#or yawnin maybe

[pokeexehasstoppedworking]

A Champion Time For The Heart Ch9 Travels To Hulbury

(This chapter will contain a small time skip of events as well as a past fight between y/n and her mother in the story.)

You swore you needed both a doctor and a nice bed to sleep away the pains of soreness racking your body.

Ever since you four left Turffield it had been like the time you left Motostoke except a bit longer. Walking, camping at night, taking time out for resting between walks and gathering food. Mostly from berry trees or snacking from whatever nonperishable foods Leon had given you. Some night Victor managed to make one form of curry or another. Mostly bean or apple curry which you didn't mind too much but the apples tasted a bit strange in the curry sauce, so you fed them to your sobble which you noticed had now taken a habit of laying in your lap any chance you were sitting and expected to be fed whenever you held any kind of food. Oops. You might have ended up spoiling it a bit. Oh well. You didn't mind too much. It's smiles and noises were pretty cute, and at least Gloria was able to add a few more curry entries to her book. After what had happened at the pokemon Nursery back in Truffield you decided to fill in Gloria and Hop about the mysterious band of rock star wannabes, but they seemed to be as confused as you were about who they might've been working for and who they were. Hop even suggested that maybe the eccentric costumes were disguises to they're real identities, which seemed a bit farfetched but hey. You were transported into the video game world of pokemon, traveling along with a few of the characters, and for all you knew could still wake up at any moment to your mother scolding you for being late for college. It wasn't really too out there to rule out yet. While you four traveled every so often you'd rest and Hop and Gloria would scamper off to have a battle or more likely try to catch some new pokemon from where you were at. So you weren't all too surprised to find out Gloria caught herself a wild Dottler and Hop's Grookey evolving from the....seventh or eighth day now as you four traveled. You lost count or couldn't remember how many days had past after seven or eight. You were mostly tired now a days with a heaping dab of soreness in your back and neck from your uneasy sleeping schedule and the rocky ground poking you from the floor of the test. Or the fact the only thing you had for a pillow was your backpack, but you never complained. If it meant getting to Hulbury faster then you could deal with it. It was like when your mother insisted you stay up a few extra hours to study or when you had to work late at the radio station after that. You yawned more, movements slowing a bit, and you had gotten noticeable bags under your eyes. Buuut the three teens must've noticed because on what was the ninth day Gloria decided to point it out to you.

"Hey, Y/n. I really didn't want to say anything but are you feeling ok?" She pointed at your face. "You've been yawnin' ever since we left Turffield like a week ago. And you've gotten bags under your eyes big enough to carry luggage for a full week's vacation. "

In response you yawned again before looking to her. "M' fine. Jus a bit tired I guess." You stretched out your back as you walked making it pop. "Haven't really gotten much sleep just laying on the ground like a rock."

"Hey. I have good news." Victor all of a sudden held up his phone. When did he pull that out? And held it up to all of you. "There's a small town up ahead about another day's walk. It has a convenience store, hotel, and a few other things." He looked at you. "I think we should stop by. We can restock up on supplies and rest for the night at the hotel. That might help out Y/n's situation and prevent her from dropping from exhaustion anytime soon."

"Hey. I-I'm not that tired," you lied stifling another yawn....But the promise of a bed tho- "But you're right about needing some more supplies. I don't know how much food and necessities we have left, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to stop by and restock."

The food Leon lent would only last so long anyways. It was best for all parties involved. So it was decided the four of you would stop by the upcoming small town. It took another day and night of walking and resting (giving you another night of uncomfortable sleep) and then shoving off he next morning for the town. It took half the day but the four of you managed to happen upon the small town. And you do mean small. It couldn't have been much bigger than Postwick actually. There was around maybe twenty buildings and most of them were homes or doubled as homes as well as stores. As the four of you walked through the small town a few people walked by or waved, and you could hear a few children laughing. It certainly was very peaceful wasn't it? The peace made you even more tired- You were shaken awake when your sobble chirped loudly and smacked you with it's tail, making you stumble as you walk and if it weren't for the two boys catching you you would've faceplanted the road again. Which ended up in the three kids making up a decision for you.

"Let's go find the Inn first."

The inn turns out was one of the first buildings you came across when you took the small side road off of Route 5 here and the only building in the town that had three stories. It was more like a tall house than an Inn when the three of you entered, Gloria helping to steady your sleepy self. The inside looked very similar to Professor Magnolia's house. Very homey and welcoming. The elderly lady looked lightly surprised when the four of you came in with you fighting to keep awake for a little longer. Ok. So maybe the little sleep over nine or ten days was starting to get to you a little bit you haven't been this tired since studying for college entry exams in high school.

"Oh my. Are you children alright?," she ended up asking lightly standing from her seat seeing you lightly sway a bit.

You waved her off. "I'm fine. Just really tired."

"We'd like to book two rooms please with double beds," Victor explained to the lady throwing you a worried look. "Do you have any available?"

"Oh. Yes, we do. Come. I'll show you to your rooms. By the looks of your friend there, she's in dire need of a good rest." Whelp. No argument there. Luckily the rooms she had the four of you follow her towards a long hallway a little aways from the front desk before stopping and opening one door. "Here's the young mens. Bathroom's through the door on the left. And as for the two young ladies." She turned to a door right across from Hop and Victor's room and opened it. The room was pretty much as you suspected. A simple large room with two beds on each side of it, a shelf, window looking out onto a field, Tv, and a white door that you supposed led to a closet. "This'll be yours." She pointed at the door. "The bathroom is through there. We also have a laundry mat attachment in the adjacent building to the left if you youngsters need it. If you have any further questions please don't hesitate to ask."

"Uh yes actually. Do you happen to know where your town's convenience store is?,'' you heard Victor ask but you were too busy to deduce what else was said.

You managed to stay awake enough to take a quick shower and change before walking to the closest bed to you and just flopping face first on it. The soft cushions hugging your tired and sore body, and it was natural for you to fall asleep almost as soon as you hit the mattress. So it was no wonder that by the next time you woke up it was night time. Confused and dazed you managed to sit up blinking confused at the darkness around you, the only source of light coming from the moon shining through the window outside. Vaguely in the dark you could just barely make out Gloria's sleeping form on the other bed on the other side of the room. Her baby toxel at the foot of her bed. Your body was still tired with it being night so it was easy for you to fall back into slumber when you slowly laid your tired self back down, barely registering your sobble squirming next to you as you fell back asleep. And came to a strange sight. A sight you witnessed before in your life. One you were all too familiar with too. ....You...You were back in your room. Well a younger you at least. You were about sixteen then just minding your own business sitting there and playing games. Couldn't remember which one just that you were enjoying yourself playing and sitting on your bed playing the day away. Until younger you looked up at footsteps approached your room, the next thing your younger self knew your door flew open with a bang and it started the younger you so much you ended up dropping your old switch on your bed jumping from the sound. And there she was. Your mother standing there with an angry scowl on her face.

"You're playing those stupid games again!?," she snapped at younger you, stomping over and quickly wrenching the switch from your bed.

In an instant your hand was reaching out for it. "HEY! Give that back."

But instead of that, your mother only held it up higher with her angry face. "Is THIS what I work to provide for you!?"

You had stopped. Frozen in surprise at the words foaming at your mother's mouth and the game she waved at your face.

"Is THIS what you think is fair to me!? I work day and night to provide a roof over your head, food in your stomach, and clean running water for all you do is to sit on your behind and play these mind rotting things!? To make the electricity bill higher than Mount Everest with you staying up all night playing this day in and out!?"

"M-Mom! C'mon! I'm sorry," younger you backpaddled.

"You should be! I'm not raising you to be lazy and unresponsible!" The game was tossed back onto the bed with a small thump before she pointed at you. "Work and studies should be your number one priority right now! I don't want to catch you slacking off wasting time again! Do I make myself clear?"

Younger you looked at your mother's angry face for a long moment before looking away and nodding. "Yes, Mom."

"That's good. Make sure it doesn't happen again. Alright, Y/n?"

.....

...........

"Hey, Y/n!," a distant girl's voice called, "Are you awake?"

"I dunno. Maybe we should just let her sleep? She was really tired when we got here yesterday," a young boy's voice said worried.

"Hop's gotta point, Glory. Let her sleep in. She'll need all the rest she can get for traveling."

"Ah. You guys are no fun."

Silently the world of younger days faded away to black and the voices became murmurs in the dark abyss that was sleep until you finally woke up from your now dreamless slumber. Which wasn't too long. You slowly woke from your sleep and was greeted with the sunlight making your tired eyes blink as you rubbed them and blinked at the surroundings around yourself at the simple room that wasn't your younger self's from the dream. What the-....Where were you? Did you finally wake up from the pokemon world dreamland you formed up? Were you back home? Did you move into the college dorms and forgot you did? Is that why this room looked strange to you? That hope was all but dashed in a moment when movement under the blanket next to you caught your attention and you looked. A small lump under the blanket the size of a small cat moved around until it moved towards the end of it near your arm and your sobble poked it's head out blinking tiredly and gave out a yawn crawling the rest of the way out. You gave a sigh, shaking your head before smiling and holding out your arm and letting the sobble crawl into your hands. You were still tired but rather than go back to sleep, you opted to tossing the blanket off yourself and got up with your sobble in your hands holding him up to your face.

"Well, I guess it's time to start the day huh?"

You managed to get a few things done. Morning shower, got dressed, and made your first stop the laundry mat across from the hotel after asking the elderly woman at the front desk for directions. Just something to do to help take your mind off the strange dream that had happened. You had started to wonder where the three children had run off to now but it was only after you were coming back with your now cleaned clothes and your sobble curled upon your shoulders did you run into them. Or Hop at least. He was just walking past the door when you opened it and almost ran into him. Thankfully stopping at just the right moment as he paused and blinked.

"Oh. Hey, Y/n!," he greeted with a smiling and shifting the box in his hands, "Glad to see you're awake now."

"Hi," you greeted back before raising a brow at the box he held. "What's that you're carrying?"

"Oh this?," he asked holding up the box and you nodded. "The old lady needed help clearing out her old storage room. She offered to pay me to help out so Im taking this to the broom closet down the hall here. Glory and Vick are doing some Pokejobs too." The confusion must've doubled on your face because he seemed to take notice. pokejobs?? What the heck are pokejobs?! "OH! Right. There's no possible way you could've known what those are. I keep forgetting you're not native to Galar. Pokejobs are jobs people upload into the rotomis."

".....Say what?," you asked still totally confused to what Hop was even saying.

He sighed. "Pokejobs. How do I describe them?....It's kinda like how newspapers have ads. If someone has a job they need help with they send a post to their rotomi profile, then if someone wants to make some money they can look on the Pokejobs Rotomi Forum for a job in their specific area. There was a few listed in the Rotomi at the town's covience store." He held up the box again. "Like this one. We figured it wouldn't hurt to make a little bit of money in case of emergencies too."

"That...sounds like a great idea. But where are the other two now?"

He shrugged. "Glory took a job that involved babysitting and I think Victor's helping someone here with a garden."

Well that sounded like a good way to earn a bit of money while you were waiting. As to pass the time you decided to help Hop once you had finished returning your clothes to your bag. The elderly woman seemed rather grateful for the help provided. In the manner of speaking it wasn't too difficult work. Most of the boxes were pretty light mostly filled with cleaning supplies or old blankets. That explains why she was having Hop move them to the big supply closet down the hall. When you asked about it she explained she had wanted to turn it into another bedroom for the busier traveling seasons, makes sense. One extra room to rent means one extra way to make some money. You helped rehome the boxes and cleaned it out by dusting and sweeping to pass the time away. When it came to paying you declined the money offered and made sure Hop received it instead. After all it was originally his job, you just helped to pass time, and it'd be wrong to piggyback on his hard earned money after all. But you did however accept the free room service for later when she offered instead. Free food was a reward you had no trouble accepting, especially considering you hadn't eaten anything since you woke up and all the exercise you had done in helping to clean out the room. Hop though was thankful for your help and expressed so as much. It was when the two of you were heading out did you finally bump into said twins. Gloria was carrying two large paper bags but you had to do a double take when you noticed Victor looked....well remember how dirty you were after being bowled over by Milo's wooloo? Victor looked like he got ran over by ten wooloo during a sand storm.

"Whoa. What happened to you?"

He grabbed his hat and shook the grey beanie out letting dirt fall to the ground. "Well. As it turns out the ad for 'helping to remove unwanted weeds and debry from the garden' also happened to include a wild munchlax who didn't want to leave. I had to half wrestle half chase the thing out."

