A Backwards Grin (Pokemon) (Mawile SI)
- Thread starter Flairina
- Start date
Burned_Cookie
Very tired girl.
- Location
- Plato´s cave.
- Pronouns
- She/Her/It/Its
Well that was sufficiently overkill. This is why you don't back people into a corner kids, you never know what their panic button is.
I feel bad about everything else in that general area. The stantlers where hardly the only ones living there.
I feel bad about everything else in that general area. The stantlers where hardly the only ones living there.
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
Great as usual!
well worth the wait.
not a 1 to 1 thing, but the purple energy and the girl being really justifiably angry and almost destroying the area
well worth the wait.
for a second i imagined visually this looking a Little bit like this
not a 1 to 1 thing, but the purple energy and the girl being really justifiably angry and almost destroying the area
- Location
- Oregon
Indeed. To be quite frank they should have killed Mawile if they were actually worried about the threat her supernatural origins and savage nature posed, instead of toying with her and risking her containment's failure in so doing.
The Crimson King
It's possible to eat an orange with just teeth.
- Location
- America
Astra pulled a Carrie. Hooray!
Dermonster
The Shittiest Wizard
I helped edit, but that doesn't mean I can't comment! Well done as usual, Flair. I love how Flairwile and Astra meandered in circles for like ten minuted before you remembered Astra could teleport and I enjoyed coming up with that ~*~mysterious right-aligned passage~*~ during practice. I also like how confused you were at Astra inexplicably having a violin. Those stantler really are a buncha jerks, and the only reason I regret the activation of DOOM ORB is all the emotional scarring it inflicted on poor Astra. :<
Also, DOOM ORB HYPE! Hell yeah love that funky lil chaos ball. Though I wonder what sort of attention that little scar will bring; the anime universe is much more 'active' than the games, I fear. Inb4 Astra and Flairwile become a movie villain duo.
And to everyone else, hopefully you'll be getting another suprise in a few days.
...depending on how difficult any remaining modifications will be, of course. And the actual manifestation of suggested modifications. I've been blue penned for a week now augh.
Also, DOOM ORB HYPE! Hell yeah love that funky lil chaos ball. Though I wonder what sort of attention that little scar will bring; the anime universe is much more 'active' than the games, I fear. Inb4 Astra and Flairwile become a movie villain duo.
And to everyone else, hopefully you'll be getting another suprise in a few days.
...depending on how difficult any remaining modifications will be, of course. And the actual manifestation of suggested modifications. I've been blue penned for a week now augh.
chrisleech
The Finder of Things Left Behind
- Location
- Jacksonville, Florida
So is the Orb of Doom actually a canned Gardevoir brand "black hole"?
Also, Giratina will not be happy about this.
Also, Giratina will not be happy about this.
BagFullOfLizards
Some bag, mostly lizards
- Location
- A bag
And that was when they knew: this could only end in violins.
Backslash 5 (Alpha) - Heavy-hearted (Hyphen X-over)
Dermonster
The Shittiest Wizard
Backslash (Alpha) 5 - [Hyphen/A Backwards Grin]
Heavy-Hearted
After spending a week unexpectedly trapped in the wilderness in a wildly different body, sheltering from the elements in a slapdash assortment of rocks and greenery, and finding so little food that you eventually start luring and trapping other Pokemon for a simple meal, you would think that I'd be excited to finally get back to civilization.
You'd be very right, but the anxieties curdling in my gut would also be doing their very best—like no one ever had—to prove you wrong.
The paved concrete of Rustboro's sidewalks feel odd to walk upon, being flatter and rougher than the dirt and grass carpet of the forests, and the buildings tower over me in a way that they haven't since I was a child. Astra walks at my side, the abnormally tall Kirlia leading by a few steps, both to guide me and to impress that she's my trainer to the passerby. So far it seems to be working, though the curious glances from a sea of faces so much taller than me make me feel even smaller than the buildings do.
It's strange how walking through a modern city is so much more alien now, especially with the odd glimpses of other Pokemon casually just...existing. A flash of pink catches my eye, and I glance inside a cafe window to see a Skitty lounging on the sill and a pair of Beautifly happily siphoning something from some cups next to a pair of chatting women. I stare for a moment, the surreality of it all taking me by surprise, then shake my head and turn my attention back to the road ahead, trying to ignore the curious stares of the other pedestrians.
"How much farther to this hotel?" I ask, looking up at Astra.
"Just a few more blocks," Astra answers, smiling back at me. Her tone is a bit echoey, which apparently means nobody but me can hear her. "We're almost there!"
I smile back, but part of me wishes I had just a bit more time to get my thoughts in order—mostly just because of that offhand mention Astra previously made of her traveling companion.
"Yeah, I've been traveling with a human girl called May. She's a bit abrasive but—"
May. From the sounds of it, the version of May from the video games, considering Astra mentioned Brendan, but didn't know about Ash. I don't really know much about the May from that continuity, half because it's just been a while since I played a game set in Hoenn, and half because there's barely anything there to begin with. The game protagonists rarely have any characterization at all, being a vessel for the player to interact with the world more than anything else, and a subtle inquiry revealed that Brendan is Birch's son, so I can't even assume May will act as the 'rival' did.
There's always the anime to draw upon, I suppose, but with the circumstances so wildly different, how much help would that even be? Does May have a brother here? Is she interested in contests? Heck, maybe she's more like her manga counterpart Sapphire and half-feral. Gah, now I wish I'd read that manga. Who knows what throwaway line would help me...would help me...
...Er, what am I trying to do again? Hoenn's apocalypse is mostly just Team Aqua and/or Magma taking over the volcano, stealing the submarine, pilfering the colored orbs off Mt. Pyre, and finally fucking around with their legendary of choice and subsequently 'finding out'. May herself...doesn't really matter? Aside from being in the right place to participate in the story vis-a-vis kicking butt. Even her dad being Petalburg's Gym Leader is irrelevant outside the Gym itself. Heck, even if she was more important, what would it matter? May can't understand me. Unless I go out of my way to make myself known, all I'll likely be to her is a weird Pokemon that Astra picked up outside of town, and if I really need to say something I can probably just poke Astra about it anyway.
I stare blankly at a stoplight as the dawning realization that I've been death spiraling into anxiety over absolutely nothing finally makes itself apparent. To my side, Astra shifts, shooting me a curious glance.
"...You okay?" she asks after a moment.
Damn, she probably noticed all that, didn't she? Let me be embarrassed in peace, you lousy empath!
"Yes," I sigh, rubbing at my face to mask my self-conscious flush. "I'm just being an idiot, don't worry about it."
"About what?" Astra prods, ignoring my request entirely.
I shoot her a glare, but roll my eyes and step out into the street as the crosswalk light turns green. "Just...anxious about meeting your friend, I guess. Then I realized I kind of can't, not really."
"Aw, don't worry!" Astra cheers, putting a hand on my—is she patting my head? "May's great! She was one of my first friends when I started my journey, and even if I've only really known her for a few days I couldn't imagine doing it without her! I'm sure you'll get along fine, even if you can't talk."
Not what I was worried about, but I appreciate the attempt, Astra. The head-pats, not so much. I bat away the offending arm and frown up at her.
"Just because I'm shorter than you doesn't mean you get to pat my head like a kid," I grumble. "As for whether we get along...well, I hope so."
Now that I'm not spinning in circles about it, the prospect of actually meeting May is...pretty cool, to be honest. From a certain point of view, she's kind of like a minor celebrity to me. The closest anyone back home would get to something like this would be...I don't know, meeting her voice actor?
Maybe it'd be like if you got to move in with a movie star before they got famous.
At the cost of being her roommate's dog.
…This metaphor is getting away from me. May aside, I am still rather worried about the looming threat of armageddon—even if the whole thing gets resolved in a relative snap in the games, now that I'm actually in this reality, I can't realistically imagine that a worldwide unnatural disaster won't leave utter chaos and a lot of destruction in its wake, no matter how brief. At the very least, I'd like to know exactly when the shit is going to hit the fan, especially if Astra might wind up directly involved in it. Obviously things are going to take longer than you could play Emerald—or Ruby? Sapphire? Alpha or Omega? May's choice of outfit is suddenly going to be valuable intel—or else Astra would have tried to blast through the whole league in three or four days, but that leaves me without much idea of what kind of timetable we're actually on. Now that causality isn't beholden to the player and the world isn't abstracted for gameplay, I have no idea how long things 'should' take to happen. For instance, Astra just beat Roxanne earlier today, so how much longer are we going to be in Rustboro?
"May booked the room until Thursday," Astra says when I ask. "She wanted to check out the city and, uh, train a bit. We don't know when Brendan is getting here either, so she just signed up for a week."
"Huh..." I reply, surprised. "A whole week? I thought you'd be racing off toward the next gym to get another badge. Which gym are you—er, we going to next, anyway?"
"I don't even know my options yet, so I couldn't say." Astra sighed, glaring at yet another streetlight we'd gotten held up by. Apparently the city had decided to stall us out as long as physically possible, for some reason. "I didn't even realize May had booked the room for that long until afterward. I guess I don't mind too much; I got invited to attend a class that Roxanne's teaching on Monday, and I did want to see more of the city, but that's just three, maybe four days. I have time, but getting carried away is a bit dangerous."
"Because your home would get discovered, right?"
"Yeah. We think I have about six months before that happens, though." A fond smile crossed Astra's face. "I was going to go as fast as I could, but a very kind man in Petalburg reminded me that my journey isn't just about finishing it. I want to see Hoenn for myself, too, and all the weird and wonderful things humans have made."
I nod. "I can get behind that."
The destination is important, to be sure, but you don't win a marathon by sprinting. If every day was like today, I've no doubt we'd crash and burn before the month was out.
"I'll make sure to point you at the cool stuff," I add.
Astra grins. "I look forward to it!"
Six months, huh…? I'm not sure if that's too long or unreasonably short. Outside the confines of a game, is skyrocketing to the peak of a national sport from zilch remotely feasible? Well, I suppose feasibility doesn't matter; if she doesn't get that good fast, both her home and the world are in for an unpleasant time of things.
…Well, unless I change something? There's no reason why Aqua and/or Magma have to succeed, and if they never lay hands on the Red and Blue orbs, then they can't awaken the Weather Trio or cause a planet-spanning cataclysm. I doubt there's much I can do about it directly, but I've got more than enough information to help Astra short circuit their plans if we manage to be in the right places at the right times, and if so, then maybe this adventure can just be a relatively peaceful jaunt to save Astra's village from...well, whatever happens when an intelligent pokemon village gets discovered. Poaching, most likely.
...Now that I think of it, that could go much quicker if Astra had an edge. I dunno where we'd get a Master ball, but the Regi trio should just be hibernating in caves around the region, right? Maybe I could pretend I read about it in a book somewhere, or...
Gah, this whole thing would be so much easier if I didn't have to skirt around the whole 'you're fictional!' thing. Do I even have to? I only hid the truth initially because it was confusing, and being stranded in a forest is no place for an existential collapse. Heck, I don't even know if it's true anymore; I'm certainly not fictional, and neither is Astra, so maybe it's just some sort of multiverse bleedover thing. Now that we're back in civilization, maybe I should just take some time and figure out how to explain—
"We're here!" Astra cheers, jolting me out of my thoughts.
I blink, finding myself suddenly standing in a lobby. Wait, did I manage to get so lost in thought that I just blindly walked into a building? I really need to pay more attention in that case; that could have just as easily been the street.
Shaking myself, I take a quick look around. The hotel seems fairly nice, at least as far as I can tell from its lobby. Well lit, a bit of art on the walls, non-plastic potted plants, and I think I can see some sort of dining hall through a set of doors nearby. It's not rich fancy, but a solid 4/5 is nothing to scoff at.
"Very nice," I say, nodding as I look back over at the dining hall. "Do they serve food here?"
"Yeah, but only in the morning," Astra replies, heading towards the stairs. "C'mon, let's get to the room."
"Not the elevator?"
Astra laughs a little, scratching her cheek awkwardly. "Elevators make me nauseous."
I shrug. Fair enough, I suppose. It's not like she's had much time to get used to them, and if she doesn't want to, who am I to object?
Following Astra into the stairwell, I immediately encounter a problem—namely, the stairs are way too tall for my stubby little legs. Each step is right around where my hip is now, so I'm forced to treat each individual stair as its own waist-high obstacle by awkwardly sliding myself onto the narrow surface, standing up again, and repeating—a process very much hampered by the massive counterweight on the back of my head.
By the third step I'm already sick of the whole thing. By the fifth step, Astra's already made it up to the next landing, and I'm just staring at the dozens of steps left before I can catch up, an odd tightness encompassing my chest.
Astra looks down at me and hesitates, shuffling awkwardly.
"Um…do you need some help?" she asks.
The question is earnest and innocent, in the abstract—Astra didn't foresee the trouble I'm currently having, so she's simply offering to lend some assistance. However, that nuance is rather lost on me in favor of my sheer, desperate outrage about being asked that about climbing some crappy stairs, to the point I barely manage to stop myself from leveling a full-force glare at her for it.
"They're just stairs!" I hiss, hefting myself up another step. "I don't—I can do this!"
Steps fly by in a blurred haze, my indignation lending me a new surge of determination—but even this starts to flag not even halfway up, and I find myself slowing down again. I'm not even tired, but somehow I can't find it in myself to carry on. I blink rapidly, rubbing my eyes and finding spots on my hands.
…Why are my eyes wet? There's no reason to cry about something stupid like this... I'm back in civilization, I have food and shelter again, I've gained direction and purpose, and I've even made some new friends! There's no reason something as trivially stupid as being unable to climb up some stupid fucking stairs should...should...
Purple sparks flicker into existence, and I gasp as I'm suddenly lifted into the air, a violet haze surrounding my body.
"Wha—what!?" I sputter, flailing around in shock for a moment before my gaze snaps up toward Astra. The psychic has a hand lifted, which is emanating a matching purple glow. "What are you—!?"
"Helping out," Astra replies, waving me up the last dozen steps. She brings me to a stop next to her and the Psychic aura fades. "I'm not just going to leave you behind, you know?"
There's a lot of things I could say in response to what just happened. I choose the easiest one.
"...Thanks," I mutter, looking away.
I'll just…try and put that behind me, I suppose. Although…
I turn to the next set of stairs, leading up to the second floor, and end up simply staring at them for a moment.
"Astra?" I ask quietly. "What floor are you on?"
"Fifth."
"I… see..."
The incessant drone of the hotel's fluorescent lights buzzes in my ears as I try to gather my thoughts. Astra probably isn't going to float me up them all, is she? It'd be a problem if someone else walked in, after all… is climbing the only way then? I already feel drained just from the thought of it, but what's the alternative, have Astra get sick in the elevator? I guess I could maybe go up in one myself and meet back up with Astra on the top floor, but if anyone else enters the elevator on the way up or happens to see me on my lonesome, they'll probably just assume I'm a stray that happened to wander into—eh!?
For the second time in the past minute, I find myself being lifted into the air. This time there's no telekinesis involved though—Astra's just straight up picked me up off the floor like a housecat.
"Hey!" I exclaim, wriggling in her grasp. "What are you doing!?"
"Getting us up the stairs," Astra grunts, shifting me around. "Hold still, you're heavy."
I suddenly find myself being cradled in the crook of her arm in a sort of princess-carry, with my horn hanging off her shoulder like a giant, toothy tumor.
"Uh," I say intelligently, too mind-flooded for words.
"See?" Astra says, smiling down at me as she starts the long ascent. "It's fine!"
I cannot believe this is happening to me. "I guess!?"
The matter evidently settled in her mind, Astra starts making her way up the stairs with me in her arms. She's slower than she'd been by herself, but it's still much faster than me on my own. I've never been carried like this before—or at least, not for a very long time, and certainly not by someone I'd just met. Despite there being no one else around, this feels…highly embarrassing…
Flushing, I stare down at the floor, mostly just to stave off whatever assuredly cheerful reassurances Astra might otherwise send my way…though honestly, slightly-mortifying position aside, this is comfier than I would have expected it to be. It's sort of like being in an oddly warm, slightly out-of-breath hammock. Very cozy.
…I am not going to fall asleep in someone's arms, damnit!
"Hey," Astra says, budging me out of my thoughts. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," I mumble, keeping my eyes down.
"Oh, that's good," she replies, only to pause and continue a moment later "You seemed to take your trouble with the stairs pretty hard. Is it alright if I ask...?"
