z

Young Writers Society


Pokebook VI: World Tour



User avatar
745 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Male
Points: 1626
Reviews: 745
Mon Mar 13, 2017 1:45 am
View Likes
Lumi says...



Welcome to the world of Pokebook!

You have long-ago received an invitation in the mail to participate in the Pokemon World Tourney, sponsored by the Pokemon Corporation, Miles McFarlane, and Art Wilson, inventors of the Pokemon Official Online Transporter. It included a single ticket to Kyoto, Japan for the opening festivities. You and your friends from all over the globe who've known one another through a Pokemon fanclub and Skype are going to meet for the first time at the festival, and it will certainly be an emotional time. Now is truer than ever: the world is your Cloyster!

Image

Characters & CTs



Main Characters

1. Hannah (Love) - @Lumi
2. Connor (Knowledge) - @AstralHunter
3. Nathan (Reliability) - @TheSilverFox
4. Alexis (Kindness) - @Sheytato
5. Heitor (Hope) - @Tortwag
6. Peony (Sincerity) - @Ventomology

Traits


Courage (bold and sometimes blind to consequence)
Friendship (brash and usually a loner that evolves over time)
Love (equatable to The Heart trope; puts others ahead of self and needs to love self more)
Reliability (must evolve from feeling less than worth being in the group)
Knowledge (equatable to The Smart Guy; uses smarts to overcome foes)
Sincerity (very brash and true to self; loud and sometimes obnoxious, but never fake)
Hope (Grows into the trust that they'll overcome struggles with their partners)
Light (Grows into the faith that good will win, no matter the fight)
Kindness (Grows to see the good and worth in all those around them)

Code: Select all
[b]Age:[/b] 15-19
[b]Gender:[/b]
[b]Role:[/b]
[b]Home Country:[/b]

[b]Appearance & Quirks[/b]


[b]Personality & Habits[/b]


[b]Starting Pokemon Team[/b]

[i]Pokemon's Name (i.e. Sparky) | Pokemon's Species (i.e. Pikachu)[/i]
Move 1 - Move 2 - Move 3 - etc

[i]Pokemon's Name (i.e. Sparky) | Pokemon's Species (i.e. Pikachu)[/i]
Move 1 - Move 2 - Move 3 - etc


Image

Rules & Guidelines



1. Third Person
2. Past Tense
3. No backwards writing
4. Be reasonable with catches and evolutions, and remember that pokemon will differ across the world.
5. Also remember that you're traveling with your friends, so no over-the-top loner silliness. ;)
6. Teams may consist of any generation available.
I am a forest fire and an ocean, and I will burn you just as much
as I will drown everything you have inside.
-Shinji Moon


I am the property of Rydia, please return me to her ship.





User avatar
745 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Male
Points: 1626
Reviews: 745
Tue Mar 14, 2017 1:13 pm
View Likes
Lumi says...



volume one. rise.
chapter one. butterfly.


It was absolutely infuriating, being cramped on a train with hundreds of other trainers Hannah didn't know while she tried to jam a communication drive into her iPhone's USB socket.

Infuriating! She could nearly smell the spar with Hawlucha coming on, feel the feathers flying, taste the fried chicken...that they would feast on afterwards--after all, Wings didn't discriminate on food any more than she did. And it wasn't like Wings was a chicken.

Or was he? Eh, questions for later.

The communication drive was finally in, and glowed a faint green color. Much to Hannah's chagrin, Mr. Pokemon's voice came over her speaker phone. "Welcome to the world of Pokemon!" He giggled. "See what I did there? Because you're literally traveling the world of Pokemon! Oh, a little wit takes you a long way through the day. Anyway, I just wanted to welcome you to the tourney! Your first destination is Kyoto, Japan! So Ko-Ni-Chi-Wa! Ha!" He looked off-screen. "Can I say that without being offensive? As long as I don't mispronounce it? Okay, okay. OKAY, MAUREEN." The short man adjusted his suit and rubbed his neck. "Once you arrive at your accommodations in Kyoto, please feel free to find your friends before the first challenge starts." A wink. "It'll be a reeeeeal kicker-offer!"

Zip, and he was gone.

The trainers around her all looked at Hannah with worried eyes. "That was not anyone I know, guys!"

A girl near the back of the crowd sucked her teeth and said, "Mmhm, I bet it was her daaaddy."

"YOU WANNA SAY THAT TO MY FACE, CHEYANNE?"

Cheyanne did not, in fact, want to say that to her face.

After a loooooong and nooooisy and goooossipy (goddammit, Cheyanne) 30 minute ride on the train, Hannah disembarked from the train and pulled up a long-historied text convo with her friends. The last message was from Connor, hours ago:

Guys! I made it to the hotel! When you get here, uh. You know, come by or something. My room number is 419. I know, Saul, you're disappointed. I still don't get the joke, but I know you're disappointed. I brought new books for everyone! :)

Hannah squinted in the sunlight and looked up at the hotel's fourth floor, looking for the tenth room facing outward. The window was open. Grabbing her backpack, she ran beneath it and cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted after him.

"CONNOR! MY NERRRRRRRD! WHEREFORE ART THOU, MY NERRRRRRD?!"

A head poked halfway out the window. "You know, Hannah," he called quietly, "In Shakespearean tongue, "wherefore" meant "why." He smiled. "So you are, in actuality asking "Why am I your nerd?" He bobbed his head a bit. "Which is a question I ask myself often."

Sweat pooled on her forehead. "Is the door open, Connerd?"

"For you, always."

"Oh how sweet," she deadpanned as she ran for the sweetly air-conditioned indoors of the hotel.

Image


In Connor's room, Hannah plopped down on the floor and groaned. "It's unfair that a place called Land of The Rising Sun is so hot all the time."

"They really wanted to be called Land of the Eternal Sun." His head was buried in a book on Japanese history. Because why not?

"That makes more sense." She leaned up on her arms and looked around the room in perfect condition. "You said you were gonna give me a book. You know how I feel about reading on vacation."

"And when not on vacation."

She rolled over to watch him. His eyes hadn't moved off the book. "Is anyone else here yet?"

"Jasmine is haunting people in the lobby."

"Anyone not otherworldly?"

Bloop!

A glance at his bedside. "Cam and Saul just got off the train. And I think Nathan and Alexis are getting mochi."

She yanked the book out of his hands and stowed it in her backpack. "Come oooon, Connor! It's a formative experience! Japan! The world tourney! Don't you want to eat stuff? Don't you want to see new pokemon?! Don't you want to eat new stuff?!"

"You said eat twi--"

"I KNOW MY PRIORITIES, REDREED."

He blinked and held his hands up. "I submit." He fetched his bag and bounteous sunscreen from his bedside table. "Who do you think will end up battling first? I'm sure plenty of you owe one another a good tousle."

Hannah grinned. "Oh, I'm sure."
I am a forest fire and an ocean, and I will burn you just as much
as I will drown everything you have inside.
-Shinji Moon


I am the property of Rydia, please return me to her ship.





User avatar
176 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 1983
Reviews: 176
Tue Mar 14, 2017 3:13 pm
View Likes
sheysse says...



“Hey Nathan, sweet mango or vanilla bean?” Alexis turned and asked the boy standing next to her. They were about the same height and age, but calling him teen was too normal and man was inappropriate for his age. Boy just worked better.

He pondered it for a second. “I'll take mango.”

Alexis went over to the mochi stand and put in her order for two sweet mangoes. She contemplated ordering the others some, but she couldn't guarantee what flavor they wanted or if they had even all arrived yet. So, instead she returned with just two.

They sat on the bench across from the hotel entrance and silently ate their desert. Finally, Alexis broke the awkward absence of conversation with a simple conversation starter. “What do you think our chances of winning this thing are?”

Nathan gave a grin. “Well, there's thousands of people involved, all trainers like us, with similar skill sets. I'd say the chances of any one of our group winning is probably one in a thousand,” he said, but smiled even wider. “Doesn't mean we can't win, though.”

Alexis was about to agree when she noticed two people step out of the front entrance of the hotel. “Is that-?”

“Hannah and Connor,” Nathan said, standing up as they approached. Alexis too stood up and waved to them. Connor nodded at them and Hannah waved back. When they finally met at the bench, Hannah pointed at the mochi.

“Where'd ya get that?”

Alexis lightly punched her on the shoulder. “No 'hi'? We're seeing each other for the first time, jeez.” They all laughed. After the humor wore off, Hannah looked around.

“So... Where'd you get it?”

Alexis led them to the mochi stand, and they all ended up ordering sweet mango. (Alexis and Nathan got another, they were that good.)

Connor finished his mochi as fast as a shark at feeding time before looking down the street on both sides. “I'm gonna go get Jasmine. Wanna come?”

Everyone agreed and set off for the lobby. The lobby was packed with a load of people, but they knew exactly where Jasmine would be, and immediately followed the throng of people shouting and jumping backwards. Jasmine walked out of the scared crowd and saw the group approach.

She ran towards them. “That was fun. Hey guys!” Her stomach rumbled, and her eyes looked down at their mochi. Alexis sighed.

“Yes, I'll show you where we got them.”





User avatar
293 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 17344
Reviews: 293
Tue Mar 14, 2017 10:02 pm
View Likes
BrumalHunter says...



“Greetings, my child! Have you and your friends met yet?”

Though the morning sun shone brightly in Kyoto, it was long past midnight back in Cape Town. Connor had called earlier to inform his mother of his safe arrival, so he was surprised she was actually still awake.

