If anyone asks, I was never here

Reading as the journey continues (click on title for link) will require you to be logged in. So will reading anything else from Sojourn. For now, I am keeping my other fics inaccessible. I might add pyrography back since it's thematically connected. We'll see.

I haven't been able to bring myself to touch the other WIPs I had or the ship analyses I was writing — l actually had a secret companion fic I was going to surprise people with, plus a few others — so I think I'm just going to consider my account retired for now. It's rather a whimper of an ending, but my old work feels tainted, and this was a strangely isolating experience.

After the scraping, I was so disheartened I didn’t even want to look at anything I was working on. Anything to do with fic felt pointless. What was the point of working hard on something for some jerk to use it as fodder for an unintelligent, inaccurate generator destroying the environment?

At the same time, it didn’t feel right to leave Sojourn unfinished. I know at least one person was looking forward to the last part. I’ve always tried to at least provide closure for anything I couldn’t finish, and this time, I was certain I could finish it, if I wanted. And I have spent almost five years on this. It felt like such a waste to just give up on this.

After thinking it over for a while, I have decided that I am going to post the final fic of Sojourn. I’ve just finished the first draft, but I need to let it sit for a few weeks before I assess how much polish it needs and how even the emotional arc is, and I still need to come up with a good summary. Because of my work schedule, you can probably expect it sometime in Fall at earliest.

Once it goes up, it will be locked behind the registered users’ login wall to make scraping more difficult, and I will also unlock the first two fics in the series. I intend to leave it up for at least a month to give anyone who was subscribed to the series a chance to read it. The rest of my work will remain hidden for the time being. I’ll re-assess how I feel later.

I know that the mass scrapers are not making individual choices about which fics to grab, but there have been reported cases of people feeding individual fanfics to AI due to wanting more content in the same style/series. To those people (and to the people claiming only individual fic writers have the right to control and file takedown requests), I am asking you to please respect my decision and leave my fics alone. If I find out my work has been used for AI again, I will probably just pull everything down again and quit entirely. I doubt I’m alone in this sentiment.

Why? Like many of you, I’ve recently found out that pretty much the entire AO3 dataset of public works has been scraped for use in AI. (For those not in the know, you can find a summary here*). I’m feeling a little gunshy and a little reactionary, and until I sort out my feelings, I want to play things safe.

I’ve debated hiding my works for a while, but I myself mostly browse AO3 while logged out and have always appreciated having the ability to do so — plus, I’ve received some very kind comments from anon users, and knowing the ratio of readers to commenters, I figured there’s probably a decent number of non-members who’ve liked having access to my fics. Because of that, for the past few years I’ve erred on the side of leaving them public knowing that I was risking being scraped for AI material. Still, finding out about this really pissed me off. Maybe because it made the threat concrete, maybe just because this one felt like very brazen. I’m not an amazing writer, and honestly most of my fics don’t have plot or much originality, but dammit, everything I’ve put out there is mine, and I have worked hard on them. I posted them because I hoped reading them would make other people happy. Not so some kind of soulless machine could regurgitate variations for profit. (If it had a soul, I’d at least be willing to have a talk about it).

If you really liked something of mine and didn’t have a chance to download it, please contact me via ask (leave me some contact info if you don’t have a Tumblr). I’ll try to find a way to get you a copy.

Apologies for how late this is — I compiled it, realized these needed some edits and a bunch of parts would need to be combined to bring down the redundancy, then forgot to do that. (I’m pretty sure no one wants to read eight versions of the same scene with half the lines the same)

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Red is strange and whimsical and talented enough to get away with it. Red knows exactly what he wants, and Green doesn’t know if he hates him or admires him for it. He could get away with breaking all sorts of rules on his sheer ability to not care what they were or by just stubborning them out of the way while he headed single-mindedly towards a target and everyone else was too confused to protest.

His targets apparently include places like the carpet of the Viridian gym breakroom, because Green comes down to open the gym and nearly trips over his stomach.

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While the apprentices do more work with gym trainers on a day to day basis, they still relate a lot more to their peers. Weirdly enough, Green is closer in age to most of them than he is to the gym trainers, but he’s also their boss. It’s been tricky to navigate that sometimes, but he’s mostly solved that by pretending he’s older than he is and doesn’t understand any of their hip references. It’s only half a lie. It’s harder to keep up with the trends once you’re out of school and the traveling circuit.

