wall, and knocked her backwards. Kim herself found herself lifted up off of the floor, she felt her head hit the wall… and then everything around her went black.
—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“...Dear Arceus, let it be known you have brought upon us a great miracle tonight; that my daughter Kimberly Bond has not, in fact, been corrupted by the Giratinian tome of darkness known as the Prax Obscura…”
“Kim! Kim, can you hear me?! Say something!”
“Urrghhh…”
Kim slowly blinked and opened her eyes, only to find staring down at her both of her parents, who were eyeing her with two different expressions. David’s was one of concern– and eventually, upon seeing Kim open her eyes– one of immense relief– while Dinah remained relatively stoic the entire time, albeit with her hands clasped and with her muttering prayers under her breath. David ran up to her, delighted.
“Kim!” he cried out. “You’re alive! Thank goodness!”
Kim blinked, then fully opened her eyes. From what had hit her she half-expected that she would be in the hospital, but she was pleasantly surprised to find herself in her own bed. Dinah scoffed.
“Of course she’s alive,” said Dinah. “I told you that she would be. At the very least, I’m just happy to know that that book didn’t corrupt my daughter.” She turned to face her Indeedee, who was standing right next to her. “Come on, Indeedee. Let’s go.”
She and her Indeedee promptly left the room, and as soon as the door had shut behind them Kim went up to her father and gave him a massive hug.
“Oh, Father!” she said. “Thank goodness I didn’t wake up in the hospital; with the way that Psychic-type move hit me I would have thought myself dead.”
“Yep,” said David, giving her a bit of a sad smile.
Kim looked down– and all of a sudden something came to her.
“...wait a minute,” she said. “That Psychic-type move hit me.”
David nodded.
“T-then… then that means…” Kim muttered, a sense of dread welling up in her chest as she realized the full extent of what that meant.
“I’m afraid so.”
Kim blinked, and looked down, and noticed the Prax Obscura sitting on her bed, knowing full well that she could never use it. In a matter of a few seconds, tears started to come to her eyes.
Her mother had been right.
She really was nothing special.
She felt her father put his hand on her shoulder, but it did nothing to prevent the tears from flowing, most of all because she felt that feeling again.
Whoever this person was– this “Colton Kendall” person– he was an Obscuric. He had powers that she would never be able to access. She would never be able to experience things like illusionary creation or even Snarling at people for as long as she could live. She had absolutely nothing.
…except envy, of course. And all the other sins in the world.
She kept sobbing, trying desperately to push the envy out of her mind, but it didn’t work. She had no choice. Whoever this person was– this author of the Prax Obscura– she was going to find him one day, and she was going to learn something from him.
Clearly– clearly– he had a lot of potential that she didn’t.
Clearly he didn’t disappoint everybody, including himself, at every turn.
Clearly he wasn’t a sinner.
Last edited by Goldenheart388 on 2025-May-05 02:17, edited 1 time in total.
-
Goldenheart388
- Posts: 17
- Joined: 2021-Jun-26 21:16
Re: THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
CW: burning
THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
KIMBERLY BOND TIMELINE
ARC 1
CHAPTER 2
Straiton City, Bond Household– 04/05/18
Of course, Kim had a feeling that eventually she’d have to tell somebody how she felt, but she absolutely dreaded the idea of going to her regular Arcean church that Sunday morning. As disapproving as her mother was of the idea of her regularly committing one of the Seven Deadly Sins, she knew her priest would be even more so, especially given the fact that he’d explicitly told her that if she committed one of them again, he would “make sure she knew what the fires of the Distortion World felt like”.
She didn’t want to even think about what that would mean.
So, of course, at the breakfast table that day, she started with David.
“Father?” she asked him, having just taken a bite out of her omelette.
David, who was eagerly reading the Prax Obscura, shut the book and turned to face his daughter.
“Yeah?” he asked.
“…I need to tell you something,” she said.
“Well, sure,” said David. “What is it?”
She glanced down at her shirt– another RUSH shirt, this time a Hemispheres one– and looked up. Dinah was also at the breakfast table, reading a copy of a linguistic paper regarding translations of Middle Galarian for the King James Arcean Bible.
Oh, no.
She took a deep breath, praying to herself that her mother wouldn’t hear her, then said:
“...I must confess that after yesterday’s events I feel immensely envious.”
Dinah immediately slammed down the paper she was reading and glared daggers at Kim.
“What?!” she snapped.
David, meanwhile, just shrugged. “Yeah, I’m disappointed too. Shame you don’t have any Obscuric potential. I’m a bit envious of him too; the whole thing just looks so cool!”
Dinah glared at him.
“...what?” asked David.
“David, don’t tell me you’re supporting this,” said Dinah with great annoyance.
“Supporting what?” asked David. “I’m just saying; her feelings are valid.”
“She’s going to church today,” said Dinah. “I cannot have her admitting to her sins.”
“B-but I thought that was what confessionals were all abo–”
“Yes,” said Dinah, “but I hate the fact that she has to go to them so often.”
Kim just sat at the table and hung her head, not even saying a word. Dinah, meanwhile, took a look at her watch and stood up.
“If she just continued to not make these kinds of mistakes, she’d be far better for it,” she said.
She turned to face her daughter.
“Come on, Kim,” said Dinah. “We’re going.”
Kim stood up, following Dinah as she beckoned her along. Dinah eventually stopped, noticing what David was reading, and grabbed it.
“Hey!” cried David. “That’s my copy of the Prax Obscura!”
Dinah didn’t respond, merely walking away with the book and Kim. David was so shocked he didn’t even wave at them.
As soon as Kim and her mother were outside the former caught a glimpse of the Prax Obscura in her mother’s hands. She looked up at her mother, suddenly tense.
“...Mother?” she asked. “Why do you have Father’s Prax Obscura copy?”
Dinah looked down at her.
“You’re going to turn it in to your priest,” she said sternly.
Kim’s eyes widened.
“What?!” she cried.
“It is a corrupting object and you and your father both must be cleansed from it,” said Dinah. “When we get to the church you’re going to turn it in personally; is that understood?”
“...I thought you said that the book didn’t corrupt me,” said Kim.
“That doesn’t mean it still couldn’t.”
Kim sighed. True, it hadn’t corrupted her yesterday, but that didn’t mean it no longer had the potential to at all. She didn’t know what else lied in the book; she didn’t read the whole thing. For all she knew, there could very well be some ancient dark tome magic in that thing that she didn’t even know existed!
Backed into a corner, and feeling like she didn’t really have much of a choice, Kim nodded. “Yes, Mother.”
Dinah nodded. “Good. And when you’re done with that you will tell the priest what you told your father and I this morning, and I am going to come with you.”
“Yes, Mother.”
“And whatever consequence he gives you for it you will accept wholeheartedly.”
“Yes, Mother.” Kim just barely managed to stifle herself from sobbing.
“And why is that…?” Dinah prompted. “You know full well why, don’t you?”
“I know, Mother.”
Dinah smiled. “Yes, of course you do.”
That was the last thing either of them said to each other on the walk to their church.
The entire time Kim just felt her heart furiously racing and her stomach practically sinking as she wondered over what her priest was going to do. His threat from the last time aside, the last time that Kim had confessed her “sins” to her priest, he had whacked her on the back with a ruler. David had tended to those injuries, but Dinah had done absolutely nothing.
What could possibly be worse than a spanking, Kim wondered, was anyone’s guess.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Accumula Town, Accumula Church– That Same Day
As soon as Kim and her mother stepped into the church they wasted absolutely no time in heading straight to the confession booth.
Kim was hit by an immense feeling of dread and terror as she looked up and saw her priest’s eyes widen in surprise, before hitting her with an intense glare. It was so withering she almost broke then and there, but eventually she took a deep breath and motioned for her mother to give her the Prax Obscura.
She did, and Kim held it out for the priest to take.
“Forgive me, Father,” she started, trying to sound as stoic as possible, “for–”
“‘I have sinned,’” the priest said, taking the Prax Obscura from her. “I already know that by now, I’ve gotten used to it by this point.” He sighed. “I don’t need you to tell me when you last came here either; you’ve sinned so much to the point that you come here practically every week.”
Kim looked away, shamefaced and embarrassed. “I know.”
The priest frowned, staring at the giant black book in front of him.
“What’s this?” he asked. “The Prax Obscura, 2nd Edition, Colton Kend…?”
“I-it’s a corrupt tome of forbidden dark techniques,” Kim admitted, somewhat shakily. “I… I had a look at it.”
The priest paused.
“You… you did?!” he asked.
Kim nodded.
“I…” She swallowed hard. “I also… I also expressed envy… towards the author of the book, as I had no potential of performing those techniques.”
She glanced up nervously at the priest upon finishing. For a few moments, the priest stared back at Kim, his jaw agape in shock, his face contorted with rage, as Kim suddenly found herself profusely sweating, wondering what he was going to do. She looked away, trying desperately to hold back tears. Eventually, however, the priest took a deep breath, as if to gather up his thoughts and feelings, then walked away with the Prax Obscura towards a room behind the curtain.
Kim breathed an immense sigh of relief, happy that she wasn’t going to be punished after all– until she suddenly froze as she saw the priest’s head poke out from behind the curtain.
“Bond,” he said. “Come with me.”
Her fear now slowly coming back, Kim nodded and followed the priest behind the confession booth.
To her slight surprise, she saw that the room behind the confession booth looked fairly comfortable– there were two large chairs, a fireplace, and a bench. Kim, now starting to get relieved again, decided to sit down in one of the large chairs and found that it was actually rather comfortable. Her nerves relaxed so much, in fact, that she didn’t even see the priest put on a pair of thick leather fireproof gloves and throw the copy of the Prax Obscura into the fire.
