Epilogue
Down in darkness we were reborn
Moriko stood aside from the milling students and their parents and more than a few pokémon. There were orientation leaders with handmade type-glyph signs and raucous hats bellowing into megaphones and sounding off vuvuzelas, and one by one the student-ranger freshmen were joining them. She clutched at her own group assignment, thinking miserably of projects and other students judging her, starting into familiar teasing or withdrawing with customary suspicion.
Moriko! You came so far! How could there be any here who know you, here in this distant land? Remake yourself! Let me do the talking if you are so afraid.
Oh no. Oh no. That would be worse.
Please, I am a fount of wisdom and charisma. Do what I would do.
Moriko took a deep breath, and she strode over to the light-type orientation leader.
"Hi," she said, putting out her hand. "I'm Moriko Sato."
The leader shook her hand and scanned her pokédex, her face intent. Moriko's stomach knotted; this was a mistake, something had gone wrong, she hadn't been admitted after all, she was here fraudulently and everyone knew it—
She took a breath of the cool Hoennian air, and she smelled the sea and the mangroves and the plumeria trees dotting the campus. She reached into the green at her heart and felt the earth beneath her feet, and all the bright galaxy of life that she was part of.
I'm alive, so I keep going.
The leader grinned at her. "Welcome to Mossdeep, froshie! Are you excited?"
Moriko smiled. "Yes."
Give back your heart to itself,
-Derek Walcott
Gods and Demons will be followed by So Comes Ice After Fire and by Gods and Demons II: Among the Exiles
Acknowledgements
Sincere appreciation to everyone who left likes and comments, including Aura, limniris, StellarWind, TooBlue12, Excalibur Queen, and anyone I missed.
Huge thanks to StellarWind for MANY hours spent chatting and comparing fakemon and written RP battles, and for a MEGA SICK drawing of Sylvia. NOT. WORTHY.
Down in darkness we were reborn
Moriko stood aside from the milling students and their parents and more than a few pokémon. There were orientation leaders with handmade type-glyph signs and raucous hats bellowing into megaphones and sounding off vuvuzelas, and one by one the student-ranger freshmen were joining them. She clutched at her own group assignment, thinking miserably of projects and other students judging her, starting into familiar teasing or withdrawing with customary suspicion.
Moriko! You came so far! How could there be any here who know you, here in this distant land? Remake yourself! Let me do the talking if you are so afraid.
Oh no. Oh no. That would be worse.
Please, I am a fount of wisdom and charisma. Do what I would do.
Moriko took a deep breath, and she strode over to the light-type orientation leader.
"Hi," she said, putting out her hand. "I'm Moriko Sato."
The leader shook her hand and scanned her pokédex, her face intent. Moriko's stomach knotted; this was a mistake, something had gone wrong, she hadn't been admitted after all, she was here fraudulently and everyone knew it—
She took a breath of the cool Hoennian air, and she smelled the sea and the mangroves and the plumeria trees dotting the campus. She reached into the green at her heart and felt the earth beneath her feet, and all the bright galaxy of life that she was part of.
I'm alive, so I keep going.
The leader grinned at her. "Welcome to Mossdeep, froshie! Are you excited?"
Moriko smiled. "Yes."
Give back your heart to itself,
to the stranger who has loved you
all your life
all your life
-Derek Walcott
Gods and Demons will be followed by So Comes Ice After Fire and by Gods and Demons II: Among the Exiles
Acknowledgements
Sincere appreciation to everyone who left likes and comments, including Aura, limniris, StellarWind, TooBlue12, Excalibur Queen, and anyone I missed.
Huge thanks to StellarWind for MANY hours spent chatting and comparing fakemon and written RP battles, and for a MEGA SICK drawing of Sylvia. NOT. WORTHY.
