Chapter 5:Family
You decide on a plan and start going down the stairs. You are initially worried that you could fall, but the stairs seem to be made for something human sized and look big to you now.
You wanted to tell people that you met shortly after an encounter with the unown while in a dungeon and your memory is a bit scrambled, but according to spirit people don't know what an unown is .So you decide to talk about the unown only if people ask you for details of what you remember.
"Let's go then", you say.
"I'll grab an escape orb just in case, it works by contact so be ready to touch me if there's trouble and we have to use it." Spirit grabs an orb from the bag
"Ok, how do you activate it anyway? In case I have to for whatever reason." You ask curiously.
"You just channel your inner energy into it."
"Energy?"
Oh so they have some kind of mana thing. Should it worry me that I don't even see anything weird with that anymore?
"It's what we spend to use moves." Spirit shrugs.
"I don't have any idea how to do it then." you say.
"Yeah I guess you will have to learn how to use your energy in basic ways. Its better if you don't use orbs right now anyway", he said, looking at you with suspicion.
"Is the light in the room brighter now?" you ask noticing how everything looks more clear and bright
"No but you are a dark type."
"And?"
"Your species is probably nocturnal or lives in dark places, so you have good night vision"
You reach the end of the room. Passing through the door you feel the familiar disorientation that you should really ask spirit about latter and fall, not really accustomed to your body yet.
"Not all of them but a lot, and dark moves work better at night."
You suddenly feel dizzy and find yourself in a different place. The sudden change makes you fall still unable to maintain your balance very well. You stay a moment there in complete darkness, but whatever night vision you might have doesn't seem to work here.
So you stand up and few steps further you can see again. You are in a small square room that looks like a cave again, similar to ones you were in before, but with a different layout.
"Dammit, I had managed to not fall for all that time" you say exasperated.
"Are you ok?" Spirit turns, just noticed that you weren't behind him
"Yes, I'm not going to let something like this to stop me" you say with determination.
"Sorry for not noticing you weren't following "He looks sad
"Nah its fine" You should have said something when you fell anyway.
"No, it's important, what if something happened to you while I'm not looking or something. At least we are definitely in the safe room now "he says.
"What's worrying me is that those Zubats really shouldn't have attacked us there." Spirit looks thoughtful
"Why did you think it was the safe room? Doesn't the dungeon change or something like that?" you ask
"Yeah , but it still has more or less the same amount of rooms and floors"
"And this one has only one floor and between 4 and 5 rooms, so since that was the 6th I found I assumed It was the last one".
There is something weird in that statement, but you are still too distracted with your new body to think too much.
"I mean I guess maybe it was just a small room that was where the safe zone was supposed to be, we didn't see the Kangaskan statue."
"Speaking about that, why does it look like a kangaskan? "
"All of them do." he answered with a chuckle" It's even the same Kangaskan .A Narcissistic runemaster that ensured her apprentices also made them look like her. Safe zones are safe because they don't change and the number of dungeon constructs on a room is constant. Dungeon constructs never change rooms." he said thoughtful." You might still find wild pokemon there sometimes, but never dungeon constructs. So if the room didn't have them they shouldn't have appeared, regardless of how safe it was otherwise."
While he talked he graved a piece of paper and put it on the floor to write.
"Since we are here I'm going to just send a letter instead of wasting a message orb ,we are not immediately in danger and some people in the village know that I'm here, so they will probably check the statue "He finishes writing and puts the note on the bag .
You stare into the darkness for a while. While you wait spirit just sits on the floor in silence, seemingly lost in though.
You want to keep talking with him but you think he doesn't want that right now .You are very talkative and sometimes you aren't sure if people really want to talk with you or they are just listening out of politeness.
You guess you will let him rest and think for a moment, he seems to have a lot to think about.
You watch the unnatural darkness that indicates the exit of the room. It you to the loading zone of a videogame.
