- Location
- Canada, probably
Right. Right, that was a thing. Man, I need to play ORAS. Stupid 3DS, locking the gen3 remakes behind it. Hoenn was my jam.
Hyphen (Pokemon Emerald)
Three-Ring Circus - 1 (Fun and Adventure!/A Backwards Grin/Hyphen)
Crossposting this Omake from the A Backwards Grin thread. I'll post the second one soon.
_____________________________
I bolted upright, startled by the sudden sounds around me.
I was a fairly light sleeper, so any change in background noise would wake me up, and this was definitely a change.
I'd gone to bed in the Cerulean City Pokémon Centre, but just woke up in what was very obviously not a Pokémon Centre. It was a forest, with a fairly dense canopy, but the trees weren't what I was used to and the air was a lot colder than I remembered from the previous few days.
Standing up I brushed the dirt off my white hoodie and pink skirt, before pausing at that. I didn't sleep in these clothes, so why was I wearing them now?
Vulpix was nowhere in sight. Suddenly worried, I reached for my pack and started counting Poké Balls. All six were there, which was a good sign. Fishing out my Pokédex, I scrolled to my current Pokémon to find that yes, they were all there, including Vulpix. Breathing a sight of relief I put everything back and took another look at my surroundings.
It was theoretically possible I'd teleported in my sleep. If I had, I shouldn't have been wearing my normal clothes. Thank goodness I was though, it'd be mortifying to wake up in the middle of a random forest like that.
Shrugging to myself, I focused on the Pokémon Centre in Cerulean City, the room I last remember being in, and tried to teleport myself there.
There was a painful pull and stretch feeling as I felt myself try to move. I doubled over in pain, nearly throwing up from the sharpness and suddenness of it.
"Ugh," I couldn't help but say, falling back down to my knees as I clutched my stomach. I ached all over, but my stomach worst of all.
That sort of feeling… it meant I couldn't have teleported here, wherever here was. It was painful for me to teleport more than five miles or so, and impossible if the distance was much more than that. If trying to teleport back to Cerulean City caused this much pain, and I couldn't get so much as a flicker, it meant I was really far away.
As my pain cleared away I picked myself back up and took another look around. I didn't recognise this place. Which wasn't too surprising, but it didn't look right. The trees were wrong. The climate was wrong. Everything about this situation was wrong!
I growled to myself, then got more annoyed at myself for getting worked up. This had a simple solution, all I had to do was get above the tree line and pick out the nearest city.
Telekinetically picking myself up, I got about five inches off the ground before I felt something. There was some obvious psychic energy nearby. I let myself back down and looked in the direction it was coming from, but saw nothing but more trees. I started making my way towards it.
It was likely a Pokémon, and if it was, I could ask for directions. If it happened to be another psychic, well, that worked too.
It didn't take too long before I started to hear the unmistakable rustling of something moving quickly through a forest. In fact, it was moving towards me. I stopped, and hid behind a tree just in time to see the weirdest looking person I'd ever seen.
It was a rather short person wearing a ridiculous black robe, complete with an also ridiculous hat.
But… there was an obvious psychic energy hugged around the person's form. Which was not normal, even for another psychic unless…. Just where in the world had I ended up?!
As a test, I focused and gathered up a bit of psychic energy. Nearly instantaneously the other person's hooded head turned towards my direction.
"Hey, I'm lost, wherever you are, can you –"
Nope! I thought, bringing up my shields and clamping down on that. She, and she was definitely a she, was talking inside my head. I found that so rude. I didn't let Gardevoir back at home do that, and I wasn't about to let this little weirdo do it either.
Huh, I thought to myself then. No wonder Garry called me a weirdo. It'd been two seconds after running into another psychic, and I'd already proven myself a hypocrite. Still, I thought. She can use her words.
Coming out from behind the tree, I watched as the girl took a frightened step back. I waited, but as I waited she didn't seem to calm down. Instead I felt the obvious pressure of her trying to talk to me through telepathy, but I kept my mental shields up all through it. I didn't know if she could tell, I'd never run into this kind of situation before.
"Can't you talk normally?" I asked. "I don't like people in my head."
The girl seemed taken aback by that. She held her hand up, though her sleeves were so long I couldn't actually see her hand, and held it against her, moving down towards her throat. Then she shook her head.
I narrowed my eyes.
"You can't speak?" I asked. "Or won't?"
She just shook her head again.
I wrinkled the corner of my mouth and gave her another look. She had very pale skin. Red eyes, green hair. Well, I had pink eyes. My sister had pink eyes too, and green hair…. Plus there was still that constant veil of psychic energy around this girl. Yep, that settled it.
"Okay, I'll let your telepathy in, but I'm keeping my emotions blocked, okay?" I said. I hated this. I didn't even do this with Gardevoir, it was just too taxing. But I didn't want a random psychic picking up on anything.
I modified my shields and the girl nodded.
"Can you hear me now?" she asked. I had to hold back a grimace. I almost thought to turn it back on her, start talking in her head and see how she liked it. But I didn't like doing that either.
"Yes," I said.
Her body language flitted through relief to excitement in about a millisecond, before she said, "Good, I have so many questions!"
"Uh," I said, eloquently.
"What are you?" she began with, "speaking" really fast. "Where are we? Are you from another village? Did you bring me here? I can't sense any illusions around you, but you look perfect!"
"Uh," I repeated. It seemed this obvious Pokémon wasn't going to give me any answers.
"By the way, my name's Astra, and -" she stopped abruptly, turning her head to look out further into the forest. "Do you smell that?"
I sniffed, but didn't smell anything out of the ordinary. "I don't think so?" I said.
And then it hit me. It was unbelievably sweet, like a Mago berry, but different. And yet, it smelled familiar.
"How could you not smell that?" said Astra, turning in the direction it was coming from. "I'm starving; I've been wandering around these woods for ages." She started walking, as if not realising she was doing it.
My own stomach grumbled, and I thought about my own lack of supplies. Besides, where there were berries, there were Pokémon. Maybe even some that weren't in a disguise and who knew where they were.
I followed Astra for a bit before we found a small clearing. There were several bushes, but no berries presented themselves. Something about this whole situation seemed familiar, but it was hard to remember when I was so hungry. Plus I had a whole host of Pokémon that would need feeding too.
"There must be some berries left, the smell is still here," said Astra, though the "voice" was faint, as if she didn't realise she was still broadcasting to me. She reached into her bag and pulled out an empty jar. She then walked towards a particular bush, reaching forward and parting the leaves.
"Ahah!" I said, remembering, and snapping my fingers in joy of solving this mystery.
I lived in Kanto most of my life, just inside Pallet Town near Xanadu Nursery. They had a lot of plants, and the now-owner, Florinda, had an Oddish, which had recently evolved into a Gloom. This smell was Sweet Scent! Which meant….
I focused back on Astra who was face deep in shrubbery when suddenly I heard a scream, and Astra flickered away into a teleport just as a loud crack came from the bush, reappearing on the other side of the clearing. The Sweet Scent was already starting to fade as a Mawile tumbled out of the bush, its horns seeming to have not realised it didn't get the meal it was looking for.
This was crazy, I knew it happened, but I'd never a Pokémon try to eat another Pokémon before. That lead to all sorts of questions, like, did Astra's disguise not work on other Pokémon, or id Mawile not care about eating humans? Either way, I was missing the important thing here.
I love Mawiles! Frantically I opened my bag and grabbed Pikachu's Poké Ball, enlarging it and ready to throw.
Astra seemed to have the same idea, which was bizarre, as she took a Poké Ball and said, "Alright, nobody tries to eat me!" I was caught between trying to stop her because I wanted the Mawile, and letting her continue since technically she saw it first. Then again, it wasn't common for Pokémon to catch Pokémon. That would undermine the entire Trainer- Pokémon relationship! "Let's see how you like getting eaten!"
The Mawile's eyes flitted between me and Astra as she backed up, screaming, "Wait, wait, stop, I didn't mean to!" She continued backing up until she hit the bushes again. "It was an accident, please don't capture me!"
Ah, darn, I thought. Putting my ball back in my bag. So it looked like disguises did work on other Pokémon, and this Mawile was just careless. How she expected to eat such a huge Pokémon though… well, I'd never seen a Mawile in action, maybe her horns could handle it.
"You can talk!?" said Astra, pulling me out of my thoughts.
Mawile paused, staring at Astra. This was bizarre.
"Hey," I said, jumping in. They both turned to look at me, as if they'd both forgotten I was there. "What's with the shock? Of course you can understand her!" Even if I was willing to continue this charade that Astra was a human, the very notion that a Psychic human had never bothered to experiment in understanding Pokémon using their powers until a situation like this, was insane. Absolutely insane. Clearly, I was in the Insane Forest, in the Insane Region.
"You both can understand me?!" said Mawile, causing Astra to turn back to look at her.
"What the fuck is going on!?" both Astra and the Mawile yelled.
I threw up my hands in desperation.
_____________________________
I bolted upright, startled by the sudden sounds around me.
I was a fairly light sleeper, so any change in background noise would wake me up, and this was definitely a change.
I'd gone to bed in the Cerulean City Pokémon Centre, but just woke up in what was very obviously not a Pokémon Centre. It was a forest, with a fairly dense canopy, but the trees weren't what I was used to and the air was a lot colder than I remembered from the previous few days.
Standing up I brushed the dirt off my white hoodie and pink skirt, before pausing at that. I didn't sleep in these clothes, so why was I wearing them now?
Vulpix was nowhere in sight. Suddenly worried, I reached for my pack and started counting Poké Balls. All six were there, which was a good sign. Fishing out my Pokédex, I scrolled to my current Pokémon to find that yes, they were all there, including Vulpix. Breathing a sight of relief I put everything back and took another look at my surroundings.
It was theoretically possible I'd teleported in my sleep. If I had, I shouldn't have been wearing my normal clothes. Thank goodness I was though, it'd be mortifying to wake up in the middle of a random forest like that.
Shrugging to myself, I focused on the Pokémon Centre in Cerulean City, the room I last remember being in, and tried to teleport myself there.
There was a painful pull and stretch feeling as I felt myself try to move. I doubled over in pain, nearly throwing up from the sharpness and suddenness of it.
"Ugh," I couldn't help but say, falling back down to my knees as I clutched my stomach. I ached all over, but my stomach worst of all.
That sort of feeling… it meant I couldn't have teleported here, wherever here was. It was painful for me to teleport more than five miles or so, and impossible if the distance was much more than that. If trying to teleport back to Cerulean City caused this much pain, and I couldn't get so much as a flicker, it meant I was really far away.
As my pain cleared away I picked myself back up and took another look around. I didn't recognise this place. Which wasn't too surprising, but it didn't look right. The trees were wrong. The climate was wrong. Everything about this situation was wrong!
I growled to myself, then got more annoyed at myself for getting worked up. This had a simple solution, all I had to do was get above the tree line and pick out the nearest city.
Telekinetically picking myself up, I got about five inches off the ground before I felt something. There was some obvious psychic energy nearby. I let myself back down and looked in the direction it was coming from, but saw nothing but more trees. I started making my way towards it.
It was likely a Pokémon, and if it was, I could ask for directions. If it happened to be another psychic, well, that worked too.
It didn't take too long before I started to hear the unmistakable rustling of something moving quickly through a forest. In fact, it was moving towards me. I stopped, and hid behind a tree just in time to see the weirdest looking person I'd ever seen.
It was a rather short person wearing a ridiculous black robe, complete with an also ridiculous hat.
But… there was an obvious psychic energy hugged around the person's form. Which was not normal, even for another psychic unless…. Just where in the world had I ended up?!
As a test, I focused and gathered up a bit of psychic energy. Nearly instantaneously the other person's hooded head turned towards my direction.
