The Friendly Necromancer
- Thread starter Sengachi
- Start date
-
- Tags
- pokemon pokemon trainer
IvanDead
My bones are made of schadenfreude.
- Location
- Brasil
UselessPocketRat
Above-Average Lurker
- Location
- Within the Void
- Pronouns
- He/Him
what the hell are you saying
- Location
- US
This was a good idea.
So ... do we take this as June is starting to get alarm bells that something might have gone wrong at home and Diya is trying to run away/escape? or just standard questions to know what Diya needs?
Can I assume this is more than the price of 1.5 pokeballs? because June seemed to think that 3 pokeballs for (almost killing Diya, admittedly but still) was a low price and Diya didn't complain then. Also, Diiya thinks she can get some clothes and a treat with that much money.
So is it about the price of 15 pokeballs? or something else?
And was this amount exaggerated at all because she felt Diya was in danger and didn't have anyone (such as parents or other friends) to help?
Did June notice this and did it raise another red flag? Btw, how old is June?
Okay. I can accept this. I would normally be surprised a Snom would be one of the pokemon smart/capable enough to talk as a ghastly, but as I previously commented, chapter 6 made it clear that this Snom, at least, is quite a bit smarter and mindful of things than might normally be expected.
Hooray for more human friends for Diya!
-----
ALso, I hope you manage to do well even with that professor. Life can get tough sometimes but hopefully other things will happen that serve as bright spots.
Last edited:
pingas plight
-Most cunning scientific fuck-up in all of Mobius
hooman friends for the puppet bean is always pleasing.
IvanDead
My bones are made of schadenfreude.
- Location
- Brasil
That was a correction of a typo in the chapter, because them and then have very fucking different meanings.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hey both of you, be nice please. There's no call for rudeness or swearing. If it helps, try to imagine the level of vitriol Diya would cap out at and then keep it below that in this thread.
Most of the stuff that's intrinsic to gameplay limitations, like the 6 pokeballs and 4 move limits, I'm going to ignore. But there's definitely practical reasons why a trainer can only handle training so many pokemon, and why they can only practice so many moves to the point where they can reliably be used in combat. And there's also reasonable sports-mechanics reasons to limit the number of pokemon trainers can use in certain official battle formats.
My general take on almost all Weird Ghost Pokemon Stuff is that humans see something like a Chandelure lighting someone on fire, who doesn't burn but does collapse into a coma and never wakes up again. And then they try to explain that as best they can. Sometimes their explanations are more crazy than whatever's actually going on, sometimes they're actually less insane than the reality.
Yes! Gengar is a personal favorite too. I've got a bunch of ghost pokemon plushies I've sewed together and Gengar was the first I did.
I teared up watching this. Thank you very much for linking it.
Yeah that's one of those things which makes perfect sense for the background justification of a children's anime, but falls apart a bit when you try to write a story with stuff like ecosystems and 'realistic' (for a given level of realism, obviously) behaviors. I've seen several alternative explanations though, and this is the one I thought was best for this story.
It'll come up later in the story, but the general idea I'm going for is that virtual training for pokemon is exactly that, training. It's just putting them through the typical motions of conditioning them to respond to a name, come when called, perform certain actions on command, not attack people on a whim, house-training, etc. It's no more brainwashing than training a dog.
Now forming a personal bond with a pokemon, learning how to work with it, and understanding its behavior and responses to commands enough to battle with it takes some work beyond what simple digital repetition training can provide. But the digital training takes months or even years of taxing (or even dangerous) prep work and compresses it into a day. It means your average baby trainer can focus on getting a Charmander to trust their commands in battle rather than on spending a year getting the Charmander to not attack them.
All of your questions like this one are very insightful. Too insightful, in fact, so I'm just going to have to keep mum and say the story will provide answers as it unfolds. XD
As always, the praise is very much appreciated and very motivating. Seriously, knowing the story has touched people like this just adds more reasons to keep writing even when it's tough.
Why yes, that is in fact a core theme of the story. How nice of you to notice.
I only realized it after plotting out the greater arc of The Friendly Necromancer, but that accidentally ended up being the central theme in a lot of plot threads, so I decided to lean into it as hard as I reasonable could. Lots of story elements, from minor to major, will mirror that theme: There is a tragedy. It's not something which can be fixed or made better. But then afterwards people are happy.
- Location
- United States
Well then, thanks for the heads up. I now know to expect to cry happy tears almost every chapter. No reading new chapters while bored in public.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Most of the tragedies aren't going to be nearly so up front and personal as the first couple chapters, I promise. 😅 But yeah, a lot of background events informing the shape of the setting and the paths the characters are on will be like that.
- Location
- The void of possibility
Damn you. Your amazing musical and video choice made me cry like a baby. 😢
Also this story has somehow made me cry twice I love it.
Last edited:
UselessPocketRat
Above-Average Lurker
- Location
- Within the Void
- Pronouns
- He/Him
...? I don't believe I was being particularly rude, But alright. I'll stick to lurking then.Hey both of you, be nice please. There's no call for rudeness or swearing. If it helps, try to imagine the level of vitriol Diya would cap out at and then keep it below that in this thread.
Most of the stuff that's intrinsic to gameplay limitations, like the 6 pokeballs and 4 move limits, I'm going to ignore. But there's definitely practical reasons why a trainer can only handle training so many pokemon, and why they can only practice so many moves to the point where they can reliably be used in combat. And there's also reasonable sports-mechanics reasons to limit the number of pokemon trainers can use in certain official battle formats.
My general take on almost all Weird Ghost Pokemon Stuff is that humans see something like a Chandelure lighting someone on fire, who doesn't burn but does collapse into a coma and never wakes up again. And then they try to explain that as best they can. Sometimes their explanations are more crazy than whatever's actually going on, sometimes they're actually less insane than the reality.
Yes! Gengar is a personal favorite too. I've got a bunch of ghost pokemon plushies I've sewed together and Gengar was the first I did.
I teared up watching this. Thank you very much for linking it.
Yeah that's one of those things which makes perfect sense for the background justification of a children's anime, but falls apart a bit when you try to write a story with stuff like ecosystems and 'realistic' (for a given level of realism, obviously) behaviors. I've seen several alternative explanations though, and this is the one I thought was best for this story.
It'll come up later in the story, but the general idea I'm going for is that virtual training for pokemon is exactly that, training. It's just putting them through the typical motions of conditioning them to respond to a name, come when called, perform certain actions on command, not attack people on a whim, house-training, etc. It's no more brainwashing than training a dog.
Now forming a personal bond with a pokemon, learning how to work with it, and understanding its behavior and responses to commands enough to battle with it takes some work beyond what simple digital repetition training can provide. But the digital training takes months or even years of taxing (or even dangerous) prep work and compresses it into a day. It means your average baby trainer can focus on getting a Charmander to trust their commands in battle rather than on spending a year getting the Charmander to not attack them.
