#cherrypit wants to be all grown up one day

[hqmillioncorn]

FFxivWrite: Day nine.......Yawn!

‘Hope bloomed from the abyss.’

cherrypit had been two years old for a very very long time. but sometimes you just get used to how things are for a while  then you dont get used to it 

Cherrypit knew he was different from the other kids.

It was a little odd to have never come across any other children risking life and limb to save Eorzea or at least none of the ones he and Babycorn had ever run into had ever been as young as him. 

Most kids he and his sister ran into tended to hang around in one place and when Cherrypit asked a group of them in Ala Mhigo if any of them also had an imaginary best friend that taught them how to harness the power of darkness within them most of them looked at him like his head had fallen off.

(don’t ask how he knows what that look looks like)

In Cherrypit’s experience it always ended up the same way.

He would meet some new kids (most of the time they would be a few years older than him Sometimes they would be much older than him) They would talk about how cool it was that Babycorn was the Warrior of Light and how cool it must be to travel around with her.

“My friend told me the Warrior of Light is super strong!”

“Did she really fight a whoooole dragon?!”

“That’s nothing!I heard that the Warrior of Light is strong enough to fight a hundred dragons by herself!”

“Bebe has done all that and more!!!!” Cherrypit answered in his own way. Sometimes it would be hard to decipher what his excited baby babble was really saying, in these sorts of situations only Babycorn and those really close to him would be able to understand him.

In the situations other kids understood what Cherrypit was trying to get across they would ask him what cool things he saw traveling with Babycorn. The story Cherrypit always told was the one about how he and Babycorn once had to go through a jungle once and fight a bunch of monsters. And also eat cheese!

Then he would tell everyone about the time Babycorn let him break a really big rock.

He would then proceed to demonstrate how he broke said really big rock.

Since really big rocks weren’t too easy to find, Cherrypit always settled for cracking the ground beneath them. “Ta-da!” Then Cherrypit would turn around, his arms in the shape of claws and his face twisted and distorted in all sorts of different directions.

Cherrypit had come to expect that most people ran away screaming after that.

Sometimes he would get lucky. There were a handful of children that were fascinated by Cherrypit’s terrifying feats, though those were few and far between and Cherrypit would almost never see them again after that since he and Babycorn were quickly whisked someplace else.

Cherrypit was too caught up in making his own fun to let something like that bother him.

However, after their adventures in the First were done and everyone was finally back home, he and Babycorn decided to wander Eorzea for a hot minute just to see how things had been holding up in everyone’s absence. That’s when Cherrypit noticed something. All the kids he’d talked to in the past were growing up. Some of them had even gotten a lot taller now.

Almost all of them immediately recognized Cherrypit. It wasn’t too surprising, he had hardly changed at all over the years. Cherrypit overheard some people say this to Babycorn, her only response was to laugh nervously before she got all quiet.

Cherrypit still wanted to play with the kids who were older now. He tried to make his arms and legs bigger so he would be taller. He couldn’t maintain a stable shape to them and they ended up scaring them off.

“Where are you going?” Most of Cherrypit’s full sentences by now were just echoes of other things people have said around him. By now though, he was used to saying this particular string of words, in that order.

Most of the time Cherrypit was too busy having fun and running around to worry about things like that. His life didn’t feel any different than it would have if he was older and he liked to be small enough to crawl into places. Then he could pop out and scare people with a big loud BOO!

It also helped that he had friends at home too!

All the stuffed dolls and toys he had were his friends! Babycorn had taught him to treat his toys nicely and they would be nice to him back. It was a harmless lesson Babycorn told him so he wouldn’t be too rough with his toys and break them. She never would have imagined that Cherrypit had some sort of special way with dolls that made it seem they were alive.

Though, according to Cherrypit they were alive. Nobody had ever asked his toys before him.

Cherrypit was also friends with the other kids at home. They didn’t find him weird or scary at all! Not Colala, not Gyosei, and not Linnet! They were all his friends! Linnet was even a big fan of the tricks he could pull off and was always amazed at how he pulled them off.

Colala was the most like Cherrypit, though he wouldn’t catch on until years from now. For now she was a really good friend that with both of their heights combined-could reach even the tallest shelf! And though Cherrypit had to be reminded multiple times not to chase Gyosei too much, he enjoyed waddling behind her.

Cherrypit didn’t really mind that he was stuck like this, at least, not all the time.

There was one day when Cherrypit had overheard that Lunya was going to invite her own little brother, Taro, over for lunch that afternoon. Cherrypit ran around on the ceiling in excitement all morning and when the afternoon finally came he waited outside in the bushes with Babycorn to say hello to Taro.

They’d already met beforehand and Cherrypit thought that Taro was the coolest guy he’d ever met since he saw Estinien do that cool backflip once.

“Where? Where?” Cherrypit zipped his head from left to right looking for any signs of him.

