Guess who finished their college work? That's right, this guy!
..almost..
Haha, besides my other classes, I love my heavy hitter creative writing class and physics that both need long papers! (Sarcasm!!!!!)
I've really meant to get back into the swing of things but writing for several hours a day only to follow up by writing several hours a day wasn't in the cards for me. I've severely neglected this project, and have not quite put as much effort into quality assurance as I may have liked.
I'll keep going at my own pace, but luckily for both of us, the forecast says clear skies are an eventuality. If it's sooner rather than later I can get back to this.
If I'm being perfectly honest, I've been hard pressed for free time since about July. (It won't get better till December either, and that really effing sucks) I'm happy with the IRL progress ive made, but my thoughts always bring themselves back to this.
(Hopefully, this isn't coming out in December, that's a bit of a long stretch, but might be where it ends up.)
Post edit: (Oh it's coming in December alright. Fatass chapter decided it was special and was 2-2.5x bigger.)
New balance patch hotfix 3.0.4
Fuck forced slanty text, all my homies hate forced slanty text.
Im temperamental and decided [psychic bullshit go] was in need of a class rework due to pickrate and changes in the current meta
Do not be surprised if I undo this in the next patch.
{Poke-speech}
"Human speech"
[Psychic bullshit, go!]
(Thoughts)
Batter up! (Rose focused PoV for a bit)
Somehow, despite jumping out of the frying pan and into the freezer, the increasingly impossible continued to happen even now.
No, it wasn't her trainer magically being able to understand pokemon. C'mon, that was old news at this point. How about the complete change of scenery and impossible weather? Not the second weirdest thing since lunch, but certainly up there. As much fun as enjoying the rain had sounded to the dragon type, even she knew it was beginning to overstay its welcome.
No, there was something far more ridiculous than nonsense magic and spontaneous weather. Something so annoying that Rose wasn't entirely sure it could be matched. Ever.
Alright, sure, Marcus wasn't willingly being silent, but it was still just as ludicrous. He could be seen lying against a wall of the rocky umbrella they found. As per usual, he used his abilities too much yada yada yada.
Rose was getting awfully fed up with this seemingly daily occurrence, and no matter how often she warned him, he continued to do it. Without fail. Every time.
Marcus's inability to hit the brakes was more alarming than their lack of real shelter, more dangerous than the spontaneous lighting, and far more stupid than he had any right to be. Rose vigilantly stared down her trainer, shaking he head subtly while grumbling under her breath. She was sitting close enough that he would have heard her, and she knew that. She wasnt saying she wanted him to try and challenge it, but either way he got to hear the rant she was going to give anyways.
Rose's boredom-induced internal monologue was cut short as its subject, Marcus, began stirring in his sleep. Rose went quiet and looked up with an almost hopeful expression as it appeared more and more like he was about to wake up any second now. Marcus took a deep breath and stretched his arms, leading Rose to believe that this was going to be the perfect opportunity to lay into him as he had deserved! The look on his face was going to be-
He simply rolled his head to the other shoulder lazily, falling back asleep for good once again by the looks of things.
As if waiting for its place in queue, a flash of lightning and its following thunder rolled across the valley. Marcus didn't even stir from it or anything, managing to stay sound asleep instead.
Rose grumbled again with a frown, knowing damn well what caused this. Again. Her repeated warnings apparently didn't matter to someone like him, oh no, of course not. Who was she to say anything about the magic bs she had no involvement in, right? He might as well not be able to understand them with how he refused to listen to any of her warnings. He certainly knew better than her it seemed.
More movement led to Rose visually checking up on their half-asleep trainer again, this time seeing some proof of him being alive. The slow blinking and groggy movements were reassuring, but Rose still knew he wasn't anywhere near conscious enough to listen to a word of the speech she- ..definitely hadn't perfected a script for or anything.
Rose went back to keeping an eye on their surroundings to take her mind off the mindless one. He wasnt worth worrying about it she was going to be led on like this. Scouting their surroundings as expected was just as mindless, with once again, nothing new happening. Its not like they'd be able to do much with the deadweight sleeping the day away if something did decide to investigate, but it felt good to check every once in a while regardless.
{this certainly seems to happen a lot, doesn't it?} asked Riolu, making good progress on what Rose had dubbed as her 'art project.' {he's barely even registering for me at the moment.} Riolu stuck the pointy stick into the mud, a sprawl of random lines trailing the mud.
Whatever 'barely registering' meant. Once again Rose felt out of the loop as it was aura this, aura that all day every day. Even with Riolu.
{I'm guessing you mean something aura-related?} Rose hastily snapped, getting her response in and still sounding incredibly irritated regardless of her attempt not to. Riolu, picking up on her hostility, practically dropped the attempt at conversation immediately; not even looking her way anymore. Rose really should have expected this as the Riolu had no way to know Rose was going to blow up due to, you know, not being able to see her expression.
{I don't mean to sound mad at you at all, really.} Rose it's meant for this dummy.} Rose clarified, rubbing a claw between her eyes and jerking a thumb towards their trainer. Riolu might not have seen this motion, but the complete 180 in her tone was enough context for the Riolu.
{to answer you, yeah. Its aura related.} the fighting type said neutrally. {not a fan?}
Luckily for Rose, Riolu wouldn't see her eyes bulge out of her head for a brief moment.
{Oh, I'm fine with it.} Rose fibbed, nodding slowly to herself as she trailed off slightly. {he does manage to knock himself out quite a lot. I just wanted to be certain.} she continued to lie while pointlessly avoiding the Riolu's stare.
Marcus stirred for a moment, readjusting himself and interrupting whatever the Riolu had to say.
It was quite reassuring to Rose to know Marcus was just asleep, nothing more. Thankfully it wasn't anything worse like she had feared might have happened. Of course, she warned him repeatedly of this and wanted to be mad at him for it, but she couldn't stay that way..at least for now. Having Marcus argue back was half the fun, best save opportunities like this for later when she actually can get a response.
What confused Rose most of all things was how he was sitting. Judging by his expression and flopped-out limbs, one could guess he was sleeping. However, he also sat up very straight for someone who was asleep and didn't snore at all, unlike previous instances. It might have had something to do with how he was sitting up instead of laying down, but something still appeared wrong to her.
She waved a hand in front of his face for good measure, but as she expected, got nothing back.
{His energy levels are all over the place as far as I can tell.}. Riolu said plainly, speaking her mind without hesitation. She was oddly talkative when he wasn't around.
{mhm, it always worries me to see him like this.} Rose responded, quickly following it up. {but if you even think about telling him that I worry, I'm giving you a thrashing.}
After watching the Riolu simply smile and nod in response, Rose went back to studying Marcus; still getting a nagging feeling that something was off about him. After several seconds of silence, the fighting type caught Rose's attention with a cough. {Anything with aura lights up like a flare for our senses. I know you've been wondering.}
{I really haven't.} Rose retorted, nearly cutting Riolu off. Despite trying her best to make sense of the 'magical life force that allows a human to understand pokemon,' it never clicked. Aura just wasn't something Rose could wrap her head around, no matter how she tried to think of it.
{...wait a flare?} Rose mumbled to herself, eyes drifting slowly to the Riolu as she arched a brow in disbelief. {How do you know what a flare is?}
{Look, that's not important.} Riolu dismissed, waving a paw to the side and making sure to immediately interrupt any further attempts of asking from the Gible. {the Main point is we can sense where aura is, or in this case, was, if it's strong enough.}
"ohhh, so that's how you tracked me so well," Marcus interjected suddenly, sounding like someone absolutely peachy about finding the last piece of a puzzle. "I was wondering how you managed to do it, I didn't know if that was something you could do."
Riolu took the implied compliment at her abilities and nodded to Marcus affirmingly. While she might get carried away, she was happy to see him have an interest in broadening his understanding of her species' abilities. Riolu was considering if she should go further in depth or not, but noticed something far more pressing first.
In an instant, the atmosphere of the conversation went cold. Despite being sheltered from the grueling thunderstorm outside, one had just began brewing inside as well! Rose started to turn slowly towards her trainer who sounded remarkably more awake than he should have. Especially considering how he had acted up till speaking up. Keyword: acted. Marcus's smile dropped as he picked up on his slip-up.
At least Rose Marcus knew how much hot water he was in. For his sake more than anyone elses. Funnily enough, regardless of if he did or did not do, he was going to get what he deserved.
"Now, I know this sounds bad," Marcus preemptively defended, rubbing the back of his head taking note of potential escape routes as Rose continued to turn towards him.
"Buuuut."
The instant Rose was aligned with Marcus, she launched towards him. Arms up, teeth barred, and some sort of growl coming from her, he knew he was in trouble.
Without hesitation, Marcus immediately made a move to stand up and bolt, quickly finding out that a small heavy dragon already planned to knock him back down with a tackle. After hitting the ground with a thud, She began laying into him; he didn't understand a word she said through her frantic rant, but the message was sure clear.
"Look, if you felt as tired as I did, I'm sure you'd ignore me too."
"..."
"Oh, don't give me the cold shoulder, it's breezy enough out here as is."
While Rose's frustration filled rant hadn't lasted long, the court was out on what happens next. Sulking, scowling, and cold stares were all good guesses.
Marcus was currently trying to make amends, but this sentient brick wall didn't give him any ground. He knew playing the sleepy card was a gamble and took a calculated risk...Only to learn that he apparently really sucked at math.
Riolu offered him no help besides a singular shrug, but Marcus knew it was wishful thinking to expect otherwise. He already tried the easy way out of this and that certainly didn't work.
Yeah, he knew she was probably being overdramatic for the hell of it. Yes, he also knew she was genuinely mad at him a little as well, but things like this never lingered before, why would they start now.
For another few minutes attempts to make amends were made. None of them were successful, unlike previous run ins. This was completely out of character compared to their shared half-serious outlook on everything, but Marcus didn't have a clue as to what to do.
"Hey, here is an idea, lets check out that note we were here for!" Marcus hoped sounding cheery about it would get Rose to move on, it didn't. Even Riolu seemed to see the thick air between them.
Finally beginning to check several pockets, it took him a second before eventually finding it. When he did, he took great care in pulling the soggy page out of his pocket. He hoped it wasn't important, as it's now splotchy condition made it nearly illegible.
Several seconds later, he noticed that he was looking at the wrong side. Again. How he managed to do it twice was beyond him.
Flipping it over, and looking it down, he saw a long list, making out seemingly random words as best he could through the splotches the rain had left on it. The sheet didn't make much sense as he skimmed up and down the column. It was only once he took a moment to look at the top text that it began to make sense.
'Namos;'
Or in non smeared terms, it likely said 'names'
There was a paragraph that took up the first half of the page, but no matter how he looked at it, the words were far too ruined for Marcus to even think of deciphering it. He saw the words pokemon, Riolu, Gible, and his own name a few times in it, but couldn't pull anything more besides something happening in 'due time'. It loomed like they would have substantially more luck with the bottom half of the page, which had been better sheltered from the rain by Marcus.
{so...want to fill us in?} Rose asked, reminding him that there were others who might have wanted to take part.
"It's just got a bunch of writing on it." Rose's curious expression disappeared, he small cueious smile becoming an unamused look as she stared towards Marcus disappointedly. "Hey, I'm not being a smart ass here, most of it was ruined in the rain!" Riolu didn't look like she completely believed him. Fair considering he just lied about being asleep a few minutes ago.
