Reka hadn't realised how early it actually was. A low sun meant much of the light around the city was red, and a lot of it was bathed in an almost twilight-quality shadow. Still, people were walking around, as they generally did. Quite a number were morphs taking off.. apparantly something about this time would attract the birds from around the city.
So it was mostly a blanket of odd feathers and morph bodies across the half-lit sky that the girlkitty watched as she went along, just toeing her way about the streets, heading in what she believed was the right way. And she could read a map, whether or not anyone believed such. .. This is, of course, precisely why she was going the wrong way. But we'll gloss over this.
"Wow, I've lived here this long now, and I think I'm lost.." she conceded, some time later. This was about the time she'd passed the bar for the fifth time. Walking in circles was not her idea of progress. "They should put arrows up, that'd help.."
"You lost?" came the short reply from behind her. To which she turned. A young Espeon morph stood there, actually on all fours there. A tattered shirt was all he had on.. and the blackcat didn't really mind this at all. "I know this city real well."
"Yeah, I bet you do.. I'm looking for the governor's place. Know that?" she asked him?
"No." He began to say that, anyway. ".. Huh? You ask me where it is and I never been there, I don't know... but I do now? Who are you?" The Espeon skipped a circle around Reka before she could say a word. "You're not what you seem!"
"I'm Reka. And that's more than I really needed to say. If you know where it is, couldn't you be so kind as to tell me..?" Reka noticed her own words. She had, in effect, told him to know that.. and he had. That had to be watched in the future.
"Yes. Yes I could. It's just north a while, and on the east. Biggest place you'll see." he replied.
It occurred to Reka that she should check whether the statement was this psy detecting that she was, indeed, something more than first looks.. "What do you mean 'I'm not what I seem'..."
"Well.. you're not a pokemon. Like me. You're.. I don't know. You're something else."
Tch. What was this.. "I'm not a pokemon, I'm a -morph-. Just like you."
"No! I'm a pokemon! Always have been!" was the quick, and manic reply. Reka spotted it in his eyes; someone shattered. Refusal to believe the truth.. just led to nice swift denial. Maybe she should pity him?
*Pfft. Two days ago, you'd have done the same thing. Pity yourself some a little as well..* went the bell, and that Sneaker aspect of her personality, the one that knew Reka could do something for this guy.. shrugged, and led her away. "Whatever you say. Thanks for the help." After all.. the bell was right. She didn't help people.. She was, at least in spirit, the great Sneaker! Soon to be ruler of this land! Why would he matter, if he even stayed alive until after she seized this world in her tiny grip of iron. Sniff. Off she walked properly, leaving the guy repeating. "No, seriously, you should work on your walk a little.. you're walking like the humans do, and that's just not right... not right.."
--
Well, at least the building was where the crazy guy said it was. Big place, too.. done up all in brown, with an obvious sign outside. 'Current presiding Governor of Pokemorph Isle:' .. but after that it was blank. The place looked deserted, as well. That was kinda the point; there was no governor -to- live in the place. Reka wanted to change that. She skipped up the long and step-laden path; keeping her balance just fine, in order to wander to the door. A large, oaken thing, which was quite a head's height over the nine year old right then. Still, she didn't care. It didn't have powers beyond imagination. She did. er tail twinged once, and then she shifted forward a little, and hammered on the door.
The knocks echoed, bringing the very sound to a nice resonance, within the house. There was a knocker up there, which rattled a little.. but it was all the way up there, and she was not of such a mood to try jumping for it. Not that her knocks needed it, because the door unbolted.
Reka was leant on the door, then, and she got off just in time to avoid falling over again, as the large door swung to, revealing,, an open hallway. Which was then blocked by the figure of a morph.. a white, mid-age Arcanine, with fairly singed fur, and a rather broad and slightly bemused expression.
"That was quite loud for such a little one. I'll give you that. I'm the caretaker of this place.. you were lucky to catch me in, really. What's your business at this place..?"
"I want to know about who decides the governor for this place." she said, accent-laden, skipping past words quite quickly.
"The Isle? Ohh.. well.. The people do. The citizens. We do, and you.. in a number of years, anyway. There isn't a governor right now, though.. I think they're worried about the Team and their backlash if we ever try to establish a proper authority on this Isle that isn't them. Something like that. You wouldn't get it."
"I get you just fine. Don't patronise me, I'll be ten soon enough." Reka said. That last part was just a flick of speech.. really, it was.. The Arcanine chucked, in that stout way people sometimes do. "Yes.. I'm sure you are."
"Anyway, mister doggy.. Say I wanted to become governor, and I do.. could you tell me where I go to get people to actually do something about it?"