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What a lot of people don’t seem to realize is the gym challenge is meant to see if you’re skilled enough for the badge you’re after, not to determine who’s stronger. There’s a reason why champion is the only position that switches after a loss. Green is supposed to battle to a certain level, but he’s not supposed to be unbeatable.

Being a gym leader requires more than being good at Pokemon battles. It requires knowing how to battle in a way that draws out the best from your opponents rather than trying to win yourself. It requires being able to bring your level down as needed without getting rusty. It requires the time management and organizational skills to oversee a dozen trainers and the temperament to act as a league representative when it’s called for.

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He makes an executive decision. “Let’s take this into my office,” he says, without letting it be a question. Giovanni’s done enough damage to the reputation of the Viridian Gym. Green isn’t about to let someone else do any more.

A look of triumph is spreading across his face. “Lead the way, Gym Leader,” he says, with a faintly mocking lilt on the title, just enough that he could deny it plausibly if asked. Maybe he thinks that this means Green is concerned enough about ruckus that he can bully him. Or that the privacy is about to get him some concessions once Green doesn’t have to worry about losing face.

Either way, Green is about to prove him wrong.

When Green marches into his office, followed by the arrogant prick, Red knows the drill well enough to keep his head down and keep eating. Even Pikachu, who lives to torment him, knows enough about when to be an electric rat instead of an electric brat and keeps his snout shut so he doesn’t get turned into electric snake food.

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It’s an unspoken truth of their relationship that a lot of it is built upon the fact that out of anyone in Kanto, Green probably understands the most about the inner workings underneath that blank face, and he’s never abused that knowledge.

Red is this weird mixture of peaceful and impulsive. The only reason he likes calmness is because it leaves him free to follow whatever dumb urge seizes him, not because he’s a pacifist or a particularly nice guy. When he’s not being driven up a wall by his antics, Green finds it pretty hilarious how Red managed to dupe nearly all of Kanto without even trying.

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Anyone who’s ever thought Red was the nice one between them is dead wrong, he’s just good at hiding it because he has that placid face instead of natural attitude.

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There’s no clear way forward if you win the title but don’t feel up to being champion. It used to be that short-lived or quiet champions could go back to a regular life (which sure would’ve been nice in his case), but that’s harder and harder now that you have things like live battle broadcasts and fame checkers. The normal path is something like Lance’s, where you hold the title for a few years and then retire to something prestigious, like Elite Four member or visiting professor. Some have done battle touring or new businesses or even motivational speaking careers, but in this era, it’s all public stuff. None of it would suit Red, who’s a quiet person with a loud impact.

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Red will stubborn his way to an answer just like he has everything else, and once he does, Green will laugh at him and say, “What took you so long, Slowpoke?” Maybe it’ll take him a while, and maybe it’ll be something ridiculous like Torkoal farming, but Red won’t give up until he’s found something. That’s just the way he is. It’s always worked for him before — why start doubting his weird methods now?

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Green rolls his eyes back. “See you later, nerd,” he says. Because he was taught manners, he keeps an eye on him until Red’s form fades into the distance. He’ll be back, Green knows, and then they’ll repeat this whole cycle where he drives Green up a wall and then vanishes long enough for him to almost miss him.

Other people look at him and see their powerful and mysterious champion. But the real Red is the Red of this morning, a peaceful, impulsive, and confusing guy who does things no one understands or would think of. That’s the Red that Green and his mom and everyone in Pallet Town knows.

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Bonus: some of the cut dialogue from one of the versions of the annoying challenger office scene. I changed his characterization partway through writing, so it’s not the same here as the final version.

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Mock sigh. “It’s a shame gym leaders aren’t willing to be flexible anymore. What are things coming to?”

Green keeps his voice flat, unrewarding. “Still doesn’t matter. The gym challenge isn’t about me. It’s about you.”

“Oh, but it is about you. You still haven’t really proven yourself as a gym leader, have you? You just waltzed in here and expected everyone to respect you.” He says it with no sense of irony whatsoever. “How are we supposed to respect the results if we don’t know how good you are?”

“The League has already tested me,” Green counters. He folds his arms. “The point is to test your skill and find out if it’s badge-worthy. Trying to test me defeats the entire point.”

He scoffs. “As if anyone trusts the League nowadays,” he says. “Didn’t they let Giovanni run free for ten years? If your only endorsement is from then, why should we trust you?”

