Post by mim on Nov 14, 2009 22:51:19 GMT -5
Mim's note!
The illustrations used are not mine, of course~ :'D
Since I'm lazy I'm just going to say that and that if you'll right click on the images you'll get somewhat closer to finding who drew them? -shot-
But hey, let's get to the app.
۞ s u i c u n e
Parents call me...
She speaks for the first time – rather, her thoughts touch yours and you become aware of a reply floating in your head. ”When I came to this world, my creator called me Suicune.” She watches with slight amusement as you shiver off the effects of first contacting her mind, ringing with its foreign and...well. Godly tones, hah. Did all deities communicate this way? You scribble her response down and note that, upon retrospect, her presence held all the qualities her element claimed; the individual words she chose struck the hearing like the clear plinks of water droplets, although the background of her thoughts was an overwhelming, though muted, whispering rush similar to that of a stream.
My Friends call me...
She thinks over that for a while, tails flickering back and forth in a sinuous display of light. ”Friends...do you mean my siblings?” It is your turn to think; eventually you tell her, while holding back the shrug that comes naturally to your shoulders, that the question is merely a fancily inverted way of asking her what other aliases she goes by. The goddess laughs then, mouth slightly open and eyes dancing. ”Human language.” Before you can figure out if that was an oblique insult or not, she continues. ”To some I am the one who controls the water. To others I am aurora incarnate. To all I am Suicune.” Softly, almost inaudibly, she adds another statement that resonates very faintly through your awareness. ”To dear ones, I am Vesi.” The compassion in her voice makes you wonder how accustomed to trust she is, to have told you this despite your lack of acquaintance.
I'm not an it! I'm a...
”Judge for yourself.” Though blunt, her reply is not curt but gently resigned, as if she had known that this question would appear. You smile apologetically and look down at your paper. Why is it these questionnaires are issued with check boxes and not short answer lines...? You write a few notes about the goddess's voice, appearance, and the general belief in her gender along the side of the paper and, after a moment of consideration, check “female” while you're at it.
I am a...
At this she tilts her head quizzically, looking so naturally bemused that you have to laugh. ”Haven't I answered this already?” You glance at a previously filled in question and nod quickly, looking up to explain to her that most...er, humans had nicknames for themselves as well as a term that described what they did. Suicune nods thoughtfully, bends her head to lick a forepaw clean, then raises her head. ”I am...me. Suicune. A...goddess.” The deity's gaze shifts from the pen scattering words across your paper to the lake beside the both of you.”Goddess of water. Rivers, seas, lakes – world's blood. We are one.” Perhaps it is merely the tone of her voice, brushing against your mind with a new, jeweled intensity now, but you sense a rare compassion in her.
I don't need wrinkle cream! I'm..
You draw back a bit as she turns to face you directly. Would this be a repeat of the Offended Interviewee Equipped With Lethal Handbag incident, you can't help but wonder... But she is smiling (at least, that's the expression you can match most closely to it). ”I am old, human. So old.” There is a moment of silence as you struggle to translate her reply into an acceptable answer. Suicune speaks up after a few seconds, halting your pen. ”Though when compared to some of the other gods...and when compared to my creator, I am young. Still, I have run this land a long time.” Now she backtracks to ask about this 'wrinkle cream'. One quick summary of human beauty products later, she helps you add more to your paper. ”I am a Goddess. Further, I am water. We are immortal.” Short, sweet, enough to bring the paycheck in. You won't complain.
Do you think I need a diet?
”...I don't eat.” You blink once at her, pen tip suspended over a new sheet of paper. Puzzled at your lack of movement, she hurries to bridge this gap in understanding. ”Rather, I don't need the physical nourishment – the state of the water I can most immediately sense determines the front of my health. Past that it's merely a matter of personal care. I suppose I could eat if I wanted to; I seem to remember some times when I had done so.” She looks worried and is about to attempt another response, but you interject to tell her that what she's already said will suffice and quickly jot it all down. The goddess relaxes then, fur rippling as she settles back onto the ground. That reminds you of another part of this question, and you ask her if you could take a picture for the archives, to save paper and your writing hand. As you pull a camera from your bag she considers the question, finally agreeing to stare complacently at the device in your hands until you've taken the picture. The camera is one of the older kinds; you pull the resultant photo out of the camera as it ejects its product and wave it about for a while before sliding its top edge under the clip of your clipboard.
You realize that you've been staring at the photo for a while and look up hastily, moving to the next question.
My emotional disposition?
