THAT SNIVY
Thought I'd try something different for a change, instead of the high octane action you'll normally see from me, I thought I'd slow things down. Now, while this does take SOME aspects from my main series, such as the Country of Celatia, said country having a Civil War, as well as a few characters. This story aside from that is a That Universe Story. This isn't canon in my main series, but it IS set in That Universe. In fact, this story is supposed to take place... sometime in between the end of "That Glaceon" and the beginning of "That Sylveon"
If you haven't read either of those…..why are you here? G-go read those. They're great reads, honestly. This story is heavily inspired by them, with some twists, of course. I'm not just gonna copy-paste AwesomeSawss' and Luanastar's work, the story follows a similar structure, just not at all a similar STORY per say. Also as per usual with most of my stories, the first chapter's always one of the longest to really set up the story.
So enjoy!
DISCLAIMER
All music in this story is not owned by me, nor anyone in either AU. All music credits will be at the end of each chapter (And believe me, there's a lot of music. It IS part of Delilah's character after all.) Oh and it should go without saying that I don't own Pokémon.
ACT ONE: Where I belong (By Protostar)
Chapter 1, The Foreign Exchange Protagonist.
Lights flicker and gleam as the crowd cheers. A Meloetta pulls away from a hug as she stares into our protagonist's eyes. "I can already tell this'll be better than homecoming, D." Meloetta states, our main woman now brushing a tear out of her eye as she nods happily.
"Yeah, let's do things properly this time."
She looks out at the small crowd of people in the rented out hotel venue. Spotting a large cluster of familiar faces in the front row. Consisting of a Vaporeon, an Espeon, a Deerling, an Alolan Vulpix, a Golisopod, a Scizor, a midnight Lycanroc, and a Raboot. All looking back in anticipation as she walks behind a desk, a large selection of audio and DJ equipment covering its surface.
She quickly hits a 'start sequence' button on her laptop as all the lights go out, grinning from ear to ear as she leans into a microphone.
"MAKE SOME FUCKIN' NOISE WEST LATIAS!" She screams into the mic.
The crowd cheers in excitement as a loud electronic piano melody fills the venue.
"WE'RE STORMCHASER AND WE'RE GONNA ROCK THIS FUCKIN' HOUSE! LET'S HEAR IT, NAT!"
The crowd explodes as our protagonist chuckles in bliss as her partner opens her mouth.
"We were born ready, ready to be free.
Chasing every thrill we could see!
With our eyes steady, waking to a dream.
Aching to be thrown in the ring!
If nothin' comes easy, as long as we're breathing,
we'll go all the way or go home.
We were born ready, wherever it leads,
what we have is all we need~!"
Everything that's happened so far to bring her to this moment. The laughter, the heartache, the friends, the enemies...
"Cause if it's fast or slow~! All I really know!
is I'm gonna Enjoy the Ride!
And if it's hard or soft~! before we get off!
I'm gonna enjoy the Ride, Enjoy the Ride!"
They all come rushing back to her, replaying in her mind in the blink of an eye. She remembers the first day of Senior year like it was yesterday...
"Cause if it's fast or slow~! All I really know!
is I'm gonna Enjoy the Ride!"
"Enjoy the Ride!"
COVELIGHT X THAT UNIVERSE
SAVAGECALIBER22 PRESENTS:
THAT SNIVY.
10 Months Earlier…
A long sigh escapes her lips as she trudges along the halls of West Latias high. Her hood up over her head despite her usually outgoing personality. Placing a pair of earbuds in her ears to drown out the grating noise of Pokemon going about their normal school day, all she wants at this current moment is to get through this day as quickly as possible.
Needless to say, this particular Pokemon isn't in the best of moods at the current moment.
She feels around her chest for the remote to her earbuds, finding it and pressing down on the large button, causing a slow, somewhat atmospheric EDM song to resonate through her mind, with an accompanying female voice singing melodically.
"I look around and I see you, friend
You've got a lot on your mind
A lot on your mind and-
I don't know if you know it or not but I'm
Gonna get through to you~ Oh!"
She takes an earbud out for a split second, approaching a Raboot with a cheerful, albeit fake, smile on her face.
