Ethan watched on with laser focus as Shuckle shook his noodly limbs in straining thoughts. Pachirisu stood across from him on the training field, idling eating a berry and not really interested in the pivotal moment.

It was the day after Ethan’s ranch had been completed, and Shuckle was close to learning the move Power Split. While it wasn’t as pivotal and as world changing as Power Trick, this was more than enough for Shuckle to go toe to toe with some foes. He needed this to solve some of his confidence issues. He’d been trying hard throughout the week, even taking pauses in between his berry gathering and organizing.

Shuckle’s eyes squinted down to pinpointed dots as a pale, white, and foggy looking orb exited his body. Pachirisu jumped in fright as a slightly larger foggy orb exited his chest. He chittered rapidly, baffled at the scene, but it didn’t seem to harm him. So, he watched on. The two orbs launched between them both, colliding in the center and becoming the same size as they continued on their paths, not hampered by the collision. The orbs re-entered the pokemon, and Shuckle started dancing from his successful use of Power Split. His yellow limbs wormed about wildly and he snaked his head from side to side in the air.

Ethan rushed forward and lifted him into the air with a twirl. “You did it! I knew you could do it! Now, when someone comes to pick on you, you can show them you’re not an easy target! I’m so proud of you!”

Pachirisu ran around in circles on the ground, saying his name over and over, congratulating his friend. Chatot, who was practicing her singing nearby, sang a loud tune of accomplishment their way. She flew off toward his berry trees and then quickly returned with Shuckle’s favorite—A Durin berry. She dropped it on the ground in front of Ethan as he placed Shuckle back on solid earth.

As Shuckle chomped on his reward with gummy jaws, Ethan continued to motivate his pokemon. “I think our Oddish friends would be impressed with your new move. They might even give you some blasts of Sweet Scent. After you finish your berry, why don’t you go hang-out with them as you take a break? I’ll handle the gathering today. You’ve earned this break.”

Shuckle nodded happily as he gnawed on his now liquifying berry. Ethan turned to Pachirisu and Chatot. “Chatot, great work singing today. Training your lung capacity will help you sing more beautiful songs. Pachirisu… good job not falling asleep today.”

They both nodded with happy cheers. “I’ll go make us some dinner. You guys have fun.”

Pachirisu didn’t waste a second before dashing off into the surrounding forests. As it was his home for his entire life, Ethan wasn’t worried that he didn’t know his way around. He was curious about what he got up to out in the wilds. Maybe he had some pokemon friends?

Chatot flew over toward the pond and began singing some more. For her, singing wasn’t training, it was just a fun thing to do. The Feebas and Magikarp didn’t seem to care at all about the noise, and the Marill gave her slight smiles as they floated about, relaxing to the max.

The Krabby wasn’t a fan, but the sound of his snipping claws only encouraged Chatot to sing and wag her tail to its clamps. Whether or not Krabby liked it, he would be a part of the performance if he wanted to snip and be grumpy.

Ethan went about the next few hours picking up the ripened, fallen berries from the ground and organizing them into piles near Shuckle’s burrow. He also checked on his non-berry farm and watered the plants, especially the rice, as it needed a lot of water to grow.

When he finished up and was washing his grimy hands with water from his well’s pump, Ethan heard an unfamiliar voice growing louder and louder as the owner approached his home. Ethan wiped his hands dry on a towel and tossed it over his shoulder as he walked around his new patio to look down the cobblestone path.

Coming by way of his new miniature trail. which connected to the offshoot of route 205, a young man and an unfamiliar pokemon strolled into his clearing with looks of wonder and excitement. The young man wasn’t too old, maybe eighteen if Ethan had to guess, and the pokemon that walked by his side was very unique.

The dark gray, bipedal salamander-esque pokemon stood around four feet tall, and its purple eyes scanned the clearing with interest and surprise. The pokemon was very sleek and slender in appearance, with bright pink scales that made symmetrical tattoo markings that ran across its torso, and another band of pink scales ran along the underside of its long, swinging tail.

While they were both still busy admiring his ranch, Ethan quickly used the PocketDex to scan the unfamiliar, feminine looking pokemon.

“Salazzle — The Toxic Lizard Pokemon: Salazzle emits toxic pheromones that attract male Salandit, its devolved form, which it uses to form a devoted harem. Its potent venom can incapacitate foes with just a whiff, and it prefers to finish its prey with a burst of fiery breath. Salazzle's cunning nature and ability to manipulate other pokemon make it a dangerous adversary in the wild. All Salazzle are female, while Salandits are primarily male. When two Salazzle meet in the wild, they will battle with their pheromones to fight over the males in their packs.”

