Featured in post: Tanner, Estelle, Fresia, Shola, Ivy, Snow and mention of Shupple, Tanner’s parents, and Shift
Time: When Tanner arrives with Estelle at the festival
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Tanner
As we walked towards the festival, I could feel the darkness and hatred in the air coming from one direction. I knew who those people were. I just didn’t need to get involved with them just yet. For a while, I felt a pair of eyes on me and when I turned, I noticed it was Estelle looking up at me and she quickly looked away, her face completely flushed from embarrassment and I chuckled. She was cute…
"Gomen nasai... I was just... Um... Oh look at that!" Estelle exclaimed as she pointed to the festival and we all saw humans cosplaying as the Lake Trio. I couldn’t help but smile. I hadn’t had this much fun in a long time… For at least 14 years…
"We'll we're here,” I exclaimed and Estelle spotted something off in the distance and grabbed my arm immediately.
"Ooh! Ooh! Tanner-san! There! Cotton candy!!" She ran over to it while I keeping attached to her hand and once we got over to the stand, noticing it was Mesprit cotton candy, I brought out my wallet and noticed Estelle was just jumping up and down for the sweet, which I couldn’t help but laugh at, and got her a stick of cotton candy and Estelle just started to eat it as she opened it up and started to rip it apart. That’s when I noticed we lost Shola in the mess of everybody but Fresia was still with us and she tapped me on the arm. I turned towards her and she smiled a little but her cheeks were bright pink.
"Tanner..." Fresia said softly as she gently touched my arm. "I... I am performing a dance tonight. I would love for you to be there,” Fresia asked me and I smiled. It sounded like fun to see her dance. I don’t actually get to see a lot of people dance nowadays. I guess there wouldn’t be any harm to that, right?
“Sure, Fresia,” I told her with a smile and she just smiled and walked off towards a different direction, I think towards a stage, and I walked off with Estelle into the crowd for a while.
I looked around with Estelle and we started to blend in with everybody else, until Estelle asked me something.
“Um… Tanner-san? Why are you so nice to everybody?” Estelle’s face was flushed as she looked up at me and I blinked. Why was I so nice to everybody? I guess I just always figured it was how to act… since of being captured for 14 years… but I wasn’t yet about to tell Estelle that yet…
“I guess it’s just the way I am. My mother always told me that a way to get through to a person is show them kindness, even if they are upset or mad at you or at somebody else.” It was the last thing she told me, anyways. Estelle smiled.
“That’s a wonderful thing to say, Tanner-san! I would love to meet your mother one day.” Oh shit. I just chuckled nervously.
“She’s um… dead along with my father. I don’t know how they died,” I lied, because I did know how they died. Nobody deserved to know that information about me. It’s disgusting. It was the same for tattoo on my right arm and my scars all over my chest… I’m just glad none of the girls really noticed them.
“Oh… I’m so sorry, Tanner-san. I shouldn’t have asked such a thing,” Estelle’s ears dropped and she shook her head in disapproval of herself and I stopped her in her tracks and put a hand on her shoulder and looked at Estelle in the eye.
“It’s completely fine, Estelle. They died years ago. It’s really okay. They didn’t die in vain,” I told her with a small smile and sad eyes and Estelle looked at me with sad eyes and just nodded and took a small bite of her cotton candy. That’s when I put on a big grin.
“Now how about I win you something?” I asked her as I straightened myself up and put my hands on my hips and she looked at me with confused eyes and her ears perked up a little.
“Like what?” Estelle titled her head and I kept my big grin.
“Whatever you like!” I told her as I took her hand and we started to walk around the booths and Estelle stopped at one and I noticed that it was one where you throw a ball at bottles and if the bottles knock over, you win a prize, and the prizes looked like stuffed animals of Pokémon. I noticed one up there that was a Tangrowth and one an Espeon and the other Eevee evolutions. Interesting combinations…
“Come one, come all! Win a prize for your date!” The man behind the counter exclaimed, he being a Delibird Gijinka. He noticed me and turned. “You, sir! Would you like to try to win something?” I nodded and he handed me three balls after I paid him and before I threw one, he looked me and winked. “No using your hair either,” he told me and I chuckled. How could he have guessed I was going to use my hair the next time? Then again, Tangrowths. What do you expect from us, with us hanging from trees with our hair?
