[GCEA Short Story Comp] A Reason To Change

[[Desolate Divine]]

Notes
-This is based eighteen months after the end of GCEA Hoenn.
-Elizabeth is Jacob's mother. Noah is his stepfather. Laura, Jamie and Melody are Jacob's younger half-siblings. Phoebe is his wife.
-Gwaine is Jacob's Gallade.

Act #1: Daisy-Chains

Spoiler:

“Eighteen months past, and Hoenn continues to rebuild after the Shadow Crisis….”

I soon after changed the channel. I had had enough of the Hoenn Crisis to last a lifetime. The only reason I left it on that long, was that it showed footage Gwaine fighting an invisible being that destroyed numerous buildings, taken from someone's phone. Nobody but us could see Deoxys on that day.

It was a slightly cold autumn day in Mauville. Lunchtime on a Saturday. The heater died a week after Phoebe and I moved into this crappy apartment.. A week after we got married. So far it’s been three months, and it is only going to get colder. I pulled my hood onto my head, and made a mental note to get that repaired when we could afford it. Phoebe was at university full time, as well as working a part time job, whilst I was stuck working in a factory. I had applied at several security places, but lacked the qualifications. Apparently saving Hoenn means nothing if you don’t have a certificate to say you are qualified in conflict resolution. Point being, money is tight sometimes.

I heard footsteps as Phoebe walked into the room, and fell back onto the couch next to me, resting her head on my shoulder.

“How’re you feeling?” I asked her. The last few days she had been pale, and had an upset stomach.

“Not one hundred percent, but better.” she replied, hardly moving. She seemed anxious.

“If you aren’t feeling up to it, we can skip tonight.” I said, turning to face her directly, “Laura will understand.”

“No, seriously, I’ll be fine.” Phoebe replied, forcing a smile, “We aren’t missing your sisters eighteenth birthday because of this!”

I tried to argue, but was interrupted by my phone ringing. Laura.

“Speak of the devil…” I muttered to myself before answering the phone, “Hey.”

“Hey, what’re you doing today?” Laura asked.

“Not much.” I replied, “Noah told me off for not servicing the car, and told me how to do it, so I was hoping to get that done today.”

“Can it wait?” Laura asked, sounding somewhat on-edge.

“It’s already waited thirty thousand kilometers so I think it can wait a few more.” I asked, “What’s up?”
“We rented a heap of lighting for the party tonight. The guys at the shop said we have everything we need, but Dad can’t figure it out and is this close to throwing it through a window.”, Laura explained, “And because he is stressed, Mum is just as stressed. Could you please come by early and help him figure it out?”

“Sure. I’ll be there in half an hour.” I said, before saying goodbye and hanging up, and facing Phoebe.

“I’ll drive over and help him out, then come back and get you. Get some rest while I’m gone. Okay?”

“Stuff that.” Phoebe laughed, “I’m not dying. I’ll come and give your mum a hand and we can just get ready there.”

Before I had a chance to ask her if she was sure and argue with her, she got up and made her way back to our room to get her dress for the night. I sighed before following her to gather what I needed.

When we were ready, we jumped in the piece of s**t that we call our car, and drove to Mum and Noah’s house on the other side of Mauville. When we arrived, we let ourselves in and walked through the house to the backyard. The swear jar seemed a fair bit fuller than it was when we came for dinner the other night. Soon we heard why.

“For f**k’s sake!”

Phoebe went in to give Mum a hand with the food for the party, taking Gwaine’s Pokeball with her, whilst I walked over to Noah.

“At this rate you’ll have enough money in that jar to put Jamie and Melody through college by the end of the night.” I said as I walked over.

“These things make no f**king sense.” Noah muttered, “The guys at the shop are useless. They said I have everything I need but there is only one DMX port.”

I looked at the large assortment of equipment that was on our decking. Large colored stage lights, strings of halogen globes and fairy lights, an old looking dimmer, as well as all the leads, a book of instructions for the kit and a laptop to go with it. This must have cost a small fortune.

“Do you know anything about this?” Noah asked, “Because if you don’t, we have nothing.”

“I can find out.” I replied, “Go grab me a drink, while I figure this out.”

Usually Noah would laugh in my face at me telling him to get me a drink, but I needed some time to figure this out and it’d take longer with him getting riled up. This time, he obliged, and went inside. I pulled out my phone and jumped on google.

