TEEN: The Long Walk

[Flaze]

Yay more Eve and Josh shenanigans...dude at this point you might as well call it the Eve and Josh show.

Anyways the last chapter was mostly set up for the actually tournament but it had a lot of fun moments, the scene in the cafe made my day, I didn't think Eve could be such a troll in that regard xD and while the scene with Josh's "Ange" and "Devil" was a bit out there (okay, really out there) it was also pretty funny to see Josh arguing with himself.

You also threw more subtle hints in regards to Eve and Josh's character plotlines and their issues but also gave subtle movement to their growing friendship in how they grabbed hands without even making a scene of it how they would've before. In general the two are a lot more comfortable around each other, just the fact Josh is willing to do all this to help her is really nice on his part and whatnot.

Again probably the biggest thing I didn't like was the fact that while the world building tidbits are awesome (and I actually like tha tyou're basing the underground more on London's and other cities in the UK...which I've actually been to ) it does feel like there wasn't much plot movement. Then again, this story is more about the little moments that Josh and Eve share with each other rather than any specific plot but...I want to see the tournament already xD your chapters don't come out that regularly! you're making people wait a lot!

Anyways I did spot a few mistakes here and there, mostly typos or words that kind of ruined the flow but nothing too bad, the usual really.

Anyways i just wanna see the tournament and see what people think of Josh's new tits.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Ok, time to throw out a few responses!

Can't tell if odd coincidence or what.

Entirely a co-incidence, though an odd one. I'd had the name “Melissa Evans” lined up for quite a while – I forget how long, but it must be a few months

She picked up a white cloche hat

Dear god in heaven I read that as "cloaca hat".

I believe that would make it an ass hat

the scene with Josh's "Ange" and "Devil" was a bit out there (okay, really out there)

I can't quite believe I'm getting away with that scene as well as I am. While I was writing it I was wondering whether that would be one silly indulgence too far. There is a point to the silliness, believe it or not. What I didn't want was for the whole Tourney to morph into Josh's arc because of his disguise. The silly argument is intended to give some space to his own doubts about the plan while keeping it light enough to the keep the focus off him.

it does feel like there wasn't much plot movement. Then again, this story is more about the little moments that Josh and Eve share with each other rather than any specific plot but...I want to see the tournament already xD your chapters don't come out that regularly! you're making people wait a lot!

Yes, I know … I would have liked to get the preamble to the Tourney out of the way in less than three chapters, but there was just too much to set up beforehand to make that possible. I suppose I could have condensed it into two, but then the whole thing would probably have come across as rushed

 

[kintsugi]

Eve went quiet for a moment. After a while she said, “Have you ever been in love?”

“In love?” Josh thought back to the warm, inconclusive mess that passed for his romantic life. “No. Nothing so intense. You?”

“Yeah. I was, once. Then he betrayed me.”

Hooooboy. I just wanted to say that I loved (pardon the terrible pun) every word in this exchange. The jabs at Josh's love life, the quick way that Eve settles a conversation she started... I honestly don't know why I like it, because it's basically crossed over into melodrama soup, but this is a solid exchange.

It looked very much like a six inch version of himself, with the discreet addition of a pair of feathered wings. He ignored Josh's cold look and casually spun his sceptre. It was silver, topped with a spherical white gem.

“Go away. You're just a metaphor,”

Oh my god this chapter is gold.

“He said 'king'! You heard him, he said 'king', he's a royalist!”

“Fuck you, Jophiel!” Pheiton yelled.

Seriously this chapter is great why has it taken me so long to read it.

“Enough!” Josh commanded. “Have you two idiots forgotten that the only reason I'm entering this damn Tourney is for Eve's sake?”

To be fair, this is still a terrible reason and shouldn't be as effective at discounting the other arguments as it was. Like. "Who cares that I'm lying to a bunch of people if I'm doing it for someone else?" is actually a pretty bad argument, one I hadn't picked up on until, ironically, you put it so simply here.

'Goldenrod Underground: As Above, So Below'.

I see the city mottos are spreading. All hail city mottos.

“From the mouths of the Sea the south wind flies, from the sandhills and the stones,
The wailing of the gulls it bears, and at the gate it moans.”

hue

To that end, I've devised a simple battle sign language

I know that this isn't the end of the world since Josh can still shout orders, but the one thing that I never got in fanfic with battle sign language is how it actually works. As in, the Pokemon has to always be able to see the Trainer's hands, so there can't be any visual obstruction, which basically isn't how a fight works. As someone who's actually been in dojo-style fights, it's fucking impossible to try to focus on one person's voice in your fight, let alone what shape they've contorted their hands into, and this is before you/your opponent can breathe fire/bend earth/do whatever else that can also obscure lines of sight.

They felt awkwardly tight, though, compared to his own jeans.

number one bit of research right here
that being said, uh, if he wears girl's jeans there's definitely gonna be some weird bulges
like, not the "haha let's laugh and make jokes" kind, but the "I literally cannot wear these in public and pretend to lack a dick" kind

“So they'll feel slightly more lifelike on your chest. The heft is pretty lifelike.”

Repetition department of redundancy


Overall, I was a definite fan of this chapter. Well-paced, and the first section was hysterical (although the funny bits did fade nicely into the story-bits). Other than that, there's a lot of buildup to the tournament arc, which is actually quite nice: I think one of the important things about managing a tourney in a fic is making it not all about the battles (because they get boring after a while), so this is a great start. It's also good to know that Josh has probably spent more time doing fancy skirt-shopping than I have at this point in our lives.

Looking forward to seeing the next chapter.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Tasty melodrama soup. I'm actually quite pleased I got that reaction because a) Melodrama is one of those fiction sins that need not be and b) I've been enjoying giving Eve a habit of using slightly odd words - in this case, 'betrayed', the jive talk in the previous chapter, etc (I like to think that Eve was a beatnik as a teenager, mostly to annoy her mother).

So anyway, the psychomachy scene. I mentioned to Flaze-kun one of the reasons why I did this. The other one is that I quite deliberately want readers to make their own mind up about the lark Josh - and Eve, let's not forget - are pulling. Hence the argument is essentially going on inside his head. He's justifying it to himself, more or less, in that it's not for his own ambition, though the scene is also intended to show that he's far from without doubts.

Lord of the Rings reference two that you've picked up on.

Yeah, battle sign. I thought about this as well. In the end I decided to stretch disbelief, but only so much. The lexis of the battle sign - something that will come up a bit more explicitly in the next chapter - I've tried to make as simple and obvious as possible, and therefore the orders it can convey are necessarily very straightforward. And of course, Josh runs into the obvious problem of line-of-sight in the battle snippet at the end and has to call a verbal order (I would probably have cut the battle were it not necessary to show that).

Et, finalement, the bulge issue. I tested this one xD With a sufficiently long garment you can hide the crotch of a pair of jeans, hence the sweater dress.

Looks like I've been making a lot of excuses there, which I didn't intend to do > >

 

[BinkVallen]

So I've finally caught up with this fic, but I did it several days ago before I decided to officially come back, and now I don't remember any specific feedback I was going to give. Josh and Eve continue to be adorable and still need to make out already, Josh is a great friend but also a sort of terrible one, the shoulder angels are hilarious and I hope they make a reappearance, and... needs more Screwball?

Anyway, to apologize for this pathetic review (and because I felt like it), I tried drawing Jophiel being all grumpy.

Spoiler

 

[Beth Pavell]

Spoiler: Version History

1.1 : Edited Pemberton's speech in Bywater Amphitheatre

Chapter Twenty Two – Evelina of Victory (Version 1.1)

Evelina
​

She was finally here. It was finally happening.

Ten thousand people were crammed into Bywater Amphitheatre to watch the opening ceremony. The seventy or so competing Tigerlilies were gathered together in the middle of the battlefield, surrounded by the elliptic sweep of the crowded stands. The crowd was salted with journalists and photographers representing the battling magazines; there was a radio crew in the commentator's box at the top of the stands, broadcasting live. Eve grabbed Josh's hand and squeezed it excitedly. To the left, Whitney was sitting in the front row with her apprentices. For once she wasn't the most prominent celebrity in the vicinity – because at a podium beneath the big scoreboard, the reigning Champion of Sinnoh was speaking.

“There's an inscription on an ancient granite tablet in Amity Square, written with Unown-script. The words inscribed there completely changed my life. 'When one life meets another, something will be born',” she quoted.

“Only if it's a mummy life and a daddy life,” Eve said flatly.

“Shut up,” Josh hissed, clenching his jaw to stop himself from laughing.

“- yes, I used to dream of nothing other than becoming powerful by being victorious in battle. I knew, though at the time I didn't fully understand, that even the same species of pokémon have unique personalities -”

“Fancy that,” Josh said sardonically.

“- that I read the inscription, I decided to get to know each and every one of them better. And then, after meeting more and more pokémon, learning more of their ways, something completely new began to stir within my soul -”

“A tapeworm?”

“Shut up!” Josh repeated with difficulty, choking back a giggle.

“- I'm sure because of our meeting today, something powerful has been placed in each one of us,” the Champion ended on an impassioned note. She stepped demurely away from the microphone. Applause and cheers broke like a thunderclap; Cynthia was briefly illuminated by a staccato burst of camera flashes. But Eve wasn't watching the Sinnoh Champion – her eyes were on the woman who stepped up to the microphone.

Victoria Pemberton! The Imperial Champion regarded the crowd with a faint smile, graciously waiting for the applause to die down. Of course, Eve remembered, she was Lady Pemberton, knighted and armigerous. There weren't many Ladies with their own heraldry, even now. Pemberton reminded Eve of a phrase her grandfather had been fond of: 'Aged like a good brandy'. Pemberton possessed a patrician air, with her fine, ivory-coloured suit and steel grey bob cut, her Imperial Champion badge shining from her lapel.

“Whenever I entered a tournament, the moment I looked forward to the most was always the opening ceremony,” Pemberton said in a clear voice. “Victory is sweet. To be the victor of the tournament is sweeter still, but ah … the opening ceremony is a moment of unbridled possibility, of anticipation. The next five battles will not only test your knowledge, and your skill, but also the bonds between you, your pokémon – and your partner. Because there is never only one Tigerlily Champion, but two. So be mindful of this moment. Because every tournament is a time that can only be once, and will never be again.”