“We’ve all met up at the hotel, yeah, and we're about to go exploring the city.” He walked some distance away from the group and chose the least dirty bench as his seat. “Right now, we’re waiting for Jasmine and Murtle to get over the local desserts.” He looked up at the Haunter currently stuffing its face with glutinous rice cakes. “We may be waiting a while, so I decided to call again.”

His mother smiled, though confusion danced on her brow. “It is always a pleasure. But... who are those two again? You’ve made so many friends, I can hardly remember their names.” Connor laughed and turned his phone’s screen towards the pair. After he turned it back, she replied, “Right, the girl with the lovely bows.” Sipping her tea, she asked, “I trust your Pokémon are acclimatising well?”

He regarded the two little black balls in his shirt’s breast pocket. “They’re a little jetlagged, so I’m letting them rest. Hades in particular was quite cranky. Seraph was as calm as ever, but you know how droopy her eyelids get when she’s–”

“Give me your purse!”

Connor started and looked up, searching for the source of the threat but finding only Hannah’s grinning face in front of him. “No, please! It’s all I have!” she called.

“Hannah, why are you–?”

In the same deep voice as before, she yelled, “Do it or I’ll shoot!” Back to her normal voice, she pled, “No, please don’t!” before playing an audio file of a gun firing on her phone and groaning and falling to the ground.

“Dear heavens!” his mother exclaimed, clapping her hands over her mouth. “My child, find a safe place to hide and-!”

Hannah launched herself onto the bench, almost tackling Connor off it. “Hey, Mrs Redreed! I’m not actually dead - I can’t leave my nerd all alone out in the big world.”

His mother visibly relaxed, though she still breathed shakily. “Oh! Greetings, Hannah. You mustn’t startle an old woman so.”

“I think I’ll leave before she gets a heart-attack,” Hannah responded in a low tone, her hand covering her mouth. Winking, she left to torment whoever happened to be closest.

“She seemed less energetic over Skype than in person,” his mother noted, eyes wide with concern.

Connor just chuckled. “Actually, Hannah was pretty much always like this. The others are tamer, I swear. Except maybe Saul...”

Mrs Redreed pulled her cup a little closer. “Just be sure to keep calling often. And remember to let Hades accompany you when you’re walking alone. I wouldn’t want you to encounter an actual scoundrel out in the streets.”

Hannah waved and made wild gesticulations, indicating they were finally ready to leave. “Okay, I think we’re gonna leave now. Love you, Ma!”

“Be safe, my child!”

He disconnected and jogged over. “Have we decided where we’re off to first?”

“I vote park,” Alexis said, dashing down the road before anyone could object.

Hannah shrugged. “The park it is!”
But the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
— Paul the Apostle

Winter is inevitable. Spring will return eventually, and AstralHunter with it.





User avatar
53 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 240
Reviews: 53
Tue Mar 14, 2017 11:48 pm
View Likes
cheeb says...



"No, I don't know where the mochi stand is," said the man with audible frustration, "and I didn't know where it was when you asked me four minutes ago. And I'm not going to know if, by some horrible turn of events, you happen to ask me again."
He huffed and turned back to his fish dish.
"Sorry, mate," Saul said unabashedly. "You look rather the same as all the other suits in here."
He spread his right arm to indicate the rest of the cafeteria which, to his credit, was indeed primarily full of gents in business suits. The one man in particular whose ire Saul had managed to raise got to his feet, red-faced.

"All right, all right!" Saul said indignantly, backing off. "Won't happen again, bassmunch."
"Saul!" Camille hissed, trying to sound reproachful bur barely stifling a giggle. She took his elbow and dragged him away from the man who was now making strangling motions with his hands. "Did you really think that was going to improve the situation?"
"No. I did think that Tentatool needed to be taken down a peg, though."

Cam rubbed her forehead, still with the hint of a smirk on her face. "Let's ask someone else."
"I already can't remember which one he was. Look at them in their suits. And ties. It's like an infestation."
"Well, call one of the others. You met Jasmine back in Europe, didn't you, when your bro was doing the challenge with her? Have you still got her number?"
"Yeah, but I bet she wouldn't recognise my voice. Probably thinks I've still got that lisp."
"Mmm. You know, these new-fangled phones have an amazing function where it tells you if the call is coming from someone in your contacts."
"I made it a point not to get a fangled phone. I don't want my ear bitten when I'm trying to order my weekly peri-peri chicken. They suffer enough from psoriasis as it is."
"Gross. Just call her so we can find everyone."

Saul handed Cam his phone. "You call her."
"Why? It's your phone. She'll be expecting you."
"It'll be nice for her to talk to you. You said yourself you want to get to know her better."
"What's the matter? You didn't have a problem calling me - oh my God."
"What?"
"Oh my God." Cam pointed at Saul with a huge grin on her face. "You think she's cute!"
"No."
"You like her!"
"No."
"You want to have little Jas-minis!"
"That doesn't even make sense. But…" He tilted his head. "I give you a B+ for 'Jas-minis'. Solid punmanship."
"Such generosity. Just for that, I'll make the call for you," Cam said, taking the phone. "Well, that and I'm hungry, I wanna find the mochi stand and I can't wait any longer for you to nut up."

"Oh good," Cam said into the phone. "We're not far from there. See you soon!"
Saul put out his hand to take his phone back.
"Oh hey, one other thing. I gotta tell you something about Saul."
"What."
"Yeah, did you know -"
"DO NOT."
"Did you know he thinks you're cute? He loves your laugh and he thinks your eyes are pretty."
"SHE IS LYING." Saul snatched the phone back. "Don't pay any attention to what she -"
His expression turned from panic to mild exasperation as he heard the cackling voice on the other end. "Hi, Murtle."
the user formerly known as chibibo





User avatar
280 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Female
Points: 794
Reviews: 280
Wed Mar 15, 2017 12:56 am
View Likes
Nutty says...



Cam hummed a little tune, each step a tiny bounce as she peered down every alley, noted every sign and stopped more than once to pick up what invariably turned out to be a piece of paper, and not, as she’d hoped, a thousand-yen note. “Do you think-”
“No, I don’t.” Saul sighed, eliciting a giggle from Cam. “Oh, I mean- you know what I mean! You’ve been asking me questions non-stop about this place since we got off the train. Just assume I don’t know.”
Cam snickered, paused thoughtfully, then continued, unphased. “But, really, do you think we’ll get to go to an actual temple or climb a cherry tree or is the festival of lights soon?! is that a thing we’ll see -”
“Uuuugh. Let’s just catch up with the others.”
“You mean with Jasmine.” Cam murmured, and was rewarded with another groan.

The pair finally caught up with the rest of the gang in a small local park. Cam waved with both arms, lifting up on her tippy toes and unsettling the Zigzagoon who’d been, until this point, curled up in her hood. “Heeey. Wait up, losers.”

The meeting had been a long time coming- a collection of unlikely friends who’d met years prior on the internet, and still, somehow, managed to keep a conversation going almost non-stop. Mostly about memes and food, granted, but it was still one of the more significant things to have happened to Cam in her eighteen years, when people were concerned. So it was no surprise when the first person to turn and start yelling incomprehensibly was Hannah.

“CAM YOU DWEEB WHAT TOOK YOU GUYS SO LONG- Saul you look like you’ve smelled a vileplume honey what is going on with your faaaace?”
“That’s just my face.”
“That’s just his face.”
“Oh.”
“His favourite music is Jazz.” Cam nodded sagely, then grimaced as she caught an elbow to the ribs.
Hannah’s eyebrows knitted together. “Okay? Well, we found this amazing mochi place, we’ll take you later. Come, come, come say hello-”

Hannah retreated backwards without turning around, and with wide arms gathered the other four trainers together like a farmer herding duckletts. Tapping each on the head, she went down the line. “Nerd, Nerd, Nerd, and loli-Nerd, meet Dweeb and Dork.” Giving no time for proper introductions, Hannah clapped her hands together and grinned. “We’re all together! Skypefamily is united at last!”
“How long until somebody goes to leave the call, then realises they’re stuck here. With us.” Jasmine drawled, a slightly sinister emphasis on the word ‘us.’
Cam pursed her lips, making a great show of mulling it over. “Iiiii give it about four hours. Connor will try and wander off to a library, completely forgetting he’s with real people for once.” She shot the frail boy a wide grin and a wink.
“Or perhaps you’ll end up stuck in a tree somewhere counting leaves.” Jasmine shot back, and both girls snickered.
“You joke, but it’ll happen. I’ve found weird things in trees, and I fully intend to continue doing so.” Cam turned on her heel, gazing around her with hands on her hips. “I bet I could spend hours combing just this oooone park, people would drop all sorts of strange things here-”

The group of friends shared a glance, Alexis and Saul seemingly coming to the same conclusion at once.

“So, how about going someplace else-”
“-Somewhere without trees-”
“Did somebody say ‘let’s find the tallest tower in Kyoto and throw yen off the top’? I heard ‘let’s find the tallest tower in Kyoto and throw yen off the top.” Hannah declared, linking arms with the distracted Cam and dragging her down the street.

“I mean, sure, that sounds good too.” Cam mumbled.
It's not easy having a good time. Even smiling makes my face ache.





User avatar
299 Reviews



Gender: None specified
Points: 24185
Reviews: 299
Wed Mar 15, 2017 2:12 am
View Likes
TheSilverFox says...



