bunny girl propaganda

Apollo wakes up in the middle of the night from a nightmare. He runs through the dark halls of the penthouse, opening the door to his parent's bedroom on his tippy-toes. While he prefers his mother, he still runs over to his father's side of the bed. Beau's a light sleeper and is already awake at the sound of his footsteps before he even got to the door. Terra remains fast asleep.

"Do you need me to fight off the monsters today?"

Apollo shakes his head, and his father wipes away his tears with his free hand.

Beau lifts up the blanket and pats the empty space on the bed beside him, safe from the monsters that woke him up.

Apollo quickly climbs up the mattress and cuddles close to his father, while his mother still lays asleep on the other side of Beau's chest. Corbeau rubs back, trying to stop the tears and coaxing him back to sleep.

The last thing he hears before he drifts back to sleep,

She looks at Brendan, who has followed in his father's footsteps to become a Pokemon Professor/Researcher himself. To dedicate your life to the pursuit of knowledge, it's admirable, but more importantly, nothing can take that away from him. He could work at his own pace and still be known as a Professor.

She looks at her father, Norman, a Gym Leader, whose duty it is to test those that challenge him. He's there to spur trainers on, sharpening their skills as well as his own. Losing battles is an important part of his job, it keeps the fire inside them burning, proof that they've infact grown stronger. But also, he's allowed to lose, he's probably lost thousands of battles over the years.

Unlike a Gym Leader, Terra is not allowed to lose. Unlike a Professor, literally anyone battle-ready enough could take it away from her.

She can never back down, never underestimate an opponent, because even the slightest mistake could mean the end of the life she's grown used to.

What does it mean to be a Champion? Are you just a finish line for people to finally cross?

She's spent nearly half her life defending a title that she still doesn't quite know how to feel about. She loves that she's recognized as the strongest trainer in the region, but is fully aware it's temporary nature.

She was 12 years old when she beat Steven Stone, it's entirely possible for a kid to waltz in and do the same. In fact, it's not even a rare occurence, with Former Champion Leon being the freshest example of this, her own biggest idol with a reign as long as hers.

Is her time in the spotlight almost up? Who is she without it?

there's just an unexpected innocent soft side to her when she's not actively putting up the cool girl act (I say 'act' but it's like ~50% real; it started off as larping but it's fun enough and feels completely natural to her eventually). It's part of her Champion persona's appeal. That side of her is also an act, but it wasn't always...and deep inside she's still a little bit of the soft-hearted girl she started out as.

But circling back to post-reveal, I think when she goes over to his place to hang out in her casual clothes and her face mostly bare, it sometimes feels like he's dating a completely different person altogether... until she opens her mouth and he feels like slapping her again.

I mean, first and foremost, he has to get over the mini heartattacks of turning his head and just seeing Hoenn's darling Champion just on his couch in one of his oversized shirts, sipping hot cocoa from his favorite mug.

Once he gets over that, he has get used to the cool sharply dressed go-getter who came out on top of the Z-A Royale and saved Lumiose ALSO being the soft little sleepyhead who drools all over him and clings to him as he tries to get out of bed to get breakfast started. Her impeccable table manners thrown out the window in favor for a more... homely way of dining.

Corbeau will say he prefers the snazzy side of her, but he won't deny that he's overcome with the feeling of hugging her and never letting go when he sees the 'at-home' version of Terra, very fitting to her new nickname he's given her when they've dated a little longer (he calls her Ter-Bear). It's also lowkey a privilege too; very few people get to see her like this.