Guide In Death: Prologue - Lavender Soul

In death, we do not stop existing. Our ability to interact with this world is not tied to this earth by our physical bodies, but by our collective experiences that we retain throughout our lives. This is what our spirits are, and our spirits are the last remnants of who or what we are when our physical bodies decay. When nothing more remains of our earthly breathing bodies, the soul that is released persists, acting upon the physical realm through what the wisp remembers strongest about life.

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Seik. I'm a channeler who lives in the Pokemon Tower in Lavender Town, Kanto. Ever since my first pokemon, my beloved Oddish, was killed in a battle against a wild Fearow, I've been rather depressed when it comes to all things pokemon.

I was told to bring the corpse of my best friend to this hallowed tower where she would be buried at peace. When I walked into the tower, there were others, others who were mourning the loss of their beloved companions as dreadfully as I. A man's Growlithe had failed to recover from a vicious case of PokePneumonia. A young girl wept for her Pidgey that was decapitated in a freak accident in the pitch-black Rock Tunnel. I knew that I wasn't alone when it came to losing a beloved life-companion, but being surrounded by others whose hearts were weeping bloody tears only made me fall even further down the twisted stairway of despair.

As I held my Oddish bundled in a bloody cloth, a strange woman approached me. She wore all white with red along the laces of her robe and her large circular hat. The moment she saw the dripping red cloth in my hands with her wide, unreal glare, she approached me.

"Have you come to lay your beloved pokemon to rest in this celebrated tower?" she asked me in a weak voice. It was the type of voice that came from someone whom rarely ever spoke, and she sounded like if she continued not to speak for much longer her voice would have vanished from her throat completely.

I held up my poor, ravaged Oddish in her small body bag made out of one of my few spare shirts. The tears in my eyes had all but dried up, but it was impossible for me to speak without choking on my sadness. "Y-yes...please..."

The robed woman nodded weakly at me before reaching out for my perished companion with her pale white hands. As she was about to grab a hold of Oddish, I felt my mind become overwhelmed by a maddening urge to turn back and run out of the tower as fast as I could. Oddish wasn't really dead, she was just resting and recovering from the Fearow attack... When Fearow's razor beak slashed through Oddish's main artery, it only made her faint. She was alive.

But I never did run out of that sad tower. The madness that ate away at my mind wasn't strong enough to turn me away from allowing my dear friend to rest in everlasting peace. She took the bloody bundle from my shaking hands, and as she did, I finally felt as though I had lost Oddish forever, that a part of my being, my soul, had died the moment Oddish's chlorophyllic blood covered the ground around that winged harbinger of suffering. Without opening the blood-stained shirt, the woman stared me in the eye, into my soul, with her horrid wide eyes before weakly screeching, "Not to worry. Your little Oddish will be gently put to rest. If you want, you can accompany me while I find the right spot for this little one."

Tears tried to force themselves out of my weary face once more, but I managed to weakly murmur, "...ok..."

I'll never forget the excruciating pain I felt as I watched the channeler gently place my young Oddish into a small hole that was prepared on the second floor of Pokemon Tower. She covered the reddened wrapping with soft soil before placing a floor tile over Oddish's grave. Looking up, I noticed the tombstone above her resting place was blank.

I turned to the channeler for a moment and was about to speak, but my tongue tied itself and all I could manage was a weak "uhhhr" sound. The channeler stood up with her arms in the air and her insane eyes toward the ceiling.

"Young Oddish, we lay you to rest in this grave. Your trainer is here, and wishes for you to rest your weary soul so that he may know that you have gone in peace. You will never be forgotten."

I watched in sadness and awe as the solid tombstone began to carve itself into words. It read: "R.I.P. Oddish, companion of Seik. May her soul know only peace."

My heart ached at the sight of those words. I turned to the channeler and lightly bowed my head. "Th-thank y-you..."

So much pain, so much heartache. The experience ended up traumatizing me, ending my short-lived journey as a pokemon trainer, and preventing me from ever making extended contact with any pokemon. Every time I saw a pokemon, it was Oddish. Every trainer battle I observed, it was Oddish vs Fearow. I felt as though I had experienced a hundred heart attacks over the three months after having lost my friend.

But that was a long time ago.

Now, I've secluded myself within Pokemon Tower of Lavender Town, avoiding contact with any people, whether they were mourners or maddened channelers, and avoiding all pokemon. For eight years I have wallowed in my sadness and grief alone, believing that I only brought pain with my existence, that I could never accept myself as a human being. I never saw another human or pokemon for the time I had barricaded myself from reality.

And yet, after eight years of wandering the tower, I began to realize I wasn't alone...