Stage Lighting for Dummies

Within seconds, I had hundreds of articles in front of me explaining it. I opened a YouTube clip that proceeded to explain how DMX lighting worked. After watching a few of them, I had a bit of an idea. Noah returned with my drink as I closed the browser.

“DMX works by daisy chaining.” I said, “Let’s get the lights where we want them for now, then we can wire them up.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing.” Noah muttered, “It’ll look pretty stupid if we have these all mounted and none of them work.”

We mounted the lights, and put the dimmer with the strings of halogen lights and fairy lights. The book said we had to run a lead from the DMX adaptor with the laptop to the DMX input on the dimmer, then run leads from certain dimmer channels to certain lights for it to work. Once it was done, I ran one of the presets on the computer, causing them to turn on and flicker slightly.

“Told you.” I said, “You only need one DMX port. These work by being daisy-chained.”

We ran leads from one light to the next, until all of them were connected via one very long daisy-chain. After that, all that was left was to program the coloured stage lights. I have Noah half of the channel numbers and showed him how to do it, before doing half myself. Within an hour they were all working. When we finished, Noah disappeared for a minute and returned with a beer.

“It’s 4pm and we’re already drinking?” I asked, “This must really be getting to you.”

“I owe you one.” Noah replied, taking a sip.

“That you do…” I muttered before opening my beer.

“So have you serviced the car yet?” Noah asked, “I’m taking your keys if you say no.”

“Are you kidding?” I retorted, “I was going to today, until Laura told me her dad was having a meltdown because of some lights…”

Noah remained silent for a few seconds, taking another sip of his beer.

“Fair enough. Just get it done."

Act #2: Let It Go

Spoiler:

The sun went down about an hour later, before Phoebe disappeared to my old room in the attic to get dressed. She was gone for nearly three quarters of an hour before returning. Meanwhile, I went to the bathroom and swapped my torn jeans for a pair of charcoal skinny jeans, and my t-shirt for a nicer button up one. I used my hand to brush my hair out of my face, and make sure my beard didn’t look too messy, and was ready in five minutes.

Guests arrived at seven or so that evening, and before I knew it, the house was filled with eighteen year olds, and a few fifty year old family friends. I went to get myself a drink, however was stopped for a second by Laura.

“Don’t do anything stupid.” She said, half jokingly, half sternly.

“Me? Do anything stupid?” I asked, “Never!”

“If I didn’t like your wife, I’d have not invited you…” Laura muttered. Before anything else was said, we both noticed someone enter. @Brettles.

“Why did you invite him?” I asked, slightly irritated. I hadn’t seen Brettles since the Hoenn Crisis, and even then that only ended when it did after I slashed Brettles across the back when he tried to stop me from killing Deoxys. He was the last person I wanted to see.

“Brettles is my friend…” Laura said, “Seriously, if you can’t play nice, stay away from him.”

Laura walked over to greet Brettles, whilst I made my way outside to the fire where Phoebe stood.

“Brettles is here.” I muttered. Phoebe’s expression saddened slightly.

“If you’re not ready to sort things out, you don’t have to. You guys went through a fair bit.” Phoebe said, “Just talk to other people.”

“I’m not gonna sort things out. He put his ideology before everyone else, and nearly got us all killed. Until he realizes that I have nothing to say to him.”

“He made a mistake, and I agree, he was wrong to do that.” Phoebe explained, “But everyone screws up every so often. And if you hold grudges because of that, you’ll end up as a very lonely person.

“I’ll still have you though. That’s all that matters.”

Phoebe couldn’t help but smile at the cheesy comment.

“Yes, you’ll still have me.”

A few hours passed as I went around speaking to different people. Friends, family, step-family and some strangers. Occasionally if I was by myself, I’d have telepathic conversations with Gwaine, who was walking around with a tray of food. When Mum suggested he help serve food, I objected, saying it was demeaning to have a Pokemon like him carrying food, however he didn’t mind.

I was glad to see Lucian arrive. I wasn’t keen on talking to many of the people there, and didn’t want to be clingy towards my wife, so having an old friend made it a bit easier. We chatted and had a few drinks, and had an all-round good time. Until I saw my brother bringing someone over. Until he showed up.

Not Brettles. Someone worse. Jack.

Jack was one of Noah’s friends from when they were teenagers. The thing is that Noah grew up and Jack didn’t. He was nearly fifty, but still acted like an arrogant teenager. He was just a flat out obnoxious and rude person. He was bald, and stood a few inches taller than myself, but weighed probably double what I do. I didn’t see him often, but the few times I did, the only reason I put up with him was out of respect for Noah.

