Addition disclaimer: Tatikyas is also © me. I don't know why I involved one of my own characters in this, but it can't be bad. Can it? This is a pretty long chapter, I generally have too much to say in these situations..
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Reka stared at the waters edge by the beach. She'd fought to get a quiet spot, where nobody would bug her. It upset her that what made -her- different from the little girl down the street is that she had the personality of some guy that never existed. And she loved Sneaker, and the fact they were the same being helped a lot with that.
Her reflection stared back up from the water, practically as forlorn. The bell was in the reflection, too.. and it mocked her, openly. Yeah, so she'd messed up.. She didn't ask for something as wrong as that to occur.
Staring at herself.. she just watched herself speak. "You know, reflection.. I think you, me, we, would like Sneaker to have existed. It'd give me something to do."
*You're smarter than I give you credit for.* went the bell. Reka didn't know why, until... -something- triggered. And she couldn't stop herself saying to the reflection, which was her.. "Ok, I'll do that.."
Do what? What could she do, it was all hopeless, really.. she couldn't do anything. Nope. The group around her wasn't brightening unnaturally either, and her eyes weren't becoming the same white she'd just seen. She saw that in the reflection, and.. the silent wonder became spoken. "I can order myself to do things?"
Paf, it was like the Second Coming. A new history wrote itself a place in Reka's mind, in history, in -being-. It worked, and it existed, and Sneaker was.. well, had.. existed. He was not resigned to a forgotten name somewhere in the mind of a young child.
Reka sat at the water's edge, and just recited it to herself as it 'happened' to place itself into her thought.. "Reka had always existed.. A girl without a past, someone perpetually nine, just someone.. The bell Sneaker found two days ago, it caused.. well, it caused a union. It did. And this means that.. he existed, and I existed.. and it's so perfect and I love this bell thank you!"
And she giggled.. and, well, fell into the water, where she struck the bottom, turned over, and got the roan dress thoroughly soaked. It didn't matter.. things were fairly good right now. And she had her own way, with a little manipuation. And she'd soon be governor! Life was okay.
One of the things people had said as she was running fron the Elections Office struck her thought just then. She had to appear on TV and radio at the same time tomorrow.. That was good. This was good. It meant she could tell people to vote for her.. and they WOULD! Not that she wasn't a better candidate than that Slowbro woman.. the interview proved that to her right there and then...
She could rule this place, though, guaranteed. That was the thing.
Happy mood. Happy happy double happy. Which is why, someone came onto the deserted stretch of beach, and it roused Reka. She should probably go tell people to vote for her, but she looked up first.
Running along the beach, without much concern for the besodden little kitty, was a Raichu. Black clothing, tan fur, brown hair, dead tail, left-side head scar. Old guy. And Reka knew this one from the temple, that came back to her mind straight away. "Wasn't he the one that threw the shoe..?"
Raichu ears picked this up immediately. Tatikyas - that being his name - stopped, and turned to the direction of the young kitty.. Nope, don't know her. On we go. And the running started once more.
"Stop." she said, grinning a nice, cute, and almost evil smile. And.. the zapmouse stopped. He just did, and wondered why he'd stopped, even himself. Before he turned back to Reka.. and tilted his head. "You want something?"
"Yeah, I do. Come over here a minute." Ahh, the wonders of this bell brought tears to her eyes to consider the number of things she could possibly do to this guy. Not even crying tears.. it was more like the brink of laughter. And he spotted this instantly.
"You're up to something.. I mean, I want to walk over there now, for no reason. So I'm just going to, like that. I don't follow your orders." he said, as he walked over there.. looking either which way. The raichu, this particular raichu.. had a higher sense of self than even the egotists did. So it isn't surprising he noticed when doing things that.. he just wouldn't do. Of no help to him was this particular fact, however..
"You never know. But I'm not the sort that could pull one over on a first gen, mister.." she spoke, tilting her own head.. and getting up off the floor. To still be almost two feet below this guy.
Tatikyas just grumbled, and looked down at this.. well, somewhat cute.. little girlkitty. Unfazed, really. "So, what do you want..?"
"Tell me about yourself. Be brief, and be honest." Reka wanted to know how best to get at this guy.. and the bell was chipping in thoughts, too. After all, they were working towards a common aim; making someone really not so very happy.
*Looks like one of those big guy types. Seasoned fighter, self-centered even more than you are.. competely uncaring, and lacking fun, really.* was the bell's synopsis.