All of your questions like this one are very insightful. Too insightful, in fact, so I'm just going to have to keep mum and say the story will provide answers as it unfolds. XD
As always, the praise is very much appreciated and very motivating. Seriously, knowing the story has touched people like this just adds more reasons to keep writing even when it's tough.
Why yes, that is in fact a core theme of the story. How nice of you to notice.
I only realized it after plotting out the greater arc of The Friendly Necromancer, but that accidentally ended up being the central theme in a lot of plot threads, so I decided to lean into it as hard as I reasonable could. Lots of story elements, from minor to major, will mirror that theme: There is a tragedy. It's not something which can be fixed or made better. But then afterwards people are happy.
- Location
- Birmingham, AL
Huh, this was surprisingly interesting; glazed over it in the thread listings as I didn't notice the 'pokemon' and 'pokemon trainer' tags, but this ended up being right up my alley.
Will June or anyone else eventually ever learn the truth about Diya, though? The reactions to that will be fascinating to watch. I'm sure the regional Pokemon Professor would love to write an award-winning research thesis on Diya.
Will June or anyone else eventually ever learn the truth about Diya, though? The reactions to that will be fascinating to watch. I'm sure the regional Pokemon Professor would love to write an award-winning research thesis on Diya.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I will not spoil my own story, I will not spoil my own story, I will not spoil my own story no matter how much I want to. 😅
I will say though that you could get many dissertations out of Diya's circumstances.
Echo
Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before
- Location
- "echolocation" dur hur hur
This is a really fun story!
I'm glad you linked it from the Hyphen thread on SB because, yes, it really does hit that same "charming pokemon trying to human in endearing ways" appeal as Astra's adventures while also being very distinctly its own story in very different ways. I rarely find Pokemon fanfic to be all that interesting, but this one--along with Hyphen and Backwards Grin--I'll definitely be hoping to see more of.
It's neat to see you doing stuff with some of the "wait what now" Ghost-type pokedex entries (at least half of which seem to boil down to either "probably eats souls" or "the spirit of a human/pokemon who died horribly"), especially since you're doing so from the perspective of another Ghost. I feel like it would be particularly interesting to see Diya meet a Phantump or Froslass given the origins implied by some of their pokedex entries...
I'm glad you linked it from the Hyphen thread on SB because, yes, it really does hit that same "charming pokemon trying to human in endearing ways" appeal as Astra's adventures while also being very distinctly its own story in very different ways. I rarely find Pokemon fanfic to be all that interesting, but this one--along with Hyphen and Backwards Grin--I'll definitely be hoping to see more of.
It's neat to see you doing stuff with some of the "wait what now" Ghost-type pokedex entries (at least half of which seem to boil down to either "probably eats souls" or "the spirit of a human/pokemon who died horribly"), especially since you're doing so from the perspective of another Ghost. I feel like it would be particularly interesting to see Diya meet a Phantump or Froslass given the origins implied by some of their pokedex entries...
- Location
- Birmingham, AL
Sudden thought just occurred to me about this, actually: can Diya be caught by a Pokeball? I mean, despite possessing a human shell, he (for lack of a better pronoun) is still a Pokemon. I wonder if the reveal would/could happen when Diya gets accidentally hit by a wayward Pokeball...
- Pronouns
- he/him
Probably not, I mean it's not like people throw a poke all at their Pokédex or such when it's possessed by a rotom
But if they did that, then they would lose their pokedex! You have, like, 6 pokemon, but only one pokedex, supply and demand and all that jazz... In theory, it seems to be consistent with a normal Banette in structure, so should be pretty normal with respect to pokemon stuff. Unless pokeballs have to be specifically designed to account for all known pokemon(which seems inconsisetent with capturing some pokemon who really shouldn't have much data on them, such as mew and mewtwo...), or pokeballs are specifically engineered to not work on humans, then I would expect it to work, but there might be some sort of safety on the balls so that they don't go off by accident. There seem to be some pokemon who captured themselves in the anime, which would seem inconsistent with that unless they knew how to operate it somehow, but generally I could see the desire for pokeballs to not trigger without the trainer expecting them to. If that were the case, then someone would have to actually go through the whole capturing process on Diya, which seems odd but could happen as a joke or something.
Another issue is if Diya mega-metamorphoses. It appears that the "doll" grows new zippers, very much open zippers, to let the "ghost" poke its limbs out. This process could have somewhat of a different aesthetic when performed on things other than dolls, such as a human body. Whether there would be health issues for the body is another curiosity. Presumably there is a lot of magic going on in spontaneous zippers and such, so potentially it would beharmless due to magic just filling in for the issues, but on the other hand, all of the doll's stuffing might start to get thrown around...
pingas plight
-Most cunning scientific fuck-up in all of Mobius
Meat doll reveals innate stuffing
- Location
- The depths of hell or a simulation can't tell
What if it grew extra mouths because that's kind of what the zipper is on a normal Banette
Last edited:
GameDragon
Too Hot To Handle
- Location
- Challenger Deep
So, I just found this story and read all the chapters, and I am adoring this story so much. Diya being both a Bannete and the remnants of the boy is sad and heartwarming, and each chapter is simultaneously really cheery and very depressing. I love it, thanks.
pingas plight
-Most cunning scientific fuck-up in all of Mobius
The duality of beankind.
Chapter 8: Everyone Loves Piplups
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Chapter 8: Everyone Loves Piplups
Apricorns are an unusual tough-skinned fruit native to the Johto region. They possess an internal pocket of folded space common among some types of pokemon -particularly Water types- but rarely seen in the plant kingdom. This 'bigger on the inside' effect is used to pack a great deal of water and nutrition in a small space, which enables the extremely rapid growth of seeds inside the Apricorn.
Specialists can hollow out Apricorns and modify them to allow them to function as pokeballs and storage balls, holding creatures and objects much larger than their apparent size. Before the invention of modern pokeballs these fascinating fruits were the standard method for capturing pokemon. Though the modern pokeball is considered superior to older Apricorn balls, the process used to create the modern pokeball is in fact based on Apricorns and some trainers still prefer to use Apricorns to this day.
-----
Diya followed June up to the Pokecenter counter. It felt a little odd about coming here in broad daylight after having snuck into the Pokecenter, but it tried to ignore that feeling. It had needed to sneak in and that was that. A young teen showing up on foot in the middle of the night would have raised questions and it needed people to not ask to speak with its parents.
"Hey Claire!" June called out as they entered the Pokecenter's lobby.
A middle-age woman at the desk in the back of the lobby looked up from her work. "June!" she called back. "How nice to see you. Who's your new friend?"
June glanced up at Diya and then back at Claire. "This is Diya. They're a new trainer, just got into town this morning so I'm showing them around. First things first though, they're mute and they type to talk which is a bit of a problem cus they left their tablet behind on accident. They're using my dex right now, but would you mind helping to set them up with a dex of their own?"
