In this dream, Persephone found herself entangled in a dense overgrowth. Branches stretched out around her, wide leaves letting solitary moonbeams trickle through, as she lay atop one of them with the ground shadowed below. She stared up through these cracks in the canopy, watching with a mix of anxiety and excitement coursing through her chest.
"Die, shadow-stalker!"
The furious call rang through the air, followed by a brief, staticky buzzing and the impact of an attack. Something let out a pained yip, and a blur of purple shot across Persephone's window into the outside world.
Her restless stomach settled into ease, and a smile spread across her face. Mismagius was winning, of course. Chasing the scary monster away. Mismagius always won.
Emboldened by the enemy's cry, Persephone pulled herself up the branches. Crawling along them like a toddler, she dragged herself up until she could poke her face out of that gap in the canopy. Her eyes searched through the dark, taking notice of the second treetop canopy further up above. It took her a moment to realize she had only been hiding in a bush.
For a moment the forest was quiet. Too quiet.
"T-eeeeeeyyyyy!"
The howl was an alarm— broadcasting to any of its kin around that the hunt was off. That the predators were now the prey, and it was time to run. And true to that message, a shadow suddenly flew towards Persephone.
She yipped and ducked her head beneath the leaves again. Too slow to matter, but fortunately the beast wasn't after her. The Mightyena dashed past her bush, trying to escape into the darkness of the woods.
The ground ahead of it erupted, flinging it through the air before crashing back into the dirt. Before it could find its feet again to run, she was hovering over it.
Mismagius's piercing red eyes drilled hatred into the disoriented beast. Her aura radiated hatred all around her, and her lip twisted with disgust as she sneered at him. Each word was imparted with force as if to drive them into his skull.
"Don't. Hurt. My kin."
Her mouth stretched wide, the darkness within like a portal to a netherworld. A horrid, screeching beam of red and black shot out from that twisted void and coursed through Mightyena. His body convulsed and he bellowed in agony, the attack searing through him for several seconds straight before letting him collapse flat against the floor.
It wasn't like any attack Persephone had ever seen before. It radiated an aura of vindictiveness, and by Mightyena's sobbing cries it seemed more tuned to cause suffering than damage. It was… a horrifying sight. One that should have left her terrified. Terrified that the sadistic Pokémon floating above would come for her next.
Instead, she felt comforted. She was smiling. She was safe.
As the next staticky attack struck the wolf, and his next symphony of screams commenced for his cruel conductor, what remained of Persephone's fear evaporated. The deranged monster she watched so fondly would always protect her.
Persephone didn't want to think much about her increasingly unnerving dreams, but the walk wasn't giving her many opportunities to avoid them. Still, she did her best to drive them from her brain.
The routes of Johto ran in three layers. The paved roads where trucks and buses ran, alongside the bullet trains. The usual passage of those trying to get somewhere fast, or to transport wares. By vehicle, one could get from Ecruteak to Goldenrod in just a few short hours. These had to be kept to a minimum, of course. Too many roads and too much noise would disturb the habitats of Pokémon.
Then there were the primary footpaths- wide and direct roads, well-traveled and well-lit. Well-lined by cheap motels and convenience stores, to make sure those adventurous hikers never had to get too adventurous. And of course, one never walked too far without passing a battlefield. They were social avenues that could get one from Ecruteak to Goldenrod in a few days, and with far better scenery.
And then there were the wilderness trails. Established, but far less cozy trails that true hikers might take right through the woods. The authentic experience, enjoyed mostly by those fledgling trainers who wanted a real adventure. Walking right alongside Pokémon, on their own turf. These routes might get one from Ecruteak to Goldenrod. Maybe. If they didn't get lost. The amount of time it took was a tossup, and not an optimistic one either. But the sort of person who wandered those routes probably didn't care.
Fortunately for Persephone, neither of her compatriots were quite that adventurous. So along that second layer they traveled—an annoyingly long walk, but better than trekking through the woods. The worst she suffered was the periodic pointing and comments about Haedys, which all inevitably caused the ghost to squish closer and closer against the back of her head hiding from the attention. Fortunately, Persephone's expression was generally enough to dissuade them from requesting a battle.
"-Anywho, since it would have been tricky to escape any conflict of interest risks with my father's contributions to the league, they suggested I just take a short trip to Ecruteak and get licensed there. And what a wonderful suggestion it was- beautiful city, beautiful walk, too long since I'd been, really. Of course, I wasn't technically allowed to battle with Don before the other day, but we bumped into one young lady who simply insisted—"
Persephone had more or less entirely tuned out Kona's incessant rambling the same as every other chattering travelers up and down the road around her. She wasn't entirely sure if he was terrible at reading the room, or simply talking entirely for Don's sake, as Cayenne seemed similarly disinterested in his monologue. The older man had an utter deadpan on his face at all times that suggested he was less than pleased to be playing babysitter on this trip.
