You can read more about this AU and its characters on my Tumblr!
14. In Which Twig and Grovyle Have a Chat
by SincerelySofieGrovyle and Celebi stopped by for a visit, much to Twig’s dread and terror. She couldn’t see a socially acceptable reason to turn down Celebi’s inviting herself and Grovyle over, though, and therefore was trapped with an unwanted confrontation so soon after she had essentially flayed Grovyle alive with her words.
The atmosphere was thick with tension when she greeted the two out on the roadside with Darkrai in her wake. The Legends seemed gleefully oblivious to it, and eagerly paired off to chat in the house about interplanar tourism or something similar, leaving Twig and Grovyle alone together. The worst thing about the tension was that it wasn’t one of anger or betrayal. It was one of exhaustion; of sorrow and regret. Twig wanted to apologize, but she didn’t know how to do it without tearing at the wound she’d dealt to Grovyle.
Grovyle took a seat on one of the topmost beams of the fence running along the roadside at the backmost edge of Twig’s property. Twig sat herself down on a beam a ways off to his side.
Silence fell between them, heavy on their shoulders and weighing on their tongues. They both wanted to say something, but neither broke the thick quiet that divided them.
Twig found herself unable to withstand the silence. She forced herself to speak. “I have a question I’ve been wanting to ask you.”
“Alright.” Grovyle straightened his back, glancing at her from the corners of his eyes. “… That question being?”
“Was there ever a time I—” She swallowed down the words she wanted to say. “I-I mean, what kind of person was I like? Before I lost my memories.”
She didn’t have to look up at him to know the way he’d tensed up, the way he held his breath. Somehow that was more familiar to her than her own mind. She knew Grovyle better than she knew herself most days, and it was a comforting thing for the most part. If she didn’t understand who she was, at least she knew that Grovyle’s thoughts had all ground to a stuttering halt by the way the leaves along his arms shifted.
“I thought you didn’t want to know anything about who you were as a human,” he slowly ventured.
She didn’t respond.
Grovyle gave her a worried look, turning to face her now. “Twig, you’ve asked us to not mention anything about you from before you were a pokemon. You’ve been pretty vocal about how much you don’t want to hear about it. Why do you want to know all of a sudden? Did something change?”
“No, nothing’s changed, I just—” She paused, considered her next words carefully. “I want to know who I was before I was so— so like this. Before I was so angry, or nervous, or sad, or…” There was a lump in her throat that she struggled to swallow past. “I want to know if I wasn’t always this way. I need to know I wasn’t always this way. I have to know who I was before, because…” She trailed off, looking up.
Grovyle was watching her with the most heartbreaking expression she had ever seen him wear.
“You good, man?” She tried to lighten the mood with her casual tone. “What is it? Do I have something on my face?”
He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
“Grovyle, c’mon, you’re kind of freaking me out—”
“There was never a before,” he said, cutting her off. “Not one I was there for, at least. You were always a nervous person, you were always quick to anger, and…” He frowned. “I don’t know about you being sad, per se, but you were always good at hiding it.” He added in a bitter mutter, “At least once you had a good mentor in that…”
She had the feeling she wasn’t supposed to hear the last bit. She didn’t comment on it. “What do you mean? I thought you were surprised to find out that I was your partner when we met up again— more than just because I was a pokemon. You said you thought I was really different at first, before you got to know me better.”
“You were different then. But now you’re more like the Twig I knew before than you ever were as a charmander. As a human, you were… pensive. You were a people-pleaser, and you hated taking up space. You had a hard time asking for help. As a charmander, you were hotheaded and confident. But now, sometimes you say something and I’m shocked to see a pokemon standing there when I glance over.”
Grovyle leaned forward in his spot on the fence— how he managed to do so without losing his balance was beyond her. She supposed she still didn’t quite understand how to make good use of a tail. He seemed to wrestle within himself, struggling to find the words he wanted. “I didn’t… I didn’t know a human Twig who was as self-assured as you were as a charmander. I think that your amnesia did you a favor. You were far happier as a pokemon than you were in the Dark Future. I had seen people do terrible things to others, and I had witnessed events I don’t dare speak of— but I was more afraid of learning what caused you to be so… like you were, back then, than ever witnessing those things again.”
“Did I ever tell you why I was like that?”
Grovyle cast her a worried look. “Twig, really, why are you asking these questions now? Are you alright? Is something going on?”
“I just— I just wanted to know if—” The lump in her throat was even worse now. She stuttered a few more false-starts to her answer before it closed off her words entirely, and all she could let out was a small whine. Tears pricked at her eyes. She tried to wipe them away, but more sprang up to replace them. She managed to keep any more pitiful sounds from making their way out of her, but when Grovyle put a hand on her shoulder to pull her into a hug, she couldn’t help the way that she went stiff and fearful. He pulled away, immediately picking up on her slight shift in posture, and began trying to reassure her another way. Are you okay? He asked. Please tell me what’s going on. I’m worried. We all are.
Twig couldn’t answer his question. She wanted to. She desperately wanted to tell him that she wasn’t okay, that she needed help, that she couldn’t do this on her own— but her throat was still closed up, still stuck on the lump of the question that she actually wanted to ask him. She wanted to know if Grovyle was already aware of the memory she’d recovered. She wanted to know if she wouldn’t have to break the news to him and suffer through Dusknoir’s reaction again, only so much worse— worse because this was Grovyle. She wanted to know if he already knew where she’d come from and what she’d done. But he didn’t. And, she lamented inwardly, I can’t work up the courage to tell him what I remembered when he’s watching me with tears in his eyes.
