Sorry it's been so long, folks~! Busy, ya know? Hahaha. Anyway, I'm still doing the Nuzlocke challenge, after a hiatus from it. Two new members to my party—Rochelle, my Sandshrew, and Petal, my Bellsprout, but I'm afraid the latter may actually be male. Whoops…
Ludwig's Party:
Charmander, lvl 10
Pidgey, lvl 3
The next morning, Ludwig knew something was wrong before he even opened his eyes.
No it wasn't the sounds of the forest. The loud buzz of insect and various other types of pokémon was nothing unusual, from what he could tell after only a day in this forest. It wasn't even the fact that he had been here an entire day already (honestly, he was pretty sure that if it weren't for his new "friend", he'd have cleared the forest already).
Nope, not even the fact that a pidgey had its beak shoved right up in his face was the real problem here.
Wait, a pidgey?
Ludwig's eyes snapped open to meet the beady black eyes of a tiny bird pokémon not even two inches away. He sat up with a shout, throwing his shoe at the pidgey. It simply hopped out of the way, giving him a cold glance, as if condescending of the startled trainer.
"Wh—what the hell?" he exclaimed, readying his arm to throw his other shoe.
"V—ve? Ludwig, what's wrong?" the real problem asked, sitting up from his spot next to Ludwig.
Yes, Feliciano had been the real problem, until just now. It wasn't so much the wimpy man's presence, as it was the fact that Ludwig had awoken with the Italian right next to him, having slipped underneath the blanket sometime during the night. Naked.
The German trainer returned his attention to Feliciano. He jumped up, backing as far away from the younger man as possible without stepping into the ashes of their fire pit. "Y—you! Why are you sleeping next to me?" he demanded, an embarrassed flush coloring his cheeks.
Feliciano tilted his head, giving Ludwig a puzzled stare. "Ve, well the nighttime sounds got really scary, so I decided to sleep next to you, because you're bigger and stronger, and things aren't as scary when you sleep next to someone who is bigger and stronger than you," he explained, not seeing the problem of two men sleeping side-by-side, one of them naked.
"That's not what I meant!" Ludwig shouted, but Feliciano was no longer listening.
The Italian had turned his attention to the pidgey, who was now perched on a rock. "Uccello~! Ve, you're back~!" Feliciano cried happily. "And you brought lots of tomatoes~!"
It was now that Ludwig noticed that the bird pokémon was standing next to a basket, filled to the brim with tomatoes. It must have been a heavy burden for such a small pokémon. The pidgey probably had abnormally high stats.
Like the one he had chased off from the tomato fields back in Pallet Town.
"Hey! You're that thieving bird! You stole tomatoes from my home town!" Ludwig pointed an accusing finger at the pidgey. He reached for his charmander's pokéball.
Feliciano threw himself in between them. "Ve, wait wait!" he exclaimed, sounding frightened. "I'm sure Uccello didn't mean to steal. He's only a little bambino!"
Ludwig glared, unclipping the ball from his discarded belt. "This is your thief of a pidgey?" he asked scathingly.
The Italian looked up at him fearfully. He affirmed Ludwig's suspicions with a shaky nod. "S—sí, but…"
He didn't give Feliciano a chance to finish. "Go, charmander," he commanded, releasing his pokémon.
By now, Feliciano was trembling uncontrollably. "Wait! I didn't want Uccello to steal! I only wanted tomatoes!" he cried, cringing away from the larger man.
"That doesn't make it right, does it?" Ludwig asked coldly, crossing his arms. He began to command his charmander to burn the sniveling thief.
"I'll pay for the tomatoes, I swear! Please don't hurt me! My nonno lives in Pallet Town, too, and I don't want to hurt the town he lives in because he's my family, and you're my new friend, and you live there, too, so I'll pay for every tomato, just please don't hurt me! Per favore!" he cried.
It was rather pathetic to see a naked man groveling for his life in the dirt. Mostly disturbing though. In the end, Ludwig decided to forget the punishment, and told his charmander to stand down.
"Fine, I'll let it go this one time. On one condition, though."
Feliciano's eyes lit up. "Sí, anything!" he agreed, nodding vigorously.
"Put some clothes on, already."
The Italian slowly looked down at himself, and gradually, a look of realization spread over his face.