"Hey, I'm lost, wherever you are, can you –"
Nope! I thought, bringing up my shields and clamping down on that. She, and she was definitely a she, was talking inside my head. I found that so rude. I didn't let Gardevoir back at home do that, and I wasn't about to let this little weirdo do it either.
Huh, I thought to myself then. No wonder Garry called me a weirdo. It'd been two seconds after running into another psychic, and I'd already proven myself a hypocrite. Still, I thought. She can use her words.
Coming out from behind the tree, I watched as the girl took a frightened step back. I waited, but as I waited she didn't seem to calm down. Instead I felt the obvious pressure of her trying to talk to me through telepathy, but I kept my mental shields up all through it. I didn't know if she could tell, I'd never run into this kind of situation before.
"Can't you talk normally?" I asked. "I don't like people in my head."
The girl seemed taken aback by that. She held her hand up, though her sleeves were so long I couldn't actually see her hand, and held it against her, moving down towards her throat. Then she shook her head.
I narrowed my eyes.
"You can't speak?" I asked. "Or won't?"
She just shook her head again.
I wrinkled the corner of my mouth and gave her another look. She had very pale skin. Red eyes, green hair. Well, I had pink eyes. My sister had pink eyes too, and green hair…. Plus there was still that constant veil of psychic energy around this girl. Yep, that settled it.
"Okay, I'll let your telepathy in, but I'm keeping my emotions blocked, okay?" I said. I hated this. I didn't even do this with Gardevoir, it was just too taxing. But I didn't want a random psychic picking up on anything.
I modified my shields and the girl nodded.
"Can you hear me now?" she asked. I had to hold back a grimace. I almost thought to turn it back on her, start talking in her head and see how she liked it. But I didn't like doing that either.
"Yes," I said.
Her body language flitted through relief to excitement in about a millisecond, before she said, "Good, I have so many questions!"
"Uh," I said, eloquently.
"What are you?" she began with, "speaking" really fast. "Where are we? Are you from another village? Did you bring me here? I can't sense any illusions around you, but you look perfect!"
"Uh," I repeated. It seemed this obvious Pokémon wasn't going to give me any answers.
"By the way, my name's Astra, and -" she stopped abruptly, turning her head to look out further into the forest. "Do you smell that?"
I sniffed, but didn't smell anything out of the ordinary. "I don't think so?" I said.
And then it hit me. It was unbelievably sweet, like a Mago berry, but different. And yet, it smelled familiar.
"How could you not smell that?" said Astra, turning in the direction it was coming from. "I'm starving; I've been wandering around these woods for ages." She started walking, as if not realising she was doing it.
My own stomach grumbled, and I thought about my own lack of supplies. Besides, where there were berries, there were Pokémon. Maybe even some that weren't in a disguise and who knew where they were.
I followed Astra for a bit before we found a small clearing. There were several bushes, but no berries presented themselves. Something about this whole situation seemed familiar, but it was hard to remember when I was so hungry. Plus I had a whole host of Pokémon that would need feeding too.
"There must be some berries left, the smell is still here," said Astra, though the "voice" was faint, as if she didn't realise she was still broadcasting to me. She reached into her bag and pulled out an empty jar. She then walked towards a particular bush, reaching forward and parting the leaves.
"Ahah!" I said, remembering, and snapping my fingers in joy of solving this mystery.
I lived in Kanto most of my life, just inside Pallet Town near Xanadu Nursery. They had a lot of plants, and the now-owner, Florinda, had an Oddish, which had recently evolved into a Gloom. This smell was Sweet Scent! Which meant….
I focused back on Astra who was face deep in shrubbery when suddenly I heard a scream, and Astra flickered away into a teleport just as a loud crack came from the bush, reappearing on the other side of the clearing. The Sweet Scent was already starting to fade as a Mawile tumbled out of the bush, its horns seeming to have not realised it didn't get the meal it was looking for.
This was crazy, I knew it happened, but I'd never a Pokémon try to eat another Pokémon before. That lead to all sorts of questions, like, did Astra's disguise not work on other Pokémon, or id Mawile not care about eating humans? Either way, I was missing the important thing here.
I love Mawiles! Frantically I opened my bag and grabbed Pikachu's Poké Ball, enlarging it and ready to throw.
Astra seemed to have the same idea, which was bizarre, as she took a Poké Ball and said, "Alright, nobody tries to eat me!" I was caught between trying to stop her because I wanted the Mawile, and letting her continue since technically she saw it first. Then again, it wasn't common for Pokémon to catch Pokémon. That would undermine the entire Trainer- Pokémon relationship! "Let's see how you like getting eaten!"
The Mawile's eyes flitted between me and Astra as she backed up, screaming, "Wait, wait, stop, I didn't mean to!" She continued backing up until she hit the bushes again. "It was an accident, please don't capture me!"
Ah, darn, I thought. Putting my ball back in my bag. So it looked like disguises did work on other Pokémon, and this Mawile was just careless. How she expected to eat such a huge Pokémon though… well, I'd never seen a Mawile in action, maybe her horns could handle it.
"You can talk!?" said Astra, pulling me out of my thoughts.
Mawile paused, staring at Astra. This was bizarre.
"Hey," I said, jumping in. They both turned to look at me, as if they'd both forgotten I was there. "What's with the shock? Of course you can understand her!" Even if I was willing to continue this charade that Astra was a human, the very notion that a Psychic human had never bothered to experiment in understanding Pokémon using their powers until a situation like this, was insane. Absolutely insane. Clearly, I was in the Insane Forest, in the Insane Region.
"You both can understand me?!" said Mawile, causing Astra to turn back to look at her.
"What the fuck is going on!?" both Astra and the Mawile yelled.
I threw up my hands in desperation.
Three-Ring Circus - 2 (Fun and Adventure!/A Backwards Grin/Hyphen)
And here we are with the second one. Sorry about the double post, I wasn't sure if I should post them back to back like this or combine them, so I just decided to do it this way.
_____________________________
"Okay everyone," I said, trying desperately to not let the annoyance show in my voice. "Let's just talk it through."
Once again they turned to look at me as if they forgot I was there, even though I'd just spoken to them.
"Well, uh," said Mawile, sounded uncertain and confused, while Astra looked oddly fearful all of a sudden, looking at me with odd eyes. I couldn't make out the expression clearly because of the hood, but I wasn't that interested really. She didn't seem to know where I was any better than I did. "Neither of you are going to try to catch me, right?" Her expression changed to one of suspicion.
Now that I got a better look at Mawile, and she was staring at me, I had an odd sense of… fear. Which I could recognise was absolutely silly of me. It didn't help the emotions though, and I merely held my head higher, puffing out my chest slightly so I wouldn't take a step back.
Then again, maybe it wasn't so silly of me to accept I should be wary of this Mawile. A Mawile with Sweet Scent? That was a pretty high level move normally. Maybe she was born with it? After all, a forest was an unusual place for a wild Mawile to live in. Then again, I'd just seen a bunch of Jigglypuff living in a cave not a day ago.
"You don't catch Pokémon who don't want to be caught," I said, shrugging, ignoring the fear to the best of my ability. I could feel my voice crack at the end out of nervousness, and promptly ignored that too. "That's asking for trouble, never mind that it can be considered poaching."
Astra kept staring at me, but went back to Mawile when the latter Pokémon turned to face her.
"So you're not going to either,?"
Astra took a step back from Mawile, her eyes widening.
Like Vulpix, or Jigglypuff, or probably two dozen or so Pokémon I really liked, I knew a lot about Mawiles. They were adorable. But they also had Intimidate as a possible ability. Understandable that she'd be using it, since she was worried we were going to capture her. I'd never seen it personally, but I had been on both the giving and receiving end of a similar thing.
Truth be told I was curious me using it would even work on a Pokémon. I'd never tried it on Gardevoir back at home since I tried to ignore him as much as possible. It could work on me if I wasn't careful, when my sister did it. It could work on her. We both used it on mum. I used it on Professor Oak sometimes.
"Hey Mawile," I said, bringing her attention back to me.
I widened my eyes just a bit, blinked twice to generated some moisture and let my eyes get that wet, sparkly look, and frowned, putting a finger to the corner of my mouth.
"Why are you intimidating us?" I asked.
The lines along Mawile's face softened almost immediately, and her horn lowered a fraction. I felt the sense of pressure and fear lift and relaxed my shoulders slightly.
Astra looked beyond relieved, and when she turned to look at me as I kept up my Charm, her expression changed further to one of barely restrained excitement.
Slowly I let up on the Charm, lowering my hand and blinking the moisture away. Astra returned to looking vaguely wary, but thankfully Mawile didn't pick herself back up to try and intimidate us again.
Mawile opened her mouth to speak, but then she just got a confused look before settling on frustration.
"Agh, no wonder nobody's been willing to talk to me!" she said, pointing at me, her horns lifting again. "And you, what was that? Humans can't be that cute!"
"Ah," I said. "Well, Charm is just something me and my sister picked up. Very good for getting into, and out of, trouble."
"Wait, wait!" said Astra, waving her arms in agitation. "I have questions!" She definitely looked it, though I was unsure what those questions were other than the most important one.
"Me too," I said, wanting to just get to that question. I was three days on my Pokémon adventure and already getting into too many shenanigans. If I couldn't catch a Mawile, it was time to get out of this weird forest. There was still something off about it. "Mawile," I continued, looking at her. "Where are we, and how do I get out of here?"
"How should I know!?" asked the Mawile, obviously exasperated. "I just woke up here about a week ago and haven't been able to find my way out. Right now though, I want to know, how can you two understand me?"
I looked at Astra, who then looked at me. There was a sudden glint of apprehension, maybe suspicion about her. I paused a moment and waited, but an answer from her didn't seem forthcoming. She was waiting for me it seemed, and all the while Mawile was growing more impatient, fidgeting and looking at us back and forth.
I knew Astra was a Pokémon, mostly because I was very familiar with what the Ralts line looked like, and because she had a constant veil of psychic energy around her. Sure, she was either a very tall Kirlia, or she was a short Gardevoir, but her height didn't change the hair, eyes, or skin.
Thinking back, it looked like she might have assumed the same of me, which could be a problem. I had no idea why she'd bother putting on a disguise. And while I'd never heard of a Pokémon-trainer, it wasn't completely unheard of for Pokémon to direct other Pokémon in battle, generally. It could be she was nervous around humans. Maybe she just didn't want the attention. After all, I was certain if there was ever an open Pokémon-trainer, Professor Oak would be all over that.
Ah, screw it, I was probably over thinking it. No need to contort my responses into knots to mislead a Pokémon.
"Well, it's a long story," I said, honestly. "It's easier for Psychics to learn anyway, although some real weirdoes can learn if they spend enough time on it."
"Oh," said Mawile, eyeing me. "You're psychic?" She turned to Astra. "And you too?"
Astra looked at me warily, then at Mawile. She just nodded, then.
"You might notice," I said, bringing attention back to me. "That Astra here doesn't talk normally for some reason. She uses telepathy."
"You don't have to speak for me, I barely know you!" said Astra.
I just waved her off.
"Oh," Said Mawile again. "I didn't notice. So you aren't travelling together?"
"We met like, two minutes ago," I said. "Then she got caught by your Sweet Scent and ran off."
Mawile's eyes widened slightly. "Uh, sorry about that. I was expecting like, a Bidoof or something, not a trainer. I didn't think humans could get lured by it."
"Not entirely sure they can, really," I said, awkwardly. I rubbed my shoulder in the uncomfortable silence before Mawile shook her head suddenly.
"Wait, I haven't gotten any answers!" she said.
"Not a lot of those going around," I mumbled, all too aware I hadn't gotten any answers either.
Mawile clenched her little fists for a moment, and closed her eyes. Then she exhaled, and said, "Let's try this again. I'm… Mawile, and you're name is?" she turned to me.
