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Monday
It would be no hyperbole to say that Taylor Hebert felt just a little bitter about her state in the world. How could you not, after what she had experienced?
Indeed, to try to list out the full panoply of her recent indignities would be a waste of time. And thus we shall not dwell upon them, and instead make it all the more clear that Taylor wasn't exactly a happy camper.
She was out of the hospital and back at home.
Soon enough, she would be back at school, with virtually nothing different.
One could hope for a brighter future, but what was that old definition of insanity, something about doing the same thing but expecting different responses?
Yeah, that.
But for now, she had to stew.
Stew and wait for the same bullshit, hoping against hope with just a glimmer of hope that maaaaybe something would be different when she went back to school.
Hah!
Un-fucking-likely.
She felt so goddamn bitter about it all.
She really was in a bitter mood today.
Aggressively, she scrubbed the baking tray she had just finished using; she had been baking muffins to distract herself from all the shit going on in her life, but some batter had become stubbornly stuck and cooked on the metal.
Eventually (and with a few swear words) she finally managed to get the tray clean, and placed it on the draining board.
Finally done, she looked towards her efforts.
Twenty freshly made chocolate chip muffins.
... Wait a minute... one, two, three, four---
There were only nineteen present, with a small pile of crumbs in the left behind pleated cup that had contained muffin number twenty. But she was the only one in the house at the moment.... did she grab one to eat earlier and simply forget doing so?
Something moved in the corner of her eye, she looked up.
Reflected in the window was a thing.
It was dark, with a rounded body and big, expressive eyes. A billowing little skirt fluttered silently along its bottom. Around its mouth were several crumbs that looked suspiciously muffin-like.
Slowly, she looked over her shoulder---
“Shuppet!”
And then it ran its long, long tongue up her cheek.
Shuppet, the Puppet Pokémon! Shuppet is attracted by feelings of jealousy and vindictiveness. If someone develops strong feelings of vengeance, this Pokémon will appear in a swarm and line up beneath the eaves of that person's home.
The information came to her unbidden, a rush of understanding about the creatures' inerrant capabilities and capacities... wait a minute, she wasn't that vindictive that she should be attracting... whatever this thing was!
And why did it just lick her!
Was its saliva poisonous? Would it dissolve her in place!?
Taylor backed away, reaching up to wipe the spit from her face.
Her back hit the counter, and that was when she realised that she was trapped.
“S-Stay away!”
The creature... 'Shuppet', tilted its head (well, almost its entire body was its head, but still) and then glanced to the side. Her eyes followed its gaze to see that it was focusing on the muffins she had just made.
And then, it dived, flying down and eating one whole.
The sheer audacity!
“Hey! These are for my dads work!” she said, grabbing a wooden spoon and pointing it threateningly at the floating being.
Shuppet paused, having half-eaten the muffin, and then swallowed, focusing on her. Taylor stared back. Whatever the hell was going on here... this... thing, was clearly hungry.
There were so many questions to ask right now, like 'what is going on' and 'how did I get a fully narrated description of this thing when I touched it'... but first and foremost, she needed to make sure it didn't try to hurt her.
“Listen... if you want muffins, I'll make some more, alright?”
"Shuppet! Shup!"
Did... did it just say its name to agree?
And that was how, against all logic, she ended up preparing a second batch of muffins to feed the strange, orb shaped creature that apparently had been feeding off her negative emotions.
In truth, it was actually a rather sweet creature... if a bit of a prankster.
“It's not ready yet," she said as Shuppet floated down to examine the liquid, uncooked goo that would soon be sweet confections.
It promptly floated closer, ignoring her.
It was totally going to try to lick them, wasn't it?
Gently, she used the wooden spoon to nudge the creature away, putting a little momentum into it and sending Shuppet rolling through the air. A delighted cry filled the air... and now her new friend(?) immediately flew back into place for her to do it again.
Despite herself, Taylor smiled just a little at the goofiness of it all, even if the situation was so decidedly strange.
Shuppet decided to stick around.
Perhaps making it an entire trays worth of muffins to demolish had been a bad idea in that regard?
Tuesday
Beyond the fact she had a floating, ghostly puppet living in her house, life was normal.
Pffft.
Of course it wasn't.