Babycorn held her brother slightly above the ground as his feet wiggled in the air. “I know you’re excited to see him Cherry, but why don’t we let Taro and Lunya have their lunch before you go and say hi to him?” She knew as much as anyone did that sibling hang-out time was not to be interrupted.

“Okaaaayyyy” Cherrypit whined.

Babycorn and Cherrypit waved to Lunya as she walked past them to go say hi to Taro. Cherrypit noticed she was wearing a pink sundress and he tugged on Babycorn’s skirt to ask her if he could have one like it too. Babycorn nodded and smiled, promising to get one for him later.

As she carried him back into the house, Cherrypit looked behind her to see that Lunya and Taro were standing next to each other, talking with one another. 

Cherrypit had never really noticed it before because Taro had never stood next to Lunya in all the times he’d played with him but now that they were next to each other. It was easy to see that Taro was much taller than Lunya was.

That didn’t make sense. If Taro was Lunya’s little brother, how could he be bigger than her?

Taro was talking to Lunya, and Lunya was talking to Taro. Lunya didn’t need to pick him up to talk to him. It looked like they were having a lot of fun.

If things had been different, would he had been tall too?

Maybe he and Babycorn would still be adventuring together? If he was taller he would have been able to walk beside her everywhere. They wouldn’t have had to hide everywhere. No one would run away from him when he walked up to them. He would have so many friends.

Cherrypit didn’t realize it at the time but he had somehow tapped into something he was never meant to see.

There was white everywhere he turned to look, except for the dark chasm near his feet. Cherrypit tried to look to see what was on the other side of the cliff. 

There, clear as day, was his family. They were laughing and talking with each other. His mama and papa looked just like he remembered them but Babycorn looked like what she looked like just a few moments ago. Next to her was someone Cherrypit didn’t recognize but he knew who it was.

It was him. An older him.

They all looked like they were having so much fun…

Cherrypit didn’t stay there looking for long. It took a few seconds for him to blink back to his reality. Babycorn was still carrying him. “I hope Lunya saves some leftovers for us! I saw her making these cute little cakes and they looked so yummmyy!” Cherrypit had seen her decorating them too! They had strawberries on top!

“Bebe?” Cherrypit tapped on his sister’s head to get her attention.

“Hmm?” When Cherrypit made a motion to put him on the ground she gently set him down, “What’s up? Oh! Do you want a snack?” It was almost snack time.

Cherrypit shook his head and put his hand above his head as much as he could. When he felt that wasn’t enough he stretched out his arm and let his other appendages come out too. Babycorn would have to reapply his bandages but they had a lot of those now, unlike before.

“Am I big one day?” Cherrypit asked.

“Of course!” Babycorn didn’t miss a beat, nothing had changed her mind that one day Cherrypit would be able to grow up and do whatever he wanted to do with his life when he grew up. “You’re gonna get soooo tall Cherry! I know you will! Maybe you’ll even be taller than me!”

‘I’ll cry if that happens…But if it's what Cherry wants…’

“Tall! Tall! Big! I;m gonna be…big!” Cherrypit jumped up and down and waved his arms in the air. If Babycorn told him he was gonna be big one day, then of course he was gonna be! One day! Maybe even tomorrow! “Yay! Yay! Yaaaaaay!” he cheered.

��Woahwoahwoahwoahwoaowa! Cherry w-wait! N-Not with your arms like that! Noooo not the ceiling!!!” Babycorn zipped to the left to dodge a piece of the ceiling falling on her. 

It went right through the floor and into the basement. She looked down at the hole that now lead downstairs. “...I hope Coco won’t fall into this hole too…”

[hqmillioncorn]

FFxivWrite: Day fifteen.......Row!

‘Scatter, sway, now flutter, go, rise up to the challenge!’

on the eve before theyre set off to go to old sharlayan cherrypit needs to go and have an important discussion with his toys 

theres only so much room in his and babycorns luggage........

With a stuffed perifool in hand Cherrypit closed the door behind him and walked onto the mansion’s front lawn. It was relatively early in the morning and not a lot of people were awake or even home so he figured this was the best time to do this without risking his dolls (or himself) getting distracted by wanting to play with someone.

Cherrypt jumped up and grabbed onto the windowsill to look into the window that led into the mansion’s entrance. Just as he hoped, Babycorn was still slouched down on one of the seats. Earlier that morning Babycorn told him she was going to practice her weaving so he decided to ask if he could take his toys outside while she did that.

She happily said yes and then the plan was on.

Cherrypit jumped over B’ig Nunh, who was busy lying on the grass. “Good morning Cherrypit!” his good friend greeted him. For some reason B’ig Nunh had been playing dead on the front lawn for hours now. (he did not want to pack)

Cherrypit stopped in his tracks and turned to run back and to give B’ig Nunh a pat on his lovely moogle cap covered head. He moved the two heart shaped poms on his head and watched as they wiggled around. “Good morning! Good morning Big!” After patting his head enough times Cherrypit continued waddling over to where his toys and mammets were waiting for him.