A contemplative hush filled the Amphitheatre. “And to the victrix, the prize!” Pemberton declared, breaking the mood. “This year I will be able to offer two prizes. As usual, the Champion's purse will be worth three thousand dollars apiece. In addition – courtesy of Royal Acorn – each winning Tigerlily will also receive a state-of-the-art Pokédex HANDY913i. In limited edition gold, I believe,” Pemberton added drily. “And now. To the battles!”

The scoreboard behind her ran a brief animation, showing the names and headshots of all the competitors. The chief referee stepped forward, marked out by his gold jersey, and began to explain the format of the Tourney. It wasn't for the benefit of the Tigerlilies. They'd all received a copy of the rulebook and timetable when they arrived that morning.

The Tourney Heats would be fought as a round-robin of three-on-three single battles. For the round-robin, each battling couple would be split up and placed into a block with two other Tigerlilies. During the Heats, a win earns three points, a draw two, and a defeat none. A trainer who finishes the battle with two pokémon still able to battle earns an additional point; with three, an additional two points. At the end of the round-robin each battling couple's scores would be combined, with the highest scoring couples moving on to the knock-out doubles tournament.

Eve squeezed Josh's hand again and looked around at the crowd of thousands, savouring this moment that could only be once. Five battles. Five battles equated to five victories as far as Eve was concerned. I am going to seize the glory of being the next Tigerlily Champion. Broadcast live on regional radio. Ignore that, Mother.

Eve sighed happily. The moment was like being in the middle of a battle. All she had to do was take the initiative.

*​

The sea breeze rippled through Eve's hair, fresh with the subtle hint of salt. Bywater Amphitheatre was sited on the top of the headland south of the river, away from the noise and bustle of Central Goldenrod. At the back of the amphitheatre, the grounds ran all the way to the cliff edge, dotted with stubby, windswept araucaria trees, bounded on the seaward side with a stone wall. A wingull surfed on the wind, crying its lonely “Gull, gull! Wingull!”

Eve leaned with Josh against the parapet, lagging behind the other Tigerlilies. She gazed northwards along the Goldenrod coastline, taking in the suburb of Bywater, the wide line of the river, the skyscrapers of Central Goldenrod, the container port at Cheapside on the fair side of the bay. Josh was ignoring the view of the metropolis, facing west across the sea. He was unusually quiet, eyes closed as if meditating. Occasionally he took a long, deep breath of sea air. At times like this, Eve wondered what the world looked like seen through his eyes.

A PA announcement broke the peace. “Attention please. The Block K battle between Melissa Evans and Florianne Favager will begin on Court One at twelve-thirty pm. Trainers, please report to the court referee.”

Eve nudged her friend with an elbow. “We'd better get going,” she said.

“Yes,” Josh replied as Melissa. “Do I look alright?”

“You look ravishingly feminine,” Eve said reassuringly.

Bywater Courts weren't far from the amphitheatre. Each battlefield had stands next to it with capacity for a couple thousand spectators. Eve gave Josh a quick hug before he checked in with the referee – she went to stake a claim on a seat while there was still space. The stands were steeply terraced concrete rather than tiered chairs, with a standing bay at the front and back.

Florianne appeared to be reasonably confident, tapping her heeled boots impatiently, apparently eager to start. Josh quickly checked the wind while the referee took up position, trying to pull his cloche hat further over his head. Eve felt herself tense up, wondering what Florianne could do … whether Josh would be equal to the challenge.

“This will be the Block K battle between Melissa Evans of Marion Town and Florianne Favager of Couriway Town! Each trainer may use three pokémon and both may substitute freely. The time limit will be one hour! Simultaneous release,” the referee paused to give them time to select a pokémon. “Begin!”

Josh quietly selected his magnemite, while Florianne released an arbok. It was a little on the scrawny side, with scales that were a pale, sinister cream colour rather than the usual violet. Screwball materialised facing backwards, apparently on purpose.

“Arbok, utilisé Enroulement, puis rappoché et attaque avec Boue-Bombe,” Florianne ordered.

The screeching rasp of Metal Sound rang out; Arbok didn't appear to react as it slithered in close with its hood lowered. Dragon Tail, it'll be Dragon Tail, Eve thought confidently. Either that or an attempt to bludgeon Screwball into the ground with Iron Tail. Arbok suddenly reared up, hood flaring, and squirted twin streams of muddy slurry from its fangs. The attack was fast and deadly accurate – but Screwball simply spun up and away, precisely enough to get clear. It fired a crackling Charge Beam, landing a hit on the astonished arbok squarely in the hood.

“C'est rapide,” Florianne remarked, apparently taken aback. “D'accord, Arbok, Fire Fang!” she ordered before adding something in Kalosian. Eve smiled mirthlessly. Advantage, Josh. Whatever trap Florianne was trying to set up, Josh wasn't going to fall for it. He signalled another brief string of orders – she thought she recognised a 'dodge' in there somewhere.

Arbok circled Screwball, followed by a blank magnemite stare, its head drawn back as if ready to strike. Fire Fang really was a ruse, since Arbok loosed another Mud Bomb. There was no telegraphing, no way to dodge – unless Screwball knew what was coming. It calmly rolled away – the slurry spattering harmlessly into the field – snapping off another Charge Beam, zapping Arbok right below the head. The snake reeled and hissed; Screwball adjusted its aim and slammed a third Charge Beam into its heart.

“Arbok!” Black, acrid smoke billowed up. Arbok was flung backwards through the smoke, thudding onto the field like a length of thrown hosepipe.

The whole thing lasted about six seconds.

“Yes! Call it!” Eve shouted. This was a good start, a very good start.

“K-O, K-O!” someone yelled.

“- unable to battle! Magnemite wins.”

Florianne slowly recalled her arbok. Her arm dropped loosely down to her side. She was looking rather stunned, even at a distance.

“Florianne, select your next pokémon,” the referee prompted.

“Oh. Um … bien,” Florianne said vaguely, visibly pulling herself together. “Ne crever pas, Croâporal!”

Her second pokémon was a lean blue frog, sitting back on his haunches. A collar of off-white foam bubbled around his neck. A Pokédex chattered from further up the terrace: “Frogadier, the Bubble Frog Pokémon. It can throw bubble-covered pebbles with precise control -”

“Return,” Josh said, recalling his magnemite. An odd move, but this was Josh. There'd be a plan in there somewhere. “Ivysaur, battle's on."

Josh signalled a few orders: Keep to left field, be defensive … something. Ivysaur padded a few yards to the left, keeping his eyes on Frogadier.

“Camouflage, Vibraqua, Poing-glace!” The dark blue skin on Frogadier's head turned a nondescript grey as he changed type from Water to Normal. At the same time he started charging a Water Pulse -

“Nature Power!” Ivysaur's gorgeous golden yellow flower opened – a slender beam shot out, alternately flashing orange, blue and yellow - Frogadier abandoned the Water Pulse to dodge the Tri Attack, breaking into a bounding run. His powerful legs propelled him swiftly towards Ivysaur with almost no effort.

“Harass!” Josh ordered. Ivysaur extended his Vine Whips and snapped them down in Frogadier's path, trying to make the approach as difficult as possible. Frogadier darted back and forth, dodging under and around the Whips with remarkable agility. Suddenly he changed his axis of movement entirely, and leapt up high, condensation trailing from his fists. He plunged down, struck out at Ivysaur, then hastily hopped away. It looked impressive, and drew a big crowd reaction, but the Ice Punch was only a glancing blow.

“Hé, Ivysaur, génial, de chez génial!” Josh called. The crowd noise dimmed as the quicker thinkers worked out the implications. They weren't lost on Florianne, either.

“... fils de pute,” she said. Her frogadier looked comically shocked, his yellow eyes wide.

“Nature Power!” Josh snapped, Frogadier promptly getting blasted off his feet with an aggrieved croak.

“Euh, Brouillard!” Florianne ordered, rallying well. Her Frogadier disappeared behind a thick Smokescreen – a fairly sensible move. The wind tugged at the edges of the smoke cloud, pulling it out into a ragged haze that drifted over the right side of the battlefield. The right side of the field. Josh never failed to study the field before a battle. One thing Eve had learnt from him was that the environment of the battlefield often held a hidden advantage, if you looked for it …

Josh swept his hand vertically down – the signal for Sleep Powder. Now the reason why he had ordered Ivysaur to keep to left field became apparent – the wind picked up the Sleep Powder and dispersed it widely over the right side of the battlefield, far more widely than Ivysaur could have managed by himself.

With a triumphant “Frogadier!” his opponent hopped out from the middle of the Smokescreen, Ice Punch at the ready – inevitably, right into the Sleep Powder. He yawned hugely, swaying and stumbling. Poor Florianne, Eve thought, only a little smugly. She did feel a bit sympathetic. Frogadier, along with several other amphibian pokémon, could respire through their skins. This adaptation was partially responsible for their impressive agility, but it did carry a disadvantage – a permeable skin also let other substances into the bloodstream. Such as Sleep Powder.

Eve gladly started to relax, since Josh had the battle firmly in hand. His calm, his battle sangfroid, was near perfect. Probably determined not to let me down, may the gods bless him. Right, time for a chant.

“Cook- I mean, Evans, Evans, Evans!”

Some of the other spectators took up the chant, as Ivysaur picked up Frogadier and carefully slammed him head-first into the field.

“Evans! Evans!”

*​

Block K, Day 1
Melissa Evans: 5
Florianne Favager: 0
Dionne Page: No battle

Electricity flashed on Court 3, where the first Block H battle between Morgan Harwich and Lucy Stack was taking place. Eve was watching the bout with Josh in the standing bay at the front of the stands; Josh with his notepad out, Eve wielding her Pokédex. Little Lucy Stack wasn't faring well, her first pokémon having been knocked out in very short order in the face of Morgan's raichu. Eve remembered Morgan from the dance in National Park a week ago – that raichu, then, would be her ace.

Morgan Harwich was dominating the battle, not only tactically, but visually. From Lucy's point of view – on the back foot and struggling to keep going – she must have looked as intimidating as a Gym Leader, leather jacketed with a mustard yellow top, eyes hidden behind oval sunglasses. Morgan was terribly straightforward in her tactics, using brute force to sledgehammer her opponents into exhaustion.