Diya shot June a slightly relieved smile as she glossed over the more awkward parts of Diya's story. June seemed to accept the odd hour of Diya's arrival and the fact it had arrived without a way to communicate without question, but the less people it tested that with the better. The Banette walked up to the counter and smiled, typing into June's pokedex. <Hello Claire! I'm Diya. And yes, I could use a pokedex, thank you.>
Claire smiled when Diya turned the pokedex to face her. "Oh I can help you with that dear, no worries. You'd be surprised just how many kiddos start their journeys without getting a pokedex beforehand. I've got a whole cabinet right here." She rummaged under her desk, pulling out rectangular packages with different models of red pokedex on the front. "You said you're a new trainer right?"
The Banette nodded.
"Well then you can get one of the free models of course," Claire said with a sweet smile, tapping four of the packages, "but if you're going to be using your pokedex for typing a lot … hmm. What's your budget, Diya dear?"
Diya glanced back at June with an uncertain expression on its face. The other trainer stepped in confidently, taking over, "I'll be paying for Diya, Claire, don't worry. It's just easier until they've got their dex and are hooked up to their financial accounts. And a few extra bells and whistles will be fine, I think. A touch-and-swipe keyboard obviously, and maybe a larger screen?" She looked at Diya for confirmation, who nodded.
The woman helping them hummed her agreement and nodded. "Of course, of course. You should also consider getting a good battery though. If you'll be using it often and it's so important for you to be able to communicate, you wouldn't want it going dark on you."
<That makes sense. What would that cost?>
"Oh not that much at all dear. This one-" she touched a package which showed a pokedex with a large sleek case and a recessed blue scanning dome, "-is just twenty pokedos more than the free cutoff for new trainers. And I can switch out a better battery for you for just another fifteen."
<That sounds good.> Diya typed as quickly as it could. June had a look in her eyes, like she might be one of those people who bartered and haggled and exhaustively went over every single aspect of their purchase to get the perfect fit, and Diya didn't want her to waste an hour getting it the perfect pokedex. Diya was more than happy getting a pokedex that was good enough. If it could type easily, show people text easily, and the dex wouldn't run out of charge, that was enough for it.
It thanked Claire and June, and then gave June her pokedex back so she could pay. It still felt a little bit uncomfortable about June giving it so much money, but maybe it could just … help her catch more pokemon in the future? To make up for it? Yeah that sounded like a good plan. They could even make it a friend thing, catching pokemon together!
June took Diya over to a table in the corner of the lobby and helped it unpack and set up its new pokedex. It had never done this before as a Shuppet obviously and the boy had never had any personal electronics either, so it was a totally new experience for Diya. June's help was very much needed and appreciated. Which Diya gladly told her with its new pokedex as soon as it was set up.
<Thank you June!> The Banette walked around the table to give its friend a hug. It hugged her carefully this time, making sure Svartis didn't get squished out of her hiding place.
June enthusiastically hugged Diya back. "Aww, of course Diya. No problem." Then she yawned. "Well, not gonna lie. Maybe a little bit of a problem, I really should be getting back to sleep. Worth it though, I really am glad to have helped. Here, just give me your pokedex and that Spinarak ball. I'll send the money to your dex, take the Spinarak over to the counter for training, and then I'll go back to my room and crash. Oh, and we've gotta set up your meeting with Bashak tomorrow, that too."
Diya handed June its new pokedex and the Spinarak's pokeball, noting when it got the pokedex back that the internal balance said three hundred pokedos and not the two hundred and sixty five June should have given it taking the pokedex's cost into account.
It didn't bother trying to argue about it with June. It knew it would lose. And besides, it felt … warm. Its heart ached in a good way when it saw the extra money and it didn't want to disrupt that feeling arguing about it.
It followed June over to the pokecenter's counter after that, where she handed the Spinarak over to Claire. "Hey Claire, just one last thing. I've got a new Spinarak-" "You finally caught one, how lovely dear!" "-well, Diya here caught it and was kind enough to trade it to me. Would you mind putting it through some training cycles?"
"Of course!" Claire said with a smile on her face. "And oh, Diya you're a new trainer, have you ever seen the virtual training process before?" She waited for Diya to shake its head before continuing. "Would you like to?" She chuckled at the very enthusiastic nod that got. "I thought so."
"First things first," Claire continued, "June do you have a custom training program? And a name for this lovely little Spinarak, of course?"
"Yes I do, its name will be Skare and just let me find my training program on my pokedex. Oh and would you mind adding on some extra cycles of human desensitization? I'm a little worried this one may be hostile to people and I don't want it to bite anyone."
"I can do that dear, of course." Claire took June's pokedex and slid it into a device on her desk which looked like a disk reader. She took the Spinarak's pokeball as well and placed it in what was -as far as Diya could tell- a very high tech egg carton on her desk, partially filled with a handful of other pokeballs. She spent a few minutes typing away at her computer, setting up the process.
The process was clearly second nature to Claire though and she didn't need to pay much attention to it. Instead she kept up a steady stream of chatter with the trainers as she typed. "I love the Piplup scarf dear, are they a favorite of yours?"
<A little bit, yeah.> Diya struggled a bit with the unfamiliar swipe-to-type interface of its new pokedex, but already it could tell this would be an improvement. <I just think they're cute.>
"You're not the only one, not at all. The gift shop has an absolute treasure trove of Piplup merchandise if you want, you should take a look later. I'm sure you'll find something you like."
<Really?>
"I saw it earlier," June piped in. "You should check it out if you like them. It's pretty impressive, especially for an island with no native Piplups." She said the last bit with a wry lilt to her voice.
"Eh, we're home to an ice gym dear. People expect Piplups. Even if they're technically classified as Water pokemon, they're what comes to mind when people think of cute cold-weather pokemon. And the merchandise does sell, so they're not going away any time soon. Ah, there we are!" Claire exclaimed, lifting her hands from her keyboard. "All set up. Want to take a look?"
Diya nodded enthusiastically, and June leaned in as well.
Claire turned her computer screen around to show what was going on inside the Spinarak's pokeball. The scene was a simple one, a snowy forest and a Spinarak hanging onto a tree. What was shown on the screen clearly wasn't real though. The whole scene was blurry as if in a dream, with no defining details to be seen on anything but the Spinarak.
"These programs always start with some basic desensitization," Claire told them. She pressed a button on her keyboard. "Just watch."
A humanoid figure appeared at the edge of the monitor. It didn't have any clear details, just the blurry suggestion of a face and clothes swimming in and out of focus. It walked along the edge of the scene, keeping its distance from the Spinarak. It looked over to the Spinarak a few times, but never approached. Less than a minute later it had walked off the screen.