"Ve, oh yeah." He gave Ludwig a vague smile, as if his state of undress didn't actually bother him too much. "Ok then, Luddy. I will."
Ludwig turned around to his charmander, who was staring curiously at the naked man. Obviously, she hadn't seen too much of the human anatomy, if any at all. He coughed to get her attention. She gave him a cold glare, unimpressed, and ignored him in favor of watching Feliciano dress. He groaned.
Feliciano darted around to the front of Ludwig, smiling. "Ve, ok I'm done now~!" he announced needlessly.
He was wearing the same clothes from yesterday, albeit dry now. Ludwig nodded. "Ja, I see that."
Unperturbed by Ludwig's tone, Feliciano stretched his arms high above his head, rubbing the sore muscles from the night of sleeping on the uncomfortable forest floor. "Ve, anyway, now that Uccello is back, we can get out of this scary place!" he announced.
Ludwig gave Feliciano a flat look. "That would be nice, but we're still lost," he pointed out in a dead tone.
The smile on the carefree man's face didn't diminish any. In fact, if anything, it widened. "Not anymore with Uccello~!"
Feliciano laughed when Ludwig's eyebrows furrowed with confusion. "My pidgey always helps me when I get lost! He can fly hiiiiiigh above the trees, and lead us out of the forest~!" he explained, spreading his arms wide.
Ludwig gave the pidgey—Uccello—a distrustful glance. The pidgey only stared back at him with that condescending gaze. With this bird, as his own pokémon, it seemed like every creature he'd meet would think itself better than him. "I don't know about that…" he said doubtfully.
The Italian laughed again, a light-hearted sound that only served to increase Ludwig's annoyance. Being lost in the Viridian Forest, covered in dried mud and grim and his own filth was not much of a laughing matter.
"Well, at this point we don't have much to lose, sí?"
As much as Ludwig hated to admit it… Feliciano did have a point. He sighed in resignation. "Ja, very well, let's go then," he said thickly. He still didn't like the idea of depending on the thieving pidgey for his salvation, but right then it was either that or take his chances in the forest. Compared to the latter option, allying himself with a criminal bird seemed like no big deal.
Feliciano was delighted with the affirmative response. He spun around to Uccello, who surprisingly sprang to attention. "Ve, alrighty then~! Let's go, Uccello~!" he sang happily.
The pidgey abandoned his perch and basket to spring into the air, following his trainer's command. In the blink of an eye, Uccello broke through the canopy, causing leaves and twigs to rain down on the two trainers.
Before Ludwig could say anything, the bird pokémon had reappeared, flying straight off in one direction. Laughing brightly, Feliciano sprinted after Uccello, leaping over the low bushes and tree roots. Ludwig returned his charmander to her pokéball and followed, quickly catching up to Feliciano.
Uccello flew as fast as he did when he escaped Ludwig just a couple days ago, if not faster since the burden of the tomato-filled basket was alleviated (now swinging along in Feliciano's grasp). Yet, even as fast as the pidgey flew, and even with the various obstacles expected in a forest obstructing the path of the two humans, Uccello always stayed within sight of Feliciano and Ludwig.
After they'd been running for a couple minutes, Ludwig noticed that the trees were beginning to thin out, and their unpaved path became less rugged and easier to travel. They were almost out of the forest. Feliciano noticed this too, and he looked back at Ludwig.
The smile froze on this face and a shiver ran over him, the movement obvious even as the Italian ran. Feliciano turned forward with a shrill shriek of fright, and began running impossibly fast, leaving Ludwig behind in the dust.
Startled by Feliciano's actions, Ludwig looked over his shoulder, expecting to see another swarm of beedrill, or a pack of savage pikachu, or even a lone caterpie climbing harmlessly up a tree. There were none of these things, however, just open forest. Ludwig looked back at the trail of dust that marked the way Feliciano had gone. The man was a dot on the horizon by now, but his pidgey had remained close to Ludwig.
Ludwig looked up at Uccello, as if the pokémon could provide him answers. "Is he running from… me?" he asked aloud in disbelief.
As expected, he received no answer from the bird pokémon. It only swooped low and flew faster, as if it were indicating that Ludwig should speed up as well, before its trainer got lost.
Well, Ludwig only imagined that the pidgey would be indicating something like that, considering the unfortunately careless behavior of its trainer.