The firedoggy glanced. Heh. Children, what will they be doing next.. Still, he'd tell her. He had no choice. "There's an office that could deal with that. It organises the elections and stuff. It's one south of North Elm, and that's.. east as far as you can, and a little north. From here, anyway. I could take you there?"
"Nah. I'll be okay. Thanks mister, you've helped me a lot. Don't be surprised if you see me here soon!" Yeah, a nice finishing line, just to seal that. She skipped quickly off down the stairs, before just softly and slowly heading in the direction mentioned. It was still too early..! She could afford to waste some time.. no office is open so early..
The Arcanine's gaze followed her around the side of the building. Cute kitty. Maybe they could use someone like that in office around this place.. "Would make a change.." he thought...
***
The office was distinct in that it was nothing different at all. It didn't even have a name on the side, except for the letters EO on the front of the sliding doors into the place. Reka strode through, Princess Kitty, out for her kingdom.. EO probably stood for Elections Office or something like that, and this place was not a very active one.
The hall was devoid of life.. save for a single receptionist, who wasn't doing a great deal. Probably waiting for someone else to come in and do what Reka was about to do.. stride up to the front of the hall. The top of the counter towered over, so she.. hopped up and sat on it, much to the surprise of the young adult Slowbro female that was sat there.
A suit was what she wore; with the lower back missing to allow for the symbiotic Shellder, a nonmorphed one, to sit latched on to her tail. It didn't do a great deal, with wouldn't ever; but it didn't matter all that much.
"Err.. Is there something you want?" she asked Reka, a little surprised still.
"I want to become governor. Tell me what I do." the wiry kitty said, plainly. The Slowbro.. took this in her stride. Kids were getting mentally older each day, weren't they..
"Well.. There's a lot we have to do for that.. We need some other people to vote for.. then we need to make up voting slips.. let people campaign for a while.. set dates, get television coverage.. These things generally take some months. But at least you've come here, that's a start." she said, slightly tired. She wasn't being serious in her telling this kid what was what.. not yet, anyway.
"I want you to register me as a candidate. That can be done, hm?" Suddenly.. it could. The Slowbro looked through the piles of nicely stacked paper she had.. There had to be something in here about -age- for this sort of thing...
"I.. I can't find anything against it, actually. ure.. I'll get on that. Give me your name, address, and some other details, and.. start building your campaign. We won't let you start until we have everyone.. which could be in around.. half a year. Not long, respectively."
This would not do. Reka wanted things to happen now. Not in six months. And she said so. "I want things to happen now, though. Like we have all the candidates, and most of them have dropped out and that leaves.. two! Me and some other person.. who could be.. you! Yeah, you. And so there's only us two left and we have only two days of campaigning and then the vote date comes. I want that, I want that. I WANT IT TO HAPPEN!"
And.. nothing more was said. Reka, meanwhile, looked around. Everything was silent. Not so much because she'd made it so; the place was empty. But then.. the Slowbro wasn't moving. She was sitting there.. and staring. ".. .. I ... Yes. I can do that." And suddenly the young woman's eyes went white. Reka then eyed.. Could she really do what had just been said?
*Nope. But we don't care, remember? By the way, you don't appreciate what you've just done. Sleepybye for you for a few minutes.* A sickening pain racked through Reka's head, and everything spun out of being.. as she toppled from her perch on the desk. And the world saw itself fit to do precisely what had been said.
***
An indiscriminate amount of time passed before the little Meowth morph woke from her induced sleep. It was a hazy awakening, but she did it.. The carpet was grey and it smelled faintly of leather.
People were walking past. The place was busy, quite busy. Workers were coming in with bits of paper, and the reception actually had a TV camera sitting in it. "How long have I been out..?" she wondered, aloud.
"Just a second, miss Reka." went one of the people walking along. "You hit your head or something..?"
Reka didn't know this person. But they knew her. "Uhh.. Nope, I'm just a little groggy. Lack of sleep. I've been busy."
"I should say you have. But it'll pay off soon enough, miss Reka. Good luck, if I don't see you before the day.. and I won't, I'm working on ballot staff." the voice, which was just a Bulbasaur male now that Reka could see it, spoke, before wandering off. And the black haired female just looked around, and wondered.. before hopping back on the counter.
The Slowbro female was still here, just looking at the camera that was trained on the both of them. She then turned to Reka. "That was sudden.. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm just fine. What is all this?"
"You did hit your head. We're being interviewed, of course. There's two days before the first election in a year and you're one of the candidates.. and I'm the other. Quick rundown for your memory.. I don't want this interview to reflect badly on any of us. People adore you, you're the adorable type.. but eh, I've said I'm supposed to be the adult voice of reason. And the camera's getting all of this."