"Excuse me." She grabs the rabbit's attention, who glances at the stranger silently, only responding with a 'Hm?' She takes a small gulp before continuing, "I-I'm new here, where would I find the Principal's office?" She asks the fire type, who wastes no time pulling a hand out of his fluff-pocket and pointing past him with his thumb. "Take a right up there, it's the third door on the left." he bluntly answers, shoving his hand back into his fluff. The girl nods appreciatively "Thank you so much!" she chirps, before walking past him and returning to her current demeanor, putting that spare earbud back into her ear.
"Take all of your nagging fears as you go
I know you wanted me to come along~
I left earlier so you wouldn't see me go
I can't pretend that that's where I belong~
With you, bored and low!"
She pauses at the door to the Principal's office. Collecting her thoughts and steeling her resolve to enter the room, her mind subconsciously envisioning the situation about to unfold, picking multiple unfavorable outcomes in the coming encounter. She quickly shakes it off, however, she's usually not this pessimistic and she knows that. Things will be alright...hopefully…
She makes an effort and grips the brass handle of the door to the office, before pushing down, only turning slightly before stopping itself. The 'mon frowns, before trying to open it again to no luck, she narrows her eyes and sighs, now resorting to knocking on the door instead.
Much to her surprise, the door opened with a Latias peeking her head through the doorway, "Sorry, I was out of the ro- Oh, you must be the new exchange student."
"That would be me, yeah."
"I almost forgot you were coming today, come on in."
The Latias unlocks the door and said student steps into the wood-panelled office. She takes her earbuds out and lifts up her black and purple accented hoodie, threading said headphones through the inside of her sweater, before making them droop from the front of the collar. "Have a seat." the Principal orders. She obliges, Hopping onto a surprisingly comfortable chair, before finally removing her hood. A Snivy stares back at the Latias, her vibrant jade green eyes now revealing themselves to the dragon.
Principal Latias then shuffles a few files around on her desk, before opening one near the bottom, "Ah here we go." She announces, moving the file closer to her face.
"Delilah Chaser ("di-LIE-luh chay-ser")...That's your name, right?"
"Yep, most call me Jade, though."
"Okay then, lets see...Pretty average grades...lowest being a C- in World History. Highest being an A+ in...Digital Music? They taught that at your school?"
"Yeah, it was an elective actually! Loved the teacher too."
"...Interesting, it says here you're level 46, but you're still a Snivy."
"Oh that. Yeah, I swallowed an everstone when I was a kid."
The Latias looks up from the file at the Snivy and blinks, processing what she just heard.
Delilah breaks the silence with a nervous chuckle "...I was a weird kid." she giggles, the Principal only smiles, returning her gaze to the file.
"Anyways...says you have an accommodation here. 'Delilah must be permitted to do her work on her laptop.' What's that about?"
"Oh yeah! Y'see I was born with some kind of rare nerve damage in my left hand, which happens to be my dominant. Really fine motor skills can make my wrist lock up for minutes at a time. It happens the most when I'm writing things, and you can see why that's bad for school. I try to write an essay and suddenly my hand is stuck for 10 minutes! So to compensate, my old school let me type things up on my laptop. It's a lot less strenuous for me that way as it doesn't require use of the wrist, and I have a printer in my apartment so I can still get things to my teachers."
"I'll notify your teachers, alright. So here's your schedule, the bell should be ringing in..." She glances at the clock whilst handing Delilah the schedule, in which she immediately fixes her jade green eyes on the sheet of processed tree. "7 minutes, that's enough time to find the classroom." she finishes.
"Regi-stration? Is that like orientation or something?"
"It's more of a roll call period, you have it at the same time everyday."
"...huh, alright then. Thanks for having me."
"Have a good day. Oh and Delilah?"
"Hm?"
"I'm sorry for this whole situation you're in, honestly. If you need me to set you up with a counselor, just let me know."
"Uhm, alright, thanks."
The Snivy exits the room, shrugging off the awkwardness of that last part of the conversation. A few eyes glance at her as they pass, but she's no stranger to things like that, so she just carries on. She glances at her schedule, before starting down the hallway.
22….now where would I find room 22?
Maybe ask someone for help?
That sounds like a good ide-wait wha?
