THAT SYLVEON
To fellow writer and beta-reader Jirulius, please hang in there. You've got this.
I could imagine that a lot of you aren't very impressed with the speed that these chapters are being uploaded, and I can understand how frustrated you all must be. I'm really sorry, but there's nothing that I can really do about it. Though, I'll always try to get some chapters out for you while you're still in your times of need!
Though, may I please thank all of you who reviewed on behalf of the 200+ reviews this story has received. That's a massive milestone we've reached, and I'm really grateful for all of that, so thank you all very much!
By the way, there's a little challenge within the first part of the chapter. A lot of the language is based from a certain poem about war and conflict. See if you can find out which one it is! If no one gets it, I'll just tell you next chapter.
Awesome Sawss/Luanastar do not own Pokemon, nor do they own any other copyrighted franchises, published works or ideas that are otherwise mentioned in the story.
Each paw met the concrete floor with self-disgust and guilt. Nester padded miserably across the sidewalk adjacent to the school walls. His mind couldn't forget about the mishap that had occurred over the weekend. Nester was all but confident that day, when he had sent Anais that message inviting her to a day out of fun, and hopefully a few sprinkles of romance. Yet, that event on the ferris wheel - he couldn't believe he let such a golden opportunity seep through the pores that was his massive ego. Though, that wasn't the only factor…
Finally, Nester had reached the gates leading to the academic version of the distortion world. Students familiar and completely unknown hustled in and out of the school entrance, though majorly the prior. He hoped that he wouldn't see a certain Sylveon that he had made the life of a complete mess. Nester wasn't aware of how passionate she was toward their relationship. To him, this bond had only been another occasion to tackle a heart that had legged it up his road of false affection.
Wandering into his registration room, Nester sagged his head down to the ground to avoid eye contact with anyone. At this time and point, the ninetales was not in any mood to be hosting conversations with anyone.
His seat was cold to the touch, but was eventually uplifted in temperature as Nester sat down. After two nights in a row, he still couldn't get over his indecisiveness. Sleep, and he was texting Anais again. Dream, and he was on the top of the ferris wheel once more, watching the Sylveon yell and curse at him - Pain itself, the image of agony, as Nester found himself once again stuck to the spot of the ferris wheel compartment. Nester's actions tore a gaping hole clean through his body, and he swore that he could see broad daylight on the other side.
Without much warning, Barry had burst through the doors of the tutor room, his violet eyes fixated on him. Of course, being the cousin of the girl that he had rejected, this meant that with the power to chastise him, the Blaziken was probably armed, possibly not.
Barry had strolled over to the Ninetales and sat down beside him, a smile on his face like a fixed joint. Nester could only stare back at him in fear, wondering when the Blaziken would open his beak to unleash a dozen rounds of cusses and insults at him.
"Good morning, Nester! Did you sleep well?" cheerily asked the clueless Barry. At the very least, that only prolonged the inevitable that was the imminent arrival of Anais.
With every second that passed, Nester felt his audacity wither to the ground, lying there, sort of inside out. Meanwhile, fear and anxiety made itself at home in Nester's head each time he closed his eyes, dug in behind enemy lines, slowly crippling his inner being.
"I-I was great, thanks." replied Nester, using a paw as a form of gesticulation, but it didn't necessarily turn out all too well for the young Ninetales, as he felt his whole arm go limp, oxygen being replaced with fear.
Barry looked closer at the fire type. "Are you sure? You aren't looking so good, Do you need medical help?"
Gradually, Nester could feel hope drain from his eyes, and his back began to lose it's posture, and his eyelids grew heavy. "M-Maybe." he replied, hoping that it would be a way to escape the incoming wrath of Anais Breon-Solian.
"Sure, I'll just ask Mr. Tricity to give us permission." said Barry, opting to walk over to the elder Raichu to help the Ninetales out.
Nester nodded, watching the Blaziken begin negotiating with the 40 year old Raichu, who had moved schools a long while ago after teaching West Latias. Thankfully, Nester saw Mr. Tricity nod his head and smile, and the merry Barry received a small slip from the electric type, allowing him to be taken to the medical office.
End of story, except not really, as his nightmare crept through the door of the classroom, making immediate eye contact with her cerulean irises that were made to torture someone with a single stare. Nester frantically looked back at Barry, who was enjoying a lovely conversation with the tutor teacher, negating the advances of the monstrous Anais.
