"Be careful what you wish for."

What exactly did Vincent imply when he wrote that sentence? Part of him was intimidated by writing them down since all he was doing was simply writing whatever came to mind considering he knows better than to simply let himself get lost in a world that didn't exist.

It's not that he wanted to make anyone or even himself, feel bad for getting invested in the entertainment he mentioned, but a piece of him felt a reluctance to not get too consumed by his childhood memories. Despite the resistance causing friction within his cognitive thought process, however, it did not stop whatever illogical tale he had to confront and march through to the end…

In one instance, he wrote all of that, realizing with a smile that perhaps the year wasn't a hundred percent grim, and thought that was the end of it.

It all started with a headache, and a cough, a rare occurrence when his body would slowly begin to leave a state of sleep, often associated with impacts of stress endured the previous day, still influencing him hours after resting.

"Argh…Where…What?"

Struggling to blink as his vision was slowly adjusting, along with his senses becoming fully optimized and functional, he could feel a slight breeze grazing the surface of his face, a warm, yet semi odorous gusts of breath whirling beneath his nostrils, and a small amount of weight putting pressure on his ribcage and stomach.

"What the hell...?" He groaned, as his sight's focus began to sharpen, noticing what he thought to be a small, black furred dog standing on top of him. "Get-Get off of me!" He roared, swaying his left hand aggressively at the 'dog.'

Lifting himself up ever so slightly on his side, feeling a soreness slicing through the muscles on his back, his left hand was lifted instinctively as he adapted quickly to the shock coming from the surprise upon his awakening.

The 'dog' growled in his direction, its red eyes squinting as it radiated its anger towards him, hunching its front legs forward with it perching the back of its body upwards. It looked as though at any time, this 'dog' that Vincent was eying cautiously, could easily lunge at him at any second.

That thought, however, was concurrently dominated by his mind instantly becoming perplexed at the creature's resemblance to what he remembered as Pokémon. If he didn't know any better, he'd say that it was a Pokémon.

"Is that…are you a…?" Vincent gasped. "Poochyena?" He kept his hand raised in the direction of the growling creature. "Woah, woah, woah…easy. Just take it easy."

After he coarsely let out those words in coarse and harsh breaths, the Poochyena let out a single yelp before turning in the opposite direction and disappeared in the bushes.

"Argh…what the fuck just happened?" He wheezed as he lay his head back down and rested on his back momentarily.

He realized that he couldn't stay down forever. Rubbing the back of his head one last time, not before grazing his forehead gently with the side of his wrist, Vincent felt the need to stand up on his feet. The sharp pain that he felt previously returned for a moment, but began to subside as he turned himself over, feeling the dirt and dull quills of grass at the bottom of his palms as he pushed himself back on his feet.

Vincent sighed, brushing his palms against one another to take off the remnants of dirt stuck on the surface, and shook his hand a bit to ease the marks that were a result of his hand pushing down on the grass. Looking down, he felt a slight ache in his feet, taking note of his shoes being completely covered in dirt, and felt fragile and tight to wear. For compensation, he wiggled his toes while patting both his feet on the ground, then breathed a sigh of relief as the pain went down.

The next thing Vincent focused on was what he was currently wearing. The trench coat he'd remembered getting a few months prior was what he had on, but as he loosened the buttons keeping the coat locked in place, he noticed the slightly faded white dress shirt he had on, in addition to the black dress pants.

From what he could recall, these were clothes he'd put on at the new job he scored since being at that office required a more 'Business Casual' style to come into work with. A new idea blinked in his mind, after it clicked with him that he'd seen a Poochyena, a Pokémon, right before his very eyes.

"Uhhhhhhh…hmm." Vincent exhaled as he gently palmed the top of his head to feel for any devices that he speculated to be on him. "Perhaps I've forgotten to take off a VR helmet based off a future Pokémon game? No…that can't be it, there's nothing? How can…" He groaned as he hugged his stomach, his eyes turning towards a small gray backpack lying on the ground. "Argh, dammit. There better be something in here."

Kneeling, zipped the bag open, turned it over, and shook out the contents from inside as it all landed on the grass, scattered into a messy pile in front of him. He'd deal with it all in a moment, but a small water steel bottle dropped from within, catching his attention. With his eyes widening, he grabbed the bottle with haste but frowned as he felt little weight from holding it.

