World's Tune, Prologue

Effio

Server Room

"So you're telling me we bought those Silph thingamabobs for nothing?"

I pause my fiddling with the giant contraption to sigh and look at the menacingly tall man standing next to me, mentally preparing myself. I know I should be used to Dom's garbage by now - every two or so hours, he makes a note to come interrupt my work and my train of thought because I'm not doing something right. This time it's the expensive and quite difficult converters the team had just bought (set us back well into our grant), that I had just put into the machine and tested briefly without success. "Well, I don't know. They're supposed to go in this place," I point to the exposed electrical jumble before us, knowing fully well that Dom doesn't care, "but they still seem to be connected wrong. Just hold on a second before we give up all hope," I say. Another exasperated sigh escapes me, this one maybe a little more forward than it needed to be. The boss man, instead of going on one of his usual mini-tirades, gives me one last stern glare and walks back into the monitor room, shaking his head. I wonder if I'm going to lose my job over this, being the one unable to get them to work. But to be fair, Silph Co. doesn't exactly make their stuff consumer-friendly.

I return to my task at hand - if this thing doesn't get fixed, it's likely the end of the already waning program. Maybe I misconnected a wire somewhere? I inspect the cable bus running into the Silph ICs that Dom was on about. Everything seems correct... Something like this could take hours to fix depending on where the problem actually is, it could even have been when I was putting the thing together last week -

Hey, didn't you leave the machine unplugged earlier?

A voice pops into my head and I turn to see Gardevoir sitting in a small foldout chair in the corner next to the server wall, staring at me. Thinking back, yes, I did. More or less. The power socket itself is actually disconnected from the rest of the machine, so just plugging it in and flipping the switch won't work. So, in a sense, she's right. Can't believe I forgot about that, though...

"Thanks," I nod to Gardevoir as I shuffle over on my knees to the back corner of the machine. I tug at the the power socket and it comes right out, bringing a couple of cords with it. All I need to do is grab the one that's loose and connect it there... and flip the machine on, and surprise, things immediately begin to whir. As in, that's actually pretty surprising. Is it going to work? The monitor on the left of the machine lights up and I spring up to stand in it's view, watching a whiz of messages fly past. Everything seems to be in working order - not the machine itself, yet, but the parts I'd wanted to test... Then, simultaneously, all the fans start to kick on high.

Uh, Effio... sir?

I glance at the Gardevoir behind me, who is staring at the giant hulk of metal and wires with a wary gaze.

Something... escaped.

"Uh?" I grunt. "What do you mean?" A wave of panic washes through my body as I imagine the worst of what she could have meant. My optimism had long since been worn thin by this arduous project, and I guess expecting to see it work without a hitch was out of the question.

Sorry, I don't really know how else to describe... Wait - The Gardevoir closes her eyes, evidently concentrating on something. A couple long seconds pass before she suddenly relaxes and goes slack, her back sliding down the chair. I gasp and rush to her side to keep her from falling. The terminal, out of the corner of my eye, spews dirty red alerts while the hundreds of fans strain loudly to cool the strained machine.

"Hey!" I call into the other room for a bit of help, propping Gardevoir further up on her foldout chair. A little pang of guilt gnaws at my stomach. When I'd asked for a psychic to help with the integration, I wasn't expecting to put it through much, certainly not this. And, making matters that much worse, Gardevoir isn't even my own, it's my friend's...

Then, just as suddenly as it all started, the whole system shuts off. The various LEDs lose power, the lighting on the top of the thing fades, and the din of the fans dies down, clearing way for the sounds of movement and footsteps from the other room.

"What's up?" Ingo, who happens to own the Gardevoir sitting next to me, pokes his head through the door, luckily right as she wakes up and looks frantically around.

"What happened?" Gardevoir and Ingo ask at the same time.

I realize my heart is pounding in my chest - Gardevoir's reaction, combined with the ominous implications of the speeding fans and bright red error messages, spooked me clean. I give another sigh, gazing through the now-darkness at the terminal that had just been lit up a few seconds ago.

Did I do wrong...? Gardevoir asks me as I back away to stand before the terminal again.

"No," I mumble.

"What do you mean? What'd you do this time?" Ingo repeats from the doorway, his head now accompanied by a couple other curious coworkers.

I grab the microreactor cable and slide it slowly out of the machine, not wanting to be surprised if it were to somehow turn back on or something. I turn back to the blank monitor, fully perplexed. "I don't know..."

My coworkers leave the doorway and let the light from the monitor room fill my workshop, leaving me with the Gardevoir, who still seems a little spooked. Something worked, if but briefly. And I couldn't figure out whether that was a good thing or not...