To anyone just passing by (or to B’ig Nunh) it would have seemed like Cherrypit was simply playing with his toys, but the opposite couldn’t be anymore true.

For they were all gathered here to discuss a matter of utmost importance.

Cherrypit set down the perifool on the ground and adjusted it slightly so the weight of its head wouldn’t cause it to topple over backwards. The tendency for the perifools to do that reminded Cherrypit of Coco. So much so that he had started to call some of them Coco. Which did not help Coco’s fear of Cherrypit’s toys.

Cherrypit took his place sitting just outside of the neat little circle he made out of his toys.

“Okay! Who’s going? Who wants to come?”

What Cherrypit meant when he asked that question was which of his toys would be coming with them on their very important trip to Old Sharlayan. Babycorn told him that he could probably only take six toys with him. Meaning he could probably carry three and Babycorn could carry another three.

Cherrypit cried for at least an hour after learning he could only take six toys with him. He wanted to take all of them with him! They were all his friends and he wanted to keep playing with them! He only calmed down when Babycorn assured him that the toys he would leave behind wouldn’t be lonely and he would still be able to talk to them by using Centella’s linkshell, since she would be taking care of them.

(they learned Monita wasn’t the best choice in taking care of them.)

The toys that he had given to his friends as gifts would obviously be staying behind so that was an easy choice. In fact, Cherrypit hadn’t even gathered them here. He already knew they would be fine with the people that loved and cared for them. The dolls he’d hidden in Coco’s, B’ig Nunh’s and Reese’s rooms and also Lupyon were in very good hands.

Meanwhile, all of Cherrypit’s toys that he took care of looked around, unsure of what to do.

Since most of Cherrypit’s toys and mammets were influenced off of his own emotions all of them were feeling just as indecisive as him. They thought to themselves whether they should go or whether they should stay behind and protect their home they had grown to love.

Only a few dolls had actually made up their minds.

‘Yip yip ho! We’re coming with you!’ A Calca and a Brina raised both of their hands and spoke in unison. ‘We’re going! Yip yip ho! Yip yip ho!’ Of course two of them would be going! Cherrypit loved all his toys equally but of course just like any other child he still had favorites he loved to play with. 

It made even more sense when considering the dolls that had decided on going were the original Calca and Brina that Cherrypit first met.

So that was two places taken.  

The third spot would be taken by a stuffed tonberry wildly waving its knife around. The universal indication of saying ‘pick me! pick me! pick me!’ of course.

Cherrypit looked at his hands and counted on his fingers. “One is for belly! Two is for belly! Three is for belly!” It was a fun little way of counting he had unfortunately picked up from the people around him. It was also helping him learn the alphabet! And if it was helping Cherrypit learn things then no one could really complain.

Coco Cocoda could especially not complain.

“Three! Three is for belly!” Cherrypit triumphantly declared. That meant three more toys could still come with him. Which three though…? Well that was still undecided.

Suddenly, Cherrypit felt something land on his head. A wind-up pixie that the pixies of the First had gifted him landed on his head. The wind-up pixie tugged on Cherrypit’s hair tie to get his attention. “You going too?” Cherrypit asked, looking up. He couldn’t really see the wind-up pixie since they were still sitting on top of his head but he could still tell they nodded back.

Right after the pixie, a wind-up chimera slid right up next to Cherrypit and raised its arms in the air. A low sounding hiss came out of its mouth. It probably meant something along the lines of ‘Yeah, sure I’ll come too, why not.’ or something like that.

Cherrypit repeated his counting, looking down at his hands again. “...Four is for belly! Five is for belly!” Now he had five friends coming with him! Which meant they could only take one more!

That’s when, out of nowhere, B’ig Nunh’s hat began to move. “Excuse me?????” B’ig Nunh suddenly stood up from his morning of playing dead on the floor and finally noticed that for some reason his lovely moogle cap had two heart poms on it. That’s when one of the hearts jumped off his hat.

‘Kupo!’

The stuffed Kupka Kupp flew its way over to where Cherrypit and the other toys were. As it turns out, earlier when Cherrypit was busy moving his toys outside it had decided to go ahead and take a nap on top of B’ig Nunh’s hat until everyone else was outside. Cherrypit then seemingly forgot about it.

“Ooooooh. Well I hope you had a nice nap. :)“ B’ig Nunh waved at the moogle flying away then turned to go back inside. Only to remember that Vertical had told him to start packing yesterday, then he decided to run back inside.

“Bye-bye Big! Goodnight!” Cherrypit waved goodbye at B’ig Nunh and caught the flying stuffed Kupka Kupp as it crashed landed in his tiny tiny arms. “Catch! I caught you!!”

‘Kupopo!’ It looked like they wanted to come along too!