"Alyssa," I said. She then gestured to Astra.
"I'm Astra," said Astra.
"Nice to meet you both," continued Mawile. "So, I take it neither of you know how you got here?" We shook our heads. "What was the last thing you remember?"
"I was sleeping," I said, crossing my arms and shifting my weight to my right leg. It was weird to see a Pokémon take so much initiative. "At the Pokémon centre in Cerulean City. Then I woke up here not ten minutes ago."
Mawile tilted her head then went to look at Astra.
"I was walking through the woods near Rustboro and suddenly I was in a different forest. I've been here for hours."
"Well, okay," said Mawile. "That's uh, Kanto, and Hoenn, right?" she asked.
I nodded, while Astra said, "I was in Hoenn, yes. But this place is different." She gestured with her overly long sleeves.
"There's something wrong about it," I said, voicing this concern for the first time. "There's this… I don't know, something. A faint pressure that shows up every now and then. Wait." I moved my arms back to my sides, and stood very still, wracking my brain. It was something on the edge of my memory, but no matter how hard I kept thinking, I couldn't seem to grasp it. I looked to Astra. "Come on, help me out here," I said, holding my hands up in helplessness.
"I don't know what you're talking…," she said, trailing off. "I… oh."
"What, what is it?!" asked Mawile, sounding frustrated.
"I didn't notice it," continued Astra. "I don't feel it now, but thinking back on it maybe there was some kind of psychic attack? That didn't do anything?"
"Hmm," I said, in thought. I hadn't seen anything, and I hadn't been here very long, but I definitely felt something on my arrival, something that wasn't nearly as obvious as Astra's psychic presence. "Mawile, you said you couldn't find your way out of here?" She nodded. "Okay, if that's the case we're probably looking at some Psychic or maybe Ghost Pokémon pulling a prank on us. Or protecting their village or something."
"Wait, village?!" asked Astra, excited all over again.
"Pokémon?" asked Mawile at the same time. "You think Psychic or Ghost Pokémon transported us here and now won't let us leave?"
"I don't know about transporting us here," I said to Mawile, "but keeping us here? Sure, I've heard of certain areas that require Psychic Pokémon to get through because the Ghost Pokémon lure travellers into getting lost."
"Wait, back up," said Astra, taking a step forward. "Pokémon villages? You know there are other Pokémon villages?"
"Well uh, yeah," I said. "I literally just ran into one yesterday. It was inside Mt. Moon in Kanto, and a bunch of Jigglypuff and Clefairy lived together in the mountain. All the Jigglypuff left though, because everyone else fell asleep during the celebration song."
Mawile snorted. She opened her mouth to say something, but clamped it down before any noise came out.
"So there are other villages!?" asked Astra, all but confirming what I already knew about her. "What was it like?"
"Uh, I don't know," I said, shrugging. "I wasn't there for very long. There was some kind of personal argument that had blown up into a huge village wide problem between the Jigglypuff and the Clefairy. The two groups were arguing over the Moonstone and its pieces."
"What's a Moonstone?" asked Astra, her "voice" even more insistent.
"Just a kind of Evolution stone. Some Pokémon need it to evolve. The Clefairy rode in on it from space apparently, and they worshiped it as their god. They were really protective of the pieces and thought the Jigglypuff were hoarding them for no reason."
Astra blinked, seemingly dazed. "What does that mean, 'god'?"
"Well I didn't exactly talk to them about it, but my guess is that since it's what brought them to this planet, in that sense it's their reason for being. So they worshiped it."
"From space?" asked Astra, eyes wide. "They came from space?"
"The way they tell it," I said. "Extra-terrestrial Pokémon are real, I just didn't think Clefairy were one. But apparently I was wrong."
"Extra-terrestrial Pokémon," said Astra, awestruck. She was wobbling slightly, and I worried she might fall down. She shook her head, and then said forcefully, "Had any humans found this village?"
"Uh, sure," I said. "It was built so that all the Pokémon could hide if a human just strolled in, plus it was in the mountain cave system, difficult to find. And also there was some crazy scientist who implied the mountain was under protection from the government. That last one's just a guess though.
"Anyway, Pokémon villages aren't exactly unheard of. They're very rare and hard to find though, for obvious reasons. But I feel like you should know all this." I gave her a pointed look, and she shuffled nervously before seeming to steel herself.
"Actually, I have questions," she said, looking at from me to Mawile.
"Shoot, I guess," replied Mawile.
"Are you from a Pokémon village? Is that why you can talk?"
"No, there's no village," said Mawile. "But what do you mean, is that why I can talk? Every Pokémon I've run into can talk, they just don't want to talk to me."
"Every Pokémon can talk," I said, confirming. "Every one I've met or heard in passing. They can all talk."
"But I mean like.…" said Astra, gesturing from me then to Mawile. "Like the way we're talking now! All I hear are Pokémon who say their name over and over, and trying to use Telepathy on them just gives this crude conceptual thing."
"Isn't that what I'm doing?" asked Mawile. "Just saying my name over and over?"
"Yes," I said, at the same time Astra said, "No." I whipped my head to look at her, and she did the same.
"She," Astra began, before looking at Mawile, "You sound like… two people speaking. One's speaking human, and the other's lower and just saying "Maw mawile wile maw," all the time.
"Ooph," I said out loud, smiling. "That sounded almost funny. I'm so used to understanding Pokémon I couldn't begin to speak Pokémon gibberish."
"So you don't hear a second human speaking voice when I talk?" asked Mawile to me.
"You're just speaking like any other Pokémon," I confirmed.
"That's… weird," said Mawile, frowning. "You're a human that can understand Pokémon. Can you speak like a Pokémon? Maybe like, 'hu human man man?'"
I snorted, lifting my hand to stifle a giggle.
"No that's ridiculous," I said. "But yeah I can speak Pokémon. I haven't run into the occasion to need to, but I suppose if I ever need to talk to my Pokémon without other humans knowing what I was saying, I could definitely do it."
"Ah!" said Astra, sounding accusatory, pointing at me. "Other humans! So you're human!"
I looked at her and shrugged.
"Never said I wasn't."
Mawile looked at Astra like she'd just said something extremely stupid. Then she shook her head, looking at me again. "Saving that question for later, can you say something in Pokémon for us? I want to see if we can understand."
"Sure," I said, though it came out as "Vul." "As a kid I practiced speaking Pokémon with my family's pet Vulpix, so I speak with a Vulpix accent. I can do a Gardevoir one too, though I'd prefer not to."
Both Astra and Mawile just stared at me, and I worried for a moment that I'd somehow gotten really rusty before Mawile spoke up again.
"That… is weird," she said. "I understood you fine and you sound just like any other Pokémon I've heard, just… it's crazy to hear that coming out of a human." She looked like she wanted to say more, but after a moment she just turned to look at Astra, who was still staring at me.
"It's like Mawile," said Astra, seemingly transfixed. "But… why can you talk like a Gardevoir?"
I grimaced.
"My… my mum has a Gardevoir," I said, trying to speak quickly to move past this topic. "Been around all my life."
"What!?" asked Astra, her voice sounding angry for some reason. "How could… I don't understand! I want an explanation!"
I scoffed. So did I!
"What's to explain really?" I said, getting heated. "From what I understand my mum met Gardevoir when he was a Ralts. And he's just… hung around. I don't know if she even caught him, he's just there." I threw up my hands. "And she never answers any questions about it. So can we change the subject please?"
"No, we can't," said Astra, taking a step forward. "Are you sure your mom never caught him? Where did he come from? Did he come from a village?!"
"I don't know!" I said, stepping forward myself, peering at the hooded weird Pokémon with a stupid hat. "The only thing I know is he was with us when we were in Galar. If you're from Hoenn and asking about some kind of village there, he's not from there, he's from Galar. Hoenn's not the only region with the Ralts line you know! Have you been living in a cave your whole life!?"
"Yes!" shouted Astra, though after a moment she took a step back, her expression turning to one of thought. "So… there are other Ralts, Kirlia, and Gardevoir out there?"
"Of course!" I said. "The world's a big place. Off the top of my head they're native to not just Hoenn, but Galar and Unova. There's probably plenty of other places too."
"Where is Galar?" asked Astra, sounding a lot less angry now.
I lowered my voice too, feeling only a little bad for yelling at a Pokémon who clearly didn't know much about the world. "Assuming we're all in the same country where we started, Galar is practically on the other side of the world. So's Unova for that matter. "
Astra took a step back, seemingly lost in thought as Mawile waited a bit, before speaking.
"Astra," she said. "I don't want to upset you or Alyssa, but can you uh, do me a favour? Can you bring out one of your Pokémon?"
Astra's expression changed, looking confused. She then nodded.
"Sure," she said, taking out one of her Poké Balls again. "Treecko, come out!"
Treecko formed out of the light and landed beside Astra. It took one look at Mawile before crouching down, ready for combat.
"No Treecko," said Astra, patting it on the head. "Mawile's friendly. She just wanted to see you."
"Hello!" said Mawile, waving at Treecko. "How are you?"
Treecko looked back at Astra, then suddenly looked at me, seemingly only noticing me then. It then looked at Astra again and said, "Who what?" pointing at me and then Mawile. "Talk her you the good?"
"They're both new friends," said Astra. "I think Mawile just wanted to hear you talk a bit. Is that okay?"
Treecko shrugged. "Good."
"What…," both Me and Mawile said at the same time. "Is that?" I continued, while Mawile went with "the Hell?"
"What did you two hear?" asked Astra.
"It's basically nonsense," I said, while Mawile nodded her head, keeping her horns low on the ground. "I think he was asking why Mawile can talk like you?"
"It's all primitive and out of order," said Mawile, continuing the thought. She looked at me. "Do you have a Pokémon too?"
"Sure," I said, reaching for my bag. This could get interesting. I took out Jigglypuff's ball and enlarged it, tossing it on the ground next to Treeko and said, "Come on out Jigglypuff."
"Morning!" she said upon coming out, her little stubby arms out. Her expression shifted to one of confusion, looking at Treecko, then Astra, then Mawile and finally me. "Where are we? Where's that mean guy with the red hair?"
"Okay, so that's what I expect!" said Mawile, gesturing to Jigglypuff while Astra seemed completely taken aback.
Jigglypuff turned to face Mawile, and puffed up slightly.
"Am I fighting that?" she asked. "I've never seen a Pokémon like that before."
"What the fuck," said Astra, and I was taken aback.
"Language!" I said, looking at Astra. "I am a child!"
Astra didn't even seem to hear me.
"I don't want to be caught!" said Mawile angrily at Jigglypuff. "I just wanted to hear you talk!"
Jigglypuff looked at me. "What's going on?" she said.
"Heck if I know, Jigglypuff," I said. "We're trying to figure that out." I held out my Poké Ball again. "Jigglypuff, return."
Jigglypuff let herself get hit by the return beam and disappeared in a flash of light.
"So all your Pokémon talk like that?" Astra said, still completely shocked.
"Yes," I said, gears in my head spinning furiously and coming up with nothing. The best thing I could come up with was that maybe Astra had only encountered particularly stupid Pokémon. "Every Pokémon I've ever met, or heard, or heard of."
"I… think I have an idea," said Mawile.
"Please," I said, gesturing between myself, Astra, and her, then finally to the forest in general. "Make sense of this!"
"I think we may have gotten punted here from alternate dimensions."
I opened my mouth, then closed it. The very concept wasn't unheard of. But… the manner in which I experienced it was a lot different and a lot more integrated into my new life. And was also a decade ago. Why would I get put into a different universe again, without even dying, and one that seemed basically the same as where I left? Oh… but wait! I kept thinking, trying to cross reference what I'd read and what I remembered about Pokémon in my past life.
