Thank you for reading. Hopefully you enjoy. If you REALLY like it, I have a P-a-t-r-e-o-n, under the same name, where you can read 5 chapters ahead.
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I took a deep inhale of the clean air, letting it stretch my lungs for an uncomfortable amount of time, before releasing it with an explosive pah!
Unquestionably, the best part of leaving Celadon behind was the lack of stench.
My PokéDex vibrated in my pocket for the millionth time, going ignored as it had for the last few days.
The worst part of leaving Celadon behind was definitely the way I'd done it, running away like a sulking child.
I'm not sure how long I stayed in the room where Gary had been interrogated, but it hadn't been more than a minute or two. The PokéNet had given me the address and website of a local Teleport business, and the window an exit. The last of the money I'd won from Erika – and I noticed the scummy Gym Leader didn't give me a TM as was required – had gotten me to the front of the line, and within a few hours, I'd been leaving Vermillion with a backpack bulging with stuff I never got to use down below the Game Corner.
I knew that the way I left shit was only going to make it worse. I started kicking myself as soon as I vaulted that window frame.
But I just… I need to be alone for a bit. Without all the shit..
Another deep inhale, except, as I let it go, it was a scream that echoed over the Fuchsia outskirts.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
"AAAARRRRRWWWWARARAR!"
"BAAAAAAAAARRR!"
"Indeed, my friends, indeed," I nodded sagely, gazing out of the terrain with my team. Sol and Betty were the only ones to join my shouting, but I knew the others did the same in spirit, even if Siren wiggled in my arms at the loud noise.
Probably. Vulpix, at least, if she hadn't been a little off since we'd left. I'd pumped her full of Antidotes, but the poison must've hit her hard.
The edge of the Fuchsia territory wasn't that different from the other side of Vermillion that I'd already seen, but I could already see the signs of that changing. Despite being even further south than Cerulean and Celadon, the massive lakes and abundant plant growth had started to disappear, replaced by long stretches of grassy fields. The trees were taller and straighter, unlike the ground which dipped and rolled into gentle hills.
Plenty of space.
I hadn't decided if I was going to take Bruno's offer or not, however, despite how much it could fuck me over, I was leaning towards saying yes. Training with an Elite Four wasn't a chance you got every day, even if it was suspicious.
I just had to be sure I made some preparations.
Maybe I should've given Walter a little more to go on than 'if I'm dead, it was Bruno of the Elite Four'.
Nah, Walter was a chill guy; I was sure he took it very calmly.
"This is gonna be our home for a while," I declared. We had a lot to do. "So get used to it. First," I slapped Sol's flank, having to reach up to almost shoulder height to do so. And to think he still had plenty of growing to do. "Get down, you big lump-NOT THAT WAY!" I huffed as the huge Fire-Type landed on me. Getting my hands under him, I groaned and strained, bench pressing the Arcanine off of me, much to his panting amusement.
Extracting myself before Vulpix could jump on, to her whining disappointment, I grabbed onto Sol's nape and heaved myself up. I had to spread my legs uncomfortably wide to fit over his enormous back, feeling the shift of his muscles under his fur.
I grinned. Riding the dog had been something that had been on ny mind since I'd first seen Flame, back on my first morning at Oak's.
I flinched at the reminder, but refused to let my shitty personal life ruin the moment for me, burrowing my hands in the almost scalding pelt to get a good hold.
"Okay, buddy, now take it easy this first time-AAAAAHHHH!"
The world blurred for a fraction of a second before I lost my grip and was sent flying backwards, tumbling across the ground. Rolling for what seemed to be an eternity, I finally came to a stop, spitting out grass and dirt to the loud amusement of my team.
I rubbed my aching ass while Sol noticed that I was gone and tried to stop, tripping over his own paws and crashing himself.
Add that to the list of things to work on.
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"Alright, let's see what evolution actually did for you, and how much we screwed up by not waiting longer." We'd made camp for the day, despite the sun still being high in the sky. A medium-sized cliff face blocked the shearing wind that blew away the humid air, leaving Fuchsia somewhat chilly. The area in front of our tent was wide and open, with plenty of room to train without bothering the locals.
Sol huffed indignantly at the suggestion that there was anything wrong with him, bumping his head into my smaller torso and sending me back a step.