Shuppet was a menace, but---
“... Shuppet?”
The ghostly creature seemed as confused as she was about the change to her bedroom desk that had occurred in the five minutes since she decided to go downstairs for a drink.
She had been sitting down to do some catch up homework from Winslow, and had been doing so with a lamp to illuminate the desk. But to try and create a bit more ambiance, she had lit a candle as well. You know, relaxing, calm? People love candles... except now said candle's flame was purple.
Taylor looked at Shuppet, and the ghostly creature somehow communicated a shrug despite lacking shoulders. It was a rather interesting thing to see.
“... Okay, purple candle suddenly.”
Said candle turned around to look at them, a small yellow eye blinkedas a large blob of molten wax slid down the side of its body. The purple flame burning atop its wick flared for a moment, the living candle looked their way warily.
Okay. So first a floating puppet, now a living candle.
“Hello there?” she tried.
Being friendly with Shuppet had worked, so why not the candle?
“Litwick?” it called out, perking.
“... Shuppet, can you grab me a muffin? And don't eat it!” Shuppet stuck its tongue out at her even as it began flying away... it would probably steal a muffin for itself, and then grab another to return with.
“So... Litwick?”
“Lit!”
Let's just take that as a yes.
The candle peered up at her, no matter the angle it turned, it had a strange ability to not spill molten wax on her table, which was a small relief. Taylor took a step forward.
“... I guess you'll want to stay here as well?”
It nodded.
Taylor reached up to rub at her eyes.
“Sure.”
“Litwick!” the candle swayed in place happily, Shuppet returned with a muffin. With the power of friendship and confectionary, Taylor gave her new squatter some food... and questioned exactly what was going on in her life.
Lickwick reached up to grab the muffin, a little, molten stump of an arm touched her fingers---
Litwick, the Candle Pokémon! Litwick shines a light that absorbs the life energy of people and Pokémon, which becomes the fuel that it burns.
... Taylor narrowed her eyes.
She didn't... feel any different with the 'Litwick' around? Certainly not as if her very life force was being stolen.
All of this did raise the question... was she a Parahuman? One who attracted strange creatures? Let see, an animated puppet thing and a living candle?
Her being a Parahuman was the only logical explanation, but at the same time, it was fundamentally illogical! Parahumans were supposed to shoot lasers or be super tough, not... not this!
“Shuppet!”
The creature landed on her head and swayed in place.
She'd think about it another time... for now, Taylor decided to focus on completing her homework.
If nothing else, Litwick provided a rather nice atmosphere for her work.
Wednesday
The next day, Taylor went for a jog.
Nothing odd could happen on a jog, right? A nice run through the city early in the morning, get some fresh air and ignore the fact that she had a sentient, ghostly puppet and a candle living in her house. Simple as that, no fuss, no muss.
This plan lasted for twenty minutes, enough time for her to really get into the groove when she noticed something ahead.
Beside the sidewalk was a rock.
It was strangely shaped, trapezoidal but with a large crack running down the centre.
A shiver ran down her spine because the rock was frankly so out of place that it had to have been put there intentionally.
She ran past it.
If she just ignored strange coincidences, then they couldn't trouble her, right? She had enough madness going on in her life without strange rocks joining it!
Her brilliant plan was foiled as she turned a corner to see the rock ahead of her.
She took a hard right to go down a different street and made it halfway before the rock was there, on the side of the path, again.
Doing a one-eighty, Taylor ran for her life.
Thunk THUNK THUNK!
She glanced over her shoulder.
The rock was chasing her.
...
...
...
The rock was fucking chasing her!
Taylor ran faster, the seemingly animate piece of stone hopped along at a speed frankly incredible for a lump of mineral. How was nobody seeing this! Surely somebody would come along to stop this, goddammit!
Alas, no.
Taylor and her mineral pursuer continued this game of chase for three streets before she tripped over her own feet, falling onto the pavement.
And then the stone was beside her, and then---
A cloud of purple gas or energy surged out of the crack in the stone, within its centre a pair of green eyes and a mouth that loomed, mere inches away from her face as it made some manner of strange cry;
“ZZAANNNNNG!”
Taylor screamed.
It screamed.
They all screamed.
