So this was what it felt like, to hold a keystone and have a pokemon of his own possessing a mega stone.
He could feel a clear pulse of energy, of power, thrumming constantly within the stone on the back of his new glove, gifted to him by Korrina and Gurkinn.
It was like a steady, yet thunderous heartbeat, it felt almost alive in a sense. It was a constant wave that resonated through his entire body and spread his awareness outwards, without him even attempting to.
And even if he closed his eyes, he could feel Lucario clear as day.
"Ash, you did it!" Goh's cheering broke him from his thoughts and Ash looked over his shoulder at the tan skinned boy as he whooped, punching his fist into the air.
"Looks like." he couldn't help but grin, his eyes drifting over to Lucario, whom much like himself, had been caught up in staring enraptured at the Lucarionite held between his paws.
Ash couldn't blame his pokemon. His rarely used abilities were sharpened to an all new degree just from having the key stone in his possession, he couldn't imagine what it felt like for Lucario, who was part of a species known for their innate and instinctive talent when it came to using aura.
…He hadn't felt his senses this sharp in a long, long time. Not since the Tree of Beginning, when he had worn Sir Aaron's gloves.
The thought almost made him grimace, it had been a long time since then, years, and he'd mostly moved past all of that, but it was still a time when he had lost a dear friend.
It was almost ironic really. That the next time he'd feel his senses like this, was with a Lucario of his own.
But wow, it had been a long time since he'd used his aura now that he thought about it. With the key stone enhancing his inner connection and ability, his hands twitched with the sudden urge to use it, expend it outside his body once more.
But he reigned it in. As cool as aura was, it was dangerous, not something he should really play around with, without proper experienced supervision.
"Lu..!" Lucario met his eyes and grinned widely, his spiked paw curling around the mega stone within it.
So different from the first Lucario met, yet, at the same time, somehow, so similar, they possessed that same headstrong recklessness.
A pair of hands landing on his shoulders jolted him from looking at Lucario, "Ash that was great, your Lucario is so strong!" Korrina whooped, "To think this guy was just a little Riolu a few months ago."
"Mmm," Gurkinn nodded in agreement as he helped his Alakazam back to its feet, the Alakazamite dangling freely on its neck, the pokemon they'd had to overcome to obtain the Lucarionite, "You've raised Lucario well, and so quickly too, but, I admit, I'm not so surprised, you are after all a Champion now."
'A few months huh?' Ash mused. Honestly, it felt like way longer than that since he'd left Alola behind to come spend some time back in Kanto and got swept up with Goh and Professor Cerise.
And it still felt weird to be called a Champion. Not many knew of it outside of Alola, that he was the first ever champion of the region, the League was keeping a tight lid on it right now, he hadn't even told his friends outside of Brock and Misty, and Goh and the others only found out about it because of a visit they paid to Alola where some kids recognised him and clue'd Goh in.
And there were a lot of responsibilities at his feet now that he was still trying to wrap his head around. Professor Kukui was handling a lot of it in his stead right now, while he took a small break before taking up his duties full time, but, it had already been five months.
He only had a month left before it was to be revealed to the entire world, and he'd have to step into the shoes of being a champion full time.
He seriously was not ready for that.
He was only seventeen.
"But man," Korrina let go of his shoulders and skated around to stand in front of him, a pout on her face, "I can't believe how fast Lucario has grown, he might be even stronger than my own, and you've only had him a few months, you're making me feel like we've been slacking off."
"Eh, not quite there yet I don't think." Ash laughed sheepishly, though to be honest, he wasn't actually sure. Dragonite had defeated Korrina's Mega Lucario two months ago when they met back up again by chance when he came to Kalos with Goh to research some sighted pokemon for Professor Cerise.
Back then, Lucario was only a Riolu, but now that he had evolved, he was rapidly catching up to Dragonite in strength, and now with Mega Evolution of their own…
Granted, a lot of that growth had to do not only with Lucario's own zeal for getting stronger and battling, but also the fact that, beyond helping Goh, Ash didn't really have anything he was aiming towards right now, he wasn't spending the vast majority of his days travelling to the next town or city for his next gym battle or spending half the day in class.
He had a lot more time to focus on his pokemon alone.
Gurkinn coughed, drawing their attention him, "It's about time we head back to Shalour City, no?" he said, "Once we get back, I'll have that Lucarionite fashioned into a bracelet for Lucario."