"Second half has names though. weird ones too." For a second Marcus saw Rose turn slightly to listen in better, but she turned right back around when he noticed her. Riolu now showed genuine interest as well, silently waiting for him to go on.
"Oh, right. Let's see if I can make sense of this." He spent a large span of time trying to decipher the illegible text. Countless attempts were made, several guesses and theories were submitted. At the end of it all-
"Yep, they make no sense. Completely random."
Even Rose took her chance to look at him disappointedly, Riolu already doing there.
{Well could you at least read out what you can? I think thats what she was asking.} Rose shortly responded, turning back to ignoring him as she shook her head slowly and grumbled.
"Oh. That makes a bit more sense, yeah." Marcus cleared his throat before trying his best to make out what the splotched ink meant to say. "First one says Laura, the second says Lucia, the third one-" taking his eyes off the page he noticed Riolu shaking her head side to side each time he spoke. He stared at her for a good several seconds waiting for her to do it again, seeing nothing happen.
{well, was that it? Was that the best he could come up with?} Riolu asked disappointedly, scoffing and sounding..upset?
"What are you talking about?" Marcus asked, having zero clue what she was on about. "The best who could come up with?" Riolu facepalmed.
{Marcus, those are names. Both of them were puns for Lucario or something.} Marcus's embarrassment at somehow missing that rose sharply. {tell me you're joking, I refuse to believe you missed that.}
Silence.
{Marcus...} Riolu slowly sighed, wearing a concoction of disappointment, pity, and disbelief on her face, with Marcus feeling like he had earned every little bit of it for missing the obvious. Even Rose managed a chuckle for that at the very least.
"Moving on," Marcus said, coughing and returning to the page. "Lulu, Luca... anything?" Riolu didn't seem terribly impressed with anything presented so far. {give me something that isn't a pun, I don't want to be a butt end of a joke for the rest of my days.}
"Who said you had to- Never mind, give me a second." Marcus said, noticing that Rose was paying much more attention if only to snicker and stare at Riolu with each progressive name said. The fighting type was apparently not one for puns.
"Anubis?" Marcus asked, shooting into the dark, causing both Pokemon to look at him oddly. {what's that supposed to mean?} they practically said in unison, both now taking shared enjoyment in instantly criticizing whatever names he said.
"It's part of Egyptian mythology I think. He's either the god of death, time, or something like that."
{hows that relate to her at all?} Rose critiqued, laughing at the ridiculous name while Riolu stayed quiet.
"Anubis was like a jackal-headed thing, Lucario is a jackal like pokemon, I don't know. C'mon it's not like I came up with it." Marcus defended.
{It's something you would have come up with though.} Rose taunted, verbally jabbing at him. Marcus waved a finger at her, making a 'tsk tsk tsk' sound.
"Actually these past few days have proven I cant come up with anything like this, so take that." Marcus playfully snapped back, crossing his arms while Rose side-eyed him. He couldn't see her face, but it was a safe bet to say she was either smiling or trying not to.
{Sure, it's not a pun, but do you have anything else in mind?} Riolu replied breaking up their argument, waiting for another suggestion. Giving another glance to the sheet in his hand, he realized that Rose might manage to catch onto just how few entries were left based on his face alone. Riolu couldn't be allowed to know that though, he didn't have the heart to let someone this invested down.
"Hmm." Marcus continued, silently crumpling the damp page back into his pocket as Riolu continued to give her undivided attention. "Yeah, let's see here.." He quickly began glancing around their surroundings for anything that might help.
Rocky? No, that's a horrible suggestion. What else was there besides rocks, trees? Teresa? No, that's somehow even worse than the last one. Who would want to be named after a tree.
As Marcus started to move to the next object that crossed his vision, he watched as the Riolu became increasingly skeptical of his naming ability. There was no way she'd have been able to know if he was lying or not, but he had a feeling the thought had at least crossed her mind. Rose sure looked like the idea more than simply crossed her mind.
Gah, why couldn't it have been easy like her? Yeah, sure, he didn't even name her, but her name made plenty of sense with her ability. Clearly, some thought went into it, and it all worked out; why was it so hard for him to think of something then? As he sat there thinking of potential names to suggest, the small fighting type continued to sit forward with undivided attention, invested in what he had to say next. obviously. Both his pokemon were growing impatient, just in different ways.
One's impatience quickly became disappointment, the other's a sort of accepting silent sadness. Marcus eventually let out the long sigh he held captive for so long; signaling his defeat. He didn't want to admit it, but he once again came short on this problem he'd been trying to solve the past few days. Rose at least put on a half-smile, clearly truing to reassure him.
Riolu however..didn't do anything yet. She sat there, still leaning forward with unwavering focus and an invested stare, heavily set on hearing whatever names he might suggest next.
Seeing that much investment on the face of someone you were about to let down was strangely soul crushing. He never expected being a pokemon trainer to lead to becoming so emotionally invested in his pokemon; but Marcus couldn't do much but admit defeat here. he was out of ideas, not having any in the first place. Letting out a long sigh and quickly finding the ground to be a more hospitable place to put his eyes while Marcus avoided the Riolu's empty stare.
It was at the ground however where something caught his attention.
This wasn't just trying to change the topic like he initially thought, this was something to work with. Something tangible.
At his feet was a flowery bushy plant. He wasnt sure if he was simply grasping at straws or not, but he felt that something was drawing him towards the unknown yellow flowers.
"Rue," Marcus blurted, thinking aloud and nodding to himself slowly. He reached down and pulled up a small clump of the flowers. "The last name it says is Rue."
{Really?} Rose interjected, grumbling and chiming in first. {Rue? What is that supposed to even mean?} Her distinct disappointment snapped him out of what felt like a trance like state, Marcus dropping the flowers, shaking his head, and figuring that he must be tired or something.
As for why she was upset, she could've been equally invested in the naming process, but Marcus figured it was more likely that she saw through his strange desperate attempt.
"Yeah, Rue." Marcus began, nodding to himself and choosing to stick to his guns on this one. "It's a common little flowery plant that comes from.." Marcus paused, blanking on the details that he somehow now was able to recall. "Its not from here. Buds in the spring, I know that for sure."
Rose scoffed at him while rolling her eyes, but Riolu leaned back to a more natural sitting position; an unknown emotion on her silent expression. There was no tells on Riolu's face, but Rose could be seen raising a singular eyebrow curiously at him, making it clear just how incredibly 'impressed' she was at his creativity.
Look, they should both just be thankful he didn't have to name her too if she wanted to be like that.
{That crazy professor guy really wrote that?} Riolu asked, shaking her head slowly and scoffing. {he goes from puns and all that junk to a flower?}
"Look, he wrote it, not me." Marcus lied covering his bases while using his eyes to tell the dragon type to keep quiet. "Plus, it's on theme with Rose's plant name."
{Hey, hey!} Rose interrupted, staring him down. {Don't drag me into this, this isnt my issue.} She grumbled, waving an accusing finger at Marcus with a smile. {You think I'm really going to let you use me to make this more convenient for you? Not a chance.} she knew how she was making this sound. Her looks betrayed her, but Rue wouldn't know that.
"Wait, why wouldn't you? Isn't helping me part of the whole trainer thing?" Marcus jokingly argued, watching the defiant ground type dust herself off while coming to a stand, bearing an quarrelsome frown and grin combo.
{oh, but where's the fun in that? You've given me plenty reason not to listen with how good you listen to me.} Rose lavishly replied, hanging onto every word in a pronounced theatrical manner. {besides, you don't have enough badges to control me anyhow.} The 'shit-eating grin' returned.
"Wait.. real talk for a second, that's a thing?" Marcus went jumped off the script for a change and began staring at the gible with genuine curiosity. "I thought that was a myth?"
Now, he might have not been incredibly perceptive at reading a pokemon's body language, but anyone who puts that much disappointment on their face clearly wasn't impressed. The impatient tapping foot helped him figure that out as well.
{Marcus, I was referencing that as a joke.} Rose exhaled, subtly shaking her head and face palming. {Think, why would a piece of metal keep anyone from refusing to do as you say?}
"Thats how it always worked on TV." Marcus shrugged, Rose rolling her eyes and groaning.
{and what do you think I was referencing- ah, forget it.}
{Sure, why not.}
Riolu's comment broke up their mock argument almost immediately. Both the human and the dragon type turning to stare at the fighting type after its decision.
{It's unique, let's give Rue a chance.} Riolu added with a shrug, putting it in as plain of a tone as she could and sounding unfittingly neutral on the topic. {if it doesnt work we can always retry.}
Marcus had expected a bit more fanfare from the nameless Riolu, getting a name. Honestly, half the reason he couldn't come up with anything substantial was due to the fear of not meeting expectations. He had thought this was a big moment, but the faint feeling of accomplishment was going to have to be enough Marcus supposed.
{Really?} Rose chuckled, sounding more genuine with a rare absence of mocking in her tone. {You mean to say that you're really going to settle with something like 'Rue' for a name?}
Riolu went quiet, continuously staring forward at in thought as usual. Riolu decided to let Rose's question take the floor for quite some time, staying completely silent for an increasingly long amount of time.
{yeah, sure. Why not?} the Riolu shrugged simply, speaking in a very forced monotone response. Wasn't this supposed to be exciting for her?
{From what I can tell, a bit of thought went into it.} Riolu then looked up to Marcus with him only getting a glimpse of a smile that didn't hang around for more than an instant. {It must have some extra meanings with how vague Marcus put it.}
Well, that proves that clearly, something was unhinged. Whether that was Rose's open jaw or this crazy Riolu, Marcus didn't know.
"I'm glad you picked up on how deep the name truly is, I had a feeling you'd like it." Marcus replied. To say he was pulling this out of thin air was an understatement. Luckily for him, Rose was too disoriented to properly call him out. "If you had to choose, what's your favorite part of the expansive subtext it has?"
He could've sworn he saw a brief smile form on the Riolu's face, but again, it was more of a flinch than an expression.
{thats a toughie.} Riolu said coldy again, bringing a paw to the underside of her chin once more. {probably the fact that it's an unconventional name for an unconventional pokemon.}
Oh. That kind of does make sense in a way.
{so what's your favorite part about it?}
Well well well, if it isn't the consequences of poor foresight. Thankfully his cover wasn't instantly blown with the startled face he made.
"I thought that was the best part about it too, it's a fitting name for a Pokemon who doesn't quite fit in?" Marcus said semi confidently, his act taking a dive near the tail end of the performance.
{yeah, that is a good reason for sure.} Riolu agreed, nodding shortly before snapping back to a rigid tone and posture. {but what else did you pick out of the name?}
Uh oh.
"Oh, well..I'm sure you already know a few of them by now. You're a clever Riolu after all, letting you figure it out is part of the fun." She probably didn't mean to test him, but hopefully, his facade could hold water after a little prodding. Riolu disappointedly frowned at his response, looking thankfully disappointed instead of skeptical.
Looking past Riolu to Rose, Marcus noticed she didn't look very expressive either; apparently deciding to maintain only one as she watched the situation unfold. He knew she was perfectly okay, but just how easily he was getting away with this was unbelievable to her too it appeared.
{Either way, Rue is better than a pun. Let's give it a shot.} Rio-...Rue? Hesitantly said while tilting her head away, the smallest of smiles finally breaking through that indifferent demeanor she presented at all other times.
Wait... Rue the Riolu, Rio-Rue.