“Take your shoes and socks off,” she suddenly heard the priest say.
Now fully relaxed, Kim was all too happy to do so, but suddenly started in confusion when she then heard the priest say, “Lie down on the bench.”
Now confused, Kim slowly got up and lay down on the bench with her belly up. The priest, whose back was turned to her, shook his head.
“No, no, no,” he said. “Back up. On your belly.”
Kim paused for a few moments, then flipped around. The priest nodded and then reached into the fire for the burning-red hot ashes of what had been the Prax Obscura, which he grabbed before walking over above Kim.
“I warned you,” he said. “I warned you that if you sinned again you would find out what the fires of the Distortion World feel like.”
Kim looked up– and her eyes widened in terror as she saw burning red-hot coals and ashes inside of the priest’s hand, enveloped in actual flame. Slowly, the priest put some of the ashes and coals in his other hand, then began to move his hands towards her feet.
“No…” Kim muttered. “NonononononononoNO–!”
The priest struck, thrusting the red-hot, burning coals and ashes of the Prax Obscura onto the heels of Kim’s feet and causing Kim so much pain and agony that she could do nothing but scream. The heels of her feet suddenly went red, and then as the priest rubbed the ashes and coals in the skin on the heels of her feet started to peel, revealing blistering white. Kim continued screaming and crying out in agony as the pain from the fire kept going and her heels slowly started to melt.
“AAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHHHHH–! MOTHER–!” she shrieked out. “MOTHER, HELP ME! PLEASE!! MOTHER–!!!!”
She heard nothing from the other side; merely seeing Dinah’s silhouette turning away.
“MOTH– AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH—!!!!!”
Kim screamed out in pain again as more and more hot coals and ashes were jammed into her feet. It didn’t stop there– the priest just continued this torturous punishment for another 5 minutes, all while Kim continued crying and screaming and trying to wriggle away in immense agony.
Good god, this really was worse than a spanking. Her priest hadn’t been kidding.
Eventually, finally, the priest pulled his hands away. Kim was left screaming and repeatedly grimacing in agony, while the priest motioned for her to sit up. She was barely able to do so from the pain. When she glanced down at her feet she was horrified and saddened to see that the heels of her feet had been burned clean through; she practically no longer had them.
The priest grabbed Kim’s shoes and put them back on, not even seeming to notice Kim’s wincing.
“Now, then,” said the priest. “I trust that you won’t keep sinning like that again?”
Through grimaces and profuse tears, Kim managed to nod.
The priest smiled.
“Good,” he said. “Arceus may forgive you, but the fires of the Distortion World will never.”
He pointed out the door. “You may go.”
—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kim was in such pain she practically limped out the door and fell onto her knees, crying and screaming. Dinah merely looked at her sternly.
“Well?” she asked. “What did they do to you? Show me.”
Kim, still in too much pain to say a word, merely took her shoes off and showed her mother the blistering third-degree burns that were on her feet. Dinah looked them over without a word, then turned away.
“Very well,” she said. “Let us go.”
Kim, suddenly spurred to action, put on her shoes again and headed off in the direction of her mother, albeit very slowly.
“Y-you– you don’t thi–”
“You deserved it,” said Dinah. “If only you could have taken it better.”
She began to head off into the main church again.
“Now,” she said. “Let us be off. The mass is happening.”
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The pain was so unbearable to Kim that the next two weeks after the burning were very much a blur, and from what she could remember, everything happened so fast.
At mass that day, Kim was screaming and crying out in pain so much that eventually one of the pastors noticed and asked her to be sent home. Kim promptly got an earful from her mother on the walk home about her behavior, and when David saw that not only had the Prax Obscura been burned, but that the ashes had been used to burn his daughter’s feet until she had no heels, he immediately called (SKE)-LED-IRGE and had the ambulance come to take Kim to the hospital.
For the next week and a half Kim was treated by an expert team of medical professionals who healed all of Kim’s burns with skin grafting and left behind very nasty scars, and the pain started to fade very quickly. Even so, however, Kim no longer had heels. She was initially considered for physical therapy, but given that it was only her heels that had been burnt and nothing else, she got around the problem by just walking digitigrade– which she eventually realized that she actually really liked doing. That being said, she still wore heeled shoes, putting in pads mimicking heels so that nobody could tell that she had been burned so badly.
The most disheartening part, however, came after Kim had come home from the hospital. When she walked into the house that day, she saw her father David there… but not Dinah.
She looked around, starting to get a bit worried.
“Father…?” she asked. “W-where is Mother? I know she didn’t help me when my priest burned my feet off, but I certainly don’t wish her death.”
David smiled sadly.
“Oh, don’t worry, she’s still alive,” he said. “Your mother and I… well, we got a divorce.”
Kim’s eyes widened in shock at the word.
“D-divorce?!” she cried out. “Why?!”
“Well, it’s like you said,” said David. “She didn’t help you when the priest burned your heels off. In fact, the first day you went to the hospital, Dinah told me she thought you deserved it.”
Kim slowly shook her head. Her mother had said as much to her, and she had been completely right about that.
“No…” she muttered.
“We got into a big argument after that,” said David. “Well, numerous big arguments, actually, and eventually I decided that enough was enough and told her I was leaving her. I won custody of you, so you get to live with me now. Hopefully things go better for you.”
If any other kid got told that they would no longer have to stay with someone who let someone else burn them and get away with it, they would likely be brimming over with joy.
Kim was not one of those people.
Kim stood there for a good few seconds, profusely shaking her head as tears began to well up in her eyes. Yes, her mother had just let her priest burn her heels off, but at the same time… the pain was a reminder. The pain was deserved. She knew full well that she had sinned with her disgusting envy towards the author of the Prax Obscura, and her feet getting burned was just the payment for it.
If she hadn’t sinned, the priest wouldn’t have burned her heels off.
If she hadn’t sinned, her parents wouldn’t have gotten into numerous arguments.
If she hadn’t sinned, her parents wouldn’t be divorced.
This was her doing.
This was all her doing.
She shook her head and stepped backwards, all while David looked at her.
“Kim?” he asked. “Kim, what’s the matter? You should be ha–”
Before he could even say “happy”, though, Kim had already started on her way upstairs to her room, blinking and trying to hold back her tears. David just looked after her, blankly staring.
“...Hello?” he asked.
Kim didn’t hear him.
She had already taken refuge in her room, and was now on her bed, profusely sobbing. On the one hand, she was happy that David had won custody of her as opposed to Dinah, but on the other hand… she still couldn’t pull herself away from the truth.
This wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for her.
THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
KIMBERLY BOND TIMELINE
ARC 1
CHAPTER 2
Straiton City, Bond Household– 04/05/18
Of course, Kim had a feeling that eventually she’d have to tell somebody how she felt, but she absolutely dreaded the idea of going to her regular Arcean church that Sunday morning. As disapproving as her mother was of the idea of her regularly committing one of the Seven Deadly Sins, she knew her priest would be even more so, especially given the fact that he’d explicitly told her that if she committed one of them again, he would “make sure she knew what the fires of the Distortion World felt like”.
She didn’t want to even think about what that would mean.
So, of course, at the breakfast table that day, she started with David.
“Father?” she asked him, having just taken a bite out of her omelette.
David, who was eagerly reading the Prax Obscura, shut the book and turned to face his daughter.
“Yeah?” he asked.
“…I need to tell you something,” she said.
“Well, sure,” said David. “What is it?”
She glanced down at her shirt– another RUSH shirt, this time a Hemispheres one– and looked up. Dinah was also at the breakfast table, reading a copy of a linguistic paper regarding translations of Middle Galarian for the King James Arcean Bible.
Oh, no.
She took a deep breath, praying to herself that her mother wouldn’t hear her, then said:
“...I must confess that after yesterday’s events I feel immensely envious.”
Dinah immediately slammed down the paper she was reading and glared daggers at Kim.
“What?!” she snapped.
David, meanwhile, just shrugged. “Yeah, I’m disappointed too. Shame you don’t have any Obscuric potential. I’m a bit envious of him too; the whole thing just looks so cool!”
Dinah glared at him.
“...what?” asked David.
“David, don’t tell me you’re supporting this,” said Dinah with great annoyance.
“Supporting what?” asked David. “I’m just saying; her feelings are valid.”
“She’s going to church today,” said Dinah. “I cannot have her admitting to her sins.”
“B-but I thought that was what confessionals were all abo–”
“Yes,” said Dinah, “but I hate the fact that she has to go to them so often.”
Kim just sat at the table and hung her head, not even saying a word. Dinah, meanwhile, took a look at her watch and stood up.
“If she just continued to not make these kinds of mistakes, she’d be far better for it,” she said.
She turned to face her daughter.
“Come on, Kim,” said Dinah. “We’re going.”
Kim stood up, following Dinah as she beckoned her along. Dinah eventually stopped, noticing what David was reading, and grabbed it.
“Hey!” cried David. “That’s my copy of the Prax Obscura!”
Dinah didn’t respond, merely walking away with the book and Kim. David was so shocked he didn’t even wave at them.
As soon as Kim and her mother were outside the former caught a glimpse of the Prax Obscura in her mother’s hands. She looked up at her mother, suddenly tense.
“...Mother?” she asked. “Why do you have Father’s Prax Obscura copy?”
Dinah looked down at her.
“You’re going to turn it in to your priest,” she said sternly.
Kim’s eyes widened.
“What?!” she cried.
“It is a corrupting object and you and your father both must be cleansed from it,” said Dinah. “When we get to the church you’re going to turn it in personally; is that understood?”
“...I thought you said that the book didn’t corrupt me,” said Kim.
“That doesn’t mean it still couldn’t.”
