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]

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?"

Suddenly I don't remember if Evie ever got Attila's names, lol.

[radleyslittleevie]

"Ummmmm.... I don't think I know their names," Evie realizes.

[funnily enough, he kept it secret it the first time and didn't say it in their second meeting!]

[starinheaven]

"Oh, um, then, how about how they look?"

That might be helpful! Unless they're disguised...

That's what I thought, LOL

[radleyslittleevie]

"The mean lady has short red hair and a hat!" Evie says. "The guy is big and tall and has yellow hair!" She knows colors, but not words like "blonde."

[this needs to be corrected, he owes her a favour and she doesn't even know his name! xD; ]

[starinheaven]

Ai giggled a bit. "Yellow hair in people is usually called blonde... or golden, in stories! Thank you, Evie, you're a big help."

Yes, LOL!

[radleyslittleevie]

"Oh! I like that!" Evie says. "Golden...."

She beams. "I love to help!"

[next time they meet!!]

[starinheaven]

Neither of those, sadly, sound like anyone Ai is searching for, but it’s nice to make a friend!

“Mmhmm. Golden, like sunlight, honey, buttercups…”

If Evie liked that word, maybe she’d like to hear a story!

“Do Pokemon mamas and papas tell bedtime stories? My papa did.”

Yes!

[radleyslittleevie]

"So nice," Evie says dreamily.

Then she snaps to attention. "Yeah! I heard lots of neat stories! It was so fun!"

[starinheaven]

"Oh? That's lovely, can you tell me one?" Ai could use a story!

She looked around for a place to sit and listen. Maybe deck chairs under a big beach umbrella?

[radleyslittleevie]

"Well, I might not remember everything, but I can try!" Evie says.

She sees the chairs and hops up. "Once there was a little Eevee who dreamed of having a special person...."

She tells a whole fairytale of Sleeping Beauty, but with the Eevee as Sleeping Beauty and awakened by a valiant prince who becomes her special person. Did she really hear this tale before, or is she making it up herself dreaming of her Radley as the prince?

[awwww, Evie's love is so pure and cute, reminds me of Ash's Chikorita/Bayleef!]

[starinheaven]

Ai listened patiently, but her eyes lit up as she recognized the story.

At the end, she clapped for Evie. "What a wonderful story! You know, humans have that story too, Ibara-Hime, the Thorn Princess... in English, she's called Sleeping Beauty! I guess just like how every region has its own, Pokemon have their own versions too..."

Ai considered what tales to tell Eevee... it couldn't be too sad a story, but maybe one with a similar kind of longing with two fundamentally different beings? She'll tell Evie a sort of sad, but hopeful story, about wanting to be loved for who she is, even if she's not a human being like her beloved.

((Think sad children's story like A City With No People in Chobits [the rest of Chobits isn't very kid-friendly as has suggestive humour and such, but this story's clean!] that was meant to help persocom (think android) Chii find a person who would love her as she is, without demanding what she cannot give, by nature of her design.))

Yesssss! They would have a lot to talk about if they ever meet!

[radleyslittleevie]

"Thank you!" Evie chirps. "It's such a nice story."

She listens to Ai's story. It grows deeper and sadder as it goes on, but she perks up at the ending.

"Oh! I'm glad she's going to go back to her person!" she exclaims at the end. "It does hurt to see them sad, but it's worse not to have them!"

[starinheaven]

Ai nodded, smiling. "It hurts a little to love someone, but accepting sad things is just part of life... there's beautiful and happy things, too, so things like love and life are still wonderful, even if they're sad sometimes."

Ai stood back up and looked off into the distance, wondering if she should keep looking or if maybe it's best to focus on other things right now...

[radleyslittleevie]

"Yeah! That's really true! I would never want to stop loving Radley, even though it hurts so much being away from him. Thinking about getting back to him was what kept me happy in Team Rocket!" Evie says.

[starinheaven]

At the mention of Team Rocket again, Ai's gaze looked briefly troubled, wondering if her father could move on, if everything before were not a dream and he was still working for Giovanni, but she then smiled and nodded.

"I'll keep thinking of the ones I love too and pray they'll be safe, even where we can't see them..."

She wondered, briefly, if this uneasiness and uncertainty was why her father had so much trouble moving on...

[radleyslittleevie]

"Yeah! You should! I pray for Radley every day! And everyone else who's looking for loved ones!" Evie said.

[I think around here will be a good place to wrap up ^^]

[starinheaven]

"That's the spirit! We'll find them again someday, I'm sure."

Even if she still worried, knowing others were in the same situation and seeing Evie's unrelenting optimism, Ai felt braver and more sure, too.

(Okay!)

[radleyslittleevie]

"Yeah! I know we will! And we can be friends so we don't have to look alone!" Evie beams. She loves making new friends, and is happy to have made another.