"Okay, thanks Gurkinn," Ash replied gratefully, but at the mention of leaving, it did bring something to mind that had been bugging him about this island, "Actually, Gurki-"
He never got to finish, a thunderous boom shook the air and drowned out his voice from above, and they all quickly turned to look up.
As they did, a large cream and brown feathered bird pokemon shot down through the air and landed on the ground, hard.
The size of it and the glorious blonde mane atop its head, revealed its identity immediately.
"A Pidgeot?!" Korrina gasped, eyes flying wide open, "Is it the one from earlier?"
Ash's own eyes widened in realisation. When they arrived on Mega Island, they had all gotten separated for a bit because of a powerful Abomasnow attacking them out of nowhere.
While trying to track down Goh and Lucario, Ash and Korrina had born witness to a Pidgeot and a Salamence duking it out high up in the air. It had been quite amazing to see, Pidgeot were incredibly rare to be seen in the wild and Salamence even more so.
In fact, in his entire time journeying, Ash had never come across a wild Pidgeot, and he'd only ever seen one wild Salamence.
"If Pidgeot's here, that means-" Ash once again didn't get to finish his sentence, as a large blue and red blur shot down like a bullet from above and landed not far from the downed Pidgeot, the sheer size and bulk of the pokemon being enough to make the ground tremble beneath their feet as it landed.
It was unmistakable, from the blue scales, to the huge crimson red wings, and long powerful and muscular tail. It was a Salamence, and a pretty big one at that.
Which made sense considering it barely looked hurt at all and managed to bring down a Pidgeot. Pidgey may have been a common pokemon, but there was no denying that its fully evolved form was incredibly powerful by average.
"A Salamence!?" Goh gaped, trembling slightly, "Did it do this to that Pidgeot? But why?"
Ash frowned, preparing to step in. Goh, for only being a trainer for a few months now, was quite impressive and had caught over fifty pokemon during their time together, some of them even quite rare, but he was in no way ready or able to face off against a pokemon like this.
It was for reasons like this specifically that Professor Cerise had asked him to join up with him.
The strongest Pokemon Goh had in his possession, was a Golurk he caught in Unova, but by Ash's estimates, it wouldn't be able to stand up to this Salamence. Not that Golurk would listen to Goh much in battle anyway, it was quite the passive easy going pokemon, but, Ash had weakened Golurk for Goh to capture, and so it didn't respect him as its trainer yet.
The strongest in his possession after Golurk was probably his Scizor or Raboot.
"That's why," Gurkinn cut in and pointed to Salamence mouth, where a deep orange rock was clenched between its jaws, a familiar orange rock, with two different glinting stones within it, "It seems they were both drawn to this ore containing a pair of mega stones, Pidgeotite and Salamencite by my reckoning."
Ah, that made sense. From what he'd learned of Mega Evolution over his time in Kalos and from chatting with Korrina and Gurkinn, pokemon that could mega evolve, were drawn to mega stones that could allow it.
This island itself, christened Mega Island, was full of pokemon that could mega evolve, each hunting for mega stones that resonated with them.
The only thing that stumped Ash really, was where this island even came from. It wasn't here last time he was in Kalos and competing in the Kalos League.
Ash stepped in front of Goh, Pikachu alert on his shoulder, "Well it has what it wants," he noted, it had barely spared any of them a glance, only staring down at Pidgeot, apparently making sure its foe was defeated, quite the thorough dragon pokemon this Salamence was, "As long as we don't bother it, it should leave us be."
And then they could see about helping out the Pidgeot. Though, with its wounds, one of them might need to capture it to get it to a pokemon centre.
Though, one could never be to sure with Salamence. He'd seen quite kind ones, and other times, he'd seen ones that just wanted to attack and battle everything in sight.
Heck, he'd seen such a diverse pair in his Kalos journey alone. Sawyer's Salamence was quite the goofy thing, but that wild one he'd met had been a real temperamental guy.
Goh swallowed heavily, but nodded at his words, "…Man, if only I was stronger I could catch it." the tan boy whispered behind Ash.
He could understand the sentiment. If he saw a Salamence like this in his first few months of being a trainer, he'd have been star struck and challenged it head on.
And would have gotten absolutely demolished for his efforts and probably gotten himself, his friends and his pokemon hurt.