"My name's Tatikyas. I'm what you see. I'm of the First, and I don't do much with my days. I beat people up if they really want me to, but otherwise I keep out of their way. I can't do anything else, nothing really fits. Not even talking to little girls and telling them all about me for no reason. Look, if you're going to do something, just say it." was the reply.. and Tatikyas tried to resist. Really, he did. But it wasn't going to happen.
Reka had a touch of the unfair just then. Immediately, she narrowed her eyes, and glanced at this guy, remembering. This person had the gall to throw a shoe at _Sneaker_, back when that's who she was. He had something to say but no, he was not allowed to say it because -this- guy thought he was better than the _great_ Sneaker. How dare he even exist.. this.. well, not that big, but respectively.. .. -mouse-.
"Mice should be less than me.. Down and down, where they belong.." was the murmur. "Under the feet of those chosen, under the whims of those higher up the food chain. And yet you're not! You don't fit! I hate things that don't fit!" Reka vented at him.. for no reason. It was an exercise of the Sneaker personality, more than anything; her overjoyedness at getting it back being used to full effect.
"You called me over to tell me that?" Tatikyas said, brushing her comments off his mind like someone would move animal waste from their shoe. Or so was the glance he returned, a dark black haze of nothing that stung of apathy.
Reka needed to think up something good. Something.. that would make her on top. So.. she asked the bell, about an idea, a little consideration that had started right when she'd heard about this whole 'fighting' business..
*It'd work, yeah. Just make sure you say your order properly.. because if you screw up, you put yourself in a sticky situation.* went the bell. Reka stood up to her full four-two height.. and looked right at this oversized zapmouse.
"No, I want you to do something else. I'm going to hand you the bell, and you're going to put it on. And when I say so, whatever you may think otherwise of doing.. you will give me the bell back, and that will be all. Do you understand?"
"Yeah. Why a cat bell? That's just humiliating.. It doesn't make sense to me." Tatikyas grinned. Even if he was under whatever psychic allure this girl had by even remaining here.. she was just a child, and children had strange ideas of severity. So.. he'd do it, just to humour her.
Reka counted on it. So, gracefully, she took off the bell. The feeling of unease she'd felt a couple of days ago hadn't quite gone naturally yet.. but she could live with it. She offered out the bell, with its neck cord, and dark red shine. And the Raichu, he did take it, examining it first.. and offering a shrug. "If that's what you want.."
So, without word.. he took the cord, split it into its proper loop, and threw the loop over his head, letting the bell settle on his chest.
Sure, it didn't seem like much, until the biting of pain and its burning threw Tati into a forward lie, arms down, holding him up. But the raichu would not cry out; something he'd become accustomed to not doing a long time before any of this. Those hands thrashed a little, still holding him up. But their fur developed a white texture, all the same, and it spread up his arms.
The raichu wouldn't actually -feel- a lot of it per se; Reka knew this. But she could watch; she could get an idea what had happened to her not two days before. Hey.. she -was- a cat. It was just simple curiosity.. that and this guy probably deserved the life he'd end up with afterwards. Without the bell, of course.. that one was reserved for -her-. And her only.
The white spread like a plague, a strange plague that he could not even begin to imagine. And it ate everything.. even his clothes, although their texture, and their separation from his body, and his being, remained. Just.. white. White fur, white being. Ironic to Reka that one was white and one was black, though.. this guy, killer of numbers, apathetic, uncaring.. was probably meant to be black. Pfft.
It happened a lot quicker than Reka was able to follow.. but she was trying. There was a lot to see in just a minute or two. The now white raichu rolled over a few times, onto his front. Even his tail, which wasn't even alive.. that was now a different shade. His hands were formless.. just mittens; the way they should be. But they were getting smaller; not a good sign.
The flailing was obvious; Tatikyas's mind was living in a world of hurt just now, and the bell tingled as he rolled once again, supporting himself on small hands, with small arms... as his frame and his legs started to follow suit, their size dissipating into the air, or into nowhere. Nobody knew really. And nobody cared; it was just happening..
Finally, a holler. Teenage in pitch. Something had clicked. His tail wasn't changing size.. it was just being dragged along for the ride. It wasn't healing up, though.. which would mean he'd still have it. The scar was, however. His height had gone considerably, and more was still to come. Reka could only hope he'd end up slightly younger than she. Something to gloat over, really.
The blackcat had swapped position, anyway, in light of the rolling.. and she was just standing to one side. And not so much grinning as .. staring. In slight shock. This was distinct.. and so quick, considering the physiological impact this had to have. Almost hard to believe she'd done the same just two days earlier, in his indirect presence..
