Take a journey with Team Eevee as they...
d’Alin, we can’t just let him fight everyone.
Arimis’ voice rang in my head. I turned to her, seeing through the foliage behind me a splash of purple trailing us. I thought, making sure to say her name so she’d know to read my mind, Arimis, like I said, we need to figure out a workaround. Someone is going to be bound to tell him when we or Althi won’t not around to correct them.
Speaking of Althi...
“Althi!” I called out. Stupidly. I glanced to my right and saw the deaf glaceon walking forwards, focused on the terrain. I jumped over a large root and gave her a nudge, drawing her attention while sending a cold wave from my side down to my tail. It took some getting used to, but at this point the feeling had transformed from sending a jolt of shock to me to actually becoming pleasant.
“What?” she asked, turning to me to read my lips.
“I’m pretty sure we’re lost,” I said. “Are you sure you know the way?”
She raised one eye and grew a smirk. “And I thought I was deaf. I already told you d’Alin, Pirth remembers the way.”
Goddammit. I looked ahead to see a shiny winter sawsbuck sniff the ground and twitch his ears before trotting forward yet again.
I left Althi’s side and picked up the pace, trying to lift my long and still very much new-to-me vaporeon tail over the foilage.
“Pirth, do you know where we are exactly?”
“Sure, d’Alin, we’re on the way to Capim Town.”
“No, I meant that we’re off-trail and lost in the woods.”
“d’Alin, don’t you trust me to lead the way?” smiled the blind racist pokemon that claims to have been chosen by none other than Arceus to spread the word of how deerling – sorry, sawsbuck especially, now – are Giratina’s agents, hence why he is the first “super-leafeon” to ever exist.
I looked at Arimis and Althi, both of whom likely recalled everything I just did since they shared my same look of incredulity; were Pirth not blind, he probably would’ve killed us for exchanging such a look of doubt as his expense.
Before I was able to tacitly suggest to Pirth that it might be best to retrace our steps to get back on the path before the rapidly-setting sun turned the woods dark, the forest went silent as the sound of a wolf’s howl echoed throughout.
I found myself widening my eyes arching my back in preparation for battle like a cat, these still-foreign animal instincts kicking in. I turned to see Arimis looking around suspiciously and Althi, unhearing, looking at us in confusion. Before she could ask what was going on, Pirth declared, “I know where it’s coming from!” and ran into the woods.
“Pirth!” I said as I started to run to catch up, a difficult endeavor for someone half Pirth’s size.
It could be some ferals from a mystery dungeon, outlaws, I don’t know what...
I glanced behind me, thankful to see Arimis and Althi following.
I turned back forward only to hit a now-still Pirth straight in the ass and fall onto my own.
“Ow! Pirth what’re you-”
“Be quiet and listen, I think it’s a lycanroc!”
I looked around us. We had just emerged from the thick woods and emerged at the bare base of a hill. Ahead of us, on the crest of said hill, sat three small watching the setting sun.
“Let me get closer to hear. After all, the only pokemon better than a lycanroc is an eevee so it’d be a great honor to meet one…”
“No Pirth!” I whispered, trying not to draw the distant figures’ attention, but an undeniably beautiful howl cuts through my voice, and Pirth quickly trots towards them, his ears twitching every.
I turned to Althi and Arimis who both looked at me, and we unanimously agreed that if it really was a lycanroc, we’d best follow. In unison, we followed Pirth up the hill and towards the three figures.
Chapter 1 – Capim Town, Outlands
Music: Song of Healing (Wolf Form)
We carefully caught up to Pirth and stopped beside him as the light of the sun made the backs of the three creatures indecipherable, though what was clear was that the howl was coming from the middle one of the three, the wolf’s head careening upward to the orange sky.
We stood in silence as the howl faded away, its song carried off by the winds.
“Well, that sounded like a houndor, not a lycanroc” Pirth said quite loudly, breaking the silence.
In an instant, all three creatures jumped up and turned back in alarm, the fright on their faces being clear to see.
With a whine in her voice, I heard the houndor which has a small yellow flower nestled between the top of its head and an ear whimper, “d-did they hear all of that..?”
Oh, well they’re definitely not outlaws.
Before Pirth can talk about how it’s a shame the houndor isn’t a lycanroc sent from Arceus to purge the world of deerling, I quicky ascended the hill and said, in my most polite voice possible, “hiya! Uhh, I’m d’Alin, and behind me is Althi, Pirth, and Arimis, my teammates.”
The trio looked behind me and I joined their gaze to see Arimis doing her best impression of a smile, Althi looking at them unimpressed, and Pirth looming over them both with a big grin.
“We’re Team Eevee!” he declared proudly.
Oh shit, I thought, quickly turning back to gauge the reactions of these three. I saw that the skitty and the bulbasaur had a confused look on their faces, but chose to not say anything and just smile. The houndor, I saw, was still looking away bashfully at having had a whole group of strangers listen in to her song.
After a moment’s hesitation, the bulbasaur which wore a pink scarf that matched her eyes and the skitty which had a blue ribbon - if it matched her eyes I couldn’t tell – both approached and held out their paws.
“Hello. I’m Blossom,” said the bulbasaur, “and this is my sister, Shelby.”
Sister? Oh maybe that’s why they’re not questioning anything.
I held out my paw and shook Blossom’s, then Shelby’s. The houndor, slowly approached and whispered, “I’m Heidi.” Although she was clearly still embarrassed, held out her own paw to shake.
But then retracted it. “Are you really explorers? I don’t see any badges.”
I looked down and saw that I wasn’t wearing my scarf or my badge that I pinned to it. *Ever since I became a vaporeon, wearing that scarf around my neck has been a pain.
