Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Wild Horses & Pokegirls - sidestories ❯ Portraits at an exhibition ( Chapter 5 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Sidestory #5: Portraits At An Exhibition

The WH&Pg sidestories are meant to give a look at the background in a way that the main story cannot and add detail to the setting. Each of these is meant to be a quick look at a person or type that are important in the development of that world during the turn of the third century when things are developing to a head.

A) Ancient Eyes:

"So, I hear you wanted to interview me. That you sensed a song to be made here that might make a decent ballad to be emplaced on that new album. I've followed your exploits, Tengoku-san. Continue listening to your pokegirls and they'll tell you if you're releasing anything that should not be heard by other ears.

"Yes, I am Cologne. Yes, I'm 300 years old and the single surviving Amazonchan from that time. As you can see, the years *have* had their effect.

"I was grown from a mixture of human DNA, RNA, and plasm, with bits and pieces added in from other sources in 1991. There was a method of fastgrowing a clone available and so a year later I was released as a 14 year old girl. I was released to be a soldier in what was once called the Dakotas and I fought human soldiers when I found them. Then it was kill or be killed.

"I quickly found that I was close enough to human that my odd hair coloration could be passed off as a result of hair dye. At which point I stole some clothes and made my way into human society, the same as the rest of my squad.

"There were six of us, all named after grooming products for whatever reason. Cologne, Perm, Blush, Mascara, Gloss, and Liner. We had no clue as to what we were doing, just that our strength and speed served us well and it was easier to disrupt human society from the inside than from without. We had some basic skills and information but no details at trying to survive in human society.

"We lost Mascara and Liner in an attempt to infiltrate a military base. They wanted to go off on their own. The soldiers caught them, of course, and neither was inclined to be taken prisoner.

"Gloss and Blush decided to go off together, leave the battles behind and live without the humans altogether. Which brought it down to me and Perm in about 1994.

"We'd noticed something infiltrating human society and it's still true today. The vast majority of humans are neither good nor evil, just reflections of the status quo. I heard someone refer to them as 'Mundanes' once. The bulk of humanity, placeholders or statistics if you will. At need some of those could be cultivated to heroes or villains but they lack the seeds of greatness. Which is fine: not everyone is suited to lead or to shine particularly well.

"So, at this point the Bloody Flu was sweeping the empires and we were sleeping with each other and occasionally with humans that we found attractive. There were a few lovers that we traded off on, ah, but we were young and wanted to maintain our cover. Among other things.

"No, we didn't get Tamed like that. If anyone Tamed anyone else it would have been Gloss who had been my Tamer as she was my first partner like that. It wasn't until 1995 that DNA scanners first began to make it off high security installations and into cities, and oh about 1998 before they got to the towns and such.

"Me and Perm lasted until about '97 of the old calender. We split up at a place called Wheeling at a bus stop, we were going to hit a factory researching particle beam weaponry developed to deal with the 'monsters' attacking. That was when Typhonna hit.

"Perm never has shown up, so after all these years it's safe to assume she never made it out. Typhonna's carved out a channel that you know as the Divide Sea. All I knew at the time was that the ground suddenly lurched down an awful long drop and buildings were collapsing and fires starting. What she had done was take eighteen feet of the continental plate and reduced it to one foot through gravitational manipulation. Just eighteen feet, though the segment she hit was one mile across and over a thousand miles long. There were peripheral effects.

"Typhonna was called a pokegirl, but she wasn't. She was a biomechanical device built as a doomsday weapon on some Earth that Sukebe had visited. Her entire purpose was to destroy, nothing more. Frankly, I don't think Sukebe intended her to do more than menace coastlines. I found out years later that the control device for Typhonna was damaged and that she had gone berserk almost immediately.

"Hmmm. So I stopped in a human church and prayed for Perm. The faiths then were a little different from now. There were all these different churches and each claimed to have a lock on the truth. The thing was that a lot of 'em tended to say similar things. Like 'Karma Happens' or 'Wouldn't it be nice if we stopped killing each other and learned to get along' and stuff like that. I haven't had a lot of truck with religions before or since, but they got the right idea that a quiet place of solitude is a good way to center yourself.

"Perm never showed up. I had to decide what to do and where to go. It was obvious that with their supply lines cut and their numbers going down further, that the humans would win the fight eventually - but would likely backslide into some form of barbarism. As their machines broke down there was little in the way of replacement parts.

"One of the talk show hosts of that era came to an interesting conclusion. Forget his name. Humanity had achieved technological maturity, but not maturity as a species. Apparently genetic engineering of viruses was understood by the really big governments, but it was pointed out that in forty or fifty years the technology would allow the smaller governments and some individuals to be able to genetically engineer their own viruses. It might be illegal but they'd still be able to manage it.

"I managed to find a soldier and be captured. There was no love involved, each of us saw something usable in the other. He was a Major in the United Nations Armed Forces with connections. Part of the special branch trying to study the "monster girls". I needed to work from within the system as the writing was clearly on the wall. His name was David Tarr. With my assistance and information he was able to increase his value within that faltering empire.