The boy - yeah, that's what everyone's favourite raichu was right now - tried so much to stop himself up off the floor with his arms and bent legs. The clothes he was wearing were still of white texture and shape, though.. but, then again, this hadn't finished. He was still a raichu; although, the need for any burning and such intense pain had disappeared.. and the screech with it. For now.
Reka took a look at him.. and decided to sum it up. He was about 7, and a purely white raichu.. but he was still male. That was unfair. Smaller than him, barely.. she surmised. She hoped, anyway. He certainly looked younger.. and she wandered over, believing this to be the end. Just like he did.
Before a brightening and the refresher of a clenched-teeth mumbling noise threw Tati off his feet and back into a sit up. This was the part where things differed.. at least, partially. His white form glowed, and the silhouetted brightness tossed its head back. Reka thought.. and then knew what it was. Evolution.. going in reverse.
Once, twice.. it wasn't going to stop just for an interim change. This part didn't pain, but it was very obvious to the morph in question what was happening. The ears, they shifted and became the quaint simplistic shape of a Pichu, and although his colourscheme darkened slightly - an offwhite - that couldn't be seen much really.
"But he's still a him..!" Reka reminded the bell. Of course, that had to be the last thing to go.. and it had to disappear when he had full awareness. The bell knew that, she knew that. The final nail in the coffin of awareness, at least. Maybe he'd not make a fuss about it just afterwards.. maybe he'd give the bell back, walk away, and then cry himself to sleep.
The light cleared, eventually.. leaving behind a whiter, and less furred pokemon at the end of it. Pichu, no less. Still white, with the odd off grey part around triangular ears and the neck, which just stuck back through the still mottled - and somewhat small and dwarfish - brown hair.
The tail had actually shrunk a little.. but it was around the size of the pichu himself, four feet, and still a raichu tail, with a slightly creamier tailbolt, although still, the thing was dead. No function.
Shaking, the now Pichu flailed some more, and one paw dug itself into the sands - which kept the pretty sand-covered Pichu in place, as the final thing happened. The body shifted itself in many places... while the hair lightened, changed texture, and lengthened to fall around the curved and young face in bunches.
Eyes opened, widened, and a cute blue stared back out at the world, a world.. that now seemed bigger, and different to that it had been been before. Intimidating, even. The all-white fur changed its texture, becoming light and of feminine consistancy, at least. And one final flash would mark out the rest; the 'scream' was more of a giggle laugh... a haunting, rodent, femme laugh.
Almost like it.. tickled, did the next bit. But, Reka couldn't see what was going on, she had to glance away. This soon stopped, though.. and her sense of completeness decided that, yes, that would be the end of it. So, back she turned. And the complete oddity of the situation grasped her fully at that moment.
She'd just made that guy a seven year old pichu girl! Like how weird was that? And she was sat, in a sand crater of her own making.. in a green, floral-pattern dress. The brown hair of hers was tied back in an almost smart pattern, with two long and hanging bangs ribboned and lying in front of her. A black ribbon was present in the middle of the back of the hair, too, nicely between the Pichu ears, which seemed to shine from a thin sprinking of sand. No shoes, and all the fur was white, with intermiscent bits of soft brown, sand; She had been rolling a lot, after all.. The face was younger than it should probably have appeared, and it was just staring at Reka lightly.. The angry tone that came as she pulled the bell off - still under order - was just cute to consider. "What the heck have you done..!"
Reka took the bell back, and looked at it; it was sandy, but it was better than not having it. A lot better. That had been quite refreshing, actually. Still without the influence of the bell.. she walked up to the Pichu girl, and they looked at each other.
"I can't undo it." Reka said. "But you're able to adapt. You threw a boot at me a couple of days ago, but I can forgive you now."
It would be lying to say she wasn't close to tears, really. "It's a bit late for it!" came the reply, before she stared.. "You're.. that guy..? But you lost yourself as well! How could you do that to me? You're not fair! This isn't fair!" she lamented.. looking cute as she did. Not that they could avoid doing so; that was the thing with this bell.
Reka suddenly felt.. low. Low because she was aghast of the bell's grasp on her.. and really, that unease hadn't gone away. A whole flood of things came up now.. her love of Sneaker, that funny little guy who pissed off the world and survived... No more would he ever see the light of day, short of being stuck inside this little black girl who seemed incapable of getting people to disagree with her...