Still, the only real problem here was Goh getting caught up in the crossfire. He, Korrina and Gurkinn could easily handle this thing by themselves if they had to.
If they had to though. There was no sense in provoking it and fighting it if they didn't have to.
"Saaah.." Salamence huffed, exhaling a thick puff of smoke from its nostrils, before snorting and turning away from Pidgeot.
It flapped its massive wings and prepared to take off and Ash relaxed slightly. But just as it was about to take off, its eyes drifted idly over to Ash, and he saw its eyes widen in recognition, before narrowing in fury.
It whirled around and reared back up on its hind legs, massive claws of blinding green energy forming on its front legs as it prepared to attack him.
What?!
"Pika!" Pikachu snarled at it, cheeks sparking.
But facing it fully head on now, Ash noticed something, making his eyes widen themselves. A small scar over its right eye.
A familiar little scar.
One he'd saw on the face of another Salamence, rampaging around back during his journey through Kalos that he'd defeated with Pikachu when it rushed Serena and Bonnie.
Before it could rush forward and get lit up by Pikachu in the process, a blue blur smashed into it from the side and Ash watched as Lucario's palm slammed into its torso and a massive explosion erupt from said palm, blowing the Salamence flying dozens of metres through the air to crash hard against and through a rocky spire jutting up from the ground, covering it in rubble.
"Did that thing just go for you Ash?!" Goh panicked.
"Huh, small world." Ash couldn't help but snort. Or maybe, not so small. This was Kalos after all. It made sense the only wild Salamence he'd seen, being in Kalos, would end up drawn here to Mega Island in hindsight.
"Looks like it knows you." Korrina pointed out.
"Yeah," Ash chuckled, rubbing the back of his head, "Me and Pikachu beat this guy in a battle back when we were on our way to Anistar City, it was causing some trouble in the area and attacked Bonnie and Serena at the time."
"I see, that makes sense," Gurkinn nodded, stroking his chin, then grinned at Ash, "Why not take this as a chance to experiment a little with Mega Evolution?"
"Now?" Ash blinked, "Isn't that a bit reckless? What if he goes out of control like Korrina's Lucario."
"Lu?" Lucario gave him a confused look.
"It's just a suggestion," Gurkinn nodded, "Between the three of us, we should have no problem restraining Lucario even if he does lose control and that Salemence at the same time."
Well, he wasn't wrong. Gurkinn had a full party of pokemon capable of mega evolving, and he had all his current pokemon team with him, alongside Korrina who could mega evolve her own Lucario.
"You up for it?" Ash looked to Lucario and asked.
In response, Lucario merely grinned, holding up the paw with the lucarionite clenched tightly within.
The rubble Salamence was buried under shifted and the dragon pokemon pushed itself up out of it, barely damaged at all from the surprise Force Palm from Lucario.
"Well alright then." Ash grinned back.
He couldn't lie after all, that he was eager to try mega evolution out for himself for once.
He raised the hand adorned with the mega glove up and clenched his fist, focusing his attention on the key stone embedded within the back of it.
He could feel Lucario just as easily as he could see him and feel the way the waves emanating from the stone, spread out like sonar waves and seemed to zero in not only the mega stone within Lucario's paw, but also, the pair of them clasped between Salamence's jaws.
…If he pushed it to the limit, he could probably find even more mega stones spread out across the island.
But that wasn't important right now.
For now, he focused on Lucario, and he brought his free hand up and pressed two fingers onto the key stone on the back of his gauntlet and submerged himself within the feelings he had for his pokemon.
Something clicked.
"Lucario, mega evolve!" Ash declared, eyes snapping open, and the world around him erupted into bright blinding light as massive ribbons of light exploded out of the key stone and swept over Lucario.
Salamence roared and charged rapidly towards them, as the light wrapped fully around Lucario like a cocoon.
Just as the huge dragon was almost upon him and Ash felt Pikachu prepare to leap into action, the cocoon shattered apart like a glass water balloon, and Lucario was revealed.
Taller, bulkier, the blue of his body darker, his paws and feet, tipped with red, the same with the feelers on the back of his head, and the yellow fur on his torso becoming longer and untamed.
"Aura Sphere!" Ash barked out a command instantly.
Lucario stood stock still in a daze, but only for a split moment. His eyes lit up as soon as Ash's voice echoed through the area and his hands, a blur of speed were cupped together, a small, hastily formed Aura Sphere blazing into existence and launched at Salamence like a bullet.