"Now we give the Spinarak some time to rest," Claire told them. "It make not look agitated, but a close encounter with a large creature like a human can actually be very stressful for a small stealth oriented pokemon like a Spinarak. The training program reads its vitals to see how affected it was by the brush with a human and gives it time to calm down if it's feeling anxious or aggressive."
Claire tapped another key and the scene suddenly blurred. Trees whipped back and forth in a fast-forwarded wind and the Spinarak jumped from place to place as it switched positions on the tree in sped-up time. A few seconds later -and who knew how much time that was for the Spinarak- the scene jolted abruptly back to normal speed as another blurry human appeared at the edge of the screen.
"Sorry dears, I know it's not the most action-packed at the beginning-"
<No no no!> Diya exclaimed. <This is really cool. The program helping the Spinarak to be less afraid of humans, right?>
The older woman beamed. "Exactly! As the program continues the human will get closer and closer to the Spinarak. Eventually it will start leaving treats, hanging around in the Spinarak's space, even touching it. And the program has all kinds of contingencies depending on how the Spinarak reacts to that. If it attacks the human its attacks will do nothing and the program will give it a sense of hunger afterward. Not real hunger, but something like the kind of hunger you feel in a dream. It'll be as if it tried to bite steel and failed a hunt because of it. And if it approaches the human in a positive way without attacking, it gets virtual treats."
June jumped in, "Yeah and it goes a lot further than this of course. Training it to be cool with crowds, busy cities, people being excited, people getting hurt, pokemon battle situations, all kinds of stuff. I've got a whole extra sequence in there training it to be calm around other lots of other bug pokemon for long periods and around spinning and weaving equipment."
"Mhm," Claire nodded. "Sensible for a farm girl like yourself. After that of course there's the exciting stuff I know you kiddos are really interested in. Teaching it to respond to its name and basic commands, how to fight, all that fun stuff. You'll probably have to wait a bit for that though dears. Bugs are slow to train and even at full speed the program probably won't reach that point until tomorrow."
"And speaking of tomorrow," June said, "I ought to get going. Got a busy night tonight and I really do need to get some more sleep. Diya, I texted Bashak, he's going to be catching Swinubs in the forest tomorrow and says you're welcome to come with and help. He'll be getting started bright and early though, at the crack of dawn, so make sure you get your sleep tonight."
<Cool, thanks! Where should I meet him?>
"Here, give me your pokedex for a second-" June pulled up the map function on Diya's pokedex and highlighted a location in the forest on the edge of town, typing in a few directions to go with it. "Bashak isn't staying in the pokecenter, he's camping out on the edge of town. If you meet him at his camp just before dawn that'd be great."
<Thanks June! I look forward to meeting him. How will I recognize him though?>
That drew a laugh from June. "Hah. You won't be able to miss him. Bashak stands out. He looks like he walked straight out of some documentary about transhumants."
<Transhumans?> The Banette asked, perplexed. <The people who really like advanced prosthetics?>
"Pffft. Nono, transhumants," June said, stressing the last t. "It's a type of herder. His family are halfway between nomads and more static farmers like my family. They settle in my home town during the winter and go up into the mountains with their herds in the summer. He'll be easy to spot. Handmade wool clothes, handmade wool tent, and even odds whether he's spinning wool thread at any given second. Seriously, you can't miss him. Now I really need to go to sleep, so if there's nothing else…"
<Nothing else, you sleep well June! And thank you again, so much!> Diya stepped forward to give June another big hug.
"Awww. Thanks Diya. It's really been my pleasure though. Oh and Claire, one last thing, would you mind setting Diya up with a room and showing them where to buy some gear?"
"Of course! Sleep well dear!" Claire and Diya both waved June goodbye as she walked up the stairs to the pokecenters bedrooms. Claire turned to Diya once she'd left. "So, what gear do you need Diya?"
What did it need? <Umm, everything?>
Claire put a hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh, but not an unkind one. "I'm sorry dear, I promise I'm not laughing at you. I'm only laughing because you're not the first trainer I've seen to set off from home a little unprepared. It's much more common than you'd think. Hmmm," she looked up and down, giving the young trainer a once-over. "First things first, clothes. I take it you're not used to the climate?"
It was, but it could see how its sneakers, layered clothes, and the lack of a proper jacket would give that impression and it didn't try to correct her. <Yes I need new clothes.>
"Mhm. Let's see, you'll also want pokeballs, storage balls, potions, trail food, water, plenty of water containers dear, camping gear," she listed off items on her fingers, "and the camping gear includes sleeping equipment, fire starters and fuel, cooking equipment, water purifiers-"
The Banette, who was feeling more unprepared by the second, held up its hands to slow her down. Three hundred pokedos had felt like a lot when June pushed it on Diya, but with each item Claire listed it felt a bit more worried that maybe three hundred pokedos wasn't going to be enough. <Let's start with essentials,> it asked, <things I'll need around Canopy Town for the next few days.>
Claire stifled another laugh. "I'm sorry Diya, that was probably a bit overwhelming wasn't it? Come with me, I'll show you around the center's stores so you know where everything is and then you can take your time figuring out what you need." She put up a sign on her desk saying she was on break. "How about clothes first? Some good winter boots to start, at least."
Diya nodded enthusiastically. <That would be great. And thank you again for your help.>
"Of course dear. It's why I'm here."
The very first thing Diya bought was a pair of lovely comfortable boots. Its current sneakers weren't exactly appropriate for the weather, and were kind of worn down and growing too small to boot. But these boots were perfect. They were a nice forest green and laced up past Diya's ankles. Diya thought they looked good. But more importantly they were warm and comfy and roomy enough to grow into and a few experimental jumps up and down had Diya convinced they'd have just the right give once it broke them in.
Finding clothes was a bit harder. Checking the prices told Diya it could easily eat up all of June's money buying a full wardrobe if it let itself get carried away. What it needed to get was a few cheap sets of inner layer clothes it could wash regularly and then one good outer layer it could wear over the rest. And the roomier the better, so Svartis could shelter from the wind inside it without trouble.
It looked over and tried on dozens of long jackets, trying to find something good. And some of them were good and maybe worth buying. But then it found it. And suddenly Diya didn't have to settle for good because it had found something that was perfect. Tucked away in the back of a clearance section, marked down and down and down with clearance tags dating back almost a year, was a Mismaigus costume.
The label didn't say it was a Mismagius costume, simply calling it a paired hat and wool cloak. But Diya couldn't imagine what else it was meant to be. The cloak was a dark purple with a lighter purple trim, and the hat was in the same colors and of a style which could only be described as a witch's hat. The Banette ran its hands over the cloak wonderingly, marveling at how soft and tightly woven the wool was. It even had pockets on the inside. How had anyone not bought this?! It was perfect.
The Banette rushed into the changing room to try on its Mismagius outfit. It fit! It was a little long, almost brushing the floor, but Diya bet a silk farmer like June would have a sewing kit it could borrow to take in the hem.