And her own, green, eyes.. just glanced into the blue, and the blue back to the green.. and each showed empathy at the precise same moment, so it surprised none of them as, in a cute and somewhat harrowing moment, both parties collapsed into one another's embrace, both in fits of tears. Both causing another ocean, however small and quickly soaked up, to form inside the crater where Tati had once put on a bell.
Comments flew past each side, just within the hysteria that both sides had put themselves into.
"You're a lot prettier without that scar, anyway!"
"I bet you've got a better voice like that, even so..!"
"Black wasn't your colour..!"
"White fur wasn't yours!"
"You look like a white chocolate Pichu, how can you talk about my fur?"
"And you look like a hairbrush! A really fancy one, like those ones you can only mail order!"
And - in that curious way that little girls seem so damn good at, the mood hopped from complete despair.. to a fit of giggles, and laughing, as the two split the embrace, and fell over back into the sand, dustying up themselves just that bit more. Sure they could adapt. It was even easier when their new forms had mental states to go with them..
"You are! That's the exact shade of milk chocolate!"
"I seen the poodle-Growlithes groomed with things like you. I always wondered where they got that stuff.."
This actually continued for quite a while, with comments not really differing from that sort of thing. It gave both sides a much needed convenience.. It gave them a rest from their unease. It set them right with what they were.. Much more so for Reka. The bell didn't exactly think all this cuteness was helping the 'take over the world' mood (and indeed, who would think it was..?), but perhaps.. it'd mean something. Like it would help Reka to talk people into things that much easier. Or something.
Young children can always find something to occupy themselves in a place, as well.. and the two started dumping sand over one another, and that continued until the sun decided it was time for some shuteye, and hopped low in the sky, to tell everyone else this same message.
***
The two watched the sun, anyway. Stupid times; the pichu was distraught, the meowth had an election to win.. but they were doing it, all the same.
"You know, Reka.. You started out this thing trying to hurt me, I guess. But it didn't really go like that, did it..?"
"Yeah.. that's true. But, Saki.. it came out better. You're going to tell me you're happier now than you were and.. then you'll just go off and make a life out of it." Reka said. She had the bell on again, and it was moving a little, jangling by force of the nearby waves.
"Maybe I could say that. Maybe. I don't know." Saki stood up and .. looked off at the distance. "I should get going. Too late for me to be out, maybe." she spoke, brushing her hair aside, ignoring the fact she was, technically, 40, and it didn't matter where or when she was inside her dilapidated house..
"Maybe. Well, I definitely .. see, I do.. I think you need to get yourself an opinion, get yourself a liife.. and get moving, because I'm going as well. Or I'll sleep here. Yeah, I will." Reka said. This guy wasn't so bad.. now that she'd stripped him of his ego and turned him into a seven year old rodent female. Then again.. that can do strange things to a person...
Saki had already started wandering off. Reka realised that she'd only had this on her mind for a few hours, and without the help of a mood-absorbing bell like hers. So she let the Pichu go, and she decided that.. she'd not go back to her home, and she'd not have ceilings fall on her. She'd stay here, and let the lapping of the waves make sleep appear. The sun was low even now.
A random question was next into Reka's ears, just after then. "Hey, Reka..?" Saki, having stopped her wandering.. just with a question that she probably had to ask.
"Hm..?"
"Could you.. make my tail work again?"
The question threw Reka off for just a second.. pulling her gaze from the waves to the Pichu girl. Hey, she hadn't even noticed the tail wasn't moving. But she looked at it. It was.. well, it was a small version of the one she had before today's main event. It wasn't a Pichu tail, but it wasn't moving, either. Reka decided.. hey, she could do something for her. It'd be easy.
"I want you to move your tail. Without touching it. I'm sure you can."
As typically happens when someone with the Bell says a statement like this.. Saki, after a brief pause.. shifted the tail from the floor, and sliced it through the air a few times.. giggling, a little, for reasons Reka might never know. "Thanks!" Then she just sort of skipped off, the way she'd been wandering.. for a few seconds, before the Pichu started walking again.
Reka knew that feeling. Confusion. But confusion could go over time, and so could time itself. She noticed the sun again. Yes, it was still really low.
It got a lot lower, but then Reka was asleep then, and so she stayed. And so ended the third day of the blackcat. The dreams mainly concerned fun, laughter, and.. tomorrow's impending TV show. Wow.. The more viewers, the more votes. And all she had to do was say so. *I wonder how many mainland politicians would like this bell..* was the thought. Which was answered. Not many. Those humans would probably die if they ended up like this.