Green just barely stops himself from snapping, Because I won the whole damn Indigo League. Misty didn’t mention him giving her a hard time about her skill, which means this is a special for the embarrassment who lost the championship in half an hour. He forces his voice level. “I’ve done three showcases and two exhibition matches since I was appointed. I’ve held workshops with three other gym leaders and regularly present at local schools. We also partner with the city to train the Pokémon used in official events. There’s been plenty of time and opportunities for you to see my skills.”

“Well, I don’t come from around here.”

“Then you can stick around for a few weeks or look for the old broadcast clips if you want to judge. I can’t go doing special matches for every single trainer who isn’t satisfied.”

“Or I can wait till you call someone from the newspaper or the TV station. After all, they’ll come running for the professor’s precious prodigy, won’t they?”

There it is. His real goal. Green suddenly feels a kinship with Pikachu and his desire to shock everyone who annoys him. “No,” he says again, some of the snappiness leaking through. He wants so badly to just drop the mask and call him a nobody with loser ideas and a pathetic get-famous-quick plan. “All my showcases and exhibitions were already broadcasted, I’m not adding another one and circumventing our press office to appease a single trainer. Besides, a match with you wouldn’t even satisfy anyone else with doubts, so either live with yours or don’t get your eighth badge.”

He smirks. Probably gloating about getting under his skin. “You can’t blame me for being concerned. League standards are obviously going downhill,” the would-be challenger says, quite smugly. “Isn’t there supposed to be someone to welcome me when I get there?”

“We were closed.” It’s the ninth time he’s said this. Green directs a glare at him for this one, but he doesn’t even flinch.

1) I see Red and Green as more direct counterparts to each other than Red and (girl) Blue, and those names make them match FireRed and LeafGreen (which is the generation I played)

2) My brain just mentally matches the female character to Blue on account of the blue top and me only knowing female Blues IRL

3) then you have Green as the gym leader for Viridian :)

Like the other 2 parts of Sojourn, this fic was started in November 2021. Actually, it’s the last of the three I started. It was originally just some fun character bits I wrote for myself, but it became an actual fic with a concept when I wrote the section about Red winning the argument without really trying.

The first bit I wrote was Green and Delia’s conversation where Green calls him a flighty space cadet. It spun off the paragraph in no map to follow where Red mentions that Green has never been deceived by his mythos or his lack of expression and makes fun of him all the time.

I cut out a section I really liked out of the intro about Delia and her view of their relationship. Unfortunately, it made it drag too long. You can read it here.

Tanks are actually much more than 20 tons on average, but twenty ton tank sounded way better than any of the realistic numbers. Think of it as Red being a mini-sized tank.

I know “by God” isn’t really consistent with the way I’ve been doing exclamations/swears, but “by Arceus” sounded terrible in that sentence, so I let myself use “God” the normal way once. It kind of makes sense if you assume Arceus’s title is still God?

There was actually a pretty good reason Red slept on the floor, even though he didn’t explain it at all. What Red meant by “I was tired” was “I was so tired I thought I might not be able to stop myself from rolling off the couch,” so he decided to just . . . cut out the middle part and sleep on the floor from the start rather than risk an injury or waking Green up with the noise.

Re: their utensil debate. Green doesn’t think that Delia’s restaurant sucks. What he means by it not counting is that if it’s the only one Red’s been to in a long time, he only has a sample size of one restaurant. Which also means he can’t tell if it’s even good because there’s no source of comparison. Green will always be a bit of a science nerd. (Fun fact, that exchange was only added in the last overhaul before publication. I decided the fic didn’t have enough Red/Green conversation and needed to be fleshed out so they actually felt like friends who know each other well)

This fic’s pain point was the annoying challenger (well, that and the ending). There’s probably a dozen versions of it and a few personality changes, and it used to be two sections, but I cut it down because he frankly felt cartoonish and it was taking up way too much focus and losing the episodic feel. Honestly, I’m still not fully satisfied with it, but it’s passable and not too disjointed.