She trails off. We climb another flight in silence, and I sigh. If I'm gonna try to not hide stuff from her, I guess something dumb like this would be a good start.
"I've...never been anywhere where I couldn't climb a floor just as easily as you can," I explain, struggling to work around the information barrier. "When I was back home, a lot of things were more...accessible. Here though, they're obviously not—even if I'm back in civilization, things are still wrong. And they never won't be wrong unless I make it back for real."
I fold my arms and look away. "I guess having trouble with something as basic as that just...really brought it into focus."
"I think I get it," Astra replies, subdued. Her arms squeeze me closer for a moment. "Even when you're 'safe', things are still so different, and it's frustrating. Do you know what one of the first things I noticed when I stayed in a city for the first time?"
"Hmm?" I look up at Astra, blinking. "What?"
"There aren't any stars," she replies, looking sadly at the ceiling. "When it got dark out, I walked outside and it was like someone had thrown the sky into a void. I couldn't see the great starclouds or anything. There were still some, but so much had gone that it just felt wholly black. I wondered how anyone could possibly live like that, without ever seeing the night sky like I'd had all my life."
"It was the first time I really felt how far I was from home. I spent all night looking out the window and wondering what my grandpa would think of it all. And in the morning I had to wrap myself back up in this cloth and pick things up with my hands and pretend I can't do a lot of the stuff I can just because so many things would go so badly if I did."
"I love exploring the human world," Astra says, looking back down at me. "The food is great, the people are friendly, and I've learned so much! But part of me wishes I could just go back home, take off this robe and face, pick up a fresh stick of Magikarp from a hundred feet away, and look at the stars with my Grandpa."
We reach the top of the stairwell, and Astra kneels down, smiling at me as she gently sets me on the floor. "It's going to get easier, I think. Especially since we have each other now. I'm happy that I have someone to talk to about these things, and if you ever have a problem with something, you can come talk to me too, alright? Even if it's just a flight of stairs."
For the third time in as many minutes, I find myself floored. This is...way too much genuine empathy for me to deal with. Part of me hysterically notes that this is the third friendship speech I've gotten in the twelve hours since I've met someone I could talk to, which is both on-brand and absolutely ridiculous to experience first-hand.
"Thanks, Astra," I say, because despite the corniness, I also really appreciate the effort. It's not often you meet someone who really does understand what you're going through. "You're a good friend."
Astra grins at me, then heads for the door. I follow along and try to squash that small part of me that wishes she'd waited until we'd actually gotten to the room to put me down.
...It was nice, okay!?
Soon enough, we find ourselves in the hotel room. It's decently spacious, with a single large bed in the middle facing a TV hanging from the opposite wall, a plush armchair in the back corner, and a big round table with a couple wooden chairs nearer to the door. A window takes up the back wall, and there's another door to what I assume is the bathroom off to the side.
There's also a big honkin' backpack laid against the wall next to the bed, with the anime classic bedroll set on top, and a collection of random cookware strapped on the back.
"Is that May's?" I ask, peering at the luggage.
With the kitchenware pot strapped on, it looks more like something Brock would be carrying around, to be honest. Does this May cook?
"Yeah," Astra replies, setting her own much smaller pack down next to it. "I guess she's not back yet. Gives me an opportunity to use the shower, at least. Wait, any surprises...?"
She pauses to concentrate for a moment, then smiles. "Oh good, nobody's around."
With that, Astra drops the illusion, her human face fading into her much more exaggerated natural Kirlia features. She promptly pulls off her sunhat, and her robe briefly glows purple before seeming to puff out and just fall to the ground around her.
"Ahh, it's always nice to get out of that thing," she sighs, stretching out in a few quick, graceful poses. "It was fine when I was a Ralts, but it's a bit harder to manage now that I'm so much taller."
"Didn't plan that far ahead?" I ask, frowning at her clothes. There's something odd about it, but I can't seem to put my finger on what.
"Didn't have any choice, actually," Astra replies, heading toward the bathroom. "This is the only human cloth we had, so I had to make do. Can you—well, I guess you can't put it in the wash. Nevermind, I'll get it after I'm done."
She steps inside, and the muffled sound of running water follows soon after. I shake my head, poking at the outfit she'd left behind. Is this really the only piece of clothing she owns? Jeez, that must've been hard to explain to May. How is this thing even put together? There's a lot of edges here that don't seem to connect, and—
I pick it up, and it falls apart in my hands. I look down at what I now clearly see is a whole, uncut swathe of black linen cloth.
...Has she just been walking around like a goddamn mummy? There's nothing else here! No underwear or—wait, no socks? No shoes? Has she been running around barefoot all this time?
"Astra, how the heck haven't you been found out already…?" I mutter, amazed that she's lasted this long with such bizarre attire. Does she just not change on the road? She must have an absolute swathe of blisters on her feet too. I'm no fashion expert myself, but first chance I get I'm dragging that girl to the nearest department store, because wow does she need some serious help if she wants this facade to last longer than it takes for someone to ask what her shoe size is.
I wad the thing up and drop it off by Astra's pack, then huff and look around the room again. Not much to do in here, to be honest…might as well just relax and see what's on Poke-TV, I suppose.
Hauling myself onto the bed with the aid of a nearby chair and a fistful of bedsheets, I grab the remote from the small table on the opposite side, flick the TV on, and start browsing through channels. Let's see here…
*click*
Pokemon battle. Eh, next.
*click*
Documentary about Empoleon. Hmm...maybe later.
*click*
Another Pokemon battle. I get the feeling there's gonna be a lot of these. Next!
*click*
Spider-man.
…Spider-man?
I blink and rub my eyes, but it doesn't go away. Yep, that's Spider-man alright. Or...Ariados-man? Maybe? Doesn't roll off the tongue as well. He looks the same at least, though—yep, he's got a giant red spider-friend. Holy crap, Poke-verse Spider-man.
…Annnnnd there's Doc-Octillery. Alright, I'm sold, where's my popcorn? Also, holy crap, the CGI on this is insane. Is it even CGI? Pokemon can actually just spit fire and their ability to follow commands is pretty well documented, so maybe they had the Octillery literally just shoot the actor on cue. Man, the hazard pay must be intense.
I'm so engrossed in the alternate universe cinema that I don't even hear the door opening.
"Astra?" a voice calls.
I jolt upright, looking over to see a very familiar teenager in red backing into the room.
"That you? I stopped by The Gouda-father's and got us a—the fuck is that!?"
May—because that's who it is, I'd recognize that red bandanna anywhere—takes one look at me and jumps nearly half a foot in the air, only barely keeping the pizza box in her hands from flying free.
I share her shock, but for an entirely different reason. Did she just curse at me? What the heck, this is a PG setting at most! Also, rude!
"Nice to meet you too," I shoot back, crossing my arms. "Some of that better be for me."
May just stares at me from the doorway. "Uh…"
Her eyes dart from me, to the still-audible shower, to Astra's backpack. Seeming to come to a conclusion, she relaxes slightly.
"Fuck's sake," she mutters, and yet again I'm surprised at the swearing. I thought it was just a knee-jerk reaction; does she just casually belt those out on the regular?
"Hey Astra!" May yells, pausing briefly to set the pizza on the table before strolling up to the bathroom and pounding on the door. "Is this thing yours?"
"Thing!?" I sputter, offended.
"May!?" Astra also sputters from the bathroom, surprised. "Oh—uh, do you mean Mawile? Yeah, she's with me!"
"Why the hell isn't she in her ball?" May demands, glaring at the door. "I almost dropped the pizza!"
"The what? Uh, look, she just prefers being outside, alright? Don't worry, she's nice!"
"Nice isn't what I'm—ugh, just, finish your damn shower," May mutters, giving up on the conversation.
She looks over at me again, the disgruntled expression never leaving her face as her eyes flicker over my body, my horns, and then finally meeting my gaze. I look right back, raising an eyebrow.
"Anyways… hi," I say, waving my hand. "Nice to meet you, for real this time. I'm…well, just Mawile now, I suppose."
Bizarre abundance of cursing aside, I guess it's fair that she'd be startled to walk into her room only to find an unexpected pokemon like me sitting on her bed. Best try to get off on a positive note.
May squints at me, then shakes her head and sighs.
"Bet she didn't even make you wipe your feet off before you climbed up there, did she?" she grumbles, completely ignoring my statement as she swings one of the chairs at the table out and sits down, back against the wall. "Could've at least sent a text, damnit. What even—did she put the tv on?"
May blinks at the movie still playing in the background. "Huh..."
She glances at me for a moment, then considers the film again, before shrugging and leaning back in her seat, apparently intent on watching it.
"...Hello?" I ask, after a couple seconds of May just sitting there.
May turns to me and raises a single eyebrow. "What?"
I give her a slightly incredulous look. "You could at least introduce yourself, you know!"
Seriously! I know she can't understand me, but I'd assume it's pretty well known that Pokemon can understand people, so you'd think she'd at least say something back,even if it was just 'Hi, please don't bother me.' or the like. It's just basic courtesy!
"Are you hungry or something?" May questions, frowning. "Thirsty? Can't exactly use the sink so you'll have to wait on that one. Tch, woulda thought she'd give you some berries or something."
I stare at May as she mutters to herself, a sour feeling buzzing in my stomach with every word. I understand that I'm basically this world's equivalent of an animal now, but this is even less pleasant than I'd expected. Astra is seriously traveling with this girl?
"I actually ate half a jar of berries earlier," I answer, not that I expect she'll comprehend a word of it. "But I was stuck in the woods for nearly a week, so if you don't mind, I would really appreciate a slice or two of that."
I point at the pizza box. May catches on instantly and scowls.
"Oh no way in hell," she says, pulling the pizza box close. "I don't know what the fuck you eat, and I don't wanna deal with a mess if you're lactose intolerant or some bullshit."
I scowl right back, then pause. She…might actually have a point there. I'm not certain what tolerances a Mawile has for certain foods—for all I know, a bit of cheese could send me running to the bathroom within minutes.
…On the other jaw, I have had, to put it very lightly, one hell of a week, and have had neither hot nor human food even once in that span of time. Allergies be damned, I'm getting a slice of pizza.
"Don't care, gimme." I say, walking over to the edge of the bed and reaching out for the box.
"Oi," May growls, looking annoyed. "What part of 'no' don't you get? Look, just wait till Astra gets out and she can feed you with the rest of her team later, this is for me and her!"
My eyes narrow. Apparently in addition to being much crasser than her anime counterpart, this version of May is also incredibly stubborn…maybe it's time for a different tactic then. I've not had the chance to try it out before, what with being stuck in the woods without any people around since ending up like this, but Mawile are known for their cuteness as much as they are their teeth. Time to see if I can use that to my advantage…
I look straight at May and clasp my hands in front of my face, hitting her with the biggest, teariest puppy-dog eyes this side of a Suicune.
"Pleeeeease…?" I ask in a begging whine, trying to play on her sense of guilt—
May lets out a snerk, then bursts out laughing.
"Pff hahahaHAHA—what the hell is that?" she chuckles, slapping the table in mirth. "Oh man, that's great! Wish I had my 'dex out for a picture."
She grins at me, my begging pose having long been exchanged for one of embarrassed outrage. "Heh, I caught a Poochyena ages ago; you're way too late if you think puppy-dog eyes'll work on me."
My hands clench at my sides, and I can feel heat rushing to my cheeks at May's heckling. All right, I've had enough of this. If she's really so set on acting like a jackass, I'm gonna treat her like one.
Silently, I raise my horn above my head, the two halves splitting apart to show twin rows of gleaming white teeth inside the cavernous maw that gives my species their name. I make a show of it, twitching my second mouth as if it's raring to bite down, smirking, and letting loose a small Astonish just to make my eyes glow red.
"I repeat…" I say, now speaking in a low, menacing tone. "Please."
Contrary to my expectations, May doesn't get spooked, jump, or even flinch back. Instead, there's only a brief blink of surprise, before her eyes narrow and her body tenses. We hang there for a second, the air thick as soup, before May finally breaks eye contact and sighs.
"Fuck's sake, fine." she scowls, opening the box. "Dunno where the hell Astra got a brat like you, but she can deal with the mess. Here."
She turns, proffering a slice of the pizza. "Come get it."
I cut off Astonish, lower my maw, and let my smirk fall back into a regular smile. Finally! Sheesh, did she really have to be so difficult about this?
I crawl forward over the bed, reaching out for the cheesy goodness. Is that ham? God, after so much fruit and viscera, I don't even have words for how much I'm looking forward to—
May's other hand snaps out and grabs hold of the tube connecting my horns to my head. Pain explodes in my scalp as she yanks, pulling me right off the bed and holding me aloft in the air.
"Ack!!! What the—!?" I cry out, thrashing in her grip as my horns are suddenly tasked with holding aloft the entire rest of my body. They clamp and clatter uselessly above me, unable to move properly with the tube attached to them stretched taut. "Ow, ow ow ow! Let GO!"
"Hey."
I pause, May's cold, flat tone piercing through my haze of panic. She stares at me, her eerily calm face inches from my own. A smile crosses her features, but nobody would call it a happy one.
"Do that again, and the only thing you'll eat is the pavement outside that window," she says. "Got it?"
My eyes go wide. Is—is she threatening to...?
Shaking, I nod as much as I'm currently able.
"Y-yeah," I say, voice cracking. "Got it."
"I'll take that as a yes."
May lets go. I land on the bed at a bad angle and fall backwards, hitting the mattress with a soft whumph.
I just lie there for a few seconds, stunned, before a slice of pizza is unceremoniously thrust in front of my face. I blink at it in shock, looking up to see May with another slice in her hand. She takes a bite and lets out a delighted hum.
"Mmm, damn, that's good." May says to herself, even as she annoyedly waggles the pizza in front of my face. "Well? Take the pizza, you shitty flytrap."
I take the pizza. It's still pretty warm, coated in a layer of still-gooey off-white cheese and chunks of maybe-ham.
I look back up at May, but she's gone back to lounging on her chair with eyes glued to the TV. My mouth works up and down for a moment, as I try to find words for...something, before I eventually just slump in defeat.
Part of me is mad at May for threatening me, especially to THAT degree, but…well, I technically set the playing field myself; she just met me on it. Which is on me—I don't know if it was my time in the wilderness or just the natural instincts of this body, but I didn't even second-guess using my trusty new metaphorical hammer on an obstinate nail. Over a damn pizza. Sure, she pissed me off, but that's no excuse for so quickly resorting to literal intimidation tactics. I really shouldn't have let her get under my skin like that…and I definitely need to shove "brute force" a couple ranks down on my go-to list of negotiation methods. Getting too casual with threats is a bad idea for many reasons, not the least of which is that I'd basically never want to actually follow through—at least not for someone I'm not also considering food.
…On that note, I'm tired, hungry, and I have a fist full of bread and cheese. Bon appetit.
Three minutes later, I'm staring down into empty hands, wondering where my slice of heaven went. Damn, May wasn't kidding; that was good pizza.
It's another few minutes before the sound of water goes silent, and another awkwardly long wait before the bathroom door finally opens again. I look over, fully expecting to see Astra wrapped in a towel and a large illusion.
What instead meets my eyes is an absurd amalgamation of what had to be every single towel in the bathroom woven together into a full 'garment', which somehow looks even more ridiculous than the full-body mummy robe.
"Ah, that's better," Astra sighs, grinning at everyone. "Hey May! I see you've met Mawile."
"What in the hell are you wearing?" I ask, staring at Astra in horrified awe. "Did you just pile every towel in there on your head at once?"
"We have got to get you a bathrobe or something," May mutters, seemingly sharing my own thoughts. "Shit's ridiculous. And yeah," she continues, speaking louder, "I met your new 'mon. She's kind of an asshole."
"Takes one to know one," I growl.
Sure, I made that situation worse, but you still started it.
"What?" Astra exclaims, looking between the two of us in surprise. "Why?"
May snorts. "Little miss mouthy over here wanted people food and would not take no for an answer."
She leans back, crossing one leg over the other and folding her arms. "I dunno where the hell you got that thing, but either put her back in her ball or teach her some damn manners, 'cause I'm not gonna be so nice next time I get a face-full of teeth."
'Nice', she says…
Astra stares at May, then turns to look at me, her expression clearly radiating 'what and why the fuck' energy.
I cough, averting my gaze.