I turned back and Althi walked forward, the Team Eevee badge pinned proudly on her own scarf, though not without giving me a smirk that screamed “I told you you should’ve worn your scarf.”
“Take a look!”
The trio approached and had a look of awe in their eyes.
“Wow! I never saw such a unique badge!”
“Thank you! Even though we’re a part of the Wigglytuff Guild, they’ve started to give out custom team badges for some ‘Federation incentive’ or whatever.”
“Formerly Wigglytuff,” I interrupted, “we’re… transferring guilds. We’re actually looking for one in Capim Town. Do you know where Capim Town is or what the name of the guild is?
Shelby the skitty, with an ever-bright smile – though I couldn’t see her eyes – said, “well, aren’t you just lucky you ran into the most helpful team ever! We’re Team Petal-Purr!”
At this, the trio aligned themselves next to each other and struck a pose that could very reasonably be considered cute. I glanced back to Team Eevee and saw Althi and Arimis looking at them with content. Pirth stood grinning at nothing.
“And we’re part of the Clover Guild! That’s the best guild in Capim Town!” said Shelby.
“It’s the only guild…” I heard Blossom whisper.
“And where might that be?” I asked.
Heidi looked behind her and said, as she tucked her little tail between her legs “i-if you come up closer to the top of the hill where I was singing, a-and you’ll see it.”
I slowly approached and, standing beside Heidi, I took in my first glance as my vision overcame the crest of the hill.
I took in the entire sight: houses carved into trees, with bridges and vines crisscrossing every which way, the lights in many houses already lit up as the night rapidly approached.
I saw a huge gathering of Pokemon in the distance at what I presumed to be the Town Square, and tracing that location back to me, I saw veering off into the distant treeline a large road. Bingo.
“The view is almost as cute as me!” announced Shelby, “but we’re going back to get a better view of the fireworks. Heidi just wanted to practice her amazing singing.”
I turned around quickly at Shelby’s words to see Heidi blush and wag her tail and said, “fireworks?”
*That sounds… human. I know gunpowder exists, but I don’t recall any mention of fireworks being around. Then again, humans do it for particular celebrations…”
“Excuse me,” I asked, “is there any reason why there are fireworks tonight?”
“Yes sir,” replied Shelby, “the Clover Guild and Capim Town have some weird holidays, and tonight is what they call ‘New Years!’”
“I don’t know why they do it so late; Mum and Dad’s harvest would’ve ended months ago,” I heard Blossom whisper, “if you ask me, that’s the time to have a party.”
Wow, so there really must be humans here.
“Well, thank you so much for your help, Team, uh-”
“Petal-Purr!” the three announced in delight, flashing their badges.
“Petal-Purr, right,” I said, making note of their badges that appeared to be a four-leaf clover with a red dot in the center.
Apparently our custom badges with an eevee face are unique, so that must be the standard badge for the whole Clover Guild.
I asked, “do you know the way to that road over there?”
The three quickly consulted each other before Heidi turned and, pointing like a, well, pointer from Earth, into the woods and said, “that way!”
The rest of Team Eevee said their thanks and hurried in the general direction, and as we began to trek back through the woods I was left wondering how I thought I heard the hints of a country accent with those Pokemon, sort of like Garchomp and Starmie.
Instantly, a thought appeared.
Zapados might as well have smited me because I was instantly paralyzed in awe by such an electrifying revelation that the greatest philosophers would’ve turned greener than Blossom with envy.
“EUREKA!” I cried aloud.
A few birds quickly flew away from our vincinity, and I faintly heard an “Awoo~?” from where we had just been. Pirth and Arimis both jumped up, and Althi merely looked at me.
*d’Alin, don’t just scare me like that! What happ-
I’ve done it! I’ve solved the greatest mystery we’ve ever faced!
Arimis looked at me with suprise. You figured out how to convice Pirth?
Exactly! Be sure to relay this thought to Althi!
While Arimis looked at Althi and appeared to communicate telepathically, I said, “sorry Pirth! Let’s get a move on. Lead the wayyy~” in a singsong voice.
Okay, we’re communicating. What did you realize d’Alin? How do we convince Pirth?
We don’t!
...what?
We don’t! Don’t you get it? We’ll probably never convince Pirth that he’s a sawsbuck. It’s an impossible task!
So what do you propose we do?
We basically say everyone else is wrong!
After a pause, I hear Arimis in my mind once again. Elaborate.
Did you hear that Team Petal-Purr had slight accents?
I can recall that, yes.
Well, let’s just tell Pirth that the pokemon here have a different dialect. Akin to how Garchomp and Starmie called Eeveelution Forest different from what the Air continent locals called it.
So we tell him that the people here call leafeons deerling and super-leafeons sawsbucks?
That does sound stupid now that I hear it. Uh, yes? Humans too, if there’s really humans at the guild.
Arimis looks at me for a moment, then at Althi, then back at me. Worth a shot.
Seriously?
Yes; what other choice do we have? Now, let’s get explaining.
As we had begun to explain to Pirth the backwards dialect of Capim Town to Pirth, we neglected to observe the finer details of the woods, and Althi, looking at Pirth speak, walked through a pile of debris consisting of hay, twigs, leaves, and what looked suspiciously like poison ivy, throwing it all to the forest floor.
Before I could tell Althi that we should get that checked out, we heard a voice cry out, echoing through the woods. “Hey! What the fuck!”
I looked around to try to ascertain the origin of the voice, but what caught my attention was a slowly-falling bundle of hay.
I looked up from where it fell and saw above us, nestled in the branches of a tree, a small, almost black colored rowlett with a bow-tie looking down at us.
Thank God I spent so much time studying what pokemon are which; with my fading memory and lack of knowledge of the newer ones...
