Artwork is © 2014 by  ebonyleopard /  ebonypikachu
Original post is here.

Cassidy "Marigold" Volt is © 2014 by Swordfox (Me).

The background story has been updated on 9-10-2014. This is the semi-final draft and is 5 pages long in OpenOffice Writer.

If any of you can read the flavor text and understand Cass' statement, you get a cookie.

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"Time is like a living thing and it flows like a river in one direction: forward." ~ Unknown

Cassidy Marigold Volt, or Cass as she prefers to be called, is the daughter of Thor Volt (male Raichu) and Ava Raiek (female Plusle) born in Goldenrod City, Johto Region. Though she was born as an "extramarital child", Cass was processed for and adopted with her mother's consent by her father and his wife (her mother's twin sister, Olivia Raiek). The proceedings got complicated and took a couple of months but in the end the adoption papers passed, Cass was allowed to have the Volt surname, and her mother was listed as a legal guardian. Further, to preserve the bond between mother and child, Cass' mother was allowed to move in with her father and his wife in the same residence. All of this happened while she was still an infant, so she doesn't remember these events.

Since she was able to crawl, Cass has been a source of headaches to her parents. She was quite observant even at that young age, watching her mother lock baby gates and unlock them herself when she was sure her mother had left the area. This was not the only time Cass demonstrated her skills at observation and even as a toddler she continued to get into things that caused her parents more grief. It was very difficult keeping her out of trouble as a toddler, and she seemed to think it was funny when they got flustered or frustrated over her "jailbreaks". To say that the standard practice of giving her a scolding wasn't working would've been an understatement; her parents had to switch to more advanced discipline to get their messages across (such as withholding her treats when she "escaped" the pens). It was already pretty evident that Cass was a mischievous little imp.

This impish mindset wasn't a phase that Cass would grow out of either. By the time she started school, Cass' impish behavior had started becoming more subtle in its methods. It took practice with her own siblings before she could pull it off at school, but she found ways to make two students in her class argue with each other. At first this involved sneaking one thing from the first kid and putting it in the desk of the second, all of which had to be carefully timed during the lunch period. After that trick started getting old, her next tactic involved sneak shoves and when that started to stop working she resorted to creating rumors. This turned into a speed bump when her family moved to Kalos so her parents could pursue new careers. Thanks to her young age, picking up the local language in Kalos wasn't that difficult but it still served as a speed-bump in her mischievous activities.

After adjusting to the new environment in Kalos, she resumed her rumor spreading activities. This worked the best all the way into middle school where she had almost turned it into an art with the use of her observational skills and carefully placed evidence. Cass had just one "rule" when it came to her little pranks: she couldn't do anything that would result in a physical altercation nor could she pluck the strings of any student that looked like they could end up doing something that she'd regret. This limited her available "targets" to but a small handful, and that was fine with her, she knew how to manipulate situations just right to keep herself from getting bored while at school. Sometimes she'd even be able to trick a teacher, but not the psychic ones. Never the psychic ones. This oversight had landed her in detention on more than one occasion so she really had to carefully pick her targets for mischievous manipulation.

High School was a whirlwind of change for the young Pikachu lass however. The upperclassmen were more clever than she was at the time and not as forgiving of her verbal string plucking. What rumors she could manufacture from observing her fellow students quickly fell apart under scrutiny no matter how much time she put into creating them. On top of this, the upperclassmen liked pulling pranks of their own and not all of them were nice. The good news was that she wasn't their favorite target; their favorite target was some kind of science nerd on the other side of the school. Even so, high school life was off to a rough start and it was only going to get worse.

Puberty had to come sooner or later. Cass was starting to notice things about the 'mon around her that she hadn't before. Being given "the talk" didn't help anything and discovering some lewd magazines had complicated matters. In fact it was pretty obvious that she started to explore her own body soon after that out of pure curiosity. Sex-Ed class did have an impact on her, but somehow the teacher of the class suspected it wasn't the impact they had been aiming for. She started getting flirtatious with her fellow students both male and female, making slightly suggestive remarks and worrying her parents a lot with the number of reports they got of her breaking the school's rule concerning displays of affection in public. Thankfully it was far from lewd, but the message was rather clear.

The message was that Cass was starting to take after her mother. This brought back memories for her parents of when they met at a space camp and the escapades in the following weeks of camp that led to her conception. It also reminded her father of the tales of his mother's unplanned pregnancy with him when she was barely legal. If there was something neither of her parents wanted, it was to see her repeat their mistakes with the same consequences. They had to intervene.