“Alright,” I chuckled and Estelle tapped me on the hand before I threw a ball.
“Tanner-san, I saw a food booth down the way serving ramen. Would you like me to go and get some?” Estelle asked me with a smile and I smiled and nodded.
“Sure, Estelle,” I told her and she hurried off as I concentrated and threw one ball and missed.
Want me to help? You’ll be in control too, Tan-Tan. No harm at all…
“Might as well,” I mumbled under my breath and I could feel him slightly taking over, one of my eyes changing color to black, it being my left, so I covered my bangs over that eye and picked up the second ball and I could feel the concentration of it, the strength in the hand, and so I threw the ball and knocked all of the pins over.
“You were always able to get a straight shot at anything, no matter what it entirely was.” I froze. “I remember a time where you threw a baseball straight into a Team Rocket member’s head and he was killed instantly. Wasn’t that just practice that day about four years ago?” I clenched my fist as I chose the Tangrowth stuffed animal and I turned to Ivy, his green hair flowing down to his shoulders and his red and black eyes staring at me in his usual Rocket gear. Snow was right beside me, his white hair showing off with his dark pink eyes glaring at me with his normal Rocket gear on. I haven’t seen them in a few months.
“Well, that’s because I was aiming at your head, Ivy,” I said flatly as the Delibird gave it to me in a bag and I carried over my shoulder and moved to another part of the festival that was empty and near a light pole and Ivy and Snow followed. They always did anyways.
“Oh really? That’s not what you said when I asked you who you were really aiming for, Tanner,” Ivy said with a smirk and I rolled my eyes.
“That’s because I always had to lie in the cages,” I sighed and Snow just smiled.
“We’re not taking you back, by the way. After that little incident you made with the explosion, let’s just say we don’t want you anymore in the labs,” Snow said simply and I rolled my eyes. I didn’t even remember that.
“Talked to Shupple yet?” I asked them quietly and their faces grew quiet and solemn.
“That’s not our problem tonight. That’s Shift’s. He has his own plans.”
“Of madness?” I asked simply and they just sighed.
“To what is madness really, when everybody has some within, though for you Tanner, it grew exponentially in yourself,” Snow smirked and I rolled my eyes. “I hardly doubt though, it’s actually a mechanism. Felt sorry for your parents though, how they died-” My fingers immediately clutched his throat and he started to choke and I held Ivy back by my hair wrapping around his chest. I moved up to Snow and went right beside his head as he continued to choke.
“You will shut your mouth, Snow. Everybody knew that was an accident so you shut the hell up or I’ll make sure you do like I did a few years back,” I hissed in his ear then threw his head down onto the concrete and heard a snap. Broken nose.
“You people are not my problem anymore,” I hissed as I walked off, let go of Ivy and went off towards the ramen shop Estelle was waiting in, her two tails swinging on the concrete. I had to get my mind off of those two… I would deal with them later…
I slid behind the curtains and found Estelle waiting for me and I put on a calm smile, since I was relaxing now, and sat beside her and she pushed me a bowl of ramen towards me.
“I hope I got the right one, Tanner-san,” Estelle told me and I brought the prize from behind my back, which was still being in my right hand like earlier, and gave it to Estelle.
“I hope I got the right one, Estelle,” I told her and her eyes widened and she took it carefully in hand and hugged it and smiled.
“Thank you so much, Tanner-san!” Estelle told me with a smile and I just nodded and took a few bites of the ramen and god, was it good!
“And thank you, Estelle,” I told her and she smiled and we both ate our ramen and once we finished, we started to wonder around again.
“Was those some of your friends, Tanner-san? The Ivysaur and the Abomasnow?” Estelle asked me and I shrugged. I was surprised she noticed that I was with them.
“Sort of. Just old friends I used to know. More like acquaintances really,” I told her with a small smile and we just continued on into the festival. I wondered where Shupple was…? I had to be there for my little sister… no matter what happened to her.
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So Tanner's half in control and so is his other side and Ivy and Snow are already at the festival. I hope getting Estelle that present was okay, Naomi-chan :D And this is my last post for Tanner until the big move, I think, or can we still continue? I'm confused ^-^;;;
~Anime-chan
