Hey, everybody. Let's get on with reviews, shall we? I almost forgot the A/N... Silly, of me, right?
Well, Phillip Harbindinger, you will have to wait and see. I can't spoil that.
That seems to be the only review I got for chapter six. Okay. Let's start the chapter real quick here. Read on!
Chapter 7: On Stage.
⽯Caleb's POV⽯
"Come on, tell us a joke like you did before!" The others begged of me.
"Oh, that joke I gave wasnt that funny" I protested, and I really thought it wasn't. It was a corny joke that humans told not to be funny, but in an attempt to receive groans from others. However, these pokemon seemed to think that funny, how would they find an actual joke?
I sighed, moving to rub my forehead and ended up looking at my non-versatile paw stupidly. "Most of the decent jokes I know of require prior information about the human world, and generally are put in the middle of an explanation. References. Little tidbits tossed into a conversation for laughs" I explained, trying to convey how hard it would be to tell them a decent joke.
Erza sat back in the chair as she contemplated my reasoning. Finally, she gave a smile that made me lean away. My actions brought laughs from the others, but I was more worried about what idea had just popped into the plant pokemon's head.
"Well, why don't you explain some things?" She asked, and I quickly shook my head. "Not too many of those jokes are even appropriate for audiences in this world. There are a lot about how something can kill you, or whatever. Yes, we can joke about those things. It's not a pleasant-"
I was cut off by Erza. "Yes, we know the human race has some sick jokes. Just tell a joke that isnt" She said with a wave of her arm. Then, she seemed to have a lightbulb moment that scared me a lot.
"Audience..." She murmured, looking around at the large amount of pokemon in the cafe. I froze. There was no way. "No." I said. Everyone else at the table looked at me, from Riolu to Sarah.
"No." I said again. Daemyn had his head tilted like a dog and was clearly thinking about it.
"You are not getting me to talk to an entire crowd!" I exclaimed desperate to avoid the situation. I was digging myself into a pit here. Now others were looking at me, from other tables.
Just as I thought somebody was about to drag me to the elevated portion of the room that resembled a stage, the most unlikely of people saved me from that.
"Hi!"
Braixen stood behind Daemyn, and was greeting us. Apparently, whatever punishment she had endured was over. I was immensely relieved, but if I got shrunk down to pocket size again... I would not tolerate it.
Just then, I realized that Erza was no longer in her seat. She was right behind me! I immediately tried to escape, but vines held me in place faster than I could run. "Come on," Erza said cheerfully as she carried me thrashing over to the stagelike structure. "Why don't you tell everyone whatever you want to tell them" She offered.
I gulped. Erza was not about to take no for an answer.
What a birthday...
⽛Daemyn's POV⽛
I watched Erza take Caleb over to the stage with interest. Who knows what kind of things we were going to learn. He hated it though, considering how much he was thrashing about. Caleb used to be calm and collected, but today had been very stressful for him. He was at his limits.
I was conflicted about doing this to him, but if we could get him to joke around, maybe he could lighten up faster. I looked at the others. Jake looked uncertain, and Amber looked at Caleb worriedly. Sarah was looking at Amber instead, looking at the eevee's expression as she looked at Caleb.
Oh no... She doesn't really think...
Amber was an empathetic person, much like Sarah was at times. But the only person that was in love with Caleb was Sarah. I was going to tell her off, but the others had started a conversation with Braixen.
"So... you shrunk Caleb?" I asked eventually. Braixen laughed. "Yes, I tried to shrink this bloke" She said, pointing to Shedinja "But I missed because I was moving. Caleb was unable to avoid things 'cause I trapped him in a magic circle, and he got hit with it."
"So... he was..." I chuckled, already knowing the answer.
"Smaller than a dedenne" Braixen said. And then most of us were laughing. The idea of Caleb being the tiniest absol ever was just amazing to think about. Swampert and Charizard had smirks on their faces, and even Absol looked slightly amused.
Braixen looked at Erza and Caleb, the former of which was trying to keep the latter from walking away. "he's not that happy is he?" Braixen asked. She was right; Caleb looked rather annoyed and... scared? Why would he be scared?
"Yep" I replied.
"Hmm..." the magic user hummed as she thought. I knew that magic was very versatile, so I wondered if she had an idea.
"You got a plan?" I asked, and the others at our table leaned in to listen to her as she began whispering.
"...I have been making up a cheering charm, but it's not perfect yet, and I have to practice..." Braixen murmured. A cheering charm, huh?
"Not perfect? Like it doesn't work?" I asked, but Braixen shook her head.
"No, I just have trouble controlling the amount of time it lasts" She replied. I met everyone's eyes, and they seemed to all have some form of consent in their eyes.
"Uh..." Amber mumbled, catching the attention of the rest of us. "It's not... taking over his mind right?" She asked. Braixen shook her head once more.
"No, it just makes them happier" She replied easily. At that, everyone nodded and waited for the braixen to do her job.
Braixen pointed her wand at the struggling Caleb. "Birkeuria nueva" she whispered, the tip of her wand glowing slightly and a tiny green line appeared between the braixen and Caleb.
"And now we wait" Braixen muttered as the line faded away.
⽯Caleb's POV⽯
I had had enough. I had been laughing before to try and feel better about my day, but now I was just tired. I needed a nap. I needed a shower, and to sleep for ages. "Let go of me" I growled, and Erza faltered. "I am not happy. I do not need to-" I tried to finish, but something really weird happened.
I felt... Warm. Deep in my chest, I felt really warm, and... peaceful. What was happening to me? I no longer felt like running, instead... I felt happy. I went to frown, but it was a frown of confusion.
"Erza seemed to see the change, and let me go. I didn't run, though in my mind I reckoned I should. I reappraised the situation. The others wanted me to talk to everyone about things that had to do with the human world. Good things. I would do it.
I stood up, feeling defeated but strangely content about it, and appraised my apparent audience. The first group I saw on the right of the room was a large purple dangerous looking pokemon that was flanked by two quadrupeds, one looking like a grass type with those points on it's neck and the sharp looking leaf on her head. The other was a small elephant-like blue pokemon that had a similar body structure to that donphan I had battled what seemed like ages ago, the day i got to this world.
The next group consisted of a bird that held a stick in it's surprisingly versatile feathers, a raccoon-like pokemon with a slightly tattered looking bandanna on and a mischievous smile on his face. The third was a bug type that Erza seemed to recognize. It was red and looked like a really big ladybug.
A grey pokemon sat with two smaller pokemon that looked similar to it. The former was grey with pink parts on its body. His head looked odd, with a clown nose. He did look strong, and there was a metal 'I' beam leaning on his chair. The two pokemon next to him looked very similar to the first, but much smaller and they had wooden beams they held on to.
Two massive pokemon that really should not have been able to fit through the door stood at a large table with another, ghostlike pokemon on the side and grinning maniacally at me and unnerving me. The first large pokemon was green and black with a blue chest and lots of spikes. It looked really tough. The other was a black and tan furred creature with a half collar of flames.
My savior Goldeneye the delphox sat on the other end of the robe and was keeping an eye on Braixen. She sat next to a pokemon that looked like a larger version of Riolu that had spikes on his chest and paws. However, the middle finger on his right paw was golden. The third one between them was grey and black with a red and black ponytail. he wore a crimson bandanna with a blue crescent moon on it. The third looked younger and wore a smile on his face.
The next table held eight pokemon. Each group of four sat at opposite sides of the table. That is, except for two. A red fox like pokemon with a similar build to an eevee, but was colored mostly red, and a blue quadruped with a large fish tail and fins around its face. The two were bickering, thought the argument was slowing down. Sitting right next to the pokemon that was similar to an eevee was a large lupine pokemon that was colored yellow and had nine tails. The blue quadruped had a white and blue quadruped next to him with a necklace of what looked like ice, and was trying to get the two to stop bickering. Both nine tailed fox and obvious ice type quadruped stayed close to their respective
The other four were a bit more spaced apart. The side with the nine tailed fox were with a giant turtle standing on two legs with cannons coming out of his shell, and a much smaller fox with red fur that had seven tails, with a badge on her center tail. On the side with the blue pokemon, there was a Charizard and a pokemon that looked somewhat like an otter with shells in his possession.
