A young woman, 18 years of age and a fire in her eyes, walks through the forest, her guitar on her back adding more weight than most travelers cared for but she didn't mind. Going somewhere without her guitar was like going somewhere without her best friend; a small Fletchling she had raised from an egg. They had only been together a few months, but they had bonded immediately, never separating. The short haired girl had never really traveled before, sticking to her town to perform her music, but after the recent death of the mother she hadn't been able to stick around. Carmen had set out in the middle of the night, sneaking out of her house and away from her father. She had been walking away from that town for five days now, and had not once looked back.
Meanwhile, a certain Pokémon God was bored. He stood in his Hall, looking around. Walking to the end of the long Hall, he opened the huge double doors and stepped out onto the golden platform, the doors disappearing as they closed. He flew off, surveying his world. The sky was cloudy, and on any other day where the skies of Sinnoh had been clear, he would have stayed in his hall above Mt. Coronet. Settling just above the cloud layer, he contemplated going below it, but decided that he didn't want to draw attention to himself.
An idea struck Arceus then. He had taken a human shape before, so why couldn't he take one now? He had never considered it before, never really having a reason to interact with the human world for reasons other than its general upkeep, but now he figured getting some practice with human interactions would not be such a bad idea. Concentrating on what he had looked like, Arceus closed his eyes. There was a bright flash just beyond his eyelids, and when Arceus opened his eyes again, he was in his human form, complete with white jacket, and white hair with golden bangs and a long ponytail that went down his back, the underside a grey color.
Shoving his hands in his pockets, he kicked off the ground, giving long jumps down the mountain towards Hearthome City, to the point of nearly flying but not quite.
Carmen walked on until something strange happened, without warning the Fletchling lifted itself from the girls pixie styled hair and flew off heading in a direction that seemed completely random. "Hey, Haydo!" Carmen called running after the Pokémon. "What are you doing? Come back!" The girl tried to keep up but couldn't; the guitar case on her back slowed her down slightly, but it didn't help that she was on foot and the small creature could fly so much faster.
Haydo had felt it, the presence of her God. She needed to go toward it, it make sure that it wasn't a trick. She wanted to see the creator, if only for a brief second, even if that meant having to leave Carmen behind, she would be all right for a short while.
Arceus landed with a thud at the base of the mountain, a hundred yards from the gates of Hearthome City. It was a pleasant enough path, simple dirt lined with grass and flowers, just like in the days he remembered. Noticing a flutter in the corner of his eye, he turned to watch the Fletchling fly up to him. He held out a finger, offering a perch. "Hello there, little Fletchling. It's rare to see one so far from Kalos... What are you doing all the way out here?" he asked. For any normal person, they would not expect a response, but seeing as how Arceus was a Pokémon, he of course could communicate with and understand them.
The Fletchling landed on the man's finger, she looked up at him, tilting her head to the side in confusion. "My friend and I are traveling," she explained, her voice was more stable than she thought it would, she was rather nervous after all. "Why do you look human?" she asked.
Carmen continued to run in a straight line, hoping that Haydo hadn't turned at all. She saw a man in a white coat with strange hair, and there on his finger was a Fletchling. "Haydo!" the girl gasped out, running up she stopped just a few feet from the man, leaning down and resting her hands on her knees as she panted, trying hard to catch her breath.
Arceus just smiled at the Fletchling, pressing a finger to his lips, asking to keep a secret. Haydo nodded, she liked games, and keeping secrets was one she was great at. She kept all of Carmen's secrets, like how the girl cried at night sometimes because she couldn't stop her dad from drinking and beating her mother until one day her mother just couldn't take it, or how her father called her mean names whenever she tried to get him to stop and sometimes even turned to hit her, or how Carmen saw her dad kissing another woman but didn't want to tell her mom because her mom had enough to deal with already. Yup, Haydo was great at games like secret keeping.
Arceus turned to Carmen. "Is this your Pokémon?" he asked, extending his arm. "She's a rather rare Pokémon in this area."
Carmen stood up straight. "My uncle," she was cut off as she took another large breath. "Phew... " she chuckled. "My uncle brought her home after one of his trips. She was just an egg." She smiled up at the Pokémon as she fluttered back onto her spot on Carmen's head. "I'm sorry if she bothered you, she usually doesn't do things like that," she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and slight worry, hoping everything was okay with her best friend.