Cherrim walked by his feet with an exaggerated bob, petals shaking left and right with each step as she hummed a cheerful song in the setting sunlight. Persephone couldn't help but notice that she'd carefully positioned Cayenne directly between herself and Don.
Fittingly enough, the one person who had proven tolerable company was Haedys. Primarily because the ghost said or did little besides shooting wide and curious stares at near-everyone they passed by, and then hiding behind Persephone if they stared back. A shyness that Persephone had noticed by now came and went with the sunlight.
"—Mm, sun will be down before too long now. As I recall, that's a campgrounds, up ahead. And there's a convenience store nearby. Perhaps best we start to settle down," Kona hummed, his words phasing into meaning again as soon as Persephone cared about them.
Her eyes tracked the sun's path across the sky, finding it still winning the fight against the horizon's pulls, at least for an hour or two longer. Just a brief glance at Haedys confirmed that the ghost shared her sentiments.
"We're not here to sightsee. We can walk longer than this," she protested.
"Oh, certainly we can!" Kona replied cheerfully. "But do you think they can?"
He swept his arms across the thinning crowd of travelers in grand fashion. Across older couples whose tired legs already quivered as they marched forward leaning on one another, their rest finally in sight. Across families with young children- some running and screaming frantically and draining the energy from the adults, some already conked out and being carried by those adults. Across trainers walking alongside Grass Pokémon in full bloom that worriedly eyed the setting sun.
"So?" Persephone scoffed. "Are we supposed to stop just cause everyone else can't walk as long?"
Kona's smile didn't break, but she swore his eye twitched once.
"And where do you think they are all going to go, once they get tired?" he asked like a preschool teacher guiding a toddler.
"…To sleep?"
Still smiling, Kona removed his hat and held it to his chest. He lowered his head and muttered a prayer under his breath.
"Yes, Percy dear. To sleep," he explained as he re-donned his shako. "In the campgrounds. And the ones who get there last… will not get a spot. They will have to camp off the side of the road, or keep marching on until the next place to rest. And unless you're a far better camper than you are hiker, I don't imagine you'd enjoy that, mm?"
Persephone opened her mouth to protest on instinct. But she was interrupted by the intrusive image of herself trying to pitch a tent on a forty-five-degree slope while Don pointed and laughed at her. She pursed her lips.
"Okay, I see your point."
"Good job, hun. We can stock up there." He pointed towards a small convenience stop coming up on their left, residing right on the edge of the campgrounds, "Get some snacks, find a good spot, and pitch our tents. Or maybe… reverse the order on that? Hm. Perhaps you can get some snacks while we find a spot."
Persephone wasn't going to pass on an opportunity to be free of her companions for even a few minutes. Perhaps it was the promise of food, or perhaps just novelty, but Haedys was staring at the rest stop as well.
"Yeah, I'll…" She was already several feet away from them by the time her sentence concluded. "…do that."
Haedys had floated in lockstep behind her, pulling a bit closer as they approached the building. Picnic tables sat outside where passerby could enjoy a hot meal with their companions and their Pokémon. A Leavanny stopped spearing a berry to stare as they passed by, and Haedys shifted a bit closer behind Persephone's hair.
The glass door slid open, letting them into a paradise of air conditioning and colorful plastic packaging as far as the eye could see. Chips, crackers, cookies, soda, juice, coffee, dried berries… Persephone had hardly even taken it all in before being dragged between aisles by the gravitational pull of cheap, packaged crème cookies.
Perhaps it would have been wiser to save her very limited spending money on warm food. But where was the fun in that? What was the point of going off on your own if you couldn't eat a ton of stupid things that would probably make you sick?
Swiftly, as if worried she'd be caught in the act, she plucked a box of Crèmies from the shelf and spun to escape towards the cash register- the thought of getting more for the others somehow already banished from her mind.
She'd gotten halfway there when she noticed she was missing something.
Persephone's stomach briefly twisted as she scanned the air between the aisles, searching for a little blob of gray and pink. She wasn't sure the Misdreavus would even be visible—it wasn't like Haedys to wander off in the light without somewhere to hide.
She relaxed when she glimpsed the blur of color darting between a few of the displays, clearly fascinated by the myriad of colorful objects all on display at once. She hadn't even thought of it, but Haedys probably wanted a snack too, didn't she?
By the time Persephone caught up to the ghost, Haedys had already stopped. Her eyes were wide and sparkling, enamored by the display she'd discovered. Persephone had already mentally relented to getting the Pokémon whatever snack she'd found, but her hand froze as she reached toward it. She let out a groan.
It wasn't food Headys had become fixated on. It was a wall of colorful- and in several cases sparkly- ribbons. Cheap accessories for Pokémon. And the trainer recalled her Misdreavus's reaction to the thought of being dressed up the other day.