"Oh wow. Glad to see you got paid tho."

He huffed but Gloria smiled holding up the bags in her hands. "But on the bright side we managed to stock up enough for the rest of our trip to Hulbury! Glad to see you're up and feeling better too, Y/n!"

You nodded. "Yeah. Feeling better thanks-"

"OH! That reminds me!" You were cut off when Gloria suddenly shoved one of the bags into your arms as you blinked. The inside held food and other things you'd have to use in order to get to Hulbury. She went digging through the other bag, eventually pulling out a rolled up, sleeping bag looking thing that must've made up half that bag's weight. "Here! I noticed you probably weren't sleeping well cuz you didn't have one of these here. Turns out the convivence store is also a supply store, so I was able to get you one of these."

You slowly took the rolled up sleeping bag from Gloria and gave it a look over before looking back to her. "I-...Thank you. But you didn't have to get me this. I would've been fine without it."

"I know but you would've just kept getting bad sleep if I didn't, and it won't hurt me from what I earned from winning against Milo's anyways. Besides, I can now call it even from when you saved our hides back in Postwick."

You smiled and decided to accept this gift with a nod. "Alright. We're even. But have you decided when you wanted to leave yet?"

"First thing tomorrow morning. After seeing you stumble 'round like a zombie with a headache, we decided to let ya sleep in since you were so tired. But since it's getting later anyways, we figured we'd spend one more night here and leave early in the morning."

"Oh that's a great plan cuz Y/n got us some free room service from helpin' out around here."

Gloria's eyes widened at her friend's words. "Wait. REALLY!?"

"How about we let Victor get cleaned up first before we do anything?"

The four of you did just that for the night. Packed away all the goods they brought back with them. Hopefully it'll last enough for the rest of the very long walk to Hulbury. And after everyone was done packing their share and Victor was cleaned up, you ate. No surprise it was more curry but you chose to accept that at this point that curry was a very important part of Galar's culture and hey. Free food was free food. Nothing to complain about here. And if Gloria could fill in more of her Curry Dex book then it was good enough for you too. Luckily it seemed with the new sleeping bag things might get easier for you when you all start traveling again. Which is exactly what happened. The very next morning the four of you set off as soon as Victor paid for the two day stay at the front desk, and it was back onto Route 5 the four of you went walking. And walking and walking. It was basically the same as before until night came and the four of you set up camp in a small clearing, giving you the chance to use the new sleeping bag Gloria had gotten you. And it worked like a charm. You still had to use your arms as a pillow but otherwise it was much more comfortable to sleep now. And then the next day the four of you were at it again. This time listening to Victor's adventures traveling around since he had started his own journey at least a year before Gloria's. Mentioning of all the different places and events around Galar he had been so far and you were impressed at his tales of capturing so many wild shiny pokemon in his photos, going so far to show you all a few places he took photos of. One being the giant clock tower back in Motostoke.

"So does that mean you've been to Halbury before?," you asked curiously glancing at the pictures in his hands.

He nodded. "I've been there once, but not for long. I did see the Hulbury Water-Type Aquarium and Research Center. They have every water type pokemon you could imagine, some of them are from different regions as well. That's where I got most of the photo's of water type pokemon I gave to Glory. Nessa was a huge sponsor for it's development. It's also a research department to study water-types as well as their environments and biology." He hummed and looked up. "I think it's also where most Professors get their sobbles for starting trainers."

You gave a look to your sobble. "You hear that? Looks like we're heading to your home town." In response it smiled and gave a small chirp. "Does that mean you've seen Nessa before?"

He shook his with a sigh as you all walked. "Sadly no. But I've heard she's so busy between her modeling and gym leader duties she'll only do one gym battle a day due to her busy schedules, and that's considering if there's nothing important going on for her."

"So depending on the time and amount of trainers heading for Hulbury right now, we could end up waiting longer than we did for Milo's gym battle."

"Ah man!" Hop leaned back putting both arms behind his head. A habit you learnt he did whenever he was annoyed or thinking about something. "That could take forever then....but considering Nessa's Gym would've been one of the farthest from the Turffield Stadium, I'd like to bet not a lot of people would go for hers first and instead went back to Motostoke to challenge Kabu or someone else who was closer....Hm. I wonder if that's why Mr. Milo suggested we go see Nessa after our battle with him. We haven't run into any other Gym Challengers yet. Route 5 is less trafficked."

"Or those rockstar blokes," you thought as you gave another look around at the half field half forested areas you four were traveling past. But that was probably a good thing you hadn't seen them. You wouldn't want them causing you more trouble.

"There Hop goes all smart again!"

"H-Hey! Im just makin' an observation!"

"Well make an observation on that map. How much longer until we get there?"

Hop answered that after pulling out his phone and turning it on, pressing a few buttons. "...About two and a half weeks left."

This...Was going to be a long trip.

And you weren't wrong. Most of the trip was the same day in and day out. Eat, sleep, make camp, walk lots, stop for breaks, maybe a battle would happen every once and a while between Hop and Gloria or maybe they'd try to catch a pokemon every now and then. And you watched her start to carry around that baby Toxel more, usually in her arms like a cat but sometimes in her bag too with his little head poking out looking around. Victor making the comment that now the both of you would be pokemon taxis. It took quite a while of this old routine before you four even got to another town, with a train station. Breaking out of a small wooded area there was clearings now of flat land and Route 5 lead you all to a crossing across the railroad tracks and lead into a small town...Well you weren't sure if you could call it a town per say. It was more like a few homes a little bit a ways from the obvious train station the four of you took refuge in for a break. In the mean time Victor took out his phone once more and decided to flip through the rotom phone he had on your four's location.

"......Hey!," he shouted making you all look at him as he held up the phone all towards you. You leaned closer to get a better look at the screen he pointed to. "According to the map we're a four day walk away from Hulbury. Nearly there!"

"Oh thank Arceus!," Gloria sighed, "I was getting so tired of just walking around like a migrating murkrow."

"And you wonder why I was worried about you rushing into your journey."

"Hey!"

The next few days weren't very eventful or memorable. Just the same rinse and repeat scenarios your small group had been experiencing for the past month or so, until you FINALLY saw it. Well smelt it first would be more accurate. You all were walking up a steep hill that the path was connected too and that's when you smelt something like salt air. You had only been to a beach a few times but there was no mistaking it. Saltwater. And then you heard a very loud horn. It was loud enough to startle your Sobble into ducking behind your head and you perk up. If one had to guess, you would've said it sounded either like a train's whistle or a boat horn. Blinking as shadows flew overheard, you realized they were wild wingulls. ...Wait. Weren't those bird pokemon always like close to water?? You blinked. Shaking your head and hurrying your pace up the hill until the four of you finally made it. From the high point the view was high enough to let the four of you look a good ways ahead and still far but much closer now, maybe a day's travel. What was unmistakenly the glistening blue of the ocean as far on the horizon as you could see, that lead to the coast that clashed with the beginnings of it. The horn you heard was most likely one of the many boats you could faintly make out on the glistening blue and the unmistakable town that was nestled up against it all. It wasn't too big by the looks of it. Definately not Motostoke size, but it was definately bigger than Turffield and Postwick and you could make out the unmistakable structure of a stadium way over there.

Victor pointed with a smile towards the faint town. "There's Hulbury! We're nearly there!"

"Good. Let's get stepping before it gets too dark. If we hurry we'll be there by tomorrow."

And indeed you all were. Traveling until it was sundown, and you decided to set up camp for the night, only to pack up quickly and leave at the first sign of light the very next morning. It was somewhere around ten in the morning when you all finally made it. Seeing the town and beautiful ocean coming into view and getting closer, and closer the more and more you walked. Until you all finally arrived. First walking under a bridge connecting between two large hills, on top of one hill leading to a train station, the familiar pink building of the pokemon center greeted you next as the dirt path of Route 5 changed into concrete streets. Another loud horn shot off to the right of you and as you all looked over there was a giant port with as you suspected lots of ships and boats. Bigger than in game you imagined too. You inhaled a long sigh, the taste of salt on your tongue. If it wasn't for the many boats near the port and other people, you wouldn't have minded just standing there for a moment in the road. But since you didn't want to waste anymore time you sighed and turned to Gloria.

"So." She looked at you and blinked. "What's the plan here?"

"We go to the gym-"

"We head to the hotel-"

Both twins looked at each other for a moment, before Victor cleared his throat.

"I think we should head to the Hulbury's residential hotel first. Just in case one of us have to wait for a gym battle to open we'd have somewhere to stay tonight."

"Well I think we should head to the gym before anyone else gets here," she countered back one arm holding her Toxel and the other placed onto her hip. "It's still pretty early in the morning. If there's a chance no one got there yet one of us could get a spot! Right Hop?"

"Actually, personally I'm kinda hungry and wanted to check out that famous restaurant Hulbury's supposed to have." he mumbled but got ignored by the scowling twins.

You sighed again shaking your head. Teenagers. "How about this?" You held up a hand catching the three's attention. "We'll split up." You suggested. "If we do that we can get things done faster. You two can check out the gym and your brother can get us situated for the night because personally I'd like to take a break from camping, and then Victor can check into the gym as well. Then we can meet back up and get some breakfast..." You looked up towards the sky. "Or lunch depending when we're done."

Victor hummed. "...That doesn't sound like a bad idea actually and it could actually save us time. Now that I think about it, we're probably low on supplies anyways. While we're doing that Y/N can take a list of what we need and get it from the local super market here."

"I like that plan! We can meet up at the Light house."

And so it was agreed. After going through your inventory, and having Victor quickly scribble down a list of things you all needed, the four of you split off. Victor heading in the same direction as the other two with his phone's map out (you guessed the hotel and the stadium must've been down the same road) and you towards the docks list and borrowed money in hand. In all honestly you were just as hungry as the others but that could wait. It didn't take you too long to find Hulbury's local convenience store, it didn't take you all long as well to fill up the considerably large bags of travel foods and start carrying them off back off towards the direction of the light house. ....Only...there was one problem. You had absolutely no idea which direction the lighthouse was in, and with the giant bags of supplies to be split between the four of you obstructing your view, it made it harder to see by all accounts as you tried peeking around and over the large bags. Stumbling a bit and almost bumping into a few people walking past you, they gave you an odd look before carrying on. Certainly didn't help when your sobble gave a small chirp before literally climbing into one of the bags to which you panicked a little. The last thing you needed was him eating the food you just bought especially since it wasn't bought with your money!

"Hey! Bad pokemon!," you shouted jiggling the bags a bit, "You get out of there right now! You're not supposed to be in there!" The sobble peeked itself out over the edge of one of the bag's hearing it's master's voice as you frowned, and you didn't see where you were walking as you walked. "I'm serious! You can't just crawl in there! Out no- Oof!?"

"HEY!?," shouted a woman's voice.

You rammed into something or someone solid and you stumbled back, by some miracle not dropping the bags, and up righted yourself for a moment. Blinking you turned sideways to look at who you bumped into and were met with another woman who was looking at you with a bewildered look like everyone else who saw you walking around like this. The woman had a dark skin complexation with dark black hair with pretty blue streaks and eyes that were bluer than the ocean. What looked like a sports uniform adorned her body. She blinked at you as you stared before you seemed to blink and shake your head.

"Oh. Sorry about that, Miss," You apologized shifting two off the four bags in your arms. "I didn't see you there."

"Uh..Yes, I could tell." She ran an eye over the two bags in your arms and the other two hanging off your elbows. "That's a lot of groceries you're carrying there." Her eyes stopped at the little blue pokemon poking out of the top of one of the bags as it shoved a blue berry into it's mouth.

"Oh. It's not just for me actually. I'm traveling with some others and we needed this stuff." You followed her gaze and you gained a frown when you saw the sobble shove another berry into it's mouth. "HEY!" It fell back into the bag startled with a chirp....but slowly peeked the top of it's head and eyes back over to look at your scowl. "I said NO. Now you get out of there right now! If you're hungry I'll get you something else."

"Oh. Is this little one yours?," both of you looked over as the woman attempted to reach out and pet the sobble. Which resulted in your sobble giving off a sound of fright and immediately scuttle out from the bag in a hurry.

"HEY-" You leaned your head back as it jumped on your head and clung to your hair giving the other woman wide eyes of worry. You grumbled...but sighed and nodded. "Yeah. Sorry 'bout that. He's not used to strangers I guess."

