I think this is the first time I have seen an SI as a Ghost Pokémon, and considering that I looked for one in the past. I am definitely watching it.
In the Ranger’s Shadow (Pokémon/Pokémon Ranger)
Chapter 18
- Location
- Earth-Sol lagrange point 4
AN: Hello there!
Big thanks to Ott043 fore beta-ing this, there were some big mistakes in it at first.
Once Onaga decided she'd rather get started on breakfast, she let Weaver carry Espeon into the break room so we could 'have fun' instead of sitting around a table. So, Weaver is finally getting around to teaching me to read.
I, however, appear to be a dirty cheater when it comes to remembering things. After all, I only need to pay attention, and the looks Weaver has been giving me are great.
Sinnohan has thirty-eight characters—with a whole eleven of them being vowels, reads right to left, and has no written spaces. Though it thankfully does have punctuation. And I'd asked Weaver what she had meant when she said she couldn't teach me because she can't make the sounds.
She proceeded to pull out a book, point at a letter, and say, "Wea." Then the next letter, "Wea." I'd gotten the idea by then, but she still pointed to another and, surprisingly, somehow said, "Wea."
The translation thing is weird.
"I spent months learning this," The weavile grumbles. "And I had Ryu teaching me. Even Espeon was having issues, and he's a psychic, but you're not even trying and we're already on the third video."
"I'm also not really learning it," I say, shaking my head. "That will take months, maybe years, at least."
"What do you mean you're not learning it?" Weaver asks.
"I mean this is just memorization, which I have an unfair advantage with, but I'm not learning it yet," I explain. "If I tried to read something I'd spend most of the time referencing my memory instead of reading, just trying to figure out how to read the symbols. I'll have learned the language well enough when I can simply read it."
Weaver blinks, looks at the dictionary she'd pulled out, up at the paused video on the TV, and back down to the dictionary, her eyes scanning over words. "Huh, I hadn't thought of that," She says, blinking again. "When did I become able to understand what I read that easily?"
I chuckle, "I can't help you there, but that's what I mean, you've learned the language. I feel like I'm cramming for a test."
"Hmm, okay then," Weaver shrugs, then flicks an ear and turns her head toward the hallway, "Morning Karlos," She waves.
I turn to see a man I can only describe as a ripped dad smiling at us from the doorway. He has sandy-blonde hair, green eyes, and, while he's well-muscled, he is rather hefty-looking. "Weaver," He greets, waving back with a yawn. "Since Onaga isn't in here I'm going to assume something happened last night?"
Weaver gives him a nod, "Yeah."
He sighs, "Guess I'll need to ask her about it. Does she know you have the misdreavus in here?"
"Yes…?" Weaver nods, confused. Then she points to the still unconscious Espeon, "But they're here to help him."
That makes the man frown slightly, "Mmm, I'll go find her, then." He quickly steps out of sight.
"Must be seven o'clock," Weaver says, standing to stretch in a way I'd call impossible if she weren't so feline. "We should probably stop here for now."
"Sure, sounds good. I was starting to-" Hold on, "That was four hours?" I ask as she ejects the tape.
"Yeah, that's what I meant. You've got such a freaky level of focus that we're already halfway through the video course," She laughs, "And you didn't even notice!"
I really hadn't. "So…" I trail off, looking for something else to think about before my eyes land on Espeon. "Should we move him somewhere?"
"Probably outside if the sun is coming up," Weaver says. "But we should ask Ryuko first. Give me a second." And with that, she leaves the room.
I'm not sure how long he's been asleep, so I don't know if I should be concerned that he's still splayed on his side, sleeping. He's also still only giving off vague, small bursts of emotions right now, so I don't think he's about to wake up. I still need to get his story from Weaver, as she hasn't told me much about him yet, but I can make some guesses.
He's missing fur, I can see his ribs, and he was more of an emotional wreck than I was, and I died. Weaver said Onaga had adopted him, but that's obviously incomplete. Maybe I should get a better look at him again.
It hardly takes any effort to shift from space to not-space, and I still can't tell if his being so solid here is a psychic-type thing or not. His eye is closed, and those armor-like plates around him are still present, but there's the start of the typical sphere I've seen around almost everyone who's not a dim gray. I still need to figure out what the colors are about. And the uncomfortable thing with most humans.
Casting my gaze around, I see four bright, human shapes and two smaller, dimmer orbs. Two of the bright spots are in the showers, and two are in the kitchen with a very hard-to-make-out silhouette next to them. One of the dim orbs is still in the sleeping quarters, with the other being where Weaver said the Operators worked.
I'm definitely glowing brighter now, a shifting ____ and ____ revealing the walls of the room. What's the difference? The Rangers look like they should be casting color, but they don't. And yet, they're brighter than some of the younger pokemon I've seen, and those pokemon cast color, so… Why not?
And then I have the two brightest things I've seen here, and one of them was a human… I think? I don't know where to start with trying to learn about that.
Maybe I should move learning to read up on my priority list. I have the time, after all. And Weaver can point me to… Will they let a ghost into the library? Well, 'let,' I'm almost certain I can pass through just about anything, so it's not like a few walls will stop me from getting in. That feels rude though, and I don't know how people would react to me doing something like that.
"What are you doing, Smokey?" Weaver's voice echoes.
I move back to where she can hear me, "Checking on Espeon. And thinking, mostly. What are we doing with him?"
"Moving him outside, like I thought. Ryu will be trying to wake him up again, soon," Weaver says, moving to pick the big cat up. She stops before she has her arms under the other feline, looking at me, "Could you carry him this time? He's a bit awkward for me."
He is nearly the same size as her. "Sure," I say, creating a zone around Espeon- Huh, that's an odd feeling. Maybe it's because he's psychic-type? Regardless, I can lift him rather easily, bringing the cat about a foot-and-a-half off the ground.
"I'm going to need to get used to that, with him around," Weaver comments as she leaves the room, letting me float Espeon after her as I trail behind.
"What, floating objects?" I ask, and Weaver moves to hold the lobby door open.
"Yeah, although I think he's been afraid to touch much of anything," She replies, literally bouncing to the main doors. "Or he may have been too busy trying not to make Ryu worry, I'm not sure."
"Trying not to make her worry? Not, trying to stave off an extra-spicy panic attack?" I ask, setting the pink cat down outside.
"There were some things on espeon that I read. You remember those papers?"
"Weaver," I say, leveling the feathery weasel with a flat gaze, "I remember almost everything that's happened to me since I woke up, and you reading that was only around thirty-four hours ago."
"And you're sure you aren't psychic?" She retorts with narrowed eyes.
"No, but I'm pretty sure, at least."
"Right… Anyway, espeon apparently do this thing where they pick someone and synchronize themselves to them. That includes letting the other person feel what they do, so I think that's why he was holding it all back," Weaver explains, leaning against the outside wall next to the doors. "How long until he wakes up, do you think?"
"I've got no idea," I say, tasting the surroundings. "Nothing's changed yet, though."
I feel myself stirring out of a restful slumber, the first I've had outside my ball in some time. I stretch, feeling the sunlight fill me with energy as I idly seek out my anchor…
And start to flail, trying to find my footing as fragments of when I was last awake return to me. My anchor stabilizes, and-
Oh, she's disappointed, slightly angry, and very concerned, meaning that I'm disappointed, slightly angry, and very concerned. And she's standing only a few meters away. I turn my eyes on her, all three taking in the scene.
Ryuko's second is leaning against the building behind her, one eyebrow raised as the weavile considers me. And there, floating too close to my anchor, is the maelstrom, free power and emotions orbiting around and falling into them without end.
"I hope you know that you shouldn't have let things go that far," My anchor says, radiating her disappointment, disapproval, and sadness through our connection. "Now, I'm going to ask you some questions, and I want honest answers. Understood?" She isn't happy. Oh no. No no no no no! I don't want to fall into- into…
The maelstrom is pulling everything away. Hadn't they said something about eating the emotions? Oh! That must be why my dreams faded to something so pleasant after I fell unconscious, I thought I'd been lucky enough to gain control, yet the pull the maelstrom is exerting is so strong that I'd need to actively attempt to keep my emotions contained at this distance.
It's still a bit uncomfortable, but they haven't been cruel, or even particularly unpleasant. No, the maelstrom is simply odd, I can feel them, yet at the same time I can't find their mind or emotions. And despite that, their body sits there in the ether, suspended by the void hanging from their neck, permeating through the rest of their body.
And thankfully, despite their gnawing presence, the flow through my anchor is unaffected. Or, doesn't that mean… Oh. Miss Ryuko is frowning at me, evidently able to feel some of what I am. I extend my reach slightly to peer deeper.
'Nine Sages, it's coming through a lot stronger now.' '-need locations, times, activities, people-' 'What is he doing? Wait, are you-'
She's exasperated now.
And she's also evidently aware of me, her eyes narrowing. I send my affirmation and regret along our connection, nodding ashamedly.
"Right, that's fairly natural for you," Miss Ryuko mutters. "Don't think we won't talk about this if it becomes an issue," She fixes her eyes on me, letting me feel the conviction in her mind. She then steadies her breathing, and continues, "Right, let's start with 'why' then," She says, bringing out a notepad. "So, why were you hiding how you feel?" I don't need to exert myself to feel that she believes she already knows.
"B- Because it hurts…" I timidly say, sending a fragment of the pain from my memories down the connection. I feel her receive it, though she doesn't visibly react.
She hums, moving the writing utensil along the paper, "I assumed as much, but my knowing that is all I'd need to start finding some way to help." I shrink back a little at her words, I can't refute that. "And you shouldn't be worried about bleed-through," She says, making me wince as I realize how much she's picking up on at the moment. "I was ready for that when I took you in. Now, do you know what country you're from?"
"Yes, Johto," I nod, sending affirmation.
"Good, I'm going to start listing them off and I want you to stop me when I say the right one," The human says, standing slightly straighter. "Sinnoh, Orre, Kanto, Johto-"
"There," I say, nodding again.
"Right, and I already asked if you had a trainer," She mutters, once more moving pen across paper. "And why were you hesitant to return to them?"
Oh… How do I get that across? I send ambivalence and then the anger I felt in those last moments with Mitsuaki as I protected him, when I became more to protect him.
When he abandoned me.
Even as I feel the rage course through my system, it doesn't spiral out of control, the all-consuming hole in reality that is the maelstrom pulling the emotions away after I've processed them.
"Hmm, that felt complicated…" Ryuko says, turning her eyes on her second, Weaver. "Do you think the two of you together could get it across?"
"Of course," The weavile says, pushing off from the wall to move toward me. "So, what happened?" She asks with the same gentleness she's had since Ryuko told her to make me welcome.
"I- My trainer and I had been making our way through Johto," I begin, doing my best to ignore the outpouring that remembering it causes until it's all pulled away by the maelstrom. "It was only us a- and our team at the time, and when we were attacked-"
I stop, allowing the anger to dissipate before continuing, "I was sent out, and once the humans saw me they started pushing harder, trying to get all of Mitsuaki's pokeballs. They were- were going to hurt him, so I did my best to stay calm and store power for a combination we'd been working on together. And I wanted to protect everyone so I kept pushing for more, but it- I lost control of it, and by the time the pain from the backlash stopped I was- it was too late, and I realized I was e- evolving."
Pain, isolation, and disgust rise from the memory of that moment, as vivid now as they were then. I need to stop, to let- to let the maelstrom pull it all away again. I realize I'm not breathing once my lungs start burning, and make a conscious effort to do so.
"He hated- When Mitsuaki saw what had happened, what I'd become, he pulled me back into my ball and threw me at the other humans, I didn't see where he went after that, but- but-"
The sorrow and self-recrimination of the days that followed and the constant anger, apathy, and purposeful pain from the last four months begin to drown me again.
Why wasn't I good enough? Why did he throw me away? What did I do wrong? Was I wrong to want to protect him? How could I have done things better? Why is- How should- What made- How can- Why can't- Why? Why? Why? Why?! Why?! Why?!
I'm- I'm not falling anymore. I glance up at the maelstrom and see their eyes filled with concern and sympathy. I breathe slowly to center myself, then reestablish my anchor.
"He left me, he threw me away because I disgusted him," I whisper. "He used me to let him escape, and- and-"
"I think that's enough," Weaver says softly, her eyes staring through me. "Um, Smokey? Do you have that trick of yours working yet? That's a lot to communicate…"
"Not all that well, no. And it won't work in the sun, in any case," The maelstrom, Smokey, says, their voice ringing with layers of emotion and untapped power. "Why can't you just write it down?"
"That- that never crossed my mind," Weaver admits, shrugging. "But it's not like I can hold a pen without…" She trails off, staring at one of her hands, her pupils dilating to the degree that her irises vanish. "Oh. Uh, one second," She says, vanishing through the doors in a blur of speed.
"Uh-huh," My anchor says, confusion and amusement flowing into me. "I wonder what idea she's had now?"
It wasn't the weavile's idea, but I don't have the chance to say anything before the dark-type returns with the same alacrity with which she left, now holding a sheaf of paper and a pencil. She sets the papers on the ground, maneuvers the pencil over them, and snaps the thin piece of wood in two.
"Uh…" She says, looking at the remains of the implement.
"Were you…?" Miss Ryuko begins before chuckling, "You were. I suppose there's enough that you finally felt the need to, then. Here," She says, handing her second a metal pen, "Don't put too much pressure on it."
The weavile carefully takes the pen, places it on one of the papers, and frowns as it punches through the delicate sheet.
"Here, set one on this and try," Smokey says, and a plane of energy shimmers into existence.