"When the end of the empires came they were like giants so vast that they couldn't even tell they'd been dealt a mortal blow. They still went about things as if they were still operating despite their lines of communication and supply and transport were crushed. It was a subtle change of the reins of power to begin with. David? His hands were so dirty it wasn't funny, but he kept his word. One of the things that let me select him as a potential mate/ally.

"In any case, politics have always made strange bedfellows. David used me, I used him, and there was definitely no love lost. He died in, oh, it must have been 2049 or 2050. Somewhere in there. I was only there because of my people.

"Amazonchan and Amazonlee. We were one people at that point. Very Near Humans with enhanced strength and speed. We've drifted apart - philosophically at first and physically as time went on. The Amazonchan Village was set up not far from where Jusenkyo was, which not incidently was where Gloss and Blush had set up. I tracked them down using David's resources and part of my wheeling and dealing got them set up. I had to do some things and make some deals that I was not and am not proud of. Sacrifices necessary for the cause.

"The village of Nichieju. Anyway, Gloss and Blush had found a nice guy who didn't mind that he was playing second fiddle to their relationship between each other and they made a happy trio. Gloss and Blush begat six kids who had six kids each. The only one that amounted to anything was Lilac. Such a handful *she* turned out to be.

"Lilac? She was born about, oh dear, was it 63 AS? I'll have to ask her next time I see her. Oh yes, she's still around. Just spends a lot of time mooning over her lost Douglas. Douglas was her human lover. I told her that human men were trouble, can't count on 'em, he'd leave her sooner or later. What happened to him? He died of old age back in 140 or 150 AS. Thoroughly maudlin overdramatic thing. Made her promise that she wouldn't follow him before her time.

"Lilac is *still* giving me grief about how wrong I was about him. Pfeh.

"Well, you know how it is. We get older and our opinions change. The accumulation of wisdom. Other than the originals, and Lilac for some reason, we Amazonchan are just coming full into our wisdom and putting cruel biology behind us when our health begins failing. And as far as I know I'm the only original pokegirl left.

"I've heard from other breeds that there's a chance of parity. That the breeds of pokegirls and the human race can co-exist with neither held over the other. After a century of hearing about this, it was enticing enough for me to start working towards it. I rejoined the League at that point and I've been butting heads with the Giovanni family among others all the time.

"Parity is the dream, but my goal all along the centuries has been the survival of my people. Whether you call us Amazonchan or Nichieju or simply those Amazons - the important thing is that we live and continue on. If we manage to achieve that dream, so much the better.

"Now, I don't know *how* you'll make a ballad of my life. You'd probably be better off going to Lilac. Love affairs make better songs than affairs of duty."

- Though their "Portraits" album was fairly popular, Mineko & The Pussycats song "Ancient Eyes" was considered too controversial and banned in several communities like Viridian. Oddly enough that banning seemed to make it even more popular in areas like Nerima.

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"Relative Dark"

B) Gendo Giovanni

Some call me evil. Some call me insane.

I call them clueless.

I have at the young age of 42 increased my family's territories and wealth by double. Which was already considerable considering that we originated in a place known as Sicily and were part of a worldwide crime syndicate until Sukebe unleashed his horrors on the world.

My father, and his father, and his father before him. We Giovanni were born to hold power and accumulate wealth.

It doesn't matter the time or the place. When dealing with humans, you can never go broke playing to their baser instincts.

The base populace are sheep, they'll agree with the last argument and follow their zone of comfort. They need people like myself to guide them, for they have no clue.

I don't actually hate Cologne. She does what she can for her people. Unfortunately, it is necessary for human survival that she fail.

I won't bore you with the details, but her dream of parity is just that- a dream. It will some day come to which will survive, humans or pokegirls, and I unflinchingly choose humanity. We cannot, as the naive might suggest, co-exist.

My reasons for coming to that conclusion were simple enough. Oh, when I was young I had some foolish ideas, but then I learned of something that illustrated how apathy could no longer be an option.

When I was five or so my family had long been secret supporters of the so-called "Dark League" - the underground bloodsports that eschewed the weak civilized rules of proper League matches. My father had recently found a Psi-dyke trying to investigate our estate.

She had just been captured when I first saw her, and was immediately impressed by the amount of hatred she had for me. I was just a child at that time and she had flung herself at the bars of her prison, claws slashing and words of the purest vitriol storming from her lips. It was that intelligent hatred, the reasoning light in her eyes as she tried to work out a way to get to me, as her mental attacks to try and lure me close caused pyrotechnic displays on the psychic grounding elements, and then turning all sweet and nice in order to try and beckon me closer. I ran upstairs, hearing her cursing and snarling and calling me a coward, terrified.

When I next saw the Psi-dyke I had come down to visit my father and he was using a chemical interrogation method to cause the psychic type to babble and be unable to focus her psychic talents. In my young and naive mind, I had first deemed it all some sort of story, a fabrication. A hidden pokegirl city where they planned the subjugation and eventual extermination of the human race? How silly it sounded! How could stupid pokegirls do such a thing?