There used to be a whole minor backstory where Misty also had an unfortunate encounter with this guy, and she was so pissed she beat the pants off him, and then he reported her for doing a match above her testing level, and she had to redo it. Originally, Green ended up recognizing him from the email she sent out and knew he had to stay on his toes because this guy is trigger happy with his complaints. Now there’s just a bit of background I had in my mind but doesn’t really show up where one of the reasons Green is being adamant about not deviating from standard matches is he knows he risks being reported for it. I did try to fit some references to this, but it ended up feeling like too much exposition. (It didn’t come up in any of the drafts, but if you’re curious, the guy knocked into Misty’s newest apprentice and yelled at them until they cried)

Other details I had to cut are: the lobby has big glass doors, so some of the tantrum was already visible from the outside if anyone was paying attention (also why Green wouldn’t just leave him unattended, someone might’ve assumed he was provoking him via intercom. Or that the gym is haunted or something). Green also wanted him out of the lobby because he was concerned about him intimidating Sandy. Green knows this guy’s a “he” because there’s an (optional) gender/pronoun section in your trainer registration.

The challenger was able to get inside because the gym lobby is still unlocked during team lunch so challengers can wait inside if the weather is bad and so long lines don’t end up cluttering up the sidewalk. That also means the other challengers would’ve only been a couple feet away from him if they started lining up while he was still throwing a fit.

On non-team lunch days, the floor shifts are staggered to give them individual lunch breaks, rather than having the gym close entirely for lunch

Specifically, I write Red as someone who can identify what people are feeling but doesn’t understand why they’re doing it or how to react. Hence him having to ask Green about the challenger’s motives. I’m probably going to do a bigger write up of characterization and narrative style, so I’ll save details for there.

I was going to cut out the whole PokeMart section since it doesn’t fit as well as the other parts, but then I needed to come up with a different reason for Lance to looped in so fast. It at least kinda works with the episodic and long-suffering feel. (FYI, the PokeMart jerk is not necessarily non-binary, Green just doesn’t know their gender and has no reason to ask).

Spinda being repeated for both Bonita and the spot the difference in the textbook wasn’t intentional. The textbook bit came first, but when I checked Bonita’s canon Pokemon list, it was Spinda and Sudowoodo, and the image of a tired, wobbly Spinda was too cute to pass up. I couldn’t find another Pokemon with the right kind of permutations to swap in for the spot the difference bit.

The part with Green realizing he’s technically next in line for champion if Red forfeits and that he’s satisfied with Viridian originally came at the end of the Lance section, back when my plan was to end the fic with Green saying goodbye to Red and just thinking about the next time Red visited.

The ending feels like it drags a little to me, but it was hard trying to get Green to that realization without it feeling too sudden or too slow. Lots of revelation packed into like 5 minutes. The last line has been consistent for a month or so, I just rewrote the transitions a bunch of times (honestly still not sure I succeeded in balancing the pace).

If you caught on that the reason Red feels awkward around Professor Oak is because Oak does have high expectations for him, give yourself a pat on the back

Honestly, Viridian as the last gym doesn’t make sense to me geographically. I think it’d make more sense if there was no set order and the gym leader just adjusts their level based on how many badges you have. But Viridian last is consistent in the games I played, and it works way better for me thematically, so I went with it. In my head, I just decided that the gym order was reshuffled at some point during Giovanni’s tenure when one of them had to go on leave, and he proved to be really good at the last leader role, so they kept it like that. Maybe Blaine was doing science-y things or had to get surgery or something.

Arabella being Green’s second in command is definitely borrowed from some other fic, but I think I ran into it around the time I started on AO3 (so 8-10 years ago?). I have zero recollection of any of the fic details and didn’t think it’d be very productive to go digging through several thousand fics in hopes of finding it, so unfortunately I can’t give a proper credit to the original fic. Sorry!

The apprentices’ names are just picked to fit in with the gym (Viridian Gym and Earth Badge), so Sandy and Parker. I quite literally put “ground” and “earth” into Dictionary.com

The first draft of this fic was over 9k (9594, to be exact). I stared at the word counter in horror and started cutting. It’s still about 3k more content than I said it’d be, which is my partial defense for being late.

I think this fic’s big weakness is uneven/awkward flow and inconsistent feeling. It’s partially because the way I write Green as a narrator has a tendency towards asides and partially because there’s a lot more going on in this than in no map to follow (which only has 3 characters, a single plot line, and like 2 bits of overarching subtext). Or, as Green would put it, because he actually has a life while Red is a jobless loser.

There are several parallels/direct contrasts between this fic and the first one, no map to follow!

-This fic is more frenetically paced and is 90% Green being stressed and annoyed, but ends with Green realizing he’s happy. While Red’s fic is more peaceful and domestic and is mostly Red being happy about the visit, but he ultimately realizes he’s not satisfied with his broader life direction.