Uh.. What happened here. "I came to you just now.. asking for an election to take place in two days?"
"You came to me six months ago and asked me for the election. I fancied my chances, but I only got in because three of the candidates withdrew. The fourth was found in the bay three days ago. We're all that's left. You should know this, it's been your life for the last few months..." she said. "Or maybe it hasn't. I don't know how bothered you really are about all this, being so young.."
"Seriously bothered. I'm thinking too hard for myself and everyone these days. I need to just win this and relax." Reka said, her mind clicking. Touche, was the look from the Slowbro.
*Worked it out yet?* the bell said, in her head. Reka thought back at it.. slightly wondering. *I wasn't even HERE six months ago!*
*I was Sneaker then!* The bell sighed. *Do we care?*
Reka's eyes widened, and she really -did- feel groggy.. *We needed a Reka here six months ago. So we had one. Trouble is, you're Reka. You were Sneaker then. Our best hope to get this paradox resolved... is to make it simple. And that was easy. You found the bell two days ago... as Reka. You've never been anything other than Reka.*
"Oh my god." was all she was able to say at that time. And she said it out loud, too.
"You're not even listening, are you.. C'mon, everyone knows children have the attention spans of Magikarp." the Slowbro took it to her advantage to say.
"I'm not a morphed evolution of the stupidest being on the planet, though. Slowpokes don't think up many new things, do they..?"
That kept her quiet for a while. Reka went back to thought.
*So what about Sneaker?*
*Sneaker? Who's that? You tell me.*
And Reka... could not. Just.. couldn't. The answers were out of reach, but they were only half there. Though the name was obvious, and that was it. Like a blank space. *But.. that's not fair! I can't go back to how things were now! Ever!*
*You messed up. You could probably undo this, but then you'd have to wait months. And as a side note.. taking off the bell wouldn't restore your form. And it definitely won't now, since there's nothing to restore it -to-. Test me if you like.. I'm not lying.*
Reka needed air. "Can I halt this now?" she asked the camera.
"We just did." went the guy behind it. "You can both go now."
"I work for my living, and that doesn't change even while I'm campaigning." the Slowbro said, eyeing Reka, and going back to putting papers in nice, tidy piles. Reka got up and ran - no skipping - out of the building, and through the maze of people that were swarming outside, most of who tried to get her attention.
So it was mostly a blanket of odd feathers and morph bodies across the half-lit sky that the girlkitty watched as she went along, just toeing her way about the streets, heading in what she believed was the right way. And she could read a map, whether or not anyone believed such. .. This is, of course, precisely why she was going the wrong way. But we'll gloss over this.
"Wow, I've lived here this long now, and I think I'm lost.." she conceded, some time later. This was about the time she'd passed the bar for the fifth time. Walking in circles was not her idea of progress. "They should put arrows up, that'd help.."
"You lost?" came the short reply from behind her. To which she turned. A young Espeon morph stood there, actually on all fours there. A tattered shirt was all he had on.. and the blackcat didn't really mind this at all. "I know this city real well."
"Yeah, I bet you do.. I'm looking for the governor's place. Know that?" she asked him?
"No." He began to say that, anyway. ".. Huh? You ask me where it is and I never been there, I don't know... but I do now? Who are you?" The Espeon skipped a circle around Reka before she could say a word. "You're not what you seem!"
"I'm Reka. And that's more than I really needed to say. If you know where it is, couldn't you be so kind as to tell me..?" Reka noticed her own words. She had, in effect, told him to know that.. and he had. That had to be watched in the future.
"Yes. Yes I could. It's just north a while, and on the east. Biggest place you'll see." he replied.
It occurred to Reka that she should check whether the statement was this psy detecting that she was, indeed, something more than first looks.. "What do you mean 'I'm not what I seem'..."
"Well.. you're not a pokemon. Like me. You're.. I don't know. You're something else."
Tch. What was this.. "I'm not a pokemon, I'm a -morph-. Just like you."
"No! I'm a pokemon! Always have been!" was the quick, and manic reply. Reka spotted it in his eyes; someone shattered. Refusal to believe the truth.. just led to nice swift denial. Maybe she should pity him?
*Pfft. Two days ago, you'd have done the same thing. Pity yourself some a little as well..* went the bell, and that Sneaker aspect of her personality, the one that knew Reka could do something for this guy.. shrugged, and led her away. "Whatever you say. Thanks for the help." After all.. the bell was right. She didn't help people.. She was, at least in spirit, the great Sneaker! Soon to be ruler of this land! Why would he matter, if he even stayed alive until after she seized this world in her tiny grip of iron. Sniff. Off she walked properly, leaving the guy repeating. "No, seriously, you should work on your walk a little.. you're walking like the humans do, and that's just not right... not right.."