(Mis)adventures in the Thousand Year Capital



If this really was meant to be a journey around the world, Nathan figured, it made sense that everyone would be dragging him across Kyoto in such a short time.

It was amazing, and terrifying, to be here. Amazing in that he was finally meeting all of his friends in person, after years of enigmatic Skype conversations, and could now appreciate their general craziness from up-close. That they provided in earnest - Hannah was leading them into strange alleys and through tightly-packed streets surrounded by the classical machiya houses, following poorly-remembered directions from Saul to head to Kyoto Station (who swore that he could still smell the business suits from where he was). Terrifying in that he was a 17-year-old boy trapped in the middle of Kyoto with a couple thousand yen from his Singaporean uncle, who had been more than happy to dump him off in Kyoto with the invitation in the hopes of making him "a man." That uncle was likely sipping champagne while overlooking the clean streets of his country, proudly resting on a king-sized bed and watching the news. Jerk.

It was mid-June in Kyoto, so the skies were cloudy and rain poured down intermittently. Nathan wished he'd brought a raincoat, as his hair now acted even more like a mop, clothes soaked. Uncle would not be happy that he hadn't even brought an umbrella, Nathan realized; as he decided a few seconds later, screw the old man. Davis didn't have regrets; the taste of mochi still lingered in his mouth, its wonderful aroma mixing with those dampened odors emanating from the shops and restaurants. The local cuisine in this city smelled and/or tasted wonderful, even in the case of something as exotic as sushi or octopus (neither of which he had had yet, but were on his list). Nathan imagined that it would be somehow better in the restaurant at the candlestick Kyoto Tower, which now loomed over them across from the imposing, active, rectangular Station.

Naturally, that uncle of his had already rented a room for him within the hotel, and had drilled in Nathan's head the location of Kyoto Tower. The boy had even gone there earlier in the day, unpacking his stuff before leaving to search for his compatriots, where he had then found Alexis by the mochi stand. Of course, since Nathan never made his voice loud, and everyone else practically ignored him for the sake of Hannah's major goal of throwing yen off the Tower, he had spent the last hour wandering the streets of Kyoto looking for a location that he already knew the location of. It had been nothing short of amusing, particularly after a ruinous detour to an antiques shop that turned out to have already been closed an hour ago, though this did not deter Hannah from ignoring the sign, entering, and being chased out a short time later. Still, Nathan felt like he was pushing himself into the background again, and decided that he had best make up for it shortly, as it was embarrassing to be so quiet among the people he had spent years talking to.

Fortunately, when the group crossed the widened street and entered the large, jarringly modern Tower, Nathan strode ahead and took charge. This was about when they entered the building and found that they actually had to pay money to buy tickets to go up one of the elevators into the tower itself.

"Wait a minute," said Hannah, turning around to face everyone after a brief, one-sided conversation with the Japanese attendant sitting at a desk beside the elevators. "Did any of my Skypefamily actually bother to learn any Japanese at all? I was hoping everyone would speak English like they do in anime. Do we have any books or translators or anything like that?"

Nathan raised a hand. "I can," he replied, before stepping up to talk to the receptionist. He had to admit that it was infuriating, but here he was, using the rudimentary amount of Japanese he had been taught by his uncle. That uncle, a Singapore businessman, often worked with Japanese trading firms and businessmen, and had taught Nathan the basics of the language in the event that Nathan, as the uncle expected, would follow in his footsteps. It worked. Though the lady at the desk seemed confused and a little frustrated by the boy's short phrases and slurring of words, she soon, after Nathan brought up their mutual language of money, handed over the tickets to the small gathering, letting them pass as they entered and crowded an elevator.

"We're just going to the top floor," said Nathan, blocking Hannah from eagerly pressing all of the buttons. The metal box hummed and began to rise smoothly. "We can check out those places later. You'd probably spend all your money on food, and then you can't literally throw it out a window."

Hannah huffed. "What's the fun in that?" she asked as loud pop music blared over the speakers. Her own voice doubled in strength. "Elevators were meant to be slow; that's why they invented the music for it. And I wouldn't want to spend my money on anything other than that mochi!"

"That guy is making one substantial profit," remarked Connor ("Wise Guy" "Stickboy" "Re-e-dboy") Redreed as the elevator opened, the music stopped, and the group stepped out onto the wide, glass-walled observation deck of Kyoto Tower.

There were scattered oohs and aahs among the audience, although it wasn't much. Beyond Hannah, there wasn't too much enthusiasm as the group scattered and explored the steel-and-glass enclosure atop the candlestick. To be frank, there wasn't much to see; the cloudy weather blocked much of the view of Kyoto. Scattered red and yellow lights marked the city hovering beneath them, but the edges of the city were masked by fog and rain. The forested, beautiful Arashiyama was clearly visible, but its top was similarly covered. Higashiyama and Kitayama proved even harder to see. The black and gray of the expansive city contrasted with the green of the equally imposing mountains and forests, but everyone was more enthused by staring through the glass flooring and investigating the various gaming machines set up along the observatory.

It was then and there that Hannah brandished a bill of unknown yen, shouted, "Be free, birdie! Don't drown up there!" and (ノ◕ヮ◕)ノ*:・゚✧. $ $ $ $ $'ed the money out the only open window.

There was a few laughs, before everyone settled into their usual routines. Jasmine and her Haunter took to interfering with one of the gaming machines so that it flashed kaleidoscopic colors, while Hannah pushed Nathan away from one of the telescopes to spot where the money had gone. Hannah, after a few seconds, sighed in disappointment while the boy made his way towards one of the telescopes facing the mountains. In the meantime, Connor was reading through a soggy tourist's guide he'd uneagerly picked up from the ground, and Saul was trying to recount his harrowing story to a partly-uninterested Hannah. Cam was avidly peeking through each one in order, finding as many angles as she could to see her surroundings. Well, she had said that she liked high places. She was still unhappy from not being able to climb atop the trees, but had now set her sights on the masses that covered Arashiyama. Still, she did allow Nathan to use one of the telescopes to peer to one of the foggier mountains.

For just the briefest speck of time, Nathan though he saw something sparkle on the side of one of the mountains. Just his eyes playing tricks on him, he reasoned. Stupid eyes.
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse
a persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo
non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero,
senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.

Inferno, Canto 27, l 61-66.





User avatar
745 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Male
Points: 1626
Reviews: 745
Wed Mar 15, 2017 3:03 am
View Likes
Lumi says...



Hannah grazed by the video game machines as Alexis and Saul danced on them with gusto. Alexis was red in the face with determination, and Haunter was red in the face with Kaleidoscopism. She smiled and slowly turned her head to Cam and Nathan on the other end of the room with Connor, who was unfolding was looked like a twister wheel with pictures of food on it. She jogged over and grinned, ruffling Nathan's hair.

"So you totally speak Japanese! I...don't think I knew that before." With a hand behind her head, she grinned, glanced down at the glass space between their feet, and noticed that his left shoe was untied. "Oh...your." She knelt down and pulled the strings tight, making an army square knot of the white converse laces. She looked up and saw his confused look, then stood, glancing off to the side. "You know, I just. Dad made me want things to be done right." She nodded to her own boots, tied the same way.

Cam smiled. "You know, I saw a picture of Yakisoba across the road. Saul wouldn't hush up about it on the train ride from the airport."

Hannah made unforgivably sensual noises. "Yakisoooooba."

Connor shook his head. "We are eating what the wheel lands on, and that's how our adventure is going to go! I have one prepared for every country." He looked up from the floor. "We agreed on this, remember?"

Hannah looked away, pouting. "I remember Yakisoba, but all before that is a blur."

Nathan smiled. "It's my favorite, too, actually."

"No," said Connor. "We agreed on uniform randimosity, which is a terrible made-up word, but the residual child in me loves it. Therefore!" He held up a finger. "We use the wheel."

Cam, Nathan, and Hannah looked between one another with raised eyebrows before Nathan shrugged. "Okay, Wise Guy. We'll use your wheel. But when it lands on Yakisoba, just don't cry."

"There are twelve locales on the wheel. Yakisoba has a probability of 1/12, but so do things like Ramen, Onigiri, and takoyaki! All of them are delicious and exotic to most of us, so there should be no complaints...unless someone complains."

"I complain," remarked Hannah.

"I accounted for that," said Connor, "which is why I invented the Hannah Whine Chip, a magnetized frictional button to be placed on the wheel to slow it before it passes into a zone you and your cabal of conspirators may like."

His stomach growled upon producing the chip.

"My cabal, eh?"

"EURGH FINE! We'll just spin already!" He spun the dial.

And it went round.

And round.

And round.

Jasmine and Haunter walked near.

"Ooh!" she clapped. "I see Yakisoba!"

Haunter grabbed the wheel and stopped it, making Yakisoba the victor!

All cheered, but for Connor, whose work of genius had been undone by a ghost, which, according to most scientific evidence, should not happen to works of genius.

"Ohhhh yes!" growled Hannah. "Everyone! If you're done throwing Yen out the window and dancing your sweet asses off, let's head down and get some dinner!"

Saul hopped off the machine simultaneously with Alexis, their eyes still faintly flashing strobe. "I certainly hope they have onigiri," they said in unison. "It was highly advertised in that video game."

Alexis stretched. "You have to love Dansu Dansu Kakumei. Equal parts dancing and marketing for more dancing...with bonus plugs for food!"

"My kinda marketing."

"My kinda game."

"And here I thought you were a Terraria purist."