The rowlett leaped down and flapped his wings, letting itself descend carefully and deftly land on the ground.
“Oh, sorry rowlett,” Althi said, also having spotted it, “I didn’t mean to step through your pile of… debris?”
The rowlett flashed on a look of disgust. “Excuse me? This is where I gathered all the material to make my bed. It’s not debris, it’s… art.”
Althi just looked at us with a sign of annoyance, and I realized she couldn’t “hear” the rowlett; with no lips to move, she was truly deaf. Arimis, however, took a step forward and made eye contact with Althi, and I could quite easily guess Ari was acting as a medium between the two.
Meanwhile, I looked at the pile that had been strewn onto the forest floor. It’s practically indistinguishable from the random forest stuff around it... I turned back to the rowlett, who was still waiting for a response.
I said, “well, sorry for disturbing your… bed materials, mister, uh… what’s your name?”
The rowlett sighed and said, “just call me Cider. And can I help you? I guess it’s my job to help wanderers since I joined that backasswards cotton-loving guild…”
At this, he flashed a badge, identical to the one that Team Petal-Purr had: a four leaf clover with a red dot in the center.
“Oh! You’re part of the Clover Guild?” I exclaimed.
At this he noticed the armband I had attached to my front paw with our own Team Eevee badge attached to it. “Oh, you’re looking to visit the Guild? If you can’t fly over these woods, just keep walking in the direction you came.”
“Tha-”
“And watch where you’re walking,” said Cider with a look of annoyance.
“Got it, thanks,” I said, “and sorry again about walking through your bed material.”
“Hmph,” he muttered, pausing for a moment before saying, “well, if you do go to the Clover Guild, you should know something important.”
I hear the heavy air of his voice, and I turn around to see he has an aura of darkness surrounding him.
“There’s a chespin there who is obsessed with cotton. If you try to live a decent life like I do, you’ll have a never-ending feud with him. He’s harassed me by shoving cotton in my face and lining my nest with it, argued with me about ‘comfy cotton statistics,’ tried to have a speech in front of the whole guild talking about the ‘dangers of hay’ while knowing full-well I’m the only cozy connisuer there… if you want to be as truly cozy as I am, you’ll have no peace.”
I glanced to the extremely unappealing pile of woodland refuse and let out a sigh.
“Thanks for letting me know,” I said a bit too thankfully before quickly reentering the woods in the direction Cider pointed out to us, pretending not to hear the “hey!” he said in protest.
Well, even though we all practically sleep on top of Pirth – especially with his winter coat – it does get cold because of that Articuno feather, so it’d be nice if they have blankets... I thought.
As we trudged through the woods outside of Capim Town some more, Pirth once again decided to take lead and, once again, decided to ignore our protests.
Once again, the rest of Team Eevee came to the conclusion that being led by the blind was not the best of ideas.
After getting lost once again in the forest, we stumbled upon a small pond with a waterfall streaming into it.
Ohh that sounds delightful, I thought as I approached the pond and looked into it.
I saw my reflection, a vaporeon staring back at me, the sight still somewhat surprising. As I heard the rest of the team discuss where to go from here, I stared longingly into the gently rippling water and dipped in a paw, a feeling of cool serenity shooting through my body just by the touch. I let myself relax and my thoughts wander.
I know I made the right choice, but... I thought, coming to terms with something I was afraid to admit, the calming water perhaps helping overcome my pensiveness, I’m losing my memories of my past life, slowly but surely, I admitted.
I stared hard at my reflection. I still knew what I looked like as a human, but would that, too fade? After all, what makes me a person? What separates me from pokemon? The memories, or something more? If I lose them all, will I no longer be-
“Human,” ehcoed a powerful voice, cutting through my inner monologue and quieting the rest of Team Eevee, the words seemingly silencing the sound of the waterfall and even getting deaf Althi’s attention, “isn’t that what you are, vaporeon?”
In unison we all looked up to see, at a rock perched above the pond, beside the waterfall, a combusken with crossed legs, a red scarf blowing in the wind, and an eyepatch with a multicolored triangle.
He opened his eye and stood up, then swiftly jumped forward and landed beside me.
I leaped back in shock, feeling my body tensing up to fight as I muttered, “how did you know that?”
The combusken didn’t move but remained staring at me, but not quite looking at me, as if he were analyzing me through some unknown lens. He then turned to look at the rest of Team Eevee, his gaze going from one to the other, though it stayed on Pirth for a moment longer than it did the others.
He then turned back to me and said simply, “I know because I read your aura; it’s unmistakeably human. ”
Oh, that must be what Arimis had mentioned before. Though the combusken’s abilities seem to be… different than hers.
He held out his chicken-hand to shake, and said, “good to meet you. I’m KFC.”
KFC? What a strange name... I thought as I took his hand and shook it. For a fire type, he was unexpectedly not as warm to the touch as I would’ve thought. “I’m d’Alin, and with me is Arimis, Althi, and Pirth.”
At the mention of our names, I saw in his eye a similar beffudlement to my own and realized our names probably sounded as strange to him as his did to us.
“I take it you’re looking for the Clover Guild,” he said, flashing the Clover badge, “to join the other humans?”
I glanced behind me and saw that Arimis bore a look of intrigue while Althi and Pirth both had looks of doubt. Althi looked at me and, though I could see concern in her eyes, she took in a deep breath and nodded.
“Yes, uh, KFC? Did I get that right?”
A subtle nod answered my question, and KFC pointed towards a small gap between the trees beside the pond. “There’s a trail there. You can take it to the main road to Capim. I’d say look out for a mewostic, but he’ll probably intercept you; that’d be the guildmaster.”
