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"37!? What, in a row?" I mean, I guess kinda not in a row? But hell, I'm glad we got to Clerks numbers.

The people who got that are groaning, now.

So! First thing Shine noticed was his voice changed! Odd! Especially since that was well before the structures of his face and sinuses and throat would have changed! Okay, yeah, this is a relic from a concept I was working on a few years ago where people started randomly transforming into Pokemon, and the first thing...sign or whatever that the person was on their way to Pokemonhood was that they would, yanno, start spontaneously start speaking in their soon-to-be new species' language...and that it wouldn't sound strange to them. Like that they would have to focus to hear the actual sounds they were making, and anyone who spoke any Pokemon language could converse regardless of their native language as a human, and that the very act of speaking would trigger the changes in their body, so you could have someone in a partially changed state holding that partial change as long as they refused to make any vocal noise, or someone who sped through the changes extremely quickly by not realizing or just generally being a motormouth, and then there were going to be groups of transformed Pokemon who would get together to increase their ability to make phonemes so they could speak with the humans in their lives again, and it was a whole thing. Soo, I liked that, and the themes of communication and all...but I already have a big giant ill-advised fanwork to obsess over, and lifting some characters, events, and concepts from that and transplanting it to an entirely original setup seemed advisable.

So I did that!

So yeah, that's where Steel and the Fancy Man initially came from, as well as the concept of someone who could help provide Shine some community just fuckin' ditching him while he's confused and desperate. Oh right, we're not to discussing those emotions just yet. I guess this is where I stop talking about that to avoid going into spoiler territory.

Um...elsewise? I guess we're officially establishing Shine's pseudo-telepathic speech? So that's a thing!

Is this where we ask why he always opens his mouth to talk, instead of Garfielding? Because I just didn't want him to be Garfielding. And he is making noise while he does it, simply for his own peace of mind...it's just not words, but quiet equine wuffling that comes out.

Lewis seems surprisingly nonchalant about pseudo-psychic alicorns. -_- I re-worked this scene so many times trying to find some semblance of balance between getting the information out that needed to be put out, showing the anger and frustration with both Lewis and Shine, and trying to keep this from grinding to a heavy, depressing slog. I don't know if this scene is where it should be, but it's in a shape that it does establish important things, characterized the Players at least a little bit, and continues to drive the story, so it's where it needs to be as well as I'm able to get it there...hopefully it'll come out alright to you guys.

^_^;; ...I should also make a point to say that the Pokemon story is far from the only concept I rolled into this story. I mean, that play doesn't have anything to do with Pokemon, after all! (Plus the themes of communication and stuff aren't anywhere near as prevalent in this iteration of the story. New Normal's absorbed a lot of half-formed plot shards I've had floating around for a long time.)