Kim sighed. True, it hadn’t corrupted her yesterday, but that didn’t mean it no longer had the potential to at all. She didn’t know what else lied in the book; she didn’t read the whole thing. For all she knew, there could very well be some ancient dark tome magic in that thing that she didn’t even know existed!
Backed into a corner, and feeling like she didn’t really have much of a choice, Kim nodded. “Yes, Mother.”
Dinah nodded. “Good. And when you’re done with that you will tell the priest what you told your father and I this morning, and I am going to come with you.”
“Yes, Mother.”
“And whatever consequence he gives you for it you will accept wholeheartedly.”
“Yes, Mother.” Kim just barely managed to stifle herself from sobbing.
“And why is that…?” Dinah prompted. “You know full well why, don’t you?”
“I know, Mother.”
Dinah smiled. “Yes, of course you do.”
That was the last thing either of them said to each other on the walk to their church.
The entire time Kim just felt her heart furiously racing and her stomach practically sinking as she wondered over what her priest was going to do. His threat from the last time aside, the last time that Kim had confessed her “sins” to her priest, he had whacked her on the back with a ruler. David had tended to those injuries, but Dinah had done absolutely nothing.
What could possibly be worse than a spanking, Kim wondered, was anyone’s guess.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Accumula Town, Accumula Church– That Same Day
As soon as Kim and her mother stepped into the church they wasted absolutely no time in heading straight to the confession booth.
Kim was hit by an immense feeling of dread and terror as she looked up and saw her priest’s eyes widen in surprise, before hitting her with an intense glare. It was so withering she almost broke then and there, but eventually she took a deep breath and motioned for her mother to give her the Prax Obscura.
She did, and Kim held it out for the priest to take.
“Forgive me, Father,” she started, trying to sound as stoic as possible, “for–”
“‘I have sinned,’” the priest said, taking the Prax Obscura from her. “I already know that by now, I’ve gotten used to it by this point.” He sighed. “I don’t need you to tell me when you last came here either; you’ve sinned so much to the point that you come here practically every week.”
Kim looked away, shamefaced and embarrassed. “I know.”
The priest frowned, staring at the giant black book in front of him.
“What’s this?” he asked. “The Prax Obscura, 2nd Edition, Colton Kend…?”
“I-it’s a corrupt tome of forbidden dark techniques,” Kim admitted, somewhat shakily. “I… I had a look at it.”
The priest paused.
“You… you did?!” he asked.
Kim nodded.
“I…” She swallowed hard. “I also… I also expressed envy… towards the author of the book, as I had no potential of performing those techniques.”
She glanced up nervously at the priest upon finishing. For a few moments, the priest stared back at Kim, his jaw agape in shock, his face contorted with rage, as Kim suddenly found herself profusely sweating, wondering what he was going to do. She looked away, trying desperately to hold back tears. Eventually, however, the priest took a deep breath, as if to gather up his thoughts and feelings, then walked away with the Prax Obscura towards a room behind the curtain.
Kim breathed an immense sigh of relief, happy that she wasn’t going to be punished after all– until she suddenly froze as she saw the priest’s head poke out from behind the curtain.
“Bond,” he said. “Come with me.”
Her fear now slowly coming back, Kim nodded and followed the priest behind the confession booth.
To her slight surprise, she saw that the room behind the confession booth looked fairly comfortable– there were two large chairs, a fireplace, and a bench. Kim, now starting to get relieved again, decided to sit down in one of the large chairs and found that it was actually rather comfortable. Her nerves relaxed so much, in fact, that she didn’t even see the priest put on a pair of thick leather fireproof gloves and throw the copy of the Prax Obscura into the fire.
“Take your shoes and socks off,” she suddenly heard the priest say.
Now fully relaxed, Kim was all too happy to do so, but suddenly started in confusion when she then heard the priest say, “Lie down on the bench.”
Now confused, Kim slowly got up and lay down on the bench with her belly up. The priest, whose back was turned to her, shook his head.
“No, no, no,” he said. “Back up. On your belly.”
Kim paused for a few moments, then flipped around. The priest nodded and then reached into the fire for the burning-red hot ashes of what had been the Prax Obscura, which he grabbed before walking over above Kim.
“I warned you,” he said. “I warned you that if you sinned again you would find out what the fires of the Distortion World feel like.”
Kim looked up– and her eyes widened in terror as she saw burning red-hot coals and ashes inside of the priest’s hand, enveloped in actual flame. Slowly, the priest put some of the ashes and coals in his other hand, then began to move his hands towards her feet.
“No…” Kim muttered. “NonononononononoNO–!”
The priest struck, thrusting the red-hot, burning coals and ashes of the Prax Obscura onto the heels of Kim’s feet and causing Kim so much pain and agony that she could do nothing but scream. The heels of her feet suddenly went red, and then as the priest rubbed the ashes and coals in the skin on the heels of her feet started to peel, revealing blistering white. Kim continued screaming and crying out in agony as the pain from the fire kept going and her heels slowly started to melt.
“AAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHHHHH–! MOTHER–!” she shrieked out. “MOTHER, HELP ME! PLEASE!! MOTHER–!!!!”
She heard nothing from the other side; merely seeing Dinah’s silhouette turning away.
“MOTH– AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH—!!!!!”
Kim screamed out in pain again as more and more hot coals and ashes were jammed into her feet. It didn’t stop there– the priest just continued this torturous punishment for another 5 minutes, all while Kim continued crying and screaming and trying to wriggle away in immense agony.
Good god, this really was worse than a spanking. Her priest hadn’t been kidding.
Eventually, finally, the priest pulled his hands away. Kim was left screaming and repeatedly grimacing in agony, while the priest motioned for her to sit up. She was barely able to do so from the pain. When she glanced down at her feet she was horrified and saddened to see that the heels of her feet had been burned clean through; she practically no longer had them.
The priest grabbed Kim’s shoes and put them back on, not even seeming to notice Kim’s wincing.
“Now, then,” said the priest. “I trust that you won’t keep sinning like that again?”
Through grimaces and profuse tears, Kim managed to nod.
The priest smiled.
“Good,” he said. “Arceus may forgive you, but the fires of the Distortion World will never.”
He pointed out the door. “You may go.”
—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kim was in such pain she practically limped out the door and fell onto her knees, crying and screaming. Dinah merely looked at her sternly.
“Well?” she asked. “What did they do to you? Show me.”
Kim, still in too much pain to say a word, merely took her shoes off and showed her mother the blistering third-degree burns that were on her feet. Dinah looked them over without a word, then turned away.
“Very well,” she said. “Let us go.”
Kim, suddenly spurred to action, put on her shoes again and headed off in the direction of her mother, albeit very slowly.
“Y-you– you don’t thi–”
“You deserved it,” said Dinah. “If only you could have taken it better.”
She began to head off into the main church again.
“Now,” she said. “Let us be off. The mass is happening.”
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The pain was so unbearable to Kim that the next two weeks after the burning were very much a blur, and from what she could remember, everything happened so fast.
At mass that day, Kim was screaming and crying out in pain so much that eventually one of the pastors noticed and asked her to be sent home. Kim promptly got an earful from her mother on the walk home about her behavior, and when David saw that not only had the Prax Obscura been burned, but that the ashes had been used to burn his daughter’s feet until she had no heels, he immediately called (SKE)-LED-IRGE and had the ambulance come to take Kim to the hospital.
For the next week and a half Kim was treated by an expert team of medical professionals who healed all of Kim’s burns with skin grafting and left behind very nasty scars, and the pain started to fade very quickly. Even so, however, Kim no longer had heels. She was initially considered for physical therapy, but given that it was only her heels that had been burnt and nothing else, she got around the problem by just walking digitigrade– which she eventually realized that she actually really liked doing. That being said, she still wore heeled shoes, putting in pads mimicking heels so that nobody could tell that she had been burned so badly.
The most disheartening part, however, came after Kim had come home from the hospital. When she walked into the house that day, she saw her father David there… but not Dinah.
She looked around, starting to get a bit worried.
“Father…?” she asked. “W-where is Mother? I know she didn’t help me when my priest burned my feet off, but I certainly don’t wish her death.”
David smiled sadly.
“Oh, don’t worry, she’s still alive,” he said. “Your mother and I… well, we got a divorce.”
Kim’s eyes widened in shock at the word.
“D-divorce?!” she cried out. “Why?!”
“Well, it’s like you said,” said David. “She didn’t help you when the priest burned your heels off. In fact, the first day you went to the hospital, Dinah told me she thought you deserved it.”
Kim slowly shook her head. Her mother had said as much to her, and she had been completely right about that.
“No…” she muttered.
“We got into a big argument after that,” said David. “Well, numerous big arguments, actually, and eventually I decided that enough was enough and told her I was leaving her. I won custody of you, so you get to live with me now. Hopefully things go better for you.”
If any other kid got told that they would no longer have to stay with someone who let someone else burn them and get away with it, they would likely be brimming over with joy.
Kim was not one of those people.
Kim stood there for a good few seconds, profusely shaking her head as tears began to well up in her eyes. Yes, her mother had just let her priest burn her heels off, but at the same time… the pain was a reminder. The pain was deserved. She knew full well that she had sinned with her disgusting envy towards the author of the Prax Obscura, and her feet getting burned was just the payment for it.
If she hadn’t sinned, the priest wouldn’t have burned her heels off.
If she hadn’t sinned, her parents wouldn’t have gotten into numerous arguments.
If she hadn’t sinned, her parents wouldn’t be divorced.
This was her doing.
This was all her doing.
She shook her head and stepped backwards, all while David looked at her.
“Kim?” he asked. “Kim, what’s the matter? You should be ha–”
Before he could even say “happy”, though, Kim had already started on her way upstairs to her room, blinking and trying to hold back her tears. David just looked after her, blankly staring.
