Pokémon Crimson
Chapter 10: Get Used to Disappointment
(Jason Fremont)
"I don't see how this is fair in any universe," Amaris griped from his position lying face-down on his bed. "I was by far the least inebriated of our group and my head still feels like it's splitting open."
"Don't yell," Gina muttered from her own spot, sitting in a chair by the window and staring down at her feet. She'd succeeded in getting one sock on and looked like the prospect of putting the other one on was utterly beyond her.
Jason, for his part, was leaning up against the wall, seated on the floor with his head leaning heavily against one of his shoulders. "I'm sorry I poisoned us," he grumbled.
"Well… now we know," Gina said, leaning forward to grab her foot, then changing her mind and leaning back into her chair. She opened her mouth to say something else, but Amaris cut her off.
"Let me guess," he grumped. "'Never again.' You really say that phrase entirely too much."
Gina waspishly told Amaris she hadn't been planning on saying that, and Jason tuned them out, a small smile twitching at the corner of his mouth nevertheless. His sinuses felt packed full of cement and his stomach was touch-and-go, but he couldn't bring himself to regret taking the night off yesterday in spite of it all.
"C'mon," Jason said, getting to his feet with a Herculean effort and struggling not to sway on the spot from the headrush and tunnel-vision he received for his efforts. "Since it's my fault we're dying I'll buy us soup in the lobby."
The first ten minutes of breakfast, which was edging farther into the lunch territory by the time they finally assembled, was spent in tired, miserable silence. For a while no one felt like drinking their soup and just stared down at their steaming bowls listlessly, but once they started to eat there was no conversation and no pause as they wolfed down the rest of the food. By the time they were scraping their bowls clean it looked like Jason wasn't the only one feeling slightly more human.
"Soup is my new favorite thing in the entire world," Gina announced, guzzling a glass of water and setting her empty cup closer to the edge of the table to catch the eye of a passing waiter.
"I'm inclined to agree," Amaris said, though he was still rubbing his head every so often and seemed exhausted.
"We're still gonna try to challenge Avery, assuming he's back, though?" Jason checked, and Gina and Amaris muttered their assent.
"Wonder how tough he'll be to beat," Gina mused. "He's fire, so I don't think I'll use Charmeleon."
"Or you could," Jason pointed out. "That would be a pretty awesome fight."
"I think I'd have a heat stroke," Gina said with a smile. Amaris heaved a sigh and dropped his hands from his face, giving Jason a critical look.
"What?" Jason asked, feeling self-conscious.
"Which of your team are you going to use against him?" Amaris asked. "Ivysaur will have a hell of a time of it."
Jason gave a half-shrug. "I dunno. I mean, I could use Ivysaur. He's got a type disadvantage, sure, but he's gotta learn how to handle some heat sooner or later."
Both Gina and Amaris looked so doubtful at this suggestion Jason grimaced and looked away. "All I'm saying is it isn't impossible for a Grass-type to win at the Fire Gym. It's been done before."
Gina twirled her spoon slowly between her fingers, biting her lip. "Not saying it's impossible," she said, clearly choosing her words carefully. "Just, I wouldn't have ever put Charmander up against Cerulean's Gym."
"Likewise, I didn't ever intend to use Wartortle against Vermillion," Amaris said. "It pays off to play to your strengths."
"Yeah, alright, anyway… another thing I wanted to ask," Jason said, steering the conversation away from Ivysaur's disadvantage, "After we're done here, there's the issue of the Soul Badge."
Gina heaved a sigh. "Yeah. Been thinking about that too. I really don't see how any of us are going to get one, to be honest."
"Gav seemed to rule out getting one through more shady means," Amaris noted. "But perhaps that's the only viable option for us at this point."
Jason made a face. "I don't like the idea of buying or stealing a badge," he said, then glanced around to make sure no one else overheard them. They were quite unnoticed in the lobby, though, most sleepy travelers minding their own business and rummaging through their bags. "But if we have to, I guess we have to."
Jason's Dex hummed against the table, the vibration moving it a little closer to the edge. He snagged it before it could fall, and, seeing Edith was calling, grinned and hit "accept call."
"Hey there, lovely," Jason said, leaning his elbow against the table and grinning. He could see Amaris and Gina adjusting accordingly out of the corner of his eye, turning to mutter to one another about Saffron and giving him his privacy.