She is one of the few to know right away what you are talking about, something you attribute to the attentiveness she has for her surroundings. Still, the goddess thinks silently for a while before choosing to put her answer into words. ”...Calm would be your word for it? Gentle, peaceful... you have so many words.” She shifts her weight until she's lying on her side, legs stretched out from under her. ”I...tolerate human presences, I suppose...But this –“ Suicune tosses her head lightly, indicating that the lake beside you is the subject of her current thoughts, ” – this is my first calling. Always. Nothing must harm the world's essence.” A flash of red enters her eyes, different from the preexisting crimson hue they usually are. Perhaps it is the sunlight fluttering down through a rare gap in the canopy, but her form seems to solidify for a moment as well. ”Those who defile for sport only, or who have no care for the world given to them, I have no pity for.” The fierce tone in her voice brings instantly to mind images of tsunamis, hurricanes, whirlpools. It's not that surprising, though, since the state of her element is amorphous itself, when Suicune relaxes back into the moss under her. ”It is that saying humans have for each other – 'ask and you shall receive'? I would only send storms to those who have forgotten their connections to nature. The ones who do nothing to help or harm, I pay no attention to.”
You're sort of expecting a sentence regarding the tree-huggers of the world, but she changes the subject entirely. ”My siblings tell me that's an oddity of my nature. They...Raikou and Entei...their duties are, for the most part, one-sided. They require less interaction with your society, in my opinion. ...That does not mean that I do not hold any affection for them, or the other deities and my...creator.” She seems to have been on the verge of saying something else at the last few words.
Things that are Groovy:
۞ water : ”Of course...it is every part of what I am and what I am here for.”
۞ cold weather : ”I won't avoid heat if I have to be in it, but cooler air comforts me. Perhaps it is because I myself am oriented towards water and ice.”
۞ aurora borealis & north winds : ”They are as much a part of me as water is. I make it a point visit the northern regions, if only to run with the wind and lights above me.”
۞ purifying : ”Not so much the dance, perhaps, although I do admit it is...enjoyable. Fun? The cleansing is so much more – the water just breathes again as it clears. There is no other peace I can find.”
Things that aren't so Groovy:
۞ dryness : ”I need water to live; that is the ultimate end of things. If I find myself, somehow, in a place devoid of water, I doubt that I would remain calm.”
۞ pollution : ”I realize that it will never disappear. Entropy... the world will fall into disorder before restoring itself; I am a very part of that cycle. However, the ones who add to the magnitude of this corruption without reason receive none of my kindness.”
۞ zealots : ”It could just be my own personality, but I have an aversion to overly loud people...or Pokemon. The excess bravado makes me feel as if they are not showing me their true selves.”
۞eusine humans in flamboyant outfits who stick to your trail like the gunk left behind by a shellos : ”..................................”
But..I'm afraid!
Her expression falls into faint sadness. ”I can outstrip the winds, run until I am invisible to the eyes, but the water will always be tainted somewhere. If...If I cannot stop it in the end... If I am not even here...” With an abrupt shake of the head, she's back to her usual tones, although she has curled a little more tightly into herself and her tails have stopped twisting around themselves in midair. ”But I do not linger on this. May we continue?”
I like to...
”Like?” She shakes her head, light sliding obliquely off of her crest. Her tails begin to jump and wind around themselves again, a sign that this is a topic she can talk more easily about. ”I suppose this 'like' is the love I have for my calling. Everything I do is my life; I was made for this, and therefore there is no way I cannot put my soul into this.” You jot down this slightly psychologically confusing statement but wonder if Suicune really has no out-of-job-description hobbies. After a small inquiry, she consents to think aloud, at least, over the matter. ”Well...I like music. I heard a human child sing once, really sing...It was lovely. Pure.”
My reason?
”Come, now, do I need answer that again?”As if to illustrate her point, a tendril of icy wind floats down over your shoulders for a moment before dissipating into the warmer air. You look at your clipboard, flip a page back and draw a sizable arrow, dragging most of the earlier information Suicune gave you to the space alloted for this question. Even so, the Pokemon lying calmly in front of you speaks a little more on the topic. Very eloquent, this deity. ”I am here simply because.” She shrugs, a light movement that sends a glimmer of light through her coat. ”Childish, I know, but true. If there were no need for me to take charge of this world's waters, I doubt I would be here. My creator brought me here, and yet I feel as if my purpose was preordained... I run this land, purify and keep its waters safe, merely because I am here.”
Mandatory Angst:
She asks you whether this means that you'd like her personal history; flushing slightly, you tell her that it in fact does. She ducks her chin and ponders the question, leaving you to doodle in the margins of your paper as the seconds stretch on. You've become used to these silence; the faint sounds of nature from outside the clearing coupled with the fresh air are enough to keep you occupied. They aren't enough to last you a lifetime, though, and when Suicune raises her head to speak your pen jumps to the center of your paper. ”I was created many years ago, with the burning of the Brass Tower. Ho-Oh...gave me life, I have gathered from the times I have spoken to her, life drawn from the essence of a past creature.”