Salamence flapped its wings and launched itself into the air in a leap, taking it clear over the aura sphere attack, not deterred at all in its path towards Ash.
Only, the second it soared up over the aura sphere, the shining blue sphere changed directions immediately and rushed up, slamming into Salamence's unprotected belly.
Another thunderous explosion rocked the area and the Salamence roared in pain, falling from the air to slam into the ground, hard.
Despite the fact it resisted the pure fighting type attack as a part flyting type and that it was much smaller than average, the power in the attack was something else.
The power boost Mega Evolution gave, was just that substantial.
"Close Combat!" Ash followed up.
Lucario pushed off with one foot, shooting towards Salamence just as it hit the ground, his speed so fast he was a mere blur.
The Salamence shook its head and tried to push itself up, but never got the chance as Lucario's fist smashed into its jaws and snapped its head back, then got rocked by a second, and then its body was lifted bodily into the air as Lucario spun and threw out a snap kick that caught it in the chest, and with it stunned and immobile in the air, Lucario completed his spin and his fists broke out into a flurry of machine gun like punches
Ten, twenty, thirty and then more, Ash lost track of the blows, before Lucario finally having enough, spun around once again and launched out with a double mule kick that launched them both flying, Salamence through the air and into a huge rock surface that cratered under the force of its impact, and Lucario springing backwards to get some distance.
"Wow, Salamence can't keep up at all with Mega Lucario!" Goh gasped, "Lucario is so much stronger right now!"
"It's not quite done yet," Gurkinn shook his head, "Impressive as it is."
"Yeah, Salamence are tough like that." Korinna nodded in agreement.
And true to their words, Salamance shakily began to push itself up to its feet once again, though it had clearly taken a massive beating and was struggling to.
"Then let's finish this up," Ash decided and pointed towards the Salamence, "Steel Beam, go."
"Lu!" Lucario nodded, lifting both hands up before it, crackling spheres of silvery power forming in his palms.
And then, he thrust both hands out, launching a pair of large silver beams of energy that converged together into one massive beam of power and swept over the Salamence before it had a chance to even fully get to its feet.
When the massive beam of power died down, it was to show Salamence having fully collapsed, body limp and eyes shut. The sheer power behind the Steel Beam had gouged a small tunnel larger and thicker than Salamence's body, a few metres deep in the rock surface behind it.
"Well that's that, I guess." Ash mused. He was quite used to mega evolution, he'd seen it quite a few times after all, but he was still deeply impressed by how much stronger it made Lucario.
Lucario stared at his downed opponent for a moment, before grinning wildly and rushing over to Ash and tackling him in a massive hug that nearly bowled Ash over.
"Way to go!" he praised Lucario, swinging the steel and fighting type around happily.
"Jeez, I can't believe how easily you guys took down a Salamence of all things," Goh shook his head in disbelief, "But…"
At his trailed off words, Ash set Lucario down, "But what?" the Pallet native asked, before stumbling as a wave of exhaustion swept through him and Lucario reverted back to normal.
He caught his footing a second later, thanks to Korrina catching his arm and keeping him up, "Yeah, the first time is a doozie, huh?" the blonde grinned at him.
"For sure." he agreed with a laugh. It wasn't anywhere close to the exhaustion he went through early on with Greninja, but he just wasn't expecting it at all.
"You okay?" Goh asked, frowning and eyeing him in concern.
"I'm fine," Ash waved off his worries, he was already beginning to feel better, he just wasn't expecting that wave of exhaustion, "So what were you saying?"
"Ah…yeah, what about Salamence?" Goh asked, pointing towards the downed pokemon Lucario had just thoroughly defeated.
"I guess I can't just leave it there, huh?" Ash grimaced. And he hadn't exactly brought any healing supplies with him right now, most of his stuff was back at the hotel room he and Goh were sharing during their time here. And it was way too large and heavy to carry with them, not even counting the fact that it may attack them the second it woke up again, "I guess there's only one thing for it then."
He eased himself out of Korrina's grasp and walked over to the downed Salamence, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a shrunken pokeball.
He tapped it on the middle and enlarged it, before gently touching it to Salamence's unconscious body.
It popped open a moment later, sucking the huge dragon pokemon within, before closing shut tight a second later. It shook in his hands for a moment, before it let loose a small 'ping' sound as the capture was completed.
