From: "Rob" <robfrompw@yahoo.com> Subject: [PW!] A Scorned Thorn Pokemon Date: Saturday, March 27, 2004 4:05 AM A sleeping brown-haired girl tosses and turns in her bed, tugging wildly at her sheets and kicking her legs. After a few seconds of this, she suddenly sits up and screams. She covers her own mouth as her eyes go wide, still shaken by the nightmare she was having but relieved that what happened in her dream didn't actually occur. The relief doesn't last long. When the girl looks around the room she's in, she doesn't recognize it at all. She's been waking up in the same room for eight years of her life and this isn't it. "Where am I?" The girl asks out loud. She wasn't expecting an answer, so her heart rate doubles when she hears a woman say, "You're in Oldale Town's Pokemon Center. Did something bad just happen, Shawn? I came right away when I heard you scream..." The teenage girl on the bed turns her head to face the pink-haired nurse who just stepped into her room. She parts her frizzy dark brown hair, which had covered her face when she was tossing around, so she can get a better look at the nurse. "What did you say my name was?" "Shawn," the nurse replies, "That's what you said your name was when-" "Oh no..." The girl shakes her head, a look of horror on her face. "Are you okay, Shawn?" Not wanting to reveal to the nurse that her name isn't Shawn, nor that she wasn't quite herself last night, she forces a smile and replies, "Yeah, I'm good. I just had a bad dream - that's why I screamed." "Oh. Well, if you need anything, you know where to find me." The nurse steps out of the room, closing the door behind her. When she's alone, the girl rubs her face in frustration while muttering, "Elsa... Your name is Elsa, damnit! Do you want to end up back in that horrible asylum?" Aware that talking to herself might not be the best way to regain her fleeting sanity, Elsa instead makes an effort to remember exactly what she was doing just before she lost consciousness. "Sapphire..." The name of the handsome man she was traveling with is the first thing she remembers, followed by the romantic kiss they shared. "Wait, what happened after that?" Try as she might, Elsa is unable to recall anything else that occurred yesterday. "That must've been it, then. Sapphire's kiss triggered Shawn. Damn, I hope this was an isolated incident. What will that Roselia think if I - Roselia! Where is she?" Elsa climbs out of bed, surprised that she's fully dressed in her green top, black capri pants, brown fanny pack, golden anklet, and black pumps. In a hurry to find the Pokemon she recently befriended, she doesn't even bother to look in a mirror before she heads out of the room, shouting, "Nurse! I need to ask you something! Nurse!" "Yes, Shawn?" asks Nurse Joy, the pink-haired nurse who spoke with Elsa earlier, when Elsa arrives at the Pokemon Center's front desk. Elsa frowns when she hears the name "Shawn", figuring that her masculine personality scared off her little friend as well as her potential boyfriend. She asks the nurse behind the desk, "Did you happen to see a Roselia around here? Or a blue-haired young man?" "I haven't seen a blue-haired man recently," the nurse answers, "But a hurt Roselia did come in here last night, about an hour after you went to your room. I treated her and she's sleeping in the back room now." "Can I see her?" asks Elsa. She adds, "That might be my friend." "I'll go get her. Please take a seat." Nurse Joy goes into the Pokemon Center's back room and Elsa sits down on the couch in the room. The nurse returns about a minute later with a drowsy Roselia in her hands. As Nurse Joy walks over to the couch that Elsa's sitting on, the small Thorn Pokemon uses her flowers to clear some dried sap from her shut eyes. The Roselia then scowls at Elsa the moment she sees her. "Roselia!" Elsa reaches for the Grass Pokemon that the nurse is holding, recognizing her as the Roselia she recently befriended, but she stops short when the Pokemon points the thorns on her head at her. Noticing how angry the Roselia looks, Nurse Joy comments, "This Roselia sure doesn't look like your friend." "She is, I assure you..." Wanting to explain her other personalities to the angry Roselia, but not wanting the nurse to find out about them, Elsa asks, "Can I please have a moment alone with Roselia?" "That's up to Roselia. She might not feel safe with you if you abandoned her." Nurse Joy looks down at the tense Roselia in her hands and asks, "What do you say?" "Sel." The Grass Pokemon waves her blue rose, indicating that she wants to be put down on the couch. Nurse Joy sets her down on the couch next to Elsa and heads back to her chair behind the front desk. The Roselia crosses her stem arms and turns her back to the human beside her. "I have something to tell you, Roselia," Elsa says, looking at the back of Roselia's head, "I don't remember what I did or said to you last night. I wasn't acting normal. When Sapphire kissed me, I lost control of my body..." Elsa isn't sure how to explain her condition to a Pokemon, but then she remembers a special she saw on a television show called "Pokemon Planet", "Have you ever heard of Castform?" "Ro." Roselia shakes her head, turning to face the girl who abandoned her in Oldale Town's Rusty Beldum Bar last night, wondering what Elsa meant when she said she lost control of her body. Elsa explains, "A Castform is a Pokemon that changes shape depending on the weather. When it's raining outside, it looks one way, then if the temperature drops and the rain turns to snow, it changes shape." "Liarose," Roselia observes, not sure what that has to do with Elsa's recent behavior but intrigued by the description of the Pokemon. Elsa continues her analogy, "I'm sort of like a Castform, except instead of my body changing shape under certain conditions, my mind changes under certain conditions. I can't help it. I'm sorry I didn't tell you this before - I thought I had gotten over these changes. I just hope you can stay by my side no matter who I become. It's very hard for me to keep friends when my mind changes so much, and people like me really need friends to keep us from doing bad things when we're not ourselves." Digesting what Elsa just told her, Roselia remains quiet for a moment. "It seems my 'Shawn' personality scared off Sapphire," Elsa points out with a sad sigh, "Please don't tell me you're scared of me too now." "Rose." Roselia pats Elsa's arm with her red rose a few times. Although she's skeptical of Elsa's condition, she figures that if Elsa really does lose control of her body, she needs someone to keep her grounded. And who better to keep someone grounded than a Flower Pokemon like herself? Roselia declares, "Sel iarose, selia lia rose rosel rose." Elsa smiles. "Are you saying that you'll continue traveling with me?" "Sel," Roselia answers with a simple nod. "Thank you, Roselia!" Elsa reaches for her Grass Pokemon, and this time, Roselia doesn't point her thorns at her companion. Instead, the Pokemon lets her guard down completely when the human girl gives her a hug. -Elsa