--
Well, at least the building was where the crazy guy said it was. Big place, too.. done up all in brown, with an obvious sign outside. 'Current presiding Governor of Pokemorph Isle:' .. but after that it was blank. The place looked deserted, as well. That was kinda the point; there was no governor -to- live in the place. Reka wanted to change that. She skipped up the long and step-laden path; keeping her balance just fine, in order to wander to the door. A large, oaken thing, which was quite a head's height over the nine year old right then. Still, she didn't care. It didn't have powers beyond imagination. She did. er tail twinged once, and then she shifted forward a little, and hammered on the door.
The knocks echoed, bringing the very sound to a nice resonance, within the house. There was a knocker up there, which rattled a little.. but it was all the way up there, and she was not of such a mood to try jumping for it. Not that her knocks needed it, because the door unbolted.
Reka was leant on the door, then, and she got off just in time to avoid falling over again, as the large door swung to, revealing,, an open hallway. Which was then blocked by the figure of a morph.. a white, mid-age Arcanine, with fairly singed fur, and a rather broad and slightly bemused expression.
"That was quite loud for such a little one. I'll give you that. I'm the caretaker of this place.. you were lucky to catch me in, really. What's your business at this place..?"
"I want to know about who decides the governor for this place." she said, accent-laden, skipping past words quite quickly.
"The Isle? Ohh.. well.. The people do. The citizens. We do, and you.. in a number of years, anyway. There isn't a governor right now, though.. I think they're worried about the Team and their backlash if we ever try to establish a proper authority on this Isle that isn't them. Something like that. You wouldn't get it."
"I get you just fine. Don't patronise me, I'll be ten soon enough." Reka said. That last part was just a flick of speech.. really, it was.. The Arcanine chucked, in that stout way people sometimes do. "Yes.. I'm sure you are."
"Anyway, mister doggy.. Say I wanted to become governor, and I do.. could you tell me where I go to get people to actually do something about it?"
The firedoggy glanced. Heh. Children, what will they be doing next.. Still, he'd tell her. He had no choice. "There's an office that could deal with that. It organises the elections and stuff. It's one south of North Elm, and that's.. east as far as you can, and a little north. From here, anyway. I could take you there?"
"Nah. I'll be okay. Thanks mister, you've helped me a lot. Don't be surprised if you see me here soon!" Yeah, a nice finishing line, just to seal that. She skipped quickly off down the stairs, before just softly and slowly heading in the direction mentioned. It was still too early..! She could afford to waste some time.. no office is open so early..
The Arcanine's gaze followed her around the side of the building. Cute kitty. Maybe they could use someone like that in office around this place.. "Would make a change.." he thought...
***
The office was distinct in that it was nothing different at all. It didn't even have a name on the side, except for the letters EO on the front of the sliding doors into the place. Reka strode through, Princess Kitty, out for her kingdom.. EO probably stood for Elections Office or something like that, and this place was not a very active one.
The hall was devoid of life.. save for a single receptionist, who wasn't doing a great deal. Probably waiting for someone else to come in and do what Reka was about to do.. stride up to the front of the hall. The top of the counter towered over, so she.. hopped up and sat on it, much to the surprise of the young adult Slowbro female that was sat there.
A suit was what she wore; with the lower back missing to allow for the symbiotic Shellder, a nonmorphed one, to sit latched on to her tail. It didn't do a great deal, with wouldn't ever; but it didn't matter all that much.
"Err.. Is there something you want?" she asked Reka, a little surprised still.
"I want to become governor. Tell me what I do." the wiry kitty said, plainly. The Slowbro.. took this in her stride. Kids were getting mentally older each day, weren't they..
"Well.. There's a lot we have to do for that.. We need some other people to vote for.. then we need to make up voting slips.. let people campaign for a while.. set dates, get television coverage.. These things generally take some months. But at least you've come here, that's a start." she said, slightly tired. She wasn't being serious in her telling this kid what was what.. not yet, anyway.
"I want you to register me as a candidate. That can be done, hm?" Suddenly.. it could. The Slowbro looked through the piles of nicely stacked paper she had.. There had to be something in here about -age- for this sort of thing...
"I.. I can't find anything against it, actually. ure.. I'll get on that. Give me your name, address, and some other details, and.. start building your campaign. We won't let you start until we have everyone.. which could be in around.. half a year. Not long, respectively."