“...Hello?” he asked.
Kim didn’t hear him.
She had already taken refuge in her room, and was now on her bed, profusely sobbing. On the one hand, she was happy that David had won custody of her as opposed to Dinah, but on the other hand… she still couldn’t pull herself away from the truth.
This wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for her.
-
Goldenheart388
- Posts: 17
- Joined: 2021-Jun-26 21:16
Re: THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
CW: attempted burning
Priest curse scene quoted from Ian
THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
BOND TIMELINE
ARC 1
CHAPTER 3
Accumula Church, Accumula Town– 04/29/18
More than a week had gone by since Kim had come home from the hospital and found out her parents had gotten a divorce, and while she blamed herself for a few days afterwards, she had found something else far more interesting to occupy her time.
On the 23rd of April David had decided to take his daughter to a beach, figuring she needed some cheering up, and what Kim found there promptly reignited her passion for linguistics. On the beach, Kim noticed a few Psychic-type Pokemon– namely an Inkay and a Mr. Mime– telekinetically communicating using the sand particles that were on the beach and dust in the air, respectively. At first, she assumed that the two mons were just making shapes, but upon closer inspection she found that the shapes they were making were pictograms of various Pokemon– and not only that, but that they also appeared to be communicating.
The Inkay’s first message consisted, in order, of a Binacle, a Ditto, a Mr. Mime, an Unown question mark,and an Unown exclamation mark.
The Mr. Mime’s first message consisted of a Binacle, a Magnemite, a Chansey, and a Shaymin.
Kim found herself entranced by the messages that were being conveyed between the two mons, and had figured it was now a good a time as any to use something that she’d been given. While Kim had been in the hospital, she’d been given a black notebook in which to write her thoughts. Up to now, she had been using it for hospital diary entries, but now she could use it for something else entirely: trying to figure out what was being said between the two mons.
Her first message in the notebook ran thusly:
I HAVE NOTICED A VERY STRANGE CONVERSATION OCCURRING BETWEEN TWO DIFFERENT POKEMON ON A BEACH NEAR ME. AN INKAY AND A MR. MIME APPEAR TO BE TELEPATHICALLY COMMUNICATING USING PICTURES OF POKEMON. HAVING SEEN HOW PEOPLE TEND TO USE EMOJIS, I FIGURE THIS MUST BE SOMETHING SIMILAR. AS SUCH, I WILL ATTEMPT TO WRITE MY THOUGHTS HERE.
THE CONVERSATION– OR AT LEAST WHAT I SAW OF IT– BETWEEN THESE TWO MONS WENT AS FOLLOWS:
I: BINACLE–DITTO–MR. MIME–UNOWN ?-- UNOWN !
M: BINACLE–MAGNEMITE–CHANSEY–SHAYMIN
I: INKAY–NIHILEGO–MR. MIME–AUDINO– UNOWN !
M: MAGNEMITE–MINUN–ZEKROM–UXIE–AUDINO– UNOWN !
I: MR. MIME–DWEBBLE–UNOWN ?
M: PLUSLE
I: WOBBUFFET–CUBCHOO–UNOWN !
M: DITTO–UXIE–DEWOTT–AUDINO–UNOWN ?
I: INKAY–LAPRAS
IT WAS A VERY INTERESTING EXPERIENCE, BUT ALAS, AFTER THAT MY FATHER CALLED ME. HOWEVER, I WAS STILL ABLE TO GLEAN A LOT OF INFORMATION.
JUST BEFORE THE TWO MONS MET, THEY HUGGED EACH OTHER. IT WAS VERY CLEAR THAT THE TWO OF THEM KNEW EACH OTHER AND WERE VERY EXCITED TO SEE EACH OTHER. AS SUCH, GIVEN THAT EACH OF THEIR FIRST LINES CONTAINED A REPRESENTATION OF A BINACLE, AND GIVEN ALSO THAT BINACLE LOOK LIKE HANDS, I AM FAIRLY CONFIDENT THAT IT TAKES THE PLACE OF A GREETING, IN THIS CASE, NAMELY “HELLO”.
THE UNOWN LETTERS ARE ALL OBVIOUSLY PUNCTUATION MARKS, AND THE MR. MIME PICTOGRAPH IN THE FIRST LINE IS LIKELY IN REFERENCE TO THE MR. MIME THAT THE INKAY IS COMMUNICATING WITH– I.E. “YOU”. AS SUCH, I DON’T THINK IT’S TOO MUCH OF A STRETCH TO SAY THAT THE INKAY’S FIRST LINE IS:
I: HELLO, HOW ARE YOU?!
–WHERE THE DITTO REPRESENTS “TO BE”.
IN THAT REGARD, USING THE STANDARDS OF BASIC COMMUNICATION, THE MAIN RESPONSE TO SOMEONE ASKING “HELLO, HOW ARE YOU?” WOULD OF COURSE BE “I’M FINE, THANK YOU”. THEREFORE I CAN ASSUME THAT THE MR. MIME’S RESPONSE READS “HELLO, I’M WELL, THANK YOU”, AND IF I ASSUME THAT, IMMEDIATELY I NOTICE SOME MAJOR DIALECTAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE INKAY AND THE MR. MIME.
IF THIS IS THE RESPONSE, THEN THE REST OF THE MONS FARE PRETTY WELL. THE BINACLE, AS WE ALREADY MENTIONED, IS “HELLO”; CHANSEY IS “WELL”, WHICH MAKES SENSE GIVEN THAT ITS ENTIRE PURPOSE IS TO ENSURE THE WELL-BEING OF OTHERS; SHAYMIN IS “THANK YOU”, WHICH ALSO MAKES SENSE AS IT IS THE GRATITUDE POKEMON. THAT LEAVES MAGNEMITE, WHICH MUST BE “I” BY PROCESS OF ELIMINATION.
AT FIRST GLANCE IT MIGHT SEEM STRANGE THAT MAGNEMITE REPRESENTS “I” HERE, BUT UPON THINKING ABOUT IT FURTHER I’VE REALIZED SOMETHING: MAGNEMITE, IN EFFECT, IS A SINGLE EYE. IT’S A HOMOPHONIC PUN.
THE NEXT LINE FROM THE INKAY STARTS WITH… AN INKAY, WHICH I CAN ONLY ASSUME MEANS “I” IN THE SAME WAY THAT THE PICTURE OF THE MR. MIME MEANT “YOU”. CURRENTLY, THIS MEANS THE NEXT LINE IS
(I)-- ???-- (YOU)-- ???!
I CONSIDERED MANY DIFFERENT OPTIONS FOR THE NIHILEGO, BUT THE ONLY OPTION THAT SEEMED TO MAKE SENSE FOR THE SENTENCE, GIVEN ITS NATURE AS AN ULTRA BEAST, WAS “TO NOT BELIEVE”, CONSIDERING MANY STILL DON’T CONSIDER ULTRA BEASTS POKEMON EVEN AFTER EXTENSIVE FELUVIAN RESEARCH HAS BEEN DONE ON IT. THAT JUST LEFT THE AUDINO, WHICH I GOT “TO HEAR” FROM, AND SUBSEQUENTLY “HERE”, WHICH IS HOMOPHONOUS. CONSIDERING THE TWO MONS’ SHOCK AT SEEING EACH OTHER, “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’RE HERE” WOULD BE A VALID RESPONSE.
I CAN NOW ASSUME EVERY INSTANCE OF THE INKAY MEANS “I” ON THE INKAY’S END; EVERY INSTANCE OF THE MAGNEMITE MEANS “I” ON THE MR. MIME’S END; AND EVERY INSTANCE OF AUDINO MEANS “HERE”.
FROM THIS, THE NEXT SENTENCE WAS EASY, AS WAS THE ONE AFTER THAT. KNOWING THAT THE NEXT SENTENCE ON THE MR. MIME’S END STARTS WITH “I” AND ENDS WITH “HERE”, THE ONLY POSSIBLE REPLY GIVEN THE NEXT FEW MONS IS:
M: I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’RE HERE!
–WHICH LINES UP, GIVEN MINUN’S NEGATIVE ASSOCIATION, ZEKROM’S STATUS AS THE POKEMON OF IDEALS, AND UXIE… WELL, I SUPPOSE A BETTER MON COULD HAVE WORKED FOR “YOU” THAN UXIE.
THE NEXT LINE IS EVEN EASIER: “IS THIS YOUR HOME?”, OR PERHAPS MORE ARTISTICALLY, “DO YOU LIVE HERE?”, TO WHICH THE ANSWER ON THE OTHER END FROM THE MR. MIME IS ALMOST CERTAINLY “YES”.
FROM HERE, I THINK I AM ABLE TO GRASP THE REST OF THE CONVERSATION. HERE IS WHAT I PERSONALLY BELIEVE THEY ARE SAYING HERE:
I: HELLO, HOW ARE YOU?!
M: HELLO, I’M WELL, THANK YOU!
I: I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’RE HERE!
M: I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’RE HERE!
I: DO YOU LIVE HERE?
M: YES.
I: THAT’S COOL!
M: WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?
I: I’M VISITING.
THAT LAST ONE I’M NOT AS SURE ABOUT; THE LAPRAS THERE COULD POSSIBLY MEAN ANYTHING, BUT GIVEN THE CONTEXT, “I’M VISITING” SEEMED THE MOST RIGHT TO ME. MAYBE “I’M ON VACATION” COULD WORK TOO.
Kim was so entranced by what was happening that she figured that this was a full-blown language, and decided to create an entire dictionary for every single Pokemon. This kept her occupied to such an extent that she forgot basically all about her parents’ divorce, as well as– to a slighter extent– the burning that had occurred to her heels and the fact that she didn’t have them.
