"Welcome to the Boxes, little one." Eevee couldn't help but stare up in shock at the wide, expansive space before her.
"Wow! This really is something!" Her mouth was agape with a sense of wonder.
"Indeed." Said Dusknoir, the one who had greeted her. "You'll find this place to be an enjoyable experience. Come along, I'll need to introduce you to the others."
Dusknoir began to move away. Eevee was just confused. "Wait, where are we going?"
Dusknoir stopped and turned back briefly. "I just said, to meet the others."
"Yeah, I got that, but like, where?"
Dusknoir sighed. "You wouldn't know where yet, but…" He grumbled to himself a little. "I suppose I'll have to give a geography lesson as we walk, then. Come along now."
The walk to "over there" was a long journey. Dusknoir explained a lot, namely different locations, who tended to go where, who not to tick off, all sorts of stuff. A lot of it didn't make sense to Eevee, like the advice of "Never call Nidoking by his nickname", "Never fall asleep near Volcarona", or "Never drink the water by Weezing's place", but from what she gathered, the Box was something along the lines of a big environment for the Pokemon deposited in it to rest and relax in between bouts with their trainer. As such, there were a variety of different spots, such as several mountains and lakes, a couple of forests, some cool caves, wide expansive plains, and a whole ton of other places for the inhabitants to enjoy. It sounded very exciting to explore all of it.
"So how did you meet our trainer?" asked Dusknoir, seemingly out of the blue.
"Er, well, I was a sort of… commemorative gift? If I have that term right? I was gifted to him, and he decided to keep me around for a while."
"A… gift? How so?"
"I don't know much about it myself. I just know that whoever manages some system or other likes to give away Eevee gifts. I didn't pay much attention when it was explained to me." Dusknoir solemnly nodded.
"I understand." Dusknoir mused to himself for a moment. "But you shouldn't worry, if you have been. You won't be feeling too left out here. A lot of Pokemon here were given as gifts to our trainer. They can help you adjust."
Eevee stared with surprise. "Must be a pretty swanky trainer to receive a whole ton of them, huh?"
"I suppose you could define it like that. Most of them were given to him to aid with research into the Pokedex. Very few were just because random people felt nice."
Eevee caught on to the mention of the Pokedex in particular, out of what Dusknoir said. "The Pokedex? So I guess that explains why this whole box thing has so many people, huh?"
"Correct. Over the years, there's been a lot of Pokemon captured by our trainer in his quest to complete the Pokedex. Here is where we all get to become familiar with one another. We come from all walks of life, so many of us all finding common ground in here is an incredible thing. You'll fit right in."
"How'd you meet him, then?", asked Eevee. Dusknoir was taken aback by the sudden question, but recomposed himself quickly.
"I was traded to him, from my original trainer, when he was young. I was meant to help out both with his research and growth."
Eevee looked on, wide eyed. "Your trainer gave you away, just like that?"
Dusknoir nodded. "But they were not as cold hearted as you may think. I was given to help someone younger, and I did. And I'd say our trainer did an admirable job growing up. I was only a Duskull when I was traded, after all." Dusknoir stopped. "We're here."
Eevee stopped as well, and took a look at the surroundings. They had wound up in an outcropping in the large field area Dusknoir described earlier. In the center of the outcropping was a large temple-like structure, covered in moss and built of old stone. Eevee couldn't help but wonder why this kind of thing was in the middle of a perfectly normal grassy field.
"Some of the others are inside. This bunch are typically quite good at spreading the word of new arrivals. Soon, everyone here will be familiar with you, little one." Eevee couldn't help but feel nervous.
"E-everyone? How many is that?" Dusknoir took a moment to ponder.
"To be honest, I've never taken a headcount of how many Pokemon there are here. At minimum, I suppose we have little over ninety Pokemon here." Eevee was taken aback.
"N-n-ninety? That's a lot!" Dusknoir simply glanced back to the temple.
"Come on, we don't have all day. They'll be heading off to do something else sooner rather than later." Dusknoir began to enter the temple, as Eevee trailed slightly further behind, clearly nervous at the prospect of meeting these new faces.