Hoo boy. Even Marcus figuratively kicked himself for thinking up something that bad. For Arceus's sake, the pokemon had just chosen a name for herself, and he now knew it was a big deal despite her amazing job of hiding it. He couldn't even begin to imagine how much damage immediately betraying her trust with a pun would be, but he knew it would be potentially devastating. The last thing he wanted to have happen would be her rue-ing the day that-
Why.
Without planning to, Marcus literally kicked himself that time, knowing damn well that someone had to. Sure, maybe down the line he could joke about her name and share a laugh in good fun, but 'there was a time and place for everything, and right now was certainly not it.'
Huh.. did Professor Hazel just say something?
{is..something wrong?} Riolu slowly asked catching him off guard as he payed attention again, seeing Rue look up at him with an uneasy frown. Having Riolu be expressive was a rare enough sight as is, but watching her uncomfortably teeter side to side in an uncomfortably apprehensive posture was definitely more foreign to Marcus than anything else he'd seen so far out of her.
"No, not at all." Marcus semi-convincingly lied, having only Rose stare him down skeptically. "I think it's a great name..." He paused for effect. "...Rue."
Whether or not she was trying to hide her emotions previously or not, it didn't matter as this time something new was noticed. In her face, you saw the unwavering statuesque expression that Marcus had become familiar with. She played her cards close to her chest in that aspect. Her tail however only needed to give a few unintentional flicks left and right for Marcus to tune into how she really felt.
"So you really like it, eh?" Marcus teased, leaning in and grinning widely as the fighting type went rigid, tensing up. Her face quickly scrunched into a frown, apparently not expecting to be caught out so easily.
{It's okay at best.} Rue grumbled, in an awfully defensive manner. {it isnt a pun at the very least, and that was basically my only request.} Marcus leaned back to a more normal sitting position, sharing a knowing look with Rose who also figured it out.
"You know, you're not a good liar..." Marcus continued to tease as he quickly earned a harsh stare-down. "...Rue."
There went the tail again, documenting her feelings with far more accuracy than she may have intended.
{what's your game?} Riolu cautiously asked, giving Marcus an intense amount of scrutiny while she physically grabbed her tail preemptively. {if we're going to give that name a shot, why are you repeating it so much? Trying to wear it out?}
If you listened to just her voice, it wouldn't sound like she was pleased with the outcome they came to, but luckily for Marcus, her other unintentional tells were far more readable.
"Oh, you know.." Marcus began, rubbing the top of her head once and narrowly dodging a reactionary swipe at his hand. "just trying to let you know I know you know how much I know you know you like the name."
Riolu opened her mouth slightly as if to try and respond, but found herself unable to speak. Not for any reason besides-
{wait wait wait.} Rose stated aloud and interrupting whatever it was Marcus had been thinking. The dragon-type began counting on her fingers and muttering to herself, doubling back a time or two. {is..that even right?}
{I think-} Riolu confidently said at first, finding herself shutting her mouth soon after as well. Similar to Rose, she began speaking under her breath. {well, I'm not actually sure, but I know it's redundant.}
"You're missing the point." He reminded, Sighing and face palming. "Lesson learned, never try to be funny ever again."
Rose might have been content with just rolling her eyes at his comment, but Rue had a strange look on her face. She would go from smiling to looking lost in thought, back to smiling on repeat. Marcus had zero clue what she'd been thinking, but it was obvious that gears were turning in her head. Eventually, Rue opened her mouth to speak but quickly cut herself off before returning to being deep in thought again. Whatever she had to say was firmly stuck on the tip of her tongue.
"Need something?" Marcus asked, looking intently at the Riolu who figuratively jumped in shock, returning to the conversation. She went quiet once again, making an 'ehhh' noise as she continued debating whether or not to say something. The fighting type cleared her throat, swallowing loudly and tapping her foot in anticipation.
{Well..first you'd have to say something funny.} Rue...joked? It was hard to tell, but the strained sound she was making was almost like what you would call laughter. The laughter certainly didn't sound very natural coming from the Riolu, but that was a given, all things considered.
At least, thats what Marcus thought had been laughter. Both the joke she made and the snickering sound she emitted felt very much...off. Her delivery was just a little dry, but more importantly, that laugh sounded completely forced. It was almost as if she lacked small bits and pieces of humor itself.
Quickly noticing she had been left alone in the spotlight, Rue shut her mouth and went quiet again.
"Sorry if we got a little quiet, even Rose is still reeling after that came out of left field." He pointed at her with an outstretched hand pointlessly, the blind Pokemon not reacting at all to his gesture. "It's great to hear you laughing with us." Marcus quickly reassured with a smile, unable to help it. "We're going with Rue right? I need to know who to call the next time she gets too yappy."
The fighting type paused, needing very little time to reconsider before she confidently nodded She already had reverted back to the silent demeanor she had before, but it looked like the Riolu stood a little taller than before, the smallest of smiles on her rain dampened face.
{Marcus, I hear something} Rose urgently whispered in a hushed tone as she peeked outside of their little alcove.
It took Marcus a full second or two to register that she was being serious.
Quickly joining Rose without any further hesitation, and using their natural shelter as cover as well, he listened out for whatever might've put Rose on edge. Rue felt the sense of urgency too, and almost accidentally stepped out into the open because of it. It wasn't her fault she was blind, she didnt seem to resist either.
He knew better than to try and peek out to sneak a glance, but not knowing anything about who or what this thing was didn't feel like a smart move either.
"Hello? Is anybody there?"
It was hard to tell just how close whoever this was happened to be, but it was clearly a guy's voice. Older than Marcus for sure, but beyond that not much else he could assume.
His pokemon made their own assumptions from what Marcus saw. Rose in particular looked primed to make some sort of move. Between the pitter-patter of the rain and the thunder that loved to not be forgotten, it became impossible to know how close they were, hopefully, they were just passing by and didn't mean any trouble. Marcus didn't want to consider if they'd been followed or what that meant.
Time went on as Marcus waited and listened, hearing heavy foot steps trudge through the mud; inching closer with every passing second. Whoever this guy was, they sounded like they were alone. Perhaps he was just a concerned hiker who caught wind of him being here from a distance.
"Are you sure you heard right? I'm telling you there's no way anyone would be dumb enough to stay out here"
There was a second person? Worse, they knew about the group being here.
Eyes widening with his heart beginning to pound, Marcus slid against the stone wall silently, stepping over Rue and trying to get a peek around the other side while crouched. The last thing he wanted was to get surrounded, but because nobody had looked it might've been too-
Slowly sliding his head around the corner, Marcus's wary eyes met another set the moment he passed over its bumpy edge. Marcus didn't have a chance for reacting to even cross his mind before the pair of eyes suddenly got a lot more zoomed in.
Oh, and Marcus felt himself tumbling towards the ground from a large force shoving him down firmly.
Marcus didn't appreciate the air getting knocked out of him, but at least the backpack broke his fall. With his arms pinned by what felt like a pile of bricks, his only option was to try and roll away to buy time for his pokemon to-
Marcus flinched as he felt something squishy and wet run up his face. Initially revolted, fearful curiosity switched seats with fight or flight as he looked up a what the hell just touched him.
Only to see a large dog practically sitting on his chest, staring down at him with a happy expression.
Taken aback, Marcus slowly turned his head with a confused frown on his face, keeping eye contact with the pokemon for as long as he could while looking to his own companions. They happened to be sporting the same look as he did, more confused than threatened.
"Stoutland, No!" Hearing their commotion and turning the corner, Marcus watched a young-ish-looking trainer turn the corner, looking disappointed as if expecting this to happen. "We talked about this, we have to help them before we play."
Stoutland's eager expression disappeared immediately as a large tuft of fur descended over its eyes; creating hard shadows that hid the top half of its face. The large dog held this resolute face, staring down at Marcus for a few seconds longer before moving to get off him.
Looking down, Marcus got a full view of just how much hair had been left on him. It was an..interesting mixture of off-white, grey, and blue dog hair.
{you smell like a wet dog.} Rose commented, sniffing the air once and laughing to herself. {can't say it's worse than what you had before, all things considered.} Marcus couldn't help but chuckle when Rue held up an arm and sniffed herself after the 'wet dog' comment.
{Yes.} Rose preemptively interjected, not even allowing the Riolu a chance to ask the question. {No offense.}
The adamant face of the stoutland disappeared once more as he noticed the riolu, eyes once again becoming visible from under their furry shroud.
Poor Rue wouldn't even get a chance to see her turn at getting pounced on coming before it was too late.
"Ah ah ah!" The trainer quickly snapped, getting the large dog's attention just as the pokemon 'bowed' in a stereotypical playful stance. "Pokemon count as things to save too, Stoutland. You know that."
An exact copy of its shadowy resolute expression from earlier returned, fur once again shrouding its eyes. The Stoutland looked absolutely devastated, going 0 for 2.
"Sorry about that, Stoutland can be a little friendly with new people." Putting out a hand to help Marcus up, Marcus gladly took it, getting himself off the ground for the n-th time in recent history. The motion turned into a wary handshake as Marcus continued to try and follow along with whatever had been happening.
Seeing Marcus's hesitation, the man reached a hand into his pocket to pull out a card of some sort. A passing glance revealed it to clearly be a ranger badge with a picture of the man and a significantly smaller-looking dog pokemon sitting half in frame with him trying to force a straight face.
"So not even rangers get re-shoots, eh?" Marcus joked, lightening the mood as the supposedly only slightly older guy shook his head with a chuckle.
"No, nobody gets that sort of high-class treatment." He replied, putting the badge back into his large jacket. "I wouldn't have it any other way though." Marcus nodded understandingly.
"So..." the young ranger said, clicking his tongue several times before raising his arms in a shrug. "I'm paid to be out in this miserable mess, but why are you out here?" Marcus gave a shrug of his own.
"I'm trying to change that if you have any ideas." Rose silently nodded several times in agreement, but Rue frowned at him for pulling what humans call a 'politicians response.'
"Well, you're just in luck. I've always got plenty of ideas." The ranger positively responded, following the briefest of squints at Marcus. "Although the only good one is getting into town, there was never any guarantee of them all being good."
"Well, thanks. I'm usually in a similar boat." Marcus admitted, making the young man laugh.
"Just cause we have an ocean falling on us doesn't mean you need a boat. That explains how you got so lost." The ranger tried to start laughing again, but a paw on his shoulder stopped him in his tracks. Despite laughing seconds earlier, the pokemon expectantly frowned at him while mumbling in a mocking tone.
"Okay, okay. Yeah, 'save them first.' I get it." He grumbled, rolling his eyes and petting the top of the Stoutlands head as the pokemon leaned into it. "At least my joking around hasnt nearly broken someone else's ribs."
Marcus shot a worried frown to Rose who also looked pretty standoffish about that last little detail.
The ranger turned back around to see a human and pokemon sharing minor concern on their face. "That's a joke." He nervously chuckled, scratching where his collarbone was for some reason.
Needless to say, they were thoroughly convinced.
"Mind the clutter, there's.. well I think there are important papers in here somewhere."
When Marcus saw the outline of a truck down the hill they had rested on, the relief he felt was indescribable. When Marcus saw in the truck, the reaction he had was indescribable as well.
Stacks upon stacks of cardboard boxes lined the back seats of the truck, the odd backpack or sleeping bag buried under the mountain of loosely organized paper. The back seats were basically nonexistent, but the front seats were spotless spare the occasional vibrantly colored hair on the passenger seat.
