LMAO It's been a minute

So I guess I underestimated what being a humanities major would do to my free time but THAT'S RIGHT FOLKS I'M AN ENGLISH MAJOR NOW and so much happier omfg. Only thing is writing was my escape/procrastination technique/compensation for being STEM previously, so now somehow it's harder to find time to write. At any rate, the chapter's still done and I've made good progress into the next one. It's good to be back.

(CW: Evelyn's depressed again)

Reference page: sta dot sh/02fd4tio7i9 (In case you forgot everyone's teams)

Friday rose brilliantly into the sky, draping its light over the blue. Celestic Town shook off its sleep with a deep breath and smiled. The first day of the tournament had arrived.

And I was FUCKING STUCK.

I'd have screamed out loud if I'd had the capacity – which is to say, if I'd been in any other state of mind. My alarm went off at eight, since the tournament started at ten. I shut it off and kept lying there. Thomas went out to shower at nine and came back in dress clothes.

"What are you… it's already nine thir… Oh," he said, figuring out what was happening.

"Help," I said.

Thomas, in a spectacular show of speed, managed to get me ready in five minutes with the help of all my pokemon. Trust pulled me out of bed, Faith clumsily brushed my hair, Prom spouted water for me to wash my face and brush my teeth in, Def held the water in a psychic bowl, Coeur and Hope stuck around for moral support. While the dulled feeling inside me didn't go away, there was some sort of external optimism helping me out.

Thomas turned away while I got dressed and recalled my pokemon when we were done. "You're two for two," I said to him. "Rescuing me twice in two days."

"Come on, we're gonna be late," he said, heading out.

"Don't change the subject."

"Come on," he said, halfway out the door.

I shook my head and followed him out.

We arrived at the contest hall right in time, checking in at 9:58 and rushing down to the green room. Dawn waved us over.

"Glad you guys made it!" she said. "We were getting worried."

I wasn't sure about "we." Lucas had glanced at us briefly, but then looked back up at the screen where our matchups would be displayed.

The Celestic Tournament is… infamous? It's historically a medium-sized tournament in terms of participants, but back when it started, the trainer turnout was so low they only had two divisions – one for trainers with 1-4 badges, one for trainers with 5-8. For reasons of posterity (and probably hilarity), the organizers kept it going that way even when participation rates increased. The first few rounds take place more or less simultaneously, since Celestic just sets up a whole bunch of temp fields, which shortens the time needed for rounds. So the tournament itself is pretty short.

You're probably wondering – wouldn't this weird division mean trainers with 1 or 5 badges are discouraged from joining? Maybe a little, but for the most part, that's not the case. Trainers love a challenge. We're dumb like that.

There were a couple of prelims to narrow the competitors down to 64 – in our division these were between six of the five-badge traners. Thomas and Lucas were both assigned battles, which Dawn and I sat on the sidelines watching.

"So we're finally in the same division as Thomas," said Dawn. "This'll be interesting."

"Ugh, yeah." I shook my head. "He's got way too much experience to be fighting us."

"How long has he been training?"

"I think it's… a year and three months?"

"For five badges?"

"I mean, he also went and got five in Johto first."

"Oh, that makes more sense."

"Yeah."

I watched Lucas's kadabra teleport narrowly out of the way of a sneasel's claws. Kadabra sent a shockwave at the sneasel from behind.

"Have you and Lucas been… traveling together?" I asked her, trying not to sound nervous about the outcome.

"Oh, no– I've been in Sunyshore, he's been in Hearthome. We've both been stuck on our gyms for a while, though."

"What about Celestic? Did you spend time training here?"

"Yeah. We pretty much hung out all week. I'm sick of him now," she said cheerfully.

A very small, very jealous Evelyn standing on my shoulder said grumpily, I'd never get sick of him.

"Sounds like fun," I said.

"How about you and Thomas?" she asked me.

"We're… I guess we're traveling together? We have a sort of non-verbalized agreement where we end up going the same places and traveling together to get there."

"Do you guys have the same badges?"

"We do now, yeah. Mostly cause I pressured him to get Veilstone and Pastoria. I think the idea is for both of us to get Canalave next."

