Chapter Text
"...whether there is one or many is highly contested. Confirmation is difficult, as this pokemon is elusive and rarely seen by humans…
There exist no confirmed instances of Celebi bonding with a human. In Johtoan folklore, Celebi is depicted as... fiercely possessive of those whom they bond with.
[In mythology it was said that] ...to become bonded with Celebi is to be robbed of your personhood. What exactly this entails varies across different regions, time periods, and cultural groups, ranging from human transformation into members of the species, alternation to how one experiences time [from linear to nonlinear], or no longer experiencing the effects of time, becoming functionally immortal. Regardless, all depictions portray the resulting consequences on the human body as detrimental. As pokemon became less feared, this depiction of Celebi…"
–Excerpt from Mythical Mythos: Perceptions of Mythical Pokemon Through the Lens of Folklore and Mythology
~
They first came to know them in the wake of great tragedy. The younger one traveled far, only to fall to his knees at their altar.
Please, he begged. Please, I must see my brother again.
They were no stranger to the pleas and wishes of desperate people and pokemon alike. Please, heal me. Please, cure me. Please, bring back my long-gone loved one. Please, let me go back and do it right this time.
They rarely heeded the call of the forlorn who knelt at their altar, deep in the forest. The hopeless would empty themselves of tears, feeding the earth with their anguish. Eventually, when their tears had dried, they would leave.
The one whom the downtrodden sought did not appear before them. Hidden in the shadows of the leaves, they watched, unblinking. They would not reveal themselves. They would not bring more of the desperate and lost to their doorstep. They would not ruin the peacefulness of their home.
(If some of those who visited their altar later (or earlier) found themselves miraculously better off than they were before… Well, that was just good fortune, wasn’t it?)
(The whispers, that those with whom they crossed paths would experience great fortune, were not founded on nothing.)
And so, it was despite themselves—when they heard the human’s desperate pleas, his story of a brother unfairly ripped from his own time and place to another that was altogether foreign—that they listened.
They fluttered down from their hiding spot amidst the copse of trees and settled on the altar. Quiet. Waited until the sobs that wracked his body slowed to the occasional hiccup. Tears still flowed freely, fat droplets trailing down his splotchy-red cheeks into the damp earth. They reached for his face. He flinched from the suddenness of it, and looked up at them with eyes wide in shock. It was likely for that same reason that he did not immediately pull away from their gentle touch. They wiped the tracks of tears from his cheeks before their hands retreated back to rest in their lap.
He blinked, and rubbed at his eyes, scrubbing away the tears, perhaps out of some misplaced sense of propriety, or perhaps simply to clear his vision in order to confirm who sat before him.
They tilted their head to the side, studying him. He stared at them in turn, gaze appraising despite the tear tracks down his cheeks. They waited for him to finish his examination and collect his thoughts. They were in no hurry. They had all the time in the world.
(That wound which plagued this human was one not easily healed. Wounds in the flesh of time never were. But they did always heal. They made sure of it.)
A hesitant smile began to creep back onto his face. They returned it with one of their own, shy and unsure. It felt crooked on their face. His eyes widened briefly before darting away from their poor attempt at a smile. He let out a weak, breathy laugh, hand tangled in his hair as a fresh wave of tears cascaded down his cheeks.
They let the smile fall from their face. They had not meant to upset him.
But as he wiped the fresh tears from his eyes, his smile had softened into something more genuine.
You will help me? He finally asked.
They pressed their forehead to his.
Yes, they answered.
(Yes, they promised.)