We said our thanks to the very mysterious Clover member – our potential future guildmate – who jumped up an assortment of rocks in a rapid flurry until he landed back onto the ledge where he was meditating before.
He sat down once again as we neared the trail that led back into the woods, and I heard him say to me, “there’s a festival in Capim today so do try to make it through sooner rather than later… see you at the Guild, d’Alin.”
I turned back to speak, but he had already closed his one eye and returned to his meditative stance. I suppose if he’s at the Clover Guild, I’ll have plenty of time to ask him later about how exactly he knew...
We continued down the path KFC had told us about, the forest rapidly increasing in density and blotting out the orange sunlight overhead until the path remained dim.
You know, I thought to myself as we walked, even though I loved birds back on Earth, KFC just seemed… bland. Not exciting for me. It’s too bad too, since I’d actually get to be up close and personal as a pokemon.
“There it is!” declared Althi. I broke from my thoughts and saw that there was a light dead ahead, likely leading out to the road to Capim Town.
“Race you there~” she said in singsong, running ahead of us and looking back , smiling and trying to see if we were going to say anything or give chase.
Arimis looked indifferent, but when she turned to me to gauge a reaction, I saw surprise cross her face.
My thoughts must’ve been plastered all over my face, since running through my mind was the thought that well, I’m a fucking pokemon now, right? If I’m going to stay here and live a life of adventure, then I should live it!
After a moments hesitation, I let my inner spirit roam free and gave Althi a laugh and a chase. Her eyes lit up and she blew a raspberry at me as she picked up her speed, running right from the dense foliage of the surrounding forest into the open street.
And right into the path of a massive green-and-red blob that immediately tripped over her. The two cried out in more surprise than pain as I hastened my run, this time to make sure Althi or the pokemon she ran into weren’t seriously injured.
As I made my way into the road with Arimis and Pirth not far behind, I took in the sight: a sceptile splayed out in the road with Althi underneath and a shinx with a couple beaded bracelets and a pink flower on its head watching the scene in surprise.
“Jung!” cried out the shinx as she broke from the shock and immediately ran to the mess, stopping when she spotted me.
“Oh, is that glaceon your friend?” she asked as she approached to help her up..
I turned to Althi splayed under the one called Jung, both of whom were starting to rise. “Yes, sorry about that!” I said as I joined the shinx to help them both get to their feet.
Jung the sceptile regained his footing and stood well above me where he proceeded to stare down at me with an annoyed look before shifting its eyes to Althi.
“Didn’t you hear us coming?” asked Jung before shooting a smile and glance to the shinx, “I know Sara here was being especially loud.”
“Oh, she’s deaf,” Pirth said, drawing both Jung and Sara’s attention to himself, then to Arimis beside him, then Althi looking bashfully at them both in front of them. Sara made sure to give Jung a side glance at which he looked away and scratched his scarred head before she turned to us and said, “don’t worry about Jung. He can be mean sometimes.”
“Well, I’m Pirth the super-leafeon, and that’s Althi the glaceon. Next to me is Arimis the espeon and that’s d’Alin the vaporeon. And we’re all disabled! I’m blind, Althi is deaf, Arimis is mute, and d’Alin is human! We’re Team Eevee!”
I felt my eyes widen in surprise on their own. Did he just tell these strangers that I’m human?! I hurriedly turned back to Pirth to try to whisper to him that he couldn’t just say that and to make up some lie, but before I could let out any protest I heard from Jung, “oh, you’re on your way to the Clover Guild?”
I turned back in surprise and saw the pair flash their badges pinned to their scarves. Well, aren’t we just having mighty fine luck today running into all these guildmembers.
“Yeah, we’re heading there,” I said, “we’re transferring from Wigglytuff’s Guild, and we’ve even got custom badges.”
At this Sara’s eyes lit up and she bounded towards us to get a better look. “Whoa, that’s so cool! Do you have any adventure stories?”
“We sure do!” Althi said with pride in her voice. “It really all started when…”
I turned to Jung and whispered, “say, are you human?”
“No,” Jung responded as we started to walk and talk down the road to Capim Town, “but it’s got to be the worst-kept secret in the region. Well, most people just write it off as the guild being mythology enthusiasts – and for future reference that’s how you should refer to others for saftey’s sake – but it’s pretty clear Clover is genuinely strange.”
“Oh. Well, are you heading there now?”
“Yeah, Sara and I are associated with the guild, not a part of it directly. But she wanted to go see the fireworks – apparently a human invention – so we’re heading there now for the occasion. There were some during the Summer Festival, but apparently the Guild’s new alchemist is something special.”
We walked and talk down the road towards Capim Town Square where Team Eevee and Emerald Spark exchanged tales of their escapades. For some unknown reason, I realized midways through our conversation, Jung and Sara seem especially adept in pronouncing the names of Team Eevee than most...
Chapter 2 – Capim Town, Square
Music: Capim Town
As we approached the center of Capim Town, I found myself in awe at the size of the place. Nearby Treasure Town and Pokemon Square in the Air Continent couldn’t compare to the sheer size and business and, admittedly, beauty.
Sure, there was no monumental cliffside like in either of those places, but there was an undeniable charm of having homes built into the stumps of trees that I could only imagine being gargantuan in scale, the vines which danced down the sides of buildings as bridges connected the upper parts only adding to the scenery.
And as we walked down the crest of the hill in the outlands into the plains where the great trees once grew, I could make out a distant shoreline.
In the streets, an endless cacophony of noise echoed through the circular buildings as waves of pokemon – many of which I never saw before – we entered a massive crowd looking at the various stalls and shops in the
“d’Alin!” shouted Jung, trying to overcome the din of the sea of pokemon as we waltzed into the height of the frenzy, “Clover Guild is this way.”
