ᴀ ʙᴇᴛᴛᴇʀ ᴛᴏᴍᴏʀʀᴏᴡ.

A MILLION LITTLE THINGS.  //  @fatesrot feat. professor kukui.

          HE CLOSES HIS EYES WITH A DOWNCAST SIGH,   rubbing his grime covered neck with a tattered black glove, looking wearily at his fellow professor and managing a demure smile. Kukui meant well  ( he always did )  but optimism was a luxury for the prepared, and never in his wildest dreams could Professor Willow have prepared for the devastation that Primal Groudon and Kyogre brought with their long-awaited reappearance.

   “Thank you,”   he whispers a tone too gruff, eyeing the water bottle in Kukui’s hand while he reaches to take it, opening its cap and letting the searingly cold water gush down his throat. A few seconds later and the bottle is capped again, gently handed off to its original owner.

   “Well, I believe we have a few more things to attend to first,”   the Professor quips without any of his typical zest, turning his gaze upon the length of the ocean boardwalk not yet covered by cooled-down lava. “During the Reemergence Protocol, Team Rocket’s explosion allowed them to ambush The Trainer and steal the Shadow Registeel I gave them for safekeeping. More importantly, thousands of Pokémon have been displaced far from their natural habitats. I haven’t even read the reports for the human numbers yet, and on top of that, Candela is…”

   No. He wasn’t going to finish that thought, though the exhaustion wrings his bones regardless as some deep corner of his mind recalls that familiar silhouette standing tall and defiant amidst the fiery backdrop of Slateport City. It had all happened so fast. And judging from the hand that now rests on his shoulder, it seemed like the Alolan Professor was also somewhat aware of his unspoken fear.

   Professor Willow looks back to his fellow professor and opens his mouth, staring dumbly when the words don’t come out. He softly closes his lips, clears his throat in a muffled manner and ignores his own glossing eyes as he speaks again.

“Tell me, professor…” A dramatic pause to contemplatively stir her tea. “Have you ever heard of vaporwave?”