~~~ Chapter 28 - Oust ~~~

Taking feel-good/trainer myth/chosen one etc.-style stories at face value, it may be that deities measuring worthiness do not do so by judging purity of heart, instead measuring how well a potential partner will “synchronize.” Or, they’re mostly just stories created to teach people and children virtues.

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Recollecting myself and my thoughts, trying not to ruminate too deeply on what had just happened, or why, it was with luck that both Lanky and the girl had chosen to leave me alone, at least until after dinner. They talked to one another in brief, short conversations before leaving us pokes in the gym. I moseyed to one of the trees nearby the front exit of the atrium room, in one of the gym tree, lying to rest. I was moving slow and sluggish. Thoughts and feelings of sleep and dreams boiling under the surface, my slowing thoughts in the gray evening light, sky covered in thick cloudfare, light of the city reflecting down from above in the misty afternoon rain, little flicks of fading orange following me as I walked.

Lanky had gone out, before returning with our drinking bucket, sloshing with water. The girl returned with a big, yellow scrubby sponge and a couple rags. I knew where it was going, and it didn’t really seem like a choice. The ruins Lebi took me to were covered in dust, so it would make sense I was unnaturally dirty. Possibly even just getting tossed in the dirt from the krokorok. “Aaaeee,” I said, bemoaning getting wet this late in the day. Couldn’t I just go out in the rain? While Lanky and Sundresser-girl both eased their way towards me. Earned me a short chortle from Lanky.

Sorry kid, looks like you’re gonna be ousted again, I thought. They rolled, a slight balsamic smell of contentment. Oust was a good name for them. That’s what I’m gonna call you, kid, I thought at them. This was their first strong scent from them, too. Oust hadn’t shimmered in a while. Ghostly little bugger. Whatever they’d done to turn into a sewaddle, they’d figured it out pretty fast.

Lanky and the girl both approached, only a couple feet away, Lanky using soothing tones again, with a slightly salty anxious taste from them both. I’ve only had a bath once as a pokemon, and it was a day ago. She put the sponge in his bucket and gave him the rags, before turning to leave us to do our thing.

Was I really that dirty?

He set the bucket down, moving to take off my sash, but I did it for him instead, setting Oust down on the ground. Bonk and Leaf both took notice of our separation; Oust wiggled out a bit before pulling the leaf back over their eyes and going back to sleep. I inserted my arm into one of my battleskirt’s pockets. I had a couple hardened leaves in my battleskirt’s pockets.

Just in case.

Lanky dipped the sponge into the bucket of water, then took a look at my right blade, which I held out as he sat cross-legged in front of me. A quick rub on my blade-arm from the sponge, and small specks of orangish red rubbed off. I clicked at Bonk, drawing his attention and making him pause a few feet from Oust (who was still just a few feet away from me).

Lanky washed the rest of my blade-arms, finally moving to the leaves on the back of my head. Cherry conditioner. Right. I had had a wash, I guess, technically, barely a day ago. Lanky had confiscated the goods. It would be useful, but I just…couldn’t bring myself to care? No, the scent was, it was…still inherently alluring. I was…physically tired. The energy to go after it wasn’t there. Didn’t have the energy for doing a whole lot.

Bonk observed Oust resting for a moment, then instead moved past him. Proceeding to the tree closest the main atrium entrance. The one with the hammock strings I’d been working o—“Eeey!” I cried in surprise, reflexively jumping away due to a surprisingly cold line of water rolled under the leaf-armor, running down my abdomen. I tried to wiggle the drop out, but there was so little water it had dripped off on its own.

Lanky’s discordant scent of salt spiked a good half-minute later. You know how hard it is to read a mood when there’s so much lag-time between scents? It’s terrible, but I could tell—Lanky was anxious, and it was obvious enough that I could see it in his face. Okay, a half-minute was an exaggeration. But imagine talking to a person and they respond to everything you say, like, twenty seconds later. Anyway, I recovered from the shock. Oust, Bonk, and several of the swaddlies had glanced over at my outburst, trying to see what happened. Leaf was rolling with the scraggy, not paying us any attention, though skorupi was watching us.

I gave lanky my left arm, and he sponged it off. He’d made motions in the direction of attempting to wash my dress and thorax, but I was done. If you want me to wash more off me, kid, get me in the rain. I stood up, clicked at him, and he gave up, looking at Sundresser, shrugging and mumbling. Probably saying something like “I tried!”

