“Alright.” I grunted while sitting pack up after several hours and a trip to the porcelain chamber. “Time for shits and giggles.” I continued while getting off the bed. I leaned over grabbing my pack over to me and began digging for a few things. Namely first, one of those jet lighters I had my eyes on for a while I found in my pack. It confounded me that I keep finding things like this in it. It’s becoming more and more like I really packed this thing, everything has been where I would put things in places that made sense to me personally. Like the jet lighter being at an easy to access pocket on a near middle side pouch on the left side where there was one of two, and one of those multi cords in it, and something resembling a bluetooth car charger. Besides the continuing delighted but eerie placement of items I then got out a travel clothing repair kit, setting out a stronger looking black thread with a needle on the nightstand. While I was doing this, Nesi crawled over to my right side from the sleep pile at the other end of the bed.
“Sni, sniv sni?” [So, what’cha doin’?] Nesia asked with a sort of childlike innocence to her question.
“I. Am going to do some tests I’ve been meaning to do for the past several weeks. Firstly on my coat.” I answered as I leaned over, grabbing my punisher coat and pulling out my silent ots knife.
“Sni snivy sni?” [And what kind of tests?]
“The first. I’m debating on doing first, is either fire resistance, or stab resistance. I’m thinking the stab one first since that’ll be easier to fix.”
“Snivy.” [Makes sense.] Nesia nodded, understanding the reasoning.
I laid out my coat on the floor as I got on my knees next to it. I chose the kind of doubled up fabric on the bottom of it. I let loose the blade from it’s metal sheath with that defying silent extension. And brought the blade down with just enough force to try puncturing the fabric. After the quick little jab, I examined the spot. My brows scrunched down while my wide critical eyes glared at the lack of an entry point.
OOoookaaay. I thought with a raised brow, I repeated the test, this time with a fair bit more force, this was accompanied with a decent little thud this time. And I checked again. Astoundingly, this may be either, stab resistant, and what I’m more hoping, stab proof. I then did a slash test, surprising still, it resisted the assault with not even a telling mark. Not even while actively trying to cut it.
What the fuck are you made of!? Liking so far, but god damn. Now the one I’ll possibly hate. I thought as I grabbed the lighter with a tense face. In contrast, notes of concern danced over Nesia’s face. She gave me a face that asked. “Is this a good idea?” Honestly, most likely not. Regardless, I have a sneaking suspicion I need to curb.
Oh please work like I think it will. I thought pleadingly with closed eyes and a slow intake and outtake of breath. “Al-fucking-righty.” I drew out the words, almost whispering. I turned the flame on low, and aimed for the same spot like before, this time a little quicker while watching for any melting or embers. I repeated a process of back and forth of the flame touching the challenging fabric to whose material is now in question. Back and forth, back and forth I went, a touch longer each time. Each time with no less a mark than what I started with, maybe a smudge of carbon here or there. Alright. Half heat. And yet here I am still with a face of perplexity. I made a pressed lipped side nod, these jet lighters can melt a hole in a pop can at full blast, and just so happens that’s going to be the next setting. Here’s hopin’ this is as badass as I’m thinking my coat is now.
I took in another steadying breath. “Okay.” I then brought the dreaded flame of can melting to my coat again, repeating like before. Longer and longer I held it, till I held it there for a solid six seconds. I just turned the lighter off at this point, started at the spot I tried burning, then looked at the lighter. I quickly and admittedly stupidly, grabbed my coat and held two fingers behind the would be burn point, cool like re-entry plating. I just held my coat by the shoulders with wide eyes, then brought it closer into an ecstatic embrace while I dropped onto my side then back, doing that happy twist back and forth wiggle on that floor while excitedly giggling. “Fuck.” I thrusted the coat back up in the air. “YeeEES! Hahahahaaa!”
“Neaahh! What’s up!” Elora blurted out confused both verbally and telepathically, waking up from my antics, Keldra simply woke up with a “Huh?” The only context they have is their trainer holding up his coat unreasonably happy about it all of a sudden.
They both had a collective ‘Wait.’ moment between themselves. “Knife and fire-proof!” I delightfully cackled to myself. “Fucking! Yes!”
““Ah.””
Elora then had an idea. “Is it however, ‘shadow claw’ proof?” She asked with a grin, said claw of shadows formed from her altered shadow ball technique. My eyes snapped to her as did my arms snapped back to my chest protectively clutching my coat. Elora undaunted, continued to grin now with raised brows like I would. My eyes narrowed as I thought about it. It was a long fifteen seconds of staring at each other while Nesi and Kel looked between us.