-Both Red and Green realize they have confidence in each other that others don’t necessarily share. (People underestimate Red’s willpower and astuteness and Green’s skill and levelheadedness)

The title of break from your ordinary comes from me wanting to play with the ambiguity of the word “break,” which I picked as the best representation of the fic concept for these reasons:

-It’s a break from Green’s ordinary routine since Red drops by and disrupts it a bit

-It’s a pattern break from the reader’s normal experience, because the other two fics are Red POV

-I’ve described this fic as the “rest” part of Sojourn, where Red stops his attempt to figure out his life, takes a break, and watches Green, who’s already found his stopping point.

-I also jokingly call this “Green being unable to catch a break” because it’s Green constantly being interrupted in the middle of his normal gym duties.

It’s meant to sound like it has a simple face value meaning but also a deeper notion to it if you think about it. I wanted the title to reflect Green’s narration style and the relaxed mood, so I tried to word it like it could be a casual aside or have a bit of attitude. You can read the title in different ways depending on if “break” is a noun or verb. As a noun: yeah, here’s a break from your ordinary, or as a verb, a challenge — break yourself from your ordinary. Because both Green and Red are unconventional people, and Green in particular has never been content to live an ordinary life. The challenge version of the title is meant to be slightly fill-in-the-blank. Break out from your ordinary mindset (dream big), break from your ordinary life (break from your rut), etc. Ficwise, Green (who has a tendency to focus on the current situation) does that at the end when he takes a minute to look at the big picture and realizes he’s happy.

Read it here at AO3

Apologies for the delay — deadlines got shifted at work, and I had to pull some late nights. (11 pm work calls suck, 0/10 do not recommend).

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Red’s mother, he marvels, has an incredible ability to be oblivious to things. Which is probably where his own clueless moron of a childhood friend got it from. She’d watched press about her son religiously and listened to years of news reports about their legendary feud and still concluded, oh, the boys are just having one of their silly spats. She could confide her deepest concerns about her son to his biggest rival without thinking anything of it because she was totally blind to the sour turn of their relationship.

I found some additional notes I had for no map to follow while looking for my Sojourn timeline, so I’ve added it to the notes post.

I’ve completed the rough draft of Fic 2 and am steadily ironing out the rough patches. It still needs a good amount of work, but the end is in sight and I would only be mildly embarrassed if the current draft leaked. I’m aiming for a posting date of late October. It has the working title of boy, interrupted, which makes me laugh, but I’m probably changing it because I think it’s in somewhat poor taste if you take it as the movie reference more than the Vermeer.

I was originally going to aim for Dec 2024 for Fic 3 (current title: and the journey continues) but realistically, it’s going to end up in 2025 because it’s in the worst shape with the most missing chunks.

Got stuck with the really long OriginalShipping fic I was writing because I can’t figure out the last few steps of the emotional progression and by god does it need a proofreader.

I’ve worked one of my favorite sections into something that doesn’t need context in case I’m never able to make anything out of it.

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Red’s glaring mulishly at him like he’s daring him to prove him wrong. And the thing is, Green gets it. Maybe a little too much. He is by nature loud and smartmouthed, and he knows — he’s always known — that people would rather have him be someone else. How often has someone called him an embarrassment to the Oak name? People want him quieter, politer, more talented, more diligent. More worthy of his trailblazing, celebrity scientist grandfather. He used to hide from it. Then he spent most of high school rebelling against it, the same way Red’s doing now. He can’t pinpoint exactly what led up to the revelation, but at some point, it just hit him that sure, he was chipping away at the sterling Oak reputation that had always hurt him, but at the cost of making everyone around him into collateral damage. That was just him spreading the pain and misery around, making it worse, a toxic cycle. And winning by giving up whatever goodness you had inside — it just felt like another kind of losing.

After all, that was the conclusion he settled on after all the raging was over. If he ever wanted to make something of himself, he couldn’t ignore his family name. The only way he could carve out his own path was to acknowledge what he was avoiding and create his own brand of competence, distinct enough that you couldn’t just lump him in with his grandfather. And no matter what anyone said about him taking after his grandfather, he had to keep in mind that he was his own person.

He mapped it out, once. The differences between him and Gramps, the things that made him Green. He does not have Gramps’ genius, not by far. Instead, Green has the kind of savvy and observantness of someone born in a pressure cooker without the innate talent to survive it. A strength that never develops when everything comes easy to you.