I haven't had much experience with physical manipulation yet, but it's rather obvious that they're achieving the effect with sheer force, not even bothering with constructing a base construct first. I don't know if that implies a great deal of control, strength, or resistance to the always painful backlash.
I feel some pride and burbling amusement flow down my anchor as Miss Ryuko puts a hand to her mouth, covering a smile and stifling a sigh as she watches what Weaver is doing. After fifteen seconds the weavile stops, having written five large symbols on the page, a frown crossing her features. "I… How do they make this look so easy?"
"'Heís… thre…'" Miss Ryuko reads, still smiling. "It's a start, and I'm going to hang this on the fridge when we're done here." The smile drops off her face and she sighs, "Well, it's obviously complicated. I could tell just from the way you were feeling when talking about it," She says, frowning as she looks at her second. "Weaver, you can stop that for now, I'm pretty sure it'll take too long at the moment."
"But I-"The weavile cuts herself off, staring at the slip of paper. "I… okay."
Miss Ryuko sighs, rubbing at her forehead, "I don't want to say it, but we'll probably need to wait until we can communicate better to talk about your former trainer." The human growls, startling me, "I hate this. Weaver, don't let me forget to talk to Espeon about it, and the same goes for you," She says, speaking first to her second, then to me. "And remember that Weaver and I will always be willing to help, okay?" She tells me, then turns to the weavile, "Right?"
"Of course," Weaver says, performing a human salute.
The human's eyes soften a little, "Good. Now, let's move on to the next question. Do you know where your captors moved through to get to Almia?"
"I… believe Kanto and Sinnoh," I tell her, though she doesn't understand.
"I'm going to start listing countries again, let me know when I've said the right ones," She says, taking a breath before, "Sinnoh," I nod. "Orre, Kanto-"
"That's all of them," I say, nodding again and making sure to send a feeling of finality to make it understood.
"Right, now I need the time frame…"
I managed to get the general outline of when, where, and how Espeon got from Johto to here, and it's about what I expected, aside from everything he feels when he thinks about parts of it. I should have realized something was wrong when his emotions only came through in small bursts.
The misdreavus was helping, however, so I'm hopeful that he'll get better. It presents a problem though, in that once Misdreavus left, Espeon closed himself off again.
I glance at the front desk of the lobby, seeing Weaver still scribbling away. She has a look that tells me I'm going to need to comfort her soon, one I remember very well from when I taught her to read. She's getting frustrated at her inability to do something she thinks should be easy.
Now that she's started, though, she should be able to communicate complex things much more easily. …once she gets the hang of it.
I return my gaze to the floor, continuing to mop the accumulated dirt from so many boots marching over it, and, deciding that I might as well try, attempt to find Espeon through his bond. It doesn't work, as I'm not a psychic and he's closed it off, but I can hope he felt me trying.
There's a knocking of something on glass, and I blink as I look up at the obvious trainer standing outside the main doors.
I don't personally have anything against trainers, it's a decent career path for some, and, like people in general, most are decent human beings. But then you always have that one. The one who just has to ruin it for everyone else.
I digress. The one standing in front of the doors looks like one of the good ones, with how close he's standing to the croagunk. Speaking from experience, that takes trust. Croagunk tend to be violent when their personal space is breached. They- no, she, with the lower placed abdomen markings. She looks healthy, with no dry or cracked skin, well-developed muscles, no excess fat, and bright red rather than orange toxin nodules.
I hope her trainer knows what that means. For his own sake.
The man himself looks like he's spent more than his fair share out in the wilds, too. He's got the healthy build most good trainers have, and he's probably from Sinnoh, with a sharp face, naturally white hair, and tanned skin.
Setting the mop in its bucket, I head for the doors. "They're not locked," I say, pulling one of the objects in question open. "What do you need?"
"Well," The man says, now looking a bit nervous. "I had some questions about… recruiting?"
Ah, the polite way of saying he wants to take a pokemon with him, also the legal way, as we can't truly stop the pokemon from going with someone if they want to. "I'm going to assume you know the basics."
"No battling, no capturing, don't harass the pokemon…" The man says, trailing off as he tries to remember. "I know there were two more, but that's not the question I had," He says, lifting his pack off his shoulders and turning it around, revealing the joltik stuck firmly to it.
Ah, that's a bit different. "Well," I begin, quickly trying to recall the details about invasive species. "We could stop you from moving them out of the country, and if you don't have a valid trainer license then you would have issues when trying to leave. But if they want to go with you there's not much we will do about it, so long as you don't break any laws around capture or training," I inform him, pausing to review myself before continuing, "There are some protected species you shouldn't interact with, but joltik are invasive, so it's honestly encouraged. Especially if you can point either us or them toward the other."
"Yeah, okay. I thought I was remembering right, but something a friend did had me questioning myself," He says, nodding in relief. "You catch all that, buddy?" He asks, addressing the joltik. "You can come with us after all."
The arachnid lets out a buzzing, chittering sound.
"Okay! And, um…" The man articulates, glancing up, then farther up, "You know there's an espeon on the roof, yeah?"
"I knew he was around here somewhere, yes," I deadpan.
The man chuckles, "Right, yeah. Oh! Before I forget, I've been camping in the western forest, and there's a troupe of wartortle laying siege to a swarm of beedrill a bit northwest," He tells me. "It's something to see, but I thought you might want to know."
"We're aware of the beedrill, but, unless it becomes a bigger issue, we'll just let them keep at it." Then I sigh, "I do need to ask to see the tags you purchased for camping now, though."
"Oh. Uh, sure. One second," The man says, reaching a hand into his bag as Joltik scurries up his arm. The man is experienced, I'll give him that, he didn't react at all to the bug-type climbing him. "Here," He says, attempting to hand me the yellow tags.
I wave him off, "It's just one of those things we're required to ask about, I only needed to see them."
"Ah, I get it," He says, stuffing the laminated slips back into his bag. "And you said something about pointing you to some joltik?"
"We need to find all of them that made their way here," I say, deciding to lean on the door instead of just standing in it. "It'll probably take until the end of Summer to wrap that up. So, you know where we can start looking?"
"Yeah, I found this guy," The man gestures to Joltik, who has made their way to his head, "And a bunch more around the fence of one of those wool farms to the south of the city."
Hmm, that makes a good deal of sense, we would probably be getting a call about that in a few days then. "Thanks for letting us know. Is there anything else you need? Anything you've seen that might need dealing with?"
"Nah, not that I've seen. It's mostly been an enjoyable vacation," He says, hoisting his bag. Then he stops mid-turn-around, "Actually, do you know if there's somewhere relatively marshy around here? Stinger is ready to evolve, and she'd prefer to do it somewhere like that."
"You'll need to head to the southwest edge of Haruba to find something like that, sorry," I tell him.
"Yeah, I figured," He nods. "Guess we might have to put that off until we're back in Sinnoh, then," He says to Stinger. "We'll head to the Great Marsh and make a day of it, sound good?"
The amphibious pokemon waves her head side to side in equivocation before nodding, croaking out, "Cro-gunk."
"Well, thanks for the help then," The man says as he finally finishes turning. "Hope you have a good rest of your day!"
I watch him go, then shake my head in disbelief. The first real walk-in we've had in months, and they're a trainer doing the smart thing and checking. It's unbelievable how mundane that feels right now. I close the door and turn to go back to cleaning, then stop at the sight of Weaver.
She's holding a paper up to me, reading 'heLLo,' and 'iM sorrY.'
"You don't need to be sorry," I tell her. "Just making the attempt is more than most pokemon do, you'll get better at it."
"Weave," she says, still sounding a bit despondent.
"I'M FUCKING DONE WITH YOUR SHIT!" Katie's voice hammers through from the back.
I exchange a look with Weaver. It sounds like Katie hit her breaking point, as that was all in Unovan. "I think we should check on that," I tell my partner.
"Weavile," She agrees, visibly burning off her emotions in a black cloud as she heads deeper into the building.
I follow, slightly worried about what could have sent Katie over the edge. Looking into the radio room, I see that she's not talking into a comms unit, but holding one of the phones, and I get the feeling she must have slammed the receiver onto the body of the device, given her white-knuckled grip. Katie looks like she swallowed a lemon, and her foot is beating a hole into the floor.
She sees me in the doorway and sighs, "I guess you heard that, then."
"Yeah. What happ-" I'm cut off as the phone starts ringing.
"That. That is what keeps happening," Katie growls, taking a shaking hand off the phone.
"Who is it?" I ask, stepping into the room.
"A woman calling the emergency line to complain about a raticate, growlith, and chatot that stole her food. In Pueltown." Katie visibly tries for calm as she looks at the ringing phone, "She won't stop calling, and hasn't stopped insulting me since I told her we can't help. Could you pick it up, I need to contact the police in Pueltown to report an abuse of the emergency system."
"Of course," I tell her, reaching for the receiver.
I hold the receiver to my ear, "That was extremely unprofessional, hanging up like that! I demand to speak to someone higher up!" A woman's voice grates on my ears.
"You're speaking to her now," I say, calmly. "Area Ranger Onaga Ryuko."
"Ugh, finally! I thought you people were supposed to be organized. There are these pokemon that stole half the food from our event and you need to catch them, it was very expensive!"
I give the phone a sidelong look as I wonder just what this woman thinks Rangers do, then reply, "Where in Vientown is this taking place?"
"Excuse me?! I'm in Pueltown, we rented out one of the parks for this!"
Uh-huh, sure. "Which park exactly, ma'am?"
"Edwin Park," The voice says tersely.
"Okay then, ma'am. Now, I'm likely going to tell you the same things our operator told you. This is the Vientown emergency line, we do not catch pokemon, and you should stop calling this number."
"Excuse-"
"This line," I say, speaking over the woman, "Is reserved for immediate response to situations involving a pokemon being in danger or a pokemon putting someone else in danger, and it is not to be called unless such a scenario is taking place. Pokemon stealing food is not an emergency and should be reported to the local rangers on the civilian helpline. Have a nice day."
I hang up the phone.
"I'd say you're justified in simply hanging up on her if she calls again," I tell Katie once she's done with her report.
"Okay. Okay, yeah," She says, her hands still slightly shaking in anger. "I don't know if that'll stop her, but thanks for trying."
"Anytime. And I mean that, anytime. Yeah?"
"Yeah, I know. It's just… everything right now," Katie sighs. "I hope that Top Ranger manages to get something done about it."
I nod in agreement stepping out of the room as the phone starts ringing again.
"Is she alright?" Karlos quietly asks from his office door.
"Probably not," I admit. "She's getting more stressed every day."
"I've noticed. And she hasn't really been able to do much else but work and sleep…" He trails off, thinking. "What about a movie tonight? I know it's not much, but it's something, at least."
"I don't think anyone will say no," I tell the man, half shrugging. "If it's for her though, maybe let her pick the movie?"
"Sounds like a plan," Karlos nods. "Oh, and would you empty the shredder bins in here?" He asks, gesturing into his office.
"Yeah, give me a few minutes to finish mopping the lobby first."
My anchor moves through the building beneath my feet, calm as she has been since she saved me. I can't help but wish she had been the one to raise me, to teach me. She won't abandon me.
Yet the voice of experience says otherwise. It whispers that she is only the next risk, the next potential wound. I aggressively smother that voice. I've felt who she is, and she cares too much to do that.
She tried to reach out, unable to truly feel the anchor, yet attempting to anyway. I allow myself to fall farther into the bond, washing away the harsh edges of thoughts and memories I want to avoid. It's not as effective as the maelstrom, but it's still easier now.
My eyes begin to move, tracking something in the room below me, just out of reach.
'-to fix it?' 'Katie needs a vacation, not just-' '-Probably need the misdreavus' help-' 'There you are.'
Oh no, she's felt me pushing again. I hope she isn't-
'-Still so frail-' 'I'm glad you're feeling better.' 'He's too young for-'
Her concern, empathy, and a calming pulse of certainty flow from her to me. I respond with affirmation and uncertainty. I am feeling better, but I don't want her to experience what I am.
I don't enjoy drowning in fear, anger, pain, and apathy, and I'm certain she wouldn't either. She doesn't deserve it.
I never, ever felt this way about Mitsuaki, he's… he was a friend, at one point. But it's everyone else I miss more, Flaaffy, Elekid, and Magnemite. We- We'd been working so well together, we were almost to the third badge!
But Mitsuaki, he- Why?!
NO! No, no no no no nonononono. Focus on Miss Ryuko, she loves me. …But she likes all pokemon, doesn't she?
I'm starting to hyperventilate. It doesn't matter if she feels a connection to all pokemon, she'll hug me if I ask. That's what's important. Focus on that.
I'm starting to miss the maelstrom already.
AN: I had some trouble writing Espeon here, but I think I did well enough.
Big thanks to Ott043 fore beta-ing this, there were some big mistakes in it at first.
Once Onaga decided she'd rather get started on breakfast, she let Weaver carry Espeon into the break room so we could 'have fun' instead of sitting around a table. So, Weaver is finally getting around to teaching me to read.
I, however, appear to be a dirty cheater when it comes to remembering things. After all, I only need to pay attention, and the looks Weaver has been giving me are great.
Sinnohan has thirty-eight characters—with a whole eleven of them being vowels, reads right to left, and has no written spaces. Though it thankfully does have punctuation. And I'd asked Weaver what she had meant when she said she couldn't teach me because she can't make the sounds.
She proceeded to pull out a book, point at a letter, and say, "Wea." Then the next letter, "Wea." I'd gotten the idea by then, but she still pointed to another and, surprisingly, somehow said, "Wea."