"I, uh, may have gotten a bit carried away," I mumble. "Sorry."
"...I see." Astra says after a moment. "Well, I never thought I'd have to, but I'll make sure Mawile learns that threatening to eat people is not okay."
It was one time! And—alright well now it's two, because even if I didn't technically say that it's clearly what I was essentially implying but it's not a pattern god damnit.
I groan and sink my face into a pillow. It's lovely and soft, unlike most hotel pillows I recall encountering in the past—maybe if I smother myself with it, I won't try to nibble Brendan's leg off when he shows up.
Sulking, I turn my attention to what remains of the movie on TV, ignoring Astra's delighted exclamations at her first pizza experience. The climactic final fight finishes up with Ariados-man revealing his identity to Doc-Octillery and convincing him to stop whatever he's doing via self-sacrifice. I'm a bit lost at this point, half because I started watching in the middle and half because May's been a major distraction for the last fourth, but the spectacle is still pretty cool. Sequel bait, finishing quips, and the webbed menace swings off to save the city another day.
Behind me, May grunts before standing up and stretching. "Welp, I guess it's dinner time for the crew."
Astra hums in agreement. "I need to stop at a Pokemart soon; I've nearly run out of food."
"Might need to scrounge up some funds for that myself." May sighs, pulling a large bag of what looked like dog kibble from her bag, along with a big mat and a stack of bowls. "Wasn't expecting to feed so many this quickly."
Ooh, dinner! Good as it was, one slice of pizza isn't really enough to be a full meal.
I sit up and scoot my way off the bed, landing on the floor with a light thump as my horn thwacks the ground behind me. Guess I'm going to be meeting May's pokemon now? I wonder what she has caught…hopefully they have better attitudes than she does.
Astra gives me the side-eye as I stroll up to her.
"If I give you a handful of jerky, will I be getting that hand back?" she asks, dryly.
"I said I was sorry!" I protest, though my heart isn't really in it.
Astra shakes her head. "I'll chalk this one up to a mistake, but try not to do it again, alright?"
I give Astra a small smile, glad that I'm not wholly on the outs. "I'll try to resist the overwhelming temptation of nibbling your fingers."
Astra rolls her eyes and huffs, then gets back to preparing dinner. From what I can see, it's just a handful of berries and a bit of fish jerky in each bowl, but I suppose actually making something with zero prep area is pretty difficult. That big pot on May's bag doesn't look like it's for show, so maybe there'll be stew when we're on the road.
May lays out the rubber mat on the floor and sets down several bowls full of kibble, which are joined shortly thereafter by Astra's berries and jerky, a bowl of which she just hands to me directly.
Ah, Oran…lovely fruit, but I ate so much of it back in that clearing that I think I'm actually done with it for the moment. What about this meat?
Picking out a piece of the jerky, I munch on that instead, humming in delight. This is pretty tasty too, actually! Especially for being dried…I wonder what this is made out of?
"Alright guys, dinner time!" May announces, and my question goes unasked as she and Astra both unleash a barrage of lights from half-a-dozen Pokeballs. Treecko, Marill, and Slakoth materialize in front of me, and waste no time digging into their meals with exclamations of exuberant joy.
On the other half of the mat, I can finally see May's pokemon. There's a Torchic pecking away at the kibble, a Poochyena taking huge, vicious Bites out of his pile, a Lotad who seems to just be gently hoovering the pellets in, and a very annoyed-looking Tentacool, who is…still slowly dragging themself to their bowl. Nothing too unusual, though don't Tentacool and Lotad seem a bit redundant? Wait, no, they just fought Roxanne, so May probably just caught two Water types to deal with the Rock theme.
I consider Tentacool for a moment. I guess that answers how aquatic pokemon work outside of water: they don't. I suppose common sense prevails over game metaphysics in this case, though it looks like they aren't asphyxiating, so there's that much at least. Poor...guy? Gal? Squid. Poor squid.
I finish the bit of jerky and move closer.
"You uh…need some help there?" I ask tentatively, leaning down to meet the Tentacool's eyes better.
They stop schlorping across the carpet for a moment and give me the side-eye. I get the impression that they're quite annoyed to have to even consider accepting.
"Да."
…Okay, guy, definitely guy; wow his voice is deep. Also...what did he just say? 'Yeah'? It at least sounded like he was agreeing, if begrudgingly, so….
I smile."Sure thing!"
It's quick work to squeeze in the empty space and grab the last bowl, and a moment later me and Tentacool are sitting together, munching on jerky and PokePellets. He thanks me with what sounds like some combination of a grunt and an alarmingly baritone popping noise.
I shrug. "No problem."
We eat in companionable silence for a while, listening to the other Pokemon chatting with each other between bites, though for me it mostly just sounds like partly tuned out nonsense. May goes back to lounging on the bed and flipping through the channels, while Astra's gone to drop her roll of cloth off in the laundry…still cosplaying as the abominable towel monster. Regardless, it's nice.
…And then I run out of jerky. I stare glumly down at my bowl, poking at the Oran berries I can't really bring myself to eat right now, then glance over at Tentacool, who doesn't seem to have completely finished his portion yet.
I mean, it's probably a bad idea, right? It'd be like eating dog food…but then again, it's not like I'm outside its target audience anymore, now am I? I can't quite call myself full, and I just don't really want to eat another Oran tonight. The pizza's all gone now, and a quick glance tells me my teammates have long since finished their own jerky.
I look back at my bowl, then glance at Tentacool's again.
...The worst that can happen is that it doesn't taste very good.
"Hey," I say, edging closer to Tentacool. "Can I try some of that? I'm kinda sick of Oran berries right now."
Tentacool peers up at me suspiciously, then clicks his beak and slides his bowl toward me.
"Конечно."
I stare blankly at him.
"...Er, thanks," I manage, swapping our bowls. Tentacool immediately starts chowing down, looking quite pleased with his side of the bargain.
I look down at the little russet pellets. Picking up a small handful, I slowly raise them to my mouth…and hesitate. Am I really going to...?
Well, too late now. I'm already committed.
I open my mouth and pop in a couple of the pellets, squeezing my eyes shut as I chew.
...Huh. It's kinda like dry cereal. Nutty, a bit sour, maybe a bit of meat, maybe if I keep analyzing this I won't think about what Tentacool said—stop, stop it, I don't care, I don't care, I don't care, I care, I care a lot—
WHY IS TENTACOOL SPEAKING RUSSIAN!?
I nearly keel over as I finally process why he sounds so weird, even in comparison to everyone else. I just—I don't—what kind of freaking metaphysics are we even working on here!? Not only do I have to deal with scrambled English, now I have to translate as well!? What kind of garbage—!?
I take a deep breath, exhaling slowly.
Just let it go, me. It's been a long enough day already.
...The pellets aren't terrible, I suppose.
Eventually everyone finishes up, and we all just sort of hang around. Astra comes back with her laundry, such as it is, and by some unspoken agreement everyone, pokemon included, just sort of clambers onto the bed, though Tentacool has to sit in the pot.
"So I was thinking we could rent a movie," May says, flipping to some sort of on-demand service. "There's a new one that just came out, and—"
Astra tilts her head. "A movie?"
I sigh into my pilfered pillow before raising my head, already knowing where this is going.
"Imagine a picture, but it moves and talks and tells you a story," I elaborate for her.
May shoots me a confused glance as Astra's eyes widen.
"O-oh!" she says, quickly taking a moment to process that before rallying and giving May a brilliant smile. "Right! Sure, uh, what were you thinking of?"
"Thanks," she adds in private, nodding at me gratefully.
"Uh…" May hesitates, glancing back at me for a moment before shrugging. "Well, Datney came out with a new one called Treasure Galaxy recently, and—"
I slowly lower my head back into the pillow, face first. Datney? Like, Disney, except Dat? Dis or Dat? What kind of unimaginative—like, Spider Man was one thing, but the whole of Disney? I dearly hope the whole pop culture scene isn't just a knockoff of back home.
I tune back into the conversation, only to hear—
"What do you mean you haven't seen King of the Amulets!?" May exclaims, shocked and appalled.
…To borrow a certain someone's turn of phrase, oh for fuck's sake.
Very groggy today. Humid, warm...fog, inside and out.
For those just joining us: May's a bit of a jerk. Though I supose anyone would be a bit cold to someone who nearly gave them a heart attack.
Good or bad, I hope you had fun reading. No world ending explosions here, only ship-teasing, mortification, and a heavenly fistful of the best tomatocheesebread in Hoenn.
Up next: ...well, as soon as I find out. I'll let you know.
Thanks for reading!
Heavy-Hearted
After spending a week unexpectedly trapped in the wilderness in a wildly different body, sheltering from the elements in a slapdash assortment of rocks and greenery, and finding so little food that you eventually start luring and trapping other Pokemon for a simple meal, you would think that I'd be excited to finally get back to civilization.
You'd be very right, but the anxieties curdling in my gut would also be doing their very best—like no one ever had—to prove you wrong.
The paved concrete of Rustboro's sidewalks feel odd to walk upon, being flatter and rougher than the dirt and grass carpet of the forests, and the buildings tower over me in a way that they haven't since I was a child. Astra walks at my side, the abnormally tall Kirlia leading by a few steps, both to guide me and to impress that she's my trainer to the passerby. So far it seems to be working, though the curious glances from a sea of faces so much taller than me make me feel even smaller than the buildings do.
It's strange how walking through a modern city is so much more alien now, especially with the odd glimpses of other Pokemon casually just...existing. A flash of pink catches my eye, and I glance inside a cafe window to see a Skitty lounging on the sill and a pair of Beautifly happily siphoning something from some cups next to a pair of chatting women. I stare for a moment, the surreality of it all taking me by surprise, then shake my head and turn my attention back to the road ahead, trying to ignore the curious stares of the other pedestrians.
"How much farther to this hotel?" I ask, looking up at Astra.
"Just a few more blocks," Astra answers, smiling back at me. Her tone is a bit echoey, which apparently means nobody but me can hear her. "We're almost there!"
I smile back, but part of me wishes I had just a bit more time to get my thoughts in order—mostly just because of that offhand mention Astra previously made of her traveling companion.
"Yeah, I've been traveling with a human girl called May. She's a bit abrasive but—"
May. From the sounds of it, the version of May from the video games, considering Astra mentioned Brendan, but didn't know about Ash. I don't really know much about the May from that continuity, half because it's just been a while since I played a game set in Hoenn, and half because there's barely anything there to begin with. The game protagonists rarely have any characterization at all, being a vessel for the player to interact with the world more than anything else, and a subtle inquiry revealed that Brendan is Birch's son, so I can't even assume May will act as the 'rival' did.
There's always the anime to draw upon, I suppose, but with the circumstances so wildly different, how much help would that even be? Does May have a brother here? Is she interested in contests? Heck, maybe she's more like her manga counterpart Sapphire and half-feral. Gah, now I wish I'd read that manga. Who knows what throwaway line would help me...would help me...
...Er, what am I trying to do again? Hoenn's apocalypse is mostly just Team Aqua and/or Magma taking over the volcano, stealing the submarine, pilfering the colored orbs off Mt. Pyre, and finally fucking around with their legendary of choice and subsequently 'finding out'. May herself...doesn't really matter? Aside from being in the right place to participate in the story vis-a-vis kicking butt. Even her dad being Petalburg's Gym Leader is irrelevant outside the Gym itself. Heck, even if she was more important, what would it matter? May can't understand me. Unless I go out of my way to make myself known, all I'll likely be to her is a weird Pokemon that Astra picked up outside of town, and if I really need to say something I can probably just poke Astra about it anyway.
I stare blankly at a stoplight as the dawning realization that I've been death spiraling into anxiety over absolutely nothing finally makes itself apparent. To my side, Astra shifts, shooting me a curious glance.
"...You okay?" she asks after a moment.
Damn, she probably noticed all that, didn't she? Let me be embarrassed in peace, you lousy empath!
"Yes," I sigh, rubbing at my face to mask my self-conscious flush. "I'm just being an idiot, don't worry about it."
"About what?" Astra prods, ignoring my request entirely.
I shoot her a glare, but roll my eyes and step out into the street as the crosswalk light turns green. "Just...anxious about meeting your friend, I guess. Then I realized I kind of can't, not really."
"Aw, don't worry!" Astra cheers, putting a hand on my—is she patting my head? "May's great! She was one of my first friends when I started my journey, and even if I've only really known her for a few days I couldn't imagine doing it without her! I'm sure you'll get along fine, even if you can't talk."
Not what I was worried about, but I appreciate the attempt, Astra. The head-pats, not so much. I bat away the offending arm and frown up at her.
"Just because I'm shorter than you doesn't mean you get to pat my head like a kid," I grumble. "As for whether we get along...well, I hope so."
Now that I'm not spinning in circles about it, the prospect of actually meeting May is...pretty cool, to be honest. From a certain point of view, she's kind of like a minor celebrity to me. The closest anyone back home would get to something like this would be...I don't know, meeting her voice actor?
Maybe it'd be like if you got to move in with a movie star before they got famous.
At the cost of being her roommate's dog.
…This metaphor is getting away from me. May aside, I am still rather worried about the looming threat of armageddon—even if the whole thing gets resolved in a relative snap in the games, now that I'm actually in this reality, I can't realistically imagine that a worldwide unnatural disaster won't leave utter chaos and a lot of destruction in its wake, no matter how brief. At the very least, I'd like to know exactly when the shit is going to hit the fan, especially if Astra might wind up directly involved in it. Obviously things are going to take longer than you could play Emerald—or Ruby? Sapphire? Alpha or Omega? May's choice of outfit is suddenly going to be valuable intel—or else Astra would have tried to blast through the whole league in three or four days, but that leaves me without much idea of what kind of timetable we're actually on. Now that causality isn't beholden to the player and the world isn't abstracted for gameplay, I have no idea how long things 'should' take to happen. For instance, Astra just beat Roxanne earlier today, so how much longer are we going to be in Rustboro?
"May booked the room until Thursday," Astra says when I ask. "She wanted to check out the city and, uh, train a bit. We don't know when Brendan is getting here either, so she just signed up for a week."
"Huh..." I reply, surprised. "A whole week? I thought you'd be racing off toward the next gym to get another badge. Which gym are you—er, we going to next, anyway?"
"I don't even know my options yet, so I couldn't say." Astra sighed, glaring at yet another streetlight we'd gotten held up by. Apparently the city had decided to stall us out as long as physically possible, for some reason. "I didn't even realize May had booked the room for that long until afterward. I guess I don't mind too much; I got invited to attend a class that Roxanne's teaching on Monday, and I did want to see more of the city, but that's just three, maybe four days. I have time, but getting carried away is a bit dangerous."
"Because your home would get discovered, right?"
"Yeah. We think I have about six months before that happens, though." A fond smile crossed Astra's face. "I was going to go as fast as I could, but a very kind man in Petalburg reminded me that my journey isn't just about finishing it. I want to see Hoenn for myself, too, and all the weird and wonderful things humans have made."
I nod. "I can get behind that."
The destination is important, to be sure, but you don't win a marathon by sprinting. If every day was like today, I've no doubt we'd crash and burn before the month was out.
"I'll make sure to point you at the cool stuff," I add.
Astra grins. "I look forward to it!"
Six months, huh…? I'm not sure if that's too long or unreasonably short. Outside the confines of a game, is skyrocketing to the peak of a national sport from zilch remotely feasible? Well, I suppose feasibility doesn't matter; if she doesn't get that good fast, both her home and the world are in for an unpleasant time of things.
…Well, unless I change something? There's no reason why Aqua and/or Magma have to succeed, and if they never lay hands on the Red and Blue orbs, then they can't awaken the Weather Trio or cause a planet-spanning cataclysm. I doubt there's much I can do about it directly, but I've got more than enough information to help Astra short circuit their plans if we manage to be in the right places at the right times, and if so, then maybe this adventure can just be a relatively peaceful jaunt to save Astra's village from...well, whatever happens when an intelligent pokemon village gets discovered. Poaching, most likely.
...Now that I think of it, that could go much quicker if Astra had an edge. I dunno where we'd get a Master ball, but the Regi trio should just be hibernating in caves around the region, right? Maybe I could pretend I read about it in a book somewhere, or...