There was a noise followed by a flash as Marcus turned to watch the ranger put a shrunk pokeball into his coat pocket.
"He'll be unhappy that he cant sit in the front seat, but oh well." He said, unlocking the doors and hopping into the driver's seat as Marcus opened the door and pulled himself into a seat that was noticeably higher than the driver's. Faint paw prints and the occasional scratches were visible all over this quarter of the cab.
{ahem.} A certain dragon type coughed, grabbing his attention {what about us?} Rose stared at him expectantly, pointing a hand between her and Rue repeatedly.
"Uhhh." Looking up from them and turning to look over his back, he saw the ranger staring at him confused.
{what's the holdup?} Rose continued, looking at him expectantly with an arched eyebrow. She raised a hand up toward him, unable to reach the truck. Marcus gave one last look over to the ranger who stared at him quizzically. It was likely that he was thinking a similar question to what Rose had just asked.
The easiest sounding option was to simply pull them up and have them sit on his lap; however, having carried both of them, that was around a hundred pounds of pokemon to handle. Depending on how long the ride was, that didn't necessarily sound like a lot of fun.
"Is it a long ride to town?" Marcus asked, absentmindedly shooing away Rose's grabby hands for a second.
"Nah, just about a half-hour or so to make it to town." He responded, tapping the steering wheel as he drummed his fingers on it. "Why? I can't imagine you'd have anywhere to be if you were out here of all places."
"Oh no, it's not that, just wondering about what to do with my pokemon is all." The Ranger shot him an odd look, Marcus knowing this didn't sound like much of a problem to him at all.
"Well, it'd be nice if you returned them, that's what most trainers would do." He chuckled, shaking his head to himself with a small smile as he shuffled some goods around.
Slowly turning his head downwards towards his pokemon, Marcus saw the terribly unimpressed glower of Rose staring right back at him, tapping her foot either impatiently or nervously. She stared him up and down with a general look of disappointment, the kind that wasn't aimed at anything or anyone. Rue looked let down, sure, but not as torn up over the idea as Rose.
Receiving an understanding nod from Rue, Marcus dug her pokeball out and returned her on the spot. With Rue's gone, Rose sighed to herself with a scowl growing remaining a constant on her face. She looked upset, disturbed, and maybe even a little perturbed by what was about to happen to her. It was a travesty! -or something.
{I'm gonna throw a fit.} Rose grumbled in a half warning, pouting with a cartoonishly unwavering frown once again. {fine, let's just get it over wit-}
She didn't have a chance to finish as Marcus returned her. She could be flippant on some things, and luckily she accepted being returned. He didn't want to give her a chance to flip back to normal. Giving one last look at the ball, Marcus slipped it into his left pocket and closed the door.
"Well, let's get going then." The Ranger warmly said, shifting out of park and starting to roll down the narrow paths of the forest.
"First time?" The uniformed guy said, making Marcus look up from his sightseeing to stare at him quizzically. "Returning your Pokemon, I mean."
"Sort of? Yeah." Marcus plainly responded, watching streaks of rain roll down the window once again while the ranger nodded slowly.
"I'm guessing the little one preferred being out of the ball?" He asked, turning slightly to avoid a rock on the trail. Despite only being a slight turn, Marcus felt the contents of his pocket lurch around. Marcus nodded.
"Yeah, she really hates the idea." Marcus watched as several pokemon passed by in the background. "This is the first time I've had them actually returned since I started the journey."
The Ranger took his eyes off the road to give Marcus a look of disbelief. The skeptical stare down only lasted a second before he had to look back up to the road. "It's only been less than a week, not that big of a deal." Marcus clarified.
"Not that big of a deal?" The ranger asked, looking up from the road again. "'Only been?!'" he continued, driving without looking for a concerning several seconds.
"So you're telling me you already have that good of a relationship with your pokemon despite it being less than a week since you got them?" Slowly turning his head back to the road, the ranger subtly shook his head in disbelief. "No, you had to have had them before your journey started, there is no way you are that in tune with them in less than seven days."
"It's closer to four or five days, but that's when I got my first pokemon." It sounded like the guy had been talking to himself almost, but Marcus responded anyways. This time, he didn't even look up from the road and chuckled while sighing.
The cab went quiet for a long seven seconds.
"Y'know." He began, chuckling again. "That sounds impossible, five days to get to the understanding stage, but I get the feeling you aren't lying."
It was here that Marcus realized that maybe talking about how he 'understands' his pokemon was a bad idea. He mentally kicked himself but tried not to show it.
"Oh, don't feel like I'm accusing you of something negative, I'm not." The ranger quickly reaffirmed, making Marcus kick himself again for being too much of an open book. "It can take first-time trainers months or even years to even simply realize that they are just as smart as you or me. To realize that they see the world just like any other person would."
For someone who wasnt cheating with the whole actually understanding pokemon ability, this one appeared to know quite a lot about pokemon intelligence.
"It took me and Es-" he paused for a second, looking down at something on his dash. "-Stoutland several months to get to where we are with jokes. I still can't understand most of what he tries to tell me, but I can pick up minor bits and pieces."
Marcus nodded, noticing two small pictures on his dash. One was of a very young vaguely similar looking kid and some sort of pink pokemon and the other photo was of a much more recent looking ranger with his trusty familiar Stoutland.
"But now you're running into the opposite problem that most trainers have." He then passed the more recent small photo to Marcus, seeing that he noticed it. "We both let our pokemon have a little too much say in what does or doesn't happen." Marcus looked up from the photo to see the ranger staring at him again. "Many trainers forget their pokemon are intelligent, but I get the feeling that you, just like me, sometimes forget that humans and pokemon arent the same with everything.
Marcus didn't have any semblance of a clue how this had become a 'teaching moment' but here they were.
"I'm not saying you have a problem with it right now, I'm just warning you to keep in mind who is the leader. There is nothing we as a human can physically do to dissuade a pokemon if they have their mind set on something. We simply are not nearly as strong as they can get." The trainer then put a hand on his shoulder, keeping Marcus's attention. "They might not always resort to violence specifically, but never underestimate them. Don't ever let them walk all over you or completely disregard your authority. Humans using power to abuse pokemon is a lot more common than anyone wants it to be, but when the pokemon decides it has its mind set on something..."
The ranger went quiet, noticing how off put Marcus was by how the conversation turned.
"I think you're smart enough to avoid something like that with ease. I just would hate to see someone who clearly has an affinity for pokemon end up in a tough spot with no good option." The tone he used was much less serious now, akin to the joking one that had been used earlier. "A little precautionary advice goes a long way, after all." Marcus nodded understandingly but had something catch his attention in the corner of his eye.
"Speaking of precautions, look at that!" Marcus worriedly replied, pointing and watching the distinct silhouette of a tree grow larger and larger as they nearly hit it head on. The driver quickly swerved out of the way with very little breathing room as brakes squealed, leaving both trainers wide-eyed and breathing heavily as they wordlessly refused to take their eyes off the road from there on out.
"Tell 'em Dave says hi!" The ranger supposedly named Dave said, looking out to Marcus as he held onto the door and paused before shutting it.
"Wait, your name's Dave?" Marcus asked. "And tell who?" Curious disbelief took over as Marcus wondered why this had never been mentioned previously.
"You literally looked at my badge, I'm not sure what else to tell you."The ranger replied, chuckling and releasing his Stoutland into the now vacant passenger seat. "You'll figure it out, see ya!"
With that all said and done, Dave began to slowly drive off while Stoutland pulled the door shut with a paw. Just as Marcus turned away, he heard the distinct sound of a motorized window rolling down with the expected distinct noise of progressively muffled complaining following.
At least Marcus didn't have to worry about being the one who made the seats soggy as he saw a furry head poke out of the passenger window. Marcus couldn't help but smile at the irony of the situation. Perhaps 'precautions' often come from a place of experience.
With them gone, Marcus took a look around where he had been dropped off.
...
Do all of these towns look the same?
The place was tiny. Hardly a town by any definition. It had a pokemon center, a small store, several houses, and large one story buildings as well as distant warehouses that were divided by a set of railroad tracks bisecting the 'town.' Nothing else really as far as he could see.
From what he was told, this was main street.
Yikes. This was almost worse than back home.
Realizing he was standing in the rain aimlessly looking around like a lost idiot, Marcus figured that he should work on fixing at least one of those things. A pokemon center should have a map or directions of some sort, for sure.
Crossing the street of the eerily silent town and looking both ways for nonexistent cars, he approached the sliding doors of the warmly lit orange building.
Moments after the traditionally tranquil building's opaque glass doors opened themselves, Marcus was greeted with a lot of commotion; the building's lobby was packed with all sorts of trainers, but none were quite as damp as he was. His sudden appearance in the oddly bustling building practically went unnoticed as he was simply just another trainer joining the crowd.
Shrugging to himself, Marcus reached into a pocket and proceeded to release both of his pokemon, earning a few curious looks as a few of the nearby trainers instinctually gave them a bit of their attention. With the white flash dissipating and revealing a soggy Riolu and muddy Gible, Marcus couldn't help but feel as if he passed the test as he saw a trainer or two nod before losing interest once more.
{whoa!} Rose recoiled, taking a good look around at all the surrounding trainers with a strangely sour look before speaking again. {See, this is what I hate about the pokeball. I never get a chance to know ANY of the context!} She complained, waving a hand sideways across the room in a frustrated sweeping gesture.
Rue, meanwhile, stood still without much of a reaction. Instead, she appeared to be listening to several conversations as her small pointed ears twitched towards multiple angles reflexively as he walked past.
"Trust me, I don't know any more than you do." Marcus replied, making a move towards the front desk. "Just follow along and I'm sure we'll get some answers." He made sure to keep an eye on his two following pokemon as they waded through the maze of trainers.
There were two staff members at the reception desk, one seated, one standing and moving some sort of cart around. The one who was sitting appeared to be a distinctly young looking 'Nurse Joy,' but that unique get-up was all you ever needed to see to know. The other one was a lean older man in a clean white uniform with clear black framed glasses. Every now and again the Nurse Joy would look up and say something to the man who typically responded very quickly with a nod or a shake of the head. Both looked quite tired and very stressed.
"Just like when we made the announcement two minutes ago, our bedrooms are at capacity." The male doctor strenuously said in a tone on the cusp of agitation. "You'll have to work out the sleeping situation with the rest of em."
Nurse joy, the only one of the two who had been looking up from their work, blinked slowly with a curious expression at the soggy trainer who was Marcus.
"Sir, I believe this is a new face." Nurse joy quaintly stated, squinting at Marcus before peeking over to look down at one of the pokemon who stared right back at her. "Told you the door opened a second ago."
"What?" The uniformed staff member mouthed, the sound barely escaping his mouth. "That's not possible, I told you we've seen everyone that-"
The instant he looked up from his forms and made eye contact with what was, as Nurse joy had said, a new face, Marcus watched an odd sort of confusion make itself visible. It was almost as if he'd seen a legendary or something with how surprised he was to go from a scornful scowl to raised eyebrows.
"Guess you lost that bet, huh?" Nurse joy taunted. "I told you there was a chance more trainers were out there."
The scorn ridden expression the man held returned as he shot an unenthused glance her way before looking Marcus up and down before putting on the expected warm professional attitude.
"Well, sorry about starting off on the wrong foot, friend. For the past two days, we've been consistently asked about room availability despite announcing several times that we're full." He barely even sounded like the same person anymore with how warm the tone he used was. "How might we help you?"