There was a long silence, and eventually Treecko got bored and curled up amongst the flowers.
"I don't know what that means," said Astra, frowning.
"There are other dimensions," I said, slowly. "There's some research going on in Unova about that, I think."
"But what does that mean?" asked Astra.
Mawile took a small step forward at that, sighing.
"So, imagine there's a world just like yours somewhere else, except something in the past, or maybe all the way at the beginning, happened differently. And whatever happened differently, that caused everything else to spiral out into a different direction. Are you following me?"
"I… think so?" she replied, frowning harder. "Like if I hadn't gone out for berries that one time, and then…." Astra trailed off. Mawile waited a few moments but when Astra didn't say anything more, she continued.
"So, this world, and it sounds like wherever Alyssa's from, is a reality where Pokémon can all talk to each other like humans, but not to humans, and yours is one where they're all, uh. Animals." Mawile paused, looking at Treecko. "No offence meant."
Treecko waved her off. "No about worry."
Both me and Mawile cringed at that.
"That's going to take some getting used to," she said.
"Alright," said Astra. "I think I get it. But wait!" She turned to me, gesticulating wildly. "If you're from another dimension too, then all that stuff you said about Pokémon villages might not be true for me!"
I shrugged. "I guess not. But you don't seem to know a lot about the world outside your cave, so who knows?"
"There's a reason we never left before," she said, sounding annoyed. "I almost got caught myself, and those humans didn't stop and ask if I wanted to be!"
"Wait, what?" asked Mawile. I ignored her.
"Normal Pokémon who don't want to be caught don't get found in the first place!" I said. "That's like, rule one of Pokémon, and being a Pokémon trainer! Being seen is in itself a sign you want to fight and join a trainer! Did you at least run?"
"For my life!" said Astra, sound furious, her voice loud in my head. "I couldn't have been any more scared!"
"Am I missing something?" asked Mawile.
"Well then fine, maybe things are different in your world then!" I shouted, completely confused why Astra seemed to think I'd done something to her. "Or maybe they were just jerks! Some humans don't pay attention, and some are just bad people! That's why humans have Officer Jenny's, and that's why you can break out of a Poké Ball if you have to!"
"So that's another thing to look into later," said Mawile, to nobody. "If this world, or Astra's have Officer Jenny's."
"May's not a bad person, she's just a little rough around the edges!" said Astra. "She didn't know, things are obviously just different where you're from!"
"Wait," I said, my voice back to normal levels. "May? Like, brown, kinda short hair? Blue eyes? Wears a bandana thing on her head?"
"Um, yes?" said Astra, put off by the sudden change in tone. "Do you know her?"
"Not at all," I said. "Do you by any chance know a boy named Ash too?"
"No?" said Astra. "My other friend I'm travelling with is named Brendan."
That name sounded familiar. "Brendan…." I said out lout. "Brendan…." I was pretty sure that was the male protagonist in the games. I didn't know if he had a counterpart in my world, but it did answer that question. "That clinches it," I continued. "Our universes are very different."
"Can one of you please explain what you were arguing about?" said Mawile, and I felt the sudden dread from her intimidate, which disappeared after a moment. "I'm being left out of the loop!"
Astra glanced at Mawile, her shoulders slumped, looking defeated.
"I guess it doesn't matter now," she said. "I'm a Kirlia."
Mawile blinked. "Do Kirlia normally look like you in your world? You look human."
"She looks weird," I jumped in, which earned me a glare from both Astra and Mawile.
"I'm using an illusion to look like a human," she said. "And I'd… rather keep it up if you don't mind." She looked at me. "No offense, but I'm just not comfortable showing myself around you."
"Whatever," I said, a bit more annoyed than I thought I should be. Astra glowered in response to my tone. "I doubt your disguise will fool any Psychics. Unless those don't exist in your world, or maybe wherever you're from really is the only place the Ralts like exists."
"I've only heard that humans aren't Psychic." Astra then cocked her head, her expression softening. "Do humans have types where you're from?"
"Like, for pair bonding, or do you mean Pokémon types?"
Astra blushed, then looked annoyed. "Obviously I mean Pokémon types."
I tapped my chin with my finger in thought.
"Not too much research on that," I said. "Obviously, as I prove, some humans can use 'moves' that normally only Pokémon can use. And…." I sighed. "I am Psychic, so I can use Psychic moves, but Charm is a fairy type move. And I mean, have you seen me?" I gestured to myself. My outfit was pink and white, and my hair and eyes were pink.
"Holy crap, your mom has a Gardevoir," said Mawile. "Are you implying –"
"I'm not implying anything!" I said, cutting her off. "The truth is I don't know, I only suspect. That subject needs more research."
Mawile smiled, and I didn't like the look of that smile. "Are you planning on doing any of that research?" I could tell what she was implying by the tone.
"I don't know, what about you?" I asked. "Does that sound like a good idea to you?"
Mawile blinked, as if she hadn't thought about that. She was the one who brought it up!
"Am I missing something?" asked Astra. "I just wanted to know if humans had types."
"Maybe they do!" I said, throwing my hands back up in the air in frustration.
_____________________________
"Okay everyone," I said, trying desperately to not let the annoyance show in my voice. "Let's just talk it through."
Once again they turned to look at me as if they forgot I was there, even though I'd just spoken to them.
"Well, uh," said Mawile, sounded uncertain and confused, while Astra looked oddly fearful all of a sudden, looking at me with odd eyes. I couldn't make out the expression clearly because of the hood, but I wasn't that interested really. She didn't seem to know where I was any better than I did. "Neither of you are going to try to catch me, right?" Her expression changed to one of suspicion.
Now that I got a better look at Mawile, and she was staring at me, I had an odd sense of… fear. Which I could recognise was absolutely silly of me. It didn't help the emotions though, and I merely held my head higher, puffing out my chest slightly so I wouldn't take a step back.
Then again, maybe it wasn't so silly of me to accept I should be wary of this Mawile. A Mawile with Sweet Scent? That was a pretty high level move normally. Maybe she was born with it? After all, a forest was an unusual place for a wild Mawile to live in. Then again, I'd just seen a bunch of Jigglypuff living in a cave not a day ago.
"You don't catch Pokémon who don't want to be caught," I said, shrugging, ignoring the fear to the best of my ability. I could feel my voice crack at the end out of nervousness, and promptly ignored that too. "That's asking for trouble, never mind that it can be considered poaching."
Astra kept staring at me, but went back to Mawile when the latter Pokémon turned to face her.
"So you're not going to either,?"
Astra took a step back from Mawile, her eyes widening.
Like Vulpix, or Jigglypuff, or probably two dozen or so Pokémon I really liked, I knew a lot about Mawiles. They were adorable. But they also had Intimidate as a possible ability. Understandable that she'd be using it, since she was worried we were going to capture her. I'd never seen it personally, but I had been on both the giving and receiving end of a similar thing.
Truth be told I was curious me using it would even work on a Pokémon. I'd never tried it on Gardevoir back at home since I tried to ignore him as much as possible. It could work on me if I wasn't careful, when my sister did it. It could work on her. We both used it on mum. I used it on Professor Oak sometimes.
"Hey Mawile," I said, bringing her attention back to me.
I widened my eyes just a bit, blinked twice to generated some moisture and let my eyes get that wet, sparkly look, and frowned, putting a finger to the corner of my mouth.
"Why are you intimidating us?" I asked.
The lines along Mawile's face softened almost immediately, and her horn lowered a fraction. I felt the sense of pressure and fear lift and relaxed my shoulders slightly.
Astra looked beyond relieved, and when she turned to look at me as I kept up my Charm, her expression changed further to one of barely restrained excitement.
Slowly I let up on the Charm, lowering my hand and blinking the moisture away. Astra returned to looking vaguely wary, but thankfully Mawile didn't pick herself back up to try and intimidate us again.
Mawile opened her mouth to speak, but then she just got a confused look before settling on frustration.
"Agh, no wonder nobody's been willing to talk to me!" she said, pointing at me, her horns lifting again. "And you, what was that? Humans can't be that cute!"
"Ah," I said. "Well, Charm is just something me and my sister picked up. Very good for getting into, and out of, trouble."
"Wait, wait!" said Astra, waving her arms in agitation. "I have questions!" She definitely looked it, though I was unsure what those questions were other than the most important one.
"Me too," I said, wanting to just get to that question. I was three days on my Pokémon adventure and already getting into too many shenanigans. If I couldn't catch a Mawile, it was time to get out of this weird forest. There was still something off about it. "Mawile," I continued, looking at her. "Where are we, and how do I get out of here?"
"How should I know!?" asked the Mawile, obviously exasperated. "I just woke up here about a week ago and haven't been able to find my way out. Right now though, I want to know, how can you two understand me?"
I looked at Astra, who then looked at me. There was a sudden glint of apprehension, maybe suspicion about her. I paused a moment and waited, but an answer from her didn't seem forthcoming. She was waiting for me it seemed, and all the while Mawile was growing more impatient, fidgeting and looking at us back and forth.
I knew Astra was a Pokémon, mostly because I was very familiar with what the Ralts line looked like, and because she had a constant veil of psychic energy around her. Sure, she was either a very tall Kirlia, or she was a short Gardevoir, but her height didn't change the hair, eyes, or skin.
Thinking back, it looked like she might have assumed the same of me, which could be a problem. I had no idea why she'd bother putting on a disguise. And while I'd never heard of a Pokémon-trainer, it wasn't completely unheard of for Pokémon to direct other Pokémon in battle, generally. It could be she was nervous around humans. Maybe she just didn't want the attention. After all, I was certain if there was ever an open Pokémon-trainer, Professor Oak would be all over that.
Ah, screw it, I was probably over thinking it. No need to contort my responses into knots to mislead a Pokémon.
"Well, it's a long story," I said, honestly. "It's easier for Psychics to learn anyway, although some real weirdoes can learn if they spend enough time on it."
"Oh," said Mawile, eyeing me. "You're psychic?" She turned to Astra. "And you too?"
Astra looked at me warily, then at Mawile. She just nodded, then.
"You might notice," I said, bringing attention back to me. "That Astra here doesn't talk normally for some reason. She uses telepathy."
"You don't have to speak for me, I barely know you!" said Astra.
I just waved her off.
"Oh," Said Mawile again. "I didn't notice. So you aren't travelling together?"
"We met like, two minutes ago," I said. "Then she got caught by your Sweet Scent and ran off."
Mawile's eyes widened slightly. "Uh, sorry about that. I was expecting like, a Bidoof or something, not a trainer. I didn't think humans could get lured by it."
"Not entirely sure they can, really," I said, awkwardly. I rubbed my shoulder in the uncomfortable silence before Mawile shook her head suddenly.
"Wait, I haven't gotten any answers!" she said.
"Not a lot of those going around," I mumbled, all too aware I hadn't gotten any answers either.
Mawile clenched her little fists for a moment, and closed her eyes. Then she exhaled, and said, "Let's try this again. I'm… Mawile, and you're name is?" she turned to me.
"Alyssa," I said. She then gestured to Astra.
"I'm Astra," said Astra.
"Nice to meet you both," continued Mawile. "So, I take it neither of you know how you got here?" We shook our heads. "What was the last thing you remember?"
"I was sleeping," I said, crossing my arms and shifting my weight to my right leg. It was weird to see a Pokémon take so much initiative. "At the Pokémon centre in Cerulean City. Then I woke up here not ten minutes ago."
Mawile tilted her head then went to look at Astra.
"I was walking through the woods near Rustboro and suddenly I was in a different forest. I've been here for hours."
"Well, okay," said Mawile. "That's uh, Kanto, and Hoenn, right?" she asked.
I nodded, while Astra said, "I was in Hoenn, yes. But this place is different." She gestured with her overly long sleeves.