Then, even as young as I was, I noticed my father's sobriety. Also that he had a psi-device I'd had used on me a few times - a truth-detector. The needle wasn't quivering, so there were no lies from the mouth of the Psi-dyke.

My father, who had joked and laughed much of his life seemed to lose his sense of humor after that. Just as well, I never got his jokes.

I have since run into the rumors repeatedly, tenuous stories only, never a location.

The fools, and I include Cologne in that category, speak of parity. They speak of a world where pokegirls can be trusted and given rights. That humanity would not end up on the dinner plate and then pass into legends about bad old men, that we would not end up enslaved and our numbers shrunk every year until extinction took the human species the way the old Neandrathal had gone.

I know better. They're out there somewhere. Gathering strength. Gathering resources. Waiting for the moment when the fools have handed over their trust.

The underground fights have been encouraged, with the most powerful survivors bred to produce even more powerful pokegirls. Genetic experimentation on pokegirls and on upgrading humans to beyond pokegirl levels. Experiments in stimulating Threshold, because once the mechanism is completely understood it can be halted.

No. I am neither mad nor evil. I simply do what must be done without the luxury of what the weak call "morality" or "ethics." The human race will survive or will drag their conquerers down with them into that final void.

This I have vowed.

-The fifth track on the "Portraits" album is simply called "Shadows" and is a largely instrumental moody piece dealing with unseen threats.

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"Threshold girl"

C) Amiedra Tengoku

"Are you sure you want to interview me? I mean... oh dear. Uhm. Okay, I guess.

"I was born Amiedra Stall, a human. I was a high school student who wanted to be a doctor. We don't have enough doctors who can treat humans, you know. Psychic healing is good but it can't treat nearly enough and so much was lost after the various sciences came into disrepute. Uhm, sorry.

"Anyway, I was in junior high school when I got sick. I was always thin, but suddenly my nails and hair started getting this odd blue color. My mother Kumori knew what this meant but not how. We were purebred humans and I was too young for Threshold. It was so strange.

"I was in denial at first. It couldn't be happening. My plans and my dreams were now unattainable. Pokegirls in Viridian weren't allowed even basic education after all.

"My mother being a doctor had made a number of contacts over the years and one of them was able to find a place for me. During transit I got very sick and when I came out of it, I was physically transformed. My tail had come in, my ears were up near the temple and I was a Kitten. Naked of course: pokegirls didn't own anything themselves. My glasses were taken from me, what did a pokegirl need to read anyway?

"The kind man who had taken me away from mother explained all this and that he had a nephew who already had a Kitten. As a favor to my mother, I was to be delivered to this nephew so that I could be properly assimilated to my new position. Due to events at a checkpoint, I was put through a Level 3 Programming. Just to make sure I knew my new status in life and wouldn't try to commit suicide or something.

"Uncle Jeff didn't like it but he was a canny old men and arguing with arrogant bullies who had shock-rods would likely get him in jail and I'd have gotten a Level 5 Programming. In which case I'd likely have been stuck saying 'meow' a lot and not remembering at all that I'd been human. My name was officially altered from Amiedra Stall to plain simple Ami.

"When we finally reached the house I was still somewhat in shock. I met my new owner, Mamoru, who turned out to be kind of cute and nice. He handed me a box, which turned out to have my glasses and some clothes sent ahead of me. I was quite grateful to see these signs that my life was not effectively over. Then when I got to the room I was to share, I was literally bowled over by this other Kitten saying hello in a most enthusiastic manner.

"That was how I met Mineko. It was hard to stay mad or depressed around her, and it was she who pointed out that while I couldn't be a doctor -there *were* pokegirl nurses and assistants. Kittens were also one of the most trusted and dependable sorts, so my dreams would have to adapt but I could still attain some measure of them.

"Mamoru promising to bring me home schoolwork and study materials also helped. All I had really known was study and schoolwork, and this measure of the familiar helped enormously. That and Mineko was always there to try and get me to lighten up and play.

"We were young, and so when we played or wrestled, it was just that. At age eleven our concerns were not quite what they would become. I was surprised when he got me that collar.

"Oh, I had been aware of the collar that Mineko wore. She'd even look at her reflection in the mirror and flick the tags. Hers was a basic collar, looking like a torc or something. The round leather tube sort with the tags and lead ring. Plain, cheap, but it said volumes. An adornment, status symbol, license to move around without fear of being captured if you went out of the house, and the symbol of something more important. It means that your owner or Tamer plans on keeping you and trusts you. I'd barely been there over a month before he got me one, like Mineko's a simple and plain model.

"I was quite unprepared for the feelings such a simple thing gave me. I had come to terms, to some extent, with the change. That I would legally be property and that my dreams would be again cancelled unless I somehow lucked out and found another owner as progressive as Mamoru. Now here was a sort of promise. I wouldn't have to find another owner and I could still be myself and follow those dreams.