"As if you don't dabble in Minecraft!"

"Touche, my lady. Touche."

As the elevator began to close, Nathan cleared his throat. "Guys?"

"Yeah?" in unison.

"I think I saw an angel earlier."

Image


"WELL," laughed Hannah with a mouth full of noodles, "If there are angels in Kyoto, then maybe my mom really did leave to go save the world." She gulped down her mouthful. "So freakin' glad this place is a buffet."

Connor snapped his chop sticks. "CLASSIC misdirect!" Chop chop. "You can't get off the mom button that easy, army brat."

"You misunderstand the rules, Connor. If I push my OWN Mom Button, I get to lay off it as soon as I want."

"So if I spin my own food wheel, I get to choose when it stops, and not some FORCE OF LUCIFER."

Jasmine shook her head. "Murtle much prefers the god Shiva this week, thank you."

"Oh come on, Connor," said Saul, laughing. "What did you want to eat, anyway?"

He blushed and shook his head. "I wanted pizza."

Everyone grew silent. Hannah leaned in. "Pizza? But...we're in Kyoto."

He shrugged. "I'm afraid my tastes may not be as exotic as yours or the others'."

The others looked around.

Cam raised her hand. "Can't stand Marmite."

Saul agreed. "Can't stand Vegemite."

Nathan shrugged. "I hate both and Nutella."

"I've never had any of the three," said Hannah with a shrug. Everyone turned to her. "Living on army bases...it's a lot of American food cooked by Americans. If you want something special, you gotta make it yourself. Like Yakisoba, or monkey gland sauce, or curry..."

Jasmine grinned. "Then you are all in for lots of treats." She nodded. "My family traveled all over, and our one rule was never to eat the same thing twice." She shugged. "What if we made the same rule for our...family?"

"And we'll always order Pizza, just in case!"

Everyone laughed and nodded, slurping down their yakisoba. "Pizza! Just in case!"
I am a forest fire and an ocean, and I will burn you just as much
as I will drown everything you have inside.
-Shinji Moon


I am the property of Rydia, please return me to her ship.





User avatar
280 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Female
Points: 794
Reviews: 280
Wed Mar 15, 2017 5:19 am
View Likes
Nutty says...



It was nearing 10pm by the time the crew made it back to the hotel, though it felt like eight australian time. Gradually the group dissipated, the first being Saul, complaining of jetlag; then Connor, who retreated to room 419 to continue brushing up on Japanese history. Alexis and Jasmine went to check out their twin room, Alexis, to her credit, only looking mildly worried about sharing a room with Murtle.

Nathan, Cam, and Hannah were the last (wo)men standing, and even that didn’t last long- the Cam and Nathan finding a sofa in the hotel’s shared lounge, and Hannah going to make emphatic hand gestures with one of the hotel staff.
“Do you think you should go help her… talk to them?” Cam said eventually, watching Hannah attempting to communicate via interpretive dance. Nathan pursed his lips, tilted his head to one side, and ‘hmmmm’ed.

“Nah.” He said eventually. “She’s got this.”

“I think what she’s got is disco fever.”

“Needs more cowbell.”

Cam sniggered, turning away to lean into the cushion of the sofa and dragging her knees up to her chest. The shifting disturbed her stomach, which twisted, writhed and bowed until she finally sprouted a second head from her chest- which Cam set to coo-ing and petting.
“Sorry, Zip, did I wake you?” She murmured, fussing the zigzagoon’s bristly fur back into place.

“That- that was like a scene from Alien. Do…. all of your pokemon live on your person?” Nathan glanced Cam over with slightly wary eyes, as if pokemon were about to burst forth from every limb.

“Naaah. Just Zip. Normally she’s more active and about, but she doesn’t like airtravel much so she’s been sleepy.” The brunette girl fished in one of her many pockets for a poffin, setting it before the pokemon’s nose. A tiny paw flashed out of the neck, then both head and poffin disappeared back into the depths of Cam’s outerwear.

Nathan seemed caught between amusement and the tiniest hint of fear, an emotion Cam was quite used to envoking in everyone around her. ‘Concerned delight’ is what Cam’s mother would call it, slowly shaking her head at her only child.

“Tah-Dah!” A mug appeared in front of Cam’s eyes from behind the sofa, and the brunette blinked rapidly before accepting it. Nathan accepted his cup with a lot more grace, flashing Hannah a smile and moving over a little to let her sit.

“Hot chocolate! For the survivors.” Hannah declared triumphantly, collapsing heavily between the two.

“This is what they got out of your attempts to communicate? I was getting ‘boogie nights.’” Cam sipped the warm liquid thankfully, nonetheless.

“It was clearly Grease, though. By rights this should be a bucket of KFC.”

Hannah rolled her eyes, but smiled anyway. “Say what you want, but I successfully acquired night-time beverages, so that’s a win in my book.”

The three of them murmured, burying their faces in the comforting, chocolatey mugs. Cam was the first to finish, idly wiping her milk-stache clean with the back of her hand. “I’m bunking with you, right, Hannah? Did you get the room key?”

“I sure did, nerderino.” Hannah fished in her pocket, pulling out a pair of lanyards with keycards attached and tossing one at Cam. The brunette watched it land in her lap with no attempt to catch it, just ducking her head to read the number. “210. Neat. Which musical did it take to get these?”

“Phantom of the Opera.”

“Figures.”









The girls survived maybe another twenty minutes before bidding Nathan goodnight- even Hannah’s boundless energy had to run dry eventually, and in all fairness, it was three thirty in Hawaii time- and Cam was about to fall into a food coma.

“Why is it still so hot?” The emphasis was somewhat lost as Hannah collapsed, face-first, into the bed. “Oh, wow, this is a good bed.”

“Is it?” Cam dumped her bags at the foot of the other bed, unzipping her sweater and releasing sleepy, furry terror into the hotel room. Shrugging out of her layers, she tilted her head and squinted, as it’d make her see the heat better. “I guess I don’t feel it.”

“Bloody australians.” Hannah flipped over in bed, staring instead at the ceiling. “Oh they’re good this way, too.”
“Isn’t hawaii hot, too?”

“I mean, I guess, but I pretty much live in the water there.”

“Speaking of which-” Cam ducked her head and lifted her arm, sniffing her armpit. “I need some of that.”

“You are a creature of grace.”

“I know~.” Cam grinned wide. “I’m hitting the shower. You can go next.” The brunette busied herself, fetching mini shampoos, a soft white towel, her pjs, a sponge, her nail clippers, the long socks-no, the short, thick socks- while chattering away to her roommate. “What’re our plans for tomorrow? The event starts, right? We’ll probably find out we have to battle like, fifty hitmonlee each. While blindfolded. With a japanese gameshow host narrating!” Cam straightened, her arms full of hygiene-related comfort. “I can see it now, The Attack Of The Fifty Hitmonlee, Will The Foreigners Survive, or Will The First Stop Be Their Last? Tune In To Find Ou-”

A gentle snore interrupted Cam’s story, and the girl rolled her eyes. “You better be showerin’ in the morning, army brat.” She murmured to herself. “Hitmonlee don’t even have noses, so you can’t stink ‘em out.” Cam suppressed a giggle, turning to pad quietly to the bathroom.
It's not easy having a good time. Even smiling makes my face ache.





User avatar
53 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 240
Reviews: 53
Thu Mar 16, 2017 2:29 pm
View Likes
cheeb says...



When Nathan reached room 419, his key card initially did not want to work. He passed it by the scanner. "Un ga nai". He tried again. "Jikai wa un ga yokatta." And yet again. "Mōhitotsu no shippaidesu."

"The hell?! The doors talk here?!" He sighed. Saul had lent him his key card so he could stay at their hotel that night and not have to walk or bus back to the Kyoto Tower JUST for the night, but...now he was weighing his options. And, looking defeated, he turned on his heels and slid down the wall just in time to see, across the hall, room 419 on a door plaque. Above him, checking, he saw 420.

"Well, that makes just absolute sense," he scolded himself before quickly jittering over to 419 and scanning the card.

"Anata no heya e yōkoso," said the woman's voice from the door. If he hadn't known better he could have sworn he heard her mutter "baka" under her breath.

"Close your eyes," Saul said as Nathan entered the room.
"Why?"
"'Cause. We made you a special surprise."

Nathan shrugged and closed his eyes. He felt Saul steering him into what he figured was the loungeroom.
"Okay, open them."
Nathan opened his eyes and was greeted to a small green cake on a plate.
"This is for me?"
"Yea."
"I'ma eat this?"
"Yea."
"I guess Green Tea cake can't be that bad. I...didn't know either of you cooked!"

Nathan bit into it. After a few chews he stopped. He glared at Saul, face reddening.
"I should have known you'd pull this kind of--." Immediate and intense vomiting onto the cake.
"What's it like?"
"IT'S WASABI YOU ASSHOLE AND YOU KNOW IT," Nathan shouted as he raced to the kitchen and wrenched the minibar open. He popped a can of Karupisu and gulped it down, eyes streaming.
"You can pay for this, by the way," he panted.
"Worth it," Saul beamed.

There was the sound of flowing water from the other room. The door to the bathroom opened and Connor stepped out, quickly stopping as he took in the scene.
"What the deuce?!"
"Don't eat Saul- blechhhh," Nathan retched.

_______


Meanwhile, far downstairs, Hannah stirred from snoring, and raised her head, suddenly feeling like she was missing some major prank action, but then, after yawning like a hibernating bear being fed a fish, went directly back to sleep.