And that was how Taylor ended up adopting a rock with a ghost inside.
Spiritomb, the Forbidden Pokémon! A Pokémon that was formed by 108 spirits. It is bound to a fissure in an old keystone as punishment for misdeeds 500 years ago.
Thursday
After the events of the previous days, Taylor woke up expecting bullshit on Thursday.
Within moments of opening her eyes, Shuppet was zooming around the air of her bedroom and looking at her expectantly, evidently desiring its breakfast. The puppet had become spoiled, and now that it had friends to play with, it was only getting worse!
Her father had gone to work early, which was probably for the best, and Taylor made her way downstairs with her trio of ghostly goobers following in her wake... well, she carried Spiritomb's rock to save the floorboards, but still.
“... So what's it gonna be today?” she asked in a deadpan as she set about making breakfast.
Shuppet tilted its head.
Litwick tilted its head and its light dimmed.
Spiritomb leered and ate another muffin, the confection broke apart within its ghostly mass... somehow.
... The language barrier was real here.
Well, if nothing else, Taylor could fill her morning with replacing the food supply to keep this terrible trio happy. Even if she had to defend her newly made treats from her trio of... friends? Squatters?
She wasn't even sure exactly what to classify them as at this point.
That done, she made her way into the sitting room.
It was only nine, so might as well catch the news---
The TV was already on.
It hadn't been earlier... and even as she watched, it dissolved into static, as if responding to her attention.
“Haunted television. Really?” she asked in a deadpan.
The TV remained in static.
“... Can you switch it to the news?” she asked blandly.
No response.
Shuppet flew over and booped the TV---
It returned to normal... because whatever was haunting it jumped out of the screen! It was, as far as Taylor could see, a small orange blob with a face. A lot of her new 'friends' seemed to be blobs of some variety, although this one had little wings or limbs made from pure static electricity.
The creatures buzzed and darted around in place for a few seconds, then dived off, racing past Taylor, who made a somewhat undignified yelp, and plunged into the microwave.
Said microwave began aggressively overcooking the food inside it, and instead of a number counting down, the timer had a smiley face on it.
“Get outta there!” she said, giving the microwave a slap.
Rotom, the Plasma Pokémon! Its body is composed of plasma. It is known to infiltrate electronic devices and wreak havoc.
And that was how she met Rotom.
Friday
Friday's Pokémon turned up in a way that gave her a mild heart attack, but turned out to be one of the easiest to deal with.
She had expected to wake up fully expecting another day of madness, another day of desperately trying to hide her new friends come squatters from her dad. Instead, she woke up to find that an old hand-puppet her mother made for her at a crafts fair was leaning over her, empty button eyes staring straight down at her.
She wasn't proud to say that her breath had hitched in her throat, eyes wide open and refusing to blink as she maintained eye contact with the head of the puppet.
It had swayed back and fore a few times before---
Bomph.
Shuppet came to her rescue by flying into the head of the puppet, knocking if over.
“Shuppet!”
“Zaaaaaang!”
“Lit?”
“Zzzzzzzt!?”
And like that, her various... well, ghosts were orbiting her, looking down at the newcomer as it righted itself back up and Taylor pushed herself into a seated position.
“Shishishi...” a strange, hissing whisper filled the air... looking closer, the head portion of the puppet was swaying back and forth a little pathetically, but there was a pair of tiny holes that had been cut into the wrist and forearm part. From these two spaces, a pair of small eyes stared up at her, somehow conveying a sort of... loneliness?
“... Well, hello there,” she greeted, already aware of the drill at this point. She would have liked more sleep, but she supposed this was just the nature of her life now, dealing with haunted objects and muffin-hungry ghosts. “So... what's your name?”
“Kyu!” it perked up, head straightening.
She reached out and patted it---
Mimikyu, the Disguise Pokémon! A lonely Pokémon, it conceals its terrifying appearance beneath an old rag so it can get closer to people and other Pokémon. If its neck is broken or its rag torn during an attack, it works through the night to patch it.
... Alrighty then.
Well, that was incredibly depressing in many ways. Taylor paused in her patting for a moment, then resumed it with greater vigour. After months of being alone, perhaps she understood it just a little. Although, rather than seeking out others for companionship and pretending to be something else, she had tried to blend into the background.