"Mineko joked about how we had a Mamoru, a Mineko, and an Ami and that we ought to try and find an Usagi. Since we'd both read that old manga, we shared a joke there but Mamoru didn't get it. I still don't think he's read that story...

"It was maybe four months later that we were attacked. You know what happened, some sort of genetic experimentation had triggered my Threshold and two other Kittens were recovered when my Master used his Boost ability. I was *furious*! These people had stolen my dreams, my childhood, and my humanity! A local Researcher named Doctor Deviance (obviously a psuedonym) had made the determination but told us that pursuing the matter would likely only draw undesirable attention down on us.

"So now it was four of us, unusual for a non-Tamer to have one pet let alone four. Mary Phelps had been a shrine maiden, one who was training to become a priestess in the Thousand Gods faith. Makoto Rawlings had been a real 'bad girl' or juvenile delinquent but also a track star. Due to there now being a Makoto and Mineko's earlier joke, we finally managed to convince Mary to become M'rei. It was a more fitting name for a Kitten anyway. So officially we were four Kittens - Mineko, Ami, Makoto, and M'rei. We even managed to put together some uniforms and play out scenes from that old manga in the back yard while Mamoru was away at school.

"It was kind of a golden time for us after we got over the events that had brought us together. Playing and helping out around the house, helping with the local harvests. That little community has always had a fairly friendly policy towards pokegirls, and nobody much cared as long as we wore our collars and didn't break any laws. Everyone got to know us as 'Mamoru's Sailor Team' and we'd even go play in the park or along the street, looking for evil-doers to punish. 'In the name of catnip and cuddling, we'll punish you! Meow!' That kind of thing.

"We were also aware of the odd bond between Mamoru and Mineko. Mineko made sure that we all got quality time, but when Mineko and Mamoru were together there was something between them that you couldn't see but almost could feel. We learned right away that you could tickle Mineko and have Mamoru fall over laughing, and that neither of them could surprise the other, but we didn't understand until after we finally got to the whole Taming thing.

"Ah? Uhm, well, it was... interesting.

"We were just over fourteen so it was sort of early for us, but then we *were* living in close proximity with him. We shared the room, but we weren't sharing the bed unless we had nightmares. Mineko was first to show the symptoms, but then she apparently triggered the rest of us.

"My mood swings were terrible. One minute Mamoru was this trusted friend who was always nice and kind and was the same boy I'd known for the past three years. Then I'd suddenly want to beat him over the head for being such an idiot. Then I'd want to climb up into his clothes and hide. Then I'd want to run screaming away from him. And so on. We all realized that it was us, that Mamoru hadn't actually changed other than to look completely confused and pathetic a lot of the time.

"Oh. Mineko told you about that? Yes, uhm. I actually did do that to him during one of those mood swings. I wasn't aware of what I was doing! Mamoru's mother got a picture of that and she's been known to use it to embarass me at odd times. You do? Oh dear.

"Oh my. Yes that's it. My legs wrapped around his waist, my arms clutching him, my claws had come in at that point, and I'm biting his shoulder. Thankfully you can't see my face. Uhm. You're not going to run that picture, are you? Oh dear.

"Well eventually he was told what he had to do before one of us went Feral, or as would be more likely in that sort of situation, raped him.

"Well, technically in modern parlance it was a Taming, but neither he nor any of us really thought of it like that. It wasn't the sort of gentle, kind, patient thing we've got now... I didn't say that, did I? Oh dear. Uhm, anyway, the first time is always kind of, errr, inexperienced. Yes, that works.

"We received, partly due to our own nascent psychic talents and partly due to his talents, what they call a Second Level Bonding or just Bonding. Not the merely physical bonding that you get from pokegirl biochemistry, but the rarer psychic sort.

"I, I, I, I don't know about that! I've only known Mamoru and occasionally the others so I can't make any comparisons!

"Well, we got to see the bond between Mineko and Mamoru and even experience it some through our own bonds with him. We were quite jealous at first. He loves and trusts all of us, and we can feel it especially strong when we're physically close. At first the Bond between us wasn't that strong but it's gotten stronger. Still not what Mineko and Mamoru has, though we are trying to find a way to get that ourselves. Not that we're still jealous mind you.

"Recognition. Two souls that come together to complete each other. Even if we all died tomorrow, they'd be together no matter what happened. Were they born again a thousand years from now they'd meet again and fall in love. A psychic Bond means that we will never part for long in this life, we'll never grow tired of each other and we'll always find comfort in the presence of the others. But to be Recognized...

"Okay, maybe we're just a little bit jealous still.

"The four of us learned to play music and sing. Mineko was always the bubbly would-be star. If she hadn't been born a Kitten she'd have been a Diva.

"Mineko evolved to Catgirl right after we opened for the Baka Street Boys, she lost that slender Kitten quality but got a bit, uhm, chestier. We also got a ceremony after that. Somehow he'd managed to surprise even Mineko. Learning to mind shield after discovering what happened to us when he and Mineko were together, I suspect.