Gah, this whole thing would be so much easier if I didn't have to skirt around the whole 'you're fictional!' thing. Do I even have to? I only hid the truth initially because it was confusing, and being stranded in a forest is no place for an existential collapse. Heck, I don't even know if it's true anymore; I'm certainly not fictional, and neither is Astra, so maybe it's just some sort of multiverse bleedover thing. Now that we're back in civilization, maybe I should just take some time and figure out how to explain—
"We're here!" Astra cheers, jolting me out of my thoughts.
I blink, finding myself suddenly standing in a lobby. Wait, did I manage to get so lost in thought that I just blindly walked into a building? I really need to pay more attention in that case; that could have just as easily been the street.
Shaking myself, I take a quick look around. The hotel seems fairly nice, at least as far as I can tell from its lobby. Well lit, a bit of art on the walls, non-plastic potted plants, and I think I can see some sort of dining hall through a set of doors nearby. It's not rich fancy, but a solid 4/5 is nothing to scoff at.
"Very nice," I say, nodding as I look back over at the dining hall. "Do they serve food here?"
"Yeah, but only in the morning," Astra replies, heading towards the stairs. "C'mon, let's get to the room."
"Not the elevator?"
Astra laughs a little, scratching her cheek awkwardly. "Elevators make me nauseous."
I shrug. Fair enough, I suppose. It's not like she's had much time to get used to them, and if she doesn't want to, who am I to object?
Following Astra into the stairwell, I immediately encounter a problem—namely, the stairs are way too tall for my stubby little legs. Each step is right around where my hip is now, so I'm forced to treat each individual stair as its own waist-high obstacle by awkwardly sliding myself onto the narrow surface, standing up again, and repeating—a process very much hampered by the massive counterweight on the back of my head.
By the third step I'm already sick of the whole thing. By the fifth step, Astra's already made it up to the next landing, and I'm just staring at the dozens of steps left before I can catch up, an odd tightness encompassing my chest.
Astra looks down at me and hesitates, shuffling awkwardly.
"Um…do you need some help?" she asks.
The question is earnest and innocent, in the abstract—Astra didn't foresee the trouble I'm currently having, so she's simply offering to lend some assistance. However, that nuance is rather lost on me in favor of my sheer, desperate outrage about being asked that about climbing some crappy stairs, to the point I barely manage to stop myself from leveling a full-force glare at her for it.
"They're just stairs!" I hiss, hefting myself up another step. "I don't—I can do this!"
Steps fly by in a blurred haze, my indignation lending me a new surge of determination—but even this starts to flag not even halfway up, and I find myself slowing down again. I'm not even tired, but somehow I can't find it in myself to carry on. I blink rapidly, rubbing my eyes and finding spots on my hands.
…Why are my eyes wet? There's no reason to cry about something stupid like this... I'm back in civilization, I have food and shelter again, I've gained direction and purpose, and I've even made some new friends! There's no reason something as trivially stupid as being unable to climb up some stupid fucking stairs should...should...
Purple sparks flicker into existence, and I gasp as I'm suddenly lifted into the air, a violet haze surrounding my body.
"Wha—what!?" I sputter, flailing around in shock for a moment before my gaze snaps up toward Astra. The psychic has a hand lifted, which is emanating a matching purple glow. "What are you—!?"
"Helping out," Astra replies, waving me up the last dozen steps. She brings me to a stop next to her and the Psychic aura fades. "I'm not just going to leave you behind, you know?"
There's a lot of things I could say in response to what just happened. I choose the easiest one.
"...Thanks," I mutter, looking away.
I'll just…try and put that behind me, I suppose. Although…
I turn to the next set of stairs, leading up to the second floor, and end up simply staring at them for a moment.
"Astra?" I ask quietly. "What floor are you on?"
"Fifth."
"I… see..."
The incessant drone of the hotel's fluorescent lights buzzes in my ears as I try to gather my thoughts. Astra probably isn't going to float me up them all, is she? It'd be a problem if someone else walked in, after all… is climbing the only way then? I already feel drained just from the thought of it, but what's the alternative, have Astra get sick in the elevator? I guess I could maybe go up in one myself and meet back up with Astra on the top floor, but if anyone else enters the elevator on the way up or happens to see me on my lonesome, they'll probably just assume I'm a stray that happened to wander into—eh!?
For the second time in the past minute, I find myself being lifted into the air. This time there's no telekinesis involved though—Astra's just straight up picked me up off the floor like a housecat.
"Hey!" I exclaim, wriggling in her grasp. "What are you doing!?"
"Getting us up the stairs," Astra grunts, shifting me around. "Hold still, you're heavy."
I suddenly find myself being cradled in the crook of her arm in a sort of princess-carry, with my horn hanging off her shoulder like a giant, toothy tumor.
"Uh," I say intelligently, too mind-flooded for words.
"See?" Astra says, smiling down at me as she starts the long ascent. "It's fine!"
I cannot believe this is happening to me. "I guess!?"
The matter evidently settled in her mind, Astra starts making her way up the stairs with me in her arms. She's slower than she'd been by herself, but it's still much faster than me on my own. I've never been carried like this before—or at least, not for a very long time, and certainly not by someone I'd just met. Despite there being no one else around, this feels…highly embarrassing…
Flushing, I stare down at the floor, mostly just to stave off whatever assuredly cheerful reassurances Astra might otherwise send my way…though honestly, slightly-mortifying position aside, this is comfier than I would have expected it to be. It's sort of like being in an oddly warm, slightly out-of-breath hammock. Very cozy.
…I am not going to fall asleep in someone's arms, damnit!
"Hey," Astra says, budging me out of my thoughts. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," I mumble, keeping my eyes down.
"Oh, that's good," she replies, only to pause and continue a moment later "You seemed to take your trouble with the stairs pretty hard. Is it alright if I ask...?"
She trails off. We climb another flight in silence, and I sigh. If I'm gonna try to not hide stuff from her, I guess something dumb like this would be a good start.
"I've...never been anywhere where I couldn't climb a floor just as easily as you can," I explain, struggling to work around the information barrier. "When I was back home, a lot of things were more...accessible. Here though, they're obviously not—even if I'm back in civilization, things are still wrong. And they never won't be wrong unless I make it back for real."
I fold my arms and look away. "I guess having trouble with something as basic as that just...really brought it into focus."
"I think I get it," Astra replies, subdued. Her arms squeeze me closer for a moment. "Even when you're 'safe', things are still so different, and it's frustrating. Do you know what one of the first things I noticed when I stayed in a city for the first time?"
"Hmm?" I look up at Astra, blinking. "What?"
"There aren't any stars," she replies, looking sadly at the ceiling. "When it got dark out, I walked outside and it was like someone had thrown the sky into a void. I couldn't see the great starclouds or anything. There were still some, but so much had gone that it just felt wholly black. I wondered how anyone could possibly live like that, without ever seeing the night sky like I'd had all my life."
"It was the first time I really felt how far I was from home. I spent all night looking out the window and wondering what my grandpa would think of it all. And in the morning I had to wrap myself back up in this cloth and pick things up with my hands and pretend I can't do a lot of the stuff I can just because so many things would go so badly if I did."
"I love exploring the human world," Astra says, looking back down at me. "The food is great, the people are friendly, and I've learned so much! But part of me wishes I could just go back home, take off this robe and face, pick up a fresh stick of Magikarp from a hundred feet away, and look at the stars with my Grandpa."
We reach the top of the stairwell, and Astra kneels down, smiling at me as she gently sets me on the floor. "It's going to get easier, I think. Especially since we have each other now. I'm happy that I have someone to talk to about these things, and if you ever have a problem with something, you can come talk to me too, alright? Even if it's just a flight of stairs."
For the third time in as many minutes, I find myself floored. This is...way too much genuine empathy for me to deal with. Part of me hysterically notes that this is the third friendship speech I've gotten in the twelve hours since I've met someone I could talk to, which is both on-brand and absolutely ridiculous to experience first-hand.
"Thanks, Astra," I say, because despite the corniness, I also really appreciate the effort. It's not often you meet someone who really does understand what you're going through. "You're a good friend."
Astra grins at me, then heads for the door. I follow along and try to squash that small part of me that wishes she'd waited until we'd actually gotten to the room to put me down.
...It was nice, okay!?
Soon enough, we find ourselves in the hotel room. It's decently spacious, with a single large bed in the middle facing a TV hanging from the opposite wall, a plush armchair in the back corner, and a big round table with a couple wooden chairs nearer to the door. A window takes up the back wall, and there's another door to what I assume is the bathroom off to the side.
There's also a big honkin' backpack laid against the wall next to the bed, with the anime classic bedroll set on top, and a collection of random cookware strapped on the back.
"Is that May's?" I ask, peering at the luggage.
With the kitchenware pot strapped on, it looks more like something Brock would be carrying around, to be honest. Does this May cook?
"Yeah," Astra replies, setting her own much smaller pack down next to it. "I guess she's not back yet. Gives me an opportunity to use the shower, at least. Wait, any surprises...?"
She pauses to concentrate for a moment, then smiles. "Oh good, nobody's around."
With that, Astra drops the illusion, her human face fading into her much more exaggerated natural Kirlia features. She promptly pulls off her sunhat, and her robe briefly glows purple before seeming to puff out and just fall to the ground around her.
"Ahh, it's always nice to get out of that thing," she sighs, stretching out in a few quick, graceful poses. "It was fine when I was a Ralts, but it's a bit harder to manage now that I'm so much taller."
"Didn't plan that far ahead?" I ask, frowning at her clothes. There's something odd about it, but I can't seem to put my finger on what.
"Didn't have any choice, actually," Astra replies, heading toward the bathroom. "This is the only human cloth we had, so I had to make do. Can you—well, I guess you can't put it in the wash. Nevermind, I'll get it after I'm done."
She steps inside, and the muffled sound of running water follows soon after. I shake my head, poking at the outfit she'd left behind. Is this really the only piece of clothing she owns? Jeez, that must've been hard to explain to May. How is this thing even put together? There's a lot of edges here that don't seem to connect, and—
I pick it up, and it falls apart in my hands. I look down at what I now clearly see is a whole, uncut swathe of black linen cloth.
...Has she just been walking around like a goddamn mummy? There's nothing else here! No underwear or—wait, no socks? No shoes? Has she been running around barefoot all this time?
"Astra, how the heck haven't you been found out already…?" I mutter, amazed that she's lasted this long with such bizarre attire. Does she just not change on the road? She must have an absolute swathe of blisters on her feet too. I'm no fashion expert myself, but first chance I get I'm dragging that girl to the nearest department store, because wow does she need some serious help if she wants this facade to last longer than it takes for someone to ask what her shoe size is.
I wad the thing up and drop it off by Astra's pack, then huff and look around the room again. Not much to do in here, to be honest…might as well just relax and see what's on Poke-TV, I suppose.
Hauling myself onto the bed with the aid of a nearby chair and a fistful of bedsheets, I grab the remote from the small table on the opposite side, flick the TV on, and start browsing through channels. Let's see here…
*click*
Pokemon battle. Eh, next.
*click*
Documentary about Empoleon. Hmm...maybe later.
*click*
Another Pokemon battle. I get the feeling there's gonna be a lot of these. Next!
*click*
Spider-man.
…Spider-man?
I blink and rub my eyes, but it doesn't go away. Yep, that's Spider-man alright. Or...Ariados-man? Maybe? Doesn't roll off the tongue as well. He looks the same at least, though—yep, he's got a giant red spider-friend. Holy crap, Poke-verse Spider-man.
…Annnnnd there's Doc-Octillery. Alright, I'm sold, where's my popcorn? Also, holy crap, the CGI on this is insane. Is it even CGI? Pokemon can actually just spit fire and their ability to follow commands is pretty well documented, so maybe they had the Octillery literally just shoot the actor on cue. Man, the hazard pay must be intense.
I'm so engrossed in the alternate universe cinema that I don't even hear the door opening.
"Astra?" a voice calls.
I jolt upright, looking over to see a very familiar teenager in red backing into the room.
"That you? I stopped by The Gouda-father's and got us a—the fuck is that!?"
May—because that's who it is, I'd recognize that red bandanna anywhere—takes one look at me and jumps nearly half a foot in the air, only barely keeping the pizza box in her hands from flying free.
I share her shock, but for an entirely different reason. Did she just curse at me? What the heck, this is a PG setting at most! Also, rude!
"Nice to meet you too," I shoot back, crossing my arms. "Some of that better be for me."
May just stares at me from the doorway. "Uh…"
Her eyes dart from me, to the still-audible shower, to Astra's backpack. Seeming to come to a conclusion, she relaxes slightly.
"Fuck's sake," she mutters, and yet again I'm surprised at the swearing. I thought it was just a knee-jerk reaction; does she just casually belt those out on the regular?
"Hey Astra!" May yells, pausing briefly to set the pizza on the table before strolling up to the bathroom and pounding on the door. "Is this thing yours?"
"Thing!?" I sputter, offended.
"May!?" Astra also sputters from the bathroom, surprised. "Oh—uh, do you mean Mawile? Yeah, she's with me!"
"Why the hell isn't she in her ball?" May demands, glaring at the door. "I almost dropped the pizza!"
"The what? Uh, look, she just prefers being outside, alright? Don't worry, she's nice!"
"Nice isn't what I'm—ugh, just, finish your damn shower," May mutters, giving up on the conversation.
She looks over at me again, the disgruntled expression never leaving her face as her eyes flicker over my body, my horns, and then finally meeting my gaze. I look right back, raising an eyebrow.
"Anyways… hi," I say, waving my hand. "Nice to meet you, for real this time. I'm…well, just Mawile now, I suppose."
Bizarre abundance of cursing aside, I guess it's fair that she'd be startled to walk into her room only to find an unexpected pokemon like me sitting on her bed. Best try to get off on a positive note.
May squints at me, then shakes her head and sighs.
"Bet she didn't even make you wipe your feet off before you climbed up there, did she?" she grumbles, completely ignoring my statement as she swings one of the chairs at the table out and sits down, back against the wall. "Could've at least sent a text, damnit. What even—did she put the tv on?"
May blinks at the movie still playing in the background. "Huh..."
She glances at me for a moment, then considers the film again, before shrugging and leaning back in her seat, apparently intent on watching it.
"...Hello?" I ask, after a couple seconds of May just sitting there.
May turns to me and raises a single eyebrow. "What?"
I give her a slightly incredulous look. "You could at least introduce yourself, you know!"
Seriously! I know she can't understand me, but I'd assume it's pretty well known that Pokemon can understand people, so you'd think she'd at least say something back,even if it was just 'Hi, please don't bother me.' or the like. It's just basic courtesy!
"Are you hungry or something?" May questions, frowning. "Thirsty? Can't exactly use the sink so you'll have to wait on that one. Tch, woulda thought she'd give you some berries or something."
I stare at May as she mutters to herself, a sour feeling buzzing in my stomach with every word. I understand that I'm basically this world's equivalent of an animal now, but this is even less pleasant than I'd expected. Astra is seriously traveling with this girl?
"I actually ate half a jar of berries earlier," I answer, not that I expect she'll comprehend a word of it. "But I was stuck in the woods for nearly a week, so if you don't mind, I would really appreciate a slice or two of that."
I point at the pizza box. May catches on instantly and scowls.
"Oh no way in hell," she says, pulling the pizza box close. "I don't know what the fuck you eat, and I don't wanna deal with a mess if you're lactose intolerant or some bullshit."
I scowl right back, then pause. She…might actually have a point there. I'm not certain what tolerances a Mawile has for certain foods—for all I know, a bit of cheese could send me running to the bathroom within minutes.
…On the other jaw, I have had, to put it very lightly, one hell of a week, and have had neither hot nor human food even once in that span of time. Allergies be damned, I'm getting a slice of pizza.
"Don't care, gimme." I say, walking over to the edge of the bed and reaching out for the box.
"Oi," May growls, looking annoyed. "What part of 'no' don't you get? Look, just wait till Astra gets out and she can feed you with the rest of her team later, this is for me and her!"
My eyes narrow. Apparently in addition to being much crasser than her anime counterpart, this version of May is also incredibly stubborn…maybe it's time for a different tactic then. I've not had the chance to try it out before, what with being stuck in the woods without any people around since ending up like this, but Mawile are known for their cuteness as much as they are their teeth. Time to see if I can use that to my advantage…
I look straight at May and clasp my hands in front of my face, hitting her with the biggest, teariest puppy-dog eyes this side of a Suicune.
"Pleeeeease…?" I ask in a begging whine, trying to play on her sense of guilt—
May lets out a snerk, then bursts out laughing.