"Hi," Edith responded, sounding a little breathless on the other line. He wondered if she'd just been cleaning. "Just wanted to check in. You're all in Cinnabar?"
Jason winced. He'd completely forgotten to update her when they arrived, in light of the Gym debacle and their subsequent night off. "Yep. Everyone's ship-shape. Mostly."
"Mostly?" Edith asked, zeroing in on that modifier.
"Yeah, mostly. We sorta took advantage of the drinking age last night."
He could practically see the surprise on her face. "You did? Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Little late now," Jason noted. "But don't worry, we're fine. Just… won't be doing that again for a long time."
She chuckled softly and he felt a wave of relief that she wasn't in the fretting mood today. "Going to challenge the Leader soon then, I take it? Unless you're too hungover?"
"Pshaw," Jason said. "I'm never too hungover to fight a Gym Leader. Me and the others were trying to figure out what to do after this, though."
"What do you mean?"
"Saffron," Jason said with a sigh. "Can't figure out how we're supposed to get in and out of there undetected, with a Soul Badge to boot."
Edith was quiet for a moment, then said, "I see. Yes, that would be challenging."
Clued in to her cryptic tone, Jason frowned. "You okay?"
"Just fine," Edith said. He could picture her smile, and the way she ducked her head low as if it was something she occasionally had to hide. "Just thinking. We heard from Beth and the others. I guess they found the HM place, but they have to camp out and try to prove themselves to the guy who sells them."
"What?" Jason asked, switching his Dex to his other ear. "I don't follow."
Edith filled him in on Gav, Beth and Blake's troubles, gave an update on the Pokémon back home, and listened as Jason recounted the ferry ride, Gina's violent motion-sickness and how little he ever wanted to imbibe anything alcoholic again. By the time they hung up he was feeling sunnier, all thoughts of his recent behavior and Ivysaur's type disadvantage far away. Gina and Amaris had evidently run out of things to talk about and were now playing tic-tac-toe on a napkin.
"You know they have a game installed for that on the Dex," Jason noted. Gina looked up at him, surprised to be addressed.
"There's this old-fashioned thing called a 'pen' though," she pointed out, displaying the plain ballpoint for him like it was a relic. "You can use it to write on things if you don't want to rely on technology for absolutely every little thing you do."
"Nonsense!" Jason insisted. "You speak heresy."
It was going on late afternoon by the time the gang had showered, stocked up on potions and other healing items, and made their way down to the Gym. The sign, thankfully, was gone. Hopefully Avery would be within.
Jason hadn't really taken time to appreciate or take in the building yesterday, and did so now, snapping a photo of it for posterity on his Dex. It was a surprisingly normal building, as far as Gyms went. It sported a red roof with a small, tall peak at the top. There was only one window up there, where the attic must be.
"Says here that Blaine, the original Leader, used to sit up there and watch for Moltres," Gina said, scanning over a pamphlet from the door.
"Think he really was rescued by a Legendary?" Jason asked, staring up at the window and then turning around to see what the vantage point was looking at. He couldn't see anything from where he stood, but he thought perhaps it was pointed in a northeasterly direction, towards the Plateau.
"Who knows?" Amaris mused. "There are all sorts of legends surrounding the original Leaders and the founding members of the Elite Four. It's fact mixed in with fiction and you'd be hard-pressed to find anything that hasn't been embellished, at least a little."
"Like the myth that Lance caught all his Pokémon without using Pokéballs of any sort?" Gina asked, a smirk on her face.
Jason gave her a truly affronted look. "More heresy! Everyone knows that's totally true!"
"Not even!" Gina retorted. "How the heck can you explain how he caught that many dragons without using any sort of ball? They'd've eaten him!"
"Lance is just an unrepentant badass," Jason argued, and Amaris made an "ooh" sound, no doubt making fun of his vocabulary word. Jason kicked dirt at him.
"I thought you were the one who was so eager to get in here?" Amaris questioned. "We're here now. Let's go."
The second they pushed their way into the Gym Jason grimaced and squinted his eyes. It was sauna-hot in here. Gina immediately wrapped her long hair around her hand multiple times and tied it up in a messy knot at the back of her head that was comically large compared to what a normal bun would look like. "Oh man," she muttered. "This sucks."
"Says the fire trainer with a water aversion," Amaris pointed out.
"I'm not a fire trainer. Kaylee is. I just have a fire starter."
