Author's Note: I apologize for the delay. I only got back from my trip this morning when I was supposed to get back days ago. It has been an extremely stressful couple of days, haha. But I'm here, so enjoy this update (better late than never)!
Chapter Eight – Lights and Cameras
-One-and-a-half years prior to disappearance-
My hands shook frequently lately, but I hid it well. Whenever someone spoke directly to me, I crossed my arms and smiled. During interviews, I kept my hands in my lap. At my annual doctor's appointment a few weeks ago, I sat on my hands the whole time the doctor was in the room with me.
Sometimes I sat in my room practicing holding my hand out without it shaking, but I couldn't stop it no matter how hard I focused.
It was as I practiced one day that my personal phone rang. I grabbed the phone and held it shakily up to my ear, pressing it as firmly as I could against my face to stop the movement. "Hello?" I greeted.
"Ah, is this Champion May?" a female voice on the other end asked, and I nearly clicked the line dead. Luckily, I didn't. "This is Ines—the, uh, intern from The Daily Buzz."
I nearly forgot. Well, no, I couldn't forget. I thought about everything coming up every day I lived: how long I had to wait until I could leave, what I still had to do to prepare, what I might do if Steven returned any day now… There were so many thoughts in my head all the time, and I was beginning to break down.
"Oh, Ines. How are you?" I sat back down on my bed and curled my knees up into my chest.
"I'm fine. But did I call you at a bad time? You sound tired," Ines replied.
I sat up a little straighter but still hugged my knees. "No, this is the perfect time. I'm glad to hear from you. I hope that you had a good time at the rest of your internship."
"Yes, I did! I really did!"
I couldn't help but smile at her energy. Did it make me a horrible person that I was taking advantage of a girl with such an innocent light in her? All of her excitement at being done her internship—her eagerness to help me, a stranger, with a project about which she knew essentially nothing… She was a good person, and that left me… not.
"But, uh, May," she began tentatively, "I was calling to let you know that I finished with my internship. As of last week, I graduated from film school, too. So, I was hoping that your offer to help you on your documentary was still applicable. I have a few friends from school that would like to help if that's okay with you, too. Oh, but I never mentioned your name or anything."
The more people that got involved in this, the harder things would be to keep everything contained. This film would be revealing, but only in time if at all. If anyone ever got a hold of them, asked them what they knew about me… I didn't want to drag them into my mess. But I also didn't want anyone to know what I planned to do.
A few people would be okay, probably three at most. The fewer the better.
"It's fine if it's only a few. I'm just really glad that you're willing to help me out. I can discuss payment and all of that with you in person. And… some other things," I added, and then I let my legs fall out straight. Could she hear my voice shaking, could she hear the way the phone trembled against my skin?
"What other things?" Ines wondered, but her voice was curious, not concerned.
I glanced around my room for a moment, if only to distance myself from the answer. I needed Ines for this, but I didn't want her to be frightened by what she might see or discover about me. This was all so complicated. The longer I stayed here, the worse I felt about everything. I was more tired, more bothered, and nothing could put me at ease.
"It's easier to explain it face-to-face. But… I need you to do me a favor before we meet," I started hesitantly. Ines hummed in response on the other end. "There are a couple of shots I'd like you to get for me. Call it an… audition. Show me what you can do."
Ines didn't respond right away, and for a moment, I thought she hung up. But then I could hear her clear her throat. "No problem!" she announced, and her enthusiasm was contagious enough to make me smile. "What would you like?"
A couple of weeks passed before Ines called me back to let me know that she got everything I wanted. By the time we met up, it had been a whole month since she contacted me, and somehow I felt I was beginning to run out of time. At least, I figured, we had the hardest and most painful part done: the shots of abandoned Pokémon and people. The rest would be a breeze to film.
We decided to meet up in Rustboro again because we could get into a nice space at the library to film. It seemed the least conspicuous place for me, anyway. Ines first suggested a halfway point for the both of us, but something about the mere idea of going to Petalburg bothered me. It'd be as though my dad was hovering over my shoulder.
"May! Champion May!"
I winced at the sound of my name as I waited outside the library for Ines and her crew to arrive. But when I spun slowly around and saw her vaguely familiar face—framed by a new haircut—my shoulders lost some of the tension. She carried a bag almost bigger than she was, but the two guys behind her carried some even larger.
Ines didn't look the least bit bothered by the weight of her baggage. Though, she must've seen me jump since she approached with a frown instead of a smile.
"Is everything okay?" she asked as she got closer. The two others behind her exchanged a look.
I nodded. "Do you have the shots with you?"
Ines nodded, swinging the large bag over her shoulder a little bit towards me and patting the side. "It's all in here. Oh, um…" She paused and smiled uncomfortably at me. "My team prefers to work with traditional reel to reel. Hopefully that's okay with you. If we need to, we can always convert to digital later."
"Reel to reel is fine. It'll… give me the aesthetic that I'm looking for," I agreed. "There are a couple of things I need to discuss with you before we actually start this, though. I can't foresee this taking more than a day to film, but I am going to compensate you for much more than that. You see… I won't be able to give you any part of the proceeds from this film, should it ever be shown at all. I can't even credit you for it."