I began to follow but stopped when I turned around and realized that only Arimis was behind me.
Arimis, I thought in my mind to make sure I could be heard, where the hell did Pirth and Althi go?
She turned around and seemed just as surprised as me.
Oh, I haven’t a clue. They were talking to Sara just a moment ago.
I turned to her and asked, “did they mention anything?”
“Pirth and Althi said they wanted to get some pomeg berries.”
Goddammit, and of course neither of them didn’t even mention it to me, I thought before turning to Team Emerald Spark, “we’ll go look for them and I guess we’ll explore the Square in the meanwhile. See you at the guild!”
They nodded in affirmation and disappeared into the crowd.
Let’s get looking, Ari, I thought, starting to walk in the direction where I had seen Althi and Pirth last.
I saw Ari nod but also lightly blush, clearly happy that I was using that nickname for her. Well, if it makes her happy, I’m happy.
We started to pick up the pace, looking side to side trying to spot Althi or the far larger Pirth.
I thought I saw out of the corner of my eye a pair of antlers poking up from the crowd, and I quickly turned around and lunged forward to try to catch up.
Only to get straight into the path of a blur of beige, throwing up both to the ground.
Ow, I thought before quickly getting up to try to get Pirth, only for a pokemon to move out of the way to reveal that the antlers belonged to a sawsbuck with a working pair of eyes.
Well, maybe this is the one good time Pirth isn’t around.’
I quickly turned my attention back to the pokemon I had just ran into: a linoone that was picking itself and a small blue hat with the red words of “DD” etched onto it off of the ground
Huh, aren’t those latin letters... I thought as I quickly ran over to help him up.
“I’m so sorry mister linoone! I didn’t mean to run into you, are you alright.”
The rather dashing linoone just smiled after readjusting the hat on its head and said, “hehe, no problem, and just call me Linoone; no mister necessary!”
While started to pick up loose pieces of mail and Arimis helped him, and I spotted a package and moved towards it.
It was unusually heavy and I managed to scoop it between my paws – I really should’ve factored in my lack of having opposable thumbs in my decision to stay – to try to hand it back.
I held it to my now-fin ears and heard a strange ticking sound. “Oh Linoone,” I said, offering the package to him, “here’s your clock.”
“What clo-” Linoone asked before his eyes momentarily widened when spotting the package.
He then bore a sheepish smile. “Oh, that clock. Yep! It’s extra delicate so you best hand it back to me verrrry carefully!”
I did and he quickly stuffed it into his messenger bag, but I heard a loud “hoot!” and craned my neck to the sky to see a delibird making a rapid descent.
The crowd quickly dispersed upon hearing the delibird and a nearby wingull let out a scared “caw” before quickly flying away.
What an odd reaction to just a random delibird, I thought, though I noticed it shared the same hat as Linoone.
“Well, didn’t y’all just make a mess?” she said to me.
“Oh, I’m sorry delibird!” I said.
The delibird held up a red wing. “Just call me Debby. And it ain’t no problem! I just wanted Kaz here to get a jump start on delivering our packages. There’s been a lot of… recipients considerin’ the deliveries getting disrupted, no thanks to the holidays.”
“Yep!” interjected Linoone, turning to flash a smile at Debby, “we’re gonna make we get them in on time to make the guild’s fireworks show!”
“Do you mean the Clover Guild?” I asked.
Debby and Linoone both looked at Arimis and I with a bit of surprise before Debby said, “yep! You can get a fine old look at the show from the Town Square here. If you’re coming in from out of town, aren’t y’all here for that?”
“No actually, it’s just a coincidence. We’re here to join the Clover Guild. We just happen to be coming on New Year’s Eve.”
At this Linoone’s eyes lit up. “Oh really?! Well, it’ll be on the far side of town, but it’s so crowded over there that it’s best to take a detour, probably by the docks.”
“Thanks Linoone, but right now we’re just looking for some teammates who disappeared into the crowd.”
“Ain’t y’all?” asked Debby, “well, the Clover Guild‘re buncha good customers, so I’d be inclined to help y’all search. Lucky for you, I made sure to hire some extra hands – and wings – to make sure Delibird Deliveries could meet the season’s demands.
With one wing on her bag and another propelling her upward, Debby flew into the sky and shouted out “Rain! Cory! Y’all come on over here!”
She descended and, before I could ask anything else, a shadow passed overhead.
I looked up to see a grey eevee riding the back of a… a…
Ho-le-shit were the only words I managed to form in my mind as a majestic corvisquire landed in front of me.
I hadn’t seen a proper bird pokemon up close before, and seeing what appeared to be a cross between a blue jay and a raven made heart pound; back on Earth, bird watching was great, but seeing the size of me right before my eyes?
So… handsome... I managed to think.
The eevee hopped off the corvisquire’s back and both looked to Debby, and the eevee said, “Hi Debby! What’s going on? We’re still delivering your mail.”
Debby motioned to us and the two looked at us while she said, “these folks here are planning on joining your guild, and they’re missing some teammates in the crowd. ‘Scuse me, vaporeon and espeon, what might your names be?”
Arimis looked at me to answer on her behalf, and it took me a second to find the words.
“I- I’m d’Alin, a- and this is Arimis. She’s mute so she can’t speak.”
I saw Arimis out of the corner shoot me a puzzled look, likely wondering why I was nervous all of a sudden.
The shiny eevee stepped forward and said with a smile, its blue eyes catching the orange light of the eveening sky perfectly, “well, my name is Rain, and this here is Cory! What type of pokemon are you looking for?”