There was a luxray by himself at a small table, patiently waiting for me to start talking. He wore a white bell around his neck that looked something like two shells connected to each other. At the other two small tables nearby the luxray was another pokemon like the one near Goldeneye, though she had no headband and instead wore a white mask with some hairline fractures in it. Instead of a drink sat a purple crystal that was very uniform in shape and had a single white point of light glowing inside of it. And then there was a black furred quadruped with blue rings that also waited patiently for me to begin.
To the side of them sat a gallade, but i could somehow tell that it was a different gallade than before. Kangaskhan had only mentioned seeing a few around, so this must be the gallade that goes by the name Space.
An interesting name, and it leads me to wonder what led him to take it as his nickname.
The other gallade, the one that goes by species name, was on the opposite end of the room from the other. That was as far as I got in observing the audience before I realized everyone had gone quiet and was staring at me. Silently. Inwardly, i was freaking out because I hadn't a clue what i was doing.
May as well just start. It's make Caleb look like an idiot day anyways. What a holiday to replace fourth of july!
"Okay..." I began, cursing my awkwardness. "I have to admit, this is the first time i have spoken in front of such a large and diverse crowd and was expected to talk." I admitted. Still the crowd was silent, waiting. I suddenly saw an opportunity.
"Well, i suppose it must be an honor to be speaking with you all today, to meet all of you and have all of you just sort of sit there... staring at me..." I trailed off purposely. The others were quiet for a moment, before I heard a few chuckles and giggles.
"Well" I muttered to myself "things can't get any more awkward can they? It's not like my day's been worth mentioning or anything... Unless you count getting, oh i don't know, told too late what a fake oran berry is and that they exist in the first place, getting hit with the horror that is attract, and being shrunk down by a battle happy braixen to pocket size"
Laughter from any of those who were willing to imagine it. I noted that the one with the mask did not laugh at all. Maybe that should be my goal: Get that girl to laugh. That would certainly be an achievement I sensed.
"Though I have to say, even though being the smallest being around was horrifying enough, I suppose that it's decent for sneaking around" I admitted, and let them imagine it for a moment. "Just dont be in a miniscule tunnel when it wears off" I finished, and then the laughter came.
"Now, being small can be both horrifying and useful, but it also brings about some perspective. Who would have thought that three-inch-tall grass could ever be an obstacle?" I asked of the group, who were now laughing at my discomfort. That was fine. That was part of being a comedian.
Is that what I am today?
"But that's not what you are listening for, is it? You want to hear about the human world i suppose?" I asked, knowing the answer already.
Some of the pokemon, particularly the younger ones, sent out a chorus of "YES!" leading me to believe that they were at least somewhat prepared for things. I would just have to remain positive.
"Okay! Let's begin" I said, turning to the wall and preparing myself to work at the wall with my claws as i saw no way to draw. Maybe somebody could fix it later.
⽕Sarah's POV⽕
"Now, for Uruguay to have to accept money from rich people in other countries like Michael Bloomberg to help pay off legal fees would be pretty humiliating. How humiliating? It's slightly higher that borrowing money from your ex-girlfriend's current boyfriend's stepdad." Caleb said, having scratched a continent into frame and then outlined several places on the map while he talked.
For the most part, it had been strictly informational, but the joke he threw in there made the room erupt in laughter. I Didn't really get it, but I was content to listen to Caleb talk more than anything.
"This is Uruguay" Caleb said, putting his paw on one of the 'countries' within the continent. "With a relatively small population of... Ahem... three and a half million people, Uruguay is actually a pretty small market for cigarettes, the topic of discussion at this moment."
He had been talking about a thing that some humans use apparently called a 'cigarette', that was actually known to be bad for their health, which made the pokemon around the room really weirded out that humans would hurt themselves like that.
"Uruguay, a country we think about so little, not even humans would realize that this isn't Uruguay; this is Uruguay" Caleb said, removing his paw from the wall and moving it over to place it on an even smaller country. After we registered the sudden joke, many pokemon burst into laughter at his trick. Caleb was good at it.
"All right. I can see that we're tired of talking about things that are bad for people's health. Let's talk about... No wait, that's also harmful for their health too. How about... No, that's deadly enough..." Caleb murmured seeming to get distracted for a bit. he did a good job scaring the crap out of some of the pokemon who were just realizing that the human world was filled with dangerous things.
"...Let's talk about skydiving" Caleb decided turning back to look at us. Then, he glanced at the board while the others gave a few noises of either excitement or confusion. "Er... could somebody repair the wall?" Caleb asked.
"I can" A voice answered him, and we all turned to see a phanpy walking forward. He stamped his foot on the ground, and a slight shock wave travelled out from the phanpy. When the wave reached the wall, the scratches in the wall disappeared. The earth had moved to fill in the gaps.
At Caleb's questioning gaze, the phanpy apparently decided to help him out. "It's earth power. An attack that lets you control the earth" he supplied. Caleb waited for a second before nodding, and got back to the conversation.
"So! Let's talk about skydiving. Interestingly, it is exactly as it sounds. Humans have devices that allow them to fly across the world called airplanes. Now, occasionally somebody will take a required class to learn how to safely go skydiving, board a plane, and jump out of the plane at about twelve thousand five hundred feet in the air for sport" he explained.
"Wait!" A voice called from the crowd. "That's high, right? Do they have flying type humans to catch them?"
Caleb chuckled. "Human's don't have types. I guess they would all be the normal type. But we do have things called parachutes that slow their fall. They open them when they get close enough to the ground to avoid going two dimensional against the ground." he said.
His comment about going two dimensional was trying to mask the word death. However, most got the message. Their eyes widened at the words he used and the laughter he issued prior to it. He had warned everybody that he had become slightly desensitized by the more common cases of death in his world.
Caleb had started to mutter to the side, and a few of the pokemon with great ears tuned in to hear him. I couldn't properly hear him even when focusing on him. However, Amber seemed to grow more worried, and Daemyn frowned.
"What did he say?" I asked Daemyn, who turned to me. "He said that if somebody wanted another person to die, they could sabotage the parachute so that it doesn't open properly" he explained gravely.
"Moving on, because I can see some of you heard that—sorry, by the way—and let's talk about security. In america, the leading government works a lot differently from any sort of leadership here. Part of that is their ability to spy on people by storing data from across the internet and recording phone calls for up to a month. When a man named Edward Snowden allowed people in the united states to understand that by leaking the information, People could no longer claim ignorance to the idea" Caleb started again.
"Now, considering that the National Security Agency was the branch doing this, It is amazing that Edward Snowden managed to steal and leak information from an organization that literally has the word security in its name." Caleb finished, eliciting laughter from everybody as they recognized the irony without really understanding the context.
Caleb continued on, making jokes and giving just enough information to make the joke funny, but not so much that he got into the conversation about wars and whatnot. And it was funny too. Eventually, we got Caleb to reluctantly tell everyone the joke he initially knew was known by humans as a corny joke, but he still had people laughing pretty hard. That cheering charm must have helped a lot.
He started telling us a few human stories. Godzilla was one that scared the kids with the concept of a giant creature destroying cities and toppling skyscrapers. Now, that was what was about to make his next speech so funny.
After explaining the concept of imperialism (And explaining why it shouldn't be done that way in this world for any reason ever), he began to talk about the 'british'.
"It says a lot about the way our country works that i think deep down, deep down society yearns for the days of the british empire again!" Caleb said "They long once more to be treated that badly, that politely."
The british were polite as they took over pretty much everything, huh? Or was that a joke?