*Actually.. that might be fun to see...*
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Reka stared at the waters edge by the beach. She'd fought to get a quiet spot, where nobody would bug her. It upset her that what made -her- different from the little girl down the street is that she had the personality of some guy that never existed. And she loved Sneaker, and the fact they were the same being helped a lot with that.
Her reflection stared back up from the water, practically as forlorn. The bell was in the reflection, too.. and it mocked her, openly. Yeah, so she'd messed up.. She didn't ask for something as wrong as that to occur.
Staring at herself.. she just watched herself speak. "You know, reflection.. I think you, me, we, would like Sneaker to have existed. It'd give me something to do."
*You're smarter than I give you credit for.* went the bell. Reka didn't know why, until... -something- triggered. And she couldn't stop herself saying to the reflection, which was her.. "Ok, I'll do that.."
Do what? What could she do, it was all hopeless, really.. she couldn't do anything. Nope. The group around her wasn't brightening unnaturally either, and her eyes weren't becoming the same white she'd just seen. She saw that in the reflection, and.. the silent wonder became spoken. "I can order myself to do things?"
Paf, it was like the Second Coming. A new history wrote itself a place in Reka's mind, in history, in -being-. It worked, and it existed, and Sneaker was.. well, had.. existed. He was not resigned to a forgotten name somewhere in the mind of a young child.
Reka sat at the water's edge, and just recited it to herself as it 'happened' to place itself into her thought.. "Reka had always existed.. A girl without a past, someone perpetually nine, just someone.. The bell Sneaker found two days ago, it caused.. well, it caused a union. It did. And this means that.. he existed, and I existed.. and it's so perfect and I love this bell thank you!"
And she giggled.. and, well, fell into the water, where she struck the bottom, turned over, and got the roan dress thoroughly soaked. It didn't matter.. things were fairly good right now. And she had her own way, with a little manipuation. And she'd soon be governor! Life was okay.
One of the things people had said as she was running fron the Elections Office struck her thought just then. She had to appear on TV and radio at the same time tomorrow.. That was good. This was good. It meant she could tell people to vote for her.. and they WOULD! Not that she wasn't a better candidate than that Slowbro woman.. the interview proved that to her right there and then...
She could rule this place, though, guaranteed. That was the thing.
Happy mood. Happy happy double happy. Which is why, someone came onto the deserted stretch of beach, and it roused Reka. She should probably go tell people to vote for her, but she looked up first.
Running along the beach, without much concern for the besodden little kitty, was a Raichu. Black clothing, tan fur, brown hair, dead tail, left-side head scar. Old guy. And Reka knew this one from the temple, that came back to her mind straight away. "Wasn't he the one that threw the shoe..?"
Raichu ears picked this up immediately. Tatikyas - that being his name - stopped, and turned to the direction of the young kitty.. Nope, don't know her. On we go. And the running started once more.
"Stop." she said, grinning a nice, cute, and almost evil smile. And.. the zapmouse stopped. He just did, and wondered why he'd stopped, even himself. Before he turned back to Reka.. and tilted his head. "You want something?"
"Yeah, I do. Come over here a minute." Ahh, the wonders of this bell brought tears to her eyes to consider the number of things she could possibly do to this guy. Not even crying tears.. it was more like the brink of laughter. And he spotted this instantly.
"You're up to something.. I mean, I want to walk over there now, for no reason. So I'm just going to, like that. I don't follow your orders." he said, as he walked over there.. looking either which way. The raichu, this particular raichu.. had a higher sense of self than even the egotists did. So it isn't surprising he noticed when doing things that.. he just wouldn't do. Of no help to him was this particular fact, however..
"You never know. But I'm not the sort that could pull one over on a first gen, mister.." she spoke, tilting her own head.. and getting up off the floor. To still be almost two feet below this guy.
Tatikyas just grumbled, and looked down at this.. well, somewhat cute.. little girlkitty. Unfazed, really. "So, what do you want..?"
"Tell me about yourself. Be brief, and be honest." Reka wanted to know how best to get at this guy.. and the bell was chipping in thoughts, too. After all, they were working towards a common aim; making someone really not so very happy.
*Looks like one of those big guy types. Seasoned fighter, self-centered even more than you are.. competely uncaring, and lacking fun, really.* was the bell's synopsis.