"Well, I was sort of wondering about what was going on here." Marcus said, taking a look back over to gauge the crowd. Two days and people still haven't worked out where to sleep?
"Ah, of course." The man coldly said, also taking a look over to the crowd with a clearly different opinion on it. "Well, we had a surge of treasure hunters all decide to come to the middle of nowhere, get blocked from entering a dangerous abandoned tunnel, and then proceed to get locked in here by the storm outside. The only thing keeping the lights on is a backup generator, and the phone lines are down as well."
"Oh, you guys lost power too?" Marcus asked a little too skeptically, having seen the entirely optional lights on outside the building as well. The only reason he even knew to be suspicious was because he already knew all about the mega stone coverup happening in that 'abandoned tunnel.' The man caught on to Marcus's unintentional skepticism and squinted for a brief second before donning the corporate mask again.
"Yep, thankfully the league's rapid response program arrived to help give support. Thanks to them we have enough supplies for the unexpected weather." He answered, clearing up the loose ends for anyone who didn't know what Marcus did. It was clear this guy knew what was going on, Nurse joy? Not so much.
"Well, that's good. Glad to know we can rely on them." Marcus lied, watching a flash of relief spread across the staff member's face as it returned to the corporate act. "So, are there any inns or hotels or anything else in the area? It doesn't exactly look like you have much room from what I can see."
"Oh, and this is just the lobby." Nurse joy said, jumping in as the tension left. "This isn't even half of who's packed in here, most of them are either in the sanctuary playing with pokemon or placing bets in the arena." Marcus chuckled.
"And I'm sure having everyone packed like sardines and gambling is going well for keeping it civil?" Marcus realized that he had to of hit the nail on the head as an Audino pushing a cart with 6 pokeballs on it led a very upset looking trainer towards another room.
"Well, I was going to try and deny it." Nurse joy meekly said, defeated before the battle even started. "Yeah, we'd be the real winners of this gambling scene if we charged anything for healing." Another trainer holding a knocked out tepig went in the same direction as the last trainer. "We have the rangers stop by if anything gets too out of hand." Oh. Right.
"Dave says hi by the way," Marcus said as he watched the Nurse's eyes immediately light up. The man rolled his eyes and muttered something like 'here we go again.'
"Ohh, you know Dave then?" She cheerily asked, happily sighing and shaking her head slowly. "How do you two know each other, old classmates?"
"Nope, not at all. I just met him less than a half hour or so ago." Marcus explained, with Nurse Joy nodding understandingly. "Nice guy though, certainly has fun with his work."
"That's the truth, never a normal day on the job with him around." Nurse joy closed up the paperwork she had and tucked it away, giving the conversation her undivided attention. "I joined up right alongside him and got luckily got placed in the exact same area. Sure it's been a tough few days learning everything on short notice, but I'm glad work didn't split us apart." Nurse joy then looked left and right before leaning in and motioning Marcus to do the same.
Marcus, who had been getting bounced around in this conversation, had no idea where this was going, but hesitantly leaned in anyways.
"Now, I didn't tell you this..." She said, looking over Marcus's shoulder again for any potential eavesdroppers. "-But there is another spot you can go to get a good place to rest."
Now, this was valuable information.
Also cryptic and just a little vague.
"You'll head south out of town and take the third path on the right-hand side. Follow that road till you get to the house. You'll know it when you see it." Marcus took mental note of the directions but felt like there was some sort of bad deal with trusting suspicious acting strangers so heavily.
"It's a Daycare slash Ranch place that Dave's family owns." She explained, rolling her eyes following Marcus's suspicious look. "They don't have many spare rooms, but they told us they'd be willing to help friends or family."
"So how do you know about it then? Aren't you just coworkers?" Marcus asked, still not able to put two and two together as the Nurse basically spelled it out with a smug coy grin.
Well.. he might have put two and two together. Regardless of either option, his current running answer was five. Rose facepalmed.
{I'll tell you when you're older.} The dragon type sighed, sounding like she was..mothering him?
"Heyy, now what's that supposed to mean?" Marcus accusingly whined, looking between both of them for several seconds which caused both to roll their eyes disappointedly.
"Did you..?" The older man croaked, clearing his throat and staring down both Marcus and his pokemon Rose with an unblinking gaze. Marcus hoped his unintentional gulp wasn't any more damning than openly responding to his pokemon.
"Hmm?" Marcus hummed, pretending to have zero clue. "Did I what?" Marcus chose to match the stare he got with the most genuinely curious look he could muster on the spot.
This went on for a few seconds until the staff member, finally blinked, smiling in a very corporate manner again. "Never mind, have a great day, Mr.-" the man left the blank open, rolling his hand in a circle.
"You can just call me Marcus." He firmly responded in as polite of a manner as you can. " Take care now. I'd say 'see you soon,' but as hospital, I'm not sure that's a good thing to say!" Marcus walked backward away from the desk, making a noise to get Rue's attention after seeing she spaced out again. Nurse joy shook her head disappointedly at his joke.
"You're sure Dave didn't go to school with you? Take care!" The Nurse waved, sighing as she watched another trainer with a rolled sleeping bag under his arm approach and ask if they had a room available.
"Jenna, could you please pull up the camera footage from the last half hour or so?" The director said, eyes still tracking Marcus as he left. "Oh, and mark down Marcus's name for when I get back too? Thank you."
"Alright?" Nurse joy slowly responded, unsure of why he needed those specific things, but doing it regardless. "I'll make sure Marcus's name gets marked down." She added, scrawling a note for later before pausing mid-task.
"Mark down Marcus.." she repeated, tapping her pen to her chin, echoing the man's request and looking up to him with a growing smile. "You know, that's almost funny. You meant to make a pun, right?"
The director rolled his eyes and grudgingly nodded, grumbling to himself and adjusting his glasses before speaking once more.
"Well, I don't usually make jokes," he sighed, "but it helps when it seems that something fishy is going on."
Nurse joy frowned, not quite picking up what he was getting at, but shrugging regardless.
{Are we there yet?} Rose 'enthusiastically' asked in a very obnoxious over-the-top way. You didn't have to ask her twice, she was just as fed up with the rain like everyone else. She knew she had boasted earlier about not being affected, but the last thing she wanted was to get sick in this cold. She was already sick of it.
It took her a second to notice, but Marcus had started to slowly stare her down with a cautionary squint, reading into her much like an opposing pokemon would in a battle. She wasn't sure what specifically made that comparison feel appropriate, but it caught Rose off guard regardless. Shutting her mouth and hiding her anticipatory smile, Rose put on a convincingly naive look as Marcus stared her down with an unwavering glare. As she expected, his scrutinizing stare didn't last very long, but he still didn't look exactly convinced by her.
"Yeah, almost." He casually said, sounding much less suspicious of her than he still looked. Marcus glanced down from the path and once again trained his eyes on Rose. "What's with the face? Did I say something funny?" He might've been asking, but looks proved he was far from genuine. That made two of them.
{what? Nothing. You're just..} She trailed off, eyes rolling off to the right as she pretended to fish for a suitable word. {-odd, to say the least.} she concluded, holding in a laugh as her trainer clearly disagreed with 'such accusations!'
"Hey now, what's that supposed to mean?" He barked defensively, Rose frowned with a subtle head shake, going all-in on the act. "Oh, come on. I thought you were going to repeat it again and again; like they always do." In response, Rose adorned the naive curious look once again, keeping a chokehold on Marcus's attention as he walked sideways down the path, visibly irked by her antics.
"Don't give me that look, I know how you can be, Rose. You know exactly what I'm talking about and we both know it." Marcus accused, pointing a knowing finger at her as she took her turn to look insulted by 'such accusations!' She'd say it was convincing. save for the small minor added detail of an especially wide and devious toothy smirk. She watched him receive his definitive answer, seeing Marcus roll his eyes and shake his head, frustratedly. She smiled at her handiwork, watching him kick a small rock down the path again as he grumbled to himself about 'why he even bothers.'
Rose was going to rub her sweet victory in just a bit more, but something debatably more important caught her attention in the corner of her view. A tallish-looking building had just started to come into view of the small dragon type. Two of them actually. The first one on the left was already completely visible, but the one on the right never seemed to stop coming into view. Just when you would have expected the 'house' to end, it just kept growing more and more.
{Wow. So that's where we're sleeping.} Rose mumbled, thinking aloud as she gawked at its scale {I don't think I've seen a house so big.}
She had a point. Even if agreeing with her wasn't high on the priority list just this minute. This was more of a mansion than a house by any definition Marcus knew of. Despite being on the edge of a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, it was a very large, but more notably, modern-looking home. Faintly similar to what you would see in the cookie-cutter homes of suburbs, Marcus knew by experience that this home had a lot more personal touches. It felt uniquely organic, and fitting for what it was and tried to be.
With a large, boxy, metal shop-like garage on the left and a..well, massive drowning garden on the right, this place somehow struck the perfect balance of appearing distinct, but not feeling out of place. The home itself was built on a hill, meaning the back half appeared to have two floors while the front only had one. Marcus couldn't see very well beyond the hill the house was on, but he could tell there was something back there.
{well, now that's just great timing.} Rose commented, nodding to herself with a relieved sigh. {hey Marcus, isn't it kind of wacky that we arrived before I could ask 'if we were there yet' again?} Marcus tried not to give her the reaction she wanted, putting on his best Rue impression as he ignored her. {Like, shoot.} Rose somehow snapped with her clawed fingers, knowing just how ""wacky"" that was. {what a shame. Guess I'll save it for next time.}
Marcus could care less about anythung that she had just said. That wasnt to be rude or anything, he was just too fixated on the fact that a Pokemon just snapped its fingers at him with its very non human hands.
"Hey, Rue guess what we arrived!" Marcus loudly announced in a singular continuous stream, trying not to think too hard on the snapping ordeal. "Isn't that great? It's great let's go inside."
{that is...great?} Rue slowly said. She was agreeing, but took a few precautionary steps away from Marcus before continuing to walk parallel to him.
{I sure am glad us three get along so well.} Rose eventually said, sounding genuine for the first time this hour as she sighed contently. {Oh, and Marcus. I'm being honest that time. No gym badges needed for that.}
"I'm not that dumb." Marcus retorted, still a little sour on the topic. He knew she had a devious little grin, he didnt even have to think about looking at her to know.
It was at this moment that Marcus stumbled upon a devious plan. Something that could wipe the board clean and give Marcus a victory.
"I enjoy Rue's company a lot, she's the real heart of the team at this point." Ironically, Rue didn't outwardly react too much, other than stopping in place to stare at him inquisitively. However, Marcus was a little busy as he watched Rose's expected theatrics.
She stopped waking with a dramatic gasp, frowning and making eye contact with Marcus before clutching a clawed hand to her heart with an 'urk' sound. Rise tried to appear truly hurt as she dramatically dropped to her knees in defeat, a pained expression on her face. When she fell to the ground, her mouth hung agape in anguish. Her eyes wide and fluttering with a thousand yard stare; the ultimate depiction of a betrayal on the silver screen.
Marcus made sure Rose saw how regretfully amused Marcus was when she peeked with one eye to get a look up at his reaction.
{whats, uhh.} Rue half-asked, blinking several times and feeling around for where Rose was, nearly tripping over her. {Do I want to know?}
"Probably not, no." Macus admitted.