"The british were more elegantly destructive; they were like godzilla in a necktie" Caleb continued, having also explained what a necktie was and it's purpose in the human world, which brought about some laughter at the contradiction. "Rampaging their way across africa, like 'excuse me, coming through, coming through... Dreadfully sorry, i seem to have crushed your entire continent's infrastructure! How shockingly impolite... I'm embarrassed, goodness knows how you must feel: Caleb finished.
As they laughed at his recent joke, I wondered just how many joked Caleb had stored away. However, he took a deep breath that said he was done. He had joked for a solid thirty minutes between the most amusing bits.
"That's... All the joking I can manage..." Caleb fake wheezed. One more bout of laughter arose before Caleb quieted down. "Does anyone have any questions?"
At one table, a young vulpix piped up. "Mister Caleb, you mentioned holidays a couple of times. What are those?"
Good question. Caleb smiled down at the vulpix. "Holidays are events that occur every year in the human world. When something of meaning takes place in our history, humans have a habit of celebrating that event like they would someone's birthday, and sometimes the holiday has a special addition to it. People do something, or act in a certain way..."
"like what?"
Caleb started to think. "The most prominent holidays in America are likely christmas, easter, the fourth of july, better known as Independence day, and-"
"You mean today!?" somebody exclaimed. Caleb hesitantly nodded.
Immediately there was clamoring as people started asking what the humans did on this day. Caleb was watching them, perhaps unsure of what to do, until he finally decided to speak again. "Everyone." his voice wasn't loud, but it still carried, demanding attention as it went, and the group quieted down. "The fourth of July is an american holiday in which the americans declared their independence from Great Britain. It is commonly celebrated through the use of fireworks, interesting little packets of gunpowder that are launched into the air and detonated in fancy colors."
Lots of 'ooh's and 'ahh's came around as the crowd of people absorbed this information.
Caleb looked out at all of them. "In the human world, larger fireworks were considered dangerous because of the things they are made of. In this case, however, I imagine the explosions cannot be bad enough to severely injure anyone due to the high defensive capabilities of the species of pokemon.
Immediately knowing Caleb had approved it for safety here, he got at least a dozen questions about whether he would tell them how to make one, and he nodded, smiling. For the next several minutes, he went over exactly how to make a firework. Soon after, he seemed to decide to excuse himself for the moment.
"I will eventually continue answering questions... In a bit. I never got to drink my pecha/black gummi drink" he said cheerfully and came back to the table.
Daemyn smirked. "hey, good job, man" the mightyena complimented as he finished off his own drink. Caleb gave a smile. "Thank you very much... I am tired though" he replied. Then his smile seemed to fade for a moment.
"I feel... inexplicably happy. I have for the entire last half of an hour..." Caleb commented, clearly thinking something was wrong. The rest of us gulped, and Braixen shrunk a little in the chair she had pulled up to the table. unfortunately for her, Caleb noticed.
"...Wait..." Caleb muttered, staring at the braixen, and he had clearly figured it out. He was just so smart like that.
Get her, Caleb!
Caleb frowned, though it was like he was fighting something that was putting a smile on his face. He concentrated, and Braixen recoiled as she sensed something. At this proximity to Caleb, I could feel the magic in his mind, but it was slowly breaking down under his sheer willpower.
"Impossible..." Braixen murmured, leaning forward now "You can't just fight magic wih your mind" She murmured, too quiet for Caleb to hear. I saw Goldeneye come to investigate, and seeing her frown as she saw what was happening as well.
"Hmmm..." She hummed as she appraised the situation. She looked between the freaked out braixen and the struggling absol. Then, Absol, Goldeneye, Braixen, and I all felt the spell promptly shatter in his mind. He gasped at the effort it had taken, but he had done it.
Caleb looked right at Braixen, a slightly cross look on his face. "You enchanted me again?" he asked calmly but forcefully. Braixen quailed as she realized that Caleb was far too smart to be duped like that.
However, seeing him happy had made the rest of us happy. Should i do it? Should i contradict Caleb?
No. I won't do it. I can't. I couldn't ever make myself do that.
"Uh..." Braixen stammered, but Erza decided to intervene.
"How else did you think we were going to help feel a bit better? Your day was so astonishingly bad we needed a cheering charm to get you back on your feet. Plus, you were being uncharacteristically difficult" Erza reasoned. Caleb seemed to think about her words for a while. He visibly calmed down, and then nodded.
"While I do not appreciate having my mind affected by anything, and certainly not after discovering what attract does, I do admit that I was acting rash. Such a thing is inexcusable and I a-"
BANG!
Caleb's head hit the table courtesy of Erza's flail. "Were you about to say 'apologize'?" Erza asked sweetly. Caleb quickly shut his mouth. I did feel like burning Erza for her attack, but Caleb did apologize a bit too much. Not like i would say it aloud though.
"Good. Apologize less, fix problems more" Erza commanded as she reached a vine over to pick up her glass from the other end of the table and bring it back to her. She took a large swg of the green liquid before setting it down.
"It's actually getting pretty late, so you should probably drink up and settle down before you go mad thinking things through in a loop like you do" Erza suggested, and Daemyn nodded as well. There were some chuckles at the situation Caleb was in from the others in the area, and I fixed them with a glare. I don't actually know the move because absol can't learn it, but I hoped a regular glare would suffice.
Caleb slowly drank his pecha and black gummi mix without a word, as if trying to comprehend just what his day included. A new, surprise birthday, a torturous day, and then being coerced into joking around in front of a crowd with the use of a cheering charm.
Considering Caleb is not the biggest fan of attention, i would say that he considered this to be a rough day.
Eventually, Caleb rejoined the conversation that was growing between his friends. "So, Riolu," Caleb began, drawing the fighting type's attention "I have not gotten the pleasure of meeting you properly."
"Oh, yeah!" Riolu exclaimed cheerfully "I was looking for Jake 'cause I wanted to learn more about my ability!" he exclaimed. Unfortunately, this just made me have more questions. I turned to Jake for guidance just as Caleb did.
"Well..." Jake said, sounding similarly confused "As far as I was able to tell, he seems to have a similar ability to mine, or at least that's what he said."
Caleb turned to the riolu, who was grinning. He couldn't be more than a kid, and he failed to give any straight answers. I did not think that it was the same issue as the frustratingly vague Absol. Instead, it was the way a kid gets too excited to actually be helpful.
"You are also capable of the dimensional scream?" Caleb asked of Riolu, who scratched the back of his head.
"Well, that's what Jake called it. I haven't seen him use it though" Riolu answered a bit more calmly. Just a bit. Caleb nodded and looked at Jake. "I assume Riolu here wants to learn how to use his ability properly?" he asked.
"Yeah" Jake confirmed I'm not sure where he's going to live though."
"Oh yeah!" I forgot to ask!" Riolu exclaimed, Jumping up from his seat and putting his paws on the table in front of him. "I was told that it would be best for me to join your team! So can i?" he asked out of the blue.
Jake blinked in a manner that would tell others that he often talks to Caleb. He obviously had never been asked if someone could join his team. "Uh... Sure?" he said uncertainly. Caleb looked slightly disapproving. "Jake-" Caleb started, but Riolu was already celebrating.
"Awesome! Thank you!" Riolu cheered, fisting the air in excitement. Caleb and Jake exchanged looks.
"I believe I should be present when the two of you have a discussion on this shared ability of yours" Caleb noted. Jake and Riolu looked at him, and Jake nodded in response. Riolu seemed to be confused about his wanting to intervene, but I spoke up.
"Don't worry. If anybody can figure something out, it's Caleb" I supplied "He can help you out a lot." Everyone looked at me, and then to Riolu. Far from worried, Riolu gave an excited nod. That was when Absol put his advice in.
"Tomorrow we will continue training in the tiny meadow" he explained "Caleb, you will join Jake's team in understanding the abilities of this riolu after I have taught you to properly use slash and begin our work on learning a technique known as psycho cut."