"My name's Tatikyas. I'm what you see. I'm of the First, and I don't do much with my days. I beat people up if they really want me to, but otherwise I keep out of their way. I can't do anything else, nothing really fits. Not even talking to little girls and telling them all about me for no reason. Look, if you're going to do something, just say it." was the reply.. and Tatikyas tried to resist. Really, he did. But it wasn't going to happen.
Reka had a touch of the unfair just then. Immediately, she narrowed her eyes, and glanced at this guy, remembering. This person had the gall to throw a shoe at _Sneaker_, back when that's who she was. He had something to say but no, he was not allowed to say it because -this- guy thought he was better than the _great_ Sneaker. How dare he even exist.. this.. well, not that big, but respectively.. .. -mouse-.
"Mice should be less than me.. Down and down, where they belong.." was the murmur. "Under the feet of those chosen, under the whims of those higher up the food chain. And yet you're not! You don't fit! I hate things that don't fit!" Reka vented at him.. for no reason. It was an exercise of the Sneaker personality, more than anything; her overjoyedness at getting it back being used to full effect.
"You called me over to tell me that?" Tatikyas said, brushing her comments off his mind like someone would move animal waste from their shoe. Or so was the glance he returned, a dark black haze of nothing that stung of apathy.
Reka needed to think up something good. Something.. that would make her on top. So.. she asked the bell, about an idea, a little consideration that had started right when she'd heard about this whole 'fighting' business..
*It'd work, yeah. Just make sure you say your order properly.. because if you screw up, you put yourself in a sticky situation.* went the bell. Reka stood up to her full four-two height.. and looked right at this oversized zapmouse.
"No, I want you to do something else. I'm going to hand you the bell, and you're going to put it on. And when I say so, whatever you may think otherwise of doing.. you will give me the bell back, and that will be all. Do you understand?"
"Yeah. Why a cat bell? That's just humiliating.. It doesn't make sense to me." Tatikyas grinned. Even if he was under whatever psychic allure this girl had by even remaining here.. she was just a child, and children had strange ideas of severity. So.. he'd do it, just to humour her.
Reka counted on it. So, gracefully, she took off the bell. The feeling of unease she'd felt a couple of days ago hadn't quite gone naturally yet.. but she could live with it. She offered out the bell, with its neck cord, and dark red shine. And the Raichu, he did take it, examining it first.. and offering a shrug. "If that's what you want.."
So, without word.. he took the cord, split it into its proper loop, and threw the loop over his head, letting the bell settle on his chest.
Sure, it didn't seem like much, until the biting of pain and its burning threw Tati into a forward lie, arms down, holding him up. But the raichu would not cry out; something he'd become accustomed to not doing a long time before any of this. Those hands thrashed a little, still holding him up. But their fur developed a white texture, all the same, and it spread up his arms.
The raichu wouldn't actually -feel- a lot of it per se; Reka knew this. But she could watch; she could get an idea what had happened to her not two days before. Hey.. she -was- a cat. It was just simple curiosity.. that and this guy probably deserved the life he'd end up with afterwards. Without the bell, of course.. that one was reserved for -her-. And her only.
The white spread like a plague, a strange plague that he could not even begin to imagine. And it ate everything.. even his clothes, although their texture, and their separation from his body, and his being, remained. Just.. white. White fur, white being. Ironic to Reka that one was white and one was black, though.. this guy, killer of numbers, apathetic, uncaring.. was probably meant to be black. Pfft.
It happened a lot quicker than Reka was able to follow.. but she was trying. There was a lot to see in just a minute or two. The now white raichu rolled over a few times, onto his front. Even his tail, which wasn't even alive.. that was now a different shade. His hands were formless.. just mittens; the way they should be. But they were getting smaller; not a good sign.
The flailing was obvious; Tatikyas's mind was living in a world of hurt just now, and the bell tingled as he rolled once again, supporting himself on small hands, with small arms... as his frame and his legs started to follow suit, their size dissipating into the air, or into nowhere. Nobody knew really. And nobody cared; it was just happening..
Finally, a holler. Teenage in pitch. Something had clicked. His tail wasn't changing size.. it was just being dragged along for the ride. It wasn't healing up, though.. which would mean he'd still have it. The scar was, however. His height had gone considerably, and more was still to come. Reka could only hope he'd end up slightly younger than she. Something to gloat over, really.
The blackcat had swapped position, anyway, in light of the rolling.. and she was just standing to one side. And not so much grinning as .. staring. In slight shock. This was distinct.. and so quick, considering the physiological impact this had to have. Almost hard to believe she'd done the same just two days earlier, in his indirect presence..