“Scrap fabric as control.” I announced without breaking eye contact. Now her grin faltered.
“Control?”
“Yes.”
My face dulled a few long seconds later seeing that she didn’t know. “Control as in having a control group on the factor of testing purposes, the scrap fabric will be the control because the unanomalous-”
“Ral ralts.” [Non anomalous.] Keldra corrected me. I just looked at her with narrowed eyes and a raised left brow before looking back at Elora continuing my explanation.
“Nature of the material compared to the anomalous-” I sarcastically looked at Keldra while stressing the correction, in turn being given a small cheeky smile. ”nature of my punisher coat.”
“Okay?”
“...Basically to see if the reaction is the same or more likely different.”
“Ahhh. Okay.” Elora then said with a slow nod.
I then took a moment to think about what to use as the test sacrifice of science. Can’t use my clothes...I might have some random scrapes in my pack somewhere in there. I then glanced at the bathroom with a thinking hum. Oooor. I can use one of the towels or washcloths. ...Actually, that’s a better idea. With a quick hop up onto my feet and a test pending coat on my shoulder I went to the bathroom that strangely had the same small design of the one in my house. Same light brown stained wood cupboards on the right, white textured linoleum on the floor with ceramic on the walls with some blue designs. Shower to the left with a roughly foot and half high tub with sliding glass textured doors with towel rack. And the tall cupboard above the toilet. And to finish it with the white ceramic round sink with white textured linoleum countertop and a three pane mirror with med cabinet with glass sliders. It is honestly in my words. Really fucking with my mind seeing the uncanniness of this random center’s bathroom and my own. Besides that, I went and grabbed a random white washcloth from the tall cupboard and went to Elora.
“Right. I’m gonna hold the corners, Nesi, grab the bottom ends. Now, I want you to poke a claw through it. I want to see if it’s just gonna cut through like a knife or like an ice pick or even burn it.” I explained while getting Nesi’s assistance. Elora did as instructed, the structure of a shadow ball formed, reshaping out like a pile of nanites into the shape of three wicked claw shaped voids outlined in a haunting though beautiful dark purple, thankfully she didn’t just quickly jab it and sort of eased it in. It was both fascinating and mildly horrifying as I stared at it with wide eyes. The dark type energy construct ate at the material as it passed through. Excu-ah-dafuq? I thought with a stunned expression. Note to self.
“Fucking avoid that shit!” The voices chimed helpfully filling what I was gonna think next on dark type moves.
As Elora retracted the claws from the poor washcloth. I continued to stare at it while my mind flung out images of either rapidly decaying flesh or out right disintegration. Then oddly enough to destroying doors of safes and other structures. I then push those thoughts to the side for the next part. Now I was curious if this is a known thing with dark types, or I had the ‘fortunate’ fate of now being more mildly terrified of my pokémon because I somehow come across the bullshit variety of each species.
“Alright.” I spoke hiding the strain of what weighed on my mind. “Now slash it, carefully.” And just like that, there was five seared strips of washcloth. My eyes naturally shifted from those pieces me and Nesi still gripped, on the floor and then to Elora with a wide eyed pressed lipped expression. Elora naturally was sort of confused if she did good or not.
I took a sharp intake of breath. “Kaaay!” I announced with a notably higher octave as my eyes now shifted from my coat to the shadow claws while Elora made a slight flinch. “Really not sure now.” I continued with the same voice. I then noticed Nesi leaning over the bed with equally wide eyes to the pile of scrap cloth. I grabbed the spot on my coat I tried stabbing, cutting and burning. And with mildly shaking hands. Held up the section with trepidation. With a deep breath, I spoke again. “Do not slash it. Just...try to make a small cut. Barely cutting it even.” Elora only nodded as I stood there on the floor on my knees, trying to stay calm. She slowly brought the claws again, curling the second and third so not to accidentally cut more. Then as gentle as can be, put it on the edge and slowly pulled back. As she did so, I watched with an intensity only a person with anxiety issues could. But the most astounding thing. It was resisting, holding at bay the hungering energy as the claw slid off the material. All four of us stared with a look of ‘holy shit’ across our faces. I pulled the coat to my chest again as my head inclined as I sat back against the bed. “Oh sweet holy shit.” I quietly exclaimed in relief.
Elora bless her heart, leaned over with concern on my right. “Did I do good?”