Omiah

It's dark. I can't see anything. My eyes will not open. My head will not turn. I am numb. I can't feel anything. It's like my body isn't even there. But for some reason, I'm not panicking, as I'd expect myself to be. Am I just dreaming? Where is this? Is this what happens when you die, am I dead right now? No, that's absurd, that was a quick conclusion... What killed me? I don't remember anything killing me, so I guess I'm safe. Maybe. I'm just dreaming, why else would I be stuck in a dark, empty void? What's my subconscious trying to tell me now?

Wait... Yes, okay. My ears still work, because they can pick up the faint, soft humming of a deep pad... from somewhere. Now I have some sort of stimulation, something to cling to other than the emptiness I feel elsewhere. And it's slowly getting louder. I can hear multiple tones melting into each other, blending into one consonant chord. It's a chord I recognize, but I wouldn't be able to identify it if I tried, even though I use it pretty often when I'm writing.

As it continues to grow louder... yes, now I can feel, but what is this feeling? it's like my mind itself is becoming warm - but not hot. The heat is not aggressive. Instead it's just soothing, immersive - am I being put into a bath? Or something? It replaces the empty void of black, even though I still cannot see. And then... an entirely different feeling - I can *sense* a presence, the weight of a new being brushing against my own. There's something unknown here with me... that's a little off-putting.

Oh, so you're a music person.

I would've screamed a little, if I could have, but no sound comes through my mouth. That came out of nowhere... It was deafening, too. Well, not deafening, technically... It was like it came straight into my mind, bypassing my ears entirely.

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't really mean to startle you! The voice apologizes. It's significantly quieter this time, and I'm not completely out of it now. Is that a woman? The voice sounds female, but I'm not sure where it would be coming from... And I can't respond to it, I can't make any noise at all.

Right now you're making a lot of noise! I'm not even sure how, either. The voice insists, to my surprise. What's going on here? Is she... is she reading my thoughts?

Well, of course! she says. Obviously. How could I have been so stupid. What, have you never been around a psychic Pokemon before?

A psychic... Pokemon? Pokemon... Have I heard that name before? ...I can't put my finger on it. But if whatever it is is psychic, I guess this all makes a little more sense.

Wait... Are you telling me you don't know what a Pokemon is? The voice is confused, but I'm not sure why. No, I don't know exactly what a Pokemon is. Am I supposed to know what a Pokemon is?

Well, yeah! they're everywhere! She says, getting louder again. Y'know, unless... Hold on, this may feel a little weird.

I cringe back, instinctively dreading whatever comes next. I can't help it - I have no way of stopping this... entity, or whatever she is, from doing whatever it is that "may feel a little weird". Call me crazy, but it's like I'm sitting in a dentist's chair.

And then, not a second later, it happens: she enters my mind, or something. That's the only real way she can describe it - all of a sudden, something other than my own thoughts swim through my head. Like how i could feel this person just appear in the dream. Around me the volume of the soft tones increase, but their enveloping hug is not much compared to how weird having someone look around in your brain feels. She was definitely right. It's almost like she's unraveling my mind, undoing its twists and turns, searching for something in there.

What?!

Good Jesus Christ! I didn't think the voice could get much louder, but apparently it sure can given she just scared my heart three meters out of my chest. Moments later I can still *physically feel* the ringing in my ears, only fading into the noisy pad in the background. Only then can I contemplate what happened... She found something in my mind that surprised her, that's for sure... God, I hope it wasn't what I think it is. There's a bunch of potentially embarrasing stuff I don't want people seeing in here, why'd she have to tread all over my privacy?

So... the voice says. I flinch (or I would have if I had the ability to), even though it's back to it's normal volume. There aren't Pokemon where you come from?

Oh. Was that the surprising thing to her? Half of me relaxes because she wasn't spooked by something embarrassing, and the other half of me is curious, now. I'd never heard that name, Pokemon, until now, and apparently it signifies something important.

Something important...? Pokemon had better be important, I am one! The voice says with indignation, then mellows again. Oh, Arceus above, I must have gone too far...

Too far into what? What is a Pokemon? What is she? I just want answers, especially if she's making such a big deal of it.

Well, we're already halfway in... I hope my mistake wasn't too bad...

What mistake did she make? I'm so confused!

Okay. Omiah, listen.

Wait, how does she know my name? I don't think I ever revealed that. Not willingly, that is -

I can't fully explain, but... I need your help. Well, no, I should say that *we* need your help.*

Who am I helping? What am I helping with? Again, she leaves me only with questions.

It'll become pretty clear. Just hold on, we're almost through... she pauses for a second, leaving me to wonder. Only for a second, though. Oh, that's right! Can I ask you a few questions?