"Pff hahahaHAHA—what the hell is that?" she chuckles, slapping the table in mirth. "Oh man, that's great! Wish I had my 'dex out for a picture."
She grins at me, my begging pose having long been exchanged for one of embarrassed outrage. "Heh, I caught a Poochyena ages ago; you're way too late if you think puppy-dog eyes'll work on me."
My hands clench at my sides, and I can feel heat rushing to my cheeks at May's heckling. All right, I've had enough of this. If she's really so set on acting like a jackass, I'm gonna treat her like one.
Silently, I raise my horn above my head, the two halves splitting apart to show twin rows of gleaming white teeth inside the cavernous maw that gives my species their name. I make a show of it, twitching my second mouth as if it's raring to bite down, smirking, and letting loose a small Astonish just to make my eyes glow red.
"I repeat…" I say, now speaking in a low, menacing tone. "Please."
Contrary to my expectations, May doesn't get spooked, jump, or even flinch back. Instead, there's only a brief blink of surprise, before her eyes narrow and her body tenses. We hang there for a second, the air thick as soup, before May finally breaks eye contact and sighs.
"Fuck's sake, fine." she scowls, opening the box. "Dunno where the hell Astra got a brat like you, but she can deal with the mess. Here."
She turns, proffering a slice of the pizza. "Come get it."
I cut off Astonish, lower my maw, and let my smirk fall back into a regular smile. Finally! Sheesh, did she really have to be so difficult about this?
I crawl forward over the bed, reaching out for the cheesy goodness. Is that ham? God, after so much fruit and viscera, I don't even have words for how much I'm looking forward to—
May's other hand snaps out and grabs hold of the tube connecting my horns to my head. Pain explodes in my scalp as she yanks, pulling me right off the bed and holding me aloft in the air.
"Ack!!! What the—!?" I cry out, thrashing in her grip as my horns are suddenly tasked with holding aloft the entire rest of my body. They clamp and clatter uselessly above me, unable to move properly with the tube attached to them stretched taut. "Ow, ow ow ow! Let GO!"
"Hey."
I pause, May's cold, flat tone piercing through my haze of panic. She stares at me, her eerily calm face inches from my own. A smile crosses her features, but nobody would call it a happy one.
"Do that again, and the only thing you'll eat is the pavement outside that window," she says. "Got it?"
My eyes go wide. Is—is she threatening to...?
Shaking, I nod as much as I'm currently able.
"Y-yeah," I say, voice cracking. "Got it."
"I'll take that as a yes."
May lets go. I land on the bed at a bad angle and fall backwards, hitting the mattress with a soft whumph.
I just lie there for a few seconds, stunned, before a slice of pizza is unceremoniously thrust in front of my face. I blink at it in shock, looking up to see May with another slice in her hand. She takes a bite and lets out a delighted hum.
"Mmm, damn, that's good." May says to herself, even as she annoyedly waggles the pizza in front of my face. "Well? Take the pizza, you shitty flytrap."
I take the pizza. It's still pretty warm, coated in a layer of still-gooey off-white cheese and chunks of maybe-ham.
I look back up at May, but she's gone back to lounging on her chair with eyes glued to the TV. My mouth works up and down for a moment, as I try to find words for...something, before I eventually just slump in defeat.
Part of me is mad at May for threatening me, especially to THAT degree, but…well, I technically set the playing field myself; she just met me on it. Which is on me—I don't know if it was my time in the wilderness or just the natural instincts of this body, but I didn't even second-guess using my trusty new metaphorical hammer on an obstinate nail. Over a damn pizza. Sure, she pissed me off, but that's no excuse for so quickly resorting to literal intimidation tactics. I really shouldn't have let her get under my skin like that…and I definitely need to shove "brute force" a couple ranks down on my go-to list of negotiation methods. Getting too casual with threats is a bad idea for many reasons, not the least of which is that I'd basically never want to actually follow through—at least not for someone I'm not also considering food.
…On that note, I'm tired, hungry, and I have a fist full of bread and cheese. Bon appetit.
Three minutes later, I'm staring down into empty hands, wondering where my slice of heaven went. Damn, May wasn't kidding; that was good pizza.
It's another few minutes before the sound of water goes silent, and another awkwardly long wait before the bathroom door finally opens again. I look over, fully expecting to see Astra wrapped in a towel and a large illusion.
What instead meets my eyes is an absurd amalgamation of what had to be every single towel in the bathroom woven together into a full 'garment', which somehow looks even more ridiculous than the full-body mummy robe.
"Ah, that's better," Astra sighs, grinning at everyone. "Hey May! I see you've met Mawile."
"What in the hell are you wearing?" I ask, staring at Astra in horrified awe. "Did you just pile every towel in there on your head at once?"
"We have got to get you a bathrobe or something," May mutters, seemingly sharing my own thoughts. "Shit's ridiculous. And yeah," she continues, speaking louder, "I met your new 'mon. She's kind of an asshole."
"Takes one to know one," I growl.
Sure, I made that situation worse, but you still started it.
"What?" Astra exclaims, looking between the two of us in surprise. "Why?"
May snorts. "Little miss mouthy over here wanted people food and would not take no for an answer."
She leans back, crossing one leg over the other and folding her arms. "I dunno where the hell you got that thing, but either put her back in her ball or teach her some damn manners, 'cause I'm not gonna be so nice next time I get a face-full of teeth."
'Nice', she says…
Astra stares at May, then turns to look at me, her expression clearly radiating 'what and why the fuck' energy.
I cough, averting my gaze.
"I, uh, may have gotten a bit carried away," I mumble. "Sorry."
"...I see." Astra says after a moment. "Well, I never thought I'd have to, but I'll make sure Mawile learns that threatening to eat people is not okay."
It was one time! And—alright well now it's two, because even if I didn't technically say that it's clearly what I was essentially implying but it's not a pattern god damnit.
I groan and sink my face into a pillow. It's lovely and soft, unlike most hotel pillows I recall encountering in the past—maybe if I smother myself with it, I won't try to nibble Brendan's leg off when he shows up.
Sulking, I turn my attention to what remains of the movie on TV, ignoring Astra's delighted exclamations at her first pizza experience. The climactic final fight finishes up with Ariados-man revealing his identity to Doc-Octillery and convincing him to stop whatever he's doing via self-sacrifice. I'm a bit lost at this point, half because I started watching in the middle and half because May's been a major distraction for the last fourth, but the spectacle is still pretty cool. Sequel bait, finishing quips, and the webbed menace swings off to save the city another day.
Behind me, May grunts before standing up and stretching. "Welp, I guess it's dinner time for the crew."
Astra hums in agreement. "I need to stop at a Pokemart soon; I've nearly run out of food."
"Might need to scrounge up some funds for that myself." May sighs, pulling a large bag of what looked like dog kibble from her bag, along with a big mat and a stack of bowls. "Wasn't expecting to feed so many this quickly."
Ooh, dinner! Good as it was, one slice of pizza isn't really enough to be a full meal.
I sit up and scoot my way off the bed, landing on the floor with a light thump as my horn thwacks the ground behind me. Guess I'm going to be meeting May's pokemon now? I wonder what she has caught…hopefully they have better attitudes than she does.
Astra gives me the side-eye as I stroll up to her.
"If I give you a handful of jerky, will I be getting that hand back?" she asks, dryly.
"I said I was sorry!" I protest, though my heart isn't really in it.
Astra shakes her head. "I'll chalk this one up to a mistake, but try not to do it again, alright?"
I give Astra a small smile, glad that I'm not wholly on the outs. "I'll try to resist the overwhelming temptation of nibbling your fingers."
Astra rolls her eyes and huffs, then gets back to preparing dinner. From what I can see, it's just a handful of berries and a bit of fish jerky in each bowl, but I suppose actually making something with zero prep area is pretty difficult. That big pot on May's bag doesn't look like it's for show, so maybe there'll be stew when we're on the road.
May lays out the rubber mat on the floor and sets down several bowls full of kibble, which are joined shortly thereafter by Astra's berries and jerky, a bowl of which she just hands to me directly.
Ah, Oran…lovely fruit, but I ate so much of it back in that clearing that I think I'm actually done with it for the moment. What about this meat?
Picking out a piece of the jerky, I munch on that instead, humming in delight. This is pretty tasty too, actually! Especially for being dried…I wonder what this is made out of?
"Alright guys, dinner time!" May announces, and my question goes unasked as she and Astra both unleash a barrage of lights from half-a-dozen Pokeballs. Treecko, Marill, and Slakoth materialize in front of me, and waste no time digging into their meals with exclamations of exuberant joy.
On the other half of the mat, I can finally see May's pokemon. There's a Torchic pecking away at the kibble, a Poochyena taking huge, vicious Bites out of his pile, a Lotad who seems to just be gently hoovering the pellets in, and a very annoyed-looking Tentacool, who is…still slowly dragging themself to their bowl. Nothing too unusual, though don't Tentacool and Lotad seem a bit redundant? Wait, no, they just fought Roxanne, so May probably just caught two Water types to deal with the Rock theme.
I consider Tentacool for a moment. I guess that answers how aquatic pokemon work outside of water: they don't. I suppose common sense prevails over game metaphysics in this case, though it looks like they aren't asphyxiating, so there's that much at least. Poor...guy? Gal? Squid. Poor squid.
I finish the bit of jerky and move closer.
"You uh…need some help there?" I ask tentatively, leaning down to meet the Tentacool's eyes better.
They stop schlorping across the carpet for a moment and give me the side-eye. I get the impression that they're quite annoyed to have to even consider accepting.
"Да."
…Okay, guy, definitely guy; wow his voice is deep. Also...what did he just say? 'Yeah'? It at least sounded like he was agreeing, if begrudgingly, so….
I smile."Sure thing!"
It's quick work to squeeze in the empty space and grab the last bowl, and a moment later me and Tentacool are sitting together, munching on jerky and PokePellets. He thanks me with what sounds like some combination of a grunt and an alarmingly baritone popping noise.
I shrug. "No problem."
We eat in companionable silence for a while, listening to the other Pokemon chatting with each other between bites, though for me it mostly just sounds like partly tuned out nonsense. May goes back to lounging on the bed and flipping through the channels, while Astra's gone to drop her roll of cloth off in the laundry…still cosplaying as the abominable towel monster. Regardless, it's nice.
…And then I run out of jerky. I stare glumly down at my bowl, poking at the Oran berries I can't really bring myself to eat right now, then glance over at Tentacool, who doesn't seem to have completely finished his portion yet.
I mean, it's probably a bad idea, right? It'd be like eating dog food…but then again, it's not like I'm outside its target audience anymore, now am I? I can't quite call myself full, and I just don't really want to eat another Oran tonight. The pizza's all gone now, and a quick glance tells me my teammates have long since finished their own jerky.
I look back at my bowl, then glance at Tentacool's again.
...The worst that can happen is that it doesn't taste very good.
"Hey," I say, edging closer to Tentacool. "Can I try some of that? I'm kinda sick of Oran berries right now."
Tentacool peers up at me suspiciously, then clicks his beak and slides his bowl toward me.
"Конечно."
I stare blankly at him.
"...Er, thanks," I manage, swapping our bowls. Tentacool immediately starts chowing down, looking quite pleased with his side of the bargain.
I look down at the little russet pellets. Picking up a small handful, I slowly raise them to my mouth…and hesitate. Am I really going to...?
Well, too late now. I'm already committed.
I open my mouth and pop in a couple of the pellets, squeezing my eyes shut as I chew.
...Huh. It's kinda like dry cereal. Nutty, a bit sour, maybe a bit of meat, maybe if I keep analyzing this I won't think about what Tentacool said—stop, stop it, I don't care, I don't care, I don't care, I care, I care a lot—
WHY IS TENTACOOL SPEAKING RUSSIAN!?
I nearly keel over as I finally process why he sounds so weird, even in comparison to everyone else. I just—I don't—what kind of freaking metaphysics are we even working on here!? Not only do I have to deal with scrambled English, now I have to translate as well!? What kind of garbage—!?
I take a deep breath, exhaling slowly.
Just let it go, me. It's been a long enough day already.
...The pellets aren't terrible, I suppose.
Eventually everyone finishes up, and we all just sort of hang around. Astra comes back with her laundry, such as it is, and by some unspoken agreement everyone, pokemon included, just sort of clambers onto the bed, though Tentacool has to sit in the pot.
"So I was thinking we could rent a movie," May says, flipping to some sort of on-demand service. "There's a new one that just came out, and—"
Astra tilts her head. "A movie?"
I sigh into my pilfered pillow before raising my head, already knowing where this is going.
"Imagine a picture, but it moves and talks and tells you a story," I elaborate for her.
May shoots me a confused glance as Astra's eyes widen.
"O-oh!" she says, quickly taking a moment to process that before rallying and giving May a brilliant smile. "Right! Sure, uh, what were you thinking of?"
"Thanks," she adds in private, nodding at me gratefully.
"Uh…" May hesitates, glancing back at me for a moment before shrugging. "Well, Datney came out with a new one called Treasure Galaxy recently, and—"
I slowly lower my head back into the pillow, face first. Datney? Like, Disney, except Dat? Dis or Dat? What kind of unimaginative—like, Spider Man was one thing, but the whole of Disney? I dearly hope the whole pop culture scene isn't just a knockoff of back home.
I tune back into the conversation, only to hear—
"What do you mean you haven't seen King of the Amulets!?" May exclaims, shocked and appalled.
…To borrow a certain someone's turn of phrase, oh for fuck's sake.
Very groggy today. Humid, warm...fog, inside and out.
For those just joining us: May's a bit of a jerk. Though I supose anyone would be a bit cold to someone who nearly gave them a heart attack.
Good or bad, I hope you had fun reading. No world ending explosions here, only ship-teasing, mortification, and a heavenly fistful of the best tomatocheesebread in Hoenn.
Up next: ...well, as soon as I find out. I'll let you know.
Thanks for reading!
Ah yes, the classic Pokémon Movie with the Alakazam that plays Gandalf. It was a good movie.
Jamie Roberts
Hávamál 127
- Location
- N/A
- Pronouns
- she/her
~The An-cient Lore! Oh-o-o-oh!~
~Miskatonic, Mis-ka-to-nic!
Paranoid, Perilous, Miskatonic!~
No I will not stop doing this every time somebody mentions Astra's creepy Kraata-Orb.
Yeah, its probably fine!
Super normal, Astra!
"Do not be too proud of this weird Lotus Eater Machine you have constructed. The ability to antagonize an ambush predator indefinitely is nothing compared to the Power of the Force."
How convenient and not-at-all sus!
"The Death Blast is coming, children! But don't worry, we'll survive it if we all hide under this picnic-blanket!"
Grandpa: "Anyone who startles my Granddaughter deserves to have their bones chewed by Nyarlathotep until the end of fucking time."
Mawile: "Cool, cool. Do you accept constructive criticism?"
Grandpa: "Absolutely not."
After rereading everything, including Backslash, I have to say that it is still an amazing read. I hope that a chapter for ANY of your stories comes out soon, because I'm running myself dry searching through the newer ones. Your a great writer (you too Dermonster) and I love the way you extrapolate the world you write about. Have a great day!
Edit: Sorry to anyone who thought this was a chapter post.
Edit: Sorry to anyone who thought this was a chapter post.
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Oh yes, definitely! The twitching isn't that bad yet, but flairfiction always brings relief...
I do wonder if steel-type musculature can be "trained" conventionally. Actually, now that I think on it, I cannot quickly recall any body morphism in pokemon. Can they just not build muscle? If a pokemon lifts in the woods, are there really gains? I mean, I suppose one can probably train physical attack and the likes, but are those any use when not specifically using attacks?
Twould be sad indeed were Flair to do all this hiking, yet see no development of her silly little leggies.
I do wonder if steel-type musculature can be "trained" conventionally. Actually, now that I think on it, I cannot quickly recall any body morphism in pokemon. Can they just not build muscle? If a pokemon lifts in the woods, are there really gains? I mean, I suppose one can probably train physical attack and the likes, but are those any use when not specifically using attacks?
Twould be sad indeed were Flair to do all this hiking, yet see no development of her silly little leggies.
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Burned_Cookie
Very tired girl.
- Location
- Plato´s cave.
- Pronouns
- She/Her/It/Its
I mean I'd assume they can grow stronger, the anime had plenty of pokemon that where stronger than others of their kind.
