#yuuki serafino-maple

[thearchertheprey]

assorted images from the AU group im in

[thearchertheprey]

🖋 + may maple!!!!!!

this is ranger maple. she's 25. she will not tell you her zodiac sign (scorpio), but she will tell you that she's in her "midnights era" (lover). she works for the lilycove department of parks and recreation. she spends most of her time in the woods. life is good in hoenn.

life was not always good in hoenn.

haruka maple moves to hoenn. she is 12. her dad calls her may.

in almost every world culture, even those that did not have contact with others until the last few hundred years, folklore exists surrounding children chosen by the gods. people do not prepare for the end when war, strife, or natural disasters shake their land. poor circumstances always give rise to extraordinary young folk who, sought out by legends, step up to the plate and restore harmony. hoenn, with its culture centered on natural balance and the relationship between humans and the world around them, has a particularly strong faith in Godchildren.

may maple is not a Godchild.

yuuki serafino-maple, her half-brother, is.

serafino moves to hoenn and immediately outpaces her.

no matter how much passion and energy may has for pokemon battling -- no matter how deeply she bonds with her team -- strategy just doesn't click for her. she hits walls. serafino blows past without any difficulty, or any interest.

may and her brother encounter latias & latios, the Twins. latios favors serafino because he is a Godchild. latias favors may because it looks into her heart and sees that she is trying.

when ecoterrorists cause the Great Drought, serafino steps up to the plate and restores balance. but he does not come out unscathed. in defending his tropius from Lava Plume, he is left horribly burned from head to toe on one side of his body. he swears off pokemon battling and disappears from the public eye. the public immortalizes him as a hero. he is only 14.

hoenn is still unbearably dry and hot due to the consequences. it stifles sea life, damages agriculture. when ecoterrorists cause the Great Flood in an attempt to counteract the dry spell, the public looks for serafino. he is nowhere to be found.

may maple has already been meddling with team aqua for months. eager to prove herself, she steps up to restore balance.

may is not a Godchild. the Leviathan senses this.

it is confused, and angry, and in pain, and as the Master Ball flies toward it, it swings its great fins and slams may into the stalactites littering the Cave of Origin.

may calms the Leviathan. she is left visibly marked, like her brother, but she lives.

the public senses what the Leviathan understood. they are not satisfied with her efforts. she carries on. she keeps trying. she's a real pain in the ass, an upstart who can't stop boasting and running her mouth and picking fights, but she's trying. she is only 14.

may faces a boy she knows on victory road. she loses. but for the first time in her life, she isn't embarrassed -- she's motivated. they regroup and rematch. may wins by a hair.

he gives her a dawn stone. they carry on together.

may challenges the champion. she wins by a hair. as she's about to register her team in the hall of fame, the champion wonders aloud how much sooner serafino would have taken the championship if he hadn't quit battling.

may turns down the title. she carries on. she keeps trying.

a third crisis -- the threat of the meteor -- shakes hoenn. again, the people look for serafino, but he is nowhere to be found. the champion, remembering may's sheer force and determination despite her strategic challenges, asks her for help.

she steps up again. but she's not trying to prove herself this time. she just wants to help.

may stands before rayquaza, the Great Dragon. it fixes her with its piercing red eye, and says, you are not worthy.

may holds out the meteorite, and she says, "but i'm here."

rayquaza destroys the meteor and defeats deoxys. may is on its back, a dutiful trainer, but not a skilled one. on the descent, the Great Dragon looks into her heart, and does not see what its child latias saw.

you are not worthy, it says. i will not be fooled by the people i created.

"i'm trying," may cries. "i promise i am."

may is no longer on the back of the Great Dragon. she's falling, falling, falling. the sky pillar is rising below her, and then it's not.

she lives, but not all of her makes it.

the champion, riddled with guilt, designs her a custom devoncorp prosthetic limb. she learns to walk again, kept company in the hospital by the boy from victory road who hurt his lungs from the smoke and debris after the Sky Pillar collapse. her brother is always nearby, but won't look at her. she hates him.

the outside world is not happy with her. it's her fault a sacred site was destroyed. it's her fault that the Great Dragon has abandoned its people.

may is discharged. latias does not come when she calls.

she keeps trying.

she figures it out eventually. she travels. she trains. she puts real effort into spending time with her friends. she puts real effort into repairing her relationship with her brother. she gets a therapist. she learns guitar, starts keeping a poetry journal, does breathing exercises. she quietly starts working for the lilycove parks and rec department. she finds she's good at placating wild pokemon, even if she still can't understand competitive sport.

may learns she doesn't have to be the hero. she just has to be good. and being out here in nature, protecting the wildlife, rescuing travelers from danger... it's good. it's great. she's not afraid to be alone with her thoughts anymore. the water feels warm on her back again when she wades through the river. the weight of the dawn stone in her pocket is comforting, steadying. and she still won't fly, but the breeze smells sweet again, like lilies.

so she'll keep trying. as long as it takes.

if may maple is good at anything, it's trying.

may maple is a park ranger, and life is good in hoenn.