A few questions? I mean, I guess. I though I was the one with all the questions.

I just want to learn a little more about you. I won't ask embarrassing questions, can you promise me you're being truthful?

Why does it matter? Why does this... voice want to get personal? It's not like I have anything interesting to say, in fact I'd go as far to say that -

Oh, stop. I saw a couple things when I was mindwalking, you are not boring. Speaking of, what's your deal with music? That'll be my first question to you.

How... Well, I mean, considering this person is actually a psychic, it wouldn't be hard for her to get that I like music a lot. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's the only reason I'm alive right now.

Yeah, I definitely got that. But then, how do you describe what you like to listen to?

That's pretty broad. I like to listen to a lot of things. I mean, most of what I listen to regularly is electronic music... Songs made up of the things humming into my ears right now, but with synthesizers that actually move instead of just droning on a single chord.

Ok, you've lost me. Electronic music?

I get the feeling that this voice hasn't been around much. You'd have to live under a pretty heavy rock to not know what electronic music is. Then again, I get the feeling that that's how she felt about me when I didn't know what Pokemon were... Okay. Electronic music - music that's based around computers, sounds produced by synthesizers and samples.

Synthesizers?

Yes, synthesizers, like the things that have a bunch of knobs and sliders and stuff. They make a bunch of super weird sounds, but if you learn how to use them you can manipulate them into pretty much anything. And make it sound good.

Interesting. And then, I got that you make this... electronic style of music as well?

I make music... it's not very good, but I like doing it. It doesn't compare at all to what some of the artists I like do. I'm halfway proud of it - on half of me isn't too keen on sharing it with people, but at the same time the other half leaps at the chance to bring up music.

Can you remember any of the songs you made, off the top of your head?

Remember... Yeah, I can do that, I commit basically anything I hear more than once to memory - and when I work on songs, I hear them a lot more than one time. The 1-chord falls on F minor, the chord progression is pretty simple... back and forth from 1 minor and 6 major, using 7 major as a transition. I used a muted beep sound as the lead and made the main melody sound semi-middle-eastern. Then added a slow-motion beat with a bunch of filtered hats. Trap's pretty easy to make.

As I imagine the song, the pads in the background fade out almost immediately, distracting me a little. What I hear instead is, in fact, the song in question. The solid, bass-driven chorus with the flitting melody, the modified electric keyboard playing chords every other beat... and the different sections of the song, too. After the introduction to the main theme and its two-faced progression, a transitory phrase bridges the first two parts. When the bass backs off, so does the keyboard, and a cold pad (one I'd originally meant to solidify the keyboard's chords) enters the foreground. Its timbre waves rhythmically up and down while the keyboard, halfway into the background, develops the new melodies and finally drops back into a second chorus, where an unmodified keyboard backs it up, the lead beep plays a countermelody, the drum pad clicks and tings with a combination of pitched hats and cymbals, its kick followed by the loud bass, and a sine sweeps slowly from the top range down. This part is a lot more thoughtful and somber than the last, which I can't really say was intentional, but it happened. I guess the section sets a sort of hopeless, unknowing feeling (sort of like what I'm feeling in this weird dream) more permanently than it did in the dichotomous section before. And then it goes back into the original progression, all melodies ended and replaced with a gritty-sounding effect synth that I modulated randomly. I added a healthy dose of reverb onto the chord pad here to make it sound super spacey and far-out, and I think it did the trick. Drop the drums, loop it a couple more times... And that's the song. I did a fade out with a noise sweep and stuff because I couldn't figure out an ending.

So you made this?

If I could have, I would have nodded. Giving vocal confirmation (or whatever the alternative to vocation now is) to that sort of thing seems awkward. I made it in an easy-to-use loop-based workspace with a bunch of synth presets I thought sounded good. Trap isn't that hard to make, I'll reiterate.

Okay, I have no idea about what you just tried to explain, or any of your thought process when the song was actually happening, but that was amazing. I've never heard anything like it.

A warm feeling spreads through me, quickly stifled as I tell myself not to get so worked up over a compliment. It's not even all that impressive -

No! ...I thought we had more time...

Now what is she on about? At first I thought she was going to reprimand me for berating myself, but is there another problem?

God, Arceus, I hope music is enough to go off of... hey, would you say that the music you like defines you?

What does she mean by that? Like, am I supposed to be grouping myself with stereotypical "EDM"-lovers or something?

Oh lord, never mind. Good luck!

a/n - this is edited from the original prologue that was pretty clunky. on mobile it hates me tryingto format line breaks so it might read oddly, and then i'll probably decide that this version is clunky as well and begin the declunkification process again. i need to make my stupid author's notes formatted consistently as well, whoops