"Psycho cut." Caleb repeated in a monotone voice. Absol nodded. "Psychic attacks have absolutely no effect on us. However, absol are capable of using this psychic technique on our own. It is a high level technique, and acts just like your night slash does." he explained.
Caleb just nodded, having absorbed the information with relative ease. It was impressive how he was keeping his cool. I know he was losing it before after his horrid day, but even after having his head messed with more than once today, anybody would start to go a little nuts.
Everyone's drinks finished, we wondered how we were going to spend the time before we had to go to the guild. Many pokemon came to talk to Caleb while I was trying to talk to him. He was answering their questions and ignoring me completely. That was fine. Eventually, that would stop. Eventually, Caleb would figure out who was standing next to him.
And now that he's above eighteen...
Caleb would likely demand an explanation of the implications of coming of age when we went to our room. I would tell him, of course. I would tell him about the increased ability to smell and hear and a gut understanding of pokemon gender with a mere look, and of course I would tell him about that fact that he would be more susceptible to... emotional connections with others.
I had spent a long time trying to keep him in this world, and maybe that was wrong, but now I really did have a chance of getting to Caleb, and maybe we could be happy together.
Maybe that's wrong too, but I don't care.
"Don't leave that door open too long! You'll let the cold in!" Somebody shouted in the room. Caleb turned his attention to them. "Something most people don't know is that according to the first law of thermodynamics, heat leaves the system rather than the cold coming in" He informed the farfetched.
After they had a quick conversation, I looked about to see who was looking at Caleb with something a bit close to my own comfort zone. I had thought Amber was starting to feel affection for him, but after some more conversation with the group it was clear that she was clear. Some other girls were keeping an eye on them, something I did not like.
Caleb's mine, fools!
I went and tried to prove it by getting near Caleb, who was at a table and speaking with the vaporeon and flareon. "hey, you" I said sweetly, nuzzling the guy for a second before...
THUNK!
Caleb had put his paw on my head and slammed my face into the table. "Don't mind her" Caleb said smoothly to the others while holding me down "She seems to think that there is any chance at all of us being together. I have no connection to anyone."
With my absol sense, I caught them looking between me and Caleb and then nodding reluctantly. Caleb nodded his own head. "It has been a pleasure to meet you, Blutarch and Redmond" he finished, having finished the conversation. He let go of me and walked away.
I quickly followed him, and he suddenly asked a question. "How many of these 'evolutions' is an eevee capable of?" he asked me. I thought about it, able to think of five that i knew, but there were probably more.
"At least five, probably more" I responded. Caleb's eyes widened slightly and he shook his head. "You will have to explain the meaning of that word as pokemon understand it" he commented before walking ahead to speak to more pokemon in the room. He seemed to understand that the others wanted to know more with their individual questions.
⽯Caleb's POV⽯
"Ah, Goldeneye" I greeted five minutes later as he reached the table with the three pokemon. The pokemon that seemed to be an 'evolved' form of a riolu stood up and came to greet me. The fact that i still haven't learned the apparent new meaning of the word was troubling for me. Why haven't I asked anybody yet?
I suppose I did pretty much promise Sarah that i would ask her. I cannot fully ignore her, even if she has me on edge at all times
"Hello, Caleb" the pokemon said, a no-nonsense tone in his voice "It is a pleasure to meet you."
The fighting type reached a paw down to me, considering I was half his height. He was hoping for a handshake, but I was an absol now. I eventually put my paw against his own, more versatile paw and he pretty much did the handshake for me.
"I suppose a pawshake is not a typical greeting on your human world?" he asked me. I shook my head slowly. "No, a handshake greeting is relatively common, but as a human my hands were far more versatile. This..." I replied, looking at my paw "This paw is little more than a pad with claws sticking out of it. Not the easiest to shake paws with."
The fighting type nodded in understanding. "I see. Quite an interesting display of yours up on stage" he commented I'm told that you were hit with a cheering charm, but you did bring about some really good jokes in the process."
"Thank you" I thanked the now smiling fighting type "Now, i never did get your name" I added.
"Ah, of course" the fighting type responded "how rude of me. I am a lucario, but I am known as Goldfinger" he answered, showing the gold colored fur on one of his fingers. while that made sense, it still would lead to an awkward conversation.
Goldeneye... Goldfinger... Who's the third? I bet his name follows a similar path...
Goldfinger raised a brow. "You seem surprised at my name" he commented. I nodded slightly.
"Let us say it is an... interesting coincidence" I supplied, and looked towards the third. "I might want to take a guess at your name. If this trend continues... I could guess either Specter or Skyfall"
This greatly stunned the formerly stoic and professional older pokemon, while the third was frankly astonished. "How did you know that?!" the pokemon asked loudly. I sighed. "If you are wondering, i am not capable of discerning a name from the names of their companions. That would require luck. No, there is simply a group of three... not people, but... This is difficult to explain" I explained.
"I could try a memory revealing circle, but that is incredibly complicated" Goldeneye offered out of the blue. Did magic have something for everything?
"I suppose that would be easier than explaining the situation out loud. Perhaps we can discuss this another time. I do wish to meet the others in this room before my team and I must depart to the guild. It has been a pleasure meeting all of you" I replied, ending the conversation save for a few astonished goodbyes. Then, i realized that I forgot something.
"I apologize, i never actually learned which of those was your name" I noted, turning around. The dark type rubbed his head with a claw. "It's Skyfall" he replied "I'm a zoroark."
I said goodbye to Skyfall the zoroark and continued on through the room. They were an interesting group. The team leader badge on the lucario had read 'team destiny bond', which also had to be a huge coincidence that the word 'bond' was involved. Goldeneye, Goldfinger, and Skyfall. the former two had reason to be given those nicknames, so I supposed that Skyfall would be a similar case.
But i now knew the species name of the pokemon i was now approaching. Her mask did little to deter me, though others in the room seemed to recoil when she looked at them. "Hello," I greeted the zoroark and distracted her from what she was doing, which was looking into her little purple crystal. She looked up at me, and I could see her eyes flickering colors as she did. They had seemed half red and half purple as she looked into the crystal, and their normal color when she looked away.
"What do you want?" the zoroark almost snarled at me. I raised an eyebrow.
"I have simply been travelling across the room and meeting some of those that took the time to listen to me" I explained calmly. She did seem hostile, and I wondered if that crystal had anything to do with it.
"Well, do that somewhere else, then" She snarled decisively. I quickly excused myself and left her alone. I looked back and my eye caught the crystal. Looking directly into it was a big mistake, because my vision was enveloped in darkness for an instant and i could see a single pair of reptilian shaped, glowing purple eyes and heard a growl.
I broke contact immediately. I did not want to know what was in that crystal, but I already knew it was not the same as the darkness that had taken me over. The shadows felt... calmer. Even accompanied by a growl.
"What a-" Sarah started to say, but I shushed her. "Many people have their reasons for being aggressive. If she would prefer to keep those reasons at a personal level, we should respect that" I counseled Sarah.
I did not wait for a reply, fearing i had hurt the sensitive absol. It was just so difficult to keep her in check. I did not want to hurt her, but my anger increased with each rash and nonsensical advance she made, and i continuously tell her to leave me alone or something similar.
The next person i met was at an adjacent table. He had black fur with glowing blue rings and entirely black eyes, but the whites of his eyes were yellow instead. I heard Sarah gasp behind me. The pokemon immediately zeroed in on her.
I looked between the two pokemon. Did they know each other? Sarah was wide eyed. "i thought that umbreon had yellow rings?" she said, and I understood. Here was a pokemon that was like Sarah. He was different. The umbreon nodded. "I believed that absol were supposed to be black and white" he commented in return.
The umbreon was someone I felt I could be friends with. He acted in a way I would act, and was certainly trying to contain the incredible excitement in his eyes. He obviously thought he had found a friend in someone who was also different.