Come on, Diya beckoned Svartis giddily, come under this and tell me if it works for you.
Svartis flowed under the cloak, marveling at how much room there was. The Gastly pushed on the edges of the cloak and the sleeves from the inside. She giggled as they fluttered, pawing at them with her gaseous body like a kitten might paw at curtains. This is fun! she exclaimed.
Diya got a glimpse of itself in the changing room mirror as she did that. Oh! It thought. Do that again, do that again! In the mirror Diya's dark purple cloak billowed and rustled as if in a phantom breeze. The Banette giggled with delight. Again! it prompted, Again! It sent Svartis a mental impression of what it was seeing too, prompting her to laugh as well.
This was the best. It couldn't have hoped for anything better than this. It thought back to what June had told it, that creepy giggling came with the territory of being a mute psychic trainer with a ghost pokemon. Well, it couldn't wait to see what her reaction to this was, because a ghost cloak fluttering in a nonexistent breeze fit with that aesthetic even better. And the hat was amazing too! As a Shuppet Diya had always been a little envious of how Misdreavuses got hats when they evolved, but now it had a big cool hat of its own!
The Banette didn't wait to finish the rest of its purchases. It rushed to buy the cloak and hat, taking them off only long enough to buy them and wriggling back into them the moment it could. It had a theme now and it intended to play into it as much as possible.
Its subsequent excitement fueled the purchase of … maybe a few more scarfs than it should have bought. But the Banette justified them to itself as necessary fashion accessories. Its mouth did need to be covered. And if it was going to be wearing the same cloak and hat every day, having different scarves it could wear to change its appearance a bit each day was important. That way people would be less likely to ask questions about why it didn't have a full wardrobe.
… it had drawn the line at getting itself a second Piplup scarf, surely that was enough self-restraint?
Diya needed a storage ball for all its new clothes after that, so it went to check out the camping supplies. It bought a small box with a few sliding drawers to keep its personal items in and a storage ball to keep the box in. Storage balls had difficulty storing things which they couldn't register as a single contiguous object, so containers like the box were necessary to store multiple items in them.
After that it got a sleeping bag, a shelter tarp, canteens, and the other camping basics it needed. It had to skimp on some gear to save money and would be relying heavily on its powers to conjure fire and cut wood -shatter it, to be honest- without tools. But Diya was confident it would manage alright. The camping gear got shoved into the sleeping bag and the sleeping bag went into another storage ball.
Finally it picked up a dozen basic pokeballs at a generous young trainer's discount, several spray bottles of healing potion, and a small tin of frostbite salve in case of any run-ins with ice pokemon.
Diya slipped the purchases into its cloak's many pockets, taking stock of its inventory as it did. It had everything it needed to catch pokemon. It was outfitted like a proper trainer now. The young trainer smiled giddily. Stars above, it was actually doing this.
The Banette did an impromptu spin in the store, giggling as its purple cloak flared out and it felt the weight of the pokeballs lining its pockets shift about. It was a real trainer now! It had pokeballs and potions and it could camp out in the wild searching for pokemon. And it hadn't had to steal any of it! It had earned this by capturing the Spinarak for June.
And yes, June had almost certainly overpaid and Diya would have to try to pay her back. But it could do this. It could capture pokemon and sell the ones which didn't fit its team to other trainers or to pokecenters, and make enough money to keep itself on its feet. This wasn't just a dream the boy had held onto in desperate moments anymore, this was a life Diya was living.
It could do this.
Diya checked its remaining funds. It had some seventy pokedos left. If it took advantage of the pokecenter's free accommodations and ate and slept here, and bought cheap trail food to eat while searching for pokemon, that was enough to last it a good while. It could probably afford to use some of what it had left to get some of the more advanced equipment. The basic equipment it had bought barely scratched the surface of what it could buy after all. The pokecenter stocked so much more: speciality pokeballs, combat potions, pokemon repellents and attractors, field guides, special training modules-
And it probably should get some of those. Maybe a lock-on pokeball to catch flying types and a chill-resistant pokeball in case it stumbled on a Frosmoth. Those would be useful and make it a better trainer. But …
There was an item in the pokecenter's gift shop it had spotted earlier, when Claire had been talking about the center's Piplup merchandise. And ... June had told Diya to not just buy equipment with the money. She'd told it to also buy something nice for itself. The new Mismagius cloak and hat didn't count no matter how much it loved them, and the same went for its new scarves. Those were still necessary winter clothing it needed to have, and finding good fits for itself wasn't the same thing as buying itself a gift.
The boy whose journey Diya had inherited would have gotten the specialty pokeballs. Diya knew that. The journey would have been the most important thing to him, and being a good trainer the point of the journey. He would have denied himself the little pleasures so he could be the best he could. After all, he'd already spent his whole childhood learning how to do without.
Diya didn't buy the specialty pokeballs.
Because June had the right idea. There was more to life than being a perfect trainer. There was no point in reaching for a goal it would be happy to achieve if it sacrificed happiness to get there.
So Diya walked into the gift shop and bought a giant meter-tall stuffed Piplup. It cost it just over half its remaining funds and put any thought of specialty pokeballs out of its budget. But the Piplup was soft. And squishy. And when Diya hugged the huge stuffed pokemon its chest filled with warmth.
Later than evening Diya fell asleep wrapped around the stuffed Piplup. All four of the young trainer's limbs were wrapped tight around the penguin pokemon and it had arranged the Piplup's flippers so they hugged it back. Svartis slept on the pillow next to Diya's head, her gaseous body close enough to ruffle her young trainer's hair as they slept.
Diya smiled in its sleep.
Apricorns are an unusual tough-skinned fruit native to the Johto region. They possess an internal pocket of folded space common among some types of pokemon -particularly Water types- but rarely seen in the plant kingdom. This 'bigger on the inside' effect is used to pack a great deal of water and nutrition in a small space, which enables the extremely rapid growth of seeds inside the Apricorn.
Specialists can hollow out Apricorns and modify them to allow them to function as pokeballs and storage balls, holding creatures and objects much larger than their apparent size. Before the invention of modern pokeballs these fascinating fruits were the standard method for capturing pokemon. Though the modern pokeball is considered superior to older Apricorn balls, the process used to create the modern pokeball is in fact based on Apricorns and some trainers still prefer to use Apricorns to this day.
-----
Diya followed June up to the Pokecenter counter. It felt a little odd about coming here in broad daylight after having snuck into the Pokecenter, but it tried to ignore that feeling. It had needed to sneak in and that was that. A young teen showing up on foot in the middle of the night would have raised questions and it needed people to not ask to speak with its parents.
"Hey Claire!" June called out as they entered the Pokecenter's lobby.
A middle-age woman at the desk in the back of the lobby looked up from her work. "June!" she called back. "How nice to see you. Who's your new friend?"
