The Map is not the Dungeon (Pokemon mystery dungeon quest)

Did you ever have any chance of not getting into the dungeon?
Something seems to want you there.

Well, It looks like your destiny awaits inside.
You consider multiple plans for avoiding the rattata but find nothing that you would really expect to work.
And you are really interested in the dungeon anyway .

You are still recovering your breath but you force yourself to keep running , while your body complains for the abuse in the form of pain everywhere.
The rattata follow you slowly and in formation , not leaving any openings .

You enter the dungeon , frightened but feeling the call of the adventure.
You "know" that you will turn into a pokemon if you continue but that might not actually be the case .
It wouldn't be the first time you are disapointed today.
And this time you are guessing from even less evidence.

You hope that thinking this is enough to make the gods of narrative irony make you right by being wrong about being wrong , but its probably not going to be that easy if your thought process has gone so meta.

You aren't going to let the risk of disappointment discourage you anyway .
You cross the remaining distance and enter the dungeon,the strange darkness covering you .

Something feels realy weird when you enter .
Not only because of the suden perfect darkness that gave way to a dim light after a few steps , but also the air feels more stale .
Also the moment you enter you loose your footing for a moment and feel a bit disoriented.

While you cross the darkness you couldn't see the floor but you have the impression that it's a bit different somehow.
The room you are in is dimly lit with a glow that doen't seem to come from anywhere.

Before you notice anything else you see a zubat in front of you.
The zubat seems to do something whith his mouth and you hear a weird noise but it doesn't seem to do anything to you.
Seeing this the zubat flees.

The room you are in looks like a cave at first glance , whith stalactites and stalagmites , walls made of stone and rocks randomly lying on the floor.

But a better look reveals a few strange details , like the fact that the rocks seem to be very similar , whith all the details being the same , like somebody had made 4 or 5 rocks and copypasted them .

There is also the fact that the room is a perfect cube , which you have to admit its probably the only reason you even noticed those details.

You continue towards the only opening.Again you feel weird entering the darkness, though at least the air doesn't seem to be getting worse.

You can hear a few zubats around you but you don't see any so far.
The room is similar to the first one , but this time the path is less straightforward ,and the room looks bigger.
You move stealthy, trying very hard to not be noticed.

You see a zubat ,it looks less lively than the other one , and it moves in circles on a certain pattern, ignoring you completely.
You certainly aren't going to be the one starting a fight so you continue trying to be stealtly and not provoke an attack from the zubat.

After a while and avoiding many similar looking zubats you find another rectangular opening.
You enter the new room, now more accustomed to the transition.

Here you see an abra.
He or she (you can't tell ) is wearing a scarf so you assume its friendly.
The abra looks very afraid the moment you enter , but soon seems to notice you aren't a wild pokemon and relaxes.

You are going to greet him when he notices the bag.
"Ey that's my bag !!"Yeah you already suspected that.

Do pokemon here know what humans look like ?
I mean the voice implied I can avoid revealing that I'm not human , so maybe not .

The abra seems to look at you better for a moment .
"Wait a moment."he says "OMYGOD A HUMAN !!! "
You sigh . So much for that.

An awkward silence fills the room , both of you trying to figure out what to say in this weird situation.

"Hello ,my name is Alice , and yours ?"You start.
"Spirit" he answers.

The awkward silence returns.
"Can I ask you a few questions?" you both ask at the same time.

"...."

"You can start I guess" you say.

"Fine "he answers sitting on the floor.

"First ,where did you come from ?" he says " I though humans disapeared a long time ago"

"Its complicated...." you say.

"I need to recover for a bit, and you look tired so we can talk while we rest" he says looking very interested in hearing you.
Now that you can examine him he is full of bruises and very tired.

"I was chased by a group of rattata and they might get here though. "You say ,worried.

"Willd rattata usually don't get so far into a dungeon so we are probably safe".Spirit answers.
"But If those are the same that chased me they were acting weird and might still do it , but I have a paralysis orb in the bag which should take care of them."

"The bag is yours, right ?".You ask.
The abra nods "Can you return it to me please?".