Haedys eyes were rolling around their sockets trying to take it all in, her mouth agape in awe as she saw each one. Persephone swore she could feel the little ghost imagining how each one might fit or look on their head, and under the circumstances, she was disturbingly worried that wasn't just her imagination.
Those eyes finally rolled onto her. Big, eager, pleading. When the heck did this Misdreavus learn Baby-Doll Eyes?
Persephone groaned again and looked away to avoid meeting gazes.
"Fine. But just one. And it's that or a snack."
"Mimimi!"
The ghost vibrated up and down in the air, and within moments she was hovering back and forth across the entire display, rapidly flitting from ribbon to ribbon. Just narrowly avoiding knocking any over. Some were tied up in neat little bows, while others were left loose to trail freely off of a Pokémon. Some were simple colors, others were patterned or glittered. A few even had full-on designs, like long ribbons made to emulate a Sylveon's.
Her hyperactive flitting around the display went on for too long, and Persephone's patience continued to strain. But every time she opened her mouth to protest she'd see how excited her Pokémon was and take pause. If she put her agitation aside a moment, she could feel it faintly in her chest. The childish giddiness of being handed a birthday gift. So even as other shoppers passed by and stared, Persephone just stuck her tongue out at them and waited.
Haedys's hair tendrils finally wrapped out in front of her and slowly reached towards a long, purple, and shimmering ribbon. They grasped it, tight, and Haedys held it reverently a moment before freeing it from the display with a tiny tug. It was instantly flung towards Persephone with an eager trill.
Persephone took it carefully- subconsciously mimicking the Pokémon's strange sanctimony. The instant it was in her hands, Haedys spun back around to grab another of the same ribbon from the shelf.
"Hey! I said only one!" Persephone protested.
But the Misdreavus was holding the second one in her mouth. She shook her head and held onto it. Making no gesture to reclaim the first. She continued to stare at Persephone expectantly.
It took the trainer a moment to process the request.
"We are not wearing matching ribbons. Synchronized dress with your Pokémon is like the biggest cliché in the book," she groaned, placing the first ribbon back on the shelf. "And how are you planning to wear that, anyw-"
By the time Persephone had turned back to the ghost, the long ribbon was somehow already messily tangled in Haedys's hair. It weaved between clusters of strands without rhyme or reason, falling awkwardly off of her at two separate lengths.
"Miss!"
The Misdreavus eyed the returned ribbon sadly a moment, before flinching at an abrasive tug on her head. The thing was twined tight in her hair already, and she squeaked indignantly as Persephone tried to yank it out.
"We still—need to—pay- Aaah!"
The tension keeping the ribbon tangled suddenly gave. With her excess force, Persephone threw herself backward, crashing into a display and crushing several bags of chips. She groaned, finding herself in the familiar position of being on her ass on the bottom rung of a convenience store rack.
At least the cashier glaring at her didn't recognize her this time.
At about the exact moment Persephone had handed Haedys her ribbon back, the thing had ended up tangled in her hair-strands again. She hadn't bothered trying to fix it this time. Fighting the ghost to get it tidy in her hair- somehow- would be a good excuse to ignore Kona again during the morning's walk.
And truthfully, she wasn't one to criticize, considering how quickly she'd become tangled in her own tent.
"Get… off me, you… stupid thing!" Persephone huffed, arms flailing wildly as she tried to free herself from the polyester beast's inescapable grapple. But the more she fought, trying desperately to beat it back, the tighter the canvas tangled her.
The campsites were portioned in a flat area along the side of the road, with thin and trimmed rows of brush providing a small veneer of privacy between them. On every adjacent square, lights flickered and voices emanated. Kona hadn't been wrong about claiming a spot before they filled up- the sun had just barely set, and most of the lots were already occupied.
Cayenne was attempting to spark up the provided fire pit, as Kona sat in a collapsable chair pretending to enjoy the kindling flame- but he was quite clearly spectating Persephone's struggle instead.
"Why are there more stakes than loops?" she demanded, rolling along the ground to finally free herself from the tent's fabric. She raised metal stakes up in demonstration, pointing angrily at the one visible grommet on the tent's body.
"Well, presumably because that one is part of the frame," Kona offered, snickering and pointing to one of the "stakes" that was clearly longer.
Persephone inspected it and let out a long groan, flopping back onto the heap of canvas and letting all of the pieces in her hand to spill out on top of it.
"This is impossibleeeee."
"Chi?"
The voice came alongside a tiny giggle, and Persephone stared up at the flipped visage of a little pink Pokémon standing over her. Sensing no protest, Cherrim grabbed one of the stakes from her pile and hopped around the deflated tent.
Persephone leaned upright again, and watched as the leafy Pokémon easily located each of the staking-points and tugged them out. As she exposed the last of them, she looked at Persephone and let out another cheery chirp.
