Author's Drabble - As per what I think I'm notorious for at this point
Pop, gulp, toss…pop, gulp, toss… My afternoons have regressed into a drinking game, which isn't fun with just a single player. I sit outside on the grass and watch the sun slowly crawl across the patchwork of the sky, and if I go blind or stupid from inebriation in the process, then hallelujah, I can pretend that I'm living a nice life.
Today, though, I drink by the river downhill, sitting on a flat rock and watching the water run by with a trail of foam like a bridal train. I'm not sure why, exactly, but it at least gives me something slightly more interesting to stare at then the farmland which actually failed at its only job, like me. I remember a time when this same river was filled to the brim with water-types, feeding the forestry and wild pokémon alike as one of father earth's subsidiaries. Now, edging the river on either side is dirt, maybe even complimented by rocks that same river spits up. Sometimes, sea glass surfaces on the bank, and though I have no use in collecting them, I find myself picking them up and sitting them next to me. The sun has just begun to set and I've three separate piles of green, gold, and orange when a voice comes from behind me.
"Collecting jewelry, are you?" He pushes the glass away to seat himself next to me on the rock, elbows on the legs of his dirt-stained jeans.
"Why do you care? Also, fancy seeing you here with that appearance."
"Same to you," he replies. His eyes narrow at the bottle in my hand a second before he snatches it away. "Really? This is what you've been wasting your time on?"
"Time is something I've got an abundance of, so I don't believe I can really waste it. This is a hobby."
"Then your hobbies suck." He overturns the bottle and lets it drain into the river.
"Well, you just ruined somebody's day."
"Add them to the list." He drops the bottle to the grass with a sigh. "What's happened out here, huh? It's nowhere near as enjoyable as before."
"That's one way to put it."
"Then what's the other way?"
"Life sucks," I tell him. "And that's being nice." He falls silent, letting his eyes drift over the expanse of barren earth.
"Remember?" He doesn't need to finish the sentence. It's almost the only thing we ever speak about these days.
"I remember when the end of ages was just a thought," I sigh. "Just some paranoid shit stuck in the back of our minds."
"Most of our thoughts are paranoid," he amends.
"Remember…when the first pokéball was created?"
"Interesting time," he replies.
"Interesting? Really? That's all you can say?"
"Sorry, I'm not that used to speaking. We don't talk as much as we used to."
"Talking…yeah, I don't think we ever did that." I flick a piece of glass into the water with a plop.
"Well, as we've both seen, things change."
"That's an understatement. Back then, when Team Rocket was the biggest threat in the Kanto region? That was a change for a world that hadn't seen much more than snot-nosed ten-year-olds becoming Champion."
"And then a snot-nosed ten-year-old ended Team Rocket. What was his name again?" he wonders aloud.
"Red. Pokémon Trainer Red, soon to become Pokémon Master Red. Yet their influence continued on to the Johto region to be stopped by Pokémon Trainer Ethan."
"Yet another snot-nose," he sighs. "And that Ethan kid caught Ho-Oh and Lugia—shame on them. And meanwhile, in the Hoenn region…"
"Team Aqua attempted to drown the world with Kyogre," I supply, "to be stopped by Pokémon Trainer Brendan. Soon afterwards, Team Magma attempted to dry out the lands with Groudon, to be stopped by Pokémon Trainer May."
"Your memory is obnoxious, do you know that?" he grumbles, giving me a side-eyed glare. I just laugh at him, and in the process I realize that this little memory lane trip has me feeling better than I had in years.
"You laughed," he says with a smirk. "Mission accomplished."
"So you hopped from your pedestal simply to cheer me up?" I put a hand to my heart. "I'm touch. Truly, my soul sheds astonished tears."
"Not that you aren't making me regret it," he huffs, sliding from the rock to the muddy water at the bank. He takes off his shoes and walks into the center of the stream, standing against the powerful waves even as they attack his waist. He cracks a small smile, so small that had I not known him as I do now, I would've missed. "But this, the time beyond time, is very lonely, you know? No pokémon, no people, just an endless expanse of nature and what's left of society." He looks past me to the sun, squinting a little at the light. "I wonder sometimes if we'll end up going away too, and I've been letting that thought sit for so long I decided that if it does happen, hell, I'll get one more chat in with my old adversary."
"Chatting isn't something adversaries often do."
"Then call us rivals," he amends easily, kicking a wave at me that just wets my bare feet. "We push and shove each other but we can also sit down for a good ol' talk whenever we want to. Sound good?"
"Sounds better than what I've been doing so far."
"Yeah, what have you been doing? Drinking yourself into a stupor for what?"
"So I don't have to face everything," I tell him.
"Still." He wades across the remainder of the river to the opposite side, putting a few yards between us, then he turns to face me again. "It was Cyrus, wasn't it?"
"What?"
"That tried to rip the universe in two." He says it in a manner that makes me doubt that he actually has forgotten. I don't know how he could've anyway, even if he doesn't have my memory.