This would not do. Reka wanted things to happen now. Not in six months. And she said so. "I want things to happen now, though. Like we have all the candidates, and most of them have dropped out and that leaves.. two! Me and some other person.. who could be.. you! Yeah, you. And so there's only us two left and we have only two days of campaigning and then the vote date comes. I want that, I want that. I WANT IT TO HAPPEN!"
And.. nothing more was said. Reka, meanwhile, looked around. Everything was silent. Not so much because she'd made it so; the place was empty. But then.. the Slowbro wasn't moving. She was sitting there.. and staring. ".. .. I ... Yes. I can do that." And suddenly the young woman's eyes went white. Reka then eyed.. Could she really do what had just been said?
*Nope. But we don't care, remember? By the way, you don't appreciate what you've just done. Sleepybye for you for a few minutes.* A sickening pain racked through Reka's head, and everything spun out of being.. as she toppled from her perch on the desk. And the world saw itself fit to do precisely what had been said.
***
An indiscriminate amount of time passed before the little Meowth morph woke from her induced sleep. It was a hazy awakening, but she did it.. The carpet was grey and it smelled faintly of leather.
People were walking past. The place was busy, quite busy. Workers were coming in with bits of paper, and the reception actually had a TV camera sitting in it. "How long have I been out..?" she wondered, aloud.
"Just a second, miss Reka." went one of the people walking along. "You hit your head or something..?"
Reka didn't know this person. But they knew her. "Uhh.. Nope, I'm just a little groggy. Lack of sleep. I've been busy."
"I should say you have. But it'll pay off soon enough, miss Reka. Good luck, if I don't see you before the day.. and I won't, I'm working on ballot staff." the voice, which was just a Bulbasaur male now that Reka could see it, spoke, before wandering off. And the black haired female just looked around, and wondered.. before hopping back on the counter.
The Slowbro female was still here, just looking at the camera that was trained on the both of them. She then turned to Reka. "That was sudden.. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm just fine. What is all this?"
"You did hit your head. We're being interviewed, of course. There's two days before the first election in a year and you're one of the candidates.. and I'm the other. Quick rundown for your memory.. I don't want this interview to reflect badly on any of us. People adore you, you're the adorable type.. but eh, I've said I'm supposed to be the adult voice of reason. And the camera's getting all of this."
Uh.. What happened here. "I came to you just now.. asking for an election to take place in two days?"
"You came to me six months ago and asked me for the election. I fancied my chances, but I only got in because three of the candidates withdrew. The fourth was found in the bay three days ago. We're all that's left. You should know this, it's been your life for the last few months..." she said. "Or maybe it hasn't. I don't know how bothered you really are about all this, being so young.."
"Seriously bothered. I'm thinking too hard for myself and everyone these days. I need to just win this and relax." Reka said, her mind clicking. Touche, was the look from the Slowbro.
*Worked it out yet?* the bell said, in her head. Reka thought back at it.. slightly wondering. *I wasn't even HERE six months ago!*
*I was Sneaker then!* The bell sighed. *Do we care?*
Reka's eyes widened, and she really -did- feel groggy.. *We needed a Reka here six months ago. So we had one. Trouble is, you're Reka. You were Sneaker then. Our best hope to get this paradox resolved... is to make it simple. And that was easy. You found the bell two days ago... as Reka. You've never been anything other than Reka.*
"Oh my god." was all she was able to say at that time. And she said it out loud, too.
"You're not even listening, are you.. C'mon, everyone knows children have the attention spans of Magikarp." the Slowbro took it to her advantage to say.
"I'm not a morphed evolution of the stupidest being on the planet, though. Slowpokes don't think up many new things, do they..?"
That kept her quiet for a while. Reka went back to thought.
*So what about Sneaker?*
*Sneaker? Who's that? You tell me.*
And Reka... could not. Just.. couldn't. The answers were out of reach, but they were only half there. Though the name was obvious, and that was it. Like a blank space. *But.. that's not fair! I can't go back to how things were now! Ever!*
*You messed up. You could probably undo this, but then you'd have to wait months. And as a side note.. taking off the bell wouldn't restore your form. And it definitely won't now, since there's nothing to restore it -to-. Test me if you like.. I'm not lying.*
Reka needed air. "Can I halt this now?" she asked the camera.
"We just did." went the guy behind it. "You can both go now."
"I work for my living, and that doesn't change even while I'm campaigning." the Slowbro said, eyeing Reka, and going back to putting papers in nice, tidy piles. Reka got up and ran - no skipping - out of the building, and through the maze of people that were swarming outside, most of who tried to get her attention.