Either way, he obliged, picking up his pace. Sure enough, as he observed, the human and pokémon soon burst suddenly through the trees, and a town in the distance came to view.
Ludwig slowed to a walk, taking in the sight with some awe. He'd never been so far from Pallet Town before. This new place was much larger than the quiet, clean village, with a completely different feel about the area. There was something… Grey and tough about this place, which he perceived even before reaching the city limits. The greenery cut off abruptly at Pewter City's border, with large, foreboding boulders and gravel and cement covering the ground.
This was where he also caught up to Feliciano.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing, running away like that?" Ludwig demanded, approaching the Italian, irritated.
Feliciano spun at the sound of his voice. He smiled sheepishly and looked down. "Ve, oh, um, sorry about that… I guess I kinda tricked myself into thinking you were a scary person chasing me, and I, um, got scared and so I ran away really fast. Sorry…" He kicked at a rock, never lifting his eyes to meet Ludwig's. Uccello landed gracefully on Feliciano's shoulder, and he absently stroked the bird.
Ludwig sighed. "Whatever. It's fine. Just… Don't do that again."
The Italian looked up at him, smiled softly, and nodded again. "Ve, ok, Luddy, I will," he said, giggling when Ludwig issued the anticipated groan of annoyance.
The two entered the city. As they searched for the familiar red roof of the pokémon center, Ludwig eyed Uccello curiously. The pidgey was still seated on Feliciano's shoulders, its talons gripping him in a way that, if not painful, seemed uncomfortable to say the least. The way Ludwig saw it; it would be much easier to just return the pokémon to its ball, rather than keeping it out.
"Why don't you put your pokémon in a ball?" Ludwig asked after a while.
For a minute, Feliciano seemed confused by the question. Then his eye caught Uccello and he chuckled, as if just realizing the pidgey was perched on his shoulder.
"Well," he said, fondly playing with Uccello's tail feathers. "Uccello is always out, by my side, to protect me."
Ludwig raised an eyebrow. From his experience, pidgey were very weak creatures. If it was up to him, he wouldn't even have one in his party. Unfortunately, for some reason that Ludwig couldn't fathom, he'd decided to catch one, just to prove that he knew how to catch pokémon. In retrospect, it was a stupid decision. He just hadn't the heart to throw it out.
Although Ludwig seemed cold and strict, he wasn't cruel.
"Really. A pidgey protects you? Those weak little creatures?"
"Pidgey!" Uccello cried in indignation.
Feliciano appeared shocked by Ludwig's accusation. "No way! Uccello isn't weak! He's very, very strong!"
Ludwig rolled his eyes. "Right, sure he is," he said sarcastically.
Feliciano huffed. "It's true! Just check in the pokédex—my nonno gave you a pokédex, right? Just check there and it'll tell you!"
Ludwig blinked. He hadn't told the Italian that he'd received a pokédex, and he doubted Professor Vargas had written to his grandson yet on the subject. "How do you know that?" he asked, feeling a bit disturbed by Feliciano's knowledge.
The shorter man waved his concerns away with a laugh. "Well, nonno isn't exactly stingy with his technology! He gives stuff like that out to all of the people he's friends with. And since your grandpa is friends with him, nonno would definitely give you a pokédex!"
Ludwig nodded. That made sense. Without deigning to reply, he silently pulled out the red electronic encyclopedia and aimed the small camera at Uccello. A bright blue beam ran over the pidgey, and was over before the pokémon could even blink. The pidgey's picture popped up on the screen, along with a list of rather detailed information on specifically Uccello, in addition to the information he had gotten from his own pidgey.
He saw the level of strength, and gaped. "F—forty-two?" Ludwig exclaimed. "How is it not a pidgeott yet?"
Feliciano shrugged, as if the thought of evolving his pokémon had not really occurred to him. "Well, Uccello helps me out just fine the way he is, and he doesn't want to change, and he's cuter like this anyway!" he said.
Ludwig shook his head, unable to understand this man. As soon as his charmander was strong enough, he wanted her to evolve as quickly as possible. A charmeleon, and later a charizard, was much better than a tiny charmander.
"Ve, look! There's the pokémon center!" Feliciano shattered through Ludwig's thoughts with his delighted shout.
Sure enough, the building was now directly in front of them. It was a splash of red among the boring grey buildings and scenery that surrounded it. The sight was a relief to Ludwig's eyes, and the two entered the pokécenter.
