Spacemon: Origins – The Light in the Dark, Part 3

Welcome to another heart-wrenching installment of Spacemon, the tale of a Pokemon TRPG campaign! This is the final part of a three-part origin story for the newest player character that has been inserted at this point in the story to provide context for future installments. You can get caught up on the entire Spacemon saga here!

The evening shadows stretch along the streets of Khirpai. The perpetual sunset of this part of Vandia has reached its lowest point. This is the closest thing to twilight this city will ever experience. It has a certain beauty to it, especially in this part of town. The buildings here are the closest thing to luxury you can find on Vandia. Here the apartments are spaced out, unlike the dense, poorer districts.

I run past the lit windows of homes inhabited by those who care not for the troubles of the poverty stricken majority of Vandia’s citizens: mostly foreign businessmen, researchers, and tourists. They’re not why I’m here. I approach one building with the lights out that seems to have been long abandoned. This used to be my home.

I walk up and peer through the window. It looks like no one has lived here in a long time … not since I left … It’s been nearly ten years, but it looks mostly the same. How? I run to the door and touch the console. It remains unresponsive. Obviously that won’t work. The power has been off for a long time. There’s got to be a way in.

“I know!” I say aloud. I reach for Okuma’s Pokeball and let him out. The cute little Joltik pops out on the ground and looks around. He then climbs up my leg, up onto my shoulder. “Okuma, give that door console a little shock,” I tell him. I reach out to it and he scurries down my arm and hops onto it.

Sparks fly as Okuma releases charged up energy from his fuzzy little body. Then the console lights up and the door slides open! “That was too easy!” I say as I step inside. Okuma hops back up onto my arm as I walk through the doorway. “Anybody could just do that and break into any of these places if they wanted.”

I move further inside, and it becomes harder to see in the dim light. “Man, it’s dark in here. Lumiera, it’s your turn to help!” I reach for another Pokeball and release my Litwick. She floats up just by my head and lights up the room with her ghostly blue flame. “Much better!” I found her in an abandoned old house outside of Mirthal, back near the monastery. She was haunting it all alone, so I took her with me.

I look around as we move through the apartment. Memories come flooding back to me. I spent four years of my life here very long ago, but now I can picture those days clearly. “This is unreal. It hasn’t changed much. I wonder why no one moved in.”

I press further in. There’s got to be a clue here somewhere. Through the kitchen, past the holoscreen, into Dad’s old study. I was never allowed in here. Not anymore. If there is a single clue in this place, it’s in here.

I search through Dad’s desk, one drawer at a time, and I eventually come across an old Pokedex. “This must have been his,” I say to no one in particular. “Why would he leave it here?” I pull it out and attempt to turn it on. Battery’s dead.

I flip it over and search for a way to open it. Four tiny screws hold the back cover in place. These things last a very long time so you don’t need to open them very often. I sift through my bag and pull out my Pokeball kit. I whip out my screwdriver, which luckily fits perfectly. 

I undo the screws and pry the power cell out. I place it on the desk. “Okuma, give it a little juice,” I instruct my Joltik. He hops down onto the desk and crawls over to it. Okuma unleashes his charged up electricity into the power cell and it begins to power back up. “Thanks, buddy. You’ve been quite useful tonight.”

I pick up the power cell, stick it back into the Pokedex, and then screw the back cover back on. “Please, work,” I say as I power it up. I sigh with relief as the screen lights up. “Let’s see what we can find.”

I begin sifting through the files stored on the Dex, many of which have been corrupted. I guess after sitting here all these years, this was bound to happen. Eventually, I come across a series of recordings. I attempt to play each one until one works, starting from the most recent one. After several tries, one finally starts to play. It’s dated March 3, 3593, about ten years ago.

