Autumn's never trained a pokémon for battle in her life, and she's not going to start now. Can she still make a comfortable life in Hoenn? And what's up with this goth chick who keeps insisting on helping her?
Slowburn yuri. Chapters weekly on wednesday evenings. Complete.
Autumn sits on the side of her bed in her room, hugging her Ziggy close. The zigzagoon's brown-and-white striped fur presses coarsely against her hands as she looks over at the lavender backpack sitting on the tiny desk next to her window.
She's twenty-one today. Three years of trying to put off the inevitable, trying to scrape by at her job at Oldale Town's single Pokémart. Her mother's been pushing for years for her to get out and see the world. "Most people do this when they're sixteen", she'd said last week. "When are you going to go bring me back some gym badges? If a sixteen-year-old can do it, so can you!"
The pressure's only been getting worse. The Pokémart barely needs her anymore, there are so few travelers these days. She's a burden to her mother like this, staying at home, eating her food...
And so, reluctantly, she's let her mother put together a pack with a half-dozen pokéballs, some camping supplies and clothes, and a small travelling allowance for her to get by on for the next year or so. Her mother had insisted that she bring her festival yukata for some reason - some grand image of her celebrating with her Pokémon in a faraway place seemed to tinge the corners of her eyes. "You never know what you could have to celebrate," she'd said. "Maybe even someone you'd like to look pretty for?"
Autumn had scowled and looked down at her plateful of greens, picking at her blouse's sleeve with her other hand. "You know I don't have anyone like that. I'm not... There's nobody to date in Oldale, anyway." Nobody who'd be interested in me is someone I'd want to date.
"Hope springs eternal," her mother had said. "I think you'll find someone if you get out there."
Autumn had sighed. "The wilds are dangerous, Mom, and I - I've never had a battle, I'm not a trainer -"
"Ziggy will keep you safe."
Autumn looked down at the zigzagoon by the leg of her chair. "Ziggy's not for battling."
"We've discussed this, Autumn."
"Ziggy's not for battling and that's final," Autumn had said.
So why is she sitting on the side of her bed and getting ready to leave?
She sighs, drawing her hand through Ziggy's coarse fur one last time.
"Return," she says, and he vanishes in a flash of red light.
She pats the pokéball on her belt.
"We're not welcome here anymore, Ziggy." Autumn stands up and goes over to her desk. Picking up the pack, she pulls it on, fiddling awkwardly with the straps. Settling it against her back, she cinches the straps down and looks at herself in the full-length mirror that hangs against her door.
She's not much to look at. Plain brown hair beneath a wide-brimmed sunhat, practical jeans, the slightly-oversize blouse her mother got her and always goes easier on her when she wears. She smiles uncertainly at the mirror. It's hard to be confident when she's leaving everything she knows behind.
She opens her room's door, and goes down the stairs to the ground floor.
Her mother's waiting for her, grey eyes sharp, a wide smile on her face. "Finally ready?", she asks.
"Yeah," Autumn says, looking away. "North, across the river while it's low, then east and north to Mauville City. There's a reservation at a hotel there for the next week, and from there I'm on my own."
Autumn's mother nods. "Good luck, and goodbye. I'll miss you!"
Autumn just nods back, and walks across the room to the front door.
"Won't you give me a hug before you go?", her mother asks.
"I -" Autumn sighs, and turns to give her mother a hug. "See you in a year or so."
"See you, Autumn." She smiles. "My little girl is all grown up. Going on her journey. Makes me remember when I was young..."
Autumn ducks her head. "I'll... do my best to make you proud, mom."
Autumn's mother releases her hug and gestures towards the door.
Autumn pulls on her boots, opens the door, and steps out into the green outdoors. The familiar forest surrounding her looks quiet, but she knows it's teeming with all kinds of Pokémon.
Right. North.
She waves over her shoulder one last time, and turns to set one foot in front of the other.
~*~
The ford across the river is quite apparent - a narrowing of shallow, placid water. Most times of the year the river's too high to cross safely, but her mother is a local and knows when it's safe to pass. Not that she's ever been the best at staying safe...
Autumn rubs her hand against her forearm looking at the ford. This kind of crossing can be treacherous, especially if wild Pokémon decide to make an appearance at the worst time. Looking around at the foliage, she sees nothing around more dangerous than a Taillow up a tree well away from the river.
Her boots are going to be soaking after this, but oh well. It's not far to Mauville.
She steps into the river, bracing her boot against a rock on the bottom, and carefully shimmies her way through the ford, hands out to either side of her for balance.
Autumn makes it to the other side safely, though her boots are soaking wet. At least it's a hot day. They'll dry.
The Trick House comes up to her left - but she's not stopping there right now. She doesn't feel like being tricked today; she's already anxious enough.
She looks warily at the long grass beneath the Seaside Cycling Road. Her mother had said that nothing of any consequence lived here - just a few weak Electric-types and the usual Zigzagoons.
She's never stepped into long grass before in her life.
Tapping the ball at her waist, she releases Ziggy and scoops him up to settle him on her shoulder. "Together," she says.
"Zig!", chirps Ziggy, and a little smile comes to Autumn's face.
"Knew I could count on you," she says. And warily, she steps into the tall grass.
It's a long walk north beneath the edifice of Cycling Road, a zig-zagging path by the sea that crosses beneath the bridge supports several times. The fear of encountering wild Pokémon is bad enough, but Autumn's boots are full of water and every step squishes distractingly. If she runs into an electric-type while she's like this -
Something rustles in the bushes.
"Ziggy?", she says, looking over at the source of the sound.
"Zig!", he confirms.
The rustle is right in the middle of the way they need to go. Hesitantly, Autumn steps over to the edge of the path by the sea, and edges sideways towards the sound -
A black-furred shadow bursts from the grass with a loud "Chy!", and Ziggy leaps off her shoulder -
Scrambling backwards into a clearer area in the grass, Autumn watches helplessly as the poochyena darts in at Ziggy and sinks its fangs into his shoulder.
"No! Ziggy! I, uh - tackle?"
Ziggy whimpers in pain, but does his best to obey the command, lurching forwards at the poochyena. It ducks to the side and bites again at his side, and Ziggy whimpers again, blood staining his fur. He falls over, and the poochyena advances towards Autumn with a low growl in its throat -
Autumn's just made it to her feet, and the sight of Ziggy crumpled up in a ball amid the tall grass makes something in her break. She lets out a sob, and dashes forwards, heedless of the danger -
The poochyena darts backwards as Autumn runs at it, growling lowly, but Autumn scoops up her fallen Ziggy and stares it down with tears in her eyes. "I'm going," she says, "You - you hurt my Ziggy - You -"
She's stuck in the middle of a bunch of tall grass with an angry Pokémon, and her only Pokémon's fainted. There are no good options.
She runs at the Poochyena, cradling her Ziggy close, and one long stride catches the poochyena in the side and kicks it off the narrow path into the sea -
Autumn doesn't stop to see if the Poochyena gets back out of the water, she just runs headlong through the tall grass, half-blind with tears, cradling her fallen Zigzagoon close to her body. The cries of disturbed Pokémon rise all around her as she charges headlong down the path.
Please please please please please Ziggy be okay -
She bursts from the tall grass with a dozen angry barks and chirps following her, and runs headlong onto the clear space of the northern road to Cycling Road. She trips and falls, just in time for a bolt of lightning to crack out over her head from an irritated Plusle. She shields her Ziggy with her arms, refusing to let go of him even as she goes down in a sprawling pile on the road -
She coughs hard, the wind knocked out of her, but no second bolt finds her. She scrambles to her feet, long gashes on her arms and knees, and half-turns towards the long grass - but the wild Pokémon haven't pursued her beyond the edge of their territory.
Autumn stands shakily, and stumbles onwards towards Mauville City, still carrying her injured Ziggy.
~*~
"What happened to you?", asks the nurse at the counter of the Pokémon Center once she's handed Ziggy over for treatment.
"Ziggy - I - " She looks down. "There was a poochyena, and - Ziggy's not trained for battles - and I tried to fight it off, but -"
The nurse gives her a pitying look. "You shouldn't be out on your own without a battle-trained pokémon to protect you. Put in some training next time before leaving home, alright? Should I call a Ranger to escort you back home? A junior one would do, Cycling Road's not that dangerous -"
Autumn touches the messy scrape on her arm and hisses softly. "No. I'm - I have a hotel in the city. I'm - I'm okay. I'll figure something out. Just please make sure Ziggy is okay."
"Ziggy will be fine," the nurse says. "Pokémon are far more resilient than humans. I'm more worried about you. Shall we see to those scrapes?"
Autumn sighs, and nods. "I suppose so."
~*~
Ziggy is returned to her within a few hours, apparently no worse for the wear. Autumn pulls him from the nurse's arms and presses her face into his fur and hugs hard.
"So glad you're okay," she says muffledly.
"Zig." Ziggy presses up against her softly.
She laughs slightly. "Yeah, I - I'm a pathetic excuse for a trainer. I can't even fight off a single poochyena. What was I thinking, going off on my own like this -"
"Zig!" There's a note of indignance in Ziggy's voice.
Autumn settles Ziggy back on her lap, and sighs and shakes her head. "Not your fault at all, Ziggy. I'm the one who never... trained you at all."
"Zig..." Ziggy sighs.
"Let's go to that hotel, okay?"
"Zig..." Ziggy shakes his head.
Autumn lifts Ziggy back up to her shoulder, where he perches carefully, and she stands to go. "Thank you," she says to the nurse.
The nurse nods in reply. "Take care of yourself and don't take so many risks, okay?"
"I won't. It's... my fault that Ziggy got hurt in the first place."
"Zig!"
"I know. I'm sorry."
The Zigzagoon buffets Autumn's face with his big bushy tail, and she blinks. "H-hey!"
"Zig zig!"
"... It was both of our faults for going along with this," Autumn says. "Let's... go rest, and plan our next move."
"Zig." Ziggy sounds a little self-satisfied.
~*~
The soft hotel bed envelops Autumn gently and cradles her in quiet safety. Her whole body still aches, but at least she can take her boots off and get her feet dry.
Curling up with her Ziggy on the bed, she strokes him slowly.
"... How am I ever going to face mom like this? Beaten by a poochyena on my first trip out. She'd... I can't go back. I have to do better... But..."
The image of Ziggy fallen in the grass, blood matting his fur, comes unbidden back to Autumn's mind.
"... I can't let you get hurt. Once is enough. I'm never, not ever, going to let you get hurt again, Ziggy. No battling for us."
"Zig?" Ziggy's voice is quiet and a little shaky.
Autumn's face falls. "... There is money to consider, yes. Most travelling trainers support themselves on their winnings in tournaments or with show battles... But we can't do that. We're worse than hopeless at that."
"Zig." Ziggy doesn't seem to question it.
"I suppose I could get a job at a pokémart or something... I do have a little experience... But then what do I do in a year? Just go back to my mother with not a single badge? I... might as well have never left home. She'd be furious."
"Zigzag!" Ziggy's tail shoots straight up.
Autumn shakes her head. "No, I don't have any better ideas. Maybe if we ask around town a bit something will come to us..."
She picks up her pack from the floor, carefully laying it down on the bed, and opens its outer pocket. Taking out one of Ziggy's berry bars, she pulls off the foil and offers the end of it to him.
"You deserve a treat after everything you've been through. Trying to defend me like that... Was incredibly brave of you, Ziggy." Autumn strokes a hand through his fur.
"Zig!" Ziggy pops up on his hind legs and takes a bite of the bar, then looks up at Autumn with happy eyes. "Zig zig."
"You really like these, huh? It's the Roseli Berries in this new blend, isn't it." Autumn smiles sadly. "You're gonna get even rounder at this rate."
"Ziiiiiiiiiiigzag." Ziggy seems pretty satisfied. He takes another big bite of the bar and chews.
"If only I could relax into the simple things like you can, Ziggy. But life's more complicated than that for people." Autumn sighs and drags her fingers through his hair. "At least you're happy."
"Zig zag." Ziggy rubs up against her side and nuzzles her softly, then takes another bite of the berry bar. Most of it is gone now.
"These things aren't cheap, you know..." Autumn says mournfully. "What am I going to do with you, Ziggy?"
Ziggy flicks his tail to one side, then the other.
Autumn gives him the last bite of the berry bar and sighs out heavily. "You deserve a second one after that mess..." She reaches into her pack, but the pocket is empty. "- Wait, that was my last berry bar? I could've sworn that I'd brought more than that..."
She looks down at Ziggy, and sighs. "I guess I'll have to find a pokétreat shop. Mauville's large enough, there ought to be something somewhere..."
"Zig zag!"
"Yes, yes, I promised." Autumn stands shakily, her banged-up legs a little unsteady beneath her. She taps her shoulder, and Ziggy bounces up from the bed and perches in his usual place.
She slips on her pack again, and then it's out into the city.
~*~
Autumn stops in front of a large pink sign with a ribbon draped over it. "Patricia's Pokétreats", it announces. "Pokéblocks, Poffins, Curry, and Aprijuice sold here!" There's a small seating area outside the shop with metal tables topped with pink umbrellas, but nobody's there at the moment.
She feels awful. Even though her pokétch was able to direct her to a local treat shop, the short walk over has left her feeling dead tired. It's been such a long day.
She shoves open the door of the shop and steps inside, half-glaring at the woman behind the service desk despite herself. There's no line this late in the day.
"Hey," she says. "Do you sell Solidad's Sweet Berry Bars here?"
The woman behind the counter runs a hand through her deep-green hair, and shakes her head. "We don't sell mass-produced treats here. Everything is made fresh daily."
"Oh." Autumn leans her head against Ziggy on her shoulder. "Um, what do you have that's sweet, then?"
"Watmel and Magost berry poffins, for 500 pokedollars each, and Pecha, Persim and Mago berry Pokéblocks for 20 pokedollars each." The clerk gestures to the display case, indicating each item in turn with her tongs.
Autumn looks at the display case. The Pokéblocks look like they're the closest equivalent to Ziggy's sweet berry bars, but she really does want to get Ziggy something special today...
