islandshore | 54 - video/backdated to the 9th;

Nightmare;

[It happens late at night, while Riku's locked into deep slumber. Rather than peaceful dreams about exploring other worlds, he finds himself dropped in the middle of Route 29, knee-deep in tall grass. But something's off. Brow furrowing, he turns around, half expecting to spot blocks of distorted pixels.

Instead, he sees himself, three years younger with a Pidgey perched on his shoulder while a tiny Nidoran whimpers and cries. His past self points a finger at the tall grass and glares.]

Can it, Slacker! If you're gonna be my Pokémon, then fight. Otherwise, you're just a waste of space. Isn't that right, Highwind?

Screeeeeech!

[The Pidgey ruffles up his feather and dives at Slacker, scratching at his eyes. The Nidoran, too petrified to move, takes the hit and tumbles back into the grass. The past Riku merely rolls his eyes as he watches, while Riku cringes and dashes towards his dream self.]

Shut up!

[He passes straight through him, and his surroundings ripple, melting. Riku plummets into blackness. As soon as he hits the ground, a chill washes down him from head to toe. Low moans and growls echo before the ground rumbles. A Nidorino rushes at him, growing larger, swelling to a mountainous size. Riku's heart stops. He hears his own voice echo in the black space.]

Slacker, that's enough! STOP!

[The Nidorino persists, drawing closer and closer until his surroundings flash red. Once again Riku plummets, this time through further darkness.

No image accompanies him: only growls, whines, and voiceless whispers.]

You replaced me...

[There's a brief flash of his Charizard, Flare. Said image melts just like everything else.]

You abandoned me... You forget I exist!

No! It's not--

[His words are drowned out by one more growl. A giant Nidoking appears, giving a bellowing roar. Purple spikes shoot up at its feet. Rows upon rows of Toxic Spikes. Riku's falling accelerates. He draws closer, closer, and closer until--]

No!

[He wakes up on the floor, sweat racing down his skin. Heart pounding, threatening to burst from his chest. The sound of heavy footsteps draws his attention across the room. Flare, having seen the whole thing, plops down right next to him, giving a low grunt.

Riku can't meet his eyes.]

...Don't worry about it, Flare. I'll deal.

Video;

[It's late at night when Riku addresses the network. His hair's kind of a mess, and he looks like he hasn't slept at all. Still, he forces a faint smirk on his face and runs a hand over his head, trying to look a bit more presentable.]

So, about that fighting tournament... Anyone think we should have those more often? It's kind of a bummer I didn't get to fight most of you guys. Can't really get stronger unless I--

[He stops, sighing. His words came out halfhearted, anyway. Even a complete stranger could probably tell something's amiss. For the next few seconds, he stands there in silence, glancing off screen. A Charizard briefly passes by in the background, folding his arms and snorting. He gives a look that screams, "Stop being dumb". He and Riku exchange stares, complete with utterings of, "It's nothing". However, once Flare spreads out his wings and gives a low growl, Riku reluctantly turns back to the camera.]

...Never mind. That's not really what I wanted to talk about anyway.

[Granted, he didn't want to talk about this either, but with a persistent dragon peering over his shoulder, he's kind of been boxed into a corner. Sigh...]

I guess what I want to know is how you're supposed to deal with regret. I'm not good at talking about this sort of thing, but... let's say you get a reminder of some stupid mistake you made a while back. What are you supposed to do about that? Especially if it happened so long ago that it really shouldn't matter in the first place...

[It's dumb. He knows it's dumb and he shouldn't put so much stock into a nightmare, but given how little time he's spent with Slacker, who knows?

Either way, he'll just have to hang tight. Now that he's made his case, Riku clicks the video feed off.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Not to the extent that I would like to, no. It's extremely bothersome.

Does it have anything to do with nightmares?

[If it does, then maybe there's more to it. If not, then it's probably just coincidence.]

...well, I'd be lying if those haven't brought it to the forefront of my mind.

Is this something you've been dealing with yourself?

Oh yeah. It's the whole reason I posted this message in the first place.

[His eyes narrow, and he glances to the side.]

It was vivid. Almost too vivid...

It seemed a bit more coherent than I'm used to, that much is for sure. Usually, even when I can detect a theme of sorts, it's still somewhat disjointed and nonsensical. This one, though... well, not so much.

Hmm, so that makes two of us. My dream was like some sick, twisted combo of memories and... fears, I guess. Fears I never wanted to acknowledge until Flare whacked me over the head.

[There's a grunt from offscreen. He had to do something!]

And seeing how it's October, I don't want to pass it off as coincidence. Something always happens this time of year... The question is, what's it gonna be this time?

That would roughly describe my experience, actually. It started out something resembling an event that occurred shortly before I came here, but it ended much differently.

...hm, you're right - I think I was talking to someone else about that business with the Yamask some time ago, and I theorized that something about this time a year has an effect on what goes on. It's usually connected to some sort of Ghost Pokemon, isn't it?

Usually, but not always. The first time, we got MISSIGNNO. and glitches, but we did have ghosts pop up the month before. Actually, now that I think about it...

[He reaches for his chin.]

When those ghosts showed up, we had a huge nightmare epidemic. Maybe there's a connection...

Really, now? That isn't something I would have expected... though, if the more recent glitches are any indication, that was certainly unsettling enough to fit the mood.

Do you think it might happen again? It's a far shorter period of time, but it doesn't exactly seem like the sort of thing that would play by the rules.

Oh, it fit the mood pretty well the first time, since the music turned into this freaky, backwards sounding tune, and everything became pixellated, including people and Pokémon.

[He shudders.]

Guess it could happen again, but I don't know if there's a connection between ghosts and MISSINGNO. Doesn't mean there aren't a bunch of starving Gengar behind this, though.

That's not particularly reassuring. ...neither of those things are, actually, but I'd rather not see a repeat of that bizarre glitch nonsense that's even worse than the first time I experienced it.

Well, at least with ghosts, we wouldn't have to worry about getting glitched out. Just throw some dark types at them, and problem solved.

[That's part of why he doubts it's that simple, really...]

Or other ghosts, of course. I don't know though, that didn't seem to help people much last year...

54 - video/backdated to the 9th;

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]