With a smile, the woman placed a hand on her hip and studied the two of you. "Most sobble are, but it seems this one has become very attached to you."

You blew the sobble's tail from your face. "Believe me you don't know the half of it. Say. Could you tell me where I can find the lighthouse? I'm supposed to meet my friends there."

"Sure. I was actually heading towards the stadium actually. The light house is right next to it," she gestured to your bags. "I could even help you if you'd like."

You gave a relieved sigh. "Really?! Yes, thank you. That'd be a huge help."

You happily let the woman take two of the bags you were carrying and you followed her as she motioned for you to follow her. Gloria and Hop were most likely already waiting for you as they had first gone to the stadium and possibly Victor if he hadn't gotten side tracked or anything. As the two of you walked you took the chance to look around at the town. Seemed like the beach down you had gone to before the few times you went to the beach. As you glanced at the woman helping you out you couldn't help but...notice something. Did she seem familiar to you somehow?....You shook your head. Nah. Must've just been your imagination. She must've just looked like someone you've seen before. That's all. The both of you walked from the docks, past what looked like a restaurant of some sort, back towards the Pokemon Center before taking a right and heading down the same path the teens took when the four of you parted ways. From that point the two of you walked down a road with houses on one side and a fence overseeing the ocean on the other. There was a LOT more houses than you remembered in game so it took a good twenty minutes before you even saw the stadium as both of you passed a flight of concrete stairs leading up the hill towards the train station. You looked up and at the stadium as it's shadow loomed over you as you both walked past it. Unlike Milo's stadium this one seemed rather quiet right now even if it was as HUGE as his was. The gym leader mustn't be battling anyone right now where ever she was. As you two continued to walk past it, you blinked seeing a tall structure up ahead which was unmistakably a light house, letting you sigh in relief. FINALLY!! You sighed in relief at seeing the structure and sped up your pacing a bit as the two of you rounding the corner the path lead towards the lighthouse and that's when you noticed the figures standing there. One or two strangers were there taking a picture next to the statues or the ocean view, but there was three you recognized easily as the twins and Hop. They all seemed happy to see you at first. But soon those happy faces turned into surprised and shocked ones the closer you walked. Victor even shaking his head and blinking as you approached.

"Uh...Hey, Y/n. Whatcha got there?"

"Our supplies," you replied arms all sore and tired from the long walk over. Victor blinked as you shoved the two bags you were holding into his arms. "Here. Take these. Im beat." They continued to stare at you even as you turned to the woman and take the other two heavy bags from her. Your brow rising as you turned and saw their wide eyed looks. "....Are you three alright? You all look like you've seen a ghost."

"...Y/n. Do you even know WHO that is?!," Gloria asked pointed towards the woman and you turned to look at her again..before shrugging.

"She helped me out. Thanks by the way."

She nodded. "It was my pleasure."

"Don't you even know who that is!?" Gloria groaned at your utterly confused face as you blankly stared and as a result pointed right at the smiling woman next to you. "You literally don't know!? THAT'S NESSA!! Like the Gym Leader Nessa! The person we traveled all the way here to see!"

You blinked before looking back to Nessa as she glanced at you. "...Oh. Thanks for the help again. It was very nice of you."

She nodded again. "Your welcome. And you." She glanced over to Gloria who still stared in disbelief at her. "You must be a gym challenger right? You're one of the ones endorsed by Leon right?"

Gloria stared at her a little longer before Hop nudged her making her flinch. "HUH!? I mean- Y-Yeah! O-One of them." She gestured to Hop next to her. "And he's one o' the other ones."

"Hello, Ma'am." Hop smiled and waved. "I'm Hop and this is Gloria and that's Victor. You uh...Weren't at the stadium when we went there."

"My apologies," Nessa apologized as you turned back to her. OH! Now you could recognize her easily. She was on the cover of that magazine Gloria showed you and you vaguely remembered seeing her back at the entrance ceremony. "But I just got back from a boating shoot and I've already promised someone else a battle for later today. But I must say, you've become something of a hot topic among the gym leaders."

"Wait. We are?"

She chuckled. "Are you kidding me? Leon never stops talking about how awesome his little brother is and how he's just the smartest kid ever to come out of Postwick."

Hop coughed and scratched at his head in embarrassment. "Well...I wouldn't say that."

"I mean. He's not wrong. You're pretty smart."

"Glory! Don't embarrass me like Mum please!," he begged red faced.

You decided to help give him a break. "I had no idea he spoke so highly of Hop." You spoke to Nessa. Although you wouldn't be surprised considering how hyped up Hop got about Leon, and how loving Leon was to them.

She chuckled again before reaching behind her and pulling something out of her pocket. Well two somethings. "Here you go, Ms. Famous. I already heard about you, so you should learn more about me too." She held out what you made out as cards to Hop and Gloria as the two wide eyed teens took them in disbelief.

"OMG! Another League Card!! Thank you so much, Ms. Nessa! Does this mean you'll be able to battle one of us tomorrow?"

She nodded. "Sure. Just speak to one of my staff at the stadium and we can schedule a battle in the next two days for three." She then pointed behind her. "But I had better head to the stadium. I can't delay my scheduled battle anymore than I've already had."

You nodded in understanding. "We understanding completely, Miss. Thanks again for the help."

She nodded towards you. "I love fishing, but I love pokemon battles even more and I'm itching for a battle with you. Hopefully we'll get to battle real soon." With a wave towards you four, Nessa turned on her heel and began to walk away.

You waved back before turning back to the three teens staring back at you. ".....What?"

"HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW WHO THAT WAS WITH YOU!?,'' Gloria shouted gesturing to where Nessa walked off to which you shrugged again.

"Sorry? I was a little busy with something more important at the moment and I guess I wasn't paying too much attention to her. But she seemed very nice. But how did your guys' lil trip go?"

"I managed to book us a hotel here for a couple nights," Victor answered before gesturing his head over towards the other two. "And we're all set up to fight, but someone already beat us for a spot today."

"Oh. Who?"

"The Mareep Head!," Gloria huffed one hand one her hip and the other waving the small League Card in the air. Mareep Head- OH! She must've been referring to Bede. He must've been the one Nessa was rushing off to battle then. "We just waltzed on in and there he was acting all smug like he jus' won the whole challenge already. He even asked if I "Got Hatenna's good side' on camera. Psh! He's such a stuck up mudbray!"

You could only nod juggling the groceries in your arms. "I...see. Well since there's nothing we can do right now for the moment, why don't we just go back to the hotel Victor mentioned and take care of these?"

Victor nodded in agreement tugging his own bags along as you both turned with Gloria mumbling behind you all the way to the hotel.

[pynkhues]

hi kween! i KNOW you were struggling with writer’s block, so a big TBD on whether this question will have an answer! but do you know what your update schedule looks like for CYF and pornstar!au looks like? ooh and the other part of C&C? also, so sorry if you get a million of these messages all the time. i can only hope it’s flattering rather than annoying

It’s not annoying at all, anon! It’s actually really, really nice to know that people are keen and excited for them. :-) I got a little bit of writing done this week again, so I think the writer’s block is starting to ease, and both CYF and the pornstar!au are pretty close? I mean, the CYF chapter is done, I just want to re-write a part of a scene which is pointblank refusing to talk to me at the moment, and the pornstar!au needs a bit of editing and I still have I think two scenes left to write in it? 

The PH/C&C fic has actually been talking to me, which is pretty nice, haha. It’s going to be around 20k words I think when it’s done? (it’s at 18k at the moment). 

I’ve got a three-day weekend starting tomorrow, and all I’ve got planned for it is yoga, brunch with a friend, and a talk on the biology of sexuality and gender which is being done entirely by LGBTQI+ scientists and researchers, which should be super interesting! So yes! Hoping I might be able to get some real writing done in the gaps between and at least post one of these things (if not two!) :-) 

In the meantime, you can have another excerpt from the PH fic: 

-

Elizabeth opens her mouth to argue that point – probably go back to her original one, about holdin’ off, like that’s an option, when Rio asks:  

“You organised anythin’ for Danny’s birthday yet?”  

The question blindsides her, gets her eyes wide, blinking a little too much as she tries to catch up. She shakes her head at him.

“Rio - -”  

“I looked into that art class at the Y, but I dunno,” he says, shrugging. “He didn’t like the other classes we signed him up for, and I kinda got the feelin’ they ain’t intendin’ this one for a ten-year-old and his rowdy fuckin’ siblings neither, y’know?”  

The words hang for a minute, enough he can dry the last couple of dishes, only this time, he puts them away himself, finding the brief pause a relief more than anything as he opens up cabinets and tidies away the last evidence of their meal. Above them, he hears the toilet flush and then a door close.  

Kenny, he thinks, judgin’ from where the sound comes from. He’ll need to check he’s actually asleep. It’s school tomorrow after all, and last thing he needs is another call at work because Kenny’s dozin’ in algebra again.  

“The zoo’s doing a frog show at the moment,” Elizabeth says suddenly, breaking up his thoughts, and Rio jerks his head around to look at her, her jaw slightly forward, lips pursed in that way that means she ain’t happy about the pivot in topic, but still. She goes with it.  

“There’s a rainforest conservation talk and like, a handling session and everything,” she adds, and Rio nods, because Danny’s been into rainforests since they studied them in his third grade science class last year, spouting off the difference between temperate and tropical, about how the light don’t hit the ground in the densest parts of them, but nothing more than about frogs – poison dart frogs and glass frogs and red-eyed tree frogs. Rio’s pretty sure he could rattle off enough to get some sort of honorary degree purely by way of listenin’ to the kid.  

“I thought I could make a cake and maybe drop it in early at the restaurant, so Danny doesn’t see. It could be a surprise.”  

Like she doesn’t make a cake for every one of them every year, Rio thinks, amused, but shit, suddenly his mind’s on the zoo. Can already hear the yawnin’ mouths of lion and the bustle of people, can feel Marcus’ weight on his shoulders, see him grin, can see somewhere, in the annals of his memory, his own father’s grin too.  

It’s been a while.  

“Sounds dope,” he says, and Elizabeth must hear something in his voice, because when he turns around, her face has relaxed, her jaw back to where it usually sits, her lips parted curiously, like she’s tryna figure something out – like maybe he’s still tryna distract her or somethin’. “What’s that look for?”  

“Nothing,” she says with a shrug. “I don’t know. I didn’t think you’d want to do it.” 

He huffs out an amused breath, wandering over to flick the kettle on to make himself a tea. Russian Caravan, he thinks, or - - hm. Maybe apple and chamomile. If he makes one of them, she might have one too. He grabs the box out, shakes it at her, and she nods.  

“Why’s that?” he says, turning his attention back to the cabinets, grabbing them out a mug each.  

“Because it’s the zoo,” she says dryly, playing a little with the buttons at the belly of her blouse. Rio snorts in reply, grabbing out a pair of tea strainers from the top drawer.    

“Take it that means you ain’t a fan.”  

“God, no,” she tells him easily, laughing. “We have five children between us. Plus Annie. My life is a zoo.”

He can’t quite bite back his grin at that, pouring in the boiling water over the tea leaves, letting the water turn bronze, as he turns back to Elizabeth.  

“And the smell,” she adds, wrinkling her nose. “Like wet dog and animal poop.”

“Damn, ma, your sister don’t smell that bad.”

She gapes at that, reaching close enough to try and hit him, defendin’ her sister’s honour and whatnot, and he grabs her wrist easily, using it to tug her into him, humming, content, when the soft curves of her chest hit the hard line of his. He runs a hand down her back, untucking her blouse from her slacks before slipping his hand back up beneath her shirt, dipping his thumb beneath her bra strap, running it along the indent it’s left in her skin just to feel her shiver.  

“God, how can you - - I mean. Why do you like it,” she stutters when he pulls a little at the clip on her bra, almost undoing it until she brings a hand behind herself to stop him.  

Rio just shrugs. He always has really, ever since his dad used to take him, Carmen and Aida when they were kids. Their dad worked too much to do anythin’ with them often, so it felt like somethin’ when he’d take them to the zoo, when he’d get him sitting on his shoulders so he could see over the crowds, mumbling dumb shit up at him in Spanish, like how many teeth a lion has and how aardvarks trap termites by curling their tongues. Loved the most doin’ it himself with Marcus, like it connected them still somehow, him and his dad, Marcus and the abuelo he’d never get to meet. The memory’s bittersweet, but sweeter these days, the years passing since his death letting him focus on the good instead of those last years where the cancer turned him inside out.