You feel a bit sad for loosing the awesome bag , but its time it returns to its (probably) rightful owner.
"Thanks , its very important to me ." Spirit takes the bag and looks at you like he still can't completely believe what he's seeing.
"Though not as important as having an actual human here whith me."
"Because you realy are a human right ?" he looks you in the eyes as if trying to determine if you are honest.

"Of course" you say. Spirit seems to believe it so you start explaining.

He seems honest , and you really need his help if you want to survive , so you will trust him for now.
Besides is not like you know anything that dangerous (you hope).
Well you aren't sure if you should tell him about the mysterious voice,since it asked you to not tell anyone about your conversation whith it ,so you will just leave that out from the story for now.

You start by telling him how you awakened in a forest after a weird dream and how the rattata chased you.
Soon , encouraged by his enthusiasm about the topic you start telling him about your world.
Sometimes he surprises you whith how easily he understands some things , other times you forget that he doesn't know things you think of as obvious.
Occasionally you feel a hole in your memory when talking about something.
Time pases quickly while you talk.

---

"And that's ice cream" you say , finishing an explanation."Any question so far?"

You might have been beating arround the bush a bit.

Spirit looks confused .

"Pokemon are fictional where you come from? "Spirit asks, frowning."That's weird.".
"Maybe there were pokemon at some point or your ancestors somehow came from here and pokemon stayed as myths or something?"he scratches his head thinking about it .

Its curious how human his body language is. He does look very similar to us so its not that weird I guess.
"Eh I really doubt that ,It's a very recent thing"You say

"Then dunno" .

"I don't have any idea how that can make sense either."you srug "Doesn't matter that much I guess".
You do have a few ideas like this being a simulation , or the future after people made pokemon somehow , but it would probably sound too weird to him .

"Aren't you curious ?"Spirit asks.

"Its not really that important right now"
And most importantly you don't want to think too much about the people you left behind .
Even if you don't remember them.Especially because you don't remember them .

It makes you sad , and now its not the time of being angsty about everything .
This world is awesome , and so far you haven't even been hurt very much so you are feeling confident.

Maybe even too confident .

"Now that I think about it "Spirit points out while he checks the contents of the bag "How are we speaking the same language?."

Right , why are pokemon speaking english ?
Maybe there are lots of worlds and I was brought here from one that speaks the same language .
But Its not like English is a simple language that could randomly appear in another world, it has a lot of cultural things that don't make sense elsewhere.

"You are right , it's weird."you say .

"There area few things that we could check about that , but its not really that important right now ".Spirit said.
"I should have asked this before , but are you fine ? I have oran berries on the bag "

"I don't think those will work on me, and I'm a bit afraid to eat them in case they are poisonuous for me or something ".you say

"You don't heal whith berries?"

"Maybe ? I doubt it "
"I'm lucky that the rattata didn't hit me, since it looked like they could break something if they did ,and It would be very inconvenient to spend weeks whith a broken bone""

"A broken bone? Uh " Spirit said , looking confused "I didn't know humans were that vulnerable ,I guess that explains ....."
"WAIT , weeks ??!! "

"Yes, I guess?"you answer not actually sure "I'm not an expert and depends on the wound but more or less I guess".
"How fast do you heal anyway?"you ask.

"Something like a broken bone? As long as I have healing power usually a day or two, unless there are complications ."Spirit answers."Maybe a few minutes for superficial wounds "
"Its not that I can't be bedridden for longer , but I would have to be sick or have a life threatening wound "

"And a move like that wouldn't even break my bones .
" I don't see how the rattata could do that much damage without making me faint multiple times"

"I guess that If I was somehow constantly low on hp It would take lots longer.
It does explain some things about the ruins if humans heal differently "

"Fainting?"you ask

"I don't know how it works in humans but if a pokemon gets hit too much our defenses stop working and we are vulnerable for a moment and then we loose consciousness "Spirit answers
"And our defenses become stronger until we wake up"
Defenses , does he mean something like the stats of the games? not sure what would that even look like .

"You don't seem to have healing but you do have something similar right?"

"Actually we don't , I don't think I have those defenses you talk about in the first place"you say confirming his suspicions .

"Seriously? how did you even survive the zubats coming there then ?"
"Or the rattata?."

"The dungeon zubats ignored me ." You answer." And I dodged the rattata"

"Humans are even more impressive than I though , If you managed to start a civilization being so fragile "Spirit looks at you whith awe.