"Hey, you heard Oa-" the name stuck in my throat, forcing me to clear it awkwardly. Stupid old man. Wasn't even real; none of them were, just dumbass characters from a children's game, no matter how much that had been disproven. I'd long since lost any notions that it was all fake.
I didn't need them, though, fake or not. I had my team, and that was more than enough.
"As I said," I continued, re-grabbing Sol's attention as I'd lost it while in my own head, "there are supposedly downsides to evolving you so young, even considering the benefits. We know you're fast, though we will need to work on actually being able to move at that speed, which is not even including Extreme Speed." That made him lower his head with a whine, embarrassed. He hadn't been able to maintain a straight line at top speed without crashing, never mind turning, and it clearly bothered him to have his body disobey like that. He was used to physical stuff coming to him with incredible ease. "However, your fire is going to be… stiff, I guess. Inflexible. What in the world that looks like, I have no idea, but that's why we're here. So!" I clapped my hands before pointing at a large rock. It was already littered with holes and craters from the others using it for practice, so I didn't feel bad about ruining it further. "Flamethrower! Keep it tight!"
Inhaling deeply, Sol's white chest puffed up mightily. His bright yellow pelt seemed alive in the sunlight as an aura of shimmering air enveloped him, the ambient temperature spiking several degrees. Despite the power I was feeling, I had to raise an eyebrow as a second, and then another, and a third passed with Sol still focusing his techni-
The great canine's head snapped down, jaws opening with a loud bark that heralded the flickering flames at the back of his throat.
BHWOOOOSH!
A pillar of fire, as thick as a man and nearly solid, with flames so dense it almost looked like a liquid, poured from Sol's mouth with a scream of igniting air. Orange and yellow bathed our surroundings, overshadowing the sun high above, as the tongues twisted around themselves, the very edges of the Flamethrower dyed white as the grass, and plants wilted beneath the Fire-Type move. It slammed into the boulder, washing over and parting around it like a wave, while I had to turn away from the heat, shielding my face with my palm. The cone widened as it went, even though I told him otherwise, the sheer power beyond Sol's ability to keep under control. The Flamethrower only lasted for what felt like a heartbeat before fading, yet a bright streak of light was imprinted on the inside of my eyelids as I blinked furiously to try and clear them, Sol happily panting as we took in his work.
The ground was hard and smooth, a slight trench formed from the melted earth and rocks, shining like glass in the rays of sunlight. The closer it got to the rock, the shallower the trench, but the glassing continued all the way to the edge of the rock, where it met the slowly cooling droplets of lava as they rolled down the target.
I whistled, impressed at the sight.
The top half of the boulder was gone, the glowing, cherry-red slag pooling towards the ground being the only remains left. The rest was sagging under its own weight, softened by the ludicrous heat it was exposed to and pre-weakened by being hammered by Hercules and Betty. As we watched, another section started sliding, falling onto the scorched earth with something between a thud! and a plop!
"Damn, definitely a power boost," the Arcanine's tongue rolled out happily, steam waving from it as he flopped to the ground and rolled over to his back for belly scratches. "But that was a long pause to start. Was that to show off, or how long it actually took you to use the move?" He didn't seem to care, nudging my hand to get me back to it. "Answer my questions, and I'll give you your loving, you attention-whore. Could you have done it faster?"
He deflated with a mighty sigh, turning over to face away from me. I nodded and patted his side in sympathy.
So it wasn't to show off.
By the time we'd reached Celadon, as a Growlithe, Sol had been able to do an okay Flamethrower in less than two seconds.
As an Arcanine, it took a little over four. That was more than double.
"Well," I started slowly, feeling the guilt I was already carrying increase, "that's a little more than I was hoping for, I'll be real. Yet," I reassured him, "not insurmountable. I've been doing some more reading online, and it's not like it means you can't learn the more advanced moves or get faster. It's just gonna take a little more. Meanwhile, your physical skills are only going to grow from here and probably end up higher than they could've been. It's a trade-off, but one I'm sure we'll make work. It's just going to take some effort." He didn't appear convinced, ears flat against his skull at the thought of all the work ahead of him. "Don't whine, you giant baby! You gonna let the others get away from you? They'll evolve too, one day, and if you keep slacking off, they'll leave you behind!"