He looks down at Elizabeth then, where she’s looking up at him, almost tells her, only to stop at the look on her face, soft and a little too bright, a little too curious, and he remembers the scattered, brief, miserable notes she’s told him about her own dad, and it halts the words on his tongue. In the end he just shrugs.  

“I dunno,” he says. “Just like it.”

Elizabeth squints a little, like she don’t quite believe him, but she lets it go when he crowds her back against the kitchen island, tryna see if she’ll let him take her shirt off here.  

(She won’t, but she lets him in their bedroom at least, the door closed and her lips wet. Lets him do a lotta things then.)  

[sandcrdriesens]

tyrus first fight + making up!? 💖

ahhh thank you so much lovely !! mighta gotten a wee bit too carried away with this 🥺

TJ doesn’t know why he brought it up.

Maybe it was just his Kippen curiousity perkin’ up once again, but just a teeny bit of it caused somethin’ major, ‘n’ he didn’t expect this.

“Hey Cy, can I ask ya a question?” TJ says after takin’ a sip from the milkshake he ‘n’ his boyfriend are sharing.

“Why of course, shoot!” Cyrus says happily, placin’ a baby tater into his mouth.

TJ bites his lip nervously, oblivious as to why, “Who was your first crush?”

“Aha.. ya see it’s actually really funny, ‘cause they’re one of my best friends!” Cyrus laughs nervously.

TJ’s eyes widen, as if he just told him that he murdered someone ‘n’ the body is in the back of his parent’s car, “You liked Buffy?!”

With that, Cyrus almost chokes on his food, “No? What?! Jeez, heck no. I... I liked Jonah.”

TJ tries his best not to roll his eyes, but fails, “Huh. Shoulda known.”

Cyrus tilts his head, “What? The heck is that supposed to mean?!” His voice is laced with confusion ‘n’ anxiety.

“Well for one, he’s freakin’ Mr. Perfect! Every girl, and guy, falls for that dumbass! And two? You guys are best friends!” TJ shakes his head in disbelief.

“Yeah?” Cyrus’ voice suddenly becomes a little louder, “It’s not like we’re datin’! You’re my boyfriend!”

TJ sighs, his chest tightenin’ in ways he’s never felt around Cyrus, “Yeah well, you may as well be!”

Cyrus frowns, “Well then, maybe I should be.”

TJ’s face now turns blank. He’s at a loss for words, so he says absolutely nothin’.

“You know what, I just remembered I—I have to be somewhere, bye TJ. I’ll see you around or whatever,” ‘n’ just like that, they had their first fight.

“Shit,” TJ whispers to himself, his eyes becomin’ watery yet his mouth all dry.

Later that day, TJ hears a knock on his creaky door.

“Who is it?” He calls out, before yawnin’ ‘n’ sittin’ down on his bed, with his cat on top of his pillow.

“It’s Amber,” his sister calls out sweetly, “Cyrus is downstairs. He’s really upset ‘n’... I’ve never seen him like this,” she admits sadly before peepin’ through the door.

This causes TJ’s heart to pang with sorrow, “Oh. Tell him to come up.”

Quickly after Amber calls out for Cyrus to come to go to his room, TJ hears a clamber of feet run up the stairs, then another knock on his door.

“Teej?” A sad voice calls, which can only be Cyrus’.

TJ walks over to his poster-covered door ‘n’ opens it slowly, dread overcomin’ himself, “Hey muffin.”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I said that shit back at The Spoon. I shouldn’t have said that I should be with Jonah, I shouldn’t be with him! Obviously!” Cyrus babbles off, while TJ is left there, speechless.

“You’re sorry? I’m sorry! It was stupid of me to bring it up,” he says to his boyfriend as he wipes a tear off the latter’s cheek, “I’m so, so fuckin’ sorry.”

TJ slowly drags Cyrus in by his hands gently, “Apology accepted, Thelonius,” Cyrus replies teasingly.

TJ rolls his eyes, fondly ‘n’ fulla love this time, “I only let you call me that, you know?”

Cyrus smiles with pride, “I know! I feel honored. ‘N’ Teej?”

“Uh huh, Underdog?” TJ softly replies.

“I’m honored to be a part of your life, ‘n’ I wouldn’t change it for the world,” Cyrus says before kissin’ TJ softly.

send in tyrus, ambi, muffy ‘n’ wonah prompts !

[lokilickedme]

This woman were awake now.  I knew she'd been sleepin for hell only knew how long, maybe all her life.  But she were stretchin and yawnin in the rising sun that comes up in a soul when it finally opens its eyes and sees the first light of day and realizes it's alive.  And it were happenin in my bed.

It suited her.

Chapter 9 is up!

(will reblog with tags)

*artwork of King and Molly by @vivianstark​ and me, exclusively for this fic

Enjoy my writing?  Buy Me a Coffee

[princess-josie-riki]

A Cuphead parody of Michael Jackson’s Ghosts featuring Werner Werman as the Maestro. This is part of a new Cuphead AU (inspired by Michael Jackson’s Ghosts) where Werner Werman (who is presumably a ghost in the AU) is the Maestro and his ghostly rat minions from the Murine Corps level (maybe about 50) are his ghostly family (while some are gonna be wearing their prisoner outfits from the game, others will be wearing different outfits which are rather more elegant yet creepy during the Victorian era), while some are male, others are female and while some are adults, others are children/tweens/teens.

There's a ghost down in the hall There's a ghoul upon the bed There's something in the walls There's blood up on the stairs And it's floating through the room And there's nothing I can see And I know that that's the truth Because now it's onto me

I don't understand it Hey I don't understand it! Aw

There's a thumpin' in the floor There's a creak behind the door There's a rocking in the chair But there's no-one sitting there There's a ghostly smell around But nobody to be found And a coughin' and a yawnin' Where a restless soul is going

I don't understand it Hey I don't understand it

And who gave you the right to scare my family? And who gave you the right to scare my baby, she needs me And who gave you the right to shake my family tree? They put a knife in my back Shot an arrow in me Tell me are you the ghost of jealousy The ghost of jealousy

There's a thumpin' in the floor There's a creak behind the door There's a rocking in the chair But nobody's sitting there There's a ghostly smell around But nobody to be found And a coughin' and a yawnin' Where a restless soul is going

I don't understand it Yeah yeah! Don't understand it You just a dog gone Aw

And who gave you the right to scare my family? And who gave you the right to scare my baby, she needs me And who gave you the right to shake my family tree? And who gave you the right to take intrusion, to see me? And who gave you the right to shake my family? And who gave you the right to hurt my baby, she needs me And who gave you the right to shake my family tree? They put a knife in my back Shot an arrow in me Tell me are you the ghost of jealousy A suckin' ghost of jealousy Aw

Who gave you the right to shake my family? And who gave you the right to scare my baby, she needs me And who gave you the right to shake my family tree? And who gave you the right to take, intrusion to see me? And who gave you the right to hurt my family? And who gave you the right hurt my baby, she needs me And who gave you the right to shake my family tree? They put a knife in my back Shot an arrow in me Tell me are you the ghost of jealousy The ghost of jealousy

Aw Dog gone But there's no doubt about it, piece of mind Tell me are you the ghost of jealousy

~ Ghosts by Michael Jackson

I hope you like it. ~ <3 Long live the King of Pop. R.I.P. Michael Jackson.

[ewuzebe-eqnosude]

Love Story @H 🏨: searchin' for H dream 💕 @ www [sooo men-y, i got so tired of dating!].

online datin'?

inspired by a Brown Law grad

i Google-d top 100 online datin' sites

opened lovely accounts

w/ ><10 itemized profiles;

i remember uploadin' somethin' like

"although my monicker (in school)

has been the rap song

Sally... That Girl by Gucci Crew

i'm still a virgin."

also somethin' to this effect

"i'm currently takin' up law 

to become one of the best politicians

history will ever have."

then started readin' ><54T likes

heart flutterin' over romantic letters, 

so i clicked icons ><100 times

that sent ><45T likes to singles.

many many time zones,

impossible to be sweet 

w/ a laggin' cam @ Skype

hello? hello? you still out there?

huggin' is way better.

when my yawnin' got worse, 

i copied & pasted instead

w/o matchin' my answers to quesx’ns.

expensive callin' & textin',

meetin' 'em up,

then, thankin' 'em for a nice evenin'.

* worthy menx'ns:

soap, maybe, by Nivea

"homey" look @ t/b by Zalby

make-up/tutorial by Cover Girl

"emerald" nail cut transparently polished by Caronia

* celebrity: MR. Eric O'Shea (https://ericoshea.com/bio/)

* cash-io: 

><45T clothes = ><Php_____?

><45T shoes = ><Php_____?

* comment/s: ugh. yawn @ time zone!

@ Yahoo! Personals (https://www.yahoo.com)

-

📚 Eric Segal's Love Story in Harvard's specialization

[gxngerscxtch]

For the right to the good part prompt list, can I please ask for #13? Thank you~

Merlin and Ginger laughed in sync, staring at the computer screen. Merlin was doubled over and his face was red as a rose. Ginger was grabbing his thigh for support as she laughed to her fullest potential.

“Oh gosh, that is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time.”

“Yeah, the little cat just slipped off. I’m glad he caught himself.”

“Yea, and the little boy didn’t know where to swing his bat so he just kept hitting his father.”

Merlin wiped happy tears from his eyes and yawned right after. “I’m yawnin, what time is it?”

Ginger checks the computers time and did a double take. “It’s 3:57! It’s late. I’ve been here laughing with you the entire time, I didn’t even realize what was happening in the real world.”

“Time flies when you’re enjoying yourself.”

“I guess I did. However, I think it’s time for me to hit the hay.” Ginger got up and started to collect a couple of her things. When she was walking away Merlin got up and grabbed her hang lightly.

“Ey, would ja maybe like to do this again? Maybe on Saturday?”

“Like a date?”

“No! Maybe….yes?” She could tell Merlin was nervous, she felt the same way too.

“I would love to.” Ginger blushed and continued her journey. Merlin celebrated in his head.

[watchmestandwatchmerunn-blog]

"Yawnin' don't mean I's tired! Maybe I's jus' bored by ya tellin' me ta go ta sleep so much..." ((~~a-smile-dat-spreads-like-buttah))

Charlie looked to his sister, he let out a sigh, "I'm older than you, an' that means I'm in charge a' ya." as the older of the Morris twins, he took it seriously. The dirty blond yawned, "We's both is tired."

[shimmershae]

Counting Stars, Chapter 1 (a Walking Dead story, Caryl + Sophia, more).

The story continues. 

 The real story starts with a little girl lost in the woods.

 My response to the Nine Lives "Find Your G-Spot" June challenge.  Think The Princess Bride meets The Walking Dead.  Sort of, lol.  AU with appearances by multiple characters.  Rating subject to change. 

   Author's Notes:

The story continues. 

Counting Stars

 xx1xx

  He settles for some coffee, fixes himself a mug and takes it to the front porch, the wide, worn planks warm beneath his bare feet.  Eyeing the wilting plants on the top step in their clay pots, he shakes his head.  He’d told Mrs. McLeod they weren’t a good idea, not a practical one, at least, with him being gone so much on various jobs, but the arthritic old widow just wouldn’t be swayed, and now he’s stuck, performing life-saving measures on the pitiful petals every few weeks to avoid hurting her feelings.  He adds Miracle-Gro to his ever growing, ever-evolving mental list and drains the last dregs of caffeine, scratching idly at his chest as he takes in the still-slumbering neighborhood. 

  <3<3<3

                                                                        “I know a Mrs. McLeod!” 

 “Don’t say.” 

 <3<3<3

   The mailbox catches his attention again, and he leaves his mug on the porch railing, heads down the steps. 

 Weeds poke up through the stones that make up the walkway, stubborn and proud.  A bird, round and cheerful, flits from stone to stone ahead of him before finally deciding to take flight, darting to a low-hanging branch nearby and watching him curiously. 

 He grunts out a laugh.  Something so small shouldn’t act so suspicious, but he supposes it’s no surprise.  He’s been gone a long time, almost a month this time.  Spring was just a faint scent in the air and the days were just beginning to warm last time he traveled this same pathway.  Surely, he’s a stranger to his feathered friend, and that’s not all, it seems. 

 The house across the street, vacant since the Fords’ last, more permanent split, shows signs of new life.  The overgrown flower garden that Rosita never seemed to find time for is a vibrant rainbow of color, not tamed exactly, but obviously cared for and appreciated.  The shutters wear a fresh coat of paint, and a child’s bicycle rests on its side in the tidy yard. 