Cherrypit gently set them down on the ground and started counting again. All the way from one. Luckily Babycorn’s and Cherrypit’s luggage couldn’t carry more than six because Cherrypit could only count up to fifteen.

“...Six is for Belly!”

Aaaaaaaand that made six!!

“Yay! Yaayy!! Six! We did it!” Cherrypit jumped up and down in excitement. Now he had all the friends he needed to take all the way to Old Sharlayan. He hoped they would be able to stay somewhere nice like back in the First. The bed back there had felt so empty without any stuffed toys on it, but this time it’d be different!

Now all that was left was to pack! And that would be easy peasy!

“Okay! Back inside!” Cherrypit pointed to the front door and then in that instant a wave of dolls and mammets descended upon the mansion. They all ran their way past Babycorn, each of them stopping to say hello to her. “Hey!” Babycorn waved back.

“Remember Cherry, as soon as your toys are back inside we have to start getting ready!” They were all leaving tomorrow so time was of the essence.

“Okay Bebe!”

It looked like everything was gonna turn out okay!

[hqmillioncorn]

FFxivWrite: Day five......Cutting Corners!

‘To train them is my cause!’

Pokemon! Gotta catch em Aldenard! AU belongs to @windupnamazu!

 babycorn and cherrypit are off on a pokemon adventure! taking on gyms on gym at a time like how youre supposed to! sure they make a few pitstops here and there and break the sacred pokemon league rules but who hasnt done that????

Babycorn weakly wobbled her way down the ramp of the airship, praying to whatever god out there that was listening for that to be the last airship they would have to ride in a while.

 She was having trouble keeping herself steady, even with Tsareena’s help.

“Ahhhuuuuuuuuuuh…”

While Babycorn was fighting for her life she and Tsareena were both surprised to see Cherrypit run right past them, his Cutiefly zipping right behind him. 

Cherrypit stopped just short of looking like he was about to run and jump over the railings that were specifically put in place to stop people like him from falling to their untimely demise. 

“Woaaaah!” He was too short to properly lean over the railing so instead he knelt down and looked between them, “Bebe! Look at all the people! You can totally see the ocean from here!” Cherrypit pointed at the vast blue ocean in front of them. The horizon seemed to go on forever.

His pink Cutiefly he lovingly nicknamed Tulip excitedly flew around in a circle above his head. 

“Cherryyyy!” Babycorn sprung back to life and ran to where her brother was sitting. She picked up as if he weighed less than a Hoppip. She set him down just a little bit further away from the railings than he was before.

“Be careful! You could get your head stuck in there! Or worse…”

Before Babycorn could fall down an endless loop of fearing the worst, Cherrypit wrapped his hand around some of his sister’s fingers and called out to her. “It’s okay! I’m not gonna fall Bebe! Cause you’re holding my hand!!” Cherrypit swung his arm in rhythm with his sister who now looked calmer than before.

“Oh…Okay.” Babycorn moved her hand to hold Cherrypit’s and they both moved back to where Cherrypit had been standing before. 

“Look! Isn’t it pretty?” Cherrypit pointed at the white buildings and the ocean in front of them. It was unlike anything the siblings had ever seen, since the two of them had grown up in a remote town in Eastern Thanalan. 

“Woah…!” 

Maybe the airship ride from hell was worth taking here after all.

———————————–      

Since the first fateful day that Cherrypit first showed signs of being blessed with the echo Babycorn wondered when the day would arrive Cherrypit would ask if he could embark on a Pokemon journey of his own. 

News about the Pokemon league was so prominent that it managed to reach even in the far-off and desolate town they called home. 

It was all so exciting to hear! 

But Babycorn could tell that Cherrypit was getting tired of just hearing it, he wanted to go out and experience all the adventures told to him for himself. 

Babycorn was supportive of her brother’s decision from day one but only on the catch that she would come along with him. Cherrypit agreed in a heartbeat. 

He was going to ask his sister to come along with him anyway. 

———————————–      

According to the handy guidebook (which was around five years out of date) the closest gym to where their journey would start was the ghost type gym, run by its leader Cocobuki. 

Babycorn leaned back on the bench she was sitting on and closed her guidebook, she looked over at Cherrypit in worry. He was currently occupying himself in having a conversation with the first Pokemon he caught himself. 

Well. “Caught” is a very specific word and in this context it didn’t seem quite right to use. 

It was an odd thing though, as far as she knew Cutieflies weren’t native to Thanalan. How in the world had one suddenly appeared out of the blue and just decided to follow Cherrypit around even before he’d decided to go on his journey? 

Some things were just never meant to be explained, she supposed. 

Though Cutiefly was a cutie (and an odd color) as far as she knew it didn’t know any attacks that were strong enough to take on a ghost type. 

Babycorn hummed, that usually meant that she was thinking hard about something. Sort of like how a microwave worked. “Maybe Cherry could borrow Confagrigus for the gym…” There was nothing in the rulebook against that. 