Dad’s face appears on the screen. “After months of little to no progress, we may have finally hit a major breakthrough. I have discovered references to a planet a few systems away that seem to indicate that a temple containing a mirror may have once stood upon it. Perhaps this is the Mirror we have been searching for.” Mirror? What mirror? I wonder. That must be why Dad was here … “We will be leaving for this planet a few weeks from now,” he continues. This could be the moment we have been—”

“Daddy, look what Ebony can do!” a child’s voice interrupts. It’s my own. Dad looks away from the screen.

“Not now, Alex!” he shouts at me. “Josephine, get her out of here,” he then addresses his assistant. “I’m busy.” Josephine was nice. She took care of me a lot.

“Yes, Robert,” she tells him. Dad returns his focus to the screen.

“As I was saying, we will be leaving for this planet in a few weeks. Just as soon as I finish assisting with the recently uncovered site here on Vandia.”

The blood drips from my cheek as the blade rips through my flesh. I struggle to break from the thug’s grasp as he presses knife deeper into the wound. Tears start forming as I cry out in pain. “You brought this on yourself, you little bitch,” he snarls at me.

In a way, he’s right. These two thugs jumped me and, like an idiot, I just had to teach them a lesson. My eyes are fixed on the fat bald one, sprawled out on the ground. I took him down, but the other one pulled a knife after Diablo and Lumiera took his Pokemon out. He caught me off guard. I should have run.

“Diablo! Lumiera!” I scream. My Houndoom and Lampent unleash a firestorm on the thug’s back. He loosens his grip and howls in pain as my Pokemon friends sear his flesh. His arms go limp as he passes out and I fall to my knees, gasping and crying. Blood and tears drip onto the cracked and broken pavement. What was I thinking? I fought against bad guys before, but this was too close.

I pick myself back up and recall my Pokemon. “Thanks for saving my life again,” I say to them. I place the balls back onto my belt and quickly run out of the alley. I need to get home.

The wind rushes through my hair as I run across the plains outside the city. Blood trickles out of my open wound as a reminder of my own stupidity. Usually I can handle myself without a scratch, but today I bit off more than I could chew.

I pick up the pace and soon I arrive at the crashed ship that has become my new home. I found it shortly after I arrived in Khirpai. I considered staying where Dad and I used to live, but there were too many bad memories. It’s been over two years since then and I have a new home now.

I step inside the half of the ship that remains and make my way to my room. I grab an old shirt and press it against my cheek. I sit on the bed and wait for the blood to stop. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. STUPID. I could have got myself killed.

I don’t think this is the best way to keep myself occupied. I’ve just been fighting so much now. My progress is nonexistent so long as I’m stuck on this stupid planet. I searched through all of Dad’s notes that I could find, but I hit a wall a long time ago. All I know is he was looking for something called the Mirror, and then he vanished.

No one knows anything! I’ve talked to monks, and I’ve talked to a bunch of archaeologists who are digging up the ruins here in the Sunset Plains. Some of them even knew Dad, but even they don’t know anything! All I’ve been able to figure out is what planet he went to before he disappeared. If I could just get there. But no. No one will take me off this planet. I don’t know what to do. So I fight.

Eventually the blood stops and I slap a bandage on my cheek. It’s all I can do. I probably need medical attention, but I have no idea what to do, and I certainly can’t afford to have someone else do it. This will leave a scar for sure. This one I can’t hide. I look down at my wrists, encased in my gloves so no one can see what I did to myself.

Many times I feel like I’m slipping back into the darkness, but I find ways to keep myself busy. It takes more and more effort though. Without being able to get away from Vandia, I don’t know how long I can keep this up …

---

The constant orange glow of sunset lights the way as I run along the rooftops. It’s much nicer up here than down on the streets. The air is clearer and there’s not as much trash lying around. Not to mention I can get around quicker without all those people in the way.

I used to search for people to fight, bad people, like some kind of vigilante or something, but that was stupid. After that last fight, I gave it up. But then I hear the scream. I run to the source and spot a guy cornering a girl in an alley. She doesn’t look much older than me.

I quietly drop down and move up. He’s got a knife. A Scrafty stands nearby, over a fainted Purloin. “No one can hear you,” he says to the girl as he moves in.