 He wonders at this new development as he gathers the various flyers and envelopes into his arms from the mailbox, bends to retrieve the rest.  The mirroring clay pots resting on the top step, though, tell him he won’t have to wonder long, and so, he takes his mail and goes back inside.  He’s got that list to work on, after all. 

  <3<3<3

 “That’s it?” 

 “Don’t have to sound so unimpressed.” 

 “Where’s the princess?” 

 “Y’ain’t payin’ attention.” 

 “Am, too.” 

 “Patience, Baby Girl.” 

 “M’not a baby.” 

 “You gonna fuss all night or listen to the story?” 

 “Fine.” 

 “Where were we?” 

 “You was skipping to the good part.” 

 “Not so fast.  Still some story to tell ‘fore then.  Don’t make that face.” 

 “What face?” 

 “That one.  Look like somebody else I know.” 

 “Who?” 

 “Never you mind ‘bout that. Think you’ll like this part, princess or not.” 

 “Fine.” 

 “That it?  I’m a good mind to save my breath.  Tell this story to somebody more appreciative-like.” 

 “M’sorry.” 

 “What’s that?” 

 “Don’t stop.  Please.” 

 “Since you askin’ so nicely.” 

                                                                                                      <3<3<3

                                                                                                      The ride into town isn’t far, and it doesn’t take him long to stock up on groceries and all the other necessities because he’s a man of simple tastes.  Before he knows it, he has everything on his list taken care of but for one thing, one very important thing. 

                                                                                                     The gateway to the Greene farm stands open when he rounds that final bend in the road, Otis’s truck nearby. 

 He nods at the man himself, drums his fingers on the steering wheel as he lets his vehicle idle and the friendly farm hand approach. 

 “Good to see you made it back.” 

 “You thinkin’ I wouldn’t?” 

 Otis draws his hat down from his head, fumbles his fingers through his graying goatee.  His face breaks into an amiable smile as soon as he realizes he’s being teased, in George’s deadpan way, and he replaces his hat, the sun already high and beaming overhead and the Georgia heat making sweat bead on his brow.  Noticing the bags in the floor of the truck, he doesn’t waste any more time, directing him onward.  “She’s up at the main house with the girls.  Doc Greene thought she’d benefit from the company.  She’s missed you something awful.” 

 “Missed her,” he admits. 

 Otis doesn’t make a big deal out of the confession.  He just nods and slaps his palm against the truck’s sun-warmed door.  “Best be gettin’ on then.  Might take you awhile to convince that young-un to part with her.” 

 “Thanks.” 

  <3<3<3

 “Does George have a little girl?  Is it Princess Sophia?”

 “Got a one-track mind, Baby Girl.” 

 “No, I don’t.” 

 “Do, too.” 

 “Do not.  I didn’t even ask…” 

 “Didn’t ask what?”

 “Nothin’.” 

 “Ain’t nothin’.  Know you.  Don’t give me those eyes.  Might as well spit it out.”

 “Is George’s Doc Greene our Doc Greene?” 

 “Didn’t know he was ours, but maybe.  Just gonna have to listen and find out for yourself.” 

 “Well…” 

 “Well, what?” 

 “I’m waitin’.” 

  <3<3<3

  The little one cries when he drives up, fat tears welling in those too-big eyes of hers and her shiny blond ponytail shaking as she hurries inside.  Ms. Annette just shakes her head at him and smiles because it doesn’t take two seconds after he’s opened that creaky-old door before he’s got his arms and his lap full. 

 “That dog knows the sound of your truck.” 

 “Everybody in King County knows the sound of his truck, Annette.” 

 He ducks his head, dodges the most exuberant of the canine’s slobbering kisses, but he can’t miss them all and he soon gives up trying.  “Thanks for lookin’ after her.” 

 “You know our Bethie’s always been partial to her, has been since the beginning.  It wasn’t no imposition, Son.  You know that.  Fact of the matter is, there’s been a time or two while you’ve been gone that I’ve experienced some regrets.” 

 He doesn’t press the man for more because he doesn’t have to.  He knows exactly what he’s referring to.  He rears his head back to look into a pair of intelligent brown eyes, and he’s sent back to that very first moment, when she was nothing more than a tiny, shivering wet ball of black and white fur abandoned in a road-side ditch.  One small whimper toward him and pink swipe of her timid tongue, and he hadn’t the heart to leave her behind as others already had.  He’d wrapped her up in his flannel over-shirt and turned the heat on high blast, making the old truck sputter and groan all the way to the veterinarian’s country-side practice.  The little one had been there that day, and she’d fallen in love, straight away.  Fate and Doc Greene, though, had had other plans, and it wasn’t even a week later that he was puppy-proofing his whole house.  That little bit of fluff had made coming home worth it ever since.  Still, sometimes he wonders if he’s doing right by her, leaving her so often and for so long.  Ms. Annette kindly intervenes before he can voice those thoughts. 

 “Seems to me Tsu made her own choice a long time ago.” 

 Her husband echoes his agreement with a grin.  “Reckon you’re right.  She’s been missing you.” 

 “I heard.”  If he sounds a little happy about that fact, well.  He missed her, too.  Giving the dog’s ears a playful tug, he smirks when she barks at him.  He looks down when he feels a soft touch on his arm.  It’s the older girl, tomboyish and independent where the little one is soft, and she looks up at him with eyes as green as gems. 

 “Stay for a little bit.  Please.  Just long enough for Bethie to see that Tsu’s happy.” 

 “I’d like to, but I got groceries needin’ to be put in the fridge.” 

 Ms. Annette comes to her stepdaughter’s aid, closing her hands over the girl’s sturdy shoulders and giving them a fond squeeze.  “I can put those in our fridge for you, just for a little bit, and you can join us for a bite of lunch.” 

 “When’s the last time you had a home-cooked meal, Son?” 

 His stomach growls before he can formulate a response.  It really has been a while.  Gruffly, he agrees, “Alright.  Sure you don’t mind?” 

 “Mind?  You know you two are always welcome.” 

  <3<3<3

  “It is our Doc Greene!” 

 “What makes you so sure ‘bout that?” 

 “Because he’s nice.” 

 “That all you’re basin’ your assumption on?” 

 “What’s ‘ssumption mean?” 

 “Don’t worry ‘bout that.  How else you know it’s the same Doc Greene?”  

 “He has a Bethie, too.  But she’s not little.” 

 “Maybe she’s not little anymore.” 

 “Maybe he’s not our Doc Greene.” 

 “Confusin’ you?” 

 “No.” 

 “Sure?” 

 “Maybe a little bit.” 

 “You sleepy yet?” 

 “No.”

 “Could swallow whole watermelons with that yawn.” 

 “M’not yawnin’.” 

 “Sure ‘bout that, Baby Girl?” 

 “Don’t stop the story.  George still hasn’t seen his presents or met the princess yet.” 

 “You callin’ my story borin’?  Done told you…” 

 “Pretty please with a cherry on top?” 

 “And chocolate sauce?” 

 “Lots.” 

 “Alright.  Don’t want you bein’ disappointed though.  Presents ain’t always what you think they are.” 

 “Huh?” 

 “Just listen and let me tell my story.”

 “’kay.” 

 “Sure you ain’t sleepy?” 

 “Real sure.” 

 “Real real sure?” 

 “Real real real.” 

 “Alright.” 

 “Finally.”

  <3<3<3

   He forgets about the mail until he’s back home, groceries packed away and Tsu lazing around on the couch like she never left it, tuckered out from a sun-drenched afternoon filled with games of tag on the Greene farm.  He sits at the table and sorts it into piles, and sure enough, most of it’s junk.  Some of it’s not, though, and he takes care of the bills first.  He hesitates over the envelope from West Georgia Correctional Facility, but in the end, he chooses to let it wait.  It’s been a long first day back already, and he’s not sure he’s physically or emotionally ready to deal with picking out the truth between the lines of his brother’s words.  Soon, he comes to the bottom of the pile and he frowns.  It seems Stookey has struck again, the proof right there in front of him and addressed to one Mrs. Carol Peletier, apparently the proud new owner of Sergeant Ford’s old place. 

  <3<3<3

  “What’s a ‘rectional cility?” 

 “It’s a place where…know what?  It ain’t important.” 

 “But what is it?  What do people do there?” 

 “They learn to be good again.” 

 “Were they bad before?” 

 “Some of ‘em.  Some of ‘em just got lost.” 

 “Like that time Gabby got lost and we found her up in a tree?” 

 “Not exactly.” 

 “How then?” 

 “That’s a conversation for another time, Baby Girl.” 

 “I’m not a baby.” 

 “Not a big girl either.  Not yet.” 

                                                                                                     “Yes, I am.” 

 “No.  You’re in between.  Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that.  You’ll grow up soon ‘nough.” 

 “How soon?” 

 “Too soon.” 

 “How soon is too soon?” 

 “Blink of an eye.  ‘Fore you know it, you won’t want me tellin’ you stories no more.” 

 “That ain’t true.” 

 “Why?” 

 “Just ain’t.” 

 “Tuck your toes in, Baby Girl.” 

 “M’snug as a bug in a rug.” 

 “That so?” 

 “Uh huh.” 

 “Good. Just a little bit more and that’s it for tonight.  We’ll save the rest of the story for later.” 

 “M’kay.” 

 “Sleepy, ain’t you?” 

 “Don’t wanna be.” 

 “Know.  You’ll have sweet dreams.  I’ll make sure of it.” 

 “Promise?” 

 “Promise.” 

  <3<3<3

  The sun is setting before he finally works up the nerve to walk over there.  The crickets are out in full force, and that quiet little girl from three doors down is chasing after lightning bugs with her dad, mason jars in hand.  He can’t remember her name.  It’s short and foreign-sounding, and he wonders if the family are travelers, must be with a name like that, but it’s a fleeting thought because it doesn’t take long at all to walk up those three wide steps.  He clenches the envelope between his sweaty palms and swallows.  He doesn’t have a chance to knock on the door before it is pulled open and another little girl and a woman spill through it, nearly plowing into him.  There’s a blanket tucked beneath the woman’s arm and a melting popsicle in the child’s hands, and they look just as startled or more so than he feels, and it takes a few moments before any of them rediscover the power of speech.  The little girl reaches for the woman’s free hand, and that seems to do the trick. 

 “I’m sorry.  You are?” 

 “M’your neighbor,” he offers. 

 “My neighbor?  Oh.  You think I’m Carol.” 

 “You’re not?” 

 A small voice butts in then, soft and shy and apologetic all at once.  “Aunt Andrea.  You promised.”

 The woman stoops to the little girl’s level, hands over the blanket with a reassuring smile.  “Why don’t you pick us out a good spot for counting while I talk to the nice man, okay?  I’ll be right there.” 

 They both turn to watch the little girl scamper across the yard and arrange the blanket just so.  He smirks a little when he sees her lick a trail up her arm, the popsicle fast dwindling in her hand and painting her skin in cherry stickiness.  His amusement fast fades when he catches the woman watching him with hawkish blue-green eyes, her mouth curling at the corners.  Feeling uncomfortable under her scrutiny, he glances away for a brief moment, shoves the envelope into her hands.  “Postman left Mrs. Peletier’s mail in my box by mistake.” 

 “Thank you for bringing it by.” 

 “Ain’t nothin’.” 

 She laughs a little, the sound not unkind.  She crosses her arms across her chest and considers him. 

 He doesn’t miss those eyes of hers glance downward at his left hand.  He can feel the usual heat of embarrassment creep along his skin in response, and he burrows his hands deep in his pockets, nods his head.  “Just wanted to make sure she got her mail.  I’ll just…over there.”  Her voice stops him before he can fully turn around.   

 “You’re the man with the dog.” 

 “Lots of people in this neighborhood with dogs,” he answers.  He’s not sure why, though.  It’s just prolonging this whole uncomfortable encounter and he wants nothing more than to escape to his own little piece of peace, close that door behind him.  The woman has other ideas.  She just keeps talking. 

 “But your dog is no ordinary dog.” 

 Another woman steps outside, and the two link hands.  Her eyes are just as deep and warm as the color of her skin, and her smile bright as she regards him.  “Definitely not an ordinary dog.  Not according to Sophia.” 

 “She does tricks.  I saw her, Aunt ‘Chonne.” 

