Lyra and Seph stood around a wooden table, waiting in silence. Infernape sat on a chair on the other side of them, flipping through a hefty tome on the table. A single paper rested on the center of the table, untouched. It was the form Seph and Lyra needed to fill out to register their team, but they were having an issue at the moment…
"Nope." Infernape announced. "That one's already taken. No can do."
Seph frowned at the announcement. It seemed like his first idea of 'Team Ripple' wouldn't happen.
"Oh!" Seph placed a paw on the table. "What about Team Riptide?"
Infernape flipped through the book again. "Nah. Some folks from Feraligatr's Guild have that one."
Seph's gaze fell to the floor as he tried to think of another name.
"...Team Rupture?"
Infernape shook his head. "Our very own Nidorina and Wooper are Team Rupture."
"Team Undertow?"
Flip.
"Taken."
"Team Seafoam?"
Flip, flip.
"Nope."
"Team Seabreeze?"
Flip, flip, flop, flip.
"That one was taken a few years back."
"Team Seashore?"
Flip.
"Occupied."
"...Team… Sea?"
Infernape paused for a moment. "Team Sea?" He asked. "Just… Sea? Nothing else? You sure?"
At this point, Seph couldn't be bothered to think of a better name. He wanted to get on with this already. "Yup, I'm sure!" He announced.
Infernape began rifling through the book again. Before he could say anything, Lyra finally decided to speak up.
"Seph, you're not serious, are you? You'll need a good name if you want people to take your team seriously."
Seph rubbed his eyes with his paws. "Yeah, you're right." He admitted. "I just… I dunno. A team name is super important. It tells people about you before you even meet them, so it has to be good. And I thought I had the perfect one, but… I guess it wasn't meant to be. Do you have any ideas?"
Lyra pondered that question. "Let's see… You want something involving the ocean… Something pleasant. How about Team Pelagic?"
Seph tilted his head. "Pelagic? It sounds nice. What does it mean?"
"Oh, it's a science term! It refers to the open sea. Something that's pelagic is related to the open ocean."
Seph nodded. "So… a pelagic team would be a team that works around the open sea! Which is exactly what I want to do! It's perfect!" Seph was far more excited about the word 'pelagic' than Lyra expected.
"Forget Team Sea, Mr. Infernape! We're forming up as Team Pelagic!"
Infernape slammed the book closed. "That's a mighty good thing," He announced, "because Team Sea was already taken. Can't say I've heard the word 'pelagic' before, but I reckon it'll be a fine name for you folks." Infernape reached for the form sitting on the table and began scribbling something on it in Footprint Runes. Lyra made a mental note about needing to find a way to learn the language.
When Infernape was done writing, he slid the paper over to Seph and Lyra. He pointed to an open bottle of ink next to them "Just need your signature real quick, then we're done with all the paperwork."
Lyra was going to ask for a pen to write her name, but then Seph gleefully dunked his paw into the ink and pressed a splotchy imprint onto the paper. Ink clung to his paw, dripping down onto his fur.
Lyra supposed that's how they do signatures around here. Or maybe that was just Seph being Seph.
It was hard to tell.
She tried her best to be clean with the ink, slowly dipping part of her hoof into the bottle before pressing onto the paper. A neat hoof mark was left on the paper, right next to Seph's splotchy paw. Infernape slid the document back across the table and put it away.
"Thank you kindly. Now we can get to the fun part." Infernape reached under the table and pulled out a backpack. Next to the backpack he placed 2 small metallic objects. Lyra couldn't quite figure out what they were.
"Here you go." Infernape said. "Inside the Treasure Bag is your Wonder Map. And these two contraptions are your Explorer Badges. Each of these can teleport you and one other Pokémon back to yer ship. They're nifty little things, even if I don't quite understand how they work. Now grab onto 'em, please."
Seph sweeped up both badges and handed one to Lyra, who reluctantly held it in her mouth. Infernape held a small circular device and pressed a button. Both Seph and Lyra felt their badges vibrate in their grip for just a moment, before they became stagnant again.
"And with that," Infernape continued, "you've agreed to the Explorer's Code, you've named your team and its members, your badges are registered, and y'all are now an official Exploration Team of Zoroark's Guild. Congratulations."