For all that people want him to be a better Oak, the Oaks need a cynic to stay alive. Someone who catches onto people fast, who can spot a hidden motive and will call doubt, who won’t be moved when the guilt-tripping starts. Who can’t afford to let things slide because they don’t have enough genius to be gracious instead of suspicious. They need someone brazen and audacious, who’s willing to make a ruckus and doesn’t believe in the kind of carelessness that can come with talent.

Gramps has never really understood him, but even through all his arrogance and his anger, he has loved him.

As always, feel free to ask any questions

I started this fic back in November 2021. I actually finished most of it way earlier, but the penultimate scene, where Red has his mini-panic, took a lot of time and revisions. There’s probably half a dozen versions in my drafts. I only got the tone shift to a place where I was happy with it a day or two before I published it (thank god! Was really worried I wasn’t going to make it for a bit). If it’s still feeling a bit rough, that would be why!

This was actually just supposed to be a short fic about Green swanning in and being a jerk and (unfortunately?) developed something resembling feelings in the middle.

The title has three meanings. 1: the very literal idea that Red didn’t provide his specific location, so Green has no map to get there. 2: Red feels like he doesn’t know what to do with himself, so he has no map for adulthood/his future, 3: no map to follow as in “to come afterwards,” as in even after he’s made the decision to come down from the mountain sometimes, that doesn’t make it any easier or tell him what to do with his life. I liked how that shows a future focus.

A couple of the titles I contemplated had to do with The Bear Went Over the Mountain and She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain (mountain and children associations felt fitting). I ended up looking at some mountaineering vocab and free-associating.

The whole fic spun off my attempt to salvage some of the funny bits of dialogue I wrote for this AU. I thought I’d try to convert it into a series of banter ficlets, wrote part of the last section, and things snowballed from there. Still can’t believe it ended up 6k.

If Delia had heard from Red, Green was just going to spend a chill day in Pallet.

I don’t actually know that much about how charging works and I don’t think I ever saw any delicate-thing charging by Electric Pokemon canonically? But just slot the timing of this in the appropriate place in Pokemon history if so.

Erika gave Green the charging project because she wanted the others to learn some of Green’s better traits, like his brains and his work ethic, and also because she realized Green is hungry for acknowledgement and wanted to give him an accomplishment

The sad interpretation of Green’s particular viciousness in certain places is that he’s afraid to admit he misses anyone because he spent so much time missing his extremely busy and often absent grandfather when he was younger, and it just made him feel powerless and weak. The happier interpretation is that he’s just particularly pissed at Red and so really in top form. Lots of pent up aggression and also wandering for hours on a snowy mountain.

Didn’t want to mention this in the fic because it’s pretty lighthearted, but well. A year with absolutely no communication on a mountain that’s not known to be forgiving, and your mind gets to wondering. Green was generally confident in Red’s survival skills, but there was a faint, niggling fear in the back of his head that he might be looking for Red’s corpse. And another reason he focused on the anger was that if it’s Red’s fault for dropping out of contact, that means Red is alive and deliberately didn’t do it.

The big reason Green’s behavior in the penultimate section is so far off normal is less that he’s changed a lot and more that there hasn’t been any precedent for it in their relationship! Green has really complex feelings about Red in that moment, and they’ve never had any conflicts that lasted long enough for things to get so weird before. It’s a mixture of a long simmering but faded resentment with annoyance that Red’s been super inconsiderate, both of which died down when he got genuinely concerned that Red might’ve died up there, and there’s also a new dose of maturity that Red just isn’t familiar with because he’s used to Green being super bratty and willing to air out grievances immediately. He has basically no precedence for Green actively trying to not to be a dick and trying to get over his pettiness.

Basically, he’s never seen Green try to beat down his worse impulses instead of just being super honest about them, and that plus the unusually complex mixture of emotions on Green’s side ends up putting Green in quiet unreadable mode for once and makes Red go ???

(I feel like someone might say he did end up airing out those grievances — not quite! While he did do it in a not-very-adult way, Green was trying to only air out Red’s “objective” wrongdoings and not his personal concerns. Red’s just used to seeing through him)

What cracks me up is that Green’s perspective of that scene is him losing his temper and ranting like crazy while Red looks at him like an inscrutable hermit and then just cuts him to the root with a single simple sentence. Red seems so infuriatingly cool from the Green version of things while Red was having an internal panic of WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE?