Except that there was. 

Babycorn just hadn't read that far. 

———————————–      

“Okay Tulip! Please use fairy wind!” Cherrypit looked at Tulip and Tulip nodded in response. Or at least, it could be assumed they nodded back, with that Cutiefly only being a very long body.

Tulip flew up high above Cocobuki’s Yamask and unleashed their attack. 

Cocobuki’s Yamask didn’t even flinch. It was just as Babycorn feared, Tulip’s attacks just weren’t strong enough to do any real damage. Luckily, Cherrypit had accepted Babycorn’s offer in having Confagrigus help him out. 

After all, they were as much Cherrypit’s Pokemon as they were Babycorn’s and isn’t that what really matters in the end?

At least, that’s what Babycorn would say when they were inevitably going to be detained by the Pokemon league police. 

Or whoever was in charge of these things. 

From the stands Babycorn and the rest of her Pokemon team were cheering Cherrypit on with their custom banners that displayed motivating phrases as ‘Go Cherrypit!’ and ‘You can do it Cherrypit!’ 

Though even with the power of Mr.Mime’s pom poms and Tsareena’s banner waving, the battle was clearly in Cocobuki’s favor. “This doesn’t look good…” As much as Babycorn did believe in her little brother, she was also the type to throw in the towel as soon as things started to look bad. 

Which is probably why her own short venture as a Pokemon trainer didn’t last very long.  

It was also probably because she had very very poor aim. 

And some other third thing.

Babycorn felt a tap on her shoulder, Mr. Mime was trying to get her attention. “Mime mime…?” Both of them had discussed their plan in case they needed to intervene during the battle outside of the gym. Babycorn wished it didn’t have to come to this but she had no choice.

“Go for it…” she whispered and Mr.Mime forgoed his pom poms and concentrated on Yamask. 

Cocobuki, none the wiser, sneered, “Now is our chance! Yamask unleash your potent destruction! Use night shade!” 

“Ya-ya!”

Yamask flew back and just as it looked like it was going to sweep Cutiefly away in one night shade-it suddenly, and quite violently, dropped to the ground. 

Its eyes swirled around. There was no chance they were getting back up again any time soon. 

“What in the-?!” Cocobuki was taken aback, “Yamask?!”

The referee Cocobani looked just as shocked as Cocobuki did, and so did all the other referees with the name Coco in their names. “I…suppose Yamask is unable to battle! The winner is Cutiefly!” Just like that Cocobuki was down to his last Pokemon. 

“Yay! Good job Cutiefly!” Cherrypit cheered. He wasn’t entirely sure what happened but it must have all been thanks to Cutiefly.  

‘??????’ was Cutiefly’s response to the whole thing. 

“Woop! Woooop! Go Cherry!!!” Babycorn and Tsareena waved their Cherrypit banners high in the air and cheered loudly for him. Mr.Mime grabbed their pom poms back and went right back to cheering along. 

“Good job with that confusion.” Babycorn whispered. 

Mr.Mime gestured to their mouth and zipped it closed, “Mime!” Whatever underhanded tactics Babycorn was now asking them to do, they would gladly do it if it helped Cherrypit. 

As Cocobuki prepared to use his next Pokemon, Babycorn turned to Tsareena, “You know what to do next, right?”Tsareena nodded in response. Whatever Pokemon Cocobuki had up his sleeve, they wouldn't stand a chance against her poison powder.

All Cherrypit’s Pokemon needed to do was last as long as he could. 

Which would be easy now that he switched to Confagrigus . 

———————————–      

Babycorn and Cherrypit stepped out of the elevator and stepped out into Bulwark’s Hall. While Babycorn was busy looking around Cherrypit decided to take off towards the Aetheryte plaza he just spotted.

“Cherry?! Wait for me!!” Babycorn and Tsareena quickly followed behind Cherrypit. 

They didn’t have to run very far because just as soon as Cherrypit reached the plaza he stopped and looked up at the Aetheryte in awe. Babycorn stopped right next to him and joined him in looking up at the Aetheryte.

“Woaaaaaah…!!!” 

Tsareena didn’t see how this Aetheryte was any different than the last one in Ul’dah. 

———————————–      

“So, where are we going little man?” 

Babycorn assumed that Cherrypit would want to head to the nearest gym as soon as he could. Babycorn had no idea where the closest gym actually was, but she was sure her guidebook had the answers to that question. 

Cherrypit walked on ahead, Cutiefly was resting on his head so he was walking slower than usual, with Babycorn walking slower behind him. “P’obably to the Trainer’s guild. Like Cocobuki told us to do.” Right now they were just walking around and taking in the sights. 

“Oh that’s right…” Babycorn winced. 

After Cherrypit’s victory they had both been at the receiving end of a scolding from Cocobuki. Since it turned out that Cherrypit had used Babycorn’s old expired Trainer card to challenge the gym instead of his own. 