“You did fabulously.” I responded as I let my tension go as I reassuringly gave some scratches to her cheek and behind the ear. That made her smile.
“Sni, snivy sni snivy sniv snivy.” [Great, now I really gotta watch out for dark types now.]
“Fuckin’ seriously…” I agreed in a half mumble. A cargo container sized batch of scenarios that might even vaguely happen started speeding along my mind, some of them mortal kombat style gore coming on as I stayed there spacing out. Just as one of the three pokémon were going to ask if everything was alright.
“THIS! IS! A text message.” Announced Spartacus the 300 notification making the girls flinch. My head did a sort of reactionary twitch shake to the direction of my p.g. across from me, Nesi the ever helpful brought it to me with a vine.
Aaaaaaaand…oh, actually a message. I thought actually sort of surprised, the message was a, supposing at the same time, “HOW THE FUCK!?” from Ryan, Jordan and Tristan. A short deep giggle bubbled out of me unbidden as I saw Tristan type.
“The fucked you do? Steal it??”
“No, but that’d of been one hell of a grab.” I replied. “It even transforms into a smaller package for personal storage.”
“Bullshit.” Typed Jordan. In response, I grabbed out said compact atv, and shot off an image, much to the confusion of my girls I assumed.
“If some tweeny fuck can catch Giratina, who if I remember is practically the fucking god of DEATH with a basic ass pokéball, I should be able to have a atv that makes itself easy to store. Which can also jump nearly 3 meters and hover over water, has a winch, genny, and a 24 hour battery with storage for days. Also got a bitchin helmet with a bunch of nice bells and whistles.”
“Not the best comparison, but I see where you're going with it.”
“As long as the point is known.”
“How much was all this…?” I could almost hear the concern in the message.
“Believe it or not about…roughly $1,800 something? Should of been easily 30k. Currency here is similar to pyenn, called sutrin if I remember correctly. Side note, got a free decal and paint job free for making this Feraligatr mechanic’s day. Pretty sure he added some of the things on there as a freebie too.”
“A Feraligatr. As a mechanic.” Tristan responded this time.
“Yeah, had a kind of liverpool dialect too entertainingly enough, big motherfucker too at what I’m guessing is 7 foot. Really nice guy, side note, been noticing a lot of divergence of pokémon species so far. Tweak being a glorious example of that being more realistically crocodilian with some mythos anthropomorphism.”
“Tweak?” Ryan asked.
“The Feraligatr.” I clarified.
“Course…”
“So…how is it you made his day?” Tristan asked
“I did some banter with accents which evolved to him asking if I could do Gollum. Considering what I got, and the supposed goodies I got extra from him I have yet to look at, I suppose I did a fucking amazing job.”
“I hate that you doing that worked.” Ryan commented.
“Snnniiiiii…” [Soooooooo…?] Nesia finally noted at the silence to me.
I looked up with a hum. “Oh!” I exclaimed realizing I was too focused on the convo. “Talking to my friends. Their reaction to the atv was amazing.” I elaborate with a grin then returned to talking to my friend group.
“Hehheheheheh, behold the glory that is I. The lord of bullshit!”
“Oh Will, that reminds me.” Jordan noted as a link popped into the chat. Naturally I was curious yet confused. “It’s what we’re gonna move to.”
“Ah.” It was called Discord. A name that reminded of me of a character to a show I’d rather not think about. Well, might as well set it up while it’s still in mind. I thus went to the site and signed up. As I was fiddling with things. The girls took up having a little game battle. A short time later I got everything set up, continuing with my refusal of normal naming with my account, then getting the app, that took a little doing for me to find that, all the while, the thought of how seamless this all is being. Internet wise, I almost couldn’t tell at times if I was getting my world’s internet or this world’s. Twas a strangeness with vexings a plenty. Well, guess I won’t have to exercise my art of the lurker much, my earlier precautions easing my mind on that fact.
After the set up process, the reconnecting of friends, the server made with my help of naming it. I made for calling it Bobington from me and Ryan’s days of using one of those Lan programs while playing Unturned on the gigantic Smiley Land map. After getting everything done, testing on that going. We discovered my super laptop has an astoundingly good microphone, which was really nice for me, which means I wouldn't have to invest in a new mic to lug around with my gear.
With all that, I was getting antsy. It wasn’t often I got like this, but this time it was a lot more compelling than usual. With that in mind I stewed trying to form ideas as I was messing with settings with narrowed eyes. A couple ideas flitted about, but one keeps coming to attention. Maybe…? I thought to myself, contemplating if I wanted to ask or not.