That they don't really have physical muscle buildup visible is probably a cost saving measure combined with the marketing want of avoiding swole pikachu
That they don't really have physical muscle buildup visible is probably a cost saving measure combined with the marketing want of avoiding swole pikachu
Pikachu used to be really fat, so that means that Pokémon can at least lose weight. There are literal bodybuilder Pokémon too, so if they can't build muscle, wouldn't they just be depressed? To be fair, I find the imagery of a Machoke curled into a ball next to a 10 pound dumbbell extremely funnyThat they don't really have physical muscle buildup visible is probably a cost saving measure combined with the marketing want of avoiding swole pikachu
Yeah, this is the problem to me. If one takes a fresh new machoke just starting its first ever lift, and a level 100 monstrous brute of a machoke whose points all went into physical attack or health or whatever who professionally clears snorlax-blocked pathway using the pure power of Lift, and places them side-by-side, how does one determine which has the gains? And these are body-builder pokemon, so building their body is specifically the whole point. If they don't get visible gains then they should be violating the bodybuilder ethos.
AnimalKrazed
Caw Caw!
- Location
- Above You
I imagine in that case, it might be a matter of muscle density rather than just visible gains. The level one hundred Machoke probably has larger muscles sure, but I think that the difference might be in how compact the muscles are. You poke and prod the muscles of the young Machoke and there will be some slight organic give that you can feel just as you would on a human bodylifter. On the level one hundred Machoke, in order to get that same organic give one needs to use a specialized machine or something because human strength is not going to be enough.
- Location
- Here
Media other than the games have shown plenty of natural variation within species - even in the games, there's usually an individual's height and weight, though often only relevant or checkable via one particular NPC looking for e.g. an especially large Magikarp or something like that. The anime and manga, meanwhile, have differences in coloration, patterns, fur length (a small longer tuft on the head is common), etc fairly often when two or more individuals of a species are relevant non-background characters simultaneously. At least from the little I remember.
- Location
- USA
I remember that being the case two at least for a few of them. It's sometimes hard to notice those details unless you can compare individuals side by side in the show.
Being honest it took me years to realize that Ash's Noctowl was a shiny Pokémon or even that it's only half the size it should be. Only realized the size thing when I was looking at its Pokédex entry and noted that it was a lot bigger than I remember the one from the show being.
Chapter 17: This Close To Snapping
Flairina
Least Omnipotent Goddess
- Location
- The next infinity over
Hard. It can be extremely, exceedingly, excruciatingly hard.
"Guh..." I mumble, frustratedly dragging a hand down the side of my face. "Stupid... beak... thing..."
It feels like every day, I discover yet another horribly inconvenient aspect about being a Mawile. Today, it's that much like how my hands aren't actually great at holding writing utensils, my mouth isn't exactly built to form a good portion of the sounds that comprise the English language. My lips — in so much as you can even call them that — aren't nearly as flexible as the average human's, and any phonemes that tend to rely on teeth to help form them, like "Th-" or "V-", are at least twice as difficult to make as they might be otherwise.
If, that is, I can make them at all.
I scowl. That's just the tip of the iceberg though — there's an even more irritating issue that's massively compounding the problem. Namely, my mouth just doesn't want to make sounds other than those that compose the word "Mawile". It isn't that it necessarily can't, so much as that it simply feels incredibly unnatural, like I'm not just speaking a different language, but I'm speaking wrong. Trying to overcome this apparent mental block is proving monumentally frustrating, and despite my best efforts, there's seemingly nothing I can do but try my best to push past it, and hope that it eventually gets easier.
I sigh and clear my throat. Let's try this again...
"~Hmmo!~" I say aloud, cringing at how utterly unintelligible that already sounded. "~I. Mmm. Ah. Mawile.~ Could you tell me where the-"
I cut myself off and curse upon noticing I've slipped back into Pokemon language again. It's ridiculous just how many times I've done that now — I'll suddenly start talking way more smoothly, and for a brief, shining moment think I'm actually making progress, only to have my hopes dashed upon realizing I've actually just reverted back to "maw mawile maw" for the umpteenth time. Why couldn't this auto-translate function come with a damn off button?
Growling, I try sounding out the same sentence again, only to end up making the exact same mistake, in nearly the exact same spot. After this repeats itself several more times with barely any variance between each iteration, I tilt my head back and moan, nearly collapsing backwards onto the grass in frustration.
Ugh, I hate this! I've heard it said before that it's not actually that easy to accidentally slip back into one's native language while speaking in another one, but whoever said that clearly failed to take into account languages that sound functionally identical to the speaker if they aren't paying close enough attention — something that's pretty darn hard to do while also trying to concentrate on correctly forming the second syllable of the third word of a ten-word sentence, which I don't even have the proper mouth shape to speak. I have way more respect for what Meowth managed to accomplish now; this is like trying to learn how to speak alien. And I already have all the context I theoretically need! I can't even imagine how much more challenging it must have been for him...
I flop back against a nearby tree, disheartened by my obvious lack of progress. I don't know exactly how long I've been working at this now, but it's been long enough that the city around me has grown to a level of ambient noise I find slightly more natural, even if there's still a distinct lack of motors. It's actually close to ideal, because I'm not quite as uneasy anymore, yet it's still relatively quiet, meaning I can now practice in near-complete peace.
...if only I seemed capable of using that peace to make literally any headway whatsoever.
I sigh again. This sucks... I can't even figure out a decent way to "cheat" my way around my apparent limitations. Trying to push energy from my reservoir into my mouth in the vague hope of mimicking the "Aura Speech" of that Lucario from the eighth movie was a complete bust, and I don't have the slightest idea how to form Psychic energy or use it for telepathy, even if Mawile were remotely naturally inclined towards that sort of thing. I even tried using my maw at one point, hoping that my secondary mouth at least might not have the same language reversion issues that my normal one seems to, but...
Hoping against hope, I split my maw open again and exhale through it, flexing each part of its "throat" in every way I can, tensing all the muscles both within and attached to it in turn.
Not a sound.
...yeah, if this thing has any actual vocal chords attached to it, I can't figure out how to use them. I can breathe in and out through it, so I guess if I figured out how to orient my tongue and teeth correctly, I could at least use it to whistle or something? Not that that's in any way helpful...
My eyes begin to lid in growing resignation, my gaze gradually drifting towards the ground.
Should I maybe just give up on this...? I don't want to, but I'm starting to feel like I've set myself to an impossible task. Nothing I've tried to say so far has come out right, and nothing I've tried to do about that seems to help in the slightest. It's not like I was expecting instant perfection or anything, but I really didn't think this would be so crushingly, depressingly difficult...
Utterly dejected, I allow my eyes to slowly slip shut.
...and then snap them right back open, violently shaking my head as I do so. No, no, I refuse to abandon this idea, at least not this early! I may feel like I've been at this for forever, but in reality it's likely not even been half of the first of the six full days I've apparently got to kill in this city, and this is probably the most immediately relevant or worthwhile skill that I could possibly spend any of that time on! I can't just throw up my hands in defeat because it isn't going well for me right off the bat!
Calming slightly, I force myself to draw in a slow, deep breath. There has to be some idea I just haven't thought of yet. Some tactic, or workaround, or loophole to make this actually doable for a "normal" Pokemon like me, who doesn't have access to anything more convenient. I just need to keep trying — once I hit upon the right strategy, or at least one that lets me move forward in some way, this will all probably seem a lot less insurmountable.
...that being said, I think I do need to stop for at least a little while, if just to give both my mind and mouth some rest. You wouldn't imagine that just talking — or, well, failing at talking — on its own could possibly be so tiring, yet here I am, with my throat feeling like the freaking Sahara. Or whatever the Pokemon world equivalent of that would be. Orre, I guess?
I stand back up and mentally shrug. Doesn't matter. The point is, I could really use a break — and probably some breakfast, honestly? Maybe more like brunch at this point, actually, if not just lunch outright, but still, food.
I glance down at my stomach. Feels like my life has practically revolved around where I'm going to get my next meal of late... guess that's just how the wild Pokemon life is. I'm kind of surprised I'm even hungry again, considering how full I felt after last night, but Mawile metabolisms are obviously quite efficient.
If I was willing to risk reentering the Poke Center, I could probably get another of those amazing Softboiled eggs from the Chansey at the front desk, but...
Images of Chimchar's desperate anger, a pair of glinting glasses, and way too many searching, curious eyes pass rapid-fire through my mind.
...yeah, maybe not.
I frown uneasily. That leaves street food, but while I'd be more than happy to sample some more of Jubilife's local cuisine, half the point of this whole speech exercise was to make heading back into the city proper safer for myself. Given that I've made next to no progress on the subject thus far, is it worth the potential risks...?
Walking forward, I brush aside a bit of the greenery currently obscuring me and peer out at the courtyard beyond. It's no longer completely unoccupied, with roughly half a dozen people and their respective Pokemon now playing, training, or engaged in friendly battles on the grass, but they're still far enough away that if I just go around the back of the contest hall, they shouldn't be too hard to avoid.
I mull the quandary over for another minute or so, before eventually concluding that I... think I can still chance it. As long as I'm not out for too long, I shouldn't have to worry about Pokemon Control, and while (despite my best efforts) I'm still utterly incapable of asking for directions, so long as I stay in the area — or even just on a single road, come to think of it — a short stroll for a quick bite really shouldn't be all that risky.
I nod, silently reassuring myself. Yeah, I'm making too big a deal of this. Once I've grabbed a few samples, I can come right back to this nice, surprisingly private little slice of not-quite forest, and get back to figuring out how to wrangle human words out of my stubbornly inhuman throat. Shouldn't be any more of an issue than it was yesterday.
I'll be back in half an hour, tops.
- Over half an hour later -
…my breakfast plans appear to have hit a bit of a snag.
"Go on, get!" the man growls at me from the doorway. "I don't care if you've got a trainer or not, dirty scavengers are NOT welcome!"
Hastily retreating from the entrance of the corner restaurant I was attempting to entreat, I scurry off down the sidewalk, not wanting to risk drawing any further ire. The man doesn't follow me, but his glare lingers on my back as he turns around and practically stomps back inside, the door swinging shut on its own behind him.
Trying not to let it get to me, I look away and resume making my way forward.
The road that I've chosen to travel down this morning is actually the exact same one that the Jenny drove me up yesterday. Mostly because I saw first hand that it goes on for quite a while without any real bends, which in turn should make getting lost on it nigh-impossible — no way to get turned around if you only ever go straight forward, after all.
I drag my foot over a wide crack in the sidewalk. Unfortunately, I'm starting to realize that choosing this road for its length alone may have been a mistake. Partly because I'd somehow forgotten that this is still the business sector, where the pickings for street food are considerably sparser than they are elsewhere, but also because that was now the third separate place that I've tried to approach.
...and also the third one that's instantly, and not a bit angrily refused me.
I sigh. While frustrating, I can't really be that upset about this, as I knew it was bound to happen eventually. My cuteness has thus far proved fairly effective on the residents of Jubilife, but it was never going to work on everyone. In retrospect, I'm actually kind of surprised no one ran me off like this yesterday... though, I'm still kind of annoyed at that guy who accused me of "banditry" a block or two back. In retrospect, that burger cart was probably a mistake to approach in the first place, as the guy running it wasn't exactly giving off "charitable" vibes, but it was still an awfully harsh way of characterizing what I'm doing. It's not like I even got anything in the end, so you'd think he'd have been slightly less pissed off.
A small gurgle issues from my stomach, drawing my mouth into a frown, but I wipe it away and force myself to try and stay positive. Even if my luck has been atrocious so far, I'm pretty sure I'll still get a bite to eat eventually. Surely not every single vendor around these parts is so cruel as to let a poor little Mawile go hungry...
"~Aah... Mmbe... Eee...~" I idly mutter as I walk, as though hoping my speech skills will have somehow magically improved since I set out. "~Lee... Iee... Awmf... Eee...~"
Sadly, the trial of The Alphabet Song remains just as insurmountable for me as it already proved earlier, accomplishing nothing other than to make a passerby who was already giving me a weird look promptly give me an even weirder one. I put on a little extra hustle as I pass them by, unnerved — I was getting fairly used to the stares by the end of yesterday evening, but after having all those trainers' eyes on me last night, not just questioning my presence, but actively curious and/or enthused about it, I'm finding myself jumping at them again. Thankfully, no one out here right now seems to be nearly as eager to directly interact with me as those trainers or Glasses Guy were, so I'll hopefully become inured again in time.
Spotting a new food stand at the corner of an upcoming side street, I do my best to rally, plastering on my cutest, most harmless expression as I cross the street and start heading in its direction. It's a couple dozen meters from the main road, but as long as I return to said road immediately after, I shouldn't need to worry about getting turned around.
As I turn onto the side street in question, I silently note that it actually looks rather nice, at least in comparison to the majority of Jubilife. The buildings here seem to loom over me slightly less, and there's a line of trees planted in small squares of soil lining the sidewalk, lending the area a welcome bit of both greenery and color. It's not much, but it's more than I've seen elsewhere, so I'm hardly going to complain.
Slowly approaching my current target, I realize that I'm not entirely sure what the stand is even selling — it's one of those relatively small ones, where the entire thing is basically just a sheet of canvas held up on poles over a grill and a couple of cabinets. The customer currently walking away is holding something that looks a bit like a rolled omelet wrapped in greaseproof paper, and the smell drifting down the street is familiar, so I'm guessing it's at least made of eggs? Probably not ones anywhere near as good as the one I ate last night, but that's hardly any reason to turn my nose up at it.
Finally reaching the stand proper, I casually sidle up to its only other customers at the moment, a group of three young women wearing rather trendy-looking clothes. They seem to have already ordered, as they're currently just idly chatting with the vendor, a smiling middle-aged man with a spatula who seems to be showing off some sort of fancy cooking technique to them with his implement of choice — not that I can see much of it over the counter.
I clear my throat.
"Hello!" I say, innocently announcing myself.
The three women blink in tandem, looking down at me with simple surprise — as opposed to the chef, whose gaze snaps down instantly, almost as though forcibly yanked, and immediately sets itself in a seething glare.
"Ohhhhh no, not THIS time!" he snarls, his previous friendly demeanor vanishing as he furiously steps out from behind his stand, a sturdy-looking and still-hot spatula in hand. "I've had it up to HERE with this!"
I quickly scramble backwards, intimidated despite myself as the man stomps towards me. What the-?!
"Go on, GET!" he yells, swiping wildly at the air in front of me with his smoking utensil. "Take your filthy claws away from my stand!"
The trio of still-waiting customers look nearly as stunned as I am... but unlike them, my surprise fades fairly quickly, to be rapidly replaced by simple indignation.
"Alright, fine, I'm leaving!" I growl back at the man, tempted to bite off the end of the spatula he's still waving in my face, despite knowing just how badly it would likely burn. "Didn't realize this place had some sort of anti-Pokemon policy, jerk!"
Sheesh, even the other places were nicer than this! The hell is this dude's problem?!
"That's right, scram!" the man continues shouting as I turn back to the road I came from, his attitude having made it abundantly clear to me that sticking around would be a complete waste of time. "And tell the rest of your thieving little friends to stay away too!"
I stop for a moment just to turn back around and boggle at him. "What friends-?!"
A black and red blur abruptly streaks out of the branches of the tree to my back left. The man whirls around as it lands atop his food stand's counter, startling the trio of women backwards, and rapidly plucks three mostly-prepped omelet things off the grill before stuffing them into some sort of tattered satchel strapped to its side. As it leaps down to the sidewalk, I finally manage to recognize the creature as a Sneasel of all things, just an instant before it darts off down the side street, sending passerby scrambling away as it speeds by underfoot.
"Oh for- not again!" the man moans, glowering down the road at the fleeing blur. "You little rat! You could at least steal from someone ELSE for once!"
...er. Well, that question got answered surprisingly quickly. Time to make myself scarce, I think, before anyone's attention turns back to me.
Doing much as the "rat" in question did, albeit in the opposite direction, I scramble back to the main road and hurry across the intersection, wanting to remove myself from the furious man's line of sight as quickly as possible. Luckily, the corner of the nearby buildings is enough to provide this, and in the wake of the genuine thief's escape, my own is all but ignored.
Once I'm no longer in the immediate visual range of anyone that was present for that event, I quickly slow back down. As I do, my stomach once again seizes the moment to express its displeasure with me, souring alongside my thoughts.