“This is my brother Jacob.” Jamie said to Jack as they arrived. He was only thirteen, and didn’t realize how much of an a**hole Jack was.

“We’ve met before.” I said, shaking his hand, whilst hoping he’d leave.

“Yeah, you’re what Noah got stuck with when he met Elizabeth.” Jack said with a laugh loud enough that you’d think he had discovered the funniest joke since the one about the chicken crossing the road.

“Well believe me, I’d hate for my dad dying and me having nowhere else to go to be an inconvenience to Noah.” I replied sharply, wondering how Noah was every friends with this a*shole. I could feel Lucian staring at me, telling me the same thing Laura said earlier that night. Don’t do anything stupid.

Jack hung around us for another half hour, telling stories and making jokes that served as a reminder as to why I hated him.

“Noah used to be heaps of fun, until he met Elizabeth.” Jack said bitterly. Whilst Mum and I had a strained relationship, I still struggled not to hit this guy for disrespecting her.

“I guess that’s what women do though. Just drain the life out of us…”

As he talked, I was understanding more and more how he never got married or had kids…

“What about you? Do you have a girlfriend?” he asked me. I looked around and spotted Phoebe by the bench in the kitchen, talking to Mum.

“Over there.” I replied, nodding towards Phoebe, “That’s my wife in the black dress.”

Jack turned around, and spotted Phoebe before whistling under his breath.

“Damn. And she is in the kitchen as well! It didn’t take you long to train her properly.” Jack said with a grin, “But how does someone with a face like yours get a girl like that?”

I felt my hand curl into a fist, before feeling Lucian nudge me in the back. He could see where this was going…

“I guess I just have a great personality....” I muttered under my breath, trying to calm myself down.

“So how does she go, if you know what I mean?” Jack asked, “She go alright?”


I grabbed a can of Canadian Club and Dry and gave it to Jamie.

“Can you please give this to Phoebe. They’re her favorite.”

As soon as Jamie was out of hearing range, I looked Jack dead in the eye.

“If you have any idea of what’s good for you, you’ll never talk about my wife like that again…” I said coldly. Jack seemed surprised, before a scowl appeared on his face. He took a step towards me.

“And what are you gonna do about it?” he replied, not breaking eye contact for a second.

“Let it go Jacob. For Laura.” Lucian insisted from behind me. I didn’t budge.

“Okay, let me make this incredibly clear, so that someone with your IQ can comprehend it.” I said to Jack, “If you value being able to use your legs for the next month or two, walk your fat a*s to the other end of the house, and stay away from me and my wife…”

Jack didn’t break eye contact, and I thought he was going to hit me. Except he didn’t. He just smiled.

“Whatever you say tough guy.” he said, before turning and walking away. Lucian quickly walked over to where Jack was standing.

“I thought I told you to let it go.” Lucian said irritably, “He is an a*shole, sure, but you don’t need to get into fights with everyone who disrespects you.”

“That was me letting hit go. Otherwise I would have broken his legs.” I replied, “Besides, I haven’t gotten into a fight in a while.”

Before I had a chance to notice and leave, we were joined by Brettles, who greeted us and shook Lucian’s hand.

“It’s been awhile since the three of us have been together.” Brettles said, “And I heard you got married Jacob! I guess congratulations are in order.”

“Thanks,” I replied coldly.

Lucian said something else but my attention was elsewhere. Over his shoulder, I saw Phoebe standing over the bench talking to Mum, and Jack walk next to her. Before I realized what was going on, his hand was grabbing her a*s. Phoebe swung around and said something, that I could only guess was “What the f**k?!”, before slapping him. She then said something else to him, with a look of disgust, before he walked away.

I walked past Lucian and Brettles, and rushed over to Phoebe.

“I’m going to kick his a*s…” I muttered to her as she noticed me approaching.

“Don’t.” Phoebe replied, “It’s nothing.”

“Nothing my a*s…” I said, before grabbing the still unopened can Jamie gave to her.

“Hey, a*shole!” I shouted across the room at Jack, before throwing the can at him. The side of it smacked him in the back of the head, knocking him forward slightly. He turned to face me like an enraged bull, as the room went silent.

“You stupid little p***k!” he shouted, as he moved towards me and went to throw a punch. I blocked it with my left arm, before slamming my right fist into his jaw, and throwing him to the ground.