"Charmeleon and his secret double-life as an arsonist," Jason muttered, distracted, wiping some already gathering sweat from his brow. "Let's get this over with fast."
Past the entryway was a long corridor that seemed to go on for at least 200 feet before a turn showed that the hallway veered off to the left. Jason looked around, partly for an explanation for the source of the oppressive heat, and partly for traps. Ever since Fuchsia he'd developed a healthy paranoia of seemingly innocent Gyms.
Amaris lead the way forward, but had only made it about a quarter of the way through when a panel in the wall opened to his right. He leapt back, a Pokéball in hand in an instant, but all that emerged was a touch-screen mounted on a sliding panel. Jason and Gina crowded in around him to read.
"What are the only two official routes to reach Cinnabar Island?" Jason read aloud. Once he was done reading four possible answers popped up on the screen below.
"Are you serious?" Amaris asked the panel, as if it could talk back, before he jammed his finger into selection D. Jason and Gina both protested, not having had a chance to read the possibilities themselves, but a second later the panel sucked back into the wall and a little bar of green lit up across the floor in front of them. Amaris snorted.
"Routes 20 and 21. Let's go."
"If more trivia questions pop up, let us actually read them before you decide," Gina grouched. "You could be wrong."
"Nonsense," Amaris said, giving her a smirk from the corner of his eye. Jason rolled his eyes and took the lead, not wanting to cede the next trivia question to Amaris by default.
Sure enough, another 50 or so feet into the room, a second panel jutted out to block their path, this time from the left side of the corridor.
"Wonder what happens if we just go around," Jason wondered as Gina read the question and muttered to herself. Jason peered around the room as Gina slapped Amaris' encroaching hand away from the answer key.
"I'm assuming fight a Junior Trainer," Amaris noted. "Also, the answer is B."
"I know that, thank you," Gina snarled, jabbing B. The panel slid away and they continued on.
As obnoxious as Amaris was, Jason had to admit he was on a roll. Gina and he were deep in competition mode, both of them shouting the answers to mainly Cinnabar-related trivia over each other and grappling for the answer key privileges. Jason hung back and let them have at it, content to avoid more random quizzes. He'd had more than enough of those in primary.
"What famous Pokémon is rumored to have been created in the Cinnabar Research Mansion?" Gina read aloud. She said "Mew" the moment Amaris said "Mewtwo," and the two of them glanced at each other.
"The researchers supposedly captured Mew and—" Gina began, but then seemed to realize her error. She tried to correct herself, but Amaris was already talking over her.
"They did capture a Mew, reportedly, but Mewtwo was the Pokémon that was actually genetically engineered in—"
"I got it, shut up," Gina said, stabbing the "C" button for Metwo.
Jason felt his eyes crossing as they answered question after question, following the winding, labyrinthine corridors deeper and deeper into the steadily-suffocating heat of the Gym.
"Who is the founder of the Pokémon Lab on Cinnabar?"
"Dr. Fuji. Everyone knows that."
"Which TM was the first to be created in Cinnabar's Pokémon Lab?"
"Metro—"
"Metronome."
"Will you stop interrupting me?!"
"You just have to be quicker."
"Which Pokémon was created solely through experiments in the Pokémon Lab?"
"Porygon," Gina and Amaris chimed in unison.
"Jeez, what's with this obsession with the Lab?" Jason wondered aloud as they rounded yet another corner. He perked up considerably, though, when two large double-doors appeared at the very end of that particular hallway. "Oh, sweet! Looks like we're almost done."
"What are Cinnabar Island's two main forms of income?"
"Technology and Tourism… option A," Gina said, glancing to Amaris for his assent before she pressed it. "Awesome! One more then?" It looked like there might be another panel hidden a ways ahead, but after that the path looked clear to the Gym doors.
The final question appeared and Amaris read it aloud to them. "What was Cinnabar Island's slogan before it was changed in 2025?"
"A," Gina said, at the same time Amaris said, "C." They exchanged a look and Jason sighed.
"'Cinnabar's red is the color of passion' was the original slogan, but it changed again in 2025 to 'The fiery town of burning desire.'"
"That's probably the lamest thing I've ever heard in my life," Jason noted, linking his hands together at the back of his head and waiting for the other Initiates to duke it out.
"No, 'burning desire' came first, then 'the color of passion.' That was the one that was changed in 2025," Amaris argued.