Dawn nodded thoughtfully. "That sounds nice," she said.

"What does?"

"Having a traveling companion."

I glanced at Thomas. Silver dodged an ice beam and swooped in on the glalie with an aerial ace for the win.

"It is," I said, surprising myself. "He gets me out of bad situations, I push him to raise his standards… it's a good time."

Lucas was heading over; Thomas wrapped up his battle and walked toward us as well.

"Hmm," said Dawn. "Maybe a non-verbalized agreement is the way to go."

She stood up, leaving me with more questions than I'd started with.

Round one was a breeze; I faced a six-badge trainer who I think overestimated their one-badge advantage.

Round two was trickier – my perception of time was wobbling faster and slower – but I made it through. Lucas didn't. "Aw. That's all right," I said, trying to be encouraging. He didn't respond. I kept thinking my stomach couldn't sink any lower, but it must have risen in between interactions with Lucas just so it could sink again.

Round three was where things got interesting.

"This will be a three-on-three battle between Evelyn Meyers of Twinleaf Town and Dawn Berlitz of Twinleaf Town," said the announcer. "This will be a three-on-three battle between Evelyn Meyers of Twinleaf Town and Dawn Berlitz of Twinleaf Town."

I grimaced at the time blip. "Trainers may make substitutions in between rounds," the announcer continued. "Trainers, are you ready?"

"Yep," I said.

"Ready!" said Dawn.

"Battle–" said the announcer. I clutched Trust's pokeball.

"This will be a three-on-three battle between Evelyn Meyers of Twinleaf Town…"

"Dialga," I hissed. "I get that you hate me but can you not."

"This will be a three-on-three…"

I breathed to calm my nerves. Just had to wait it out.

I glanced around the battlefield. Our reward for making it to the top 16 was a slightly more prominent battlefield than the ones chalk-drawn near the Pokemon Center (i.e. still chalk, but there were folding bleachers set up around it). Thomas and Lucas were watching from the front row. My eyes wandered toward Dawn – I hadn't realized how nervous she looked. She shot a glance at Lucas, who gave her a thumbs-up. I looked away.

"Trainers, are you ready?"

"Yeah."

"Ready!" she said, the energy behind her voice sounding more forced than it had the first time.

"Battle– begin!"

"Trust, it's yours!"

Trust appeared onfield opposite Alan. I narrowed my eyes. Fire on fire.

"Alan, use flamethrower!"

"Trust, flamethrower."

A power matchup. I assumed her fighting style wasn't beyond letting that play out–

Alan charged through the flames in front of Trust, catching him off guard and knocking him head over heels backward. To be honest, even if I'd predicted it, there wasn't much I could've done. It was ExtremeSpeed.

"Thunder fang!"

Do something. What do I do? What do I do, why can't I think of anything to do? "…flame wheel?"

Trust engulfed himself in flames, but Alan snapped his jaws around him anyway. The flames did little damage to him, and the electricity in Alan's fangs made Trust drop the heat.

I felt sick and out of ideas. "Mach punch," I tried.

Alan barely seemed to feel Trust's fist awkwardly slam into his nose. He let out a growl and a second burst of electricity, followed by fire, and shook his head. Trust whipped back and forth like a rag doll in Alan's maw. Dawn's arcanine finished up and gently – oh so gently – let Trust down.

Just like I did.

"Monferno is unable to battle!"

I drew him back into his fast ball. "I'm sorry, Trust," I murmured to the ball.

I looked at the field. Alan stood there, waiting, barely scratched. I tried to stir the creative part of my head. I couldn't find it. All I could think of was basic type advantage.

"I guess… Prom, you go," I said.

Prom appeared on the field right as Alan was replaced by Dawn's electabuzz. I swore quietly; I forgot Dawn could substitute in. So much for all those times I heard the rules.

"Prom, avoid electricity as much as possible, and use distance moves," I said.

"Elliot, use shockwave!"

Well… fuck.

Prom couldn't avoid the electric bolt that shot his way. With the second shockwave I came to my senses and told him to put up a protect, but defensive play wasn't going to last long.