Cam found this adorable, and so, she believed, did Zip.

_______


"Don't eat Saul? Good advice."
"And much appreciated," Saul added.
"Why is there oral excrement on that cake?"
"That's puke, you friggin' geek. You sound like my brother."
"You mean the co-founder of the P.O.O.T.?! If only to have a mind like Art Wilson! Honestly!"

Nathan emerged from the sink, green-faced, red-faced, pale-faced, and used Saul's shoulder as balance. "You. Grab your pokeballs. I'm exacting my revenge on the rooftop for this--bleeeeeecccccch" on the cake again, spattering a bit onto Connor's toes, which prompted him back into the bathroom.
"You two will wait for me to get out of my second shower, or never be forgiven! Our prologue has been thus far too void of Pokemon and I will not miss our first battle!"
Saul shrugged. "We'll be on the roof, Greentoe!"

Image



"It's time to duel," said Saul, suddenly serious.
"Right. I want to beat you down quickly, so let's go doubles. You've got two Pokemon on you, right?"
"Yeah, boy."

Connor stepped in between them. "All right, I want a nice clean match. Keep it within the confines of these tiles on the ground - the last thing we need is Pokemon raining down the side of the building. Don't go overboard with attacking. If a Pokemon's KO'd, it's off-limits. "

Without another word, four red-white Balls flew into the air and exploded into white. Tentacool and Geodude floated awkwardly on one side, Chinchou and Ditto waddled into view on the other.
Connor glanced to each side, then stepped back and flung his arm down.

The Pokemon all shot forward. Chinchou surrounded itself with Spark and charged towards Tentacool, who dodged at the last minute, sending Chinchou careening into Geodude instead. Geodude was having none of this Electric nonsense and nailed Chinchou in the face with Rock Throw. Meanwhile, Ditto was concentrating hard and eventually a second Tentacool joined the fray, spitting Acid at any Pokemon it could reach.
"Don't attack Bubbles, you doughnut!" Saul shouted.

Chinchou bubbled with annoyance, and charged up Spark again - but this time slammed into Ditto-Tentacool. It was too much for the copycat who slinked away back to its Poke Ball.
Tentacool proper shot a Water Pulse at Chinchou, who countered it with Bubblebeam - and both Pokemon continued firing their Beams'-o-War, not noticing that they were flooding the rooftop and that poor Geodude had already noped out from all the water. Somewhere downstairs, Cam wondered why the weather report had predicted a drier late night when there was clearly rain streaming down the windows.
"Evou, Supersonic! This is it!"
"Bubbles, Confuse Ray!"

Both attacks hit their targets square in the face, and both fish folk began swaying slightly, still hyped up for battle but now not exactly sure who they were fighting.
"Confusion," said Connor gravely. "They say it's unpleasantly like being drunk."
"What's so unpleasant about being drunk?" Saul asked.
"You ask a glass of water."

The remaining Pokemon fired Acids and Bubblebeams in the approximate directions of one another - and then Chinchou charged up a third Spark attack, while Tentacool littered the ground with Toxic Spikes. Chinchou flew, miraculously, directly towards Tentacool, taking an Acid to the face in the process, and the two collided and dropped to the ground - Chinchou landing square on a Spike.

Neither moved for a moment - Connor raised his hand to declare a tie - and then slowly, stubbornly, Tentacool raised itself up on its tentacles and stared decisively at Connor.
"Tentacool is the last 'mon standing - the win goes to Nathan!"

"He just wanted it more," Saul reasoned as Nathan celebrated. "Right, lads. Now that we're all on the same page, the next time we have Henanigan Night - Shenaninight - All Shenannow's Eve - a Shenaniguy's night out - we're going after the girls."

Downstairs, Cam and Hannah both sat up from bed, looked at one another, and narrowed their eyes. Alexis and Jasmine flooded into their room.

"Do you feel that?"
"I taste that."
"I smelled that."
"The very premonitory aura of this event broke my meditative state six months ago and caused my energy field to be in flux for weeks! I foresaw this!"

All girls huddled on the beds.

"And so it begins," muttered Hannah. A grin. "Operation Shenanigan."

"Shenanigals."

"Shenannygans."

Alexis blinked. "I got nothing."

They all patted her comfortingly. "One day, dear. One day."
the user formerly known as chibibo





User avatar
745 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Male
Points: 1626
Reviews: 745
Fri Mar 17, 2017 4:15 am
View Likes
Lumi says...



A while after the girls had brainstormed at least a dozen more puns for the word shenanigans, they decided to make their way to the rooftop where Hannah had been promised by a tourist earlier that the sun would rise in the east in a way she had never seen before.

"I'm telling you, Hanners, it was pouring down last night." Cam opened the rooftop door and flinched back as a small wave of bubbles cascaded down the stairs.

"Well turn me around and call me a lazy suzan, it's a bubble flood, y'all." Hannah walked out onto the rooftop and stretched in the brisk night air. She felt like shadowboxing.

So she did.

She shadowboxed.

A lot.

Until she slammed a shadowboxing fist into a shadow-Saul gut. "Oh man! I hit a rooftop rapscallion!"

"I'm not a rapscallion," he nearly puked. "I'm Sau-hau-haul."

In the background, Nathan laughed (a bit too sinister, but really, who noticed a good revenge laugh this early on?)

Connor poked his head around the corner. "We were waiting for the sunrise. Saul called us it a sunGuys."

Alexis giggled. "That is hands-down the lamest-duck thing I've ever heard."

"Oh?" asked Nathan, arms crossed. "And what were you going to call your sunrise?"

"We were...well." The ladies looked between one another and murmured. Jas nearly barked at Hannah, but then reconsidered, nodding to Cam. They all coughed and stood up straight. Hannah pounded her chest. "SunRISE UP AGAINST THE PATRIARCHY!"

Connor and Nathan hit the floor twitching. Saul's jaw was slack with awe.

Cam sniffed the air. "Whose breath smells like Wasabi? Like. An unattractive amount of wasabi?"

"SAULBUTT." shouted Nathan.

Everyone turned creakily to him.

"Yeah, well. Saul has this uh. Condition. Real embarrassing. And he has to put this medicine on it that smells like wasabi." He shook his head. "Poor ol' Wasabi Butt."

Jasmine lifted a finger. "You know the wind is blowing the smell down from you, right Nathan?"

"Pooooor wasabi butt."

Hannah placed her hands on her hips, doing a few squats. "I'm energized. Girls, are you energized? I wanna fight someone. And not Saul this time. He nearly died last time. Remember that? That was fun."

Internally, she flashed back to nearly killing Saul.

"Let's ring in the sunRISE AGAINST THE PATRIARCHY with a pokemon battle!" She grinned "Who's up?"

Alexis piped up. "I think I'd like to engage you, Hanners."

"You don't know me like that Lexus."

"She means fight you."

"You know me like that, Lexus. You're a good car."

Hannah pulled a pokeball out of her breasts and made it grow to full size. "At your beck and call, princess."

"As you wish!" Alexis pulled out her pokeball and slung out Lilligant onto the rooftop, who sprung into a dance of freedom.

"Leave it to a queen to bring her greens! Not to be mean, but let's have Wings!" The ball burst mid-air, releasing Hawlucha onto the wet roof. The sun peaked over the horizon. "Lily, meet Wings. He shall be your chef today."

"Not if our strategy has anything to say about it!" She flung a hand out. "Lilly! Trap him with Leech Seed!" Lilly sprang from her zone of the battlefield and began leaping about, leaving sprouts of weeds and traps all around. Hawlucha narrowed his eyes, unsure of the strategy.

"Wings, rip those vines up. Aerial Ace the conecting roots!"

A grin flashed over Alexis' face.

Hawlucha vanished from sight and made a red flash-line across the battlefield to rip all heaven and hell up, but was quickly ensnared as all four bulbs planted shot snaring vines onto his body. Lilligant tightened the hold and sapped life from his body.

"Now, time for Wombo Combo time!"

"Wombo...combo...time." Hanners sighed. "Hawlucha, Aerial Ace ya own damn body, jeez."

He obliged, and the snares evaporated into memories.

"Rather unprecedented," noted Connor. "She allowed Hawlucha to receive collateral damage so he may be free to move about as he pleases. She really is as reckless as she pleases."

"It's a bit great, innit it?"

"Hawlucha! Show Lilligant some love! Return while she's still rooted!"

Hawlucha spread his arms wide as his body began glowing bright blue, covered in floating hearts. He dove into the air before slamming down onto Lilly with a deafening crack (of the roots.)

As the tar smoke cleared, Lilligant was clearly out. Hawlucha hopped back to Hannah and into her arms, cooing into her neck. She ruffled his feathers and pulled a PokeBean out of her pocket, letting him gobble up the candy treat. "You did such a good job, buddy!"

"Hawwwwwwww!"

"Alright, Patriarchy! Everyone together for a group photo! Land of the rising sun won't be sun-rising forever!"

Everyone got together while Hawlucha took their phones.

"Haw Haw!"

"Hawww!" said everyone in unison. The photo snapped.
I am a forest fire and an ocean, and I will burn you just as much
as I will drown everything you have inside.
-Shinji Moon


I am the property of Rydia, please return me to her ship.





User avatar
176 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 1983
Reviews: 176
Sat Mar 18, 2017 2:12 pm
View Likes
sheysse says...



