Stella Hiatt

It was quiet. So, so quiet. It always was. She hated it. The quiet led to her mind wandering astray. And if there was one thing she hated more than this stupid town, it was her own mind. That and other people. Fortunately she lived in Postwick, which had a population of about 500 people. Unfortunately, other people seemed to pity her, and pity makes them want to talk to her, and she would rather kill herself than talk to any of them. But why? Why does she hate them? They never did anything to her. In fact they’ve been nothing but kind. Introvertedness, shyness, quiet, reserved, whatever bullshit word you used to describe it, she hated being it.

She had her Scorbunny in his ball. He meant well, but his attempts at cheering her up only served to annoy her. The scenery on this hill alone made her angry. How could a place be so damn boring? Endless fields of Grass that got much to tall in the summer. Evidently, summer had gone early. Very early. It was August for Arceus sake, why is it so cold? She could see a storm in the distance beyond the not very tall mountains that surrounded southern Galar. She was supposed to go see Professor Magnolia later. But lady luck wasn’t on her side today, she never was. The rangers had closed off route 1 because of the storm, making the trip from Postwick to Wedgehurst over 2 hours long. She was certain that a trip that long would cause her to collapse and die.

To make matters worse, the signal was god awful so she couldn’t even call her to let her know. One week before the circuit began, only one week. Memories of Turfield flooded her mind. She clenched her fists as hard as she could. Her green Tam o' Shanter slid down her face, a tear did as well. Luckily she wouldn’t have to repress the tears, the sky certainly didn’t. With a boom of thunder, they both unburdened themselves.

Hazel Wilkins

“Do I… have to wear this?”

She stared at the purple dress. It was nice, pretty even, but she wasn’t one to wear dresses.

“You’re welcome to change the color.” Her ‘father’ said.

“Oh, it’s not that, its just-“ She considered her next words carefully, “It’s a little short, couldn’t I just wear one of those other dresses that Emily used to wear? I mean, it's not like she's wearing them-“

His gaze was enough to make her stop speaking. She didn’t even have to look at him to know the look on his face.

“Okay, I’ll wear it.” She said defeatedly.

“Good,” He made his way to the door, “Oh, and try not to embarrass me, okay?”

He shut the door.

Asshole

She kicked the leg of her bed, and immediately regretted it. She stifled her pain and instead let out a series of obscene, but quiet, curses. An Applin peaked out from under her bed.

“You know you don’t need to hide from him right?” She let herself fall on her bed as he jumped onto it.

Applin’s eyes drooped as he got a better look at her.

“Nothings wrong,” She lied, and he could tell, “Alright well, it’s just… whatever happened to ‘Dress Modestly’?” She tried to imitate her ‘fathers’ voice, but she wasn’t very good at it.

Harry Wilkins was a loose cannon, as much as his public image would say otherwise. She hated politicians, especially ones like him. Neglecting their own family in favor of their career. She wondered what the point of adoption was if he was just going to ignore her half the time, and give her vague instructions on how to act the other half. Her eyes wandered to the same place they always did. The windows. It was an unusual day. The clouds were as grey as the paint on her walls and it was as cold as the walk-in-freezer downstairs. Just yesterday it had been sunny, not warm by any means, but sunny. As far as Galars weather went, it was fairly normal, albeit an unusual sudden change from yesterday. She wouldn’t complain though, she reveled in cold weather. Luckily Galar rarely ever dipped into the extreme heat unless you lived in Hulbury. In fact, even the summer months rarely got very hot.

It would rain soon, or so she hoped. Rain was one of the few things that could make you almost mistake Motostoke for being beautiful. Almost. As the mayors daughter she tried her best to make herself think that it wasn’t all that bad. But she couldn’t. She wouldn’t go as far as to say she loathed it, but there were very few things she liked about it. It was a week before the league circuit started. She hated the first week. Every trainer from the south, and even some from up north, flocked to Motostoke like birds to train in the wild area. Of course there was the Hammerlocke wild area as well, but most were to scared to face Raihan as their first gym, so Kabu was the second best option. They were always so hopeful, walking into Kabu's gym with a Wooloo and A Blipbug. Sure, southern Galar didn't have many options to choose from, But Rookidee and Nickit exist. And they would be a thousand times better than a damn Wooloo. Arceus, she could do so much better if only Harry would let her. She felt her nails digging into the palms of her hands-

She snapped out of her anger trance as Applin chirped loudly into her ear, he always did when she fell into these bouts of misery.

“Thank you,” She said, still clutching her foot, “I think I need some ice.”

Seymour Grover

“Come on! Just a little bit?” Carnivine whined

“I already told you no,” Seymour said, “Besides, you think I could afford to buy you meat every day? I can barely afford to pay the bus driver.”

Carnivine groaned and floated over to the windows and opened them aggressively, “You could at least let me hunt!” She said, “I could do it myself…”

Seymour ignored her whining, “Close the window, it stinks out there.”

“What? You don’t want some fresh air?” She faked fainting and put one of her arms over her chest, “You’re killing me over here!”

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“You’ll live.” He said, deciding to just close the windows himself.

“No, I won’t. You know I need meat to live right?” She said,

He sighed, “I’ll get you some eventually, I just don’t have enough with what Mr. Cohen pays me.”

She flared up at that, “Fuck that guy!” She yelled, “You can talk to Pokemon! He should be paying you double, triple even!”

He put a finger up, “Grass types, I can talk to grass types. And besides, I don’t think he has the money to pay me anymore than he already does.”

She laughed, “You know people pay to have you talk to their pokemon right? You think he does that out of the kindness of his heart?”