"Do you have anything with Roseli berry in it?" Autumn tilts her head slightly.
"I'm afraid not." The clerk shrugs.
Autumn sighs. "Alright. What's the sweetest one?"
"The Watamel, Mago and Pecha berry blend poffins. They're three hundred pokédollars each." The clerk indicates them with her tongs.
Autumn looks down at the expensive little treat, then nods to herself and gets out her wallet. "I'll have one of those for my Ziggy, then. He's earned it." With a tap of her debit card against the reader, she pays for the poffin, and the clerk behind the counter slips it into a paper bag and hands it over. She puts away her wallet, accepts the bun, and then it's out into the evening air again.
Carrying Ziggy on her shoulder as well as her bag when she's all banged up like this... isn't going so well. Her whole body aches. With a sigh of relief, Autumn sits down on the hard metal seat that extends from the table outside the pokétreat shop, unslings her pack, and puts her leg through the strap beneath the table. Ziggy hops off her shoulder and down onto the tabletop, and Autumn smiles at him. "Hey."
"Zigzag!" Ziggy hops in along the table and nuzzles up against Autumn's chest, his fur brushing slowly along her skin. "Zig?" He looks hopefully at the poffin that's still in her hand.
Autumn slips the poffin out of its bag, and breaks off a piece of the soft, flaky pastry, extending it towards Ziggy. He takes it eagerly, and his whole body stiffens.
"Ziggy?" Autumn frowns.
"Zig zig!" Ziggy's tail stands up and wags as he swallows down the bite of poffin and takes another nibble at the piece in Autumn's hand. "Zigzagoon!"
"It's good, huh?" Autumn smiles.
Ziggy nods quickly, the gesture obvious even on the raccoon-like pokémon.
"I'm glad. If it hadn't been good I could hardly return it." Autumn breaks off another piece and sets it on top of the paper bag on the table. "Go on, eat up."
Ziggy settles down and starts nibbling away, and Autumn strokes him slowly. "Good boy." She pulls a piece of grass out of his fur, and tsks. "You need brushing. Might as well do it now..." She reaches into her pack and pulls out her special Ziggy brush, digging the stiff bristles into his fur. Working slowly down his body as he nibbles at his poffin, she occupies herself with the familiar task, brushing out the dust and grass.
"Hey," says a quiet voice over her shoulder. "That's a pretty cute Zigzagoon."
Autumn turns and looks. It's a short but lithe woman wearing a strappy black top, black slacks, and a matching leather purse. An elaborate pendant in the shape of a rose hangs from her neck, loops of thorns making flourishes out to each side of the central blossom. A Houndoom stands by her side, looking over attentively with a serious expression, the curled horns on its canine head pointed directly at Ziggy.
"I, uh..." Autumn stiffens. "What do you care?"
The woman comes over and leans against the table. "I'm thinking of getting one of my own, that's all. I've heard they're a real handful, though. How often do you feed him?"
Autumn bites the inside of her cheek. "Uh, I try to keep it down to five small meals a day. Mostly chicken."
The stranger nods, and extends her hand to Autumn. "Cool. I'm Nix, by the way. Do you mind if I ask you a couple more questions?"
Autumn reaches out and awkwardly shakes Nix's hand. Nix's nails are painted deep violet, the same color as her lips. Autumn meets her gaze for a moment, then looks away with a little wince.
Nix looks down at Autumn's arm. "- Are you okay?"
Autumn blinks, and looks down at herself. There's a fresh deep-red stain on her blouse's sleeve, which is dripping slowly onto the table.
"- oh." Her arm still aches, but she'd kind of lost track of it in the mess of miscellaneous pains. She undoes her sleeve's cuff, and pulls it back; sure enough, the thin dressing on her forearm has soaked through in a ragged patch. Moving around so much must have reopened her scrape.
No wonder she feels so tired...
Nix winces, and lets go Autumn's hand. "Looks like that dressing needs changing. What happened to you?" She digs in her voluminous purse, and pulls out a small first-aid kit.
"I, it's nothing, just - a fall -" Autumn winces. "I'm going to be okay -"
Ziggy shakes his head. "Zigzaaaaaaaag..."
"You look dead on your feet." Nix gives Autumn a flat look, and sits down across from her, her Houndoom coming to heel and sitting on the ground next to her. Setting the first aid kit on the table, she clicks it open and pulls out a thick pad of gauze and some medical tape. "Let me change that, and then we should get some fluids into you." Unwinding the gauze in her hands, she sets a length of it of about the right size on the table, and looks at Autumn's dressing speculatively. " - you should probably take off the dressing yourself, you know what part hurts the most."
Autumn looks at the fresh gauze, then at Nix. "I, uh..."
Ziggy carefully nudges Autumn's arm a little more towards Nix.
Autumn sighs. "Fine, Ziggy gets his way. As always." Carefully, she pulls at the medical tape that binds the stained pad over her scrape, and peels away the gauze with a little hiss of pain.
The scrape underneath is a mass of half-congealed blood and the beginnings of scabs, oozing slowly from a small area by Autumn's elbow. It must have been slowly soaking through the pad the whole time Autumn was making Ziggy's dinner and walking to the pokétreat store.
Nix winces. "That's nasty. Must have been one heck of a fall."
Autumn nods. "I was trying to shield Ziggy, so I couldn't catch myself with my hands -"
"Save the explanations for later." Nix swaps sides of the table so she's sitting next to Autumn. "Give me your arm."
Autumn pulls back a little, cradling her arm close. "I - um -"
She looks down at Ziggy, and he gives her a pleading look.
"Okay." Carefully, she extends her arm to Nix.
Nix takes a firm grip of her arm next to the gash, violet nails digging into Autumn's skin, and carefully lays the already-prepared gauze along the scrape. "There. Can you hold that for just a moment while I get the tape?"
Autumn nods, and gently presses the pad to her own arm. Nix pulls a long pieces of medical tape off her small roll, and secures one edge of the dressing. "There," she says. "You can let go now."
Autumn relaxes marginally, and Nix secures the other three sides of the dressing with her tape as well. "That should hold it. If it soaks through again I'd check with a real doctor."
Autumn retrieves her arm from Nix's grasp. "I... Thank you."
Nix shakes her head. "It's nothing. Now let me go in and get you something to drink, okay? Just stay right here." She stands and presses firmly down on Autumn's shoulder.
Autumn opens her mouth to protest, then shakes her head. "- go ahead."
Nix smiles. "Alright. Be back in just a moment." She snaps her fingers, and her Houndoom nods to her. He stays at the side of the table, his eyes boring into Autumn as Nix heads off into the shop.
Autumn looks down at the black, bone-covered hound, and decides to stay right where she is.
"Zag!" Ziggy grabs the Poffin and takes a big bite out of it.
"Ziggy!" Autumn grabs him with both hands and pulls him away from the Poffin. "Bad Zigzagoon."
Ziggy makes a smug noise through a mouthful of poffin, and swallows.
Autumn sighs. "Seriously, what am I going to do with you. Alright, that's it, enough treats for now if you can't behave yourself." She picks up the remaining half of the poffin and puts it back into its bag, then stuffs that into her pack.
When she looks up again, Ziggy is sitting on the edge of the table, looking at the Houndoom. "Zig, zig zag," he says.
"Doom," replies the Houndoom gruffly with a casual glance over. "Houn."
Ziggy nods, takes a step back from the table's edge, and hops down into Autumn's lap, careful to aim close in to her body so as not to land on her scraped-up knees. "Zag," he says reassuringly.
Autumn buries her hands in Ziggy's coarse fur, and breathes. The Houndoom is still watching, ears pricked up and alert, but it's a little less scary with Ziggy in her lap.
Before Autumn can get up the courage to stand up with the Houndoom watching her, Nix comes back out of the poketreat shop with a big bottle of lemonade. Autumn winces as the bottle comes into view; it's the expensive trainer's choice brand that's made with real berry juice.
Nix sits down across from the table and passes the lemonade to her. "I'm not leaving until I see you drink all of that," she says. Then she looks down at the Houndoom. "Good work, Noir."
The Houndoom stands up, and paces back to his trainer. Nix reaches down and scratches him behind the base of one of his horns; he leans into her touch a little, his tongue lolling out of his mouth as he gives a big doggy smile to Nix.
Nix looks back over at Autumn. "So..."
Autumn cracks the overpriced lemonade and takes a drink of it, her hands a little unsteady. "I... um... thank you."
Nix shakes her head. "It's nothing. What happened to you? The real story, not 'I fell.'" She looks down at her Houndoom. "If there's someone you need protecting from..."
Autumn shakes her head hastily. "I - no, I really did fall - I, um..." She sighs. "It's embarrassing."
Nix tilts her head. "Hit me."
Autumn looks over at the Houndoom at Nix's side, and squares her shoulders a little. "I, uh... I was supposed to be, you know... doing the pokémon journey thing..."
Nix's eyebrows rise. "Go on?"
"It was my first time in tall grass, and - Ziggy was there to protect me, but he's not battle trained at all... So when a poochyena came after us, well..."
"Ziggy lost the battle." Nix's voice is flat. "... And you didn't have any other pokémon to protect you, then."
"Yeah." Autumn looks down at her lap. "So I just grabbed Ziggy and ran for it. I, uh, might have kicked the Poochyena out of the way."
Nix nods. "... You were lucky. And brave. Going out into the wilds without any battle trained pokémon is... not really something you can get away with unless you live in a really quiet area." Her eyes narrow. "Why were you there? You're old to be this early in a pokémon journey, and you ought to have known better. Something doesn't add up." She taps her fingers on the table. "What were you running from?"
"I..." Autumn doesn't look up from Ziggy.
"Zag," Ziggy says quietly.
"... My mother forced me to go," Autumn says. "Because, well, I'm twenty-one, and... up until now I'd never left Oldale Town. I was... being a drain on her resources. So I've been sent off to... make my own way in the world, I guess. I'm supposed to be back in a year, but... I know that's a polite fiction. I won't be welcome back in my old room after this..." She sighs. "I have some money, I'm not - I'm okay. Please don't -" She sighs. "My mother cares about me, and - she's just trying to do what's best for me..."
Nix crosses her arms. "Drink your lemonade." She looks over at Noir. "What do you think?"
The Houndoom growls lowly. "Doom."
"Yeah." Nix sighs. "You could have literally died. You came from Oldale, you said? There's Electric-types along that route. If you'd been electrocuted, well..." She taps her violet nails against her arm. "Your mother should've at least lent you a battle-capable pokémon."
Autumn shakes her head. "It's not her fault that Ziggy's not battle-trained -"
"It is her fault that you're out here travelling without any pokémon to protect you." Nix frowns. "You wouldn't have gone out into the wilds without her insisting, would you?"
Autumn takes a drink of her lemonade, then sets it back down. "I don't see how it's any of your business."
Nix opens her mouth, then closes it again. "... If you really don't want me to help, I'll butt out, but - " She digs in her purse and pulls out a black notebook and a matching silver pen. Setting it on the table, she prints a pokétch number and her name on it, then slides it across the table to Autumn. "I - look, I've known a lot of people in bad situations before, and - If I can help, I want to. Alright?"
Autumn sighs, picks up the note, and puts it into her pocket. "You've already done more than enough. I don't want to go over my whole life with a stranger. Just - will you get out of my hair?"
Nix looks seriously at Autumn. "You don't mean that."
"I mean it." Autumn's voice steadies a little. "Buzz off."
Nix sighs, and nods. "Alright." She stands up from the table, and clicks her tongue. Noir falls in beside her, and she takes a step away, then half-turns. "You can call me anytime, for anything. I'm in the area for the next week or so, so..." She shrugs.
Autumn looks down at Ziggy in her lap, and stands herself, picking up the lemonade as she goes. "Yeah. Thank you for the lemonade, I guess."
"Don't mention it." And with a small nod, Nix turns and walks away.
Stiffly, Autumn picks up her pack, and turns and walks the other direction.
~*~
About thirty minutes later, Autumn swipes her pokétch on the door of the hotel, discards her pack, sets her half-full bottle of lemonade onto the nightstand, and then finally flops into bed.
Her everything hurts. Where did Nix get off, momming her like that? It's bad enough that she's a loser who's terrible at battling, but getting a stranger to help her like that.
She takes a long and heavy breath, and rolls over onto her side. The gashes on her leg and arm twinge, but she breathes through it, and does her best to settle herself comfortably.
At least Ziggy had fun. And... at least she doesn't have to listen to her mother in the morning.
She closes her eyes, and drifts off to sleep.
Inspired by Borne of Caution, with seasonings of Pokemon: The Origin of Species and Boldores and Boomsticks.
With lesbians, because I'm congenitally incapable of writing things without lesbians.
I've got several chapters in the tank but will be slow-rolling on a weekly schedule so as to maintain a buffer.
Comments very much appreciated!
This was an enjoyable first chapter! Good character stuff (as is traditional for your writing), a protagonist sitting outside of any of the archetypes I've encountered in my admittedly-limited other forays into Pokemon-fanfic-reading... overall I look forward to seeing where Autumn's life goes from here. Her intertwined set of life-circumstances-plus-personal-issues-preventing-her-from-fully-recognizing-the-badness-of-those-circumstances is a compelling one, and I'll be interested to see how it evolves over time!
Autumn wakes the next morning and sits up slowly, looking around her at the unfamiliar room. Her lemonade's still sitting on the bedside table. Her arm still aches, but her knees seem to be a little less painful. She reaches down and prods her injury through the sheets and her jeans, drawing a little hiss from her lips.
Right, pokémon journey. Ziggy defended her, but... She barely defended Ziggy. And then what'shername with the lemonade.
She reaches into her pocket, and pulls out the scrap of paper the woman gave her last night. Nix's number and name stares back at her from the scrap of paper.
"Ugh." Autumn dumps the paper onto her bedside table, and awkwardly scoots to the edge of the bed, trying not to touch her knee any more. As she pushes the sheets aside, she looks down at her scuffed-up knees -
... Ugh, the knee of her jeans is out and she can see the dressing beneath. She'd forgotten about that. It kind of got lost in the shuffle.