"Watergun?"

Prom glanced my way briefly – he knew I was struggling – and let down the protect to launch a watergun. Elliot dodged. Prom put the protect back up immediately, stopping the shockwave that followed, but the second protect quickly began to crack.

"Watergun," I said desperately.

Prom dropped the protect bubble to shoot a jet of water at Dawn's electabuzz. Another shockwave met it in the middle, where the two moves countered each other perfectly (maybe Prom's was stronger?) until the colliding attacks became too much and an explosion sent a huge cloud of dust outward.

I shielded my face from the flying sand. "Prom, water, everywhere," I said, trying to account for wherever Elliot might have been. Unfortunately for Prom, he didn't have a move that could target automatically.

Elliot's shockwave finally caught Prom. It lasted a full ten seconds, which is a small eternity during a pokemon battle. The dust was settling by the time Prom was let loose from the electric hold.

This is going so badly…

Then suddenly Prom was somewhere else in a protect bubble, fending off a shockwave. This already… Dialga came through?! How many protects has Prom used now? Never mind, doesn't matter. "Prom, water pulse," I said. Maybe if we could cause some confusion?

Prom took a second to amass a sphere of water the size of a small car. He pushed it Elliot's way; Elliot tried to dodge but underestimated the size, getting caught in the bubble. Dawn's electabuzz stumbled and let a jolt of electricity loose into the stands – Thomas and Lucas, the only two spectators, leaped off their metal seats. I grinned. Confusion.

"Watergun!"

Prom had barely time to respond before he was back in the protect bubble. Dialga, not again.

"Water pulse," I yelled to him telepathically.

The size of Prom's water pulse was the same. The launch was the same. Elliot tried to dodge but couldn't. "Nice job!" I cheered. We were back at confusion. "Now, watergun!"

"Shockwave!" Dawn shouted.

A bolt of electricity launched toward… not the bleachers. Elliot sidestepped the watergun, and the electricity hit Prom dead-on.

Elliot kept the electricity on Prom for another ten seconds. I don't think you realize how long that is. Ten seconds – go ahead, count it out. Now imagine you've stuck a fork in a socket and you're holding on for that long, and meanwhile everyone needs you to take that fork and stab someone and you can't because you're being fucking electrocuted.

Elliot finally let go. Prom dropped to the ground; it took him a second to push himself back up. "Aquajet," I tried. Speed would maybe do it.

Speed didn't let Prom outpace the next shockwave, which should have been obvious. Obviously encasing him in a conductive fluid and making him go faster wouldn't help against an electric move that doesn't miss. And he was too beaten up for a stupid change of tactics to be forgivable. Or recoverable. Evelyn what the fuck.

"Buizel is unable to battle!"

I withdrew him from the field. I'm so sorry, I thought. It wasn't even telepathy; it was just regret. I'm so sorry Prom. I don't know what I'm doing.

Dawn had withdrawn Elliot from the field. Of her team, that left… I don't even know who that left. It left Dawn winning and Thomas probably worried on the sidelines and Lucas oh Arceus almighty Lucas watching me get completely slaughtered by a girl who he actually enjoyed talking to.

My heart was beating too fast. What was I doing? I put my head in my hands. I didn't want to battle right now. But I wouldn't have a choice when I went up against Galactic. How was I going to battle them if I couldn't battle in a stupid tournament?

Evelyn, just choose a pokemon.

How was I supposed to support Azelf, the being of willpower itself, if I couldn't even get out of bed in the morning? How was I supposed to be anything but a liability if I couldn't finish a pointless battle in a pointless tournament?

And maybe worst yet – how had I changed? What happened to the stubborn, willful Evelyn who could have done all this easily?

Fucking hell, Evelyn, choose a pokemon!

I finally looked up to see if Dawn had picked her last pokemon yet. She hadn't, which was odd considering how long I was taking. I glanced at the judge. He wasn't moving. Neither was Dawn. Neither was anyone in the audience, or the surrounding battles, or the air itself. A couple of leaves hung in the air over the judge's head, unattached and immobile.

Time had stopped.