"And was stopped by Pokémon Trainer Lucas the first time. Then with another attempt, he opened a portal to the Distortion World and was defeated by Pokémon Trainer Dawn."
"Blecch," he complains. "The Distortion World."
"And then the surfacing of Team Plasma in Unova was quelled by Pokémon Trainer Hilbert."
"And they came back two years later and were beaten by Rosa," he says.
"So you know that one."
"'Course. Why wouldn't I?"
"No reason. Remember when Team Aqua and Team Magma made their returns?"
"Along with Mega Rayquaza and Armageddon," he grunts.
"I wonder," I say slowly, "what it would have been like if that meteor was humanity's downfall."
"Painful," he says immediately. "And we wouldn't still be here."
"That's not too much of a bad story."
"Really," he says dryly, but also with the tone of someone who's thought about it more than once. "Our story wasn't so dramatic. Life just ran its course, and now it's finished. Done with. Now there's just space and time and that vague sense of balance Giratina prides itself upon. But," he continues, "the end of an age can mean a new one is beginning. New people, new pokémon, new lands and new adventures…"
"I thought you were here just to talk about old times?"
"Mostly," he concedes. "But I also want to see you stop wasting your too-long life out here and look. The sun remains," he says, pointing, "and so does the moon. It's from eternal things like that that legendaries come from, aren't I right? And as long as legendary pokémon exist, so can a region, so can life."
"Just because it can happen—"
"See, this is why you need me!" He's back on the rock in a second, standing over me imposingly. "You're so weighed-down by your burdens that you can just barely crawl! I don't have nearly as great a hold on time as you, but I know the weight of the universe just the same. So here I am, your better half, to drag you along."
"That's really what you'll call yourself? The one that drags me?"
"If not me, then who else?" he smirks. Then he offers his hand, startling me. "There's loss in time passed—you know that way better than I ever could—but there's also gain in the future. Instead of staying here and moping about which came first, Arceus or Mew, or about when the evolutionary line ended at pidgeot, let's go see what the new world'll look like. Huh, Dialga?"
"Hmm… You've never failed to interest me, Palkia, so I'll indulge you." I grab his hand and he pulls me to my feet. "I say the new legendary will be of the moon."
"I say that it'll be of the sun. Fight me over it?" he challenges, energy rippling from his temporary form as his eyes flash pink. I crack my knuckles as the life flows through me.
"I'd love nothing more."
The One That Drags Me
Pop, gulp, toss…pop, gulp, toss… My afternoons have regressed into a drinking game, which isn't fun with just a single player. I sit outside on the grass and watch the sun slowly crawl across the patchwork of the sky, and if I go blind or stupid from inebriation in the process, then hallelujah, I can pretend that I'm living a nice life.
Today, though, I drink by the river downhill, sitting on a flat rock and watching the water run by with a trail of foam like a bridal train. I'm not sure why, exactly, but it at least gives me something slightly more interesting to stare at then the farmland which actually failed at its only job, like me. I remember a time when this same river was filled to the brim with water-types, feeding the forestry and wild pokémon alike as one of father earth's subsidiaries. Now, edging the river on either side is dirt, maybe even complimented by rocks that same river spits up. Sometimes, sea glass surfaces on the bank, and though I have no use in collecting them, I find myself picking them up and sitting them next to me. The sun has just begun to set and I've three separate piles of green, gold, and orange when a voice comes from behind me.
"Collecting jewelry, are you?" He pushes the glass away to seat himself next to me on the rock, elbows on the legs of his dirt-stained jeans.
"Why do you care? Also, fancy seeing you here with that appearance."
"Same to you," he replies. His eyes narrow at the bottle in my hand a second before he snatches it away. "Really? This is what you've been wasting your time on?"
"Time is something I've got an abundance of, so I don't believe I can really waste it. This is a hobby."
"Then your hobbies suck." He overturns the bottle and lets it drain into the river.
"Well, you just ruined somebody's day."
"Add them to the list." He drops the bottle to the grass with a sigh. "What's happened out here, huh? It's nowhere near as enjoyable as before."
"That's one way to put it."
"Then what's the other way?"
"Life sucks," I tell him. "And that's being nice." He falls silent, letting his eyes drift over the expanse of barren earth.
"Remember?" He doesn't need to finish the sentence. It's almost the only thing we ever speak about these days.
"I remember when the end of ages was just a thought," I sigh. "Just some paranoid shit stuck in the back of our minds."
"Most of our thoughts are paranoid," he amends.
"Remember…when the first pokéball was created?"
"Interesting time," he replies.
"Interesting? Really? That's all you can say?"
"Sorry, I'm not that used to speaking. We don't talk as much as we used to."
"Talking…yeah, I don't think we ever did that." I flick a piece of glass into the water with a plop.
"Well, as we've both seen, things change."