Good, we can actually be done now, I thought to myself. My thorax armor or leaf-dress should have been attached enough to block the water from getting to anything sensitive. Something to look into in the morning. With a heave, I picked Oust back up, carrying him in his sash, returning to the tree I shared with Bonk and one of the girl-swaddles. Climbing up the tree, we slept.

Squidfriend how could talk know! I sat up straight, my jumbled up thoughts intruding. Oust shimmered red, black and yellow in their surprise wakeup call.

You’re not alone. I hummed softly to the spooked ghost-child. And it’s not based on some exclusivity of meeting local deities. Unfortunately, despite the burst of energy, it was night, and sitting up still took far more energy than it should have. I tapped the reforming sewaddle on the nose. How did you know about Sewaddle anyway, hmm? I thought, laying back down.

Are you ever going to talk too?

I didn’t smell any response indicating recognition of my thoughts, he’d just gone back to trying to sleep.

Maybe you need to evolve first?

I felt the weight on my thorax lighten, tasting the scent of Leaf and Bonk in front of me. Vision returning, Leaf’s face appeared before me, the sun wasn’t up, but food was out by the door. My limbs were heavy, Oust was in Bonk’s arms, being taken to the bowls of food!

No… that’s… my… job. I protested to the audience of no one. Lanky was looking in our direction, the swadloon had already gathered to eat breakfast, I was the last one up.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Hope you didn’t catch some ancient extradimensional fungal infection!

Parasect-Leah, coming to theaters near you. Leaf, still in my face, gave me an indignant whack on the forehead, hopping off the tree, joining the family for breakfast.

I grumbled, rolling off my branch, falling to the ground with a nice thud, knocking up dust, drawing skorupi, the swaddlies, and the venipede’s attention. I pushed myself up. It was easier than last night’s walking, at least, still felt like lead weights were tied to me.

The only comparison I could think of is the feeling of waking up with ten hours of sleep, only able to roll out of bed and grab a poptart; then lie on the sofa for hours. I should have been able to do my own dishes, take out the trash, put my clothes in the hamper, but a mental block inside me never said I had the energy.

I picked up my leg. L-Leah, was it? I set it down in front of me. Dust didn’t fly, nothing seems heavier than it was a day ago, at least in terms of weight on the gym’s tree branches. I shook the foggy question, I neede—I nee—I looked at the food. I needed food. This lethargy was different. Getting started on tasks weren’t the problem. I could move and do stuff. Fighting against the weight wasn’t the problem. That’s what us pokemon do, we fight. It weighed a lot. I put my foot down, stepping forward. A little poof of the gym floor. I stepped forward. It was the weight itself. Like I’d run too long the last night and my body was only barely cooperating.

Wh-When I was human—simply moving, getting stuff done took more energy than they really did. Like I’d spent a day’s worth of memory and willpower. Was this the cost of some spell of pulling Oust out of that dungeon? Had I ticked off Palkia? Or the judgement of some other?

I trudged across the floor, barely picking up my legs and navigating to the other end. Pressure from pokemon moves cost extra in the games. Was this some kind of rolling or stored up pressure I’d been hit with? Is this what being in the presence of a god felt like? If that was the case, why didn’t any of the other swadlies or swadloon or others notice?

You’re not sick. I say to myself, standing up, crossing the gym with speed surprising me. Lanky’s smell was already rolling with a clammy relief a few moments later. Perhaps I’d been hit by some mental ghost attack? Maybe a lingering hit when I was running off with Oust? Some kind of weaker version of perish song?

Oh Arceus, I hope that perish song can’t actually kill.

It was slight, but the weights were getting lighter.

All of those thoughts are probably wrong. Yeah, probably. If only there was an easy way to look up information, or someone you could describe the symptoms to.

Guess I’d never know.

You probably are sick, if you can’t reme—that’s not physical sickness!—doesn’t matter!

I joined Oust at our bowl. Bonk had been content to leave the child at my bowl. How very kind of him.

Your portion is larger than hi—Sundress-girl was still in her own sleeping bag. Venipede and skorupi were getting anxious, seeing us. I scooped a couple berries onto the ground for Oust to eat. He looked at me for a moment, before eating. Leaf’s smell was sulfuric, his antennae practically twitching.