The boy - yeah, that's what everyone's favourite raichu was right now - tried so much to stop himself up off the floor with his arms and bent legs. The clothes he was wearing were still of white texture and shape, though.. but, then again, this hadn't finished. He was still a raichu; although, the need for any burning and such intense pain had disappeared.. and the screech with it. For now.
Reka took a look at him.. and decided to sum it up. He was about 7, and a purely white raichu.. but he was still male. That was unfair. Smaller than him, barely.. she surmised. She hoped, anyway. He certainly looked younger.. and she wandered over, believing this to be the end. Just like he did.
Before a brightening and the refresher of a clenched-teeth mumbling noise threw Tati off his feet and back into a sit up. This was the part where things differed.. at least, partially. His white form glowed, and the silhouetted brightness tossed its head back. Reka thought.. and then knew what it was. Evolution.. going in reverse.
Once, twice.. it wasn't going to stop just for an interim change. This part didn't pain, but it was very obvious to the morph in question what was happening. The ears, they shifted and became the quaint simplistic shape of a Pichu, and although his colourscheme darkened slightly - an offwhite - that couldn't be seen much really.
"But he's still a him..!" Reka reminded the bell. Of course, that had to be the last thing to go.. and it had to disappear when he had full awareness. The bell knew that, she knew that. The final nail in the coffin of awareness, at least. Maybe he'd not make a fuss about it just afterwards.. maybe he'd give the bell back, walk away, and then cry himself to sleep.
The light cleared, eventually.. leaving behind a whiter, and less furred pokemon at the end of it. Pichu, no less. Still white, with the odd off grey part around triangular ears and the neck, which just stuck back through the still mottled - and somewhat small and dwarfish - brown hair.
The tail had actually shrunk a little.. but it was around the size of the pichu himself, four feet, and still a raichu tail, with a slightly creamier tailbolt, although still, the thing was dead. No function.
Shaking, the now Pichu flailed some more, and one paw dug itself into the sands - which kept the pretty sand-covered Pichu in place, as the final thing happened. The body shifted itself in many places... while the hair lightened, changed texture, and lengthened to fall around the curved and young face in bunches.
Eyes opened, widened, and a cute blue stared back out at the world, a world.. that now seemed bigger, and different to that it had been been before. Intimidating, even. The all-white fur changed its texture, becoming light and of feminine consistancy, at least. And one final flash would mark out the rest; the 'scream' was more of a giggle laugh... a haunting, rodent, femme laugh.
Almost like it.. tickled, did the next bit. But, Reka couldn't see what was going on, she had to glance away. This soon stopped, though.. and her sense of completeness decided that, yes, that would be the end of it. So, back she turned. And the complete oddity of the situation grasped her fully at that moment.
She'd just made that guy a seven year old pichu girl! Like how weird was that? And she was sat, in a sand crater of her own making.. in a green, floral-pattern dress. The brown hair of hers was tied back in an almost smart pattern, with two long and hanging bangs ribboned and lying in front of her. A black ribbon was present in the middle of the back of the hair, too, nicely between the Pichu ears, which seemed to shine from a thin sprinking of sand. No shoes, and all the fur was white, with intermiscent bits of soft brown, sand; She had been rolling a lot, after all.. The face was younger than it should probably have appeared, and it was just staring at Reka lightly.. The angry tone that came as she pulled the bell off - still under order - was just cute to consider. "What the heck have you done..!"
Reka took the bell back, and looked at it; it was sandy, but it was better than not having it. A lot better. That had been quite refreshing, actually. Still without the influence of the bell.. she walked up to the Pichu girl, and they looked at each other.
"I can't undo it." Reka said. "But you're able to adapt. You threw a boot at me a couple of days ago, but I can forgive you now."
It would be lying to say she wasn't close to tears, really. "It's a bit late for it!" came the reply, before she stared.. "You're.. that guy..? But you lost yourself as well! How could you do that to me? You're not fair! This isn't fair!" she lamented.. looking cute as she did. Not that they could avoid doing so; that was the thing with this bell.
Reka suddenly felt.. low. Low because she was aghast of the bell's grasp on her.. and really, that unease hadn't gone away. A whole flood of things came up now.. her love of Sneaker, that funny little guy who pissed off the world and survived... No more would he ever see the light of day, short of being stuck inside this little black girl who seemed incapable of getting people to disagree with her...