{I'd rather not explain myself if I'm being honest.} Rose replied, opening up a single eye again to look and respond before playing dead again. Marcus rolled his eyes.
"You done yet?" Marcus poked the 'tragically betrayed pokemon' with his foot, watching Rose play dead again. "Look, this audience member is wondering when the intermission is scheduled so he can go use the bathroom." Still laying on the ground, Rose crossed her little arms and mulled over his words for a moment.
{okay, I really can't argue with the 'audience' if I'm committing to this.} Rose replied, standing up and taking half the ground with her. She wiped some of the mud off her face, noticing the disappointed look in his eyes. {What?}
"Jeez, Rose." Marcus said, gesturing to the small ground type while laughing. "You need a bath now, was the theatrics really needed?" Rose smirked, wiping more of the mud off.
{yes.} She happily replied, sticking her chin up. {attendance is both free and mandatory, but consequences are always an option as well. You're free to attend or not, it's not my fault if bad things happen.} Marcus rolled his eyes.
"Consequences?" Marcus haughtily replied, earning Rose's scornful glare. "What's the worst you can do."
The Gible arched an eyebrow, staring at him for several seconds before opening her muddy arms up for a threatening 'hug' standing right next to his not-muddy legs. Marcus squinted defiantly. "These pants are practically ruined anyways, how is that a threat?"
Somehow more ominous than any sort of verbal retort, the Gible slowly developed an uncomfortably large toothy smile. Marcus frowned curiously, trying to figure out what diabolical plans the devious dragon type could have devised. {I know where you sleep.}
"I could always fix that." Marcus offered, patting his pocket. Rose mischievously chuckled, her smile growing again. {it'd be too late.}
{what are we even talking about now?} Rue interrupted seriously, a frustrated sort of look about her. Both Marcus and Rose looked up from their mock debate and blinked silently at the Riolu. {first Rose trips, now you're threatening each other?} she asked genuinely, sounding firmly serious in her inquiry and apparently missing some important queues.
Marcus kept his snickering to a non-existent minimum, not wanting to make Rue feel more left out than she already was. Rose had no qualms with letting it all our though, even snorting a couple of times in her poorly contained laughter
{laughter. Hmmm.} she said aloud, stroking her chin with a paw. {this is somehow a joke then? Is that why you didn't want to explain it?} Rue asked crossing her arms while Rose continued barely contain herself.
{sort of? It's a little tough to explain.} Rose said between laughs, looking to Marcus for help in teaching Rue the subtleties of how normal, healthy, and more importantly, funny it was to pretend they were fighting for the heck of it. Marcus had an unexpected surprise in store for her, however, finally getting to reusing one of Rose's world-famous silent uncomfortable grins. The best part was that Rose didn't even seem to fight his response too much. She looked disappointed but apparently accepted this fate.
{I'll explain it later. Or at least try to.} Rose paused, turning to look back at Marcus. {he'll help.}
"Solid maybe. Better question though, are we ever going to get inside?" Marcus quickly added, cutting off any further discussion and ushering his pokemon towards the front door of what could be seen as both a facility and a home judging by outward appearances. Marcus didn't care, the sun was going down and any sort of bed was all he wanted.
Neither Marcus, not Rose were paying enough attention to the house to notice, but they had indeed been being watched through one of the many curtained windows on the ground level. While they playfully fought amongst each other in the rain, someone else was making their own judgments based on outward appearances.
A trainer and Riolu quickly entered the building, both sighing contently as the refreshing presence of indoor heating graced them. Marcus always loved watching the rain from his window back home, but now after today, he figured that it was perhaps best to leave it as something to watch from indoors. He'd been dripping with anticipation to finally be inside again-
oh wait no, just literally dripping.
Looking down and lifting up his wet shoes to see how much mud he tracked with him, his suspicions were confirmed. Rubbing his feet on the coarse rug at the entryway as best he could, he took his chance to get a good look around at just what sort of building he entered. A heavily disgruntled Rose chose to then join them, falling in line with an annoyed frown and crossed arms.
Formal appearance on the outside, warmly lit rustic appearance on the inside. A carpeted lounge with couches, tables, chairs, and even a genuine fireplace was tucked in there. The rest of the room was a linoleum floor with a splotchy rock-like pattern leading to an..interestingly colored green-carpeted hallway. In the center of the room was what looked like a large wood desk, the left side of which gleamed with the light of the fire.
{Hey, thanks for blasting me the hose back there, Marcus. Very cool.} Rose complained, whipping a hand up and down, trying to dry herself off. {Next time try giving a heads up.}
"I said I was sorry." Marcus apologized with a shrug, still slightly smiling as she brushed past him rolling her eyes. "We had to clean the mud off somehow, who could have known that the pressure would be so high?" She had already left towards the fireplace before he was even done talking.
Rue needed a little help navigating the new environment to do the same, following Marcus's lead.
{Ee, Eevoi!}
{No no no, you buzz of instead. How about that?}
Left confused as he walked past a chair, he noticed that they were not alone in the room. An Eevee must've been laying on the knee-height brick platform on the fireplace, because Marcus didn't see any sign of it earlier. What he did see signs of was arguing, his pokemon and the brown adorable fuzzball clearly locking eyes with hostility.
{Eevee, Eevee!} it yipped, sounding unexpectedly hostile for what Marcus had always figured to be a docile pokemon.
{I could care less about who lives where, fluff butt, do you really think we cant all share?} Rose then gestured towards Marcus, whom the Eevee immediately reacted to. In an instant, it stood up from its perch and perked up noticeably, smiling warmly and wagging its poofy tail, and staring up at him with a gleam in its chestnut eyes.
{Eevee~} it yawned, stretching and acting very much as it it had just woken up. Marcus blinked several times, trying to make sense of any of what had been going on as Rue began..grumbling? Strutting over towards Marcus with a deceptive feeling wide smile, the Eevee brushed up against his leg, looking up at him with a face that demanded attention.
{You can drop the act, he's bound to see through you.} Rose chortled, sighing contently as she took the eevees spot by the fire.
Eevee didn't physically respond to the Gible's provocation, but did verbally. Its wording sounded cutesy, as normal, but something still seemed off to Marcus.
{You can play up your tone all you want, prince charming, you aren't going to win him over and join his team with a lie like that.} Rose replied, staring directly at Marcus and raising her eyebrows on specific words for emphasis. She then jerked her head towards the Eevee, motioning for him to play along.
"Oh, aren't you a cute little guy." Marcus pretended to gush, kneeling down to brush his hand through its invitingly soft fur. The Eevee leaned into this motion, making it abundantly clear that it enjoyed the attention through sounds and how it moved. Marcus knew he saw it shoot a look of superiority to Rose somewhere in there, not quite fully hiding its face.
"I see you've met prince." A voice said, speaking up to Marcus. For a moment, he didn't really worry about that, too caught up in the fact that was his actual name and not just an insult from Rose. "Name's Daniele, but don't mind him, he thinks he owns the place."
Looking up from the Eevee, Marcus saw a woman about the age as his mother standing at the edge of the lounge area. She was dressed fairly casually all things considered, but whether that was standard or due to Marcus's unexpected arrival was unknown. "Sorry to say that the daycare side of things is closed due to the weather. Unless you are here to adopt one of our readily available pokemon, we'll have to ask you to leave." Following just behind the woman was the..uh. Marcus blanked.
Psychic-type Eevee?
He didn't get much a chance to pay it any mind as at the mention of "readily available pokemon." 'Prince' leaned into Marcus's hand, even more, looking up at him with a sparkle in his eyes.
Marcus smiled back, but he didn't feel overjoyed by its presence. Thankfully, Rose wisely warned him of what was really going on. Any other trainer would have probably fallen into the adorable trap.
"Oh, that sounds great, but I was actually told to come here for a place to sleep. Nurse joy sent me." Marcus replied, almost having to forcibly pull his view up. "I'd love to see what sort of pokemon you have though." He didn't look down at the Eevee, but at the edge of his vision, he clearly saw the small docile pokemon flash a glare of murderous intent at him.
He pretended to not notice.
"Well, if she had sent you, you must be important," Daniele said in an unfittingly sour manner, her expression not matching her words at all. She then shook her head and began frowning at the innocent espeon. To say it was an unsettling display was an understatement. "-Or you know dave." She corrected, still in an unsettling way. Marcus instinctually felt the need to keep his distance from someone so emotionally unpredictable. Maybe chancing it at the pokemon center was a good id-
Marcus suddenly felt very put at ease. Oddly so. He wondered why he might've felt so unsettled a moment ago, but nothing the woman had done stuck out as particularly odd.
"Well," Marcus chuckled as if nothing were wring, "I'd like to pretend it's only the first part." This earned a laugh from Daniele and an impatient low grumble from the Eevee who hadn't been given enough attention apparently.
"So, what do you think of him?" Daniele asked, somehow having managed to silently cross the tile floor to stand at a more comfortable talking distance. "He's up for adoption, you know. We have several options here, from Eevee to unique options like zor-" the woman was then interrupted by the espeon who frowned back at her this time.
Speaking of staring..had the espeon always been staring at him so much?
Again... something told Marcus the situation was odd, but all cohesive. Nothing was wrong.
{is there a polite way to say he's an asshole?} Rose joked, not even turning away from the fire as she held her hands out to it, blinking lazily. Marcus rolled his eyes, subtly nodding in agreement.
Unluckily for Marcus, he again noticed that the espeon from earlier had been squinting at him intently again. Right after he'd just listened to Rose. There was no mistaking it with a psychic type, there was zero chance of getting the wrong idea. She clearly must've caught onto the fact that he-
Wait..how di- how did he know that? How did he now know it was called an espeon now? And 'she?' That didn't feel like a stab in the dark or a guess, he had come to that conclusion and was firm about that fact. It was almost as there was someone who told him-
{Marcus, there's something wrong here.} Rue said, rubbing her eyes repeatedly, as she sniffed the air. {Something is..very off about this person.}
"What makes you think that?" Marcus replied, feeling a little dizzy, beginning to sway slightly. Rue clearly was imagining things. There was no headache, all Rue would've had to do was look at Rose who now happily slept in front of the campfire. If there something was wrong, would she be able to so calmly rest?
Marcus didn't dare say anything further. He felt that whatever came out of his mouth had the potential to not be words. Besides, Marcus needs to focus on more pressing matters.
Yeah, wasn't it weird that someone, as wound up as Rose, managed to fall asleep so easily? Sure, she was tired, but wasn't that unreasonable? She was still sitting up even, not slouched at all.
New thought, it sure was a good thing he was just ''almost'' suspicious of what was going on..
Why did that wandering thought feel like a warning-no, a..hint? Was the room always spinning so much?
Clearly, it had to be something important.
Something he must have recognized from earlier told him to stop asking silly questions and refocus. The headaches intensity slightly as something interrupted his train of thought again, almost urging Marcus to look at the Espeon more closely. He tried to do as such, but each time a new force would push him to focus on something different. This lead to his headache intensifying further, now getting the feeling that something had been preventing him from fulfilling the odd 'self mandated' demand.
He only began to feel the slightest bit of concern when he consciously thought the words 'everything is fine' and 'are you sure?' for no tangible reason. There were runaway thoughts, and then there was the unsettling feeling that whatever..this conversation in his head had been giving him. Something funky was going down for sure, but each time he got close, he wasn't able to connect the dots,
Marcus then felt what could only be called second hand frustration. Truly lost as he was tugged between being calm and being suspicious.
