Imagine if there was- no, I’m sorry, I want to do this the right way, the traditional way.

Once upon a time, there was a world much like this one. The shape of the continents and islands were shaped almost the same way, and the climate was similar, if a touch warmer.

This other world was different, due to one massive factor - there were no Pokémon. None at all. Animals roamed the world, lions and tigers and bears, birds flew in the sky, fish swam in the seas.

There’s fish in this world!

Yes, Lucas, there are. But there were so many more kinds of fish in that world that it’s hard to imagine. Dolphins, whales, sharks, big fish and small fish, and every other kind of animal you can dream of.

But no Pokémon.

As a result, people were… harder than you might expect. Without Pokémon to serve as constant companions, people weren’t able to connect to nature in the same way. Oh there were pets, to be sure, but not companions. As a result, things were more difficult there. Technology was different without the science of Pokémon to make things more impressive. The land was exploited much more, because there were no Pokémon to protect it and nothing to make the people realize that the land was alive.

Wars were a constant reality. People killed each other over the simplest of differences, and people everywhere were miserable.

Our world isn’t so different. People fight each other all the time, and before the Pokémon League, we’ve had wars too.

It’s different. There was no real uniting force like the League, and there’s the general understanding that if you get in a Pokémon battle, you won’t try to kill the other Pokémon.

In this world, let’s call it another dimension, there was a girl. This girl wasn’t special, there were millions of people like her all across the world. But she was trapped. Trapped in a body that wasn't right, trapped in her mind, trapped in a job that she hated. There was no escape for her, for where could she go? Countries across the world hated people like her, because she was born into a different body than what she should have.

What does that mean?

She was transgender Lucas, keep up.

Oh! Ohhh.

… Yeah. Anyways, she was barely surviving in that world, so she decided to escape into another. Stories of a world where there were creatures that were basically magic, where people could live in harmony with nature and explore the beauty of the wilderness without threat of being killed for who they were. They were fantastical stories, but she loved them all the same.

Then one day… she died. I don’t know how, since the memories are fuzzy. I don’t like to think about it, but I think there may have been a truck, as stereotypical as that is.

Wait… you died? Like, died died?

I guess so. Like I said, it’s all really confusing. But then instead of going to the pearly gates or whatever, I woke up here. In a new body, the right kind of body, and a new chance at life.

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In this “fantasy” world.

Exactly. The fantasy world that I had loved so much. Not only did I wake up in this world, but I woke up in a body that matched what I felt like it should have. And for the first time in a long, long time, I felt… alive. Every day was a blessing, and I could go on adventures like I had dreamed about for ages.

How did you even get here in the first place?

Like I said, I don’t really know. Have you ever heard of Jirachi?

Of course! It’s a Hoenn myth, after all.

I think it had something to do with it. I woke up here at the end of the festival when it was supposed to wake up, so maybe it granted my wishes.

You wanted to know how I know so much? Because in a weird way, I’ve lived some of this before. I’ve read about things that aren’t supposed to happen yet, and things that have happened long ago where there are few records left.

That’s how you knew about the Hisuian Pokémon and the Legend Plate when I hadn't heard about them even though I grew up here.

You got it in one. I shared all of this information with Professor Rowan, he already knows everything that I do. That whole thing in Hoenn, with the storms and Kyogre? In another universe, that went much worse. Kyogre fought Groudon, and Rayquaza had to step in to stop them. Lysandre was another one that I guess I meddled with, he nearly set off what’s basically a nuke. Oh, uh, a really big bomb that would have killed millions of people, if not the world.

You mean you’ve saved the world?

Saying it like that makes me sound much more grandiose than what actually happened. Really I just nudged things a little bit, helped people with some information that they would normally not have for a couple years. I don’t think I saved the world. The world would have been saved without me, I just sped things up.

Do you miss it?

Miss what?

Your old world.

…No. I don’t think so. I don’t know. There were a lot of bad things there, and I wasn’t very happy. Not like I am here, with you all, and with my Pokémon. Yes, Venus, that means you, you can stop looking so smug about it.

Sometimes I miss my family, but they made it clear a long time ago that they didn’t want anything to do with me. Really? I’m so much happier here than I was in that other world that it’s hard to ever imagine going back. I hope I never go back.

Well, if it matters, I’m glad you’re here now. I’m sure Ted feels the same, right Ted?

Right.

…Thanks, you guys. That means a lot.

If any of this freaks you out, I would understand if you don’t want to travel with me anymore. It’s a lot, I know, to have all of this dropped on you.

Less than you might think.

What, do you have your own story of interdimensional travel Ted?

I’m simply saying it’s not unprecedented. It’s one of the worst kept secrets that Alola is the epicenter of dimensional rifts, and they’ve even been seen outside of Alola like in Hoenn. Is it weird that you came from a place with no Pokémon? Yes, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think it’s that different. What’s more concerning to me is the fact that this was like a story to you.

Oh, okay. Saying it’s a story isn’t exactly right, but I don’t have the words to be able to explain it properly. A game, a show, really it was all a collection of different stories, some conflicted with others, and some were completely separate.

Have the people you met been in any of them?

Kind of? Not really in any major way that actually told me anything about your lives. I didn’t know anything that had happened with Professor Rowan, for example. Lucas you never really got any screen time, and Ted, I’m sorry but I’ve never heard of you before.

I’m not sure whether to be offended or relieved.

Yeah, no kidding.

Regardless, the idea that we’re characters in another… world? Dimension? Place’s story is something that I’m probably going to have to unpack later. Maybe with a stiff drink or three.

I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to give you all an existential crisis but I don’t want to leave anything out. Like I said, if you want to go, there’ll be no hard feelings.

Like I’d leave now! There’s too many questions I have for you!

Agreed. Despite everything, existential dread included, at the end of the day I still consider you my friend. Besides, we’ve been through too much together to just leave now.

Yeah!

…Thanks. Do any of you have a tissue?