...Don't worry about it. That Vaporeon looks friendly, maybe you should ask him.
Delilah looks to her left, spotting a Vaporeon rummaging through their locker, humming something to themselves.
He does indeed look friendly.
Delilah refrains from putting her music back on and carefully approaches the humming fish-dog. The Bell rings…..has she been standing there for two minutes? Meh, whatever.
"Hi there." She starts, grabbing the Eeveelution's attention
The Vaporeon stops rummaging through his locker, tilting his head back to match the gaze of the snake. "Can I help ya?" He calmly asks.
"Yyyeah. Do you happen to know where Room 22 is? I'm new here."
The Vaporeon stuffs a book into a satchel strapped to his side, "Uhh...yeah, I'm heading there right now, actually. Just gimme a second to get stuff outta here." The Vaporeon calmly replies, stuffing another book in. Delilah glances up and down the hallway while she waits for the water type to finish shoving more things into that satchel of his…
Is that a microphone stand?
huh?
She looks back to see the Vaporeon shove a tripod of some kind into a pocket in the front.
...I don't know what that was...did I always have internal conversations with myself?
Like I said, don't worry about it.
I'm gonna fuckin' worry about it.
Ooh, you kiss your mother with that mouth?
Yeah, I do. Fight me.
Finally the Eeveelution's bag is zipped up and the locker shuts.
"Sorry about that, let's go."
"No worries! I'm in no rush."
"Heh...I'm Klay...ton."
"Klay…...ton?" She grins, overexaggerating the pause. Klay…..ton chuckles a bit in response.
"Klayton." He finishes.
"I'm Delilah...but back home everyone calls me Jade, you can call me whichever, I don't mind."
"Jade? Why Jade?"
Jade pokes the Vaporeon, causing him to look over at her, she bats her eyelashes, drawing attention to her eyes, which are, as explained before, very GREEN. The Vaporeon immediately starts slowly nodding.
"Oooooooh~ I see. clever."
"You can thank my friend Zara (...just Sara, but with a Z) for that one." Jade laughs.
"It's just over here to the right." Klayton notes, pointing with a paw. Jade spots the "22" in white lettering on blue plastic that has been bolted to the door frame. She takes a deep breath as she steps inside. The first thing she spots is the teacher, an Alakazam, doodling on a piece of binder paper. Klayton takes a seat at the back, though not in one of the corners like an INTROVERT, he's sat near the middle. He motions with his paw, beckoning Delilah over. Confused as to what he's saying, she stops herself from asking the teacher where her seat is, before trotting over to Klayton, "What?" she asks the Vaporeon.
"O-oh, I was just wondering if you wanna sit next to me." Klayton answers, gesturing to the seat on his right.
"Oh, does nobody sit there?"
"Only if people take it."
"...wha?"
"Huh?"
"What do you mean take it? I mean does somebody normally sit there?"
"...Jus-just have a seat, Delilah."
"...R-really?"
"Yeah!"
"...Are there no assigned seats, we can just sit anywhere?"
"Yeah...did you have to sit in the same seat every day at your old school?"
"Yeah!"
"That's stupid."
"Tell me about it." Jade sighed as she took said seat, more students poured in, before the bell rang. Delilah's not used to hearing an ACTUAL school bell, as her old school replaced that with a simple beep that would blare through the PA system. The Alakazam stands up with a clipboard telekinetically floating in front of him. He started to read out the names, which was then followed by said student shouting "Here" from somewhere in the room, or responding with silence...because they weren't even in said room.
"Klayton Tidus." (Kley-Tahn Tye-diss) The Alakazam announces, causing the Vaporeon next to Jade to raise his paw with a "Here."
The Alakazam then paused as he read the next name in his head. "Oh yes, by the way everyone, we have a new foriegn exchange student from...Celatia? (Sell-ahh-tee-uh) Interesting."
"Delilah Chaser?" He called, Jade raised her hand, "That's me." She announced, causing the Alakazam...as well as the rest of the class...to turn their attention to the Grass type. Who, despite being extroverted, wasn't a huge fan of all the eyes on her at once, as to not seem awkward, she let out a nervous laugh whilst lightly waving and lowering her head subconsciously.