 He looks down, surprised to find the little girl at his side and staring up at him in something akin to secondhand wonder.  There are freckles on her pale skin, all across her cheeks and her button nose.  She’s small and she’s delicate, and he’s sure she’d weigh next to nothing in his arms.  It’s a strange thought, one that finally spurs him into action.  “Not tricks.  She just listens.  Make sure your mama gets her mail, ‘kay?” 

 “Yes, Sir,” the little girl solemnly promises.    

 It takes less time for him to cross the distance this time, but his escape still isn’t quick enough. 

 “She’s not married!  In case you’re curious about her.  Carol.” 

 “Andrea!” 

   <3<3<3

  “Sleep, Baby Girl.  There’ll be more tomorrow.” 

    End Notes:

Thanks for reading!!!

 Feedback would be wonderful. 

[princesiddie]

im sleepi so

link can stay up till fuckin 4am but when he gets sleepy, he gets rly sleepy. usually u dont notice all he'll do is start yawnin more than usual and then curl up in a littl ball n then th next time u look over he'll b fast fuckin asleep n is rly cute bc he curls up like a kitten but then he snores like a nightmare so uh mayb not so cute ;; sidon is. an old man get tired @ fukin 9:30pm but usually he cn handl himself fr a coupl hours more mayb till 11 or 12 (usually only 12 whn links involved) an he gets rly groggy n incoherent n he'll b all "im jst gonna rest my eyes for a moment" which translates roughly to "im going to fall the fuck asleep on this couch for 4 minutes and then ill startle myself awake and ask what happened and say i should go to bed and then promptly not go to bed for thirty more minutes bc links still up and i wanna be w him"

[ask-the-richmond-newsies]

*shrugs with a soft giggle* Well, not necessarily... Yawnin's contagious, remembah? *smirks at him, then yawns again, causing her to giggle* Well, I guess, maybe KINDA sleepy... *chuckles awkwardly* -Badger

[Monty] Right, right. How could I ferget? *laughs softly* Yeah? Jus’ kinda? *smirks at you*

[pokeexehasstoppedworking]

Love Doesn’t Do Encores Ch9 Travels To Hulbury

(This chapter will contain a small time skip of events as well as a past fight between y/n and her mother in the story.)

You swore you needed both a doctor and a nice bed to sleep away the pains of soreness racking your body.

Ever since you four left Turffield it had been like the time you left Motostoke except a bit longer. Walking, camping at night, taking time out for resting between walks and gathering food. Mostly from berry trees or snacking from whatever nonperishable foods Leon had given you. Some night Victor managed to make one form of curry or another. Mostly bean or apple curry which you didn't mind too much but the apples tasted a bit strange in the curry sauce, so you fed them to your sobble which you noticed had now taken a habit of laying in your lap any chance you were sitting and expected to be fed whenever you held any kind of food. Oops. You might have ended up spoiling it a bit. Oh well. You didn't mind too much. It's smiles and noises were pretty cute, and at least Gloria was able to add a few more curry entries to her book. After what had happened at the pokemon Nursery back in Truffield you decided to fill in Gloria and Hop about the mysterious band of rock star wannabes, but they seemed to be as confused as you were about who they might've been working for and who they were. Hop even suggested that maybe the eccentric costumes were disguises to they're real identities, which seemed a bit farfetched but hey. You were transported into the video game world of pokemon, traveling along with a few of the characters, and for all you knew could still wake up at any moment to your mother scolding you for being late for college. It wasn't really too out there to rule out yet. While you four traveled every so often you'd rest and Hop and Gloria would scamper off to have a battle or more likely try to catch some new pokemon from where you were at. So you weren't all too surprised to find out Gloria caught herself a wild Dottler and Hop's Grookey evolving from the....seventh or eighth day now as you four traveled. You lost count or couldn't remember how many days had past after seven or eight. You were mostly tired now a days with a heaping dab of soreness in your back and neck from your uneasy sleeping scheduale and the rocky ground poking you from the floor of the test. Or the fact the only thing you had for a pillow was your backpack, but you never complained. If it meant getting to Hulbury faster then you could deal with it. It was like when your mother insisted you stay up a few extra hours to study or when you had to work late at the radio station after that. You yawned more, movements slowing a bit, and you had gotten noticable bags under your eyes. Buuut the three teens must've noticed because on what was the ninth day Gloria decided to point it out to you.

"Hey, Y/n. I really didn't want to say anything but are you feeling ok?" She pointed at your face. "You've been yawnin' ever since we left Turffield like a week ago. And you've gotten bags under your eyes big enough to carry luggage for a full week's vacation. "

In response you yawned again before looking to her. "M' fine. Jus a bit tired I guess." You stretched out your back as you walked making it pop. "Haven't really gotten much sleep just laying on the ground like a rock."

"Hey. I have good news." Victor all of a sudden held up his phone. When did he pull that out? And held it up to all of you. "There's a small town up ahead about another day's walk. It has a convenience store, hotel, and a few other things." He looked at you. "I think we should stop by. We can restock up on supplies and rest for the night at the hotel. That might help out Y/n's situation and prevent her from dropping from exhaustion anytime soon."

"Hey. I-I'm not that tired," you lied stiffling another yawn....But the promise of a bed tho- "But you're right about needing some more supplies. I don't know how much food and necessities we have left, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to stop by and restock."

The food Leon lent would only last so long anyways. It was best for all parties involved. So it was decided the four of you would stop by the upcoming small town. It took another day and night of walking and resting (giving you another night of uncomfortable sleep) and then shoving off he next morning for the town. It took half the day but the four of you managed to happen upon the small town. And you do mean small. It couldn't have been much bigger than Postwick actually. There was around maybe twenty buildings and most of them were homes or doubled as homes as well as stores. As the four of you walked through the small town a few people walked by or waved, and you could hear a few children laughing. It certainly was very peaceful wasn't it? The peace made you even more tired- You were shaken awake when your sobble chirped loudly and smacked you with it's tail, making you stumble as you walk and if it weren't for the two boys catching you you would've faceplanted the road again. Which ended up in the three kids making up a decision for you.

"Let's go find the Inn first."

The inn turns out was one of the first buildings you came across when you took the small side road off of Route 5 here and the only building in the town that had three stories. It was more like a tall house than an Inn when the three of you entered, Gloria helping to steady your sleepy self. The inside looked very similar to Professor Magnolia's house. Very homey and welcoming. The elderly lady looked lightly surprised when the four of you came in with you fighting to keep awake for a little longer. Ok. So maybe the little sleep over nine or ten days was starting to get to you a little bit you haven't been this tired since studying for college entry exams in highschool.

"Oh my. Are you children alright?," she ended up asking lightly standing from her seat seeing you lightly sway a bit.

You waved her off. "I'm fine. Just really tired."

"We'd like to book two rooms please with double beds," Victor explained to the lady throwing you a worried look. "Do you have any available?"

"Oh. Yes, we do. Come. I'll show you to your rooms. By the looks of your friend there, she's in dire need of a good rest." Whelp. No arguement there. Luckily the rooms she had the four of you follow her towards a long hallway a little aways from the front desk before stopping and opening one door. "Here's the young mens. Bathroom's through the door on the left. And as for the two young ladies." She turned to a door right across from Hop and Victor's room and opened it. The room was pretty much as you suspected. A simple large room with two beds on each side of it, a shelf, window looking out onto a field, Tv, and a white door that you supposed led to a closet. "This'll be yours." She pointed at the door. "The bathroom is through there. We also have a laundry mat attatchment in the adjacent building to the left if you youngsters need it. If you have any further questions please don't hesitate to ask."

"Uh yes actually. Do you happen to know where your town's convenience store is?,'' you heard Victor ask but you were too busy to deduce what else was said.

You managed to stay awake enough to take a quick shower and change before walking to the closest bed to you and just flopping face first on it. The soft cushions hugging your tired and sore body, and it was natural for you to fall asleep almost as soon as you hit the mattress. So it was no wonder that by the next time you woke up it was night time. Confused and dazed you managed to sit up blinking confused at the darkness around you, the only source of light coming from the moon shining through the window outside. Vaugely in the dark you could just barely make out Gloria's sleeping form on the other bed on the other side of the room. Her baby toxel at the foot of her bed. Your body was still tired with it being night so it was easy for you to fall back into slumber when you slowly laid your tired self back down, barely registering your sobble squirming next to you as you fell back asleep. And came to a strange sight. A sight you witnessed before in your life. One you were all too familiar with too. ....You...You were back in your room. Well a younger you at least. You were about sixteen then just minding your own business sitting there and playing games. Couldn't remember which one just that you were enjoying yourself playing and sitting on your bed playing the day away. Until younger you looked up at footsteps approuched your room, the next thing your younger self knew your door flew open with a bang and it started the younger you so much you ended up dropping your old switch on your bed jumping from the sound. And there she was. Your mother standing there with an angry scowl on her face.

"You're playing those stupid games again!?," she snapped at younger you, stomping over and quickly wretching the switch from your bed.

In an instant your hand was reaching out for it. "HEY! Give that back."

But instead of that, your mother only held it up higher with her angry face. "Is THIS what I work to provide for you!?"

You had stopped. Frozen in surprise at the words foaming at your mother's mouth and the game she waved at your face.

"Is THIS what you think is fair to me!? I work day and night to provide a roof over your head, food in your stomach, and clean running water for all you do is to sit on your behind and play these mind rotting things!? To make the electricity bill higher than Mount Everest with you staying up all night playing this day in and out!?"

"M-Mom! C'mon! I'm sorry," younger you backpeddled.

"You should be! I'm not raising you to be lazy and unresponsible!" The game was tossed back onto the bed with a small thump before she pointed at you. "Work and studies should be your number one priority right now! I don't want to catch you slacking off wasting time again! Do I make myself clear?"

Younger you looked at your mother's angry face for a long moment before looking away and nodding. "Yes, Mom."

"That's good. Make sure it doesn't happen again. Alright, Y/n?"

.....

...........

"Hey, Y/n!," a distant girl's voice called, "Are you awake?"

"I dunno. Maybe we should just let her sleep? She was really tired when we got here yesterday," a young boy's voice said worried.

"Hop's gotta point, Glory. Let her sleep in. She'll need all the rest she can get for traveling."

"Ah. You guys are no fun."

Silently the world of younger days faded away to black and the voices became murmers in the dark abyss that was sleep until you finally woke up from your now dreamless slumber. Which wasn't too long. You slowly woke from your sleep and was greeted with the sunlight making your tired eyes blink as you rubbed them and blinked at the surroundings around yourself at the simple room that wasn't your younger self's from the dream. What the-....Where were you? Did you finally wake up from the pokemon world dreamland you formed up? Were you back home? Did you move into the college dorms and forgot you did? Is that why this room looked strange to you? That hope was all but dashed in a moment when movement under the blanket next to you caught your attention and you looked. A small lump under the blanket the size of a small cat moved around until it moved towards the end of it near your arm and your sobble poked it's head out blinking tiredly and gave out a yawn crawling the rest of the way out. You gave a sigh, shaking your head before smiling and holding out your arm and letting the sobble crawl into your hands. You were still tired but rather than go back to sleep, you opted to tossing the blanket off yourself and got up with your sobble in your hands holding him up to your face.

"Well, I guess it's time to start the day huh?"

You managed to get a few things done. Morning shower, got dressed, and made your first stop the  laundry mat across from the hotel after asking the elderly woman at the front desk for directions. Just something to do to help take your mind off the strange dream that had happened. You had started to wonder where the three children had run off to now but it was only after you were coming back with your now cleaned clothes and your sobble curled upon your shoulders did you run into them. Or Hop at least. He was just walking past the door when you opened it and almost ran into him. Thankfully stopping at just the right moment as he paused and blinked.

"Oh. Hey, Y/n!," he greeted with a smiling and shifting the box in his hands, "Glad to see you're awake now."

"Hi," you greeted back before raising a brow at the box he held. "What's that you're carrying?"

"Oh this?," he asked holding up the box and you nodded. "The old lady needed help clearing out her old storage room. She offered to pay me to help out so Im taking this to the broom closet down the hall here. Glory and Vick are doing some Pokejobs too." The confusion must've doubled on your face because he seemed to take notice. pokejobs?? What the heck are pokejobs?! "OH! Right. There's no possible way you could've known what those are. I keep forgetting you're not native to Galar. Pokejobs are jobs people upload into the rotomis."

".....Say what?," you asked still totally confused to what Hop was even saying.