She reaches over to her pack and digs through it for her spare jeans, but... she's only packed skirts. Which is no good. She needs another pair of jeans without a hole in the knee, or at least for this pair to get mended.
Autumn sighs. Things just keep seeming to get worse. She touches the pokéball on her belt, and Ziggy pops out into her lap in a flash of light. He nuzzles into her belly and curls up on her lap, careful of her knees; then he closes his eyes and lies down atop her.
"Someone's sleepy this morning, huh?" Autumn traces a hand through Ziggy's coarse fur.
"Ziiiiiiiiiig." Ziggy looks over at her pack hopefully. "Zig?"
Autumn rolls her eyes, and digs into her pack for the poffin. "You're lucky I'm a soft touch." Breaking off another small piece from the remaining half, she offers it to Ziggy. "Here you go."
Ziggy takes the piece of poffin right out of her hand and swallows it down; Autumn smiles, and strokes his back again. "Alright, time for breakfast for both of us. I think today's an egg day for you, you deserve it after trying to defend me like that."
"Zig ziiiiig!" Ziggy wags his tail happily, hops down out of Autumn's lap, and pads over to the hotel room's kitchen nook.
Autumn walks over to the nook and looks at the facilities. There's a sink, microwave and a mini fridge, but nothing to actually cook with.
She sighs. "Looks like we're using reheated supplies today. Mom didn't book us a proper trainer dorm. I knew I should've decided myself..." She looks over at the suite's bathroom to her other side. "Well, at least this was probably cheap." She fishes in her backpack and pulls out her single Container Ball, a plain steel sphere with the characteristic pokéball clasp. Tapping the button, a small assortment of sealed plastic bags appear on the counter, all nestled together inside a pair of plastic food and water bowls.
Sorting through the food, Autumn puts two chicken breasts and a hard-boiled egg in the plastic food bowl, then pops it in the microwave to heat. While it nukes, she fills the water bowl from the sink and lowers it to the floor where Ziggy is waiting.
He laps at it, and wags his tail.
"You can smell it, can't you?" Autumn smiles slightly.
Ziggy's tail wags faster. "Zig!"
Autumn pops the warmed-up chicken breasts and egg out of the microwave, and adds a half-dozen apple slices from another bag and a small handful of nuts. Then she pats the countertop. "Up you get."
Ziggy hops up onto the counter, turns to the bowl, and chomps down the egg in two big bites. A moment later he's on the apple slices, standing up and using his forepaws to hold them while he bites. It's a bit more of a human stance for the usually-quadrupedal pokémon, but Autumn knows just how dexterous Ziggy can be when he's motivated.
She smiles. "Good boy. Don't forget your chicken breasts."
Ziggy picks up a chicken breast next, and in three big bites it's gone.
Autumn looks over at the hard-boiled eggs, and her stomach rumbles - but they're Ziggy's food, not hers, even if she can eat them, and she's not going to compromise his diet for her own sake. They'll just have to go out to a fast food place, that'll be cheap and tasty.
Ziggy's still eating, so she gets out her double-sided brush from her pack and starts giving him a more thorough grooming, first with the stiff-bristled side and then with the denser, soft-bristled side. Ziggy finishes his meal before she's done, but he waits patiently for her to brush out all his fur and make his coat gleam.
Nix was at least right about her Ziggy being cute.
Autumn sits back onto her bed with a sigh, and leaves Ziggy lapping at his water bowl. She... should really shower and change her dressings, but right now she's just really hungry. She looks awful, she knows she does, but honestly right now she doesn't really care.
She reseals the food back in her container ball, puts it and the brush back into her pack, and steps up to Ziggy as she puts the pack back on. "Alright," she says to him. "Let's get moving. I need to eat something too, you know."
Ziggy nods quickly, and hops up from the counter to her shoulder. "Zig!"
"Knew I could count on you." Autumn gets the door, and heads out into the city.
~*~
There's a food court close to Autumn's hotel, but when she finally gets there after another few blocks of hiking, the sign is... not encouraging.
BATTLE FOOD COURT
Battle a trainer gauntlet for your order! Valuable prizes!
Village Sub (Single Battles) 1k entry fee
Magnemite Croquette (Double Battles) 5k entry fee
Mauville Ramen Bowl (Triple Battles) 10k entry fee
Autumn looks at the sign, then at Ziggy on her shoulder. She sighs heavily. "Looks like we're going to have to go somewhere else. I can't even afford the entry fee, much less fight a whole gauntlet of trainers..."
"Zigzaaaaag," Ziggy agrees.
Reluctantly, Autumn raises her pokétch to her face again and starts tapping through the list of local fast-food places, only to find that the next closest fast food place is five blocks away. It seems like the battle food court has all the local business.
"I don't suppose we could go in and ask if we could get food without a battle?" Autumn looks at Ziggy skeptically.
Ziggy nods. "Zig." It seems he feels like it's worth trying.
Autumn pushes open the doors and steps into the food court. There's seats on the left with a gaggle of school kids and adults, including a handful of tough-looking men with tattoos. A wide area is cleared for battling, and three counters have been set up across from the tables. Each counter is labelled with the battle format and dish served.
There's a big sign next to the sub place that says "No orders filled without battling."
Autumn rubs her forehead. The sad reality is that any one of the school kids chatting away at the tables to her left could probably wipe the floor with her Ziggy - he's not battle trained, and all of them... well, they come to this food court to battle every day.
She turns back towards the doors, and nearly bumps into a woman with blue, bob-cut hair. She's tall, broad-shouldered and wearing a flared white coat with black tailored slacks. Five Ultra Balls and a Luxury Ball sit on on her hip.
"Hey," she says. "Watch where you're going, okay?"
"Yeah, uh, sorry -" Autumn steps back, and watches as the blue-haired woman approaches the Triple Battle counter.
"Uh," Autumn says, her brain finally kicking back into high gear. "Excuse me?"
The stranger looks back over her shoulder. "Yes, what is it?"
"Do you care about the food, or are you just... here for the prizes? I - well, I'm starving and no good at battles, and you look tough, so... " Autumn hunches in a little on herself.
The woman tilts her head to the side, then nods as if to herself. She offers her hand to shake. "Hey. I'm December."
"Autumn," Autumn replies, shaking December's hand. Something about this woman is... She feels like she has an aura of pressure around her, it's hard to meet her eyes. "So, um... what do you say?"
"Well," December says. She taps her fingers against the Luxury Ball on her hip. "I've been trying to practice a more aggressive style with the timed triple battles here, and it's kept winning me food I don't need, so..." She looks from Autumn to her Ziggy, and smiles. "Sure, I'll help you out. But you have to stay and watch what I go through for it. Alright?"
Autumn nods. "It's a deal."
"I hope you like ramen," December adds. "Because I'm going for the Triple Battles."
"Ramen's okay," Autumn says. "I'm honestly glad to get any food at all."
"Go take a seat by the arena, then," December says. "I'll join you in a minute."
Autumn walks across the food court to the ringside seating, and takes a seat near the center of the arena. Looking down across the gym, she takes an unsteady breath.
Across the food court, December steps up to the ramen counter and flashes her phone - of course she owns a phone, goes to show how rich she is - then walks back over to a table near the gang of toughs. Almost immediately, the whole gang gets up as one and walks over in her direction.
Autumn clenches her fingers against her scraped knees, then winces as a lance of pain goes through her. Though December and the toughs are talking, it's not clear what they're saying through the hubbub of the cafeteria. Ziggy hops down from her shoulder to her lap, and she hugs him softly to steady herself.
After a few minutes, one of the toughs walks over to the arena and tosses out three pokéballs. A pair of big pink pokémon that look like a Lickitung but even doofier appear - Lickilickis - and between them, a Lilligant, all slender and green, with the flower on its head cloying with nectar.
Autumn hugs Ziggy close. Fully-evolved pokémon? Doesn't Lilligant require a Sun Stone to evolve? Those aren't cheap!
December squares up across the field, and tosses forwards her Luxury Ball and two of her Ultra Balls. Appearing in front of her is a Ninetales - but with wispy, drifty hair and a feeling of deep cold radiating from it - a half-fish, half-bird or maybe dragon - something that Autumn doesn't even recognize - and a Mamoswine buried under deep, shaggy brown fur, massive tusks protruding.
One of the school kids from the group steps across the cafeteria and raises a hand, his glasses gleaming in the cafeteria light. He nods to the Alakazam next to the field, and a translucent psychic barrier rises around the edges of the arena. "The battle will begin in three... two... one... now!"
December's already brought one hand to her mouth, two curved fingers pressing back her tongue, and on the mark she lets out a shrieking whistle that makes Autumn cover her ears and wince.
The strange half-fish pokémon leaps forwards on a burst of freezing-cold wind that emanates from the Ninetales, a hail of glittering ice shards spat ahead of it by the heavy-looking Mamoswine. The enemy Lilligant tries to dodge, but the freezing wind slows its movements just enough for the ice shards to crash into it with tearing force, scattering blood onto the arena floor. The awkward-looking fishdrake pokémon leaps off its fallen foe and straight at one of the opposing Lickilickis, its beak arcing with electricity; the Lickilicki braces itself for the hit, raising its arms, but December's pokémon ducks under its guard and slams its beak home right into its gut. The Lickilicki lets out a pained cry, and collapses.
December's whole team pivots as one to the remaining Lickilicki. It curls up into a ball and tries to roll at the Ninetales - is that Rollout? - but the freezing wind emanating from the Ninetales' mouth arrests its progress, and within moments the Mamoswine's spat shards have found their mark. The Lickilicki slumps to the floor bloodied and unconscious.
Autumn winces. The battle had barely begun, and it's already over. It's obvious who's the better battler here - the tough's pokémon didn't have a hope of standing up to December's team.
The school kid acting as referee raises his hand. "The battle goes to December! She retains her seat. The order will be ready for pickup in fifteen minutes. Next challenger!"
December pinches the bridge of her nose, and shakes her head. Autumn frowns. Didn't she... win?
The tough who brought out his pokémon first shakes his head and returns his fallen Lilligant and Lickilickies to their balls. He casts a scowl over his shoulder at December, but retreats from the arena, clapping one of his fellow toughs on the shoulder as he goes.
The second tough steps forwards, and tosses three pokéballs of his own out - revealing a trio of Swoobats.
"Second battle!", calls the kid referee. "December versus Tsukero!"
Autumn watches closely. Swoobat is supposed to be one of the fastest pokémon, right? Maybe this team will stand a chance against December's overwhelming speed.
"Three! Two! One! Go!"
There's another piercing whistle, a little lower in pitch this time, and December's Mamoswine and Ninetales leap back sharply as the Swoobats dart forwards in wide formation, staying apart from each other so they can't all be picked off by the same burst of Mamoswine's ice shards.
Before they can close, though, a massive blast of electricity lashes out from December's fish-dino pokémon. There's nowhere to dodge - all three of them are caught by the blast, and lose control of their wings to crash onto the ground. Autumn winces - the Flying-type pokémon must have taken some serious damage from the super-effective lightning burst.
None of the three Swoobats get up again.
The glasses-wearing kid referee raises his hand again. "The match goes to December! Thirteen minutes till the order is ready! Next challenger!"
Tsukero calls back his downed Swoobats with a wince, and steps back into the group of toughs. A third tough, his arms wreathed in black flame tattoos, stands up from the group and walks over to the arena. Tossing out his own trio of pokéballs, he stands with his arms crossed, a scowl on his face.
In a burst of light, three pokémon appear - an Arcanine, a Scrafty, and a Krookodile. All three of them are as heavily tattooed as the tough who sent them out, and they leer together with an intense gaze. Even from the side of the arena, Autumn can't help but hide her face in her Ziggy. These pokémon - they have that aura of pressure that December gives off, something that was missing from the earlier two teams.
"December versus Sojiro! Three! Two! One! Begin!"
December whistles again. Her pokémon split this time, each targeting an individual opponent. Her drake-thing goes after the Scrafty, while her Ninetales powers up a beam of freezing ice and sweeps it at the Krookodile, and her Mamoswine fires a massive ball of mud at the Arcanine.
Rather than dodge, the Krookodile puts its arms out in an X to block the beam - but within moments, the water in the chilled air has clung to its skin and frozen it solid. The berry it has on a cord around its neck freezes solid as well, and December smiles slightly around the fingers in her mouth.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the arena, the Arcanine dodges away from Mamoswine's mud balls and spits a stream of fire at December's Ninetales. December's whistle rings out again, and her Ninetales raises a shimmering veil of shifting colors that deflects the fire effortlessly - and a moment later, one of Mamoswine's mud balls crashes into the Arcanine's side and bears it to the ground. The Arcanine doesn't get back up.
That leaves December's drake-thing versus the Scrafty. As the Scrafty darts in to throw a heavy punch, December's pokémon feints with its beak, then comes in with a low kick and bears the Scrafty to the ground. It rolls out of the way - but that's when that electricity-charged beak finds its mark, followed by rakes of the drake pokémon's talons from on top. Autumn looks away; it's obvious who's won.
"Sojiro's pokémon are unable to continue! December is the winner! Ten minutes until the order is ready! Next challenger!" The kid refereeing grins gleefully like some kind of sadist.
Autumn pulls Ziggy in close to her and tries her best to focus on her rumbling stomach. It's good that December's winning, right? It means she'll probably get to eat.
She sighs, and doesn't look up as the next match starts. It's obvious what the outcome is going to be. Instead she looks at her pokétch and searches for "electric bird fish pokémon." The search engine spits back "Cramorant", but the picture of a dorky-looking bird with huge long beak doesn't match whatever December's pokémon is - the top of the body should be electric, and the bottom of it should be almost completely separate from the rest of it, and chunkier...
Another ear-splitting whistle makes her wince. Ziggy winces a little too and cuddles in closer to his Trainer.