One of the guys behind Ines, a tall burly boy with arms the size of my legs, narrowed his eyes at me. "What? You expect us to do all of this work for you and not get any credit for it? Yeah, right."
Ines turned back towards the boy, and I was surprised to hear her tone so dark as she snapped, "Marv, listen to her first."
"I'm saying this for your own protection," I explained, and somehow I sounded like my mother, which was weird enough considering I was probably younger than the people standing here with me. "I can't explain all of it—you'll see when we start filming. This will be controversial, and I don't want you getting caught up in it."
Marv didn't look convinced. His brow furrowed even further, which made him look all the more intimidating. "Controversy is all part of the film game, Champ. That's how stars break out."
"I know, but…" I trailed off, the sudden thought that this might be a huge mistake haunting me. If this ruined everything… "Look, I'm willing to do anything you want. I'll pay you more, I'll give you all letters of recommendation, anything you want. You name the price. Please. It'll be easier for you that way."
The other boy shifted the bag over his shoulder and sighed loud enough that the three of us all stared at him. "I'm just happy to have a job. I don't really care if I get credit for it or not. It's money, and that's what I need right now since I'm a month behind on rent. So, regardless of what you two think, I'm all for helping out on this."
"Frank…" Ines said quietly, and then she nodded. "I agree. And how cool is it to help a champion?"
Marv groaned, but even he seemed to be persuaded. "Fine, fine. I need the money, too. But how much are we talking here, since you said we could name the price?"
Without my parents' knowledge, I cashed the check from The Daily Buzz rather than depositing it, but there was enough money in my bank that they would never question it if they took a peek. I could offer these three more money than they had probably ever seen, even if it wasn't as much as I could give.
"Forty-five million each."
Marv nearly choked from the sheer force of his inhalation. Ines's eyes went wide, and Frank's eyebrows furrowed low enough to give the impression he was confused.
"Are you for real?" Marv demanded, and when I nodded, he wiped his forehead with the back of his hand.
"Entirely." I gave the three of them a small smile, which was truly the most I could offer them at this point. "I will be grateful to you for this. Indebted. So, if you choose to help me, you'll be owed a favor by Hoenn's Champion. I'll do what I can to repay you someday, but there's only so much I can do."
Ines held out her hand to me. "Well, from the shots I took already, I can tell this will be an interesting project. Thanks for working with me."
When I grasped her hand, Frank and Marv clasped their hands on top of ours. Ines laughed, and I admired the way the three of them exchanged glances in the brief seconds that followed. How beautiful friendship seemed when it was something so out of reach.
"And one more thing…" I began when they lowered their hands.
"What now?" Marv cried, but he managed a smile for me when I looked up at him. Ines elbowed him in the gut, which shifted the bag on his shoulder and nearly made him buckle under the weight.
"I need to ask you to trust me," I told them, "as I am now."
Ines took one look at the script I developed and went pale. "May, what are you trying to do?" she asked me, and I looked away from her. There was no way I could look her in the eye like this. "This doesn't sound at all like you. Marv was a screenwriter major in university. Should he take a look at this and help you rewrite?"
I shook my head, still avoiding her gaze. "No, that's how I want it."
When I finally gathered the courage to look at her, she was staring at the document with clenched teeth and narrowed eyes. I knew what she was trying to do—she wanted to read between the lines, to find the truth between the words there, but that was all there was. Those words on the pages… it wasn't that they were true, but there was nothing more to them than what was there.
"Well…" Ines picked up the stack of pages and hit them against the table to align them. "I'll have to fix the audio to make my voice sound older, which is fine since I'll dub that over later. The only one on camera will be you. We'll be able to do that today. Frank, Marv, and I will take the next few weeks or so to mix everything together, and then we'll show you the final product."
"Great."
Ines set the papers back down on the table and folded her hands on top of them. "This doesn't sound right. Maybe it's just because I want to believe it, but I'm more convinced by the you at the Daily Buzz interview than this you. You're making yourself look… frankly, horrible. It looks bad for you. You want that?"
"I want to prove a point," I countered, and Ines nodded. "Believe what you want to believe. This is the film you're helping me make."
She sighed, and then she glanced over at Marv and Frank in the corner of the room, both of whom remained silent throughout this encounter as they set up the camera. That wasn't to say they weren't listening. They didn't know me like Ines did, and she barely knew anything about me at all. So, this was really their first impression of me.
Well, like I wanted to prove to the Adventurer, sometimes first impressions were wrong.
Then again, sometimes they were right.
"We're all set," Marv said, giving Ines a thumbs-up.
Ines held onto the script and stood up so she'd be out of the shot. She ushered me into a spot away from the table near the wall where I'd stand out. The lighting wasn't ideal, but apparently Frank worked wonders with editing software. The only thing I had to worry about was my acting, and I mastered that long ago.
"All right, I'm going to read the lines. What I say and how I say it won't be in the final film. I'll be recording the lines and changing the pitch later, so don't worry if it's not exactly how you pictured it sounding. For now, you worry about delivering your lines. You want this to look like a natural interview," Ines directed as she gestured for me to shift this way and that for the perfect angle. "We'll give a countdown."
