Tanner
I talked to Hoom for a while, finding out that Shupple was here and evolved, until something startled all of us. It was a huge noise going throughout the whole mansion itself. It sounded like fighting to me and until I was absolutely sure, a Luxray burst through the door, running out the next. It was confusing at first but Hoom stood there for a moment, talking to Rosie and Hon, and then running off after the Luxray without anybody else knowing but the small group that had been inside the kitchen, which was hardly anybody.
I had no idea what was going on, but to make it worth the while, I looked around the group that came outside from the mansion to find out what was happening, and what this Luxray was doing. I spotted another Luxray not far off, watching the scene unfold and for a moment, I saw a flash of concern wash over his face and then it was gone as a Kirlia went up to him and started to talk to him.
My hair curled and uncurled as I stood in the doorway and Hon was watching desperately from the sidelines, wondering what was going on. He seemed mad too. Maybe the Luxray that had run off was Hoom’s boyfriend? Seemed so, but nobody really seemed to notice their absence. Soon, a Glaceon ran off into the woods after getting healed somewhat and nobody even noticed that. Man, people are a little bit oblivious…
That’s when I spotted Shupple not far off, and god, did she look stunning, even if she was in pajamas. I guess she really did mature after ten years of me not seeing she at all, stuck in that hellhole with my parents. She seemed well, but something about her threw me off. Her aura was spinning out of control, like something big had just happened to her. Her knees were almost buckling but she held herself together as she looked off into the forest, probably knowing the Luxray that ran off. Apparently with the talk around me, his name was Lux.
I grabbed a rubber band reluctantly out of my pocket and put my hair up multiple times in different places with the multiple rubber bands I had in my pocket for only my hair and walked over to Shupple and tapped her on the shoulder, which made her jump and turn. Her eyes went wide before she wrapped me in a hug.
“Tanner, I can’t believe you’re here!” Shupple exclaimed as she hugged me and I hugged her back and swung her around in a circle before I set her down. She was so much like a little sister to me. I couldn’t let her go, even if I had to sometimes.
“Yeah, me too, actually!” I laughed. “So what’s going on around here? I just got here, and I’m kind of confused. Fill me in?” I asked and her smile dropped and she looked at her feet as I held her hands in mine.
“All I know is that Lux ran off and some other stuff happened and that’s about it… There’s something different going on with Lux, I just know it. I just can’t-” She stopped talking and stopped breathing for a second before she turned around and looked off into the trees. She then looked down, her hood going over her head, and didn’t bother to look at me or anything else and covered her face with her hands and plopped to the ground. Nobody else really noticed but me.
I crouched down next to her and tried to bring her head up. I wasn’t used to this. I hadn’t seen a lot of her powers when she was little and I was a few years older. I wasn’t used to this at all.
“Shupple?” I asked as I tried to push her head up but her hands just dropped and looked at me with desperate eyes.
“I need to transport out of my body. Now,” her voice shook sadness and like she had just been shook violently. Her whole body was trembling. She knew something, but wouldn’t say it out loud. I was also the only person to know what she meant.
As a Ghost Pokemon, Shupple could bring her own ghost spirit out of her own body. All Ghost Pokemon could do this, and yes, it was hard and they could die from it if their own soul was too long away from its body, but it could happen. She hated being the center of attention and didn’t show off her powers a lot. It’s one of the many reasons why she didn’t talk to anybody. She had different talents like every Gijinka did, but she kept her’s hidden from sight. Like her Foresight and her tarot cards that could help heal something that was life threatening, but this wasn’t what she was planning. She was planning to go and exit her own body for only one reason. To talk to the dead.
“Come on, then. Let’s get you in darkness,” I told her and she just stood up and walked over to the long shadows of the mansion. As long as she was in darkness, she could do this perfectly. It just took time.
Shupple leaned against the mansion and crossed her arms across her lower abdomen like any other person would do. I stood by her side, keeping an eye on her as her muscles relaxed and she left her own body.
-~-
Shupple
Seeing Tanner was a surprise, but not as much as the feeling in my gut and the wavelength disappearing within Lux. Something had happened, if it had disappeared that quickly. I knew he died, or possibly even committed suicide. I couldn’t lose one of my friends again, like Ivy. This time I knew what to do. Transport out of my own body and find Lux’s soul. I knew it sounded crazy, but only Ghost Pokemon and Pokemon with rare talents could do this. It’s not popular, and not a lot of people liked it… Can you guess why?
Once I concentrated on me exiting out of my body, I was soon standing outside of my body, my whole body translucent and impossible to see to the naked eye. I concentrated and I floated like an actual ghost, above the trees and went to where his body was being taken. If his body was being taken, so was his soul, watching from outside to see where his body was taken.