"Marrying one's pokegirls isn't illegal. It just isn't proper or done. Extremely scandalous in areas like Viridian. Still, the Thousand Gods faith makes allowances for something similar. We got another tag on our collar, a ring on our fingers, and a last name. I was briefly reunited with my mother who was just as happy and proud as she could be that I was continuing my education between concerts and doing so much for pokegirl rights.

"Makoto practically choked on her collar. She got so excited when she realized what was going on that she evolved to Tigress. M'rei became a Cheshire that night.

"A lot of people don't recognize it and a lot of areas ignore it. Instead we're just considered to be permanently Mamoru's property but as we make a lot of money they can see why he'd do it. Of course, that isn't why he did it at all and we know it.

"Nonononono! *That's* not it either. I mean. That is. He doesn't see us that way, not as property or as responsibilities or as pokegirls. Oh, how do I put it? To a lot of people, even today, we're simply trained pokegirls. I'm just a blue haired Kitten and Hotaru's just a Titmouse and Mineko is just a Catgirl that have been trained well. Pet owners I think would understand. He doesn't see me as Ami the Kitten or the poor little Threshold girl or even as some friend. I know because of the Bond. He sees *me*, he accepts my faults and there's this... delight in my differences. He listens and talks to me. He loves each of us, not the same, but also not for the same things. It's... hard to explain.

"Ah, yes, back to the, uhm, right.

"It was some of our toughest times. Working concerts, studying, trying to get our first album finished, our tour to promote that album, working at farms and odd jobs along the way. It was also an incredibly fulfilling and happy time, filled with cuddling up on cold nights and just the knowledge that while we had all once been free human beings - we were loved and cared for and at the pinnacle of what could be achieved considering our new status. Technically we were slaves and property but Mamoru never treated us like that, and through our bond we knew he regarded us as beloved and trustworthy partners. I can't really explain how it makes you feel to have that sort of undeniable conviction.

"We added a few roadies. There were some guys with similar attitudes with pokegirl "pets" who could help set things up or do work and also help defend us from pokegirl thieves and the occasional overenthusiastic fanboy (or fangirl as also happened.)

"We added Sakura after visiting a Breeder Ranch in the Edo League. There was this pokegirl with a sword, practicing chi attacks. When we left we were maybe a day out when Mamoru was trying to rest and he accidently found this extra pokeball.

"Sakura can be shy and demure and act the part of a proper deferential pokegirl. It's sort of an illusion. I know darn well that she Tamed Mamoru, not the other way around. By the time we let ourselves out of our pokeballs (a handy trick we've since perfected) it was too late and Makoto (who had been on guard) had been found unconscious. We tried to return her but the Breeder just laughed and said it was fate. No it wasn't, it was a sneaky pokegirl trying to get off a Ranch before she ended up with a nasty Tamer.

"She's mellowed a lot since then, has a nice voice and can do backup singing. She's also good with that sword and unarmed fighting techniques and gets along a lot better with Makoto. The two spar a lot.

"Also in Edo we ended up with a new drummer. Another Threshold girl, this one had become a Tomboy. She'd fled home when she went through Threshold, unable to face her family or friends, even though it wasn't that obvious she'd gone through any changes. Maya. We got her to change her name to Maya Tono after that manga. We were still snubbing Sakura for being so underhanded and wanted someone who fit our group a bit more.

"We were on tour in Johto when we were camped out and our violinist joined. She was this thin little thing who was in a panic, ran into our camp and hid inside the tent. When we saw this crazy looking guy come by with a piercing set looking for his lost Titmouse, Mamoru offered to buy the underage girl off of him.

"So, for about the price of a decent meal, we got a Titmouse. On getting a better look at her we immediately named her Hotaru and cleaned her up. We have no idea who she used to be and she'd obviously gone through a Level 4 Programming, but it doesn't much matter anymore. She's got her own fanclub now, did you hear? She can alternatively be as scary as a Goth or project that vulnerable cute persona that won our hearts over when we met her.

"Setsuna joined us not long after that. We were just setting up camp, I was studying my medical text, and I'm handed a cup of hot tea. I thanked her, expecting to hear Mineko's reply when I realize that wasn't Mineko's voice. Yes, it turned out to be Setsuna with her mysterious Megami ways. Acting like she'd always been part of our group. Well, at first she was mysterious. Still is in a lot of ways, but you should have seen... I'm not sure I should relate this.

"Well, ok. If you say so. She was calm and cool, unruffled by anything going on. She was just going to become a member of our band, and that was that. As if it had already been determined and it was inevitable. She also knew us, as if we were open books to her - even the roadies that were with us at the time. Well, yes, but we hadn't known that Megami often had psychic powers at that time. They're rare you know. We were all fairly common types: Kittens or evolved Kittens, a Ronin or Amazonlee, a Tomboy, and a Titmouse.

"Then Mamoru returned from his errands. She was smirking that little so-in-control smirk and driving us up the wall with her superior attitude. He must have had his shields up because he was planning on surprising Mineko with a new guitar. She could feel his presence but not what he was doing when he did that. Setsuna turned and looked at him and, well, the ice queen melted.