“I don't even know where to start with this one,” Alexis said dejectedly. Sighing and leaning her head into the palm of her hand, supporting herself with her elbow, she picked at the rice on the plate before her.

“I say just go look. It's one mountain, and there's seven of us,” Hannah said.

Saul dismissed the notion. “It's one massive mountain, and one shiny butterfly pokemon. We would be looking for days before even coming close to finding it.”

This morning, they received the first challenge of the competition. A shiny butterfly pokemon was released into the woods of the mountain. Most trainers went out to find it immediately, but the group, unsure where to start looking, grabbed a bite to eat for breakfast.

Jasmine had a bit of an obsession with the Miso Soup, but the rest stuck to the grilled fish. Most of them were fascinated with the profusion of fish in Japanese meals, and that it could be eaten at any time of day, including breakfast. Alexis considered suggesting this type of breakfast for Sundays to her mom, but already knew the answer.

Hannah shrugged and stood up. “Well, you pouts can stay here while I go search for this thing. I'm not letting the other trainers get a head start on us.”

“Hannah, wait. By rushing in blindly, you're already giving the enemies a head start. We need a plan,” Nathan said calmly.

“And you have one?” Cam asked.

Nathan smiled, suggesting he did. Alexis could almost imagine him pushing imaginary glass farther up the bridge of his nose, like they did in anime. The image was ruined by him sticking a square of nori elegantly into his mouth (how does one go about elegantly eating seaweed? Alexis thought). “Do you recall a reflection of light on the mountain side yesterday?”

Jasmine perked up from behind a stack of empty miso soup bowls. “The one we all saw on the roof?”

No, the other glint on the mountain. Yes, the one we saw the on the roof,” Hannah said sarcastically.

“I think I like where this is going,” Alexis said.

“Its possible, and very likely, that we saw the pokemon,” Nathan said, waiting for collective excitement to build up while eating another nori.

“So...” Alexis began, but was interrupted by Hannah shouting in exclamation.

“Let's go! If we go to that spot, it'll be a good place to start! Come on! Hurry!” She sprinted out of the restaurant they ate in.

“I never even finished my fish.” Saul said disappointingly, but the group has already head out the door, leaving him to pay.





User avatar
293 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 17344
Reviews: 293
Tue Mar 21, 2017 6:13 pm
View Likes
BrumalHunter says...



“I’m surprised you aren’t freaking out about the use of public transport,” Hannah joked, pumping Connor, seated between her at the side of the aisle and Nathan at the window, in the ribs. “I expected you to say there are germs everywhere and spray everything with disinfectant.”

Connor sighed and shook his head. “Micro-organisms are everywhere. They’re around you, on you and in you. There is no escape.”

Nathan turned away from the window and pointed to the railings left of them. “Then how do you touch things like that? Or money?”

“Pfft, like I’d ever touch bus railings! People can intentionally spread disease by contaminating the surface.”

“People can do that with money too.”

“Yes, but being infected before the public becomes aware of the problem is far less likely. Therefore, there is no need to handle bills and coins aseptically. But if I really have to clean my hands, I can always just use this.” He rummaged around in his backpack at his feet until he produced a bottle of transparent liquid, which he sprayed on and his hands and rubbed in. The two next to him turned their noses away in disgust, to which he grinned. “There’s nothing like ethanol to disinfect any surface, organic or otherwise.”

Nerd.” Hannah batted his arm away. “Now get your poisoned hands away from me.”

“Not to be the one who fulfills the cliché of constantly asking whether they are there yet,” Cam called from the back, “but are we there yet?”

“Whose turn is it to tell her no?” Jasmine asked from the row in front of them. She tried to turn around, but since the group had decided to take the cheapest bus to Higashiyama and the seats were therefore rather small, she found she couldn’t without burying her face in several layers of fat.

Hannah turned to the back. “Dork, tell Dweeb to shut it!”

Saul, who was stuck in the last row, echoed, “Dweeb, shut it.”

“I can see you guys talking,” Alexis called from somewhere between Saul and Cam, “but I can’t hear what you’re saying.” The dude next to her headbanged to his metal in confirmation.

“I estimate four to five more repetitions of this sequence before we reach the mountain,” Connor confidently predicted. “So about six to seven minutes.”

Image


“I concede that my prediction was an hour off,” Connor grumpily admitted as he disembarked. “But I blame the cow!”

Alexis followed irritably. “Do you mean Hannah, or the Miltank?”

Hannah, already outside, mooed in response.

“To be fair, I doubt you could hear the two of us singing Summer Nights over the noise coming from the metalhead who sat next to you,” Saul replied, stepping off the bus and straight into Alexis’ fist. He staggered to the side and keeled over. “Why are all the girls hitting me?!”

Watching Alexis stomp off, Hannah said, “I think I’ll go keep the princess company,” and jogged after her.

“Is she sure that’s wise?” Connor asked, turning his attention from Saul clutching his face to the retreating girls. “I mean, it’s nobody’s fault that a Miltank rolled into the road and decided to take a nap, but Alexis seems to be projecting.”

“It’s Hannah,” Nathan said, shrugging. “Like she'd care.”

“I’m hungry.” All eyes turned to Cam. “What? We’ve been on that bus forever. The sooner we catch this angelic butterfly, the sooner we get to eat.” She pointed at Connor. “Spin your wheel, Connerd! Whatever it lands on, you’re making.”

“But I–”

“SPIN IT!”

“All right, sheesh. As long as Jasmine promises to keep her Haunter in check.”

“I’ll try.”

He produced the wheel and firmly announced the temporary discontinuation of the magnetic chip’s use. “And if it lands on yakisoba, miso or teriyaki again, it will count as a re-spin. The idea is to eat everything on the wheel at least once.”

“Do we even know what is on the wheel?” Saul asked after Nathan pulled him up.

“It’s right there! On the wheel!” Connor sighed in exasperation. “Onigiri, anpan, sushi, natto, teriyaki, ramen, tempura, takoyaki, yakisoba, miso, tataki, and hiyayakko, in that order. The chip will be placed at ramen once all options have been selected.” He spun the wheel.

“Won’t that result in an ever-increasing number of re-spins once we’ve had more than half of the food on your wheel?”

“Your point?”

“It seems like the wheel will be inefficient,” Jasmine pointed out, the wheel spinning seemingly without end. “And since you’re apparently making lunch, it would be best if it landed on something you can’t mess up. I vote onigiri.”

Once again, his ingenious invention was made redundant by the grasp of a spectre. The other three cheered.

“Traitor! You promised!”

“I said I’d try.”

“That’s it! You’ve interfered for the last time!” Connor pulled a Luxury Ball from his breast pocket and tossed it in front of the ghostly girl. A growling Houndour emerged from the green beam it sent forth. “Hades and I challenge you and Murtle to a battle!”

Many “Ooh!”s sounded around them. A wide circle consisting of friends and lingering passengers quickly formed around the pair of humans and Pokémon.

“Do we need to specify the rules?”

Connor glared at Saul. “You’re not a lawyer. It’s a PvP. Standard rules.” He turned to Jasmine and nodded.

Hades immediately spewed forth a stream of Embers, but the nimble Ghost swerved out of the way and shot forward, Shadow Punching the dog in the side and causing him to yelp. Murtle’s chuckling infuriated the Houndour, so he Roared, the force of the sound sending the Haunter flying away comically.

The canine looked mightily pleased with itself, but Connor facepalmed. “Hades, you can’t attack the Ghost if you Roar it away.”

Hades tilted his head in slight confusion. Never one to let an opportunity for a jumpscare pass, Murtle reappeared in front of him and used Night Shade. The Houndour didn’t flinch that time and lunged forward, Biting the most obvious target: Murtle’s massive tongue. The Haunter would have none of it and promptly rapped Hades on his muzzle, releasing his grip on her tongue. She then gave the dog an indiscriminate Lick. Jasmine nodded in approval.

Connor, meanwhile, was getting frustrated. “Hades, you’re a Dark type, for heaven’s sake! Bite the Ghost!”

Hades took heart in his Trainer’s command and snapped sideways, catching only air. The one Pokémon then set chase after the other, Murtle happily floating backwards and pulling faces at Hades while he barked at her. Connor tried regaining his pup’s attention, but to no avail. After a full minute, he threw his hands into the air.

“Hades, stop chasing her! If you aren’t careful, your exhaustion will cause Lick’s…”

The Houndour slowed down, as if he was suddenly dragging a weight behind him. He stopped and glared at the grinning Haunter, his legs trembling. And then he collapsed. Try as he could, the Pokémon couldn’t get his legs to obey.

“And paralysis has set in. Great. Fine, Jasmine wins.”

The crowd began dispersing, so Connor approached his fallen Hades. Scratching him behind the ear, he pulled a biscuit from his pack, holding it out for the Pokémon take a bite. After his dog swallowed the one half, Connor gave him the rest and produced another, holding it out for Murtle that time.

“To the victor goes the spoils.”

The Haunter happily snatched it from his hands and broke it in two, swallowing her part in one gulp while handing the other to her Trainer. Jasmine accepted the tribute and bit off half. “Your Houndour has spunk,” she said between chews, “but you need to tone it down if he’s to listen to your commands. He must learn that he can’t do whatever he pleases.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Connor countered, both he and Hades rising. “You and Murtle have battled together for years. You’ve spent enough time with her that giving instructions isn’t even necessary anymore.”

“While that is true, that doesn’t mean I wasn’t giving her instructions.” She winked.