The translation thing is weird.
"I spent months learning this," The weavile grumbles. "And I had Ryu teaching me. Even Espeon was having issues, and he's a psychic, but you're not even trying and we're already on the third video."
"I'm also not really learning it," I say, shaking my head. "That will take months, maybe years, at least."
"What do you mean you're not learning it?" Weaver asks.
"I mean this is just memorization, which I have an unfair advantage with, but I'm not learning it yet," I explain. "If I tried to read something I'd spend most of the time referencing my memory instead of reading, just trying to figure out how to read the symbols. I'll have learned the language well enough when I can simply read it."
Weaver blinks, looks at the dictionary she'd pulled out, up at the paused video on the TV, and back down to the dictionary, her eyes scanning over words. "Huh, I hadn't thought of that," She says, blinking again. "When did I become able to understand what I read that easily?"
I chuckle, "I can't help you there, but that's what I mean, you've learned the language. I feel like I'm cramming for a test."
"Hmm, okay then," Weaver shrugs, then flicks an ear and turns her head toward the hallway, "Morning Karlos," She waves.
I turn to see a man I can only describe as a ripped dad smiling at us from the doorway. He has sandy-blonde hair, green eyes, and, while he's well-muscled, he is rather hefty-looking. "Weaver," He greets, waving back with a yawn. "Since Onaga isn't in here I'm going to assume something happened last night?"
Weaver gives him a nod, "Yeah."
He sighs, "Guess I'll need to ask her about it. Does she know you have the misdreavus in here?"
"Yes…?" Weaver nods, confused. Then she points to the still unconscious Espeon, "But they're here to help him."
That makes the man frown slightly, "Mmm, I'll go find her, then." He quickly steps out of sight.
"Must be seven o'clock," Weaver says, standing to stretch in a way I'd call impossible if she weren't so feline. "We should probably stop here for now."
"Sure, sounds good. I was starting to-" Hold on, "That was four hours?" I ask as she ejects the tape.
"Yeah, that's what I meant. You've got such a freaky level of focus that we're already halfway through the video course," She laughs, "And you didn't even notice!"
I really hadn't. "So…" I trail off, looking for something else to think about before my eyes land on Espeon. "Should we move him somewhere?"
"Probably outside if the sun is coming up," Weaver says. "But we should ask Ryuko first. Give me a second." And with that, she leaves the room.
I'm not sure how long he's been asleep, so I don't know if I should be concerned that he's still splayed on his side, sleeping. He's also still only giving off vague, small bursts of emotions right now, so I don't think he's about to wake up. I still need to get his story from Weaver, as she hasn't told me much about him yet, but I can make some guesses.
He's missing fur, I can see his ribs, and he was more of an emotional wreck than I was, and I died. Weaver said Onaga had adopted him, but that's obviously incomplete. Maybe I should get a better look at him again.
It hardly takes any effort to shift from space to not-space, and I still can't tell if his being so solid here is a psychic-type thing or not. His eye is closed, and those armor-like plates around him are still present, but there's the start of the typical sphere I've seen around almost everyone who's not a dim gray. I still need to figure out what the colors are about. And the uncomfortable thing with most humans.
Casting my gaze around, I see four bright, human shapes and two smaller, dimmer orbs. Two of the bright spots are in the showers, and two are in the kitchen with a very hard-to-make-out silhouette next to them. One of the dim orbs is still in the sleeping quarters, with the other being where Weaver said the Operators worked.
I'm definitely glowing brighter now, a shifting ____ and ____ revealing the walls of the room. What's the difference? The Rangers look like they should be casting color, but they don't. And yet, they're brighter than some of the younger pokemon I've seen, and those pokemon cast color, so… Why not?
And then I have the two brightest things I've seen here, and one of them was a human… I think? I don't know where to start with trying to learn about that.
Maybe I should move learning to read up on my priority list. I have the time, after all. And Weaver can point me to… Will they let a ghost into the library? Well, 'let,' I'm almost certain I can pass through just about anything, so it's not like a few walls will stop me from getting in. That feels rude though, and I don't know how people would react to me doing something like that.
"What are you doing, Smokey?" Weaver's voice echoes.
I move back to where she can hear me, "Checking on Espeon. And thinking, mostly. What are we doing with him?"
"Moving him outside, like I thought. Ryu will be trying to wake him up again, soon," Weaver says, moving to pick the big cat up. She stops before she has her arms under the other feline, looking at me, "Could you carry him this time? He's a bit awkward for me."
He is nearly the same size as her. "Sure," I say, creating a zone around Espeon- Huh, that's an odd feeling. Maybe it's because he's psychic-type? Regardless, I can lift him rather easily, bringing the cat about a foot-and-a-half off the ground.
"I'm going to need to get used to that, with him around," Weaver comments as she leaves the room, letting me float Espeon after her as I trail behind.
"What, floating objects?" I ask, and Weaver moves to hold the lobby door open.
"Yeah, although I think he's been afraid to touch much of anything," She replies, literally bouncing to the main doors. "Or he may have been too busy trying not to make Ryu worry, I'm not sure."
"Trying not to make her worry? Not, trying to stave off an extra-spicy panic attack?" I ask, setting the pink cat down outside.
"There were some things on espeon that I read. You remember those papers?"
"Weaver," I say, leveling the feathery weasel with a flat gaze, "I remember almost everything that's happened to me since I woke up, and you reading that was only around thirty-four hours ago."
"And you're sure you aren't psychic?" She retorts with narrowed eyes.
"No, but I'm pretty sure, at least."
"Right… Anyway, espeon apparently do this thing where they pick someone and synchronize themselves to them. That includes letting the other person feel what they do, so I think that's why he was holding it all back," Weaver explains, leaning against the outside wall next to the doors. "How long until he wakes up, do you think?"
"I've got no idea," I say, tasting the surroundings. "Nothing's changed yet, though."
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I feel myself stirring out of a restful slumber, the first I've had outside my ball in some time. I stretch, feeling the sunlight fill me with energy as I idly seek out my anchor…
And start to flail, trying to find my footing as fragments of when I was last awake return to me. My anchor stabilizes, and-
Oh, she's disappointed, slightly angry, and very concerned, meaning that I'm disappointed, slightly angry, and very concerned. And she's standing only a few meters away. I turn my eyes on her, all three taking in the scene.
Ryuko's second is leaning against the building behind her, one eyebrow raised as the weavile considers me. And there, floating too close to my anchor, is the maelstrom, free power and emotions orbiting around and falling into them without end.
"I hope you know that you shouldn't have let things go that far," My anchor says, radiating her disappointment, disapproval, and sadness through our connection. "Now, I'm going to ask you some questions, and I want honest answers. Understood?" She isn't happy. Oh no. No no no no no! I don't want to fall into- into…
The maelstrom is pulling everything away. Hadn't they said something about eating the emotions? Oh! That must be why my dreams faded to something so pleasant after I fell unconscious, I thought I'd been lucky enough to gain control, yet the pull the maelstrom is exerting is so strong that I'd need to actively attempt to keep my emotions contained at this distance.
It's still a bit uncomfortable, but they haven't been cruel, or even particularly unpleasant. No, the maelstrom is simply odd, I can feel them, yet at the same time I can't find their mind or emotions. And despite that, their body sits there in the ether, suspended by the void hanging from their neck, permeating through the rest of their body.
And thankfully, despite their gnawing presence, the flow through my anchor is unaffected. Or, doesn't that mean… Oh. Miss Ryuko is frowning at me, evidently able to feel some of what I am. I extend my reach slightly to peer deeper.
'Nine Sages, it's coming through a lot stronger now.' '-need locations, times, activities, people-' 'What is he doing? Wait, are you-'
She's exasperated now.
And she's also evidently aware of me, her eyes narrowing. I send my affirmation and regret along our connection, nodding ashamedly.
"Right, that's fairly natural for you," Miss Ryuko mutters. "Don't think we won't talk about this if it becomes an issue," She fixes her eyes on me, letting me feel the conviction in her mind. She then steadies her breathing, and continues, "Right, let's start with 'why' then," She says, bringing out a notepad. "So, why were you hiding how you feel?" I don't need to exert myself to feel that she believes she already knows.
"B- Because it hurts…" I timidly say, sending a fragment of the pain from my memories down the connection. I feel her receive it, though she doesn't visibly react.
She hums, moving the writing utensil along the paper, "I assumed as much, but my knowing that is all I'd need to start finding some way to help." I shrink back a little at her words, I can't refute that. "And you shouldn't be worried about bleed-through," She says, making me wince as I realize how much she's picking up on at the moment. "I was ready for that when I took you in. Now, do you know what country you're from?"
"Yes, Johto," I nod, sending affirmation.
"Good, I'm going to start listing them off and I want you to stop me when I say the right one," The human says, standing slightly straighter. "Sinnoh, Orre, Kanto, Johto-"
"There," I say, nodding again.
"Right, and I already asked if you had a trainer," She mutters, once more moving pen across paper. "And why were you hesitant to return to them?"
Oh… How do I get that across? I send ambivalence and then the anger I felt in those last moments with Mitsuaki as I protected him, when I became more to protect him.
When he abandoned me.
Even as I feel the rage course through my system, it doesn't spiral out of control, the all-consuming hole in reality that is the maelstrom pulling the emotions away after I've processed them.
"Hmm, that felt complicated…" Ryuko says, turning her eyes on her second, Weaver. "Do you think the two of you together could get it across?"
"Of course," The weavile says, pushing off from the wall to move toward me. "So, what happened?" She asks with the same gentleness she's had since Ryuko told her to make me welcome.
"I- My trainer and I had been making our way through Johto," I begin, doing my best to ignore the outpouring that remembering it causes until it's all pulled away by the maelstrom. "It was only us a- and our team at the time, and when we were attacked-"
I stop, allowing the anger to dissipate before continuing, "I was sent out, and once the humans saw me they started pushing harder, trying to get all of Mitsuaki's pokeballs. They were- were going to hurt him, so I did my best to stay calm and store power for a combination we'd been working on together. And I wanted to protect everyone so I kept pushing for more, but it- I lost control of it, and by the time the pain from the backlash stopped I was- it was too late, and I realized I was e- evolving."
Pain, isolation, and disgust rise from the memory of that moment, as vivid now as they were then. I need to stop, to let- to let the maelstrom pull it all away again. I realize I'm not breathing once my lungs start burning, and make a conscious effort to do so.
"He hated- When Mitsuaki saw what had happened, what I'd become, he pulled me back into my ball and threw me at the other humans, I didn't see where he went after that, but- but-"
The sorrow and self-recrimination of the days that followed and the constant anger, apathy, and purposeful pain from the last four months begin to drown me again.
Why wasn't I good enough? Why did he throw me away? What did I do wrong? Was I wrong to want to protect him? How could I have done things better? Why is- How should- What made- How can- Why can't- Why? Why? Why? Why?! Why?! Why?!
I'm- I'm not falling anymore. I glance up at the maelstrom and see their eyes filled with concern and sympathy. I breathe slowly to center myself, then reestablish my anchor.
"He left me, he threw me away because I disgusted him," I whisper. "He used me to let him escape, and- and-"
"I think that's enough," Weaver says softly, her eyes staring through me. "Um, Smokey? Do you have that trick of yours working yet? That's a lot to communicate…"
"Not all that well, no. And it won't work in the sun, in any case," The maelstrom, Smokey, says, their voice ringing with layers of emotion and untapped power. "Why can't you just write it down?"
"That- that never crossed my mind," Weaver admits, shrugging. "But it's not like I can hold a pen without…" She trails off, staring at one of her hands, her pupils dilating to the degree that her irises vanish. "Oh. Uh, one second," She says, vanishing through the doors in a blur of speed.
"Uh-huh," My anchor says, confusion and amusement flowing into me. "I wonder what idea she's had now?"
It wasn't the weavile's idea, but I don't have the chance to say anything before the dark-type returns with the same alacrity with which she left, now holding a sheaf of paper and a pencil. She sets the papers on the ground, maneuvers the pencil over them, and snaps the thin piece of wood in two.
"Uh…" She says, looking at the remains of the implement.
"Were you…?" Miss Ryuko begins before chuckling, "You were. I suppose there's enough that you finally felt the need to, then. Here," She says, handing her second a metal pen, "Don't put too much pressure on it."
The weavile carefully takes the pen, places it on one of the papers, and frowns as it punches through the delicate sheet.
"Here, set one on this and try," Smokey says, and a plane of energy shimmers into existence.
I haven't had much experience with physical manipulation yet, but it's rather obvious that they're achieving the effect with sheer force, not even bothering with constructing a base construct first. I don't know if that implies a great deal of control, strength, or resistance to the always painful backlash.
I feel some pride and burbling amusement flow down my anchor as Miss Ryuko puts a hand to her mouth, covering a smile and stifling a sigh as she watches what Weaver is doing. After fifteen seconds the weavile stops, having written five large symbols on the page, a frown crossing her features. "I… How do they make this look so easy?"
"'Heís… thre…'" Miss Ryuko reads, still smiling. "It's a start, and I'm going to hang this on the fridge when we're done here." The smile drops off her face and she sighs, "Well, it's obviously complicated. I could tell just from the way you were feeling when talking about it," She says, frowning as she looks at her second. "Weaver, you can stop that for now, I'm pretty sure it'll take too long at the moment."
"But I-"The weavile cuts herself off, staring at the slip of paper. "I… okay."
