A laugh escapes him, something wry and wretched that burns his lungs. “Sweetheart, I was there. I saw the future. I saw myself. Nothing you could say would make you think you were crazy.”

Alex’s story starts off predictably, with him encountering his doppelganger. His… alternate, digital universe self? Some of the others had fought theirs.

“And?”

[attr="class","mintag"] Alexei Ivanov

“You’re right, I am,” he says, and, as though to illustrate, he presses a warm hand to Alex’s cheek, brushes his thumb across the softness of his face; draws the fingers of his other hand over the ridges of his collarbones.

It’s a reminder that jars him out of his negative headspace, and pushes him back into the heat of his body.

He wants.

He wants Alex with an almost uncontrollable need.

“I…”

He doesn’t know if he’s willing to talk about it. He never has, before. His brain is hot and his hips want to move of their own accord.

“It’s hard to explain. I am-- I am good at giving. I am not so good at receiving. And I’ve never… enjoyed it. Not once. Not really.” He tilts his head, licks his lips. “I don’t know how else to… say it.”

[attr="class","mintag"] Alexei Ivanov

“Yeah, you get it. A horrible and wicked social experiment for the gods.” His eyes roll skyward, but he smiles.

His smile turns into a frown as Remy details his apparent book of life. “That’s ridiculous,” Memo says, “nobody-- you can’t plan that stuff. I mean, sure, parents can pick a school. But who you’ll marry? Pfft.”

But Remiel had gotten out. Just as Memo had.

“But we got away! And we’re here, surviving in the shadow of the apocalypse.” He gestures towards the wide blue sky. “There’s hope for us yet.”

His Skarmory is off poking amidst the remnants of a coral reef, beached upon the atoll as the water levels warp and change. She strikes with her sharp beak in the gaps in the coral bones, looking for a juicy Pyukumuku. Instead, her beak strikes something hard, and she jumps back with an angry squawk.

Rising from the sand and mud, a massive Drednaw groans laboriously, clapping its jaw shut with a sound like thunder. Acero screams, rattling her wings against her side with a horrible noise, like a sheet metal barn in a tornado.

“Don’t get your head bitten off--,” Memo cautions, his voice caught on an island wind and carried over the sea. Acero lunges, scraping at the Drednaw with her talons out, but the metal claw does little to the beast but carve dull lines in its shell. With a quickness unbecoming of its size, it launches its face towards the bird, but she’s danced back out of reach of the chomping jaws, just in time.

Acero takes flight and targets the back of the Drednaw’s head, firing off a swift at point blank range-- the golden stars embed themselves into the teal skin atop the snapping turtle’s skull, fizzling and popping into radiant sparks. Shaking its head, the Drednaw lows its pain, and Memo takes the opportunity to throw a Pokeball, stopping the fight that would’ve dragged out until the atoll was submerged again.

---

catch attempt drednaw. water/flying/dragon

Remiel Calcifet

☉