"No, it's fine. I'm used to it, actually. Pokémon seem to like me for some reason." Arceus shrugged, noticing some wild Pokémon peeking out at them from the bushes.
Carmen looked around nodding. "Yeah, seems like you're quite the attraction," she said looking back at the man. "Can't say I blame 'em, you have this air of... flock to me about you," she smiled kindly.
"Is she your only Pokémon, then? You don't look like much of a trainer..." He noticed the guitar case on her back, but didn't say anything.
Carmen raised an eyebrow at his words. "I'm not sure if I should...take that as an insult or not?" she looked up at Haydo, the little Pokémon just nodded. "Yeah, she's my one and only," the girl grinned. "What about you? Do you have any Pokémon?" the girl wasn't sure how to tell a trainer from regular human, but it was probably a good trick to have.
Arceus opened his mouth, about to respond that he was a Pokémon, but hesitated, remembering that he should always assume humans had a Pokéball on them. "Nah, I'm just traveling a bit, getting out to see the world. How about you? Traveling musician?" he asked, gesturing to the guitar on her back.
Carmen opened her mouth to tell the truth but somehow 'I sort of kind of ran away from home because my dad finally finished the job on my mom' didn't seem like the best way to go. "Yeah, I kind of grew up in a small-ish town so everyone all ready knows all my songs so I thought I would get out and try to find somewhere I can not only keep my old stuff but maybe find a muse for some new stuff," she shrugged. Her muse had always come from the secrets she held, but now, some how it all seemed a bit too much to write about, so she was looking for...well, something happy maybe? She didn't know, maybe I different kind of sadness would do as well. "Where are you from?" she asked, he seemed nice enough and Haydo obviously liked him and she hadn't really talked to a person in a while so it was nice to at least have a short conversation if he allowed it.
"Oh, um..." he pointed to Mt. Coronet on impulse, "Snowpoint City..." though it didn't sound too convincing. "I'm sorry, I don't think I caught your name. What is it?"
Carmen wasn't too convinced he lived in Snowpoint, however, she did believe he lived on Mt. Coronet, he was pointed to it too quickly to make that up. "Oh, I'm Carmen, sorry," she extended a hand for him to shake, smiling friendly. It was just her thing, she was friendly, she had to be. She was too scared to think where her mind would go if she didn't somehow stay on the bright side of things. "And this is Haydo," she pointed up to the Fletchling.
Arceus quickly took her hand in a firm shake. "It's nice to meet you, Haydo, Carmen," he smiled, before remembering he should introduce himself. He scrambled for a name that didn't give him away. "I'm.. my name is Mason." He let go of her hand after introductions.
"It's nice to meet you too, Mason," Carmen smiled.
"You wouldn't happen to be going to Hearthome City, would you?" he jabbed a thumb in the direction of said city.
"Yeah, actually that's exactly where we were headed," the girl nodded, if so it would be nice to maybe actually travel with someone, he seemed so... strange, something about him just reminded her of something else and she couldn't put the two together.
"Oh, that's convenient! I was just looking for someone to travel with. It gets rather lonely by yourself," Arceus stated, really not opposed to traveling with Carmen. "You wouldn't mind if I tagged along, would you?"
Carmen looked up at Haydo who nodded. "Yeah, of course," the girl said as she started on her way. "What made you want to see other places, Mason?" she asked, looking up at him as they walked.
Arceus shrugged. "I was curious what the rest of the world looked like. Got cooped up in my house, and on a whim decided to go take a long walk." Speaking of long walks, he didn't bother bringing any money along when he decided to go on his walk. A quick pocket check confirmed this. Human currency was the one thing Arceus refused to make, not for lack of ability, but rather for respect to the human culture and the way their economy ran. That being said, he had forgotten to take his small stash with him before leaving the Hall. "You wouldn't happen to have any money, would you?" he asked, realizing they'd need to pay for a hotel room for the night.
"A long walk indeed," Carmen said looking up at the mountain. When he asked if she had money she raised an eyebrow. "Um, yeah I've got some cash, and I'm sure I can make more when I get into town. Hopefully we'll have enough for one room and some food tonight, huh, Haydo?" the small Pokémon chirped up. "Yeah! Sleeping outside was bad enough last night," it said, even though Arceus was the only one would could understand her.
"Okay. If we could find a piano somewhere, I could help out too." Arceus nodded. "What songs do you know on your guitar, by the way?" he asked. The gate to the city drew closer. By now, they were only a few yards away.