Unscrewing the cap, irked by the fact that he wasn't going to be able to have anything proper to compensate for his empty stomach howling and poking at him, he unscrewed the cap, looked inside at the little amount of water left, and proclaimed reluctantly, "Better than nothing…"

Still somewhat irritated after barely quenching his thirst and hunger, he slammed the bottle on the ground with haste, and made room to organize whatever items he had with him. The bag's contents consisted of a wallet, watch, android cellphone & a charger, earbuds, a notebook with a pencil, and two protective glasses cases. Vincent opened up the wallet and found some identification and money inside...yet both appeared transformed, as though he had a place within the Pokémon world already, and some Poké Dollars.

Grabbing the watch, he wrapped around his left wrist, taking note of the time just ticking past noon, ensuring it was fastened with the sound of a click. Next, he took the wallet and cellphone as he placed them in his front jacket pockets, with the earbuds, notebook, and the now empty water bottle being shoved back into the bag. All that remained were the cases.

Opening one, he recognized his own glasses but figured that he didn't want to put them on now, so he packed them away.

"Hmm…?"

Before inspecting the second case, he saw a familiar object on the ground revealed after he'd put away his glasses. Reaching down with his right forefinger and thumb, he pinched the small green game cartridge and focused his sight on it, nearly blurring out everything around him as he read the name on the cartridge.

"Pokémon Emerald? I remember you..."

Sighing and nodding to himself, he slowly placed the cartridge inside his jacket pocket. He couldn't exactly pinpoint how he was feeling, but seeing that game cartridge again felt good, yet bittersweet. Vincent then turned to the second case and opened it to reveal his favorite pair of sunglasses. Due to the harsh rays of light seeping through the trees in the forested route he currently resided, he figured that it'd be good to put on.

"Hmph." He smirked in satisfaction as he placed the sunglasses over his eyes, looking back down at his back to zip it closed. "Better get going. I wonder where I'm at?"

Reaching into his pocket in hopes of relying on his cellphone, that plan instantly cancelled itself as he held down the power button to no avail, with the device refusing to turn on, as the device's screen only showed a battery icon flashing red.

"Of course…! Screw it."

He hoisted up his backpack and put the one strap over his body, slightly adjusting the strap to loosen it a little, then started to walk slowly.

A couple hours have passed, and it seemed that Vincent was running around in circles, seemingly getting nowhere, real fast, as his agitation roses as fast as his body temperature increased as did his hunger and thirst. Though he was sweaty, he adjusted quickly and took the coat off and carried it on his side, placing his hands carefully as he focused on protecting his wallet and phone.

He could only imagine what sort of stench he was giving off in that moment as the sweat stuck to his clothes. Coming across a sign, finally, he rushed over to it and carefully kneeled down, feeling some aching pains in his legs, soon finding a moment to catch his breath as he sat down, his back leaning against one of the sign's wooden support legs.

Looking up at the sign, he weakly read the information pasted onto it.

"Route 101…Route 101, Route 101, okay…" He grumbled. "What was that again…? Just outside of Littleroot Town if memory serves?"

Grabbing his backpack and unzipping it, he figured it was time to make use of his notebook and jot down whatever came to mind. He surely was going to need it considering that his mind raced, with an everlasting feeling that his skull was closing in tightly on his brain, in addition to his eyes resisting the temptation to seal themselves tight. The only thing to slightly alleviate his stress was the sound of the pencil scraping against the paper with every word he scribbled onto the page.

Route 101. This is where I first woke up.

I remember this being one of the first steps taken out of Pokémon Emerald's Littleroot Town. Pokémon, Poochyena, Zigzagoon, Wurmple.

It's like a fucking dream...it's too real. I'm seeing everything come to life before me and it's a lot more detailed then I remembered for sure, and definitely a lot bigger.

I can't believe that this is really happening…nobody probably can. Hell, I think if anyone finds this journal entry, they're gonna be…at a loss for words, they're gonna think I'm crazy.

If this is a dream, I guess I better enjoy it for now…God only knows when I'll wake up back home. Then again, I feel like fucking shit right now. I don't want to die here...

Whose idea was this anyway? This better be some kind of joke. I'd have written myself going into the Pokémon world many years ago, but why am I hear now? Who's to say…

"Argh..." Vincent groaned, slamming the notebook and pencil on the ground as he took off his sunglasses to pinch his eyes.

Reaching into his jacket pocket, he pulled out the game cartridge he found among his belongings. Once more pinching the game between his thumb and forefinger, he looked up at Pokémon Emerald and sighed...