To: Shadow Claw

[Video: Melanie appears on screen looking and sounding like she's hardly slept for a few days. Her room is littered with all manner of tomes and practice ritual circles. There are a few burn marks from god-knows-what.]

Yo. I've sent this to Lecia, hopefully she has contact information for you and can forward it for me.

It's uh...been a while. I don't know if you've heard from Med, but we parted ways several weeks back. I wish I could say it was on good terms. This whole Aether shit seems to have cleaved your family down the middle, and she was taking things a little...well probably about as well as I would have taken them. She all but betrayed us at one point when we...well if you had not heard, your youngest sister and your mother were part of Aether, and Med seemed ready to drop us for them. It took a sea god to diffuse the situation, and Med left not long after that. I haven't heard anything from her since, but...well we have good reason to suspect the youngest sister and mother are dead. I am so sorry about that. I only have a few memories of seeing your family when I was younger, but they were fond nonetheless. I know our type doesn't do well at opening up, but if you'd like to uh...talk...I'm here. Mitsuko would probably be up to talk too. I don't know how...empathetic she is, but hey, she can't be any worse than me. And I at least get this shit. Er, not to say your family is shit but..uh...um...y-y'know what I mean.

[Melanie shifts uncomfortably and turns away from the eye of the camera, seemingly shaking somewhat.]

That's...not the only reason I'm trying to contact you, th-there are a few other things. One: if you happen to be in the vicinity of Zebra right now, we are doing some pretty fucking heavy occult shit with Aether and can use any occult help we can get. Two: I have a Hydreigon that I would like to...shift. I've run dry of both the materials needed to perform this myself and the emotions necessary to...well the only way I've ever known how to do it is painful. I would like assistance in empowering him so I can better take advantage of his abilities, and I am willing to do whatever you ask to pay for this. And three...

[Melanie sighs and sits quiet for a time. She has a few false starts before continuing.]

...regarding the future...I would like to take over as the ghost gym leader for Wakino. After all this Aether business that is, assuming I survive. I have a...uh...plan. Once we presumably save the world and all that junk, I'd like to build a school on Sepia, similar to the psychic school here in Zebra. Gods only know I miss Snowpoint, specifically the cold, but I have a...er...uh...girlfriend here. And she's much more established than I, so it makes more sense for me to stay here than for her to uproot and move across the world. And as someone that lived most of their life thus far with essentially zero guidance, I want to legitimize the occult. The biggest thing that seems to separate it from real science is that it's hard to delineate the fact from the fiction. Furthermore, it seems to require either some level of psionic attunement or incredible mental fortitude and belief, so those of us capable of studying it at a scientific level are generally driven mad by society well before that point. Which turns it into a very...dangerous study. I think if we had a way to legitimize it, we could help a lot of people.

As to why I want to be a gym leader...well one of the biggest motivations there is the funding. It would be hard to start a school and research things without it. Also I still need to discover immortality, because I stopped being a god so my girlfriend could be one so I need to find a way to catch up. Technically she should be able to implement reincarnation, so in worst case scenario she could keep me coming back, but that sounds tiresome and stupid. I'd rather not have to do what your dad did, and we should probably talk to him about helping him pass on because god damn that has got to be lonely, but...well there are a lot of ways to achieve immortality. Past funding, I think it just makes sense to naturally tie in the school with a ghost gym. And fuck of course I need more exposure to...people. And that seems like a good way to go about it.

Of course this must all be awkward because it's like I'm trying to usurp you...if you don't want to give it up, I get it. But with what your family's been through, I'd think you'd at least want a break. Maybe an opportunity to focus on a family of your own? I...well if you're like me, you're definitely lonely. And that's bad. Or at least not fun. But um...I've been rambling one-sided for a while now, so...once we fuck up this Zebra business I'll try to contact you again if I haven't heard back but um...yeah uh...I would...I would like to treat you...like...family. So um...yeah...talk to you...later...hopefully.

[Melanie reaches towards the camera, flashing a half-smile in the process, and clicks it off.]

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P.S. Lecia if you watched this, you're a butt.
P.P.S. But...I would have done the same thing probably.
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