This room is definitely not the same you were in before somehow. The size and shape is the same, but the rocks on the floor and walls are on a different pattern.
Maybe it changed while you weren't there, or something. For some reason Spirit seems very sure that's not supposed to happen and he seems to think this is a different room, even if you entered through the same door.
He probably knows a lot of things about dungeons that he doesn't realize aren't obvious,
it seems pokemon aren't immune to hindsight bias. Not that much of a surprise considering how human like Spirit looks.
Doesn't matter, right now you are a bit tired of dungeons and more interested in finally returning to civilization , and figure out what kind of weird food pokemon eat .Well the food in the bag looked pretty normal , but that's just one example.
Spirit sees something in the statue and grabs a different looking paper.
"Team wisdom is coming" He says looking the letter strangely "My uncle is the leader, and it's really difficult to hide anything from him, even for dark people. Mostly because he can get obsessed about figuring someone out until he knows them better than themselves."
You are a bit nervous about that, but you don't really understand why Spirit looks so annoyed.
"Which maybe it's not so bad, now that I think about it". He murmurs and looks at you for a moment.
You wait for a few minutes, and you are starting to figure out how to control your tail when someone enters the room.
An Alakazam appears in the darkness of the door. At first you see only a bit of his face.
He looks all around the room in a few seconds, looking very alert, and then enters moving carefully, the rest of his body getting out of the door's boundary. Seeing someone else go through it makes the curtain of darkness looks even more weird.
Following the Alakazam enters a charizard.
"Hello Uncle. You came because of the message?" Spirit asks with a frown
"There aren't much more reasons to come to diamond cave this late in the evening."
"That was fast" Spirit says.
"I was in the village with my team and noticed that you sent a message, so we came here instead of waiting the mayor to make the official quest."
"Isn't that illegal unless it's an emergency?"
"It's just a minor thing and I doubt anyone in gem will care. Don't go aground telling it to other people though, I have a reputation."
"Fine. By the way, I... didn't know you were nearby". He said awkwardly, looking at him with a hint of suspicion in his eyes . Did you came here because of me? There is not much else to see around here."
"We just happened to be passing through Gem towards the north .People still do that , that has been the only reason your tiny village still exists since the dungeon ran out of diamonds"
"I know but ...."
"That's not what concerns us now, personal stuff can wait". He says very serious. "What happened exactly?"
"Well as a summary we were attacked, first by a group of Rattata, and afterwards by a group of Zubat dungeon constructs and finally by a dungeon boss."
"I assume there is more than that, that sounds like a bad but not unlikely experience with the dungeon, and you said something different in the message."
"Yes, I sent the message because the Rattata looked like they were being controlled by something, and the Zubats attacked us in what looked like the safe room, though I didn't see the Kangaskan statue."
"Runes did stop working for a moment in Gem" the Abra says thoughtful "Anything more?"
"We somehow found a new room in the dungeon."
Spirit describes the room and says that the Diancie construct attacked you there and dissipated, omitting your transformation.
"Good, I'll as you about details latter, but for now that will suffice .We already defeated the Rattata, but they seemed normal." Answered Spirit.
"You didn't kill them right?"
"Of course not, you know that we can't kill that much wild pokémon, and wouldn't do it even if we could .For all that I appreciate the work of the hunters I don't want to become one .We just made them faint and threw them out of the forest" he said.
"The new room is interesting, and those symbols you found might be valuable to a runemaster if you can find them again but I'm more immediately concerned about the safe zone." He says
"The statue is back here, but the room has changed since the last time we checked. And that shouldn't happen."
"The dungeon constructs didn't actually hit you, right?"
"No, why?" Spirit looks confused by the question.
"Nothing, I had an idea" The Alakazam looks at you with a strange expression.
"What about the girl you are with? I thought you left gem alone."
"My name is Alice, nice to meet you." you answer.
"Is she your girlfriend?" he says with a smile directed at Spirit, the air of seriousness of before disappearing.