"I'm not that vulnerable."You say ."I guess a fire move could probably kill me for example , but the rattata didn't seem that dangerous"

"How did you get here by the way?".you ask looking at the entrance you came from "I have been mostly answering your questions so far so its time you answer some of mine ".

"Yeah ,You must have lots of questions , sorry".He says , looking a bit guilty

"I decided to become stronger so I came to the dungeon searching the hermit that lives here."

"She is very weird and eccentric but she's a master of psychic powers."

"She lives Inside the dungeon?you ask.

"Not exactly , the dungeon connects to a big natural cave.Most dungeons have a place like that on one of their exits, full of wild pokemon "
"Myself I'm from Gem village ,which is a is a bit further south from that forest you say you woke in"
"Its a short travel but I prepared myself a lot in case wild pokemon attacked ,and to fend off the dungeon constructs"

"Dungeon constructs ?"you ask again.

"Ah right you don't know anything about dungeons."he says.

"No but I have more or less an idea I think ."you answer whith a smile .

"From the videogame thing you talked about before? "Spirit asks frowning

"Basicaly , yes"you say .

"Maybe you shouldn't trust it that much "

"You must have seen some zubats back here ."Spirit says .

"Some of them are just wild zubats that live in the cave and sometimes come to the dungeon , but most aren't "real".

"They move in fixed patterns , feel off ,and disappear if you defeat them."

Dungeons that magically spawn fake pokemon , cool.

"Do they drop anything ?"you ask , expecting videogame tropes.

"Ehh ... No?"he answers ."Well sometimes bits of a weird crystalline material falls when you defeat them , and runemasters pay for it"

"Maybe something else , but dunno ,I haven't ever been very interested in dungeons."
"I like learning about humans more"The abra looks at you and smiles "Anyway what was I saying?".
"Ah right ,I was coming here when the rattata attacked me.And I had to run from them, which is not something I'm very accustomed to."

"Couldn't you just teleport?"you ask .

"That's the weirdest part, I couldn't." he says ."I set Gem as my return point before escaping and was ready to teleport if things got dangerous."

"And it didn't work. So it pretty much has to be just weird dungeon stuff since I've only heard of people not being able to teleport inside them."he said.

"Maybe a runemaster could replicate it ,I don't have much idea about what they can do."
"But runes don't work that far from the dungeon" .

"Why would the dungeon bring us here though?"you ask"Also is it sentient or something?"

"This is not that weird compared to other things dungeons do , nobody knows much about how dungeons work but sometimes weird things happen around them , or inside"

Spirit seems to have been thinking about it for a while before you get there.

"Can we find that hermit you talked about ? Maybe she can help us.
"Why did you want to find her anyway?"

"Maybe , the dungeon has two exits , one goes to the cave and the other to the other side of the mountain.The rooms change when nobody is on them , so which exit you find is pretty random.

"I came because I wanted to train whith her" spirit says. "I wasn't born whith any special extra move like a lot of people does .
This is usually not so big of a deal but abras can only teleport ."

"Witch is not that bad , I mean some people have it worse ,and teleport is one of the most useful moves one can have so I'm not really complaining ."
"I even have hands that can grab things and use tools , something few people have ."
"Some traditions consider a divine blessing."
He looks at his hands thoughtful.
"But It is difficult to become stronger without damaging moves."Spirit muses.
"Basically I need to fight to become stronger ,but I need to be stronger to fight ."

"Maybe some experienced explorers can fight by only teleporting , but I can't , especially not without more power."He continues .
"I've always liked learning more than fighting so I've never trained very much."
"My mother made me practice teleport a lot hoping I could follow her steps , but I never pot too much effort on it."

"What does your mother do ?"you ask, interrupting him.
She teleports things and people from Gem to nearby populations.

"She also lives in Gem?"

"Yes ,I have been living whith her until recently "said the abra looking a bit ashamed .

"Actually I don't know how old you are"you say in response.
"I can't tell , though I guess you being an abra means you are young"

"Nah like most pokemon we don't evolve whith age,but by fighting"

"And even if we did ,it depends for example riolu do evolve by age but gem's mayor Ryu hasn't even evolved yet and he's only a bit younger than me "
"My mother is still an abra for example".
"......"