Miss Ryuko sighs, rubbing at her forehead, "I don't want to say it, but we'll probably need to wait until we can communicate better to talk about your former trainer." The human growls, startling me, "I hate this. Weaver, don't let me forget to talk to Espeon about it, and the same goes for you," She says, speaking first to her second, then to me. "And remember that Weaver and I will always be willing to help, okay?" She tells me, then turns to the weavile, "Right?"
"Of course," Weaver says, performing a human salute.
The human's eyes soften a little, "Good. Now, let's move on to the next question. Do you know where your captors moved through to get to Almia?"
"I… believe Kanto and Sinnoh," I tell her, though she doesn't understand.
"I'm going to start listing countries again, let me know when I've said the right ones," She says, taking a breath before, "Sinnoh," I nod. "Orre, Kanto-"
"That's all of them," I say, nodding again and making sure to send a feeling of finality to make it understood.
"Right, now I need the time frame…"
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I managed to get the general outline of when, where, and how Espeon got from Johto to here, and it's about what I expected, aside from everything he feels when he thinks about parts of it. I should have realized something was wrong when his emotions only came through in small bursts.
The misdreavus was helping, however, so I'm hopeful that he'll get better. It presents a problem though, in that once Misdreavus left, Espeon closed himself off again.
I glance at the front desk of the lobby, seeing Weaver still scribbling away. She has a look that tells me I'm going to need to comfort her soon, one I remember very well from when I taught her to read. She's getting frustrated at her inability to do something she thinks should be easy.
Now that she's started, though, she should be able to communicate complex things much more easily. …once she gets the hang of it.
I return my gaze to the floor, continuing to mop the accumulated dirt from so many boots marching over it, and, deciding that I might as well try, attempt to find Espeon through his bond. It doesn't work, as I'm not a psychic and he's closed it off, but I can hope he felt me trying.
There's a knocking of something on glass, and I blink as I look up at the obvious trainer standing outside the main doors.
I don't personally have anything against trainers, it's a decent career path for some, and, like people in general, most are decent human beings. But then you always have that one. The one who just has to ruin it for everyone else.
I digress. The one standing in front of the doors looks like one of the good ones, with how close he's standing to the croagunk. Speaking from experience, that takes trust. Croagunk tend to be violent when their personal space is breached. They- no, she, with the lower placed abdomen markings. She looks healthy, with no dry or cracked skin, well-developed muscles, no excess fat, and bright red rather than orange toxin nodules.
I hope her trainer knows what that means. For his own sake.
The man himself looks like he's spent more than his fair share out in the wilds, too. He's got the healthy build most good trainers have, and he's probably from Sinnoh, with a sharp face, naturally white hair, and tanned skin.
Setting the mop in its bucket, I head for the doors. "They're not locked," I say, pulling one of the objects in question open. "What do you need?"
"Well," The man says, now looking a bit nervous. "I had some questions about… recruiting?"
Ah, the polite way of saying he wants to take a pokemon with him, also the legal way, as we can't truly stop the pokemon from going with someone if they want to. "I'm going to assume you know the basics."
"No battling, no capturing, don't harass the pokemon…" The man says, trailing off as he tries to remember. "I know there were two more, but that's not the question I had," He says, lifting his pack off his shoulders and turning it around, revealing the joltik stuck firmly to it.
Ah, that's a bit different. "Well," I begin, quickly trying to recall the details about invasive species. "We could stop you from moving them out of the country, and if you don't have a valid trainer license then you would have issues when trying to leave. But if they want to go with you there's not much we will do about it, so long as you don't break any laws around capture or training," I inform him, pausing to review myself before continuing, "There are some protected species you shouldn't interact with, but joltik are invasive, so it's honestly encouraged. Especially if you can point either us or them toward the other."
"Yeah, okay. I thought I was remembering right, but something a friend did had me questioning myself," He says, nodding in relief. "You catch all that, buddy?" He asks, addressing the joltik. "You can come with us after all."
The arachnid lets out a buzzing, chittering sound.
"Okay! And, um…" The man articulates, glancing up, then farther up, "You know there's an espeon on the roof, yeah?"
"I knew he was around here somewhere, yes," I deadpan.
The man chuckles, "Right, yeah. Oh! Before I forget, I've been camping in the western forest, and there's a troupe of wartortle laying siege to a swarm of beedrill a bit northwest," He tells me. "It's something to see, but I thought you might want to know."
"We're aware of the beedrill, but, unless it becomes a bigger issue, we'll just let them keep at it." Then I sigh, "I do need to ask to see the tags you purchased for camping now, though."
"Oh. Uh, sure. One second," The man says, reaching a hand into his bag as Joltik scurries up his arm. The man is experienced, I'll give him that, he didn't react at all to the bug-type climbing him. "Here," He says, attempting to hand me the yellow tags.
I wave him off, "It's just one of those things we're required to ask about, I only needed to see them."
"Ah, I get it," He says, stuffing the laminated slips back into his bag. "And you said something about pointing you to some joltik?"
"We need to find all of them that made their way here," I say, deciding to lean on the door instead of just standing in it. "It'll probably take until the end of Summer to wrap that up. So, you know where we can start looking?"
"Yeah, I found this guy," The man gestures to Joltik, who has made their way to his head, "And a bunch more around the fence of one of those wool farms to the south of the city."
Hmm, that makes a good deal of sense, we would probably be getting a call about that in a few days then. "Thanks for letting us know. Is there anything else you need? Anything you've seen that might need dealing with?"
"Nah, not that I've seen. It's mostly been an enjoyable vacation," He says, hoisting his bag. Then he stops mid-turn-around, "Actually, do you know if there's somewhere relatively marshy around here? Stinger is ready to evolve, and she'd prefer to do it somewhere like that."
"You'll need to head to the southwest edge of Haruba to find something like that, sorry," I tell him.
"Yeah, I figured," He nods. "Guess we might have to put that off until we're back in Sinnoh, then," He says to Stinger. "We'll head to the Great Marsh and make a day of it, sound good?"
The amphibious pokemon waves her head side to side in equivocation before nodding, croaking out, "Cro-gunk."
"Well, thanks for the help then," The man says as he finally finishes turning. "Hope you have a good rest of your day!"
I watch him go, then shake my head in disbelief. The first real walk-in we've had in months, and they're a trainer doing the smart thing and checking. It's unbelievable how mundane that feels right now. I close the door and turn to go back to cleaning, then stop at the sight of Weaver.
She's holding a paper up to me, reading 'heLLo,' and 'iM sorrY.'
"You don't need to be sorry," I tell her. "Just making the attempt is more than most pokemon do, you'll get better at it."
"Weave," she says, still sounding a bit despondent.
"I'M FUCKING DONE WITH YOUR SHIT!" Katie's voice hammers through from the back.
I exchange a look with Weaver. It sounds like Katie hit her breaking point, as that was all in Unovan. "I think we should check on that," I tell my partner.
"Weavile," She agrees, visibly burning off her emotions in a black cloud as she heads deeper into the building.
I follow, slightly worried about what could have sent Katie over the edge. Looking into the radio room, I see that she's not talking into a comms unit, but holding one of the phones, and I get the feeling she must have slammed the receiver onto the body of the device, given her white-knuckled grip. Katie looks like she swallowed a lemon, and her foot is beating a hole into the floor.
She sees me in the doorway and sighs, "I guess you heard that, then."
"Yeah. What happ-" I'm cut off as the phone starts ringing.
"That. That is what keeps happening," Katie growls, taking a shaking hand off the phone.
"Who is it?" I ask, stepping into the room.
"A woman calling the emergency line to complain about a raticate, growlith, and chatot that stole her food. In Pueltown." Katie visibly tries for calm as she looks at the ringing phone, "She won't stop calling, and hasn't stopped insulting me since I told her we can't help. Could you pick it up, I need to contact the police in Pueltown to report an abuse of the emergency system."
"Of course," I tell her, reaching for the receiver.
I hold the receiver to my ear, "That was extremely unprofessional, hanging up like that! I demand to speak to someone higher up!" A woman's voice grates on my ears.
"You're speaking to her now," I say, calmly. "Area Ranger Onaga Ryuko."
"Ugh, finally! I thought you people were supposed to be organized. There are these pokemon that stole half the food from our event and you need to catch them, it was very expensive!"
I give the phone a sidelong look as I wonder just what this woman thinks Rangers do, then reply, "Where in Vientown is this taking place?"
"Excuse me?! I'm in Pueltown, we rented out one of the parks for this!"
Uh-huh, sure. "Which park exactly, ma'am?"
"Edwin Park," The voice says tersely.
"Okay then, ma'am. Now, I'm likely going to tell you the same things our operator told you. This is the Vientown emergency line, we do not catch pokemon, and you should stop calling this number."
"Excuse-"
"This line," I say, speaking over the woman, "Is reserved for immediate response to situations involving a pokemon being in danger or a pokemon putting someone else in danger, and it is not to be called unless such a scenario is taking place. Pokemon stealing food is not an emergency and should be reported to the local rangers on the civilian helpline. Have a nice day."
I hang up the phone.
"I'd say you're justified in simply hanging up on her if she calls again," I tell Katie once she's done with her report.
"Okay. Okay, yeah," She says, her hands still slightly shaking in anger. "I don't know if that'll stop her, but thanks for trying."
"Anytime. And I mean that, anytime. Yeah?"
"Yeah, I know. It's just… everything right now," Katie sighs. "I hope that Top Ranger manages to get something done about it."
I nod in agreement stepping out of the room as the phone starts ringing again.
"Is she alright?" Karlos quietly asks from his office door.
"Probably not," I admit. "She's getting more stressed every day."
"I've noticed. And she hasn't really been able to do much else but work and sleep…" He trails off, thinking. "What about a movie tonight? I know it's not much, but it's something, at least."
"I don't think anyone will say no," I tell the man, half shrugging. "If it's for her though, maybe let her pick the movie?"
"Sounds like a plan," Karlos nods. "Oh, and would you empty the shredder bins in here?" He asks, gesturing into his office.
"Yeah, give me a few minutes to finish mopping the lobby first."
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My anchor moves through the building beneath my feet, calm as she has been since she saved me. I can't help but wish she had been the one to raise me, to teach me. She won't abandon me.
Yet the voice of experience says otherwise. It whispers that she is only the next risk, the next potential wound. I aggressively smother that voice. I've felt who she is, and she cares too much to do that.
She tried to reach out, unable to truly feel the anchor, yet attempting to anyway. I allow myself to fall farther into the bond, washing away the harsh edges of thoughts and memories I want to avoid. It's not as effective as the maelstrom, but it's still easier now.
My eyes begin to move, tracking something in the room below me, just out of reach.
'-to fix it?' 'Katie needs a vacation, not just-' '-Probably need the misdreavus' help-' 'There you are.'
Oh no, she's felt me pushing again. I hope she isn't-
'-Still so frail-' 'I'm glad you're feeling better.' 'He's too young for-'
Her concern, empathy, and a calming pulse of certainty flow from her to me. I respond with affirmation and uncertainty. I am feeling better, but I don't want her to experience what I am.
I don't enjoy drowning in fear, anger, pain, and apathy, and I'm certain she wouldn't either. She doesn't deserve it.
I never, ever felt this way about Mitsuaki, he's… he was a friend, at one point. But it's everyone else I miss more, Flaaffy, Elekid, and Magnemite. We- We'd been working so well together, we were almost to the third badge!
But Mitsuaki, he- Why?!
NO! No, no no no no nonononono. Focus on Miss Ryuko, she loves me. …But she likes all pokemon, doesn't she?
I'm starting to hyperventilate. It doesn't matter if she feels a connection to all pokemon, she'll hug me if I ask. That's what's important. Focus on that.
I'm starting to miss the maelstrom already.
AN: I had some trouble writing Espeon here, but I think I did well enough.
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I read this, posted the chapter, and now I'm stuck thinking that it's odd you don't see more ghost-pokemon isekais. It's one of the most direct methods to world hop in fiction - Die.
Maybe it's because most people don't like thinking about death in a metaphysical sense, idk.
LunaMoth
Wings of Kynareth is my comfort song...
- Pronouns
- He/They
I think its more like while there are some cool ghost types (and even some that tie right on in to humans coming back as Pokémon 'Yamask'). Most people if given the chance to become a Pokémon of their choosing would probably choose literally anything other than a ghost type mon.
Also:
I said it before but the Pokémon world does have Isekai as a canon concept already in multiple ways, and beyond ghost types there are also multiple ways for humans to become Pokémon; assuming the pokedex entries are taken as at least a bit true.
Hence my favorite pokedex entry:
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- Earth-Sol lagrange point 4
The pokedex can be wild at times. So can the anime. ...And the games and manga too. It's one of the enjoyable aspects of pokemon that canon is 'more like a set of guidelines' than anything else.
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- America
The amount of 'becoming a pokemon' stories tend to start and end with some odd choices.
I've seen Hisuian Zoroark, this Misdreavus, Mawile, Tyrunt, and an Absol. Admittedly, this is only the ones I remember off the top, but still.
I also don't count Mystery Dungeon stories, never was a fan of them myself.
I've seen Hisuian Zoroark, this Misdreavus, Mawile, Tyrunt, and an Absol. Admittedly, this is only the ones I remember off the top, but still.
I also don't count Mystery Dungeon stories, never was a fan of them myself.
I like the chapter and am glad we get closure as to why espeons trainer dumped him. Though it was absolutely a terrible awful thing, it's still somehow less bad than other possible outcomes.
Do you happen to have a story name? That sounds like an interesting dichotomy if it was done well.