Ethan looked from his phone, then to the Salazzle with a raised brow. This was most definitely not a pokemon that he remembered. He was pretty sure he’d remember harem pokemon, as that wasn't very PG-13.

Right as Ethan stored his phone in his pocket, the young man finally noticed him. His face, full of wonder and excitement, quickly schooled itself into one of dignity and respect. Ethan gave him a wave as he walked down the path to meet them halfway. “Hey there! I see you saw my sign?”

The Salazzle slowed in her gait, standing behind her trainer as she stared off into his berry fields. Ethan coughed to grab Salazzle’s attention. “Feel free to have some berries. Just don’t bother any of the nearby pokemon.”

The Salazzle turned to her trainer and fluttered her purple eyes as she shimmied provocatively. Ethan nearly choked at the scene, but the young man seemed very much used to his pokemons behavior. He sighed and lazily waved off toward the berry fields. “Go on, just be care—”

Salazzle was gone before he could even finish his words of warning. The trainer looked like he wanted to grit his teeth, but still tried to remain cordial in front of Ethan. Not knowing how to break the ice, Ethan’s first thought was to talk about pokemon. “Interesting pokemon…”

The young man blushed a bit, and Ethan couldn’t really blame him. He probably got a lot of interesting looks thrown his way with a Salazzle following him around. “Yes sir. She’s from Alola. I’ve come here to request your services as a move tutor. Do you still have open slots?”

“Ahh, straight to business, then. I just opened up yesterday! You’re my first official customer. I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect someone to come by so soon. What pokemon were you looking to have tutored and did you have a move in mind? Also, my name is Ethan Reed. Yours is…?” Ethan asked as he gestured for them to continue along the path toward his home.

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“Oh! Sorry, Max Reclant. It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Reed. Recently, I added a fifth pokemon to my roster, and I had high hopes for its battling potential, even given its normally poor power levels. The problem is… It takes a long time for it to learn moves, and it doesn’t learn moves the normal way. As I’m constantly on the move, it makes the already slow process of learning moves much more difficult and infeasible. I thought that maybe someone with your expertise could help me.” Max was speaking quickly, obviously stressed about the pokemon not fitting in well with his team.

When Max didn’t continue, Ethan awkwardly asked, “And this pokemon is…?”

Max cringed and his face turned red in embarrassment, but answered nonetheless. “It’s a Smeargle.”

Oh! That was a pokemon Ethan knew a good deal about. He’d use a Smeargle to catch pokemon in his games all the time. False Swipe, Spore, and Soak were three of the staple moves he liked to use. A Smeargle without a four move limitation could very well be a terror in battle, so it was no wonder a trainer would pick one up.

Ethan walked up the steps onto his patio and sat down on the lip, staring outwards toward his meadow and pond. “Well, what did you want help with specifically? To my knowledge, Smeargle’s learn their moves with the move Sketch. As a move tutor, I wouldn’t be able to do much other than let it copy the moves of one of my pokemon.”

Max hesitantly sat next to him on the lip of the patio, probably not used to, or expecting, such informality. “I… I want him to learn his moves quicker. I’m afraid that at this rate, he won’t be able to handle the rest—or any of the gym battles. He’s just… not ready. I don’t know if he will ever be ready.”

Ethan nodded. It made sense. Unlike the games where a Smeargle could learn a move just by seeing it once, there was no way that’s all it took here in real life. He didn’t know the exact process, but he should figure it out before he offered to help at all. Failing on his first customer would be rough. “Well, let's let him out and we’ll see if there are any problems I can spot. This won’t be quick, so feel free to let the rest of your team out to relax around my ranch. As long as they won’t cause any trouble…”

Ethan gave him the look, but Max smiled. “Sounds good to me. They won’t cause any trouble, sir. We didn’t get six badges without learning to be respectful.”

Max grabbed four pokeballs from his waist and opened them all up in a practiced, one handed display of skill.

As Ethan looked over Max’s full team, he was glad that not all of his pokemon were as foreign as Salazzle.

The first one he saw was a very familiar pokemon. He’d already seen one on multiple occasions and even talked with them. A graceful Gardevoir floated gently as she twirled to gaze around her new location.

The next pokemon was a tall, humanoid bunny, similar to the much smaller Buneary he’d seen a little over a week ago. This pokemon looked familiar… ish. He’d seen it before but didn’t know much about it. It was covered in short brown fur, and on its lower legs, wrists, and ears, large tufts of cream-colored fur created a stark contrasting appearance. The long eyebrows were the same cream color, and its pink eyes happily took in its new surroundings.

The third pokemon was one he could name immediately. The cyan blue water pokemon sauntered over on all fours and rubbed itself against Max’s dangling feet like a cat. Vaporeon’s caudal finned tail flicked around as its frilled, webbed neck flared out and in as it breathed.