”I...didn't know much at first. It took me a while to figure out why I was here.” She appears to be searching her memory. ”Of course we went our separate ways, Raikou and Entei and I...All I knew at first was that I was drawn to the water flowing through the land. I learned...to draw forth the water in myself, speak with the lakes, purify. At first, I avoided human settlements – the noise I remembered from my creation persuaded me to do so.” She withdraws into herself, voice softening as she addresses the other half of the coin. ”But the humans were always so close to my water. I was protective at first, perhaps even selfishly so. They attributed it to my underdeveloped skills that I raged against them with everything at my power; I –“ She bows her head, eyes almost closed. She kneads at the moss under her with both front paws, claws retracting again and again to rearrange the malleable plant material. ”– to be honest, I wanted these humans away from my charge. It took me so long to become accustomed to their presence and how most of them wanted only the best for the natural world. Gradually I became more accommodating to them, even if I had to run longer detours every now and then to get around cities if I desired some peace.” Her motions cease; the goddess is able to look up at you again. ”I don't remember when I started actually helping humans. I rarely remember events of the past now, unless it is recent to me... But there was one incident that remains fresh in my memory. Perhaps it is because the humans' predicament was similar to the one of my birth.”
”I have aided in combating other catastrophes as well, though not all of them have been fires. There were matters of simple protection at times, though I do tend to weigh my options very carefully before appearing in those scenes.” Mentally, you relate these occurrences to the sightings of Suicune phoned in to various media centers throughout history, also noting the ratio of non-fire appearances to fire-related ones. Most of what the goddess has told you has matched up quite well, although... You flip a page and find the other reference info, the sightings of Suicune in places perfectly free of danger. You ask her about these travels of hers and find that she has a response ready. ”If there is not a body of water close to me in need of help, I can afford some time spent wherever I am just for leisure.” If she had them, she would have twisted her lips just now. It is clear she is debating over whether to tell you something or not. You choose not to prod, sitting quietly in place though with pen poised over paper, and are rewarded when she continues. ”I also searched for...my Creator's other half, I suppose; she called him that. Lugia. With the two of us coming from the same elements, I thought I stood a chance of finding him.” She shakes her head now, more forcefully than any other time before. Both of her tails unravel from their places with soft thumps, twining around each other. ”I haven't found him yet, though I have come across many traces of his presence. He is always ahead of me, it seems, or merely searching for Ho-Oh himself.” She shrugs lightly, as if she knows that she may not be able to find the other deity, and continues speaking. She relates other elements of her history to you, most of them related to her duties and powers, and you document them all until she finishes. Even if your hand is starting to feel sore, and even if her past is starting to fit into the cycle she's mentioned to you before, you find it fascinating that a goddess is willing to unveil so much of her personal story.
Oh and by the way...
Suicune stands in one fluid motion, tails curling into their usual positions by her shoulders. Your questions have ended, or at least you have enough to satisfy the archives at the office, and you stand as well. ”It has been...nice...to talk with you. I'm afraid I must leave now, though.” She nods meaningfully at the lake, shifting her weight as if she is already feeling the rhythm of her next dance. You tell her that it's fine; you've finished the interview anyways, and you'd do anything but keep her here for the sake of mere conversation. With a last farewell, the goddess turns and bounds up the slope to disappear into the forest and beyond. Another breeze swirls past you as she leaves, but the shiver that claims your senses isn't only from the wind's temperature.
I'm just a proxy for...
As you brush the moss off of your pants and start the climb back up to the forest path, you notice a flash of gold whipping back and forth from a tree branch out of the corner of your eye. You turn and crane your head to see a short girl clinging to said tree, plumed tail swinging below her. Once you catch her eye she waves frantically, and points to a name tag with purple scribbles on it dangling from her tail.
She herself looks at the name tag and starts, snatching the bit of paper off her tail and promptly eating it. After a moment of searching in the pockets of her jeans, she finds her real name tag and chucks it at you. Once you've retrieved the tag and gotten at least a few yards or so away from the lake (with the girl waving goodbye behind you), you look down at the name scrawled on it:
The illustrations used are not mine, of course~ :'D
Since I'm lazy I'm just going to say that and that if you'll right click on the images you'll get somewhat closer to finding who drew them? -shot-
But hey, let's get to the app.
And what a change of pace this is, from interviewing people in the usual office environment to strolling through a forest on a nice day. You haven't had to check your map for a while now; the path you're on winds so clearly through the trees that you've let yourself slip into cruise control. The instructions you'd been given made it pretty clear that there was only one main path to the interview spot, anyways, and the day was just so nice...
You duck under a low branch and round a corner of the worn path, clipboard and other such supplies shifting in your bag as you do so. Lucky you to have been landed with this job; the fresh air seems to have let you relax for once. Who could have picked such a place to be interviewed in, you wonder as you approach a screen of ferns draped quite aesthetically across the path ahead of you. The forest was a bit too far from any towns for comfort, unless this was somebody who was well accustomed to living alone out in the...”wild” is what you'd like to think, but the sunlight radiating through the treetops and the pleasant day around you stop you from using that word. You come out of your thoughts to find yourself right in front of the ferns, their feathery green limbs lying just too thickly against each other for you to see beyond them. For no real reason you halt a moment, even reaching up to brush your hand down the contours of one large leaf. The plants' aroma twirls once around your senses as you breathe deeply, hoping to appreciate the scent of what definitely qualified as a slice of the natural world. Though the ferns do smell wonderful – botanically spicy yet light, infused with the essence of something living solely on the gifts of the world – you notice another scent skulking about under their initial fragrance. It's not the plants, and it's certainly not you.