"Thank God," Jason muttered. He didn't even know what the town's new slogan was, but it had to be better than that.
"I'm 100% sure it's the other way around," Gina warned.
"Like you were 100% sure Mew was created in the Cinnabar Lab?" Amaris needled.
"I said that was a mistake! I'm really, really sure about this one!"
Jason sighed. "Can we flip a coin or something? I'm melting."
Amaris heaved a heavy sigh. "I've got the best track record of correct answers between the two of us. I say it's C."
"Whatever," Gina said, tossing her hands up and stepping aside. "Go for it." Amaris strode forward, tapped C, and abruptly cursed as the bar on the floor turned red. It looked like it was taking all of Gina's strength not to stomp her foot and shout, "See?!" at him.
A panel Jason hadn't spotted opposite from the screen opened and a very sweaty looking man stepped out from the cubby hole within. He was tall and thin, with a haircut that was about fifty years out of fashion and a white collared shirt that was sticking to his skin from the heat. Jason felt a surge of pity for him having to wait in the walls for a trainer to screw up these pop quizzes.
"Shoulda listened to the girl," the man said, clearly out of breath from heat fatigue. "Now you'll have to fight me if you want to challenge Avery."
Gina shot Amaris a poisonous look. "Do we all have to fight you, or just one of us?"
"We can do a three-on-three so you can all be on your way faster and I can get a drink of water," the man said, mopping his brow. "I'm Lowell, by the way."
Jason gave Lowell a smile and a nod of his head. "Hey, I'm J—" he said, almost supplying his real name before he changed it halfway. "James." It was nice to see a civil and friendly Gym assistant rather than the snarky, cocky ones they usually found.
Lowell crossed over to block the two double-doors from them and Amaris, Jason and Gina fell back into a line, each selecting their chosen combatants. Lowell sent out three almost identical Growlithe that must have been from the same litter, and in a moment Nidoran, Psyduck and Kadabra were facing them down.
Lowell attacked first. "Bite, Ember, Take Down!" he shouted, and for a second Jason wasn't sure how the heck his three Pokémon, with no doubt identical movesets, would know which command was meant for which Growlithe. They did know, somehow, and a second later the attacks were delivered. Psyduck was on the receiving end of the Take Down, rolling over backwards in a tumble like a yellow bowling ball. Jason dived aside to avoid becoming a human bowling pin.
The Growlithe that had attacked had sustained a little damage itself, and Jason wasted no time retaliating. "Disable!" he shouted, and his downed duck took a second to realize where the enemy was and face it. The Growlithe was ready to dodge, but unfortunately for it, a move like Disable wasn't so easy to avoid. The Growlithe yelped and stumbled, and from either side of him Jason was aware of the battles being waged between his partners.
Nidoran managed to poison her opponent in the first round, and Lowell was forced to recall that one to his side for Antidote. Amaris, meanwhile, was wiping the floor with the second Growlithe. Kadabra's Confusion had not only depleted much of that Growlithe's health, but had confused it, and Lowell sent Gina's former opponent after the more dangerous Kadabra instead of sending it back to Nidoran. The Growlithes adjusted their attack formation seamlessly, filling in the blank spots, and Jason adjusted to toss his next order, Scratch, at the new opponent who had previously been fighting Amaris.
The Scratch hit the confused canine and almost took it down right then and there. The Growlithe's retaliatory Bite, however, caused Psyduck to hesitate a full round before executing the next move, which was the duck's own fledgling version of Confusion. Weak and undertrained though the move was, it was enough to take one Growlithe completely out of the running.
Jason turned to the side just in time to watch Amaris' Kadabra finish off his opponent with another Confusion attack, but a second later flames erupted on the other side of the corridor. The already sweltering room only increased in temperature and Jason coughed, burying his face in his sleeve.
Nidoran was squeaking in terror, but managed to send off a series of horn attacks at the Growlithe that was spewing embers at her. The Growlithe, already worse for the wear, only lasted one more round before succumbing to what Jason could have sworn was a Fury Attack, a move Nidoran wasn't supposed to know yet.
Lowell gave them a passingly impressed nod before recalling his team. He started to say something, but Gina's strangled sound of shock and happiness cut him off. Everyone turned to her as she got down on the floor beside her evolving Nidoran.
