Cacturne Story - She Became a Psychic Type. Then I Became a Dark Type.

>I open the door to my home after a long day at work.
>She is waiting for me.
>My wife, Carolyn.
>My beautiful charming partner who makes all my stress melt away.
>When I'm with her, the harsh realities of the world seem unimportant. I'm able to relax.
>She welcomes me in. I sit beside her on the couch. It seems she was watching the news.
>The channel only shows a blank screen.
>This is not unusual. It's been happening a lot more often lately.
>At first it was only during big important stories, but now these blank segments have been showing up in the middle of stories about traffic, missing persons, something that happened involving a scrapyard.
>There's even a weather reporter who is always blanked out now.
>It makes the news hard to understand, but I don't worry too much about it. I don't need to see those stories, because pokemon aren't real.
>I watch the news now just to spend time with her.
>Eventually, she tells me to go make dinner, so I do.
>We used to both cook, but now I prep all the meals.
>It's a lot of work, but I don't mind. I never get tired when I am with her.
>For myself, I stack a simple sandwich.
>Her meal is a bit more complicated. We have to buy special ingredients from the pet store now. I mix them with water, and she lifts the meal from my hands.
>She's still sitting in the other room, but she was able to grab it. That's how incredible my wife is. I'm so happy to have her.
>Later that night, we wind down for bed.
>Laying down beside her, I find myself lost her eyes. Her perfect, beautiful eyes.
>Before turning out my light, I give her a goodnight kiss. Her lips are hard, smooth, and flat. I don't mind.
>Then I drift off to sleep.

>I take a sharp breath.
>My head stings.
>I lean up and rub my face. It feels dry, rough. My fingers are wrong.
>I quickly turn and flip on my light so I can look at myself.
>My hands green and covered in thorns like a strange cactus.
>Of course my fingers feel weird, they're gone!
>I turn over to shake Carolyn awake.
>Lying still in her bed is a mass of purple arms surrounding a massive red gemstone.
>My wife is a starfish.

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>I splash water on my face and look in the mirror. It feels really good.
>A sewn mouth, yellow eyes, a thorny hat attached to my head.
>I'm a Cacturne. I'm not sure where in my head that information came from, I was never a fan of pokemon, but I'm sure it's true.
>There's a lot of stuff in my head I don't understand.
>She was messing with my head, but she can't any more. Those kinds of powers don't work on me.
>I laugh roughly. That confidence sounds misplaced, but deep in my thorns I know the most trustworthy things in this world are my own eyes and thoughts.
>I shut the tap. I don't want to wake her up. Not while I still have questions I can answer on my own.
>How long have we been like that?
>About a month. That's when her diet changed.
>What is she?
>I don't know. She's a psychic type, but no pokemon like that lived near my desert.
>My desert?
>I never lived in the desert, but also I always lived in the desert.
>In another life, I was never a human. I grew up alone, picking on trapinch and stealing water from traveling trainers until I evolved.
>Those memories are not pretty. I don't want to be that person.
>But those memories are more reliable.
>Figuring out who I am will take time. Right now, I am not safe.
>Whoever I am, this is not my home. Maybe it used to be if I was that human, but it's hasn't been since that starfish took over.
>What should I do?
>I could just run away. I can certainly live on my own.
>The plan is sound, but I can't do it yet.
>I need to know what happened to her.

----------

>Eventually the sun will rise. I don't have much time.
>She's been hiding a lot from me. Being a starfish for one. But also whatever was happening on the news and who knows what else more.
>She might see the light in the living room, so I grab my laptop on my way to the kitchen and flip the light switch there.
>Nothing jumps out at me. It's still mostly as I remember it.
>Carolyn's favorite foods are still stocked.
>None of it's expired. She must have been buying them despite being unable to eat them.
>As for the food she was actually eating? Fish food.
>When she first started the "fad diet" she insisted she wasn't sick a lot for someone who looked perfectly healthy.
>Behind her illusion, she was probably having a lot of trouble finding something she could eat.
>I brought her a lot of strange items before she tried this brand and stuck with it.
>...I remember buying 2 kiddie pools too. Thought nothing of it at the time. She told me to so I couldn't refuse.
>One of them is probably in the living room. I should be more careful if I walk through there again.
>I open up my laptop.
>My hands are grippy somehow without fingers, so using the mouse is possible if strange.
>Conversely, the keyboard is painful to use.
>I try twisting my hand to touch one of my thorns to the keys, but eventually give up on that strategy.
>Holding a plastic fork and using the tip of it's handle to press keys works better.
>I spend hours checking news stories.
>Reading theories about why people turn into pokemon leaves me with more questions then I started with, but having experienced it myself, I'm sure she's as in the dark on what's happening as everyone else.
>People criticized the CDC for having less up to date information than Bulbapedia.
>Only one of them told me what a Starmie is and what it can do.