“That’s enough talk for now,” Cam announced. “I’m hungry for both food and exploration. Let’s go!” She set off without waiting for any responses.

“The glint I saw yesterday came from the opposite direction, you know,” Nathan called after her.

Cam spun around and corrected her course. “Obviously I knew that!” She claimed, running past them. “I was checking to see if you remembered.”

Connor summoned Seraph from her ball and scooped her into his arms. She eagerly sniffed the mountain air. Stroking her while ignoring Hades' indignant stare, he asked, “We’re not running as well, are we? The next bus only arrives in approximately two hours and fifty minutes, and if we have to traverse the mountain in search of a butterfly that we are most unlikely to find, march all the way back here, and then go grocery shopping back in the city after we’ve endured yet another harrowing bus trip - which, incidentally, we do - then running at this point would be a shameful waste of calories; in addition, some of us didn’t get any sleep last night because of certain individuals insisting on staying up until morning.”

“What did he say?” Nathan asked softly, leaning towards Saul,

The other boy handwaved. “Meh. Probably scientific sounding jargon followed by a complaint. Typical Connor-speak. Let’s just pretend not to be tired and follow the Pokémaniac.”

They wearily followed Cam, who ran about examing every shrub and clump of grass she came across. Jasmine fell in step beside Connor and handed him some yen.

He looked up from his phone. “What is this for?”

“Buying groceries. You do know what to buy, I assume.”

“Of course - and I looked up a recipe just in case. With sixty-five grams of rice and a quarter sheet of nori seaweed required per onigiri ball, I’d have to buy two kilograms of rice and eight sheets of seaweed in order to prepare four per person, with two left to spare. One tub of tuna mayonnaise and a jar of pickled plums ought to be enough for the filling. Oh, and a bag of sesame seeds to sprinkle over it.”

“You don’t actually think that will be enough, do you?”

“All right, then I’ll need four kilograms of rice and fourteen sheets of seaweed so as to prepare eight onigiri per person with four to spare.”

“Guys! GUYS! I found it!”

The four looked in the direction the bouncing Cam was pointing. A butterfly flitted serenely through the air.

“That’s a Butterfree,” Nathan called.

“The one behind it, you idiot!”

The purple Butterfree serenely flitted out of the way to reveal a serenely flitting pink Butterfree.

“That’s not a Shiny either way,” he called back.

“But it’s pink!”

“Not Shiny! It doesn’t have green eyes.”

“How about that one?”

“That’s a black and orange Beautifly.”

“EXACTLY.”

“Shiny Beautiflies are purple and cream.”

By that time, the group had caught up and could see the look of disappointment on her face. “How about that Masquerain?”

“It’s green and purple,” Jasmine said, impressed.

“Let me guess. Not Shiny.”

“Actually, that is a Shiny Bug,” Nathan agreed.

“GUYS! I FOUND IT!”

“Masquerains classify as moths, lanternflies, or damselflies,” Connor pointed out, Seraph in his arms, still being stroked, and Hades at his feet, still whining for attention. “So technically, it’s not a butterfly.”

Cam sighed and drooped. “Saul's brother is trolling us.”
But the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
— Paul the Apostle

Winter is inevitable. Spring will return eventually, and AstralHunter with it.





User avatar
745 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Male
Points: 1626
Reviews: 745
Tue Mar 21, 2017 7:12 pm
View Likes
Lumi says...



Hannah shoved her way through trainers with their phones raised high and low, scanning the identities of the different varieties of bug pokemon covering the forest. A clumsy black-haired guy bumped into her and she growled, turning around to shake her fist. "Go home and play Pokemon GO, scrawny nerd with the cute mouth!" She turned back to her path after Alexis and grumbled to herself. Damn, he had a cute mouth.

As she pressed further up the incline, she began to shout after Alexis, whom she found finally sitting on the deck of a small lodge overlooking the valley below. She was sipping tea and eating tiny takoyaki with home-made chopsticks.

"Alexis...the hell is this? Did you buy a house? Did you buy a house with takoyaki and personal chopsticks?" Hannah looked around. "Are...are you God?"

Alexis squinted up at her and fixed her glasses. Food in her cheek she shook her head. "No," she swallowed. "Mr. Masuda saw me brooding out here and gave me a snack and oolong tea."

"Mr...Masuda?"

"Konichiwa!" a man called from inside.

"Now go thank him for the milk and ramen."

"Milk and...ramen?" Hannah blinked, dumbfounded.

"I told him a cow would be following me, and so he prepared you milk and ramen as a joke. I believe the noodles are made of wheat. Because you're a cow. Because cows eat wheat." She dunked another takoyaki.

Hannah stuck her head inside the small lodge and slowly nodded. "You are Junichi Masuda. This is not a dream. Junichi Masuda made me ramen and I'm about to eat it."

"I hope you enjoy. It is spicy with a special quail's egg sunny-side up atop the broth as to give you energy to face the conflicts between you and your comrades!"

Her eyes were wide. "Th-thank you, Junichi Masuda."

She sat cross-legged on the deck beside Alexis and picked up her bowl, blowing some steam away. "So you don't know this about me." Chopsticks to her mouth and she took a ginger bite. "But all my obnoxious bull? The obnoxious drive, the obnoxious jokes, the obnoxious adventurousness." She split the yolk with her chopsticks and let the insides pour into her broth. "You don't have to have a psych degree to know it's all a cover, right?"

Alexis shook her head. "Yours isn't the thickest shell. At least not the most opaque." She put down her tea and looked at Hannah. "I'm upset because of the bus ride here, Hannah. It was so much like home, being separated and anxious and...all I wanted was to hear my friends and." She gripped the edge of the deck, white-knuckled. "It was an hour and a half, Hannah, and that's all it took for me to feel like I didn't belong."

Hannah placed her hand over Alexis' and smiled, blinking away evident emotions. "You belong. You're such a studious Pokemon nerd and we all love you because of it. You were the one who taught me how to take care of Belly when he evolved from Poliwag and I was so scared he'd get hurt. You were the first one besides Jasmine to have an evolved Pokemon--who kicks ass, by the way--and you're so amazing and confident in who you are."

Her crest was showing.

She continued, voice soft. "I'm...none of those things."

Lexus grabbed her by the shoulders. "But you are! You're so grounded! All the things you just said about me and pokemon. You're like...all those things, but with humans and it's so weird, Hannah--it's so weird and I shouldn't have called you a cow, I just." She looked away. "Came ungrounded."

Her crest was showing.

Hannah shook her head. "I'm a total cow. I am a total cow...sometimes. And I know that." A slight smile before she turned to Alexis, who was wide-eyed and awestruck. "What? Did I get egg on my face?"

"Th-the butterfly is...it's...sitting on your..."

"Ahh, Vivi-chan, you're back early! The glowing Vivillon flew onto Masuda's arm and rested. "Girls, I can't let you catch him right now since this is his safe place when he's tired...but since you did find him..." Their phones both beeped as a Brave Heart appeared on their screens. "Now, don't you have friends who are probably worried about you? You shouldn't keep them waiting for long."

The girls got up and prepared to head out before Hannah pulled Lexus into a hug. "Call me a cow whenever you want to talk, Lei-chan."

And they giggled much more than was to the comfort of Junichi Masuda.
I am a forest fire and an ocean, and I will burn you just as much
as I will drown everything you have inside.
-Shinji Moon


I am the property of Rydia, please return me to her ship.





User avatar
299 Reviews



Gender: None specified
Points: 24185
Reviews: 299
Thu Mar 23, 2017 1:16 am
View Likes
TheSilverFox says...



How (Not) To Catch a Butterfly, Sans Net


As much as he enjoyed the nori, he couldn't escape the fact that, no matter how much seaweed he stuffed into his mouth, he wasn't about to get rid of the smell of wasabi lingering in his mouth and on his clothes.

He looked and felt like a wreck this morning. Tired from a sleepless night (first one in over a year, he guessed), victim of a malicious prank that left his clothes and face coated in that pungent odor, mixed with an acidic one he'd rather not mention, he was stuck hiking up a mountain outside of Kyoto with a group of lunatics. His lunatics, and those he would always be proud of; but crazy nevertheless. Besides, as the obnoxious voice of Mr. Pokemon indicated when he presented his challenge through video early that morning, the organizers of this event were more so. Why else would they leave them to spend hours wandering the beautiful, if tedious, landscape of Higashiyama Mountain looking for some ambiguous shiny butterfly? A needle in a haystack of unambiguously unshiny butterflies, ambiguously shiny butterflies, and unambiguously shiny moths.

With both Alexis and Hannah temporarily gone, authority fell into the hands of the wise and sageful Connor, who instructed Saul to follow Cam as she desperately searched across the face of the mountain, declaring every butterfly-like Pokemon in sight to be her target. "We have a limited timeframe," he kept repeating to everyone else as they peered around trees, stared up at the sky, or looked under rocks. "Our targets are not caterpillars," he reminded everyone while they glanced at a few, adorable yellow caterpillars with horns, before being chased by an incredibly temperamental and territorial Beedrill. "We do not have food," he restated after Cam's pleading.

After about an hour of his and their and everything's nonsense, Nathan gestured to the growing crowds of Trainers with phones now assembling on the side of the mountain. "I don't like the competition," he told Jasmine as he sat down on a fallen-over tree, which she was now balancing on precariously as Haunter hovered around her. He wasn't quite sure what else to say, mostly because he didn't need to know; she smiled eevily and walked over into the crowds. That would hopefully deal with a few of their richer/more successful/less insane threats.