"Yes!" Jason hollered, also running over to watch. Nidoran curled up on herself, looking like she was stretching her back, and as she did her lavender hide was starting to pale and shift to a lighter blue. Her rounded nose elongated a bit, her ears grew in a positively alarming jolt, for a second dominating her head before the rest of her skull caught up. Her poison pins thickened up and stretched as armored plating grew at her shoulders, and for the first time she reared back to stand experimentally on two legs before she decided to go back to being a quadruped.
When she was done Nidorina cautiously lifted her head, shook it out, and stretched her back legs much the way Ivysaur had during his own evolution. She seemed intrigued with her new body, peering this way and that, and Gina looked like she was going to explode trying to resist hugging her very sharp, very poisonous team member.
"Congrats!" Lowell said, sounding like he genuinely meant it. Jason shot him a grin, wishing he could offer the guy a drink before he had to disappear back into the walls. "I gotta run, but heal up and make sure you've got lots of Burn Heals before you go on to Avery, yeah?"
"Got it," Jason assured him, then let out Nidorino so the two rodents could get a look at each other.
Amaris was still smiling fondly down at the newly-evolved creature, but he did check his Dex for the time. "Anyone sustain serious damage to any Pokémon they're planning on using against Avery?" he asked.
"No," Jason said. "Not gonna use Psyduck in there, though you did a good job, buddy," he said, leaning over and rubbing his duck's head. Psyduck groaned, not seeming to like that, and Jason adjusted so he was rubbing his back instead. He forgot Psyducks always had headaches and probably didn't like being touched there.
"I'm good," Gina said, still grinning ear-to-ear. "Just maybe give her a minute or two to adjust, then I'll recall her and we can go in."
The temperature inside the Leader Arena was, if possible, even hotter. Jason wished he had an outer layer he could strip off to cool down, but he was in a t-shirt and cargo shorts and didn't particularly want to run around in a Gym without a shirt. Gina let her hair down and braided it, apparently flustered with the strands that were escaping from the messy bun and tickling her neck.
Avery was nowhere in sight, and Jason waited approximately thirty seconds for him to arrive before he started to get antsy. "He better not still be 'out,'" he groused.
"Who's there?" a voice called from a point Jason could not identify. Wondering if all Gym Leaders had to make a bizarre entrance, Jason craned his neck around, trying to catch a peek at him, as Amaris and Gina did the same. A panel in the side of the Arena, closer to the Leader's side, slid open and an elderly man emerged.
The first thing Jason's eyes snapped to was the copious amounts of bright, bright white, curly chest hair the man sported on his shamelessly bare torso. Though he had to be at least 70 he seemed totally unabashed to be walking around in what looked like short swim trunks and no shoes. His long, graying hair was tied back in a ponytail, and a matching ponytail was tied in his long beard. He looked like a wizard. A surfer-dude wizard.
Managing to tear his eyes away from the brilliant white chest hair, Jason noted the man also had a rather glorious white handlebar mustache and no fewer than ten visible burn scars dotting his arms, shoulders, chest and face. He managed to exchange a bewildered look with Gina before Amaris stepped forward.
"We'd like to challenge you for the Volcano Badge," he announced.
"Well, I figured that's what you want," Avery said, "unless you really enjoy Poké-trivia."
Jason decided at once he liked the man. His use of Poké- as a modifying adjective and making fun of Amaris couldn't possibly have endeared him to Jason more.
"Who's up first?" Avery asked, slapping his hands together and stepping forward to the center of his side of the arena.
The Initiates cast a glance between themselves, and Jason was the one who stepped forward first. "Me, sir," he said, unclasping Ivysaur's Pokéball and taking his spot.
"Right, son," Avery said. "I take it one-on-one, and level?"
"One-on-one," Jason affirmed. "And I'll be using a level 30."
"Right-o," Avery said again, and took a moment to select a Pokéball from one of his swim short pockets. Gina gave Jason's shoulder a squeeze before Amaris and she moved off to the side of the sweltering room.
When Avery saw what his choice was, his bushy eyebrows lifted. Jason couldn't tell if he was put off or impressed. "Alright, then," he said, and a second later Jason and Ivysaur were staring down an enormous, gleaming white Rapidash.
"Okay, buddy," Jason muttered, kneeling beside Ivysaur and resting a hand against his bud. "We can do this. Gotta poison and leech it right off the bat, alright?" Ivysaur cast Jason a nervous look, but nodded, then hunkered down for battle.