Notice how Green’s visit ends up throwing Red for a loop? That’s a little bit of a tie-in to pyrography, something Red says at the beginning. The thing that Green has always brought to their relationship (even when he was a massive brat), is startling Red out of his complacency and making him realize what he’s been missing on.

To commemorate, I’ve got a little surprise for you — I’m debuting my current fic project, a mostly-completed Pokemon three-shot series. These fics are thematically connected and can be construed as taking place in the same timeline, but each of them is a slice of life oneshot that can be read independently. You’ve seen a sneak peek from Number 3 here and Number 2 here. Each of them is about 5-6k in length.

This series is probably best described as Red and Green over the years, told in a series of visits. It’s tentatively entitled Sojourn, and it’s about growing up and saving what you can and finding a place for yourself when the whole world seems to be changing around you. Number 3 is also my spiritual sequel to Pyrography (but honestly all three of them have some overlap with it).

You can find the first fic on AO3, entitled no map to follow

I guess have most of a draft instead

(Yes, this is the same drabble I posted a line of last Valentine’s - you can see how long I’ve been working on this)

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“Ah, hello, Karma,” says Granny Sato. She twinkles at him with the uncannily knowing look that some old ladies just always seemed to have. “It’s been a while. Are you here for your milk and natto?”

“Yup, but I’m also just here to get out of the apartment,” Karma says. “Gakushu needs some space right now.”

Granny Sato knows him far too well, and it shows in her utter lack of hesitation in raising an arthritic finger and pointing it directly at him. “Your young Asano-kun is a delicate boy,” she says sternly. “You have to be gentle with him.” And she’s right, of course, but if there’s one thing you can say about Akabane Karma, it’s that he’s never been daunted by any kind of rebuke.

He puts on his best innocent face. “I am being gentle, Granny,” he says. “That’s why we’re moving like glaciers!”

It’s like flipping a switch. “Oh? Now, won’t you indulge an old lady?” she asks, leaning in, her sternness morphing into curiosity. Like many of her kind, Granny Sato is an incurable gossip.

“Nothing much,” Karma says casually. “Gakushu’s just freaking out because he doesn’t know how to handle affection.”

I kissed him twenty minutes ago, he doesn’t add, because Gakushu might actually murder him if he lets that leak.

“Oh, is he now?” Granny Sato always seemed to be just as entertained by his attempts at respectability as Karma. Even though she’s at least five decades his senior, the two of them are really kindred spirits.

Karma gives a little hum. Some people think he only knows provocation, but he’s a lot more sophisticated than that. Karma knows when to push and prod and when to hold back, and right now is one of these times, because while Karma at least understands love in a distant way, Gakushu only knows it as lawsuits and threats and the silent weight of expectations dangling above his head like a Sword of Damocles.

Whatever it is they have between them is probably the healthiest relationship Gakushu’s ever had in his life, and that’s a little sad.

She pats him on the shoulder. “You go get your young man,” she says.

The reason I ask is because that would mean

a) Green is younger than Red

b) Even though he lost the title, Green would still be the youngest Kanto champion on record

.

.

.

“Please, oh please, Champion Red!” says Melissa the teaching assistant. She’s all of fifteen or so. You can tell because there’s still light and hope in her eyes. “You’re the perfect person to talk to the kids, you’re so inspirational. You’re the youngest champion on record!”

“What am I, chopped liver?” mutters the second-youngest champion by a mere one and half months.

“We can trade places if you want,” Red mutters back to him.

“Nah, you broke it, you bought it,” Green says. “Bet you regret the whole champion thing now, don’t you?”

“No one said it might involve talking to children.”

“They definitely did, you just weren’t paying attention.” Green flicks his forehead, like a jerk. “Moron.”

Red glares at him and resists stepping on his toes. Instead, he turns towards Melissa the teaching assistant to say something, but then he pauses. His brow furrows. “What am I supposed to tell them?”

“Speak from your heart. Share your inspiration! Tell them what makes you the trainer you are!”

Red just looks more confused.

“Tell them to be good kids, stay in school, and do their homework,” is his childhood friend’s contribution.

Red blinks. “But I didn’t do any of that,” he says.

“Um,” says Melissa the teaching assistant, losing her momentum.

“Just lie,” says Green shamelessly.

“If they want someone to talk about education, they should ask your grandpa,” Red argues, still frowning. “Or even you. You’re the one who made me do my homework.”