"Um... Mostly only my own. If we find a piano we could play duets though, or I could sing and you could play, though, would there be a piano just out for us to use?" she asked, a bit confused. "Because, I usually just play in a park or something," the girl shrugged, looking up at him, wishing she could think of some way he could help just in case they couldn't find a piano. "Can you sing?" she asked finally.
"Um... I've dabbled a bit in singing. I could probably sing if you played a song. As for pianos... I don't know, perhaps there'd be one in a cafe somewhere that we could use."
"All right, so as a last resort you sing one of my songs, I have the sheet music so don't worry, and if we find a piano than you play, then I play, then you play, that is if you can't find a song that I know," she added on. Carmen had never really played with someone before, there were people in her town that could play but she felt that they didn't give the right kind of passion into their talent. Of course there were different sorts of passion, all the others were carried by their love for music, where as Carmen's passion was driven by the fact that if she didn't have music then she probably wouldn't be alive anymore. Music had brought her from the dark and out into the day again, sure, nearly every day seemed over cast, no bright light around her, but at least she could see.
"Alright, sounds like a plan," Arceus nodded. He had never played with anyone either, though he had practiced a few pieces before for a duet that never happened. He knew a few songs that might or might not be recent, mostly from other legends singing them when they came to annual meetings, but could pick up a melody rather easily. They passed thought the route gate into the city, paved stone and cement streets replacing dirt and grass. A building shaped like a church passed on the right, and Arceus eyed it suspiciously as they walked by. Nonetheless, Hearthome seemed very promising, with tons of tourists, trainers with their Pokémon, and families alike in the streets. "So, we're looking for a piano somewhere. If not, we could go to Amity Square and play there..."
Carmen quietly hummed to herself as they walked around the town, she had only seen pictures of towns like Hearthome. It was strange, it was so large it made her feel like a Joltik, and it wasn't even the largest city out there... and yet she felt so at home, just walking around with Haydo on her head and her guitar on her back. Mason was a nice improvement, but she didn't really seem him a complete part of the group yet, he was just too new. "Good plan, great plan," Carmen said as she looked at the church. "Whoa,"
"What, the church?" Arceus looked between Carmen and said building. "Yeah, it's kind of a tourist spot. One of the few ones of its kind out there. Won't get those anywhere in Castelia or Lumiose City, that's for sure... The thing is, it's still actively used, too."
"What exactly is it used for? Like... praying and stuff? I don't understand that..." she furrowed her eyebrows, she felt a little childish having to ask.
"Yeah, for praying. To... um..." he had to stop himself from saying 'to me'. "To Arceus, I guess. I've never personally been in one. Never had any use for a church. Why, you want to go inside?"
Carmen shook her head. "No, I just don't understand why someone would, you know? I mean, to each their own, don't get me wrong, I guess I worship him in my own way but he doesn't seem to care whether you worship him or not," she looked back at Mason.
Arceus looked, surprised at Carmen. Of course he cared; he made time in his busy schedule to listen to everyone's prayers every day. But he couldn't tell her this, and that stung him more than her words. Sometimes keeping a secret is harder than honesty. "You didn't strike me as the kind to worship... I take it you don't pray?" he asked as they walked on past the building.
Carmen shook her head. "I did when I was little, but it didn't matter how much I prayed," she hesitated. "My dad never got better," she shrugged. "I mean, I'm not angry, I understand that sometimes people are just not supposed to get what they want, but that doesn't make it hurt any less that there was no answer," she explained.
Arceus frowned. He thought back to a few years ago, when Carmen might have prayed. He often got a lot of prayers about sick family members, so most of them just blended together. Regrettably, he hadn't answered any prayers, and in all honesty, still didn't. It only now occurred to him that there might be people out there who expected him to respond, and that he might have been letting millions down for centuries. "Do you think he might be asleep?" Arceus attempted to joke, trying to lighten the mood.
Carmen looked up at him, a bit taken aback by such a joke, but second later she burst into a smile, a small chuckle rocking her body. "That's messed up," she nudged him. "No, dad isn't asleep," well, she didn't know that for sure, her father might be sleeping at that moment, but just as she had hoped, Mason didn't see through her words, she had phrased it perfectly. But how long was she going to keep up that lie.
Haydo looked at Arceus her eyes narrowing. "Why didn't you answer her prayer?" she asked, she wasn't angry at him, how could she be angry at God? But she did feel bad for her friend.