“A- a sawsbuck with a blindfold and a glaceon, almost certainly together. They were searching for…”
Pomeg berries, came the thought from Arimis.
“Pomeg berries!” I declared.
Cory ruffled his feathers for a moment in thought, then somehow managed to bear a shit eating grin despite having a beak as he said, “well, oh deer, I didn’t see anything.”
At this I felt a shiver run down my spine. And he says stupid jokes? I am so, so glad...
“Did you see any sawsbuck or glaceon, Rain?” Cory continued, his grin somehow growing stronger, “we don’t want a cold case, now do we?”
d’Alin, are you alright?
My vision began to turn white. ...I decided to remain a pokemon.
Rain shot Cory an annoyed look. “Actually, I did manage to see a sawsbuck and a glaceon towards the far side of the square. I think it might be them.”
Cory looked at me directly, his feathers catching the sunlight and perfectly accentuating his face as he told me, “see d’Alin? You don’t need to be so blue about it!”
d’Alin! Your nose is bleeding!
So fucking glad.
After managing to say my thanks to the pair, they flew off to deliver more of their mail, and I said goodbye on behalf of Arimis and I to the rest of the Delibird Deliveries team.
“Oh, before you go,” said Linoone, “do me a favor? If you run into a hisuian typhlosion that can’t hear very well, he’s a buddy of mine. He’ll probably be with a new guild member, a dragapult. Tell him that his friend Linoone says hi, it’ll make his day!”
“Sure, Linoone, and sorry again for knocking you over.”
“Haha, no worries! Glad to have met you, d’Alin and Arimis!” he declared as he dashed off into the crowd.
He got our names just as well as Jung. I wonder what the connection there might be...
Arimis and I then walked off in the direction that Rain had pointed out to us, dodging through the crowd and inevitably getting disoriented once again.
Any luck Ari?
No... came the thought. It seemed especially warm so I looked over to see Arimis a little happier than usual.
Wow, she must really like being called that name. Well, it is nice to see her happy; a little joy looks good on her I admitted to myself.
A small grin formed on Arimis’ face.
...are you still in here?
...yes.
Fuck. I thought, which enticed another small mental laugh from her.
Wanting to exit this rapidly-embarrassing situation, I quickly looked around to find Pirth, to no avail.
Well, screw it, I’ll do what I’ve been practicing since I evolved.
Your weird sta-.
Yes my weird standing thing. And quit being so judgmental Ari; that’s my job in the team.
Since becoming a pokemon, the one thing I had struggled with – well, also the lack of opposable thumbs, how great – was being four legged. I quickly came to the conclusion (but not acceptance!) that I could not walk on just two legs.
I could, however, stand on two, though it was difficult.
An extremely long and powerful tail, however, could very well serve as a third. I pressed myself to the ground then pushed myself backward, propelling myself into the air and barely managing to set myself completely upright. Before I could fall backwards, I managed to lay the end of my tail flat on the ground, holding me up.
I must look like a meerkat, I thought, but I found that I was unexpectedly tall as a vaporeon when on my hind legs and tail. *I might not be able to walk like this, but it feels to be standing and have my front paws free, even if I can’t do anything with them.
To no avail, however, I was unable to spot neither Pirth nor Althi.
“Hey,” called out a voice, “are you a human enthusiast?”
I stood frozen for a moment before turning around and seeing that the voice came from… Arimis?
I immediately turned around to find her looking at me with a puzzled look.
“A- Arimis? You can talk?! And why the hell do you sound like a guy?”
The espeon before me shot me a very confused look, but before she could say anything I heard I’m behind you, d’Alin.
I promptly turned around to see another espeon – Arimis – glaring at me with a look of annoyance.
Do you seriously not know what I look like?
I was never the best at remembering faces back on Earth; being a pokemon hasn’t helped that a bit. And wait, if you’re you… I thought, turning back to the espeon looking at me confusedly, “then who are you?”
Before the doppelganger espeon could respond, I asked, turning my voice down to as much of a whisper as the surrounding noise would allow, “and how do you know I’m a… ‘human enthusiast?’”
The espeon merely shook its head gave me a smile and said, “well, humans are biped and I’ve only ever really seen… enthusiasts do such things... like myself. I’m Beau, and I’m also an enthusiast of being human, if you catch the gist of what I’m saying here.
I stood for a moment like an idiot trying to connect the dots.
Human enthusiast? Like myself? Gist of what?
I am not proud to say that it took me far longer than it should have to connected the dots.
“Y-you’re human?” I asked.
“Enthusiast! That’s right!” Beau said loudly before giving a glance at Arimis paired with a look of just how slow is this guy?
Beau came up to me and said, “follow me on over to the side.”
We moved out of the crowd and off to the side of one of the stalls where Beau stopped in front of a muchlax and blaziken before stopping and whispering to Arimis, “so, what’re your guys’ names?”
Arimis glanced at me and I spoke for her and said, “Oh, Beau, Arimis is mute. I’m d’Alin and we’re a part of Team Eevee. We’re looking to join the Clover Guild to find other ‘human enthusaists.’”
Beau flashed a look of disappointment. “Another espeon, huh? Well, there goes my claim to fame. And ‘Team Eevee? Best of luck with the guild on that one.”
Beau then turned to the rest of them and said “Mako! Dav! I met some other… human enthusiasts.”
The two looked at us, and I noticed Dav had unusually short hair for a blaziken, while Mako the munchlax quickly raised a hand in acknowledgment before turning his attention back to the stall. All three had a scarfs, each one donning the familiar Clover badge.
“Oh, hello!” said Dav, “great to meet a fellow… human myth enjoyer. Did you just… arrive?”
“Actually, about a month ago. Though we only heard of the guild recently. I ‘arrived’ in Treasure Town. Long story.”