The human puffed her cheeks a bit, not failing to notice Kona's smug amusement at her needing the Pokémon's help to pitch a tent. For a brief moment, petty refusal of Cherrim's request seemed the appropriate response. But the look in the Pokémon's eyes was too genuine. Persephone relented and stood up, grabbing one of the exposed corners and dragging it out to where it belonged.
As she did, she felt the fabric expanding from both ends. On the other side, Haedys had swopped down to pull out the opposite corner. And Cherrim weakly tugged at the third, the process eased for her by the opposing angles settling into their positions.
As soon as each corner had settled into place, Cherrim hop-scotched over to the one by Persephone and stabbed a stake into the grommet. Then she grabbed a piece from the frame and began arranging it into its proper spot for Persephone to assemble.
Following along with the Pokémon's lead, Haedys planted the remaining stakes while Persephone assembled the frame within the canvas. Just a few minutes later, the three were standing next to a functioning tent. Haedys made no delay in vanishing to explore the inside.
Cherrim turned up to Persephone and beamed proudly.
Persephone looked blankly back at her before sighing and smiling back. She crouched down to gently pat the Cherrim on the head. Their head had the texture of a fruit, smooth and cool. Her stroke continued to the back of the Pokémon's head, where—
"Iie!"
Cherrim let out a small cry and hastily pulled her head free from Persephone's hand, wincing in pain. It passed quickly, and she gave the woman an apologetic look as if it were her own fault.
Persephone had touched some sort of… hard, bumpy growth beneath the Cherrim's skin.
"Don't pet her," Cayenne commanded, abruptly standing up from the young flame. His eyes were locked firmly on Persephone, with a seriousness that made her shudder. "She has… sore spots, where her skin is very sensitive. Speaking of…"
Cayenne knelt down and gently grabbed Cherrim's back petals, softly pulling her backward by his feet.
"It's time for your medication," he said in a solemn and uncharacteristically soft hush. He scooped her up into his arms where he cradled her like a baby. The Cherrim's expression smiled softened as she melted into his arms, letting out a purr.
Cayenne's free arm began searching through his bag for something.
Persephone watched this with a frown on her face, something about the scene finally registering as wrong to her, but she couldn't quite place what. The man was too busy staring at his own Pokémon to notice her watching.
His arm finally emerged, carrying with it a black and cyan cylinder. He twisted it between his fingers until he was gripping it like a pen. Cherrim smiled at him and tilted one of her stubby shoulders out towards him.
For a moment, Cayenne looked guilty. He sighed and mouthed something far too low for Persephone to hear. Then he pushed the cylinder against the Cherrim's shoulder like a syringe. Or perhaps it was a syringe.
The effect was instantaneous. The hyperactive Cherrim's arms fell limp, and her expression glazed over slightly with that same dumb smile. For a moment, Persephone's heart hitched in her chest and she wondered if she'd just watched a euthanization.
But to her deep relief, Cayenne bent back down onto his knees and set Cherrim on the ground where she stood on her own two feet. …Barely. She was wobbling, with a woozy and distant expression. But she was still smiling.
Haedys fell to the Cherrim's level and curiously prodded the plant with a hair tendril. There was an uncanny delay in reaction, before Cherrim giggled and batted it away lethargically. Gaping slightly, Haedys looked up at Persephone, as if showing it off to her.
Cayenne stuck a hand between the two and pushed Haedys away. He followed her gaze up to Persephone, scowled, and quickly turned away to seal up his pack again.
"I was wondering how long it would take you to notice!"
Persephone yelped and threw her arms and a leg up in some botched attempt at defense, barely keeping her balance. Kona had popped up beside her, an eerily smug smile on his face. She slowly set her feet back on the ground and glared at him.
"Notice what? Your friend drugging up his Pokémon?" she deadpanned.
Kona laughed heartily. "We're not friends."
The leaves rustled on a faint wind for a quiet moment, that and the crackling of the fresh embers filling the uncomfortable silence. Kona was still smiling, but it had been said in an uncannily serious tone and left to hang as if to impart its significance.
Just when Persephone had located a sassy reply, he cut in to continue.
"And of course not! I mean Pepper! Have you really not noticed?"
There was a hint of exasperation in Kona's voice as he made a broad sweep towards the Cherrim in question. She was moving slowly now, rubbing at her eyes like a toddler defying their bedtime, and peeking her head into Persephone's tent. Cherrim's usually plucky pink petals had all fallen into a sleepy nighttime droop, and Haedys was hovering over her back like a watchful parent, the ghost's necklace glimmering in the moonlight.
Persephone suddenly connected the dots.
"Wait, you mean her name is Pepper? 'Cayenne' named her 'Pepper'?" she asked incredulously. "That- that was a conscious choice! He did that to himself!"