That can wait. You know from the few photos clipped into your instruction folder that the ferns signaled the end of the path, and now you're quite ready to sit down and rest a bit, even if it's to interview somebody. Dropping your hand, you turn to shoulder gently through the ferns and find yourself at the edge of a moderate, moss-covered slope. The foulness in the air is slightly more pronounced now; you suppose the ferns had barricaded them inside this clearing. Your eyes are initially at your feet, as you're attempting to slide-walk down the soft ground in front of you, but you raise them to look ahead and –
Insert an expletive of your choice here. Personally, as Mimmers has just finished a book centered on Ireland, the term “Mother o'God” comes to mind. That or “fish and chips”, but that's only because that's what was for dinner every Friday. In the book, I mean.
...Anyways.
A lake lay at the bottom of the slope, shining a miserable shade of gray and lapping at the small section of flat ground at its shores in a feeble way. Clearly this is what's giving off that pungent smell, this or, put differently, the large quantities of slag and metal waste that have found their way here from whatever iron factory that was too concerned with revenue to consider disposing properly of its trash. Dark oil stains and congealed bits of metal catch your eye as you navigate your way down the hill, doing anything but bringing out the lake's good side. You stop at the shore for a second or so and promptly step back; the smell is atrocious. What do you do? Do you leave to tell somebody about this incident, or do you wait? For, as your instructions stated clearly, this lake was the interview spot the new “subject” had chosen. Perhaps they'd gone themselves to get help.
A light breeze brings you from your musings and prompting you to turn around. It is mainly the icy temperature of the small wind that interests you, but all thoughts of the weather melt from your mind as you catch, from the corner of your eye, a blur of blue that ghosts by your side with barely a sound. You turn again to follow the motion (in the general view of things, this results in a silly-looking 360 degree spin for you) and time seems to slow down. For a split second you see clearly the form of a quadruped Pokemon stretched over the edge of the water in a paused leap, body outlined crisply against the green of your surroundings. Despite the stretch of frozen time you can only glimpse a streak of blue fur, blended purple lights and twin white comets before the being has landed front paws on the water, pushed off with back paws and leaped again. Inexplicably the creature stays above the lake surface despite having no means of keeping itself free of gravity, and yet as you consider the Pokemon now at the middle of the lake this phenomenon comes across as quite natural.
The being is at the other end of the lake in a few more seconds; you note vaguely that the cold wind that had announced the Pokemon's arrival swirls around it constantly. Gradually, though, the breeze calms and disappears as the lake is fluttered gently by increasing ripples. After a minute or two, the only movement is that of the one bounding effortlessly and silently over the water. By now you are convinced that this is who you'd been sent to see, if only because of the tranquility seeping up through your chest to your awareness. As the creature pivots to chart another course over the lake, you notice that its movements add up to one large pattern, a dance of sorts.
The ripples echoing over the lake to fade into the shore glimmer with a refracted light unique to the light disturbances caused by this special interviewee. This glow is almost unnoticeable until the waves begin to meet other waves; then the lights collide and swirl, united, away from the point of impact in a magnified display of luminescence. The effect snowballs until the whole lake's surface shines with a muted glow that glances off the white fur of the dancing Pokemon's belly. Eventually the light is concentrated enough for you to turn away, eyelids dropping so that you see the glow fade slowly through your eyelashes. Once this happens, you deem it safe to look back at the lake and see the – but by now 'creature' and any other polite synonyms for it have been used up and you come to grips with this dancer's true identity – deity padding across the lake to you. The water under its paws is a miraculous shade of pale blue now, purified beyond anything you could have imagined after seeing the pollution present just minutes before.
The goddess reaches the shore, steps onto land, sits. You explain haltingly why you are here, receiving a gentle nod in return. You promptly take a seat yourself on the moss blanketing the shore and pull your clipboard out, leaving your bag next to you. It's hardly any time or place to talk with the serenity in the air, but...
۞ s u i c u n e
”The voice of the sea speaks to the soul.”
– Frederic Chopin.
[/font][/color][/right]– Frederic Chopin.
Parents call me...
She speaks for the first time – rather, her thoughts touch yours and you become aware of a reply floating in your head. ”When I came to this world, my creator called me Suicune.” She watches with slight amusement as you shiver off the effects of first contacting her mind, ringing with its foreign and...well. Godly tones, hah. Did all deities communicate this way? You scribble her response down and note that, upon retrospect, her presence held all the qualities her element claimed; the individual words she chose struck the hearing like the clear plinks of water droplets, although the background of her thoughts was an overwhelming, though muted, whispering rush similar to that of a stream.
My Friends call me...