"There's something wrong about it," I said, voicing this concern for the first time. "There's this… I don't know, something. A faint pressure that shows up every now and then. Wait." I moved my arms back to my sides, and stood very still, wracking my brain. It was something on the edge of my memory, but no matter how hard I kept thinking, I couldn't seem to grasp it. I looked to Astra. "Come on, help me out here," I said, holding my hands up in helplessness.
"I don't know what you're talking…," she said, trailing off. "I… oh."
"What, what is it?!" asked Mawile, sounding frustrated.
"I didn't notice it," continued Astra. "I don't feel it now, but thinking back on it maybe there was some kind of psychic attack? That didn't do anything?"
"Hmm," I said, in thought. I hadn't seen anything, and I hadn't been here very long, but I definitely felt something on my arrival, something that wasn't nearly as obvious as Astra's psychic presence. "Mawile, you said you couldn't find your way out of here?" She nodded. "Okay, if that's the case we're probably looking at some Psychic or maybe Ghost Pokémon pulling a prank on us. Or protecting their village or something."
"Wait, village?!" asked Astra, excited all over again.
"Pokémon?" asked Mawile at the same time. "You think Psychic or Ghost Pokémon transported us here and now won't let us leave?"
"I don't know about transporting us here," I said to Mawile, "but keeping us here? Sure, I've heard of certain areas that require Psychic Pokémon to get through because the Ghost Pokémon lure travellers into getting lost."
"Wait, back up," said Astra, taking a step forward. "Pokémon villages? You know there are other Pokémon villages?"
"Well uh, yeah," I said. "I literally just ran into one yesterday. It was inside Mt. Moon in Kanto, and a bunch of Jigglypuff and Clefairy lived together in the mountain. All the Jigglypuff left though, because everyone else fell asleep during the celebration song."
Mawile snorted. She opened her mouth to say something, but clamped it down before any noise came out.
"So there are other villages!?" asked Astra, all but confirming what I already knew about her. "What was it like?"
"Uh, I don't know," I said, shrugging. "I wasn't there for very long. There was some kind of personal argument that had blown up into a huge village wide problem between the Jigglypuff and the Clefairy. The two groups were arguing over the Moonstone and its pieces."
"What's a Moonstone?" asked Astra, her "voice" even more insistent.
"Just a kind of Evolution stone. Some Pokémon need it to evolve. The Clefairy rode in on it from space apparently, and they worshiped it as their god. They were really protective of the pieces and thought the Jigglypuff were hoarding them for no reason."
Astra blinked, seemingly dazed. "What does that mean, 'god'?"
"Well I didn't exactly talk to them about it, but my guess is that since it's what brought them to this planet, in that sense it's their reason for being. So they worshiped it."
"From space?" asked Astra, eyes wide. "They came from space?"
"The way they tell it," I said. "Extra-terrestrial Pokémon are real, I just didn't think Clefairy were one. But apparently I was wrong."
"Extra-terrestrial Pokémon," said Astra, awestruck. She was wobbling slightly, and I worried she might fall down. She shook her head, and then said forcefully, "Had any humans found this village?"
"Uh, sure," I said. "It was built so that all the Pokémon could hide if a human just strolled in, plus it was in the mountain cave system, difficult to find. And also there was some crazy scientist who implied the mountain was under protection from the government. That last one's just a guess though.
"Anyway, Pokémon villages aren't exactly unheard of. They're very rare and hard to find though, for obvious reasons. But I feel like you should know all this." I gave her a pointed look, and she shuffled nervously before seeming to steel herself.
"Actually, I have questions," she said, looking at from me to Mawile.
"Shoot, I guess," replied Mawile.
"Are you from a Pokémon village? Is that why you can talk?"
"No, there's no village," said Mawile. "But what do you mean, is that why I can talk? Every Pokémon I've run into can talk, they just don't want to talk to me."
"Every Pokémon can talk," I said, confirming. "Every one I've met or heard in passing. They can all talk."
"But I mean like.…" said Astra, gesturing from me then to Mawile. "Like the way we're talking now! All I hear are Pokémon who say their name over and over, and trying to use Telepathy on them just gives this crude conceptual thing."
"Isn't that what I'm doing?" asked Mawile. "Just saying my name over and over?"
"Yes," I said, at the same time Astra said, "No." I whipped my head to look at her, and she did the same.
"She," Astra began, before looking at Mawile, "You sound like… two people speaking. One's speaking human, and the other's lower and just saying "Maw mawile wile maw," all the time.
"Ooph," I said out loud, smiling. "That sounded almost funny. I'm so used to understanding Pokémon I couldn't begin to speak Pokémon gibberish."
"So you don't hear a second human speaking voice when I talk?" asked Mawile to me.
"You're just speaking like any other Pokémon," I confirmed.
"That's… weird," said Mawile, frowning. "You're a human that can understand Pokémon. Can you speak like a Pokémon? Maybe like, 'hu human man man?'"
I snorted, lifting my hand to stifle a giggle.
"No that's ridiculous," I said. "But yeah I can speak Pokémon. I haven't run into the occasion to need to, but I suppose if I ever need to talk to my Pokémon without other humans knowing what I was saying, I could definitely do it."
"Ah!" said Astra, sounding accusatory, pointing at me. "Other humans! So you're human!"
I looked at her and shrugged.
"Never said I wasn't."
Mawile looked at Astra like she'd just said something extremely stupid. Then she shook her head, looking at me again. "Saving that question for later, can you say something in Pokémon for us? I want to see if we can understand."
"Sure," I said, though it came out as "Vul." "As a kid I practiced speaking Pokémon with my family's pet Vulpix, so I speak with a Vulpix accent. I can do a Gardevoir one too, though I'd prefer not to."
Both Astra and Mawile just stared at me, and I worried for a moment that I'd somehow gotten really rusty before Mawile spoke up again.
"That… is weird," she said. "I understood you fine and you sound just like any other Pokémon I've heard, just… it's crazy to hear that coming out of a human." She looked like she wanted to say more, but after a moment she just turned to look at Astra, who was still staring at me.
"It's like Mawile," said Astra, seemingly transfixed. "But… why can you talk like a Gardevoir?"
I grimaced.
"My… my mum has a Gardevoir," I said, trying to speak quickly to move past this topic. "Been around all my life."
"What!?" asked Astra, her voice sounding angry for some reason. "How could… I don't understand! I want an explanation!"
I scoffed. So did I!
"What's to explain really?" I said, getting heated. "From what I understand my mum met Gardevoir when he was a Ralts. And he's just… hung around. I don't know if she even caught him, he's just there." I threw up my hands. "And she never answers any questions about it. So can we change the subject please?"
"No, we can't," said Astra, taking a step forward. "Are you sure your mom never caught him? Where did he come from? Did he come from a village?!"
"I don't know!" I said, stepping forward myself, peering at the hooded weird Pokémon with a stupid hat. "The only thing I know is he was with us when we were in Galar. If you're from Hoenn and asking about some kind of village there, he's not from there, he's from Galar. Hoenn's not the only region with the Ralts line you know! Have you been living in a cave your whole life!?"
"Yes!" shouted Astra, though after a moment she took a step back, her expression turning to one of thought. "So… there are other Ralts, Kirlia, and Gardevoir out there?"
"Of course!" I said. "The world's a big place. Off the top of my head they're native to not just Hoenn, but Galar and Unova. There's probably plenty of other places too."
"Where is Galar?" asked Astra, sounding a lot less angry now.
I lowered my voice too, feeling only a little bad for yelling at a Pokémon who clearly didn't know much about the world. "Assuming we're all in the same country where we started, Galar is practically on the other side of the world. So's Unova for that matter. "
Astra took a step back, seemingly lost in thought as Mawile waited a bit, before speaking.
"Astra," she said. "I don't want to upset you or Alyssa, but can you uh, do me a favour? Can you bring out one of your Pokémon?"
Astra's expression changed, looking confused. She then nodded.
"Sure," she said, taking out one of her Poké Balls again. "Treecko, come out!"
Treecko formed out of the light and landed beside Astra. It took one look at Mawile before crouching down, ready for combat.
"No Treecko," said Astra, patting it on the head. "Mawile's friendly. She just wanted to see you."
"Hello!" said Mawile, waving at Treecko. "How are you?"
Treecko looked back at Astra, then suddenly looked at me, seemingly only noticing me then. It then looked at Astra again and said, "Who what?" pointing at me and then Mawile. "Talk her you the good?"
"They're both new friends," said Astra. "I think Mawile just wanted to hear you talk a bit. Is that okay?"
Treecko shrugged. "Good."
"What…," both Me and Mawile said at the same time. "Is that?" I continued, while Mawile went with "the Hell?"
"What did you two hear?" asked Astra.
"It's basically nonsense," I said, while Mawile nodded her head, keeping her horns low on the ground. "I think he was asking why Mawile can talk like you?"
"It's all primitive and out of order," said Mawile, continuing the thought. She looked at me. "Do you have a Pokémon too?"
"Sure," I said, reaching for my bag. This could get interesting. I took out Jigglypuff's ball and enlarged it, tossing it on the ground next to Treeko and said, "Come on out Jigglypuff."
"Morning!" she said upon coming out, her little stubby arms out. Her expression shifted to one of confusion, looking at Treecko, then Astra, then Mawile and finally me. "Where are we? Where's that mean guy with the red hair?"
"Okay, so that's what I expect!" said Mawile, gesturing to Jigglypuff while Astra seemed completely taken aback.
Jigglypuff turned to face Mawile, and puffed up slightly.
"Am I fighting that?" she asked. "I've never seen a Pokémon like that before."
"What the fuck," said Astra, and I was taken aback.
"Language!" I said, looking at Astra. "I am a child!"
Astra didn't even seem to hear me.
"I don't want to be caught!" said Mawile angrily at Jigglypuff. "I just wanted to hear you talk!"
Jigglypuff looked at me. "What's going on?" she said.
"Heck if I know, Jigglypuff," I said. "We're trying to figure that out." I held out my Poké Ball again. "Jigglypuff, return."
Jigglypuff let herself get hit by the return beam and disappeared in a flash of light.
"So all your Pokémon talk like that?" Astra said, still completely shocked.
"Yes," I said, gears in my head spinning furiously and coming up with nothing. The best thing I could come up with was that maybe Astra had only encountered particularly stupid Pokémon. "Every Pokémon I've ever met, or heard, or heard of."
"I… think I have an idea," said Mawile.
"Please," I said, gesturing between myself, Astra, and her, then finally to the forest in general. "Make sense of this!"
"I think we may have gotten punted here from alternate dimensions."
I opened my mouth, then closed it. The very concept wasn't unheard of. But… the manner in which I experienced it was a lot different and a lot more integrated into my new life. And was also a decade ago. Why would I get put into a different universe again, without even dying, and one that seemed basically the same as where I left? Oh… but wait! I kept thinking, trying to cross reference what I'd read and what I remembered about Pokémon in my past life.
There was a long silence, and eventually Treecko got bored and curled up amongst the flowers.
"I don't know what that means," said Astra, frowning.
"There are other dimensions," I said, slowly. "There's some research going on in Unova about that, I think."
"But what does that mean?" asked Astra.
Mawile took a small step forward at that, sighing.
"So, imagine there's a world just like yours somewhere else, except something in the past, or maybe all the way at the beginning, happened differently. And whatever happened differently, that caused everything else to spiral out into a different direction. Are you following me?"
"I… think so?" she replied, frowning harder. "Like if I hadn't gone out for berries that one time, and then…." Astra trailed off. Mawile waited a few moments but when Astra didn't say anything more, she continued.
"So, this world, and it sounds like wherever Alyssa's from, is a reality where Pokémon can all talk to each other like humans, but not to humans, and yours is one where they're all, uh. Animals." Mawile paused, looking at Treecko. "No offence meant."