Kona burst into a frantic giggle, grin widening. He turned to send it directly towards the man in question. "I suppose it was! How silly of you, Cayenne. If I didn't know any better, I'd think you liked that name."
The man in question only looked back long enough to shoot Kona a hateful glance in return, one that seemed to spark a sadistic satisfaction in the younger man. A malevolent glee that remained as he turned back to Persephone, making her wince. She silently shot a look to Haedys, wondering if the ghost would enjoy snacking on creepiness, but her Pokémon was too fascinated watching Pepper try and free herself from the tent flap the inebriated Cherrim had gotten tangled in just minutes after having set it up.
"But alas, I was referring to her appearance. You have… surely noticed by now that she has not left that form, yes?"
Persephone paused, trying to process what he meant. She tried to inspect Pepper again, but she was entirely lost in the flap and beginning to tug the tent to the ground trying to get out.
Relatable.
"Oh yeah, Cherrim have another form, right?" Persephone said, swishing her tongue as she considered what he was getting at. "She doesn't change?"
Kona grimaced. "That is the 'other form', darling. Pepper has a… well, let's call it a condition." He said the word with a potent mixture of something between sarcasm and sheer vitriol. But then his voice fell softer and uncharacteristically genuine. "She remains forever in her 'sunshine' form. Not good."
The eccentric man cast a sympathetic gaze down at the Cherrim and stepped over to begin unraveling her from the tent. Haedys had been giving it a token effort, but her ghostly grip wasn't doing much but rolling the flower back and forth.
"Huh." Persephone watched as Pepper was rescued from the tent flap looking entirely unphased by the affair. Based on her contented smile, she suspected that if Kona hadn't stepped in the Cherrim might have fallen asleep rolled up in it. "What's so bad about being 'sunshine'y?" she wondered.
The sound that followed was a deep breath, followed by a heavy exhale that was swallowed on a gust of wind. Cayenne looked… tired, and his heavy voice matched.
"Energy expenditure," he explained. "Cherrim usually enter that form in heavy, direct sunlight. Their bodies assume an ample and constant source of energy is available to them while in that form. Without her sedatives forcing her to relax at night, or when she has to be inside for a long time, or when it's cloudy, or…" He trailed off and just sighed. "Without them her body would simply… burn itself out."
He reached out and took the Pokémon from Kona, the latter giving him a knowing look as he did. He cradled her like an infant, and she began to slowly drift off.
Haedys followed the passing of her friend between arms, and then finding Pepper destined for sleep she returned to Persephone's side. And promptly headbutted the crook of her arm.
Persephone stared blankly back at the ghost a moment before piecing together what she wanted. The woman's expression went flat.
"I am not cradling you like a baby."
"Miss…" The Misdreavus deflated slightly.
Kona was giving her a disappointed look, but he had joined the long list of people whose disapproval Persephone didn't care about.
"Well, I'm gonna start getting my tent up so we can crash," she said, turning away and eyeing a spot sufficiently far from the two freaks.
Haedys pouted slightly at that, and Kona frowned. "So early? That eager to escape us, mm?" he accurately guessed. "And what of poor Haedys? The ghost is nocturnal! The night has barely just begun!"
"She can stay up if she wants," Persephone relented. "She was on her own until a few days ago, anyway. Not like she's going to get hurt staying up alone."
An awkward silence followed, punctuated by some invisible tingle in Persephone's stomach. There was an… uncomfortable expression on Haedys face, that was quickly washed away by a tired pout, and a low 'Miss'.
The trainer cringed, watching her Pokémon deflate. Even if she hadn't been able to read the room, her empathy with Haedys more than told her that the ghost's prior isolation was a sore spot.
Perhaps that was why she was so… personable, with Persephone.
Still, the point stood no matter how many pouty faces her partner made. She granted the ghost one final pat on the head, before pulling herself into the tent.
Sleep would take her soon.
The faint crackling of fire filled the night air. Trunks and branches extended upwards impossibly high, reaching out to tickle a canopy of green, deeply hued even in the moonlight. Persephone was slumped over on the dirt, gaze passing apathetically between sights. The tremendous inferno of the campfire was entertaining for a bit, her gaze tracking each cinder as they popped out and drifted down to the earth, sizzling out by the edge of the pit.
But her attention wasn't easily captured for long, and she soon found herself peering up towards the distant moon above the trees, its presence oddly comforting.
She pouted, disappointed. She wasn't tired in the slightest. It was far too early to be sleeping, and she knew they'd wake her in the morning, too.
Crack.
The sudden sound of a stick snapping snatched her attention, her gaze rapidly turning to the side. And then up, up, up.
Cayenne towered over her as a giant. A sight that probably should have been terrifying, but only mildly unnerved her. She stared back up at him silently, letting her gaze question his presence.