"I'm 18 by the way "he finally says .

"That is interesting , but I should probably have asked more productive questions".you say .

The abra nods "Right , lets discuss what to do now " the bruises seem to be disappearing and your new friend looks healthier than before .

"We aren't the best fighters and you don't know much about the world so its better if we stay together for now "Something tells you he would have wanted to stay with you even if there was no danger.

In the bag we should have food ,I don't know how much you eat but it won't last us long in any case.

"Also humans need water right ?"

"Yes ,I can survive a while without food but I definitely need water"you answer standing up and stretching " Why , pokemon don't ?".

"Some of us do need it , but not everyone ".he says .
"I do have to drink so I have lots of potable water in one of the bag's compartments" .

"That reminds me ,how does that bag work ?" you ask hopeful "I really want one"

"Nobody knows, It was found in the remains of a human city , and its a miracle it still works"
"Didn't you say the humans disapeared thousands of years ago ? It doen't look that old .

"We should be able to stay here for a while if necessary"

"This is a safe room , dungeon constructs don't appear here ,and real wild zubat usually avoid it "
"Though the kangaskan statue doesn't seem to be here now that I think of it ."

"Is that weird?Din't you say that dungeons didnt change "

"It is , the safe room doesn't change I think "he says ."I should have noticed earlier.Well,at least if its really gone and not hidden somehow people on the village will notice because the one there will stop working "

"Why ? And what does it do anyway?"

"It stores things and sends messages , and makes runes near it work outside dungeons "Spirit says ."I don't have any idea of how it works or why , I'm not a rune-master"
"But I remember when the one inside the dungueon in kawa town broke ,and the one in the town stopped working."

"Runes are what makes the orbs work by the way "he says noticing your looks of confusion every time he mentions them .
"And other things like especial equipment that has different effects when inside a dungeon."
" The only thing I know about making runic items is that it involves writing ,but not sure what or how ,runemasters are very secretive"

"Anyway what do we do now?"you ask .

"Well as I said before we can wait here ."
"However there is no guarantee that this will change anything."
"The rattata would normally forget us and , but whith something controlling them that might not be the case."
I have a message orb to call for help but it does't seem to be working .
"So we leave the dungeon " you say
"Exactly , we should either be able to find the cave and get help , or the exit"

Your stomach growls
"We should eat something"Spirit says .
Aparently the bag preserves the food from rotting but makes it taste weird and completely changes the texture of some things.

After pondering things a bit you decide its better for you to risk eating something you shouldn't now than having to run whith the stomach empty, so you eat the food.

You wish you had a fire or something to try to make it comestible again ,but you don't so you resign yourself to eating it as it is.

You were hoping for an opportunity to show your cooking skills but It seems like that's not going to happen today.
You almost ask if pokemon eat wild pokemon or what , but it sounds like a potentially sensitive question so you decide to leave the details of what pokemon eat for latter,even if you are really interested.
You ask a few more things about dungeons and pokemon in general instead.

"Let me explain "Spirit takes his notebook and something that looks like a pencil and starts drawing a type chart.

"Can you let me a piece of paper and something to write whith please ?"you ask politely thinking of making some notes and organizing all the information you are getting.

"Fine , but don't waste it , good paper its not cheap"Spirit answers.
You are going to get the paper when the sound of multiple zubats startles you .

The zubat appear from the entrance.

Spirit reacts really fast , he grabs an orb from the bag and seems to try something.

But nothing happens ...

The abra looks at you and you both run towards the next room .
You feel the now familiar sensation of changing rooms and find yourself in new place.
The room you are in is a 10 meters long cube , whith floor and walls made of smooth stone , full of unown like engravings.

In the middle there is a rectangular elevation whith stairs on the sides .
Actual unown appear near the carvings all the time and seem to look at them for a moment before disappearing.
Sometimes they change some letters, sometimes they copy them elsewhere and sometimes they don't do anything.

Even if the engravings are written on familiar characters it looks more like random gibberish than any recognizable language,though some combinations do seem to repeat a lot across engravings.
Everything happens in perfect silence , giving the scene a chilling atmosphere.

Spirit enters the room behind you , his legs not very well designed for running , the zubat don't folow him.
Both of you admire the new room in awe.