As it turned out, very few of that supposed ninety something group of Pokemon were inside, though it didn't make Eevee any less nervous. Gathered around a rather sizable stone table was a group of nine, consisting of a Charizard, Reuniclus, Gallade, Escavalier, Togekiss, Exploud, Vaporeon, Gengar, and Tyranitar. The group seemed to be debating on something rather heated. Despite the ongoing argument, Togekiss had taken notice of the duo's entry, and immediately diverted attention towards them, looking slightly relieved for some reason Eevee couldn't quite understand.
"Hey, lookie here everyone! Didn't know you had a kid, Dusknoir!" Dusknoir moved a figurative step back, not anticipating that response.
"T-they are not my kid." Dusknoir sputtered out, seemingly flustered from the remark. Togekiss giggled as Gengar and Reuniclus chuckled off to the side. Vaporeon, meanwhile, regarded Eevee from afar, a look of curiosity on his face.
"Well, who are they then? Come on, spit it out!", Exploud cried out from the back of the room.
"They're a new arrival. I was hoping you all could help spread the word of their arrival.", replied Dusknoir.
The group, that Eevee decided to dub "The Council", talked amongst themselves for a while, with a few harsh words spun between Exploud, Gengar, and Tyranitar, before they turned around to give their answer.
"Well it certainly beats having this meeting, that's for sure." stated Reuniclus, seemingly tired of the debate they had walked in on. "We'll be willing to help you out effective immediately!"
Tyranitar did not seem to take a shine to Reuniclus' demeanor. "Cmon Reuniclus, stop saying it like that. We need to have these meetings, you know." He looked away from Reuniclus in disdain. "You're always sick of these meetings, I'm surprised you're even still a part of this group."
Gengar piped up upon hearing this. "Tall words coming from someone like you, Tyranitar. You turn tail and flee the moment there's trouble around here, ha!" Tyranitar slunk back, seemingly defeated already.
"Everybody, always bickering." decried a disappointed Escavalier. "Can't we ever have one meeting where things go smoothly?"
Gallade's annoyance with this debate had seemingly stayed silent long enough. "You make these meetings no fun, Escavalier." he said. "Every time we meet up, you shut down any form of casual debating and make things more serious than they have to be-"
"I will have order!" Charizard roared at the rest of the assembly, and the offenders slunk back to silence. Charizard took a moment to make sure everyone had quieted down before continuing. "Excellent. I don't like to shut you all down like this, but we are certainly not making a good first impression upon our young new friend here." Charizard finished his statement to the council and turned towards Dusknoir and Eevee. Eevee felt intimidated just looking at him. This guy was strong , crazy strong. Judging by the attention he commanded from the other Pokemon, he was most likely the leader. "Now then, Eevee. I'll have the others spread the word of your arrival and get all of the other Pokemon together. There, you can introduce yourself so everyone's familiar with you." Eevee nodded with great difficulty. Charizard seemed friendly, but he was making her tremble in fear just by looking in her general direction. She hoped never to have to deal with this guy in battle.
"Good," said Dusknoir, giving his response. "Now, where are we meeting?" Charizard thought for a moment.
"Perhaps by the old stage near the beach? It'll allow the most people to watch, that's for sure." Dusknoir nodded.
"Understood. I'll make sure to bring Eevee there." Dusknoir made a motion for Eevee to come follow him, and she ran after him with haste, not wanting to be under Charizard's gaze any more than necessary. The two left the temple together, heading for the stage.. Once the two got a decent distance from the temple, Eevee stopped to catch her breath.
"Thank goodness I'm out of that place. Those guys were…" She shivered a little. "Intimidating." Dusknoir showed no visible reaction.
"Most new Pokemon tend to get that from them. They tend to be intimidating due to the group they're a part of, but I assure you, they're all very nice when you get to know them." He turned to face her properly. "I noticed you were shaking when Charizard spoke to you." Eevee blushed and turned to the side.
"You… you saw that? Now I'm embarrassed." She forced a chuckle. Dusknoir continued staring at her before turning away.