"Hello…" he said, bending down on his knees and keeping his voice barely above a whisper. "I had… an extra Colbur berry lying around. Would you like to come and have it?"
Persephone immediately had thoughts of 'free candy' vans. But her body had different ideas, ascending slowly into the air until she was flying freely at eye-level with the giant. Despite his size, he felt less intimidating like that. Her dream-flight was an exciting discovery, but on in a muffled sense. She nodded in agreement with him.
Cayenne smiled, an awkward and misplaced expression, and straightened up forcing her to fly higher to keep even. He turned and gestured for her to follow. "Come. Let's have it over here, so we don't wake the others."
Persephone tilted her head a bit at that. But the spot he'd gestured wasn't too far, and the promise of Colbur was oddly tempting at the moment. So she flew cautiously after him, careful to stay out of that lightning grasp.
They walked and flew to the next campsite over. Empty, though abandoned beer cans surrounded embers still dying down in the fire pit. Persephone felt a twinge of worry when they passed the narrow row of bushes that separated the two spaces.
Cayenne didn't go further though, slumping down on the dirt and flinging his backpack onto the ground beside him. He rifled through it a moment, as Persephone sunk down to his level, staring curiously into the void within the bag.
His hand emerged with fingers stretching to grasp two objects. A Pokéball, which instinctually made Persephone wince. But her focus was snatched by the other object, and her mouth started watering. The promised berry was real! She hadn't just been lured into a free candy van!
He held the berry out towards her and let go, leaving it hovering in front of her. It was huge, but she was hardly complaining! Grinning wide, she took a huge chomp out of it, pink juice squeezing out and dribbling down her chin as her teeth dug in. She didn't care in the slightest though, too occupied savoring the rich, sour flavor she'd not tasted in so, so long…
Cayenne activated the Pokéball and released Pepper, still bound to the earth so far below Persephone. The Cherrim found her bearings, nearly stumbling on her feet before quickly passing Percy a sleepy wave and a hello. She paused her chewing just briefly to inspect the Pokémon, before quickly waving back and returning her focus to what really mattered.
The human started searching his backpack again, but it was of little interest to her anymore. She let out a small purr as she savored bite after bite of the treat. The juices lingered on her tongue, maintaining its legacy even as it shrank away.
When she looked over at Cayenne again, he was staring back at her from beyond a book. An unlabeled and well-worn black journal. His eyes ran back and forth between her and the pages, cross-referencing between the two as he maintained a deep and serious frown. His finger tapped along the edges of the page, anxious.
With only a tiny chunk of berry still hovering in front of her, her curiosity overtook her voracity and she tilted her head at him. Silently asking what he was looking at her for.
Cayenne answered by pulling himself up slightly to slowly reach out for her.
Persephone nervously flitted away from him, spry as a pixie in her magical flight. She still remembered the prior morning, and just what those hands could do… Especially now that they were HUGE.
Cayenne sighed and held his hand in place. "I just… I just want to take a look at you. Check a few… hereditary indicators."
She stared blankly at him.
"…Right. Pepper?"
"He doesn't wanna hurt you… He just wants to look."
Persephone followed the far squeakier, slurred voice downwards to Pepper on the ground below. The talking Cherrim hardly even registered to her.
She was still hesitant, but she put more faith in the word of Cayenne's own Pokémon. Pepper seemed as genuine as any Pokémon could be, and she would know what he was truly like.
Persephone watched carefully, ready to flee at a moment's notice, but she let that giant's hand reach out for her. Let him brush aside her hair and lean in close to inspect it like he was sorting through a crime scene. Eyeing over bundles of it, then tracing it to the roots. She could see lights flashing in the thick lenses of his visor, offering some sort of assistance.
His fingers let her hair fall back in place, then traced down her neck as her eyes followed. They ran softly across her necklace, making her float back a few inches on instinct. And then down to her skirt, tugging at the bottom of it and making gestures with his finger as if to gauge the length. She should have pulled away at that moment, furious. But somehow she felt more discomfort at it being tugged than abject horror at his friskiness.
Cayenne finally pulled away, shutting his eyes and letting out a deep sigh. He slumped back down and set his journal on his lap again, burying his face in his hands. "What a mess…"
Persephone frowned. She felt a bit safer now, the human's inspection having passed as gently as promised. Safe enough to fly up to him and tilt her head in another look of unspoken curiosity.
Cayenne gritted his teeth a moment, ignoring her as he deliberated. He seemed at a deadlock, until Cherrim finally nudged his side. "Dad?"
He looked at her like she'd surprised him. Then let out another sigh. He picked up the journal and turned to face Persephone head-on.
"I have… a very important question for you, Haedys."
…Haedys?
Out of the corner of her eye, Persephone noticed a strand of purple ribbon flowing down from her head and bouncing in the corner of her vision. And suddenly it occurred to Persephone that she was not Persephone.