“Alright... I guess you want me to make breakfast now?”
“Shuppet!” Shuppet perked up.
But Mimikyu simply scooted up the bed, until, it was right up against her chest, at which point it snuggled in close.
Okay then.
Hungry floating puppet, earnest living candle, whatever the fuck the soul hive mind was, the mischievous electric ghost and now a clingy hand-puppet that may contain an eldritch abomination.
Sunday
In the Hebert garden, small as it was, there had once been a cherry tree.
Said tree had lived too long for an orchard plant, grown sickly and eventually been heavily cut back, what was left a pale imitation of what it had once been. Taylor still remembered what it had looked like, when she was young. Later in the year, its branches would be so laden with fruit that it would sag dangerously, but she and her mother would harvest the cherries and delight in eating them.
Even if they only lasted for a few days.
She missed those times.
However, with the new situation in her life, she didn't really have much time to dwell upon the half-dead stumps of cherry trees, so busy was she with trying to placate her rapidly growing squadron of ghosts.
“Rotom, can you cook this? And Shuppet, can you check the postbox? Spiritomb---Spiritomb, stop trying to eat the fruit bowl!”
Mimikyu had decided to balance atop her head, clinging on with limbs she could not see but was sure ended in claws.
She was so distracted that when she next turned around to glance into the garden, she was faintly surprised, and horrified, to see what was happening.
The stump of the cherry tree was uprooting itself, the two gnarled branches it had left had twisted and changed into wicked looking arms. A solitary red eye blared through a crack near the top. Said eye was fixed, unblinkingly, upon her as the possessed tree stump began marching upon the backdoor, like some sort of horror movie themed around angry trees!
The ghostly tree had been about to swipe at the back door when she opened it.
“Treeeeev.”
It was deep... the creature was certainly a lot more intimidating than some of the others. Even Spiritomb was less scary, and it was a hivemind of over a hundred souls or something like that!
“... Heeeeeey?” she tried, voice a little small.
“... Trevenant.”
That solitary eye bored into her, unblinking, unceasing. There was a palpable air of malice about the thing, or perhaps it was the fact that the gnarled, weathered look of the wood was so much more realistic and threatening than her other ghost friends?
“Ehem, nice to meet you... you want to come in?” she weakly offered, opening the door further and gesturing. All the others just wanted to live here... so it was probably the same with this one?
It entered, trailing dirt as it did so.
She would have to do so much cleaning up later...
Still---
Trevenant, the Elder Tree Pokémon. Using its roots as a nervous system, it controls the trees in the forest. It's kind to the Pokémon that reside in its body.
On the seventh day, and with her increasingly complicated number of ghosts, Taylor waited anxiously for whatever was going to happen. What sort of creature, of 'pokemon' would it be today? What random appliance or thing in her house would suddenly come to life and adopt her?
Well, all morning nothing happened.
Shuppet got their breakfast muffin and then zoomed around the house before experiencing a sugar crash.
Litwick delighted in providing light for her to read a book, one of her mother's favourites.
Spiritomb... was somewhere doing something?
Rotom was possessing the house phone, playing ringtone jingles at the other Pokémon.
Mimikyu had been glued to her side, demanding attention.
Trevenant gave her a berry as a gift at breakfast, one that apparently had grown on its branches... that Pokémon was actually something of a sweetie and the 'Sitrus' berry was really delicious.
Just a few more days and she would be going back to school...
Shuppet followed behind its trainer idly, utterly invisible to the naked eye and curious as to what was going on.
Its trainer had left them all behind when she went out with a rucksack, saying something about going 'back to school...'
But it wasn't a command not to come, right? None of the others could turn invisible like it could, so it made sense it would follow! It floated along, just behind her, as she got onto the bus, surrounded by other children. She was all withdrawn again, the creature tilted its bulbous head as it observed the way that she clutched her bag close, all manner of emotions on her face.
Shuppet had no idea what was going on.
It was simply a humble ghost that liked to feed off resentment and other such negative feelings, and right now, its trainer was producing all sorts of wavelengths! Idly, it sapped away at the energy they produced, and wondered exactly why its trainer was sad. The minutiae and details of the matter were unimportant, what did matter was fixing them.