“I mean, it wouldn’t hurt to ask.” Vlad commented contemplatively. If there wasn’t one then that sucked, then I’d have to think of something else.
“I’ll be back.” I said out of the blue, closing the laptop and putting it aside.
“Where you going?” Elora asked curiously as she lazed by a pillow, gazing at me from watching Neisa play on her ds.
“Gonna ask Joy a question or two.” I replied as I approached the door, went down the hall, I couldn't help hearing a lack of noise. It probably shouldn’t have, but it put me on edge as I focused on picking up movement or any outlying sounds as I began to walk quieter almost instinctively. It was like this till I made it to the lobby, my eyes darted every which way with a face of concentration, that was till I noticed the telltale pink and green streaked hair of Melon Joy calmly sat behind her desk reading away. That was in a sorts, comforting. However what wasn’t was this strange feeling I had, my gaze snapped to the windows to the front, vision flitting to different sections. Just like that it was gone, I did one more sweep with narrowed eyes for a few more seconds before I turned and went to Nurse Joy.
She hadn’t noticed my approach, so, being the cheeky dick I am, I had to indulge my little sadistic side that adored scaring the bejesus out of people. “Hello!” I said in a friendly intonation, just loud enough that I got her to jump.
“Sweet lord!” She yelped out, almost throwing her book as I chuckled a little evillily.
“Hoh…it’s just you.” Joy sighed out, her voice calming with a hand to her chest.
“Hahaha, sorry, couldn’t help myself.” I say with a pleased smile. A small part of me was honest with the apology.
“Hey there, usually I can notice people while I read, but woo man. You're a sneaky one.” That only made me smile a little more. “So, what can I do ya fer.” She asked, dipping into that southern charm as she placed her book down with a little Eevee bookmark.
“So, I have a question.”
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“Shoot.”
“Does this pokécenter have one of those out of the way training areas?” I asked curiously, trying to sound as nice about it as I can, I was really hoping it did. I had a few ideas brewing that I wanted to try out. And preferred if I didn’t have people around to watch and try to pick up on them.
Joy gave me a curious look with that question. Long seconds later she then asked with an outwardly mildly suspicious look. “Now where’d you hear about that?”
“Well, I helped out with a blue haired Joy in Snowbelle and got to use the one there.” I replied honestly, it helped that I was getting brownie points with her when she let me use it.
“Oh her, she’s a nice gal. If she let you in on the secret, suppose I could let you have at it.” Melon Joy replied with a smile I was hoping was more genuine than parts of my mind thought, otherwise, guess I hit her criteria as I did a little cheer in my mind. “Right, so, you want to go down the hall you just came from. Then you want to hang a right, now it looks like a dead end with a supply closet lookin’ door. There yer gonna see a big ol’ potted plant. What you want to do, is tap the bottom part of the pot with yer foot nearest to the wall. Got all that?”
“Down the hall, hang right, tap the pot side nearest to the wall, yep.” I nodded with a thoughtful expression as I tried burning the instructions into my mind.
“Good then, now, don’t go telling everyone about it, it’s sort of a open secret, but not a lot of people know about them, us Joy’s won’t appreciate a flood of trainers wanting to use them all.” Joy gently warned. I could already see it now, some of them acting like it’s a bastardization of black friday with their ‘absolutely necessary use’ for them.
“Entirely understandable.” I nodded with an understanding smile
“Anything else on ya mind?” Joy then asked, putting back up some of that southern charm.
I lean on the counter with a conspiratal raised brow. “Anything special with this one?”
Melon joy in turn humoring me, leans closer with a half whisper. “This one is suppose t’have smarter dummies I hear. Let’s them react better ‘n make fer a better challenge.”
I swore for a split second I smelt watermelon after she came closer. “Dat so?” I reply in intrigue.
“Haven’t seen myself, but you and yer pokémon should have fun with it. I also heard if you can find them, there’s some neat lil features.”
“Oh now you're just teasing my curiosity.” I add with an intrigued smile. That got a chuckle out of Nurse Joy.
“Alright now, will that be all?” Joy asks with amiable cadence.
“For now yes, thank you much.” I say, leaving back to my room.
“Alright girls, how ‘bout we stretch out a bit, eh?” I inquire, looking at my trio of bed potatoes gaming away after entering the room, well I should say besides our resident Zorua having a nap. Giving them a ‘Eh? Eh?’ waggle of the brows. Keldra and Nesia looked up from their DS’s, the first out of the two seemed to catch what I said as she then asked.