Seph pumped his fist into the air. "Alright! Team Pelagic is on the scene! Lyra, let's do our best to be a great Exploration Team from here on out, okay?"
Lyra still wasn't quite sure what being in an Exploration Team even meant. She didn't even know what kind of work it was. Or if she would even be good at it. Seph seemed very confident in her, though. Hell, he knows more about this world than she does. Maybe this could work out for her. She doesn't even remember what she's good or bad at, after all.
Worst case scenario, she would only be here for a month. Then she could get the info she needed, and get out.
"Yeah. Let's do it!" Lyra stuck out her front leg for a high five. Seph was more than eager to respond to the gesture.
"That's the spirit!" Seph said. "Now let's get out there and show the world that Team Pelagic is-"
"I hate to interrupt y'all," Infernape butted in, "but we've been in here fussing about names for so long that dinner's already started without us. Now, I don't know about you two, but I am a Pokémon that highly values his food. I'll be excusing myself to go eat now, and I suggest y'all do the same." With that, Infernape walked past Team Pelagic and exited the building.
Seph and Lyra looked at each other. They shrugged in unison.
Adventuring could wait for tomorrow. Food sounded nice.
"Ah man, you'll love it here! We're like a big ol' family - Us guildlings take care of each other. You'll never be truly on your own. Plus, the food's pretty good."
The Pokémon next to Lyra - He introduced himself as Grafaiai - messily gorged himself on the meal in front of him. Lyra couldn't help but watch the combination of poison and saliva that accumulated on his plate as he attacked the food. It made her own meal slightly less appetizing. Still, she was hungry. And those berries tasted amazing.
Lyra and Seph were seated at a long table in the guild's mess hall. The room was filled with the sounds of Pokémon eating, talking and laughing after a long day of work. Seph was currently engaged in a conversation with someone else (they looked like a zebra to Lyra). Lyra was alone in this conversation.
The Pokémon on the other side of Grafaiai, Smeargle, leaned forward so that Lyra could see him. "Oh yeah, the explorer life is great. You'll never be bored, heh. Always something to do. Make sure you know how to swim, though. It could go bad if you don't. We don't want a repeat of last year, heh." He said with a sly smile.
Grafaiai playfully slugged Smeargle on the shoulder. "Come off it, man." He said, "She's, like, brand new. We can't start scaring her off yet."
Lyra chuckled. "It's alright." She said, "I get it, he was just joking. But, uh, what exactly happened last year?"
Grafaiai finished swallowing another bite of his meal before responding. "Oh… well… you see, there was this guy that used to be in the guild… You know what? Nevermind, it's better if you don't hear it. I don't want to shake up the newbie's confidence for no good reason."
Lyra's face settled into a look of confusion and morbid curiosity. She failed to catch Grafaiai high-fiving Smeargle underneath the table, simultaneously covering his mouth with his other hand so Lyra couldn't see him snicker.
Lyra ate the rest of her (frankly, delicious) dinner with Grafaiai's remarks hanging over her head.
"Here's your chambers, folks. Get some sleep and have a good night." Infernape pointed to a closed door near where Team Pelagic stood before walking away.
Seph opened the door to their new room: four circular sleeping spots made out of hay covered the floor of the room, each one separated from the others in the line by a half-wall partition to give the illusion of privacy.
When Lyra heard the word 'bedchambers' she expected, you know, a bed. With a mattress and blankets and pillows. Instead, it seems like she was to be sleeping in a glorified kennel. At least this would only be for a month.
"Oh, wow! This is so much nicer than what I expected!" Seph announced. We each get our own bed! Plus, there's extra room if more people want to join us!"
Lyra could not bring herself to ruin Seph's enthusiasm. "Yeah, I guess this place is pretty nice." She said. "I'm just… going to try to get some sleep. I'm really tired all of a sudden."
Lyra walked over to one of the corner beds and laid down on it, trying to eke out some comfort.
"Alright then. Have a good night, Lyra!" Seph decided to give her some distance and went over to the bed in the other corner of the room.
"Good night, Seph."
Lyra wasn't optimistic about her chances of having a good night's rest atop a bed of hay. It would take her a while to fall asleep. She opted to pass the time by ruminating on what happened to her today.