"That's an understatement. Back then, when Team Rocket was the biggest threat in the Kanto region? That was a change for a world that hadn't seen much more than snot-nosed ten-year-olds becoming Champion."
"And then a snot-nosed ten-year-old ended Team Rocket. What was his name again?" he wonders aloud.
"Red. Pokémon Trainer Red, soon to become Pokémon Master Red. Yet their influence continued on to the Johto region to be stopped by Pokémon Trainer Ethan."
"Yet another snot-nose," he sighs. "And that Ethan kid caught Ho-Oh and Lugia—shame on them. And meanwhile, in the Hoenn region…"
"Team Aqua attempted to drown the world with Kyogre," I supply, "to be stopped by Pokémon Trainer Brendan. Soon afterwards, Team Magma attempted to dry out the lands with Groudon, to be stopped by Pokémon Trainer May."
"Your memory is obnoxious, do you know that?" he grumbles, giving me a side-eyed glare. I just laugh at him, and in the process I realize that this little memory lane trip has me feeling better than I had in years.
"You laughed," he says with a smirk. "Mission accomplished."
"So you hopped from your pedestal simply to cheer me up?" I put a hand to my heart. "I'm touch. Truly, my soul sheds astonished tears."
"Not that you aren't making me regret it," he huffs, sliding from the rock to the muddy water at the bank. He takes off his shoes and walks into the center of the stream, standing against the powerful waves even as they attack his waist. He cracks a small smile, so small that had I not known him as I do now, I would've missed. "But this, the time beyond time, is very lonely, you know? No pokémon, no people, just an endless expanse of nature and what's left of society." He looks past me to the sun, squinting a little at the light. "I wonder sometimes if we'll end up going away too, and I've been letting that thought sit for so long I decided that if it does happen, hell, I'll get one more chat in with my old adversary."
"Chatting isn't something adversaries often do."
"Then call us rivals," he amends easily, kicking a wave at me that just wets my bare feet. "We push and shove each other but we can also sit down for a good ol' talk whenever we want to. Sound good?"
"Sounds better than what I've been doing so far."
"Yeah, what have you been doing? Drinking yourself into a stupor for what?"
"So I don't have to face everything," I tell him.
"Still." He wades across the remainder of the river to the opposite side, putting a few yards between us, then he turns to face me again. "It was Cyrus, wasn't it?"
"What?"
"That tried to rip the universe in two." He says it in a manner that makes me doubt that he actually has forgotten. I don't know how he could've anyway, even if he doesn't have my memory.
"And was stopped by Pokémon Trainer Lucas the first time. Then with another attempt, he opened a portal to the Distortion World and was defeated by Pokémon Trainer Dawn."
"Blecch," he complains. "The Distortion World."
"And then the surfacing of Team Plasma in Unova was quelled by Pokémon Trainer Hilbert."
"And they came back two years later and were beaten by Rosa," he says.
"So you know that one."
"'Course. Why wouldn't I?"
"No reason. Remember when Team Aqua and Team Magma made their returns?"
"Along with Mega Rayquaza and Armageddon," he grunts.
"I wonder," I say slowly, "what it would have been like if that meteor was humanity's downfall."
"Painful," he says immediately. "And we wouldn't still be here."
"That's not too much of a bad story."
"Really," he says dryly, but also with the tone of someone who's thought about it more than once. "Our story wasn't so dramatic. Life just ran its course, and now it's finished. Done with. Now there's just space and time and that vague sense of balance Giratina prides itself upon. But," he continues, "the end of an age can mean a new one is beginning. New people, new pokémon, new lands and new adventures…"
"I thought you were here just to talk about old times?"
"Mostly," he concedes. "But I also want to see you stop wasting your too-long life out here and look. The sun remains," he says, pointing, "and so does the moon. It's from eternal things like that that legendaries come from, aren't I right? And as long as legendary pokémon exist, so can a region, so can life."
"Just because it can happen—"
"See, this is why you need me!" He's back on the rock in a second, standing over me imposingly. "You're so weighed-down by your burdens that you can just barely crawl! I don't have nearly as great a hold on time as you, but I know the weight of the universe just the same. So here I am, your better half, to drag you along."
"That's really what you'll call yourself? The one that drags me?"
"If not me, then who else?" he smirks. Then he offers his hand, startling me. "There's loss in time passed—you know that way better than I ever could—but there's also gain in the future. Instead of staying here and moping about which came first, Arceus or Mew, or about when the evolutionary line ended at pidgeot, let's go see what the new world'll look like. Huh, Dialga?"
"Hmm… You've never failed to interest me, Palkia, so I'll indulge you." I grab his hand and he pulls me to my feet. "I say the new legendary will be of the moon."
"I say that it'll be of the sun. Fight me over it?" he challenges, energy rippling from his temporary form as his eyes flash pink. I crack my knuckles as the life flows through me.
"I'd love nothing more."