"YOU." was all she simply stated, wracking the Ninetales with everlasting terror. Anais began race towards Nester, each step seemingly creating a thunderous earthquake.
Nester saw the glint in the Sylveon's eyes, and they were of umbrage - not particularly good for the fire type as of this moment. He tried to get out of his chair, but with each look back at Anais, she had gotten closer, and closer, and closer… until…
Two bright, pale, pink paws found themselves ruthlessly latched onto the Ninetales' skin through his fur. Nester winced in pain as he felt her claws penetrate his glorious muscles.
"WHY!" Anais screamed through gritted canines. "TELL ME - WHY YOU DIDN'T RESPOND!"
Nester didn't reply. He couldn't reply. This time, he was so stricken with fear to the point that he could just melt into a puddle of his own dignity, with no regrets (for the time being).
Barry was the first to turn around, his winsome smile dropping at the corners to a fretful frown. He jumped in between them to separate them, of course facing Anais while he did it, and pushed as hard as he could. At this time and point, the whole class' eyes were watching nothing but them. Though, Mr. Tricity hadn't quite the courage to get up and stop the fight himself, therefore he scrambled to get the telephone from underneath the desk, and dialled the emergency number that was taped to the desk.
Though, Barry's arms must've still been asleep then, as Anais was able to unsheathe her claws and land a slash to the Ninetales' cheek, who yelped back in suffering. "Anais, stop - Stop!" Barry cried, but couldn't pry the Sylveon away from him.
"MOVE OUT OF MY WAY!" she screamed to Barry's face, before looking dead into the Ninetales' wretched eyes, bellowing. "I'll… I'LL KILL YOU!" she shrieked while trying to land another hit against him, though still being restrained by Barry's arms.
Having nothing else to resort to, Barry gazed at Anais' raging blue irises, and whispered. "I-I'm sorry, Anais." He then pushed her back with all of his might, and swung a leg upwards, hitting the Sylveon directly in the jaw, and propelling her over to the over side of the classroom, hopefully unconscious, probably not.
"What's going on here?!"
The roar of order came from undisputedly the most feared authority of all time, Principal Xerneas, only being topped by Vice Principal Latios of West Latias Highschool. Supposedly, the Latios gave some loser a detention because they smelled of steak.
It would seem that the whole classroom froze, inclusive of Mr. Tricity himself. The Xerneas picked out three people with his navy blue eyes. One, the Sylveon who's legs quivered as she tried to get up from her prone position on the floor. Two, the Blaziken who had one of his legs suspended in the air, perpendicular to the floor. Three, the trembling Ninetales who had just fallen to the floor. A theme seemed to be brewing here.
"You three. Come with me."
The whole class began to let "Ooo"s out of there mouths as three of a kind, barely all of the same mind, were let fly out of their capacities, and are now forced to take the repercussions. Anais sauntered out of the classroom, her facial expression claiming that she had no regrets. Barry humbly followed the Sylveon, embarrassed since this was his first real issue that he's committed against the school rules. Finally, Nester strutted in after the Blaziken at a safe distance away from Anais, one of his tails held between his legs. Principal Xerneas nodded at the Raichu, before shutting the door and escorting the trio to the office of interrogation.
No words were spoken while they walked. Two of them were cold with pure fear coursing through their veins. Whereas, Anais was adamant that her revenge much was very much appropriate at that time and place.
Finally, they had reached the door leading to the Principal's office. No student had been in there and come out the same way they had been before, though Anais showed no fear. Principal Xerneas looked over at the Sylveon first.
"Breon-Solian. Come inside. You two will stay out here on the chairs." gruffly commanded the Xerneas, who led Anais into his darkly lit office. Nester and Barry sat on the chairs on either side of the doorway, neither of them wanting to create any conversations at the moment.
Barry dropped his head into his arms and thought to himself. The mess that he tried to clean only led to a bigger stain, and it was evident that his parents weren't going to be very impressed. Looking up, Barry came to look at the object across from the hall; A vending machine. For an unknown reason, Barry suddenly felt very uncomfortable, as if the machine was staring back at him. Gazing down both sides of the hallway, Barry guessed that it wouldn't exactly hurt to grab one candy bar, would it?
"Miss Breon-Solian? Please take a seat." Anais complied, but she had no intentions in removing the scowl that presented her negative attitude. "We've notified your parents to make their way to the school, as well as Barry's and Nester's, because as it says on the school's code of conduct, any form of unauthorized battling will result in severe consequences. Now, if you may, please explain the situation from your point of view."