As well-intended as the intervention was, it was received very badly. Cass was not blind to her friends getting more distant, even nervous, when she approached them. Potential boyfriends would seem a bit spooked or make up an excuse and quickly leave the vicinity whenever she asked about hanging out with them. Her girlfriends also noticed and backed off, apprehensive about having their own boyfriends chased off. It was like her personal life was being alienated, and that is exactly what was happening.

Her parents had eyes in the school where the staff did not. A couple of psychic types here and there keeping an eye on her. When they got a report of a boy at school getting cozy with Cass, they saw to it that the boy was given the message to steer clear of her. This was overprotective parenting in action, and when she found out her own parents were scaring off boyfriends through a middle-man, she blew a gasket. Her reaction included a lot of angry ranting and arguing as well as the "its my life and my body" line.

To prove the point, Cass secretly arranged an appointment in a tattoo parlor. She didn't have to worry about money; her gifts with observations and verbal persuasion had secured the spot without charge. She managed to dodge the psychic 'mon her parents had "hired" when she got out of school. She had a design in mind all week and took her time sketching it out for the artist: a black and blue Celtic pattern crisscrossing over each other on her left side following the milk line from her lower pubic region just an inch above her genitals and up over her left breast to a point just below her left collarbone. She had additionally requested it be a kind of ink so that it would cause the fur follicles to grow out in those colors permanently.

Getting the tattoo itself took several hours and it naturally left her tender for a time, but hiding it from her parents became her next priority. The psychics would probably figure out where she went from her very recent memories, so she had to focus on other thoughts to throw them off. Constantly. It was not easy, and remembering she has a tattoo had also proven to be a distraction in class. She liked this little secret a bit too much, it gave her a unique kind of thrill.

But it didn't solve the problem her parents posed in regard to her boyfriend problem. Cass couldn't burn that sexual energy off with them interfering in her attempts to have a personal life. And she was tired of flying solo. More than that, she got fed up with the interference and more than a little frustrated. None of the boys in her classes would go near her out of nervousness or fear. And she wasn't feeling receptive to asking one of her female friends if they wanted to help her with her little problem since she couldn't be sure what their orientation was. And with her frustration hitting its peak, she bit a mental lip and settled for her half-brother.

Tricking her half-brother was easy. Cass had grown up with her half-brother and half-sister and knew how they thought and acted. The same was true in reverse, but she had an advantage this time. She knew something about her half-brother that he couldn't resist and it had to do with the Goal Roll field. She knew that he wanted to join the Goal Roll team and she used this to lure him to under the bleachers after school one day. She was hinting at him that she might know a way to get him into the tryouts list and baiting him along. When she finally got him where she needed him, she got up close to him and paralyzed him with a Nuzzle to the chest.

Now incapable of resisting her, let alone speaking straight, Cass set to work. She knew it wasn't right, but she was beyond caring at that point because she wanted to know what it was like and couldn't stand having her boyfriends chased off. And her half-brother could only sit and watch at first, objecting as best he could. Despite those slurred and quiet objections, he started to react to what Cass was doing and even started to like it and even help with it as the paralysis started to wear off. That was when they left their virginity behind, and Cass had little trouble talking him into keeping it to himself because it was probably the only time they would have such a moment. And knowing her parents, she had to clean up before going home with her brother or else she risk her parents noticing that they recently had sex.

Luck was with her that day as well. Nobody in her family managed to catch wind of the secret incest. The psychics only kept an eye on her during school hours, and the hole in this surveillance was just big enough to allow her a couple of hours leeway for travel. It was how she snuck that tattoo and that intimate time with her brother. And as she had promised, Cass stayed away from her brother in the intimacy department and he stayed away from her. The curiosity was satisfied and things seemed to return to normal with her yelling at her parents about her boyfriends being scared off and having a bigger fight about her tattoo which they had just noticed. It remained this way until she graduated and got accepted into a college in Kanto along with her siblings.

College in Kanto was more relaxed than high school. At the same time it was also had more classes and by extension more work. Unfortunately there weren't any acceptable places to live on-campus and the rent in Kanto was outside of her budget. This made Cass look for nearby housing with little success until she found an apartment in Goldenrod City in Johto. It did require the use of the Magnet Train and a motorbike to get to the classes, but it was affordable enough with her siblings taking a share of the cost. And employment wasn't hard to find either although the pay was low. Cass made a choice to start a new "escort" service in Johto for the duration of her college life to cover the costs of the classes and the costs of living in Goldenrod City.