Autumn nods. "Yeah, it's... a lot." She hugs him a little closer, and then looks up at the battle, just in time to see December's three pokémon all gang up together on a Clefable - but it produces a wide shield of green light that she recognizes as Protect as the team closes in. December lets out another whistle, and her electric thing leaps into the air as Mamoswine slams its forefeet into the ground. The Clefable's shield doesn't block the vibrations coming from below, and it stumbles - only for the falling pokémon to strike it directly in the forehead with its electrified beak.
The other two Clefable in the arena finish charging moments later, though, and sacrificing their own companion fire a huge burst of Fairy energy at the center of the arena. December's bird-fish-drake, still recovering from its landing, darts sideways, but is clipped by one of the beams and spins off in an uncontrolled tumble. As the beam sweeps to follow it, December's Ninetales leaps in and shields it and Mamoswine with a wide veil of multicolored light. Some of the Fairy energy leaks through, singeing December's team - but a moment later, another heavy slam of vibrations rocks the arena from Mamoswine. The Clefables stagger, and one of them loses its beam - and a moment later out comes the birdfish with its electrified beak, slamming hard into the stunned Clefable and bearing it to the ground. The remaining Clefable unleashes a second heavy beam of pink energy - but Ninetales responds with its own Ice Beam. Having committed to the beam clash, the remaining Clefable is helpless when December's unique pokémon darts in and slams its beak home.
The kid refereeing grins. "December wins again! Five minutes till the order is ready! Next challenger!"
The tattooed thug facing off against December calls back his downed Clefables with a grunt, and steps back into his group of friends. There's three of them left that haven't been battled; they look between each other as if drawing straws, then the least-tattooed of them steps out of the group to take on December.
The combatants square off again, and Autumn goes back to her pokétch. It's not a Zapdos (obviously) or Wattrel, and all the various electric fish pokemon - Elektross, Lanturn, and so on - are obviously wrong because they can't stand on land. What on earth is this thing that December's battling with...?
Another whistle and a blast of cold from the arena make Autumn look up again. Ninetales is out in front of December's group, throwing a massive amount of freezing wind down the arena at an Aerodactyl, Tropius and Altaria. Neither the Altaria nor the Tropius cope well with the intense cold, and go down quickly; The Aerodactyl stays up for a moment, but the wind slows it enough that Mamoswine's spat ice shards hit their mark.
"Next!", calls the referee. "Three minutes till the meal is ready! December versus Pitaha!"
The two remaining thugs look at each other as their gangmate returns to the group, his pokémon back in their pokéballs. December makes a "hurry it up" gesture with two fingers, rolling them in the air lazily. One of them steps away and squares up against December.
Pitaha tosses out a trio of Whimsicotts, the cotton-veiled pokemon looking extremely soft and fluffy. Autumn winces internally - these cute things don't deserve to face up to December at all, they're way too adorable! What's a thug like that doing with such cute pokémon, anyway?
December's team squares up, a little singed and tired, but still very much in fighting form. Autumn hugs Ziggy close, but her gaze stays on those cute little Whimsicotts. It feels like a trainwreck about to happen.
The referee's hand falls, and December whistles - but this time, it's her pokémon that are slower. The Whimsicotts dart forwards as one, sparkling gold mist trailing from their puffy soft bodies. December's team falls backwards under the protection of Ninetales' shield of shimmering colors, but the golden spores fall right through the defenses and alight on December's team. There's just nowhere to dodge.
Ninetales, Mamoswine and the weird fish-bird all take breaths of the shimmering powder, and their movements slow and their coordination weakens. Ninetales loses the veil of colors, shudders and half-falls to the ground as its muscles lock up. The Whimsicotts turn towards it, sensing weakness, but despite the wracking shudders that cover its body, Mamoswine manages to spit ice shards at one of them and force it to dodge.
"Moonblast!", orders the opposing thug, and the remaining two Whimsicotts spit balls of intense blue energy at Ninetales. Ninetales staggers and lurches awkwardly to the side, and December's drakebird steps in and shields it with a shimmering dome of energy - but it can't shield both directions, and Ninetales takes the brunt of one of the two energy balls. There's a sickening hiss of Fairy energy against Ninetales' skin, leaving behind a wide swath of silver-stained fur. Ninetales doesn't let out a sound, though - too hard to breathe with the paralysis? -
Autumn bites her lip. She'd wanted the Whimsicotts to not get hurt, but - not like this. It's turning into Ninetales' turn to suffer, and she's (?) beauty and grace personified. She doesn't deserve this any more than all the thugs' earlier pokémon did.
C'mon, Ninetales, you can get up, you can do it -
And, amazingly, Ninetales stands, battered and singed. The temperature around the arena drops again, and Ninetales lets out an almost human-sounding scream as a huge burst of Ice energy blasts out from around her, completely indiscriminate of even her own teammates. Mamoswine and the drakefish dig their feet into the ground and hold on, their bodies chilled and shaken despite their own Ice-type lineages.
The Whimsicotts, though, aren't so lucky. Their bodies, made mostly of fragile, Grass-aspected cotton, shrivel in the cold, blackening with frost - and Mamoswine, though shaky and slow, still has the accuracy with its spat ice shards to settle the matter for good.
"And TIME!", calls the referee. "December, your meal is ready. You've won the gauntlet again."
December looks at her battered pokémon, and raises their three pokéballs in a loose grip between her fingers on one hand. She smiles wryly. "Return. We'll get them next time."
Ninetales ducks her head in what seems like a low bow to her trainer, and disappears into her luxury ball. Mamoswine and the fishbird thing disappear moments later.
December shrugs, and steps away from the arena, walking over to the ramen shop. Autumn trails at a respectful distance, too over-awed by the elite trainer to dare speak to her.
At the counter, the chef hands over a bowl of steaming hot ramen, a pair of disposable chopsticks... And two lumps of what looks like pure gold as big as December's thumb.
"Holy shit," Autumn breathes.
December tucks away the gold in the pocket of her flared coat, then turns to Autumn. "Never seen an elite trainer lose before?" She smiles wanly and gives Autumn the bowl of ramen with both hands.
"Lose?" Autumn frowns. "That - you beat I don't even know how many of those - people - and didn't even stop or slow down until the Whimsicotts!"
December shakes her head. "I don't give a shit about the street gangers. It's the referee that I want to battle." She guides Autumn over to a high swivel stool by the ramen shop and gestures for her to sit. "That kid with the glasses is a battle prodigy. They call him the Fare Prince of the food court."
Autumn sits hesitantly, setting down the bowl of ramen carefully. "That kid is an elite battler...? Really?"
December nods seriously. "Yeah. Pokémon are the great equalizer; even a kid can be an elite with the right mindset and training. But..." December sighs. "He won't battle me unless I can wipe that entire street gang, every last one of them, before my meal is ready."
Autumn thinks back to the matches. "... But there was still one left."
"Yeah. I did better this round than last time - it's my first time I've seen those Whimsicotts, otherwise I would've given my team some Cheri Berries to protect them against Stun Spore... But it's still too slow. Even if Ninetales had been able to throw a Blizzard to take down those Whimsicotts in the first minute, that leaves me only two minutes left for the last of those street gangers. And do you really expect the last one, the head honcho of the whole gang, to give me an easy battle after my team's gone through that whole gauntlet?" December spreads her hands.
Autumn shakes her head. "No."
"Just so." December says. "Now go on and eat. It's my seat, so I've got to stand here awkwardly the whole time you're eating, or else you'll have to battle to keep your place. Against those guys."
Autumn shivers and pets her Ziggy. "I don't think so."
Ziggy nods into her body. "Zaaaaaag..."
"So pick up your chopsticks and get to it, okay?" December smiles. "And if you have any more questions for me, go ahead and ask them."
Autumn stills her trembling hands and breaks apart her chopsticks, then reaches into the bowl with her chopsticks and takes a pinch of noodles. Setting them into her mouth, she blinks, then slurps them up.
"This is..." She bites the inside of her cheek. "... It's savory, smooth, and very, very rich... I've never had a bowl of ramen this good before."
"I mean, it'd better be good if people are willing to battle at the elite level for it," December says. She smiles slightly.
Autumn nods, and takes another hasty bite. There's silence for a little while as she eats, but after a few more bites December just kind of watching her gets awkward.
"Uh," Autumn says, resting her chopsticks against her bowl. "Do you win prizes like that regularly?"
December nods slightly. "The gauntlet payouts here are pretty good, part of the reason I've been coming back. Sponsorship by the locals to try and suppress the gang by bringing a better class of battlers to the food court. They make something off the other entrants, naturally." She leans back against the food court counter and smiles at something Autumn can't see behind her. Shifting her coat to the side slightly, she brings the other three pokéballs beneath her jacket into view. "These gangers are persistent, but they know me well enough to respect me by now."
Autumn suppresses the urge to turn and look, and takes another mouthful of her noodles. After chewing and swallowing, she looks over at December. "What was that thing you had fighting for you, - not the weird ice-type Ninetales or the Mamoswine, I know both their species - that half-lizard, half-drake thing?"
"I call it Arctozolt," December replies. "It's a result of my research into recombining and reviving fossil remains of pokémon. The source fossils are from Galar."
Autumn's eyebrows rise. "You've been to Galar?"
December nods. "And Alola, too. You have to go where the action is as an elite trainer, or else you'll get left behind by the latest developments. I was too late for the first Manalo Conference, but I completed the Island Trials while I was there." December fishes in the pocket of her coat and pulls out an oddly-shaped amulet with four triangles of varying colors on it. "I keep this on me as a reminder of everything I've learnt from it."
"Wow." Autumn stares down into her bowl of ramen. "That's... really something." She takes another pinch of her noodles.
December inclines her head slightly. "Yeah. I take it you're not a fan?"
Autumn bites her cheek. "It's just... You heard that noise that Ninetales made. How can you..." She sets the pinch of noodles back down. "... make her do things that hurt her, like that?"
December smiles slightly. "I don't make her. She enjoys it. Sure, it hurts in the moment, but - Pokémon are meant to battle, it's what their instincts want. There's something in every one of them that craves competition and combat. At least, that's true for all my pokémon."
Autumn shakes her head, and strokes Ziggy softly with her free hand. "I don't believe that," she says quietly. "There's got to be a better way to - get along with pokémon - than battling them all the time."
December spreads her hands. "I think you're talking to the wrong person for that. Battling is my life. It's my passion, my vocation." Her hand falls to atop the Luxury Ball at her waist. "And Ninetales and the rest of my team are entirely behind me on that."
Autumn lets go of her chopsticks, and sighs. "Yeah. I believe you. But it just doesn't work that way for me. It never has, and it never will."
December nods. "That's your choice. Are you done your noodles?"
Autumn looks down at the half-filled bowl, and sighs. "Yeah. I think I'm just not hungry enough to finish this whole thing." She turns the chair, and Ziggy hops down onto the floor of the cafeteria on the opposite side from December. Autumn steps down after him, leaving the bowl of ramen behind.
December stays leaning against the high table, and nods to Autumn. "I'd clear out quickly, then. That street gang might make trouble for you if you hang around. They have a bit of a complex about this place."
Autumn swallows, and nods. "Thanks for the advice. I'm going to - get gone, then."
December raises two fingers in a lazy salute. "Safe travels. Glad I could help out."
Ziggy scurries towards the door, and Autumn hefts her pack with a sigh and follows.
~*~
A few stops later, Autumn's carrying a bag with a fresh pair of jeans out of a shop at the mall when she spots one of the street gangers from earlier - the heavily-tattooed one, Sojiro - sitting on the bench outside the store.
He looks at her levelly, meeting her gaze, the flame tattoos wreathing his arms stark below his short t-shirt. People hurry past in twos and threes, glancing sidelong at him.
Ziggy hops up onto Autumn's shoulder from where he's walking beside her and bristles at Sojiro. Autumn squares her shoulders, half-turns -
Sojiro stands up and takes a step forwards. His voice is low and quiet.
"Whatever your name is. December's pet. Get out of Mauville by tomorrow. You didn't earn that ramen bowl, and if you stay we'll make sure you pay for it properly. This is your only warning."
Autumn takes a step back instinctively, then ducks her head and nods. "I - understood."
"Good." Sojiro smiles, and turns on his heel. As he walks away, he calls over his shoulder: "We'll keep in touch!"
Autumn clenches her hand against her skirt where Sojiro can't see, but keeps walking the opposite direction.
Who can she go to? December would protect her, but she's just one woman, she can't protect her against a whole gang 24/7. She could go to the police, but these thugs are clearly too strong for the local officers to handle, especially together -
Well, if she just gets out of town, they'll let her go, right? But she checked the Rangers' schedules this morning - there's no guided tours to Slateport, since Cycling Road is supposed to be safe, but she doesn't own a bike, and the caravans north to Lavaridge only run monthly, she'd have to wait two weeks -
Nix. She has that Houndoom. She might not be able to protect Autumn from the gangers themselves, but - she'd at least be able to fight wild pokémon.
- She left her pokétch number back at the hotel. Fuck.
Ignoring her aching legs, Autumn speeds her pace. She's got to get back there as fast as possible.
State of the buffer: Chapters 3-8 drafted for a total written length of roughly 45k.
Last week's buffer was Chapters 2-6.
Buffer has grown by 1 chapter.
Lack of an obvious queuing feature is mildly annoying. In its absence, I've set a weekly alarm on my phone.
Comments and likes are much appreciated as always.
Autumn swipes her key card and steps into her room at the hotel, Ziggy bouncing ahead of her and up onto the nightstand, where he grabs the slip of paper with Nix's pokétch number in one forepaw. As Autumn firmly shuts the door behind herself, Ziggy scampers over to her feet and holds up the slip of paper.
Autumn crouches, and picks up the slip. She stands, taps the number into her pokétch, and places the call.
"Hey, who's this?", comes Nix's voice from the other end of the line.
"It's me, Autumn," Autumn says, her voice cracking a little. "I - I'm sorry, but I've gotten into some trouble here, and I - think I need your help."
"Okay," Nix's voice is firm and steady. "What kind of trouble?"
"The gang down at the food court, do you know them?" Autumn steadies the watch on her wrist and bites her lip.