She thinks over that for a while, tails flickering back and forth in a sinuous display of light. ”Friends...do you mean my siblings?” It is your turn to think; eventually you tell her, while holding back the shrug that comes naturally to your shoulders, that the question is merely a fancily inverted way of asking her what other aliases she goes by. The goddess laughs then, mouth slightly open and eyes dancing. ”Human language.” Before you can figure out if that was an oblique insult or not, she continues. ”To some I am the one who controls the water. To others I am aurora incarnate. To all I am Suicune.” Softly, almost inaudibly, she adds another statement that resonates very faintly through your awareness. ”To dear ones, I am Vesi.” The compassion in her voice makes you wonder how accustomed to trust she is, to have told you this despite your lack of acquaintance.
I'm not an it! I'm a...
”Judge for yourself.” Though blunt, her reply is not curt but gently resigned, as if she had known that this question would appear. You smile apologetically and look down at your paper. Why is it these questionnaires are issued with check boxes and not short answer lines...? You write a few notes about the goddess's voice, appearance, and the general belief in her gender along the side of the paper and, after a moment of consideration, check “female” while you're at it.
I am a...
At this she tilts her head quizzically, looking so naturally bemused that you have to laugh. ”Haven't I answered this already?” You glance at a previously filled in question and nod quickly, looking up to explain to her that most...er, humans had nicknames for themselves as well as a term that described what they did. Suicune nods thoughtfully, bends her head to lick a forepaw clean, then raises her head. ”I am...me. Suicune. A...goddess.” The deity's gaze shifts from the pen scattering words across your paper to the lake beside the both of you.”Goddess of water. Rivers, seas, lakes – world's blood. We are one.” Perhaps it is merely the tone of her voice, brushing against your mind with a new, jeweled intensity now, but you sense a rare compassion in her.
I don't need wrinkle cream! I'm..
You draw back a bit as she turns to face you directly. Would this be a repeat of the Offended Interviewee Equipped With Lethal Handbag incident, you can't help but wonder... But she is smiling (at least, that's the expression you can match most closely to it). ”I am old, human. So old.” There is a moment of silence as you struggle to translate her reply into an acceptable answer. Suicune speaks up after a few seconds, halting your pen. ”Though when compared to some of the other gods...and when compared to my creator, I am young. Still, I have run this land a long time.” Now she backtracks to ask about this 'wrinkle cream'. One quick summary of human beauty products later, she helps you add more to your paper. ”I am a Goddess. Further, I am water. We are immortal.” Short, sweet, enough to bring the paycheck in. You won't complain.
Do you think I need a diet?
”...I don't eat.” You blink once at her, pen tip suspended over a new sheet of paper. Puzzled at your lack of movement, she hurries to bridge this gap in understanding. ”Rather, I don't need the physical nourishment – the state of the water I can most immediately sense determines the front of my health. Past that it's merely a matter of personal care. I suppose I could eat if I wanted to; I seem to remember some times when I had done so.” She looks worried and is about to attempt another response, but you interject to tell her that what she's already said will suffice and quickly jot it all down. The goddess relaxes then, fur rippling as she settles back onto the ground. That reminds you of another part of this question, and you ask her if you could take a picture for the archives, to save paper and your writing hand. As you pull a camera from your bag she considers the question, finally agreeing to stare complacently at the device in your hands until you've taken the picture. The camera is one of the older kinds; you pull the resultant photo out of the camera as it ejects its product and wave it about for a while before sliding its top edge under the clip of your clipboard.
The photo develops relatively quickly, Suicune's body taking shape and color against the green of the mossy ground around her. The cyan blue of her pelt shows first, melting into place with a few diamond-shaped blanks where the white shapes along her sides are. The white of her belly and face form as the goddess's body “fleshes out” with the rest of the photo's development. You have to marvel once again at the light tones of her fur; it provides quite a contrast for the darker markings on her body. One of these is the slim hexagonal crest on her forehead: faceted, tapered, and about as opaquely green as the water a few feet under a stretch of good, pure sea. The other is the rich violet mane that starts from behind this crest and that obviously flows after her whenever she moves. This part of the photo is fascinating to watch, since the infinite amounts of color blurred and streaked into her mane develop at different rates: first the periwinkles, then the orchids, then the occasional strokes of deep indigo. The goddess's tails are just barely seen at the bottom corner of the picture, just thin enough to have substance and a lovely, iridescent white. They look as if they'd be silky to the touch, but despite Suicune's kindness you feel that asking to test that theory for yourself would be too much. Last of all are her eyes, deep crimson. Their color isn't the more menacing type of red; you can see, especially since the deity was looking straight at the camera, that it's a mixture of varying hues and intensities, showing as pleasantly dark against the soft white of her muzzle.
You realize that you've been staring at the photo for a while and look up hastily, moving to the next question.
My emotional disposition?