Then the pokeball shrunk in his grasp and began glowing red as it locked tight. He already had six in his party right now after all.
He was just about to make his way back over to the others so they could leave, when his eyes landed on the orange rock left behind, laying on the ground where Salamence once was.
'Pidgeotite and Salamencite, huh?' he mused inwardly. Well, he had a key stone now, and with this new capture, he had both a Pidgeot and a Salamence.
"Hey Gurkinn?" Ash called out as he bent over and picked it up, "Is it okay if I take these as well?"
"Do you have a Pidgeot?" the mega evolution guru asked, raising a bushy eyebrow at him.
"Yeah, back in Pallet Town." he replied, walking over. Pidgeot had long since moved into the forest around the Oak Corral with his flock, while he was travelling through Unova with Iris and Cilan in fact.
"I don't see why not then," Gurkinn agreed easily enough, then turned his attention to Korrina, "Why don't you capture this Pidgeot? It will need medical help for its injuries, and if you want to take over for me one day, you need to capture more pokemon capable of mega evolution."
"But I'm a fighting specialist gramps!" Korrina protested.
"You are also the successor to our families legacy," Gurkinn shrugged, "Besides, there isn't six pure fighting type pokemon that can mega evolve in the first place, you would have to capture other types regardless if you wanted to go that path alone, not that you've bothered either way."
Korrina grimaced, "Stupid gramps, I've been busy." she pouted, but sighed and relented, pulling out a pokeball of her own and capturing the unconscious Pidgeot downed by Ash's new Salamence.
It probably wouldn't be happy about being captured as it was, but Korrina was well strong enough to earn its respect, and it clearly wanted to mega evolve and she could help it with that.
"…At least I caught a Camerupt while here I guess." Goh slumped a bit. Ash knew him well enough by now to know he wanted to capture Pidgeot as well, but, reckless as Goh was, a lot like him in some aspects, he was also smarter than Ash, and he'd learned his lesson with Golurk.
He just wasn't good enough a trainer to pull earn the respect of powerful pokemon like that quite yet, not without raising them to that point at least.
Ash clapped him on the back, "Cheer up, Camerupt are awesome, I almost got swept by this powerhouse one back in the day." he tried to cheer him up.
Later, as they left Mega Island behind, the sun had already began to set, showing how much time they'd spend there today. They'd set out for the island early this morning after all.
As Goh was happily talking with Korrina, Ash made his way up to the top of the boat being driven by Gurkinn.
"Something I can help you with Ash?" the old man asked.
"Yeah, Salemence interrupted me earlier, but I wanted to ask, where exactly did this island come from?" Ash questioned, "Mega Stones are supposed to be stupidly rare and this place definitely wasn't here last year."
…It really had only been a year and a half since he was travelling with Clemont, Bonnie and Serena.
Serena.
Something clenched uncomfortably in his chest at the thought of her. He hadn't spoken to her at all since they parted ways, though she was doing quite well for herself over in Hoenn according to Clemont whom she was in contact with.
"You are correct, Mega Island is a very new place, it only sprung up out of nowhere less than six months ago," Gurkinn nodded, confirming his thoughts, "As for where it came from, well, I'd think you would know better than anybody else."
The older man gave Ash a knowing glance and he stared back at him in confusion.
How would he know better than anybody else? While he'd battled quite a few mega evolved pokemon, he wasn't exactly an expert on them like Gurkinn and Professor Sycamore.
And something like Mega Island couldn't just come out of nowhere, not without some massive catalyst…
His thoughts trailed off and his eyes widened.
"Lysandre." his teeth involuntarily grit together at the thought of the flame haired leader of Team Flare.
"Indeed," Gurkinn nodded, confirming his answer, "The amount of mega evolution energy Lysandre collected cannot be underestimated, and it was only compounded on after what he did to Zygarde. All that energy spread through the region, and much of it accumulated right here, forming Mega Island."
…So, he basically had Lysandre to thank for the fact he had three mega stones in his possession now.
Ash almost felt dirty.
"There's no need to feel so disgusted by it," Gurkin chuckled, apparently catching on, or did his face give him away? "Lysandre was a madman, there is no doubt, but beauty can come from even the most revolting of places, and if pokemon and others can benefit from the remnants of his machinations, all the better I say, it does not make up at all for what he did, but a little compensation can still help others."