There's not a snowball's chance in the distortion world that I would tell him the full story.
This guy's bound to find out. Once, he actually found out that I had rare candy stocked up in my room! I mean, how'd he even do that?
Maybe it's because… Well, don't know, you left your candy in a jar out in the center of your room, labelled "RARE CANDY - your friend, Giratina" on it?
Oh. Man, he's more cunning than we thought!
I'm standing next to stupid.
I'm surrounded by stupid.
Anais squinted as Principal Xerneas flicked on the nearby lamp to light up the place. "Well Principal, Nester's never been a good friend to me at all, always treating me badly, so all I did was just do what needed to be done. Simple."
That remark didn't fall lightly on the Xerneas' ears, but he nodded nonetheless and excused the Sylveon to leave the room. "As you go out and wait for your parents to arrive bring Mr. Queueneufs in here?"
Mr. Queueneufs. That was a name that she used to obsess over to no end. It was a name she fell asleep while whispering it to herself. It was a name that gave her hope of a soon to be 'Mrs. Queueneufs.' As Anais walked out of that room, it was now a name that she loathed to unimaginable lengths.
Once back in the hallway, Anais didn't even bother looking at the Ninetales. Her grumpy mood hadn't settled at all, and quite frankly, she was ready to tango with him right now. Though, there was not much point trying to further worsen the problem.
"Nester. The principal wants you."
An unsettled atmosphere was the only thing that Nester felt upon hearing the dastardly grave tone escape from Anais' lips, thus he instantly took to scampering out into the principal's office. Anais watched him leave with a stare that could murder if she wasn't careful, slumping against the vending machine.
There's no way I'm the only person who wanted you to utterly kick his ass there and then.
She sensed a pair of lavender eyes fall upon her scarily muscular structure. Sitting awkwardly in silence could've been noone else aside from Barry, shifting uneasily in his seat. Anais returned the eye contact to assure the Blaziken of his weariness. Though, at this time and point, she wasn't exactly sure what to think of her cousin right now. Whether he'd be a hero or a villain is purely subjective; On one paw, the Blaziken had stopped her from getting her revenge, which could've included tearing Nester to pieces. On the other, he had also stopped her from doing what she wanted to do, which also could've included tearing Nester to pieces.
"Hey, Anais?" spoke her cousin, straightening out his back and getting up from his slump on the chair. Anais raised one eyebrow only. "I just wanted to say that I'm really sorry for, uh, kicking you in the face back there. I-I didn't know what to do. I knew that N-Nester was gonna get hurt if I didn't, a-and…"
"Save it." coolly and coldly commanded Anais, taking her gaze away from Barry. "It didn't even hurt."
It hurt like hell.
We all know it hurt. I'm surprised he didn't knock your head clean off.
"Oh, alright."
Judging from that response alone, it was evident that Barry, her goodie-two-talons cousin had little to no experience with keeping his cool in situations such as these. Yet, Anais was used to being a generally badly behaved person in school, earning herself in the bad books of many teachers and even students alike.
As it had come to pass, Nester came reluctantly staggering out of the office, keeping his fearful eyes on the Sylveon opposite him at all times. He sat on the chair that he had sat on in the first place, and slowly opened his mouth to speak, before letting his head droop to face the ground.
"...The principal wants you back in, Anais." he croaked, eyes shifting to the smooth red marble flooring.
Anais inwardly smirked at the newfound fear that she invoked in the Ninetales. The glove now sat in the other paw, as he was now aware of her power, and she liked that. All the amounts of popularity that he stockpiled had been burnt to ashy waste. Maybe she could consider toying with him from time to time. Well, then again, why else did she have Barry around?
Am… Am I allowed to feel grossed out? Because I kinda do.
Simply ignoring her conscious, Anais trotted back into the principal's office, feeling slightly empowered reigning above the weaker Nester. Though, she was quite curious as to why Principal Xerneas would summon her back into the office instead of Barry.
Walking into the darkened room, the Sylveon took a familiarly warm seat on the opposite side of the Xerneas' desk.
"Well Anais, we received a call from the reception stating that your parents are here already to discuss the depth of your actions, and they should be making their way here any second now." told Principal Xerneas, leaning back in his soft chair and writing on some discarded sheets on the desk.
