guys I can't look my ruby cartridge in the eye anymore
Title: Berry Glitch (alternate title 100:001 HOURS)
Fandom: Pokémon
Length: ~500 words
Rating: PG?
He’d been a trainer for a full year now, and he’d achieved things in that year that people had taken their entire lives to achieve. Not that Brendan was a braggart. No. In fact, he denied the Championship outright. He was still too young, he told Steven, and just wanted to enjoy his youth with his Pokémon. Steven understood, and their agreement was reached.
But then weird things started to happen. One day, the sun simply froze in its orbit. It didn’t rise or set, but instead remained squarely in the sky. Weirder still was the fact no one else seemed to notice. And the fact that it didn’t seem to hurt anything. Everyone still ate their meals, trained their Pokémon, and went about their daily lives. Brendan, so stunned by their ignorance, fell into ignorance himself. He decided to live normally with his midday sun.
He watered his berries every day. But, ever since the sun froze in the sky, they never seemed to grow. The seeds he planted would never sprout. The sprouts would never grow any taller. The flowering trees would never bear fruit. Still, he watered them, hoping that someday they could.
Lilycove never had sales anymore. He used to keep his eyes glued to TV sets, waiting for those announcements. Or some announcement that the old man at the herbal medicine shop was up to something. They didn’t come anymore. No matter how long he sat and stared at the TV.
He confirmed it when he went to the Shoal Cave. The tides used to come in and out, making an adventure there dangerous but exciting. Brendan sat, counting out the seconds under his breath. 14,400 seconds. That was four hours. Nothing changed. The tides sat at the exact same place, just like the sun. Time had stopped.
Brendan made a neat tally mark for every time he slept. 365 marks. That was one year. He looked just like he did when he turned eleven. The only thing that changed now were his Pokémon. They were the only thing that could improve, that could grow. What would happen when they reached their pinnacle? When they couldn’t improve their abilities, when they couldn’t grow? These thoughts consumed him when he tried to sleep under the midday sun.
But it didn’t stop. One morning (he called it morning, since he’d just woken up- the sun gave no indication of what time it might be-) he checked his PC, and found that Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, and the Regi Pokémon were all missing. He ran to their usual haunts- to the Cave of Origin, to the Sky Tower, to the desert, and through the rain. They had completely vanished. He kept checking the box. Each day, the number of Pokémon in his storage boxes declined by six.
The Pokémon he’d trained in those years vanished without a trace. He began to sleep with his Pokéballs close to him. As if he feared, in the night, the same phantom force would take them away. He didn’t want to catch Pokémon anymore. Anyone outside his six, he couldn’t protect.
1,461 marks. He’d been a trainer for five years now.
Fandom: Pokémon
Length: ~500 words
Rating: PG?
He’d been a trainer for a full year now, and he’d achieved things in that year that people had taken their entire lives to achieve. Not that Brendan was a braggart. No. In fact, he denied the Championship outright. He was still too young, he told Steven, and just wanted to enjoy his youth with his Pokémon. Steven understood, and their agreement was reached.
But then weird things started to happen. One day, the sun simply froze in its orbit. It didn’t rise or set, but instead remained squarely in the sky. Weirder still was the fact no one else seemed to notice. And the fact that it didn’t seem to hurt anything. Everyone still ate their meals, trained their Pokémon, and went about their daily lives. Brendan, so stunned by their ignorance, fell into ignorance himself. He decided to live normally with his midday sun.
He watered his berries every day. But, ever since the sun froze in the sky, they never seemed to grow. The seeds he planted would never sprout. The sprouts would never grow any taller. The flowering trees would never bear fruit. Still, he watered them, hoping that someday they could.
Lilycove never had sales anymore. He used to keep his eyes glued to TV sets, waiting for those announcements. Or some announcement that the old man at the herbal medicine shop was up to something. They didn’t come anymore. No matter how long he sat and stared at the TV.
He confirmed it when he went to the Shoal Cave. The tides used to come in and out, making an adventure there dangerous but exciting. Brendan sat, counting out the seconds under his breath. 14,400 seconds. That was four hours. Nothing changed. The tides sat at the exact same place, just like the sun. Time had stopped.
Brendan made a neat tally mark for every time he slept. 365 marks. That was one year. He looked just like he did when he turned eleven. The only thing that changed now were his Pokémon. They were the only thing that could improve, that could grow. What would happen when they reached their pinnacle? When they couldn’t improve their abilities, when they couldn’t grow? These thoughts consumed him when he tried to sleep under the midday sun.
But it didn’t stop. One morning (he called it morning, since he’d just woken up- the sun gave no indication of what time it might be-) he checked his PC, and found that Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, and the Regi Pokémon were all missing. He ran to their usual haunts- to the Cave of Origin, to the Sky Tower, to the desert, and through the rain. They had completely vanished. He kept checking the box. Each day, the number of Pokémon in his storage boxes declined by six.
The Pokémon he’d trained in those years vanished without a trace. He began to sleep with his Pokéballs close to him. As if he feared, in the night, the same phantom force would take them away. He didn’t want to catch Pokémon anymore. Anyone outside his six, he couldn’t protect.
1,461 marks. He’d been a trainer for five years now.