"Marble, drop the phone. You're not meant to put it in your mouth."
"I'mt hrying to breafk ih opem!"
"Wh- Why?"
Marble cracks a piece of plastic off the phone, revealing the circuits within.
"I juff wamma see how ih worfks!"
"You're gonna hurt yourself, idiot!" I try to grab the phone from out of his mouth but one of his sharp teeth digs into the exposed spot where the circuits are visible, causing a zap and a few sparks. Marble yelps and we both jump. The phone hits the concrete floor.
"Didn't you think electricity would hurt considering how Pokemon use it? You've been shocked by an electric type before, right?"
"Uh- Yeah, I think so."
"SO THEN WHY'D YOU BITE INTO THE PHONE?!"
"To look into it! You said it's like our wands but without the video! I wanna take a look at the internals in it!" Marble puffs up his cheeks and stands his ground. "So what if I get shocked a little… Now if you excuse me," Marble transforms into a Pawniard to cut the cord connecting the phone to the wall of the booth. He stuffs the phone in his bag after turning back to normal.
I take a deep sigh and we both leave the phone booth with nearby Pokemon in the street watching.
"We enter a new city, never before really seen from the rest of the world, and the first thing we do is vandalism. This is a recipe for them to never want outsiders in their city ever again."
"Yeah, but- We can take this to Azumarill and- and show it to him!" Marble says excitedly.
"Yeah, sure."
I quicken my pace to get out of that area as fast as possible since we just destroyed a phone booth. This city is way more modern than what's on the surface. Up there you'd only find stone, wood, and rope tying it all togethe, with metal only being used for lanterns and the like. But here in this city called 'Verial Metro' there's streetlamps along the road and some power lines stretching from building to building. There's a park with a giant ice spike as its centerpiece instead of a giant tree.
It reminds me a lot of Castelia, except most everything's made of ice and darkened slate. It actually feels familiar to me. Marble's curious about it all.
"So… What are we looking for exactly?" I ask Marble as he has his face glued to a candy shop's window. He snaps out of it and shakes his head.
"Oh! I think we're supposed to just explore the city for anything of note? The phone was one thing! What else can we find?"
…
"I can't think of anything other than the phone that's advanced right now, and it'd kill us if we tried to get a power cable. And if we somehow managed to get it without being shocked to death, we'd probably get arrested," I say flatly.
"Hmm… How about the lanterns held up by metal beams?"
"Same issue of getting shocked to death and/or arrested. Also hard to get a street lamp out of the ground."
"Uhh, shoot."
Marble takes out his diary from his bag and a pencil to write with. "I'll start charting the map! This is one of the MOST important things when exploring the area!"
I notice that on a wall nearby there's a city map. It's a large, circular city with a giant park in the middle. So we're at the heart of the city already. I tear the map off the wall and roll it up. Looking back at where the map was, there's a poster with a Braixen and an Alolan Sandslash on it.
'COME SEE OUR PERFORMANCE LIVE, STAGED SOUTH OF THE CENTRAL PARK AT THE THEATRE AVENUE! 15:00 on cycle 694!'
'Watch a beautiful singing performance or drama performance, fully improvised on the spot, all twists and turns and you won't be certain what the heck you're buying when you show up to watch! It could even be a scam! Mystery and intrigue await you!'
Must've not been too popular if a map was plastered over it. I walk over to Marble and show him the map and his eyes light up.
"OH! This is perfect! Pff, okay now I don't need to make my own map. We can just use this." He puts his diary away.
"So…" I place my paw on the center of the map and do a little circle motion. "We're right here! Right by this giant park and by the candy shop."
"Ok! So from here we go to uh… Uhh…" Marble puts a paw on the map and drags it around trying to find an interesting place to go.
"There's Theatre Ave., place with a bunch of random stores, that's where we are, housing district… Where to go first…"
"Um, kinda off topic, but where have Smeargle and Lere been? We've been walking for a while now and they haven't really shown up," I ask, slightly worried.
"Huh? Oh, now that you mention it, yeah… Um, maybe they'll call us on the connection wand soon?"
"I hope so, I mean- Actually, they're the only ones out of us that can call Azumarill."
"Wait, we can't call them?"
"Uh, yeah. Did you miss that when she was telling us how it works?"
"She said that? Why? This would be so much easier if we could just call them!"
"Yeah! Here, let me call up Smeargle." I take out my wand and twist the pink orb on top. Nothing happens. I twist it again. Still nothing.
"It's not… Ugh, hold on sorry." I twist it again with a bit more force. I hear something like a twig snapping. Still no call being brought up. Angrily, I twist it again and the orb pops off in my paw.
"Uh-" I stare at it in shock and then at Marble. Marble just looks at it blankly. For once I feel like the dumb reckless one! I try to slot the orb back in, but it won't fit back into place.
"Frick."
I sigh and put the empty wand and pink orb back into my bag.
"Can you try yours?" I ask Marble.
"Oh yeah, sure." Marble takes out his wand and twists the green orb. Still nothing.
"That's… Really weird." Marble puts his wand back into his bag and doesn't try to twist it again after seeing what happened to mine.
"Maybe they're having trouble calling too?" I say.
"I hope they're not in any trouble…"
-o-O-0-O-o-O-0-O-o-
"IT WON'T WORK! Who the heck built these rods of garbage!?" Lere says in frustration while rapidly twisting the red orb and making scrape marks on it.
"Getting angry in this situation is not advised. Try a different way instead, or try again later? You're damaging your own personal communication device. I can surmise they are not easily replaceable," Gicasu says.
"Smeargle, let me see yours for a sec," Lere says, brushing off Gicasu's advice.
"What? No! You're gonna flare up in flame and burn it up. Mine's made of wood, yours is made of metal!"
"Mine doesn't work though! Did you bring any extra orbs? Mine must be faulty!"
"No, those orbs are too special to be bringing on expeditions. Azumarill would never give us clearance."
"Just give it to me so I can try to call them up! Pleaaase?"
"Can't I just call them myself?"
"Ok, try!" Lere says sharply. Smeargle twists her yellow orb. Nothing.
"Nope. Doesn't work."
"You're doing it wrong! Give it to me!" Lere lunges forward to try and grab it and Smeargle moves out of the way.
"No!"
"Logic tells me I shouldn't intervene…" Gicasu mumbles quietly. Lere gets the leg up on Smeargle and tackles her.
"AUGH!"
-o-O-0-O-o-O-0-O-o-
"They're probably doing fine," I say, shrugging. Marble looks a little skeptical.
"Sooo… Which area should we go to first?" Marble asks me.
I point to Theatre Ave. "I wanna see some plays or shows. I like drama and musicals."
"Really? You actually find that stuff interesting?"
…
"I mean-! There's nothing wrong with that!" Marble gives me a nervous smile.
"It'll be a nice break and we can record some stuff, maybe. Y'know, like… uh, cultural things of note? Okay, honestly, I just wanna watch theatre. I can't think of a good way to relate it to the mission," I admit.
"Oh yeah, that's cool! We can just watch stuff! We don't need to note anything. I don't even know how to write reviews for entertainment anyways. We can work more on exploring this city when Lere and Smeargle get here," Marble says.
-o-O-0-O-o-O-0-O-o-
"IT STILL WON'T WORK! RAAGH!" Lere chucks Smeargle's wand far away. Smeargle starts after it but is cut off by Gicasu.
"I got it!" Gicasu says while sprinting for it. A mechanical arm comes out of her side to pick it up. Gicasu chucks it back and Smeargle catches it and staggers.
"Lere, you frickin' idiot! Let's just go into the damn city and look for them instead since our wands won't call. Jeez..."
-o-O-0-O-o-O-0-O-o-
Heck yeah! Finally, some entertainment after what feels like ages. I missed watching TV and stuff. Ever since I got here in this world, I had to make up my own ways to not get bored. Marble solved tic tac toe really quickly, so it stopped being fun., After I made makeshift chess pieces, and he beat me at the game every time.
"Wanna take a shortcut through the alleyways?" Marble asks. A small shiver goes up my spine.
"Uh…" I stare down the dark alleyway beside the candy shop. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah! I think the earlier you get there the more food they have at the stands!"
?
"Uhm… Okay." Hesitantly, I step forward and adjust the straps on my bag to secure it tight. Marble steps forward.
"This is dark… Hold on, let me get my wand."
Marble takes his wand out of his bags and taps it on the ground twice and it shines the way forwards. Some water splashes up and gets on my cloak, Marble tapped his wand into a puddle. Then, onward we go!
"Uh, Marble. Can I ask a question?"
"Mm?"
"How come some Pokemon have special names, but other ones don't? Like how you're a Zorua named Marble, but Smeargle is just named Smeargle."
"Oh, I can explain that. It's just uhh… Apparently some Pokemon got inspired a long time ago by humans showing up, so some came up with their own unique names. At first it was looked down upon, but now it's more common among Pokemon to have their own unique names."
"How'd you get your name?"
"When I was younger I was out in the forest with Corviknight. I saw a perfectly round pebble and blurted out 'marble' suddenly while we were walking along the path. Corviknight laughed because the way I said it was funny, and he's just called me that ever since, and it stuck." Marble giggles a little. "It's a little funny story… How'd you get your name, Walker?"
"Oh, I can't remember if it was anything in specific. I uh… can't really remember. Maybe it was just a random name given or I just… walked a lot?"
Me and Marble stop for a sec and we both start to crack up and laugh.
"Pff, no way that's how you got your name," Marble says.
"Pah, yeah I know. But yeah, I don't remember- Oof!" A door swings open and hits me. I had my head turned to Marble, so I had no way of seeing it coming.
"Oh! Oh my God! I'm so sorry!" An Inkay walks out from behind the door.
"Ow…" I grumble. Marble sits blankly with no thoughts in his mind.
"Ah- Gotta go! Can't delay!" The Inkay goes to the other side of the alleyway and opens a door into what looks like a kitchen.
"...Okay. Anyways, which way do we go?" I ask Marble, quickly brushing off bumping into a door.
"Map says go forward and take the second right…"
"Ok, let's- Gah!" I bump into the same door that swings open again. An Inkay walks out from behind the door.
"Oh! Oh my God! I'm so sorry!"
"H-huh? Didn't you just..?" I just bumped into them. How are they here again?
"Just what? OH! Shoot! Gotta go, can't be late!" The Inkay goes to the other side of the alleyway and opens the door into the kitchen.
I shake my head and take a step back.
"Marble what the… What the heck was that?"
Marble shrugs. "Some Inkay that have business to do?"
"It was the same Inkay though?"
"Wait, was it?" Marble tilts his head.
The door flings open again and the same Inkay goes from one side to the other. Me and Marble look at each other.
"Uhh, let's just go and ignore that. We can't be late to the show, right?" Marble says.
"Yeah let's go. This alleyway gives me the heeb jeebs," I say.
"The what?"
"The heeb jeebs, the hobs bobs, the jeeds heeds, the, the uh, the beebs leeds."
"Wh?" Marble looks dumbfounded.
"Uh, never mind." I walk forward and Marble follows behind. I hear the door open behind me as we go. I walk just a little bit faster.
We come out into a big plaza. There's some Pokemon playing in a band on one stage. Some seem to be practicing a play all the way down the street. There's one big billboard with a Braixen and an Alolan Sandslash on it.
'COME SEE OUR PERFORMANCE LIVE, RIGHT HERE AT THEATRE AVENUE!'
Next to that text is a countdown on a seven segment display. It says the performance is in seventeen minutes from now.
'Watch a beautiful singing performance or drama performance, fully improvised on the spot, all twists and turns and you won't be certain what the heck you're buying when you show up to watch, it could even be a scam! Mystery and intrigue await you!'
"200P? Huh… Hey, that's actually really cheap!" Marble beams.
"Way, way cheaper than the other ones. They really want us to watch this one- all the other tickets are 500P or in that range…" I say, a bit disappointed that the options are limited if we don't wanna break the bank. "But I'm starving for anything to watch! Come on, let's get to the ticket booth!" I say, jumping forward with a kick in my step. Swiftly I get out 400P from my bag and place it on the counter.
"Hello!" The Croagunk in the booth says. "What tickets will you two be getting?"
"Two tickets for Braixen and Sandslash's grab bag show, please!"
"Two tickets for Braixen and Sandslash's grab bag show, please!"
"JYNX!" Marble says, startling me. "You owe me 120P!" he says smugly.
"What!"
…
"Oh-! Right, the tickets." Croagunk hands me two tickets.
"Thank you sir!" I do a little bow.
"No problem! Just head on over to the ticket taker and find some chairs at the right stage."
I hand Marble a ticket. "THIS can be the 120P I owe you."
"Hah! Fine, ok. I'll take it!"
Marble and I give a Malamar our tickets and they allow us into the seating area. We sat in the middle of all the seats, since that's less crowded generally. There's a few Pokemon here, but only enough to fill up just over half of the seats.
"I was always a theatre nut. I took drama class in school like, twice. The teacher allowed me to retake it."
"Got any stories?"
"Uh, well. One time a Herdier broke into the classroom when it was just me and two other students rehearsing lines for the upcoming production. Instead of doing the sensible thing like calling for a different teacher because some rando just broke into the classroom, we just rolled with it and incorporated the dog into our play."
Marble snickers. "Wh- How? Why?"
"Well, I had no say in it. I just kinda followed along with the other two people because I was too nervous to say anything." I scratch behind my neck. "The play we were rehearsing had a Herdier character in it, but no trainer nearby had one that they were willing to let the school borrow. So ORIGINALLY the Herdier was only gonna be mentioned once or twice in the plot, but now we had a wild Herdier in the room. The other two did all the convincing work, the Herdier came by daily after a while, and boom, we had another casting for the play."
…
"Uh, sorry, rambling." I look down a little. I'm not used to being able to talk to someone a lot like this about personal stories- the few that I have, anyways.
"Oh, no worries! That's freaking crazy though. Wild Herdier breaks into the classroom, starts showing up daily afterwards, and then becomes part of the play… Um, I'm guessing your world had humans and Pokemon. How did they coexist? I still don't even know what a human looks like."
"Well, they-"
"SHHH!" A Trumbeak spits as they shush me. I flinch, a little bit revolted. "The play is about to start!"
"Jeez… Sorry." I roll my eyes.
Two Pokemon to the side pull back the curtains. "The show will now be starting!" one yells. Once the curtain is fully pulled, the whole scene is revealed. There's a frame of a cozy little cottage. Braixen sits on a chair combing their head and ear fluff. Fake snow is littered over the stage. Crushed up ice.
"Oh, what it is- To be stuck in this stupid house. Can't even find the key!" The Braixen sets the comb on a drawer and then opens it up. He scrambles through the junk. "Ugh!"
"Still can't find it?" The voice comes from the side. I turn my gaze to see an Alolan Sandslash that was previously hidden in the dark, but now has a spotlight on them. These are the two from the poster!
Both of them have faint glowing white auras that I know only I can see. Both have a small timer above them ticking down. I try my hardest to ignore it and it mostly works. I really just wanna enjoy a play with nothing stupid happening.
"Yeah! I can't find the damn key…" the Braixen laments. He slumps out of his chair and looks under a bed. "Dust bunnies."
"We can always break a window or a wall, you know, to get out finally," the Sandslash responds. She flips a pan with a pancake. Wait a minute…
"But this is our house! Neither me or you know how to repair it! The costs would be- Hey wait, how the heck do you have that?" the Braixen asks.
"Have what?"
"The pancake."
"Oh." She stops to throw some kindling into the stove. "Blissey was kind enough to give some soft boiled eggs last week, remember?"
"Isn't this like… cannibalism?"
"No, it's advanced cannibalism," she says back. Some of the crowd chuckles a little. Marble snickers. "No, it's not cannibalism," Sandslash clarifies. "Blissey can kinda just make them out of thin air. It's weird, but who cares? Free cakes and other stuff like that. Can't live without cake. I'd die if I didn't have cake."
"Dude, that's so freaky," the Braixen responds. He continues to rummage around the house, mumbling "did I leave it outside?" while scouring the place. "Are you gonna help me or what?"
"Nope, I got bigger things to fry. Like this pancake. The pancake is ginormous."
She pauses.
"Absolutely HUGE."
Another pause for comedic effect.
"SO LARGE IN FACT-"
"OK! I get it!" Braixen interrupts. I end up chuckling a little and Marble wheezes a little. So we bought tickets to improv comedy, basically. I was always terrible at being funny on the spot.
"AHA! I found the key!"
"Nice," Sandslash says, taking the pancake out of the hot pan with her claws and eating it. Braixen looks unironically disturbed, like this wasn't part of the play. I suppress a laugh. No one else laughs at it though.
"What are you staring at me like that for?" Sandslash takes a bite out of the pancake.
Braixen shakes his head. "Nothing, carry on." Braixen rushes to the door, shoving the key into it.
Suddenly some grumbles come from the audience. Marble and I look around, and suddenly everyone looks bored and annoyed, some of them mumbling some pretty harsh things.
"Where's the plot to this? I should've known improv was gonna be terrible based on those posters..."
"They stayed on that one bit too long, I'm outta here."
"Their improv is good! Why's everyone so upset all of a sudden? People were happy and laughing just a second ago…" I whisper to Marble. Marble shrugs.
"S-Sandslash, it's freaking happening again! People are leaving again, at the same time, even though we did a different performance!"
Sandslash drops the pan, which clangs on the wooden stage floor. "Dammit. I thought it got fixed!"
Pokemon actually are leaving in droves. Marble and I look at each other, our immersion completely shattered. Eventually, it's just me and him in the seats.
"Uh… okay, I don't feel like watching anymore," I say, quietly. Facing towards the stage, I catch Marble nod in agreement in the corner of my eye.
"Wait! WAIT! Don't go! I swear we have more to show! We haven't gotten to the good part yet!" Braixen hops offstage with Sandslash following behind to go toward the drove of leaving Pokemon.
"Yeah!" she says. "Don't you wanna get your money's worth!?"
"UGHH! How did we blow it again!? We did everything perfect!" Braixen throws up his arms.
I motion to Marble to use the side gate to get outta this weird situation by pointing a paw. He looks back with a slight pained expression, then moves past me to go to the exit. He holds the gate open for me and I slip out. Quickly, I turn back to see Braixen and Sandslash looking at us. Marble and I both do a quick dash to get out of view.
"So!" I say. "Wanna go find an inn and call it for the night?"
"Heck yeah I do! I'm freaking tired," Marble affirms.
"I was really looking forward to watching something… maybe tomorrow. Though I'm short on money, so it's your turn to chip in."
"Hehe, I'm richer than you~" Marble gloats.
-o-O-0-O-o-O-0-O-o-
"...Sandslash? Have we ever seen those two before?"
"Uh, no, not that I remember. They left out the back exit too, and left way later than the rest of the others…"
"The heck?" Braixen growls. "We finally get new Pokemon to show up to our play- show thing, whatever! Then they just leave! We didn't set up the posters any different this time. It's always the same ones who show up every day and the same ones that leave every day at the same time, it feels like! But then suddenly there's two new Pokemon out of nowhere…"
Braixen slumps and groans. "Maybe we should stop it with this whole looping thing and just give up."
"Don't say that!" Sandslash encourages Braixen. "We'll get it eventually. Dialga gave us these gifts, so we'd better damn well use them. Make the countless months we spent waiting and exercising patience to gain their favor actually worth it. I'm not about to let you just waste all that time we spent. We have to get this right, and we have eternity to do so."
…
"Do you think we'll see them next loop?" Braixen asks.
-o-O-0-O-o-O-0-O-o-
Authors note: oops i was a little late posting this chapter soz abt that