What the fuck happened to her? Why does she not remember anything about herself? How does that even happen? Is that even possible, to forget every single detail about your own life?
Also, where the fuck was she? This world of wacky talking animals was simultaneously endearing and deeply confusing. Are they technically aliens? Lyra figured she probably isn't on Earth: the title of that book Zoroark read made it clear that humans come from somewhere else: so is this an alien planet? But they spoke fucking English. Or, at least, what sounded like English to Lyra.
Why Lyra? Why her? Why couldn't it be some other human that showed up in this world of Pokémon? Was it something that she did? Was this a reward? A punishment?
And what kind of work would she even be doing at an Exploration Guild? Is she in over her head? Will that book even have anything useful in it? What if-
"Hey, Lyra?"
Seph's words softly danced through the dark room.
Lyra half-opened her eyes, pulling herself out of her thoughts. "Yeah?"
"Thank you. For joining the guild with me. I know I kinda put you on the spot. I should've talked to you about it before we met Zoroark. It wasn't cool of me to just assume you'd want to form a team with me. If you ever need to talk with me about something, just let me know, okay? We're partners now, and we gotta make sure both of us are doing alright."
"That's really nice of you, Seph. Thank you."
"Of course."
Silence. For a few minutes, a deafening quiet filled the room. It was too noisy for Lyra to fall asleep.
"Are you alright, Lyra?"
Lyra took a long time to respond. She didn't know the answer, honestly. She rotated the question around in her head a few times. Then, she sighed.
"I… I think I will be. I just need a little bit of time. Everything is still so new… I just need some time."
Seph called back to her in the dark. His voice was laden with sympathy and hope. "Okay. That's alright. Everything gets better with time, I think. Good night, Lyra. For real this time."
"Good night, Seph. For real."
The little Mareep soon fell asleep, passed out on a pile of hay.
"Gooooooood morning, boys, girls, neither, both, and in-between! Let's get on up and get this party rolling! I know you want to stay in that mighty comfy bed and sleep the day away, but there's a whole heaping helping of things to do out there. Let's do it to it folks!"
That was the first thing Lyra heard when she woke up. It shocked her so much that she stood up out of her bed before she even realized what she was doing. Seph was also standing on top of his bed, searching for whoever called out to them. They locked eyes over the half-walls in between them.
"What was that supposed to be?" Seph asked.
"Our wake-up call, I guess." Lyra said.
Lyra pushed the door to their room ajar and peeked out into the hallway. She saw the team in the neighboring room, Team Rupture, walking out of their room. They seemed completely unbothered, as if the voice of a mid-1900's radio host telling them to wake up is a completely normal thing.
One of the members of Team Rupture, Nidorina, saw Lyra's confused expression as she stood in the doorframe. She started smiling, upon realizing Lyra's predicament.
"It's your first day here, isn't it?" Nidorina asked. "That voice was just Gale - Squawkabilly, for you. He does the morning alarm. He begged the guildmaster to give him a job at the guild that let him sing, and this is what she came up with."
Lyra let out a small laugh. "You guys have somebody sing for your morning alarm?"
"Hey, you should see some of the other guilds! I heard there was a guild that would shout and scream at their members until they woke up! I would take Gale's singing over that any day - even though he's not as good as he thinks he is! Now, you two better head out to the yard. You don't want to be late to your first roll call!" Nidorina called that last sentence over her shoulder as she trailed behind Wooper, heading towards the exit.
Seph stepped out of Team Pelagic's room, a big grin on his face. Clearly, he was a fan of the radio host's schtick.
"I think I'm going to love it here." He declared.
Team Pelagic left their barracks and stepped out into the cove, where they saw a big group of Pokémon standing in front of Zoroark. Lyra noticed a lone bird-like Pokémon hopping in between some of the buildings, knocking on the doors and crying out to the people inside. That must be Squawkabilly, Lyra figured.
Team Pelagic quickly slipped into formation on the right side of the group.
"Good morning, explorers!" Zoroark shouted.
"GOOD MORNING, GUILDMASTER!" The group replied.