Treecko waved her off. "No about worry."
Both me and Mawile cringed at that.
"That's going to take some getting used to," she said.
"Alright," said Astra. "I think I get it. But wait!" She turned to me, gesticulating wildly. "If you're from another dimension too, then all that stuff you said about Pokémon villages might not be true for me!"
I shrugged. "I guess not. But you don't seem to know a lot about the world outside your cave, so who knows?"
"There's a reason we never left before," she said, sounding annoyed. "I almost got caught myself, and those humans didn't stop and ask if I wanted to be!"
"Wait, what?" asked Mawile. I ignored her.
"Normal Pokémon who don't want to be caught don't get found in the first place!" I said. "That's like, rule one of Pokémon, and being a Pokémon trainer! Being seen is in itself a sign you want to fight and join a trainer! Did you at least run?"
"For my life!" said Astra, sound furious, her voice loud in my head. "I couldn't have been any more scared!"
"Am I missing something?" asked Mawile.
"Well then fine, maybe things are different in your world then!" I shouted, completely confused why Astra seemed to think I'd done something to her. "Or maybe they were just jerks! Some humans don't pay attention, and some are just bad people! That's why humans have Officer Jenny's, and that's why you can break out of a Poké Ball if you have to!"
"So that's another thing to look into later," said Mawile, to nobody. "If this world, or Astra's have Officer Jenny's."
"May's not a bad person, she's just a little rough around the edges!" said Astra. "She didn't know, things are obviously just different where you're from!"
"Wait," I said, my voice back to normal levels. "May? Like, brown, kinda short hair? Blue eyes? Wears a bandana thing on her head?"
"Um, yes?" said Astra, put off by the sudden change in tone. "Do you know her?"
"Not at all," I said. "Do you by any chance know a boy named Ash too?"
"No?" said Astra. "My other friend I'm travelling with is named Brendan."
That name sounded familiar. "Brendan…." I said out lout. "Brendan…." I was pretty sure that was the male protagonist in the games. I didn't know if he had a counterpart in my world, but it did answer that question. "That clinches it," I continued. "Our universes are very different."
"Can one of you please explain what you were arguing about?" said Mawile, and I felt the sudden dread from her intimidate, which disappeared after a moment. "I'm being left out of the loop!"
Astra glanced at Mawile, her shoulders slumped, looking defeated.
"I guess it doesn't matter now," she said. "I'm a Kirlia."
Mawile blinked. "Do Kirlia normally look like you in your world? You look human."
"She looks weird," I jumped in, which earned me a glare from both Astra and Mawile.
"I'm using an illusion to look like a human," she said. "And I'd… rather keep it up if you don't mind." She looked at me. "No offense, but I'm just not comfortable showing myself around you."
"Whatever," I said, a bit more annoyed than I thought I should be. Astra glowered in response to my tone. "I doubt your disguise will fool any Psychics. Unless those don't exist in your world, or maybe wherever you're from really is the only place the Ralts like exists."
"I've only heard that humans aren't Psychic." Astra then cocked her head, her expression softening. "Do humans have types where you're from?"
"Like, for pair bonding, or do you mean Pokémon types?"
Astra blushed, then looked annoyed. "Obviously I mean Pokémon types."
I tapped my chin with my finger in thought.
"Not too much research on that," I said. "Obviously, as I prove, some humans can use 'moves' that normally only Pokémon can use. And…." I sighed. "I am Psychic, so I can use Psychic moves, but Charm is a fairy type move. And I mean, have you seen me?" I gestured to myself. My outfit was pink and white, and my hair and eyes were pink.
"Holy crap, your mom has a Gardevoir," said Mawile. "Are you implying –"
"I'm not implying anything!" I said, cutting her off. "The truth is I don't know, I only suspect. That subject needs more research."
Mawile smiled, and I didn't like the look of that smile. "Are you planning on doing any of that research?" I could tell what she was implying by the tone.
"I don't know, what about you?" I asked. "Does that sound like a good idea to you?"
Mawile blinked, as if she hadn't thought about that. She was the one who brought it up!
"Am I missing something?" asked Astra. "I just wanted to know if humans had types."
"Maybe they do!" I said, throwing my hands back up in the air in frustration.
Dermonster
The Shittiest Wizard
Unable to type for very long at the moment so I'll skip the spaghetti posting, but thank you so much! You even exceeded the word count of my own chapter two by a little. There were a few lines that seemed directly lifted from mine but that's fine. Omakes of omakes aren't something I'm gonna scrutinize too hard.
Well done!
Well done!
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TortugaGreen
Constantly out of the loop
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Poor Astra, unable to get away from the "human types" joke, and doomed to be forever embarrassed because of it.
Three-Ring Circus - 3 (Fun and Adventure!/A Backwards Grin/Hyphen)
Once again crossposting from the A Backwards Grin thread. This is the last piece, so hopefully it's fun and enjoyable.
_____________________________
I sat on the ground, along with everyone else, around an unfortunately low table constructed from rocks that me and Astra made, while Mawile pretended to help with her tiny non-Psychic body. It turned out Astra was the only one with food at the moment, as I was too busy being in another universe to go shopping like I'd planned, so we'd reconvened at Mawile's self-proclaimed hovel.
Each of us were given a few Oran berries, with Mawile the most enthusiastic in eating them, stifling little moans of pleasure. I pointedly ignored her. For me, Oran berries weren't my favourite, but food was food.
"So, what's the plan now?" asked Astra, quietly eating her own berry.
"Get out of this forest," I said, eating half an Oran in an entire bite. I took a moment to chew and appreciate the flavours before swallowing and getting back to the conversation. "Get back to a city. Shouldn't be hard for us Psychics now that we know what to watch out for."
"But how are we supposed to get back home?" asked Astra, a note of despair in her "voice." "I have a village to protect. It's the whole reason I became a Pokémon trainer in the first place."
"Well we'll have to do some research on that," I said, quickly finishing off my last berry. "Figure out what this universe knows and what the current state of dimensional research is here. Finding out if Mega Evolution happens here should be our first priority. After that, Ultra Wormholes. If we're lucky we'll find both of those and we can go from there."
"I don't know what you just said," said Astra.
"They're just stuff to look out for," I said. "There's Mega Evolution in my universe, but I've heard there's other ones where it doesn't exist. There's also research being done on Ultra Wormholes, which are like… portals to an area between universes."
"How do you know all that?" asked Mawile, still finishing her berries. She seemed to want to take her time. "You're like, ten years old."
"Well I hung out at Professor Oak's lab in Kanto a lot growing up. Plus I'm a genius." I grinned at Mawile, who didn't seem impressed. "Anyway, I've had conversations with a few other professors and academics; so I'm pretty familiar with a lot of things, at least back in my world. Not a lot of the real technical stuff, but popular science."
"So what do we do if this universe has this stuff you're talking about?" asked Astra, now putting her jar of berries back into her bag.
"Find out where research is being done and then pick a place to go," I said. "Explain our situation and see if they can get us back."
"So we should get moving right now then?" asked Astra. "I can't be gone too long, the village is depending on me!"
"I think we should try to find Dialga and Palkia," said Mawile, quietly. "Or Arceus. Then we wouldn't have a time limit."
"That'd be a tall order," I said, and Astra looked from Mawile back to me.
"Who, or what, are those names?" she asked.
"Legendary Pokémon," I answered. "Well technically, Arceus is a Mythical Pokémon. Anyway, Dialga and Palkia are Pokémon that can control time and space, so if we found them they could put us back exactly when and where we left. Arceus theoretically created the entire universe, including Dialga and Palkia. So if we somehow found any of these Pokémon, it'd be simple for them to fix our problems."
"Okay, wait," said Astra, closing her eyes tightly as if warding off a headache. "Why – ugh!" She let her head fall onto the table, before rocking it back and forth almost causing her hat to fall off. Finally she picked her head back up and took a deep breath. "You two are going to kill me if this keeps up." She then looked at Mawile. "I can maybe get that a human might know about this kind of stuff. Humans seem to know all kinds of things. But what about you? What kind of world did you come from? How do either of you even know if these things are real?"
I looked at Mawile, suddenly curious. I hadn't really considered the implications of her knowledge. She was asking a lot of specific questions for a normal wild Pokémon.
"Well I uh," said Mawile, looking at Astra before glancing at me briefly. "I used to live with humans."
"You were with a trainer?" I asked. "Or were you a pet?"
Mawile scoffed. "I was not a pet!" She seemed to catch herself then, her eyes growing wide. "There were just… circumstances. I learned a lot."
"A research Pokémon?" I asked. Mawile looked away from both me and Astra, staring straight ahead.
"Hey, why won't you just answer the question?" asked Astra, her voice determined. "It's like you're hiding something!"
"Look, it's better if you two don't know," said Mawile. "It doesn't really matter anyway, what's important is that Dialga and Palkia exist, and if we find them they can fix this."
I narrowed my eyes at Mawile, while Astra did the same thing.
"Were you a human, before?" I asked.
Mawile sputtered something incomprehensible, shocked by the accusation. "What gives you that idea?!"
I shrugged. "You know too much," I said. "Plus I know it's possible to turn a human into a Pokémon. A witch could do it. There's been experiments in mind transfer, but those were closer to accidents than anything else. Neither really fits with this situation completely, but given how weird this all is already, I wouldn't be too surprised."
"What's a witch?" asked Astra.
"Could we just not look into this any further?" asked Mawile. She looked at me then. "Or maybe if you want to continue, afterwards we can talk about your dad?"
I pursed my lips to avoid saying anything too harsh, feeling really annoyed.
"That's a low blow," I said. "But fine." Taking the hint and wanting to move on, I turned to look at Astra. "A witch is a kind of Psychic human who uses rituals and external materials to focus their powers to get more specialised effects that you normally can't do by yourself. They're seen as kind of… weird, or scary, compared to normal Psychics. Which, frankly, are already seen as weird and scary. I've never met a witch but I've glanced at a magic book once or twice."
Both Mawile and Astra blinked at me.
"So that's really true?" asked Mawile. "Witches exist?"
"At least where I'm from," I said. "For whatever reason, where I'm from, more girls become witches than boys. There's a stereotype about it, which I'd rather not get into."
There was a long pause as both Mawile and Astra stared at me, trees rustling around us.
"Your world is weird," said Astra, finally.
"I prefer to think of it as fun and filled with adventure," I said, waving that criticism away.
"Can witches turn Pokémon into humans?" asked Mawile.
"I'm not sure," I said. "Maybe? Probably. I don't know."
We devolved into silence again after that.
"Well," said Astra, finally breaking the silence. "We know we've got to get out of this forest and find a city, regardless of how we solve this problem after that. So, Mawile." Mawile looked over at Astra, looking a bit apprehensive. "Are you coming with us?"
"Why not?" she said. "Even if I can't get back home I don't want to be here. I'll starve before too long, there's too few berries, and hunting is really hard."
Astra looked at me then. "So then… which of us should she go with?"
Comprehension dawned on Mawile's face, as she stood up from the table, slowly.
"She can just follow us," I said. "At least nobody would question that back in my world. Pokémon are everywhere, nobody's going to ask why you're out of a Poké Ball all the time. Though if you get injured it might make things difficult. Plus I hear Poké Balls are comfortable, and they keep you from getting hungry as quickly."
"If they're so great why don't you two go in them then?" said Mawile.
I held up my hands defensively. "Hey I'm just saying. As long as you're around a human you're going to be assumed to be with that human. Even by yourself, if you're in a city, you're going to be assumed to belong to somebody. Unless the closest town to us is Ryme City, in which case we should find the next nearest town."
"I'm not sure how I feel about that," said Mawile. "I'm my own person!"