Collecting "volunteers" for the escort service was a little more difficult in Johto. While Cass had managed to blackmail her brother and con her sister into being the foundation, convincing local guys and gals to sign up was much more frustrating. The 'mon she interviewed seemed nervous and apprehensive about it, as if they seemed vaguely spooked by something. It baffled her, but she was patient and could wait for them to make up their minds. After all, it gave her time to find some strings to pluck to make these reluctant 'mon more willing to join up with her. It also meant she could get in with the "cool crowd" at the college.

Getting into a "cool crowd" didn't take a lot of effort. In retrospect, the quick entrance into the "cool" group despite being a college freshman may have had more to do with her flirtatious attitude, impish nature and the tattoo than her actual personality. Probably the tattoo more than the rest, since its placement and length gave 'mon enough mental pictures of what territories it covered. They were likely not thinking with their brains when they invited Cass to a frat house party. They definitely were not using those brains when they got her drunk. And it was hormones and libidos that made them start chanting and daring her to strip naked and streak the block. If anyone at the party was sober, they would've tried to stop this from happening, but that also depended on the sober 'mon having enough of a head on their shoulders to see how far south the party was going.

Being drunk can have a big impact on a 'mon and their ability to make good decisions. Cass' judgment was impaired enough with only two beers that she caved quickly and got naked. She couldn't hold her alcohol, that much was certain. As she started sprinting for the door however, the party seemed to screech to a sudden stop. From here the reports were sketchy. Some 'mon remember seeing Cass start glowing with a green aura, others describe it as a portal forming around her. The accounts are naturally mixed and conflicting due to inebriation, but they all agree that Cass was affected by something and that she vanished into thin air at the doorway to the fraternity house.

Cass didn't reappear until the next morning at her apartment with a hangover and vague memories of the event. She recalled blurred images of 'mon such as younger versions of her parents, something she attributed to being a crazy dream on the assumption that she must've passed out at the party and was teleported home by someone. She does remember green flashes, but dismissed them. Investigations into the matter didn't get much off of it until some of the 'mon more sensative to temporal anomalies came down with migraines every time they got near her. Temporal displacement, they said. Something to make Dialga nauseated as another temporal traveler, like a Celebi, must've meddled with the time stream. It was never fully investigated because when you get into time travel and aren't a Celebi or Dialga, you are only inviting very unpleasant headaches in trying to figure it out.

With the party incident being closed and shoved in a dusty corner to save other 'mon a headache, Cass' life continued along its course but with less alcohol involved. Learned a fair lesson that night. But it was only a matter of weeks before everything went sideways for her. And this time, she could not and would not be able to completely forget what happened or write it off as something a hard apple cider had done...

Cass had gone to a night club to scope out a date and round up some new blood for her "escort service", needing some new faces to help bring in more money for her costs of living. While the 'mon around were still reluctant to agree to her proposals, she did get a counter proposal from three 'mon watching from the club's bar: a Honchkrow, a Lucario and a Houndoom. They wore really odd clothes adorned with jewelry and they were all male. While polite about the request for Cass to join their circle, they didn't seem too dissuaded by her refusal. One of them, she can't remember which exactly, stayed with her and kept trying to sweet-talk her into joining and kept getting rejected. She did admit that it was nice of him to be so polite about it and he did get her a drink for which she can appreciate the attempt to butter her up, but a no was a no.

What happened next was nothing but a blur. She took her eyes off of the guy trying to sweet-talk her for a couple of seconds to check her Poké Gear for the time. When she decided to finish her drink and begin heading home, the drink tasted a little flat all of a sudden. She dismissed it and began walking outside. And right before she got to her bike, she felt wobbly and tired, even weak. Realizing too late that she had been drugged, Cass passed out face-first on the asphalt next to her bike. When she finally woke up again she noticed that she was in a very bright and medicinal-smelling room, surrounded by bklurry images of masked 'mon in surgical scrubs and feeling bloated. She caught sight of her inflated belly with laparoscopic trocars sticking out of it. A monitor displayed the contents of her abdomen nearby, making her ears twitch in reaction to her awareness of what was going on and also catching the attention of her captors. She felt a sting of something being jabbed into her neck and the world quickly faded to white as the sedative grabbed hold.

When she next woke, she was in a dimly lit room that was oddly cold. Her arms were chained to a wall above her, her feet in shackles, and completely naked. Nothing felt out of place for ther first few seconds until she became aware of the dull throbbing in her belly and a very discomforting coldness of something in her neck pumping who-knows-what into her carotid artery. It made her feel all kinds of intoxicatingly high and woozy, the pain she felt becoming duller and more distant as her awareness of her situation started to become hampered by the drugs entering her system. She had enough cognitive function to realize two things. First, she was a prisoner in this place, was operated on, and was being heavily drugged. Second, she was in a hell of a lot of trouble.