"Come, we can talk as we continue moving. Knowing them, they've probably already begun spreading word of your arrival." Dusknoir began to move on, but Eevee stayed still. He turned back to face her again. "Come on. You don't know the way to the old stage." Eevee took a deep breath, and began to follow behind Dusknoir, though trailing a little.
The two walked for a while more, neither saying much of anything. Eevee appreciated the silence, allowing her to calm down a bit after her harrowing experience earlier. Welling up what courage she had, she asked Dusknoir the big question on her mind.
"Those guys didn't seem much like a unified council to me. Why were they all bickering instead of talking to each other?" Dusknoir continued moving onwards, but began to explain to Eevee the history of the council.
"Their 'council', as you put it, was formed a long time ago. When we all first arrived in this Box system, it was found to be disorganized. Turns out, placing so many Pokemon in here without order was a bad idea. Charizard realized this very early on, and while he is normally bashful by nature, he managed to find a few familiar faces to get a set of rules down. They may not be unified, but they are what keeps order around here."
Eevee disregarded the last part, instead focusing on one tidbit of information. "Charizard!? Bashful!? That guy was super scary!"
"You may think that. However, appearances aren't everything. While it is true Charizard is freakishly strong, he never uses intimidation tactics unless absolutely necessary, like you saw back there. He refrains from them a majority of the time, mostly because he dislikes the attention it draws to him. I'm sure you'll see him the way we do once you get used to him. He truly is very kind."
"But, if he's super bashful and all that, why is he the leader?" Dusknoir sighed.
"He is the leader because he commands a certain respect. He was the first Pokemon our trainer ever obtained. Everybody here has known him and his strength in battle, as well as his close bond with our trainer as long as they have been here. There is no one else who can fill that gap quite so admirably, and he understands this. While he may not like it, he knows he has to."
"B-but, couldn't he just hand it off to someone he trusts, or something? He's still in charge, but he's not handling the most of it!"
"He chooses not to. While he could do that, Charizard wishes to keep order from breaking down as long as possible. If there's no leader that everyone knows they can rely on, they begin to find their own leaders, or try to become their own leaders. Then you have factions. We may all be friends, but trying to keep us as one collective is a difficult task. Charizard has a deep kind of courage to keep everyone together like this."
"Wow, you know a lot, Dusknoir!" Eevee looked towards him with deep admiration. Dusknoir chuckled.
"Thank you, little one." He paused for a moment. "You know, I've never asked, how old are you?"
"About a year old, why?" Dusknoir stopped.
"That young? It sure is a good thing our trainer chose to keep you. I fear what would have happened otherwise."
Eevee remained silent for a while. Dusknoir's words rang to her harshly. Where would she have been? On the road, not knowing how to battle? Hoping for a kind trainer or Pokemon to take her in?
"I suppose I owe a lot more to him than I thought." Dusknoir nodded solemnly.
"Yes." Dusknoir paused. "…But I suppose I should move on from these distressing topics. I can see you are not well." Eevee looked up to him with a semi hopeful look. "Well, where were we when we were discussing the council? I believe we only discussed the formation of the group. The members themselves are another story…"
The walk to the stage was a long one. Eevee wondered how everyone moved around here so much. Her legs were already tired. The only reason she hadn't stopped was because of Dusknoir. His stories had kept her determined enough to continue. From the explanations of the council members, to the stories of the various miscellaneous activities the other Pokemon got up to, Dusknoir was a very potent storyteller. She couldn't believe she had initially been frightened of him, before he explained everything. And, with all of those stories told, they had eventually made it to the stage. The place was old and decrepit, looking like an outdoor Contest Hall, but still very much usable. Eevee got the feeling someone probably tried burning it down at one point.
"Finally! I can lie down and rest!" Eevee belly flopped onto the creaky wood of the stage with glee that the long walk was finally over. Dusknoir too began to take a rest, though while he had said that, Eevee couldn't discern much difference out of him compared to his usual self. After a short break, allowing Eevee to pant a little, she turned to ask Dusknoir a question. "Hey, Dusknoir. When are the others all gonna get here?"
