Poison Point / All Roads Lead Home

Hannah had always hated bugs.

It was part and parcel of living in a house as awful as hers, she figured - crawling with infestations in every corner. It made her feel sick when she passed the flypapers hanging over the sink. It was disgusting and unsanitary.

For that reason, she spent much of her free time in her room playing video games. There, she could escape to another world for a little while and feel better.

Some time ago she'd finished playing through Pokemon Black - well, she could try for a full Pokedex, but that wasn't really something she was interested in - and she'd "let this slip" to her dad - a little nudge towards getting the sequel, of course. He had a tendency to spoil her with games - especially after staying out overnight - and who was she to pass up such an opportunity?

So, that day as she crept out of her room at the sound of the house door opening, she kept her ears pricked to hear her name called. It was a near-daily ritual of hers.

"Hannah! I've got something for you!"

And there it was. Excitedly, Hannah half-ran down the stairs, cautious not to trip and fall.

But, even in her unbridled anticipation, she took pause at the bottom of the stairs. There, she saw a cockroach, antennae twitching, looking over some crumbs.

It hadn't yet noticed her.

Creeping back up the stairs to grab a heavy book, she returned slowly and carefully. Then, with a violent swing, she smashed it, holding back disgust over the splash of roach guts over the floor.

"Hannah?"

Right. She'd clean the book off later. Her present was more important. She set it on the table and ran out to the door, where her dad stood holding a GameStop bag.

"I picked this up for you," he said slightly slurred, handing the bag over.

"Thank you thank you thankyouthankyou!" Hannah responded with a silly grin over her face. Checking inside confirmed her hopes - Pokemon Black 2. As her dad went to lay down on the couch, Hannah had already turned to dash back up the stairs into her room and try out her new game.

Eagerly, she clambered into her bed, holding the game case in her hands. If this was even half as good as the first Pokemon Black, she was in for a good time, she figured.

She'd already decided she'd get a Snivy - she picked Snivy in Black, as well, but she was very particular about what kind of Pokemon she used.

She popped the cartridge into her treasured pink DS, her giddiness over watching the introductory cinematics managing to wash away her earlier stress.

A childlike grin stretched across her face as she started a new game, naming her trainer after herself.

Picking out a Snivy she named Ivy - perhaps not creative, but she thought that was a nice name - she got lost in the game's world, checking out every nook and cranny and every scrap of dialogue she could find. She wanted to make this game last a little while, after all - she had a habit of charging through games faster than she'd like, but not this time.

Still, by the end of the night, her Snivy had become a Servine and she'd already begun to piece together a team.

She was just beginning to settle into her usual rhythm of rushing through a game, button mashing her way through the wild encounters of Lostlorn Forest.

Though, perhaps part of her rushing was because of the abundance of bugs there - she knew it was silly and they weren't in any way comparable to real bugs, but she couldn't help but feel revulsion at bug types regardless. They made her think far too much about the real thing.