"I..."Spirit seems to think about what to say for a moment.
The Alakazam nods as he just figured something out. "I see, so she isn't your girlfriend then"
"Let me finish, and don't start with the pretending to know everything. I know you can't actually read my mind in that much detail that fast."
"You and are just trying to cold read me by my reactions. You weren't even looking at my mind when you asked, or I would have noticed."
"I see that you already know my tactics but that hasn't stopped you from revealing that you are hiding something."
"Shit" Says Spirit before realizing his error.
"Oh so you *are* hiding something, good to know."
"Argh."
"You have to learn much more to be able to hide stuff from me"
"Well anyway, I found Alice in the dungeon, she doesn't remember anything about her life and lacks a lot of basic knowledge."
"And she even has trouble walking, I see. It's weird to see that kind of precise mental damage on a dark type." he says.
"In fact it's weird to see that kind of damage period , people with usually either end up messed up in the head , or just become braindead, but she looks perfectly normal except for the memory thing ,unless there are other non-obvious side effects."
"I'm fine, I think. Apart from not remembering anything" You say.
The charizard that had been silent smiles reassuringly." Don't worry miss Alice, we'll find out about your past" he says, his voice sounding weirdly warm for someone so big and intimidating.
"What did I tell you about not jumping to help people without consulting the team" the alakazam looks at the charizard.
" We did take a long detour for a personal thing of yours recently."
"I suspect what that thing could have been "says Spirit suddenly "I did notice how you dodged my question earlier ,and it's weird that you just happen to appear here the first time I was going into the dungeon and that I didn't knew you were going to be here." Spirit looks at his uncle with an accusatory expression
Is sounds like Spirit and his uncle have to talk about personal things so you go to the other side the room and ask the charizard about their adventures and he tells you some stories.
Meanwhile both psichics start arguing quietly, but not quietly enough you can't hear them anyway.
"Fine, I admit it .Your mother did ask me if I could come just in case. We were going north going to the north but not as soon, and I could have chosen another path, there are other dungeons that lead there."
"Dammit, why is she still treating me like that?"
"She is the only member of the family as manipulative as grandfather, and If you think you are out of her control living in a different house in the same village you are seriously mistaken .Also she was right in calling us, I was going to scold you for going alone into a dungeon, until I saw Alice and though you had some sense "He said sounding very serious.
"In my defense this dungeon is pretty safe for a dungeon and I had a lot of things on my bag "Spirit says.
"Did that help you when you actually got in danger ?Unexpected things happen more often than you think , and you really need someone to watch your back when they do .I'm not very angry though , you are right in that this dungeon is not that dangerous , and you were more prepared than most newbies. Just don't go dungeon alone again, there are good reasons why it's much more difficult to get a questing license if you go solo, apart from the political ones."
"Sorry , I thought my preparations were enough , but you are right that Its dangerous to go out without someone to cover you if something happens. Besides I didn't mention it because it was a bit embarrassing, but before I reached the safe room (or whatever it was) one of the real zubats confused me and left, And I couldn't use my items easily because of the confusion so I spent a while bumping on walls until I was able to eat a persim berry." spirit said, looking embarrassed. "So I already have learned a lesson about that."
"Anyway does this mean that you want to be an explorer now?" asks the alakazam with an expression of hope. "Your mother has been trying to ensure you don't do anything like that for ages, and you seem to want to be more independent now" he says with a wink.
Spirit deadpans "No thanks, I won't accept just to spite her or something like that. You missed my rebellious teenager years."
"I didn't know you had those." Spirit's uncle grins.
"Well, ok actually I wasn't very rebellious precisely but you get my point. And I already have something important to do with my life."
"So you finally decided what you want to do? I assume it has something to do with human tech." the Alakazam looked curious.
"Yeah something human related."
"It's not anything related to
that thing, right?he said looking suspicious.