Nix pauses for a moment. "Did you piss them off somehow?"
"I, uh - it's a long story, but they want me gone from Mauville by tomorrow. But there's no caravans anywhere for two weeks, and Ziggy can't even protect me from the pokémon on the route south to Slateport -"
"You don't have to say anything else. I'll help you get south to Slateport. It's not a long route, and Noir can handle anything in that long grass. Meet you at the south gate in an hour?" Nix's voice is soft and warm.
"Alright." Autumn takes a long breath. "I'll head right over. Sorry to trouble you like this -"
"Don't mention it." Nix's voice is firm. "Just get moving, okay? I'll be there."
"Alright." Autumn sits down heavily on the hotel bed, her breathing ragged and her body aching all over. It's really, really tempting to just lie down and sleep.
Ziggy hops up onto the bed, and noses her in the side. "Zig!", he says. "Zig Zig!"
"Yeah," Autumn says. "I know. Just... five minutes, okay?"
Ziggy chuffs lowly, and shakes his head. He hops down from the bed and goes over to the small kitchen, where he shoves his water bowl into the sink, dumping out the contents with a loud clatter. Then he shoves his food bowl onto the floor, hops down next to it, and scoops it up into his forepaws and mouth. Awkwardly, he carries it back over to the side of the bed, where he gives Autumn a plaintive look.
Autumn sighs, and reaches down to take the food bowl from Ziggy. "... Alright," she says. "We'll get going." Unslinging her pack from her back, she gets out her container ball and looks over at the sink.
Fuck. She has to get up, doesn't she.
She lurches up from the bed, wavers on unsteady knees, and manages to cross the room and grab the kitchen counter. Holding herself up against it with one hand, she reaches into the sink with the other and tosses Ziggy's water bowl across the room onto the bed.
Ziggy picks it up from where it lands, and by the time Autumn's crossed the room again he has the two bowls neatly stacked.
Autumn gives him a small smile. "... thanks, Ziggy."
"Zig zag," Ziggy replies. He noses the container ball towards Autumn.
Autumn picks it up, unseals the stasised food into the bowls, then reseals the whole package. She stuffs the ball into her pack, zips it up, and stands again, bracing herself against the bed's headboard.
Ziggy hops down onto the floor, and scurries back over the door. Autumn picks up her room keycard from her bedside table, and limps across the room to the door.
"Alright, let's go," Autumn says.
~*~
Autumn arrives at Mauville's south gate thirty minutes later, her whole body aching and crying out in protest.
Another one of the gangers from earlier had been waiting outside her hotel when she came out, one of the more lightly-tattooed ones. And he's still there, about ten strides back, not even bothering to be subtle.
Nix is nowhere to be seen. Damn it, she must be too early -
Autumn redials Nix's number from her Pokétch.
"Hey, what's up?"
"I'm at the south gate," Autumn says quietly, "And one of those guys is following me. Please tell me you're close."
Nix's voice is firm. "Like five minutes out. Stall if you gotta." There's a rattle, as if of movement, then a call of "Noir, go -"
Autumn stops at the gate and throws a glance over her shoulder at the ganger stalking her. "Nix?"
"I'll be there as fast as I can," Nix says, her voice all rushed together. "Get to the entrance to Cycling Road, there's a security guard posted there that they won't try anything in front of. You can hang out in the entrance for a little while while I get there."
"Zag!", says Ziggy, looking over Autumn's shoulder. Autumn looks again - the thug's getting closer -
She turns her back again and keeps walking steadily, following Nix's advice. The thug keeps following, falling back to the same ten-strides spacing as before.
The tall grass looms in front of Autumn, but she turns to the side of it and walks diagonally towards the Cycling Road building. Pushing open the door, she steps inside and looks around at the small guard station. There's nowhere to sit, just a counter to one side of the room with a bored-looking junior Ranger sitting at the desk.
"Can I rest here for a few minutes?", Autumn gasps out.
The guard looks over at Autumn and raises an eyebrow. "Are you okay?"
She nods quickly. "Just waiting for a friend, is all. We're going down to Slateport, but it's been a long walk through the city and I had an accident yesterday -"
The guard nods understandingly. "You can hang around for a little while, sure."
"Thanks," Autumn manages. She looks down at Ziggy by her feet and gives him a little smile.
"Zig zag," Ziggy says satisfiedly.
Autumn looks out the window of the guard station, and sees the thug outside, leaning casually against the railing by the city entrance. She tenses a little.
"Ziggy..." She crouches, scoops the Zigzagoon up in her arms, and holds him close, hugging him hard against her body.
"Ziiiiiiig..." Ziggy presses in close, brushing his coarse fur against Autumn's chest.
Autumn watches out the window. The cycling road seems a little quiet at the moment - not many people passing through - so it's just her, the security guard, and the ganger lurking by the city entrance.
But after what feels like forever, a sleek black Houndoom darts down the path and interposes itself between the ganger and the entrance to Cycling Road, growling loudly enough that Autumn can hear it through the glass. It's Noir!
And here comes Nix at a flat-out run, her purse bouncing as she goes, two more pokéballs held in her other hand. Her gaze takes in the thug and Noir in a moment, and she slows her pace, keeping herself turned towards the thug as she paces to Noir's side.
The thug says something, but Nix just smiles and lays a hand on Noir's back. She stares him down levelly.
"Autumn?", she calls, not looking behind her.
Autumn nods to the guard, and steps outside.
"I'm here, Nix!", she calls back.
"Good," Nix says, not turning around. "As I was just telling this gentleman, we're leaving."
The thug looks at Nix and her Houndoom for a long moment. "Start walking," he says.
Nix tosses out another pokéball, and a floating grey pokémon with what looks like a necklace of rubies around its throat appears in a surge of purple fog. It opens its eyes, showing deep red irises with yellow "whites".
"Lethia," Nix commands. "Watch this gentleman for me and don't let him make any sudden moves. I'll be going south. Come back to me in ten minutes."
"Dreavus," says the Misdreavus seriously. She focusses her eyes on the ganger, and he stiffens, as if held in place by the sheer power of her gaze.
Nix gestures to Noir, and the Houndoom half-turns and stalks towards the long grass. Nix herself stays facing the thug. "Get going," she says. "Noir will protect you."
Autumn nods shakily and reluctantly turns her back to the ganger, following Noir into the long grass along the seashore. Ziggy scurries along behind her, stopping every few of Autumn's strides to look behind him.
After a few strides in, Ziggy reluctantly hops up onto Autumn's shoulder again. Noir's body half-hides in the grass, only his horned head poking up to guide the way forwards. Rustles of motion pass in the grass around them as the native pokémon call back and forth.
"Zag," Ziggy says comfortingly. Autumn keeps walking, determined not to be left behind by Noir's steady lope. She doesn't dare turn to look over her shoulder - she could lose sight of Noir and then she'd just be fucked. Hopefully Nix is alright. She hasn't heard any battle cries...
Eventually, Noir emerges into a small clearing in the tall grass beneath the cycling overpass, and looks back over his shoulder. "Houn," he says seriously to Autumn.
Autumn steps out of the grass with a relieved sigh, and exhales -
"YENA!"
A black-furred form bursts from the grass on the other side of the clearing, and half-skids to a stop in front of Noir. It's a poochyena with hate in its eyes, its stance lopsided as it favours its left paw.
Autumn freezes in place, and Ziggy tenses on her shoulder. Noir takes a firm stance and growls lowly.
The poochyena growls back, hackles raised. Its gaze flicks from Noir to Autumn, and it takes a step forwards.
Noir opens his mouth wide, and a guttural roar tears its way out of his throat, echoing off the surrounding water and the struts of Cycling Road overhead. He paws the ground and snarls lowly, advancing on the Poochyena as flames flicker off his teeth.
The poochyena flinches, its attention snapping back to the bone-covered hound, and as Noir advances on it, it half- turns and darts back into the long grass on the other side of the clearing.
Noir steps into the center of the clearing, and lets out a long howl, the eerie sound sending shivers down Autumn's back even in the middle of the day. Then he looks back at Autumn and beckons with his head.
Autumn takes a few more cautious steps into the clearing, her legs trembling. "Is it safe for me to stop here?", she manages.
Ziggy looks at Noir. "Zig?", he asks.
Noir nods sharply, not looking over his shoulder. "Houn."
Autumn slumps gratefully to the grass next to Noir, and before she knows what she's doing she's hugged him, leaning heavily against his side. His black fur is soft against her cheek and surprisingly warm - he's a fire-type, she doesn't know why she didn't expect that -
"Doom!" Noir pulls away sharply, and Autumn has to catch herself with one arm. Ziggy jumps off her shoulder and presses into her in the shorter grass. Even the grass is looking cozy right about now.
"Zag!", Ziggy says, and jumps up and down.
Autumn forces herself to turn to look in the direction Ziggy's looking -
It's Nix, coming through the tall grass riding a huge red spider with yellow antennae on its back. She waves with a bright smile as she sees Autumn turn, her rose pendant's chain glinting in the harsh summer light.
Autumn slumps back down to the grass with a sigh of relief. It's okay. Everything is going to be fine.
Ziggy hops up next to her side, and she just lets him cuddle in against her, too tired to even hug him.
A few minutes later, a pair of foot-long mandibles obscure Autumn's view of the grass.
"Hey," Nix says. "Are you okay? Autumn?"
Autumn just reaches up and rubs her face. "I, uh..." She presses two fingers to her forehead, then finally sits up with a groan, Ziggy hopping down onto the grass beside her. "That... is not a workout I'd like to repeat anytime soon."
Nix looks down at her with a slight frown, then offers her a hand. "It'll take some time to get to Slateport, and we shouldn't stay out overnight. You can ride on Crimson if you need to, but we need to keep moving. Okay?"
Autumn reaches up, and takes Nix's hand. Heaving herself to her feet, she looks over at the giant spider. "By Crimson, you mean..."
"My Ariados, yes." Nix reaches over and pats his thorax. "Isn't he cool?"
Autumn looks seriously at Crimson, taking in the full bulk of the spider. He's a good two thirds her height, and twice as long again, all in intimidating red and black. There's a spike jutting out from his forehead as long as her forearm, and each of his mandibles is easily as big as her hand.
"'He's... big." Autumn takes a careful step towards him. "H-hi, big bug?"
"Dos." Crimson gently taps his forehead horn against her shin.
Autumn winces as the horn digs into her knee, and pulls away. "Ow!"
Crimson scuttles back a few feet and lowers his head.
"- I'm sorry, I don't think he saw your dressing - " Nix quickly steps over to Crimson. "She's hurt, please be gentle."
Crimson bobs his head up and down, and looks over at Noir.
"Doom." Noir sounds entirely unapologetic. He's still staring out into the grass on the other side of the clearing, ears perked up.
Nix looks at Autumn. "Should I help you get on him, or do you want to walk, or...?"
Autumn walks over to Crimson's side. "I think I can get on him myself, thanks." She looks down at Crimson. "If it's okay with you, I mean."
Crimson nods, and clicks his mandibles together.
Autumn steps in between Crimson's two left legs and throws her leg over his back, then skootches up until she finds a position where she can rest her pack against his thorax and hold on. Planting her hands firmly on his back, she looks over at Nix and forces a smile. "I - think this should be good." She looks over at Ziggy. "What about Ziggy, though? He's so short he could get lost in the long grass..."
Nix looks at the Zigzagoon. "I'm assuming you're too tired to have him ride on your shoulder?"
Autumn nods. "I feel like I'm going to fall over already, I can't really carry him anymore."
Nix returns Autumn's nod. "In that case, he can ride on my shoulder if he wants to." She crouches and offers her arm to Ziggy. "Is it okay if I carry you?"
Ziggy looks up at Nix, then bounds up onto her shoulder, where he perches firmly. Nix stands up and smiles. "Looks like he's fine with it."
Autumn sighs, but nods. "Yeah, I guess that works."
Nix half-turns to look over her shoulder. "Lethia should catch up with us soon. For now, let's get moving." She pats Crimson's side and nods to Noir.
The Ariados and Houndoom start walking forwards into the tall grass, keeping a slow, cautious pace. Autumn sways atop Crimson, steadying herself against his back, her hands bracing against the hard chitin. It's not the most comfortable ride with her scuffed-up knees, but...
Nix falls in alongside Autumn, following Noir at a moderate walk, her shoes rustling through the tall grass. She watches where Noir is looking, her gaze going back and forth between his snout's direction and the grass beyond.
After a few minutes of swaying atop Crimson, Autumn settles into a rhythm with his gait. It takes some effort to stay atop him, but with her hands to brace her she's able to keep her pack steady. The sea breeze blows across her, chilling her exposed knee through the hole in her jeans. The seaside path smells of salt and wildflowers.
A while passes. Nix doesn't talk, too focused on the grass ahead, and Autumn's too tired to strike up a conversation. They pass back and forth under Cycling road a few times as the seaside path zigzags along the shoreline, the sun high in the sky and starting its descent.
I wish I had something to eat, Autumn thinks, but I've got nothing on me but Ziggy's feed...
After what feels like an eternity of jostling atop Crimson, the group emerges from the tall grass before the Trick House, about halfway down the route. Nix stops outside and offers a hand to help Autumn off of Crimson. "You look exhausted," she says. "The Trick House's got four solid walls - if we have to stay overnight, it'll be alright. You should rest for now; I've got camping supplies in Container Balls in my purse."
Autumn takes Nix's hand, and almost falls off of Crimson in her haste to get down to solid ground. Nix steadies her and settles her firmly down onto her feet. "There we go," she says, and steps away. Raising a pokéball, she points it at Crimson. "Crimson, return." Red light flashes out from the ball, and Crimson disappears. Then she looks over at Noir. "Doing okay, Noir?"
Noir nods firmly, then turns and looks back the way they came. "Doom," he pronounces gravely.
"Such a cynic," Nix says. "Lethia will be here any minute, I'm sure. For now let's look after Autumn, okay?"
"Houn," Noir says. He looks at the Trick House. "Houndoom." He walks towards the building.