She was a bit reluctant to go into church that Sunday, though, and almost considered not going there at all, but she decided to give it one more shot, hoping against hope that someone had gotten word of her priest punishing her and had subsequently excommunicated him. David encouraged her to take her unfinished dictionary with her, which she gladly decided to do, as she was eager to show it to people, and considered it a point of pride for her. David also told her that if anyone at that church tried to hurt her again, she should take her Rotom Phone out and call straight home.
Kim agreed.
Upon Kim arriving at church, everything initially went a lot better for her than the last week had. Kim went to Sunday school and mass, and then headed off to worship services– which didn’t start for another 30 minutes, which meant she had plenty of time.
Eagerly, and all the while holding her unfinished dictionary, she walked up to her pastor, who was standing behind a giant podium.
“Pardon me, Reverend?” she asked.
The pastor turned to face her.
“Greetings, Kim,” he said. “How are things going?”
“Excellent,” said Kim, continually forcing herself to stand digitigrade as she felt where her heels would be starting to slip to the floor. “I must show you something before the mass begins.”
The pastor raised an eyebrow. “Must…?”
Kim nodded. “I made this.”
She held out the dictionary towards the pastor’s face. The pastor looked it over for a moment.
“…what is this?” he asked.
“A dictionary,” said Kim. “It’s unfinished, but I’m working on it at the moment. It’s for a language that I found out was called ‘Kalosian Dust Speech’. There isn’t much research into it at the moment, though, so I’m pretty sure I’m the first person to—”
She felt a large hand suddenly grasp her neck and pull her in. Somewhat confused and intimidated, Kim glanced up— and found her pastor looking down at her, looking quite a bit angry. On instinct, Kim flinched, and her hand reached for her purse to see if she could find her Rotom Phone.
“You fool!” her pastor snapped. “That is pride! The worst sin of all of them! And worse yet, it’s pride in something that doesn’t even exist! Kalosian Dust Speech isn’t even a real language!”
Kim strained herself, desperately trying to get out of her pastor’s grasp and grab her phone.
“I-it’s real—” she said, straining to speak. “I can— assure you— it’s—!”
“If you’re the first person to do research in it, then it can’t possibly be real!” her pastor snapped, continuing to grab her neck. “How dare you! How dare you take pride in something that doesn’t even exist!”
Noticing suddenly what Kim was doing, the pastor let go of Kim’s neck with one hand and slapped Kim’s hand away from her purse, causing Kim to yelp in pain but successfully preventing her from reaching her phone. Remembering she also had an OB-1, she attempted to reach out for that as well, only to get another slap. Kim started to tear up again, but held it back.
“F-forgive— me…” she said, her voice still strained.
“I’ll forgive you after this,” said the pastor, and he pulled Kim by the neck, in the direction of the confession room.
The force was so strong, it ended up throwing Kim’s purse, with her phone and her OB-1, away from her body and onto the floor.
————————————————————————
As soon as Kim found herself in the confession room— in the same comfortable looking room that her priest had burned her heels off in the week prior— she found herself starting to sweat profusely as she looked around the room and realized what was no doubt about to happen. The pastor practically threw Kim onto the bench, and let go of her neck with both hands. Kim stopped and took a few moments to breathe— then did what she hadn’t done with her priest, and looked behind her. Her pastor was carrying a giant stick.
After the horror that she had endured yesterday, Kim felt almost relieved. Even so though, she knew her father still wouldn’t approve of it, so she reached down now that her hands and neck were free and—
Uh-oh.
Her purse wasn’t on her.
She must have left it behind.
In a desperate attempt to calm herself, Kim took a few deep breaths and glanced around. Eventually, she noticed the door and began to run towards it in an attempt to escape, only to stop herself when she noticed the pastor walking towards the door with the stick still in his hand. He reached out to grab the doorknob and walked out, still carrying the stick.
Kim glanced around her, her relief slowly growing now that nobody was there. Hesitantly, she got up off of the bench and made her way towards the door, her hand slowly reaching out for the doorknob. She eventually grabbed on to it, turned it, and attempted to pull…
Only to find that the door wouldn’t budge.
Horror slowly dawned on Kim as she let go and backed away, realizing that the door was locked and that almost certainly, her pastor had left the room temporarily to get someone else– someone she feared far more. She reluctantly got back onto the bench, regretting instantly the fact that she had shown her pastor her Kalosian Dust Speech dictionary, or had even brought it up in the first place. It wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t worth it to do any of her own research. That led to pride. That was a sin. If she was going to learn anything at all, it would have to be from somebody else– but then that was envy, and that was also a sin!
She shuddered to herself on the bench, waiting with great reluctance for her priest to enter the room so that she could just get this over with already. One thing was for certain, though– it would almost certainly be the last time that her church would ever see her again. Its teachings would live on forever in her mind, but it was absolutely worth it for her to leave the church so that she could spare herself from ever committing a sin in their presence again.
She suddenly heard a creak coming from near her, and sure enough, the door opened and in stepped her priest, carrying the stick that her pastor had no doubt given him. For a few moments, she was delighted that said stick wasn’t on fire, but still very much worried about the spanking she would inevitably receive…
That was until she saw her priest turn the lights off and walk over to the fireplace, where there were incredibly hot melted glass shards inside, put the stick in, and spin it around a few times. Hot molten metal glass gathered on to the stick, and slowly Kim realized that the stick wasn’t going to be used for spanking.
The stick was a glassblowing rod.
Kim grit her teeth in preemptive agony as she saw the priest hold up the stick. Molten metal glass began to drip on the floor, and ever so slowly he made his way over to Kim. Without saying a single word, his body brimming with disappointment, he put the stick down on the floor, rolled up Kim’s shirt to expose her back, and started to pick the stick up. Kim closed her eyes, looked away, grit her teeth, and prepared to scream…
…and then nothing happened.
She didn’t feel any burning sensation.
Instead she heard a loud clank.
Kim slowly relaxed her jaw and opened her eyes, and what she saw stunned her to no end.
A massive, purple pentagram, about as big as the priest, stood in front of her, emblazoned with a giant letter E. Behind it was a pair of glowing, violet eyes, the occupant of whom was completely enshadowed and floating, almost like some kind of a ghost. Kim looked behind her, and saw that her priest had dropped the glassblowing rod (that was what had made the clanking noise) and was staring up at the ghost in shock. Kim’s unknown shadowed savior then extended a hand, and the pentagram disintegrated into glowing purple energy, which shot directly towards the priest, who could only stare in utter horror as a magic circle suddenly appeared around him.
Kim stared back at her priest in shock.
The magic circle suddenly started to glow, and the energy from it shot up around the priest, causing him to scream in agony. A distorted voice suddenly echoed from the purple-eyed benefactor:
“I CURSE YOU THRICEFOLD ‘PON YOUR WRETCHED SOUL!”
The priest began to glow purple, and Kim, not knowing what to think, sat up on the bench and watched as the priest sunk down to his knees, with the molten glass on the rod also glowing purple.
“NOW… ALL THE PAIN YOU CAUSE…”
The molten glass flew up off of the rod and started to float towards the priest, spiraling around him.
“SHALL COME BACK TO YOU…”
It began to spin faster and faster, at the same time that the voice of… whoever this was began to get faster and faster as well.
“HENCEFORTH FOR ALL YOUR SINS THERE’S NOWHERE TO HIDE–”
The glass grew closer and closer to the priest.
“YOU’LL FACE THE RAGE OF THE DISTORTION WORLD FOR ETERNITY…”
The glass eventually coalesced into a massive glowing blob of purple.
“SO MOTE IT BE!”
Kim looked away from the enshadowed figure and watched as the purple blob exploded, enshrouding the priest in even more burning purple magic energy that made him scream in agony. In time with the last few words out of the mouth of the enshadowed, nine burn scars of purple suddenly appeared onto the priest’s back, heels, and numerous other places, allowing Kim to realize that she was not the first person this priest had burned:
“RIN PYO TO SHA KAI JIN RETSU ZAI ZEN!”
On the word “zen,” all of the purple suddenly faded. The magic circle faded away, as did the purple on the priest’s body, leaving behind glowing white, very painful burn marks that caused the priest to double over in agony and eventually run out of the room while unlocking the door in the process. The purple eyes faded as well, and Kim’s savior slowly faded away into the dark room– though Kim thought as though she had heard a crash.
Tentatively, she looked around the room, making sure absolutely nobody was in there, then took a deep breath and fully got up from the bench.
That had been painfully close.
Kim looked out for a few moments into the shadows, not knowing who on Earth this “E” was who had saved her life, but feeling eternally grateful to said person. If she could only find the person, she could thank them personally… but she knew it would be a very long time before that were to happen. As a matter of fact, she figured she wouldn’t even find the person in question at all.
She clasped her hands together for a few moments and said a silent prayer of gratitude, before almost immediately running out of the confession room and, by proxy, out of the church. On the way there, she stopped to grab her purse, which was indeed lying on the floor of the church.
Through a crowd of people, all of whom were watching, and one of which was her pastor, Kim ran as fast as she could out of the doors of the Accumulan Church for what would be the last time. On the way out she noticed her unfinished Kalosian Dust Speech dictionary sitting on the pastor’s podium.
She didn’t stop to get it.
She’d been saved, sure, but she was far too traumatized to ever kickstart and share her own personal research on languages again.
She no longer cared if that dictionary was burned forever or not.
It wasn’t something she should be taking pride in.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About 20 minutes later Kim bolted straight through the door of her house, interrupting her father– who was watching some sort of interview on TV– and causing him to turn to face her.
“Oh!” he said. “Kim! Y-you’re home early. What happened? Did you get hurt again?”
Kim shook her head.