“Glaceon, use Hail!” Lucy yelled. Clouds formed above the field – only above the battlefield – and a stinging hail started to fall. Out of the corner of her eye Eve spotted Josh do a tiny double-take. She followed his gaze to the two Unovans in the opposite standing bay, both watching the battle closely. It took Eve a moment to bring their names to mind. The shortish girl, the one adorned with pink and purple hair decs, she was Georgia, Georgia Lovelace. The other was … Winters, Eve recalled.

Just then, Lovelace noticed that they were being observed, and nudged her friend. Winters gave them both such a shrewd, penetrating look that Josh actually flinched back. Eve held her gaze, though the pelting ice obscured their view. Winters was a striking girl, her dark skin tone contrasting sharply with the ash grey of her turtle-necked blazer. She held Eve's gaze as steadily as Eve held hers. At that moment they were rivals, or at least, Eve hoped Winters was thinking the same thing -

“Heyy, awesome sweater dress! See, we match!” a woman suddenly exclaimed, thoroughly disrupting the moment and giving Josh an unexpected jolt. The cheerful newcomer was indeed wearing a sweater dress identical to Josh's. She radiated innocence, with a fetching little snub nose and a big grin. Her head was covered with a nun's black veil.

“Sorryy! Did I startle you?” she said, again in a relentlessly jolly tone.

“Iron Tail!” Morgan commanded – everyone looked back at the battlefield in time to see Raichu unmercifully slam Glaceon across the spine. There was a chorus of sympathetic groans. Lucy slowly recalled her stricken glaceon and sent out her last hope, a furret.

“Ooh, I'm glad I'm not in Block H now!” the newcomer remarked.

“Oh, you're competing too?” Eve said.

“Sure am! Me and my buddy Sister Mara. Oh, silly me! Sister Guinevere – oh, call me Ginnie – Municipal Sisters of Mercy.”

“I'm Evelina Joy, Cherrygrove City. This is Melissa, she's from Marion Town.”

“Hi! Then we are rivals, yo,” Ginnie said with a kind of glassy zeal. “I'm real excited to be here. We had to call in a favour from the Abbess to get the time off.”

“So you won't try to convert me?” Eve joked.

“Not unless you want me to!” Ginnie laughed. “I'm afraid I might get a divine thunderbolt through the bonce if I didn't!”

Eve giggled in turn, not because Sister Ginnie was especially funny, but because her cheerfulness and casual attitude towards her faith was rather charming.

“Heads up,” Josh said quietly, “she's using Charge.”

Fat sparks fizzed from Raichu's cheeks. “Thunderbolt,” Harwich ordered.

“Rai, ai!” Raichu roared.

“Dodge it, Furret!”

Raichu unleashed the Thunderbolt. The brutal, searing blaze of the lightning-filament flung deep back shadows across the Court. Fire flashed at the impact point. And then, the deafening, tearing crash.

“Oh my …” Josh breathed. Furret was lying motionless in the middle of a large burn mark. The referee scrutinised it very closely before declaring Morgan the winner.

“Take it from a Joy, Tigerlily Morgan only just escaped an excessive force violation,” Eve said gravely, watching Lucy cuddle her furret helplessly. Gently prompted by the referee, she recalled it to its Poké Ball. She wouldn't look up at the referee, her opponent, or the crowd.

“Well, you sure lived up to your potential,” Morgan said pointedly. “You raise pokémon like that, you deserve to be a loser.”

Lucy hurried from the field, her shoulders shaking. “I'm not having that,” Josh muttered unexpectedly. He ran off along the stand towards the stairs at the end, weaving around spectators.

“Excuse me, Sister,” Eve blurted out, chasing after him. He took the steps two at a time.

“Hey, Miss Stack!” he called out, his feminine voice cracking a little. Lucy half-turned, frowning and avoiding his eyes. “Good battle.”

“What?” Lucy said, almost incredulously. Tears were running down her cheeks in spite of her valiant attempts to keep her expression neutral.

“Losing a battle doesn't make you a loser,” Josh reassured her, entirely sincerely.

“I couldn't do anything! No p-plan, no s-strategy, she just blasted – and blasted – and now my p-pokémon -” Lucy wept, what was left of her composure collapsing like a sandcastle. “She's right, I am a loser, I … I -” she lapsed into incoherent sobbing.

“Every lost battle is an opportunity to get better,” Josh said, without a trace of awkwardness in the face of her tears. “So get your pokémon treated, cry, if you want to. Then think about what went wrong and what you can do better next time.” He paused for a moment to let that sink in. “Don't give up just because one girl decided to be a spiteful bitch.”

Lucy stared, sniffing and hiccuping, as if not quite sure what to make of him. “Kind of want to hug you right now,” she said in a small voice.

Oh, fiddlesticks. His phoney tits might look convincing enough but they wouldn't feel it.

“Hug your pokémon,” Josh deflected. “They were the ones who fought for you.”

“… thank you,” Lucy said, wiping her eyes. “I won't forget you, um?”

“Melissa.”

“Melissa. Thanks.”

“Parliament Oak Centre is nearest!” Eve called after her. Once Lucy was discreetly out of earshot she took Josh's hand and squeezed it tight. “That was a really nice thing you just did.”

Josh just shrugged.

“You didn't have to do that,” she persisted.

“Harwich didn't have to be cruel either.”

Eve felt a warm rush of affection well up from her diaphragm. For all that she called Josh 'sweetling' he could often be irritable to the point of downright sour. That particular personality trait got tiresome, sometimes, and the City seemed to aggravate it. And then there were moments like this. Irritated because he couldn't stand casual cruelty.

“You ready for your battle?” he said.

'I'm not having that'. She smiled and squeezed his hand again. “You afraid I'm not?” she teased.

“No.”

“Good. Because I am ready!” In truth, this was no empty swagger, though she did feel a distinct frisson of nervousness. She didn't need solid strategies to be ready, or hours of study with her Pokédex. Her pokémon were entirely fit and healthy, she'd battled and drilled with them incessantly; they knew her almost as well as she knew them. More than anything else, she was excited. The feeling was like a warm glow in her belly, co-mingled with the other emotions of the moment. Excited, eager now for the chance to seize her own five points.

*​

Ursaring roared in fury and frustration. He slashed at the sleeping Pineco but only succeeded in punting her across the battlefield. There was a flash of blue as a fragment of Reflect sheared off under his huge claws. Eve pulled a face, not because she was concerned about the Slash, but because the blow still hadn't woken Pineco up.

Hers was the first battle of Block B, against a fellow Cherrygrove girl named Joslyn. Strange to think that she may well have examined that ursaring when he was a teddiursa. Eve pulled another face and stamped impatiently. She didn't like having to wait in the middle of a battle. Couldn't be helped though; Gail was tired and Eve was reluctant to send Lyra up against such a physical attacker.

“Try a Rock Throw!” Joslyn suggested. Ursaring tore up a chunk of battlefield and bowled it at Pineco. It shattered dramatically to no obvious effect. “Quickly, um, use your Fury Slash!”

Fury Slash was exactly what it sounded like. That is, Ursaring charging Pineco and raking at her with both paws. He was making a fine mess of her ablative armour, shredding the bark into fibrous lint, but with Iron Defence and Reflect combined Eve doubted she was taking much damage.

There was a sudden crackle of detonating Pin Missiles, obscured by Ursaring's roaring as he covered his face too late. Yes! Back in the game. “Take Dooown!” Eve hollered. Weight made up for the sluggish speed of the attack – Ursaring's eyes bulged as Pineco caught him right in the stomach.

“Come on, um, suck it up! Gimme a Seismic Toss!” Joslyn yelled.

Nope. “Pineco, return. Gail, you have the honour!”

As usual, she was thrashing at the air before she'd even fully re-materialised, rising into the sky half-formed and screaming in an attempt to be even louder than the roaring Ursaring.

“Pidgeotto again? 'K, Rock Throw!” Joslyn ordered. Twin chunks of concrete whizzed through the air, each almost as big as Gail herself. Wow, that's accurate. Gail jinked around the first and folded her wings back to dodge the second, plummeted from the sudden loss of lift and skimmed away hardly a foot off the ground. The field surface was littered with the detritus of battle – coarse, gritty dust and pulverised concrete. Eve found herself laughing aloud. The environment of the battlefield often held a hidden advantage.

“Let's put a stop to that Rock Throw!” Eve declared, snapping her fingers. “Start with Sand Attack!”

Gail swept a blast of the coarse grey dust right into Ursaring's eyes. Eve winced – that would need to be treated with a thorough lavage - “Now, Twister, the best you've got!”

Gail beat her wings hard to stir up the Twister, shaping it with frenetic bursts of flapping. The vortex turned dark and ominous, saturated with grit and smashed concrete, lit with flickering sheets of cobalt lightning. Though she made a gutsy effort, her weary pidgeotto couldn't keep up the attack for long. As her wingbeats slowed, the Twister disappeared – revealing Ursaring, battered, swaying, and stumbling.

“Come on, get it together!” Joslyn yelled encouragingly. “You're still going!”

“Pidgeooo!” Gail screeched challengingly, rolling into a dive.

“Wait!” Eve commanded, looking to the referee for a ruling. Gail circled for a few seconds, lost patience and started to dive again.

“What did I just say?” Eve snapped.

“Come on boy, just a little more!” Ursaring looked like he was beginning to refocus.

Hm, no ruling, ok. “Now you may Tackle.”

The thump of Gail's talons sinking into Ursaring's back was followed by a grunt and the thud of his knees hitting the concrete. Up came the red flag.

“Ursaring is unable to battle! Pidgeotto wins!”

Jocelyn was showing sterling composure with two pokémon down while Eve still had all three; although Gail was still refusing to rest in between matches, Eve noted to her annoyance. She's showing off again, she thought, resolving to recall her as soon as the tide of battle turned.

“Ok,” Jocelyn said with a deep breath. “You haven't won yet, Evelina Joy! We won't give up, so you'd better not let your guard down! Let's pull this out of the hat, Lopunny!”

Lopunny … The first thing she did was stick out her rump coquettishly, looking for all the world like a stout kick would send her blubbing – but then, all lopunny looked like that. Time to take the initiative, Eevee-girl.

“Go ahead, Gail, Tackle!”

Gail started her dive from a decent height, not as easily as she usually did and slow in transitioning from flight into attack. Lopunny casually hopped aside, forcing Gail to hastily swing her talons back and fight for altitude.