I shrugged. "I mean, there's more details to go into, I'm just trying to say you don't need to be caught by one of us."
"I think it's a good idea if you were though," said Astra. She looked at me then. "I mean, couldn't just any old human catch her if one of us didn't do it?"
"They'd have to know she wasn't already caught, and that won't be assumed," I said.
"But what about battling other trainers?" Astra asked. "Wouldn't she be expected to fight for one of us?"
"Just set the rules first," I said. "Heck, you could just say 'Mawile is a friend, she's not here to battle.' Or say she's for Pokémon Contests." I looked at Mawile, suddenly grinning. "Or maybe we could actually use her for Pokémon Contests!"
Mawile's horn rose then, opening slightly as I felt the sudden full force of Intimidate. I didn't let myself back down though, and set up my Charm, staring down Mawile's glare with my widest, cutest, sparkliest smile.
We stared at each other like that for a while before Mawile said in a harsh tone, "You're not putting me in a dress."
"Aww," I said, keeping my voice a touch higher than normal. "But you could win all kinds of ribbons!"
"Don't you have to fight in Pokémon contests?" she asked, still glaring.
"But it's not the same kind of fighting," I said sweetly, holding the Charm.
"You guys are giving me a headache," said Astra, shaking her head. "Can you stop this?"
We both turned to look at Astra, who promptly screamed and fell backwards, causing me to stop the Charm. Mawile managed to end her intimidate and lower her horns, rushing over to help the fallen Pokémon.
"That was awful!" shouted Astra, standing back up. "I felt terrified, but also as if it'd be very cute if you tore me to shreds." She took one angry step forward, her arms at her sides and shouted, "Never do that again!"
I held up my hands in a placating gesture. "Hey, it was an accident." Truthfully I just didn't want Mawile to be caught by either of us. I already had six Pokémon, and there was no telling where Mawile would end up if I caught her. But if anybody was going to catch a Mawile I wanted it to be me. "Let's just table this Mawile catching thing for now. Mawile doesn't have to decide right away, we can at least wait until after we've found a city."
"Yeah, I think that sounds good," said Mawile, moving back across the table to her old spot. She looked at me suddenly, her expression thoughtful. "If this world does have Mega Evolutions, could we go find some Mawilite? I hate being so weak compared to you guys."
"So you know what Mega Evolution is then?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Should I even ask at this point?" said Astra, setting herself back down.
"Besides, maybe you could Mega Evolve!" continued Mawile, ignoring Astra.
I lifted my chin a bit and said, "Only Pokémon can Mega Evolve, and whatever else may be the case, I am human." Mawile looked like she wanted to laugh, while Astra seemed torn between trying to get us to answer her question and just ignoring us. "Besides," I continued, my voice much lower. "My mum has Gardevoirite. It didn't do anything for me."
"Maybe you're not a high enough level yet?" suggested Mawile in a teasing tone. I swear it looked like her horns were grinning.
"Can we change the subject?" I asked, standing up.
"Sure," said Mawile. "Do you have an Ability?"
I groaned, and mumbled my answer.
"What was that, I couldn't quite hear you," said Mawile, standing up too. Then Astra followed suit.
"Pixarrar," I mumbled again.
"Come again?"
"Pixilate!" I shouted. "I only know that because my sister has Trace!"
Mawile burst out laughing, and we started walking away from the table, hopefully towards civilisation and sanity.
"Wouldn't that mean that –"
"Shut up!" I said, feeling my face burn red. "No, no more questions from you! Astra, change the subject!"
"Well," said Astra, sounding thankfully confused. Hopefully she didn't understand what Mawile was talking about. "There is one thing I want to know, now that I got the chance to ask."
"Go for it," I said.
"What's puberty?" she replied.
I buried my face into my hands, hoping to slip from this reality into one which was less embarrassing.
_____________________________
I sat on the ground, along with everyone else, around an unfortunately low table constructed from rocks that me and Astra made, while Mawile pretended to help with her tiny non-Psychic body. It turned out Astra was the only one with food at the moment, as I was too busy being in another universe to go shopping like I'd planned, so we'd reconvened at Mawile's self-proclaimed hovel.
Each of us were given a few Oran berries, with Mawile the most enthusiastic in eating them, stifling little moans of pleasure. I pointedly ignored her. For me, Oran berries weren't my favourite, but food was food.
"So, what's the plan now?" asked Astra, quietly eating her own berry.
"Get out of this forest," I said, eating half an Oran in an entire bite. I took a moment to chew and appreciate the flavours before swallowing and getting back to the conversation. "Get back to a city. Shouldn't be hard for us Psychics now that we know what to watch out for."
"But how are we supposed to get back home?" asked Astra, a note of despair in her "voice." "I have a village to protect. It's the whole reason I became a Pokémon trainer in the first place."
"Well we'll have to do some research on that," I said, quickly finishing off my last berry. "Figure out what this universe knows and what the current state of dimensional research is here. Finding out if Mega Evolution happens here should be our first priority. After that, Ultra Wormholes. If we're lucky we'll find both of those and we can go from there."
"I don't know what you just said," said Astra.
"They're just stuff to look out for," I said. "There's Mega Evolution in my universe, but I've heard there's other ones where it doesn't exist. There's also research being done on Ultra Wormholes, which are like… portals to an area between universes."
"How do you know all that?" asked Mawile, still finishing her berries. She seemed to want to take her time. "You're like, ten years old."
"Well I hung out at Professor Oak's lab in Kanto a lot growing up. Plus I'm a genius." I grinned at Mawile, who didn't seem impressed. "Anyway, I've had conversations with a few other professors and academics; so I'm pretty familiar with a lot of things, at least back in my world. Not a lot of the real technical stuff, but popular science."
"So what do we do if this universe has this stuff you're talking about?" asked Astra, now putting her jar of berries back into her bag.
"Find out where research is being done and then pick a place to go," I said. "Explain our situation and see if they can get us back."
"So we should get moving right now then?" asked Astra. "I can't be gone too long, the village is depending on me!"
"I think we should try to find Dialga and Palkia," said Mawile, quietly. "Or Arceus. Then we wouldn't have a time limit."
"That'd be a tall order," I said, and Astra looked from Mawile back to me.
"Who, or what, are those names?" she asked.
"Legendary Pokémon," I answered. "Well technically, Arceus is a Mythical Pokémon. Anyway, Dialga and Palkia are Pokémon that can control time and space, so if we found them they could put us back exactly when and where we left. Arceus theoretically created the entire universe, including Dialga and Palkia. So if we somehow found any of these Pokémon, it'd be simple for them to fix our problems."
"Okay, wait," said Astra, closing her eyes tightly as if warding off a headache. "Why – ugh!" She let her head fall onto the table, before rocking it back and forth almost causing her hat to fall off. Finally she picked her head back up and took a deep breath. "You two are going to kill me if this keeps up." She then looked at Mawile. "I can maybe get that a human might know about this kind of stuff. Humans seem to know all kinds of things. But what about you? What kind of world did you come from? How do either of you even know if these things are real?"
I looked at Mawile, suddenly curious. I hadn't really considered the implications of her knowledge. She was asking a lot of specific questions for a normal wild Pokémon.
"Well I uh," said Mawile, looking at Astra before glancing at me briefly. "I used to live with humans."
"You were with a trainer?" I asked. "Or were you a pet?"
Mawile scoffed. "I was not a pet!" She seemed to catch herself then, her eyes growing wide. "There were just… circumstances. I learned a lot."
"A research Pokémon?" I asked. Mawile looked away from both me and Astra, staring straight ahead.
"Hey, why won't you just answer the question?" asked Astra, her voice determined. "It's like you're hiding something!"
"Look, it's better if you two don't know," said Mawile. "It doesn't really matter anyway, what's important is that Dialga and Palkia exist, and if we find them they can fix this."
I narrowed my eyes at Mawile, while Astra did the same thing.
"Were you a human, before?" I asked.
Mawile sputtered something incomprehensible, shocked by the accusation. "What gives you that idea?!"
I shrugged. "You know too much," I said. "Plus I know it's possible to turn a human into a Pokémon. A witch could do it. There's been experiments in mind transfer, but those were closer to accidents than anything else. Neither really fits with this situation completely, but given how weird this all is already, I wouldn't be too surprised."
"What's a witch?" asked Astra.
"Could we just not look into this any further?" asked Mawile. She looked at me then. "Or maybe if you want to continue, afterwards we can talk about your dad?"
I pursed my lips to avoid saying anything too harsh, feeling really annoyed.
"That's a low blow," I said. "But fine." Taking the hint and wanting to move on, I turned to look at Astra. "A witch is a kind of Psychic human who uses rituals and external materials to focus their powers to get more specialised effects that you normally can't do by yourself. They're seen as kind of… weird, or scary, compared to normal Psychics. Which, frankly, are already seen as weird and scary. I've never met a witch but I've glanced at a magic book once or twice."
Both Mawile and Astra blinked at me.
"So that's really true?" asked Mawile. "Witches exist?"
"At least where I'm from," I said. "For whatever reason, where I'm from, more girls become witches than boys. There's a stereotype about it, which I'd rather not get into."
There was a long pause as both Mawile and Astra stared at me, trees rustling around us.
"Your world is weird," said Astra, finally.
"I prefer to think of it as fun and filled with adventure," I said, waving that criticism away.
"Can witches turn Pokémon into humans?" asked Mawile.
"I'm not sure," I said. "Maybe? Probably. I don't know."
We devolved into silence again after that.
"Well," said Astra, finally breaking the silence. "We know we've got to get out of this forest and find a city, regardless of how we solve this problem after that. So, Mawile." Mawile looked over at Astra, looking a bit apprehensive. "Are you coming with us?"
"Why not?" she said. "Even if I can't get back home I don't want to be here. I'll starve before too long, there's too few berries, and hunting is really hard."
Astra looked at me then. "So then… which of us should she go with?"
Comprehension dawned on Mawile's face, as she stood up from the table, slowly.
"She can just follow us," I said. "At least nobody would question that back in my world. Pokémon are everywhere, nobody's going to ask why you're out of a Poké Ball all the time. Though if you get injured it might make things difficult. Plus I hear Poké Balls are comfortable, and they keep you from getting hungry as quickly."
"If they're so great why don't you two go in them then?" said Mawile.
I held up my hands defensively. "Hey I'm just saying. As long as you're around a human you're going to be assumed to be with that human. Even by yourself, if you're in a city, you're going to be assumed to belong to somebody. Unless the closest town to us is Ryme City, in which case we should find the next nearest town."
"I'm not sure how I feel about that," said Mawile. "I'm my own person!"
I shrugged. "I mean, there's more details to go into, I'm just trying to say you don't need to be caught by one of us."
"I think it's a good idea if you were though," said Astra. She looked at me then. "I mean, couldn't just any old human catch her if one of us didn't do it?"
"They'd have to know she wasn't already caught, and that won't be assumed," I said.
"But what about battling other trainers?" Astra asked. "Wouldn't she be expected to fight for one of us?"
"Just set the rules first," I said. "Heck, you could just say 'Mawile is a friend, she's not here to battle.' Or say she's for Pokémon Contests." I looked at Mawile, suddenly grinning. "Or maybe we could actually use her for Pokémon Contests!"
Mawile's horn rose then, opening slightly as I felt the sudden full force of Intimidate. I didn't let myself back down though, and set up my Charm, staring down Mawile's glare with my widest, cutest, sparkliest smile.
We stared at each other like that for a while before Mawile said in a harsh tone, "You're not putting me in a dress."
"Aww," I said, keeping my voice a touch higher than normal. "But you could win all kinds of ribbons!"
"Don't you have to fight in Pokémon contests?" she asked, still glaring.
"But it's not the same kind of fighting," I said sweetly, holding the Charm.