None of the swadlies were spilling their berries on the ground. The girls all speared theirs.

Do you think you’re possessed? That was a good question. Oust nibbled his berries. Lanky stepped behind me, sitting down. “Ee!” I yelped in light surprise when he pulled me onto his left leg. He pulled up the bowl of berries, feeding them to me.

What would I even do if I was possessed? You’re not possessed. Yeah. You’re just hallucinating. Still doesn’t answer the question!

I looked at Oust, twinkle in his eye as Lanky picked him up, feeding him as I speared food out of the bowl. If I was three feet tall, the largest swadly was two-thirds-no, half, no, one third my height. Oust was half theirs. Well, sewaddle height was—Lebi is kind of mean, aren’t the—Does Oust know what’s happ—Yea, can’t trust Celebi, wors—Oust doesn’t know what’s going on, do they?

I don’t know what’s going on, either! My own lavender annoyance had long been noted by the others, evidenced by their more mute submission, Leaf’s own anger fading as well. I just wanted to eat and think! Not to overthink and under-eat! I speared a couple more fruits in the bowl in anger, knocking a couple grapes to the ground. Lanky talked in his sweet, yet firm gibberish of words, “Ehf ewad! ewuaer zapiesl deyaen aot ewue.” Picking the grapes up off the ground, dropping them into my mouth.

We finished our bowl of food. Lanky picked me up, setting me back on my feet, dusting Oust off. I picked the god-child up, walking around. I felt a tug on the left side of my leaf-skirt. One of the runts of the bunch, she offered me a leaf. I reached down and accepted it. It was just a leaf. Though it had silk on it. Like a sticker? I clicked. Swadlies don’t have half the silk stores us leavannies do.

It was time to give another one a name. Tug. Tug it would be.

Tug was the smallest of the bunch. She sat on the end, the first of the group to figure out how to spear berries like me. Clever, though she was one of the ones that were content not to join in the group’s wrestling and play-fights. I accepted the gift, putting it on my right blade. Tug ran off to the others. Using it as a patch, it’ll eventually integrate and harden.

I lifted Oust up into the air.

What secrets do you hold? I wanted to ask. They didn’t respond, other than to let out a fairy-like scent. They enjoyed being held up. I was too tired to hold them up for long, but I did have a full store of silk. A few moments later, Oust was cocooned and happily swinging from a tree limb.

With Sundresser awake, Lanky had pulled his bike from its canister, practicing rolling in circles around the massive room. I went back to sleep, images of running around that mountain, flitting, when I woke up. Both Leaf and Lanky were gone, as were Sundress-girl and her team. The sun was high in the skylights. Oust asleep, still in his swing, I hopped to the floor, landing on my legs with a modicum of grace this time, buffeted by the little tarsi-like appendages at the bottom.

Whatever the pressure was, it had passed, and I was light as a feather. I gave my leaves a once-over. They were fine. Battle-skirt in decent condition, helmet-leaves were fine, too. All a reassuring green. Tug’s patch had stuck, already integrating with the blade. I walked to the back door of the atrium, several of the waking swadlies following me. I pushed on the door handle. It was locked. Even better. I shoved the door a bit, feeling for where the latch reaching into the doorway was.

Oust was wiggling in the cocoon, swinging back and forth. Out of smelltaste-range, reading others was always more difficult. There was no keyhole. Anywhere. Was the door automatically locked? No. There was no electric pad or electric button or anything to push for a release. No keypad. Just a dumb, metal door with one of those push-in handles.

I clicked, rolling in annoyance. I looked at Tug and the few other swadlies watching me. There was a bolt on top and a bolt on bottom. Pushing the handle in once, the door clicked. I pushed more, it clicked again, but I was met with resistance. From the bolts. The flat door-handle inside, the kind that you push in, slight lever-style action. They weren’t locked, per-se. There was another bar on them! And it had a handle! The kind you twist and flip! You still had to push on the lever on the inside to open it and get out.

It took a bit of leverage, some clever legwork trapezing across the thin handle, two metallic clicks, and both latches released! We slid the door open; Bonk, Tug, and the three other girls all stepped outside.

The door slid back shut behind us with a click, and we were free to roam in the cloudy backyard sun!