"Did you see where she went?" I asked as I was leaving, looking for the other Pokémon that was supposed to be training with Sol. The Arcanine whined and shook his large head, seeming quite distressed at the absence himself. I sighed and mentally added it to the list of shit I had to handle
It took a little while to get him up, but eventually, I left him to it, secure in the knowledge that he'd stick to the training I gave him. I had him alternate between Ember and Flamethrower, leaving Flame Wheel for when he was a little more used to his body. Then he was doing sprints, before resting with Morning Sun and repeating.
Which left me free to check in on the others before somebody inevitably blew something up.
I stopped nearby, looking on as yellow thunder splashed harmlessly against the cliff, exploding in a shower of sparks.
"Looking good, bro!" Herc wired back, flexing his biceps at me. I laughed and echoed the motion, making the Electabuzz grunt in approval before turning back to his training with an uncharacteristic sigh. "Don't you start whining as well. I'm counting on you to be one of the mature ones around here," I jabbed him in the ribs playfully – suppressing my yelp at the spark of electricity that zapped me and left the finger numb – to make sure he knew I was kidding. "Whatever we can figure out about hand-to-hand, I guarantee you that Bruno can teach us more in a few seconds. He's literally the strongest Fighting-Type user in the region. It makes more sense to work on your electricity, even if it sucks. Thunderbolt is a big step forward. The difference in power from Thunder Shock will be capacity training all by itself. Now, show me again."
Hercules wirred in agreement, pushing aside his complaints about not being able to punch something. Instead, he started windmilling his arms around in circles, a faint hum of power growing louder and louder as arcs of electricity jumped across his fur.
With a cracking sound, he threw his arms out, the current exploding into a crackling aura of lightning before it sprang from Hercules' hands and ripped through the sky with a sharp crack! leaving the scent of ozone hanging heavily in the air.
"Hey, not bad!" I kept my hands to myself, the leftover charge that clung to the Electric-Type palpable from feet away. "The power's getting pretty good! A little more, and we can start working on the shape manipulation." I whipped out my PokéDex, stubbornly refusing to acknowledge the dozen missed calls and messages, and quickly found a video of an Electabuzz using Thunderbolt. "You see how narrow the bolt is? That's the real difference from Thunder Shock. More than double the power, sure, but condensed to less than a fifth of the space." The screen lit up yellow as the thunder blew a large rock into smithereens. "It's fast as well, but I think that's also from the pressure. We'll figure that part out."
Herc nodded consideringly, rubbing his chin in a move I was sure he'd picked up from me as he studied the video, making me replay it a couple of times. When he went back to training, his arms whirled around even slower than the already sluggish pace, and the charge wasn't quite as strong.
On the other hand, the resulting blast was more of a ball of lightning than the uncontrolled blast Thunder Shock was, and noticeably faster, too, making me nod in satisfaction.
He knew what he was doing, as long as I came around occasionally to keep his mood up.
"Keep it up," I encouraged and moved along, head in a swivel to find my missing teammate. Fortunately, she wasn't that complex, so figuring out the most likely hiding spot was easy enough. On the way there, though, I detoured to the last three Pokémon training.
"Is she being too hard on you girls?"
Eevee scoffed while Vulpix whined agreeingly, until a steamy spray of water to the face made her sputter. Siren levitated over and bumped her back in line, brushing against me with a gurgle, before the fish turned drill sergeant ran her troops through the target practice again.
My eyes lingered on the Feebas, seeing the speed and force with which she gathered her water and let it loose, burrowing into the cliff with ease. It wasn't a Water Gun, yet also not quite a Scald, but somewhere in between. She had the technical parts down very well thanks to relentless practice and her temperature manipulation was coming along well – as her method of keeping Vulpix in line showed.
All she needed was more power and she'd have mastered the move. That might take a while, however, burdened as she was by her species.
I'd give her the new TM I'd picked up at the Department Store when we got to Bruno's waypoint, just to make sure she didn't fall too far behind.
Eevee had a similar, yet different problem, being that I didn't know how to train her. She definitely favored long range, so Hyper Voice and Swift were obvious.
But the problem was her evolution, or rather, all the possible evolutions. Since she wasn't sure what she wanted to evolve into. If I had her working to learn something like Icy Wind or Ember for a Glaceon or Flareon, and she then turned into the opposite type, she might very well lose access to those moves. Like Arcanine or other Stone evolutions, the Eevee line was very attuned to their element and had a hard time with other Types. It was apparently fairly common for Eevee trainers to lose months, if not years, of work upon evolution.