"They all arrive at different times normally, but by my estimation, I'd say we're waiting an hour for everyone to get here. Thus, we still have plenty of time to talk if you have any questions." Eevee thought for a moment.
"What happened to this stage?"
"Ah, this stage. I figured you'd be curious. We used to use this stage for various performances and festivities and such. The last one we had was a mock Pokemon Contest. The competition was a battle between me, Crobat, Milotic, and Rapidash, to see who could complete the appeals the best according to the judges and audience."
"Sounds fun!"
"It is, only I had some very competitive teammates. Crobat was very lax about the whole thing, but Rapidash and Milotic were very much hoping that they'd win."
"So who won?" Dusknoir chuckled.
"As you may or may not have surmised by the charred stage we are standing on, Rapidash did not. That was the last time we ever used this stage. A shame. I found the Contest thoroughly enjoyable."
"I never took you as someone who was into Contests, Dusknoir." Dusknoir looked up at the sky, seemingly in longing.
"I used to participate in them… with my old trainer." Eevee looked on in surprise, as Dusknoir continued. "As a Duskull, I was an absolute champion when it came to Contests. No one could defeat me."
"Then, why did you stop?"
"Truth is, I never did wish to. And I never really have. Our current trainer chose to evolve me and utilize me for battle, and that was that. He understood my desire to participate in Contests, but unfortunately, he never was quite able to join an open venue more than once or twice."
"I'm… sorry."
"There's no need to be. It has nothing to do with you. If anything, I should apologize for bringing up something like this in front of you, little one."
"No, no, don't worry about it. I'm perfectly fine, just a bit sad you could never accomplish your dreams."
Dusknoir chuckled. "Well, who knows, little one? Maybe one day."
The two continued talking for some time. After a while, however, he turned to look at something behind her. "It appears that the others have begun to arrive. I may have been guiding you so far, but I cannot be on stage with you as you introduce yourself." Eevee turned to look at the Pokemon behind her, and saw that quite a large crowd was beginning to gather, with such a wide variety of Pokemon that she was somewhat in awe. "Now, listen to me, Eevee. When you're up there, just state who you are, that you're glad to meet everyone and hope to get to know them better, and hope they all have a good night. Nothing more, nothing less. I am uncertain if they will treat you as completely sincere, and you may have some negative feelings drum themselves up within the audience."
"Just that? That feels a bit short, given everybody's come to see this."
"Do not worry little one, just put your faith into me on this one." Dusknoir stared deep into her soul, and while it was slightly unnerving, Eevee felt in her heart that Dusknoir only had his best interests in his mind for her. .
"I'll… I'll do my best, Dusknoir." Dusknoir grinned in response.
"You've got this, little one. I believe in you." Dusknoir took his leave as he said that, disappearing into the shadows in front of her. She gulped. Despite what she said to Dusknoir, she was extremely nervous. This many Pokemon…. It was unnerving. It was night time now, too. The area was lit up with some torchlight, and the ominous glow wasn't helping the mood.
A Victini walked up on stage, carrying with it a small box, seemingly to act as a stool for Eevee when it came time for her to speak. It also carried a microphone with it. "Alrighty Eevee, I'll give an intro to the audience, and then you give your own little intro, as to who you are, K?" It set down the box and microphone, before picking up the mic to deliver its own message. It hit the mic a few times, gathering everyone's attention.
"Testing, testing, one two three, this thing's on, right?"
"Get on with it already, Victini! Who's the new kid?" yelled a very disgruntled Mienshao from the audience.
Victini continued on, a bit more jittery than last time. "Er, uh, thank you for that, Mienshao. It was very… helpful. Well, uh, right, now I'm sure you all are definitely not wondering why we called you here, so I'll just cut to the chase. We have a new arrival!" Victini turned to Eevee, mic pointed away from its mouth. It whispered to Eevee. "You ready little guy?" Eevee nervously nodded, and Victini went right back into presentation mode. "Alrighty, and here they are! Can we all get a wonderful round of applause for our new friend?" A large amount of slightly melancholic clapping came from the audience, as Eevee slowly moved up to the box. Victini had set the mic into its stand, now shortened down to Eevee's height, as she prepared what she was going to say.