And her own, green, eyes.. just glanced into the blue, and the blue back to the green.. and each showed empathy at the precise same moment, so it surprised none of them as, in a cute and somewhat harrowing moment, both parties collapsed into one another's embrace, both in fits of tears. Both causing another ocean, however small and quickly soaked up, to form inside the crater where Tati had once put on a bell.
Comments flew past each side, just within the hysteria that both sides had put themselves into.
"You're a lot prettier without that scar, anyway!"
"I bet you've got a better voice like that, even so..!"
"Black wasn't your colour..!"
"White fur wasn't yours!"
"You look like a white chocolate Pichu, how can you talk about my fur?"
"And you look like a hairbrush! A really fancy one, like those ones you can only mail order!"
And - in that curious way that little girls seem so damn good at, the mood hopped from complete despair.. to a fit of giggles, and laughing, as the two split the embrace, and fell over back into the sand, dustying up themselves just that bit more. Sure they could adapt. It was even easier when their new forms had mental states to go with them..
"You are! That's the exact shade of milk chocolate!"
"I seen the poodle-Growlithes groomed with things like you. I always wondered where they got that stuff.."
This actually continued for quite a while, with comments not really differing from that sort of thing. It gave both sides a much needed convenience.. It gave them a rest from their unease. It set them right with what they were.. Much more so for Reka. The bell didn't exactly think all this cuteness was helping the 'take over the world' mood (and indeed, who would think it was..?), but perhaps.. it'd mean something. Like it would help Reka to talk people into things that much easier. Or something.
Young children can always find something to occupy themselves in a place, as well.. and the two started dumping sand over one another, and that continued until the sun decided it was time for some shuteye, and hopped low in the sky, to tell everyone else this same message.
***
The two watched the sun, anyway. Stupid times; the pichu was distraught, the meowth had an election to win.. but they were doing it, all the same.
"You know, Reka.. You started out this thing trying to hurt me, I guess. But it didn't really go like that, did it..?"
"Yeah.. that's true. But, Saki.. it came out better. You're going to tell me you're happier now than you were and.. then you'll just go off and make a life out of it." Reka said. She had the bell on again, and it was moving a little, jangling by force of the nearby waves.
"Maybe I could say that. Maybe. I don't know." Saki stood up and .. looked off at the distance. "I should get going. Too late for me to be out, maybe." she spoke, brushing her hair aside, ignoring the fact she was, technically, 40, and it didn't matter where or when she was inside her dilapidated house..
"Maybe. Well, I definitely .. see, I do.. I think you need to get yourself an opinion, get yourself a liife.. and get moving, because I'm going as well. Or I'll sleep here. Yeah, I will." Reka said. This guy wasn't so bad.. now that she'd stripped him of his ego and turned him into a seven year old rodent female. Then again.. that can do strange things to a person...
Saki had already started wandering off. Reka realised that she'd only had this on her mind for a few hours, and without the help of a mood-absorbing bell like hers. So she let the Pichu go, and she decided that.. she'd not go back to her home, and she'd not have ceilings fall on her. She'd stay here, and let the lapping of the waves make sleep appear. The sun was low even now.
A random question was next into Reka's ears, just after then. "Hey, Reka..?" Saki, having stopped her wandering.. just with a question that she probably had to ask.
"Hm..?"
"Could you.. make my tail work again?"
The question threw Reka off for just a second.. pulling her gaze from the waves to the Pichu girl. Hey, she hadn't even noticed the tail wasn't moving. But she looked at it. It was.. well, it was a small version of the one she had before today's main event. It wasn't a Pichu tail, but it wasn't moving, either. Reka decided.. hey, she could do something for her. It'd be easy.
"I want you to move your tail. Without touching it. I'm sure you can."
As typically happens when someone with the Bell says a statement like this.. Saki, after a brief pause.. shifted the tail from the floor, and sliced it through the air a few times.. giggling, a little, for reasons Reka might never know. "Thanks!" Then she just sort of skipped off, the way she'd been wandering.. for a few seconds, before the Pichu started walking again.
Reka knew that feeling. Confusion. But confusion could go over time, and so could time itself. She noticed the sun again. Yes, it was still really low.
It got a lot lower, but then Reka was asleep then, and so she stayed. And so ended the third day of the blackcat. The dreams mainly concerned fun, laughter, and.. tomorrow's impending TV show. Wow.. The more viewers, the more votes. And all she had to do was say so. *I wonder how many mainland politicians would like this bell..* was the thought. Which was answered. Not many. Those humans would probably die if they ended up like this.
*Actually.. that might be fun to see...*