June glanced up at Diya and then back at Claire. "This is Diya. They're a new trainer, just got into town this morning so I'm showing them around. First things first though, they're mute and they type to talk which is a bit of a problem cus they left their tablet behind on accident. They're using my dex right now, but would you mind helping to set them up with a dex of their own?"
Diya shot June a slightly relieved smile as she glossed over the more awkward parts of Diya's story. June seemed to accept the odd hour of Diya's arrival and the fact it had arrived without a way to communicate without question, but the less people it tested that with the better. The Banette walked up to the counter and smiled, typing into June's pokedex. <Hello Claire! I'm Diya. And yes, I could use a pokedex, thank you.>
Claire smiled when Diya turned the pokedex to face her. "Oh I can help you with that dear, no worries. You'd be surprised just how many kiddos start their journeys without getting a pokedex beforehand. I've got a whole cabinet right here." She rummaged under her desk, pulling out rectangular packages with different models of red pokedex on the front. "You said you're a new trainer right?"
The Banette nodded.
"Well then you can get one of the free models of course," Claire said with a sweet smile, tapping four of the packages, "but if you're going to be using your pokedex for typing a lot … hmm. What's your budget, Diya dear?"
Diya glanced back at June with an uncertain expression on its face. The other trainer stepped in confidently, taking over, "I'll be paying for Diya, Claire, don't worry. It's just easier until they've got their dex and are hooked up to their financial accounts. And a few extra bells and whistles will be fine, I think. A touch-and-swipe keyboard obviously, and maybe a larger screen?" She looked at Diya for confirmation, who nodded.
The woman helping them hummed her agreement and nodded. "Of course, of course. You should also consider getting a good battery though. If you'll be using it often and it's so important for you to be able to communicate, you wouldn't want it going dark on you."
<That makes sense. What would that cost?>
"Oh not that much at all dear. This one-" she touched a package which showed a pokedex with a large sleek case and a recessed blue scanning dome, "-is just twenty pokedos more than the free cutoff for new trainers. And I can switch out a better battery for you for just another fifteen."
<That sounds good.> Diya typed as quickly as it could. June had a look in her eyes, like she might be one of those people who bartered and haggled and exhaustively went over every single aspect of their purchase to get the perfect fit, and Diya didn't want her to waste an hour getting it the perfect pokedex. Diya was more than happy getting a pokedex that was good enough. If it could type easily, show people text easily, and the dex wouldn't run out of charge, that was enough for it.
It thanked Claire and June, and then gave June her pokedex back so she could pay. It still felt a little bit uncomfortable about June giving it so much money, but maybe it could just … help her catch more pokemon in the future? To make up for it? Yeah that sounded like a good plan. They could even make it a friend thing, catching pokemon together!
June took Diya over to a table in the corner of the lobby and helped it unpack and set up its new pokedex. It had never done this before as a Shuppet obviously and the boy had never had any personal electronics either, so it was a totally new experience for Diya. June's help was very much needed and appreciated. Which Diya gladly told her with its new pokedex as soon as it was set up.
<Thank you June!> The Banette walked around the table to give its friend a hug. It hugged her carefully this time, making sure Svartis didn't get squished out of her hiding place.
June enthusiastically hugged Diya back. "Aww, of course Diya. No problem." Then she yawned. "Well, not gonna lie. Maybe a little bit of a problem, I really should be getting back to sleep. Worth it though, I really am glad to have helped. Here, just give me your pokedex and that Spinarak ball. I'll send the money to your dex, take the Spinarak over to the counter for training, and then I'll go back to my room and crash. Oh, and we've gotta set up your meeting with Bashak tomorrow, that too."
Diya handed June its new pokedex and the Spinarak's pokeball, noting when it got the pokedex back that the internal balance said three hundred pokedos and not the two hundred and sixty five June should have given it taking the pokedex's cost into account.
It didn't bother trying to argue about it with June. It knew it would lose. And besides, it felt … warm. Its heart ached in a good way when it saw the extra money and it didn't want to disrupt that feeling arguing about it.
It followed June over to the pokecenter's counter after that, where she handed the Spinarak over to Claire. "Hey Claire, just one last thing. I've got a new Spinarak-" "You finally caught one, how lovely dear!" "-well, Diya here caught it and was kind enough to trade it to me. Would you mind putting it through some training cycles?"
"Of course!" Claire said with a smile on her face. "And oh, Diya you're a new trainer, have you ever seen the virtual training process before?" She waited for Diya to shake its head before continuing. "Would you like to?" She chuckled at the very enthusiastic nod that got. "I thought so."
"First things first," Claire continued, "June do you have a custom training program? And a name for this lovely little Spinarak, of course?"
"Yes I do, its name will be Skare and just let me find my training program on my pokedex. Oh and would you mind adding on some extra cycles of human desensitization? I'm a little worried this one may be hostile to people and I don't want it to bite anyone."
"I can do that dear, of course." Claire took June's pokedex and slid it into a device on her desk which looked like a disk reader. She took the Spinarak's pokeball as well and placed it in what was -as far as Diya could tell- a very high tech egg carton on her desk, partially filled with a handful of other pokeballs. She spent a few minutes typing away at her computer, setting up the process.
The process was clearly second nature to Claire though and she didn't need to pay much attention to it. Instead she kept up a steady stream of chatter with the trainers as she typed. "I love the Piplup scarf dear, are they a favorite of yours?"
<A little bit, yeah.> Diya struggled a bit with the unfamiliar swipe-to-type interface of its new pokedex, but already it could tell this would be an improvement. <I just think they're cute.>
"You're not the only one, not at all. The gift shop has an absolute treasure trove of Piplup merchandise if you want, you should take a look later. I'm sure you'll find something you like."
<Really?>
"I saw it earlier," June piped in. "You should check it out if you like them. It's pretty impressive, especially for an island with no native Piplups." She said the last bit with a wry lilt to her voice.
"Eh, we're home to an ice gym dear. People expect Piplups. Even if they're technically classified as Water pokemon, they're what comes to mind when people think of cute cold-weather pokemon. And the merchandise does sell, so they're not going away any time soon. Ah, there we are!" Claire exclaimed, lifting her hands from her keyboard. "All set up. Want to take a look?"
Diya nodded enthusiastically, and June leaned in as well.
Claire turned her computer screen around to show what was going on inside the Spinarak's pokeball. The scene was a simple one, a snowy forest and a Spinarak hanging onto a tree. What was shown on the screen clearly wasn't real though. The whole scene was blurry as if in a dream, with no defining details to be seen on anything but the Spinarak.
"These programs always start with some basic desensitization," Claire told them. She pressed a button on her keyboard. "Just watch."
A humanoid figure appeared at the edge of the monitor. It didn't have any clear details, just the blurry suggestion of a face and clothes swimming in and out of focus. It walked along the edge of the scene, keeping its distance from the Spinarak. It looked over to the Spinarak a few times, but never approached. Less than a minute later it had walked off the screen.