The teacher then addressed the Snivy directly, "I'm Mr. Telepo. You've joined up a couple of weeks late, so you'll likely get catch up work from your other classes."
The Snivy immediately loses all emotion in her face.
"Greaaat…" Jade mutters. Mr. Telepo then sits back down, resuming his drawing of….whatever that may be. Klayton leans over to the Snivy next to him, "Okay, you said you were new, but you never said anything about being a foreign exchange student." He presses. Jade slings her backpack off of herself, "Well given circumstances, that wouldn't have been relevant, would it?"
"I guess you're right, so you're from Celatia? That's east of Australia, right?"
"Northeast, actually. The equator runs through it so it's tropical...at least where I live"
"Must be a bit of a shock traveling all the way here to go to school."
"Not nearly as humid as I'm used to, but at least the heat doesn't stick to you here."
"Amen to that. We don't get many people from other countries here in West Latias. Consider me intrigued."
"Good thing I also speak Galarian, huh?"
"It's a plus, is it a native language where you're from or did you have to learn it before coming here?"
"Depends on where in Celatia you are, some speak Kalosian, but it's predominantly Galarian."
"I see. I'm gonna do some work for a bit, okay?"
"And what exactly IS work in this class?"
"It's mostly a period where you work on stuff from other classes."
"Advisory period, got it."
Jade then opens up her backpack and slides out a black, expensive looking laptop, setting it on her desk, before pulling out a wireless mouse and a USB headset. Klayton pauses mid-binder-retrieval to stare for a second as the Snivy lifts the lid of the computer to just over a 90 degree angle.
"What's with the laptop?"
Jade immediately glances back at the water type. Flicking her eyes between Klay and the screen, "Oh, yeah I physically can't do anything involving a pencil, so I type everything on my laptop."
"Huh. You just keep getting stranger."
Delilah chuckles in response, placing a side of her headset over the side of her head opposite Klayton, the other side of the headset farther back, past her practically invisible ears (Just past the yellow parts of her face,) so that she can still hear Klayton. Since she hasn't gotten any work so far, she decides to just boot up her go-to music creation software and open the most recent project, titled "Summer Ashes -VIP-" with dashes instead of parentheses because the program won't let her use parentheses. A feature, that, according to Jade, is 'Absolute Tauros-shit.'
When creating music, she goes by the alias of StormChaser. Why StormChaser, you may ask? Well it's simple, at the time of its inception StormChaser was TWO people. The name, as you might guess, came from the fusion of their last names, Storm and Chaser.
However, the two have since fallen out, leaving StormChaser to just be a solo project for Delilah. 'Summer Ashes' was the duo's first song. While as a duo, they produced slow, melodic tracks, mostly love songs or whenever Jade was doing the lyric writing, just about fun in general. But on her own, Delilah has since taken it in a faster, more aggressive direction, more like Dubstep or Electro-House rather than the Downtempo or Prog. House of the old StormChaser.
The Snivy has been stuck on making a VIP mix for the song, VIP meaning 'Variation in Production.' In other words, it's a remix of one's own song. As the song is soon reaching its 1st birthday, she wanted to do something with it.
Delilah's taken the slower 128bpm (Beats-per-minute) house beat and sped it up to 140 bpm, and while she firmly believes that her partner's original vocals are OUTSTANDING and way better than her own vocals (Although she's not a bad singer, admittedly.) The recording quality of the original track has left her vocals choppy and with a bunch of artifacting (Weird noises from the background that screw up the sound.)
She'll have to redo those vocals, but not right now. She's not gonna start singing in the middle of class, unless she's insane. Jury's still out on that one. Hey, don't interrupt the narration! Sorry, carry on.
So what's the 17 year old grass type gonna spend her hour in Registration doing?
...She's-
...She's just playing with synthesisers…I don't know what you were expecting, she doesn't know what the end result of this mix is, she's just making a cool sound, throwing it into a piano roll, deciding she doesn't like the sound anymore and deleting it all, rinse and repeat.
But hey, remember that bad mood she was in 20 minutes ago? All but vanished, likely due to Klayton. Speaking of which, Delilah glances over at said Vaporeon, who appears to be mouthing the words on a page in a pretty thick packet of paper. Jade of course wasn't bored or anything, but figured this Pokemon she had met not even half an hour ago was a pretty cool guy. She WAS gonna pull him aside for another chat, but figured that he was pretty invested in...whatever it is he's mouthing along to. She'll leave him be for now.