“Lop!” her opponent said, tensed her legs and sprang into the air in pursuit. Her fist flicked out, knocking Gail from the sky.

“Oh!” the crowd gasped. Lopunny's Dizzy Punch hit her in the breastbone, where her flight muscles were anchored.

Tide has turned. “Return, Gail. Now this is why I keep telling you not to charge around unnecessarily,” she told her through the Ball.

Eve snapped Gail's Fast Ball back onto her chest, taking a moment to think. Now that Gail was well and truly spent, that left Pineco – moderately damaged – and Lyra. I want my five points!

“Alright Lyra!” She flung Lyra's Poké Ball up as high as she could. “You have the honour!”

Lyra materialised over fifteen feet up, punching with all four fists to limber up.

“Agility!”

“Reflect!”

The commands rang out so fast that they overlapped. Lyra repaired her battered Reflect shield with fresh hexes just in time to turn a glancing Dizzy Punch. The irony was that her ledian's flight would be entirely cancelled out by Lopunny's jumping prowess – and therefore vice versa. Lopunny's superior speed, though, would make dodging difficult. Hm, ok then.

“Lyra, make sure you keep renewing your Reflect!”

“Try another Dizzy Punch!”

“Behind you!”

[Righto!] Lyra called, promptly clicking her wing cases shut. A few Reflect hexes smashed, the curvature of her armour deflecting the rest of the impact. Lopunny glanced behind her when she landed -

“Thunderpunch!” Eve yelled.

- forward rolled to escape a direct Air Cutter hit, taking a laceration to the back of her calf. Lopunny spun on her knee and met an Iron Fist-enhanced Thunderpunch coming the other way that slammed her down onto her back. She kicked out to buy herself a moment's respite from Lyra's sparking fist.

“Fire Punch!” Joslyn yelled, refusing to be backed into a corner.

[Whoops,] Lyra said tersely, Lopunny's fist burning a couple of inches from her thorax.

Sodding Fire Punch. Should I switch to Gail? No, she's exhausted.

“Air Cutter!” Eve ordered intuitively. “Take her to pieces!”

A barrage of Air Cutters sliced down from Lyra's wings, kicking up billows of grey dust in the midst of which Lopunny jinked and leapt around the etheric blades carving gouges in the concrete.

[How fast can you run, Flopsy?] Lyra laughed as her opponent was showered with concrete shards from a near miss. Despite what the taunt might suggest, she was actually concentrating hard – Eve could see it in her movements.

“Circle, um, Throw!”

Springing up over Lyra's last attack, Lopunny grabbed her around the middle, spun gracefully and hurled her at Eve.

[Aaargh, you dratted …] Lyra cursed, her wings buzzing shrilly as she tried to stabilise herself, [fluffy arsed – what the?]

Lyra suddenly dematerialised back into a cloud of red light and returned to her Poké Ball. Instantly another one popped off its clasp like a leaping magikarp – Eve snatched it out the air without really thinking – and burst open.

Her pokémon was materialising on the surface of the battlefield.

“Pin Missile!” A flight of pins snaked out even as the light from Pineco materialising faded. Lopunny squealed as much with surprise as from the pain of a full flight of missiles detonating.

“Return, Pineco! Lyra, Thunderpunch!” Eve called, throwing her Poké Ball as close to Lopunny as she could.

“Um, um … Circle, no, dodge it!”

Joslyn's indecision cost her – trying to obey two orders at once her lopunny took Thunderpunch full on. Discharging electricity sprayed in crackling arcs.

“Alright, keep it up Lyra!” Eve yelled encouragingly, trying to see through the glare.

There was a sudden roar of fire. The middle of the field exploded into a cloud of shattered Reflect hexes. Lyra flew backwards through the scintillating blue shards, her exoskeleton scorched black.

Bollocks, bollocks, wrong move! “Forget Reflect, use Air Cutter again!” Eve briskly commanded. Lyra vented her frustration with a saw-toothed buzz – almost a Supersonic – while she spiralled up to gain height.

“Here we go again!” Joslyn laughed. “I told you not to let your guard down!”

For half a minute there was a sense of déjà vu, until Lopunny sidestepped into a pothole. Air Cutter slashed into her shoulder; she went down violently with a twisted ankle, blood spraying from her shoulder.

“Now's our chance, Drain Punch!” Eve shouted, feeling her pulse quicken. Lyra pounced. Yellow ribbons of light unravelled from her fist, turning into green spirals that trailed behind, rippling in her wake.

“Quick, Fire Punch!” Joslyn yelled. Lopunny brought her fist up desperately.

There was a blast of green light. Lyra rose backwards away from her opponent, all four of her fists displayed. [And that's match!]

Lopunny wasn't moving. The referee sprinted over to her while the crowd cheered as if Lyra had won. Eve watched the referee with her heart pounding. Come on, confirm it, confirm it!

“Lopunny is unable to battle! The match and the victory goes to Evelina Joy from Cherrygrove City!”

Eve threw her head back with a relieved sigh. We did it. Battle won, no losses. Five points. She squeezed tight the charm she'd got from Rhia Victoria's shrine. She'd got the edge she asked for.

“Five points!” she yelled to the crowd, raising a fist in triumph.

Next Chapter: Summer is i'comin In

 

[BinkVallen]

“- that I read the inscription, I decided to get to know each and every one of them better. And then, after meeting more and more pokémon, learning more of their ways, something completely new began to stir within my soul -”

“A tapeworm?”

“Shut up!”

Jeez Eve, so rude. She's the champion, show some respect. (I love these two.)

Josh quietly selected his magnemite, while Florianne released an arbok. It was a little on the scrawny side, with scales that were a pale, sinister cream colour rather than the usual violet. Screwball materialised facing backwards, apparently on purpose.

I am very glad you listened to my suggestion for more Screwball and I am not disappointed. The differently colored Arbok was an interesting touch. Was it supposed to be a regular shiny arbok made a more naturalistic color than bright yellow, or were you not thinking about its canon shiny variation here?

“Take it from a Joy, Tigerlily Morgan only just escaped an excessive force violation,” Eve said gravely, watching Lucy cuddle her furret helplessly.

Excessive force violation, I like that rule, it makes sense. Nice bit of worldbuilding. (Well, the chapter was filled with nice worldbuilding, but this detail was my favorite.)

“Every lost battle is an opportunity to get better,” Josh said, without a trace of awkwardness in the face of her tears. “So get your pokémon treated, cry, if you want to. Then think about what went wrong and what you can do better next time.” He paused for a moment to let that sink in. “Don't give up just because one girl decided to be a spiteful bitch.”

Lucy stared, sniffing and hiccuping, as if not quite sure what to make of him. “Kind of want to hug you right now,” she said in a small voice.

Oh, fiddlesticks. His phoney tits might look convincing enough but they wouldn't feel it.

I don't know what's cuter, the heartwarming interaction or the fact that the first word that comes to his mind in this situation is "fiddlesticks." Josh is a quality protagonist. I forgot to quote something for this and I'm too lazy to go back, but the reveal where he turns out to speak Kalosian is hilarious.

Eve snapped Gail's Fast Ball back onto her chest, taking a moment to think. Now that Gail was well and truly spent, that left Pineco – moderately damaged – and Lyra. I want my five points!

I'm a big fan of how you structured the first tournament round with the point system. I wasn't expecting the early stages of the tournament to have much tension because we know they're going to make it through to the knock-out rounds (all the buildup to the tournament arc would be pointless otherwise), but participants getting more points for fewer pokemon knocked out adds a mini-goal that keeps the excitement around.

Lyra suddenly dematerialised back into a cloud of red light and returned to her Poké Ball. Instantly another one popped off its clasp like a leaping magikarp – Eve snatched it out the air without really thinking – and burst open.

Her pokémon was materialising on the surface of the battlefield.

“Pin Missile!” A flight of pins snaked out even as the light from Pineco materialising faded. Lopunny squealed as much with surprise as from the pain of a full flight of missiles detonating.

“Return, Pineco! Lyra, Thunderpunch!” Eve called, throwing her Poké Ball as close to Lopunny as she could.

Boy, is Eve having fun with the unlimited swap-out rule. At least you established that rule early on, but still, this almost feels like cheating. I was waiting for the ref to tell her to calm down. I think there should be some rule that you can only swap your pokemon out after they've been on the battlefield for thirty seconds or a minute or something, or else trainers would abuse the unlimited swap-out by returning their pokemon to dodge big attacks. Or another limitation, I don't know.

Anyway, great chapter. This tournament is shaping up to be a fun arc.

 

[Sike Saner]

“- yes, I used to dream of nothing other than becoming powerful by being victorious in battle. I knew, though at the time I didn't fully understand, that even the same species of pokémon have unique personalities -”

“Fancy that,” Josh said sardonically.

snrfles appreciatively

“- that I read the inscription, I decided to get to know each and every one of them better. And then, after meeting more and more pokémon, learning more of their ways, something completely new began to stir within my soul -”

“A tapeworm?”

Help, this chapter's barely started and I'm already laughing.

A wingull surfed on the wind, crying its lonely “Gull, gull! Wingull!”

At least it's not going, "Worm, worm! Tapeworm!"

“Evans! Evans!”

Further evidence I'm going into silly mode: my reaction to this was evans evolves into arbov.

“Well, you sure lived up to your potential,” Morgan said pointedly. “You raise pokémon like that, you deserve to be a loser.”

WOW. WOW. Eat shit, Morgan. Just, dine on a hefty bag of actual manure.


Loved Evelyn's fight. It'd be easier to count the switchless battles I've seen than the ones with switches, which made this one something of a treat. Plus Evelyn and Lyra's silent and not-so-silent commentary on the match in progress was great.

 

[Olive]

Here's a concise little review I put together based on my awards critiques.


I read this story in one sitting. That might be because it’s quite short all things considered, but I’d like to think it’s for a different reason.

I’m going to be frank and say that I genuinely enjoyed this story. It had a sort of meandering focus to it. It wasn’t boring though, not in the least. Things happened at a perfectly distinct pace, but it’s not overwhelming, and that really is the key to a story of this variety. The pacing has had its oddities. I remember distinctly feeling like the first five chapters felt as if someone had hit fast forward on the story. Things progressed so quickly, then suddenly they slowed down to a nice leisurely pace. It almost felt like you were just a bit too anxious to get to the journey part of the story. It was still a perfectly good read, but it seemed just a little lopsided compared to the latter parts of the narrative.