Good for the both of you. Make friends with each other for a bit. I can talk to the luxray for a while.
Sarah distracted for the first time in a long time by anybody other than me, I made my way to the luxray. "Good evening" I greeted him. He looked at me startled, like he hadn't seen me coming. "Cripes! Where'd you come from?" he asked
"The table with the umbreon" I replied easily. I looked the luxray over. He had a slightly different body structure, nearly feminine, and a shorter mane than the luxray we had battled in chargestone cave. That one had taken us all out easily. I contemplated whether it would be the same case with this one.
"Huh. Alger? The blue ringed umbreon?" the luxray asked. The umbreon was known as Alger then. I wondered if these two were acquaintances. At least this guy knew Alger's name.
"Yes. That is Sarah talking to him. I believe that he is the first other pokemon she has met with interesting colors" I replied, and then looked him in the eye. "What do you go by?" i inquired.
"Most call me Gauge. I'm a luxray" he answered, knowing my lack of knowledge about the pokemon world but not the fact that i had met a luxray already.
There were a few moments of silence because I had little to say. There were few things that I had to specifically talk to him about. "At any rate, I am glad to make your acquaintance" I offered. He hesitated for a moment before nodding slightly. "Yeah. Great to meet you..." he said, trailing off. We had little in common and little to talk about. for that reason, I decided to leave.
I walked back to the umbreon, who was wrapping up his discussion with Sarah. Unfortunately, Sarah did not seem to switch emotional preference from me to him, like how she so quickly attached to me, but would I really do that to the poor guy? No, no I would not. Sarah was impossible, but i should not set her on somebody else for my own sake. That would just be horrible.
I then moved on to speak with the gallade that did not have that odd bit of jewelry, whose name was apparently Space. "Space, is it?" i asked promptly, reaching the table. the gallade looked at me calmly. "Yes, my nickname is Space" he replied.
Space and I started a discussion. Apparently the first person to call him Space had been his instructor at a library, a rare thing in itself apparently. That made me sad; that libraries were not common. "I would like to see this library someday" I commented "It has been far too long since I have read a book."
At least a book that I did not write myself in the dream world.
"Really? I found the job rather boring." Space admitted "I wanted a bit more action as a ralts, so when I evolved into a kirlia, I saved money for an everstone and began my travels in the hopes of finding a dawn stone."
Dawn stone?
"Dawn stone?"
"An evolutionary stone" Space replied simply. Now there was another piece of the puzzle, although I had yet to place it. "Pokemon need these stones to 'evolve' then, yes?" i asked.
Space gave a shrug. "Some do. Others simply need to grow a bit. There are a few places around the world that pokemon can evolve early in, including the luminous spring. However, that is simply an early way to evolve despite needing to grow a bit anyways. Normally, pokemon have to grow a lot more and be a certain age before they naturally evolve" the gallade explained.
That was interesting. I was saving the main question of what evolving was for Sarah, mostly because ignoring her completely may be bad for her. She was a hopeless lovestruck absol, but she was my teammate, and I had to treat her as such.
I should not think of her like that. I should consider her my teammate, but ignore her advances and not think less of her. She clearly became so attached to me, being so lonely in her old home. Her actions seem almost like a gross overreaction, but I can only assume that here such an attachment makes sense.
Come to think of it, I imagine that in the case of humans many would suffer from depression rather than loneliness in such a situation, and I did understand that pokemon had a similar psychology to humans.
But then I remembered her rare ability as an absol; what can only be described as a curse. She apparently becomes an emotional wreck whenever she finds herself hearing a dying heartbeat. Such emotional trauma may change her response to isolation, or at least prolong the initial reaction.
But for something this intense as what she goes through nowadays? Her love is ridiculously strong for me.
I was overthinking it. I knew it. I had no intention of hurting her. That was all i needed to know, and all I should focus on.
"So this library, is it extensive?" I asked the gallade. He nodded. "It's the biggest library in the world. There are about... two hundred books in there."
"Two hundred." I repeated.
"Can you believe it?" he asked, misinterpreting my tone. How would I break it to him that two hundred was a pretty small amount?
The only way to do it...
"Many libraries in the human world are... well, they are packed with books. A small library may contain three hundred at the minimum, at least for the ones I have seen or visited. Many libraries are extensive enough to contain thousands of books" I said.
...Is bluntly.
Space looked startled. He said nothing for a moment while he seemed to collect himself. I let him think on a response while I tried to figure out who I had not visited yet. Gallade had yet to see me since my little show, and he seemed to think we could be proper acquaintances. Something seemed off, but I dismissed it.
"Well..." Space coughed "Thats certainly... Enlightening."
"I apologize" I replied immediately "I found no other option in the way of breaking that to you."
"At any rate," Space began, changing his tone to that that sounded something like an army general "Have you anything to ask me, feel free to do so. When we go to battle against others and each other, we must be prepared for anything. Good luck, Caleb"
"You as well." I replied with finality as Space went back to what he was doing. I travelled across the room, intending to talk to Gallade. However, he was nowhere in sight now. I looked about, thinking he had moved, but he was just gone.
Instead, I found myself being called over to the larger table with Blutarch, Redmund, and their mates as well as their other teammates. I supposed I had not been properly acquainted with the others of their team, so I went back willingly.
"Hello again" i greeted the group. Most of them smiled at me, likely understanding my attitude better. The thing they probably had not understood was my change of thought process when Sarah had the not-so-brilliant idea to touch me. But surprisingly, they had already let it go.
"Hi!" the glaceon, Shino, greeted me with excitement. I saw now that her necklace looked like a snowflake. She had a sword of ice on her back, something that definitely did not go with her attitude. That smiling face that would make a human pick her up and cuddle her like a puppy.
So i looked deeper. Her eyes showed something different. Her childish smile and tilt of the head as she spoke did not fully reach her eyes. The did a little bit yes, but i was not deceived. She looked utterly serious. I saw eyes like that whenever I looked in a mirror.
All that I got from the fact that such an apparently carefree pokemon was carrying a sword made of ice.
Actually, not all ice...
It looked like ice, and in fact it was mostly ice, but it had a strange quality to it. The outer layer looked like transparent white and blue, the same design as her necklace, which was a non transparent version of it.
I wondered what metal it was. It clearly froze things around it, but it was not just ice. There was something about it. It was certainly odd. A cold aura emanated from it.
The serious glaceon kept up her cheerful act. Perhaps she would do so until the competition started. It would certainly surprise others when she attacked. If I was to be on the receiving end of her attacks, i promised myself I would be prepared.
I got another "Hi!" from the other side of the table, where the small seven tailed fox had popped up and put her paws on the table to gain some height and make eye contact with me.
"Hello there" I replied calmly. Little kids are always nice to be around; the don't judge. Frankly, it's easier to talk to a kid with a powerful mind about your issues than any adult. I noted how close the little orange fox was to the larger nine-tailed fox. Perhaps they were mother and daughter or something like that. Those two and Redmond were quite close together. The giant blue turtle was separate from the others, though he bore a team member badge.
"I do not believe I learned all of your names before I so rudely departed" I went on "I must apologize for that."
"There is no need to be sorry" the nine-tailed fox assured me, looking confident. I looked into her eyes as well. Unlike the glaceon, she seemed firm and unwavering. There were no secrets in those eyes. When she said I did not need to worry about being sorry, she meant it.
"I am Vulnona, a ninetales" the fox went on, giving me her name and species "You have spoken with my mate, Redmond, and this is my daughter, a vulpix. Her name is Kemuri."
"...It is very nice to meet you, Vulona and Kemuri" I nodded, looking towards the last on their team. "And who is this?"
"The name's Gunner an' I'm a blastoise" the blue turtle said. The name made perfect sense actually. He looked like a water type, and those cannons looked painful. 'Gunner' was the perfect name for somebody with built in cannons.