Registration goes by without a hitch. Delilah checks her schedule again.
Biology - Room 13...Least it's not Chemistry.
Good thing credits transfer, huh?
You can say that again, weird voice in my head.
Subconscious.
Pretty sure my subconscious wouldn't have a guy's voice.
Shut.
Just help me find room 13...
After a couple cycles of struggling to find her classes, being put on the spot as the new student from another country, getting work from and then leaving said class. Spending lunch getting lost. Going through more classes. The day finally rolls around to an end.
She didn't see Klayton the rest of that day. Which was kind of a bummer to her, since he was the only one who she had even a little connection with. Oh well, tomorrow perhaps.
After driving across town to her apartment building, Delilah finally rolls her white and red Yanma-ha R1S motorcycle into her assigned parking spot in her building. Dismounting and setting the bike on its kickstand.
She pulls her helmet off as she steps into the elevator whilst elbowing the button with her floor on it, she subconsciously reaches down to put her headphones back in, but decides since she's practically home by now, would there really be a point? She figured no, she's just gonna get on the computer and begin homework first chance she gets. The elevator dings as the door opens. An Alolan Vulpix around Delilah's age is seen just outside the door frame, both individuals awkwardly smiling to each other as they swap positions. The ice type eyes Jade as she continues down the hallway to room 442.
The door unlocks with a satisfactory clunk. Jade pushes the door open as she quickly shouts "I'm home mom!" She catches herself however, her small smile now fading to a frown.
"Right…" she sighs.
Shutting the door behind her, she steps inside the empty, lifeless apartment. Brand new furniture is strewn about, seeing hardly any wear as the setting sun filters through the blinds.
Absolute silence follows as she passes by family photographs and assorted musical instruments. She's generally able to pick up any instrument and play, but she hasn't found a particular one she's exceptionally good at. She's decent at guitar, piano, turntable and launchpad if you count those, but decent is all she is right now.
Before she gets into schoolwork, she plops down on the couch, flicking on a flat screen TV with not even a speck of dust on it's glass. She cycles through channels, eventually finding a news channel reporting on her home country, she unscrews the cap on a bottle of lemon-lime soda. She takes a short sip as she turns up the volume.
"...-has been elected to bring his unconventional brand of law enforcement to the country of Celatia. Chaos escalates as the north and south halves of the country have now taken their differences to the streets. These conflict of these two groups formed from the two halves of the country has escalated to violence in Celatia, as so far the country refuses to disclose the mortality rate of these events and despite the permanent isolation of the country, refugees continue to spread out across the globe, with just over 200 occupying Hoenn. There's still speculation between what caused the two halves of Celatia to wage war on themselves, with the most popular theory being the discovery of a meteorite in the center of the country, with its composition being something unlike anything seen before." The TV speaks. Delilah sighs, this is all old news to her, the channel then decides to switch away to another topic.
She glances to the balcony, thinking for a bit, before shutting the TV off and heading outside. The glass railing automatically lowers to accommodate her size as she sprawls her arms over the wooden armrest, pulling out her phone and dialing in a number.
Someone picks up on the other end.
"Delilah! Oh it's so good to hear from you!" A female voice comes through the other end, prompting Delilah to smile warmly.
"Hi Mom."
"Today was your first day of school, right?"
"It was.
"How did it go? You meet any friends?"
"It was a long day to say the least, I did meet this Vaporeon named Klayton. He seems nice, pretty mellow guy. I only saw him in first period though."
"I had a feeling you'd meet someone quickly, knowing you. Oh-hold on, your father wants to talk with you."
Delilah chuckles "Alright, put him on then."
"Heya, D."
"Hi Dad."
"How are you holding up over there?"
"It's...tough, being out here all alone. The other kids at school looked at me funny when they found out I was foreign. I don't have any friends yet, it's…lonely, Dad. I'm trying to stay strong though, it hopefully won't be long until I make some friends of my own."
"Then you can have your own little family over there, eh? It might sound weird, but I kinda envy you, kiddo. Your mother and I have been fighting on the front lines for a while now, and it's only getting worse out there."