It took me a while to find his body, it being in a hospital, but where was his floating soul? I knew it had to be around here somewhere, especially if I could see a Dusknoir not far off…
That’s when I saw the blue hair and yellow eyes, hiding underneath a tree’s shadow, with two other souls around him, and Lux was smiling. I knew those must be his parents. Even though the three were completely translucent, I could see them. It just took a while for my eyes to adjust.
I floated down to their level and it was the parents that saw me first. Lux was just watching the scene unfold, his eyes blank and his soul wavering, as if unsure for it to be alive in its body or not. I knew Lux was confused, his heart even possibly hurting from the pain he inflicted upon himself and the pain he received inside of the mansion. His soul was like it was slipping away, ripping apart, piece by piece. He needed to be healed. He wasn’t the only person in the world who had problems.
“Are you a Banette Gijinka?” the mother asked and I smiled and nodded.
“Yes, I am. I’m a friend of your son’s, actually. More of a… concerned friend is more like it. If it’s alright with both of you, I hope that I can talk to Lux and make him come to his senses. He needs to listen to one of his friends, anyways,” I told her and both of them smiled, but the dad leaned down to my ear.
“We actually both believe it’s not his time yet, dear. Please talk to him. He’s very upset,” the father whispered in my ear and I looked at him and nodded. They both smiled and then disappeared, probably watching from within the shadows of the trees, no doubt.
Lux’s eyes came into sense as his parent’s disappeared and his soul transferred in and out of his own heart beating. He sensed I was there. I knew he was depressed, but he needed to listen, even if he thought it wasn’t what he wanted to hear.
“Why are you here, Shupple? I thought I told you to not come near me,” Lux told me in a cracked voice and I walked (more like floated) over to him and stood beside him and looked off into the distance.
“Just here to talk, Lux. Just because I’m friend, no matter what you say or do, it doesn’t mean I can’t stand beside you and talk,” I told him coldly and that made him look at me.
“Nobody’s my friend. Why should they be? I’m just an outcast, a nerd. I was too naïve to think that anybody could actually be my friend here. I need to leave. To die. Nobody wanted me at-” I ended his sentence by stepping in front of him and slapping him in the face. Hard, too. He needed to stop talking for once and just listen…
“What was that for?” Lux asked, as if he stepped out of his trance and into a new one. I just looked up at him with cold eyes. He had never seen me mad, and it was time he did.
“What do you think it was for, you idiot?! Why do you think I came here for? Just to say, ‘Good job Lux on killing yourself! Now everybody will be happy!’ Wrong! We all care for you, no matter what you think, and I think you need to get that into that brain of yours.” I poked him on the forehead. “We’re all your friends, we all care for you, and we all want you alive! Why do you think Hoom sacrificed her own life just to save yours? She did because she loved you, you idiot! Why do you think Rosie and Gil came? Because they thought they could probably beat the crap out of you once you came back? Probably! But it doesn’t mean that they’re just there to sit around and comfort Hoom. We want to see your heart beating again, to see you laughing and threatening to be the crap out of Xio every day! Why do you think I’m here?” I cried with tears running down my face and Lux just stared at me stunned. Stunned that I just probably yelled at him and he never had a girl yell at him other than probably Lupe or Estelle.
“Look, Shupple, you don’t understand-”
“I don’t understand?” I started off. “I don’t understand.” I started to laugh. “Of course I understand! You weren’t the only kid picked on when you were little. You weren’t the only kid picked last in a game! I was there, along with you, me being the little Goth girl, ignored in the hallway by every person except for the bitch girls who loved to put dirt on my face and push me in the mud, making me look like a fool. You were the nerd, probably smart and had no friends, right?” Lux didn’t say anything but do a small nod. “Exact same concept, exact same deception given to you by every person probably around you, only putting into your mind that they were your friend but only used you for answers and cheat codes, right?” This time he didn’t answer and I hugged him. His body was cold with no warmth, which scared me.
“You’re not the only one alone, Lux. I’ve had too much death around me happen and too many broken hearts that lead into death or suicide. We care for you and I don’t know how else to describe that. We all love you Lux, no matter what idiotic or stupid thing you might do just to get attention. This isn’t one of them. This is your life you need to take into your hands!” I exclaimed as I grabbed his shirt and clung to it as my forehead went against his chest and I looked down at the ground and cried. He had to listen… Even if I could see what had happened earlier today through just touching him.
