The Robust
He/Him/His
Twenty-Eight
October 30th
Bevaridge Town
Biomesexual
Pokemon Educator/Vlogger/Biome Enthusiast
Avatar/Gym Leader/Elite Ranger
See ya later, Feraligatr!
EXCURSION: ROUTE 113B
POSTED ON Apr 21, 2021 2:09:59 GMT
I didn't recognize it. Him. Me. I was just another faceless man. An unknown form. Zac looked the shadow up and down. It was his past. An obscure internet vlogger with double-digit followers. It was his uncle Krookodile. It was a thousand other unknown people who poured their life into passion projects and were unrecognized for their work. Unknown in their time, and forever after. Zac's emerald light faded, and the shadow fell back into darkness. Back into obscurity. It stood. Silent. Stagnant. Doing nothing. Going nowhere. Why isn't it doing anything? "Do something!" Zac shouted, frustration burning in his chest as if he'd swallowed a piece of the broken hearth. He burned with that same limp frustration that sparks when the world doesn't see you as you see yourself. Zac had been that shadow before. Never again. "Keep moving!" Zac said, taking a step towards the shadow. It stepped backwards, keeping that same distance between them, bound to his feet by his shadow. "Keep working! Keep making!" Zac gestured at the world at large. "Do something. You can't stop here!" he shouted. Why am I shouting? "You can't stop! You're still a nothing. Still a shadow! Whatever you're doing isn't enough. It'll never be enough!" Zac advanced on the shadow, faster now. It retreated, stepping backwards up the hill towards where Kaz had been. "Who and what you are is important, and the world needs to see it!" Zac said. it was the pep-talk he had never received. The advice he would have given a younger him. The words that he needed then. That he needed now. Zac stopped halfway up the hill, panting. So did the shadow. "What you are, what you do...matters." They stood two feet apart. Same as before. It was an uncrossable void. The distance between past and present. So close, and yet... "ALFRIC!" A roar crossed the span of past and present, hitting Zac from behind. His skin prickled, as if every inch was pierced by a minute hand stolen from some ethereal clock. He felt pinned in place, like a Vivillion, perfectly preserved on a piece of felt. Fear rose like bile. Fear of stagnancy. Of wasting. Of growing old with nothing to show for it. Of doing the same thing a thousand times and seeing the same lackluster result. Film. Edit. Post. Repeat. Fear of grinding away at a mountain of daily chores and obligations, just to face the same again tomorrow. Of growing stagnant in a pool of your own dreams. Film. Edit. Post. Repeat. Fear of never rising. Never growing. Never achieving more than anyone else. Fear or being...mediocre. Film. Edit. Post. Repeat. It didn't matter how good your work was if nobody saw it. He could capture the greatest sights that Hoenn had to offer. Battles, nature, celebrities, legendaries. None of it mattered if nobody saw it. If a vlogger posts on the net and nobody watches it...did it really happen? Film. Edit. Post. Repeat. But someone had seen it. FERNANDO SILPH . The man had invited him in. Had shaken his hand. Had offered him more. Had given him that big break. The pins and needles faded, and Zac stumbled. That voice... Someone had yelled out in the moment before the freeze. A familiar, commanding voice. Zac turned, and saw a figure in the wreckage. Surrounded by rubble and the mist of a collapsing titan. FERNANDO SILPH Fernando...can control time? That was him, right? What is he doing here? Why did I protect him? Why did I fight Kaz? Why is he fighting Kaz now? There was no time to unravel those mysteries. No time to figure out what had really happened. Zac saw a flash of green. Someone running, sprinting, towards the retreating forms of the woman with the gun, her companion, and...Was that Chu-e Choi ? Zac's frail friend was being carried away by, assumedly, fellow Rockets, and Kaz was headed right for them, full of adrenaline and heroic fervor. Zac ran after them, Fernando, shadow, and past forgotten in service of a greater goal.
Protect my friends.
Zac reached the ground just as Kazimir Wynter clashed with a Breloom. The Pokkenger's green metal fist clanged against the Pokemon's own punch. "H-hey now, uh, no need for violence! We're, uh, just hikers that are trying to head home." Said one of the rockets. It didn't look like Kaz was buying it. Zac took one look at the unconscious Chu-e, blood still dripping from his mouth, and knew what he had to do. "It's over, mate," Zac said, moving up to put himself between the two groups. A drizzle of healing rain was falling now, turning the sorry groups into wet messes. Everyone looked ruined. Burnt, torn, blasted, tired. He looked over at the man who was carrying Chu-e Choi . "They're just hikers, yeah?" he said, buying in to the excuse. It was an apt cover, anyway. Zac felt like he's just climbed a mountain too. "I think we could all do with heading home now."
-Zac grapples with his fear of being unknown, and gives some advice to his past self -Fernando unleashes Roar of Time -Zac sees Fernando and has many questions -Zac runs over to stop Kaz punching rockets
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