pseudogeek: The face of a peach-faced lovebird.  (Default)
[personal profile] pseudogeek

"Congratulations, Red and Green."

Red and Green were 10 years old. It was an important age, full of promise of independence and adventures. Both boys were living the happiest day of their still immature life. They received gifts from literally the whole town and, tomorrow, they would take a step out of the town as young adults. Tomorrow they would still be boys, but legally adults. They would have their own pokemon, with license and all. Tomorrow they would walk into that tall grass, hand in hand, their pokemon on their shoulder, into the wide wild world. They would bicker over which direction to go, what to eat for lunch or where to sleep. They would train their pokemons together and against each other. They would compete to see who got which badge first, or who held breath longer under water. They would, for the rest of their life, stick together, as if the other person was a piece of their beloved past, a second sky full of stars... or the very air they breathed.

Because they were friends. No, more like family. Even more, like a person and hir world.

Today, they celebrated their coming-of-age. Professor Oak, Green's grandfather and local celebrity, talked for many minutes before stopping the impatient boys from grabbing the pokemons on the table. He then went to the back of the room and carefully lifted out two marked pokeballs.

"Red, you can pick the one you like."

Red looked at the pokemons, then at Prof Oak, then at Green, then at Prof Oak again. Prof Oak laughed.

"It's ok, Red, don't mind my grandson. He won't mind. Right, Green?"
"Really, it's alright," confirmed Green, "you are my best friend. If grumps let me pick first, I'd tell him to let you pick first anyway."

Red nodded and looked at the pokemons again. One of them was a fluffy ball of brown and white fur. Another was an yellow electric rodent. Both were about the same size and both had long ears.

"Eevee is pretty good," Prof Oak suggested, "depending on its trainer's choice, she can become Flareon, Vaporeon or Jolteon."

Choice, Red thought, is more Green's forte. Plus he likes fluffy canines.

So Red picked pikachu. Green got eevee.


With their pokemons, they practically extinguished the entire rattata population of Pallet Town, just because they're told to stay in town for one more day before going on adventure, as the roads were being repaved.

On the night before their coming-of-age adventure, Red and Green checked out the gifts and packed their bags. They received many useful things. Among them were brand new running shoes, hats, fingerless gloves, wristbands, pokeblocks cases, stacks of blank mails, various guidebooks, Vs. Seekers, berry pouches, Pokegears, various pokeballs, focus bands...
And Red noticed a gift without the giver's name. It was a brown envelope, less like a casual mail and more like the kind of envelope past between professors. It was very thin, but surprisingly heavy. On it was written "Red" in black ink, probably from something like a fountain pen. Red opened the envelope. It wasn't even sealed. Inside he found a single sheet of paper. Black, cursive handwriting filled the page. It depicted the day of Red and Green's coming-of-age party, started with Prof Oak's lecture and ended with Red opening the envelope.

"What is it?" asked Green, trying to peek from over Red's shoulders. Red showed it to him.
"Hm," Green hummed, "I'm not sure what that meant. Maybe it's someone's journal that fell into the gifts by mistake?" He thought about it again and found it creepy that it was centred around Red. His Red.

Red put the sheet of paper back into the envelope and put the whole in a box, with intention to ask about it tomorrow, just before leaving for adventures. Of course, it ended up forgotten, and the two boys left their hometown, their mind filled with ideas of what they could do.


Before they realised, several months had past. The boys became heroes. They helped many on their way to pokemon league, defeated the crime organisation Team Rocket's many attempts at taking over the region for their own gains and collected a fair amount of data on local pokemons, aiding Prof Oak and associates' researches. They also learned to surf alongside their pokemons. And to attract wild pokemons by whistling. And to ride on pokemon's back, on land or in air. They can do all sorts of things with escape ropes.

Soon, an year had past. The boys were now champions. They had trained their pokemons to impressive levels, collected all eight badges of Kanto region and defeated the Elite Four in fair matches. Both refused to keep the position, as there could be only one Champion at time; if they couldn't do something together, why do it at all? They kept travelling, fought legendaries for fun, rode the waves all the way to Sevii Islands and back on their pokemons, climbed Mt.Silver with a small PokeMart's quantity of supplies and flew down on a hot-air balloon pulled by Green's pidgeot.