She is one of the few to know right away what you are talking about, something you attribute to the attentiveness she has for her surroundings. Still, the goddess thinks silently for a while before choosing to put her answer into words. ”...Calm would be your word for it? Gentle, peaceful... you have so many words.” She shifts her weight until she's lying on her side, legs stretched out from under her. ”I...tolerate human presences, I suppose...But this –“ Suicune tosses her head lightly, indicating that the lake beside you is the subject of her current thoughts, ” – this is my first calling. Always. Nothing must harm the world's essence.” A flash of red enters her eyes, different from the preexisting crimson hue they usually are. Perhaps it is the sunlight fluttering down through a rare gap in the canopy, but her form seems to solidify for a moment as well. ”Those who defile for sport only, or who have no care for the world given to them, I have no pity for.” The fierce tone in her voice brings instantly to mind images of tsunamis, hurricanes, whirlpools. It's not that surprising, though, since the state of her element is amorphous itself, when Suicune relaxes back into the moss under her. ”It is that saying humans have for each other – 'ask and you shall receive'? I would only send storms to those who have forgotten their connections to nature. The ones who do nothing to help or harm, I pay no attention to.”
You're sort of expecting a sentence regarding the tree-huggers of the world, but she changes the subject entirely. ”My siblings tell me that's an oddity of my nature. They...Raikou and Entei...their duties are, for the most part, one-sided. They require less interaction with your society, in my opinion. ...That does not mean that I do not hold any affection for them, or the other deities and my...creator.” She seems to have been on the verge of saying something else at the last few words.
Things that are Groovy:
۞ water : ”Of course...it is every part of what I am and what I am here for.”
۞ cold weather : ”I won't avoid heat if I have to be in it, but cooler air comforts me. Perhaps it is because I myself am oriented towards water and ice.”
۞ aurora borealis & north winds : ”They are as much a part of me as water is. I make it a point visit the northern regions, if only to run with the wind and lights above me.”
۞ purifying : ”Not so much the dance, perhaps, although I do admit it is...enjoyable. Fun? The cleansing is so much more – the water just breathes again as it clears. There is no other peace I can find.”
Things that aren't so Groovy:
۞ dryness : ”I need water to live; that is the ultimate end of things. If I find myself, somehow, in a place devoid of water, I doubt that I would remain calm.”
۞ pollution : ”I realize that it will never disappear. Entropy... the world will fall into disorder before restoring itself; I am a very part of that cycle. However, the ones who add to the magnitude of this corruption without reason receive none of my kindness.”
۞ zealots : ”It could just be my own personality, but I have an aversion to overly loud people...or Pokemon. The excess bravado makes me feel as if they are not showing me their true selves.”
۞
But..I'm afraid!
Her expression falls into faint sadness. ”I can outstrip the winds, run until I am invisible to the eyes, but the water will always be tainted somewhere. If...If I cannot stop it in the end... If I am not even here...” With an abrupt shake of the head, she's back to her usual tones, although she has curled a little more tightly into herself and her tails have stopped twisting around themselves in midair. ”But I do not linger on this. May we continue?”
I like to...
”Like?” She shakes her head, light sliding obliquely off of her crest. Her tails begin to jump and wind around themselves again, a sign that this is a topic she can talk more easily about. ”I suppose this 'like' is the love I have for my calling. Everything I do is my life; I was made for this, and therefore there is no way I cannot put my soul into this.” You jot down this slightly psychologically confusing statement but wonder if Suicune really has no out-of-job-description hobbies. After a small inquiry, she consents to think aloud, at least, over the matter. ”Well...I like music. I heard a human child sing once, really sing...It was lovely. Pure.”
My reason?
”Come, now, do I need answer that again?”As if to illustrate her point, a tendril of icy wind floats down over your shoulders for a moment before dissipating into the warmer air. You look at your clipboard, flip a page back and draw a sizable arrow, dragging most of the earlier information Suicune gave you to the space alloted for this question. Even so, the Pokemon lying calmly in front of you speaks a little more on the topic. Very eloquent, this deity. ”I am here simply because.” She shrugs, a light movement that sends a glimmer of light through her coat. ”Childish, I know, but true. If there were no need for me to take charge of this world's waters, I doubt I would be here. My creator brought me here, and yet I feel as if my purpose was preordained... I run this land, purify and keep its waters safe, merely because I am here.”
Mandatory Angst:
She asks you whether this means that you'd like her personal history; flushing slightly, you tell her that it in fact does. She ducks her chin and ponders the question, leaving you to doodle in the margins of your paper as the seconds stretch on. You've become used to these silence; the faint sounds of nature from outside the clearing coupled with the fresh air are enough to keep you occupied. They aren't enough to last you a lifetime, though, and when Suicune raises her head to speak your pen jumps to the center of your paper. ”I was created many years ago, with the burning of the Brass Tower. Ho-Oh...gave me life, I have gathered from the times I have spoken to her, life drawn from the essence of a past creature.”
...Heat...a terrible heat. Had she known this pain before? She was quite sure she hadn't...Yet this feeling in the back of her...head? yes, it was called a head, this feeling told her that she already knew some of the world. Maybe it was a trick of the senses; for now she was beginning to see, smell, hear, feel things as the world began to blur into existence around her. The strange shapes twisting in front of her were the first to catch her newly discovered attention – so bright, so...vivid. Yes. Dancing. Purple. Was that what they were, purple?