Well?
What?
Aren't you scared, or frightened at what your parents… your mom might say?
There's nothing to fear aside from what I should've done to Nester when I had the chance. The dude's a giant jerk.
I've established that. Now, this may be the rare candy speaking, but maybe you should give him a chance to redeem himself?
…
Yeah, didn't think so either.
The main door opened, two figures standing out from the doorway - one smaller than the other, despite being taller than Anais herself: One Glaceon and one Umbreon. You know who they are.
"Ah, Mr. and Mrs. Breon-Solian! You're right on time!" joyfully said the Xerneas, like there was anything exciting about talking about your child's misbehavioral habits at school. Julley and Cassidy sat on both sides of Anais, smiling as they bent down upon their chairs. Mr. Xerneas went back behind his desk and closed the blinds, thus making the real discussion start. "Now, I'm sure that you are all aware of the situation by now? To give it simply, your child attacked another child on school grounds, without any permission whatsoever."
"R-Really? Principal Xerneas, we're extremely sorry for this mishap that has occurred," began Cassidy, sternly eyeing the Sylveon with a dangerous eye. "But I'm certain that my dear Anais would never attack someone out of sport."
Principal Xerneas scoffed, gathering a few collections of paper on his desk and neatly compiling them. "That's not what my witness reports say here, that I've collected from other students. From what I've heard, Anais walked into the classroom, and attacked another student named Nester Queueneufs, without any apparent or distinguishable reasons why, leading to another student, Barry Bursyamo, to intervene to contain Anais', erm, umbrage."
Cassidy's stare against her daughter now intensified, and despite the fact that Anais did especially well to conceal her nervousness, she knew that she was sweating torrents by now.
Julley decided to take a chance at speaking up, because he honestly just wanted to see what was wrong with his daughter and get out of there. "Umm. Principal Xerneas, is there any consequences for Anais here? I know that she'll have a firm talking to when we get home, but as parents, we don't want this hindering her education."
Hopefully that made some sense, because I had no idea what I was saying.
...What did you say?
Principal Xerneas put a hoof to his chin, although Julley imagined that it would be quite difficult for the fairy type to pull off. "Aside from the detentions she'll be having for the majority of the week, we could either have her sent home, or just stay here due to the fact that there was no actual injuries sustained by Nester."
Cassidy spoke back immediately, inwardly furious at the Sylveon's choice of actions. "It's fine, Principal, we'll have her taken home, and by tomorrow, we'll have her back, completely disciplined."
"I'd like to hope so. Thank you for your time, Mr. and Mrs. Breon-Solian."
"What. Were. You. THINKING?!"
Anais annoyedly sat in the back seat of the car, arms folded with that classic teenager scowl on her face. Cassidy rambled on and on about what she did was wrong, and how there was no way that she could justify why she chose to do that, like any regular caring mother would. Meanwhile, her sullen wreck of a father silently drove the two other females home, just wanting to get back to his battling live stream.
"He provoked me!" retaliated Anais, though probably regretting raising her voice at her mother instead of just improving her argument. It's always the little things in life.
"HE PROVOKED YOU?!" Yeah, that was what Anais was expecting. "You heard Principal Xerneas, you attacked him for no apparent reason, and that's one thing that I'm not understanding, Anais! Why! Why would you do that in the first place!?"
Anais felt like her vein was about to pop like a fuse. Well, fuses normally melt, but that's beside the point. As of now, she had to break it to her parents, minus all of the Tauros-crap that had been sprinkled along the way.
"Fine, Mom. I'll tell you the full story of what actually happened."
Now, Julley was actually beginning to become interested, not in a conversation that he wanted to partake in, but rather eavesdrop for the exclusive pieces of information. Cassidy also went quiet to hear what had to be said from her child's point of view.
Glad that her parents finally gave her a chance to speak formally, Anais cleared her throat and began.
"Well, it started a couple days ago on the weekend. I had told you guys that I was going out with my friends, but really, I was going out with this boy in my class, named Nester. He's the Ninetales that you saw outside of the Principal's office. I had told him that I loved him, but… he didn't say the same thing back to me… So, when school came and I saw him again… I don't know, I just kind of saw red, and freaked out in a rage trying to hit him, but then Barry came and sorta kicked me in the face to get me away from him, and… Well, that's when you guys were called."
Cassidy had looked back at her daughter in utter shock. If that was said at the start, her attitude toward the situation would've been completely different. Julley felt the same as well, but couldn't exactly look back since he had to keep his eyes on the road. At least, they were sort of stuck in traffic, so he had a few seconds to participate in the heart-to-heart meeting.
"Oh, my little baby! Come here!" yelped Cassidy, tears emerging from her eyes and she lunged back to embrace her daughter… before realizing that they were in a car, hitting her head on the ceiling and inducing her to lurch back in agony. "...Just stay there for now, but why didn't you tell us all this time?"
Anais sighed and looked at her dangerous paws. "I… I didn't want to say it in front of the principal - he'd probably pass it on as immaturity…"
Or maybe you didn't want to say anything because you didn't want to damage your oh-so fragile dignity?
That too.
"I'm so sorry, Anais. Don't worry about that Nester, he's a worthless excuse for a man if he can't confess his feelings." rudely addressed the Glaceon, facing back to the road. Julley felt a little uneasy at that point, since he too had his issues with declaring his love for Cassidy and one point in his life. "Now, let's get a move on back home so you can prepare for tomorrow, and hopefully keep your cool."
Speaking of feeling uneasy, so was the two Blazikens as they walked through the hallways of Everlast high, accompanied by their Lucario mother and wife. Machines with various products in them seemed to stare at them as they walked. They had just had their meeting with the principal, but with what we've seen earlier with the prior Sylveon, the Buryamos were let off scot-free.
"I'm really glad that you were able to step in and cool Anais down, Barry." commended Jasmine, flicking her paw up and down to help her elaborate. "But perhaps, it wasn't the best idea to, *ahem*, kick her in the face just to help her out."
Barry tugged at his navy hoodie's collar nervously, seriously considering the reasons behind his actions. "I-I'm really sorry Mom, I didn't want to, but I was frightened that she was seriously going to hurt either me or Nester - I didn't know what to do!"
I can't believe what I just did - I didn't want to touch Anais like that (Or at all, for that matter), that's not how my dad raised me!
My child, please calm down. Your father raised you to protect those no matter what. You protected Nester, as you had no other choice. Do not feel bad about your actions.
I know, but there could've been a better way, right?
O dear Barry, hast thou become completely mindless!? Do not dwell on the past, nor on the future or the present. Don't dwell anywhere. Just do, my child.
O-Oh. T-Thank you…
That is fine, my dear Barry, but please assure me that you'll recover from your abyss of stress.
...Alright, maybe I was just over-thinking
Jasmine turned around, smiling as she clasped her paws on the Blaziken's cheeks. "D'aww, don't you worry, son! Anais is tough as nails, I just didn't want you getting in trouble now that you're in your final year of school, since this took me out of my work time, dear."
A very anxiety-ridden Brendan scratched his head as he agreed with his wife. "Yeah, my manager wasn't very impressed when I left training."
"Now let's walk a little faster, I wanna drop Barry at J&C's so I can runand do some errands. Although, I think I was supposed to resuscitate a patient before I was called to come here…" murmured Jasmine, wandering towards the exit of the school building.
"Uh, I was just watchin- uh, I mean, discussing tactics with Mr. Tyrus before I had to rush over here." excused Brendan, whipping out the keys to his car. Anyway, you can go back to West Latias Hospital, Jasmine. I'll take Barry home."
"Back to work?" Jasmine scoffed as she jumped into her grey convertible through the open roof. "Please, I heard there was an auction for an Automated External Defibrillator! See you guys later!" That was the final shout she gave before she zoomed off into the distance, memories of her number plate reading "JA5M1N3 50L1AN" becoming faded as the seconds went by.
Brendan glared at his son, who returned a weird sort of stare as well. "Uh, that's your mother for you. Now let's get out of here. All of these vending machines are giving me the creeps."
Anais lethargically flopped onto her bed after being left in her house alone by her parents who had to return to their occupations. She grabbed her phone off her nearby desk using a dexterous ribbon and turned it on. Time had passed since she had come back to her house early, and it was around the period where students alike would be going home as well. This gave her an opportunity to maybe call a couple of her friends and catch up with them.
With the use of another ribbon, Anais flipped through her many contacts, stopping at the first one that caught her eye. Barry "GOOFBALL #2" Bursyamuu. That typo was made by Anais herself, but she saved it before she had realized, and couldn't be bothered to change it again. She needn't bother him after what had happened earlier today (that of which she held no remorse for, mind you), and chances told her that he was coming over later regardless.
And by chances, you mean me, right?
Don't interrupt the narration, Giratina. Anyway, she looked to the next one: Lollipop (Lola Punnichi). Hmm, she talked to the Lopunny quite literally everyday… well, not necessarily anymore, since she had her eyes on his cousin. Though, Anais couldn't really find it within her to call her best friend anyway; that could be reserved for another day.
She skipped onto the following contact, showing HAWTNESS Queueneufs. To put it bluntly, no. No, no and no. In fact, Anais deleted that contact as soon as she saw it.
Anyway, the next contact showed boisterous fire type Francesca "Cesca" Tornupto, the spoiled Quilava that she had as a distant cousin. She wasn't that bad to be around, though she could be very chatty at times. Meh, it was worth giving her a call just to check up on her.
Anais held her phone to her ear as it rang the Quilava's phone. After a few seconds - since Cesca always hung around her phone - a voice was heard on the other side.
"Hello?!"
Anais winced at how loud the greeting was. "Hello?"
"Ooh, Anais! I'm glad you called! It was getting really quiet around here, and watching my 75- inch flat screen all day got bor-"
Anais had hung up the call already, getting tired of the Quilava already. She scrolled down to the contact below, and was quite surprised to see the name that showed: Raidon Atos. No fancy nicknames, portrayed just straight as it is. Well, he hadn't given her his number for no reason; perhaps she should give calling him a go, just to see how things played out. If she could remember correctly, the last time she had talked with the Luxray, the two were on pretty good terms, unlike the Ninetales she once liked.
Clicking on his name, Anais' phone vibrated a couple times, indicating that Raidon's phone was receiving the call. All she waited for now was a response.
…
…
…
Sure is Julley in here.
Shut up.
…
…
…
"Hello?"
Okay, that evidently took a lot longer than I had initially expected. These finals and lectures of mine aren't going too well together, if I do say so myself XD. I figured that I could conserve some time to respond to your reviews, thus that is what you'll see below.
Archer Queen: Oh, forgive me XD, I'm just so used to it. I guess I could just replace it with speech marks, or just leave it as it is. Though, there's no guarantees that I would remember to, sorry!
theluc48: Ah, I do remember you from the good ol' days of 'That Glaceon'; glad to see a friendly return! Thanks for the support, too, but the Barry and Anais thing was mainly inspired by those on the Discord chat, who were inspired by a tidbit in chapter 11, I believe XD
TheGallantGallade: Good job on your finals, I hope you get even better than what you hoped for! Also, thanks for the support, as my finals haven't been so kind to me recently XD
Diamondsylveon1: Well, I can't say that I can agree with you on the Anais part, but thanks for reviewing nonetheless XD
Kitten-of-yore: Maybe Darkrai will, maybe Darkrai won't, no promises XD
Nightstrike the Umbreon: Oh, I'm really sorry for not being able to reply to your PMs as of recent; I mainly use Discord now, so I rarely check on this site for messages anymore! Apologies on my behalf.
Kalmarin: XD thanks, don't you think it's kinda funny how I'm actually talking to you right now, huh?
Crystal Glaceon: Well, I'd say that the school day for some, was quite eventful. Also, Cody isn't a youtuber, he's a 'Pikachutuber' XD
Degenerate Fluffington: Thanks a lot for the review. A lot of people like the Anais and Barry ship too, which is why I make some references to it sometimes, too XD Also, I really like your profile picture of Asriel, I believe? He looks quite dashing in a suit and tie, but Luan told me that she doesn't like the look he's giving me XD
Master French: FF accounts can play like that, so I hope you aren't affected to harshly by it. though , finals are going smoothly, and I hope yours do too!
Ambyssin: Well, I did try to make Barry especially unique and quirky, maybe somewhere as unique as your name XP By the way, don't you think it's kinda funny how I'm talking to you right now, huh? XD
PatrioticSwellow: Yeah, thanks for acknowledging, too. The story's going through one of those phases of the roller coaster!
Anyway, thank you all for reading, and that's one chapter down, as well as another one to get working on. Until then, see you all later!
-Awesome Sawss/Luanastar
P.S. Did you catch the poem made reference to in the first part of the chapter? It's a really good one, evident by it's colloquial language used, so if you find it, check it out, as well as brownie point for you!