...so, apparently I'm not the only Pokemon out on the streets of Jubilife. Nor am I the only one who's zeroed in on the local vendors as a convenient source of food, for that matter. Whereas I've essentially been charming my way into handouts however, they've apparently taken a simpler tact of just straight up dash-and-dining with other people's food, and probably have been for a while. Guess I know why all the vendors around here are so on edge now... no wonder I can't seem to beg a meal from anyone.
My tiny shoulders droop. In which case, this whole idea was practically doomed from the start, at least within this particular section of Jubilife. I may manage to escape the associated stigma I'm apparently suffering under if I go a bit further down the road, but I'd probably be better served to just turn back around entirely and-
*!-SNCKT-!*
-yelp loudly as something suddenly grabs hold of my arm and pulls me into a nearby alley. What the-?!
Yanking my arm free before my attacker can further tighten their grip, my eyes narrow into a glare, Intimidate activating all but automatically as my jaws swing forward over my head and split open, fully ready to-
"Hey, hey! Calm down, kid!"
The words, spoken in a tone reminiscent of an inner city teenager, bring me enough pause to actually look at and process the identity of my "attacker".
It's... the Sneasel from a minute ago?
"Sorry, didn't mean to startle ya." she continues, gaze flickering between my face and my maw. "Think we can put that thing away?"
I don't reply, not opening my jaws any further, but also not relaxing them. The alley I've been pulled into isn't much of one, being more of a tiny cul-de-sac than anything else. I'm facing inwards, my back still to the street — but that doesn't make me feel all that much safer.
"...guess not. You're a jumpy little thing, aren't you?"
"It's more that I just don't react well to suddenly being yanked into alleyways by strange Pokemon." I somewhat sarcastically reply. "In case you somehow didn't realize, that doesn't exactly make for the best first impression."
Though, I suppose her actual first impression on me technically took place back at that food stand. I already know she's a thief, in which case... what is this, the Pokemon equivalent of a mugging? Actually, how did she even get over here? I didn't see her pass me on the road, and she took off in a completely different direction... but I guess that's irrelevant, since she's obviously here now.
"Eh, fair enough." the Sneasel says, not actually seeming particularly concerned as she looks down to inspect one of her claws. "Suppose I could've used a slightly softer touch."
"What you should have done is picked a slightly softer mark." I reply, my voice hard. "Why even target me? It's not like I have anything to steal."
Unless she wants my scarf-bow, which I guess is possible, but-
"Pfft, is that why you're being so dramatic?" the Sneasel laughs before waving me off. "Chill out, I ain't trying to take anything from you."
I blink.
"...then why are you even speaking to me?" I ask, a bit of my caution easing off.
The Sneasel's expression breaks into a wide, all-too-pleased smile.
"Well, first of all, I just wanted to say thanks for the distraction. The humans around here are starting to wise up, so that really helped."
My glare re-hardens.
"I was trying to get some of that food myself, you know."
The Sneasel shrugs. "Yeah, I figured, which is the second reason. Here."
Plunging one arm into her shoulder bag — which is more like a small purse, now that I look closely — she pulls one of the stolen omelet things out and abruptly tosses it in my direction. I flail for a moment, my arms too short and my grip too small to easily catch things anymore, but thankfully it was a pretty good throw on her part, and the food ultimately lands in my outstretched hands anyways, surprisingly undirtied.
"Uh... thanks?" I say, now more simply bewildered than anything else.
The Sneasel just scoffs.
"Don't thank me, that's rightfully yours. Enjoy it."
Still wary, but considerably less so now, I slowly lower my jaws back to my side and tentatively take a bite of the food I was just thrown. As expected, it doesn't even hold a candle to the last egg-based dish I ate, but still tastes pretty decent, having been seasoned with some sort of spice I feel I vaguely recognize — Cheri berry, maybe? — and is blessedly easy to chew.
As I'm eating, the Sneasel pulls out another omelet thing for herself and scarfs it down in all of ten seconds, a tinge of displeasure showing on her face once she's finished.
"Geh... they may be the best thing to eat around here, but eggs still just ain't the same once the humans get through with them."
I don't reply, continuing to slowly make my way through my omelet thing as I silently ponder a few of the questions currently running through my head. Like, for example, what on earth a Sneasel is doing loose in the middle of Jubilife. Don't they usually live on like, icy mountains and the like? Or at least places less... urban, than this? Not that the exact same point doesn't apply to me as well from an outside perspective, but aside from both of us presumably being "strays", I can't really imagine we're in similar situations.
...though, that does bring another question to mind.
"So, I'm guessing you've been doing this for a while?" I ask, polishing off my own final bite.
"Eh, you could say that." the Sneasel replies as she casually leans back against the alley wall. "Probably a couple of moons, at least."
I nod. "Right. In that case, how exactly have you been evading Pokemon Control for all this time?"
Seriously, I was in Jubilife for less than half a day before that Jenny picked me up, and the streets are almost entirely free of Pokemon just in general, at least from what I've seen. If this Sneasel has been active around here for long enough that the local food vendors have gotten wary of her, she surely has to have garnered the attention of the Poke-police by now.
"You mean those angry blue humans with the really long poles?" the Sneasel clarifies. "It takes a bit of practice, but once you know how to get around this place, it really ain't that hard."
She narrows her eyes at me, her smile finally graduating into a full-on smirk. "I could show you, if you're interested."
I narrow my eyes at the Sneasel in turn. Poor first impression and obvious opportunist nature aside, she seems nice enough, but...
"No thanks." I decline with as much politeness as I can currently muster. "If you'll excuse me, I think I need to go find myself some more food."
"You sure?" the Sneasel presses. "No offense, but it didn't look like you were having much success even before I stepped in."
I grimace. Right, she probably saw that whole debacle whilst lying in wait...
"Eh, whatever, up to you." the Sneasel continues when I don't reply, pushing back off the wall. "Word of advice though? If you're looking for some easy eats, maybe start a little smaller."
She flashes a sharp-fanged grin at me, then suddenly springs off the ground onto the wall of the building across from her, "landing" several feet up its side. She then immediately repeats the process, ping-ponging back and forth up both sides of the alleyway, until she's high enough to make it onto the roofs — whereupon she swiftly clambers onto one, and promptly vanishes from sight.
I look back down, gaze lingering on the space the Sneasel just vacated for a long moment, and find myself involuntarily sighing again.
Sure would be nice if I could do that...
Turning around, I start trudging back towards the entrance of the alley, my stomach still feeling all too empty. There's at least something in it now, but that omelet thing wasn't near enough to help my hunger much, let alone my mood — quite frankly, the latter only seems to be dropping further with every passing hour.
In fact, I'd estimate it's pretty close to bottoming out at this point.
My hands ball themselves into fists; my teeth unconsciously grinding together. Seriously, could something, anything please go right for me today?! First I ended up parting ways with Chimchar on that absolutely terrible note, knowing full well I may never even see him again. Then I essentially got chased out of the Pokemon Center by the creep in the glasses, preventing me from getting anything useful before I left, and subsequently found out I'm likely stuck in Jubilife for nearly another full week, which I can do absolutely nothing about. Then I decided to try to relearn how to talk, only to be stymied by what felt like every problem under the sun. And now, even my attempts to find myself breakfast are failing miserably, because I of course chose to travel down the one road whose food proprietors are currently being harassed by an actual Poke-thief, and are thus too wary, irritated, or spatula happy to so much as give me the time of day. This entire morning has just been me finding myself in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong words, the wrong body the wrong mouth the wrong EVERYTHING-
I cut my thought process off there before it can spiral any further, not wanting to make things even worse on myself — not that it's all that easy, as it really does feel like everything is just going to pieces this morning. Even that Sneasel's words are getting to me, despite the fact that they really shouldn't, considering she obviously had no idea what she was talking about.
I snort as I repeat what she said under my breath. "Start smaller", right. As if this is even remotely the best place in Jubilife to find food, or I wasn't traveling "smaller" streets for literally all of yesterday-
A thought suddenly strikes me, and I freeze mid-stride.
Smaller... wait a second.
What if I-
My eyes widen fractionally as the idea fully coheres.
...maybe the remainder of "brunch" can wait just a little longer after all.
"Guh..." I mumble, frustratedly dragging a hand down the side of my face. "Stupid... beak... thing..."
It feels like every day, I discover yet another horribly inconvenient aspect about being a Mawile. Today, it's that much like how my hands aren't actually great at holding writing utensils, my mouth isn't exactly built to form a good portion of the sounds that comprise the English language. My lips — in so much as you can even call them that — aren't nearly as flexible as the average human's, and any phonemes that tend to rely on teeth to help form them, like "Th-" or "V-", are at least twice as difficult to make as they might be otherwise.
If, that is, I can make them at all.
I scowl. That's just the tip of the iceberg though — there's an even more irritating issue that's massively compounding the problem. Namely, my mouth just doesn't want to make sounds other than those that compose the word "Mawile". It isn't that it necessarily can't, so much as that it simply feels incredibly unnatural, like I'm not just speaking a different language, but I'm speaking wrong. Trying to overcome this apparent mental block is proving monumentally frustrating, and despite my best efforts, there's seemingly nothing I can do but try my best to push past it, and hope that it eventually gets easier.
I sigh and clear my throat. Let's try this again...
"~Hmmo!~" I say aloud, cringing at how utterly unintelligible that already sounded. "~I. Mmm. Ah. Mawile.~ Could you tell me where the-"
I cut myself off and curse upon noticing I've slipped back into Pokemon language again. It's ridiculous just how many times I've done that now — I'll suddenly start talking way more smoothly, and for a brief, shining moment think I'm actually making progress, only to have my hopes dashed upon realizing I've actually just reverted back to "maw mawile maw" for the umpteenth time. Why couldn't this auto-translate function come with a damn off button?
Growling, I try sounding out the same sentence again, only to end up making the exact same mistake, in nearly the exact same spot. After this repeats itself several more times with barely any variance between each iteration, I tilt my head back and moan, nearly collapsing backwards onto the grass in frustration.
Ugh, I hate this! I've heard it said before that it's not actually that easy to accidentally slip back into one's native language while speaking in another one, but whoever said that clearly failed to take into account languages that sound functionally identical to the speaker if they aren't paying close enough attention — something that's pretty darn hard to do while also trying to concentrate on correctly forming the second syllable of the third word of a ten-word sentence, which I don't even have the proper mouth shape to speak. I have way more respect for what Meowth managed to accomplish now; this is like trying to learn how to speak alien. And I already have all the context I theoretically need! I can't even imagine how much more challenging it must have been for him...
I flop back against a nearby tree, disheartened by my obvious lack of progress. I don't know exactly how long I've been working at this now, but it's been long enough that the city around me has grown to a level of ambient noise I find slightly more natural, even if there's still a distinct lack of motors. It's actually close to ideal, because I'm not quite as uneasy anymore, yet it's still relatively quiet, meaning I can now practice in near-complete peace.
...if only I seemed capable of using that peace to make literally any headway whatsoever.
I sigh again. This sucks... I can't even figure out a decent way to "cheat" my way around my apparent limitations. Trying to push energy from my reservoir into my mouth in the vague hope of mimicking the "Aura Speech" of that Lucario from the eighth movie was a complete bust, and I don't have the slightest idea how to form Psychic energy or use it for telepathy, even if Mawile were remotely naturally inclined towards that sort of thing. I even tried using my maw at one point, hoping that my secondary mouth at least might not have the same language reversion issues that my normal one seems to, but...
Hoping against hope, I split my maw open again and exhale through it, flexing each part of its "throat" in every way I can, tensing all the muscles both within and attached to it in turn.
Not a sound.
...yeah, if this thing has any actual vocal chords attached to it, I can't figure out how to use them. I can breathe in and out through it, so I guess if I figured out how to orient my tongue and teeth correctly, I could at least use it to whistle or something? Not that that's in any way helpful...
My eyes begin to lid in growing resignation, my gaze gradually drifting towards the ground.
Should I maybe just give up on this...? I don't want to, but I'm starting to feel like I've set myself to an impossible task. Nothing I've tried to say so far has come out right, and nothing I've tried to do about that seems to help in the slightest. It's not like I was expecting instant perfection or anything, but I really didn't think this would be so crushingly, depressingly difficult...
Utterly dejected, I allow my eyes to slowly slip shut.
...and then snap them right back open, violently shaking my head as I do so. No, no, I refuse to abandon this idea, at least not this early! I may feel like I've been at this for forever, but in reality it's likely not even been half of the first of the six full days I've apparently got to kill in this city, and this is probably the most immediately relevant or worthwhile skill that I could possibly spend any of that time on! I can't just throw up my hands in defeat because it isn't going well for me right off the bat!
Calming slightly, I force myself to draw in a slow, deep breath. There has to be some idea I just haven't thought of yet. Some tactic, or workaround, or loophole to make this actually doable for a "normal" Pokemon like me, who doesn't have access to anything more convenient. I just need to keep trying — once I hit upon the right strategy, or at least one that lets me move forward in some way, this will all probably seem a lot less insurmountable.
...that being said, I think I do need to stop for at least a little while, if just to give both my mind and mouth some rest. You wouldn't imagine that just talking — or, well, failing at talking — on its own could possibly be so tiring, yet here I am, with my throat feeling like the freaking Sahara. Or whatever the Pokemon world equivalent of that would be. Orre, I guess?
I stand back up and mentally shrug. Doesn't matter. The point is, I could really use a break — and probably some breakfast, honestly? Maybe more like brunch at this point, actually, if not just lunch outright, but still, food.
I glance down at my stomach. Feels like my life has practically revolved around where I'm going to get my next meal of late... guess that's just how the wild Pokemon life is. I'm kind of surprised I'm even hungry again, considering how full I felt after last night, but Mawile metabolisms are obviously quite efficient.
If I was willing to risk reentering the Poke Center, I could probably get another of those amazing Softboiled eggs from the Chansey at the front desk, but...
Images of Chimchar's desperate anger, a pair of glinting glasses, and way too many searching, curious eyes pass rapid-fire through my mind.
...yeah, maybe not.
I frown uneasily. That leaves street food, but while I'd be more than happy to sample some more of Jubilife's local cuisine, half the point of this whole speech exercise was to make heading back into the city proper safer for myself. Given that I've made next to no progress on the subject thus far, is it worth the potential risks...?
Walking forward, I brush aside a bit of the greenery currently obscuring me and peer out at the courtyard beyond. It's no longer completely unoccupied, with roughly half a dozen people and their respective Pokemon now playing, training, or engaged in friendly battles on the grass, but they're still far enough away that if I just go around the back of the contest hall, they shouldn't be too hard to avoid.
I mull the quandary over for another minute or so, before eventually concluding that I... think I can still chance it. As long as I'm not out for too long, I shouldn't have to worry about Pokemon Control, and while (despite my best efforts) I'm still utterly incapable of asking for directions, so long as I stay in the area — or even just on a single road, come to think of it — a short stroll for a quick bite really shouldn't be all that risky.
I nod, silently reassuring myself. Yeah, I'm making too big a deal of this. Once I've grabbed a few samples, I can come right back to this nice, surprisingly private little slice of not-quite forest, and get back to figuring out how to wrangle human words out of my stubbornly inhuman throat. Shouldn't be any more of an issue than it was yesterday.
I'll be back in half an hour, tops.
- Over half an hour later -
…my breakfast plans appear to have hit a bit of a snag.
"Go on, get!" the man growls at me from the doorway. "I don't care if you've got a trainer or not, dirty scavengers are NOT welcome!"
Hastily retreating from the entrance of the corner restaurant I was attempting to entreat, I scurry off down the sidewalk, not wanting to risk drawing any further ire. The man doesn't follow me, but his glare lingers on my back as he turns around and practically stomps back inside, the door swinging shut on its own behind him.
Trying not to let it get to me, I look away and resume making my way forward.
The road that I've chosen to travel down this morning is actually the exact same one that the Jenny drove me up yesterday. Mostly because I saw first hand that it goes on for quite a while without any real bends, which in turn should make getting lost on it nigh-impossible — no way to get turned around if you only ever go straight forward, after all.
I drag my foot over a wide crack in the sidewalk. Unfortunately, I'm starting to realize that choosing this road for its length alone may have been a mistake. Partly because I'd somehow forgotten that this is still the business sector, where the pickings for street food are considerably sparser than they are elsewhere, but also because that was now the third separate place that I've tried to approach.