That was a minor qualm though. This story’s greatest strength, and also one of its odder flaws, is in the characters.

You already know what you’ve done right with your characters given how many times this story has been picked over by others, and I must admit, they really are some of the best portrayed out of all the fanfics I’ve read. With that said, I’ll expand upon one of the most jarring features of this story, one that’s been pointed out before, but never methodically delved into.

None of the conflict in this story has ever felt real.

I’ll retract that just a little and say that Joy’s conflict with her family feels perfectly plausible, as do all the conflicts in essence. It’s just that they’re never executed in a way that makes them feel natural. The way perfectly normal conversation will escalate into a full blown I-Never-Want-To-See-You-Again argument has always felt off, just about every time it’s happened. This occurrence is particularly pronounced with regards to Josh/Evelina, and perhaps more so with Josh/His Father, conflicts.

When I read one of their arguments, it almost feels like this:

“So Son, I heard you’re into Pokémon training these days.”

“Yep.”

“Do you have a flying-type yet?”

“Stop judging me Old Man! You don’t run my life!”

I understand perfectly well the need to have conflicts lurking beneath our main characters to give them some real motivation, but the way you have those conflicts physically manifest themselves in the story, it almost makes the characters seem self-righteous or perhaps petty. Maybe that’s intentional and is supposed to say something deeper about the characters. I could have missed that. As the story stands though, the conflict, or rather the execution of it, just isn’t there.

The rest is pretty peachy though.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Responses!

The differently colored Arbok was an interesting touch. Was it supposed to be a regular shiny arbok made a more naturalistic color than bright yellow, or were you not thinking about its canon shiny variation here?

A bit of both, as it happens. I looked briefly at the yellow-gold thing first and decided I could probably do better. So I went for something more like a Naga naga or Indian cobra, as I think the common name is. Naga naga can be quite a few different colours, although not purple.

Boy, is Eve having fun with the unlimited swap-out rule. At least you established that rule early on, but still, this almost feels like cheating. I was waiting for the ref to tell her to calm down. I think there should be some rule that you can only swap your pokemon out after they've been on the battlefield for thirty seconds or a minute or something, or else trainers would abuse the unlimited swap-out by returning their pokemon to dodge big attacks. Or another limitation, I don't know.

I hadn't thought about that, but it's not a bad idea. I'm nearly always in favour of something that gives the ref more to do than just wait for the swirly eyes and yell out the winner.

Further evidence I'm going into silly mode: my reaction to this was evans evolves into arbov.

Crackpot.

I'm quite glad you liked Evelina vs Josyln, since I felt like that that was the weaker of the two battles. But yes, I know what you mean, switching out is very much something I want to be commonplace in the story.

That might be because it’s quite short all things considered,

Short! At 80,000+ words?

Anyway, you've partly picked up on some of the artefact problems left over from when I had no particular plan for the story - you can never entirely get rid of that, more's the pity, so a lesson to learn from me, other readers - plan!

I've never been very good at writing arguments. I maintain that the planning behind them is solid, for some reason I've never managed to get the words on paper right. Maybe one of these days I'll go back and fiddle with them some more. I think that part of the problem might be that I have no problem with petty arguments, or at least petty elements in arguments. In all of them there's two people being in some way unfair or stupid. To me, that seems entirely realistic. The more comments I get on that, though, the more I'm beginning to wonder whether that's one observation too far, I'm not sure

 

[Flaze]

Okay, I actually had forgotten to write up a review for chapter 22,, silly me right?

I honestly didn't expect to jump right into the tournament, but I'm glad we did since it means we can finally get this started! I don't mind the tournament format you have here, it's pretty basic league format like the one seen on the anime, I particularly like how you can get extra points by having more Pokemon standing at the end of the match.

I also didn't expect to have two full time battles, I think it's the first time you've done this in the fic, but I could be remembering wrong. Anyways I'll start with your description. It was...well, it felt kind of odd to me. Like maybe it's just me but I had a lot of difficulty imagining the setting in this chapter, I was able to do it at the end of the day but I think you ended up using a little too much detail that I had to sit back and actually try and assess everything in my head. Even then I'm not sure I did it completely right.

The battles themselves weren't too bad but I think they felt a little slow. I mean, they're not the best battles you've had in the fic, if only because they felt kind of...stilted if you will? like it felt like there was a lot of back and forth but not much emotion in what was going on, this was mostly in Joshua's battle though and Eve's was better in that regard particularly towards the end, though I do think it might've gone on a little long.

Lastly, while I did find the scene with Joshua and Eve's making fun of Cynthia's usual speech and I did like Josh's scene with that girl, I do feel like the dialogue here sometimes bordered on corny, it wasn't toooo bad at least in my opinion but it is something that I think you should keep track of just in case.

 

[0bs1d1an_kn1ght]

Here's my review for chapter 22:

I haven't read your story until this point, but maybe after this, I'll go ahead and do that.

It was a little on the scrawny side, with scales that were a pale, sinister cream colour rather than the usual violet.

Sounds like Floriane should take that Arbok to a Pokecenter; it's probably sick, like, Leukemia sick.

So one thing I've noticed early in the battles was: you're mostly telling, and not showing. I don't know what the Pokemon are feeling when they're battling. Like for instance from the Arbok vs Magnemite battle:

The screeching rasp of Metal Sound rang out; Arbok didn't appear to react as it slithered in close with its hood lowered.

Metal Sound is being used, however it lacks descriptive ques for me to actually get a sense of what it is. In this case, use the sense of hearing to describe what a Metal Sound sounds like, and why Arbok is physically unaffected by its screech. You've also missed an opportunity to describe Fire Fang, the most you did with it was basically, "it was used, and it missed." And when Arbok is being hit by a buttload of Charge Beams, it's showing no indication of pain or feeling, simply being thrown some odd feet away, and fainting. how would you feel if you took a Charge Beam to the heart? You're probably not gonna tank it like that Arbok did. Take that in to consideration.

And another thing: foreign language. Floraine is speaking French, which in the Pokemon world is obviously Kalosian. But the problem is, I don't know what she's saying. Sure, I can go google for a translation, but online translators aren't very reliable. Furthermore, I believe it just alienates your readers if they don't understand what they're saying (I mean, you don't want to read a story in full Spanish when you don't know any Spanish, right?). So to fix this, have whatever in quotations be English, but precede or follow it up with, "She said in French/Kalosian" or "She said in her native tongue", or something along those lines. That way, everyone will know she's speaking a different language, and yet they can still understand it.

This is about as much time as I have to review it. Sorry, busy day, I'll make sure to review more of chapter 22 later. But I hope what advice I left is helpful to you.

 

[0bs1d1an_kn1ght]

As I promised, I'm back with the rest of my review

“Ivysaur, battle's on.

I think you forgot another quotation mark lol

The whole thing lasted about six seconds.

Not very exciting for a Pokemon battle; I want my money back!

Complaints from my first review still stand.

From what I can gather from your writing style for battles, it's very...vanilla. Not that it's bad, it's just I found nothing to latch on to and interest me. Bringing back a point I made in my last review, your battles lack certain descriptive ques; it's like I'm watching the game itself being played in front of me, instead of an actual battle. I'm not feeling what the fighters are feeling, thinking what the fighters are thinking, etc.

If you can't decide on how to describe your attacks, what I do is use Bulbapedia. It has a lot of excellent examples to draw from to help get a picture on how these moves form and are executed; if I can't find an example, then I make one up.

 

[Lugion]

Ok, finished at last.

I gotta say, the combination of Johto with a British flair really, really works. Each town feels pretty alive in its own way. It was a bit confusing, however, when Josh and Eve went from the Ilex Forest to Violet City. Not that it's bad plot progression, per se, just an odd and unexpected choice.

You describe just about everything very well, and this unique Johto you've crafted really comes to life and bursts off the page, err, screen.

But I think the biggest draw is the characters. Since you don't really have a "save the world" plotline (yet, anyway) you have a lot of space to focus on other things, and boy do you not waste it. It's a very long walk indeed, but it is the journey that matters rather than the destination, and Josh and Eve make this a very enjoyable one.

One last thing mostly pertaining to the last chapter, though: I must question the wisdom of Josh utilizing his two signature Pokémon in his very first battle as Marissa...

 

[Beth Pavell]

Spoiler: Responses

: A bit on the late side I know, but here goes

@Flaze

I mean, they're not the best battles you've had in the fic, if only because they felt kind of...stilted if you will? like it felt like there was a lot of back and forth but not much emotion in what was going on, this was mostly in Joshua's battle though and Eve's was better in that regard particularly towards the end, though I do think it might've gone on a little long.

A consequence of having Eve watching the battle, I'm afraid. That's one of the reasons I made sure to keep what was there quite short – the other was because it had always been planned to be a total victory, and reading about Josh thoroughly squashing his opponent for 3,000 words was never going to be entertaining.

Joshua and Eve's making fun of Cynthia's usual speech

I couldn't help that one. I forget which Diamond and Pearl episode it appears in, but that dumbass Ice Cream Koan keeps popping up as if she's saying something deep and profound when I suspect it's something Cynthia came up with while stoned.

@Lugion

It was a bit confusing, however, when Josh and Eve went from the Ilex Forest to Violet City. Not that it's bad plot progression, per se, just an odd and unexpected choice.

I did wonder if this would stand out to anyone. I suppose in hindsight I could have rethought the way I described the routes around the Ilex Forest area – I mean I was always going to take a different path around the region as much to defy expectations of what the next challenges and locations would be.

I must question the wisdom of Josh utilizing his two signature Pokémon in his very first battle as Marissa...

I'm sure in essence, Josh would agree with you. But at the end of the day he only has three pokémon and no guarantee that he'd be able to get away without using them all in the first battle. If he were a bigger fish on the battling scene this would be a problem that I doubt I could write off.

Note: Halfway point bookmark: XXIII

Chapter Twenty Three – Summer is i'comin In (Version 1.0)

Evelina​

Block B, Day 2
Joslyn Singer: 0
Evelina Joy: 5
Asma Jameel: 4

Josh's second Heats battle was not going well.