A special kind of hell
A special kind of Hell (Pokemons)
So, I'm going to say this first off. I'm doing this story to vent a plot bunny. I want to play a...
forums.spacebattles.com
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- Earth-Sol lagrange point 4
I'm pretty sure I've read that tyrunt story, mawile sounds like 'A Backwrds Grin' h.zoroark is one I admittedly haven't seen any of myself, and absol... is a popular choice for pokemon fics in general.
I was going to asks what you meant by odd choices, and then I remembered:
1. I started this by having Charlie just going about his life before being stabbed to death.
Secondly. That tyrunt story had the protagonist as a weird soup of former human and near animal, Ash being clueless about how to handle that, and Dawn(I think it was Dawn) joining Team Magma.
And C. There are fanfics that have ended?!?! More seriously, what even constitutes an odd choice? Canon breaking? Characters acting out of character? TWENTY EIGHT STAB WOUNDS!?
I think some 'odd choices' might just be as a hook, others because it made sense to author, and some might just be unhinged, but I'd like to know what you meant.
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JBcristal
Bring Me All The Puppies!
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- Somewhere that doesn't have enough puppies.
The Zoroark one is... uh, interesting, to put it nicely. I am no fan of Extreme Angst, and boy did that one take the "I died" hardcore route. Not a terrible read, but oh god it was not for me.
And I assume the Absol nods to mister Wolf Of Unova and his rise to get hard cash money.
Not the person being asked, but personally I think the "oddities" come from the fact "MC is Pokemon" stories are nothing new, really. The thing is that outside of Ye Olde FFdotNet Days things have gained less questionable quality and well, yeah, that generally means giving things a certain twist that makes them more interesting. I mean, a simple journey can be given some complexities, but it's not the most interesting thing to rethread? Even the very, very, very old classic "A Little Night Music" leant into a more crude angle to give its texture to what was otherwise just a Pokemon journey, so I wouldn't say it's new either.
LunaMoth
Wings of Kynareth is my comfort song...
- Pronouns
- He/They
Personally I like human turned into Pokémon stories because well... supernatural powers are just cool, and being a trainer is lame in the face of having access to Pokémon moves and stuff. We do see humans with supernatural powers in the pokeverse but most people seem to be more or less baseline human.
Also in general Stories about 'X turns into Y and now must cope' just happen to be my thing, I like them...
I do think that its a slightly overplayed trope in Pokémon fanfic, but a trope being overplayed is no reason to not do it, most writing is derivative anyways and this is fanfiction!
Also in general Stories about 'X turns into Y and now must cope' just happen to be my thing, I like them...
I do think that its a slightly overplayed trope in Pokémon fanfic, but a trope being overplayed is no reason to not do it, most writing is derivative anyways and this is fanfiction!
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- Earth-Sol lagrange point 4
I've found pokemon fiction to be a mixed bag. I generally find myself sticking around for characters more than plot, though that might be because I enjoy Pokemon as a setting and tend to like simply watching characters move through it.
Edit: Half my reply got eaten when I hit quote on LunaMoth's post. So:
And talking about hooks, Charlie's method of travel was just what my brain came up as a logical way for him to both change worlds and species, as, when I started writing this, it was mostly for me and the thought of posting it was a very distant 'maybe.'
Same
I think the best descriptor I ever heard about what writing ultimately is was, 'An incestuous cannibal orgy where everyone forgot the safe word.' - I think it was pretty accurate personally. You mix and remix and sometimes things happen.
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- America
In regards to what I meant, most discussions I've seen in regards to SIs tend towards a heavy focus on more popular mons, as well as ones that are more human for lack of a better term.
Most people tend to want either something well known like Absol or Gardevoir, or something bipedal and possibly capable of human speech.
Problem is is that most of the people who discuss this arent going to actually write it out and do anything with it. I would love more Poke-serts, especially from a more inhuman PoV, but rather few actually post anything.
LunaMoth
Wings of Kynareth is my comfort song...
- Pronouns
- He/They
The thing with Poke-inserts and why they tend to go for the more human adjacent Pokémon, is because I feel most people (including myself
if I got Poke-isekai'd I'd definitely hope for the Fennekin line for reasons (YAY PYROMANCY YAY FOX ANTRO 
)
)If you want totally alien POV in a Pokémon fic, it is in my opinion better to look for fics where there is no Isekai and the protag is a Pokémon and has always been one. Fics that do this are pretty rare though.
Here's one on SV right now as a recommendation btw though it hasn't updated in a while. An Electric Tail (Pikachu Quest)
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- America
Honestly the best example I've seen of xenofiction is "Little Leavanny in the Big City".
In regards to the viewpoint thing though, I was talking more of something along the lines of being in a very different position than normal. A lot of inserts play off the 'being a pokemon' thing as just a side-note to them basically acting like they are still people with minimal issues.
I was talking more along the lines of the adjustment to the new circumstances and the benefits and challenges of said circumstances.
LunaMoth
Wings of Kynareth is my comfort song...
- Pronouns
- He/They
We somewhat agree then.
Broader than Pokémon in 'X tuns into y and has to deal with it' fiction I don't like it when transformation in a story has no consequences, however I dislike it if those difficulties are an imposed alien mindset, of course a little is ok; but after a certain point a human with an imposed alien mindset just get uncomfortable for me to read about personally (mind you only mildly uncomfortable). Like I do like consequences for the transformed person but not the specific one you are talking about. I prefer the physical consequences like when in this webcomic for a brief period
the MC and others get locked into the form of foxes without hands
But yeah no consequences at all isn't very fun.
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- Earth-Sol lagrange point 4
I'm going to take what's been said as a compliment, then. Or at least I'd like to think I've done a half-decent job there, as Charlie is still not quite sure where he falls between human and otherwise or what to do that information(Though I am)
Edit:
Also, both of these. I struggle to find a way to express inhumanity from the inside, And I agree with LunaMoth that real xenofiction-type pokemon stories almost need to be without any human start.
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- Earth-Sol lagrange point 4
Oh god, Jolteon Pokemon from the Pocket Monsters franchise has read my fic! Oh shit, oh fuck!
Hey, quick question, do you have fur or quills or both?
It's fur with high metal content that can be stiffened and fired using a magnetic field. (at least that's how I always imagined it).
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- Earth-Sol lagrange point 4
I guess the answer sort of is both then, given that quills are just adapted fur
Chapter 19
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- Earth-Sol lagrange point 4
AN: As before, huge thanks to Ott043 for beta-ing and making me think about some decisions I've made.
This one was mostly ready two days after the last, but I let it stew for a bit.
Enjoy.
"-Ya sayin' that'll let us get our guys out, sir?" I ask the well-dressed man. He sorta reminds me of the boss, actually.
"Tomorrow, once I've finished the final adjustments, yes," He curtly replies. "Hastings is a fool to waste its potential."
"What does it even do?" Timothy asks, earning a glare 'cause he forgot the man's rules. "S- Sorry, sir. What does it do, Mr. Kincaid?"
"Nothing at the moment, currently it is no more than a broken resonant empathy device." He sighs at the blank looks we give him, "The circle-things you see the Rangers wearing to let them quickly establish themselves with pokemon."
"Uh, but you had us carry the whole crate of them in here? S- Sir!" Tim says, letting his curiosity make mistakes for him.
Mr. Kincaid seems to like it though, "Hmm, yes. As they are now the devices are limited by three factors, I intend to overcome two using these parts, and the third with something near unique. Now," He says, turning sharply to look at us, "I will be bringing one of my students in to aid me, I expect you to be silent and supply any labor asked of you, understood?"
Espeon was- Well, I knew how he was feeling, obviously, but learning why was something else. I cried both times my dogs died, growing up, and the thought of using them to escape something just…
And Espeon is a person. No, it's worse than that, he's a child. Sure, I've been around annoying children before, but you don't throw them away because they- they disgust you. That… it… I noticed the different ways people were acting toward me, but it's not just me, is it? I've heard a lot of people around here complain about tourists, but I don't think I've heard them say that about the local humans.
And then there's the praise for the Rangers. Which… might be warranted? They seem to care about us-
Us. The pokemon.
…
Nope, still not freaking out about that, huh? I don't know if I should be glad for that or not. …I was thinking about something else a moment ago; Espeon. I think he's had a worse time than I have, genuinely. I got a nice, easy few days of panic and stress, and I'm pretty sure he was effectively emotionally tortured for months. It's easy to see why he'd have such an iron grip over his emotions if that's what he's feeling half the time.
Oh, and I'm at my destination.
"Is this a bad time?" I ask the colony, watching as they treat two roselia, a roserade, and a torterra to what looks like a rather… thorough cleaning or grooming treatment.
"Prime-Daughter-Two greets {non-hostile, potential ally} Apprentice-Of-Order-Bringer," A singular voice answers, surprising me as the vespiquen buzzes closer. "Individual's concern unfounded, {I, We} are not in combat." She regards me for a moment, "Information requested, {reason, purpose} for individual's approach."
"Boredom, curiosity, trying to escape my own thoughts," I freely admit to her… them… whatever the right word is.
"Individual's reasoning is {odd, eccentric, strange}, yet {sufficient, tolerable, lacking, acceptable}," Prime-Daughter-Two buzzes, then seems to glare at the rest of her hive for a moment. It's a bit hard to tell when she has compound eyes. "Individual cannot {consume, exhaust, occupy} {my} {attention, focus, will} at the {existing, present} time. {My} {regrets, apologies, contrition}," She, and I'm pretty sure it was only her, says, buzzing back to start working with the rest of her hive.
Well… shit. I need to find something else to do then.
Except Marshal's not at her lake, Leaf isn't at the one spot I know he frequents, and it's not like I can go bother Weaver during the work day.
…I think.
But that still leaves me with the increasing problem of having nothing to do.
Practice? I spent most of the night doing that. Marshal's 'remain present' thing? I also spent most of the night doing that. Although, there's nothing truly stopping me from doing it at any time. Eh, I don't think I need to right now, honestly. Fixing my house?
Hmm, That's not a bad idea. But I don't have the materials or tools to do it, although I don't know if I'd need any tools… But I haven't seen the city during the day yet either. So, why not? It's something to do.
I guess most people here are used to pokemon doing random things around the city. Not that I've been all that visible, but I'd expected a bigger reaction to seeing a pair of floating eyes than just shrugging it off. I can't tell if it's a nice thing or not, though a few seemed to panic for a moment.
I don't need to, but I wait for the tram to finish crossing before continuing down the street I'm on.
I'm now officially certain that there isn't a limit to how much I can eat, which makes me start wondering how I eat again. Yeah, it's definitely a weird pokemon thing, and I know it's probably fine at this point, but it's still just that, weird.
And I'm starting to feel a bit like a creep, remaining mostly invisible while I float around, sometimes following a street, sometimes a tram, and once or twice one of the locals. The local pokemon, that is. However, I am starting to think most people's reactions to seeing me would just be shock before they brush it off as normal.
The pokemon are clearly more aware of me than the humans, but they've just glanced my way before returning to whatever they were doing. It's more of a general attitude I've noticed, but a lot of pokemon seem to have a 'live and let live' outlook. It's interesting.
I pass a delicious-smelling bakery and have to hold back a sigh. God I wish I could buy something from there, I can see donuts.
I also think small businesses are more the norm here. I don't think I've seen a single superstore while floating around, but I have seen a lot of smaller shops, several restaurants, some cafes, a few offices, a hospital with an attached park, and what I think was a high school. There were kids looking like they'd just left, and I wasn't expecting to see fucking pokemon cards, though I guess it makes a sort of sense. If you squint at it.
And the number of people I've seen riding pokemon was certainly something, mostly rapidash, doduo, or dodrio. Some people are obviously doing it just so they don't have to walk, though others were moving much faster—including a man riding a giraffe-looking pokemon that, try as I might, I can't remember the name of. There was even a woman napping on the back of a torterra as he lumbered to wherever their destination was.
I start drifting into a park, slowing as I watch a giant, mustached cricket play his scythes like a violin, there's a sign with a card stuck to it in front of him and an honest-to-god top hat sitting to the side where some people are placing money.
I'd wondered about how Weaver had an ID, was it something her being Onaga's partner got her? And how does the whole thing work? I'm still a bit curious about that as I float around. It might have taken me a while to notice, but some of the pokemon are wearing belts or pouches like she was, so I'm thinking that it's not common but some pokemon do need to carry stuff like that.
I've also seen more examples of what Weaver did, a pokemon walking into someplace, pulling out a card, or making a gesture for the person there to pull it out for them, and going about their day, grabbing groceries or food and the like.
And yeah, pokemon can evidently hold jobs here, I'm pretty sure the local postal service is mostly flying pokemon since I've seen quite a few wearing large pouches and carrying small items. There's also the greenhouse-looking shop I'm currently passing, with a positively massive dinosaur tending to a customer. …Meganium? Yeah, that's the name, I'm glad I can remember that one, it had been my starter for Gold.
Moving through this place in the day is an odd mix of mundane city life and fantasy wonderland. I- Hmm, I wonder if I can find a job here? It would fix a lot of my current issues with money and having nothing to do all day.
"I'll be with you in a moment," A deep voice says, its bassy rumble causing me to look up and realize I'd floated into the shop as Meganium goes back to dealing with his customer, leaving me to look around in mild alarm.
Calm down, you're just wandering around, it's perfectly normal.
The greenhouse is tall on the inside, with close to a twenty-foot ceiling. I'd noticed how close the place was to a small park, but now that I'm genuinely seeing how much sun the place is soaking up, it's bright in here, and warm. Seedlings and saplings are arranged neatly in rows that look too small for the large dinosaur to move between, and on the back wall are shelves lined with bags of soil, clay pots, various small tools, gloves, and what are plainly seed packets.