“I didn’t make you do anything,” Green says, rolling his eyes. “I just told you that if you failed, we’d be in separate classes the next year.”

“I’m pretty sure that counts as a threat.”

“And I’m pretty sure you count as a lamebrain. What else?”

Red sets his jaw stubbornly. “I’m not going to lie to people,” he says.

“That’s literally all you do with little kids. That’s the entire concept behind the existence of Santa Claus.”

“Shh!” Melissa the teaching assistant whispers frantically, glancing at the door.

“Well, if you want to be that way, use yourself as an example of what not to do,” Green says. “Tell them how miserable you are from not having completed your education.”

“But I’m not,” Red says.

“You can’t balance an account to save Pikachu’s life,” Green points out.

“Chu,” Pikachu says, with a dangerous gleam in his eyes. His cheeks start sparking. Melissa the teaching assistant takes a step back.

“Don’t worry, Pikachu’s harmless,” Red assures her, with total obliviousness to the murder in his Pokemon’s eyes, and then turns back to Green. “You didn’t go to high school either, you know.”

“Yeah, but I actually paid attention to Trainer Life Skills, including the budgeting unit.”

“There was a budgeting unit?”

Green rolls his eyes again. “See what I put up with? You wouldn’t believe what it was like being classmates with this guy,” he says. “The answer to what’s behind all that mystique is that Champion Red is secretly a moron.”

“Chu!” Pikachu snaps, glaring at Green.

“You can’t shock Green to defend my honor,” Red says wearily.

“Chuuu.”

“Not even a little one.”

“Pika-pi!”

“Not even if you would really enjoy it and he has it coming.”

“It’s a good thing you don’t pay taxes on battling income, or you would be screwed,” Green continues, unphased by the actual threats going on in the background. “He’s especially weak against the concept of math,” he says to Melissa the teaching assistant, like he’s confiding a secret.

“But, but, how does he do damage calculations? Stat balancing? Training measurements?”

Red looks up at the ceiling in contemplation. Behind him, Green starts to snicker. “I just do it by instinct?” he says, after a moment.

“Instinct,” Melissa the assistant says faintly.

Red shrugs. “Lance deals with the League’s taxes and stuff.”

“And he does not get paid anywhere near enough. For the actual work he does or having to deal with your flightiness.”

Red scowls at him. “Don’t you do some of this stuff too? You’re a gym leader.”

“Yeah, the Viridian schools ask me every year, sometimes the neighboring towns do too. I just tell them about all the work that goes into being gym leader and make sure to tell them all the boring parts. That way, if they go for it anyways, at least they know what they’re getting themselves into.”

“That sounds terrible,” Red says. “Didn’t she say these were supposed to be inspirational?”

“Realistic is just as important nowadays. Can’t have kids dropping out with those dumb TV ideas of what being a professional trainer’s like,” Green says, with a shrug. “Besides, it can’t be worse than Giovanni’s.”

“What did Giovanni do?” Red asks, curious despite himself.

“Made himself out to be the second coming of Arceus so that any sufficiently dazzled kids would come to him if they needed help, then secretly groom them as Rocket grunts.”

Everyone in the room uniformly shudders.

“Yeah, so you can see why I try to make it sound boring after that.”

Red is struck with a horrible thought. “I won’t accidentally inspire anyone into villainy, will I?” he asks. Giovanni was doing it on purpose, but Red has been known to be accidentally competent at things. See: becoming champion.

“Of course not!” Melissa the teaching assistant says hurriedly.

“Who knows? You sure are annoying enough,” says Green. “But at least you can’t be held responsible for it in a court of law.”

Red frowns harder at him. “You’re not very helpful with this,” he says, accusingly.

“Who said I was trying to be?”

“You’re a fake friend.”

“Thanks, I’m flattered.”

“I’m telling your grandpa.”

“Good luck with that. He has even less brains than you do.”

Red swats him on the arm.

“Um,” says Melissa the assistant, looking increasingly like she’s been caught in the middle of a firefight. She presses on bravely though, and you have to give her some credit for that. “Do you think you’ll be able to do this?”

Red looks vaguely haunted. “Maybe?” he hazards. “Do I have to lie?”

“No!” Melissa says.

“Basically,” says Green.

“Then I’m not doing it,” Red says.

Melissa looks at Green.

“Yeah, sorry, can’t help this one,” Green says, with a shrug.