Screwball was down, Ivysaur was injured. He had managed to take out his opponent's first clefairy through force alone, which Eve found rather disquieting. Josh didn't just throw around blunt force. He used force decisively, after carefully picking apart his opponent's strategy.

And disquietingly, it was his opponent who was in control of the battle; Dionne Page, from Pewter City, with a liking for clefairy. Her second clefairy stood primly on the field, her fur shading to a coppery hue instead of than the usual pink. Eve frowned anxiously. It really wasn't like Josh to battle this way. He kept glancing nervously at the crowd instead of focusing on the details of the battle.

Evelina Joy, you damn fool, he's distracted. Just after the start of the battle, there had been a moment when Josh had accidentally let his feminine voice slip. Maybe some of the spectators had noticed it, the strange fluctuation in his voice as he stammered and tried to correct his mistake, but … it was one mistake. Eve quickly grabbed her phone and hammered out a text message:

The pokemon are the centre of attention. Noone is watching you. Relax! Be yourself!

Down on the field, Josh pulled out his Pokégear and slowly read her message. He stared at the text for a while.

“Melissa. Your next pokémon,” the referee instructed.

“Sorry,” Josh said, taking a deep breath, as if huffing out the negative thoughts. He expanded Fionn's Love Ball, saying something to her before he threw it.

For almost half a minute neither trainer reacted, each waiting for the other to make a move. Eventually Dionne made her choice. “Take a break, Aphrodite.”

“Return, Fionn. Ivysaur.”

Dionne slumped her shoulders in exaggerated annoyance. “Ok, go, Aphrodite.”

Sensibly making use of the brief lull, Josh signed some more complex orders. Be defensive, circle gesture, not sure what that means -

“Scatter,” Josh called, with a diagonal hand slash left and down. Oh! Scatterseed. And … Nature Power.

“Ivysaur,” his pokémon confirmed. His flower briefly opened to fire a Tri Attack – his aim was off, the beam alternately scorching and freezing the concrete as it traced a line towards Aphrodite. She saw the attack coming that way and jumped aside.

“Incinerate!” Dionne called. Her clefairy bowed to the crowd as if she were about to perform a magic trick, and leapt into the attack, a long floaty leap that would carry her right over Ivysaur. As if he'd been waiting for it Ivysaur dashed under the zenith of her jump, intercepting with a shotgun-blast of Leech Seeds, ensnaring her in a snarl of tendrils. She squealed in alarm, crash landed into the concrete, and threw a temper tantrum.

There was no other way to describe it. Aphrodite flailed her arms and legs, screaming shrilly and breathing gouts of flame, scorching Ivysaur's vines as he reached out to grab her. Some of the Leech Seeds actually withered from the heat and dropped off. Suddenly, and for no apparent reason, she scrambled to her feet and charged the shocked Ivysaur, laying down a barrage of Double Slaps and Power-Up Punches.

“Take control! Slam,” Josh said.

“Ivy! Ivysaur!” Ivysaur protested. With effort, he managed to grasp her by an arm and leg, bash her on the concrete and fling her away. She'd hardly slid to a halt when a Future Sight bolt flicked her into the air.

Aphrodite defiantly and painfully tried to get back up. “Clefairy is unable to battle! Ivysaur wins!” the referee ruled.

“Yes! Evans!” Eve yelled encouragingly. After that match Ivysaur was worse for wear; his face looked like Aphrodite had tried to play noughts and crosses on it. One of his anterior leaves was charred and curling. The green light of Overgrow was flickering faintly from the base of his flower.

“So. It's come to this, has it? You're going to make me work for my win,” Dionne said. The cheerful tone in her voice was diminished. Josh didn't so much as shrug.

“Well. Anyway,” Dionne continued. “Come forth, my ace! Ouranos!”

This time Dionne selected a Dusk Ball. The clefairy that appeared from it was the strangest pokémon Eve had ever seen. Its fur was black, the dark inky black of the sky at midnight, bedashed with glittering spots of light. That dark fur totally obscured any hint of its expression. It was as if the deep night sky was showing through a clefairy-shaped hole cut into the world. It was so still! From the moment it materialised on the field, all it did was slowly turn its body to face Ivysaur and freeze there, still as a statue.

Belatedly, Eve remembered her Pokédex. “Uranian Clefairy, Pixi tenebrus urani, the Fairy Pokémon. This subspecies is thought to inhabit the Night Sky Edge.”

“That's all?” she asked it almost incredulously. She glanced away from the strange clefairy to gauge Josh's reaction. It was a slight relief to see him waiting patiently for Dionne's first move, sensibly falling back on favourite strategies. Clefairy had a diverse movepool at the best of times – there was no knowing what this one might do.

“Ouranos. Show us your Shadow Ball,” Dionne said. It spread its arms wide, charging and throwing a roiling purple-black sphere half as big as itself.

“Intercept. Nature Power,” Josh ordered. Ivysaur's Tri Attack hit the Shadow Ball just off-centre and burst it like a balloon. Nice defence, I like it.

“Cosmic Power!” Dionne ordered.

“Growth,” Josh replied without missing a beat. The – bioluminescent? - stars across Ouranos' fur twinkled brightly; Ivysaur shone green amidst a swirl of sun-motes.

“Signal Beam!” Ouranos fired a white ray trailing nebulous wisps of magenta and turquoise. Ivysaur tried to dodge off to the side but Ouranos simply panned the beam round. Sun-motes left over from Growth went whirling off as Signal Beam blasted them away. Ivysaur yelled out in pain and frustration. He collapsed briefly onto his stomach, groaning under his breath.

Josh took another deep breath. “Ok. Scatterseed!”

“Ah, ah, ah!” Dionne said, waving an admonishing finger. “Magic Coat!”

The Leech Seeds pinged violently off Ouranos with tendrils flailing – Ivysaur tried to take back the initiative, extended his Vine Whips and attacked. He was too tired, and too slow. Though he cracked the concrete with Overgrow-boosted blows, Ouranos all too easily leapt out of the way. It drifted up like a shadow cut loose from earth, bringing its hands together. With a kind of inevitable finality, it finished Ivysaur off with one long Signal Beam.

“Ivysaur is unable to battle. Clefairy wins,” the referee ruled. Josh recalled Ivysaur quickly. He was shifting uncomfortably from foot-to-foot, scuffing his boots against the concrete of the trainer's box. Expanding Fionn's Love Ball for the third time this battle, he said something inaudible to her before release.

Fionn let out a blood-chilling wail – Eve shivered even at this distance – fanning her hair out into a halo of wriggling locks.

“Shadow Ball!” Dionne hollered.

“Misdreavus!” Fionn yelled petulantly, evidently upset at her joke being interrupted. She ducked under the Shadow Ball, only to find herself immediately phasing out to avoid another. Ouranos kept up a relentless rate of fire, forcing Fionn to dodge and keep dodging, never giving her a chance to launch an attack. It could almost have been a contest of endurance – until Ouranos threw a Shadow Ball at a seemingly empty patch of air.

The Shadow Ball screamed as it exploded, leaving behind a dark blue haze that coalesced back into Fionn. Wow. It was news to Eve that Shadow Ball could harm incorporeal Ghost-types. And this being the case … oh bollocks. That meant that Josh was now effectively waiting to lose.

“Keep it up Ouranos,” Dionne called.

“Come on, Evans!” Eve yelled for what it was worth.

“Destiny Bond.”

“What? No -”

At the exact time Fionn shrieked her last for the battle, Ouranos keeled over in a dead faint.

“Clefairy and Misdreavus are unable to battle! This battle between Dionne Page and Melissa Evans is a draw!”

Eve started to laugh softly. It wasn't a win, but he had stolen the victory from Dionne nevertheless. She ran down to his side of the field while he shook hands with his erstwhile opponent.

The first thing Josh did upon leaving the field was apologise. “Sorry, Eevee. A draw was the best I could manage, my own damn fault.”

“Mmm-mn,” Eve said, shaking her head. “You don't have to apologise to me for doing your best, you dunce.”

“Hmm,” he said non-committally. He arched his back slightly. “These damn tits are getting on my nerves,” he complained.

“You wanna head back to the Centre?”

“Yeah. Could I borrow your laptop, by the way? I've got some serious research to do.”

“Um. It might be worthwhile to do some light practice later. Once your pokémon have rested,” Eve suggested carefully.

“They did their best. I need to sharpen up my knowledge.”

Eve decided not to argue the point. She was sure that Josh would benefit from a more holistic approach to training, but, well, the eleventh hour draw proved he wasn't lazy or complacent.

The thought suddenly occurred to her that with a combined score of twelve, she would need to at least win tomorrow in order to have a good chance of getting through to the doubles tournament. It seemed appropriate, Eve thought wryly, that getting the Quarter-Finals should come down to her own skill and effort.

It all comes down to you, Evelina Joy, so … you've got some work to do this afternoon.

*​

Block K, Day 2
Melissa Evans: 7
Florianne Favager: 0
Dionne Page: 2

Eve shut her Pokédex and dropped it onto the small table at the foot of the bunk – Josh's bunk. He was lying back on his pillow, contemplating the cracks in the ceiling plaster. They were talking strategy in their pyjamas again, at the end of a good day's battling.

Except they weren't, because Eve was daydreaming in the Millennium Centre common room.

“There's almost no better rush than battling on instinct,” she was saying in her imagination.

“Almost?” Josh replied mildly.

“Almost,” she giggled. “You can do it so long as you know your pokémon well enough.”

“If you say so Eevee.”

“It's a wonderful skill to have in – in tight situations.”

“I always seem to be learning something from you. Upperclassman,” he added, only half-joking.

“Does that mean you trust me, then?” Eve teased.

“Of course I do.”

“Good. Because you've got a lot to learn, Underclassman,” she purred, taking off her hoodie dress in one smooth motion -

“Evelina?” someone said.

“Nothing!” Eve shouted guiltily. She focused on the person standing next to the armchair. Unfortunately, it was her cousin Riley. “Oh. It's you,” she said dismissively.

“We've restored your pokémon to excellent health!” Riley said sweetly in the talking-to-trainers voice, and taking a lot of credit for a simple post-battle follow-up. She made no move to hand over her pokémon, even when Eve got up out of the armchair.

“Are you sure you're feeding your pidgeotto properly?” Riley continued, deliberately speaking louder than she needed to, though her sweet tone didn't change. The colour rose flaming to Eve's cheeks. In her peripheral vision she could see trainers surprised and transparently curious at the sight of a Joy receiving a pokémon care lecture.