"Nah don't worry, I'm not an idiot."
"Any chance we can still recruit you? You can still work on whatever even if you form a team, a lot of teams don't get together that often, or are just for legal benefits."
"I know .I'm not as opposed as I used to be to things like that, and maybe I'll even form my own team, that's one of the reasons I want to train. No more T.A.C though."
You have the impression that it should be A.C.T, but maybe it doesn't make sense in whatever language they are actually speaking.
Unless they are actually speaking English? Or maybe you are the weird one that speaks their language for some reason, your memory has already tampered with, and who knows what else.
That way lies Descartes style madness so you avoid that kind of though.
The charizard interrupted the conversation between the two psychics looking sad "Aww come on, imagine if you teamed up with my son and a charmander, you would be like a super cute version of our team ."
"I'm an adult."
"Yeah but you are still an abra and therefore cute." the charizard says making Spirit roll his eyes.
"Ugh, I feel sympathy for Bugsy now."
"Phyro, you aren't helping" Says the alakazam with a stern look.
"Sorry"
"Your son isn't a charmander?" You ask the charizard, curious.
"No, he's a larvitar" he answers with a frown". Why, do you come from one of those places that only let people have children with people of the same species or what?"
"No? , well actually maybe yes" you say thinking about your world.
"Ah right you don't remember where you are from, sorry." The Charizard seems to feel bad for reminding you that.
"Don't worry "you answer cheerfully, having already decided to not dwell on that more for today.
You really want to ask him about the different species thing and children. But you better ask Spirit later, since you don't know how much worse than it is you can pretend your amnesia to be before it start to seem suspicious.
And it sounds like an embarrassing topic you don't want to talk about now.
"About the training, you could have asked me to train you." The abra says looking at Spirit.
"You are not very good at teaching that kind of thing, and you haven't been here for a long time."
"Well now I am here, and we are going to stay for a while."
"But yeah, Espe is a better master, though not that much if you just want to get stronger, she's not a combat expert. And I mean if you just want to be stronger there are good move tutors in Kawa town."
"I hadn't considered that actually .I don't think I would be able to afford it anyway.Also I want to be more capable, not just become better at punching things ."
"You certainly aren't going to learn any physical move like that, that's for sure "The alakazam grins.
Spirit rolls his eyes, but at the same time he's smiling "You know what I mean."
"I can train you one of these days, if you want ."
"Seriously? I guess that could be good. though Mom won't like it"
"Weren't you independent now?" The alakazam asked maliciously
"Kind of, you're right with that I'm not really out of her reach yet" Spirit admitted."I plan to move to a different city someday though"
"Well, if you are ready I'll teleport us to Gem, said the alakazam not wanting to escort us all the way to the village.
"Wait, I have something else to ask you." He said looking at Alice. "In private"
"Fine"
Spirit whispers something to his uncle , and he nods
"Yes I think you can" The alakazam says answering whatever question Spirit had
"Fine, just wanted to be sure, and I trust you for this kind of thing." Spirit looks relieved.
The alakazam teleports everyone, and looks a bit tired.
You arrive at some kind of fence in the end of the road, guarded by a scyther wearing a headband with an strange symbol of it, the lines of a pokeball with a diamond in it, the pokeball in black while the diamond is in white.
"We are going to go get Axis , she was waiting us at the entrance of the dungeon" Says the charizard "But later well go back to Gem and sleep in the inn"
You enter the town ,while the two team wisdom members go towards the forest.
The scyther looks at both of you and frowns.
"Hi Spirit, didn't you go to the dungeon alone?" he asks.
Spirit explains that he found you in the dungeon with amnesia.
"Ah, fine then, but I'm going to have to check the list of criminals anyway, it's my job"
You wait while he checks a long list he had in his bag.
"Everything in order, you can pass"
You enter the village.
Gem Village is surrounded by a fence, except in places where natural obstacles like the forest or mountains close it.