Add in that I still wasn't sure if she wanted to stick around…
The list of problems grew and grew.
"And what about you?" I asked the other fox Pokémon. "You seem a little tired, even though you slept in. You okay?"
Vulpix whined again, pawing at me softly. The hesitation I felt with her was diminishing day by day, but I couldn't exactly say that it was gone.
And wasn't that just another thing to add to my pile of failures. I couldn't even care for my Pokémon properly.
Reaching down for her, she clung to my arms despite not having hands to do so, wrapping her paws around my wrist, her tails curling like she wanted them to join in on the hug.
In terms of training, I was moving into the unknown with a lot of Vulpix's moves. Things like Quick Attack and Icy Wind were easy enough between Eevee and Siren.
But I had no idea where to even begin when it came to something like Fairy-Type energy. It was a lot more complex than simply telling the fox to 'use your other energy'.
I'd tried and only gotten more demands for attention for the attempt.
Baby-Doll Eyes was the only Fairy move we'd managed so far, and contrary to what I'd hoped, it hadn't served as the jumping point I'd hoped it to be.
"There, there," I reassured the ball of whispy floof. I'd hoped Siren and Eevee's work ethic would rub off on her in the way emotions had shown to affect the Fairy-Type, counteracting the weird mood she had been in, but it seemed to have had limited success.
"Tell you what. If you work really hard the rest of the day, I'll let you be the first to be groomed tonight." That got her attention, her eyes snapping open and darting up to meet mine. When she saw I was serious, she spun around, jaws opening as she inhaled. On the exhale, a cone of cold air, specked with snowflakes, blew across the 50 feet the trio had been set up from the cliff, grass becoming tipped with frost in its wake. The stony wall wasn't frozen over, but I could see the thin layer of frost covering it.
"Try and see if you can get Ice Shard to work," I said and stood up, winking at Siren's disapproving look – according to the fish, strength was reward enough, and she wasn't fond of my tendency to bribe Vulpix, Betty, and Sol. "I leave you in Siren's tender fins. Try not to piss her off too much. I've given her free rein over you."
The expressions of fear on the small canines at the gleeful look in the fish's eyes had me chuckling as I finally moved to our missing member, trusting the Feebas to not overdo it.
Or at least leave them alive, if bone-tired.
After that, it was just a short hike before I was gazing out over the green, yet somewhat barren and rocky plains from atop of the short cliffside. I gave the slumped reptile sitting by the edge and looking outwards a moment to acknowledge me. When that didn't happen, I sighed again and sat down beside her.
"Not like you to miss a chance to light shit on fire. I thought it was your second-favourite thing, after fighting."
Betty grumbled and looked away from me. Reaching out, I flicked her nose with a frown as she half-heartedly snapped at me, before grabbing her by the back of the neck. Digging my fingers into the steel-hard muscle under her bone-crest, the Dragon-Type turned to a softly keening puddle as I massaged the built-up tension out.
"Is it because Sol evolved before you?"
The Bagon froze, but couldn't deny the pleasure of her neck being relieved from the weight of her large head, and growled softly in agreement.
I'd figured. While Betty's mood was whimsical at the best of times, she usually didn't have any problems letting everyone know about it, and punishing them for it. For her to hide away, it was a little more serious than her standard tantrums.
"Betty, evolution isn't something we can rush – well, I guess we did rush Sol's, but setting that aside. It's gonna happen when it happens," I felt the bottom edge of her bone dome brush against my fingers, seeing how long it had grown since she'd first hatched, "and you're close, like really close. Any day now, you're gonna evolve into a Shelgon." She was practically vibrating in anticipation at my words. "But I doubt it's going to be as fun as you think it'll be."
She looked at me like I was stupid, hissing in disbelief. "It's true. Have you seen a Shelgon?" I pulled up a picture of one, seeing her eyes devouring the bone-covered, spherical Dragon-Type. "You like that, huh? Well, here's a video of one walking." A little bit of her excitement faded as the Shelgon on screen waddled slowly forward. Betty enjoyed running around, and that was gonna be tough when she was the size of a house. "So don't be in too much of a rush to grow up, please. For both of our sakes." It was going to be a complicated mess of emotions when my little baby started growing up.