Except he didn’t have a trainer card of his own.

In return for his gym badge Cocobuki made both siblings swear that Cherrypit would register at the Trainer’s guild as soon as he was able to. There was also something about sparing their lives, or something 

“Wait!! Wawawa-wait! Bebe? Can we go here first?!” Cherrypit carefully turned around and dug around his pockets for a very particular something. “Ah-ha!” his face lit up as he pulled out what looked to be a clipping from a newspaper. 

It definitely looked like it had just spent weeks being crumpled up in an active 11-year-old's pocket.

“The super famous Pokemon stylist Lunya Lanya is supposed to have her styling bow-tea-ke here!” The term Cherrypit was looking for was probably Boutique but he couldn’t pronounce it quite right. 

“Ooooh! That’s right!” Babycorn looked at the picture of Lunya in the newspaper. It was a picture taken right after she had won the league that one time. Her Pikachu, Ruruby, was smiling along with her, perched on her shoulder. Behind of Lunya was the rest of her team, they were also smiling.

Babycorn could still remember how Cherrypit talked for weeks and months about how much butt Lunya had kicked during the finals, all the way to the battle between her and the Champion. 

Cherrypit made sure he didn’t miss a minute of the coverage and had, at some point, broken into Babycorn’s personal savings and ordered as much Pokemon League merchandising as he could that year. It was enough to leave Babycorn almost broke. 

She wasn’t (too) much of a betting girl but she harbored a guess that Lunya’s feats were probably more than part of the reason Cherrypit wanted to take on the gym challenge just like she did.

“One day, me and Lunya are gonna battle! It’ll be super cool! There’ll be a bunch of people watching too!” Cherrypit’s palpable excitement was enough to wake Tulip up from her nap. Tulip wiggled their little legs and flew around Cherrypit with just as much fervor as their trainer was showing 

“I…I think you’re a little too inexperienced to battle someone like her…”

Babycorn didn’t like saying it but there was a clear difference between taking on a Gym leader and a Hall of Fame-er.

“I know that! That’s why I gotta get stronger and make more friends!” Cherrypit held his hand out for Tulip to land on. “Like Tulip! And Mr.Mime and Tsareena and Confagrigus! I’m gonna make a bunch of new Pokemon friends!” Cherrypit let out a cheer.

“But I wanna go see Ms.Lunya Lanya so I can see her style Pokemon up close!” Cherrypit’s eyes were shining with excitement.  That’s what the newspaper clipping was all about. It told the story of how Lunya had turned down her position in the Championship tournament to focus on being a Pokemon stylist. She had even had a bunch of satisfied customers already!

Babycorn looked at Cherrypit, then to Tulip. If styling his Pokemon was what Cherrypit was after...she just couldn’t see how someone could style a Pokemon as small as a Cutiefly, no matter how talented they were. 

“And…Uh, what Pokemon were you hoping to style?” 

“I was thinking we could ask her to style Mr.Mime! Just imagine how stylish they’ll look after she’s done with him!?”

Inside of their Pokeball, Mr.Mime shuddered. 

———————————–      

Unfortunately, as both siblings made their way to the Mist housing districts, as Cherrypit was directing them too, neither of them would figure out their mistake until it was going to be too late.

In his excitement Cherrypit had only read half of the article. 

He had mistaken Lunya’s place of birth for the locations of her Boutiques. 

———————————–      

Meanwhile, in the Lavender Beds.

Lunya was in the middle of a trial run on Coco’s hair for a future run on her Whimsicott, when she felt some sort of weird feeling that maybe someday in the future she would run into a pair of troublemakers.

She lingered on the feelings for a second or two before shrugging and turning back and continuing to style Coco’s hair. 

———————————–      

Just as Cherrypit and Babycorn arrived in the Mist, Cherrypit noticed someone was watching them from the shadows. Before he could stop himself, he made eye contact with whoever was staring them down.

“Heh!” The mysterious figure ran out of the shadows. Now that they were in clear view both siblings could see that the person who was watching them was another Lalafell, they looked no older than Cherrypit. They were wearing a silver tiara and a large ball gown that looked incredibly out of place.

They stomped their foot down and crossed their arms, doing their best to look as intimidating as they could. “The name’s Sofia! And I challenge you to a Pokemon battle!” She held out a pokeball. Babycorn recognized it as an ultra ball, one of the more expensive pokeballs.

So whoever this kid was definitely had the money they looked like they had.

“Actually, I’m sorry but we’re really in a hurry and-”

“I accept your challenge!” 

Cherrypit, still full of confidence from his previous gym battle, jumped at the chance to show off his battle skills again. “Come on Tulip! Let’s do our best!” Cherrypit gave Tulip a high-five using one of his fingers.

Tulip chirped happily. 

“Yeah! We got this!” 