Nix gestures to Autumn.
Autumn follows Noir on shaky legs, her breath fast and unsteady. Noir stops at the door, and she grabs the door handle and pushes it open for him, stepping into the Trick House.
The room beyond is a small antechamber with a low table surrounded by cushions in the middle of the room, two cabinets to either side, and a pair of potted plants. Autumn stumbles over to the cushions and flops down on her side -
Only to be confronted with a fifty-something balding man hiding under the table. "Oh, you found me!" he exclaims. "How did you know I was hiding here? You're sharp!"
Nix has just come in from the entrance, and groans heavily. "Trick Master, can't you fucking see that she's exhausted? None of your games right now."
The Trick Master emerges from under the desk and stands, stretching his arms above his head. "Oh, you two aren't challengers? You should've said." He looks down at Autumn, who's shoved her face into one of the pillows. "... I must say, your travelling companion seems a bit under the weather."
"We are really, really not in the mood," Nix says.
"Doom," adds Noir, and Ziggy backs him up with a firm "Zag."
The Trick Master sighs. "Oh, fine, you can rest here for a little while. But not longer than a few hours, alright? I can't turn this place into a rest stop for every trainer without a bike."
"Thank you," says Nix flatly. She sits at the other side of the table from Autumn and fishes in her purse, digging out a Container Ball. Unsealing it onto the tabletop, two one-liter water bottles appear, packed into a small plastic tub filled with raisins, peanuts and candy-coated chocolates. A few granola bars fit into the gaps between the water bottles.
Nix tosses one of the granola bars onto Autumn's back. "Eat something," she says. "It's almost noon. You clearly need energy. And drink some water." She picks up one of the water bottles and sets it on Autumn's side of the table. Then she looks over at the Trick Master. "Can we get a little privacy?"
The Trick Master sighs, but pushes aside a scroll at the back of the room and walks through the hidden door behind it.
"Good," Nix says. Ziggy hops off her shoulder and onto the table, staring down at Autumn. "Zag," he says seriously.
Autumn just groans, her face still in the pillow, but pushes herself up, her injured knees zinging her as she gets up on her hands and knees. Picking up the granola bar that's fallen onto the floor, she tears off the wrapper with her fingernails and takes a big bite.
"Mmmm," she manages through a mouthful of raisins and granola. Then she picks up the water bottle, pops the top open, and takes a big slug from it.
"Did that help any?", Nix asks.
Autumn nods. She doesn't feel like talking.
"Good," Nix says. "Now I'm going to go outside and see if Lethia's turned up. Watch this for me okay?" She sets her purse down on the table.
Autumn nods, and takes another bite of her granola bar. With her free hand she digs her fingers into Ziggy's coarse fur. It helps.
Nix stands up and goes to the door, then glances back at Autumn from the doorframe before she steps outside. "There's a container ball of fruit in my purse, it's the green one. Feel free to unseal it and have something."
Autumn rubs her forehead, and nods a third time. "Yeah, got it." Like she'd go rooting through Nix's purse.
Nix nods back, and steps outside, Noir trailing behind her.
Autumn sighs, and grabs a second granola bar from the tub.
~*~
The sun is high and the sea breeze is cool on Nix's skin. It's honestly kind of depressing. She's never really been much of a day person, but...
Nix sighs, and looks around. "Lethia!", she calls. "Hey, I'm over here! At the Trick House!"
The only answer is the sigh of the sea against the shore below.
"Doom," Noir says.
"We'll wait a few more minutes. I did say for her to wait ten minutes, and we made a pretty good pace with Crimson carrying Autumn. She'll turn up. I know she will." Nix rests her right elbow in her left palm and plays with the rose necklace at her throat.
"Doom," Noir repeats.
"Gangers," Nix replies, "are by and large a superstitious lot, and Lethia is a ghost type. If something did happen to her, well... I bet she'd've cursed him good. Would you take that risk?"
Noir shakes his canine head. "Houn." He looks down the path, his ears pricking up. "Houn?"
"Do you hear something?", Nix asks.
Noir nods, and takes a step forwards. With a deep breath inwards, he lets out a long, high howl.
"Letting her know where we are," Nix says. "Smart." Her gaze follows Noir's. "You can hear her?"
A few moments later, a little dot appears above the grass. Nix narrows her eyes. It could be anything... but it seems to be hovering... And there are no native flying types this close to the sea...
She's taken three long steps forwards into the tall grass before her brain's registered the red glint from the dot entirely. "Lethia!", she calls.
"Misdreeeeeavus!", comes the answering cry - and the dot speeds up, racing towards her over the grass, ghostly wisp-hair trailing out behind it.
Noir barks from behind her, and Nix abruptly realizes she's standing in the tall grass with no pokémon by her side. Reluctantly, she turns around and walks back to the outside of the Trick House - but there's a huge smile on her face. Lethia is coming home.
After another long minute of Lethia hovering closer, the Misdreavus finally comes out of the tall grass and floats to Nix's side. "Dreavus," she says smugly, and winks. "Dreavus!"
"I never doubted you for a second," Nix says, and reaches out to hug her - but her arms pass right through Lethia's ethereal form. Lethia giggles, and does a somersault in the air. Then she flies in and smushes against Nix's chest, suddenly very solid, though cold to the touch.
Nix grabs her in a tight hug, and holds her close. "Gremlin," she accuses.
"Misd," Lethia says quietly, her ghostly hair wrapping around Nix's arm in a firm grip. "Misd."
"Yeah," says Nix. "I missed you too."
~*~
When Nix steps back into the Trick House, Autumn's sitting with her face on the low table, three granola wrappers lying next to her, an empty water-bottle clutched against her body. Ziggy is sitting on the table next to her; his eyes flick from Autumn to Noir to Lethia, but he says nothing.
Nix sits back down across the table from Autumn, and raps the table sharply with two knuckles.
Autumn starts, and looks up with bleary eyes. "... mmmmmhhhhh..." She blinks slowly a couple times, then her eyes focus on Nix and she sits up quickly. " - I - I didn't mean to fall asleep -"
Nix rubs her forehead. "It's okay, you were exhausted. I take it you haven't had any fruit?"
Autumn blinks. "Fruit?"
"From the container ball in my purse," Nix says. "The one I told you about."
"Oh." Autumn shakes her head. "No, I wasn't going to go digging through your purse -"
Nix rubs her forehead, and reaches into her purse. Within five seconds, she has a green Container Ball in her hand. "This one. It's right on top. You didn't even look, did you?"
Autumn looks away, a flush coming to her cheeks. "I - didn't want to -" She looks down at Ziggy. "I've already had so much from you..."
Nix unseals the ball, and a small basket full of apples, bananas, grapes and even a peach appears on the table, all of the fruit perfectly ripe and fresh. She picks up a bright red apple and extends it to Autumn, her violet nails making a sharp contrast to the scarlet fruit. "You're going to have to learn to take what you're offered if you're going to make it anywhere in this world," Nix says matter-of-factly. "Have an apple."
Autumn hesitantly reaches out, and accepts the apple from Nix. It feels like it's the first time she's actually looked at her - her stiff black hair, her violet lipstick, the rose that dangles just above that strappy top of hers... Even in her choice of pokémon, she's far more together than Autumn's ever been.
Autumn looks down at the apple in her hand. For some reason it feels hard to take a bite with Nix watching. She's accepted enough already, hasn't she...?
She looks over at Nix.
Nix smiles reassuringly. "It's not poisoned or anything." She winks.
Autumn cracks a smile, and takes a big bite. It's sweet and juicy without even a hint of tartness; she doesn't know the variety, but it must be sweeter than the normal kind she gets.
She chews thoughtfully, and finally swallows. The second bite is a little easier, and then her stomach remembers that she's starving. The rest of the flesh of the apple follows quickly as Autumn rotates it to take bite after bite. Finally, she sets the core back down onto the table with a blush on her face.
"I..." Autumn looks away. "I guess I really did need that."
Nix smiles. "Feeling a little better? Want another one?" She offers the peach.
Autumn shakes her head. "I do feel a little better, but no thank you."
"Suit yourself," says Nix, and sets the peach back into the basket. Raising her pair of container balls again, she reseals the basket and the plastic tub of water bottles and trail mix. Then she looks over at Noir and Lethia.
"Lethia, I think you've done enough for one day," she says to the Misdreavus, and raises one of her pokéballs. Lethia coos and nods, and Nix taps the button and reseals her back into her ball. Then she looks over at Noir. "Still up for guarding us the rest of the way to Slateport?"
Noir chuffs, and nods.
"Glad to hear it," Nix says. Then she looks back at Autumn. "So... How on earth did you get into this mess in the first place?"
Autumn sighs. "I was just hungry! There was a food court near my hotel, but it was some kind of battle food court. I knew I couldn't win, but there was an elite trainer there who offered to win food for me. I took her up on it, and she did... But apparently the food court was home to this gang and they have something against people eating food they didn't 'earn'." Autumn makes air quotes. "They said that I had to get out of town within a day, or else they'd make me pay for it. I'd seen them battle, the police couldn't take them on, so... I called you."
Nix frowns. "Ugh. I'm glad Lethia didn't get into a battle, then. It sounds like things could have turned out badly. People like that..." She shakes her head. "They give a bad name to Trainers everywhere."
Autumn nods, and picks up the apple core and the granola wrappers. "Where should I put these?"
Nix shrugs. "You can just toss the apple core into the grass outside, some pokémon will love what you've left on it. As for the wrappers, pass them over here and I'll just stuff 'em in my purse."
Autumn passes over the granola wrappers, and sighs softly. "Still another most of that distance again to Slateport, huh?"
Nix nods and stuffs the wrappers in her purse, putting her Container Balls in atop them. "It's a fair distance still. It used to be a bit better cleared when more people visited the Trick House, but since Trick events have started being yearly and Cycling Road's been taking away the foot traffic..." She shrugs. "It's gotten a bit overgrown again. So it goes."
Autumn forces herself up to her feet again. "Alright, then let's get going. I want to sleep in a real bed tonight."
"A worthy goal," Nix says. "Let's get on that." She stands as well, and closes her purse, latching down the top fold of the leather. She goes over to the door, and Noir and Ziggy bound out; Autumn and Nix follow into the early afternoon sunlight, blinking and shading their eyes.
"Do you want to keep riding on Crimson, or?" Nix tilts her head.
Autumn shakes her head. "I can walk."
"But do you want to?"
Autumn sighs. "I don't want to tire out Crimson. He's been really helpful already and I don't want to stress him."
Nix eyeballs Autumn. "You're barely standing. Do you want me to insist?"
Autumn shakes her head. "No, I - Fine. I'll ride Crimson. Are you happy?"
Nix winces. "That's not how I meant it at all. You can walk if you want to."
Autumn exhales. "Then I will. And I'll carry Ziggy." She crouches next to Ziggy and offers a hand.
Ziggy looks up at her skeptically, then bounds up onto her shoulder and settles there. "Zagoon," he says.
Nix opens her mouth, closes it, and nods firmly. "Alright. Let's go." And with a smile over her shoulder, she strides onwards into the long grass that separates the pair from Slateport, Noir bounding ahead of her.
Grim and determined, Autumn limps onwards behind her.
State of the buffer: Chapters 4-10 drafted for a total written length of roughly 60k.
Last week's buffer was Chapters 3-8.
Buffer has grown by 1 chapter.
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I must defend the Zigster's honor! Seriously, though, I honestly think Ziggy could be good in a fight, if Autumn could bear to train him for it. She's very protective of him, though (and it doesn't always work in his favor, even).
I must defend the Zigster's honor! Seriously, though, I honestly think Ziggy could be good in a fight, if Autumn could bear to train him for it. She's very protective of him, though (and it doesn't always work in his favor, even).
In all fairness I don't disagree… beyond the fact it's sort of a basic Pokémon always thought of it as ratitata version 3.0. Which ok, not terrible I once brought a raticate at least halfway through one of the first gen games. But they don't hold up so well late game unless you lean into tm's to get them a wider spread of options.
Realistically, just reading between the lines it's not just not training it to battle. She is actively prioritizing the fuzzball far and away beyond her own health. The whole mess of needing to run from the town could have been avoided if she'd just cooked up a couple of the eggs she saved for ziggy's food.
Girl needs a pokemon that'll fight but if I'm being brutally honest she needs an injection of self worth more.
Realistically, just reading between the lines it's not just not training it to battle. She is actively prioritizing the fuzzball far and away beyond her own health.
It's a harsher start, but I have a suspicion things will be looking brighter if we give it some time. Things aren't all bright and easy, though, you're right.
I think you're seeing the Pokemon: the Origin of Species influence there. Daystar Eld's take on the pokémon universe is highly lethal, largely because it treats most pokémon as of animal-like intelligence while preserving their abundance and abilities. It treats the legendaries in particular as natural-disaster level threats.
This world is not that world; but I think any serious take on pokémon needs to grapple with the utter necessity of having at least one and ideally a couple superpowered critters on your side if you want to travel at all.
If Autumn doesn't want to become a Pokemon Battler, perhaps she could become a Pokemon Coordinator. She puts in a lot of work in maintaining the appearance of her Pokemon and that's a big part in Pokemon Coordinating. Just give Ziggy a couple of Moves that he can use to wow people (and use to defend himself and Autumn from others) and he'll be good.
Thanks! I knew that I wanted Autumn to look anxious, so I fired up the Search Engine and scrolled through pose references until I found one that I liked. It took a couple of tries to get the legs looking half decent, but they turned out well. The colors themselves I picked from the text -- "brown hair", "lavendar backpack", "jeans" -- before using the Zigzagoon pale brown to help tie things together. I'm happy with it.
Aw, I'm glad to hear that. But I really should be thanking you. I am really enjoying Zigzagging Through Hoenn so far. The bond between Autumn and Ziggy is sweet, and Nix and December have been really cool. Really looking forward to how things develop in the future.