And now this heat was returning to the bulk of her senses, though less...less important. Not so scathing. It felt rather pleasant, really, and as the warmth faded from around her she noticed that her vision became clearer. Now the purple was almost gone; she could see beyond it to a mass of yellow-orange-white-green. So many new colors. Colors? Yes. That was what they were. Was it that other her who had known this?
The ground under her was a bit rough, she discovered, and now she could hear sounds around her. Smeared noises of different pitches, tones, thicknesses, rising in volume every so often.
She made an effort to raise her head, succeeding and bringing into focus the large being in front of her. Feathers, beak... Creator. That was her name for the other, she supposed. Her mind was already on something else; she shifted and found two other creatures lying next to her. Further investigation through scent led her to think that these were related to her, if only in body shape and the vague confusion present in their expressions.
Speaking. Was her Creator speaking? Why, yes. Tender words. Caring. Motherly. What was a mother?
Too many questions. Too many thoughts. Oh, but now mother-Creator was speaking again. Suicune? Was that her?
”I...didn't know much at first. It took me a while to figure out why I was here.” She appears to be searching her memory. ”Of course we went our separate ways, Raikou and Entei and I...All I knew at first was that I was drawn to the water flowing through the land. I learned...to draw forth the water in myself, speak with the lakes, purify. At first, I avoided human settlements – the noise I remembered from my creation persuaded me to do so.” She withdraws into herself, voice softening as she addresses the other half of the coin. ”But the humans were always so close to my water. I was protective at first, perhaps even selfishly so. They attributed it to my underdeveloped skills that I raged against them with everything at my power; I –“ She bows her head, eyes almost closed. She kneads at the moss under her with both front paws, claws retracting again and again to rearrange the malleable plant material. ”– to be honest, I wanted these humans away from my charge. It took me so long to become accustomed to their presence and how most of them wanted only the best for the natural world. Gradually I became more accommodating to them, even if I had to run longer detours every now and then to get around cities if I desired some peace.” Her motions cease; the goddess is able to look up at you again. ”I don't remember when I started actually helping humans. I rarely remember events of the past now, unless it is recent to me... But there was one incident that remains fresh in my memory. Perhaps it is because the humans' predicament was similar to the one of my birth.”
She was running as usual, winding through the trees with celerity gained through decades of practice. The sliver moon provided inadequate light, but she had no use for it – the tug deep down in the roots of her being told her where to go. She ducked once, sidestepped a fallen branch every so often and leaped whenever it was required of her, soon exiting the copse of trees to find herself at the edge of a human settlement. This was what they called Celadon, a place that coexisted well with nature. Despite that a garishly lit building squatted in the middle of this town, but Suicune let nothing but its uncomfortably artificial glow irk her before she dashed on. She was to bypass the city, her senses told her, and by dawn reach a small pond choked on the debris of a lightning-burnt tree. Yet, as she rounded a corner of her path and neared the city for a moment, the thin, panicky voices of humans reached her ears. Beyond that there was a rustling, crackling noise, coupled with occasional snaps and pops. She slowed in her run, stopping after a few more steps and turning fully about to face the corner of the city fraught with this disturbance. She knew what was happening. It was common. It was natural. She should still be running. Should be gone.
She ran towards the building anyways. Flames were licking at its walls, bursting from inside the small shop to claw hungrily at the space around it. Humans were running back and forth, flinging water at the bonfire, crying for more people, more help. Was there not a group of humans designated for this task? Suicune had to wonder as she came to a stop on a small hill just outside of the city's borders. She watched for a minute or so, shifting her weight from side to side – the pond called her, but this fire was the kind to spread, not content to feast upon one small building. Her soul writhed; why did she delay? She had to, if only because she had just seen the figures huddled in front of the dying building. One of them kept running for the building, restrained over and over by others. Screams reached Suicune's ears. She deciphered them easily, rearing slightly. There could be another trapped in the building. Images, sensations, memories raced through her head.
Her mind was made up; she bent her legs and sprang. She soared for a second;then she had landed silently behind the building and twisted to face a door, tails flashing back and forth as she pranced anxiously on the spot. She shook once or twice, as if clearing drops of water from her fur, and almost flipped over a few times as she focused the brunt of her mind and efforts into a dance different from the one she purified waters with. It was a brief dance, perhaps only a few seconds, but when she finished the little moonlight left was obscured by a thick screen of clouds. They were quick to give themselves to the plight underneath; the rain started as a light shower and gained only enough strength to douse the fire, bit by bit. The humans' cries inverted themselves, but she didn't stop to listen to their exclamations. Instead she dashed for the door, forcing her way through it into a still smoldering wreck of wood and smoke. Her sense of smell was as good as useless in there; it was the same for her sight. She loathed the idea of having to wait while the rain cleared the fumes, choosing to wriggle through the collapsed hallway with only a vague sense of whether the space in front of her was clear or not guiding her. After a few feet she hit a stairwell, ascending it after considering the instinct bubbling up in her. Reaching the top of the stairs, she slithered around a corner and found lighter air – the rain was piercing the ruined roof to clear the second floor of smoke first. Now she saw the slight form at the other end of the room; she crossed the weakened floor lightly to the child's side and nudged at a shoulder gently. No response, or none indicating that he was in any shape to walk. Suicune raised her head to glance around and found a window facing the land behind the building. With a soft patter of paws she was there, pushing at its frame until the sooty glass covering it had been knocked to the floor and returning to the human afterwards. She bent her head to grasp the fur-skin-material at the nape of the child's neck and, after testing his weight, padded past the stairs to slip as carefully as possible out of the window. She landed with minimal trouble, jostling the boy slightly as she dragged his form gently over her shoulders and headed for the hill she'd been standing on before diving into the fire.