Babycorn smiled and let out a long sigh, it looked like Cherrypit was dead set on battling Sofia. The best she could do was cheer him on as hard as she could. “Alright! Cherrypit Pit cheering squad! Get into formation!” Tsareena struck a pose behind Babycorn as she threw out her two other Pokemon to get ready to cheer on with her. 

Mr.Mime grabbed their pom poms and Confagrigus grabbed their ribbon twirlers.

Sofia didn’t seem at all phased by either Cherrypit’s enthusiasm or his cheering squad. “Tch-! Unlike you I don’t need any dumb cheerleaders to help me win! Here, let me show you!” Sofia pulled her arm back and threw out her first pokeball.

“Nidorina!’

“Come on, Nidorina! Let’s show them how strong we are!”

Cherrypit’s confidence didn’t waver one bit but Babycorn’s heart sank into despair. She knew Nidorina was a poison type, which meant that it had an advantage against fairy types. 

Unfortunately, Tulip was very much a fairy type. 

Babycorn took a deep breath and looked over to Mr.Mime. They shot back a sly smile at her. Confagrigus and Tsareena let Babycorn know they were ready to help at any time too.   

“You know what to do.” she whispered.

[hqmillioncorn]

Lalapril Day 21: Mercy

‘I may be small, and on my own but I can feel how much I’ve grown.’

cherrypit thinks he can handle more than he should be able to. but at the same time his heart is in the right place. his aether also in the right place. Not inside him.

Babycorn quickly ducked, the claw of a sin eater narrowly avoiding where her corn pom would have been. “Cherry stay close to me, okay?!” Even if they could finally be apart for more than a few seconds without any dire consequences, Babycorn dreaded what would happen to him if she let him out of her sight, if only for a little bit. 

Cherrypit nodded and climbed onto his sister’s back. “Wanna go…” He buried his face against her, trying to keep the sights of the sin eater’s attack on holminster as far as he could. 

Babycorn grip around her staff tightened. She was angry, she was scared and just like Cherrypit she would give anything to be anywhere but here. 

“Don’t worry Cherry. We’ll be all done soon I promise.” she winced, watching as the Crystal Exarch took a particularly bad hit. 

There were a few seconds of panic but thankfully after so much practice healing in the heat of battle-Babycorn was quickly able to mend his wounds. The Crystal Exarch silently thanked her, turning his attention back to the group of Sin eaters swarming around them. 

“Hungry…” Cherrypit mumbled. The otherworldly shrieking of the sin eaters filled the air around them, Cherrypit held on to Babycorn as hard as he could.

In the middle of a cast, Alisaie looked back at the siblings. “Cherry, What kind of snack would you want? We have a lot of treats back at the Crystarium.” She was willing to part with a few of Alphinaud’s snacks  if it meant Cherrypit would cheer up. 

Not only that, but talking with Cherrypit helped give her a small sense of calm. Though she would never admit that to anyone but him. And maybe Babycorn.

Cherrypit eagerly climbed back on Babycorn’s head, before being reminded by his sister that he needed to stay down. “Choccy!” he happily yelled.

At that point the hoard of sin eaters that had ambushed the group were all defeated, to everyone’s relief. “Well if you’re in the mood for chocolate, I know a certain someone who’s been hoarding all the chocolate sweets for herself.” Alphinaud winked and even his trusty Carbuncle looked like it was snickering alongside him.

As they ran ahead Alisaie found her shaking hands steadying themselves little by little. “Lucky for you Cherry I like you better than I like Alphinaud. I’m more than willing to share my stash with you.” She intentionally slowed down her running to be able to fall behind and run alongside Babycorn. 

“If could only wish to have a brother as amazing as you.”

“I beg your pardon?!” 

Cherrypit giggled as Alphinaud ran up to Alisaie presumably to remind her that she already had an amazing brother and it was him. 

Unfortunately for him Alisaie was quick to remind him that Cherrypit had learned to swim before he had. Which already gave him a point ahead in the imaginary competition. 

(Alisaie would never trade Alphinaud for any brother in the world, but she could tell him that later.    Hopefully.)

Suddenly Cherrypit noticed a shadow fly above them. He was the only one of them who had.

He looked up to see a large sin eater flying high above them. There was something familiar about this one just like the last big Sin Eater they’d fought. The last one being the one that had killed Tesleen. 

That one wasn’t fun to fight. 

He noticed that Alisaie wouldn’t look at them after they won.

Cherrypit kept looking at the Sin Eater as it flew ahead of them. Only when it flew farther away, he finally realized why it looked and felt so familiar. Just like the one before, Cherrypit had seen them somewhere else.

He’s talked with her, she had talked with him, she’d given him a warm soup when both he and Babycorn were starving.

The sin Eater flying away from them was Tesleen. What she turned into.