Thanks! I knew that I wanted Autumn to look anxious, so I fired up the Search Engine and scrolled through pose references until I found one that I liked. It took a couple of tries to get the legs looking half decent, but they turned out well. The colors themselves I picked from the text -- "brown hair", "lavendar backpack", "jeans" -- before using the Zigzagoon pale brown to help tie things together. I'm happy with it.
I absolutely am not over the attention to detail on this. You even got the overlarge blouse right, with the folded over cuffs and excess length. The overall impression is extremely solid and feels very true to how I imagined Autumn. I also love how the style is very similar to the pokémon official art; it really places her in the context of the setting well. The pose, facial expression and shiver lines by her knee and shoulder really do sell Autumn's anxiety.
Aw, I'm glad to hear that. But I really should be thanking you. I am really enjoying Zigzagging Through Hoenn so far. The bond between Autumn and Ziggy is sweet, and Nix and December have been really cool. Really looking forward to how things develop in the future.
Mutual appreciation society over here! I don't want to spoil, but I think you'll enjoy where the story goes from here. You've definitely inspired me to keep writing solidly and making this thing real chapter by chapter! Thank you again!
If Autumn doesn't want to become a Pokemon Battler, perhaps she could become a Pokemon Coordinator. She puts in a lot of work in maintaining the appearance of her Pokemon and that's a big part in Pokemon Coordinating. Just give Ziggy a couple of Moves that he can use to wow people (and use to defend himself and Autumn from others) and he'll be good.
I think I'd be most interested in her staying resolute in refusing to be involved with the Pokémon industry beyond purchases to spoil Ziggy and cheering on her friends. There are a lot of stories about trainers and coordinators and such. A story in the setting about someone who isn't personally a part of that is a really interesting idea.
It honestly kinda gives me an idea for where most of Team Plasma's popular backing could come from in this sort of universe: people who are for some reason relegated to second-class status because of lack of skill, desire, or being deliberately excluded from the prestigious Pokémon professional class and seeking to destroy it, and legitimizing that in polite society via (a mostly genuine) concern for pokémon rights. I could even kinda support that position if it wasn't in reality a vehicle for Ghetis's interests.
Halfway down the path to Slateport, still amid the long grass, Autumn pants to a halt, puffing and wheezing. "I - I'm sorry -" She rests her hands on her scraped-up knees and takes long shaky breaths, her whole body trembling. "I need a minute!"
Nix stops short in the grass. "We're stopping, Noir!" Pulling a pokéball from her purse, she tosses it in the air, and Lethia appears in a swirl of purple fog. "Watch the rear," Nix orders her Misdreavus.
Lethia giggles, but turns to face north, covering the group's rear on the narrow path. Noir pulls up short as well with a chuff, and scans the path ahead, eyes watchful.
Nix goes over to Autumn's side and gives her her hand. "Told you you should've ridden on Crimson."
Autumn straightens and sighs. "Yeah, you got me." She runs a hand through her sweat-slicked hair and tries her best to ignore the zing her elbow gives her with the motion.
Nix takes out Crimson's ball, and with a burst of black smoke the Ariados appears on the path. He clicks his pincers together and turns towards Autumn. "Dos," he says.
Autumn takes a few steps over and leans heavily against Crimson's thorax. "I'm going to have to ride you again," she says. "I'm sorry."
Crimson clicks his mandibles together and presses slightly in against Autumn. He doesn't say anything.
Nix shakes her head. "You shouldn't be apologizing, but that can wait until we're out of this grass." She offers Autumn her hand. "Need a hand up?"
Autumn sighs, and turns towards Crimson. Ziggy hops from her shoulder down onto Crimson's back, and looks back over at Autumn. "Zag," he says disapprovingly.
"Yeah, I know, I suck." Autumn looks away. "Just scootch over, okay?"
Ziggy shakes his head. "Zaaaaaaaaaag..."
Autumn just throws her leg over Crimson, and awkwardly lurches into position atop his thorax. Ziggy hops up onto her pack. "Zag," he says.
Autumn looks down at Crimson's back. "It's fine."
Nix puts her pokéballs back into her bag. "You and I need to have a talk," she says.
Autumn doesn't say anything.
Nix shakes her head, and taps Crimson's side. "Let's get moving," she says. "Sooner started sooner finished."
Crimson scuttles forwards a little, and Noir steps out in front of the group again, Lethia bringing up the rear. Nix looks back at her Misdreavus, and nods to herself; raising her ball again, she wordlessly recalls Lethia.
The group moves on through the long grass. Autumn slouches atop Crimson, barely staying atop him as his long legs skitter through the grass. Nix shoots worried glances at her every few minutes, doing her best to gauge her exhaustion. Noir has to call her attention back to the long grass ahead with a sharp bark after a particularly long look over. The sun descends through the sky as the group moves forwards, the salt smell of the sea and its quiet lapping lulling Autumn slowly.
Autumn exhales heavily. At least this will all be over soon.
Eventually, the long grass gives way to scrubland again as the path curves along a small, rocky cove. The overpass is quite some distance away here, and there's no sign of anyone else. Autumn closes her eyes and listens to the surf on the pebble beach, her breathing slowing. The steady gait of Crimson beneath her is very gentle and soft...
"We're stopping here," Nix announces.
Autumn blinks her eyes open. "- Wha?"
Nix looks at her flatly. "We're stopping here. You're half-asleep. If we were attacked by a wild pokémon now and Noir couldn't chase it off, we'd have to battle, and I'm just not confident that I'd be able to keep you safe when you're barely even conscious. I have a tent and a bedroll in my purse, and this area is too rocky and scrubland-y for anything native and territorial to have set up shop. We'll stop, eat a proper supper, get a good night's sleep, and set off again in the morning." She pulls out a bright pink container ball from her purse, and it discharges a collapsible tent and a bedroll; a second container ball follows, disgorging a small camp stove with a matching pot and gas bottle. "If you don't have a tent in that pack then I guess we can share mine. It'll be a tight squeeze but better than lying out in the cold sea breeze all night."
Autumn flushes. "I have my own tent! It's a perfectly good tent! I was going to buy food in town, but..." She sighs. "I got ambushed by those gangers in the middle of my shopping."
"Did you bring any water?" Nix tilts her head.
"Yes, of course, I'm not an idiot -" Autumn slips down off of Crimson and unslings her pack, opening it and pulling out a hard plastic water bottle full to the brim. "And I've got a map of Hoenn and the local route guides and a compass and water purification tablets and a fleece in case it gets cold and a windbreaker in case it rains - " She pulls out each item in turn and lays them out on the grass to prove her point, then finally dumps out her tentpoles on the ground. "But I don't see why we have to stop now."
"You totally should've brought something to eat while on the trail," Nix says, "But I guess you weren't expecting to hike quite so far. And to be blunt, I'm the honorary Ranger here, what I say goes. It's my job to keep you safe out here, so I'm going to. And if that means being a little extra cautious..." She shrugs. "So. Let's get a proper camp set up, and get some food going, alright?"
Autumn nods. "Alright." She pulls her bedroll off her pack and pulls the strings holding it together off each end of it, letting the air mattress decompress. As it inflates, she starts unpacking her sleeping bag from its stuffsack.
Nix unpacks her tent; it's mostly nylon on a brace of curving aluminum poles. She spreads out the baseplate on the ground and slots together the pair of aluminum poles that form the domed curve of the tent body, locking them together at the joiner in the center. Then she fits the tent poles into the eyelets in the base tarp at one end, and bends the whole assembly so that the whole thing settles together nicely. Autumn watches and follows suit with her own similarly-constructed tent; she clearly has less experience than Nix, but with her providing an example things go relatively smoothly. She does have a little trouble getting the final peg into its eyelet in the base.
"Uh, Nix -" Autumn looks over at her. "Can you just hold the base here for a second?"
Nix stands up, stretches, and comes over next to Autumn. Kneeling next to her, she grabs the baseplate firmly with both hands, her arm pressing against Autumn's. "Okay, you should be able to get the frame in place now."
Autumn extracts her arm, shifts over a little to kneel next to Nix, and attacks it from the opposite side of the eyelet. With both hands on the frame she's able to bend it enough to lock it into place.
"There!", Nix says with a satisfied smile. "That's it in place. Do you need any help staking it down?"
Autumn shakes her head. "No, I've got it from here, thanks."
"Alright." Nix gets up and goes back to her own tent, sitting down by its side and taking out her own bag of stakes. The pair work in silence for a little while, each attending to their own tent, staking them down and putting the nylon covers over the frames.
Once her tent's set up, Nix ducks back into the low tent with her own bedroll and sleeping bag, then emerges again into the late afternoon light with a stretch and a smile. Turning to her cooking gear, she starts setting up her gas burner and stove on a bare patch of ground. Autumn comes out of her own tent a few minutes later, after packing up most of her gear again and stowing it inside; she keeps a wary distance from the camp stove.
"Have you ever used a camp stove before?", Nix asks.
Autumn shakes her head.
"Well, watch and learn." Nix smiles slightly. The stove's already set up, grill in place and the gas bottle attached. Nix looks over at Noir. "Care to give me a light?"
Noir pads over and breathes a small, steady flame from his mouth over the grill; Nix turns the valve on the gas bottle, and the stove flares to light. Pouring some of her water into a small camp pot, she puts it on to heat. Digging in her purse again, she pulls out another Container Ball, which disgorges a folding camp chair. Nix plonks the low chair down next to the stove, and sits watching the water.
Autumn pulls a small cushion from her bedroll and puts it down a respectful distance from the camp stove, then sits as well. She looks out along the small cove, across the water. A Wingull wheels peacefully in the distance; Autumn scowls at it slightly.
Ziggy, who's been keeping out of the way of all the setup, finally bounds back in and settles into Autumn's lap. "Zag," he says.
Autumn smiles. "Yeah, it's time I fed you." She digs in her pack and pulls out the remaining half of the poffin, as well as the container ball she uses to store Ziggy's food. Setting the food bowls to the side of the camp stove, she opens the ziplock bag full of chicken breasts and lays two down in Ziggy's bowl; then she takes out another bag full of apple slices and puts half of them in as well. Breaking the poffin in half again, she lays a quarter of it in the bowl for Ziggy. "There you go," she says.
Nix looks over at Autumn, a brick of dried ramen in her hands. "You've got food for Ziggy, but not for yourself?"
Autumn flushes slightly. "I..." She sighs. "He matters, you know. I figured that I'd get some food for myself somewhere, but..." She shakes her head. "Ziggy's too hungry and too important to leave these kinds of things to chance."
Nix nods. "I see..." She shakes her head. "You really need to learn to take better care of yourself."
Autumn looks away. "It's not like this whole thing was my idea in the first place..."
"Yeah. Do you want to talk about it?" Nix gives Autumn a wry smile.
"Not really." Autumn looks down at the pot.
"Well, fortunately for you I have plenty of ramen." Nix takes the lid off the pot; it's small enough that the water inside is simmering lowly. She puts in the brick of ramen, breaking it in half so that it all fits inside; then she fishes a good pair of chopsticks and a pair of disposable ones out of her purse. "The good ones are mine, but you can have these." She hands over the paper-sleeved chopsticks.
Autumn takes them, slips them out of their paper sleeve, and snaps them apart, slipping the split ends against each other to get rid of any splinters. "Thanks," she says. "For... Well, for everything. You put yourself and all your pokémon in danger for me, and that's... More than I ever expected."
Nix shakes her head. "I'd have done this for anyone, much less, well..." She shrugs. "Someone with a cute zigzagoon they obviously care for very well. People who care deeply for their pokémon... stand out to me, I guess."
Autumn looks down at Ziggy. "I mean, I didn't train Ziggy to fight, so he got hurt... That's on me. It's not so easy to just say that I'm good for him."
Nix shakes her head. "Pokémon aren't just for battling, Autumn." She looks over at Noir. "I prefer not to have to fight, that's why I practiced with Noir so that he could roar like that. I heard it from all the way up the path, you know? He must have scared something off for you."
"Yeah," Autumn says. "The same Poochyena from before, the one I kicked. It was... not exactly happy with me."
Nix nods. "Yeah. It's only natural that it would hold something of a grudge over that - you invaded its territory, kicked it, and ran for it." She looks over at Noir, who's paced out to the edge of the camp. "Do you sense anything hostile out there, Noir?"
Noir shakes his head, and walks over to Nix's side with a low chuff.
Nix runs a hand along one of his curled horns. "That's good. I think we might have more trouble from that Poochyena in the night if we're not careful. I'll make sure Lethia is around to stand guard - she's nocturnal, and scary enough that she should be able to keep things from escalating."
Autumn sighs and nods. "Alright."
Nix stirs the pot with her chopsticks, pulls out a single noodle and tests it. "I think that's done. Would you like to eat first or shall I?"
Autumn shakes her head. "You go ahead, I had those granola bars not too long ago."
"Alright," says Nix. "But I'm not letting you go to sleep until you have some proper food in you."
Autumn nods. "Alright."
Nix turns off the gas burner and starts scooping ramen into her mouth, while Autumn lies back on the ground and stares up at the sky. Ziggy curls up atop her chest, seemingly relieved. "Zag," he says softly.
"Houn," replies Noir. "Houn." He crosses his paws and settles down by the camp stove as well.
A few minutes later, Nix has finished her ramen, and puts the pot back on to heat again. She takes another brick of ramen from the stack and puts it into the pot. "You know," Nix says to Autumn. "There are less combat-focused things you could do with your Ziggy, if you wanted to."
Autumn stares at the sky. "Like what."
"You could be a pokémon stylist, or a Coordinator. That's the really big one."
"Coordinators fight in battles," Autumn says dully. "And I'm no good at sewing or social situations."
Nix frowns. "Actually, Contest Battles are only at the very highest ranks of the Contest circuit. There's plenty of lower-ranked competitions that I think a cute and well-cared-for Zigzagoon could do well at. And you wouldn't even have to dress him up too much."
Autumn props herself up on one elbow and looks at Nix. "... Really?" She frowns. "It can't be that simple."
