GESTATION

ACCLIMATE SUBJECT #WT001

REPENTENCE COMES WHEN SINS ARE PURGED. A transfer or power leaves him weak in the knees. Dizziness plagues his head; none of which come from the mist. That’s just their exertions, typical, albeit a tad more dramatic with the inclusion of his aerosol stimulant.

Her wiles become powerless. So too does Tapu Fini’s boon. They all leave him as he’s left to wallow in self realization. Disgusting. He’s absolutely disgusting.

But even that take a backseat to the objective.

His arm remains limp. He feels nothing out of the ordinary. Whatever pounding that had irked him before is gone. No amount of pinching will change that.

“Indeed.”

Business as usual.

x4xrDJzd

HEAT POINTS: 544
anya fowl

GESTATION

ACCLIMATE SUBJECT #WT001

WHATEVER ‘LOVE’ THEY SHARED IS DEFLATED WITH THE NEEDLE TIP OF THE TASK AT HAND. Fernando’s eyes narrow when she persists but he submits. Fingers curl, his forearm tenses as muscles rise with movement.

“Nothing.”

He repeats the movement for good measure. Control has been returned and for that he is thankful. However, whatever had wrestled him for command earlier proves dangerous. Losing himself is one of his few fears.

“It’s back to normal.”

By his standards, anyway.

YBaN_KN0

HEAT POINTS: 452
anya fowl

GESTATION

ACCLIMATE SUBJECT #WT001

“I’M WORRIED ABOUT THAT, ACTUALLY.”

He can’t peel his eyes off the marks he’s left her. The way her fingers gloss over them only accentuates the sight. It’s out of character for him. Goes against principle as well. But in the moment, he could feel the wrath lash out.

He could’ve ended her.

And, knowing his affliction, he may have done it.

It brings a frown to his face.

“As they grow so too does my bond to Tapu Fini. To what extent and what price I’ll have to pay—I’m not looking forward to it.”

fSw9UZ0f

HEAT POINTS: 360
anya fowl

GESTATION

ACCLIMATE SUBJECT #WT001

“BUT YOU ARE MY LIABILITY.”

He struggles in her grip for a moment. Snatches agency back when he tears his hand away. Her marks sicken him and he will not be one to enable such degeneracy. He is his own.

That’s all he has.

“You’re a brilliant, Fowl. Which is what makes you precious. I can’t afford to risk losing you.”

XBBHv0Or

HEAT POINTS: 327
anya fowl

GESTATION

ACCLIMATE SUBJECT #WT001

“IF I GO,” he hesitates. “It ends. All of it.”

Once Fernando meets his end the game is over. There is no redo. No backtracking that can put all of this back to motion. Like his lineage, it ends with him. And, somewhere deep inside, he’s okay with that.

What he’s not okay with is persisting with a slanted gameboard. He cannot aimlessly allow his pieces to crumble as he fights against an uphill battle. They are precious, and mostly disposable, but his to do with until it comes time to trade them in order to capture a piece from the other side.

“It doesn’t. It’s a nuisance but the Wish Tag isn’t the problem.”

With his confession comes a pair of prying eyes. He can feel them draw upon them. It sends shivers down his spine. He doesn’t dare turn back.

“Fowl, back away from me,” he whispers. “Slowly. Calmly.”

17FkfsGb

HEAT POINTS: 277
anya fowl

GESTATION

ACCLIMATE SUBJECT #WT001

“THE OTHER.”

No sooner than when Anya commits to creating distances does lightning bore through the air. A pink trident plunges for his arm, electrocuting him into a fit of convulsions. NATURE’S MADNESS has come to exact retribution for their sacrilege.

Outside the pool, Tapu Fini appears. Steam and MISTY TERRAIN part as the Pokemon reveals itself. It stays there, eyelashes pointed in an uncharacteristic frown. It may lack a mouth but its anger is more than apparent.

Its two pronged fingers come up again and it attacks again. Each bolt bounces in leaps and arcs. They don’t look for Fernando himself but instead the belly of the beast that resides within him.

He is helpless but to writhe as the attack courses along his arm.

E_|p1I6F

HEAT POINTS: 196
anya fowl

GESTATION

ACCLIMATE SUBJECT #WT001

SHE SHOULD KNOW BETTER. Myths revere them. Trainers yearn to be graced by them. Why? Because Gods answer to no one.

NATURE’S MADNESS rattles through the air. An electrical storm manifests in their shared bath. Stray bolts leave scorch marks against polished stone and grain wood. It’s a convoluted mess that converges at one central point: the Tapu Fini’s extended hand.

And it strikes true, dead center.

FEEBLE.

weak.

FRAIL.

incompetent.

FEEBLE.

puny.

insignificant.

HUMAN.

Voices echo in her headspace. All of them different, all of them the wailings of the deceased both modern and ancient. The door confining them to the afterlife squeaks open, allowing their chanting to voice the Tapu Fini’s decree as it looks to split her brain wide open.

Only Fernando has shown the resilience to bear through it. It’s an offer he’s made to numerous people: Zac Ramsay, skyler dross, and even Razz Kingsman, but all of them had been wise enough to decline for one reason or another.



Her vision is overtaken with sequential cuts to the ocean. Waves crush her, drowning her in vivid bubbles as the crest comes to a still flatline. It repeats throughout Hoenn’s coast, hazing her in an illusionary waterboard of Tapu Fini’s numerous domains.

MINE.

mine. mine. mine.

MINE.

M I N E.

Tapu Fini’s voice booms. Enough to make her go deaf despite the echo only residing within her own thoughts. She’ll feel the warm trickle of the Pokemon’s toll drip from her nostrils, inked in crimson.

This had been a warning.

Next time she would not be so lucky.

P07jmUYG

HEAT POINTS: 143
anya fowl