“Where are we going to?” Keldra voiced interest.
“Remember the training room that was hidden away in the Snowbell center?”
“Yes?” She answered while Neisa looked at her and then me with a confused look. Nesia realized a second after I was addressing all of them as she lightly patted Elora on the nose.
[Ig-neah-wah!] Elora awoke with a small start. Looking around while blinking. [What’s up-I’m up.]
I looked at her with a chucklesome smile. Then looking back at Keldra I continued.
“Well, the Nurse Joy here just gave us access to use the one here, it’s a little more hidden away than the Snowbelle one.” I mildly explain. There was murmured interest. “There is a mild quirk with this one though. Apparently, the bots are smarter in this one.”
There was even more interest now in their eyes. “So, shall we ‘ave a go?” I ask with a mild accent and smirk. Nes and Kel put down their games, then hopping off the bed as Elora decided to ooze off the bed, reminding me of me, and my mom’s dogs.
I grab a couple drinks for myself and some water for the three as I get ready to head over there. From there, we exit the room, me being very tempted to just put the laptop away and haul the bag with today’s suspicion streak. I convinced myself it was going to be fine, and everything will be there once we get back. Did that several times as I locked the door, making triple sure the key was on my person before doing so, then made our way to the ‘secret’ training room as it were. The girls were talking amongst themselves as we walked a ways to the bend and went right, about fifteen feet from there, the janitor door lay. I was curious how this was going to open. Was it going to do the one where you enter the room, press something and the whole floor is an elevator? Is it going to be a square in the middle of the floor in front of the door? Is it gonna be a wall that opens up like last time? Undisclosed teleportation? I pondered as did my girls silently wonder why we were over here.
I did as instructed, tapping the part of the potted plant nearest to the wall, a small plate was depressed by my foot, shifting my gaze back up to the door. I watched, eyes darting around wondering what it was gonna be. What I did not expect, was quiet hydraulic noises as I saw things move behind the frosted glass of the door that now struck me as odd. The door having the window for being a janitor closet frosted, the hydraulic sounds were naturally suspect in this scenario as it took all of five seconds for it to do what it needed. I stared with a raised brow, higher now as the door clicked unlocked. The four of us looked at eachother then to the door.
“Sssniiii-vy.” [Ooooo-kay.] Nesia mimicked the sort of higher pitched voice of some concern reaction I would of had as we then neared the door, I semi-cautiously opened the door to then see a stairway down. Playing back the sequence in my mind, a sort of wireframe animation of what I suspect happened was the whole room shifted to the side behind the door and assumed another set of stairs moved up to bridge the small gap to what we see now. My question now was. Was the room a decoy or was it actually functional for plausible authenticity? Something I’ll have to wonder about as we made our way down the half flight of stairs. Once we got to the base of the stairs, it looked like a fancier version of the one in Snowbelle from what I can tell. I saw what may be a more comfortable viewing area, the ground seemed like it did back in Snowbelle, but I couldn’t shake the feel it was different in some way. My clustered mind of different thoughts couldn’t muster an idea of what at this time besides some sci-fi paranoid imaginings of way more advanced tech or something within it. Moving on from that, the same points screen mounted on the far wall this time, though an interesting difference. The dummies were in their own slots in the far wall with numbers on the dummies and the top of their chambers from 1 to 12. A twelve pokémon battle seemed a bit much even for my mind, but not all situations you’ll find yourself in will be on the fair side. So practice with dealing with multiple enemies at once is always good in my opinion. Never know when someone has buddies they can call.
I didn’t immediately register it at first, but there was a few murals on the walls. One of them, and strangely enough while still fucking with my mind. Was a mural of the gen one pokémon in color coordination up and down, that in of itself isn’t what’s messing with me. I’ve seen quite a few of those on the net and always like the look of them. It was because it was in the pokémon artstyle. Being my reason for my current mind boggling. It strangely doesn’t feel right to me, but in a distorted weird sense, if you looked in through the lens of coincidence and possible multiversal constants. Made an out of left field sense to a part of my mind open to such ideas.
image [https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/23f67b56-765b-4364-8c45-9f5fc8c8818b/d8xmucr-ad6409fe-ba19-4d27-a764-acc1210dbc10.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzIzZjY3YjU2LTc2NWItNDM2NC04YzQ1LTlmNWZjOGM4ODE4YlwvZDh4bXVjci1hZDY0MDlmZS1iYTE5LTRkMjctYTc2NC1hY2MxMjEwZGJjMTAuanBnIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.eGdA-OeF-iDMeUG4RI35-uSngTjH1NkiQEa2NckqWck]
Next to it a ways to the right was a realistic rendition of a lapras and I think it’s red headed trainer sharing a caring moment in the water.
image [https://avatarfiles.alphacoders.com/812/thumb-1920-81263.png]
There were several more murals of the sort with some, a scene of battle, friendly moments. Between another friendship and battle mural was the phrase.