"Thank you," Both Meganium and the man at the counter say at the same time, though one doesn't know and the other simply smiles, using a vine to scrawl something on a dry-erase board. "And thank you for waiting," The massive, mobile plant says, turning his neck to face me. "Wandering, or looking for a gift?"
The human startles slightly when he sees my eyes but seems to recover quickly and moves on, carrying a small plant and a pot out the door. I watch him go a moment longer before sighing and moving the rest of my body over to the real world, "Wandering around, getting a little too lost in thought."
"Mmm, did you come here with any of the tourists? Or perhaps you're from the forest?" Meganium asks, seeming to leave his customer-service mode.
"I… guess I'm technically from the forest, yeah," I say, and the dinosaur chuckles.
"Technically, you say?" He continues chuckling, several of the shelves behind him beginning to wobble slightly. "Hmm, I'd like to ask, but I'm more interested in whether The Marshal sent you or not."
That's not the first time I've heard her referred to as 'The Marshal' rather than just Marshal, but I push it aside for now, I can ask her later. "No, but I take it she's sent people before?" I ask him.
"Oh yes, though not in the last two years," He informs me, snaking a vine up to a valve on the wall. "I still find myself asking though, I'm certain there will be someone coming through for her again at some point. Ah, you don't mind the wet, do you?"
I shake my head, "I've found myself liking it, recently."
"Good, I hope you won't mind this, then," He says, bringing the sprinklers mounted to the ceiling to life. "I sometimes find it hard to do this with some of the humans that enter," He admits conspiratorially. "Can you believe that? Even most of the fire-types that come through don't mind it but get a human wet and it seems to ruin their day," He says, giving a booming laugh at the end.
"Yeah, I'm well aware of how they can act," I say, drifting closer to the rows of plants.
"Mmm, you know," Meganium says, inspecting me, "I think I've heard some humans talking about a ghost-type that appeared recently. That wouldn't happen to be you now, would it?"
"Probably," I admit. "I haven't seen or heard of another one, at least."
"Hmm," He rumbles again, "So, technically from the forest, then. I think I understand now. Would you mind if I pried a little?" He asks, turning his head nearly upside down.
"Eh…" I say, buying myself a bit of time to think. "I think it mostly depends on what you ask about," I tell him after a moment.
"Best not then," He nods to himself. "I suppose you can't be a paying customer if you're from the forest, either," He muses, eyes turning up in thought. He then blinks, both his expression and the room lighting up, "Well, a good conversation is nice enough, though might I ask, can you deliver two things for me?"
It's my turn to blink, "That depends on what they are?" I half say half ask.
"A sapling and a message, though I would appreciate you returning with her answer," The room-sized pokemon informs me.
Her answer, huh? Does he want me to help with a love letter- Wait, he can't mean… "Are you asking me to take these to Marshal?" I ask him.
He cocks his head when I say 'Marshal,' but begins nodding, head still at an angle, "Yes! I'd love to see what she's grown with the seeds and saplings she requested."
"I suppose I can, but…" I say, looking around the greenhouse, "Are you sure you can just give plants away like that?"
"It is my business, and I will do as I please with it," Meganium shrugs. Actually shrugs, a rolling movement on his front legs.
He… Does he own the place? I'd thought- But that implies- Now I'm even more confused about how some people have acted toward me if a pokemon can not only have a job but own a building and the business inside. Wait a minute, how much would a pokemon even need to spend on things like food, insurance, education, taxes, or rent?
Jesus Christ, I live rent-free in a cabin out in the woods and hardly need to think about eating anymore. Hell, I don't even know if I can be hurt, and I'm already qualified for several trades. Am- Am I in a good place right now?
Oh. I… honestly am, aren't I? Holy shit, I have options. Even if one of them is simply to vanish into the woods. My list of questions for Weaver just expanded, a lot.
"Mmm, are you okay," The deep voice, very close, breaks my train of thought. "Oh, that does seem to have done it."
"Right, yeah. Sorry about that, I was lost in thought," I tell the face about three inches from mine. "You were asking me to deliver some things to Marshal?"
Meganium leans his neck back, "I was, yes. An aspear sapling, here," He says lifting one of the larger trees with two vines and setting it next to me. "Oh, that might be a problem. You accepted though, so I assume you can lift this?" He asks, flicking a vine at the cloth-wrapped soil under the plant.
"Easily," I nod, creating a zone around the soil, and slowly lifting it. Not that it's heavy, I'm pretty sure I can lift nearly six times the weight I could when I was human without straining myself. "And you said a message?" I ask.
"Yes, I'd like to know if she's open to allowing me into her territory. I assume that's where she planted them."
"It is," I confirm, causing Meganium to blink at me.
"You've seen them?" He asks.
"Yeah, there's even some signs from the rangers warning people to stay away," I inform him.
"Yes, I imagine they wouldn't want any issues with that," He chuckles. "But yes, if you could return with her answer, in the next few days that would be lovely!" He beams, turning the sprinklers off.
"Sure," I shrug, "Can I find you here during the day?"
"Anytime the sun is up, on most days," He nods.
"Well…" I trail off. "I guess I'll go do that now, then."
"Mmm, Thank you for doing so," The dinosaur rumbles.
"It's not out of my way, really," I say, floating the plant to the door before frowning at it.
I can kind of handle two things at once now, but I still move the plant closer to the ground, just in case. I carefully push the door with one zone, making sure to maintain the other, and then move the plant outside.
"You have a nice day, now!" Meganium calls, as I phase through the door once I release my hold on it.
How did I get into this situation? Not that it's a bad one, but… it feels so oddly surreal, yet strangely normal. A plant-based dinosaur that owns a greenhouse just asked me to take a few things to my giant fish-otter neighbor, and I agreed because I can fly there pretty fast and carry the tree the whole way with my psychic powers.
It's like a fever dream, but I'm awake and feeling the best I have in years. I glance around and then decide to rise above walking height. It's not like the looks I'm receiving can get much more confused, after all.
Marshal still wasn't at her lake, but Leaf was waiting for me at my house when I looped back to wait.
"It's very healthy," He proclaims from where I set the sapling at the edge of my clearing. "You said a 'meganium' wanted you to give this to Marshal?"
"Yeah. I can't tell if he was just being friendly or if he thinks it'll make her more likely to say yes," I supply.
"Hard to say," Leaf nods. "Was he a grass-type?"
Was he a- "Have you not seen one before?" I ask the curious-looking fern.
"I don't think they normally live around here," Leaf says with a flick of his tail.
"Oh. Well yeah, he was a grass-type. Also about as tall as that tree," I say, pointing at one of the smaller brown, leafy things.
"Um," Leaf cocks his head, in thought, "Wow? I might need to keep an eye out for him if Marshal invites him to her garden."
"I think he'll be hard to miss, honestly," I chuckle. "Especially with ears like yours."
"If you say so," Leaf flicks his tail again, strutting into my clearing. "Would you mind if I started growing things here? Sorry, it's just that it's a bit…" Leaf seems to struggle to find the right word, "Lifeless?" He settles on.
"I actually had a question about that," I say, floating up next to him. "How long has it been like this?"
"You mean, nothing growing here?" He asks, and I nod. "Um, three years, I think? I was an eevee at the time…" He says, brow furrowing. "Yeah, it was three years ago," He confirms after a moment. "Why? Did you learn what caused it?"
I shake my head, "No, but it occurred to me that there were vines growing inside when I appeared."
"Well, it being weird makes sense, if you live there," Leaf's tail gives a flick. He pauses, "…You don't have anything to do with it, right?"
"Not that I know of," I chuckle. "I only got here a little over two weeks ago. And you can go ahead if you want," I say, prompting the anxiety that seems to surround Leaf to abate for a moment, replaced with joy and… something else, but it's hard to make out.
"Okay, let's…" Leaf trails off, starting at how much clearing there is. I don't think he'd thought of just how much space it was. "This might take a few days," He murmurs.
"You don't need to do it," I remind him, drifting closer to my house in a breeze.
"I want to," He assures me, "I just realized it would take a while. You won't mind me using the space to synthesize when I rest, will you?"
I glance at the setting sun, "Probably not," I say, shrugging. "I might be practicing later, though."
Leaf simply flicks his tail again and starts glowing brighter, growing vines and… are those roots? Weird. His skin is looking a bit woodier, too. I've been calling him a fern, but now I think he might be closer to a bush or maybe even a tree.
The ground around him is starting to churn as well… You know, I don't think I've seen a grass-type planting anything new yet, and this is a lot more than he did before to take care of some trees. A few shoots and sprouts seem to grow in fast-forward near the still form of Leaf, then the wolf-plant-fox-whatever takes a shaky step, tearing the roots connecting his paws to the ground before flopping onto his side.
"That was a bit more than I was expecting," He huffs out, breathing slowly. "I'm going to take that first rest now."
"Are you… okay?" I ask him drifting closer. Wow, I can taste his exhaustion.
"Yeah. Yeah, I just didn't think whole new growth would be so tiring," He says, closing his eyes. "I can do it better next time though, I wasted a lot of energy there." More roots grow out of his paws again, and he grunts, "Ooh, That's better."
Well, he looks like he's about to take a nap, so, "I guess I'll go look for Marshal?" I say, getting a sigh in response. Definitely about to take a nap.
I float up and away, heading for Marshal's lake as I fade from reality. My vision here only extends so far, but I don't even need to be close to Marshal to see the ludicrous amount of color she bleeds into the surroundings, so it balances out.
I'm not even halfway to the lake and I can already tell she still isn't there, so I adjust course to head for the river. Let's try… this way.
It's only a few minutes later when I find Marshal, she was swimming back to her lake as I moved up the river. Although 'swimming' might be a strong word, it's more like lazily being carried downriver on her back as she slowly spins.
"Slow day?" I ask, appearing out of thin air.
She laughs, rolling her eyes before giving me a bright look, "A normal one," She decides after a moment. "No humans interrupting it, no fights, no need ta pull anyone out of the water," She lays herself back into the river, "Unless ya have something bad to say, it'll have a nice end, too."
"I think I have something good, actually," I say, prompting Marshal to perk before flipping over.
"Oh? What is it, then?"
"I, uh, was given an aspear tree to deliver to you," I say, choosing the simple approach.
Marshal blinks twice before a smile spreads on her face, "Now that is a nice thing," She says, starting to move faster down the river. "Is it already in my garden?"
"No, but I can get it there pretty fast."
"Well, I'll meet ya there then," She says cheerily. Then there's a plume of water and she's gone.
Guess I should go get the tree, then. Zipping over takes hardly any time at all now that I'm not watching everything, and I find Leaf in a slightly different spot.
"You still sleeping?" I ask, lifting the small berry tree. Leaf's only response is a slight twitch of one ear.
He said he doesn't need to sleep if he gets enough sunlight, but I think growing things like that really took it out of him. Especially since there are more new plants around. I'll let him rest, then. I need to get this other plant to Marshal.
"So, what's so special about this one?" I ask Marshal as she looks for a good spot to plant her newest fruit tree.
"I don't know yet," She easily admits, seeming to zero in on a spot. "Haven't had one before."
"Before you start digging," I say, and Marshal looks up from where she was about to drive an arm into the ground. "I was requested to ask if you would be okay with Meganium seeing your garden. He's the one who gave you the aspear, as well as several others according to him."
Marshal frowns then taps her chin, seemingly thinking about it before recognition flashes on her face, "Oh! Him, yeah. He's more than welcome, half my berries wouldn't be here if he hadn't gifted them to my searchers."
I'm a bit curious about what happened there, but I can ask later. Later… Oh yeah, that. "Okay, I'll let him know. And, um, can I ask about my cabin?"
"Sure, what about it?" Marshal replies, scooping a large amount of earth out of the ground.
"So, a thought crossed my mind about how you said you've seen several ghosts," I preface as Marshal starts digging off to the side for more dirt. "And… were they all around the cabin?"
Marshal hums as she starts mixing the dirt up, loosening the soil, and pulling rocks out, "Hmm, I think they were, now you say it." She looks at me, "What made ya think that in the first place?"
"It's… a feeling I got about it," I shrug, it's even the truth.
"A feelin' huh?" The giant otter chuckles, waving some water into existence to float next to her pile of dirt. "I suppose that makes sense if you all show up there. Mind bringing the tree around?"
I dutifully float the thing over, and Marshal passes a claw down the burlap-looking cloth without any noticeable resistance. Once she takes the cloth off, she grabs the base of the small tree herself and starts tapping the root ball to loosen it.
"So, how's the practice going?" She asks, inspecting the roots.
"Well enough, I guess."
"Mm-Hmm, ya ready for something more real yet?" She casually asks, shoveling some loose dirt into the hole.
I should have figured, and if I'm being honest… "Maybe," I admit, earning a glance from her. "I don't think I'm ready for another spar."
"Naw, you're not," Marshal agrees, finishing the planting process in silence before soaking the ground. She inspects her garden, head tilting back and forth in thought, "Think ya can hit a moving target, though? Don't think I missed that light show you were putting on last night."
"It might take me a bit at first," I tell her, shrugging as I start putting myself in the aware mindset she taught me. "But I don't mind trying at the moment." A now familiar sensation tugs at me, urging me to try something again, and I frown, "Actually, is there something else I should be doing when I focus on my surroundings?"
"Why d'you ask?" Marshal turns to me, cocking her head.