“Well- It doesn’t matter.” He struggled to come up with an excuse, “I can’t just leave him! Who would sweep the floors? Who would-

“He’d find someone else, Morey.” She said, “You could make a killing if you didn’t work for that asshole, get out of this dump and find somewhere else. You’re always talking about going to Wyndon-

“That’s just a pipe dream,” He interrupted, “I mean Wyndon-“ He chuckled, “Cmon.”

“I’m serious Seymour!” She insisted, “Ooh, you know what else you could buy with all that money?”

“What?” He deadpanned.

“Some real fucking food-

He unclipped her Pokeball from his belt.

“Nonono, I was just kidding-

He recalled her, “That’s enough of that.”

He adjusted his glasses and stared at the photo on his worn out desk. It depicted a man and a woman  taking a selfie in front of the Wyndon Stadium, the biggest in the region. They were as happy as could be, not a care in the world.

He sighed, as he heard thunder boom in the distance, “One day.”

Clover Noozy?

Why was it so gloomy today? Why was she at the beach? Why are there still people at the beach in this terrible weather? Why are there people swimming in the ocean when there is clearly an incoming storm? Do they have a death wish? 

All these questions and more ran rampant in her mind like a never ending storm, much like the one that would kill her if she didn’t leave soon. Luckily she managed to find a spot away from people, where it was only her and the ocean. She didn’t know what had led her here, or why she’d felt compelled to come. She’d lived in Hulbury all her life and still never found an appreciation for the ocean, that took commitment. But there was something strangely beautiful about a beach on a gloomy day. Everything that a beach is, the sun beaming down on you, a salty breeze washing over and caressing your face, sunscreen that she never bothered to use, and some asshole kids knocking over your sand castle. Her mother had given those two quite the talking to, all of that… just wasn’t. Of course there were still people, but it was nowhere near the usual crowds that the Hulbury Beach attracted every day.

The palm trees were swaying violently in the wind, the nice breeze was now threatening to throw her hoodie off, and those asshole kids weren’t kids anymore. She hated getting sand in her hair, she hated the scorching hot sand on hot days, and most of all she hated what her mind drifted to whenever she came here. It’s why she avoided this place like the plague. But her mother loved it, that was the only reason she ever came.

She had no reason now.

But she’d make an exception for today. Today was nice.

At least it was nice until her phone vibrated in her pocket. She jumped and moved her hands to grab her phone. She ran one hand through her hair, forgetting that same hand had been planted in sand moments earlier. She groaned as she remembered why she hated this place and picked up the phone without bothering to look at who it was.

“What?” She said,

“Woah, what’s got you upset?” The man on the other side asked.

“You calling, now what do you want?”

“Alright alright I’ll cut to the chase.” The man said, “Some guy came by the office today looking for you.”

“Who?” She asked.

“I dunno, I didn’t get a good look at him. He was wearing this big ass trench coat and a hat. He did have red hair though, kind of like yours.” He explained.

Her heart skipped a beat, “What did he want?”

“Just told me to pass along a number so you could call him.” He said.

“Did… did he say his name?” She asked hesitantly.

“No, just said that you knew him.”

That didn’t matter. She already knew his name. She couldn’t forget.

Christopher Tanega

He’d be at Hulbury in a few hours. The boat ride from the Isle to Galar’s mainland wasn’t as long as he thought it would be. His plan was to take the train from Hulbury to Motostoke. Sure he had the advantage against Nessa with an electric type, but only an idiot would go into a gym battle without having trained first. And what better place to train than the wild area?

“Tox!” Toxel nagged at his feet as the boat swayed.

“Want to go in?” He waved his Pokeball around, the last thing we wanted was for him to get seasick and throw up everywhere.

Toxel instantly started nodding yes. He pressed the button and the lizard disappeared in a flash of red.

He could still see the Isle in the distance. Leaving felt bittersweet. He loved his homeland, but ever since the earthquake it hadn’t been the same, and even three years later they hadn’t fully recovered. His old house was still a pile of rubble, the league had deemed the area not a priority, instead working on fixing up the richer neighborhoods and the tower of waters. It made him angry just thinking about it. Although last he heard, Mustard was trying to get the league to focus on the still destroyed areas, so at least there was that.

After the quake his life became unstable to say the least. As rude as it sounds, his mother was better as a housewife than she was a single mother. A lot of people lost loved ones during the disaster, he was one of the lucky few to only lose one. Also like many people after the disaster, they struggled the most with money. Jobs were few and far between, and they didn’t pay much. The league tried to compensate everyone affected by the tragedy, but if they weren’t helpful now, than they sure as hell weren’t three years ago. His mother managed to secure a job at the local daycare, and it paid decently, but not enough, never enough.

He’d grown sick of all their financial issues and-

“Hey!”

His train of thought was interrupted by what he assumed to be an employee of the ferry.

“Yeah?” He asked.

“There’s a storm coming, didn't you hear? We’ve been broadcasting it for twenty minutes. Everyone needs to get inside, now.” He said.

It was unusually gloomy outside now that he mentioned it. He could make out strikes of thunder in the storm clouds ahead.

“Yeah alright.” He said.

The rooms on the Ferry were nice. Not at all luxurious, but at the very least he didn’t have to share a room. For 200 Pokè, it was the best thing he could afford. Airports had been open for about a year now, but he’d rather swim to Galar than fly there.

Over the next few hours the sun went down rather fast, as if it was Winter. The boat was battered and rocked by winds that never got this strong on the Isle. By the time he made it to Hulbury it was 7:34 PM and still pouring rain. Thankfully he had brought a jacket with him. A cotton one, but it would keep him semi-dry until he made it to the Pokemon center.

He gave the Harbor one last glance before leaving. There was a girl sitting at the edge of one of the docks arguing with someone over the phone. She had short red hair and a rain jacket that he was very jealous of. 

What’s her story?

The thought only crossed his mind for a moment. And then it was back to business. The only story that mattered right now, was his.