“If you battle for each other, you’ll win the battles of life. - Unknown Trainer”
I formed an expression that could be mistaken for a not so thrilled mood as I mulled over the quote. Not often I find a quote I kinda like. I thought as various moments flashed through my mind, both remembered and makings of my imaginings. Still weirded the hell out of me though with the thought of these counterparts. With a small shake of my head in that unsure ‘Ooookay’ motion, then I noticed what was different with this place, besides the wall art. There wasn’t a drink fountain, which elicited a small internal sound of disappointment from me.
Moving from that, I set the drinks on the table of the viewing area and moved to the console, well, guesstimated it was. It was a bit different, it was as if a modern dell monitor wanted to be a ‘computer console’ sort of machine. It was strange the thought came to mind, but I put the parallel to the side of my mind as I went to look at battle settings. It seemed like the one in Snowbelle, just with a little more complex options.
This the ‘Smarter’ bit eh? More complex yeah, but smarter is still in question. I then mulled over it, halting a few ideas I had with an outward expression of my thinking with a small tilt of the head and signature raised brow. Can it adapt? Is that the ‘Smarter’ Melon Joy mentioned? If it can. What is the extent of that adaptation? I then went over the interface again this time, much more thoroughly. Looking for an info tab of any sort, maybe a tutorial thing. A guide, something. Und vhere isht thee? I question, as I search, I notice a chair almost appear next to me as it was placed down gently, Keldra clambering up it to then stand on her tippy toes to look at the screen. I assumed she was curious as to what I was doing as I looked at her with a curious eye.
“What’s up?” I inquire, going back to my search. Finally, finding what I was looking for.
“Just wondering what you're going to put us against today.”
“Still working on that.” I reply as I read through, not seeing what I’m looking for so far. I glance to her as I ask.
“How you feel about more than one opponent?”
There was a moment of silence as Keldra thought it over as she half read along what she could see. I stopped as I did a small eye roll, leaning over and putting her on my shoulder so she could see better. “Thanks.” She said distractedly. That raised a small flag in my mind as I continued on reading, a side thought here and there paranoidly glossing over possible conversations I really did not like. A big one of those being a possible conversation of the mall. I all but mentally drop kicked the thoughts to the side as I tried to focus on my task in front of me. But like a particularly stupid meme I didn’t want to remember at the time, they were being persistent in their attempts to stay.
Ahhahaha! There ya fuckin’ are. I mentally cheered as I finally found what I was looking for. And it was what I was thinking of, strangely enough. It’s been stranger still how on point I’ve been on some of my mental ramblings of possibility so far. The adaptation I was thinking of seems to be there if I was reading this right. Either I’m not comprehending this well enough, or whoever wrote this did a piss poor job, because some of the phrasing didn’t make sense to me. Able to postulate between attacks to revise and then re-engage. I looked ahead with a disgruntled expression…who is the asshat that greenlit this writing? I’ve seen shitposts with better wording. I did a sort of ‘forget it motion’ momentarily raised fingers and a shaking head. Fuck it, we’ll figure out as we go. I went back to the main screen, having my inquiry mostly answered. Even with a micro brain fog caused by the asinine writing method. I began to implement one idea.
“I think it might be a good idea, can I ask why though?”
“Well, this is my thought on it. We might be in a double battle or something of the such, so it might be good to work on multiple fighting. Being able to keep situational awareness of those you're fighting and fighting with, maybe some teamwork building. The other may be my paranoia interjecting, but I fully expect when we’re out and about we’re gonna get jumped by three to forty pokémon at once. Being wild or gangtards is to be seen.” I explained in short length, while using a per round system feature I found to set up a one on one to three on one. Once Keldra heard the word forty she flinched while she gripped both my shoulder and my hair.
“Ah! God, damn it!” I half exclaimed, as I felt some of what I assumed was some of my hair being pulled out from her sudden grip.