...and also the third one that's instantly, and not a bit angrily refused me.
I sigh. While frustrating, I can't really be that upset about this, as I knew it was bound to happen eventually. My cuteness has thus far proved fairly effective on the residents of Jubilife, but it was never going to work on everyone. In retrospect, I'm actually kind of surprised no one ran me off like this yesterday... though, I'm still kind of annoyed at that guy who accused me of "banditry" a block or two back. In retrospect, that burger cart was probably a mistake to approach in the first place, as the guy running it wasn't exactly giving off "charitable" vibes, but it was still an awfully harsh way of characterizing what I'm doing. It's not like I even got anything in the end, so you'd think he'd have been slightly less pissed off.
A small gurgle issues from my stomach, drawing my mouth into a frown, but I wipe it away and force myself to try and stay positive. Even if my luck has been atrocious so far, I'm pretty sure I'll still get a bite to eat eventually. Surely not every single vendor around these parts is so cruel as to let a poor little Mawile go hungry...
"~Aah... Mmbe... Eee...~" I idly mutter as I walk, as though hoping my speech skills will have somehow magically improved since I set out. "~Lee... Iee... Awmf... Eee...~"
Sadly, the trial of The Alphabet Song remains just as insurmountable for me as it already proved earlier, accomplishing nothing other than to make a passerby who was already giving me a weird look promptly give me an even weirder one. I put on a little extra hustle as I pass them by, unnerved — I was getting fairly used to the stares by the end of yesterday evening, but after having all those trainers' eyes on me last night, not just questioning my presence, but actively curious and/or enthused about it, I'm finding myself jumping at them again. Thankfully, no one out here right now seems to be nearly as eager to directly interact with me as those trainers or Glasses Guy were, so I'll hopefully become inured again in time.
Spotting a new food stand at the corner of an upcoming side street, I do my best to rally, plastering on my cutest, most harmless expression as I cross the street and start heading in its direction. It's a couple dozen meters from the main road, but as long as I return to said road immediately after, I shouldn't need to worry about getting turned around.
As I turn onto the side street in question, I silently note that it actually looks rather nice, at least in comparison to the majority of Jubilife. The buildings here seem to loom over me slightly less, and there's a line of trees planted in small squares of soil lining the sidewalk, lending the area a welcome bit of both greenery and color. It's not much, but it's more than I've seen elsewhere, so I'm hardly going to complain.
Slowly approaching my current target, I realize that I'm not entirely sure what the stand is even selling — it's one of those relatively small ones, where the entire thing is basically just a sheet of canvas held up on poles over a grill and a couple of cabinets. The customer currently walking away is holding something that looks a bit like a rolled omelet wrapped in greaseproof paper, and the smell drifting down the street is familiar, so I'm guessing it's at least made of eggs? Probably not ones anywhere near as good as the one I ate last night, but that's hardly any reason to turn my nose up at it.
Finally reaching the stand proper, I casually sidle up to its only other customers at the moment, a group of three young women wearing rather trendy-looking clothes. They seem to have already ordered, as they're currently just idly chatting with the vendor, a smiling middle-aged man with a spatula who seems to be showing off some sort of fancy cooking technique to them with his implement of choice — not that I can see much of it over the counter.
I clear my throat.
"Hello!" I say, innocently announcing myself.
The three women blink in tandem, looking down at me with simple surprise — as opposed to the chef, whose gaze snaps down instantly, almost as though forcibly yanked, and immediately sets itself in a seething glare.
"Ohhhhh no, not THIS time!" he snarls, his previous friendly demeanor vanishing as he furiously steps out from behind his stand, a sturdy-looking and still-hot spatula in hand. "I've had it up to HERE with this!"
I quickly scramble backwards, intimidated despite myself as the man stomps towards me. What the-?!
"Go on, GET!" he yells, swiping wildly at the air in front of me with his smoking utensil. "Take your filthy claws away from my stand!"
The trio of still-waiting customers look nearly as stunned as I am... but unlike them, my surprise fades fairly quickly, to be rapidly replaced by simple indignation.
"Alright, fine, I'm leaving!" I growl back at the man, tempted to bite off the end of the spatula he's still waving in my face, despite knowing just how badly it would likely burn. "Didn't realize this place had some sort of anti-Pokemon policy, jerk!"
Sheesh, even the other places were nicer than this! The hell is this dude's problem?!
"That's right, scram!" the man continues shouting as I turn back to the road I came from, his attitude having made it abundantly clear to me that sticking around would be a complete waste of time. "And tell the rest of your thieving little friends to stay away too!"
I stop for a moment just to turn back around and boggle at him. "What friends-?!"
A black and red blur abruptly streaks out of the branches of the tree to my back left. The man whirls around as it lands atop his food stand's counter, startling the trio of women backwards, and rapidly plucks three mostly-prepped omelet things off the grill before stuffing them into some sort of tattered satchel strapped to its side. As it leaps down to the sidewalk, I finally manage to recognize the creature as a Sneasel of all things, just an instant before it darts off down the side street, sending passerby scrambling away as it speeds by underfoot.
"Oh for- not again!" the man moans, glowering down the road at the fleeing blur. "You little rat! You could at least steal from someone ELSE for once!"
...er. Well, that question got answered surprisingly quickly. Time to make myself scarce, I think, before anyone's attention turns back to me.
Doing much as the "rat" in question did, albeit in the opposite direction, I scramble back to the main road and hurry across the intersection, wanting to remove myself from the furious man's line of sight as quickly as possible. Luckily, the corner of the nearby buildings is enough to provide this, and in the wake of the genuine thief's escape, my own is all but ignored.
Once I'm no longer in the immediate visual range of anyone that was present for that event, I quickly slow back down. As I do, my stomach once again seizes the moment to express its displeasure with me, souring alongside my thoughts.
...so, apparently I'm not the only Pokemon out on the streets of Jubilife. Nor am I the only one who's zeroed in on the local vendors as a convenient source of food, for that matter. Whereas I've essentially been charming my way into handouts however, they've apparently taken a simpler tact of just straight up dash-and-dining with other people's food, and probably have been for a while. Guess I know why all the vendors around here are so on edge now... no wonder I can't seem to beg a meal from anyone.
My tiny shoulders droop. In which case, this whole idea was practically doomed from the start, at least within this particular section of Jubilife. I may manage to escape the associated stigma I'm apparently suffering under if I go a bit further down the road, but I'd probably be better served to just turn back around entirely and-
*!-SNCKT-!*
-yelp loudly as something suddenly grabs hold of my arm and pulls me into a nearby alley. What the-?!
Yanking my arm free before my attacker can further tighten their grip, my eyes narrow into a glare, Intimidate activating all but automatically as my jaws swing forward over my head and split open, fully ready to-
"Hey, hey! Calm down, kid!"
The words, spoken in a tone reminiscent of an inner city teenager, bring me enough pause to actually look at and process the identity of my "attacker".
It's... the Sneasel from a minute ago?
"Sorry, didn't mean to startle ya." she continues, gaze flickering between my face and my maw. "Think we can put that thing away?"
I don't reply, not opening my jaws any further, but also not relaxing them. The alley I've been pulled into isn't much of one, being more of a tiny cul-de-sac than anything else. I'm facing inwards, my back still to the street — but that doesn't make me feel all that much safer.
"...guess not. You're a jumpy little thing, aren't you?"
"It's more that I just don't react well to suddenly being yanked into alleyways by strange Pokemon." I somewhat sarcastically reply. "In case you somehow didn't realize, that doesn't exactly make for the best first impression."
Though, I suppose her actual first impression on me technically took place back at that food stand. I already know she's a thief, in which case... what is this, the Pokemon equivalent of a mugging? Actually, how did she even get over here? I didn't see her pass me on the road, and she took off in a completely different direction... but I guess that's irrelevant, since she's obviously here now.
"Eh, fair enough." the Sneasel says, not actually seeming particularly concerned as she looks down to inspect one of her claws. "Suppose I could've used a slightly softer touch."
"What you should have done is picked a slightly softer mark." I reply, my voice hard. "Why even target me? It's not like I have anything to steal."
Unless she wants my scarf-bow, which I guess is possible, but-
"Pfft, is that why you're being so dramatic?" the Sneasel laughs before waving me off. "Chill out, I ain't trying to take anything from you."
I blink.
"...then why are you even speaking to me?" I ask, a bit of my caution easing off.
The Sneasel's expression breaks into a wide, all-too-pleased smile.
"Well, first of all, I just wanted to say thanks for the distraction. The humans around here are starting to wise up, so that really helped."
My glare re-hardens.
"I was trying to get some of that food myself, you know."
The Sneasel shrugs. "Yeah, I figured, which is the second reason. Here."
Plunging one arm into her shoulder bag — which is more like a small purse, now that I look closely — she pulls one of the stolen omelet things out and abruptly tosses it in my direction. I flail for a moment, my arms too short and my grip too small to easily catch things anymore, but thankfully it was a pretty good throw on her part, and the food ultimately lands in my outstretched hands anyways, surprisingly undirtied.
"Uh... thanks?" I say, now more simply bewildered than anything else.
The Sneasel just scoffs.
"Don't thank me, that's rightfully yours. Enjoy it."
Still wary, but considerably less so now, I slowly lower my jaws back to my side and tentatively take a bite of the food I was just thrown. As expected, it doesn't even hold a candle to the last egg-based dish I ate, but still tastes pretty decent, having been seasoned with some sort of spice I feel I vaguely recognize — Cheri berry, maybe? — and is blessedly easy to chew.
As I'm eating, the Sneasel pulls out another omelet thing for herself and scarfs it down in all of ten seconds, a tinge of displeasure showing on her face once she's finished.
"Geh... they may be the best thing to eat around here, but eggs still just ain't the same once the humans get through with them."
I don't reply, continuing to slowly make my way through my omelet thing as I silently ponder a few of the questions currently running through my head. Like, for example, what on earth a Sneasel is doing loose in the middle of Jubilife. Don't they usually live on like, icy mountains and the like? Or at least places less... urban, than this? Not that the exact same point doesn't apply to me as well from an outside perspective, but aside from both of us presumably being "strays", I can't really imagine we're in similar situations.
...though, that does bring another question to mind.
"So, I'm guessing you've been doing this for a while?" I ask, polishing off my own final bite.
"Eh, you could say that." the Sneasel replies as she casually leans back against the alley wall. "Probably a couple of moons, at least."
I nod. "Right. In that case, how exactly have you been evading Pokemon Control for all this time?"
Seriously, I was in Jubilife for less than half a day before that Jenny picked me up, and the streets are almost entirely free of Pokemon just in general, at least from what I've seen. If this Sneasel has been active around here for long enough that the local food vendors have gotten wary of her, she surely has to have garnered the attention of the Poke-police by now.
"You mean those angry blue humans with the really long poles?" the Sneasel clarifies. "It takes a bit of practice, but once you know how to get around this place, it really ain't that hard."
She narrows her eyes at me, her smile finally graduating into a full-on smirk. "I could show you, if you're interested."
I narrow my eyes at the Sneasel in turn. Poor first impression and obvious opportunist nature aside, she seems nice enough, but...
"No thanks." I decline with as much politeness as I can currently muster. "If you'll excuse me, I think I need to go find myself some more food."
"You sure?" the Sneasel presses. "No offense, but it didn't look like you were having much success even before I stepped in."
I grimace. Right, she probably saw that whole debacle whilst lying in wait...
"Eh, whatever, up to you." the Sneasel continues when I don't reply, pushing back off the wall. "Word of advice though? If you're looking for some easy eats, maybe start a little smaller."
She flashes a sharp-fanged grin at me, then suddenly springs off the ground onto the wall of the building across from her, "landing" several feet up its side. She then immediately repeats the process, ping-ponging back and forth up both sides of the alleyway, until she's high enough to make it onto the roofs — whereupon she swiftly clambers onto one, and promptly vanishes from sight.
I look back down, gaze lingering on the space the Sneasel just vacated for a long moment, and find myself involuntarily sighing again.
Sure would be nice if I could do that...
Turning around, I start trudging back towards the entrance of the alley, my stomach still feeling all too empty. There's at least something in it now, but that omelet thing wasn't near enough to help my hunger much, let alone my mood — quite frankly, the latter only seems to be dropping further with every passing hour.
In fact, I'd estimate it's pretty close to bottoming out at this point.
My hands ball themselves into fists; my teeth unconsciously grinding together. Seriously, could something, anything please go right for me today?! First I ended up parting ways with Chimchar on that absolutely terrible note, knowing full well I may never even see him again. Then I essentially got chased out of the Pokemon Center by the creep in the glasses, preventing me from getting anything useful before I left, and subsequently found out I'm likely stuck in Jubilife for nearly another full week, which I can do absolutely nothing about. Then I decided to try to relearn how to talk, only to be stymied by what felt like every problem under the sun. And now, even my attempts to find myself breakfast are failing miserably, because I of course chose to travel down the one road whose food proprietors are currently being harassed by an actual Poke-thief, and are thus too wary, irritated, or spatula happy to so much as give me the time of day. This entire morning has just been me finding myself in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong words, the wrong body the wrong mouth the wrong EVERYTHING-
I cut my thought process off there before it can spiral any further, not wanting to make things even worse on myself — not that it's all that easy, as it really does feel like everything is just going to pieces this morning. Even that Sneasel's words are getting to me, despite the fact that they really shouldn't, considering she obviously had no idea what she was talking about.
I snort as I repeat what she said under my breath. "Start smaller", right. As if this is even remotely the best place in Jubilife to find food, or I wasn't traveling "smaller" streets for literally all of yesterday-
A thought suddenly strikes me, and I freeze mid-stride.
Smaller... wait a second.
What if I-
My eyes widen fractionally as the idea fully coheres.
...maybe the remainder of "brunch" can wait just a little longer after all.
So, this chapter has technically been done for months. However, I held off on posting it because 1) it didn't feel long enough, 2) I wanted to make sure my plan going forward made enough sense that I wouldn't come to regret establishing certain things, and 3) I wanted to have the next chapter finished as well before actually resuming this fic. However, between the IRL issues I'm having right now and my tendency to hold onto chapters until I feel they're absolutely perfect once I fall out of a rhythm, I'm fairly sure this won't ever come out if I don't just shove it out the door at this point. So... here it is. ^^;
(Oh, and will you look at that, it's the return of a character I previously wrote out of the story, now being written back in. Congrats to a certain Sneasel for overcoming my prior exile of her from the narrative, and managing to claw her way back into existence despite it.)
A huge thanks to @Pheonix14, @Warclam, @ScorpioBot, @Dai, @BunnehWyld, Henry Branscombe, Leaf, Nubcaekz, Bertucchi, BlackEagle91, Jordan Juengel, Stays Secret, Alxariam, and my eight other Patrons not named here, as well as an extra special thanks to a certain generous patron who wishes to remain unnamed. Each of them receives NOTHING! No hand outs, no treats, no free samples, nothing!... er, well, they wouldn't actually be free I suppose, since you essentially paid for them in advance, but- ugh, fine! No feeding any of it to those rotten strays though, got it?! 🥙🥓🍲
(Oh, and will you look at that, it's the return of a character I previously wrote out of the story, now being written back in. Congrats to a certain Sneasel for overcoming my prior exile of her from the narrative, and managing to claw her way back into existence despite it.)
A huge thanks to @Pheonix14, @Warclam, @ScorpioBot, @Dai, @BunnehWyld, Henry Branscombe, Leaf, Nubcaekz, Bertucchi, BlackEagle91, Jordan Juengel, Stays Secret, Alxariam, and my eight other Patrons not named here, as well as an extra special thanks to a certain generous patron who wishes to remain unnamed. Each of them receives NOTHING! No hand outs, no treats, no free samples, nothing!... er, well, they wouldn't actually be free I suppose, since you essentially paid for them in advance, but- ugh, fine! No feeding any of it to those rotten strays though, got it?! 🥙🥓🍲
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I can't help but wonder how strong Mawile actually is. She often postures, but rarely bites. (Then again, most things see Mawile that looks like it's considering biting, and decide to not find out)
Thanks for the chapter!
Thanks for the chapter!
Oooooo, what if you what, Flairwile? You gonna dig through trash scraps, bully people with food on them or maybe even battle for food? This is gonna be fun…
Great chapter by the way, glad this updated!
Great chapter by the way, glad this updated!