When the bus arrived, it followed its trainer into the large building and sat through classes.
As one class ended and its trainer was hurrying through the halls, Shuppet noticed something...
There was another girl.
Smaller and blonde, hurrying to follow them. The other girl was holding a juice box, and was clearly about to drop something over its trainer... a liquid... A poison attack perhaps!?
That would not do!
Shuppet used Disable!
The girl froze in place, her eyes momentarily widened as she stumbled.
Shuppet's trainer also paused a moment, before hurrying on.
Of course, the disable only lasted for a few moments, but that was enough to buy its trainer the time they needed to get away! Just to really send a message, Shuppet moved to the blonde girls' side, opened its mouth---
Shuppet used Astonish!
---And dragged its long tongue up her face, still invisible, earning a yelp of surprise. The girl flinched and stumbled, falling to the floor and casting the open juice box all over herself.
It was helping!
However, that was not the end of it.
Another girl, trying to take its trainer's piece of paper that she had given to her teacher, the 'homework' as it were. The girl, a redhead, was very sneaky about it, and stealing was bad (unless it was a muffin), so it was only right---
Shuppet used Trick!
The red-headed girl made it back to her desk and ripped apart the pieces of paper she was holding, only to realise that it was her own work. Meanwhile, the trainers' homework sat on in the middle of the pile on the teachers' desk, unmolested.
These girls were mean, it would have to follow its trainer to school every day to keep her safe at this rate!
Mission set and determined to help (and earn more muffins for its handwork!) Shuppet floated at its trainer's side for the rest of the day.
Taylor ran into trouble one day.
Specifically, Cape trouble. Alabaster and Cricket, a pair of Parahumans
Because of course she did.
The conventional logic for this situation was to get the fuck away from everything going on, preferably with all your limbs intact. And so she did, because even if she might be a Parahuman, and had strangely ghostly friends with all sorts of powers, she was still a very squishy human being, thank you very much!
She made it a small distance before she noticed something odd.
The TV's in a nearby store were glitching... and then Rotom's face appeared on them.
The small orange spirit with its goofy little smile watched as she ran by, its mouth formed a little 'o' shape as she did so.
But now was not the time, she needed to get away from this madness!
“No witnesses, Cricket!”
Oh, come on!
The woman was fast, and was swinging at her. Rotom burst out of the TV, floating along beside Taylor, glancing between herself and Cricket with confusion... then it began flying ahead of her!
Did it think this was a damned game!
“Come back here---”
“Rotom, errr, use Thunder Wave or something!”
It didn't sound very imposing---
There was a crashing sound as, behind her, Cricket fell face first against the floor, twitching in place as sparks of static electricity ran over her body... wasn't prolonged electrical shock a quick way to die, what with the heart being paralysed?
Cricket is Paralysed! She cannot move!
Well, obviously!
Down the street, Alabaster took one look at the downed form of his comrade, and then began reaching for something... a gun or a knife!?
Taylor dived away, cowering behind a dumpster... but Rotom was still out in the middle of the street... and currently eying a nearby wood chipper left unoccupied by some city workers who had run away when the violence began. As the first gunshot filled the air, Rotom darted to the side... and then began possessing the aforementioned machine.
Oh, fuck her life.
The next minute or so was a horror show, as Alabaster's attempts to take potshots at herself and Rotom were swiftly put to an end by the charging of the living wood chipper.
Alasbaster's shouts would haunt her to her dying day as the man was slowly drawn into the wood chipper, only to then restore himself and continue being dragged in, inch by inch. Each restoration would gum up the machine for a second, in which he would struggle, and then it would resume. From the other end of the machine came a continuous spray of blood, gristle and bone as the man was finely blended and sprayed over the street like something out of a slasher fic.
Taylor could only watch it all with muted horror, she thought she was about to hurl---
Cricket is Paralysed! She cannot move!
Said cape was still twitching on the floor... and currently being absolutely covered in her companion in crime's viscera... wait, she was face down, would she drown in it?
“Rotom.... ROTOM!”
The wood chipper paused, there was an inquisitive buzzing sound... and now that the engine was turned off, she could hear the distant sound of sirens.
“Let's go!” she shouted, and a moment later Rotom had departed the machine as Taylor bravely ran away from the consequences of her Pokémon's actions.