The familiar figure of Nurse Joy stood, smiling that gentle smile, behind the counter. Occasionally, she would leave her station to check in the back room, where pokémon were healing, and then she'd make rounds to the various waiting trainers, each in different stages of worry. She would say something to each, and then left them along with a small, sympathetic bow of her head. Once she finished, she gave instructions to a couple of chansey, and finally returned to the counter.
"Ve, Marissa~! Ciao, bella, ciao~!" Feliciano greeted the nurse gleefully, running up to the counter.
Ludwig half expected the red-haired woman to look confused. After all, everyone in the Joy family was disconcertingly similar, and he heard that they were often mistaken for each other. This Joy looked exactly the same as the one he had seen back in Viridian City.
To his surprise, the woman giggled, putting a hand over her heart. "Oh my, Mr. Vargas. It's been much too long since you last visited. I almost thought you'd forgotten all about me," she said.
Feliciano took Marissa Joy's hand and kissed it. "How could I ever forget a pretty lady such as you? Please, call me Feliciano. Mr. Vargas is much too formal," he said.
Marissa giggled again and drew her hand away. "Oh, Feli, I'm trying to work here," she protested lightly.
The Italian smiled. "Well, then after work I'd love to take you out to a nice romantic dinner at a really fancy restaurant, Marissa," he said.
The nurse blushed. "Oh! Oh my, Feliciano, I'd love to, but I've got the night shift today. Maybe some other time," she added quickly when Feliciano sighed in disappointment.
Ludwig felt as if the two had forgotten all about his presence in their flirting. As glad as he was to see the man reunited with his girlfriend, he wanted to secure a room, and finally take a shower. He coughed loudly.
The two lovers jumped. "Oh, sorry, Luddy!" Feliciano released Marissa's hand and stepped back. "Marissa, this is my new friend, Ludwig. He helped me out in the forest when Uccello was gone. Oh! That reminds me!" He reached into his basket and pulled out a tomato. "For you, bella~!"
Marissa took the fruit with a blush and a smile. "Thank you so much, Feli." She set the tomato down and held her hand out to Ludwig. "Nice to meet you, sir. Thank you for taking care of this cute little careless Italian here."
He took her hand with a nod, not returning the smile. "A pleasure."
She seemed unnerved by his tacit, stoic behavior, and ended the handshake quickly. "W—well then. Welcome to my pokémon center. Can I help you with anything?" she asked, forcing herself to smile.
Ludwig nodded. "I'd like a room for the night," he said.
Nurse Joy nodded and unlocked a small drawer, from which she produced a card key. "Here you are. That would be 500 poké," she said, handing over the key.
He took it, and reached for his bag. 500 poké was a reasonable price. Cheap, even.
Before he could even locate his money, Feliciano cut him off, holding out a fistful of paper that was crinkled and torn from the drop in the pond and then slowly drying. "Here, I'll pay~! There're two beds in each room, right? And I need to thank you for saving me," he told Ludwig, smiling.
Ludwig paled. He thought he was finally going to get rid of his new "friend". "B—but don't you want to spend time with Nurse Joy?"
Feliciano laughed, oblivious to Ludwig's desire to get away from him. "Silly, Luddy! You heard Marissa say that she was working the night shift~!" He wrapped his thin arms around Ludwig's muscular one. "Let's go, ve~!"
As Feliciano dragged Ludwig toward the stairs, Marissa smiled apologetically, waving goodbye to the two. "Thank you for coming by, please have a nice day!" she called, and immediately turned to the trainer who had approached the counter. Ludwig inwardly groaned.
When they reached the room indicated on the card key, Feliciano swiped it from Ludwig and swung the door open. He skipped inside, jumping on the bed closest to the window. "I call this one, ve~!" he announced, bouncing on the soft mattress.
Ludwig rolled his eyes and dropped his bag onto the unoccupied one. "Why do you keep saying that?" he asked.
Feliciano rolled onto his stomach to look at Ludwig. "Ve? What do you mean?"
"I mean that… That 've, ve' thing you keep doing."
The Italian furrowed his eyebrows, puzzled. "Ve? Oh! That's just a random little word that I got into the habit of saying. It's cool, isn't it~?"
