Coriander & Cardamom snippets
Below the cut is a little piece pulled from the latest chapter of my Pokémon fanfic series, wherein my mc Lil meets some of the Unova gang's rivals (Trip, Bianca, Burgundy) for the first time, with mixed results. I really had fun writing these characters!
“Oh, it’s Trip! Hey, how are you?” Ash called out and waved him over.
“I’m fine, though I’m surprised to find the three of you here. I suppose I shouldn’t be, you do like to play games after all. And who’s this?” the stranger asked, looking pointedly at me. I felt my defensiveness flare to life and I struggled to keep my expression neutral. I felt Iris place her hand on my shoulder and I relaxed a fraction.
“Don’t let him bother you, Lil. He’s always like this. I think he’s just a grumpy kinda guy,” she whispered in my ear as Ash eagerly told him about finding the poster and deciding to compete. Ash didn’t seem bothered by the other young man’s attitude, so I took a deep breath and calmed down.
“Oh, and this is Lil. Lil, this is Trip,” Ash said, turning to introduce us.
“Hello,” Trip said, nodding curtly.
“Yeah… hey,” I responded coolly.
“So, Trip, what interested you about the geocache relay?” Cilan asked.
“The Battle Items, obviously. They’ll give me a huge advantage for battling in the Unova League. Not that I need it,” Trip smirked.
I swore under my breath and turned to walk a few paces away from the others. No matter what Iris said, I sensed I wouldn’t be able to tolerate Trip’s overconfident remarks for long before I said something I’d regret.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted some movement near the top of a clump of spruce trees. I raised my binoculars up to look and found that it was a couple of Minccino, squabbling over a berry. How cute! I continued to watch them for a few moments, silently rooting for the smaller one to win, when suddenly—
“Oof!”
—I was barreled over and landed flat on my back. The wind had been knocked from my lungs, and I lay there for a moment, stunned. My binoculars had gone flying out of my hands and landed a few feet away from me.
“Lil!” I heard Iris’ voice call out. A beat later, she, Ash, and Cilan were peering down at me. “Are you hurt?”
“Ah, no. I don’t think so, just surprised. What the heck was that?” I replied, accepting Ash and Cilan’s help in standing back up.
My answer arrived in the form of a young woman with light blonde hair wearing a colourful beret and a matching outfit, bowing repeatedly to me. My eyes widened in further surprise.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!” she repeated rapidly in a high voice.
“Lil, this is Bianca. Bianca, your latest bowling pin is our friend, Lil. She’s traveling with us now,” Ash laughed.
“I’m so sorryyyy!” she squeaked, bowing even more deeply.
I remembered what Ash and the others had told me about Bianca and I couldn’t help but smile, amused. They had warned me that she was clumsy and had an abundance of energy - case in point.
“It’s all right, I’m not hurt. Are you okay?”
“I’m just fine! Um, here’s your camera thing back,” Bianca said, handing my binoculars back to me. Now that she had straightened again, I noticed that she was a few inches taller than me. I looked up slightly to meet her shining, mint-green gaze. “Nice to meetcha, Lil!”
“Oh, actually they’re… nevermind. Nice to meet you, too,” I chuckled, still unsure what to make of the whole situation.
“That’s what you get for not paying attention when you’re using binoculars. It’s like you’re a helpless, absentminded child,” Trip tutted as he casually strolled past our group, peering up at the spruce trees.
He made the mistake of standing too close to me, because at that moment I saw red and cocked my fist back. Lightning quick, Cilan grabbed my arm and hauled me away. Thankfully, Trip hadn’t noticed, but as Cilan pulled me away, I heard Ash and Iris telling Trip off for being unnecessarily rude while Bianca was bowing and apologizing once more.
I was breathing hard and nearly spinning out when Cilan deposited me well off to the side, away from the other prospective competitors. Meeting new people had always been difficult for me, which, combined with getting mentally prepped for an event and being knocked to the ground, was leaving me feeling utterly overstimulated.
“This is a lot for you, isn’t it? I understand,” Cilan said, speaking calmly, as one might speak to an agitated Pokémon.
I ignored him. “I’m gonna deck that jerk.”
“Well, okay. But maybe wait until there are fewer witnesses?”
Cilan’s words were startling enough to snap me out of it, at least enough to focus on him instead of glaring at Trip. “Pfft, what?! You of all people would actually be okay with me punching someone?”
He shrugged. There was an amused quirk to the corner of his mouth. “I don’t think you’d actually do it if you felt calmer. But even if you did?” He paused and looked over at Trip, frowning. “Sure, why not? He is a jerk. He’s always been particularly mean to Ash and he has certainly said a few unkind things about my Gym. Though, like I said—” He looked over at me again with a shimmer in his eyes. “—Wait until there are fewer people around to see, all right?”
I blinked and broke into startled laughter. “Okay, deal,” I agreed, then sighed and took a deep breath, clenching and unclenching my fists. “Thanks for stopping me, back there.”
“No problem. That’s what friends are for, right?”
I glanced over at him. “You’re actually unfazed by the way I’m, you know, being right now?”
“I think I understand how you’re feeling. Personally, crowds make me anxious. I know I’ve felt the way you do right now, but we just deal with it in different ways, I suppose.”
I nibbled on one of my fingernails as I processed what Cilan said. It surprised me to hear that he’s felt the way I’m feeling right now; more often than not, he was fairly cool, calm, and collected. Then again, he does get fired up in the same way I do about topics he’s passionate about. Maybe we are more alike than I realized. I nodded.
“It can be a lot to meet new people, especially when they have such big personalities. I don’t blame you for not liking Trip, but give Bianca another chance, okay? She’s like a Tauros in a tableware shop, but she’s got a big heart,” he continued.
“I actually don’t mind Bianca, despite her knocking me over. I don’t feel any negative energy from her, and at least she apologized right away.”
“That’s good. How are you feeling now?”
“Better,” I said, offering him a small, grateful smile.
“I’m glad to hear it. Now, shall we go win a relay?”
“Hell yeah!”
Just as our hands met in a fist bump, I heard a screeching voice cry out a string of words I didn’t recognize from across the field. The accent sounded a bit Kalosian. My head whipped around to locate the source of the voice, which was rapidly getting louder as the owner came flying towards Cilan and I.
“Arceus no, not right now,” Cilan muttered.
I could only stare with my mouth agape as a young woman with wild violet hair and eyes marched right up to Cilan, pointing in his face and still spitting out a stream of Kalosian words. She was wearing clothes not unlike Cilan’s, though the feminine version of them and in a much tackier colour scheme. Then she turned her slightly feral attention on me, and I automatically held my hands up in a gesture of surrender. I was bewildered.
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If you read to this point, thank you <3 To keep reading, you can find the whole chapter (and the whole series) here :)