That night, the Brockton Bay Herald had a front page image of Alabaster, still stuck in the wood chipper as the PRT detained him and Cricket.
Dinah Alcot ran for her life, people hot on her heels.
There was shouting, there were barked orders to close off her routes of escape. There were all sorts of things going on, but all with a solitary intention; pinning her down and dragging her away.
Ahead of her was a break in the path, a t-junction of sorts.
Left, 2.353% chance of being safe.
Right, 35% chance of being safe.
She ran to the right; behind her one of her pursuers crashed into a trash bin as they tried to round the corner, buying her a few more seconds. On a straight and narrow they could catch up and outpace her.
The net had been only growing more and more closed around her with time over the last few days, the numbers steadily creeping down.
Left, 52% chance of safety.
Right, 98% chance of safety.
Ninety-eight? She'd take that!
The path ahead was a dead end.
Her power had lied to her. The imposing wall ahead of her was far too tall for her to possibly climb, and the only thing in the dead end was a rusted dumpster with a puppet on it, a strange little thing that looked to have been handmade. The puppet was quite large, and it was atop it in an odd way, as if it had just been placed there and left for no greater purpose.
But contemplating the nature of the toy was the last thing on her mind, instead she whirled around, swallowing thickly---
The men were there, huffing and puffing, but with an undeniable look of victory, of success, now that they had her cornered.
Dinah backed away, stepping back as they advanced, until her back hit the wall.
She looked to the side, the chances of her managing to slip past them----
1.012% chance of success.
Even as her power told her the hopelessness of it all, behind the men the puppet moved. Its head turned around, blank, soulless button eyes stared at her pursuers, and then at her.
It was alive.
99% chance of safety if the puppet helps.
“Help! Please!” she shouted at it. One or two of the advancing group glanced behind them sharply, only to see nothing there but the puppet. They shrugged it off; there was nobody there after all.
A hand was reaching forwards towards her, muscular, easily strong enough to drag her---
The puppet did not move... but something happened. Its shadow lengthened, surging forwards and smashing into the back of one of the men, catching him off guard and sending him stumbling into the one reaching for her.
And from there, things fell into chaos.
Her pursuers were so busy trying to find out what was attacking them that it was as if she had been forgotten; within fifteen seconds, the group was an unconscious heap on the floor.
The puppet's head turned to look her way.
She swallowed thickly.
Okay... so she was safe from her pursuers... but now she had a strange, animated puppet that had shadow powers to contend with. Okay... manners and all that.
“Um... thank you, Mr. puppet.”
“Kyuuuu.”
There was a momentary pause, and then---
The puppet hopped into the air, launching itself at her.
She yelped as the puppet landed in her arms and peered up at her... oh, wait, there was something inside it? Yeah, so it seemed. A pair of beady black eyes peered up at her from gaps in the cloth.
A shadow extended from it, pointing out of the alleyway and then to the side.
“You want me to follow?” she asked, tentatively.
93.239% chance it means you no harm and is leading you to safety.
Well... she couldn't complain about that. Glancing at the thugs on the floor behind her, Dinah got in a good kick to the nuts of the leader, feeling a thrum of vindictive satisfaction as she did so, before she continued on her way.
Half an hour later, the puppet had brought her to a rather normal suburban house, and to meet the person who lived in it. The door opened to reveal an older girl, tall and wearing glasses. She looked over Dinah, and then her eyes settled on the puppet.
“... What trouble have you caused, Mimikyu?” the girl asked with a sigh.
“Kyuuu?”
The girl stared with a deadpan expression.
“You cannot adopt her, Mimikyu!”
“Kyu!”
The girl pinched the bridge of her nose, and then opened the door further.
“Come in, I think Mimikyu wants to keep you safe from something... and it likes you, I think. Tell me about whatever's going on.”
Later, her family would find Dinah enjoying a cup of tea with Taylor, and having met the girl's other 'friends' (even if they all hid away the moment other people turned up).
One of them, Shuppet, kept trying to steal her muffin, and 'Spiritomb' liked when she gave it some of her tea.
When she left, it was with her new friend, Mimikyu, clutched close to her chest.
She felt much safer now, it had to be said.