“Hey, asshole!” I shout as I pull out Anubis’s Pokeball. “Leave her alone!” I throw the ball as hard as I can. It ricochets off the ground up into the air. My Lucario emerges mid-air and drops down in front of the thug.

“What the fu—”

“Use Force Palm!” I shout. Before the thug can even finish his sentence, Anubis strikes him with his paw and knocks him away.

The thug pauses for a moment to figure out what happened, then locks eyes with me. “You’ve made a big mistake, girly,” he says. “Scrafty, use Brick Break!” he then shouts, directing his Pokemon toward Anubis. The Scrafty rushes at him and punches hard. It looks painful, but Anubis hangs in there.

The thug begins to circle around our battling Pokemon towards me, but I keep moving around too. “Anubis, use Force Palm!” I shout to my Lucario as I circle. Anubis rushes at the Scrafty and pushes him back toward the thug.

“Brick Break again!” the thug shouts. “This is it for you,” he sneers at me. “Then I’ll have my way with both of you. The Scrafty charges at Anubis, fist raised.

“Not so fast!” I shout. “Counter it, Anubis!” The Scrafty lands his blow, but Anubis manages to slip to the side, and avoid the brunt of the attack. He then grabs the Scrafty by the arm and sweeps him off his feet with one of his legs. One more punch plants the Scrafty’s face into the ground, knocked out.

Enraged, the thug lunges at me with his knife, but I easily dodge out of the way. “Take him out!” I shout to Anubis. “Force Palm!” My Lucario springs up and strikes him in the back, knocking him into the wall. “Not so tough now, are ya!?” I shout.

Then I run to the girl while Anubis keeps an eye on the thug. She’s slumped against the wall, crying. I reach out my hand. “It’s okay, he can’t hurt you now.” She looks up at me. Her eyes are full of fear. “C’mon, let’s get out of here.” I say urgently. She grabs my hand and I pull her up.

I can get a better look at her in the light. Judging from her features, I think she looks Alliance, maybe. Her brown hair hangs loosely around her face. It’s dyed in a pattern of green, blue, and purple on the left side. She recalls her fainted Purloin and then we run.

I lead her back to a more crowded area where it’s safe. “Who are you?” she finally asks me. She seems to have calmed down a bit now.

“I’m Alex,” I tell her.

“Well, uh, thanks, Alex,” she responds. “For saving me back there. That was amazing, what you did …”

“Don’t mention it. I do it all the time.”

“Really? Isn’t that dangerous? You’re just a kid.”

“Well, so are you!” I tell her indignantly. “Isn’t walking in a dark alley alone dangerous? You don’t look any older than me!”

“I know, it was stupid … If you hadn’t been there …” It looks like she’s going to start crying again.

“No, don’t cry,” I tell her. “I’m sorry.” We share an awkward hug.

Eventually, she composes herself and begins to relax. “Thanks, again,” she says. “My name’s Naomi, by the way.”

“So what are you doing here, Naomi?” I ask her. “You don’t look like you’re from around here … and this isn’t exactly the safest neighborhood.”

“I just needed some air … Like I said, it was stupid.” She falls silent and looks around. “Would you mind helping me get home? Y’know, just in case that guy comes back …”

“Sure,” I tell her. “Lead the way.”

---

“So, then I ran up the top of the steel beam and jumped off and kicked the dude right in the head! Then the Gurdurr tried to swing at me and I ducked and he nailed his trainer right in the face!”

“Are you serious?” Naomi asks. “That’s amazing. What happened next?”

“Well, then the other guy almost killed me … I do stupid things too.”

“Well at least you survived.”

“Yeah … so, uh, that’s how I got this scar.” I point to the X-shaped mark on my face that still hasn’t quite healed, months later.

“So where are we going anyway?” she asks.

“You’ll see,” I tell her. Together we walk across the plains toward the ruins.