He sighed. "Pokejobs. How do I describe them?....It's kinda like how newspapers have ads. If someone has a job they need help with they send a post to their rotomi profile, then if someone wants to make some money they can look on the Pokejobs Rotomi Forum for a job in their specific area. There was a few listed in the Rotomi at the town's covience store." He held up the box again. "Like this one. We figured it wouldn't hurt to make a little bit of money in case of emergencies too."

"That...sounds like a great idea. But where are the other two now?"

He shrugged. "Glory took a job that involved babysitting and I think Victor's helping someone here with a garden."

Well that sounded like a good way to earn a bit of money while you were waiting. As to pass the time you decided to help Hop once you had finished returning your clothes to your bag. The elderly woman seemed rather grateful for the help provided. In the manner of speaking it wasn't too difficult work. Most of the boxes were pretty light mostly filled with cleaning supplies or old blankets. That explains why she was having Hop move them to the big supply closet down the hall. When you asked about it she explained she had wanted to turn it into another bedroom for the busier traveling seasons, makes sense. One extra room to rent means one extra way to make some money. You helped rehome the boxes and cleaned it out by dusting and sweeping to pass the time away. When it came to paying you declined the money offered and made sure Hop received it instead. After all it was originally his job, you just helped to pass time, and it'd be wrong to piggyback on his hard earned money after all. But you did however accept the free room service for later when she offered instead. Free food was a reward you had no trouble accepting, especially considering you hadn't eaten anything since you woke up and all the exercise you had done in helping to clean out the room. Hop though was thankful for your help and expressed so as much. It was when the two of you were heading out did you finally bump into said twins. Gloria was carrying two large paper bags but you had to do a double take when you noticed Victor looked....well remember how dirty you were after being bowled over by Milo's wooloo? Victor looked like he got ran over by ten wooloo during a sand storm.

"Whoa. What happened to you?"

He grabbed his hat and shook the grey beanie out letting dirt fall to the ground. "Well. As it turns out the ad for 'helping to remove unwanted weeds and debry from the garden' also happened to include a wild munchlax who didn't want to leave. I had to half wrestle half chase the thing out."

"Oh wow. Glad to see you got paid tho."

He huffed but Gloria smiled holding up the bags in her hands. "But on the bright side we managed to stock up enough for the rest of our trip to Hulbury! Glad to see you're up and feeling better too, Y/n!"

You nodded. "Yeah. Feeling better thanks-"

"OH! That reminds me!" You were cut off when Gloria suddenly shoved one of the bags into your arms as you blinked. The inside held food and other things you'd have to use in order to get to Hulbury. She went digging through the other bag, eventually pulling out a rolled up, sleeping bag looking thing that must've made up half that bag's weight. "Here! I noticed you probably weren't sleeping well cuz you didn't have one of these here. Turns out the convience store is also a supply store, so I was able to get you one of these."

You slowly took the rolled up sleeping bag from Gloria and gave it a look over before looking back to her. "I-...Thank you. But you didn't have to get me this. I would've been fine without it."

"I know but you would've just kept getting bad sleep if I didn't, and it won't hurt me from what I earned from winning against Milo's anyways. Besides, I can now call it even from when you saved our hides back in Postwick."

You smiled and decided to accept this gift with a nod. "Alright. We're even. But have you decided when you wanted to leave yet?"

"First thing tomorrow morning. After seeing you stumble 'round like a zombie with a headache, we decided to let ya sleep in since you were so tired. But since it's getting later anyways, we figured we'd spend one more night here and leave early in the morning."

"Oh that's a great plan cuz Y/n got us some free room service from helpin' out around here."

Gloria's eyes widened at her friend's words. "Wait. REALLY!?"

"How about we let Victor get cleaned up first before we do anything?"

The four of you did just that for the night. Packed away all the goods they brought back with them. Hopefully it'll last enough for the rest of the very long walk to Hulbury. And after everyone was done packing their share and Victor was cleaned up, you ate. No surprise it was more curry but you chose to accept that at this point that curry was a very important part of Galar's culture and hey. Free food was free food. Nothing to complain about here. And if Gloria could fill in more of her Curry Dex book then it was good enough for you too. Luckily it seemed with the new sleeping bag things might get easier for you when you all start traveling again. Which is exactly what happened. The very next morning the four of you set off as soon as Victor paid for the two day stay at the front desk, and it was back onto Route 5 the four of you went walking. And walking and walking. It was basically the same as before until night came and the four of you set up camp in a small clearing, giving you the chance to use the new sleeping bag Gloria had gotten you. And it worked like a charm. You still had to use your arms as a pillow but otherwise it was much more comfortable to sleep now. And then the next day the four of you were at it again. This time listening to Victor's adventures traveling around since he had started his own journey at least a year before Gloria's. Mentioning of all the different places and events around Galar he had been so far and you were impressed at his tales of capturing so many wild shiny pokemon in his photos, going so far to show you all a few places he took photos of. One being the giant clock tower back in Motostoke.

"So does that mean you've been to Halbury before?," you asked curiously glancing at the pictures in his hands.

He nodded. "I've been there once, but not for long. I did see the Hulbury Water-Type Aquarium and Research Center. They have every water type pokemon you could imagine, some of them are from different regions as well. That's where I got most of the photo's of water type pokemon I gave to Glory. Nessa was a huge sponsor for it's development. It's also a research department to study water-types as well as their environments and biology." He hummed and looked up. "I think it's also where most Professors get their sobbles for starting trainers."

You gave a look to your sobble. "You hear that? Looks like we're heading to your home town." In response it smiled and gave a small chirp. "Does that mean you've seen Nessa before?"

He shook his with a sigh as you all walked. "Sadly no. But I've heard she's so busy between her modeling and gym leader duties she'll only do one gym battle a day due to her busy schedules, and that's considering if there's nothing important going on for her."

"So depending on the time and amount of trainers heading for Hulbury right now, we could end up waiting longer than we did for Milo's gym battle."

"Ah man!" Hop leaned back putting both arms behind his head. A habit you learnt he did whenever he was annoyed or thinking about something. "That could take forever then....but considering Nessa's Gym would've been one of the farthest from the Turffield Stadium, I'd like to bet not a lot of people would go for hers first and instead went back to Motostoke to challenge Kabu or someone else who was closer....Hm. I wonder if that's why Mr. Milo suggested we go see Nessa after our battle with him. We haven't run into any other Gym Challengers yet. Route 5 is less trafficked."

"Or those rockstar blokes," you thought as you gave another look around at the half field half forested areas you four were traveling past. But that was probably a good thing you hadn't seen them. You wouldn't want them causing you more trouble.

"There Hop goes all smart again!"

"H-Hey! Im just makin' an observation!"

"Well make an observation on that map. How much longer until we get there?"

Hop answered that after pulling out his phone and turning it on, pressing a few buttons. "...About two and a half weeks left."

This...Was going to be a long trip.

And you weren't wrong. Most of the trip was the same day in and day out. Eat, sleep, make camp, walk lots, stop for breaks, maybe a battle would happen every once and a while between Hop and Gloria or maybe they'd try to catch a pokemon every now and then. And you watched her start to carry around that baby Toxel more, usually in her arms like a cat but sometimes in her bag too with his little head poking out looking around. Victor making the comment that now the both of you would be pokemon taxis. It took quite a while of this old routine before you four even got to another town, with a train station. Breaking out of a small wooded area there was clearings now of flat land and Route 5 lead you all to a crossing across the railroad tracks and lead into a small town...Well you weren't sure if you could call it a town persay. It was more like a few homes a little bit a ways from the obvious train station the four of you took refuge in for a break.  In the mean time Victor took out his phone once more and decided to flip through the rotom phone he had on your four's location.

"......Hey!," he shouted making you all look at him as he held up the phone all towards you. You leaned closer to get a better look at the screen he pointed to. "According to the map we're a four day walk away from Hulbury. Nearly there!"

"Oh thank Arceus!," Gloria sighed, "I was getting so tired of just walking around like a migrating murkrow."

"And you wonder why I was worried about you rushing into your journey."

"Hey!"

The next few days weren't very eventful or memorable. Just the same rinse and repeat scenarios your small group had been experiencing for the past month or so, until you FINALLY saw it. Well smelt it first would be more accurate. You all were walking up a steep hill that the path was connected too and that's when you smelt something like salt air. You had only been to a beach a few times but there was no mistaking it. Saltwater. And then you heard a very loud horn. It was loud enough to startle your Sobble into ducking behind your head and you perk up. If one had to guess, you would've said it sounded either like a train's whistle or a boat horn. Blinking as shadows flew overheard, you realized they were wild wingulls. ...Wait. Weren't those bird pokemon always like close to water?? You blinked. Shaking your head and hurrying your pace up the hill until the four of you finally made it. From the high point the view was high enough to let the four of you look a good ways ahead and still far but much closer now, maybe a day's travel. What was unmistakenly the glistening blue of the ocean as far on the horizon as you could see, that lead to the coast that clashed with the beginnings of it. The horn you heard was most likely one of the many boats you could faintly make out on the glistening blue and the unmistakable town that was nestled up against it all. It wasn't too big by the looks of it. Definately not Motostoke size, but it was definately bigger than Turffield and Postwick and you could make out the unmistakable structure of a stadium way over there.

Victor pointed with a smile towards the faint town. "There's Hulbury! We're nearly there!"

"Good. Let's get stepping before it gets too dark. If we hurry we'll be there by tomorrow."

And indeed you all were. Traveling until it was sundown, and you decided to set up camp for the night, only to pack up quickly and leave at the first sign of light the very next morning. It was somewhere around ten in the morning when you all finally made it. Seeing the town and beautiful ocean coming into view and getting closer, and closer the more and more you walked. Until you all finally arrived. First walking under a bridge connecting between two large hills, on top of one hill leading to a train station, the familiar pink building of the pokemon center greeted you next as the dirt path of Route 5 changed into concrete streets. Another loud horn shot off to the right of you and as you all looked over there was a giant port with as you suspected lots of ships and boats. Bigger than in game you imagined too. You inhaled a long sigh, the taste of salt on your tongue. If it wasn't for the many boats near the port and other people, you wouldn't have minded just standing there for a moment in the road. But since you didn't want to waste anymore time you sighed and turned to Gloria.

"So." She looked at you and blinked. "What's the plan here?"

"We go to the gym-"

"We head to the hotel-"

Both twins looked at each other for a moment, before Victor cleared his throat.

"I think we should head to the Hulbury's residential hotel first. Just in case one of you have to wait for a gym battle to open we'd have somewhere to stay tonight."

"Well I think we should head to the gym before anyone else gets here," she countered back one arm holding her Toxel and the other placed onto her hip. "It's still pretty early in the morning. If there's a chance no one got there yet one of us could get a spot! Right Hop?"

"Actually, personally I'm kinda hungry and wanted to check out that famous resturaunt Hulbury's supposed to have." he mumbled but got ignored by the scowling twins.

You sighed again shaking your head. Teenagers. "How about this?" You held up a hand catching the three's attention. "We'll split up." You suggested. "If we do that we can get things done faster. You two can check out the gym and your brother can get us situated for the night because personally I'd like to take a break from camping. Then we can meet back up and get some breakfast..." You looked up towards the sky. "Or lunch depending when we're done."

Victor hummed. "...That doesn't sound like a bad idea actually and it could actually save us time. Now that I think about it, we're probably low on supplies anyways. While we're doing that Y/N can take a list of what we need and get it from the local super market here."

"I like that plan! We can meet up at the Light house."

And so it was agreed. After going through your invintory, and having Victor quickly scribble down a list of things you all needed, the four of you split off. Victor heading in the same direction as the other two with his phone's map out (you guessed the hotel and the stadium must've been down the same road) and you towards the docks list and borrowed money in hand. In all honestly you were just as hungry as the others but that could wait. It didn't take you too long to find Hulbury's local convenience store, it didn't take you all long as well to fill up the considerably large bags of travel foods and start carrying them off back off towards the direction of the light house. ....Only...there was one problem. You had absolutely no idea which direction the lighthouse was in, and with the giant bags of supplies to be split between the four of you obstructing your view, it made it harder to see by all accounts as you tried peeking around and over the large bags. Stumbling a bit and almost bumping into a few people walking past you, they gave you an odd look before carrying on. Certainly didn't help when your sobble gave a small chirp before literally climbing into one of the bags to which you panicked a little. The last thing you needed was him eating the food you just bought especially since it wasn't bought with your money!