Arceus briefly looked up to Haydo, giving the bird a small apologetic look. He would understand if the Pokémon would be angry. He was slightly angry at himself as well. "Oh, so he's still alive?"
Haydo snuggled more into Carmen's head as if comforting her. "It's okay... at least you didn't take her from me," she chirped.
Carmen nodded. "Yup, dad's still alive," she said, running her fingers through her bangs. "He still isn't better though, oh well," she shrugged, then she bit her lip, remembering something. "Hmm, the last time I prayed was actually the day I left home, huh, Haydo?" the girl looked up but the Fletchling was asleep.
"How long ago did you leave, by the way?" Arceus asked. If it was recent, perhaps he could still respond to her prayer...
"Five days ago," she smiled happily to herself. "I guess that prayer was answered," she chuckled as if the thought was childish. "I just wanted to get out, and since I've been doing nothing but walking away, I doubt I'll ever have to go back. So..." Carmen looked at Mason. "Maybe Arceus does listen? I don't know," she shrugged. "Maybe he just got bored and wanted to see where my life would go if I got out,"
Her prayer was more than two days old, so he couldn't recall what she had said, nor respond to it, but Arceus now felt like he didn't have to. "I don't doubt Arceus getting bored," he responded with a chuckle. "I do doubt, however, the idea that Arceus would toy with other people's lives to sate that boredom." Arceus had never done such a thing like directly choosing something for someone. He has presented some options to people occasionally, but in the end it was always their choice what to do with their life. "I like to think that the future of one's life is decided by their actions, and not by a higher power."
"You like to think that, huh?" Carmen chuckled. "I completely believe that, I pray for a little back up when I'm too scared to carry on, but like I said, it always seems to fall on deaf ears. We need to take a hold of our own lives, carry out our own decisions, because if all we do in ask Arceus for help and do nothing until he gives it to us, well, we're going to die sitting around," she smiled up at him. "It's a fun idea to entertain though, that there's someone listening in on your life to see how you're doing because he cares about every single one of us," she chuckled again. "I don't know if Arceus even exists or not, but if he does, he isn't listening," she realized how cold her words must have sounded and tried to correct herself. "It's not that I hate him, if he does exist, I just understand that he's probably more busy with Pokémon than humans, because he is a Pokémon I guess they get first dibs," she shrugged.
"Hmm, perhaps. I never considered that..." Arceus hadn't really noticed, but now that he reflected on that, it did seem more prevalent. He dealt more with the other legendaries than he did with humans. "Yeah, perhaps Arceus is just really busy...But you know what? From now on, I'll listen to you. So you can talk to me if you need to, okay?"
Carmen looked up at him, a happy smile playing on her lips and she nodded. "All right, I'll take you up on that. But only if you promise to tell me if I talk too much, get annoying, all that jazz. Oh, and you can talk to me about things too," she promised him. "I like to listen, if I can shut up enough to do so. I have this thing about rambling... I'm doing it now aren't I?" she blushed slightly. "Sorry,"
Arceus laughed a bit. "It's fine. I've had enough with the silence in my life. Hardly anyone in my family talks to me, and when they do, it's only to settle an argument with another family member. Then there's our yearly family reunions... I sometimes wish they weren't mandatory..."
Carmen looked up at him. "Mandatory family reunions? What? I've never heard of something like that. It's your life, Mason, live it with or without your family," she nudged him gently.
Arceus laughed, "It's more like live with my family or live on another planet. As far as mandatory goes, it's just to make sure no one's killed each other yet," he joked. They had been walking through town, yet no piano had appeared in the cafe windows.
Carmen looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. "You're family sounds delightful," she chuckled lightly, shaking her head. "All right, we should probably either start setting up or actually find a piano," she stated, looking inside random windows to see if she could find the large instrument.
"... I'll just sing, I guess. Until we can afford a keyboard or something. Yeah, let's head for the part, there should be a lot of people there." Arceus turned a corner, heading in what seemed like a random direction, but was actually towards the park.
Carmen followed him without question. "All right, sounds good," she smiled. "Um, sorry if you don't like my music... it can be a little... weird sometimes," she stated. So many of her songs seemed so sad that it was hard to really get into them for some people, and Mason didn't seem like the kind of person to like them, if she was to be honest to herself. He seemed too happy about everything to really understand them.
"Weird? How so?" he asked, the park coming into view. There were a ton of people at the park, young families, old couples, trainers having battles in the fields. There was a gazebo in the middle of the park, and up on some hills nearby are old ruins currently being used as a play place for kids. "We could set up at the gazebo..."