They said, the diamond dust on Mt.Silver was the most beautiful thing they saw.


One day, when they were both true young adults, with bodies that reached the end of growing up and started to grow old, Red said, How about a marriage on Mt.Silver? We can save the confetti.

Green replied, Where to find a girl willing to go on the top of a mountain that hails nearly all the time?

Red laughed and said, I don't know about a girl, but I do know someone.


Two years after the exchange, Red and Green got married on top of Mt.Silver. It was a diamond dust day. The whole Kanto reacted, but not all gave blessings.

Nevertheless, they were loved and gifts were plenty. It took them some time to do the triage, to find what to keep and what to give away.

It snowballed into a house cleaning. Old stuff from both young men's room were dug out to be packed in boxes and delivered to their shared new house.

And in one of these boxes, Red found a brown envelope with his name written in black ink. It was no doubt the same as the one he received the night of his coming-of-age, yet it was now several times thicker. He took out the content. It was still a description of Red's life written in the same cursive black letters, started with the lecture of Prof Oak. But the story went on this time. It told how Red and Green walked out of Pallet hand in hand, how they captured Green's pidgey that later became his pidgeot, how they challenged gym leaders and won, how they fought against forces of Team Rocket, how they learned surf and ride pokemons and travelled, and beat the Elite Four, and became Champions and gave up on easy and stable life for more adventures and more time with each other.

Red put the manuscript back.

The honeymoon was simple and sweet. After all, their whole life together was like a honeymoon already. Even the luvdiscs envied them.

More years went by. Red and Green had adopted a child, something difficult when the human birthrate was already so low. They loved the child dearly.

When the child was ten, Red and Green find themselves alone with each other again. They decided to not lose to their child and go on more adventures. They were, after all, still young and fit.

It was as if they were 10 year-old again.


On the day Red found a white hair on Green's head for the first time, their child was now a Champion, accompanied by a girl with am ampharos. A Johto girl. She acted as strategist and rival to Red and Green's child. They married few years later.

More house cleaning and packing. Now that a room's freed, some boxes were moved out from storage to be put in that room so it can be a guest room.

A thicker brown envelope was found. Same writing. Same ink. Same story recorded, only longer.

Green freaked out. He was sure that he was the only one to be by Red's side all time. No one else should be able to know Red that much. Yet the writer seemed to know Red even more than Green.

Still, no one claims to know who wrote the manuscript inside the old brown envelope. Green dispatched even his psychic and ghost pokemons, to no result.

Just burn it, Green said to Red, burn the damned thing.

Red simply put it back inside the box. It's just a story, he said, it won't do anyone harm.

Yeah?

Yeah.

Whatever.


The next year went by smoothly. Red and Green would be grandfathers in a few months.


The summer was rather harsh the year Red and Green would be grandfathers. As consequence, not many were outside. Not even the beaches were occupied, as the sand was hot enough to cook eggs. Green checked the calendar. About two months before their grandchild's birth. If they want to make it in time, they have to leave now.

Somewhere at the borders, the roads were blocked. They drove past anyway.

It was not an accident.

What was the Team called? Red cannot remember. He only remembered one thing.

Red was alone in the room.

Green did not and would not be able to see his grandchild. Their grandchild.


Eventually, Red found the old brown envelope again. It was now as thick as a dictionary. He read it from the beginning to end, unable to skip a single word.

The whole story seemed to remind him of Green. To remind him that he was now alone. Incomplete.

Then he had an idea. It was not a pleasant one.

Red lit the fireplace and, like a clumsy, unthinking machine, slid the envelope into the orange flames. Standing alone in the room, he waited for the world to fold, crumble and and fall onto him.



Red was 10 years old. Professor Oak was talking to him. Green wasn't in the room. The table beside them supported three pokeballs, but Red knew they were not for him, and not for Green. He waited patiently for Prof Oak to finish his sentences, to go in to the back of the room and come back with two specially marked pokeballs.

The front door was pushed open. Red turned.

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pseudogeek: The face of a peach-faced lovebird.  (Default)
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