“Father, you’re not going to believe what happened,” she said. “I showed my pastor the unfinished dictionary of the Kalosian Dust Speech…”
—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“...and so I came all the way back home.”
Upon hearing Kim’s full story, David blinked for a few moments, then let out a massive grin.
“Well, thank goodness that whoever it was saved you!” he said. “I would have lost my mind if they hadn’t! A shame you weren’t able to call me, though. Do you have any idea as to who it was who saved you?”
Kim shook her head. “They were completely in shadow and all I saw of them was purple glowing eyes. I have no idea as to who saved me at all, but suffice it to say since I’m never going to that church again and have almost completely given up on organized religion, I suppose I might as well try and figure out who saved me.”
David shrugged. “Yep, seems like a good enough goal to me.” He pointed at the television. “Could maybe be one of these guys.”
Kim, a bit confused, looked over at the screen in front of her.
David was watching an interview with William Elliot Gisnep, the Mimikyu founder of the Feluv-based Gisnep Animated Company and the Gisnep Corporation, who had made many, many beloved classic animated films. Her favorite of them– which funnily enough was also related to religion and also had someone getting burned and whipped– was the highest-grossing and most famous film from the company. After the Gisnep interview was over, it suddenly switched to someone who Kim did not recognize at all: a fairly androgynous-looking person with blue hair who was similarly dressed entirely in blue. Underneath this person was a headline, which read:
EVER MEMITO– J-TEAM
Kim’s eyes widened– she recognized both of those things, at least to some extent.
The J-Team were an extremely small, currently 5-man group of people that Kim knew little about, other than the fact that they were officially aligned with the Gisnep Corporation. They had been officially created in 2011, and while several members had come and gone, the 5 current members she did know about, she’d learned about through various Gisnep documentaries: Richard “Tagg” Yhap-Waite, Pentigan Fivesides (which Kim was certain wasn’t his real name), Crow Thompson, Kai Amarin (a Frontier Brain, apparently!), and the one who apparently had the greatest significance outside of the J-Team, Ever Memito.
No one actually seemed to know what Ever Memito did as a member of the J-Team, other than “stuff related to Gisnep”, but Kim had definitely heard the name Memito before. Her father, who was also into linguistics– just not as much as her mother– had told her about the history of the Galarian language, specifically about the Great Vowel Shift, and how it happening before spelling was standardized meant that Galarian spellings very often differed from how they were pronounced.
The technical linguistic term used to describe Galarian’s pronunciation and spelling dichotomy was called The Memito Effect, and was named after Revy Memito, the feared 16th-century Ransei pirate who- among other, far worse things- heavily ranted about the standardization of Galarian spelling in the 1550’s. Certainly not hurting matters in the least was the fact that the name Memito itself was an example of the Memito Effect; since spelling wasn’t standardized back then the name “Memito” was spelled all sorts of different ways by Revy, many of them more reflective of the name’s actual pronunciation– which, to wit, was “mee-MY-to”; it was the effect that was pronounced “muh-MEET-oh”, like a sort of “PRE-sent” vs. “pre-SENT” thing. Kim, of course, did not know this; since she knew how the effect was pronounced and had only seen the name Revy Memito and never actually heard it, she pronounced both Memitos the same way.
Regardless, the fact that “beard” and “heard” didn’t rhyme; the fact that “read” and “read” were pronounced differently; the fact that anything at all could be achieved through tough thorough thought were all examples of the effect in action, and it was a major linguistic phenomenon studied by countless researchers.
And now here was someone clearly related to the namesake of such an important linguistic concept that Kim had known for years, on screen in front of Kim for the very first time.
But that wasn’t the main thing that caught Kim’s attention.
It was the questions that were being asked of Ever in the interview.
“Ever!” someone asked on the television. “Are you an Obscuric?”
“No,” said Ever.
“How do you explain your love of the fae, and ghosts, and supernatural stuff then?”
Ever shrugged. “I don’t really think I can; I just… do.”
Kim likely would have continued watching the interview– had she not suddenly stopped and noticed more than a few things.
First and foremost, the voice that had come out of Ever’s mouth sounded eerily similar to the one that she had heard when… whoever it was, really, cursed the priest. Of course, this could have just been a side effect of the curse, but at the same time, Ever had just mentioned they weren’t an Obscuric. It was likely that the voice was the same.
Secondly, if they were obsessed with ghosts, and fae, and the supernatural… well, that explained the mystic purple pentagram and the magical powers that whoever it was had invoked on the priest. That was almost certainly their Pokemon’s doing, given that they weren’t an Obscuric, but they clearly had a fascination with all things mystic.
Actually… come to think of it, the shadowed person had kind of looked like that, and the pentagram did have a giant E in the middle…
So maybe…
Kim lit up.
No, there wasn’t really a “maybe” anymore. At least, not in her mind.
If anyone would have found out about the actions of a corrupt church, it would have been Gisnep and the J-Team. And if anyone from that team knew how to put the fear of Arceus in people by using their love of ghosts and the fae against them…
“...Father?” Kim asked.
“Yeah?” asked David.
Kim grinned. Thankfully for her, gratitude wasn’t a sin.
“I think I have a pretty good idea as to who saved my life,” she said.
Priest curse scene quoted from Ian
THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
BOND TIMELINE
ARC 1
CHAPTER 3
Accumula Church, Accumula Town– 04/29/18
More than a week had gone by since Kim had come home from the hospital and found out her parents had gotten a divorce, and while she blamed herself for a few days afterwards, she had found something else far more interesting to occupy her time.
On the 23rd of April David had decided to take his daughter to a beach, figuring she needed some cheering up, and what Kim found there promptly reignited her passion for linguistics. On the beach, Kim noticed a few Psychic-type Pokemon– namely an Inkay and a Mr. Mime– telekinetically communicating using the sand particles that were on the beach and dust in the air, respectively. At first, she assumed that the two mons were just making shapes, but upon closer inspection she found that the shapes they were making were pictograms of various Pokemon– and not only that, but that they also appeared to be communicating.
The Inkay’s first message consisted, in order, of a Binacle, a Ditto, a Mr. Mime, an Unown question mark,and an Unown exclamation mark.
The Mr. Mime’s first message consisted of a Binacle, a Magnemite, a Chansey, and a Shaymin.
Kim found herself entranced by the messages that were being conveyed between the two mons, and had figured it was now a good a time as any to use something that she’d been given. While Kim had been in the hospital, she’d been given a black notebook in which to write her thoughts. Up to now, she had been using it for hospital diary entries, but now she could use it for something else entirely: trying to figure out what was being said between the two mons.
Her first message in the notebook ran thusly:
I HAVE NOTICED A VERY STRANGE CONVERSATION OCCURRING BETWEEN TWO DIFFERENT POKEMON ON A BEACH NEAR ME. AN INKAY AND A MR. MIME APPEAR TO BE TELEPATHICALLY COMMUNICATING USING PICTURES OF POKEMON. HAVING SEEN HOW PEOPLE TEND TO USE EMOJIS, I FIGURE THIS MUST BE SOMETHING SIMILAR. AS SUCH, I WILL ATTEMPT TO WRITE MY THOUGHTS HERE.
THE CONVERSATION– OR AT LEAST WHAT I SAW OF IT– BETWEEN THESE TWO MONS WENT AS FOLLOWS:
I: BINACLE–DITTO–MR. MIME–UNOWN ?-- UNOWN !
M: BINACLE–MAGNEMITE–CHANSEY–SHAYMIN
I: INKAY–NIHILEGO–MR. MIME–AUDINO– UNOWN !
M: MAGNEMITE–MINUN–ZEKROM–UXIE–AUDINO– UNOWN !
I: MR. MIME–DWEBBLE–UNOWN ?
M: PLUSLE
I: WOBBUFFET–CUBCHOO–UNOWN !
M: DITTO–UXIE–DEWOTT–AUDINO–UNOWN ?
I: INKAY–LAPRAS
IT WAS A VERY INTERESTING EXPERIENCE, BUT ALAS, AFTER THAT MY FATHER CALLED ME. HOWEVER, I WAS STILL ABLE TO GLEAN A LOT OF INFORMATION.
JUST BEFORE THE TWO MONS MET, THEY HUGGED EACH OTHER. IT WAS VERY CLEAR THAT THE TWO OF THEM KNEW EACH OTHER AND WERE VERY EXCITED TO SEE EACH OTHER. AS SUCH, GIVEN THAT EACH OF THEIR FIRST LINES CONTAINED A REPRESENTATION OF A BINACLE, AND GIVEN ALSO THAT BINACLE LOOK LIKE HANDS, I AM FAIRLY CONFIDENT THAT IT TAKES THE PLACE OF A GREETING, IN THIS CASE, NAMELY “HELLO”.
THE UNOWN LETTERS ARE ALL OBVIOUSLY PUNCTUATION MARKS, AND THE MR. MIME PICTOGRAPH IN THE FIRST LINE IS LIKELY IN REFERENCE TO THE MR. MIME THAT THE INKAY IS COMMUNICATING WITH– I.E. “YOU”. AS SUCH, I DON’T THINK IT’S TOO MUCH OF A STRETCH TO SAY THAT THE INKAY’S FIRST LINE IS:
I: HELLO, HOW ARE YOU?!
–WHERE THE DITTO REPRESENTS “TO BE”.
IN THAT REGARD, USING THE STANDARDS OF BASIC COMMUNICATION, THE MAIN RESPONSE TO SOMEONE ASKING “HELLO, HOW ARE YOU?” WOULD OF COURSE BE “I’M FINE, THANK YOU”. THEREFORE I CAN ASSUME THAT THE MR. MIME’S RESPONSE READS “HELLO, I’M WELL, THANK YOU”, AND IF I ASSUME THAT, IMMEDIATELY I NOTICE SOME MAJOR DIALECTAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE INKAY AND THE MR. MIME.