"Now we give the Spinarak some time to rest," Claire told them. "It make not look agitated, but a close encounter with a large creature like a human can actually be very stressful for a small stealth oriented pokemon like a Spinarak. The training program reads its vitals to see how affected it was by the brush with a human and gives it time to calm down if it's feeling anxious or aggressive."
Claire tapped another key and the scene suddenly blurred. Trees whipped back and forth in a fast-forwarded wind and the Spinarak jumped from place to place as it switched positions on the tree in sped-up time. A few seconds later -and who knew how much time that was for the Spinarak- the scene jolted abruptly back to normal speed as another blurry human appeared at the edge of the screen.
"Sorry dears, I know it's not the most action-packed at the beginning-"
<No no no!> Diya exclaimed. <This is really cool. The program helping the Spinarak to be less afraid of humans, right?>
The older woman beamed. "Exactly! As the program continues the human will get closer and closer to the Spinarak. Eventually it will start leaving treats, hanging around in the Spinarak's space, even touching it. And the program has all kinds of contingencies depending on how the Spinarak reacts to that. If it attacks the human its attacks will do nothing and the program will give it a sense of hunger afterward. Not real hunger, but something like the kind of hunger you feel in a dream. It'll be as if it tried to bite steel and failed a hunt because of it. And if it approaches the human in a positive way without attacking, it gets virtual treats."
June jumped in, "Yeah and it goes a lot further than this of course. Training it to be cool with crowds, busy cities, people being excited, people getting hurt, pokemon battle situations, all kinds of stuff. I've got a whole extra sequence in there training it to be calm around other lots of other bug pokemon for long periods and around spinning and weaving equipment."
"Mhm," Claire nodded. "Sensible for a farm girl like yourself. After that of course there's the exciting stuff I know you kiddos are really interested in. Teaching it to respond to its name and basic commands, how to fight, all that fun stuff. You'll probably have to wait a bit for that though dears. Bugs are slow to train and even at full speed the program probably won't reach that point until tomorrow."
"And speaking of tomorrow," June said, "I ought to get going. Got a busy night tonight and I really do need to get some more sleep. Diya, I texted Bashak, he's going to be catching Swinubs in the forest tomorrow and says you're welcome to come with and help. He'll be getting started bright and early though, at the crack of dawn, so make sure you get your sleep tonight."
<Cool, thanks! Where should I meet him?>
"Here, give me your pokedex for a second-" June pulled up the map function on Diya's pokedex and highlighted a location in the forest on the edge of town, typing in a few directions to go with it. "Bashak isn't staying in the pokecenter, he's camping out on the edge of town. If you meet him at his camp just before dawn that'd be great."
<Thanks June! I look forward to meeting him. How will I recognize him though?>
That drew a laugh from June. "Hah. You won't be able to miss him. Bashak stands out. He looks like he walked straight out of some documentary about transhumants."
<Transhumans?> The Banette asked, perplexed. <The people who really like advanced prosthetics?>
"Pffft. Nono, transhumants," June said, stressing the last t. "It's a type of herder. His family are halfway between nomads and more static farmers like my family. They settle in my home town during the winter and go up into the mountains with their herds in the summer. He'll be easy to spot. Handmade wool clothes, handmade wool tent, and even odds whether he's spinning wool thread at any given second. Seriously, you can't miss him. Now I really need to go to sleep, so if there's nothing else…"
<Nothing else, you sleep well June! And thank you again, so much!> Diya stepped forward to give June another big hug.
"Awww. Thanks Diya. It's really been my pleasure though. Oh and Claire, one last thing, would you mind setting Diya up with a room and showing them where to buy some gear?"
"Of course! Sleep well dear!" Claire and Diya both waved June goodbye as she walked up the stairs to the pokecenters bedrooms. Claire turned to Diya once she'd left. "So, what gear do you need Diya?"
What did it need? <Umm, everything?>
Claire put a hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh, but not an unkind one. "I'm sorry dear, I promise I'm not laughing at you. I'm only laughing because you're not the first trainer I've seen to set off from home a little unprepared. It's much more common than you'd think. Hmmm," she looked up and down, giving the young trainer a once-over. "First things first, clothes. I take it you're not used to the climate?"
It was, but it could see how its sneakers, layered clothes, and the lack of a proper jacket would give that impression and it didn't try to correct her. <Yes I need new clothes.>
"Mhm. Let's see, you'll also want pokeballs, storage balls, potions, trail food, water, plenty of water containers dear, camping gear," she listed off items on her fingers, "and the camping gear includes sleeping equipment, fire starters and fuel, cooking equipment, water purifiers-"
The Banette, who was feeling more unprepared by the second, held up its hands to slow her down. Three hundred pokedos had felt like a lot when June pushed it on Diya, but with each item Claire listed it felt a bit more worried that maybe three hundred pokedos wasn't going to be enough. <Let's start with essentials,> it asked, <things I'll need around Canopy Town for the next few days.>
Claire stifled another laugh. "I'm sorry Diya, that was probably a bit overwhelming wasn't it? Come with me, I'll show you around the center's stores so you know where everything is and then you can take your time figuring out what you need." She put up a sign on her desk saying she was on break. "How about clothes first? Some good winter boots to start, at least."
Diya nodded enthusiastically. <That would be great. And thank you again for your help.>
"Of course dear. It's why I'm here."
The very first thing Diya bought was a pair of lovely comfortable boots. Its current sneakers weren't exactly appropriate for the weather, and were kind of worn down and growing too small to boot. But these boots were perfect. They were a nice forest green and laced up past Diya's ankles. Diya thought they looked good. But more importantly they were warm and comfy and roomy enough to grow into and a few experimental jumps up and down had Diya convinced they'd have just the right give once it broke them in.
Finding clothes was a bit harder. Checking the prices told Diya it could easily eat up all of June's money buying a full wardrobe if it let itself get carried away. What it needed to get was a few cheap sets of inner layer clothes it could wash regularly and then one good outer layer it could wear over the rest. And the roomier the better, so Svartis could shelter from the wind inside it without trouble.
It looked over and tried on dozens of long jackets, trying to find something good. And some of them were good and maybe worth buying. But then it found it. And suddenly Diya didn't have to settle for good because it had found something that was perfect. Tucked away in the back of a clearance section, marked down and down and down with clearance tags dating back almost a year, was a Mismaigus costume.
The label didn't say it was a Mismagius costume, simply calling it a paired hat and wool cloak. But Diya couldn't imagine what else it was meant to be. The cloak was a dark purple with a lighter purple trim, and the hat was in the same colors and of a style which could only be described as a witch's hat. The Banette ran its hands over the cloak wonderingly, marveling at how soft and tightly woven the wool was. It even had pockets on the inside. How had anyone not bought this?! It was perfect.