“Pidgeotto need about five percent fur in their diet so they can digest meat properly -”

“I'm aware. My mother taught me that, too,” Eve interrupted tartly.

“Oh, yes, of course!” Riley said with mock contrition. “But you dropped out of nursing college.”

Everyone heard that. Eve's ears burned with embarrassment and fury at the blatant lie. I'm pretty sure I could choke you half to death before anyone managed to prise my fingers from your throat, you little bitch. Riley was good at this. In public, and with her in an obvious position of authority, any arguing from Eve would just sound like irresponsible petulance. Oh, if she were Tigerlily Champion! Accolades and honours eclipsed everything else – Riley would have to lionise her along with everyone else.

“Is that all?” Eve asked pleasantly. Your eyes would pop out like champagne corks.

“Of course!” Riley replied sweetly, passing her all four Poké Balls as one handful. “Take care of them, Eevee!”

“Thank you, Rye!” Eve gave her a sisterly hug. After the requisite few seconds her cousin tried to pull away, only to find that the hug had turned into a steel grip. “Call me Eevee again and I'll slap your head off,” she growled in her ear.

She let her cousin go. “Kisses!”

“Love you!” Riley said, equally insincerely.

Eve headed back up to the room, taking the stairs to walk off her temper. That smug bitch must have overheard Josh call her 'Eevee' once. The daydream sneakily drifted back to the front of her mind. 'You've got a lot to learn, Underclassman.'

Where on earth did that come from? Eve wondered. It was probably the date, she supposed … May Day, the first day of summer, a festival passionate with the accumulated lusty energy of the previous spring. In Eostre's shrine glades the sacred bonfires would be blazing and her handmaidens joyously singing to welcome in the summer. Fortunately, Eve's second battle was scheduled for tomorrow, leaving plenty of time to join the celebrations later at the Great Shrine of Eostre.

Back in the room, Josh was anxiously examining his roselia seed. Again. “Does this look like a fungal infection to you?” he asked, scrutinising a non-existent discolouration.

“Sweetling, it's in excellent health. Relax.”

“Hmm,” he said, perhaps relaxing very slightly.

“Hey, Josh,” Eve said. He didn't look up right away.

“… yes, sorry Eve.”

“I'm going out to the shrine for the evening.”

Josh stared blankly for a moment before comprehension dawned. “Oh, yeah, I forgot it's May Day. You want me to come along?”

“I didn't know you liked Eostre?” Eve said, taken aback.

“I don't particularly like Eostre, but, dear Eevee, I do like you,” Josh replied. “You always used to celebrate May Day with your family, right?”

“Well … yeah.”

“I know it's not the same as your aunt or sister, but …”

Eve found that she was smiling. “No. No, I'd like the company.”

“Ok, then.”

“Thanks,” Eve said. “Um. Oh, hey, I get to put your hair in a bun again!”

*​

(XXIII)

The day was just beginning to darken when they left Millennium Centre for the evening, amid the usual crowd of trainers. It was a bit chilly for a May Day night, but Eve was staying with her polo shirt and gilet anyway. Josh was looking like his usual self, but for his shoulder-length hair in an attractively untidy bun at the back of his head. Eve privately liked fixing his hair, since the silly boy seemed to think so little of his appearance. She wondered whether she'd be able to convince him to keep it after the Tourney.

They boarded the L-train at Penrose Street Station, taking the Jubilee line through to Long Mile Station. The Jubilee ran several storeys up, at once looking down on the streets and looked down on by the towers and skyscrapers of the cityscape. For the better part of four miles Eve had one of the most dynamic views of Central Goldenrod; passing under the shadow of the ultra-modern 14 Ecruteak Road – twelve hundred feet tall with an average apartment price of ten million – rolling parallel to the broad, strong River Stour … after a while the heights of Central Goldenrod fell away and the skyline opened up. The first street lamps were lighting up, the city's electric constellations appearing in the gathering dusk.

Josh shuffled his stance back and forth. “Much as I love my boots, they are a bit weighty. Sometimes I wish I had my moccasins.”

“And I bet you made them yourself,” Eve teased.

“No!” Josh replied playfully. “But I did come up with the deerskin.”

Eve glanced at her friend awkwardly, not wanting to ask the obvious question. “Not … not stantler?”

Josh laughed and gave her head an affectionate shove. “No! But I am flattered that you think I could bring down a stantler. No, it was an ordinary red deer, and I was lucky to get it. And I needed the meat. Long story, remind me to tell you sometime.”

Night had fallen by the time they arrived at Long Mile, and the festival was very much in full vigour. Troupes of Eostre's handmaidens roamed Long Mile in wild packs, singing and playing ocarinas and beating drums. May Day was the festival of Eostre in her aspect as the Mother, the very height of spring and the beginning of summer. The festival tended to get into Eve's blood, as if Heaven were reminding her that she was still a woman.

Eostre's Great Shrine was divided from the city by a moat, on the far side of which was a thick holly hedge. A bridge spanned the moat to the shrine gate on the other side, where shrine attendants handed out the mandatory headdresses – circlets of white daffodils for the women, wooden antlers of varying sizes for the men.

“Just my luck,” Josh said drily, donning the very modest antlers he'd been given. The path from the shrine gate led on through the darkness of the sacred wood to the shrine glade. Firelight flickered brightly through the trees. Drums throbbed out a slow, pounding beat.

Eve let out an elated giggle. The path had suddenly opened up onto the great, broad glade, at least fifty yards across and alive with fire and people and music. A grand old oak spread its gnarled limbs over the grassy clearing; beneath which the huge Sun Bonfire blazed, the bonfire that had burned since dawn and would not be allowed to go out till midnight. There were plenty of handmaidens here, obvious in their loose white dresses and lovely crowns of glossy yellow marsh marigolds. They meandered back and forth, performing minor blessings apparently at random.

“May Day at the Great Shrine!” Eve thought, and found that she'd said it aloud. She grabbed Josh's hand and towed him through the clearing. The edge of the glade was occupied by a circle of festival stalls, while on the left a number of cooking fires ringed the great Sun Bonfire. The air was full of the earthy smells of smoke and roasting meat.

A small pack of handmaidens appeared from behind the old oak – one of them abruptly skipped up to Josh, seized his head in both hands, and kissed him firmly on the cheek. The look of complete surprise on his face was golden.

“Summer is i'comin in!” the girl sang, half-skipping, half-dancing backwards. Eve's laughter faded as the handmaiden glanced at her fellows and said, “Shall we crown her Princess of May?”

One of the other handmaidens circled Eve briefly, giving her a close look. “Hmm … nope! But -”

Eve's disappointment didn't last long since the girl leaned over and kissed her cheek. A kiss from a handmaiden was lucky, luckier than any charm you could buy. On a mischievous impulse Eve kissed her back, thrilling in pushing her luck. The girl's skin smelled like the blessed smoke of the May Day fires. She just laughed and capriciously skipped away, singing.

At the northeastern edge of the glade was the approach through the sacred wood to the oratory, and the throne room. The wood in that direction was reverently quiet. A group of girls were walking down the path, talking in hushed voices.

They both gazed down the path for a moment, in silence.

“… I'm going to go on ahead,” Eve said quietly.

“Mhm,” Josh said. He squeezed her hand briefly. “I'll be waiting.”

There weren't any men praying here, not on May Day. Eve bought some votive tokens from the kiosk before quietly taking her place in front of the oratory – for all intents and purposes, in front of Queen Eostre. She bowed low, as a matter of respect.

It's me, my lady. Evelina Joy. Divine Majesty, Goddess of Earth and Sea, your blood runs in my veins, one woman standing here at the Heaven's Edge. Tonight I make these offerings, in your honour and in thanks.

She hesitated mid-prayer. Being here alone on May Day felt strangely lonely. It felt almost as if there was a void in the air where her family ought to be. May Day was one of the few truce days, when all arguments are dropped and they were all just girls together, honouring the sacred feminine.

She rubbed the worn wooden grain of a votive token, before tossing it into the offering box. It went in with a clatter. One for my sister, Alison Joy, to give her our strength. Another. Clatter. One for my aunt, Imogen Joy, because she gave me strength. Another. Clatter. One for my mother, Gabriella Joy, because I do love her.

*​

Back in the shrine glade Josh was patiently waiting by the eaves of the sacred wood, his seed canister slung over his back in its cannibalised bag.

“Oh, hey. You ok?” he asked. Those short prongs made him look like a yearling buck among a herd of stags, bless him. By way of an answer she hugged him tight, and didn't let go for a while. He wasn't the same, but she wanted someone warm and friendly at the moment.

“Come on, let's get some food!” she said, eventually.

“Best cure for the blues, Eevee.”

There was invariably plenty of food to be had on May Day. Close to, a couple of handmaidens were roasting lamb over their fire, and both were delighted to learn that she was hungry. Eostre's shrines always enthusiastically distributed food on May Day, in celebration of the bountiful spring. The smell of the meat was gorgeous. While one of them roasted the lamb, the other – Eve couldn't help but think of her as the saucier – prepped the meat in a cheerfully rough and ready fashion, hands covered in marinade.

“I approve of this way of cooking,” Josh said mildly, a man whose idea of adequate cooking utensils was one knife, one stick, and one flat rock.

“You like the hands-on approach then?” the saucier-girl said flirtatiously, though not unusually. Eostre's handmaidens represented the goddess in her aspect as the Maiden, so some sexiness was considered to be entirely in character. The bustier of the two had accentuated that trait with a breast band, rather successfully, Eve thought. They were using two marinades, rosemary and garlic, and a Maroc spice marinade – Josh keenly quizzed the saucier-girl on the recipe – theoretically served on slabs of crusty bread. In practice they just ate it with their hands and giggled at the tactile, almost primal sensation of it.

“I still think you can make a few seasonings go a long way,” Josh said, tearing off a large morsel. “Open,” he commanded, holding it to her mouth. Eve happily accepted it, the tastes of Maroc marinade and rosemary garlic competing on her tongue.

“I love it when you feed me,” she said, and meant it. Smiling his little half-smile, Josh playfully shoved in another mouthful of lamb, starting her giggling again.

“Feel better?” Josh asked.

“Yes,” she said contentedly. “Thank you my sweetling.”