"Um, weird as in sort of depressing," she shrugged. She looked around the park in slight amazement. "Uh, yeah, that sounds great," she smiled. "Come on," she was in a hurry to get started, and that was made clear when she took hold of the man's hand and nearly ran to the gazebo. She set her guitar case down and opened it, pulling her guitar and many pages of sheet music from the case. "Um... here," she said, handing him a few of the pieces of music.
"Oh..." Arceus looked over the song on the sheet music. "Wow, this is rather depressing, but uplifting at the same time... Do you want me to sing or would you rather the first few songs?"
"We can take turns," Carmen suggested. "I'll sing My Song, and we can just go on from there?" she said looking up at him her leaf green eyes a little more wide than usual as she tried to make him happy. She wanted him to feel useful but it was strange sharing her songs like this with someone, usually she just played them and that was all, but actually showing someone the sheet music was a new step.
Haydo had awoken to the sound of Carmen tuning her guitar and chirped happily. "Yay, Arceus is going to help!" she said, fluttering her wings and moving to the Pokémon God's head. "You'll get us lots of money for lots of food,"
"Haydo..." Carmen looked up at the Pokémon slightly confused, she had never left her head before the land on someone else and now she had done it twice in one day. "She must really like you..."
"Yeah, I guess so," Arceus reached up to pat the little Pokémon. "You can sing first, that's okay. Gives me more time to look at the next one anyways." Arceus shuffled the papers, looking at the next song and quietly humming out the melody.
Meanwhile, a small group of people had gathered on and around the gazebo, interested in the small group setting up to play.
Carmen nodded and started strumming her guitar, her callused finger tips moving against the strings like she had had the song built into them. As she sang her eyes closed, or she looked down, refusing the meet the eyes of any of the people listening to her. She didn't even look up at Haydo or Mason. She just performed the song, letting all the emotion that had gone into it pour out like the first time she had ever sung it.
Arceus had to stop what he was doing, and stared at Carmen. He couldn't believe the talent of that girl, and the pure emotion that went into her words. Something told him there was more driving her than pure love of music, like his passion did. When the song ended, he didn't hesitate to clap along with the even larger crowd that had gathered. A good amount of money had been put into the case, enough to get them a room for the night. Arceus also noticed how these songs seemed to be personal. "You know, we don't have to keep going if you don't want to..."
Carmen blinked as if snapped from a trance when the clapping started. She grinned happily, looking around at everyone before gazing up at Mason. "Huh? Oh, um, okay. I mean, if you don't want to have a go at it," she said, gesturing to the music in his hand. "Or, you could just sing something that you know," she pointed out. "I don't want to force you to sing what you don't want to," she shrugged, looking down at the cash they had gotten. People were more generous here than the other places she had performed.
"No, it's totally fine, I think I can manage. Might have to take it down an octave or so... Ready whenever you are." Arceus nodded, waiting for her to start the song.
Carmen nodded and started on her guitar again, she may not sing this time, but that wouldn't stop her from putting her heart into the notes she played.
Haydo moved back to Carmen's head, letting Arceus focus more on the song.
Arceus took a deep breath, deciding to pour just as much soul into his singing as Carmen did in hers. His deep baritone voice rang thought the gazebo and into the air, drawing more people to come listen to the performance. Soon, however, the song was over, and he let out a breath of relief. "For a minute there, I thought I was going to mess up..."
Carmen almost stumbled over a few cords as the sound of his voice filled the air around her. He surprised her and the passion he put into her song... she couldn't help but smile. When they had finished she grinned up at him. "You are amazing!" She said standing up to face him. She looked down at the guitar case, the money they had both brought in was more than she had probably ever had at one time in her life. "Thank you everyone, for your donations!" Carmen grinned. She gently placed the guitar down and started to gather the money into her hands, putting it into Mason's coat pockets.
Arceus was startled when she started stuffing his pockets, but got down and helped load up on money. "We should come here more often," he said as the crowd dispersed. "Now that we got more than enough money, would you like to go do something else?"
A/N: Well! Here we go with another one! Don't worry, this one probably has ten more chapters of pre-written stuff for it. I'm not going to abandon it. That being said, this was actually taken directly from a role play I did with my friend. So if anyone catches any major mistakes please let me know and I will go back and fix them!
READ ON!
-SA ;P