I nodded to the blastoise as I looked into his eyes next. He looked right back at me, and those eyes held very little respect for me. In fact, it was a glare of sorts. I sensed that if I wanted anything other than that glare, I needed to work for it.
There was little in the way for making conversation. I turned instead to the vaporeon and his team. "And you all?" i asked. Blutarch looked to his teammates in a silent message of permission. His professional gaze was understanding, and I found myself once more looking at someone I could have an intellectual discussion with, just like the ninetales. The remaining of his team, team Honor, began to introduce themselves.
The charizard was apparently nicknamed Glurak. An interesting name, but I assumed it would go by without others so much as blinking in this world. Unlike Charizard from amber's team, this one was very observant and took plenty of time to plan out his words.
The other was apparently a dewott. Gunjin also wore a sword on his back and had two sharp looking seashells attached to his legs. Multiple weapons. He spoke with authority, and he gave off the appearance of someone who was very tough despite his size.
Neither of the two had much to say to me. Now it seemed to be question time for me.
"Is this skydiving thing fun?" Kemuri asked curiously. I thought on it. I had never done it myself, but I did have it explained to me by someone who had.
"Skydiving is certainly a rush" I started "you are falling several thousand feet to the ground with one parachute to save you from danger. It is dangerous with only that, because if something is wrong with the parachute, you could plummet to your... nevermind."
That last word was spoken quickly and quietly. The kid didn't understand, thankfully, but Vulnona and Redmond understood. I continued before Kemuri got any crazy ideas. "The point is: skydiving is very, very dangerous, and most of those who do it are thrill seekers. Every time you go, they make you take a lesson on how to properly do it and practically slam it into your mind to minimize risk. However, that risk still exists. If a mistake is made, or the parachute is faulty or in rare cases was..." I trailed off.
They waited for me to finish the sentence, but I stopped cold at that. Not in front of the kid. I would not speak of murder attempts around the kid. I begged the group with my eyes not to push me and make me talk. Someone like Kemuri was not old enough to be hearing stuff like that.
To be frank, no pokemon is old enough to hear about these things. With murder and otherwise premature death practically nonexistent here, anyone would throw up at the thought if I did not use my words carefully. If pokemon even throw up.
If humans had the capabilities of a pokemon, wars would either be far more severe, or less common, or both. The former, probably, knowing the human race and our ability to fight over basically anything. If I were to go and talk about the average amount of murders a week in my world, there would be a serious uproar and plenty of traumatized pokemon, no matter what age they were.
No, wars would just become more flashy, more dangerous, and perhaps with a slight delay on nuclear weapons.
Plus one, minus whatever that death count was for every war ever.
Nobody knew that kind of number. Some wars just went undocumented, and at some point death counts get rounded a bit because the exact number is simply lost in the storm of people running right into their deaths in the middle of battle.
At any rate...
"Are you going to finish that sentence?" Gunner asked, voicing the thoughts of the others. I shook my head, and the blastoise sighed.
"No, I will not. What I was about to say was quite a... heavy topic. Something that would give you nightmares to be honest, considering how little it happens in this world, if there has even been a single case of it." I explained.
The others were thinking about it. That was unfortunate, because if they reached the correct conclusion, I would not make myself contradict the truth. I wanted to change the topic and fast.
"There are always other, safer things to do" I started, trying desparately to name a few. There were not so many that I personally enjoyed, but I could still talk about them.
"I'll probably elaborate more some other time, because I assume somebody will force me onto the stage tomorrow if today was any trend setter. But there are many games that humans can play, or competitions."
That caught the attention of the vulpix, and the gleeful looking attention of the very serious glaceon. THe others showed interest as well, but I could tell not every one of them had fully dropped the topic. Shino in particular was actually studying me closely, looking for any slip.
"There are several sports that humans play, primarily sports that require a human's structure to play properly, though I admit some leniency may be included as long as nobody with claws pops the ball. There is baseball, a complicated game involving many different types of positions on defence, and the goal is to strike the ball thrown at you and take one of three positions before that ball is returned. There is basketball, a more simple game that requires a larger ball to be thrown in a hoop with different point values based on the position of the thrower." I began, and everyone started listening to me across the room as I recounted different games to play.
There was football, and then soccer, which was actually supposed to be called football because that was it's original name, and then I got into the more interesting games. Laser tag in particular seemed very exciting to the others.
It occurred to me that I had been extremely random and incompetent in my explanations for everything. Despite my cut off explanations because i wanted to avoid talking about death and murder and whatnot. However, they hung on to every word as if i was reading out a well rehearsed essay on an exciting topic. I guess otherworldly things sounded amazing to them as a concept.
Kemuri wanted to know everything about everything, and most of the others in the room were only slightly less interested. It was apparent I would have to get on stage once more. I asked the crowd in general if there was time to continue, and somebody darted out to check immediately.
I am not a celebrity. I do not want to be a celebrity. I just want to relax with some quiet. That is not going to happen. For that reason, I will simply have to try and play down any popularity I get.
If that had even the slightest chance of working, which I took the time to admit to myself that no, it would not work, I would go ahead and try. This time however, I would not be under the influence of another blasted mind altering trick.
So my second stage time began as the little unidentified pokemon cheerfully replied that there was plenty of daylight left before the guild members had to leave. Braixen looked like she was considering something, even from the distance i was at. I gave her my best "kill you dead" glare, causing her to freeze with her paws halfway to the wand stuck in her tail.
That solved, I turned my attention slowly to the crowd. There were even more of them. Not so shockingly, they were all completely focused on me. Even the fidgety ones couldn't look away. I noted that the younger kids had stationed themselves up front like a proper audience for a show that kids would like.
And the only thing I have to avoid are the negatives… Fun times.
"All right. I seem to have everyone's attention," I started, before noticing an apparently sleeping zoroark with a mask and gripping her purple crystal. "Mostly. That one is sleeping" I finished, pointing with a paw towards the rude zoroark.
"She thought we wouldn't notice…" I continued, putting my paw back down, "...But we did."
There was a lot of laughter at that as most eyes turned to the napping zoroark and back to me. The noise woke her up for a moment, which I could tell because of the momentary shift, but she went back to sleep in no time at all. She hadn't even looked up.
"It appears to me that you all want to learn what kinds of games and activities humans have" I commented. While it looked like I was warming up for more jokes, I was actually panicking and trying to figure out what to say. Not like I would let them in on that however.
I hate being on stage. Hate it. Maybe that cheering charm was a good idea.
After listening to the chorus of approval about it, I finally set my plan into place. I was supposed to be smart and professional, but my mind seemed to be going rather slow today. "Then we shall begin." i stated, moving to the back wall where I had been scratching images before. The same phanpy had taken a position near his companions, a large purple pokemon that was apparently a drapion, and a bayleef. He seemed to be willing to help by clearing the wall when I needed to clear it. His technique, apparently called earth power, was shockingly like earthbending from that animated series. The last airbender, I remembered.
"There are many activities humans consider fun or exciting," I went on, scratching a chart into the wall. "Many of which fall under the category of 'sports'."
As I worked on my chart, I made sure to change positions to make certain the audience could see what I was doing at different times. "There are all sorts of activities labelled sports, many typically involving competition of some sort. Races. Team sports. Many different types of activities fall under this category, such as baseball and football. I will get to those games in a moment." I continued, walking away from my chart of different shapes and scratched a key next to it for each game.
"First thing to understand: Many of these sports are built for people with a human form, with the way we do things. Baseball, for example, requires one to grip and use a baseball bat, a metal, ah, stick of sorts that is used to strike a ball that has been thrown by a pitcher. That ball must be recovered by players in the field to try and get the batter 'out'. The game is quite complicated with it's systems, and I can explain that later."
"But for now, we shall move on to a general explanation of team sports," I continued, tapping several symbols on the key. "There are two sports labelled football, though those who play the one most know of call the second one 'soccer'. Football is a game that has quite a few rules, many of which I am uncertain of. However, like most games that involve a ball, the goal is to get the ball to the end of the field, in this case an entire area."
