Flannery looked at the multitude of computers set up in the fabled computer room. Monitors stacked on top of monitors, entire walls covered in screens… She looks over at Brawly, awe on her face.
aranyhíd: 'golden bridge'; the reflection of the sun as it shines upon the water.
Prompts of Promise! (Accepting)
Brendan was angrily pacing back and forth on the cold Cinnabar Island sands as the sun’s rising light reflected against it’s surrounding waters. How did he get here? Well five minutes ago he was standing in front of Saffron City’s Gym doors, being told an angry coward with weak heart had no business breathing the same air as the mistress (Gym Leader Sabrina), let alone challenging her, next thing he knew he saw a flash of light from the Gym trainer’s eyes, bringing him to his current location. Which didn’t help his mood at all, considering the Karate King he faced next door called his strength EMPTY and told him to seek inner peace.
Saffron City had not been kind of him, how dare anyone say those things to him of all people!? He saved the Hoenn region from disaster AND beat the Hoenn League! He beat The Battle Frontier as well, so HOW could his strength be empty!?! He ranted out loud to his Metagross and Blaziken, his two pokemon who became his closest confidants over the years, especially when Metagross could act as a translator between Brendan and his pokemon.
“Coward? No Inner Peace? FUCK them. Breloom swept that stupid King and if I wanted, I’m sure we could beat the Kanto League no sweat!” He said as he kicked a pebble into the water before them all. “I’ll beat the Indigo League and rubs our victory into their faces! Then they’ll have no choice but to choke on their words and admit they were full of shit.” It took a lot to make Brendan swear and it was clear from his tone he passed his limits and was livid. His pokemon traded looks before his Metagross spoke up.
“<Such actions do not seem advisable in your current condition, Master. I assume their words were focused on mental and emotional frameworks of observation rather than the standard biological and physical standard used in the objective world. Since our mental connection, I have recorded repressed emotions and you growing less satisfied with victories achieved these past two years.>” Their words earned a glare from Brendan, yet they weren’t silenced by his reaction. “<You won’t find satisfaction by going with that course of actions according to the data I’ve recorded over the past few months.>”
“I’ll fight for you until I die, as you my loyal friend and master, though I refuse to watch you like this any longer. Humans are strange to me, but I can tell you don’t enjoy anything you used as much. You don’t talk much to other humans outside of battles or contests and you’ve been sleeping more and yet you still appear tired.” The fact both pokemon were calling him out left Brendan making a bitter laugh at their words.
“You two are worrying about nothing. When humans reach a certain age, that stuff naturally happens. Plus all this could just mean i need a new challenge. I’m fine all around and-”, he knew his pokemon weren’t buying his words because they knew him too damn well. He simply pulled out his Super Rod fishing pole and threw a lure into the waters.
What was he angry about? What was he running from? What could possibly make him feel weak? What undermined or invalidated his strength? What him him hallow? Two words. Family Matters.
The divorce brought light to the darker and uglier side of his parents and family. It had been a couple years yet he could recall Aunts and Uncles asking if Norman beat Caroline, did she hit Norman in front of him. Was there yelling all the time? Was it true she made her only child ride in the back of a moving van? Did Norman push either if them down the stares. The questions just kept coming and then a nice cousin of him warned him about either parent becoming alcoholics post-divorce and possibly killing themselves due to grief. All this happened while Brendan was just 13.
He couldn’t speak to anyone in the League he made friends with since that could hurt his dad’s career and the LAST thing he wanted to for his dad to deal with more trouble. Plus it was private family matter, it was no one else’s business. So what if Brendan felt alone and had no one he felt he could turn to? To say how it hurt him deeply to be told that the reason his mother was so neglectful toward him was because he looked and acted too much like Norman. That she only married him because he was thug. That Norman was a pushover as a husband and thus he was not only a weak man but deserved to lose his wife to another man.
Brendan had no one to say how powerless he felt, how he just wanted all of it to stop. How he wanted to leave but didn’t want to abandon anyone. How he hated the dude his mother left Norman for after getting caught with him. He hated seeing his dad lie to his face for an entire month after the divorce, saying he was alright and trying to act as if everything would be normal again in no time. Yet despite having no one to confide in, he survived and moved on. Right?
“So Brawly told me in a year or so there going to be a World Tournament held somewhere in Unova. It wouldn’t hurt to head back to check on them and have a few sparring matches with everyone.” He didn’t want to admit he just wanted to see how his father was doing or to see May and Wally again. That would make him sound needy.
If he learned anything so far in life, is that in the end, no matter how close you are with someone, at the end of it, you only have yourself.
Tired dull eyes stared listlessly as the sun’s rays reflected off the water. Fifteen minutes have passed and not a single bite. He put his rod away and turned his face his pokemon once more.
{🍎} if you could see my face right now, it’s the pikachu meme face. Because this one was out of left field and surprised the heck out of me. But thank you so much hun?? I hope I don’t disappoint you.
“Perhaps... although I can’t help but feel that I have become negligent. Besides, Brawly. A mistake is one thing. This is... entirely different.”
They were both standing up against a ragged cliff along the inside of a cave, and very literally, both men almost crumbled to their death after the already narrow pathway they took crumbled away.
The space around them was too short for comfort to pick their pokemon from their belts, and Steven wasn’t about to chance it just in case Brawly tumbled forward.
“Brawly, I think we’re going to need to climb up if we’re going to get around this. Are you ready?”
Surprise given the fact that Brawly usually was busy training or helping around the island, the thought was appreciated. “Do you mind?” He asked sheepishly. “I mean, I appreciate the help; but, I don’t want to be too much of a bother if you’re busy.”
Blinking slowly, and inwardly wondered what brought the resident surfer to Petalburg City; not that there was a problem. The rest of the Hoenn leaders were always welcome to his city pausing in his train of thought with hesitation as the idea of the younger man had come to the city for personal or familial reasons?
He did not want to risk interrupting Brawly’s day. It would have been rude to intrude after all.