IF THIS IS THE RESPONSE, THEN THE REST OF THE MONS FARE PRETTY WELL. THE BINACLE, AS WE ALREADY MENTIONED, IS “HELLO”; CHANSEY IS “WELL”, WHICH MAKES SENSE GIVEN THAT ITS ENTIRE PURPOSE IS TO ENSURE THE WELL-BEING OF OTHERS; SHAYMIN IS “THANK YOU”, WHICH ALSO MAKES SENSE AS IT IS THE GRATITUDE POKEMON. THAT LEAVES MAGNEMITE, WHICH MUST BE “I” BY PROCESS OF ELIMINATION.
AT FIRST GLANCE IT MIGHT SEEM STRANGE THAT MAGNEMITE REPRESENTS “I” HERE, BUT UPON THINKING ABOUT IT FURTHER I’VE REALIZED SOMETHING: MAGNEMITE, IN EFFECT, IS A SINGLE EYE. IT’S A HOMOPHONIC PUN.
THE NEXT LINE FROM THE INKAY STARTS WITH… AN INKAY, WHICH I CAN ONLY ASSUME MEANS “I” IN THE SAME WAY THAT THE PICTURE OF THE MR. MIME MEANT “YOU”. CURRENTLY, THIS MEANS THE NEXT LINE IS
(I)-- ???-- (YOU)-- ???!
I CONSIDERED MANY DIFFERENT OPTIONS FOR THE NIHILEGO, BUT THE ONLY OPTION THAT SEEMED TO MAKE SENSE FOR THE SENTENCE, GIVEN ITS NATURE AS AN ULTRA BEAST, WAS “TO NOT BELIEVE”, CONSIDERING MANY STILL DON’T CONSIDER ULTRA BEASTS POKEMON EVEN AFTER EXTENSIVE FELUVIAN RESEARCH HAS BEEN DONE ON IT. THAT JUST LEFT THE AUDINO, WHICH I GOT “TO HEAR” FROM, AND SUBSEQUENTLY “HERE”, WHICH IS HOMOPHONOUS. CONSIDERING THE TWO MONS’ SHOCK AT SEEING EACH OTHER, “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’RE HERE” WOULD BE A VALID RESPONSE.
I CAN NOW ASSUME EVERY INSTANCE OF THE INKAY MEANS “I” ON THE INKAY’S END; EVERY INSTANCE OF THE MAGNEMITE MEANS “I” ON THE MR. MIME’S END; AND EVERY INSTANCE OF AUDINO MEANS “HERE”.
FROM THIS, THE NEXT SENTENCE WAS EASY, AS WAS THE ONE AFTER THAT. KNOWING THAT THE NEXT SENTENCE ON THE MR. MIME’S END STARTS WITH “I” AND ENDS WITH “HERE”, THE ONLY POSSIBLE REPLY GIVEN THE NEXT FEW MONS IS:
M: I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’RE HERE!
–WHICH LINES UP, GIVEN MINUN’S NEGATIVE ASSOCIATION, ZEKROM’S STATUS AS THE POKEMON OF IDEALS, AND UXIE… WELL, I SUPPOSE A BETTER MON COULD HAVE WORKED FOR “YOU” THAN UXIE.
THE NEXT LINE IS EVEN EASIER: “IS THIS YOUR HOME?”, OR PERHAPS MORE ARTISTICALLY, “DO YOU LIVE HERE?”, TO WHICH THE ANSWER ON THE OTHER END FROM THE MR. MIME IS ALMOST CERTAINLY “YES”.
FROM HERE, I THINK I AM ABLE TO GRASP THE REST OF THE CONVERSATION. HERE IS WHAT I PERSONALLY BELIEVE THEY ARE SAYING HERE:
I: HELLO, HOW ARE YOU?!
M: HELLO, I’M WELL, THANK YOU!
I: I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’RE HERE!
M: I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’RE HERE!
I: DO YOU LIVE HERE?
M: YES.
I: THAT’S COOL!
M: WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?
I: I’M VISITING.
THAT LAST ONE I’M NOT AS SURE ABOUT; THE LAPRAS THERE COULD POSSIBLY MEAN ANYTHING, BUT GIVEN THE CONTEXT, “I’M VISITING” SEEMED THE MOST RIGHT TO ME. MAYBE “I’M ON VACATION” COULD WORK TOO.
Kim was so entranced by what was happening that she figured that this was a full-blown language, and decided to create an entire dictionary for every single Pokemon. This kept her occupied to such an extent that she forgot basically all about her parents’ divorce, as well as– to a slighter extent– the burning that had occurred to her heels and the fact that she didn’t have them.
She was a bit reluctant to go into church that Sunday, though, and almost considered not going there at all, but she decided to give it one more shot, hoping against hope that someone had gotten word of her priest punishing her and had subsequently excommunicated him. David encouraged her to take her unfinished dictionary with her, which she gladly decided to do, as she was eager to show it to people, and considered it a point of pride for her. David also told her that if anyone at that church tried to hurt her again, she should take her Rotom Phone out and call straight home.
Kim agreed.
Upon Kim arriving at church, everything initially went a lot better for her than the last week had. Kim went to Sunday school and mass, and then headed off to worship services– which didn’t start for another 30 minutes, which meant she had plenty of time.
Eagerly, and all the while holding her unfinished dictionary, she walked up to her pastor, who was standing behind a giant podium.
“Pardon me, Reverend?” she asked.
The pastor turned to face her.
“Greetings, Kim,” he said. “How are things going?”
“Excellent,” said Kim, continually forcing herself to stand digitigrade as she felt where her heels would be starting to slip to the floor. “I must show you something before the mass begins.”
The pastor raised an eyebrow. “Must…?”
Kim nodded. “I made this.”
She held out the dictionary towards the pastor’s face. The pastor looked it over for a moment.
“…what is this?” he asked.
“A dictionary,” said Kim. “It’s unfinished, but I’m working on it at the moment. It’s for a language that I found out was called ‘Kalosian Dust Speech’. There isn’t much research into it at the moment, though, so I’m pretty sure I’m the first person to—”
She felt a large hand suddenly grasp her neck and pull her in. Somewhat confused and intimidated, Kim glanced up— and found her pastor looking down at her, looking quite a bit angry. On instinct, Kim flinched, and her hand reached for her purse to see if she could find her Rotom Phone.
“You fool!” her pastor snapped. “That is pride! The worst sin of all of them! And worse yet, it’s pride in something that doesn’t even exist! Kalosian Dust Speech isn’t even a real language!”
Kim strained herself, desperately trying to get out of her pastor’s grasp and grab her phone.
“I-it’s real—” she said, straining to speak. “I can— assure you— it’s—!”
“If you’re the first person to do research in it, then it can’t possibly be real!” her pastor snapped, continuing to grab her neck. “How dare you! How dare you take pride in something that doesn’t even exist!”
Noticing suddenly what Kim was doing, the pastor let go of Kim’s neck with one hand and slapped Kim’s hand away from her purse, causing Kim to yelp in pain but successfully preventing her from reaching her phone. Remembering she also had an OB-1, she attempted to reach out for that as well, only to get another slap. Kim started to tear up again, but held it back.
“F-forgive— me…” she said, her voice still strained.
“I’ll forgive you after this,” said the pastor, and he pulled Kim by the neck, in the direction of the confession room.
The force was so strong, it ended up throwing Kim’s purse, with her phone and her OB-1, away from her body and onto the floor.
————————————————————————
As soon as Kim found herself in the confession room— in the same comfortable looking room that her priest had burned her heels off in the week prior— she found herself starting to sweat profusely as she looked around the room and realized what was no doubt about to happen. The pastor practically threw Kim onto the bench, and let go of her neck with both hands. Kim stopped and took a few moments to breathe— then did what she hadn’t done with her priest, and looked behind her. Her pastor was carrying a giant stick.
After the horror that she had endured yesterday, Kim felt almost relieved. Even so though, she knew her father still wouldn’t approve of it, so she reached down now that her hands and neck were free and—
Uh-oh.
Her purse wasn’t on her.
She must have left it behind.
In a desperate attempt to calm herself, Kim took a few deep breaths and glanced around. Eventually, she noticed the door and began to run towards it in an attempt to escape, only to stop herself when she noticed the pastor walking towards the door with the stick still in his hand. He reached out to grab the doorknob and walked out, still carrying the stick.
Kim glanced around her, her relief slowly growing now that nobody was there. Hesitantly, she got up off of the bench and made her way towards the door, her hand slowly reaching out for the doorknob. She eventually grabbed on to it, turned it, and attempted to pull…
Only to find that the door wouldn’t budge.
Horror slowly dawned on Kim as she let go and backed away, realizing that the door was locked and that almost certainly, her pastor had left the room temporarily to get someone else– someone she feared far more. She reluctantly got back onto the bench, regretting instantly the fact that she had shown her pastor her Kalosian Dust Speech dictionary, or had even brought it up in the first place. It wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t worth it to do any of her own research. That led to pride. That was a sin. If she was going to learn anything at all, it would have to be from somebody else– but then that was envy, and that was also a sin!
She shuddered to herself on the bench, waiting with great reluctance for her priest to enter the room so that she could just get this over with already. One thing was for certain, though– it would almost certainly be the last time that her church would ever see her again. Its teachings would live on forever in her mind, but it was absolutely worth it for her to leave the church so that she could spare herself from ever committing a sin in their presence again.
She suddenly heard a creak coming from near her, and sure enough, the door opened and in stepped her priest, carrying the stick that her pastor had no doubt given him. For a few moments, she was delighted that said stick wasn’t on fire, but still very much worried about the spanking she would inevitably receive…
That was until she saw her priest turn the lights off and walk over to the fireplace, where there were incredibly hot melted glass shards inside, put the stick in, and spin it around a few times. Hot molten metal glass gathered on to the stick, and slowly Kim realized that the stick wasn’t going to be used for spanking.