It’s been about a month since I met Naomi. We became fast friends. I forgot what it was like to have a friend my own age. We hang out all the time, even if her dad doesn’t seem to like me very much. He’s some kind of big-shot Alliance businessman or something, here to exploit Vandia’s weak economy, which isn’t that uncommon. It’s easy to see why he’s not too keen on his daughter being friends with some street kid like me.

But I don’t care about that. This past month has made me feel so alive. More alive than I’ve felt in a long time. I have a reason to stop fighting. A reason to get up in the morning. A reason to keep going.

Eventually, we arrive at the ruins being excavated in the Sunset Plains near Khirpai. Tourists gather in front of them for their chance to get a tour. “I’ve always wanted to come see the ruins here, but Dad said they weren’t worth the time,” Naomi says. “But I don’t think either of us can afford a tour.”

“I’ve got something better than a tour in mind,” I tell her. I grab her arm and pull her down a side entrance.

“Isn’t this illegal?” she asks.

“Of course it is!” I tell her. “But I do this all the time! Sometimes I even pretend to be a tour guide. Tourists are stupid and gullible.”

“What if we get caught?”

“We won’t.”

I lead Naomi through the ruins, showing her things she would never see on a tour. Murals, sculptures, hidden rooms; you name it. Along the way, I tell her all I know about them. Eventually, we wind up in a big open room with a beautiful mural depicting a stoic figure and his Pokemon companion. They’re surrounded by darkness. A branch-like hand reaches down to them from above.

“What is this supposed to be?” Naomi asks. She reaches out and brushes her hand against it.

“I honestly have no idea,” I confess. “The thing at the top is like a tree. I think it’s like the Tree of Life or Tree of Knowledge or something. I’m only guessing it’s supposed to show how the Trees birthed Humans and Pokemon to stand against the darkness. The Angels supposedly built this place … I think maybe they planted the Trees for us.”

“I can’t say I really believe in any of that stuff, but it’s so fascinating all the same. What about you?”

“I like to believe in something,” I tell her. “But I don’t think anyone really shares the same beliefs as me. I don’t think they really care either …”

“I care about what you believe,” Naomi tells me, she places a hand on my shoulder.

“Thanks,” I say. I think I’m blushing. “Listen …  I, uh, wanted to give you something.” I reach for the necklace Raj gave me and remove it. I place it into her hand. Her skin seems to radiate warmness.

“Isn’t this a—”

“Yes, but that’s not why I’m giving it to you. Someone very important to me gave it to me, and now I’m giving it to you. Your friendship means a lot to me.” I close her fingers around the necklace and look into her stunning green eyes. In that moment, I realize something; she’s more than just a friend to me. My heart feels like it’s going to burst from my chest.

“Thanks … I- I don’t know what to say,” Naomi tells me. She reaches up to put it on, but she can’t quite reach. “Wanna give me a hand?”

“Sure.” I reach around behind her neck and grab the ends of the necklace. My hands are trembling and I struggle to clasp the chain. I want to tell her how I feel, but I’m afraid she doesn’t feel the same. I don’t even know if she likes girls.

Naomi places her hands on my arms to steady my hands. I successfully close the clasp, but I can feel my face burning red.

“What is it?” she asks.

“N- nothing. It’s stupid …” No, you idiot. Just tell her.

“Okay.” She smiles and pulls me into a hug. “Thanks again.”

I wish I could stay in her arms forever.

---

“That movie was awesome!” I squeal with delight as we exit the theater. “Rocket was my favorite! I want a talking Zigzagoon now. I need one right now!”

“I know!” Naomi agrees. “I can’t believe we were actually able to sneak in there; I’ve been dying to see it!” We just got outside after seeing Galactic Vanguards, which I think just might be the best movie I’ve ever seen.

“I sneak in all the time,” I tell her. “It’s actually pretty easy.”

“You should see the theaters back home,” Naomi responds. “Security is so tight, it’s kind of ridiculous.”

“I’d like to see them try to keep me out!” I shout.

“Fifteen credits says you’d get caught before you even got through the front door,” she teases.