The'something'saying these things wasn't home-brewed intuition, duh, Marcus. He suddenly came to a realization, spontaneously landing on the right answer. His demeanor went serious as he realized what that exactly meant for the eapeon here. The dots he was now connecting were borderline scary, but the most frightening part was that he only just now figured it out on his own.
Now learning he was finally able to get a tug of war free look at the Espeon, he began turning his head to face her with an already prepped frown.
Instead of the expected reaction to being caught out, the Espeon reacted in a completely unexpected way. In a mixture between intense curiosity and immense shock, the psychic pokemon was now silently staring at him with widened inquisitive eyes. The pokemon also looked..impressed? Afraid? Slowly and cautiously closing the distance Marcus with a confounded unwavering stare and making Marcus feel like something on display for study.
[where...is your psychic type?] a smooth new voice said in his head. Marcus frowned to himself, wondering why such a random question came up. [You have to have one to pull off what just happened, where is-]
"Espi! Jester! What did I say about using your abilities on visitors!" A new voice scolded, turning the corner and making both the eevee and the woman jump in surprise. Her voice was definitely familiar, but he couldn't place where he'd-
Looking up to see who had been coming, he discovered something even more confusing.
There were two of her.
Marcus looked upwards and visibly recoiled, seeing double with an exact version of the woman who had greeted him earlier making scornful eye contact with a clone of herself. Everything from the hair, down to the clothes matched. Hell, even their posture and the ways they moved looked to be copy-pasted. The one he had met earlier turned, rolled her eyes, and then disappeared instantly; fizzling out of existence like magic.
Or so he thought, at least until his vision shifted downwards and something really took him by surprise. In Daniele's place was a nervously smiling..red and black fox-like thing?
What.
"I'm so so sorry." The hopefully real one said, making her way down to him worriedly. "You leave a couple of mischievous pokemon alone for a few minutes and things can quickly go so wrong." The Eevee quickly scampered out of his lap and tried to run off at the sight of her approaching. The Pokemon didn't react fast enough, as the woman grabbed and pulled it by the ear in an almost cartoonish fashion, the Eevee having no choice but to follow as it tried to break free. The other fox pokemon laughed at this display, closing its eyes and gleefully pointing a paw at the unfortunate Eevee.
Not amused by the display, the Eevee practically whined to the woman, probably trying very hard to tell her all about how it wasn't just his fault. The Zorua would soon regret trying to rub anything in as it then got grabbed by the ear too. Squealing in displeasure as its paws fruitlessly scraped against the slick tile flooring, the Zorua soon was held against its will just like the Eevee.
"You! You're not up for adoption." She scolded, making sure the Eevee was listening despite it trying to break out of her grasp. "Whether you're bored for a couple of days or not, it does NOT mean you go and pawn yourself off onto another trainer." Despite Eevee not being a human child, taking it out of context would've made it feel that way. From the tone of voice to the disapproving head-shaking and subtle disappointment, Eevee looked the part of a child who was being scolded. The dark fox was heard snickering at the eevees treatment before promptly quieting down. She let the Eevee go, with it didn't even consider hesitating before scampering off down the hall.
"And you!" She turned, slowly beginning to pull lightly on the ear of the previously all too happy taunting pokemon who was dreadfully silent now. The woman scrutinously squinted at the pokemon, leaning in and going face to face with the Zorua who began nervously fidgeting under her imposing stare.
"I'm impressed with how good your illusions have become! Great job" She warmly said, leaning away and pulling the dark-furred fox into a proud hug. The pokemon seemed startled, caught off guard by the unexpected praise. She was being affectionate with the pokemon, but it tried its best to lean as far away as it could, slow to trust the gesture. It meekly chuckled nervously, trying to get a read on her.
"However." The Zorua's eyes slowly widened and panned toward the woman while she trailed off. It was after she flared an angry squint at the pokemon that it realized how bad of a place it was in. If a pokemon could go pale with fear, this was it. One futile attempt to struggle out was all it took for the pokemon to be immediately thrown into a panic.
"I think I distinctly remember that we also don't deceive trainers." The still furious woman said, petting the pokemon a little more forcefully as its squirming intensified. Daniele made eye contact with the Zorua once again as it obeyed her silent command and immediately stopped struggling. Once it stopped moving, the woman held the pokemon out vertically at arm's length, it's bottom half remaining suspended in the air as she made sure the fearful little pokemon had no option but to look at her and listen.
"And I for sure remember saying that we don't pretend to be anyone else..right?" She leaned in, arching an eyebrow and testing the zorua's memory. The pokemon feverishly nodded, daring not to squirm as it uncomfortably hung in the air.
Rolling her eyes and leaving her rant off with a sigh, she set the pokemon down and let it go; nodding towards the hallway and giving the Zorua the all-clear signal. There wasn't even a millisecond of hesitation before it turned and bolted down the hallway, chasing after the long-gone Eevee as quickly as it could.
In a state of perpetual confusion, Marcus simply sat in stunned silence; not entirely sure about anything that had been going on. Was it too much to ask for a normal day?
"Whoa, what's the commotion?" A masculine out-of-sight voice said. "Whats got those two in such a fit? I just had Jester and Prince zoom by, babbling about some sort of 'big deal.'" A new voice said as they turned the corner, still staring backward as he watched something behind him. "The only thing that ever gets them that riled up is-"
The man with quite possibly the bushiest mustache Marcus had ever seen made eye contact with Marcus, not staying there too long before clearly glancing at each of his pokemon individually. The large man was built like a brick wall but gave off a sort of pleasant vibe. Marcus didn't get anything but kind eyes and a sunny disposition from what he'd heard and saw, but his gut told him that he was being scrutinized heavily in some way.
"We have a guest?" The man asked, the woman from earlier nodding as she pet the unmentioned guilty espeon. "Did he somehow find a way to shake off both Jester and Prince? That's got to be a record of some sort." The mountain of a man laughed heartily, his unnaturally large mustache bouncing joyfully up and down as he approached with an inviting smile and an outstretched hand. "Name's Bruce, it's nice to meet you Mr.-" The walking brick wall trailed off, leaving a blank for Marcus to fill in.
"Oh, you can just call me Marcus." He said, standing up to meet the increasingly intimidating-looking man without hesitation. Marcus was reminded of a time where someone tried to teach him how to do a good handshake without making it feel forced. Useless information in most scenarios, but pivotal here.
One slight issue, all he could recall was his immediate smartass response of grabbing and flailing the other person's arm. Bruce however did not forget how to do such a minor, yet important gesture, as Marcus soon felt his hand get encased by a steel vice grip.
To call this firm was an understatement, but saying it hurt would be an exaggeration. It wasn't a painfully tight grip, just one that probably had a lot of power behind it.
After a singular shaking motion, the man smiled and gave Marcus's hand a "light" squeeze.
"Sweet Arceus, do you punch trees for fun in your free time?" Marcus responded in a slightly higher than normal pitch, shaking his 'crunched' hand a few times for effect. The man laughed again, actually nodding as he did so.
"No, but I do spar with fighting-type pokemon a fair bit. Same difference in a few cases I think." Marcus chuckled at the joke, but Bruce didn't smile this time. "Especially the past few days. Some pokemon can get bored quite quickly, you know." Marcus's laughter began to peter out.
"You can't be serious," Marcus replied, laughing alone again. "Not against evolved ones, right? There's no way."
It was at that moment that a pokemon Marcus had only seen in fake wrestling shows on tv rounded the corner, looking around for something. A large dull-colored Machoke quickly laid eyes on Bruce who had his back turned towards it. Cause for concern only became a thing once Marcus saw that it decided to start closing the distance on the unaware man.
"Oh, it's really not as bad as you'd think once you get accustomed to it with guns like these." He said, striking one of several cartoonish flamboyant poses as he flexed his arms in a variety of ways both over and under his head. Marcus heard the lady laugh at the display, but did she somehow not see the immensely muscular Pokemon silently inch towards him unnoticed. It wasn't long before it stood directly behind him, holding its arms up and ready in a shoulder-width apart squat, waiting for a chance to strike.
"It's all in good fun, we make sure nobody gets hurt above all else." The already doomed man said, nodding as he stretched one final time. "Well, nobody gets hurt most of the time. There is that rare off chance that they try to pull a fast one on me sometimes." The Machoke's red eyes widened for a brief second as a pair of piercing blue ones locked with his. This didn't immobilize the Machoke for even a second as it immediately grabbed onto the man from behind in a flash, locking its arms together around the other side and beginning to pull the human tree trunk off the ground in the starting phase of a suplex.
It never got far past getting initiated however, the man hooked his foot under the Machoke's left leg, preventing it from raising him over his head and countering the move. All Marcus could do was wince as they both toppled towards the ground, a resonating boom rattling the room and several objects on the nearby desk as they caught air for a brief moment.
After reinventing the move earthquake, the Machoke tried to break out of the pin with a fight in its eyes. The pokemon pushed up against the man, effectively benching him with ease before being interrupted by an elbow.
Not letting the momentary stun go to waste, the man flipped himself over, planting a knee on the pokemon's chest. On reaction, the Machoke reached up to easily lift him off again, but instead had its arm grabbed; eyes going wide again as it looked up to its opponent with fear. Moving around the arm in a single move, he held it with a vice-grip, pinning one knee against the side of the pokemon's chest in a double leg armbar.
That was the moves official title, but Marcus saw 'cool wrestling shit' and was enthralled enough to just stick with that name. It wasn't clear if this move was just as dangerous to a human as it would be to a pokemon.
If that was the case Machoke must have appreciated not having an arm broken as it rapidly tapped out. The increasingly impressive man held the arm locked in place for a second or two longer, waiting to make sure it was a submission before nodding and letting the Machoke go. Once freed, said pokemon wiped its brow with a relieved sigh, staring up at the ceiling.
"Maybe next round, Duke." The clear victor said, not even looking like he thought about breaking a sweat, calm as ever. "Great form on the suplex, but remember that every heavy hitting move has its counter." He reached down, offering a hand to help the fighting type pull itself up. "You'll never know if your opponent will have practiced how to counter a move like that, but you can always come up with your own way to prevent it. I'd suggest using a little more strength next time, you can afford to be a little rougher still."
Sighing and dusting his hands off once, he turned back to Marcus who couldn't do anything but gawk at the display. "So, where were we?"
"I've never heard of Farnsworth's grove, must be pretty far away."
"Yeah, it's a long story weirdly enough."
Things had settled down from Wrestlemania quite quickly; leaving just Marcus, his pokemon, the couple, and the Espeon who continued to occasionally frown at him curiously every now and again. The group found themselves sitting near the fire, Marcus using it to warm up with Rue taking a spot near Rose. Rue was busy enjoying the warmth from what Rose made sure was a safe distance, but Rose gave their conversation an unusually large amount of attention.
"Well, if you want to tell it, a rainy day is as good as any for a story." The woman replied, standing up from her lounge chair with a well-timed and concerning thud being heard from the other side of the wall. Marcus, Rose, and Bruce all slowly turned to look at the wall curiously, but Danielle forcefully ignored it. "You can tell us if you want to some other time, right now I've got to go make sure the younger pokemon aren't getting into trouble this close to bedtime. Espi should take care of-."
A second, significantly louder thud interrupted the group again. This time the woman frowned at it with moderate concern while the large man seated across from Marcus rubbed the space between his eyes and stood up as well.