“Oh! Sorry!” Keldra apologized as she rubbed the spot on my head she unintentionally pulled at. I in turn gave her an annoyed look as she gave me an apologetic look.
“Snivy!” [You good?]
“Yeah.” I respond in a miffed tone.
After a moment I then asked Kel. “You want a type challenge?” I figured while I was at it on the console.
“Type chal- Oh! That…might not be a bad idea. Never know what we might face.”
“My point exactly.” I affirmed with her response. “So do we want to go with same type, advantage, or disadvantage?” I add after. Kel was mulling it over as those creeping thoughts of mine were starting to crawl back again. Before they could set in, I registered she said something as my head did a small shake with a blink. “Sorry, say again?”
“I’m thinking I want to see about having a hang on advantage typing. My last trainer wasn’t very good about that.” She explained, seeming to gloss over my spacing. She probably was noticing, much to my paranoid mind’s chagrin. I’ll just keep at stomping those thoughts away for now till my brain unlatches from them.
Shortly with more fiddling, we had a setup we liked that was initializing on the field. Afterwards, I let her have a go at figuring things on this round with a Croagunk as the opponent. Meanwhile I was making the attempt to actually try to memorize typings, since now it wasn’t like the emulators and fan games, where I can mostly bruteforce my way while lucking out on the AI being stupid. I’m going to actually have to think things out at the minimum of some regard, this being my reality an’ all now. If I thought about it, I could just up and fuck off into the woods, make my own home and live out there. Not to be bothered, mostly by people. I actually stopped for a moment to stare off in the far away corner of the ceiling as I partly listened to Anastasia by Slash playing on the speakers.
Could I actually? Live off the land, aided by my, and wild mons. Live with nature. Eek out a woodsman's peaceful life? But wait, would the laptop have internet out there? It’s sure as shit not normal, which leaves a very real possibility. But then wait, would the girls even be for that? No, they already have a taste for this, and I haven’t even been camping. Proper camping. The dive in the cave wouldn’t count being survival of the moment with the wait of the storm.
My thinking was shattered after a moment with the whomping bang of Wisp Grave coalescing on the Croagunk. It valiantly took three steps before it fell. I remarked the singed form of the poison jab frog on the ground, not realizing that Keldra has come back to my side, I did a partial double check, blinking my eyes back into focus as I look back at her. Those soulful nearly hidden eyes peeked at mine between little gaps of her natural bowl cut.
“What’s up Kel?” I ask naturally, my curiosity playing into my mixed, muted expression.
“I…want to ask you something.” She asked back, eyes dipping for a second to look back at me. And part of me dreaded what kind of question it could be right now.
I gave a silent go ahead with my expression, a raised left brow as my head tilted to the right.
“Why…did you fight that man and his pokémon at the mall?” She requested, a mixed curiosity in her voice I couldn’t quite place.
It was an understandable, and simple question. I guessed I might have asked that at some point too if I was her. However, as I took a breath to answer that. My words halted, and evaporated from my mind, as that question, properly, took root.
Why. Did I? “I…I-”
My eyes began to twitch and dart as I searched for an answer in my own head. Each time I rose a finger, it deflated. Everytime I thought I had something, it’d apparate from my mental process as I attempted to voice it. It got worse the further I tried, and further did a cord of panic grow as I searched for an answer as to why. Was it a moment of rage that finally bursted? Was it an underlying instinct that took hold? Was it some fuckery of this reality that I’m trapped in that’s sinking it’s vices into my psyche, making my consciousness a plaything of it’s logic or higher beings!? Have I become a toy for others in this dimension!? Poking and prodding at me to specific outcomes outside my comprehension!!? HAVE I BECOME A GOD DAMN SIM FOR GODS!?
These thoughts were getting deeper and worse at the terrible possibilities flooding over each other. Unbenounced to me, the music was becoming more staticy as I sunk deeper, and dreadfully deeper in this whirlpool of speculation and trepidation. The girls took exceptional notice to this new development as a new jolt of worry hit them.
Elora came bounding over with Neisa. “[Kel, what happened!? And why is the music like that!?]” Elora askes hurriedly, concernedly watching their trainer hunched over with hands clasping at his head with wide shaking eyes, his breathing becoming more rapid as time went on. As she looked closer, it was his entire head that was shaking.