"Yes. I do know what happened. Mamoru was surprised and dropped his shield. Setsuna was probing him psionically and saw him in all his simple straightforward deeply caring self.

"Love at first second sight, I've heard it referred to as. Not Recognition but it was close. We later figured out that with her psionic gifts she had seen her destiny intertwined with us and had decided to just go ahead and insinuate herself in and gain control. Even though she is quite intelligent, she clearly did not factor in her own reactions to finding our Mamoru to be what we already knew him to be. From calm in-control Ice Queen to giddy schoolgirl who was stuttering and tripping over her own feet. She still gets that way frequently and it is still amusing.

"Honey was unusual. She joined us as a favor to Cologne of the Joketsuzoku. Who were we to refuse her request? Anyway, she's proven to be a valuable member of the band.

"Why are we retiring? Oh well. We're just not going to be on tour quite as much and spend more time at sort of... Uhm. That is. There's the medication to keep Cat types of the Kitten branch from going Feral, you know? Well, it's kind of... We were sort of... Then with Mineko and he, and she...

"Well, it's a good thing I'm studying Nursing and Midwifery, isn't it?"

-Taken from the January 305 AS "Pet Fancy"

-the sixth song on the album "Portraits" is Ami's "Don't Need To Be Tamed, I'd Rather Be Loved"

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"a Titmouse Blooms in Johto"

D) Philip Bloom III, Daedalus Enterprises

"Let me just say, Ms. Tengoku, I've been following your career and those of the rest of the Pussycats for quite some time. Adding Hotaru to your band was an inspiration to all of us out there with Titmice. The Titmouse is generally looked down on, they are, but those of us who has 'em are quite fond of the breed on their own merits.

"What does my company do? Well- you know there's lostech or the stuff we don't know how the Ancients managed or else they used resources we just don't have no more. Then there's the forbidden tech like those particle beam rifles Trauma Team has got. Recovery companies go in and find the lostech and try to figure out ways of makin' do, right? Well, what Daedalus does is concerned with one of those lostech things that we're making using modern materials.

"See, when the War broke out we lost some resources, and when things fell apart down in the Orange Islands they got e'en worse.

"Oh, here we are. Main floor of the plant. We use pokegirls who are partnered to humans mainly. Carefully licensed of course. We get some from the Boulder Ranch, a few from the Tendo Ranch (horrible business that was, hope he gets his stuff together again soon-like), and the bulk of our workers are from just like people in the area. Those that *do* have human partners we work out arrangements for the purchase of collars and the like.

"Oh, see there. That be my own Titmouse, Denim. She's a bit shy, and I'll admit she's not the brightest bulb in the pack, but she does her best and you really can't ask for more than that, eh? What she's doing right now is loading the packing balls into the hopper. See she's waving. She's... Oh dear. Well, I *did* say she wasn't the brightest. At least she didn't do something like that while she was loading the ink vats.

"Excuse me down there. Can someone get Denim out of the packing hopper? Thank you.

"What we build here are wiring harnesses. Mouse-types and other agile sorts have fingers that are especially good for detail work like that. A human would find this sort of thing all sorts of boring but for a Titmouse it's generally fine. Oh excuse me just a second.

"Can someone get Denim AND Brandy out of the packing hopper?

"Sorry. Hardly our brightest moment, is it? Doesn't normally go this poorly. Maybe it's because they recognize a celebrity? Perhaps.

"In any case here we make wiring harnesses for planes and boats. Over there we actually make the wires, over there the sleeves and connectors, and over there we make the control plants. We then ship these out to boatmakers along the coast. We also manufacture replacement parts for a number of other products, though we use human workers for that end of thing. Well, no, actually we *tried* using pokegirls for that end of things too. We just had a few... accidents. Some Ingenue would get distracted or something and then... We *had* to go to using humans.

"Oh crikey. I don't believe it and I just saw it happen. Tiffany? Check the conveyer belt for the package wrapping machine? Yes. No, just open a little bit near their mouths so they can breathe. Leave them tied up there for now.

"That's right buggered. First Denim, then Brandy, then Kyoko tries to pull them out and all three go over the rail. I haven't seen anything like this since the time Lucy was working in the candy factory. Hmmm? Oh, I own Daedalus and I own the Sweet Tooth Candy Factory on the other side of town.

"Never. Ever. Use Titmice in a candy factory. Or Pidgy. Titmice on a sugar buzz are not something you want to deal with on a regular basis. Pidgy get nearly as bad except they keep flying into walls. Terrible. At least if the Amazonlee get into the malted milk balls you don't have that much mess, just a lot of Very Near Humans stoned out of their minds on a sugar high.

"Hmmmm. Well, I don't suppose I'm giving you a lot of material you can actually use in a song, am I?"

-In the Mineko & The Pussycats' final album - "Portraits At An Exhibition", the track by Hotaru titled "Chocolate Parfait Monster" (detailing a very bad day at a chocolate factory) was their first foray into comedy. Despite being a "novelty" song it was one their most requested songs according to "Da Beat" magazine. The picture of Hotaru pouting and covered in chocolate was made available and sold over 120,000 copies in 306 AS.