Delilah sighs, "How's Isaac doing?"
"We're actually staying with the Lightwater's for the time being."
This made Jade's ears metaphorically perk up, "Oh really? Is Zara there?"
"Sadly not at the moment, but Isaac's here with us, and he's currently punching me to let him have a turn on the phone."
Delilah bursts out laughing "Glad to see he hasn't changed a bit!"
She hears shuffling on the other end of the phone
"Hi Jade!" A young boy's voice comes through the speakers, Jade can't help but put a grin on her face.
"How's my baby brother doing?"
"I'm not a baby! I'm 10!"
"Ah but you'll always be my baby brother. It's been a while since I've heard your voice. How have you been, miss me yet?"
"Yeah... But I've been playing a TON of Pokken 7! I'll totally whoop your butt next time we play!"
"Oh yeah? I consider your challenge accepted! Anyway, have the Lightwater's been treating you well?"
"Uh Huh. Kat and Zara have been really nice to me, and Alicia's been keeping me on top of my studies."
"Oh really, what's your favorite subject?"
"I really like science labs! We do some really fun stuff!"
"What kind of stuff?"
"We made rockets out of soda bottles, mine went the highest!"
"Really? That's awesome!"
"The teacher said we could decorate it how we wanted, so all the other kids made theirs really cool looking with a bunch of fancy materials, but I know that to go the highest, I needed to minimize weight, so I made mine out of paper and duct tape, making a nose cone and fins near the bottom so that it maintains passive aerodynamic stability, and because I used so little materials, it was a lot lighter than everyone else's. Acceleration is force divided by mass, and everyone pressurized their bottles at 20 Pounds per square inch. So by having the weight so low, by that logic I would have the highest speed accounting for drag and thus, go much higher, which it did. So I won."
Delilah was utterly speechless.
Well he lives up to his name, at least.
so it would seem...
"Isaac, that's High School level physics! How do you know that?!"
"I've been watching a lot of science videos on YouTube."
"...huh."
"O-Okay Jade, I'm gonna go now, dinner's ready, we're having fondue!"
"Sounds yummy. Tell mom and dad I love them, and I love you as well. Oh and tell Zara to call me sometime!"
"Love you too! Will do!"
"Alright, catch ya later, kiddo."
"Bye D!"
A dial tone follows. The sun has now set. Jade's ears filled with the quiet flutter of cars throughout West Latias, with a distant siren adding more ambience. She's about to head back inside, but she remembers she's got one more person to call. She pulls up a starred contact only labelled "Koko" with a heart emoji. The contact photo showing Delilah and a shiny Zorua with equally green eyes as hers nuzzling each other happily. She smiles and dials in the number.
A voice finally picks up "Looks like you caught me right as I'm going to bed." A slightly high pitched male voice brings music to Delilah's ears as her warm smile grows. "Dinnertime for me."
"Gotta love timezones.'
"Yuuup."
"I still wish you could have come to Galar with me. Instead we're now thousands of miles apart."
"I know, right? I miss you so much Koko…"
"...I miss you too, my little jade rose."
Delilah's cheeks flush as she giggles happily "I can't even remember the last time you called me that."
"That's just a testament to how long we've been away. Heh, I feel bad for anyone who's around next time we see each other. I for one don't think I'll be able to keep myself composed seeing those beautiful green eyes of yours again."
"Aww~!" Delilah softly laughs.
To Be Continued!
What's this?! A That Universe protagonist that's already in a relationship and ISN'T an Eeveelution?! Sav, you must've gone mad!
Hah, All jokes aside. I know this is a pretty slow first chapter. Starting next chapter it'll start to pick up the pace a little bit. As well as being introduced to the rest of That Snivy's colorful cast!
As always, this is Ely-... actually this isn't Covelight so I don't need to call myself Elysium…
Ahem.
Anyways, Chapter 2 of CL2:V will be out….let's say the 21st. That sound good? Okay, great.
As always, this is SavageCaliber22, over and out!
Music Referenced:
Welcome - Rameses B
Enjoy the Ride - Krewella (I consider this to be the main theme of this story)
Get Through - Rameses B
Summer Ashes - KDrew