Cherrypit still didn’t fully understand what had happened. Only that what had happened to Tesleen was bad and it hurt her. Alisaie was sad it happened and so was everyone else. After they came back to the Crystarium nobody wanted to talk about Tesleen for a little bit. 

And they were running right towards her.

Cherrypit panicked, if Alisaie was sad after seeing Tesleen the first time, he couldn’t imagine how sad she would be this time. Cherrypit didn’t want Alisaie to be sad! He didn’t want any of them to be sad or hurt. 

And what if what happened to Tesleen happened to Alisaie, Alphinaud or even Babycorn?!

Without a word Cherrypit jumped from his sister’s head and skipped ahead. 

-----------------------------------

Cherrypit didn’t stop running, even when Babycorn cried out after him. 

It wasn’t hard to get ahead of them. All it took was a precise skip and jump, then he would be floating in the air for a bit before he landed back on the ground to do it again. 

He was the first to reach Tesleen. 

She looked just like the last time Cherrypit saw her. 

“Tesleen?” Cherrypit called out to her, to check if she could hear him. Back when she first flew away he’d called out to her for a little bit before Babycorn told him he needed to be quiet. 

He was confused at the time but when he saw how upset Alisaie and Babycorn were-he understood something bad had happened.

Tesleen had been turned into a sin eater, something that unlike what Cherrypit could do, you couldn’t turn back from it. 

Unfortunately, for everyone else, Cherrypit still had some small belief in his unbeating heart that Tesleen could turn back. If he helped her out!

Determined to help her figure out how to turn back, Cherrypit waddled forward. 

The sin eater paid him no mind. There was no reason to attack, on account of Cherrypit having no aether he appeared to be nothing more than a corpse that was magically moving around. Ready for another sin eater’s pickings. 

A little alarming but otherwise there might as well have been nothing there.

“Tesleen! Tesleen!” Cherrypit jumped up and down trying to get her attention.

Cherrypit walked closer and closer until he found himself right under Tesleen. Once he was pretty much right in front of her, she finally looked down. Cherrypit quickly took notice and smiled, “Tesleen! Hi Tesleen!” he waved at her trying to see if she would notice her.

Tesleen flew closer to Cherrypit, curious about the aether-less creature in front of her. 

And why it felt so familiar to her. 

Cherrypit tilted his head curiously at her, “Tesleen change back?” if she changed back to how she looked before then maybe Alisaie would be happy!

“Look!” Cherrypit pointed to himself and covered his face with his hands. In no time his face was transformed into a ‘scary’ face similar to Tesleen’s. 

The sin eater showed no visual reaction to it. Cherrypit covered his face again, and then his face was back to normal. “See? Like that!” That's how he did it, so surely Tesleen would be able to do it too!

Tesleen looked down at him, with a blank expression. 

That was strange. Cherrypit frowned, maybe this was going to be harder than he thought. But it was okay! A long time ago when his sister was smaller he remembered not being able to control his transformations that well either.

Now he could! It just took a lot of practice. 

Or some help!

“Here! I help!” Cherrypit bounced up and down. Maybe if he were to help Tesleen cover her face she would figure it out faster. There was the issue that his hands were normally really small but after a few good stretches they wouldn’t be so small anymore!

Tesleen flew even closer to Cherrypit. 

She could see just a shimmer of aether inside him. 

It was faint but it was there. 

And she needed to have it.

Wait! No she didn’t!

“I’ll help!” Cherrypit reached out a hand towards Tesleen to help her.

All he wanted to do was help, to make Alisaie and his sister happy. To make others happy, just like Babycorn did. If he could manage to do the same thing maybe she wouldn’t have to work so hard.

The faint aether inside him glowed just a little brighter. 

Cherrypit either didn’t notice or didn’t care that Tesleen was raising her hand up, ready to bring it down on top of him. 

“Cherry!!! Get away from her!”

All of a sudden his sister’s voice cut through everything and got him to turn away from Tesleen and towards where her voice came from. Even if he had been looking he still wouldn’t have dodged Tesleen’s sudden attack. 

A cold rush of air hit him as he suddenly found himself in his sister’s arms. He felt himself hit the ground alongside her. “Bebe?!” Both of them had been thrown around far harder than this but there was still the shock of it happening in the first place.

“Is he alright?!” Cherrypit heard Alisaie ask. 

Babycorn’s breathing was heavy, both of them were still lying on the ground. She looked down to meet her brother’s own concerned eyes. Despite looking scared about what was happening he didn’t look hurt, which was the best possible outcome.

“He’s okay…” Babycorn said between breaths.

The Leveilleur twins and the Crystal Exarch were relieved. That relief was short lived, because now Tesleen had her attention on four new people. 

Alisaie was the first to jump into action. 

Babycorn needed to get back on her feet. It was a struggle but she eventually stood up, using one arm to hold Cherrypit up and the other to use her staff.

 Her worst fears might have come true for just a few brief moments, but she swore this would be the last time it happened on her watch.