"Er-" the mic sent out a jarringly loud noise to the audience. Not a good start. "Sorry about that, um, hi everyone! My name's Eevee!" No response came from the audience. She spotted Dusknoir, silently watching from the corner. "Um… it's great to meet all of you, and I hope we can become the best of friends! While I may be new, I'm very excited to learn from all of you, and-"
"Oi, kid, cut it off with the jibber jabber! This is some of the least convincing entrance material I've seen in a long time." The crowd parted to allow Eevee to see who had interrupted her, revealed to be none other than Exploud from the meeting earlier. "If you want to be accepted, you have to say what you truly feel!"
Eevee was feeling the pressure. While she could tell a large portion of the crowd didn't quite agree with Exploud's outburst, she knew she had to choose her next words carefully, otherwise things may go south. "I…. how do you mean?"
Exploud glared at her. "Simple, state with your heart what you truly feel right now. Go on, pour it out to us." Eevee glanced at Dusknoir, who simply stared with indifference. He was expecting her to work this out for herself.
"W-well, I…" Eevee stuttered out. She didn't know where to start. She glanced nervously at the crowd as she sank behind the mic. "I, sort of, well…" The crowd was starting to get disinterested, and she could tell Exploud was glaring at her with a look of disappointment. She needed to turn it around before their attention was lost, and soon.
But then, she saw one Pokemon in particular from the audience. And then she realized, that she knew exactly what to say. "...I, well, I'm not really much of a presenter, so, please, bear with me." Exploud crossed her arms and turned her head to the side, glancing vaguely in her direction. "I've been told that around here, people get around to all sorts of different things. Some of them are good, some of them… maybe kind of below average." She paused. "And frankly, it's kind of intimidating. All I've ever known… is the world of being with my trainer… our trainer… and I don't know where to start, now that I'm on my own. It's scary just looking at all of you." She glanced at Exploud, who seemed to be paying a bit more attention. "But I know that it really isn't the case. I may be afraid, but I know, in my heart… truly you guys aren't mean, or scary. No matter how you may seem at the start." She glanced at Charizard. "...Because, truly, I don't know all of you yet. What I said when I first came up here may have been because of my nervousness, but no matter how intimidating you look, or how rude you come across… I want to understand you. Because…" She glanced at Dusknoir. "You never know who a person truly is until you get to know them. And I want to get to know you all." She turned to face the whole audience this time, instead of skulking like she was before. "But I am young, and I am a bit scared of things I see up front…. I'm not perfect, but I hope you all won't hold that against me. But, what I'm trying to say is…. Will you all… be my friend?"
She hadn't noticed it until she finished, but Exploud was grinning. She chuckled to herself. "Impressive, little one. It takes guts to speak your mind like that." Eevee blushed at the compliment. "Haha, still a bit embarrassed are we? Don't worry. I wasn't being serious with all of that yelling earlier, I was merely performing a… test of character, as Escavalier puts it."
Sharpedo murmured next to her. "You did seem very serious though."
"Shut up Sharky."
Victini had taken this opportunity to take back the mic and perform its finish. "Well, you've heard it folks. I, for one, definitely want to take Eevee up on her offer." She turned and winked at Eevee. "And I hope you all do the same. Now, unless Eevee has anything more to say…." It turned to Eevee, and she shook her head. Victini carried on. "Then you are all free to go! Have a nice night everyone!" The crowd took the opportunity to immediately disperse, with a high amount of conversation amongst the members of it. She saw Charizard from afar, grinning as he flew off.
"Excellent job little one." She heard the familiar voice of Dusknoir appear from behind her. "You did great up there."
"I hope so… I kind of got put on the spot."
"I will admit… I was concerned when Exploud made her outburst, but you handled the job admirably. Now all that's needed for you to do is to enjoy yourself around here and make some friends."
"I wouldn't worry too much, Dusknoir." She smiled wide as she stared straight at Dusknoir. "I already have."