“Maybe one day I’ll be able to take you up on that bet,” I tell her.

“C’mon, let’s go!” Naomi suddenly shouts. She grabs my hand and pulls me along.

“Where are we going?” I ask as we run.

“You’ll see.” She laughs. Those were the same words I used a few weeks ago.

She drags me across town to the richer neighborhoods. We pass storefront after storefront before we finally stop in front of a fancy restaurant.

“What are we doing here?” I ask. “There’s no way I can afford a place like this.”

“Don’t worry,” she says as she leads me inside. “It’ll be my treat. I get a huge allowance, and what else am I gonna spend it on?”

I relax a bit. “If you say so.” She’s paying for me? Is this like a date?

I glance at the menu as we sit down. I can barely pronounce half the dishes on here, and some of them have ingredients imported from another system.

“Find anything you like?” the waiter asks as he approaches. “I would recommend the Corphish, it’s freshly caught.”

“That’s disgusting,” I say. “How can anyone eat Pokemon?”

“Oh, uh, right. Yeah, do you have any vegetarian options?” Naomi asks him. “Something without Pokemon?”

“Oh, yes, certainly,” the waiter says. He presses a button on my menu and many of the dishes disappear, to be replaced by more reasonable alternatives. “In that case, I would recommend this one,” he says, pointing to one of the options.

“We’ll take it!” Naomi tells him enthusiastically. She looks across the table and smiles. “The portions are huge here, so we can just share it.”

We talk for a while as we wait for the food to arrive and I can feel my heart beating harder and harder in my chest. Why would she bring me here? Does she feel the same fire burning inside that I do? I need to tell her. But what if she doesn’t?

“Hey, are you listening?” Naomi asks.

“Sorry, what?” I shake my thoughts away and turn my attention back to her. She’s waving her fork in front of my face with a piece of tomato on the tip of it.

“I said, ‘you should try these tomatoes.’ They’re really good.” She holds her fork out and I bite the tomato off. It tastes amazing. “You like?” she asks.

“Mhm.” I nod as I chew. “That was the best tomato I’ve ever tasted!” I tell her once I swallow. The same goes for the rest of the dish. It’s the best meal I’ve had in my life. I don’t want to have it with anyone else but Naomi.

“That was delicious,” I announce after we finish eating.

“I’m glad you liked it,” Naomi says. She places her hand on my arm. I feel a rush of excitement at her touch.

I place my other hand on top of hers. “Thank you for this,” I tell her. Please let this mean something. It has to.

“It was my pleasure.” Her smiling face fills me with such joy. “Oh, hang on,” she says. She leans across the table and touches my face with one of her fingers. “You’ve got a little something on you.” She wipes a droplet of sauce off my cheek and licks it off her finger. I feel like I’m going to melt into a puddle of happiness.

Naomi pays for the food and then we leave. We walk along the road in the cool evening air together. As we near her apartment, her hand brushes past mine and I grab hold. I have to tell her. “Naomi … I … I wanted to tell you that …” C’mon, spit it out already. “I just want to say that I …” Wait. What if she says no? I don’t know what to do. “I’m really glad that I met you.” What a stupid thing to say.

“Me too,” she replies. “I had a lot of fun tonight. I hope you did too.”

“Yeah,” I tell her. “I did. Thank you.”

“Goodnight, Alex.” We share a hug before we part ways. Why didn’t you just tell her, stupid?

---

The days continue to fly by. I have never felt like this before. I can see a happy life with Naomi. All the pain is gone. It feels so right. Yet I can’t seem to tell her how I feel. I look out at the sunset, then over to Naomi. We’re sitting on the roof of her apartment building, just talking. Like we always do. 

“I’ll be leaving soon,” Naomi suddenly says. “We’re going back to Alliance space.”

I move my hand across Raj’s words, now immortalized on my skin. I gave the necklace to Naomi so I needed another way to remember him. I had that thing he always said tattooed on my arm. “There is no Darkness Without Light.” What do I do Raj? I have to tell her now before it’s too late. I stand up and look Naomi in the eye.