The old man looked him in the eyes and smiled, "You have quite a few pokemon that have the capability to mega evolve, no?" he mused, "Why not take some time to think things through, and then bring them here?"
A few pokemon flashed through his mind at Gurkinn's words; Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Heracross, Gengar, Gible, Glalie…
Sceptile, Charizard.
He almost trembled at the thought of how powerful Charizard would be as a Mega Charizard.
To this day, the strongest pokemon he had, was Charizard. From the very day he first evolved into his current form and even now, seven years later, Charizard was the strongest pokemon he owned.
Some could put up a fight and hold their own, like Sceptile and Infernape, and not even Charizard could take Pikachu lightly.
But Charizard still ruled at the top spot of strength as far as his pokemon went.
Such pure temptation was almost salivating, and almost drowned out the disgust he felt about Lysandre's part in all of this.
"Eight more beyond Lucario, Pidgeot and Salamence that can mega evolve," Ash replied, crossing his arms tightly and putting the desire to obtain those mega stones out of his mind, "Why offer me the chance though? Aren't they precious and super rare?"
"They are," Gurkinn nodded, "But what use is there for them just laying there gathering dust? The League has left the decision making up to me on whom is worthy to go to Mega Island and search for Mega Stones, and I believe you are just that. If not for you, Kalos would have fell to Lysandre."
Pride flared in his chest, before he smothered it, "I wasn't alone, I had a lot of friends helping me." Ash pointed out.
"Yes, Bonnie, Clemont and Serena," Gurkinn grinned, "This offer extends to them as well, and it is not like this does nothing for me either you know."
Ash blinked, "What do you mean?" he asked, confused.
"Mega Evolution is still so very rare, less than one in a hundred thousand have access to it," the old man replied, "And teachings of my family are known to so few, you, as a champion in the limelight of the world will bring more attention to it, and spread the word of it to the entire world."
"..Publicity..?" he gave Gurkinn a deadpan look.
Gurkinn choked, "…It doesn't sound as grand when you say it like that!" he sputtered.
And despite himself, Ash's bad mood at the thought of Lysandre evaporated and he burst out laughing.
So, did a thing. You can say I was a bit inspired by the return of Serena in the anime. Dunno if I'll continue this or not, it kinda depends on the reception to this and well, if I can keep from becoming disgusted by the anime. I have to admit, they handled the Ash and Serena reunion well, especially the music, but I'm disappointed at the sheer lack of time they had together, because I don't give a rats ass about Chloe. And there's also the fact that y'know, Serena looks like she's actually grown over their time apart and is well into her teenage years, where as Ash looks like a legit ten year old now.
Christ, I was watching a few clips of the Kalos anime earlier, and I actually hadn't really noticed until then, but Jesus Christ, the character of Ash, while at the root the same, is drastically different. Kalos Ash was a lot more soft spoken, deeper voiced despite having the same voice actor, just in general, more mature while keeping the spark that made him Ash. Honestly, it made me really miss the Kalos anime.
Honestly, I really don't like Journeys. And to be honest, the sad thing is, the biggest problem with it, is pacing. It's like they just throw every idea they have at the wall and see what sticks. Even Goh would be nowhere near as annoying, if he wasn't handed powerful and rare pokemon constantly and have them just obey him instantly for the most part. Honestly, I'd quite like a series about catching all the pokemon, just not like this.
My solution to it is simply to cut off basically most of the real powerhouses and rare pokemon Goh should have caught by this point. Such as Flygon, Aerodactyl, Suicune and such. And at this point, his Cinderace is still a Raboot, and both Sobble and Grookey are still Sobble and Grookey.
But really, the biggest change here in this AU, is that the World Coronation Series does not exist, at least not in the format it does in the anime. Something that big just doesn't make sense for Ash not to have known about through all his travels, yet for Brock, Misty, Oak and such to know of and never tell him. It makes them look like utterly trashy people for never telling him.
But moving on, a lot of this story, will be partly dealing with Ash's duties as a champion leading up to the big main event. You know, handling official business, being interviewed by the press and so on and so forth.
Anyway, again, shameless Pa-atreon plug. I've got one, go by the same username on there, easy to find and all that jazz. Support me if you want, it'd be swell, but don't feel pressured lads and ladies, I'll be uploading my stuff outside it regardless and not keeping it all behind a paywall or anything like that.