My heart beat in time with Frank's count, and I took a deep breath with some time left. By the time I opened my eyes, Frank was pointing at me to start. I could've sworn my heart stopped altogether.
Were my hands still shaking?
"Oh, yeah, I absolutely love battling," I said, my voice as clear and as bright as it ever was. "There's… thrill to it, you know?"
"When did you begin battling?" Ines asked.
I watched her instead of looking into the camera. She glanced over at Marv at the camera, and he nodded.
"I began battling when I was very young, back when I lived in Johto," I answered, and this came off so naturally that the thought of pre-planned words and scripts didn't even come to the forefront of my mind. "My father was always very into battling and raising Pokémon. I grew up with that, and I trained with his team for a long time, too. But it wasn't until I moved to Hoenn that I got my first Pokémon."
"Did you know that one day you would end up saving the world from being drowned and that you would become the Champion?"
Ines shook her head at me, maybe trying to get me to change my mind, but I could only smile at her attempt. A giggle escaped before I could stop it. How ridiculous. This whole thing… this was all so ridiculous…
"Yes." My voice dropped to its natural octave, abandoning my higher-toned, little girl-esque façade for the first time on camera. "Yes, I did."
A second of silence passed, and then Ines's arms dropped to her sides. "Cut. Stop. May, are you sure you know what you're doing? What you're about to do? You said this was controversial, but I didn't realize you were going to go against everything people believe. You're essentially calling yourself out as a hypocrite."
Marv groaned, leaning around the camera and shooting me a dark look. "I'm going to be straight with you. You're making yourself look like a bitch. Are you prepared to go from Hoenn's little princess to Hoenn's most hated savior?" he questioned, and I shifted to sit on my fingers. My hands shook so terribly that keeping them in my lap hid nothing.
"Is my point being made?"
"I suppose it is," Marv answered with a shrug.
"Then I'm fine with that. Remember, I asked you to trust me. You're getting paid, I'm getting my documentary. Just leave it at that," I snapped, and Ines's gaze turned darker than before. "Can we get back to this?"
Frank counted us off again, and Ines continued, "How did you create the region's most powerful team? Do you have battle strategies?"
I smiled and nodded. "Of course. You can't just go blindly into battle—that's a disaster waiting to happen. One of the things that I did to create my team was bring in all sorts of different types. I had a water-type, but I had a fire-type and grass-type to complement it. I had a psychic-type, but I had a dark-type to complement it. It's a lot of give and take."
"And by give and take, you mean…"
"Not every type is going to work. That's obvious." I laughed again. "But I tried multiple combinations and have up on the ones that were not as absolutely strong as I needed them to be. I saw that Team Aqua was a problem, so I needed to have a strong team—any Pokémon that was not cut out for it got the boot. That's all there is to it."
Ines glared at me—and a shiver crawled up my spine when she did—as she continued to read from the script, "So, you put whatever Pokémon you didn't need in your PC?"
I rolled my eyes, but to be honest, it was mostly out of spite for myself. "If they lost, I didn't need them, and I had no plans to use them. I released them."
"But often those Pokémon will become dependent on their trainers—if you domesticate a Pokémon, when it recognizes you as its master, many times they won't know how to return to the wild that they were forced to leave behind. And if you release a Pokémon right after a battle—"
I shook my head, cutting Ines off before she could even finish the line. "I needed a team that could win," I said. "You would all be dead if I hadn't made one."
Ines cut the film again, flipping through the script to the next part where the interviewer spoke.
"She has a point," Frank offered carefully, tipping the boom mic back so it leaned on his shoulder. "We would be dead if it wasn't for her. Not to say that any of this is really… right to say on screen or anything."
"I don't even know if this will ever be seen by anyone," I admitted. Marv rolled his eyes, which I kind of expected from him at this point. "But if it is—"
"If it is," Ines interrupted, "what's stopping any one of us from saying none of this is true? I can't believe that you release all of your Pokémon like that. Why shouldn't we admit that we were the ones who worked on this film? Why shouldn't we admit that you're not the bad person you're making yourself out to be?"
I smiled, partially because I didn't have much of a response to that. In all honesty, there was nothing stopping them from telling the truth. But how reliable a source were they? There were dozens upon dozens of interviews of me as the lovely Champion May. If a single one came out that challenged my image, wouldn't that do more damage? Who were three strangers to say if this was accurate or not?
"Nothing. If that's what you think, then there's nothing." I clapped my trembling hands together. "Let's continue, shall we?"
I probably would never know if the Adventurer ever found this film once it was completed. I wouldn't know if anyone else would ever see it. But it bothered me the most that I might never know if Ines remained convinced that the person I was wasn't the villain I wanted to be.
Author's Note: So with all of this mess coming home from my trip, I really don't know if I'll be able to update on Monday. I'll try my best to get a chapter or two written in the next few days, but it may not happen. The updates these next couple of weeks may possibly be sporadic if I can't get anything written by Sunday. Hope you don't mind. I'll try my best!