She shook me off of her, pulling herself from the near-trance I'd lulled her into, and stood up. Hissing in denial at my words, she roared a challenge for all of Fuchsia to hear, her high-pitched voice carrying far into the horizon. Raising her stubby arms, she waved them around like they were wings, imagining she was already a mighty Salamence, ready to reduce the world to ash.
And, with a great leap, she hurled herself from the edge of the cliff, screaming in joy the whole way down before the cry was replaced with a distant thud! and the sound of an Arcanine having a heart attack as a Bagon fell from the sky and nearly hit him.
Well, at least she wasn't sulking.
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"Definitely a mistake, letting you evolve," I grumbled, stretching my arm as far as it could and then pulling it towards myself, feeling the brush comb through the thick fur. I was forced to rely on touch, as the brush itself was completely lost under the pelt. Finishing the stroke, I groaned and lifted my arms, feeling my back pop after having leaned over the Arcanine for so long.
Sol snorted, his jaws smacking a couple of times before he began drooling again. I'd been brushing the stupidly large dog for over 30 minutes and had only just gotten done, even with it being somewhat rushed. Shit, all the others – except Honedge, who I'd left for last – had taken around the same amount of time combined!
Leaving the lazy beast to slumber next to the campfire – snoring Betty curled up against his stomach as she realised there were advantages to her friend's evolution – I moved back to my spot in front of the tent and sat down, letting Vulpix retake her place, pressed against my left flank. Eevee was on the other side of the Ice-Type, letting her tail brush against my arm, while Siren sat on my right.
Taking out a soft cloth and the oil Brock had recommended, I began the process of extracting my Ghost-Type from my shadow. It took a little, Honedge having grown very fond of hiding out in Shadow Sneak, but we got there eventually. The single blue eye stared up at me as I lay the blade across my lap and applied the oil to the fabric. A strange vibration ran through the sword when I gently ran the white textile along the steel, eyelid closing until only a sliver of colour was visible as I made sure to get every crook and slight chip to the blade.
Hercules was sitting on the opposite side of the campfire, a bowl of food in his hands as he lounged. I could see the eyes of the humanoid Electric-Type slowly closing inch by inch, only to snap open as he sat up properly, barely saving his high-protein meal from falling to the ground. It was funny. Herc could fight all day and still be raring to go – even more energetic than he started sometimes – but a few hours of electric capacity training and he was drifting off mid-dinner.
Judging Honedge to be suitably oiled, I replaced the cloth with a metal tube. Popping the lid open, I gently sprinkled iron shavings along the blade. As it turned out, Steel-Types didn't just pull metal out of thin air when they'd been injured or scratched. It wasn't something I'd known until Brock had told me, but most Steel-Types lived off a diet of ores and minerals anyway, so they got the necessary metal naturally. In Honedge's case, however, since he didn't eat at all, I had to be the one to give him the required materials.
I didn't mind. If anything, it kind of made me happy that there was something I could do for him, something I could help with as he helped me.
Letting the sword Pokémon slide semi-gracefully back into my shadow, I looked around our little camp and made an executive decision.
"Alright, bedtime, everyone." A chorus of groans was my answer; nobody moved from their place other than Herc snapping awake again. "Don't give me that! You're all sleeping anyway and if it starts raining, you're gonna whine and complain about it, and then it's everyone's problem. Into the tent, let's go."
Digging my hands under him, I heaved as hard as I could to try and lift Sol up, Betty whining as she was disturbed. It wasn't until a sleepy Hercules joined me that we managed to get the Fire-Type up, and he damn near fell back down.
Arcanines connection to the sun was no joke. As soon as the sun set, he was out like a light.
Yawning myself, I reclined against the warm, huge dog as he curled up in the back of the tent, behind my sleeping bag. The tent I'd picked up in Celadon wasn't really a tent in the way my previous one had been. Instead, it was more like a white, enclosed, fabric pavilion, big enough to house all of us twice over.
And it still wouldn't be enough when everyone was evolved.
Hercules took a seat by the entrance, leaning against one of the posts and crossing his arms. He wasn't a cuddler, but at least he had started sleeping inside the tent, rather than on the other side. I appreciated the attempt at keeping guard, but between everyone's senses, there wasn't really a point. Especially with Honedge abandoning my shadow to lurk outside, the unsleeping Ghost taking the duty of keeping us safe.