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E) Boulder Ranch

"Hey, Tengoku-san! I've got all of your albums and... you didn't bring anyone with you? Oh. Darn.

"Okay, well, my name is Brock and I'm a Pokegirl Breeder. My goal in life is to be the best Pokegirl Breeder around! Admittedly I'm not as big as the Mendo or Tendo or Daisy Hill, but what I do here is quality not quantity and I certainly don't go for the Tamers types.

"You grew up in the country, right? Well close enough. So you know that fighting and sex is all that pokegirls are known for doing mainly because of the Tamers and League battles in the city. And you know that that's a load of fertilizer.

"Yeah, you use Feral girls for that if you only want strong attacks and a willing sex partner, but that's not what you visit a Ranch for. Too bad some of my so-called colleagues have forgotten that.

"Domesticated pokegirls and halfbreeds and Threshold girls. The first two originate here and the third was originally because we can provide a home and eventual placement service. Look at that one over there. She's Windsong, an Elf. She's a Domesticated who grew up right here and she has considerable skills with plant magic. I've had two offers from local farmers who want to hire her out, but I'm hoping that I can find a nice farm that'll take her on permanently when she turns 16 in a few months.

"Yeah, you know how it is at harvest-time. Just about any of the kits will lend a hand then, but look at some of these others. Uhm, not there. Look that was a mistake and I'm still trying to find homes for all of these Bunnies. They've got good hearts and are friendly as all, but they're a handful at times. Hey, they're all named Usagi, maybe you... You don't have to laugh like that.

"Now over here is more like what I was talking about and you've worked on farms so you know.

"We have Water types who help out fishing vessels or patrol waterways. We have Rock types who assist miners. We have Flying types who can act as couriers. Plant types normally assist with the planting and weeding and caring for growing crops. Any number of kinds work for being a pokegirl partner of a police officer. Then there are the jobs in firefighting, or in construction, or even things like road maintenence. You can't trust a Feral to do jobs like that, and without all that technology our ancestors had we use pokegirls to pick up the slack.

"There are a lot of jobs that can be done better by pairing up a Domesticated pokegirl and a human partner. Oh, sorry. I just get carried away sometimes.

"There's a Threshold girl right over there. When Nita came here she was a wreck - her family was one of those who wanted to sweep the incident under the rug. Despite the high number of girls with Threshold that attitude still seems pretty entrenched. Anyway, she's gotten a lot better and I've gotten scores back from her testing that she's rated as Cooking 2, Domestic 2. As soon as I had that I knew how to get prospectives and it wasn't long before I had a nice arrangement for her. She'll be working on the ferry to Cinnaboob Island, I know a guy there who'll get her some additional training in the kitchens there before she goes to work over in the Marina.

"Yup, a *good* Breeder has to wear a lot of hats. Not only do we have to breed them, which sometimes requires more talents than you might think, but we also have to be: teacher, dietician, engineer, scuba diver, matchmaker, cheerleader, job placement counselor, mother, doctor, an expert on pokegirl physiology and Threshold symptoms, and stern but loving disciplinarian.

"Each and every pokegirl that leaves this Ranch has the skills necessary to make a living for herself and to try her best in what is often a cold cruel world. But I do the best I can and so far it's been enough!"

-the song "Breeder's Blues" recounts the basic joys and pains of raising a child and then seeing them off into the world, of "kissing your hurts goodbye one day, kissing you goodbye the next" and "tearful hellos and farewells"

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F) Freja, level 36 Domesticated Sorceress, Tangerine Island

"Hey. I've heard some of your songs. Not bad though I generally prefer Bach myself.

"Well, I'm a typical Domesticated, I suppose. Not that a Feral Witch evolves. You have to be able to read and speak to manipulate magic to my degree.

"My spells? Well, all Sorceresses specialize in a particular field of magic or else a type of magic. So a Sorceress might be a specialist in Invocation or a specialist in spells that are defensive.

"My specialty is what they call Divination. Hence the name of the company: Freja Informational Services. Lose a Kitten? I'll track her down. Relative gone missing? No problem. Not sure where your life is going? Tricky but I can usually get a basic reading on the near future at least. What's your love life going to be in the near future? I get *that* a lot.

"I also do some work for the Police every so often. Forensic work mainly. Does this blood match this blood? Was this pipe the murder weapon? Who framed Brenda Bunny?

"Oh heavens, Mineko Tengoku. In *your* case it's way too easy. You Recognized your soul-mate. Unless the shadows lurking in your future manage to cut you down, I foresee a bright future. Hmmm. Yeah. There's shadows springing up lately in a *lot* of people's futures. Even if they do you'll meet in the next life.

"I don't want to get into that. There's three sources of these shadows. One is in the League itself, the others are far to the West and one far to the East. I have some ideas but I foresee shadows in *my* future if I get too nosy.

"Magic isn't exact, usually. One of the frustrating things about it.