"Not many announcements today, but we do have a big one. Firstly, the boring stuff. Again, if anybody has info on the new Marton Dungeon, give me a holler. Or, if you don't have an assignment this week, consider sailing over there and giving it the once-over for us. Also, a little friend of mine told me that the Great Hurricane is getting close to the Southern border of the Inner Sea this week. So no trips into the Outer without running it by me first. Heard?"
"HEARD!"
"Perfect! Now for the fun part. It is my pleasure to introduce to you your newest guildmates, Buizel and Mareep of.."
Zoroark unfolded a paper she held in her claw and glanced at the contents. "Team P..Pelahg… Peleague? Pelag-ick? Pelagic. I'm certain that's not a real word. Oh well. Team Pelagic!"
Many Pokémon around Lyra cheered with the announcement. Grafaiai, who was closest to her, playfully clapped her shoulder. It left a not so playful layer of poison ooze on her wool.
"Now, let's show Team Pelagic how we do things in our guild. Folks, let me hear you!"
Lyra was not prepared for the entire guild to break out into a song.
Neither was Seph, but he was absolutely here for it.
One for all, all for one,
We'll toil and sweat out in the sun!
One for all, all for one,
We hold our ground, we'll never run!
One for all (one for all!), all for one (all for one!),
We keep our joy, we keep our fun.
One for all (one for all!), all for one (all for one!),
We never stop till the job is done!
All across the oceans wide (the oceans wide!),
We keep in check relentless tide (relentless tide!),
Until our noble task's fulfilled (task's fulfilled!),
We sing for Zoroark's Guild!
"Very nice, folks. Team Pelagic, I expect you to have that memorized by tomorrow. Just kidding: I'll give you a week. Everyone is dismissed, except for Pelagic: you two gotta come talk to me. Get some good work done today, folks!"
Most of the guildlings dispersed quickly, many of them making their way to the docks. Lyra and Seph made their way over to their guildmaster.
Zoroark grinned as they walked over. "Good to see you, me lovelies! I hope you got some good sleep last night, because you're gonna need it. Come here, we'll walk and talk." Zoroark started moving towards the front of the cove, where sunlight was starting to filter in through the illusory wall. Lyra struggled to keep up with Zoroark's brisk speed - she was half the guildmaster's height, with stubby legs to boot.
"Alright you two, the daily routine around here is pretty straightforward. You're going to select a request from the board over there, then you'll set out and do it. The requests can be pretty much anything Pokémon need help with. Usually, that means diving into a Mystery Dungeon, but it could also be something more mundane. Since you two are new and unproven, you're only allowed to take less dangerous missions. That means you're only approved for D Rank postings and below. Got it?"
Hold up a minute. Lyra understood what this guild is now.
It's a fucking adventurer's guild. From fantasy stories. She couldn't quite recall the names of any of these stories, but a lot of them definitely had adventurer's guilds in them. This place is just like that. Citizens post quests, and these Pokémon respond.
Alright. That sounded pretty fun. Lyra decided she could work with this for a month, provided things don't get too dangerous.
Seph gave Zoroark a thumbs up. "Got it! Thank you for your help, guildmaster! We'll get started right away!" Before Lyra could say anything, Seph took off for the notice board, which was surrounded by other exploration teams. Lyra watched as Seph got down on all fours and dodged and weaved through the legs of the crowd, snaking his way to the board. When he got there, he stood up, quickly scanned the postings, snatched one, then scurried back to Lyra and Zoroark.
"How about this one?" Seph asked, holding out the request so that everyone could read it.
The posting was for the rescue of one Turtwig that got lost in a place called Sunlit Forest. A giant green 'D' was stamped onto the top left of the paper.
Zoroark squinted at it. "Looks like a good first choice for you two. Sunlit Forest is fairly straightforward as far as Mystery Dungeons go. You don't have to leave Perrin, either: it's only a 30 minute walk Northwest of here. Now, we've done enough talking, eh? It's time for Team Pelagic to go out there and prove yourselves!"
With that, she lightly pushed Seph and Lyra forward and walked off, moving onto whatever other issue she had to deal with. Lyra couldn't even say anything before the guildmaster vanished behind a group of Pokémon.
Lyra turned to Seph. "That sounds like a good mission," she said, "but, uh, what exactly is a Mystery Dungeon?"