"Fire Spin!" Avery shouted, and Jason's stomach lurched in a jolt of adrenaline-fueled horror. He'd really hoped he wouldn't start right off with a Fire-type attack, but with a shouted command Ivysaur leapt to the side and avoided it. His Pokémon retaliated a second later with a huge net of sticky Leech Seeds, most of which hit the Rapidash head on. The horse whinnied and stomped, momentarily erupting in flame in an attempt to burn the stubborn seeds off, but Avery ordered a "Stomp!" and Rapidash charged.
Ivysaur wasn't so lucky this time, taking the brunt of the hit. He yelped, no doubt from the fiery contact with the steed's burning flank, and rolled to put out the smoking at his seed. Jason's heart was in his throat already as he gave the order for Poison Powder.
Rapidash dodged, and even as it glowed and health was transferred via pollen to Ivysaur, Jason had a sinking feeling in his gut. Rapidash's Ember hit Ivysaur full-force, and Jason called a time-out for a heal break only two rounds into the fight.
"I'm sorry," he muttered to Ivysaur as he sprayed him down with Super Potion. "You must think I'm becoming a sadist, making you do this." Ivysaur didn't look like he was arguing that point, but Jason's Dex beeped in his pocket, a sound he knew well; Ivysaur was drawing on his strength reserves, one of the first tidbits of information he'd ever learned about his starter. Affection swelled, hot and heady as the room around them, and Jason gave his Pokémon's head a short hug. "Get 'im, buddy."
They were back in the battle in a moment, and Ivysaur dodged a Take Down that was so quick Jason could feel the rush of displaced air. For a crazy moment the horse looked like it would keep going and slam right into him, but it veered left, reared up on its hind legs, and took a Vine Whip to the flank with evident displeasure.
Ivysaur was particularly weak against Tail Whip when the tail in question was made out of fire, but it didn't stop him from recovering enough to send a flurry of Razor Leafs at Rapidash. Though they hit, many of them burst into hot, charred embers once they hit Rapidash's fiery mane, and Jason had to fight the urge to fish his Dex out and look at his opponent's health. He had a feeling the Fire-type wasn't even half depleted yet.
He couldn't bring himself to look at Gina or Amaris. Surely even now his companions were looking at him like he was insane for subjecting Ivysaur to this.
Somewhere inside, as he shouted a frantic order to dodge another Ember, Jason wondered if maybe he was. Even before Fuchsia he could scarcely go two minutes without thinking of their goal, of Orion, of his father or their countless enemies, and rest was a thing of the past. He'd trained for this, boosting Ivysaur and his other team members higher and higher, trying against all odds to eliminate anything that even remotely resembled a weakness. Type advantage, of course, could never be erased, but he was sure he could overcome even that if his team was only strong enough. Ivysaur dodged another attack, but missed with his own Vine Whip, the sound lashing off the floor and echoing across the walls of the Arena. In that moment Jason understood completely that he was going to lose in the next turn.
"Fire Spin!" Avery called, and it was over. Ivysaur was wrapped up in a twisting tornado of flames and smoke, and all he could hear was his starter crying out in agony before the Pokéball was in his hand and Ivysaur was recalled.
"Good try," Avery said, even as Jason stooped down to pick up his backpack and sling it over his back. "Next time you try you won't have to do the trivia. That's just for the first-timers. Now, who's next?"
During this speech Jason had turned heel and pushed past his friends, Gina's questions and Amaris' incredulity completely ignored as he retreated from the Gym. He knew he should stay and watch them fight. They'd probably win with their type advantages. Gina called something after him, but he couldn't make out what she'd said. He was already winding his way through the halls, his ears buzzing and his vision threatening to close off. There were Pokémon to fight everywhere, trainers itching to battle and experience to be gained. He would go out and find them, and would stop at nothing until his first team member was strong enough to wipe the floor with Avery without breaking a sweat.
If the others expected him to return to the inn for sleep tonight, they would just have to get used to disappointment.
Author's Note: Just want to say thank you, so much, to everyone who reads and reviews. Especially a hearty thank you to those who don't even have accounts on this site who still give me anon reviews. It means a lot to me and helps to keep me going. I'm so lucky to have an awesome group of readers and a kick-ass beta reader!
Also... I tried to make a Tumblr XD We'll see if I can figure out how to use it! My name on Tumbler is PokeYoga.