I groaned as Betty flooped half onto me and half onto Sol, out like a light against her two favourite beings. Vulpix took my other side, and in a rare display, Eevee cautiously trodded closer as well. I didn't say anything as our eyes met, but as she curled up next to Vulpix, softly pressed against me, I was happy to see that my plan to have the two interact was paying off. Drifting over the top of them all, Siren tried to be nice and let the others stay close to me, but I snatched her out of the air and laid her on my chest.
Closing my eyes, I tried to let sleep take me, pushing all thoughts of my shitty social life aside and revelling in the slowing of my team's heartbeats as they slowly drifted off, the tent soon filled with heavy breathing and light snores.
It was a little hard, and they grumbled, but I managed to turn over to my other side, pulling something soft closer. Based on the temperature, it was Eevee, the fox snuggling closer with way more affection than she'd show when awake.
A few minutes later, I struggled onto my back, staring up at the roof of the tent blankly.
I couldn't sleep.
It was a lot easier to say that I didn't want to think about it than it was actually not thinking about it. Misty's pitying eyes, Green's tears, Gary's downturned face, they all flashed through my mind, refusing to let me go.
Sighing, I carefully maneuvered through the sleeping Pokémon and out through the flap. There was no getting around Siren waking up, the fish would be impossible to make stay anyway, and Eevee woke as well, but I waved off Hercules when his eye cracked open, and he made to get up and follow me.
No need for everyone else to wake up because of my problems.
A slight chill let me know that Honedge had joined me as I stepped out into the night, the campfire still flickering away. A breeze brushed against my bare upper body, fairly warm for being so late at night. I'd left my pants on as a precaution. You never knew when you needed to rush from your tent, and doing so dick flapping was awkward for everyone.
Taking a deep breath of the night air, I listened to the sounds of Hoothoot as they ghosted through the blackness, skittering legs of Bug-Types brushing through the grass and bushes. The grass was wet between my toes, tickling against my skin.
Pulling out my PokéDex, I stared at the black screen in indecision. Gary could go fuck himself, cowardly bitch that he was, and Green was a whole mess.
But Misty didn't deserve me being an asshole. Her words had been entirely reasonable and I took them like an incel, losing my shit because the girl I'd known for a month wasn't madly in love with me.
I should really read her messages, at least. She deserved that muc-
I spun around at the sound of a branch snapping much closer than I'd have thought. That was the whole purpose of leaving the fire lit. Normally, you'd put out a fire when you went to bed, but in the middle of nowhere, it helped keep the local Pokémon away. So whatever was lurking, it was more than a little-
I blinked, seeing the green orbs doing the same as I locked eyes with a blonde woman in her early twenties. She looked like a floating head at first glance, her lower body fading into shadows like camouflage, but as I watched, the skin-tight black shirt and black cargo pants stuffed into black boots became visible.
As did the Misdreavus floating beside her, presumably the illusion user who had hidden the woman.
"Uh, awkward," the woman's voice was slightly husky in a way that sounded fake and like she was trying way too hard, "I'd hoped you'd be sleeping."
Well, that sounded ominous.
"You're Perwinkle, righ-" the newcomer was cut off as a shockwave of sound exploded like a bomb right next to me, both the woman and I flinching from Eevee's Hyper Voice.
But as Hercules burst out through the entrance of the tent, wide awake at once, I got the point.
"You've made some powerful enemies, boy." It would probably have been more threatening if she weren't knuckle deep in her ear, trying to get her hearing back. "Shame they sent me after you. For you, that is."
Of course it was Team Rocket, it always fucking was. Behind me, the flap to the tent flew open again as Betty and Vulpix came rushing out, having taken a little longer than Hercules.
The blonde's gaze lingered on Betty.
"There's target 1." The woman's eyes slid to Sol as he stumbled out like he was drunk, yawning mightily. "And there's number 2. Lovely."
And like that, the bitch had volunteered to be a target for my frustrations. I was going to feel a lot better when I'd pounded her face into mush.
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And so begins the Fuchsia arc. It has been a while since we really focused on the training and bonding process, and we're going to get a lot of that, plus some battles and plot. But it will slow down a little. Since Vermillion, it has been very action-oriented, and while that's fun, I really do enjoy character work.
Thank you for reading. Hopefully you enjoyed. If you REALLY liked it, I have a P-a-t-r-e-o-n, under the same name, where you can read 5 chapters ahead.