The stick was a glassblowing rod.
Kim grit her teeth in preemptive agony as she saw the priest hold up the stick. Molten metal glass began to drip on the floor, and ever so slowly he made his way over to Kim. Without saying a single word, his body brimming with disappointment, he put the stick down on the floor, rolled up Kim’s shirt to expose her back, and started to pick the stick up. Kim closed her eyes, looked away, grit her teeth, and prepared to scream…
…and then nothing happened.
She didn’t feel any burning sensation.
Instead she heard a loud clank.
Kim slowly relaxed her jaw and opened her eyes, and what she saw stunned her to no end.
A massive, purple pentagram, about as big as the priest, stood in front of her, emblazoned with a giant letter E. Behind it was a pair of glowing, violet eyes, the occupant of whom was completely enshadowed and floating, almost like some kind of a ghost. Kim looked behind her, and saw that her priest had dropped the glassblowing rod (that was what had made the clanking noise) and was staring up at the ghost in shock. Kim’s unknown shadowed savior then extended a hand, and the pentagram disintegrated into glowing purple energy, which shot directly towards the priest, who could only stare in utter horror as a magic circle suddenly appeared around him.
Kim stared back at her priest in shock.
The magic circle suddenly started to glow, and the energy from it shot up around the priest, causing him to scream in agony. A distorted voice suddenly echoed from the purple-eyed benefactor:
“I CURSE YOU THRICEFOLD ‘PON YOUR WRETCHED SOUL!”
The priest began to glow purple, and Kim, not knowing what to think, sat up on the bench and watched as the priest sunk down to his knees, with the molten glass on the rod also glowing purple.
“NOW… ALL THE PAIN YOU CAUSE…”
The molten glass flew up off of the rod and started to float towards the priest, spiraling around him.
“SHALL COME BACK TO YOU…”
It began to spin faster and faster, at the same time that the voice of… whoever this was began to get faster and faster as well.
“HENCEFORTH FOR ALL YOUR SINS THERE’S NOWHERE TO HIDE–”
The glass grew closer and closer to the priest.
“YOU’LL FACE THE RAGE OF THE DISTORTION WORLD FOR ETERNITY…”
The glass eventually coalesced into a massive glowing blob of purple.
“SO MOTE IT BE!”
Kim looked away from the enshadowed figure and watched as the purple blob exploded, enshrouding the priest in even more burning purple magic energy that made him scream in agony. In time with the last few words out of the mouth of the enshadowed, nine burn scars of purple suddenly appeared onto the priest’s back, heels, and numerous other places, allowing Kim to realize that she was not the first person this priest had burned:
“RIN PYO TO SHA KAI JIN RETSU ZAI ZEN!”
On the word “zen,” all of the purple suddenly faded. The magic circle faded away, as did the purple on the priest’s body, leaving behind glowing white, very painful burn marks that caused the priest to double over in agony and eventually run out of the room while unlocking the door in the process. The purple eyes faded as well, and Kim’s savior slowly faded away into the dark room– though Kim thought as though she had heard a crash.
Tentatively, she looked around the room, making sure absolutely nobody was in there, then took a deep breath and fully got up from the bench.
That had been painfully close.
Kim looked out for a few moments into the shadows, not knowing who on Earth this “E” was who had saved her life, but feeling eternally grateful to said person. If she could only find the person, she could thank them personally… but she knew it would be a very long time before that were to happen. As a matter of fact, she figured she wouldn’t even find the person in question at all.
She clasped her hands together for a few moments and said a silent prayer of gratitude, before almost immediately running out of the confession room and, by proxy, out of the church. On the way there, she stopped to grab her purse, which was indeed lying on the floor of the church.
Through a crowd of people, all of whom were watching, and one of which was her pastor, Kim ran as fast as she could out of the doors of the Accumulan Church for what would be the last time. On the way out she noticed her unfinished Kalosian Dust Speech dictionary sitting on the pastor’s podium.
She didn’t stop to get it.
She’d been saved, sure, but she was far too traumatized to ever kickstart and share her own personal research on languages again.
She no longer cared if that dictionary was burned forever or not.
It wasn’t something she should be taking pride in.
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About 20 minutes later Kim bolted straight through the door of her house, interrupting her father– who was watching some sort of interview on TV– and causing him to turn to face her.
“Oh!” he said. “Kim! Y-you’re home early. What happened? Did you get hurt again?”
Kim shook her head.
“Father, you’re not going to believe what happened,” she said. “I showed my pastor the unfinished dictionary of the Kalosian Dust Speech…”
—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“...and so I came all the way back home.”
Upon hearing Kim’s full story, David blinked for a few moments, then let out a massive grin.
“Well, thank goodness that whoever it was saved you!” he said. “I would have lost my mind if they hadn’t! A shame you weren’t able to call me, though. Do you have any idea as to who it was who saved you?”
Kim shook her head. “They were completely in shadow and all I saw of them was purple glowing eyes. I have no idea as to who saved me at all, but suffice it to say since I’m never going to that church again and have almost completely given up on organized religion, I suppose I might as well try and figure out who saved me.”
David shrugged. “Yep, seems like a good enough goal to me.” He pointed at the television. “Could maybe be one of these guys.”
Kim, a bit confused, looked over at the screen in front of her.
David was watching an interview with William Elliot Gisnep, the Mimikyu founder of the Feluv-based Gisnep Animated Company and the Gisnep Corporation, who had made many, many beloved classic animated films. Her favorite of them– which funnily enough was also related to religion and also had someone getting burned and whipped– was the highest-grossing and most famous film from the company. After the Gisnep interview was over, it suddenly switched to someone who Kim did not recognize at all: a fairly androgynous-looking person with blue hair who was similarly dressed entirely in blue. Underneath this person was a headline, which read:
EVER MEMITO– J-TEAM
Kim’s eyes widened– she recognized both of those things, at least to some extent.
The J-Team were an extremely small, currently 5-man group of people that Kim knew little about, other than the fact that they were officially aligned with the Gisnep Corporation. They had been officially created in 2011, and while several members had come and gone, the 5 current members she did know about, she’d learned about through various Gisnep documentaries: Richard “Tagg” Yhap-Waite, Pentigan Fivesides (which Kim was certain wasn’t his real name), Crow Thompson, Kai Amarin (a Frontier Brain, apparently!), and the one who apparently had the greatest significance outside of the J-Team, Ever Memito.
No one actually seemed to know what Ever Memito did as a member of the J-Team, other than “stuff related to Gisnep”, but Kim had definitely heard the name Memito before. Her father, who was also into linguistics– just not as much as her mother– had told her about the history of the Galarian language, specifically about the Great Vowel Shift, and how it happening before spelling was standardized meant that Galarian spellings very often differed from how they were pronounced.
The technical linguistic term used to describe Galarian’s pronunciation and spelling dichotomy was called The Memito Effect, and was named after Revy Memito, the feared 16th-century Ransei pirate who- among other, far worse things- heavily ranted about the standardization of Galarian spelling in the 1550’s. Certainly not hurting matters in the least was the fact that the name Memito itself was an example of the Memito Effect; since spelling wasn’t standardized back then the name “Memito” was spelled all sorts of different ways by Revy, many of them more reflective of the name’s actual pronunciation– which, to wit, was “mee-MY-to”; it was the effect that was pronounced “muh-MEET-oh”, like a sort of “PRE-sent” vs. “pre-SENT” thing. Kim, of course, did not know this; since she knew how the effect was pronounced and had only seen the name Revy Memito and never actually heard it, she pronounced both Memitos the same way.
Regardless, the fact that “beard” and “heard” didn’t rhyme; the fact that “read” and “read” were pronounced differently; the fact that anything at all could be achieved through tough thorough thought were all examples of the effect in action, and it was a major linguistic phenomenon studied by countless researchers.
And now here was someone clearly related to the namesake of such an important linguistic concept that Kim had known for years, on screen in front of Kim for the very first time.
But that wasn’t the main thing that caught Kim’s attention.
It was the questions that were being asked of Ever in the interview.
“Ever!” someone asked on the television. “Are you an Obscuric?”
“No,” said Ever.
“How do you explain your love of the fae, and ghosts, and supernatural stuff then?”
Ever shrugged. “I don’t really think I can; I just… do.”
Kim likely would have continued watching the interview– had she not suddenly stopped and noticed more than a few things.
First and foremost, the voice that had come out of Ever’s mouth sounded eerily similar to the one that she had heard when… whoever it was, really, cursed the priest. Of course, this could have just been a side effect of the curse, but at the same time, Ever had just mentioned they weren’t an Obscuric. It was likely that the voice was the same.
Secondly, if they were obsessed with ghosts, and fae, and the supernatural… well, that explained the mystic purple pentagram and the magical powers that whoever it was had invoked on the priest. That was almost certainly their Pokemon’s doing, given that they weren’t an Obscuric, but they clearly had a fascination with all things mystic.
Actually… come to think of it, the shadowed person had kind of looked like that, and the pentagram did have a giant E in the middle…
So maybe…
Kim lit up.
No, there wasn’t really a “maybe” anymore. At least, not in her mind.
If anyone would have found out about the actions of a corrupt church, it would have been Gisnep and the J-Team. And if anyone from that team knew how to put the fear of Arceus in people by using their love of ghosts and the fae against them…
“...Father?” Kim asked.
“Yeah?” asked David.
Kim grinned. Thankfully for her, gratitude wasn’t a sin.
“I think I have a pretty good idea as to who saved my life,” she said.