The pounding drum beats, long since blended into background noise, switched up to a faster tempo. Both handmaidens stopped cooking and quickly started covering up the meat. One of them helpfully handed Josh a fistful of paper towels for their greasy hands.

Time for the May Circle. People were beginning to line up in a wide ring around the Sun Bonfire, some of them holding hands. Eve gulped down what was left of her food and went to join them with Josh in tow. She squeezed his hand, which was not her sister's, for the comfort of it. Some of the handmaidens formed a double line on either side of the path from the oratory; others took up places inside the circle itself. All the wildness and merriment in their demeanour disappeared. Ambient chatter faded away, till the only sounds were of fire and the faint rustle of oak leaves. The atmosphere turned decidedly numinous.

Into the middle of the circle, just upwind of the Bonfire, stepped the officiating priestess. She swept her wand into the air to get the attention of the congregation.

“The wheel of the year turns, and we must turn with it!” she cried in a strong, carrying voice. “Tonight, spring reaches its apotheosis. The world is awake – this is a night of life and love and passion! Summer is i'comin in!”

“Summer is i'comin in!” Eve chorused along with everyone else.

“Tonight, we welcome the time of unions and give honour to our Divine Majesty, Queen Eostre of the Fields!” the priestess continued. She turned to face the oratory and knelt. “Dear Queen, your followers await your presence!”

Everyone but the drummers went down to one knee, including Josh, albeit with some reluctance. “Thank you,” Eve whispered in his ear.

From the path from the oratory, the priestess playing Queen Eostre entered, resplendent in green and garlanded with a glorious crown of daffodils and marsh marigolds. She took the kneeling priestess by the hand and gently pulled her to her feet.

“Rise, my followers,” she said kindly, smiling benevolently. There was something in her smile that reminded Eve of her mother.

“I am the Earth, mother of all that lives!” Eostre announced. Her voice was gentle, framed by the crackling of the Sun Bonfire. “I am the wheat in the fields, the fruit on the bough, the fish in the sea. I ignite the passions that arouse the hearts of men. As I create life and inflame passion, so too do all women: and we are kin.”

“And we are kin!” the women chorused.

“Summer is i'comin in!” the priestess cried.

“Summer is i'comin in!”

There was a minor commotion from the other side of the glade. A man emerged from the shadows of the sacred wood, bare chested, cloaked in oak leaves. His antler headdress was magnificent, larger and more finely carved than any other man's. There was a noticeable swagger in his stride as he shouldered his way into the circle.

“I am the rutting stag, the seed, the energy of life,” he declared. “I am the mighty oak at the heart of the forest. As I rut and hunt and love, so too do all men.” - Eve felt Josh wince for some reason - “And we are kin.”

“And we are kin!” the men chorused.

Eostre watched the Horned King with a kind of nonchalant amusement as he rounded the bole of the old oak. It was an ancient tableau. The drums started again, a slow, quiet heartbeat.

“My lady! This night is yours, and I do you honour. Let me bring in the summer with you!”

“Catch me, then!” Eostre laughed, dancing back out of the King's reach.

The Chase began. It was a ritual Eve had seen every year since she was a teenager. Every year, the Horned King would try to catch his queen. Just as she did every year, Eostre led the King in a merry dance, weaving in and out of the circle, dodging around her own handmaidens and hiding behind the great oak. She playfully teased and egged him on, along with friendly taunts and encouragement from the congregation. The drumbeats quickened in tandem with the vigour of the chase – and so did Eve's heartbeat. Your blood runs in my veins. Just as she did every year, Eve felt completely, profoundly aware of her own femininity. As I create life and inflame passion, so too do all women.'

“Hey, do you want her or not? Catch her!” Eve ardently catcalled to let out the pent-up fizz. She laughed as Eostre riled up the King even more with a provocative little flaunt of her chest, adroitly leading him back into the middle of the circle.

Eostre suddenly spun on her heel in a whirl of green. The drums abruptly stopped. The Horned King captured and kissed his smiling queen without another word.

“This night is mine; love and passion waken tonight,” she announced, firmly breaking the kiss. “Honour me, my lord, and bring in the summer with me!”

As the King bowed low and led Queen Eostre from the circle, the priestess leapt forward, brandishing her wand. “The time of unions begins now with the divine union!” she cried. “Summer is i'comin in!”

“Summer is i'comin in!” Eve chorused joyously, amid so many cheers and celebratory cries of 'Summer is i'comin in!'

Eve knew that this was all merely human symbolism. Every year the Horned King would chase Queen Eostre and their love would turn the wheel of the year. Summer would happen whether people re-enacted the divine union or not. But it felt good to celebrate the cadence of the changing season that carried you along with it. Fire was the right symbol – lusty, passionate, alive. Pity you don't have a boyfriend right now, then you could really celebrate!

With the May Circle ended, Eostre's handmaidens went right back to their usual energetic selves, some of them playing instruments to lead the post-circle singing with a familiar May carol. For once, Eve decided to just listen to the rising wave of singers.

“With small persuasion she agreed,
To see me through the bosky riggs,”

To Eve's surprise, it was Josh singing for once. He abruptly stopped when he realised she was listening.

“Mulberry Town version,” he explained.

“What's a bosky rigg?”

“It's an area of high ground in the middle of the town, covered with woodland. They're not easy to see into from outside, so … a private place to be on May night. Not personal experience!” he added sharply.

Would you like it to be? the thought came, unbidden. She hurriedly looked away, pretending nothing was amiss. Evelina Joy, you get a grip. Are you sixteen or twenty-three?

“Yo dude, what's that in your bag?” someone said.

“What?” Josh said. Eve almost did a double-take – she'd almost forgotten he still had that. There was a bright light shining through the fabric of his bag.

“Smoke and fireee,” he cursed, hauling the bag off his shoulder and redundantly opening it up to confirm the seed was indeed germinating. He instantly hesitated, glancing around wildly. “Agh, what dun I do!”

His accent was getting steadily thicker. Panic, Eve mentally diagnosed.

“Joshua Cook, you listen to me! Put it on the ground and unscrew the top,” she commanded. “Good. And now we wait.”

The seed brightened and faded arrhythmically, that unmistakable living light attracting spectators from the breaking circle. Eve settled down next to Josh to watch. No matter how bright the light got, it never dazzled.

“What's tekkin se long?” Josh fretted. “Is tha' normal?”

“It takes a while sometimes. Be patient,” Eve said, rather pleased she could decipher his accent.

“Ahh, it's so beautiful!” one of the watching girls observed. The seed started glowing with a constant brightness. Eve laid a steadying hand on Josh's arm. A pulse of light burst from its surface. It split smoothly down the middle, the seedcoat peeling away to reveal a tiny, curled up humanoid. It gently unfurled itself, legs and stems unrolling to form a perfect roselia seedling. The light faded. The little roselia, its eyes and flowers still closed, wobbled unsteadily and fell over.

“Awww!” someone said.

“Oh my -” Josh gasped, reaching for it.

“Tch, tch!” Eve warned, waving him away. She gently picked the seedling up, supporting it against the palm of her hand. Ok, Eve, you know how to do this. No pale blemishes, no obvious hypertrophy, downy anterior leaf – her ability would be Poison Point -

“Shouldn't it be bawling?” Josh asked anxiously.

“Shh.” Eve gently tested the range of motion in the stems. Balance should be acquired in a few days.

“There,” she said, swiftly depositing her in Josh's arms. “She's yours.”

“She?”

“Are you gonna argue?” Eve teased.

Roselia blinked her dark eyes open. The first thing she saw in this world was May Day night.

“Then your name is Megaera.”

Special Chapter: Into the Wild

 

[Lugion]

Beautiful chapter. I love Eve's faith (and the contrast with Josh's non-faith), it's so refreshing to read about this sort of thing in the Pokémon world... too many writers just take Sinnoh mythology for granted and I think that's a shame...

I do love Roselia's name, but I also wonder why she was "born" a Roselia rather than a Budew, but eh, it's not important in the grand scheme of things.

Still, I fully expect Josh to be found out in this tournament.

 

[Jersey Jimmy]

his face looked like Aphrodite had tried to play noughts and crosses on it.

2brit4me

This was a wonderful chapter, as Lugion said. I've only heard of May Day before (I'm assuming it's a strictly European thing), so I must ask if this is based on actual celebrations. In any case, it was all wonderfully written. Happy to see Josh get a Roselia, since Roserade is both one of my favorite Grass- and Poison-types - and as a Roxie roleplayer, I have a lot of favorite Poison-types. I loved the battle, too - Dione Page, more like Dione SAN JOSE SHARKS AHAHAHAHA

...they... they choke in the playoffs a lot. And as you've probably guessed by now, I have literally zero motivation to write My Way.

I do love Roselia's name, but I also wonder why she was "born" a Roselia rather than a Budew, but eh, it's not important in the grand scheme of things.

To get a Budew, you have to breed a Roselia or Roserade while it's holding a Rose Incense. Yeah, incenses, remember? Those really expensive versions of normal items that are only there for breeding purposes?

 

[Lugion]

Yeah, but that's stupid and Pavs knows better than to follow the games 100%.

 

[Flaze]

On the upside, the battle in this chapter was a lot better than the last one at least, though it was kind of weird to just get thrown in the middle of it in a way, I did like that Josh's Misdreavus got to have the last laugh at the end of the day, even if it was still a tie and I really really liked the Clefairy variation you thought up, it was actually kind of unsettling to imagine too.

Also I laughed at Eve suddenly having that dirty dream with Josh, it's nice to know it isn't just Josh that gets those, though there is something to say about how Eve's are more subtle about it where as Josh's are clearly noticeable from the get go.

I really liked the way you showed the festival too, it seemed like a combination of many different cultures, the most I could pick out were like japanese, irish and pagan cultures in regards to how the festival itself worked, though maybe you had it go for a bit too long, either way it's nice that we're getting to see a bit more into Eve's mind in these latest chapter.

Though, the scene with Eve and her cousin was a little...cliched to be honest, it was my least favorite part of the chapter really.

 

[lucarioknight56]

Well, I can see why this story deserves praise! I've read from around chapter 5 or so, and I say, it was worth my time to make it to here. Very enjoyable story, and nice characterization to boot! Right now I can't think of anything that bothers me (I'm not much of a mechanics reviewer), so I'll continue reading as you continue.