He hit the floorboards beneath him with a thud, as I kicked him in the stomach.

“You think you can just walk up to a girl and grope her like that?!” I yelled, “Get the f**k up! ‘Cause I could enjoy kicking the s**t out of you all night!”

Jack stood up, grabbing a glass bottle off the nearby coffee table. He raised it, as I raised my arms to shield myself, however before he could swing, he was surrounded by a blue aura.

“How many times have I saved you from a trip to the hospital?” Gwaine muttered telepathically as he made his way out to me from the crowd.

Jack was lifted into the air, and turned face up, before being dropped to the ground. He slowly got up.

“F**ing coward!” he shouted, “Hiding behind your Pokemon!”

“That’s enough!” Noah shouted as he walked over and stood between Jack and I.

“Bulls**t that’s enough!” Jack yelled, “Let’s take this outside, seeing as this motherf**ker needs to hide behind his Pokemon!”

“You only wanna go outside so that nobody sees you get the s**t beaten out of you like the b***h that you are!” I shouted, as I lunged at him, grabbing him by the shirt, and managing to punch him before being pulled off by Noah.

“Noah, you’re supposed to be a cop!” Jack said, “I was just having a conversation before I was assaulted by this f**kwit.”


“You know what Jack, just shut up.” Noah yelled, “I saw what you did to her, and you’re lucky that I was around to stop it from being a lot worse! We aren’t teenagers anymore! You can’t just do that to a girl, and think that’s okay! I might have been stupid enough to find it funny back then, but really, what you did was wrong, and you deserve what happened! For f**s sake, if you did that to my wife, I’d do the exact same thing!”

“This is the biggest load of bullsh-”

“Just get out! You’re right! I’m a cop, and you’re no longer welcome here! So if you don’t want to be charged with trespassing, leave now!”

Jack faced me before leaving.

“I’ll be waiting for you outside, you little s**tstain!”

“You’ll have more than just s**tstains by the time I’m done with you!” I shouted as I went to hit him, before being grabbed by Noah.

“Go upstairs and calm down!” Noah said, “I’ll get rid of him.”

I swore under my breath before making my way to the staircase, as dozens of people moved out of my way. I made my way to my old bedroom, and walked in, slamming the door behind me, and bashing my fist against the wall. I sat on my old bed and put my head in my hands.

“For f**k’s sake…” I muttered. A few seconds later, there was a knock at the door, and a voice.

“It’s me…. Can I come in?”

Phoebe…

Act #3: Happiness and Horror

Spoiler:

“Is there something wrong with me?” I asked as Phoebe walked in, closing the door behind her, “Like something else wrong that I just haven’t pick up on?”

Phoebe was silent as she sat down next to me.

“I mean, yes I have a short fuse, and I am quick to throw punches,” I explained, “But even when I want to just go to a party and have a good night, I have people telling me to behave myself, when there should be no reason for me blow up. But then something happens, and I prove them right and blow up anyway!”

“That could have happened anywhere Jacob.” Phoebe said, “The world is full of people like him. It just so happened that one was here tonight, and even then, this whole thing started because of him. Lucian told me what happened.”

“Lucian told me to just let it go. And even if I wanted to, I couldn’t do that.” I replied, “Why? Why must every altercation I have end in violence? Before the Hoenn Crisis, I was nowhere near this bad. Those two fights with Blake were the only fights I got into. Then for the next year or so, it was fight or be killed. And now, I am stuck like this…”

I got up and walked towards the window and looked out. People looked like they were talking again, but it still seemed awkward and quiet.

“Laura’s gonna hate me for this…” I muttered, “I don’t know why she invited that guy. She hates him as much as I do.”

“Your mum said Noah asked her to. Apparently he gets s**ty with Noah if he doesn’t get invited to this stuff, and Noah didn’t think it’d be too much trouble.” Phoebe explained, “Laura will get over it. Just apologize and give her some time. Eventually she’ll understand why you did it.”


“Still, why is my first instinct to just be violent? I have no reason to stay this way. I just want to live a normal life, but I don’t let myself have that.”

Phoebe sighed to herself, before whispering.

“I thought I’d have a little bit more time to get my head around this myself before I told you…”

I turned around slightly confused.

“What are you talking about?”


Phoebe stood up and walked over to me and took my hands in hers.

“You changed into who you are today because you had to. Hoenn needed you to. That was your reason. That’s why you changed.” Phoebe said, “And now I need you to change. We need you to change. Now. That’s your reason.”