The Banette rushed into the changing room to try on its Mismagius outfit. It fit! It was a little long, almost brushing the floor, but Diya bet a silk farmer like June would have a sewing kit it could borrow to take in the hem.
Come on, Diya beckoned Svartis giddily, come under this and tell me if it works for you.
Svartis flowed under the cloak, marveling at how much room there was. The Gastly pushed on the edges of the cloak and the sleeves from the inside. She giggled as they fluttered, pawing at them with her gaseous body like a kitten might paw at curtains. This is fun! she exclaimed.
Diya got a glimpse of itself in the changing room mirror as she did that. Oh! It thought. Do that again, do that again! In the mirror Diya's dark purple cloak billowed and rustled as if in a phantom breeze. The Banette giggled with delight. Again! it prompted, Again! It sent Svartis a mental impression of what it was seeing too, prompting her to laugh as well.
This was the best. It couldn't have hoped for anything better than this. It thought back to what June had told it, that creepy giggling came with the territory of being a mute psychic trainer with a ghost pokemon. Well, it couldn't wait to see what her reaction to this was, because a ghost cloak fluttering in a nonexistent breeze fit with that aesthetic even better. And the hat was amazing too! As a Shuppet Diya had always been a little envious of how Misdreavuses got hats when they evolved, but now it had a big cool hat of its own!
The Banette didn't wait to finish the rest of its purchases. It rushed to buy the cloak and hat, taking them off only long enough to buy them and wriggling back into them the moment it could. It had a theme now and it intended to play into it as much as possible.
Its subsequent excitement fueled the purchase of … maybe a few more scarfs than it should have bought. But the Banette justified them to itself as necessary fashion accessories. Its mouth did need to be covered. And if it was going to be wearing the same cloak and hat every day, having different scarves it could wear to change its appearance a bit each day was important. That way people would be less likely to ask questions about why it didn't have a full wardrobe.
… it had drawn the line at getting itself a second Piplup scarf, surely that was enough self-restraint?
Diya needed a storage ball for all its new clothes after that, so it went to check out the camping supplies. It bought a small box with a few sliding drawers to keep its personal items in and a storage ball to keep the box in. Storage balls had difficulty storing things which they couldn't register as a single contiguous object, so containers like the box were necessary to store multiple items in them.
After that it got a sleeping bag, a shelter tarp, canteens, and the other camping basics it needed. It had to skimp on some gear to save money and would be relying heavily on its powers to conjure fire and cut wood -shatter it, to be honest- without tools. But Diya was confident it would manage alright. The camping gear got shoved into the sleeping bag and the sleeping bag went into another storage ball.
Finally it picked up a dozen basic pokeballs at a generous young trainer's discount, several spray bottles of healing potion, and a small tin of frostbite salve in case of any run-ins with ice pokemon.
Diya slipped the purchases into its cloak's many pockets, taking stock of its inventory as it did. It had everything it needed to catch pokemon. It was outfitted like a proper trainer now. The young trainer smiled giddily. Stars above, it was actually doing this.
The Banette did an impromptu spin in the store, giggling as its purple cloak flared out and it felt the weight of the pokeballs lining its pockets shift about. It was a real trainer now! It had pokeballs and potions and it could camp out in the wild searching for pokemon. And it hadn't had to steal any of it! It had earned this by capturing the Spinarak for June.
And yes, June had almost certainly overpaid and Diya would have to try to pay her back. But it could do this. It could capture pokemon and sell the ones which didn't fit its team to other trainers or to pokecenters, and make enough money to keep itself on its feet. This wasn't just a dream the boy had held onto in desperate moments anymore, this was a life Diya was living.
It could do this.
Diya checked its remaining funds. It had some seventy pokedos left. If it took advantage of the pokecenter's free accommodations and ate and slept here, and bought cheap trail food to eat while searching for pokemon, that was enough to last it a good while. It could probably afford to use some of what it had left to get some of the more advanced equipment. The basic equipment it had bought barely scratched the surface of what it could buy after all. The pokecenter stocked so much more: speciality pokeballs, combat potions, pokemon repellents and attractors, field guides, special training modules-
And it probably should get some of those. Maybe a lock-on pokeball to catch flying types and a chill-resistant pokeball in case it stumbled on a Frosmoth. Those would be useful and make it a better trainer. But …
There was an item in the pokecenter's gift shop it had spotted earlier, when Claire had been talking about the center's Piplup merchandise. And ... June had told Diya to not just buy equipment with the money. She'd told it to also buy something nice for itself. The new Mismagius cloak and hat didn't count no matter how much it loved them, and the same went for its new scarves. Those were still necessary winter clothing it needed to have, and finding good fits for itself wasn't the same thing as buying itself a gift.
The boy whose journey Diya had inherited would have gotten the specialty pokeballs. Diya knew that. The journey would have been the most important thing to him, and being a good trainer the point of the journey. He would have denied himself the little pleasures so he could be the best he could. After all, he'd already spent his whole childhood learning how to do without.
Diya didn't buy the specialty pokeballs.
Because June had the right idea. There was more to life than being a perfect trainer. There was no point in reaching for a goal it would be happy to achieve if it sacrificed happiness to get there.
So Diya walked into the gift shop and bought a giant meter-tall stuffed Piplup. It cost it just over half its remaining funds and put any thought of specialty pokeballs out of its budget. But the Piplup was soft. And squishy. And when Diya hugged the huge stuffed pokemon its chest filled with warmth.
Later than evening Diya fell asleep wrapped around the stuffed Piplup. All four of the young trainer's limbs were wrapped tight around the penguin pokemon and it had arranged the Piplup's flippers so they hugged it back. Svartis slept on the pillow next to Diya's head, her gaseous body close enough to ruffle her young trainer's hair as they slept.
Diya smiled in its sleep.
I actually have a meter-tall stuffed penguin I got for $40 (USD) when I was a kid and it's lasted over a decade with only minor wear (the scarf it came with disintegrated in months, but the rest has lasted almost intact). I got it in a Costco and no, I do not know why Costco of all places was selling a bunch of shockingly cheap but well made giant stuffed penguins. Being able to hold it at night got me through some pretty rough times as a kid, so it gets a cameo in this story as a giant stuffed Piplup where it can be a source of comfort for Diya as well.
Piplup (Water):
Spinarak (Bug/Poison):
Mismagius (Ghost):
Spinarak (Bug/Poison):
Mismagius (Ghost):
Last edited:
- Location
- United States
Mismagius picture is broken.
Also I love the outfit idea. I cant wait until they scare someone shitless by standing in some shadows that wash out the details, clock moving by itself, eyes glowing, and them giggling like a poltergeist.
Also I love the outfit idea. I cant wait until they scare someone shitless by standing in some shadows that wash out the details, clock moving by itself, eyes glowing, and them giggling like a poltergeist.
pingas plight
-Most cunning scientific fuck-up in all of Mobius
yall diya is fr gonna invent type 5 diabetus