Twig shook her head. “I’m fine,” she choked out.
It was a blatant lie. Grovyle saw right through it. Twig knew that, but she couldn’t summon the truth.
HEYA Shanna again. I know I sent some gushing on Tumblr but I TOLD YA THERE’D BE MORE TO COME so here it is <333
I'm going to start with a disclaimer that I've actually never played the PMD2 post-game! I hit the credits and called it done. I know of a bit of what happens through fandom osmosis but there's a lot missing. I appreciate your fic for filling in some of the gaps of what happened during the post, especially since it lays down the foundation for what Twig goes through.
Okay, checking back, this story takes place a full year or more after all the events of PMD2. The thing that sticks out to me is how much of this story takes place in a period of transition, everywhere. Azurill and Marill joining the guild. The Guildmaster training his replacement, Bidoof of all Poke'mon. Team Venture disbanding so Kip can join an Archeology Guild and be gone for years. Twig's memories coming back out of nowhere. Twig trying to live on her own in a different village.
And this is all after the biggest change: having to settle into a routine after constant battle, fighting for their life. The danger of having to save the world must have almost been comfortingly numbing and distracting — it's hard to have nightmares of your past life when you have an immediate nightmare right in front of you…but now that all is silent the silence gets filled with *something*, whether Twig likes it or not.
So the story really captures this feeling of having a settled, semi familiar routine (one that's kind of unwanted in the first place) already being uprooted. Team Venture were continuing work like a sloppy patchjob to the fact that it was just…over. The adventure was done. There's nothing left. The routine was less a routine and more putting off the inevitable wave of change until it all hits Twig at once. Now she's disoriented and left completely without any solid foundation to stand on.
And THAT…is the state of Twig's life when Darkrai shows up. With amnesia.
This is always an interesting dilemma — does Darkrai deserve to die now that he's essentially a totally different person due to amnesia? It makes you wonder what made him the way he used to be in the first place…when his first instinct as an amnesiac is to knit beautiful patterns and be emotionally warm and intelligent with Twig…even following her around like a lost puppy.
I think that's a major source of stress for Twig — not just that the master of all darkness is just chilling in her home but also the fact that she's kind of *forced* to forgive him. It's not in her nature to just enact catharsis willy-nilly — anyone else would just try to kill the guy for all the trauma they inflicted (Hell, Dusknoir and Grovyle were two steps from it). But Twig is almost convinced he *can* be redeemed…
…I wonder how much of herself she sees in Darkrai. She's convinced she used to be a horrible kid that deserved everything she got. Maybe if Darkrai is good at heart and can be better than who he was, maybe Twig hopes the same can apply to her. That way Dusknoir's words that she didn't deserve her Aunt's punishment can actually hold water.
So right now Twig is mostly playing babysitter with Darkrai. She's happy to get to know the local Gardevoir family and she can technically always visit the Future Trio…
…yet there's such a palpable feeling of deep loneliness without Kip. Getting letters from him, hearing of his adventures and new friends…trying to keep in touch but still feeling more and more distant. Unable to put to paper the feelings that are clawing at her. Seeing her WANT to write something but also not wanting to worry Kip while he's miles out and having fun. The love for him at her own expense is so gut-wrenching.
But there's also a feeling of loneliness from Grovyle too — you can tell HE used to be the old Kip. He used to be the one there for Twig, the only one allowed to hold her, her old emotional wall to lean on. Yet now he's having to watch Kip treat him with so much unfamiliarity…and he, himself, has to just live with his own new friends in Celebi and Dusknoir. But you can feel how much Grovyle wishes he still had that connection with Twig he must have used to have, how much it breaks his heart at how much Twig now keeps him at arms-length. How she goes to DUSKNOIR first before him.
So it's like Twig is both sides of the coin at once — friend separation she feels (Kip) and friend separation she DOESN'T feel (Grovyle), one of which that hurts her directly and the other that hurts someone else.
I think that's what's pulling me toward this story so friggin much — it's a whirlwind of complex emotional questions and puzzles and relationships and ethical questions all wrapped in a tight knit ball. And not only does it work but it does so in so few words! These chapters are so SHORT and CONCISE yet absolutely nothing feels half assed or phoned it — you get right into the meat of the story and every chapter tackles the heart of the issues one after another. I finished this story in, like, two or three days (extremely rare for me) all because it wastes no words and never bullshits around.
Honest to god, this story is such a fucking GOAT. I'm legit typing thing GIDDY for the next chapter. And to think — there's also an OCEAN of bonus comics on the tumblr?! Like, god — Genuinely might call my human Twig next time I play PMD EOS. She feels like the definitive PMD Protag to me at this point, lmao.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS STORY!!! <33
SHANNA OH MY WORD THERE’S SO MUCH HERE I DON’T KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN OTHER THAN BY UGLY CRYING.
You’ve touched on so many points that I worried wouldn’t be noticed or enjoyed by any readers I’d get! The upheaval of Twig’s life at the start of the story with so many things entering a state of change is something I tried hard to capture, Twig seeing herself in Darkrai is a big thing as the story goes on, and Grovyle being a parallel of Twig’s own separation from her best friend is a whole deal as well.
You are so sweet!!! I don’t know what to say!! This is going in my file of motivational quotes and pics, lemme tell ya. I’m so touched by your kind words, you don’t even know!! Twig becoming a definitive PMD Protag for you is an honor I can’t begin to describe. I’m just sitting here fumbling for how to communicate my gratitude for this comment while blubbering softly in an empty room, my goodness.
WAUGH there are no words for my emotions right now. Thank you again!!!!! ;w;