Phoebe had just managed to confuse me even more.

“What are you saying?” I asked, “Because you have needed me to change since the Hoenn Crisis ended, and nothing has happened. Why is now any different?”

“Because…” Phoebe said, before pausing, “I’m pregnant.”

I was in shock. That was the last thing I was expecting to hear.

“Wait, how?”

“I think you know how Jacob…” Phoebe muttered with a slight laugh.

“Are you sure?” I asked, still in disbelief.

“I have had a hunch for a few days, and did one of the home tests last night.” Phoebe explained, “I wanted to wait until after the party, since I wasn’t sure how you’d take it.”

“What do you mean, how I’d take it?” I asked.

“We’ve been married three months, and have next to nothing. I still have another year or two at university, and you are trying to find a more permanent job. We knew we’d get by, even just, but this changes everything.” Phoebe said, “I wanted you to have a good night tonight before we had to start worrying about this…”

“So why are you telling me now?” I replied.

“Well let’s be honest, tonight is a write off.” Phoebe muttered, “But it goes back to what I was saying before. You need a reason to change? This is your reason. You’re going to be a dad, and that means that if one of the other dads at school insults you, you need to be able to control yourself. You won’t be able to be a good father if you end up in jail or killed…”

“Holy s**t…” I muttered, before hugging Phoebe, “I’m going to be a dad…”

“I love you, and I don’t expect you to just become some pacifist overnight.” Phoebe said, “I married you, short fuse and all. Just promise me you’ll try and change… For our sake…”

“I’ll try.” I replied, "I just have one question."

"What's that?" Phoebe asked, "You do know where babies come from right?"

"Not about that." I replied, "What did you say to Jack before he walked off?"

Phoebe couldn't help but laugh.

"I hope for your sake my husband didn't see that..."

We made our way downstairs a few minutes later. I could only imagine what people thought happened up there based on the stupid grin that was on my face the rest of the night.

I eventually found Laura talking to a few of her friends. I made my way towards her, and her friends went silent.

“Can we talk for a minute?” I asked, trying to avoid the death stares of half a dozen eighteen year olds.

Laura was silent, but followed me towards the back yard where we’d have a little more privacy. I went to speak but Laura beat me to it.

“One thing I asked! One f**king thing!” Laura exclaimed, “Don’t do anything stupid!”

“He made filthy comments about my wife and grabbed her a*s…” I muttered.

“You couldn’t have just pulled him out onto the street and kicked his a*s there?” Laura asked, “He deserved everything he got, but everyone saw you in that state. S**t, no guys will go anywhere near me now, because they’ll think that my psycho brother will kill them…”

“I’m sorry. It was a bad call that I made, even when everyone else told me not to.” I replied, though Laura remained silent for a little bit.

“At least you know you won’t see Jack again.”

Laura chuckled to herself for a second.

“I guess I can thank you for that. I swear to God, every time he came around, I could have sworn he was checking me out…” Laura muttered, “I should have told you that earlier. You could have kicked his a*s without interfering with my party. And I wouldn’t have had to invite him.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at her comments.

“So why are you in such a good mood? For someone who just beat the s**t out of someone else for doing the stuff that he did, you seem too happy.” Laura asked.

Phoebe and I had decided to keep it between us for tonight, however I decided to bend the rules slightly.

“I’ll tell you since I owe you one,” I explained, “But this has to stay between us for now…”

“If there was any funny business going on up there, I am going to puke, then hit you.” Laura said.

“Do you prefer aunt or auntie?” I asked, “You have about nine months to pick one…”


It took Laura a second to figure out what I said, before her face erupted into an expression of sheer disbelief.

“Phoebe is…”

“Yep…”

“And you’re gonna be…”

“A dad… Somehow…”

“So you guys…” Laura said, before realizing what she was saying, and groaning in disgust, “Oh gross, I don’t wanna talk about that!”

I couldn’t help but laugh at her reaction. I turned to go find Phoebe and leave Laura alone in her happiness and horror.

The rest of the night was fairly uneventful. Granted, considering how eventful it was before that, we were happy for the change of pace. Phoebe and I didn’t end up staying too late. I had a few drinks and couldn’t drive, and Phoebe was starting to get tired, so we called it a night at about eleven.

As I lay awake in bed an hour later, too excited to sleep, there was one thought that crossed my mind.

I will change…