"Where as I cannot explain football thoroughly, soccer is another story. Much more basic than football, the idea is to get a ball into a goal on either side of the field. You protect your goal and try to get the ball into the other. You are not allowed to carry a soccer ball, you have to kick it or headbutt it around. This game actually seems manageable, assuming we were to have a ball that could actually withstand our strikes. I believe a soccer game in this world should have a much bigger field, with slightly wider goals, and less restrictions on others being harmed. What I mean by that is that intentionally hurting others in the game results in a foul and a penalty. Rules are not, in fact, made to be broken"
I am not joking around much this time. This is purely educational.
"I would assist in the making of such a field and help set it up, but I currently spend a lot of time with necessary and helpful training. Perhaps when there is some free time, I can explain the workings. I would certainly need to work out what I would change to make it more suitable for this world and its diverse inhabitants" I went on, and turned as I heard many sounds of excitement.
These people really like the idea of having a new game to play, even if I can't do it immediately. It appears that this may be the norm for quite a while.
"A new game!"
"Awesome!"
The kids who said that looked pretty young, even compared to the others. Many of the kids were in the ten to fifteen year range.
How the heck do I know that? There's no way I should be able to know that on sight!
Perhaps I would never know why i seemed to have the new ability to recognize age and gender on sight now. It would have been even weirder if I had the ability to understand species as well. Just having a birthday was enough to mess with my mind. That was actually horrifying to me, despite its usefulness.
"There are also games like basketball, known by that title due to the fact that it requires a player to throw a ball into an open ring elevated into the air. This, like football, has several rules that would take time to explain. Most pokemon would have difficulty playing it as well." I explained, continuing my sports rant. At least soccer was an available game for pokemon…
Hockey and other ice related sports I am not certain about, having never played them myself." I admitted "For hockey at least, one puts on a pair of ice skates—a type of shoe that allows easier movement on ice—and grabs a hockey stick, which is mostly straight and has a flat base for hitting a puck, which is a short cylindrical item that slides on the ice. The field itself is similar to a soccer field, with two small goals for the puck. Why this would be difficult is the necessity for the hockey stick and a way to easily traverse across ice for all players."
At this point, questions began to come up, so i started answering them.
"You play all of these games?" one curious pokemon asked.
"I have played most of these games" I began to explain, but before I could continue, another question shot out from the crowd.
"Which one's your favorite?" an excited little bear looking pokemon asked. He had quite a bit of mucus dripping from his nose, but I ignored this.
"That is a difficult question…" I mused, looking at the little list I had made. What sport did I enjoy playing? I never really stuck to one. "I have played each game, save hockey and football. I never liked the idea of playing the more physically… abusive games. Baseball is a complicated game, but I was decent at it until it grew too competitive for me. But I have to say that there was no particular favorite for me. There were games that I was good at and games that I was not so. And, of course, games i do not prefer to play"
"What else can we play!?" an extremely excited little cat pokemon with large ears exclaimed. She was very, very young, and had a star at the tip of her tail. She looked absolutely thrilled to be there.
"Hmm…" I hummed as I considered the question. "For most of these games, serious adaptations would have to be made to be playable by most or all different species of pokemon. I imagine that the ball would have to be far more durable and perhaps different sizes depending on the players. Soccer would work pretty well i believe, but most other sports would be very difficult to pull off. What i reckon is that it would be easier to actually make a few new games and such. I have ideas already"
Well, that last bit got the kids even more excited. Heck, even the adults began clamoring.
"I must refine these concepts" i firmly stated, starting to scratch more things into the wall. I still had room to 'write'.
Over the next hour or so, i spoke of many activities for humans, not omitting skydiving. I did mention which were dangerous, which were things that were not supposed to be in practice. After sports was a discussion so well done i had pretty much educated those in the room on each sport and their rules, i moved onto a topic i liked a bit more.
"Steamroller, could you please clear the wall?" I asked of the phanpy, having learned his name somewhere at the thirty minute mark. it was a fitting name for a being that could roll into a ball and run people over like a small blue tire.
Steamroller complied, stamping his foot on the ground. The earth responded with a slight rumble, and Steamroller slid that foot about an inch to the left. Immediately, the wall smoothed out as the scratches filled themselves up.
I marvelled at the technique. It was precisely like that technique from one of those cartoons. Earthbending, the ability was called in that show. Fictional. But here was earth power, basically the same thing.
"We will be moving on from these activities to one last thing" I muttered, eliciting a collective "awww…" from several in the crowd. For some reason, the large amount of attention i was getting was not making me twitchy and lose track of my thoughts. Maybe i was actually starting to enjoy the topics.
Teaching was fun, i found. Talking about my absolute favorite game was certainly going to be fun.
I scratched a square into the wall, doing my best to make it as big as possible. My less than versatile legs were a problem, but I forced myself past them. After that square was finished, i cut that image into several small squares in an eight by eight graph of sorts.
The others all had their eyes fixed on either me or what i was writing. "This game is easily my favorite game" I said, turning the sounds of near despair into silence as people grew far more invested instantly.
The graph turned into a game board as I drew symbols into the stone surface. An intricate crown. A crown with a cross on it. Two bishop hats. Two of the letter 'k'. two towers, and eight basic circles because I had no idea how to demonstrate that piece with a symbol.
"This… is chess" I dramatically revealed as I looked at my work. Using my absol sense, I detected that the others were staring at the thing with obvious confusion. Why was I being dramatic? My mind was probably being affected by several factors, including magic
"Chess is not a sport or physical activity at all, but it is still a game." I explained "A board game to be precise. Each piece can be moved, one at a time, until, according to the rules of each board game, one player is the victor"
"Chess is a turned based game that forces the players to use logic, strategy, and brains to outsmart the opponent one move at a time." I continued. There was a lot of confusion in the crowd. This was my favorite game? That apparently did not involve any physical activity whatsoever but to move a piece occasionally?
"I prefer this game to others because it is a mental exercise for me, and there is absolutely no luck involved whatsoever" I explained.
Goldeneye and some others did seem interested. I was glad that some people could appreciate games that require the mind rather than the body. I went on to explain how to play the game.
Goldeneye in particular seemed rather interested in playing the game. There were some other psychic types that wanted to have a go. "Most psychic types require mental training to improve their capabilities" the delphox explained to me.
After some discussion and an idea on my part, Steamroller did more of his earth power/earthbending trick to make the board appear on the floor. "Each side has a different color, usually white and black," I explained "This means that I must change one side slightly…"
I scratched a single line through the symbols on my side. Steamroller made the board on the wall show my changes.
"Steamroller, was it?" Goldeneye asked, mismatched eyes still on the board. After catching his nod, she brought out that wand of hers.
"Would you sustain your earth power for just a moment on both boards?" she requested. Steamroller and I both seemed to be confused, but he complied for just a moment. She quickly waved her wand first at Steamroller, then each board in turn. After she was done, she turned her attention to me.
"This should make the board on the wall copy this one" she explained "And after learning what you have told us of the movements of the pieces, I have tried to enchant the images to move as well."
...What? Was it really so easy for her to do something like that? I get that she is basically a master of magic, but that… that was so specific and unique that I find it hard to believe that she just did it on the fly… but she did. That is beyond impressive.
"Very impressive." I complimented, before looking at the board. "I have given you the first move."
She made her first move. Her move had consisted of her tapping a pawn symbol and then tapping it's next location. The amazing thing was that it worked perfectly. Such a convenient thing, magic. If magic was a thing in our world… I focused on her move and saw what it was. If she moved one more piece in one more way…
I tapped my pawn and then tapped another point. It disappeared and reappeared in the ground in its new spot.
Goldeneye was experimenting. She had not seen the problem with her next move; the reason she was about to lose.
"Checkmate."
