"I won't hurt you Anne, I promise. You don't have to fear me."
Cover art for my fic, From the Vast, gorgeously made by incredibly skilled anthrodyniacoms on Twitter!
Link to the fic - https://archiveofourown.org/works/4.....ters/108270495
Snippet this artwork is based on:
As the child's mind tied itself into knots, Aria took a deep breath before deciding to try something else, her steps as loud as she could manage, almost stomps more than anything, as she slowly approached the bed, wanting to make sure the girl had noticed it. And notice it Anne did, shrinking further underneath the blankets, waiting at what would happen next, every step making her tremble. Eventually, they stopped, the tense silence that resulted making the girl skip a beat or two before she felt the rough mattress-like bedding near her left leg shift as if weight had been placed on it, the gentle rustle of fabric on fabric providing further evidence towards what she thought had just happened.
After getting over the shock of that Gardevoir having sat down on the edge of her bed, Anne slowly attempted to peek out and see just what exactly they were doing now, shaking hand reaching and lifting the edge of the covers just a bit-
Only to see the psychic's green hand laying down on the mattress in front of her, palm side up, ready to be grasped from what she could make of it. The sight transfixed her for a while, exhaustion dulled thoughts churning through what the intent or implication of that gesture even were before that voice reached her ears again, making her shrink and withdraw again.
"^I won't hurt you Anne, I promise. You don't have to fear me.^"
The previous time the girl had heard something to that vein she immediately dismissed it as a cruel joke at her expense, the mental image of safety being dangled in front of her face only for her to get stabbed should she attempt to reach out for it chilling as ever, especially considering just what a Gardevoir like that could do, how badly they could hurt her with their magic. The book she'd been reading and which she still should have in her backpack provided more than enough fuel for terrifying mental imagery of psychic abilities being used to harm her after all, but this time... this time it didn't quite manage to take hold on her. It was still scary, deeply so, but as hard as Anne's mind tried, and try it did very hard, it couldn't manage to make it fit with everything else so far, not this time.
In absence of a concrete reason as to why would that Gardevoir hurt her, the maelstrom inside Anne's mind began calming down piece by piece, enough for it to actually be able to look at what had happened to her and start putting pieces of it all together into a coherent image- an image that had the mon sitting mere feet away from her do what they could to help her out and make her feel safe. It all felt unbelievable in the most literal sense, especially once she had started to think of just where she was, the structure around her nothing like she would've thought existed in these woods, and tried thinking about the fact that she seemed to be being tended to entirely by mons, with seemingly no people around-
Unbelievable, and yet here she was.
Injured, blind, scared- but to the furthest extent she could manage to piece together on her own, safe.
Another peek out from underneath the protective blanket revealed that nothing had changed since the last time, the green hand was exactly where she'd last seen it, though now Anne had enough composure to look further along the arm, seeing the Gardevoir indeed sitting on the bed next to her, though she didn't dare to look all the way up at her face, not yet. If she was safe here, with this Gardevoir next to her, talking to her, seemingly trying their absolute hardest to comfort her- then maybe what she'd heard about them from other kids and some old people wasn't all that true in the end.
For a while, Anne could only eye the green hand laying a mere foot in front of her, still not sure what the gesture implied and still too scared to do much of anything. The longer she laid there though, the more the uncertainty within her boiled, her mind desperately wanting to cling to the idea of safety and to not let itself get torn by all the crippling fear again, but had no idea how to avoid it-
Except, of course, by acting.
Slowly, very slowly, Anne's hand began to reach out from under the pretend cocoon of her blanket over towards the Gardevoir's, part of the girl's mind screaming at her to stop while the rest cheered as loudly as it could for her to continue, the cacophony making her thoughts impossibly hard to follow for a few moments, Aria starting to worry about her backing out-
But thankfully, Anne pushed though, her pink, bruised hand making contact with the green one, the immediate sensation almost beyond description. Their skin was silken smooth, somehow so human and yet simultaneously so different. Softer than a baby's bottom and almost electric to the touch, the tingly, slightly numbing sensation the girl felt when touching it comforting, emanating an odd warmth, but not actual heat. Warm, gentle sensations- safety, refuge, even love, the sum total feeling like it could somehow out-protect the raggedy blanket covering her body.
"^It's okay Anne, you're safe. Take as much time as you need.^"
Category All / Human
Species Pokemon
Gender Female
Size 2041 x 1805px
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