"Hey! Bad pokemon!," you shouted jiggling the bags a bit, "You get out of there right now! You're not supposed to be in there!" The sobble peeked itself out over the edge of one of the bag's hearing it's master's voice as you frowned, and you didn't see where you were walking as you walked. "I'm serious! You can't just crawl in there! Out no- Oof!?"

"HEY!?," shouted a woman's voice.

You rammed into something or someone solid and you stumbled back, by some miracle not dropping the bags, and up righted yourself for a moment. Blinking you turned sideways to look at who you bumped into and were met with another woman who was looking at you with a bewildered look like everyone else who saw you walking around like this. The woman had a dark skin complextion with dark black hair with pretty blue streaks and eyes that were bluer than the ocean. What looked like a sports uniform adorned her bodyShe blinked at you as you stared before you seemed to blink and shake your head.

"Oh. Sorry about that, Miss," You apologised shifting two off the four bags in your arms. "I didn't see you there."

"Uh..Yes, I could tell." She ran an eye over the two bags in your arms and the other two hanging off your elbows. "That's a lot of groceries you're carrying there." Her eyes stopped at the little blue pokemon poking out of the top of one of the bags as it shoved a blue berry into it's mouth.

"Oh. It's not just for me actually. I'm traveling with some others and we needed this stuff." You followed her gaze and you gained a frown when you saw the sobble shove another berry into it's mouth. "HEY!" It fell back into the bag startled with a chirp....but slowly peeked the top of it's head and eyes back over to look at your scowl. "I said NO. Now you get out of there right now! If you're hungry I'll get you something else."

"Oh. Is this little one yours?," both of you looked over as the woman attempted to reach out and pet the sobble. Which resulted in your sobble giving off a sound of fright and immediately scuttle out from the bag in a hurry.

"HEY-" You leaned your head back as it jumped on your head and clung to your hair giving the other woman wide eyes of worry. You grumbled...but sighed and nodded. "Yeah. Sorry 'bout that. He's not used to strangers I guess."

With a smile, the woman placed a hand on her hip and studied the two of you. "Most sobble are, but it seems this one has become very attatched to you."

You blew the sobble's tail from your face. "Believe me you don't know the half of it. Say. Could you tell me where I can find the lighthouse? I'm supposed to meet my friends there."

"Sure. I was actually heading towards the stadium actually. The light house is right next to it," she gestured to your bags. "I could even help you if you'd like."

You gave a relieved sigh. "Really?! Yes, thank you. That'd be a huge help."

You happily let the woman take two of the bags you were carrying and you followed her as she motioned for you to follow her. Gloria and Hop were most likely already waiting for you as they had first gone to the stadium and possibly Victor if he hadn't gotten side tracked or anything. As the two of you walked you took the chance to look around at the town. Seemed like the beach down you had gone to before the few times you went to the beach. As you glanced at the woman helping you out you couldn't help but...notice something. Did she seem familiar to you somehow?....You shook your head. Nah. Must've just been your imagination. She must've just looked like someone you've seen before. That's all. The both of you walked from the docks, past what looked like a resturaunt of some sort, back towards the Pokemon Center before taking a right and heading down the same path the teens took when the four of you parted ways. From that point the two of you walked down a road with houses on one side and a fence overseeing the ocean on the other. There was a LOT more houses than you remembered in game so it took a good twenty minutes before you even saw the stadium as both of you passed a flight of concrete stairs leading up the hill towards the train station. You looked up and at the stadium as it's shadow loomed over you as you both walked past it. Unlike Milo's stadium this one seemed rather quiet right now even if it was as HUGE as his was. The gym leader mustn't be battling anyone right now where ever she was. As you two continued to walk past it, you blinked seeing a tall structure up ahead which was unmistakably a light house, letting you sigh in relief. FINALLY!! You sighed in relief at seeing the structure and sped up your pacing a bit as the two of you rounding the corner the path lead towards the lighthouse and that's when you noticed the figures standing there. One or two strangers were there taking a picture next to the statues or the ocean view, but there was three you recognized easily as the twins and Hop. They all seemed happy to see you at first. But soon those happy faces turned into suprised and shocked ones the closer you walked. Victor even shaking his head and blinking as you approuched.

"Uh...Hey, Y/n. Whatcha got there?"

"Our supplies," you replied arms all sore and tired from the long walk over. Victor blinked as you shoved the two bags you were holding into his arms. "Here. Take these. Im beat." They continued to stare at you even as you turned to the woman and take the other two heavy bags from her. Your brow rising as you turned and saw their wide eyed looks. "....Are you three alright? You all look like you've seen a ghost."

"...Y/n. Do you even know WHO that is?!," Gloria asked pointed towards the woman and you turned to look at her again..before shrugging.

"She helped me out. Thanks by the way."

She nodded. "It was my pleasure."

"Don't you even know who that is!?" Gloria groaned at your utterly confused face as you blankly stared and as a result pointed right at the smiling woman next to you. "You literally don't know!? THAT'S NESSA!! Like the Gym Leader Nessa! The person we traveled all the way here to see!"

You blinked before looking back to Nessa as she glanced at you. "...Oh. Thanks for the help again. It was very nice of you."

She nodded again. "Your welcome. And you." She glanced over to Gloria who still stared in disbelief at her. "You must be a gym challenger right? You're one of the ones endorsed by Leon right?"

Gloria stared at her a little longer before Hop nudged her making her flinch. "HUH!? I mean- Y-Yeah! O-One of them." She gestured to Hop next to her. "And he's the other one."

"Hello, Ma'am." Hop smiled and waved. "I'm Hop and this is Gloria. You uh...Weren't at the stadium when we went there."

"My apologies," Nessa apoligized as you turned back to her. OH! Now you could recognize her easily. She was on the cover of that magazine Gloria showed you and you vaugely rememebered seeing her back at the entrance ceremony. "But I just got back from a boating shoot and I've already promised someone else a battle for later today. But I must say, you've become something of a hot topic among the gym leaders."

"Wait. We are?"

She chuckled. "Are you kidding me? Leon never stops talking about how awesome his little brother is and how he's just the smartest kid ever to come out of Postwick."

Hop coughed and scratched at his head in embarrassment. "Well...I wouldn't say that."

"I mean. He's not wrong. You're pretty smart."

"Glory! Don't embarrass me like Mum please!," he begged red faced.

You decided to help give him a break. "I had no idea he spoke so highly of Hop." You spoke to Nessa. Although you wouldn't be surprised considering how hyped up Hop got about Leon, and how loving Leon was to them.

She chuckled again before reaching behind her and pulling something out of her pocket. Well two somethings. "Here you go, Ms. Famous. I already heard about you, so you should learn more about me too." She held out what you made out as cards to Hop and Gloria as the two wide eyed teens took them in disbelief.

"OMG! Another League Card!! Thank you so much, Ms. Nessa! Does this mean you'll be able to battle one of us tomorrow?"

She nodded. "Sure. Just speak to one of my staff at the stadium and we can schedule a battle in the next two days for you guys." She then pointed behind her. "But I had better head to the stadium. I can't delay my sheduled battle anymore than I've already had."

You nodded in understanding. "We understanding completely, Miss. Thanks again for the help."

She nodded towards you. "I love fishing, but I love pokemon battles even more and I'm itching for a battle with you. Hopefully we'll get to battle real soon." With a wave towards Hop and Gloria Nessa turned on her heel and began to walk away.

You waved back before turning back to the three teens staring back at you. ".....What?"

"HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW WHO THAT WAS WITH YOU!?,'' Gloria shouted gesturing to where Nessa walked off to which you shrugged again.

"Sorry? I was a little busy with something more important at the moment and I guess I wasn't paying too much attention to her. But she seemed very nice. But how did your guys' lil trip go?"

"I managed to book us a hotel here for a couple nights," Victor answered before gesturing his head over towards the other two. "And they're all set up to fight, but someone already beat 'em for a spot today."

"Oh. Who?"

"The Mareep Head!," Gloria huffed one hand one her hip and the other waving the small League Card in the air. Mareep Head- OH! She must've been referring to Bede. He must've been the one Nessa was rushing off to battle then. "We just waltzed on in and there he was acting all smug like he jus' won the whole challenge already. He even asked if I "Got Hatenna's good side' on camera. Psh! He's such a stuck up mudbray!"

You could only nod juggling the groceries in your arms. "I...see. Well since there's nothing we can do right now for the moment, why don't we just go back to the hotel Victor mentioned and take care of these?"

Victor nodded in agreement tugging his own bags along as you both turned with Gloria mumbling behind you all the way to the hotel.

[ludicinm-achieved]

Jay nuzzled back , yawnin. "Hmmm~ you're warm Masa

“Aaaaaaoo. Aaaah. Ah.” Masaru escaped a little huff before shaking his head. Ah. What should he do? He couldn’t carry Jaock up to the bed. Yawning was a sign of being sleepy, right? Maybe he could lick him awake? Like, making him move to the bed before cuddling nicely again? Sounded like a plan. Masaru was nodding to himself before he was kissing his for head before a low growl escaped him that screamed that he shouldn’t sleep on the floor or something might could happen. His teeth nibbling on his nose before licking over his cheek. Blue eyes sparkling to get him up.

[joshuahuynh]

FA Radio 04

and she never hit me back, i swear i was on the phone for the longest waiting for a text back cause we talkin stayed till 3am i was yawnin but it was all worth cause she caught me pictures of her left me wantin naviety led me astray, and it was costly

she grabbed a handful of my heart strings maybe i could be king and she would be the heart queen jack of all trades but a master of none, believed in myself so i could get me some, love, a friend a girlfriend who would ride to the end dreams as corny as these stanzas cant get over her, need me an answer

help me find me an answer (x4 - beat comes in) she need to write back, please

[carnivalsoration]

yeah none of this is original. you just make me tired readin it. not like, exhausted. like yawnin at a seminar you've heard a thousand times sorta tired. rather do paperwork. uninterestin.

for a clown, you really don't got an eye for art or originality, do ya? maybe it'll happen when ya get older.

like. imperials are always stereotypes of themselves.

ask a rebel why they rebelled and you get a hundred reasons. someone killed my rail. i saw someone die and realised how fucked up it was. i ain't got the stomach for murder. just seems funner to go against the grain. i think the empress is ugly. crime is fun. (that's for you, vriska, ya ain't gotta be pro rebellion to be anti empire)

ask an imperial why he's an imperial and ya always get the same damn thing. that's how it's supposed to be. no particular reasons. sometimes ya get an additional add on of 'i tried to be nice once and it didn't work' but honestly.

these fuckers are always gonna be followers. not leaders. they ain't got the courage to go against the grain. or the fortitude. they try to be nice once or twice and it goes wrong and that just breaks all interest they got in it. they can't handle things happenin that don't align to their will.

it's kinda sad. poor fuckin bastards. never knowin the freedom of independent thought.

ah well.

[likethewindandsea]

I'm like

It's late

We should call it a day

Sleep it off till we driftin' away

Honesty ain't my favourite place

That shit just ain't too safe

If you see through it all I'm bout to fade

God's gonna make it rain

He's gonna take away the pain , it will be in vain

But it keept me sane for a while

In style for a time

Changin' vibes to fit the times

I never made you mine

But gave you your time to shine

When you was sleepin' I was sniffin' lines

When you was eatin', I was on that white

If you want security, don't look at me

I ain't even got a degree, shit it's scary to see

The way you lookin' at me, different scenes

Variations of green, all the shit those blue eyes have seen

The nights that we spendin', afterlife callin'

Never stopped ballin', it's 4 in the mornin', I'm yawnin', I'm fallin'

I'm stallin' for time

Cause we could make it to 5

Maybe till sunrise

Don't go to heaven, paradise right on the side

I got Adam and Eve in my sight

Some sins on the inside, throw me outta the garden when the time's right

I'm walkin' along the horizon

Took the discs out

I'm still only buyin' Chanel on the discount

Never mad 'cause you rockin' that fake smile

For you that was just a fair price

Lookin' at my girl, I hope she livin' all alone

Lookin' at the message, bet she ain't spittin' on the phone

No abandoned homes, no more smokin' stones

Juicy fruit with a mind of her own

At the airport, no more passports

When it's about that ass, she too quick to export

Already lookin' to the next sport

On the next kill, followin' the Lord's will

We still sippin' cough syrup, her whole team ill

Then it's all about the next thrill

How the world turns

Bootleg Endless vinyl as my J burns

Oh, please don't wear that heart on your sleeve

Oh, please fuck with me before you leave