Dav nodded and said, “well, you came at just the right time. We’re all here getting some last-minute snacks for the guild’s New Years celebration.”
He then looked off to the side, “are you excited to see some ‘specialty’ fireworks our alchemist cooked up, Charolette?
A gardevoir appeared and smiled and said in a somewhat familiar accent, “I sure am!”
She looked at us and asked, “are y’all part of the Clover Guild too?”
I answered, “we’re working on it actually, but first we need to find out other teammates. They’re looking for pomeg berries; would any of you know where I could find them?”
Both Beau and Dav looked to the munchlax who felt the attention on him and turned back around to say, “what? Just because I‘m a munchlax you think I know where all the food stalls are?”
Dav crossed his arms and smirked. “Well, do you?”
Mako let out a sigh. “Not because I’m a munchlax. But yes, it’s by the docks. Pomeg just got out of season, so you’ll find a Vanilluxe who freezes goods to keep them fresh.”
Dav let out a chuckle at him being right and said, “good luck finding your friends! Hopefully we can catch you at the show tonight!”
Beau, using psyshic energy, projected a human hand with a peace sign and said cheerfully, “yeah! We’ll see you guys around! Welcome to Capim Town!”
I made note of the peace sign and thought, okay, there’s no doubt they’re human.
“Well, thanks for the warm welcome and directions. Pleasure meeting you… er-”
“Team Crusader!” the three said in unison with cheerful enthusiasm, and the gardeovir looking at Dav and broke into a blush and smiled.
How cute, I thought before saying our goodbyes and heading towards the docks.
As we walked towards the docks, Arimis and I conversed.
Well, I must say that you seem far less tense than before.
Is that so? I responded to Arimis. Well, I can readily admit I was worried what the humans in this world would be like.
What do you mean?
Well, now that I look at it in retrospect, I don’t think anyone we met out the outskirts of Capim Town were human. Maybe some of the Delibird Delivery pokemon, but definitely Team Crusader.
Humans… stand out a bit, like Beau had said. I know that the only reason I didn’t seem like a complete oddball was because we had Pirth prancing around claiming he was a leafeon.
Team Crusader and Delibird Deliveries seemed really well-adjusted, so as long as the rest of the people at the Clover Guild are as sane as them, there should be no problem getting Althi to get over her… concerns.
You’re still worried about that? She said she’d come. We’re here.
I’m sure she did so with the assumption that the other humans would be like me. So far that seems to be the case, but whenever I saw Team Crusader flash their badges, I heard some negative tones from passerbyers who noticed.
I see...
After a lapse of silence between us, I stopped and turned to her. Ari, I’m worried that her fears will be realized. She’s scared of dark-types and humans because of Weavile. Much less that whole species by itself. If this goes awry, I don’t know what will happen between her and us. I just...
I felt my heart pound. I want to have her and Pirth in my life. I don’t want her to wind up hating me for something I can’t control.
Arimis looked away. I know the feeling, d’Alin. I know that it’s best to let her know… what… I really am. But, I don’t want to lose them either. And the longer I wait, the worse I feel their reaction might be.
Arimis then looked at me with a saddening look of self-pity that I hated to see on her face. I’m just… waiting for the right time.
Will it ever come? The perfect time?
Arimis closed her eyes and sighed. I don’t know.
We continued walking, looking around until a sawsbuck’s antlers appeared over the crowd of heads.
Arimis and I picked quickly approached the sawsbuck to find, much to our relief, that is had a blindfold on and was accompanied by a glaceon.
“Pirth! Althi!” I called out.
Pirth turned around and Althi followed suit, and both grew a smile on their faces.
“There you two are!” they said simultaneously.
“There we are? Why the hell did you two run off like that?” I asked.“ We were searching all over for you. Team Emerald Spark already went to the guild, and it’s getting dark out.”
Pirth cocked his head. “Althi, didn’t we tell them we always had pomeg berries to celebrate the New Year at the orphanage?”
You mentioned that. What you neglected to mention was that you were going to get pomeg berries.
Pirth turned to Althi and said in a low voice, “you said you’d tell them we’d stop to get pomeg berries for the celebration.”
Althi’s blueish fur turned a bright red. “Oh, well, I might have forgotten when I ran into Jung… whoops?”
“Hold on,” I said, “aren’t pomeg berries out-of-season? How could you have afforded to get them if you were in an orphanage?”
“d’Alin,” answered Pirth, “these berries are fresh because they’re frozen. We only got them at the orphanage because they were out of season. But we got them now and they’re packed away!
Oh. Well that’s actually tragic.
Well, regardless, I’m glad we managed to find you two in time. Now we just need to make our way to the Clover Guild.
“How can we do that, Arimis?” asked Althi.
“We actually ran into some pokemon apparently associated with the guild,” I said, “they seemed nice and said there’s supposed to be some way to the guild here by the docks.”
“Oh, were they… human?” asked Althi with a mixture of curiosity and worry.
d’Alin thinks some were, and they seemed as nice as him. Also, be sure to call them ‘human enthusiasts’ when we’re out in public. It appears to be some sort of cover.
This seemed to calm Althi’s nerves and she asked, “alright, but how do we get to the Clover Guild? I don’t see any sort of path.”
“Pirth,” I said, unthinking, “you’re taller than all of us, do you see any-”
I stopped myself and Pirth just let out a snicker. “Oh, d’Alin, please finish your thought.”
“I- I know the path.”
We turned to face the voice, which came beside us at the berry stall.
It belonged to an abra wreathed in a black coat, who seemed pensive to even be talking to us. Pinned to it, though, was a Clover Guild badge.