Persephone jolted upright, eyes wide and startled. Her hands clutched at the dirt, and before she could even process what had just happened she was looking frantically for something important that was missing:
Haedys.
And Persephone was pretty sure she knew exactly where the ghost was.
A half-conscious mutter escaped from Kona's tent as she ran straight out of their campsite and barreled through the bushes between it and the next, snapping branches in the process. Her eyes honed in furiously on the figures sitting in the dark, exactly as she'd seen them. Cayenne, with Pepper at his side, showing Haedys something in his journal.
"The heck do you think you're doing?" Persephone snapped, making her presence known the instant she burst from the foliage.
All three instantly started, but from there the reactions varied. Haedys looked surprised, but at least a bit grateful that her trainer had quickly noticed her absence. Cayenne looked briefly like he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, before turning stone-faced once more. And Pepper… Pepper of course only smiled and waved with a drowsy "Chi!"
Cayenne shut the journal and stuffed it back into his bag just a bit too aggressively. "I couldn't sleep, and neither could your Pokémon. So we both came over here, to avoid waking you up. Misdreavus are nocturnal, you know? You should probably get used to sleeping later."
Persephone's fist curled, and her bare foot ground against dirt. "Don't gaslight me! I know you lured her out here to show her your weird book!"
His eyes sharpened, fingers tightened, and Percy instinctually flinched. Whatever part of Persephone's instincts kept warning her that Cayenne was capable of strangling a man was starting to wake up again.
"I offered her a snack I had on me, and showed her a few sketches in my journal," he snapped back. "What are you on about?"
"O-oh yeah?" Persephone fired back, pushing down fear in the name of righteous outrage. "Then show me those 'sketches'!"
Now it was Cayenne's turn to flinch, a reaction that only justified Persephone's suspicion. He instinctively shielded his bag some, and even Pepper looked a bit uncomfortable with the tension between the two now.
"I'm under no obligation to show you my things whenever you want to storm up to me and start flinging accusations," he spat, flustered and angry. He threw his pack over his shoulder and recalled the worried Cherrim to her Pokéball.
Before Persephone could form a retort, he was already storming past her, coming dangerously close to shoving her aside. She didn't dare reach out to try and stop him, and no matter what words she searched for she only found furious sputtering.
He tore through the brush, leaving her alone again, in the empty campsite, with Haedys.
Instinctively, the trainer reached out and began picking through her Pokémon's slimy hair. Looking her over, to make sure she was alright. Haedys looked a bit guilty, hovering patiently in place for her inspection. She'd made Persephone worry.
"It's fine," Persephone said, releasing the words on a heavy exhale. "I just… don't know what's up with that guy. Getting you alone at night was weird. What did he show you?"
"Miss…" Headys's hair swished and she glanced aside, seeming conflicted about the topic. The ghost bobbed gently in place, her skirt fluttering rapidly on a wind nothing else seemed to feel.
Persephone wasn't sure how to parse the body language—discomfort definitely, but it didn't seem like Cayenne had shown her something frightening or upsetting. The trainer felt a tinge of frustration that she couldn't get a clearer answer from her Pokémon. Cayenne had given her bad vibes even before this incident. She certainly didn't trust him now, having no idea what he was doing with her Pokémon behind her back.
But she did have a way to get a clearer answer, didn't she?
Persephone fidgeted slightly on her feet, grinding a sole into the dirt and frowning. She hadn't wanted to even admit the trick might work, but… Deep down she knew it could.
Moving before she lost the resolve, she leaned in and cupped Haedys's cheeks between her hands. The ghost flinched, startled by the sudden touch. She guided Haedys's face until she was staring into wide, red and yellow eyes.
Instantly, she felt exposed. It wasn't malevolent in any way, but like she was being watched from a hundred angles and cover was impossible. And maybe she was—maybe Haedys was rifling through her brain right now and seeing these thoughts and thinking she was an idiot for starting to freak out a little and any second now the ghost was going to start laughing at her and—
Persephone shuddered and forced herself to reset. The only thing on Haedys's face was sheer confusion, and it was genuinely hard to tell if that was from reading her mind somehow, or just from the fact she was holding their face and staring aggressively at them.
She just had to focus. She took a deep breath and stared again. Bright, sparkling red eyes stared back past yellow sclera that seemed to glow faintly in the dark. She met Haedys' stare dead-on, and their gazes intertwined.
Exposed, yes. But… exposed together.
"What did he show you, Haedys?"
Haedys flinched at the question again, and instinctually tried to tug away. But Persephone held her firm, maintaining the connection. And after a moment, the Pokémon had a revelation. And stared back with wonder.
…The human had showed her a picture.
Both of them blinked. They both felt it. It was a wordless message. A shared understanding, like the thought had been slipped right into Persephone's own stream of consciousness.