"Sometimes, when I do the awareness thing you taught me, I get this feeling like I should be doing something else with it…" I trail off. It's not the best explanation of what it feels like, but it's what I can come up with.
Marshal stares at me, slowly blinking before rolling her eyes and sighing, "And have ya tried doing anything with that feeling?" She sounds slightly exasperated.
I… guess that is the obvious thing to do. Sighing to myself, I start trying to feel what I should do. It's always a little frustrating to sort through what my instincts want from me, they're vague most of the time, a feeling that I could do something or that I might want something. This one is more of the former, the feeling that if I could just figure it out I could do… something.
The feeling vanishes, making me frown again. "I don't know what it wants from me," I tell Marshal, the massive pokemon now crouched to look at me.
"Hmm, well I think part of the problem is that you stopped bein' aware," She says, still giving me an odd look.
I did? Oh, yeah I did. Okay, I need to focus on everything around me again and feel it all out.
Marshal seems to decide this will take a bit, as she sits down to wait.
The world is cast in bright orange and deep green, the sun well into setting. There's barely any wind at the moment, the sounds of insects and pokemon calls filling the air instead.
Maybe it won't happen- Oh, there it is again. Now, stay calm and focused, just… let it flow? I'm fairly sure it needs power of some kind, and it needs to go into me.
Beside me, Marshal rests her elbows on her knees and then her head in one hand.
I don't so much push psychic-stuff through myself as simply open the gate. And it's an incredibly weird feeling everything somehow becomes sharper, better defined. At the same time, I feel the power start to move through me, stable and oddly serene.
"I think I did it," I say.
Marshal lifts her head off her hand, "Yeah?"
"Yeah, it's interesting," I decide, watching the movements of individual leaves. "I don't even know how to describe it. It's like… everything's more in-focus, easier to keep track of." I turn my eyes to Marshal, "I have no idea what this is."
Marshal taps her chin, "I think I've heard some folk talk about something like that." She shrugs after some more thought, "Don't really know what it is either, but I doubt it's a bad thing. But if ya saying you can track things better…"
I sigh, this was guaranteed to happen when I came here. I'm starting to wonder if she's developing some sort of empty-nest syndrome before Buizel's even left, but that doesn't fit. After all, She's been oddly supportive since she first saw me.
"Yeah, let's see how well I do," I say, drifting away from the garden.
"Mmm, out over the lake," Marshal nods, standing. I follow, ready to see what she had in mind.
Target practice, which is simple enough, just hit the thing while it's moving.
My first psychic wave ends up blasting apart the first water ball a bit harder than I'd meant to, though.
"Okay, Yu said the boss gave us the go-ahead," I inform Hiro, checking our supplies. "You have that koffing on you?"
"Yes," Hiro blandly replies. "I haven't suddenly lost its ball in the last half-hour."
"Just checkin'" I raise my hands. "Now let's see, bag for catches?" Hiro holds up the cinching travel bag, "Check. Bag of balls?" It's in my own hand, "Check. Wish list?"
"Tower's grace, can we get moving already?" Hiro asks, shaking his head.
"Hey, we had a list of priorities," I shrug. "Like I said, I'm just making sure." Hiro sighs, but we both start patting our pockets, "Ah ha! Here it is," I say, pulling out the crumpled paper. "Yeah, that's everything then, let's go."
This one was mostly ready two days after the last, but I let it stew for a bit.
Enjoy.
"-Ya sayin' that'll let us get our guys out, sir?" I ask the well-dressed man. He sorta reminds me of the boss, actually.
"Tomorrow, once I've finished the final adjustments, yes," He curtly replies. "Hastings is a fool to waste its potential."
"What does it even do?" Timothy asks, earning a glare 'cause he forgot the man's rules. "S- Sorry, sir. What does it do, Mr. Kincaid?"
"Nothing at the moment, currently it is no more than a broken resonant empathy device." He sighs at the blank looks we give him, "The circle-things you see the Rangers wearing to let them quickly establish themselves with pokemon."
"Uh, but you had us carry the whole crate of them in here? S- Sir!" Tim says, letting his curiosity make mistakes for him.
Mr. Kincaid seems to like it though, "Hmm, yes. As they are now the devices are limited by three factors, I intend to overcome two using these parts, and the third with something near unique. Now," He says, turning sharply to look at us, "I will be bringing one of my students in to aid me, I expect you to be silent and supply any labor asked of you, understood?"
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Espeon was- Well, I knew how he was feeling, obviously, but learning why was something else. I cried both times my dogs died, growing up, and the thought of using them to escape something just…
And Espeon is a person. No, it's worse than that, he's a child. Sure, I've been around annoying children before, but you don't throw them away because they- they disgust you. That… it… I noticed the different ways people were acting toward me, but it's not just me, is it? I've heard a lot of people around here complain about tourists, but I don't think I've heard them say that about the local humans.
And then there's the praise for the Rangers. Which… might be warranted? They seem to care about us-
Us. The pokemon.
…
Nope, still not freaking out about that, huh? I don't know if I should be glad for that or not. …I was thinking about something else a moment ago; Espeon. I think he's had a worse time than I have, genuinely. I got a nice, easy few days of panic and stress, and I'm pretty sure he was effectively emotionally tortured for months. It's easy to see why he'd have such an iron grip over his emotions if that's what he's feeling half the time.
Oh, and I'm at my destination.
"Is this a bad time?" I ask the colony, watching as they treat two roselia, a roserade, and a torterra to what looks like a rather… thorough cleaning or grooming treatment.
"Prime-Daughter-Two greets {non-hostile, potential ally} Apprentice-Of-Order-Bringer," A singular voice answers, surprising me as the vespiquen buzzes closer. "Individual's concern unfounded, {I, We} are not in combat." She regards me for a moment, "Information requested, {reason, purpose} for individual's approach."
"Boredom, curiosity, trying to escape my own thoughts," I freely admit to her… them… whatever the right word is.
"Individual's reasoning is {odd, eccentric, strange}, yet {sufficient, tolerable, lacking, acceptable}," Prime-Daughter-Two buzzes, then seems to glare at the rest of her hive for a moment. It's a bit hard to tell when she has compound eyes. "Individual cannot {consume, exhaust, occupy} {my} {attention, focus, will} at the {existing, present} time. {My} {regrets, apologies, contrition}," She, and I'm pretty sure it was only her, says, buzzing back to start working with the rest of her hive.
Well… shit. I need to find something else to do then.
Except Marshal's not at her lake, Leaf isn't at the one spot I know he frequents, and it's not like I can go bother Weaver during the work day.
…I think.
But that still leaves me with the increasing problem of having nothing to do.
Practice? I spent most of the night doing that. Marshal's 'remain present' thing? I also spent most of the night doing that. Although, there's nothing truly stopping me from doing it at any time. Eh, I don't think I need to right now, honestly. Fixing my house?
Hmm, That's not a bad idea. But I don't have the materials or tools to do it, although I don't know if I'd need any tools… But I haven't seen the city during the day yet either. So, why not? It's something to do.
***
I guess most people here are used to pokemon doing random things around the city. Not that I've been all that visible, but I'd expected a bigger reaction to seeing a pair of floating eyes than just shrugging it off. I can't tell if it's a nice thing or not, though a few seemed to panic for a moment.
I don't need to, but I wait for the tram to finish crossing before continuing down the street I'm on.
I'm now officially certain that there isn't a limit to how much I can eat, which makes me start wondering how I eat again. Yeah, it's definitely a weird pokemon thing, and I know it's probably fine at this point, but it's still just that, weird.
And I'm starting to feel a bit like a creep, remaining mostly invisible while I float around, sometimes following a street, sometimes a tram, and once or twice one of the locals. The local pokemon, that is. However, I am starting to think most people's reactions to seeing me would just be shock before they brush it off as normal.
The pokemon are clearly more aware of me than the humans, but they've just glanced my way before returning to whatever they were doing. It's more of a general attitude I've noticed, but a lot of pokemon seem to have a 'live and let live' outlook. It's interesting.
I pass a delicious-smelling bakery and have to hold back a sigh. God I wish I could buy something from there, I can see donuts.
I also think small businesses are more the norm here. I don't think I've seen a single superstore while floating around, but I have seen a lot of smaller shops, several restaurants, some cafes, a few offices, a hospital with an attached park, and what I think was a high school. There were kids looking like they'd just left, and I wasn't expecting to see fucking pokemon cards, though I guess it makes a sort of sense. If you squint at it.
And the number of people I've seen riding pokemon was certainly something, mostly rapidash, doduo, or dodrio. Some people are obviously doing it just so they don't have to walk, though others were moving much faster—including a man riding a giraffe-looking pokemon that, try as I might, I can't remember the name of. There was even a woman napping on the back of a torterra as he lumbered to wherever their destination was.
I start drifting into a park, slowing as I watch a giant, mustached cricket play his scythes like a violin, there's a sign with a card stuck to it in front of him and an honest-to-god top hat sitting to the side where some people are placing money.
I'd wondered about how Weaver had an ID, was it something her being Onaga's partner got her? And how does the whole thing work? I'm still a bit curious about that as I float around. It might have taken me a while to notice, but some of the pokemon are wearing belts or pouches like she was, so I'm thinking that it's not common but some pokemon do need to carry stuff like that.
I've also seen more examples of what Weaver did, a pokemon walking into someplace, pulling out a card, or making a gesture for the person there to pull it out for them, and going about their day, grabbing groceries or food and the like.
And yeah, pokemon can evidently hold jobs here, I'm pretty sure the local postal service is mostly flying pokemon since I've seen quite a few wearing large pouches and carrying small items. There's also the greenhouse-looking shop I'm currently passing, with a positively massive dinosaur tending to a customer. …Meganium? Yeah, that's the name, I'm glad I can remember that one, it had been my starter for Gold.
Moving through this place in the day is an odd mix of mundane city life and fantasy wonderland. I- Hmm, I wonder if I can find a job here? It would fix a lot of my current issues with money and having nothing to do all day.
"I'll be with you in a moment," A deep voice says, its bassy rumble causing me to look up and realize I'd floated into the shop as Meganium goes back to dealing with his customer, leaving me to look around in mild alarm.
Calm down, you're just wandering around, it's perfectly normal.
The greenhouse is tall on the inside, with close to a twenty-foot ceiling. I'd noticed how close the place was to a small park, but now that I'm genuinely seeing how much sun the place is soaking up, it's bright in here, and warm. Seedlings and saplings are arranged neatly in rows that look too small for the large dinosaur to move between, and on the back wall are shelves lined with bags of soil, clay pots, various small tools, gloves, and what are plainly seed packets.
"Thank you," Both Meganium and the man at the counter say at the same time, though one doesn't know and the other simply smiles, using a vine to scrawl something on a dry-erase board. "And thank you for waiting," The massive, mobile plant says, turning his neck to face me. "Wandering, or looking for a gift?"
The human startles slightly when he sees my eyes but seems to recover quickly and moves on, carrying a small plant and a pot out the door. I watch him go a moment longer before sighing and moving the rest of my body over to the real world, "Wandering around, getting a little too lost in thought."
"Mmm, did you come here with any of the tourists? Or perhaps you're from the forest?" Meganium asks, seeming to leave his customer-service mode.
"I… guess I'm technically from the forest, yeah," I say, and the dinosaur chuckles.
"Technically, you say?" He continues chuckling, several of the shelves behind him beginning to wobble slightly. "Hmm, I'd like to ask, but I'm more interested in whether The Marshal sent you or not."
That's not the first time I've heard her referred to as 'The Marshal' rather than just Marshal, but I push it aside for now, I can ask her later. "No, but I take it she's sent people before?" I ask him.
"Oh yes, though not in the last two years," He informs me, snaking a vine up to a valve on the wall. "I still find myself asking though, I'm certain there will be someone coming through for her again at some point. Ah, you don't mind the wet, do you?"
I shake my head, "I've found myself liking it, recently."
"Good, I hope you won't mind this, then," He says, bringing the sprinklers mounted to the ceiling to life. "I sometimes find it hard to do this with some of the humans that enter," He admits conspiratorially. "Can you believe that? Even most of the fire-types that come through don't mind it but get a human wet and it seems to ruin their day," He says, giving a booming laugh at the end.
"Yeah, I'm well aware of how they can act," I say, drifting closer to the rows of plants.
"Mmm, you know," Meganium says, inspecting me, "I think I've heard some humans talking about a ghost-type that appeared recently. That wouldn't happen to be you now, would it?"
"Probably," I admit. "I haven't seen or heard of another one, at least."
"Hmm," He rumbles again, "So, technically from the forest, then. I think I understand now. Would you mind if I pried a little?" He asks, turning his head nearly upside down.
"Eh…" I say, buying myself a bit of time to think. "I think it mostly depends on what you ask about," I tell him after a moment.
"Best not then," He nods to himself. "I suppose you can't be a paying customer if you're from the forest, either," He muses, eyes turning up in thought. He then blinks, both his expression and the room lighting up, "Well, a good conversation is nice enough, though might I ask, can you deliver two things for me?"
It's my turn to blink, "That depends on what they are?" I half say half ask.
"A sapling and a message, though I would appreciate you returning with her answer," The room-sized pokemon informs me.
Her answer, huh? Does he want me to help with a love letter- Wait, he can't mean… "Are you asking me to take these to Marshal?" I ask him.
He cocks his head when I say 'Marshal,' but begins nodding, head still at an angle, "Yes! I'd love to see what she's grown with the seeds and saplings she requested."
"I suppose I can, but…" I say, looking around the greenhouse, "Are you sure you can just give plants away like that?"
