The Mayo Queen himself, CertifiedBreadstick, came up with the idea of posting long-lost fic scenes that never got to see the light of day via a fun tag. This is right up my alley because ya girl hoards deleted scenes like a goblin. I have a folder called 'Deleted Scenes' in Google Drive that's well over a dozen documents strong. They were supposed to never see the light of day, yet here we stand today 💀

The first scene I have here is actually from Bonds, and I actually remember why I wrote it. You know those divider chapters I have in that fic with aesthetic gifs and random quotes to make everything pretty? Originally, I was going to include miniature scenes in each of those to help give more backstory, but that idea got scrapped.

— For those #KenisBestBoy loons, this is for you —

Tick, tock. Tick, tock.

The clock's hands ticked on and on, unaware of the hard glare it was receiving. Steely indigo eyes drilled holes into the device. It didn't care. The clock continued on.

The owner of the glower finally turned away from it and walked out of the room. He caught his reflection in a mirror meant to make the house appear bigger than it really was — he looked awful. Dark bags akin to bruises hung under his eyes and his hair sat in a disheveled mess atop his head. None of it mattered. At least to him it didn't.

He crossed the kitchen's tiled floor and picked up the piece of paper on the counter. It required all his self-control not to destroy it right then and there.

An elderly woman followed him with car keys in-hand. "Ken, are you ready leave?"

"I suppose so," he replied.

"You'll love Kalos," she assured, reaching over to take the plane ticket from him. "The family you're staying with is the sweetest bunch you'll ever meet. You know, your parents were—"

She cut herself short. Worry and regret etched onto her face. Ken's muscles tensed, and he clenched his jaw. He exhaled deeply.

"We should leave now," he said, changing the subject.

She watched him go ahead of her with a small frown. Doubt gnawed at her stomach, creating a million terrible scenarios in her head. She shook her head then checked the plane ticket once more.

He'll be fine.

—

It's weird seeing Bonds around after being stuck in TIOG-land for so long. Like, I love Bonds, but I also hate Bonds. We have a complicated relationship lmao.

The second scene I have prepared for this tag is from, you guessed it, TIOG. Well over 3/4s of my scrapped scenes are all from this pirate fic. Get this: I have different versions of the same scrapped scene because I thought I could make the idea it work. It never worked.

I got rid of the scene below because I thought it was unnecessary exposition. Dialogue or no dialogue, it doesn't make this passage anymore interesting.

— yeet —

The wagon creaked loudly as it slowed to a halt and rocked from side to side as its passengers shifted. Bouffalant pulling the load snorted and blew steam from their noses, tossing their shaggy heads and scuffing the damp earth with their well-trodden hooves. One of the beasts huffed as a hand patted zir horns and growled in protest.

"Thank you for the ride," Cyryl said, backing away from the Pokémon. As Pidge fluttered to zir side, zie turned to the wagon-driver and added, "We appreciate everything you've done for us."

The wagon-driver reflected zir smile and replied, "You're very welcome. You all take care, okay?"

"Aye," August called as she helped Marley down from the wagon. "You be safe, too, miss."

"I'm always safe," she claimed with a wink. "If anything, I'm safer now than I ever was because I have good karma coming back around my way, no?" She chuckled and waved. "Ha det bra."

August released a small, disappointed sigh as they watched the wagon disappear from sight. They'd met the kind, old lady in a northern Far Plains magician settlement where she'd been asking for help to find her lost Miltank. Pidge had found the calf stuck at the bottom of a pit; it'd taken several hours to coax the Pokémon into trusting them to tie zir with rope and haul zir out of the ditch. When they'd delivered the Miltank, the old lady had asked what they'd wanted for payment.

"A ride to Waywyn," August had answered.

She'd grinned and returned, "That I can do!"

—

Hopefully you guys found this tag at least somewhat entertaining! I think it's interesting seeing how my 2017 writing compares to my 2019 writing like that. Not a lot has changed lmao.

I tag ImberLapis and JunieWeathers to try this out~