The village seems to be situated on a flat terrain, and a dirt path goes through it connecting all the houses.
Toward the north were you are coming from, there is the forest that leads to the diamond cave, the dungeon you just came from. At the east there the start of a rocky hill, with a path apparently carved through it. To the west the fence separates the city from some colorful plains full of tall grass and towards the south the village continues a bit further.
The few houses in it look isolated, like they were built in a time were the village had more people.
You can also see a few abandoned houses, and what looks like the remains of more, covered in vegetation.
"I'll show you the village, and then you can sleep in my house, we'll decide what to do tomorrow."
"Ok"
In the middle of the village you can see a small space surrounded by a fence and full with all kind of products and a kecleon in front of it ,there is also a kangaskan statue at its side.
"That's the kecleon shop, they usually sell supplies to Pokémon teams, but being the only shop in the village they also sell other basic things".
"Why is it called like that?" you ask, wondering if you have to be a kecleon to own a shop or something.
"Well it's a shop run by the association of kecleon merchants"
"Are they all kecleon then?"
"Not necessarily ,being one of them is an hereditary thing so most are kecleon, but I know of a tyrogue who is one of them for example"
There is also a big building near a bulletin board full of pieces of paper with things you can't read written on them.
This reminds you that you should learn their writing system, maybe you can ask spirit something about that.
"In that building you can find the mayor's office , an inn ,a pub where teams gather and other services , like for if you want to send a message, or register as a new team" Spirit says pointing at it .
"That's a lot of things for one building" you comment while you walk around the village.
"It has multiple floors underground, but yeah, it used to be one of the guilds, so it has a lot of space " he answers.
"By the way is that wooden house "he points to a small wooden house "Lives a very nice old woman that knows a lot about the story of the city and the region , if you want to know something we can visit her one of these days, she usually likes to tell her stories."
You both continue walking around the village, not finding anyone, probably because it's late.
"Towards the south you can find gem shipping were you can send things to other villages and also there is my mother's house. I should probably go tomorrow so she doesn't worry" you walked for a bit until Spirit remembered something "Ah and the old battleground , I can try to teach you how to use moves there if you want."
"Maybe tomorrow, now we need to sleep" you say though you aren't feeling very sleepy yet, despite the sun having almost set.
"Yeah you are right ,I guess I could talk you about the people in the village "He says "But let's go sleep"
You follow him towards a wooden circular house with that look recently rebuilt , and surprisingly clean compared to how messy and full of vegetation its surroundings look
What will you do tomorrow?
[]Train whith Spirit and figure out how to use your new body
[]Talk to the people in the village
[]Go meet team wisdom in the pub
[]Ask Spirit if there is some way you can learn to read.
[]Go to the pub and get as drunk as possible because reasons.
[]Go whith Spirit to see his mom
[]Get a questing licence
[]Learn about the history of the village.
[]Try to get a job
[]Go see Espe the psychic master(this means going back to the dungeon)
[]Buy suplies at the keckleon shop.
[]Write in.
You might have time for more than of those things,so you can have a plan whith multiple of them , I'm mostly putting them as suggestions but your plan can include multiple things ,though some of them might not get done if you want to do too much things for the day(and its boring if you only choose the options that I give you, even if it makes things easier for me).
Next update will cover whatever time takes to complete your plan(unless something unexpected happens).
Author's notes:
After a long time without chapter I'm finally back .Future chapters will definitely not take this much , but I will be probably be slower now that clases started(or maybe faster since I'm going to be bored in the breaks).
Let's hope I didn't just lost my players for spending too much without chapter.
I have a map of the village and I'll put it here latter when I have time (or maybe in another post threadmarked as informational).
Being this late does't mean that I spent longer than before on checking the chapter so tell me if you find any typo .
Or any general writing thing that I should know but don't because I don't have much experience writing.
(Edit: Yay , likes)
).