"That's my queue." He sighed, stretching as well. "I'd love to stay and discuss, but consider yourself welcome," Bruce said, letting out a long yawn. "She'll fill you in on everything, but I wouldn't wander around too much. We have several dark types who like to get uppity around this time, and they can be pretty crafty as I'm sure you saw." As He passed Marcus to leave the small lounge by the fire, he put a hand on his shoulder. "Just watch out to see if anyone you see suddenly has a tail or not." Patting him twice as a sort of silent goodbye, he once again started to make his way out.
Was that supposed to be some sort of cryptic metaphor?
[No zorua can project perfect illusions.] a distinct voice in his head said as the Espeon simultaneously spoke aloud. [I'll speak out loud for you two, but I will also use telepathy to make sure everyone is on the same page, is that alright?] She swept the room with her eyes, gauging their responses. Marcus nodded, hearing Rose make what was likely an approving grumbling sound. [First, I'd like to apologize. I'm sorry for peeking around in that crowded mind of yours, Marcus.]
Marcus had always figured that an Espeon would be a very intelligent-looking pokemon from pictures he saw, but she surpassed expectations. On the outside, most pokemon looked very similar to animals of all kinds. Sure, they could use moves, have crazy abilities, and were often distinctly colored, but Marcus always thought the most differentiating part about them was their eyes. It was hard to describe what set them apart, but it was clear as day that they saw the world completely differently than say, a dog would.
[Flattered, but please don't get so lost in thought. I can hear it.] Espi didn't say that part aloud, but the look he got told him it was almost an automated response for the psychic type. [I used my abilities to try and make him more susceptible to...] She paused, looking for a way to say something while pulling up a paw to her chin. [...Growing his team.] Marcus understood that part, partially pushing down how he felt about having his mind poked through again. Besides, something else stuck out as odd to him.
"Did you also put Rose to sleep? She passed out sitting up." The espeon shook her head, already knowing that more questions were coming and patiently waiting as Marcus skeptically stared down at her and rolled his eyes.
{I did, Marcus. I fell asleep on the spot.} Rose sighed, shaking her head at him as if he did something wrong here. {My bad for dozing off for a second, next time I'll know that I can't leave you alone for even a moment.} Rose's expression remained firmly annoyed with Marcus, who didn't feel deserving of her scorn. He crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow to silently ask if she had a point beyond that. Rose responded with a faint smile, rolling her eyes and shaking her head before refocusing onto the Espeon. {What did you do.}
[I used my abilities to influence him.] Espeon replied, licking her paw, not yet noticing the unamused stare Rose was giving her. [Oh, you mean specifically?] Rose nodded slowly, making what was already clear even more so. [Ah, okay, allow me to start from the beginning then.] The espeon sat back up, clearing her throat.
[well, I got word from one of the pokemon that we had a completely new trainer coming by for the first time in a few weeks, and came to greet you in place of Danielle and Bruce.] Espi sighed, shaking her head. [Then, after nearly giving up on you because you took so long to arrive, Jester, the Zorua came and suggested that we use an illusion to meet the new guest. I disagreed, but he called in a favor. Couldn't refuse. Should have.]
[So I got set up to harmlessly disrupt your sense/ and make a convincingly human voice for his disguise. Its tricky to read the mind of a dark type, but he was the one who wanted to do it, so it worked. Anything he mouthed automatically came out like Daniele's voice.] that at least explained some of the weird inconsistencies the illusory woman had. Marcus raised his hand slowly, the Espeon fruitlessly asking if it could wait with the look she gave.
"Does Jester hate Dave or something then? Some of the behavior and words didn't line up very well when he got brought up."
[Jester never said anything, and nobody can hate Dave. What are you talking about?] Espi firmly replied, sounding almost offended as she rose from her seat with a flick of her tail. Both parties went quiet after such a strong reaction as the psychic type took a moment to think. Eventually, a long, tense, several seconds later, her eyes lit up with a realization of some sort. It looked like the conclusion was more of a literal gut-punch though, as the pokemon slowly shrunk back down, taking a seat once more with her ears and head lowering slightly. [Oh. You were mistaken. It was when we discussed Nurse Joy...and Dave.] The espeon didn't sound anywhere near as upset as when the nurse had been brought up earlier. If you asked Marcus she now sounded almost..saddened? [I...wouldn't worry about it, it's nothing.] The large pink cat corrected, looking away for once, hiding her face from him.
"Afraid of doctors? That sucks." Marcus obliviously said, trying to sympathize with the Espeon. "Well, it sounds like she's more than just working with Dave, so you might have to get used to her."
Somehow the Espeon's head sunk lower than before.
[anyways. Moving on.] the Espeon lowly muttered, still hiding her face but sitting up slowly. [they tricked me into reciting their advertising campaign. I tried to back out of it, but couldn't.] Espi said, sounding neutral once more. [I didn't want to risk leaving anything permanently changed in you over a joke by pulling out instantly, so I started to try and pull back slowly while also keeping you from leaving. Cant lose connection and all.] She explained, Marcus nodding and following along.
[because of my outburst you were clued into something being off, which I had to also keep from happening.] The Espeon paused, holding up a paw to interrupt another question Marcus had. [If someone learns they are being psychically manipulated, things often don't go well as you might expect. Good psychic connections rely on a calm state of mind. If you were to become distressed while I was still in there, there are some risks of adverse effects.] Espi looked over her shoulder for a moment. [You don't want to know.]
"So all of this was just a prank gone wrong?" Marcus asked, frowning at the Espeon who hung her head with a slow nod. Marcus glanced to Rose, looking for input on what she thought about her story. Rose happily took it as an invitation to take the floor, clearing her throat.
{well, you couldn't have damaged anything more than-}
"Gahh. Arceus! why do I ever ask you for anything Rose!" Marcus cursed, grabbing and shaking the smiling dragon type repeatedly. This was her expected result.
[thats not the end of it though.] Espeon insisted, worriedly watching Rose cackle madly as Marcus shook her. [I had everything set so that you never would have noticed I had been in your mind. I had every path and option covered, all ready and set to ensure you never learned. You did.] Espi made it sound like a big reveal, as she looked between both Marcus and Rose as if expecting more of s reaction.
"So what. I guess I really am that perceptive." Marcus proudly claimed, accepting his accomplishment.
[maybe at the start, sure, but that was before I truly started working at convincing you.] Espeon said, cutting his celebration short. [When I say I had it set for you to never figure it out, I mean it. We don't go as far as to wipe your memory or anything drastic, but we set you up so you cant see what is wrong.] Espeon said, making sure Marcus was listening. [The only thing that can remotely beat out of the bindings I had set would be another psychic pokemon, and one far more powerful than me. I'll ask once more, where is your psychic type? I'd like to meet them.]
Marcus shook his head, confusion clear on his face. "Wait, psychics beating psychics? Never being able to figure it out? What does that all mean?" Marcus saw a spark of impatient anger flare-up in the psychic type. "Oh, you were going to explain it., weren't you." Espi nodded heavily. "Whoops, I'm sorry that- Ow! Rose, what are you doing?!" Rose barked a question and immediately protested, fighting back against the false accusation as an 'innocent' pen took flight from Marcus's head again and resumed its journey over to the Espeon who let them fight it out for a moment.
Harsh language, empty threats, and a whole lot of finger-pointing later, neither of them reached consensus. Both thought the other set them up. By now, Espi's diagram was set up too, thanks to the pen.
[okay, okay, reel it back in, you two. Take a look.] Espi smiled to herself, looking at the example she had planned. It was sure to be a success. [if you look down here, I'll be using this pen as part of-]
They were still bickering.
..On an entirely unrelated topic as well now?
[Guys. Come on now. Let's focus.]
Still bickering.
At least it sounded that way, the topic had changed enough that not even the people involved knew what it was about.
{they're doing it again..} Rue said, leaving the fireplace and refusing to feel around before finding somewhere else to move to. {they've been doing it a lot lately.}
Espi watched the very obviously blind pokemon try to move across the foreign environment, nearly walking into a table or chair twice before getting close to where she had thought Espi was.
She was quite far off, but Espi silently floated over without touching the ground to make her feel like she got it right.
{do they..hate each other?} Rue asked, shaking her head, unable to wrap her head around anything they meaninglessly argued about.
{well, I don't think so.} Espi responded, watching Marcus try to teach her how to play 'rock paper scissors' for some unknown reason. {they appear to be having fun.}
{how could this be fun?} Rue gestured, waving an open paw out towards them. Rose was pumping her fists in the air with a bellowing laugh while Marcus dropped to his knees dramatically in anguish, appalled after apparently losing his own game. {Okay, this I get, but what about the other times?}
{Are you sure it's arguing?} Espi hinted, watching the two with a small smile tugging at its mouth. {oh, Dave and I did something similar all of the time. It didn't matter what it was, someone had a smart comment to jab at the other with. Some days we would go back and forth for hours endlessly. At least until-} The Espeon trailed off slowly, her eyes drooping again. {well..before we argued for the last time and he went away.} Rue knew her species could pick up on emotions, but she was unfamiliar with some of the feelings coming from the silent saddened Espeon. Feelings of loss and hints of regret were most prominent with the third largest unregistered emotion remaining unknown.
{What happened?} Rue curiously asked, hearing Rose happily bounce on top of Marcus who was finding it increasingly hard to play dead with each step.
{I-} Espi choked, swallowing heavily and instinctively avoiding the Riolu's vacant stare and becoming noticeably flustered. {I...told him that I lo-} The Espeon flinched, noticing Marcus shoot upward and nearly springboard the flailing Gible across the lounge. Marcus had begun intently staring at the Espeon who's eyes widened with shock and fear. Had he heard? How much had he heard? Was that even possible?
Marcus leaned inward, squinting as he studied the startled espeon. "What did you say?" The Espeon seemingly shrunk under such immense pressure, dreading what he might have heard and what it could mean for her. {N-nothing?} She replied in poke-speech.
Marcus's own eyes widened as he leaned forward. "I understood you." He said, grinning mischievously as he chuckled to himself, happy with himself.
{how-how much did you..} She said terrified by the realization that her time here with the family might now be over.
"Almost nothing!" He proudly said, making everyone stare at him blankly. "Except I can hear it all now. What were you two talking about? Sounded interesting from what I could hear in Rue's half." Espi didn't like this topic resurging, hopefully, she could redirect them by-
{we were discussing you guys fighting. She had some interesting insight that I need to think about. Things like-}
Marcus took a seat in the chair next to her, fully rewdy to listen in on what she had to say. However, he didn't anticipate to immediately black out the instant his head hit the cushion.
Happy thanks- no? Oh.. uh. No? O-Okay then.
Merry chr- ...what? You're serious?Not this one?
Happy..New year? What? Not that either? Wow.
Damn this one was work. Tfw 20K word """"chapter"""" update
I had planned to post it on new years eve, but I might have done a little too much writing while tipsy. Had to go back and fix some things that I still might have missed when I combed over everything. (Then hangover time took a couple of days away from me. Ouchie ouch.)
Yeah okay, I know people are going to read midway through, lose their spot, and have to restart.
You see, thats simply just funny.
Do you guys think snorting asbestos is a better hobby than reading this monster several times for errors? I'm joking of course, but instant gratification or something.
Its morning when I'm posting this and thats not because I "woke up to post it bright and early."
Im sure any bold text segments in this chapter have no bearing on the plot.