“I … I want you to take me with you,” I tell her. “When you go … I have no reason to stay here. For the past few years, I’ve wanted so desperately to get away from here … Y’know, so I could look for my Dad … but now I only want to leave so that I can stay with you.”

“What are you saying?” she asks. She too stands.

I grab her hands. “Ever since I met you … You make me feel so alive. Whenever I’m around you, my heart … it …” I can’t seem to find the right words to say. I lean closer. I feel a wave of energy move across my skin as our lips touch. In this moment, nothing else matters, only me and Naomi. I’d give up on finding Dad just to stay here forever.

And then it’s over. She pulls away. She blinks, then opens her mouth, but no words come out.

“Please … I need to know if you feel the same way,” I tell her.

“Alex … You saved my life,” she tells me. “And the things you do … They’re incredible. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel some kind of attraction to you, but … it just wouldn’t work out.”

“But you took me to dinner, and I thought—”

“Oh, God, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to lead you on … I- I just wanted to do something nice for you.”

“But why?” This can’t be happening. “We can figure something out. I’ll do whatever it takes.” Tears are streaming down my face. Every second stretches on in agony.

“I- I’m sorry … but … there’s someone else …”

Time stops for a few moments, and my blood runs cold. My hands begin to shake, and in the long silence the only thing I hear is the cry of a lone Murkrow in the distance. Finally, my mouth begins to move again.

“What do you mean? I don’t understand!” I know it’s a lie the moment it leaves my mouth. But it can’t be …

“Listen to me, Alex … you’re a nice girl, but … I just love somebody else.”

No. 

No no. No no no no NO!

There has to be some way to fix this. There has to!

“B- but … why … you never mentioned this before,” I finally manage to sputter out. “I thought we had something! I mean … I … I love you!” I place my hands on her shoulders. “I’d give up everything to be with you!”

“Alex, please …” Naomi grabs my arms and pulls them down. “You can’t just expect someone to love you just because you want them to. That’s …” She pauses for a second. It seems like an eternity as my heart is slowly crushed. “That’s just not how it works. I really do like you, but I can’t …” She let’s go and takes a step back.

“Don’t you understand?” I ask. I grab her wrists. All I want is to hold her. To be with her. “You are the only good thing in my life. You are the only good thing that has ever happened to me! I can’t lose that. Not now …”

“Alex, look, we can still be friends,” she says. “But you just need to calm down … please. You’re scaring me.”

“How can we go back to being friends after all this? This isn’t how it was supposed to happen. This is—”

“Alex, stop. You’re hurting me.” She pulls her arms away, breaking my tightening grip. “You have to stop this! You’re obsessed!”

“I just need to make you understand! Please!” I step closer, but she pushes me back. How is this happening? It’s all wrong.

“No, you need to understand! I’m a person too! If you can’t accept that, then you need to just go!”

I slowly back away. Back, to the edge of the roof. I step up onto the ledge. “Without you, I have nothing!” I scream. “You’re the only thing I have left to live for!” Why doesn’t she understand that?!

“What are you doing!?”

“If I can’t have you, then I might as well jump! You’ve seen my scars, you know I’ll do it!” This will make her see.

“Alex, don’t do this … Please … You need help.”

“The only thing I need is you!”

“Is this all just some desperate attempt to somehow make me love you? I told you that’s not how this works … I … I can’t do this …” She turns her back on me and begins to walk toward the stairs.

“No, please!” I shout. I run after her. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it!” I reach out for her, but she swats my hand away.

“Don’t touch me!” she screams. “Just go! Don’t come back!”

And then she’s gone … What have I done? The tears are pouring more than ever. No … no … this can’t be. “No!” I feel the darkness returning. My light was shining so bright, and then it was put out in an instant.

I step back up onto the ledge and look down to the streets below. Should I do it? There’s nothing left for me here … I drove the only person who cared about me away. I’m alone in a world of pain. One jump can end it all.