“[I don’t know! I-I-I asked him why he-he fought that trainer at the mall. He tried to make an answer, he couldn’t make one and it got worse!]” Keldra explained in a growing panic. “[I-I think he’s having a panic attack, or a mental breakdown. I don’t know!]
“[What even are those!?]” Elora asked exasperated, never hearing the terms before.
Keldra made a double knife hand-like gesture to Elora.
“[A panic attack is like being afraid but worse that causes the body to tremble and hyperventilate along other things. A mental breakdown happens with major mental stress-We can look into this later! We have to calm him down somehow!]”
“[Oh crap oh crap oh crap!]” Elora chanted in her own alarm as she looked around.
“[Oh! Guys! Guys! I have an idea!]” Nesia finally said something as she watched, she wasn’t sure if this was gonna work or not. The other two looked at her expectantly.
“[Okay, Kel. I need you to turn him to the table-]” Keldra gave her a confused look before following along. “[El, you’ll have to bear with me on this one.]”
“[Just out with it Nesi!]”
“[Kay, get on the table, sit in front of him, and turn to a braixen, then shove his head into your chest, and hug him tight. Make him hug back, move his arms if you have to. Have him focus on fluff.]” Nesia explained concisely.
Elora just stared at her for a moment. “[Damn it!]” She thought aloud as there was only the sound of dreadful static in the background now. She didn’t have a better plan, and she doubted Nurse Joy would be able to help too much. As instructed she got on the table as Kel shifted their trainer without bumping him, and transformed. Before she did her next part, Keldra had the mind to remove the glasses just before Elora shoves their trainers face into her purposely fluffier chest, pulling his arms around herself and holding tight around his head as comfortingly as possible.
Before I knew it, all I knew was. Tight. Dark. Warm. Soft. I gripped onto the warming soft creature. The disparaging tracks of thought screeching to a halt, albeit not all at once. Dozens at a time slowed to a stop. Some of those lines of thought tried to burn harder to keep a distasteful relevance in my mind before they too, halted in their journey of dismay. Slowly being replaced by the expansion of comfort against the tide. My mind slowly calmed, my intense breathing I found now slowly calming down, as I sunk into whatever I was gripping while leaning against. Steadily I relaxed while unmoving, muscles easing from their rapt tautness of trepidation. Slowly I picked up the gentle keys of a piano from one of the random sleep songs I had. Release by Ryan Stewart if I remembered. And strangely a receding static from my speakers too. It was concerning in it’s appearance and detraction. But not as concerning right now as what happened to me. Again.
Worse this time… I whispered with growing lucidity in my mind. As I clutched onto whatever my face is buried into, I couldn’t bring myself to let go. My shoulders would tense for a few seconds like I was going to lean back, but my body wanted none of that, I thought I would be okay now, but in fact. My body huddled closer as my arms closed tighter into this comfort. Then, I felt a reassuring hand…or paw…gliding up and down my upper back, and something else soft on my head. I couldn’t quite tell at the moment outside the sensation.
After a few long moments like this, a long staggered sigh left me as the dreadful feelings of before were bleeding out. I cursed the part of my mind that stubbornly held onto the negative emotions of the moment, taking their time like the chilled last remnants of your favorite sauce to get to the spout. Shortly after, I slowly peeled myself off. My bleary eyes coming back to focus, I stared a little confusedly at, what I could only call, an absolute mound of fur that I now understand my face was buried in. Still out of it, my beleaguered eyes trailed up to the face of a concerned braixen, with eyes colored a gorgeous vibrant purple that I simply adored. I slowly smiled a small smile, basking in the sight of those awe inducing sparkling pools.
“You okay now?” The braixen with Elora’s voice asked softly. Breaking me of my fugue as my eyes did one disjointed blink before they synced back into several more. Fully coming back to as things registered more to my brain now.
“Think so…” I sighed out, sitting back in the chair more, her paws on my shoulders now. A more dower contemplative look on my face listed to the tiled gray white floor, my eyes shifting to and fro in small movements. Mulling over what happened with my mental state there, I wondered what the actual hell is going on with me, for this to happen multiple times now, each worse. And it was concerning me more and more. Before this train of thought could continue on this track, I felt the rubbing of a thumb on my right shoulder. I looked back up with a mixed look in my eyes.
“[let’s think about whatever this is about later…alright?]” Elora spoke to me with a supportive warm smile. My eyes casted down for a few seconds before nodding a few times.
Then looking back up to her. “Yeah…yeah…alright.” I replied softly. Just above a whisper I let out with a shake of my head. “This reality is doing something to me…”