"I'm pretty sure this is not supposed to be here"Spirit says breaking the silence .
"Dungeons can have multiple zones whith different "themes" but this one only has one."

"And this is one of the most explored dungeons on the region , that's precisely why its so tiny "
You wonder what he means but you have other things to worry about right now.

"Maybe we are the first ones in finding this then " you say .

"Or maybe nobody lived to tell anybody about it " He says
pessimistically

"Don't be so paranoid "You say .

"Its not paranoia if the dungeon is really trying to kill you"Spirit answers.

You walk towards the center of the room.
A few unown appear around you and seem to want you to go up the stairs.

Spirit looks nervous but doesn't say anything ,eyeing the unown whith suspicion .

"Should we go? They seem friendly "you say "And Its not like we can fight all of them"

Spirit nods "They aren't actually people by what I sense from their minds , though they do seem to be looking at your mind for whatever reason ."

"And they do seem a bit smarter than normal wild mons "

"Didn't you need to train to use your psychic powers?"you ask

"Sensing basic things like that is easy , actually using your powers to do something and interpreting what you see in the minds of others is what requires training"Spirit anwers while you climb the steps.

"No idea what these wild pokemon can do though"Spirit points at the unown."Its not even a species I recognize.

"Do you think they can read my mind "you ask ,worried .

Spirit shooks his head "Not really , nobody can do that as far as I know"

"Only your emotions and when you are thinking of something very concrete they have identified in you specifically .
Ah and if they are really good they can tell when you are lying .That is one of the most useful things, and there are lots of jobs for people that can do that "

"Maybe there is a specific species of pokemon that can actually read minds somewhere but It would be reaaly bad luck if we just happened yo find them"

"How does my mind look like to your weird psychic senses? "You ask trying to change the conversation .

"Its surprisingly like a pokemon's , but somehow very different in a certain sense " He searches for the right words "Like it was the same thing made of a different material I guess "

You reach the end of the stairs , in front of you there is what looks like a pokemon battlefield like the ones on the anime , and in the middle of it there is a slab whith more unow-like symbols on it .

The unown that were guiding you dissapear.

This time the simbols look coherent ,and when you try to read them something shifts.

Ghostly unown characters appear in front of the message whith what you assume its a translation.

"WHAT POKEMON DO YOU WANT TO BE ?"Says the gostly text .
It sounds weird but the meaning seems clear.
You finally are getting awesome pokemon powers out of this mess.

In the floor you can see some kind of brush whith ink to write whith .

---

What do you do?

[]Write a pokemon species on the slab (choose one)
[]Try to escape from the room.
[]Copy the gibberish on spirit's notebook.
[]Think about weird things to see if you can make the unown on the walls react.
[]Write in

---

Yes its choosing pokemon time .
Any pokemon is allowed, yes legendaries included but you might not get the awesome powers that being legendary would imply , and choosing an evolution might end up whith you turning into the base form.
You have a fixed amount of "power" regardless of what you choose so pick things not for their stats but for things like their moves ,habilities , having oposable thumbs , awesomeness etc.

And its better if you don't choose anything too different from a human or Alice will have trouble adapting to her new body.
Choosing Dialga for example might look cool but could potentially leave you whith little or no time manipulation and a giant body that doesn't fit in lots of houses and needs more food.

Also fairy types might have problems and you probably shouldn't choose one , or something that depends on a fairy type move.

From what Spirit told you types are a thing here , including fairy, and Pokemon do receive more damage from moves of types they are weak to , though its apparently more complicated than that.
He hasn't heard about some pokemon you remember ,especially legendaries and 6 gen pokemon.

Aparently there are dungeons everywhere arround the world , full of traps and fake pokemon.
Dungeons change when no one is inside , but the amount of rooms and general theme remains more or less the same.
This world looks mostly like pokemon mystery dungeon , whith a civilization built by pokemon .
But apparently there were humans at some point , and sapient pokemon didnt exist back them.
Wild pokemon are more animal-like and dumb and the world is full of them .
People usually wear clothing to be able to easily ditingish themselves from wild pokemon and don't let them enter populations
I'll answer any questions you have that you could have asked spirit .

Voting ends next Friday .