"Did you see that cute guy who works the front desk and screens calls? Yeah, he's mine. Technically and legally he's my owner but actually he's more of a partner or employee.

"No. Don't confuse me with some Psi-Dyke or Pokegirl Supremist like those Pirates. I'm not a Domina either. It's a practical thing and he and I manage a measure of happiness. As I'm a Sorceress I'm not some meek Titmouse and I'll rip into him from time to time but I feel it's better to divide areas of control.

"Hmmm. Since we're on the subject, and this *is* on the record (so to speak), let me say something. I don't know if Cologne's parity is possible, but I *have* heard from some of these morons who feel that maybe the human race's time has come and gone. Just one word: MORONS!

"Oh, I suppose you want an explanation. Without getting off on too much of a tangent this usually comes from people who have been exposed to the preachings of certain factions and just accept them at face value. They'll question the mainstream society but don't question these other sources. Foolishness.

"Humans and pokegirls are related. Can a pokegirl give birth to a human child? Yes, it happens all the time and not all those children go through Threshold. Can a human mother give birth to a pokegirl? Yes, if there is pokegirl ancestry somewhere in the past. Are more humans being born with Blood Gifts all the time? Yes! Our lives and destinies are intertwined. If the human species, homo sapiens enhancus, dies off so will pokegirls. If the pokegirls die off at this point, so will humanity. I have Seen this. There is too much crossover between the species like two vines which have grown together.

"Sorry. It just bothers me sometimes. And all this talk about raising the breeds of pokegirls over the race of humanity coming from some people merely fuels the flame of paranoia. It isn't practical or likely. That's just my opinion, though, not something I have Seen.

"Anyway the business is good. Plenty of people wanting to check on things. For example, I recently had to do a fairly complicated spell to look at two people who had an arranged marriage. Both families wanted to determine that the other had no pokegirl ancestry. Did they have anything particular against pokegirls? No, they hired me after all. It was merely important to them to maintain a clean history. It was distasteful, but I took the job and determined that both *were* purebred. I didn't tell them that the young lady in question was having all sorts of fun with the downstairs maid - an Eva. They didn't pay for that information anyway.

"Hmmm? Well, that's the problem with a war nowadays between man and pokegirl. There's way too much collusion with the enemy.

"Back to business. Sometimes I use other pokegirls in my work, there's times you need to do legwork on a case. A lot of spells require you go to the site or travel to locations frequented by the target or whatever. There's a courier service down the block that uses Carrier Pidgy, I use them frequently. They're cheep. Sorry, couldn't resist though it *is* an old joke.

"There's a bar down on Milne Street: "Becerra's" - a few Goth working there but it's also known as a place for those friendly to pokegirls as a hangout. You get to know the regulars and some of them are good sources of information, and the occasional job. You know how some people are, they don't pay attention to the hired help. One of the little things is that even if the speaker is a pokegirl herself, she usually overlooks the Titmice and Kittens. The help is part of the background, you know.

"There's dangerous jobs, and there's an Amachamp I've worked with frequently. Mary Blackhand. Makes a darn good bodyguard or just when you need someone to look intimidating. Used to work on the pit-fighting circuit, you know- the Dark League. Yeah, well her owner got what was coming to him during a police raid. Mary escaped, found this decent sort of guy while she was on the run, and got registered as his pet. They're an odd couple, I'll admit. She's a bruiser whose previous idea of a nice time was not being chained to the wall between fights. He's this accountant nerd who looks like a strong wind would break him. It's weird to watch her fawn over him, but apparently he knows how to scratch her itch. She's still tough enough that she can take out opponents you'd swear a Fighting type couldn't scratch.

"When it's raining, and along the coast here it's frequent, some of the Flying types will hang around Becerra's place until the downpour lets up. The ones that do inter-island flying usually have some decent stories to tell, stuff that don't get in the news. Sometimes it gives me an idea of what's coming down the pike.

"Hey, I've heard you met that kid Ash. Is he half what he's cracked up to be? Hmmm. Hopeful that. No, I didn't catch Ranma's big speech. I've seen the transcripts and I've heard the stories though. Makes me sorry I missed it.

"Big problems? Well yeah. I did take one case that turned out to be a problem and a half. Off the record I could mention it, but this is one of those 'if the word got out there'd be panic' stories. Yeah, you actually *are* better off not knowing. My partner out there had the shakes for a week when we found out what happened to some kid whose only problem was he tried to keep some Pirates from snatching a Threshold girl who happened to be a childhood sweetheart. Considering your bond to your manager, you'd probably all get paranoid when working in their territory.

"Though maybe you ought to. Shadows, you know."

-The last track on "Portraits" was M'rei's solo "Breaking Barriers, Not Hearts" - dealing with the fact that pokegirls were now being employed at jobs that once only humans held and vice versa. At the end of the song she reveals that she was going to be one of the first accepted pokegirls to become a full priestess of the faith of the Thousand Gods and tend to the spiritual needs of pokegirls at the new University that her and her sisters were going to found.