"The lower ranked contests are more casual and tend to involve agility competitions, dancing, dress-up... I've seen Ziggy beg you for treats, he knows how to turn on the charm." Nix rubs one of her violet-painted nails against her lip. "I could get you started, if you were interested. I know the circuit." She reaches into her purse and pulls out a pink plastic case, about the side of an eyeglasses case. She opens it and extends it out towards Autumn; a trio of red bows attached to a small bronze token sit inside, each marked with a blue pokéball. "This is my Great Rank contest case, Cool category competitions."
Autumn looks at the ribbons. "Huh, there's ribbons at the lower ranks too?"
"Yeah, you have to make five Normal Class ribbons to join Great Rank contests, five Great Rank ribbons to join an Ultra Rank contest, and five Ultra Rank ribbons to join Master Rank contests. Then if you make five Master Rank ribbons you can compete in the Ribbon Cup for the honor of becoming a Top Coordinator for life." Nix smiles slightly. "It's a long way up, but even at lower ranks you can win berries and valuable items. Normal Rank contests aren't really taken seriously by most people, so if you aimed to win seriously with my help, it's pretty reasonable you could take it even with a fairly untrained Zigzagoon."
Autumn frowns. "Really?"
Nix nods. "Really really. You'd have an advantage against most participants at that rank; your Zigzagoon has visible sheen."
"Sheen?" Autumn blinks.
"It's something that every contest judge watches for - the result of a pokémon being fed a high-quality diet that features berries prominently. Your Ziggy has it, Noir has it, Lethia has it. It's that soft gloss to Ziggy's fur. It's kind of subtle, but it's noticeable to those in the know, and it's one of the best markers of a pokémon being taken good care of by its owner. Naturally the judges also pay close attention to the bond between the trainer and their pokémon - the connection, the cooperation - but you and Ziggy already have that in spades as well. I really think that with some basic preparation you could sweep a few Normals and make it to the Great Rank." Nix swirls the noodles in the pot gently. "And I'd have a secret weapon for you."
Autumn sits up and looks at Nix seriously. "I don't - I'm not really a show person, but... Ribbons are the next best thing to badges, right? And Ziggy wouldn't have to fight, he could just put on a good show and be - cute, right, that's a contest category -"
Nix grins. "Yeah."
"So what's this secret weapon you have for me?" Autumn tilts her head.
"Did you notice anything strange when I called out Lethia earlier?"
Autumn frowns. "She appeared in... a puff of dark, enshrouding smoke. You know, that is a little unusual. I thought it was something she was doing?"
Nix shakes her head. "No, that's a ball capsule. It fits onto your pokéball and makes it produce special effects when it opens; contest judges love them. I got a variety pack of them imported from Shinnoh when I started taking the contest circuit seriously, and I haven't used the cutesy ones at all, given, uh..." She gestures at her black-clad body. "It's not really my style."
Autumn bites her lip. "I mean, if you're not using them..."
Nix smiles. "I'm sure."
Autumn looks down at the camp stove. "Is the ramen done?"
Nix smiles. "Hungry, huh? Alright, this does look like it's done." She turns off the gas and nudges the handle of the pot over towards Autumn. "There we go."
Autumn takes the pot with her free hand, and dips in with her chopsticks, taking a pinch of ramen for the second time today. She sighs softly. "I had ramen for breakfast, but, well..." She shrugs. "Beggars can't be choosers."
Nix holds up the container ball full of fruit. "Do you want something to go with it?"
Autumn shakes her head. "I'm already imposing far too much. You're helping me in so many ways, Nix, I don't know how to thank you enough."
Nix looks over at Noir. "I... There was someone who helped me a lot, a long time ago, so... You could say I'm paying it forwards."
Autumn puts another pinch of noodles in her mouth, and looks away over the water as she chews.
Nix leans back into her camp chair and lets the silence be. A Wingull passes over the water to the east, passing north along the coast. Ziggy curls up at the base of his licked-clean bowl, tail over his eyes to block out the descending sun, and Noir has his eyes closed, though his ears are still pricked up. The grass near the side of the camp rustles in the wind.
"... You know, you should probably get some sleep," says Nix.
Autumn puts the last of the ramen into her mouth and swallows guiltily. "I, um..."
"You needed Crimson to carry you, you shouldn't pretend you're not exhausted." Nix raises an eyebrow.
"... Yeah." Autumn looks back towards her tent. "... You'll wake me if anything important happens, right?"
Nix nods. "I will."
Autumn looks over at Ziggy. "Ziggy?"
His tail twitches away from his face, and he reluctantly gets up and trundles over into Autumn's tent.
Autumn reseals the food bowls, and follows Ziggy into the tent, stooping in and zipping it closed behind her.
Nix looks over at Noir, and smiles softly; Noir opens his eyes and shares a look with his trainer.
"Looks like we're minding the camp." Nix reaches out and strokes Noir's back lightly.
Noir chuffs. "Houn." But he gives a slight smirk, the expression surprisingly human despite his canine muzzle.
Nix just nods.
~*~
A few hours later, Autumn emerges from her tent, shielding her eyes from the setting sun. Ziggy's still sleeping in the tent, and Nix's not in her chair...
Autumn looks over at the other tent. "Nix?"
"Dreavus!", comes the reply as Lethia floats in from the side of the camp. "Miss." She points with her long, flowing hair at the coastline.
Autumn turns to follow Lethia's pointing hair - and there's Nix, running along the coastline with a frisbee in her hand, her long black hair streaming out behind her in the setting sun. Noir bounds along the shallows ahead of her, leaping from rock to rock in long arcs. She snaps out the frisbee, and Noir bounds up and catches it effortlessly, landing with paws spread just above a shallow pool.
Autumn smiles, despite herself, and walks down the shoreline towards Nix. She hasn't noticed her yet, too busy with her game.
As Autumn approaches, pebbles scattering as she walks, Noir takes a few long steps away from where he's landed, and looks past Nix right at her. Nix turns to look at Autumn, her normally-straight black hair matted with sweat and all messed up by the wind. She brushes her hair out of her face and smiles; she looks exhausted, but happy.
Autumn pauses a stride away from Nix and gropes for something to say. "I, um..." For some reason she wants to tell Nix that she's pretty. She already knows that, it doesn't make any sense to say that right now -
"Hey," Nix says, a little out of breath. "You slept?"
Autumn nods, not sure of her voice.
A loud clatter at the pair's feet startles both the girls - Noir's just dropped the frisbee to the pebbled beach at his owner's feet.
Nix laughs, and Autumn rubs a hand through her hair. Autumn clears her throat. "I, um, yes. It's kind of lonely out here. Not many people. I... It's good that you didn't abandon me or something."
Nix smiles slightly. "Would I do that to you?"
Autumn shakes her head. "No, I don't think you really would. It's just a bit... I've never been out in the wilds before. And I know this is hardly the real wilds, but it's still... scary for me. Spending time out away from civilization... I could get attacked by that Poochyena again any time, if not for you here protecting me." She looks out over the water towards the setting sun. "I guess that... I want to say thank you, again."
Nix shakes her head and bends to pick up the frisbee. "That's like the fifth or sixth time you've thanked me now. You don't have to keep saying it, you know. I know already."
Autumn sighs. "I - it's important to say it, you know? I don't want you to think that I'm... not grateful."
"It's not a problem, seriously." Nix stands again. "We should head back to the camp, though. Even short distances can be kind of treacherous at night."
Autumn nods. "Yeah, I - you know best."
"You pick things up, living the wandering trainer life. And you lose things, too." Nix looks down at Noir. "I don't really - I don't want to dump this on you."
"No," Autumn says. "I want to hear it. If it means you'll - feel better - I want to help you. To... pay you back a little." She brushes her hand against her upper arm.
Nix sighs. "I just... I haven't had a home in years. Home, if I ever had one really, is back in Johto, but - It's been years since I was last there, and my family... Wasn't so good either. Not all of them are bad, but - It's complicated." Nix steps past Autumn and starts walking towards the camp.
Autumn follows, a half-pace behind Nix on her left. "I... I'm sorry."
"It's not like it really matters," Nix says softly. "I'm happy enough out here with Noir. I'm successful on the contest circuit, and I'm living authentically and being the person I want to be... Sure, there are hard parts, but I don't think I'm really missing anything in my life."
Autumn opens her mouth, then closes it again. "I - it doesn't sound like you're happy. I can see that you and your pokémon are - good to each other - but it can't be easy to have no real human company. Don't you travel with anyone else usually?"
Nix smiles sadly. "I don't have anyone like that. The person who helped me a while back, well, they're busy with their own affairs, and I follow the contest circuit instead of the gym circuit, so most people are on a different travel schedule than me. There are one or two people on the contest circuit I kind of half know, friendly rivals I guess, but I don't really... spend time with other people much. I have my Lethia, my Noir, and my Crimson, and they take care of me. Just like you have your Ziggy."
Autumn looks away. "I..." She swallows. "... Ziggy was never really enough, for me. Fuck, yes, he's so important, he's made my life bearable, but -" She kicks a rock on the path. "I don't want to live with nobody but a Zigzagoon for the rest of my life. There was nobody I liked back in Oldale town, everyone knew everyone and I was - well, I couldn't battle, I couldn't do anything that mattered to anyone -"
Nix winces a little. "I -" She looks off in the other direction. "I don't think that - I would be more gentle with myself than that. You're not useless, you care for Ziggy well, you thought smart and stayed brave when you got threatened by those thugs..." She sighs. "I'm sure someone would like to be your friend."
"But not you."
"I -" Nix looks down at Noir. "I hardly know you. I - I like you, from what I've seen, I think you could stand to be more gentle with yourself but it's all painfully relatable to me, I know what it's like to feel like that -" She sighs. "I guess you remind me a little of myself from the past, and that makes it hard to... I don't know. Talk to you like another person."
Autumn sighs as well. "I thought you might say something like that."
Nix stops in her tracks just short of camp, and looks back over at Autumn. "You know what, fuck it." She turns towards Autumn and crosses her arms. "I - I'm helping you this much, and we're probably going to have to work together to try and do the contest stuff, and I can't - keep pretending this is just one favor." She extends a hand towards Autumn. "Friends?"
Autumn stops as well, and considers the hand extended to her. "I - I mean, if you're offering -" for some reason she's blushing, why is that happening, stop that - "Then yeah, friends." She grabs Nix's hand, a little harder than she intended, and squeezes firmly.
Nix shakes with a serious expression on her face, then smiles a little. "Friends, huh." She lets go and rubs her hands together softly. "What do you think, Noir?" She looks down at her Houndoom.
"Houn," he says smugly.
"Sounds like you approve." Nix smiles slightly.
Autumn laughs. "Ziggy's like that too. Sometimes I'm not sure who's in charge of us, me or him."
Nix laughs and smiles. "It's easy to underestimate them just because they don't look like humans, but pokémon are really smart." She steps into camp and looks over at Lethia. "Any disturbances?"
Lethia shakes her head. "Dreavus."
"Good to hear. You're okay to keep watching through the night?" Nix tilts her head.
Lethia nods, her whole grey-pink body bobbing in the air. "Dreav!"
"That's my girl," she says. "Autumn, do you want anything before bed? Fruit, a granola bar, a lantern?"
Autumn shakes her head. "I've got a flashlight in my pack, I'll fish it out before bed. I think I'll stay in with Ziggy for now. If you have, like, a book or anything, that would be nice..."
Nix shakes her head. "Nothing to read on me, sorry. Try not to get freaked out by the night sounds, it's entirely normal. Lethia will warn us if anything serious happens."
Autumn nods softly. "I guess it's goodnight, then?"
"Yeah," Nix says. "Goodnight, Autumn. It's been a real interesting day."
"You can say that again," Autumn says.
Nix smiles. "I think it's good overall, though. It's been good to meet you, and good to help you, and - we'll see how everything works out eventually."
"Yeah," says Autumn. "I guess we will. Goodnight, Nix."
Nix ducks into her tent and zips it closed. Autumn looks at the closed tentflap for a long moment, then ducks into her own tent and closes it up as well.
Ziggy's still lying curled up by her bedroll; Autumn lays her head down next to him, slips into her sleeping bag, and tries to sleep.
State of the buffer: Chapters 5-13 drafted for a total written length of roughly 80k.
Last week's buffer was Chapters 4-10.
Buffer has grown by 2 chapters.
Nix is both a Pokemon Coordinator and an honorary Pokemon Ranger? That's cool (ba dum tish). Her knowledge of Pokemon Contests and experience in the Contest Circuit, even if it is not Cute Contests, are sure to be invaluable.
It's nice to learn why Nix is helping Autumn out. It's also nice that they have decided to be friends.
Side Note: Looking through things so far for Nix references, I noticed two things.
In this section Autumn is mistakenly called Audrey.
"If only I could relax into the simple things like you can, Ziggy. But life's more complicated than that for people." Audrey sighs and drags her fingers through his hair. "At least you're happy."
Autumn reaches out and awkwardly shakes Nix's hand. Nix's nails are painted deep violet, the same color as her lips. Autumn meets her gaze for a moment, then looks away with a little wince.
"Yeah." Nix sighs. "You could have literally died. You came from Oldale, you said? There's Electric-types along that route. If you'd been electrocuted, well..." She taps her black nails against her arm. "Your mother should've at least lent you a battle-capable pokémon."
Nix unseals the ball, and a small basket full of apples, bananas, grapes and even a peach appears on the table, all of the fruit perfectly ripe and fresh. She picks up a bright red apple and extends it to Autumn, her violet nails making a sharp contrast to the scarlet fruit. "You're going to have to learn to take what you're offered if you're going to make it anywhere in this world," Nix says matter-of-factly. "Have an apple."
"The lower ranked contests are more casual and tend to involve agility competitions, dancing, dress-up... I've seen Ziggy beg you for treats, he knows how to turn on the charm." Nix rubs one of her black-painted nails against her lip. "I could get you started, if you were interested. I know the circuit." She reaches into her purse and pulls out a pink plastic case, about the side of an eyeglasses case. She opens it and extends it out towards Autumn; a trio of red bows attached to a small bronze token sit inside, each marked with a blue pokéball. "This is my Great Rank contest case, Cool category competitions."