“What do you think Hoom will do once she knows you’re permanently dead? She’d probably kill herself, wanting to be with you so much, her own heart couldn’t take it. What would Estelle do, even if she didn’t understand why you killed yourself because she erased her own memories? She’d probably kill herself too, unsure of what to do with her life. We would all disappear and nobody would be friends anymore. You’re the heart and the life that keeps this group together, it striving and it joyous all the time. Who gives a shit about what Xio thinks? You could probably kick his ass any time of the day, especially with that last punch you gave him and he wasn’t expecting it because he kissed me! Lupe… well, hell, she would go off, depressed as ever.
“We don’t want to hold a funeral for you, Lux. We want to hold a party for you for when you come back to us, so that we can celebrate you being back and healthy and alive, with your heart pumping and everything, because we all love you, no matter what, just like your parents would love you, and Hoom would love you even more, knowing that you were alive. Do you have to be such an idiot to realize all of this?” I exclaimed at him and he was just quiet. He didn’t say anything and that’s when I realized I was looking really pathetic and my heart was beating so fast, I was so sure he could hear it.
The wind bustled and broke through my clothes and made them wave, even though I was just a ghost at the moment along with Lux, it could still move us. Tears strung down my face as rain would. I wished it was raining instead of it being sunny. I looked so pathetic, I couldn’t believe it. I shivered under the coldness of the icy breaking wind, but I stood my ground, hoping I would get through this.
Recently, I had been reciting a poem repeatedly in my head because it always contradicted itself, and I know Lux needed to hear it. It was by Robert Frost, and he looked down at me as I spoke.
“The living come with grassy tread
To read the gravestones on the hill;
The graveyard draws the living still,
But never anymore the dead.
The verses in it say and say:
"The ones who living come today
To read the stones and go away
Tomorrow dead will come to stay."
So sure of death the marbles rhyme,
Yet can't help marking all the time
How no one dead will seem to come.
What is it men are shrinking from?
It would be easy to be clever
And tell the stones: Men hate to die
And have stopped dying now forever.
I think they would believe the lie.”
Lux stared at me for a moment before trying to say something but wasn’t able to. Words finally formed in his mouth, they quiet and almost curious.
“What does that mean?” Lux said quietly and I looked up at him to see his sad and upset eyes, but just barely, I could see a hint of happy, but barely. I wasn’t even sure it was there. The sadness that bore into my own eyes reminded me of my own past. I was sure that was he was intending, to have me leave and not ever come back to talk to his soul and to let him die. That wasn’t my goal here.
“It contradicts itself in ways if you think about it. Who said the dead would be at the graveyards when somebody comes to see their grave, but they can’t see the person itself anymore? They go and go repeatedly to the grave, hoping to see the person they once loved, but they can’t, because it was murder, or suicide which was committed for them to die in such a way to never been seen again. The soul can rest there, hoping the words on their grave would disappear, that they could be rewritten and that people would see the soul, the person that resides but only in minds, but it can never change, because it represents the person itself in a whole,” I sniffled and Lux blinked in deep thought.
“It means when you die, you’re physical and mental mind aren’t here with us anymore. It’s gone, even though, in sorts, the poem does contradict itself. The words describe the person, but the person isn’t there to show them their personality, the joy they had in them when they were alive. You can’t see the person. You only see the memories imbedded in the mind. It’s sad, Lux.” I started to feel my soul tugging at me, starting to tear into pieces as much as I was staying away from my body.
“You need to live. Give us the joy of you being there. The smartass that’s always hiding whenever you’re upset, you always bring it out to make things joyful again even though you’re hurting inside. The caring side that’s always there whenever somebody needs it. Everybody around you in the mansion, we all care about you and your past, the troubles that you have, and whenever we try to get you to talk, you don’t say anything. We are your friends, Lux, no matter what you say, and we always love you. Come back. Please. For all of us,” I told him and out of my own courage, I gave him a kiss on the cheek and then left.
My soul drifted until it found my body again, and when I entered, my eyes shot open, they filled with tears and my heart pounding with my heart throbbing. The tears stung in my eyes as I tried to catch my breath but wasn’t able to. Black dots started to appear in front of my eyes and I tried to focus as I leaned against the mansion wall. I tried my best to focus my attention as I noticed people were already crowding around me, as if wanting an answer. What did Tanner say…?
“Shupple? What’s the deal with Lux?” Estelle asked softly and I swallowed, knowing I would pass out any second. I could see Rosie rushing over out of the corner of my eye. No doubt he was from the hospital just now... She would probably have more information than me...
“He’s fine and… alive.” Then the world spun before me and my eyes rolled to the back of my head and blackness encircled me.
Lux… come back to us…
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She is really deep when she wants to be.... O.O But glad I already had this done!! XD Hope this was alright with everybody and yay! Lux is back!!!! x3333 I also think this is the most Shupple has ever talked O.o XD And Shupple did pass out...
~Anime-chan