There were several blinks and a stare as the game ended. "I mean no offence, but that finish is actually known as a fool's mate. Checkmate in two moves. If white moves those two pawns like that, I can easily checkmate you" I explained.
Nobody wanted to play chess with me after that. Maybe later. Goldeneye was thankfully not frustrated with her defeat, instead she accepted it and promised that it would not happen again. I got the feeling that at least one person would play chess with me again.
I rather sleepily made my way back to the table with my team and friends. I allowed myself to sit down and reflect. My day had been really bad, and I was definitely feeling the result of trauma, but these people had brought me back up with ease. It was odd.
Today, I was turned into a brain dead moron, forced to fall in love with an egotistical bellossom, and shrunk down to pocket sized by a budding magic user. I can't look at Braixen without remembering that last one, and I will never forget the torment I felt after the attract incident. It was all horrible, and then Erza basically forced me on stage… I just… talked my day away in a sense. It was still there, but that is just not normal. How easy it was for me to feel better… My mind literally changing… I don't even recognize myself…
As i wrapped up my conversations and prepared to eat dinner and go to bed, I realized that what I really had to do was decide. I could not change this. I had to decide whether I wanted this in the first place. A new life. Did I want to be here? Did I want to become this and forced to undergo permanent change that was beyond my control? Was I happy?
Perhaps the only question I did not have an answer to.
Θ Omniscient POV Θ
Three humans stood together in a familiar room. That is, except for that the table has been blasted to smithereens by something. Two were familiar as the guardian of life and the guardian of darkness. The third wore blue and white ninja gear that allowed free movement, but would easily protect him from light damage.
The guardian of darkness was peering with slightly squinted eyes at the screen in the middle of the air in front of him. It showed Caleb and the others talking freely after his little performance.
"He's improving quickly" Alex noted, having designed herself a throne of natural wood just by willing it to grow that way. It was elegant, but not in any way symmetrical. However, the guardian of life was the only one that was looking at Caleb and the others.
The guardian of darkness, for his part, was staring intently at the screen in concentration. The newcomer decided to follow his gaze when he saw this to notice that his friend's gaze was instead focusing on another group of eight. specifically on a certain snowflake necklace.
"Took you that long to notice?" the boy asked, turning his head to the red haired boy, his own black hair shifting as he moved.
"Yes…" The boy in question responded, the earlier growl that accompanied his voice gone for the moment "How have I not seen this sooner?"
"You're losing your touch" the new boy teased calmly, A grimace was all he got for a real response until the guardian of darkness began to speak.
"That necklace… I assume you are keeping it's power suppressed?" the redhead asked. It was a rhetorical question of course.
"Of course." the newcomer responded, inspecting the glaceon with the necklace. "That is pure freezarite. If i weren't keeping it suppressed, everything in treasure town would freeze over."
"Then please, keep it suppressed" the guardian of darkness practically pleaded, not liking the image of everything in that part of the island frozen solid.
"Sure. You do know what that will mean when I release it, right?" the other boy asked.
"Yes. Of course I do."
"Hmm" the black haired boy hummed as he inspected the image. "What if her life depends on the full power of that thing?"
"Are you willing to freeze an entire island with pent up freezarite energy to save one person? It could mean endangering the lives of others, no matter how tough these pokemon are" the guardian of darkness asked.
"Then i'll redirect the power mostly upwards. Don't worry, only if her life is properly in danger. You know that's unlikely to happen anyways."
"That is reasonable, despite the immense amount of ice that will be created anyhow" the guardian of darkness admitted, acknowledging that the chances of a flash freeze killing one of the pokemon of this world was astronomically low. "You may unleash it's power if and only if her life is in danger and she cannot be saved in any other way. And please, try to avoid freezing anybody solid if you can"
"sure."
Alex laughed, distracting the boys. "Look at those goofballs" she commented, pointing to Caleb's group. "Your namesake is getting soft. I can't even recognize the guy anymore"
the newcomer fidgeted with the intricate katana at his belt, with it's white metal hilt and its red gem, and a sheath that had a blade on it where the katana's blade would be. "Yeah. He is getting soft. Probably good for him, actually. He can still be serious, but around his friends… Jeez, they are turning him soft, albeit slowly."
"You guys worry too much" the guardian of life commented, leisurely watching the proceedings as the pokemon in spinda's cafe prepared to leave and go somewhere. "Planning for the future. You don't even want us to get involved, so why are you bothering?"
This last jab was aimed at the guardian of darkness, who winced at his friend's logic. Eventually, he just rubbed his eyes.
"I suppose I am simply paranoid" he admitted.
"Maybe" the katana wielding boy responded, looking about in the room. "but there is always someone to be careful of…"
This brought a nod from the guardian of darkness, and then silence until Alex noticed one more thing.
"Hey, that's the ender crystal, isn't it? How'd it get there?" she asked.
"Flux is the one connected to that crystal. I knew it was there of course; I would never miss such a high energy signature of my element, but Flux has it under her power for the moment, and I see no reason to take control" the guardian of darkness responded.
"Just keep your pet enderdragon on a least in case things get bad"
"She is not a pet. She is a sentient being who really, really hates being called a pet. She is a friend" the redhead replied stiffly. That was the end of the conversation. There was nothing more to discuss, really.
But for the guardian of darkness, there was a clear reason to worry. He knew that there was danger. First was the dark power that he could have personally dealt with, but feared making the problem worse with his own uncontrollable energy, and now this…
Trust was a dangerous thing when given to the wrong person.
⽯Caleb's POV⽯
They decided to play with fireworks. They all did.
Pokemon learned about this fun event in which they could, as an entire community, launch explosives into the air because they could. And they were having lots of fun. Magic users had cropped up in various places, either summoning the materials I mentioned or just making stuff up as they went along. Other pokemon were using the summoned materials to try and make some fireworks of their own, but most didn't realize what a delicate process it would have to be. Lots of them got an explosion right in the face, blackening their front half and tossing them a bit, but they were pokemon. They were fine, if a slight bit hurt.
It was already late, but there wasn't any chance the party would end now that people knew that humans would do this all night on the fourth of July. I would probably slip away at midnight, when I had an excuse to. For the moment, everything seemed to be going quite well.
I heard pawsteps, and turned, finding Jake behind me. "Um... Hey." He greeted me.
"Jake." I nodded at him.
"You doing okay?"
Was I doing okay? Well... To be frank, no. My day was long and arduous, and for many reasons I wish I could just do it over, plan better. Do everything right. The highlights were talking to people who were genuinely interested in what I had to say... A rarity back home, and then the exitable children that were in the cafe, I couldn't help but smile.
"No, I don't think I am." I answered him honestly, a little gravely. "I don't think I will be, either. I have a lot of issues I have to resolve, and a lot of them might be long lasting."
It was like he expected that answer. I waited for him to say something, to react in some way, but after all the quiet he had done today, it didn't seem like it would change. And tomorrow, he would have a student and teammate. It occurred to me that he was acting a little differently today compared to any other day. Not differently in how he talked and acted... Different in how he seemed to be feeing while doing so.
"I think you should go to bed early." I told him slowly. The raichu nodded blearily, looking up.
"Thanks, Caleb." he said, sounding very tired. "I could use it. There'll be people dominating the sky over there, too... But I can probably sleep through it..."
I watched him wander off, a little confused. I would keep an eye on him discreetly, but I hadn't seen the slightest fraction of his day. It could have been rough. I thought it would be best if I left this one alone... If his behavior didn't remain like this.
You guys were probably wondering where the other two were... Amber's beating the crap out of Jango as we speak, so you guys get some peace and quiet.
Please continue reviewing, because I love to learn how you guys like or dislike my story with comments and constructive criticism. Thank you all that have done so in the past.
(This chapter has been revised to better suit a project that has to do with this day in particular. When that comes out, There will be quite clear parallels between the project and this, but for now, it's just an edited chapter.)