Last was the subject of their talks: Smeargle, the beagle-like painter pokemon, was released onto the patio. It stood unconfidently, hugging its orange-tipped tail to its chest with nervous fidgets. Smeargle, bipedal and reminiscent of Snoopy from the Peanuts comic, had small, floppy ears of caramel brown. The same brown fur rimmed its eyes, wrapped around its ankles and wrists, and formed a thicker band around its neck, resembling a collar. The rest of its body was coated in faint beige fur.

As Ethan inspected all the pokemon, Max had informed his team that they could roam the ranch and to be respectful of their surroundings. Gardevoir floated off toward the water with Vaporeon, and Lopunny hopped off into the surrounding forests with anticipation, which caused Max to facepalm.

Ethan smiled at Smeargle. “Well, let's see if we can help you out. I’m sad to say, I’m not experienced with your species. How do you normally go about using your move, Sketch, to learn new moves?”

Smeargle’s eyes widened, and he released the right grip on his orange-tipped tail at the mention of his move, and Max frowned. “What do you mean by his move Sketch?”

“Well, the way Smeargle learns moves is by using a move only his species knows. By using it, they effectively forget their move Sketch, and replace it with the ‘sketched’ move. They can learn almost every move that exists. I just don’t know the process. So, Smeargle, how do you learn your moves? What is the correct way?”

Smeargle pointed at Max’s bag, which dangled from his hip. Max, knowing his pokemon much better than Ethan did, knew what it wanted. After rummaging through the bag, Max pulled out a small easel, some different colored paints, a handheld wooden painter’s palette, and a framed piece of canvas. Smeargle’s eyes turned up in crescents as it smiled at the painting supplies.

It quickly took the supplies from Max with its three fingers paws and began setting up his art station on his patio. Once finished, it twisted and turned around, hugging its tail as it searched for what it needed.

“Smeargle? Smear?”

The ruffle of nearby leaves caused Max to nearly jump out of his skin in fright, as three of the seven Oddish who were several feet away ruffled their head leaves as they looked around. Ethan felt a little bad for the young man, as he looked deathly afraid, having been unaware that they were there all along.

“Odd?”

“Oddiiishhh?”

“Odd-Odd!”

Smeargle sheepishly looked over the patio toward the sound of pokemon.

“Smear-Smeargle?”

One the Oddish uprooted itself with a few quick shakes, then waddled up toward the steps of the patio. With a determined face, it did several full body hops up each of the steps, until it stood in front of the easel. Smeargle rushed forward and grabbed his painter’s palette and stood ready, eager, and happy.

Without a word of warning, Oddish used its favorite move, Sweet Scent. The pink puff of sweet fragrance caused Max to jerk again, but Smeargle was already moving. Using its tail, it rapidly dipped the tip onto the palette full of paint and began constructing its masterpiece. Smeargle had to motion the Oddish to use the move a few more times, and Oddish didn’t seem to mind it.

After around five minutes, Smeargle took a few steps back from its canvas and licked its thumb. It closed one of its eyes and it held out its tongue and thumb, staring down at its art. After a few seconds, he nodded and turned to Max and Ethan with an enormous smile.

Ethan clapped in celebration with a smile of his own as he stood to inspect the painting. Smeargle wasn’t the painter pokemon for no reason. The artwork was fantastic. While Ethan wasn’t some art connoisseur, even he could see in the emotion in the brushstrokes Smeargle had painted. The art depicted an Oddish mid movement, as a puff of pink blotches shot up from its head. The proportions were spot on, and he even got the shadows correct, given the only light-source was the sun.

“Did you learn the move?” Ethan asked as he continued inspecting the beautiful piece of art.

Smeargle deflated and shook its head.

“How many times would you have to paint a move in progress to learn it? Tell me when to stop. Five times… ten times… twenty times…” Ethan continued until Smeargle tugged on his sleeve causing him to stop.

When Ethan looked at the pokemon, he could see its saddened expression. “You don’t know, do you? You just… know when you learn it, right?”

Smeargle’s eyes widened, but it was still sad when he nodded.

“Hmm…” Ethan looked at Max and frowned. “Sadly, I don’t think I’ll be able to help you with Smeargle. Art is not something to be rushed. I could help you with another one of your pokemon?” Ethan offered.

Max was disappointed, but it seemed like he was prepared for the answer. He slowly closed his eyes and took a shaky breath before he spoke. “I need to have a discussion with my team… I’ll let you know here soon. Let’s go Smeargle. We need to have a group meeting.”

Ethan patted Smeargle on its beret-like head as it nervously walked off to follow its trainer.

This was not how he thought his first tutoring would go.