A minute afterwards, he looked around to see if anybody was watching. Nathan could hear Cam somewhere in the distance, having an apparent Pokemon fight with the local wildlife. From the sound of it, Saul was playing rules lawyer and/or coach to the wild Pokemon (with expected results), and Connor had long ago put his game away and went exploring himself by taking a path up the mountain, complaining about rigged systems and incompetence.

Nathan sneaked an apple out of his pants pocket and stood up, brushing wood splinters off his pants with his spare hand. Quietly walking away from the path, he stared around at his landscape with wary and determined eyes, looking for whomever or whatever might be in the vicinity. If it was a person, they had to be avoided; if it was a Pokemon, he had to see if they were worth his time. Though perhaps properly paranoid, nothing came into his view, and so it was easy for him to set down an apple in the middle of a patch of dirt beside an open meadow and hide in the bushes and trees, ignoring the scratches on his arms and the fact he was downwind.

There was a lot of doubt in his mind that this would work. On one hand, bribing Pokemon to make an appearance was brilliantly simple and liable to attract quite a few specimens. On the other hand, he remembered the butterflies weren't actually likely to eat apples; they always drank nectar. On the third, secret, rarely-mentioned hand, these were massive butterflies. Why in the world would they drink from something so unlikely to provide nourishment, especially with those teeth? Unless, of course, there were massive flowers on Higashiyama Mountain, like the corpse flowers in Indonesia he had heard about in the past. In that case, he had some confidence that he could actually attract a shiny butterfly. What would it look like? A Butterfree was the most obvious candidate, but there was also Cutiefly, or perhaps Vivillion, or a Beautifly, or --

Cam, panting and incredibly tired, holding an empty Pokeball in her hand, dashed past and grabbed the apple, tearing into it as Nathan watched Saul enter, equally exhausted. The latter placed his hands on his knees and breathed deeply as Nathan jumped out of the bushes, shouting, "GOD DAMMNIT, CAM, WHY?"

The boy dodged a Pokeball flying over his head as Cam wheeled around and jumped back. "I didn't see you there!" she exclaimed quickly as Nathan walked back into the woods to find the offensive 'ball. "And I was too tired from running to smell you!"

"She...though there was an invisible Pokemon," Saul said, gasping, "hidden by Mr. Pokemon...to troll us...and tried to catch...a tree...when the Beedrill came back."

Nathan came back and flung the Pokeball back at Cam, pressing the button in the process. She ducked as it flew over her head and landed in the meadow. Cam spat a seed out of her mouth, threw the apple core aside, and ran to pick up the Pokeball as Nathan sighed. "Let's just go get lunch. We're clearly too hungry or tired or plain crazy to think our way through this rationally. Has anyone seen Jasmine or Connor anywhere?"

Jasmine walked out eerily from the other side of the meadows, smiling, as she and Haunter joined everyone else, now standing about in the middle of the field. The taunting sounds of the birds were the only noises that emanated, beyond the light rustle of the wind pushing its way through the grass under their feet, as they each looked about for any signs of butterflies. After that, anything at all - large animals, humans, monstrosities, eldritch abominations. No luck. Nathan sighed and slumped his shoulders.

"Connor's probably been keeping track of his time and went back to the bus by now. But, if not, all in favor of abandoning him on the mountainside?" asked Nathan, raising his hand. The records indicate a general agreement among all parties before they disembarked for the bus.

By the time they returned, the area was mostly abandoned, their cheap bus now emptying out another busload of innocent and unsuspecting trainers. Whatever had happened to everyone else, Nathan did not know - they either had a similar mindset and left they own means, or Jasmine scared them all away (by means that he'd rather not figure out). Regardless, it was easy enough to pick out the waving figures of Alexis and Hannah as they reunited with the Connorless group.

"We saw it!" shouted Alexis first, she in an unnaturally bright and cheery mood as they stood in front of the bus entrance, doors open to allow them through as the bus driver impatiently thumped his thumbs against the whell.

Cam ran up, eyes wide. "Really? It wasn't invisible? They weren't completely messing with us?"

That was the point that Hannah started gushing out, "We went to the house of Junichi Masuda and it landed on my head and it had these beautiful yellow and orange colors and it floated like a powerful angel and it had actually a halo on its head..."

Alexis picked up when the other girl tired herself out, interrupting the bus driver's sigh of relief and making him look even more stressed. "And it glittered when it flew with its massive wings and shone with energy and power and basically it has a safe place in Masuda's house where we got to eat ramen and drink tea and we got Brave Hearts for seeing it and it was beautiful and amazing and fun..."

Saul's hand shot up when they both ran out of breath. "Hannah, why is that Vivillon a Super Saiyan?"

"...I call 'em like I see 'em."

It was when the bus driver finally barked at them to get on board that they were forced to end their conversation and enter. "What do you guys have planned for lunch?" asked Alexis, heading up the paltry steps two at a time. "I'm not that hungry, but I wouldn't mind some more."

"Jasmine cheated and now Connor has to prepare onigiri," replied Nathan as he looked at the woods one last time.

"I want to eat." begged Hannah. "I'm not even close to full, and come on, it'll take forever for him to make it and I don't have the patience. Where is he? I thought he was timely enough to show up on time. Is he dead? Did he get lost in the mountains? Did he actually stop caring about his own schedules?"

"He's been incredibly annoying the past hour, so I'd thought we should abandon him for a little bit," remarked Nathan as he saw a figure making clouds of dust in the distance.

"Vengeance? Or scapegoat?"

"Spacegoat."

"I like it."

Image


Fortunately/unfortunately enough, Connor showed up in time for them to depart from the mountain. The group ignored his repeated commentary that he had been late because he had been so engrossed in the scenery and the search for the Shiny Butterfly that he had completely forgotten about the time. As a result, he had run halfway down the mountain to see his best friends preparing to leave without him, which he considered the highest form of betrayal, and the morbid condition of the bus as punishment. Admittedly, considering how sweaty and tired he was, it was a believable story. Besides, as it was generally agreed, he was dull, and he always had fun in a calculatedly rational way. Still, it was more fun to taunt him for his lateness and ignore his pleas or reasoning, until he pointed out that he was making the onigiri and had an exceptional alibi. At which point, not wanting to be poisoned by food, or provided something like that the special green cake, everyone (in particular, Nathan) shut up.

Fortunately, without the interference of a Miltank or some such obstacle, it took them less than a half-hour to re-enter Kyoto. Of course, they spent the next hour as Hannah haunted Connor's shoulder with a despairing, foreboding look while he prowled the local stores for the resources needed for the apparently massive amount of onigiri. Nathan wasn't familiar with it, but he didn't trust that Connor would prepare it properly. After his experience the previous night, he was inherently distrustful of anything that his friends might prepare. The smells and sights were glorious and strange, including those haunting octopus eyes and a surprising amount of crickets, but anything that Connor's hands rested upon were tainted in Nathan's eyes. He was clearly corrupting things with his bad mind, and, the more Nathan thought about it, the sicker he felt, even when he had to explain to the taxicab guy that Hannah's charades did not mean that she was trying to swim in a lake of chocolate-covered sharks. After that, it was a straight shot to the Kyoto Station Hotel and Connor's/Saul's room.

Connor ran off into the kitchen with a shopping bag in tow, mumbling to himself as he peered into the tiny kitchen and inspected the few utensils available to him. Everyone else sat on the furniture, pulled out their phones or books, and began to pass the time. The smell of boiling rice wafted through the air as additional, curious notes joined in a cacophony of good food. There were some odd odors, such as a particularly sour and pungent one, which ruined the experience for Nathan; it reminded him far too much of the cake. He pretended to focus on Connor's book on Japanese history for a couple of minutes before passing the book over to Hannah, who spent her time laughing at the various illustrations on the pages. In the meantime, he just got grumpier and more impatient.

A couple of minutes later, the cell phone in his pocket buzzed, catching everyone's attention. He pulled it out, opened something up, and started typing. "Who's it?" asked Hannah, closing the book and sitting next to Nathan. She peered over his shoulder as he pulled the phone away from her gaze.

"Just mom," he replied warily.

"Ah," she replied, her eyes shining as she came up with something. "Nancy, right? You probably should've ate before you started talking to her. After all..."

She and Saul said, in unison, "it's pre-nancy food."

Nathan groaned, and then his eyes fixated on Connor as the latter walked out of the kitchen and towards Nathan, presenting a porcelain plate with a single, triangular-shaped onigiri on it. (or, (ノ◕ヮ◕)ノ*:・゚✧.) The rice-triangle (riceangle?), wrapped in seaweed, smelled wonderful, and was topped with a nice garnish. Nathan stood up, eyebrow raised as he looked at Connor curiously.

"If how you smell is any indicator," stated Connor, "one of your last meals was far less than pleasant. Thus, I thought I'd present to you something to make up for that. I hope this act of kindness suits you."

Connor appeared genuinely benevolent, which was not a common expression with him; he was always displaying composure, perhaps a little pride. Nathan picked up the onigiri and smelled it. There didn't seem to be anything particularly wrong it. As rain began to patter the windows, he took a bite.

In what was a wonderful way to begin lunch, Nathan tasted the extremely sour umeboshi and responded by instinctively kicking Connor in the groin.
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse
a persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo
non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero,
senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.

Inferno, Canto 27, l 61-66.








Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.
— Charles Mingus