Seph beamed. "I'm glad you asked!"
"So, let me make sure I got this right. These Dungeons magically switch their layout whenever no one's in them?" Lyra asked her question while trotting through the woods. They were on their way to the Mystery Dungeon.
"Yep!" Seph answered without looking up from the team's new Wonder Map.
"And there's… stairs in random places in these Dungeons, even if there is no logical place for those stairs to lead to?"
"Yeah! They just kinda… take you to the next floor!"
"Okay, right. Those things are somewhat excusable. I'd be willing to chalk that up to magic or whatever weird laws of nature here make that possible. But the last thing - and this is the thing that I truly, genuinely cannot wrap my head around - is that there's Pokémon that aren't sentient, that roam the halls of these Dungeons and fight sentient Pokémon on sight? Just hordes of brainless murderers?"
Seph lowered the map and stared out into the middle distance for a moment.
He recalled childhood memories of not believing his older brothers when they told him stories about the Pokémon with glazed-over eyes that haunted the halls of Mystery Dungeons. Of how they would attack any sane person they caught sight of. Seph didn't believe his brothers at first, obviously. He might've been young, but he wasn't young enough to get pranked by them again. He laughed it off as a bad joke until his brother Flynn parted his fur to show his younger brother the long gash running across his arm. Flynn claimed one of those husks tried to attack his unconscious partner, so he dove into the way of the attack to protect him.
Seph could still clearly remember the shape of the scar. It was a shock to his system: his siblings were actually telling the truth about the monsters that roamed the Dungeons. Well, they were mostly telling the truth: Seph later learned that Flynn did indeed get the scar from a husk, but it was during an ambush while he was carrying a barrel of booze to a party he was hosting in a Mystery Dungeon.
That was besides the point, though.
Seph blinked himself out of his daydream.
He responded to Lyra. "Yep, that's right! But, technically, they're not actually Pokémon. They're more like, uh, what would be the word… images? Illusions? They disappear if you hit them hard enough, so we know they're not normal Pokémon. The guilds call them husks. I think they gave 'em an official name because they were tired of everybody calling them 'feral' since it implied they were like actual Pokémon, which they aren't."
Lyra ruminated on that as Team Pelagic continued down the forest trail. She thought that was an insane concept, no matter how you look at it. Nothing in the human world could compare to how utterly bizarre and terrifying of a concept mindless husks are. She couldn't even conceive of somebody coming up with an idea that strange and sickening. The idea of a thing that looked like a person but was only filled with anger, a thing that faded into nothing, just seemed entirely foreign to her, something she had no reference point for.
Oh. Wait a second.
"They're kinda like ghosts, aren't they?"
Seph snapped his fingers. "Oh, yeah! That's a much better metaphor! Yeah, they're like ghosts! Angry ghosts!"
Lyra could live with being a ghost hunter. Team Pelagic: Novice Ghost Hunters.
That had a much better ring to it than Team Pelagic: Novice Explorers.
Seph didn't have the heart to tell her that calling them ghosts was incredibly offensive to ghost types.
"So we go into this Dungeon, go to the third floor, find this lost guy, then use our badges to get out." Lyra summarized. "And we use moves to fight the gho- husks that are in the way."
"Yup, you got it!"
"And the moves I know are Tackle and Thunderwave."
"That's what Infernape said when we registered!"
"Alright. I can work with this."
Lyra recalled what Seph, Grafaiai, and Smeargle told her about moves. Using them tends to come naturally. All she has to do, they told her, is think about using a move really hard and she'll be able to do it.
As Team Pelagic approached the entrance to the Mystery Dungeon, Lyra hoped that they were right.
Trees and shrubs created a grassy wall in the middle of the forest, in front of the explorers. The only break in the wall was an arched entrance, adorned with flowers around the edges.
"We're here!" Seph announced. "That's gotta be the entrance to Sunlit Forest." He walked forward, until he was standing right in front of the archway. "Ready for our first rescue, Lyra?"
Lyra joined Seph in front of the entrance. "Probably. Let's find out." She stepped through the opening to the Mystery Dungeon. Seph followed right behind her.
Time to hunt some ghosts.
Sunlit Forest - 1F