"It is my business, and I will do as I please with it," Meganium shrugs. Actually shrugs, a rolling movement on his front legs.
He… Does he own the place? I'd thought- But that implies- Now I'm even more confused about how some people have acted toward me if a pokemon can not only have a job but own a building and the business inside. Wait a minute, how much would a pokemon even need to spend on things like food, insurance, education, taxes, or rent?
Jesus Christ, I live rent-free in a cabin out in the woods and hardly need to think about eating anymore. Hell, I don't even know if I can be hurt, and I'm already qualified for several trades. Am- Am I in a good place right now?
Oh. I… honestly am, aren't I? Holy shit, I have options. Even if one of them is simply to vanish into the woods. My list of questions for Weaver just expanded, a lot.
"Mmm, are you okay," The deep voice, very close, breaks my train of thought. "Oh, that does seem to have done it."
"Right, yeah. Sorry about that, I was lost in thought," I tell the face about three inches from mine. "You were asking me to deliver some things to Marshal?"
Meganium leans his neck back, "I was, yes. An aspear sapling, here," He says lifting one of the larger trees with two vines and setting it next to me. "Oh, that might be a problem. You accepted though, so I assume you can lift this?" He asks, flicking a vine at the cloth-wrapped soil under the plant.
"Easily," I nod, creating a zone around the soil, and slowly lifting it. Not that it's heavy, I'm pretty sure I can lift nearly six times the weight I could when I was human without straining myself. "And you said a message?" I ask.
"Yes, I'd like to know if she's open to allowing me into her territory. I assume that's where she planted them."
"It is," I confirm, causing Meganium to blink at me.
"You've seen them?" He asks.
"Yeah, there's even some signs from the rangers warning people to stay away," I inform him.
"Yes, I imagine they wouldn't want any issues with that," He chuckles. "But yes, if you could return with her answer, in the next few days that would be lovely!" He beams, turning the sprinklers off.
"Sure," I shrug, "Can I find you here during the day?"
"Anytime the sun is up, on most days," He nods.
"Well…" I trail off. "I guess I'll go do that now, then."
"Mmm, Thank you for doing so," The dinosaur rumbles.
"It's not out of my way, really," I say, floating the plant to the door before frowning at it.
I can kind of handle two things at once now, but I still move the plant closer to the ground, just in case. I carefully push the door with one zone, making sure to maintain the other, and then move the plant outside.
"You have a nice day, now!" Meganium calls, as I phase through the door once I release my hold on it.
How did I get into this situation? Not that it's a bad one, but… it feels so oddly surreal, yet strangely normal. A plant-based dinosaur that owns a greenhouse just asked me to take a few things to my giant fish-otter neighbor, and I agreed because I can fly there pretty fast and carry the tree the whole way with my psychic powers.
It's like a fever dream, but I'm awake and feeling the best I have in years. I glance around and then decide to rise above walking height. It's not like the looks I'm receiving can get much more confused, after all.
***
Marshal still wasn't at her lake, but Leaf was waiting for me at my house when I looped back to wait.
"It's very healthy," He proclaims from where I set the sapling at the edge of my clearing. "You said a 'meganium' wanted you to give this to Marshal?"
"Yeah. I can't tell if he was just being friendly or if he thinks it'll make her more likely to say yes," I supply.
"Hard to say," Leaf nods. "Was he a grass-type?"
Was he a- "Have you not seen one before?" I ask the curious-looking fern.
"I don't think they normally live around here," Leaf says with a flick of his tail.
"Oh. Well yeah, he was a grass-type. Also about as tall as that tree," I say, pointing at one of the smaller brown, leafy things.
"Um," Leaf cocks his head, in thought, "Wow? I might need to keep an eye out for him if Marshal invites him to her garden."
"I think he'll be hard to miss, honestly," I chuckle. "Especially with ears like yours."
"If you say so," Leaf flicks his tail again, strutting into my clearing. "Would you mind if I started growing things here? Sorry, it's just that it's a bit…" Leaf seems to struggle to find the right word, "Lifeless?" He settles on.
"I actually had a question about that," I say, floating up next to him. "How long has it been like this?"
"You mean, nothing growing here?" He asks, and I nod. "Um, three years, I think? I was an eevee at the time…" He says, brow furrowing. "Yeah, it was three years ago," He confirms after a moment. "Why? Did you learn what caused it?"
I shake my head, "No, but it occurred to me that there were vines growing inside when I appeared."
"Well, it being weird makes sense, if you live there," Leaf's tail gives a flick. He pauses, "…You don't have anything to do with it, right?"
"Not that I know of," I chuckle. "I only got here a little over two weeks ago. And you can go ahead if you want," I say, prompting the anxiety that seems to surround Leaf to abate for a moment, replaced with joy and… something else, but it's hard to make out.
"Okay, let's…" Leaf trails off, starting at how much clearing there is. I don't think he'd thought of just how much space it was. "This might take a few days," He murmurs.
"You don't need to do it," I remind him, drifting closer to my house in a breeze.
"I want to," He assures me, "I just realized it would take a while. You won't mind me using the space to synthesize when I rest, will you?"
I glance at the setting sun, "Probably not," I say, shrugging. "I might be practicing later, though."
Leaf simply flicks his tail again and starts glowing brighter, growing vines and… are those roots? Weird. His skin is looking a bit woodier, too. I've been calling him a fern, but now I think he might be closer to a bush or maybe even a tree.
The ground around him is starting to churn as well… You know, I don't think I've seen a grass-type planting anything new yet, and this is a lot more than he did before to take care of some trees. A few shoots and sprouts seem to grow in fast-forward near the still form of Leaf, then the wolf-plant-fox-whatever takes a shaky step, tearing the roots connecting his paws to the ground before flopping onto his side.
"That was a bit more than I was expecting," He huffs out, breathing slowly. "I'm going to take that first rest now."
"Are you… okay?" I ask him drifting closer. Wow, I can taste his exhaustion.
"Yeah. Yeah, I just didn't think whole new growth would be so tiring," He says, closing his eyes. "I can do it better next time though, I wasted a lot of energy there." More roots grow out of his paws again, and he grunts, "Ooh, That's better."
Well, he looks like he's about to take a nap, so, "I guess I'll go look for Marshal?" I say, getting a sigh in response. Definitely about to take a nap.
I float up and away, heading for Marshal's lake as I fade from reality. My vision here only extends so far, but I don't even need to be close to Marshal to see the ludicrous amount of color she bleeds into the surroundings, so it balances out.
I'm not even halfway to the lake and I can already tell she still isn't there, so I adjust course to head for the river. Let's try… this way.
It's only a few minutes later when I find Marshal, she was swimming back to her lake as I moved up the river. Although 'swimming' might be a strong word, it's more like lazily being carried downriver on her back as she slowly spins.
"Slow day?" I ask, appearing out of thin air.
She laughs, rolling her eyes before giving me a bright look, "A normal one," She decides after a moment. "No humans interrupting it, no fights, no need ta pull anyone out of the water," She lays herself back into the river, "Unless ya have something bad to say, it'll have a nice end, too."
"I think I have something good, actually," I say, prompting Marshal to perk before flipping over.
"Oh? What is it, then?"
"I, uh, was given an aspear tree to deliver to you," I say, choosing the simple approach.
Marshal blinks twice before a smile spreads on her face, "Now that is a nice thing," She says, starting to move faster down the river. "Is it already in my garden?"
"No, but I can get it there pretty fast."
"Well, I'll meet ya there then," She says cheerily. Then there's a plume of water and she's gone.
Guess I should go get the tree, then. Zipping over takes hardly any time at all now that I'm not watching everything, and I find Leaf in a slightly different spot.
"You still sleeping?" I ask, lifting the small berry tree. Leaf's only response is a slight twitch of one ear.
He said he doesn't need to sleep if he gets enough sunlight, but I think growing things like that really took it out of him. Especially since there are more new plants around. I'll let him rest, then. I need to get this other plant to Marshal.
***
"So, what's so special about this one?" I ask Marshal as she looks for a good spot to plant her newest fruit tree.
"I don't know yet," She easily admits, seeming to zero in on a spot. "Haven't had one before."
"Before you start digging," I say, and Marshal looks up from where she was about to drive an arm into the ground. "I was requested to ask if you would be okay with Meganium seeing your garden. He's the one who gave you the aspear, as well as several others according to him."
Marshal frowns then taps her chin, seemingly thinking about it before recognition flashes on her face, "Oh! Him, yeah. He's more than welcome, half my berries wouldn't be here if he hadn't gifted them to my searchers."
I'm a bit curious about what happened there, but I can ask later. Later… Oh yeah, that. "Okay, I'll let him know. And, um, can I ask about my cabin?"
"Sure, what about it?" Marshal replies, scooping a large amount of earth out of the ground.
"So, a thought crossed my mind about how you said you've seen several ghosts," I preface as Marshal starts digging off to the side for more dirt. "And… were they all around the cabin?"
Marshal hums as she starts mixing the dirt up, loosening the soil, and pulling rocks out, "Hmm, I think they were, now you say it." She looks at me, "What made ya think that in the first place?"
"It's… a feeling I got about it," I shrug, it's even the truth.
"A feelin' huh?" The giant otter chuckles, waving some water into existence to float next to her pile of dirt. "I suppose that makes sense if you all show up there. Mind bringing the tree around?"
I dutifully float the thing over, and Marshal passes a claw down the burlap-looking cloth without any noticeable resistance. Once she takes the cloth off, she grabs the base of the small tree herself and starts tapping the root ball to loosen it.
"So, how's the practice going?" She asks, inspecting the roots.
"Well enough, I guess."
"Mm-Hmm, ya ready for something more real yet?" She casually asks, shoveling some loose dirt into the hole.
I should have figured, and if I'm being honest… "Maybe," I admit, earning a glance from her. "I don't think I'm ready for another spar."
"Naw, you're not," Marshal agrees, finishing the planting process in silence before soaking the ground. She inspects her garden, head tilting back and forth in thought, "Think ya can hit a moving target, though? Don't think I missed that light show you were putting on last night."
"It might take me a bit at first," I tell her, shrugging as I start putting myself in the aware mindset she taught me. "But I don't mind trying at the moment." A now familiar sensation tugs at me, urging me to try something again, and I frown, "Actually, is there something else I should be doing when I focus on my surroundings?"
"Why d'you ask?" Marshal turns to me, cocking her head.
"Sometimes, when I do the awareness thing you taught me, I get this feeling like I should be doing something else with it…" I trail off. It's not the best explanation of what it feels like, but it's what I can come up with.
Marshal stares at me, slowly blinking before rolling her eyes and sighing, "And have ya tried doing anything with that feeling?" She sounds slightly exasperated.
I… guess that is the obvious thing to do. Sighing to myself, I start trying to feel what I should do. It's always a little frustrating to sort through what my instincts want from me, they're vague most of the time, a feeling that I could do something or that I might want something. This one is more of the former, the feeling that if I could just figure it out I could do… something.
The feeling vanishes, making me frown again. "I don't know what it wants from me," I tell Marshal, the massive pokemon now crouched to look at me.
"Hmm, well I think part of the problem is that you stopped bein' aware," She says, still giving me an odd look.
I did? Oh, yeah I did. Okay, I need to focus on everything around me again and feel it all out.
Marshal seems to decide this will take a bit, as she sits down to wait.
The world is cast in bright orange and deep green, the sun well into setting. There's barely any wind at the moment, the sounds of insects and pokemon calls filling the air instead.
Maybe it won't happen- Oh, there it is again. Now, stay calm and focused, just… let it flow? I'm fairly sure it needs power of some kind, and it needs to go into me.
Beside me, Marshal rests her elbows on her knees and then her head in one hand.
I don't so much push psychic-stuff through myself as simply open the gate. And it's an incredibly weird feeling everything somehow becomes sharper, better defined. At the same time, I feel the power start to move through me, stable and oddly serene.
"I think I did it," I say.
Marshal lifts her head off her hand, "Yeah?"
"Yeah, it's interesting," I decide, watching the movements of individual leaves. "I don't even know how to describe it. It's like… everything's more in-focus, easier to keep track of." I turn my eyes to Marshal, "I have no idea what this is."
Marshal taps her chin, "I think I've heard some folk talk about something like that." She shrugs after some more thought, "Don't really know what it is either, but I doubt it's a bad thing. But if ya saying you can track things better…"
I sigh, this was guaranteed to happen when I came here. I'm starting to wonder if she's developing some sort of empty-nest syndrome before Buizel's even left, but that doesn't fit. After all, She's been oddly supportive since she first saw me.
"Yeah, let's see how well I do," I say, drifting away from the garden.
"Mmm, out over the lake," Marshal nods, standing. I follow, ready to see what she had in mind.
Target practice, which is simple enough, just hit the thing while it's moving.
My first psychic wave ends up blasting apart the first water ball a bit harder than I'd meant to, though.
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"Okay, Yu said the boss gave us the go-ahead," I inform Hiro, checking our supplies. "You have that koffing on you?"
"Yes," Hiro blandly replies. "I haven't suddenly lost its ball in the last half-hour."
"Just checkin'" I raise my hands. "Now let's see, bag for catches?" Hiro holds up the cinching travel bag, "Check. Bag of balls?" It's in my own hand, "Check. Wish list?"
"Tower's grace, can we get moving already?" Hiro asks, shaking his head.
"Hey, we had a list of priorities," I shrug. "Like I said, I'm just making sure." Hiro sighs, but we both start patting our pockets, "Ah ha! Here it is," I say, pulling out the crumpled paper. "Yeah, that's everything then, let's go."
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