I look to the Sinai script inked on my arm. There is no darkness without light. The thought sparks through my mind. I step back from the ledge. No. I’m not doing this again. All these miles away and Raj still saves my life. Dad, I’ll find you …

---

It’s just another boring day. It’s been like this ever since Naomi left. For a year I’ve been searching for a new way off this planet. Nothing ever happens here. So I spend my days training with my Pokemon and scouring the street for Pokeball parts and scrap metal. It’s the only way to keep the pain at bay.

I run across the plains toward Khirpai. Maybe today I’ll find something useful. I vault the fence of a farm to take a little shortcut. Suddenly the ground explodes into giant dust clouds as a volley of laser fire rains down from the sky. “What the hell?” I ask as I look up toward the clouds.

A space battle! Here!? The sky is alight with explosions. First that weird monk showed up here last month and now this. Maybe Vandia’s not so boring after all. A ship breaks through the atmosphere, tumbling and turning, upside down. It rights itself at the last moment, just before it hits the ground. It tears through the cabbage field and smashes through the fence, stopping just in front of me.

“Cool …”

---

Notes: And at long last, we have reached the end of this story. Except for the first and last scenes, this part takes place over the course of a year or so when Alex was fifteen. The first scene takes place not too long after the end of Part 2, and the last is taken directly from Chapter 1 of Volume 2, just slightly modified. When creating Alex’s backstory, I sort of wanted to focus on how she was struggling with not being able to make any progress with her goal of finding out what happened to her father. That’s why she was fighting all these street thugs. To keep herself occupied.

The idea for Naomi sort of developed out of that. Originally, I had planned for her to be this friend Alex had when she was older who would sort of put the final nail in Alex’s coffin of betrayal and abandonment. But it sort of naturally progressed into a romantic plotline. It just kinda made sense. I wasn’t too surprised by this direction since two of the many characters I was inspired by in Alex’s character creation were gay (a character from an abandoned writing project of mine, who is also named Alex and is this Alex’s namesake, and Ellie from The Last of Us), so it kinda just made sense for that to carry over into Alex’s character.

However, the Naomi plotline originally looked a lot different. The first draft had them actually becoming an item and they were going to leave Vandia together, but Alex ended up missing the ship. But after redrafting with DragonStorm, The Other Guy, and ClarissaGavin, we ended up with what you see here in this chapter. It does a much better job of tearing at your heartstrings and devastating Alex. So major thanks to all of them for the help in this final part! Arlon’s romantic plotline was basically just “let’s have sex and then shoot some bad guys” and was sort of just a side-detail in his origin story (and we also got to see it develop a bit in Volume 2) whereas this one was the major focus of the plot. It was a lot harder to write, but I think it turned out really well in the end thanks to everyone’s help.

I had a fun time writing this three-part origin story, and I hope you all enjoyed reading it and getting a glimpse into what makes Alex who she is.

Update 10/15/21: Again, another one with not much work needed here. Just fixing some minor things. A few more typos on this one than the first two parts, but still not too many. Looking back on this one, it seems a bit less focused than the first two parts, but it’s still pretty good. I also have some reflections on the rooftop scene. I think it’s worth mentioning that Alex’s threat of suicide after her rejection is definitely not an okay behaviour and under most circumstances such behaviour could be viewed as abusive. In this particular case, that’s not Alex’s intention. She’s confused, desperate, and she still has mental and emotional issues to sort through. She definitely comes to understand how and why it’s problematic.

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That does it for this chapter. As always the Spacemon gang and I will be monitoring the comments to foster discussion and answer any questions. Feel free to give feedback and critiques of the writing so I can improve it for the future, or just leave a comment with what you think about what went down in this chapter or what you think might happen next! You can also revisit past chapters, check out the rest of the Spacemon saga, join the Spacemon Discord server, or like our Facebook page to stay updated on all things Spacemon! Click here for the next exciting installment of Spacemon!