And there was more. Persephone could feel wonder- more than just her own. A giddy excitement in her stomach, a sense of closeness and connection. But discomfort too, and uncertainty. Unanswered questions, and a lingering sense of danger.
Persephone tried pushing down all of the emotions. It was hard to tell apart her own feelings and Haedys', forcing her to just try and stifle it all. But neither of them were exactly stoic at the moment, making that a challenge. No matter how much she tried to focus, some new, irrelevant question about this harmonized state would pop into her head and tempt her to experiment, or convince her she was in danger of losing her mind.
"A picture of what, Haedys?" she finally managed to ask, swallowing.
As soon as she'd asked it, the discomfort overpowered the amazement. Haedys started feeling anxious, and so Persephone did too. They both tried to look away at the same time, but there was a vague magnetism to their link that made them both pause.
He had a picture… of mom.
Now it was raw confusion, probably coming from Persephone. Haedys stared back at her with a worried look, absorbing that confusion running over the thoughts in her mind again and wondering if she'd somehow hallucinated, or misremembered. But the more confident she became, the more that shared bewilderment twisted into fear. Which bounced between the duo in a feedback loop.
"Your… your mom? Or just like… a Mismagius?"
Persephone felt the solemn certainty. It was Mom… Her horns were the right size and shape, and the brim of her hat was… Persephone missed her mom. She missed snuggling up against her, missed her songs.
No- no, that was Haedys. The homesickness was strong enough Persephone had sunk right into it. Had seen the image of 'her' mother, looming over her… An image she'd seen before.
Those strange dreams… they weren't dreams at all.
The realization stunned Persephone briefly, but she tried to shake it off. Tried to just… breathe. She knew that they were both stuck in a loop right now. The moment one of them panicked…
Luckily, Haedys seemed to be calming down too. Whereas the realization that she'd been seeing her Pokémon's memories had spooked Persephone, it had fascinated the ghost. There was a strange sense of… relief, from her, though faint.
Persephone had the intrusive idea that Haedys might have been viewing her memories in turn. And she wasn't half as happy about it as the Pokémon was.
"Cayenne had a picture of your mom?" Persephone quickly clarified, trying to force the cynical thoughts away.
Persephone's stomach instantly twisted, and she took a few steps back cringing from the intensity of it. The motion was synchronized with Haedys' own dip in the air. Her tone had definitely made the extent of how weird that was clear to the Misdreavus.
Yes... It had definitely been her Mom. A photo of her in some sort of human place. And she'd looked scared. Haedys had never seen Mom look scared before.
And Mom did not like humans.
Persephone reached out and grabbed the little ghost, pulling her into a tight hug. She didn't even care as her chin rested atop that slimy hair. It was impossible to tell if she was trying to soothe Haedys' anxiety or the nervousness in her own chest. Perhaps the distinction had ceased to matter entirely.
"What do we even do?" Persephone whispered as the ghost snuggled against her chest.
Her gut warned her against confronting the man directly. Or maybe Haedys' did? Their gaze had been severed, but to her mild dismay, she still couldn't entirely sort out their feelings. She'd be questioning the earnestness of her own emotions for the remainder of the night.
"Do we sneak off? We need to see this… aurascope thingy. But that's creepy dude. Like… how?"
"Miss…" The Misdreavus shook her head against Persephone. Nuzzling into her for protection- just the same as Persephone had seen the little ghost lean against her mother's cloak.
Persephone didn't need to read her partner's thoughts to interpret the verbalization, either. Haedys was just as confused by the whole thing as she was.
A new realization dawned on Persephone. One more horrifying than any possibility that the cold, eerie man she was now traveling with had specifically hunted down her Pokémon.
Persephone realized that she was the adult in this situation.
Haedys wasn't going to tell her what they should do. And there was no one else here. She was responsible for keeping them both safe here.
She could decide for herself. She could do whatever she wanted.
That terror slowly morphed into a smile.
It was petty and immature, and frankly somewhat deranged under the circumstances. Persephone knew all these things, but she couldn't help but feel something kindle in her head. She was free to do whatever she wanted about this serious and potentially dangerous scenario.
Haedys took notice of her trainer's strange shift in attitude, and gave Percy a small, curious gape as she tried to determine the cause.
This just made the woman snicker, tugging gently at the ghost's skirt.
"Alright. We still have to make it to Goldenrod, but we'll play this safe. You're nocturnal anyway so you can stay up and keep watch. Then in the morning, I'll wrap you up in the ghost sack again, and you can sleep while we walk."
"Miiii…"
Persephone held her head high, proud of her brilliant plan, and Haedys let out a small groan. The ghost sack was not a particularly comfortable way to sleep. Still, the ghost didn't give further protest, and Persephone took that as a victory.
They just needed to get to Goldenrod. Get their checkup, and they could ditch the creep in the city.
It was that simple.