She spent the rest of the dark hours licking herself clean, alternately watching the child as he slept off the effects of breathing in several Weezing's worth of smoke and the distant humans scurrying to and fro around the burned building. Did they fear for the boy? Occasionally guilt would prick at her conscience and she would rise to bring the human back to his kind, but every time he would stir and she'd melt back to the ground, afraid to wake him. To be frank, she didn't know what to do in this situation, grown as she was. The air here was purer than the polluted space around the building, anyways; there was a better chance of recovery here.
She ended up just getting up and padding away, just as the child began to truly wake. He could orient himself towards his town, she reasoned with herself; besides, she had waited too long, foolishly let the boy recover and face taking a conscious human back to Celadon. She left instead, walking until she felt the tug in her heart intensify and breaking into a run after.
By late morning, she was at the pond that had pulled at her being and wading into its tortured depths. On any other day she would have been dancing away, but her thoughts lingered on the fire. It was never wrong to save a life, especially one so young. All she wondered about was the new emotion stirring in her, a new kind of perspective on the humans so common in the world. As the water around her cleared, though, she let the issue go with a faint smile. As long as her charge was kept safe, she supposed she could go without an answer.
”I have aided in combating other catastrophes as well, though not all of them have been fires. There were matters of simple protection at times, though I do tend to weigh my options very carefully before appearing in those scenes.” Mentally, you relate these occurrences to the sightings of Suicune phoned in to various media centers throughout history, also noting the ratio of non-fire appearances to fire-related ones. Most of what the goddess has told you has matched up quite well, although... You flip a page and find the other reference info, the sightings of Suicune in places perfectly free of danger. You ask her about these travels of hers and find that she has a response ready. ”If there is not a body of water close to me in need of help, I can afford some time spent wherever I am just for leisure.” If she had them, she would have twisted her lips just now. It is clear she is debating over whether to tell you something or not. You choose not to prod, sitting quietly in place though with pen poised over paper, and are rewarded when she continues. ”I also searched for...my Creator's other half, I suppose; she called him that. Lugia. With the two of us coming from the same elements, I thought I stood a chance of finding him.” She shakes her head now, more forcefully than any other time before. Both of her tails unravel from their places with soft thumps, twining around each other. ”I haven't found him yet, though I have come across many traces of his presence. He is always ahead of me, it seems, or merely searching for Ho-Oh himself.” She shrugs lightly, as if she knows that she may not be able to find the other deity, and continues speaking. She relates other elements of her history to you, most of them related to her duties and powers, and you document them all until she finishes. Even if your hand is starting to feel sore, and even if her past is starting to fit into the cycle she's mentioned to you before, you find it fascinating that a goddess is willing to unveil so much of her personal story.
Oh and by the way...
Suicune stands in one fluid motion, tails curling into their usual positions by her shoulders. Your questions have ended, or at least you have enough to satisfy the archives at the office, and you stand as well. ”It has been...nice...to talk with you. I'm afraid I must leave now, though.” She nods meaningfully at the lake, shifting her weight as if she is already feeling the rhythm of her next dance. You tell her that it's fine; you've finished the interview anyways, and you'd do anything but keep her here for the sake of mere conversation. With a last farewell, the goddess turns and bounds up the slope to disappear into the forest and beyond. Another breeze swirls past you as she leaves, but the shiver that claims your senses isn't only from the wind's temperature.
I'm just a proxy for...
As you brush the moss off of your pants and start the climb back up to the forest path, you notice a flash of gold whipping back and forth from a tree branch out of the corner of your eye. You turn and crane your head to see a short girl clinging to said tree, plumed tail swinging below her. Once you catch her eye she waves frantically, and points to a name tag with purple scribbles on it dangling from her tail.
Hello, my name is
Inigo Montoya – you killed my father, prepare to die~
Inigo Montoya – you killed my father, prepare to die~
She herself looks at the name tag and starts, snatching the bit of paper off her tail and promptly eating it. After a moment of searching in the pockets of her jeans, she finds her real name tag and chucks it at you. Once you've retrieved the tag and gotten at least a few yards or so away from the lake (with the girl waving goodbye behind you), you look down at the name scrawled on it:
