"Were you aware that Sera Birch has two starting Pokemon?" Morgan asked as she dropped her bag loudly.
When no response came, she instantly regretted wasting her dramatic entrance, yet found she had no energy to do it again. Instead, she took a seat at the dining room table. A teacup sat across from her, and against her better judgement she decided to take a peek, but found it empty. "Figures."
A few minutes later, Genevieve appeared. "Oh, it is you. I thought I heard so-... Is that what you're wearing?"
Morgan leered and reigned back a sigh, but to her relief the woman quickly shrugged it off. "Better than that filthy robe, at any rate."
I washed that like two days ago, Morgan thought with a huff.
"I suppose it does have a certain… je ne sais quoi, as well. Perhaps we can play you as having a sort of.. roughneck, tomboy angle. That could appeal to some audiences."
"Good luck with that," mumbled Morgan.
"Oh, but had you said something when you came in? Sorry, I was a tad busy."
The protagonist sighed and rubbed her head for a moment. "Did you know that Sera- Sera BIRCH, apparently- has two starters to my one?"
"What." The word came out as more of a hiss. Morgan was quite certain she had momentarily acquired laser vision, given the way she peered through everything. "Why that-"
The woman visibly collected herself and took a deep breath. "That's fine. Easy enough to fix, we still have about an hour. I'll just have to call dear Norman to let him know and pay the extra fee. Not a problem."
She crossed the room to where her purse rested and retrieved what looked like another sort of PokeNav, with a few more buttons. As she scrolled through some things on the screen (oh you could… touch the screen? That was pretty cool, Morgan thought), she asked, "Out of curiosity, what starters does she have?"
Morgan sought to recall their names. "Ah, M… Mudkip, a watery one. And.. what was Flash's species. The… It's a little bird, big head feathers, fluff around its neck, no visible wings."
"Torchic?" asked Genevieve, a slight glance over her shoulder.
"That sounds right. Is that the little yellow one with orange accents?"
"Hehh. I think you mean orange with yellow," came the confident response.
Morgan frowned. "No, I am definitely sure it was yellow with orange."
Genevieve's PokeNav hit the counter and clattered to the floor. She slowly turned back to Morgan, a too-wide smile pasted on her face and an eye twitching. Morgan startled a bit, unsure what could have caused such a reaction. "You're.. QUITE sure."
It did not really seem like a question, but Morgan nodded all the same.
"...Tell me, pet. Did this little bird seem to sparkle in any way?"
"Uh…"
"Did it catch the light more than other Pokemon you've seen." Her tone had dropped lower than Morgan would have guessed her voice could go, and each word was slow and enunciated. "Did it have a highly refractive quality? Did it look metallic, or pearlescent? Did. It. Fucking. Sparkle."
Morgan thought back. "I.. guess? I mean now that you mention it. I wasn't paying all that much attention to them so I'd have to see it again to be sure but-"
"That. Smug. BASTARD." She turned back toward the counter and a fist came down hard. "Did he honestly think he could-"
Again, she recomposed, breathing slowly, deeply. Her voice returned to normal. She turned back to Morgan with a smile. "Change of plans, dear. It seems given the particular circumstances, we can't just settle for any old Pokemon as your second starter, now can we?"
Morgan still wasn't sure what the issue was, but guessed, "...No?"
"You go get ready for your interview, my pet. It seems I have quite a few calls to make, but rest assured that we will do everything in our power to get you an appropriate Pokemon by your first Center stop."
"Uh… okay, but-"
Genevieve at last retrieved her Nav and made sure it was still working, then headed upstairs. "Run along now, dear."
"Hey, but-" And she was gone. Morgan sighed. "What interview?"
Oh. That interview. It seemed the whole "kickoff"event was less of a gunshot starting a race and more of a grand celebration, complete with interviews of the competitors.
"Well of course~" chimed Sera upon hearing Morgan's confusion. "I mean this could take months. It's not even unheard of to take over a year. You wouldn't expect our starting at the exact same second would be a big deal, right?"
"Of… course," sighed Morgan. She was really getting tired of dealing with condescending tones over things she had literally no way of knowing.
Whatever the case, she did her best to remain low and enjoy some of the food and festivities while Sera was doing her own interview.
"There you are! Miss Fayel! I'm Martin with Hoenn News Network. Might we have a word?" the reporter asked.
"It's- just call me Morgan. But yes, sure."
"Great! So Morgan. How do you feel about starting your very own grand Pokemon journey here in the Hoenn region?"
Morgan shrugged. "I uh.. It's definitely interesting. I-"
At that moment, Sera moved behind the camera man, shaking her head at Morgan.
"Uh?"
Sera gave a painful-looking smile, pointing to it with both hands.
"I mean, I'm also really happy!" she exclaimed, pasting on a smile that she hoped would be convincing; although she shot Sera a glance that silenty asked, 'right?'
Sera nodded vigorously, then began to do a bit of a silent cheer.
"And.. excited?" Another nod confirmed this. "It's very exciting."
The reporter did not seem entirely convinced, and offered a questioning look. "You don't seem very excited. Is something wrong?"
Sera shook her head at this, but Morgan didn't need advice for that.
"Not at all, Marvin- Martin," she corrected. "I'm just not.. very emotional. Outwardly, I mean. In general. But I promise you I am very.." She took a deep breath and smiled a little wider. "Very excited. It's just a lot to learn, a lot to take in. But I do love learning." This much, at least, was true.
"Well, that's great!" said Martin. "And how do you feel about your sponsors thus far- the Petalburg Gym Leader and his wife?"
"Well, I've only met one of them, but they seem…. uh…" She looked to Sera, who appeared to be gathering something. "Um?" Sera dropped whatever it was and instead quickly picked a few flowers and held them to Morgan. "..Romantic?"
Sera shook her head in frustration as Martin asked, "How do you mean?"
Cover time! "Oh uh. They're.. a married couple, you know? And she seems to care about him an awful lot. So I'm sure I'll like him when I finally meet him?" Of course, apparently she already had? But that was a much longer story than she felt anyone would care to deal with.
Sera gave a visible sigh of relief, and Morgan echoed with an invisible one. "I see," replied Martin.
"Other than that…" Sera offered the flowers again, then added another, and another, re-emphasizing the gesture of pushing them to Morgan each time. "They're… giving? ..Oh! Very generous. That's uh. That's the word I was looking for." Sera dropped the flowers and picked up what she'd had before, bringing the pile of green as close as she could without getting into the camera's line of vision. Was that grass? No.. Oh, clovers? "I feel very lucky!"
"How sweet!" replied Martin. Sera again silently cheered, tossing the clovers like confetti- then cringing and blushing as a few drifted past the camera's lens. Morgan cringed slightly too, but it seemed if anyone else noticed their game of charades no one seemed to care.
"And can we meet the Pokemon that will be accompanying you?"
"Sure." Retrieving her singular PokeBall, she released her partner, who conveniently materialized in her lap. "This is Cerberus," she said, having decided on a name just before arriving.
"Cerberus," echoed Martin. "What a funny name for a Treecko."
"Well, three heads are better than one," Morgan responded flatly.
Martin offered a generic laugh. "What a funny trainer." Sera, on the other hand, facepalmed to a degree that looked painful. Morgan took more pleasure than she should have in her rival's reddening face. "Forgive me for asking, but we noticed your rival had two Pokemon. Might you as well?"
"Not yet," Morgan answered, to Sera's surprise.
The man's brows quirked. "Oh? So you will be receiving one then?"
"Soon," Morgan said with a nod. Before he could ask, she added, "It's a surprise."
To Morgan's own surprise, Sera gave a silent but gleeful clap at this revelation. Martin approved as well. "I suppose we shouldn't expect any less from a player of Norman's, right folks? I'm sure Morgan here will have all kinds of surprises in store for us!"
The interview continued in that manner a little longer. They asked Cerberus to show off a bit for the camera, commented on Morgan's hat, and asked a few more questions about the actual event that Morgan felt unqualified to answer. All the while, Sera did her best to coach Morgan into answers that the audience wanted to hear.
Upon finally getting away, Morgan huffed heavily with relief. Seeing Sera approach, Morgan forced a smile. "Hey uh.. Thanks- I think."
"No problem~" Sera dropped to a crouch to scratch Cerberus as she spoke. "I've seen probably dozens of newbie interviews. Enough to know what kinds of answers the press eats up, anyway."
"Uh-huh." Morgan wasn't quite sure if that was reassuring or scary. "And did I.. more or less get those answers or?"
"Oh you did great!" she exclaimed, looking up to Morgan now.
"I agree," came Genevieve's voice, and Morgan turned to see her approaching as well. "A bit awkward, of course, but it ought to be just enough to be endearing." Morgan thought she should maybe be a little offended by that assessment, but instead found it oddly reassuring. At least she had confirmation Sera had, indeed, been helping rather than leading her to play the fool.
"You found such a great candidate, Miss Genevieve~" remarked Sera.
The woman's eyes fell cold as she literally looked down on the youth. "Sera," was her only acknowledgement. The teen, in turn, recoiled just slightly, her face falling to a frown.
Morgan made a point of looking around at the decorations. I don't see anything awkward happening here. Nope, not at all.
"Oh. Dear. It's almost time for the coin toss."
"The what?"
Sera stood. "You didn't know?"
...I swear if I hear something to that effect one more time. She would… She'd.. She'd be slightly even more frustrated and do nothing still, but just the same… "Guess not."
"Well, see, if we leave town at the same time, we'll be basically walking side by side for a lot of it and that's kind of limiting, ya know?" explained Sera.
Genevieve nodded. "The idea behind the rivalry aspect is that you are traveling the same general route and keeping relative pace, but you're doing so separately. To give you both the most room to grow and improve as individuals, while also occasionally meeting up to battle or work together."
"I suppose that makes sense," commented Morgan. She was more used to group travel herself, but she'd have her Pokemon for that role. It might be nice to see the world without someone constantly barking at her. Hell, she was already getting used to being called 'Morgan' rather than 'mage' or 'you there'.
"So to make sure that we're split but not too far apart, they'll toss a coin in a minute, and the winner gets a 30 minute head start!" Sera concluded. "Afterward, they'll keep track of our pacing and let us know if one is getting too far ahead of the other, of course." Morgan nodded her acknowledgement. "Oh hey, it's about to start, c'mon!"
Sera won. Of course Sera won. Even rolling her eyes felt like too much energy for Morgan to expend at this point.
So Littleroot's prized teen said her dramatic farewells to the camera crew and trekked off into the wilderness, and the young woman from another land was left to wait.
And wait.
She got to sample a few more hors d'oeuvres, which she supposed was a plus, and loaded her bag with some of the drier foods. There was also a pleasant alcoholic punch she was only just old enough to sample by this country's standards, although they discouraged her from having too much: a decision with which she agreed.
Then round came a waiter, and on his plate glistened a beautiful tea set. She debated it for just a moment, but decided there was no harm in at least trying. Heading his way, she called, "Wa-"
"Morgan!"
"Oh for fuck's sake."
"It's time, come on." Genevieve physically ushered Morgan toward the town line like a dog herding sheep. Or a… Morgan didn't know enough Pokemon yet to make an analogy but she was sure there were some good ones.
"Can I just-"
"No."
"But it would only take-"
"I told you to be here at four sharp. That was three minutes ago."
"I-" Morgan sighed and picked up her pace toward her fate.
There was much grandeur, but it all felt distant and strange, as though Morgan were watching it rather than being the center of it. She smiled and waved and played the part, but it all seemed mechanical.
At least until Cerberus hopped up on her shoulder, and brought her consciousness back into herself. With his dramatic waves and bows, he was certainly a crowd-pleaser. Yet he, at least, felt real. And at that moment, Morgan felt a tinge of relief. This little lizard would be her partner, and she his. They would count on each other.
And wasn't that, allegedly, what a Pokemon journey was really about?
With a deep breath to steady herself, then, Morgan took her first steps out into the wild as an official Pokemon trainer.
Morgan found the first route anticlimactically peaceful after all that build-up. And after that Poochyena (as her Dex had informed her) had been so aggressive before. She saw a good number of Pokemon, including a scant few more Poochyena, but they all kept their distance for the longest time, leaving her and Cerberus to enjoy a nice, peaceful hike over the handful of lightly-forested hills.
Finally, as she passed under one small tree, a red blur fell right in front of her, causing her to jump back. It was one of those fuzzy bugs she'd seen wriggling about. Startled, it flailed about until it found its feet and shot a white, sticky substance at Morgan.
"Eugh!" Stumbling back, she did her best to pull it off. For some reason it made her feel much dirtier than it should have. Meanwhile, Cerberus had jumped in to defend her, whacking the caterpillar with his tail without command.
As she pulled the bulk of the gunk off, the realization hit: "Oh, hey, I guess this counts as first combat." She pulled out her Nav, which brought up the battle interface as well as informed her that her foe was called Wurmple. Annnd it seemed that was the most information the Dex could give at a glance. Fair enough, though, and better than nothing. As before, the battle scan also gave her its sex (male it seemed), a relative idea of its health and a comparison of its combat skills compared to Cerb's, measured by "level".
The informational video she'd watched in the van had explained how to capture a Pokemon, so now was Morgan's time to test herself. She knew if she wasn't careful, she could kill the creature rather than merely weakening him; in addition, she'd like to keep him in as good of condition as possible to allow her to use him before needing to heal her team. However, she also knew that the healthier a Pokemon was, the harder it would be to capture.
So she used precise timing when commanding Cerberus, and kept a close eye on the vital scan. When the worm appeared to be at half health, she decided it was time to use-
…
"I don't have any PokeBalls, do I." Good job, Genevieve. Best preparation, 10 of 10. … Ugh.
"Cerberus, take evasive action. Try to keep it here without hurting it too much more." Cerberus gave her an odd look, and she wondered how much of that he actually understood, but after a few moments he seemed to comply well enough.
With a sigh, Morgan switch the Nav to its phone function, finding Genevieve's number. Ring ring… Ring ring…
"Morgan?" came the voice through the Nav. "What is it? Not run into trouble already, have you?"
"Kind of," the trainer answered.
"What on earth could it be? That Wurmple hardly looks like a challenge."
"Well I-" She stopped, grimacing. "You're.. watching me?"
"Of course? Well I mean I hadn't been, right as you called. But I switched to the broadcast when you did." Silence. "...Did you not understand what I meant by your Nav tracking your progress? It plays off and on while you're awake, and automatically activates whenever you get into a battle as well."
Morgan really shouldn't have been surprised. "Right… But hey, so. This is my first battle in this area but I don't have any PokeBalls?"
A pause. "No one does, dear? ...Oh. That's my fault, isn't it, I think I forgot to tell you. You won't get any PokeBalls until you reach the first town. It's to give you some time to bond with your starter and all. Don't worry, you can come back out to 101, the battles won't count against you until you actually can catch them."Morgan rubbed her temple. "Well. That would have been very nice to know."
"I wouldn't dawdle too long, though, dear. Wurmple sometimes have-"
About that time, said Wurmple got tired of the lizard running circles around it and led its shot. Rather than the same sticky webbing, however, it now shot what looked like tiny pins. They connected dead-on- and holy shit that hurt!
Wurmple used Poison Sting! It's super-effective! the battle analysis informed her.
"-that," finished Genevieve. "I'll let you get back to your battle. Good luck, dear!" Beep.
"Shit." Morgan huffed. "Well, finish it off then!"
A somewhat weak Cerberus complied, putting everything he had into his next Pound. This didn't quite take out the Wurmple, but did scare it enough that it fled. The Nav consequently informed Morgan that Cerberus had become more experienced as a result of the fight.
"...No. Really? Do you imagine that would happen?" she asked the inanimate object.
With a sigh, she noted he still seemed rather weak, however, and decided to recall him for now.
As she continued, she found she felt very alone without his company. She missed Staugh's rhetoric. Even Ranik's yelling or Yato's whining would have been tolerable at the moment. The scenery was gorgeous and the sounds were largely peaceful, and had they been more familiar she may have found them relaxing. But as it was, she found it finally fully dawning on her what it meant to be entirely alone in a place both wild and unknown.
But it was worse than that, wasn't it? Because she was alone, yet apparently had no privacy. Heavens knew how many eyes on her, yet no one to talk to. She resolved to get as many Pokemon as she could to always have one with her for company as soon as possible, but that did nothing to quell the awful feeling now…
After some half-hour of this, a noise caught her attention, and she noticed two Zigzagoon getting into some sort of scuffle not terribly far away.
...Those didn't have anything like the Wurmple's poison, right?
Lightly coughing to herself, she casually released Cerberus, who looked around questioningly at their surroundings. Morgan coughed again and tilted her head toward the bickering pair. In a soft voice, she said, "You wanna… Absorb one? I don't care which."
Cerberus blinked, but then nodded. Getting just close enough to be in range, the Treecko picked the slightly smaller of the two Zigzagoon and began to glow, just as it had before. Cerberus quickly grew stronger, and his victim grew weaker. By the time he was done, he was only in fair (albeit much better) health, but the other was barely clinging to life. The larger Zigzagoon quickly took care of that, causing Morgan to cringe.
That's.. That's nature. It was bound to happen either way, she told herself, pushing aside any thoughts threatening to turn into guilt. "You're welcome," she muttered to the remaining Zigzagoon instead.
It, in turn, cocked its head, seeming to understand less than Cerberus. It didn't seem to deem her a threat, however, and casually walked away toward a thicker part of woodland.
What happened next, however, caused Morgan to jump back about two feet. The corpse of the slain Zigzagoon suddenly phased, then disappeared.
"What… the hell?" A chill went through her spine, and she suddenly recalled that the Poochyena before had left no trace either. "What is going on here?"
It was beginning to get dark, sunset fading into twilight, when Morgan finally crested the final hill and saw the first town on her route below. She'd only been on her journey for a few hours, but it was still a very welcome sight.
No sooner did she cross the town line than her Nav began to ring.
"Naturally."
It was Genevieve, congratulating her on making it by nightfall. Morgan wasn't sure if she appreciated the vigilance or found it overbearing, but she supposed she'd take it for what it was worth.
Her benevolent sponsor then proceeded to explain the notable features to look for in each town. Apparently, she could identify Pokemon Centers and Marts by their roof colors. Or…. I could read the signs? she thought dryly. Is she telling me there are no other buildings in the whole country with red or blue shingles? What, did they copyright colors?"All the same, she just politely thanked her as she strolled through town.
"It's late, and Sera got into town a while ago, so you should probably rest for the night. Don't want to be late heading out in the morning," said Genevieve.
"I'd kind of like to catch some more Pokemon, honestly. Besides, I'm used to late hours-"
"But the viewers are not," her sponsor answered firmly.
Morgan sighed. "This is another one of those non-negotiable things, isn't it." She didn't need to wait for an answer, but one came regardless.
"Try to keep your important activities to daylight and early-evening hours, dear. When you have to make camp, if something happens, viewers can always catch the stream the next day, but most prefer to watch live when they can."
"Yeah, yeah. So should I call when I wake up or?"
"Oh no, that's fine. Just get up and on your way like it's natural. Just not before sunrise.""Yeah. K." A thought suddenly occurred. "...Hey."
"What is it, dear?"
"So are viewers listening to our phone call right now, or…?"
Genevieve laughed, causing Morgan to regret asking. "Only your end. Although mine is being recorded as well. It's just not broadcasting."
"Of course." Sleep was sounding more and more enticing. "...You uh.. You won't be watching me sleep, right?"
"Don't worry, you're safe there. Regular broadcasting will end soon anyway, and only pick up if it detects something significant going on. But whatever time of day, it shuts off when you go to sleep."
Thank the gods.
..Did this place have gods? She was going to have to find out some time. Of course, she wasn't entirely sure if she was comfortable with just how…integrated this little machine had become into her life. But she couldn't deny its convenience at the same time.
"Ah, there's the Center, it looks like. Guess I'm about to turn in for the night, then. …. Good night?"
Genevieve chuckled. "Sleep well, dear."As Morgan approached the Center door, she had a thought, and although she felt ridiculous doing so, she decided to hold the Nav out in front of her. ….Where was the camera on this thing, anyway? Or was it.. 360 somehow? Apparently obstruction hadn't been a problem so far…
Whatever the case, she held it up with one hand, and waved toward it with the other. "And good night, fans!" Cerberus picking up on the gesture and striking a pose of her own only made her feel that much cheesier.. yet she was fairly certain she could actually hear Genevieve's smile.
She was so far from cut out for this, but dammit, she was going to make it work.