>A little bit of sunlight is leaking through the windows.
>I decide to check social media.
>No messages from any of my friends saying I was acting weird.
>One of them had a pet bird who had turned into a Natu.
>My account had made a reply. "Try to keep him out of trouble."
>I have no memory of making that post.
>I checked Carolyn's page too.
>You could only tell something's up if knew what to look for.
>Lots of variations in the heights photos were taken at. Probably because she was levitating the phone.
>Not much variety in the subjects. They're mostly photos of her plants, letting people know they're still alive.
>It seems she hasn't been outside, or at least hasn't been posting about it.
>She tried to convince people that she has been though. There's several old photos mixed in. I remember being there when they were taken.
>There are a few pictures of Carolyn and I together.
>When we still human.
>I let go of a weight I didn't know I had.
>What we had was real. At least in some way.
>That relief doesn't last long.
>Carolyn was kind. We trusted each other with everything.
>She hid that the world was turning upside down from me.
>She was controlling my mind every day, forcing me to ignore my exhaustion so she could play house with me.
>She didn't tell me she was a starfish.
>I don't know who she is now.

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>When I enter the living room, dawn has brought enough light for me to see the inflated pool beside the couch.
>Did putting it close by make it easier for her to place an illusion on the couch next to me?
>It doesn't matter now. I push the chair around so it faces the hallway to her room.
>Then I sit and wait.
>...
>A blue glow surrounds the door and it opens.
>For a starfish, she makes walking upright look surprisingly natural.
>She freezes when she sees me sitting with my arms folded.
>Her red gem glints in the light, her back set of arms continues slowly spinning like a lazy gear.
>I have no clue what is going through her head.
>For a bit, I begin to doubt that she has noticed me. Maybe she doesn't recognize me?
>No, she's not that dumb. Even with my new face, she must know exactly who I am.
>She makes a slow warbling sound.
>It could be a grumpy sound, or sorrowful, or relaxed. I have no clue what to make of it.
I can't understand you.
>My voice is scratchy and rough, a little quieter than I intended. My throat may as well be made of sand. Somehow it doesn't hurt.
>She responds with another warble. By context, I assume she understands me at least.
>She leaves the hallway, levitating a pencil and scratch pad from a side table.
>She writes "I am sorry." in large letters. The pencil had pressed lightly with thin lines and mathematically perfect curves.
>I watch the pad for more, before eventually looking back to her.
>She might be staring back. Or looking anywhere else. Or her "eye" might be closed. I cannot tell.
Is that it?
>The paper floats still for awhile before she writes again.
>"What do you want to ask about?"
>A remarkably cold and direct answer. I take a deep breath, my chest creaking.
Why?
>Scratch scratch scratch.
>"I was scared. When you got home, you were scared too."
>She tears that sheet off and continues.
>"I wanted things to be normal again. I only hid it because of that."

How long were you planning to continue like that?
>"I don't know."
What about the chores? I was doing all the cooking and cleaning. Why were you making me do everything?!
>I tried to raise my voice, but instead it came out more like a low growl. I'm not sure if I actually hit my body's max volume or I just haven't figured out how to use my voice yet.
>"I wasn't sure how to do them. My body is too different." Tear. Next page. "I got too comfortable. I should've stepped up. Sorry."
>I rub my head.
For the last month, I have only existed outside of this house. I've been dealing with aching muscles and an aching brain because of how you used your powers. I didn't understand any of it, but I endured it every day! Then I'd come home and you were making me your mindless puppet! I didn't have a single thought that was my own! Even now, I have no clue how many things you've made me forget! How could you do this?!
>"I didn't know I was hurting you like that." Tear. "I am so sorry. It must have been horrible."
>I catch myself glaring at her.
>I try to stop, relax, and take a deep breath. My lungs rattle.
>It makes sense. Carolyn could never knowingly do this to me. It makes sense that she wouldn't understand what it was like, she had never been entranced by a psychic pokemon before.
>It's hard to feel that she's genuine though. She doesn't have a face to show how she's feeling, am I just imagining the worst in her?
>I try to look at her again. I can't stand it.
I... I need some space.
>I head out into our back yard.