"You guys are giving me a headache," said Astra, shaking her head. "Can you stop this?"
We both turned to look at Astra, who promptly screamed and fell backwards, causing me to stop the Charm. Mawile managed to end her intimidate and lower her horns, rushing over to help the fallen Pokémon.
"That was awful!" shouted Astra, standing back up. "I felt terrified, but also as if it'd be very cute if you tore me to shreds." She took one angry step forward, her arms at her sides and shouted, "Never do that again!"
I held up my hands in a placating gesture. "Hey, it was an accident." Truthfully I just didn't want Mawile to be caught by either of us. I already had six Pokémon, and there was no telling where Mawile would end up if I caught her. But if anybody was going to catch a Mawile I wanted it to be me. "Let's just table this Mawile catching thing for now. Mawile doesn't have to decide right away, we can at least wait until after we've found a city."
"Yeah, I think that sounds good," said Mawile, moving back across the table to her old spot. She looked at me suddenly, her expression thoughtful. "If this world does have Mega Evolutions, could we go find some Mawilite? I hate being so weak compared to you guys."
"So you know what Mega Evolution is then?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Should I even ask at this point?" said Astra, setting herself back down.
"Besides, maybe you could Mega Evolve!" continued Mawile, ignoring Astra.
I lifted my chin a bit and said, "Only Pokémon can Mega Evolve, and whatever else may be the case, I am human." Mawile looked like she wanted to laugh, while Astra seemed torn between trying to get us to answer her question and just ignoring us. "Besides," I continued, my voice much lower. "My mum has Gardevoirite. It didn't do anything for me."
"Maybe you're not a high enough level yet?" suggested Mawile in a teasing tone. I swear it looked like her horns were grinning.
"Can we change the subject?" I asked, standing up.
"Sure," said Mawile. "Do you have an Ability?"
I groaned, and mumbled my answer.
"What was that, I couldn't quite hear you," said Mawile, standing up too. Then Astra followed suit.
"Pixarrar," I mumbled again.
"Come again?"
"Pixilate!" I shouted. "I only know that because my sister has Trace!"
Mawile burst out laughing, and we started walking away from the table, hopefully towards civilisation and sanity.
"Wouldn't that mean that –"
"Shut up!" I said, feeling my face burn red. "No, no more questions from you! Astra, change the subject!"
"Well," said Astra, sounding thankfully confused. Hopefully she didn't understand what Mawile was talking about. "There is one thing I want to know, now that I got the chance to ask."
"Go for it," I said.
"What's puberty?" she replied.
I buried my face into my hands, hoping to slip from this reality into one which was less embarrassing.
Dermonster
The Shittiest Wizard
Snrk.
All right. You got me. Fuck, I wasn't expecting that. Thank you, this one was excellent~
- Pronouns
- He
Yeah, that was me. Hadn't registered here yet and was still a bit iffy about it, but the fairy thing would've kept bugging me if I didn't say anything about it.
Wait, Mawile is gen III!?!
- Does a search
...I mean, I knew my knowledge on pokemon was suspect at best, but I didn't think I'd miss something like that!
Welp, there goes my idea that Mawile had become the only pokemon of her kind. Really need to brush up on what I know. And everything else I don't.
Dermonster
The Shittiest Wizard
I'm just completely befuddled as to why you went all the way to FF.net to ask me about it. The omakes aren't even on there, you had to have been in one of the threads here! Blows my mind.
Indeed they are!
I look forward to poking fun at Flairina whenever I get to the part of the world they're in.
Flairina
Least Omnipotent Goddess
- Location
- The next infinity over
No, you still have a point - there may be other Mawile in Astra's world, but none of them have Fairy typing, and thus none of the typical Fairy immunities/resistances/attacks. Thus, while Mawile!me wouldn't be seen as a completely new Pokemon, I'd still be seen as the only example of a brand new elemental type were anyone to discover it, be it through odd Pokedex readings, me using Fairy Wind in front of someone I shouldn't, "inexplicably" tanking a dragon-type attack to the face without damage, etc.
Being an anomaly draws attention however, and attention is something neither Astra nor I are likely to want (at least just yet). She risks discovery, and I risk getting shoved into some Poke-Professor's laboratory to be studied for the rest of my life... or worse, used in an attempt to "reproduce" the typing in other Pokemon. As such, this may cause a few problems if I'm/we're not careful enough.
Prepare for some counter-poking via me pointing out that were this any other version of the Pokemon world, I could do the exact same thing to her, and we've already been dimensionally teleported twice, so don't count on me never getting the opportunity.
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- Location
- Canada, probably
Hmm. Does that mean ABG technically takes place in the yet-to-be-made Sinnoh remake?
Crusader Jerome
Subsisting on Supplication
- Location
- My home away from Rome
The first place you can find a Mawile in Ruby is Granite Cave on Dewford Island, which is (surprise surprise) the next stop after Rustboro. Mawile was a version exclusive for Ruby, though, and its slot in Sapphire was taken by Sableye. In Emerald, it first appears in the wild on Victory Road.
Not in Person
Once Known as The Nobody
- Location
- A place
"Ditto!"
"No, I'm not interested 'close company' of any kind".
"Dit... To?"
"And the corny jokes don't help".
Dermonster
The Shittiest Wizard
I interrupt this very important intermission to announce it's my birthday today.
Huzzah!
I have been slacking a tiny bit, 1000 words so far.
Huzzah!
Dermonster
The Shittiest Wizard
In the RTD, that was simply the result of channelling 'summoning magic' directly into the missing arm slots, if I recall.
So it's just 'A tentacle' and 'an Akira-esque mass of writhing meat' respectively.
94000130FFF70000
Absolutely the Worst
- Location
- Midwest USA
I found an article a week or two back where it turns out some 4chan leaker posted stuff about the scrapped gen 6 storyline that game freak didnt have the time nor courage to go through with and hadn't planned to reuse (but then a really similar theme showed up in g7 and a few people went "hey wait maybe this was real"). Fairy-types were ancient visitors from the moon who settled down and stayed. Az, Diantha, and the fairy-type gym leader (among others) were actual aliens, though those three weren't playing along with the new alien invasion fleet trying to destroy the world. Team Flare was originally alien Men in Black doing coverups. I'll dig up the link later if nobody else can find it, am on mobile rn. The Ultra Beasts and Ultra Space is what most of that got recycled into.
Also Az's Floette was the key to the superweapon. (That's why it has a never-released event distribution with the exclusive move Light of Ruin.)
Also Az's Floette was the key to the superweapon. (That's why it has a never-released event distribution with the exclusive move Light of Ruin.)
Dermonster
The Shittiest Wizard
Uh huh. That's... neat, I guess.
How is it relevent with Hyphen, though?
I can't see May believing that. Space Aliens would know far more about Earthling culture than Astra does.
Burned_Cookie
Very tired girl.
- Location
- Plato´s cave.
- Pronouns
- She/Her/It/Its
Wow this is a great story!
I only have one thing to complain about, albeit a minor one:
In the last two fights, Astras very unique fighting style seemed almost entirely absen't, she didn't seem to coordinate her pokemon like she did before. I thought she even had the shared eyes technique for exactly that kind of mud/dirt trickery in the first fight?
It even got to the point where, if I hadn't known that she physically can't, I'd have thought she was just yelling out attack moves like a regular trainer.
That may be intentional or not, but it makes the fights... less unique.
Just thought I'd point it out.
Otherwise really great.
I only have one thing to complain about, albeit a minor one:
In the last two fights, Astras very unique fighting style seemed almost entirely absen't, she didn't seem to coordinate her pokemon like she did before. I thought she even had the shared eyes technique for exactly that kind of mud/dirt trickery in the first fight?
It even got to the point where, if I hadn't known that she physically can't, I'd have thought she was just yelling out attack moves like a regular trainer.
That may be intentional or not, but it makes the fights... less unique.
Just thought I'd point it out.
Otherwise really great.
Dermonster
The Shittiest Wizard
Thanks! I'll try to answer a few of your comments.
The Nincada fight? As I recall, Nincada slapped one of Marills eyes shut with mud, and she was still basically good to go. The bigger issue was Marill having her other eye sliced open. That basically knocked her out of comission by sheer virtue of debilitating pain and 'holy shit get in the pokeball so it doesn't get worse'. If Marill had been theoretically hit by mud in both eyes, then yes she would have been able to fight Nincada still, albiet at reduced effectiveness.
Astra was, if I recall, directing Treecko pretty well during the initial Exploud fight, but after her head got rattled to hell by the screaming she was basically [Confused], and trusted Treecko to interperet her commands as well as he could. I probably could have done it better before then, but it's 4 AM so I'm not assed enough to go back and look at the moment.
That all said, I am well aware that these, while reasonable, could all be excuses. I will try to improve future battles so that they are as unique as ever. Criticism is and always will be be appreciated in that regard, as I've recieved vanishingly little.
That said, there probably aren't going to be any big fights anytime soon. Whoops.
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Burned_Cookie
Very tired girl.
- Location
- Plato´s cave.
- Pronouns
- She/Her/It/Its
Ah yes, the great danger of telling an excellent story:
The critics have nothing to complain about.
Alivaril
On a magically-deficient journey of self-discovery
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I really do love this story; it's one of the few that keeps me interested and smiling almost continuously. This apparently applies even on a reread.
...Oh, right. Ralts fists are tiny.
(The relevant omakes about overshowing were pretty funny, though)
Also literally hot. And a potential threat when riding on a bike. Really, it's just weird in general.
#ChildrenAreRuthless
This sounds like the sort of motivation that spawns an entire Team, honestly.
"Why me?"
"When we called it a sheet, we thought we were exaggerating!"
Poor Marill. Probably less painful than another Pokémon's attacks, but did the rocks really have to be that lar–
...Oh, right. Ralts fists are tiny.
You basically did, May. ಠ_ಠ
I'm really enjoying how the story doesn't just ignore or handwave the oddities seen in the game.
Could be worse. Could be a Magikarp.
This sales strategy sounds disturbingly familiar...
I am totally the sort of person who would accidentally forget something like that.
She's not wrong.
Yes, May, say that to the teacher. Rude.
Obviously, the nose is actually a teeth-filled mouth in disguise.
It's adorable how excited she is over this. I remain unconvinced by her "evolution = adulthood" claims.
I'm getting the feeling someone is going to notice the difference in the later recordings. They might dismiss it as having her hat on differently, though.
Team Magma would like to know your location.
Man, TPP was a real trip back in the day. The time delay meant that even the people trying to be helpful could mess things up, to say nothing of the numerous trolls.
I didn't notice this until the reread, but it was a really nice touch: having the Pokémon that evolves into a ninja act under an honor code.
D'awww. I always thought the Whismur depictions were a little ugly, but you've made my brain remake them into something fuzzy and adorable.
Poor Astra is just a big bundle of anxieties at this point. I hope someone gets around to telling her that being a psychic isn't unheard of; the reduced stress load will be good for her.
(The relevant omakes about overshowing were pretty funny, though)
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Torchic gets Revenge on Team Aqua! (Ch 23 Fan Comission)
Dermonster
The Shittiest Wizard
A fan (who wished to remain anonymous) felt bad that Torchic didn't get to kick the Aqua Grunt's ass, and so commissioned a picture from dear old Dex!
A fitting punishment for such a nefarious ne'erdowell! Let us all bask in this missed moment of justice.
(Due to a miscommunication, an alternate version is also in the spoiler below.)
In other news, I am currently 3.2k words into the next chapter, with one scene out of two completed. Stay tuned!
A fitting punishment for such a nefarious ne'erdowell! Let us all bask in this missed moment of justice.
(Due to a miscommunication, an alternate version is also in the spoiler below.)
In other news, I am currently 3.2k words into the next chapter, with one scene out of two completed. Stay tuned!
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