Ludwig turned away. "Ja, sure, whatever. I'm going to take a shower, so don't go popping into the bathroom all naked or anything," he said.
Feliciano sat up and waved enthusiastically at him, even though Ludwig wasn't going very far. "Ok, Luddy, see you soon~!"
Ludwig's Party:
Charmander, lvl 10
Pidgey, lvl 3
Feliciano's Party:
Uccello (Pidgey), lvl 42
It felt wonderful to wash away the filth and grime that he'd picked up from the forest. He stood beneath the stream of hot water longer than he usually did, enjoying the simple pleasure of a shower. It seemed as if his journey would not be as easy and quick as he had initially thought.
When the water became lukewarm, Ludwig shut off the stream and dried off. He turned the vent on to clear the cloud of steam that thickened the air in the bathroom. As it cleared, he examined his appearance in the mirror. There were several scratches on his arms, which he wasn't sure where they came from, but other than that, he looked well. Brushing back his hair, he began to dress.
He only had time to pull his pants on before he heard Feliciano scream in the other room. Ludwig burst out of the bathroom. "What is it, Feliciano, are you alright?"
Feliciano was standing on top of his bed, huddled fearfully against the wall. Ludwig's charmander was currently trying to clamber on top as well, hissing and shredding the blankets. "Luddy! Help me, save me! Eek!" he cried as the charmander made a swipe at him.
Ludwig sighed. "Charmander, stop," he commanded.
She listened immediately, but didn't look happy about it. Giving one last dirty look and hiss at the groveling Italian, she went over to another corner, like she was sulking over Ludwig stopping her assault.
He watched to make sure that she wasn't planning a surprise attack. "What happened?" he asked.
Feliciano sat down on the bed, letting out a heavy sigh of relief. "Well, I just wanted to see your pretty pidgey, so I picked up a pokéball and tried to release it, but your charmander came out of it instead, and she attacked me," he said.
Ludwig crossed his arms, irritated. "Why didn't you just get your pidgey to fend her off?" he wanted to know.
The Italian blushed a bit. "Well, I thought Marissa would be lonely down there working the night shift, so I sent Uccello to keep her company," he said.
The German sighed, sitting down on his bed. He picked up his charmander when she walked over to him and set her on the bed. "Well, I suppose it would make sense that you'd want to make sure your girlfriend is happy, although I still don't see why you were trying to release that weak pidgey I have."
"Ve? Girlfriend? Marissa isn't my girlfriend," Feliciano said, tilting his head slightly. "Why would you think that?"
Ludwig stared, unable to believe what he was hearing. "But… But you kissed her hand. And you… you were flirting with her and stuff…" he pointed out, remembering the scene he had witnessed just an hour ago.
Feliciano laughed, making Ludwig's cheeks grow red in embarrassment. "Oh! I'm nice to all the pretty ladies like that! Nonno says I have to treat women like that, especially if they're beautiful."
Ludwig didn't respond. Professor Vargas now seemed like a bigger creep than he had originally thought.
"What's your charmander's name?" Feliciano asked suddenly.
Ludwig raised an eyebrow. "Name? She doesn't have one."
Feliciano gaped. "What? No way! Why not?" he asked, pouting.
Ludwig shrugged. "She doesn't need one. All she needs is to be loyal to me and strong, so it really doesn't matter," he explained.
His words made Feliciano frown, a worry line folding across his forehead. "But… That's so sad… It's like she has no identity…" he murmured.
Ludwig lay down, patting his charmander's head. "She doesn't need to have an identity. Look, she's happy without one." Well, "happy" probably wasn't the correct term for the cold, serious pokémon, but she definitely wasn't unhappy.
Feliciano perked up with a broad smile. "Oh, I know! I'll give her a name!"
Ludwig shrugged again. "Fine, do what you want," he rolled over on the bed.
"Yay!" Feliciano skipped over to Ludwig's bed. "Um, you're a charmander, so I'll call you Charlotte! Isn't that a good name?"
"Char!" the pokémon disagreed with a hiss, slashing at Feliciano again.
Feliciano yelped and jumped back. "Ah, Charlotte it is…"
Ludwig rolled his eyes at the wall. He twisted to look at the bedside clock. It wasn't even noon yet.
Today was going to be a long day…
Feliciano is generally weak, so I gave him an insanely high-level pokemon. Ahaha...