In the turning, flowing wind, I sing alone

[starinheaven]

There’s a little girl, dressed in a light, summery dress, with matching white sandals, arriving on Stardust Beach, blinking at the sunlight and feeling the coastal wind on her face and tasting the salty sea-scent of the air.
For a time, she’s absolutely stunned, daring not to move (has her imagination ever been this strong?!), then, without really meaning to, she’s forced to take a few steps (the wind is so strong!), that she steps into wet sand and realizes she couldn’t just be imagining this. It’s a little too soggy and gross. She decides, then, maybe it was the last few years that were a very bad, very long, and very strange dream (although she liked the Pokemon…), and this was reality! She giggles and takes off her sandals, putting them higher up on dry sand (hot, hot!), before rushing back to the wet sand to play.

She twirls and spins and laughs, but when she turns back around, searching the beach, she cannot find her mama or her papa.

“… didn’t we go together? We’re at the beach now…”

Wasn’t the car crash and everything else a dream? She couldn’t have gotten here on her own! It’s true it’s not the same beach she knew and even the people looked a bit different, but maybe they just went on a very, very long trip!

Question 1: Vacation?
Ai decided to ask around on the beach, gently tapping shoulders and tugging on sleeves.
“Excuse me, have you seen my papa or my mama? Um, papa’s hair is much more wavy than mine, but grey, and he has a nose this long…”

Question 2: Heaven?
She had to find her parents! They had to be here, right? Because if they weren’t… then the car crash and these past years weren’t all a dream… then, maybe she’s just gone on ahead to Heaven? So she decided, in between asking about her parents, she’ll also ask some people if this place were Heaven!
“Excuse me, is this Heaven?”
Ai thought this was a very clever way to find out more quickly, than if she had only asked everyone one question, then started all over with the next one. She should find her answer quicker this way!

Sand

Ai had never seen sand that looked like this before! It was so pretty and mysterious. Almost like konpeito! But she knew better than to try and taste it… although she really did feel tempted to. It looked so pretty… she sat down and held grains up to the sunlight and wondered if the stars fell down and turned to sand or if the entire island was one very big star broken up into many little stars… oh, but it wasn’t hot or shining, like the sun, were they stars that went out, like switched-off lights or snuffed-out candles? Ai kept wondering, while rolling the little grain between her fingertips.

Whatever they were, they were pretty, so Ai wanted to collect some sand, along with seashells and bits of seaweed and anything else.

Comments

[starinheaven]

“I’ve never heard that name before! Is it part of the Kanto region?” Ai asked, surprised.

She knew she lived in Kanto, so if Ultern were in Kanto, she shouldn’t be too far away… maybe.

“Also.. you talk like—do you know Mewtwo…?”

That was the only other talking Pokemon she ever knew.

[radleyslittleevie]

"I'm not sure where it is!" Evie says. "And I only talk since being here! It's so fun! I don't know Mewtwo. Is that a Pokemon?"

[starinheaven]

“I think so… but he talks just like a person does! Like you do… what a lovely, mysterious place!

“Did you learn to talk all at once or little by little? And where were you before coming here?”

[radleyslittleevie]

"That's so neat! I hope I get to meet him!

"I just started talking all at once! It's everything I tried to say before, but now everyone understands me because it's coming out in human talk!

"I was in Johto! It's so pretty there too!"

[starinheaven]

"He's very cute! I hope you'll meet him too, I think he'll love to see the world..."

Then, that might be true, too...

"Johto! That's a different region from where I live... then, this place is somewhere different from both?"

Ai looked troubled by that thought...

Were they both dead? Is that why Mewtwo and her papa aren't here?

[radleyslittleevie]

"Yeah! I could show him all around! I can show you too!"

Evie nods. "People are brought in from all over! And they can get sent home and come back!"

[starinheaven]

"I'll leave him to you, you sound like a very good tour guide, Miss Eevee."

"Really? I can go back and forth?" Ai asked in surprise. "Do we go back as we are right now...?"

That would certainly be something, her papa would be so surprised!

[radleyslittleevie]

"Thank you! I love to help!"

Evie paused, thinking. "I'm not sure.... I didn't go back, but a friend of mine did!"

[starinheaven]

"Oh? What's your friend's name?"

Ai thought it might be useful to ask this friend some questions too!

[radleyslittleevie]

"Ash!" Evie said. "You'll probably see him around! He always has a Pikachu with him!"

[starinheaven]

"I'll do my best to recognize him! Um, what does he look like, besides having a Pikachu with him?"

She wanted to better form a picture of Ash in her mind!

[radleyslittleevie]

"He wears a hat and he has black hair! He's maybe a little bit older than you!" Evie cheerfully said.

[starinheaven]

"That makes it easier... thank you!" Ai politely thanked the Eevee, even giving her a little bow. "I'm Fuji Ai, by the way! You can call me Ai. Do Pokemon have names or are you just Eevee unless someone gives you a nickname?"

[radleyslittleevie]

"Hi, Ai!" Evie chirped. "My person called me 'Evie'! He said it's a human name that means Life!" But it sounds the same as Eevee, making it confusing.

[starinheaven]

“How pretty… so, like Eve, but more of a nickname, huh?”

Well, at least Ai would recognize that name!

“What’s your person like? He sounds like a nice person to give you such a lovely name.”

[radleyslittleevie]

"Yeah!" Evie beams. "And he's wonderful! So kind and thoughtful! ... But Team Rocket took me away from him and I'm still trying to find him again...." She droops a bit.

[starinheaven]

He did sound lovely!

"Team Rocket..." Ai repeated quietly, with a sad, distant sort of look, then reached out to Evie, as she knelt down, offering a hug.

"I'm sorry..."

[radleyslittleevie]

"Thank you...." Evie hugs her. "I'll find him someday, though! I know I will!"

[starinheaven]

So soft! Fluffy and the mane's silky, too... the first Pokemon Ai's gotten to feel here! She'd forgotten how warm Pokemon can be.

Evie's hope cheers Ai up too. "Maybe I'll find my papa, maybe even my mama, too! Let's keep looking, the two of us."

[radleyslittleevie]

Evie loves hugs!

"Yeah! What do your parents look like? I'll watch for them! Or we can look together!"

[starinheaven]

"Well, my dad has grey hair and a long, pointy nose," she drew a rather long line away from her face to illustrate! "His hair is very wavy, even wavier than mine!"

She gestured over her head and then arched in front of her, like a sort of up-do... it seemed almost like a pompadour!

"He wears a white lab coat when he's working! Um, he studies genetics... mama's hair is wavy, too, but curls in around the ends." Both have hair that seemed to be above the shoulders.
She made a gesture like parting her hair in the middle, too. "Her hair is very short up here." A fringe?

"My mama wears dresses and my papa wears pants and shirts and, um... a necktie!"

[radleyslittleevie]

Evie listens very carefully and tries to picture them in her mind. She probably pictures a nose much too long.

"I'll look for them!"

She's very cheerful.

[starinheaven]

"Then, we can look together! Um, how long have you been looking? Is Team Rocket here too...?" Ai asked, looking at Eevee, wondering if maybe Team Rocket had something to do with their appearance here, too.

[radleyslittleevie]

"I've been here for several people months!" Evie says. "And there are some Team Rocket people too. One is trying to be good now, but I saw a mean lady!"

[starinheaven]

"Oh? The one who's trying to be good, what was his... or her name?"

Ai might be a bit too hopeful, since her father had gotten mixed up in Team Rocket, too...

"And the mean lady?"