Chapter Text
Many theologians over the centuries have said that Arceus plays dice with the universe, they are incorrect.
I play an ineffable game of my own devising, for everyone else, it’s like playing poker in a pitch dark room for infinite stakes with a dealer who won’t tell you the rules and who smiles all the time.
To understand why I do all of this, aside from simple entertainment, we must go back to a certain event in a rainy forest, a few short years before my game would truly begin, that would alter the lives of two young girls forever.
This is a story of love, though not quite yet, as well as one of adventure, excitement, time, space, truth, ideals, life, death, light, darkness, and many other things too numerous to count.
But above all, this is a story about how you should never, ever, leave Mew in charge.
Two girls sheltered from the rain in a tree hollow, the younger girl with long honey-coloured hair shivering and sporting a handkerchief wrapped around an injured ankle. The slightly older girl with raven hair cut short looking around warily, hoping the storm would pass before Professor Oak got worried, or they were discovered by a wild Pokémon.
Ashka Ketchum (Ash, she insisted) looked down at the girl next to her, Serena, she’d said. Serena looked scared, which was probably normal, Ash reflected, her mother was always complaining about how little she cared for her own safety.
Eh, she shrugged mentally, Pokémon masters were composed. One wouldn’t often see Lance afraid and he was one of the best trainers in the world, the same could be said of Lorelei, Bruno, and Agatha too, so obviously being cool and collected was part of being a good trainer.
That aside, Serena was younger than her and scared (granted, one and a half years wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things, but what was?) so Ash was clearly supposed to be the responsible one here.
She wasn’t great with people though
Not sure what to say, the older girl just patted the younger’s head silently.
Serena looked up at her, tears pooling in her eyes, and clutched Ash’s hand tight.
They sat like that for a while, while the rain beat down around them and waited for the skies to clear.
As they sat, a certain something flitting between the trees noticed them.
Ash saw it first, a pink kitten with a long tail playing in the rain, letting out happy exclamations as the drops danced around her.
She gaped, instantly recognising the storied form of Mew, the Pokémon said to be the progenitor to all Pokémon.
Serena looked up at Ash’s gasp, becoming transfixed as she stared at the new species Pokémon.
Mew floated closer to the two, bright blue eyes meeting dark brown ones filled with wonder. It purred curiously, moving slowly towards her face.
Ash blinked and mew darted forwards, poking her nose with one paw, then floating backwards and laughing at the girl’s confused expression.
Mew offered it’s paw this time, and Ash stared for a second before extending her own hand and gently gripping the tiny limb and lightly shaking it.
“Mew!” it exclaimed in delight, then darted forwards again and placed the same paw Ash had shaken on the middle of her forehead. A flash of pink light shone out and when it cleared, the new species Pokémon was gone.
Serena blinked, wondering if she’d fallen asleep at some point and dreamed all of that, when ash turned towards her and she noticed the older girl’s eyes had changed.
Dark brown had become a crystalline pink that seemed to bear light of their own, shining in the gloom of the rainy forest.
As she thought that, a piercing cry rang out overhead.
The two looked up to see the clouds parting in the wake of a glittering bird Pokémon, and a rainbow following in its wake.
A single feather drifted down, resting on Ash’s head and vanishing in a burst of rainbow light.
When the light cleared, Ash’s dark hair had gained an almost featherlike quality, and as they walked it seemed to shimmer in the light, colours playing across it when they passed through a patch of sunlight.
Ash, who was still riding the high of seeing both Mew and Ho-Oh in the same day, hummed happily, and Serena, who had honestly forgot about her ankle in the shock of it all, made their way back to camp.
They were greeted by a very worried Professor Oak, whose chastisement was quickly overwhelmed by Ash’s excited proclamations of their legendary experience (Composure be damned this was cool)
Between the trees, the Professor sighted a green shape that shot him a wink before speeding off. He sighed, knowing the playful fairy and her friend had already started interfering in the young lady’s life.
Now how does one explain to a girl’s mother that she has pink eyes because Mew decided it’d be hilarious to give a 5-year-old psychic powers?