Next to the abra was a litten who was upright, leaning against the stall. She grabbed a basket full of liechi berries from the Vanilluxe and popped one into its mouth before whispering to the abra, “Alphonse, do we really need to help these pokemon out? I don’t think they’re even part of the guild.”
Alphonse looked pleadingly at his partner and said, “Bethel, that’s exactly why we should help them. The guild’s reputation is bad as-is” He then quickly glanced back at the four strangers who were watching this entire interaction unfold and let out a nervous chuckle before extending his hand. “I’m Alphonse. This is Bethel. Pleased to meet you.”
I walked to him, raised by forepaw, introduced myself and Team Eevee, and gave him a thorough shake. Although Bethel merely rolled her eyes and snacked on the liechi berries throughout the exchange, at a gesture from Alphonse she reluctantly offered me her hand, which I took.
“If you don’t mind me asking,” Alphonse said with a hint of shyness, “why are you looking for Clover? Are you a… human enthusiast?”
*There’s that ‘enthusiast’ again; Pirth, Althi, the other members of the Clover Guild used it as some sort of code, so don’t be telling people that d’Alin is a human. Pirth. Arimis thought to us while shooting a glance at our towering companion.
Pirth appeared to understand Arimis’ advice because he proudly declared, “we sure are! If you haven’t noticed, we’re all disabled except for d’Alin, so he likes pretending to be a human to even things out! We’re very supportive of him.”
Goddammit. Arimis, please remind me to tell Pirth that being human doesn’t automatically mean someone is retarded.
Although Alphonse craned his head to the side in a bout of confusion, Pirth’s comment surprisingly enticed a small chuckle out of Bethel.
“Well,” she said to Alphonse with a grin, “I don’t think we need to worry about them being sent by the reinculus.”
“Uh,” I said, trying to steer the conversation away from my supposed retardation, “did I hear you mention something about the guild’s reputation earlier?” I asked.
Before Alphonse could say anything, Bethel interjected. “Yeah, it’s tragic. Half the pokemon there can’t complete a single mission without screwing up, and the other half don’t even bother; they just stick to being ‘human enthusiasts.’”
Alphonse looked at Bethel and sighed, then turned to us and said, “w-well, that’s not completely true, but it’s not entirely wrong either. A-and to answer your first question: just walk along the docks against the setting sun, there should be a clearing, then you’ll be at the Clover Guild. There’s some strange pokemon, sure, but everyone there tries to do good, one way or another.”
“Except for Cyndaquil.”
“Yeah,” agreed Alphonse, “like Bethel said, watch out for Cyndaquil. He’s… a little too friendly, if you catch my drift.”
We started to walk in the direction Alphonse provided us, but they remained.
“Oh,” I said, “are you two not going to watch the fireworks?”
“Oh,” started Alphonse, “we will but-”
“Alphonse here’s got to get some pen and paper for his pen pal,” Bethel interrupted with a wink directed to Alphonse before looking back at us and returning to a more reserved demeanor. “Good meeting you four, hopefully you don’t get too scared off by the Guild. Guess we’ll catch you at the show.”
With that we went on our way, and though I was glad to have met these two who seemed like a very interesting pair – though I never got their team name; I’ll have to ask for that at a later time – I found myself with a rising worry about what exactly we would encounter from the ‘human enthusiasts’ at the Clover Guild.
Chapter 3 – Clover Guild, Outskirts
We walked along the docks, the sun now setting on the horizon and reflecting over the relatively calm waters. I saw some docked ships and a lone lapras hanging out in the port, but otherwise it was an entirely empty bay.
Quiet. Serene. And, most importantly, empty.
Perfect for telling my dearest teammates I wasn’t mentally handicapped.
“So do you two understand what being human entails?” I finished, continuing to walk but letting Arimis lead the way so I could focus on looking back at Althi so she could “hear.”
“I don’t understand why Arimis doesn’t need the lecture,” Althi retorted.
Firstly, came the thought, I do not speak out of my tail like you two do. Secondly, I am quite literally unable to.
“Hmph. Fair enough,” Althi admitted. As we continued to walk by the bay and the sun set further until it was barely peeking over the horizon, the orange of the sky slowly but surely giving way to the night.
As I continued to overlook the setting sun, I noticed a small floating figure in the distance. We approached but it seemed to pay us no mind, floating aimlessly and soaking in the last bits of sunlight.
As we managed to come close to the figure, I saw it was an oshawott.
“Hey,” said Althi, “that pokemon has a badge from the Clover Guild.”
She undoubtedly had sharper eyes than I did, because I was able to only barely make out the outline of the badge on the oshawott’s tail, and only after Althi had pointed it out.
“Hello oshawott! Can you help us!” screamed out Althi.
This started the oshawott out of whatever stupor it was in, almost flipping over into the water in the process, but it regained balance and slowly paddled its way to us. While it did, Althi proudly described who we were.
“Well, howdy there Team Eevee! I’m Gus. How can I help?”
“Is this the way to the Clover Guild?”
Gus nodded and while he reoriented himself to direct us, and I saw from the corner of my eye a wimpod scuttle out of the water in the distance and observe us. “Hey,” he said.
He had a Clover Badge on his scarf that miraculously seemed dry. Waterproof? It’d make sense for water-types and it’d be good to have.
I looked down at my own scarf wrapped around my left foreleg. It was plain and given to me while I was still an eevee, not a vaporeon. I wondered if it would be possible to get one that would be waterproof like these two had. At that, I turned to Gus who had barely began to speak and asked, “did your partner get that waterproof scarf at the guild?”
Gus just gave me a look of slight frustration – at being interrupted or the question itself I couldn’t tell – and just rolled his eyes. “Which one? Me, myself, or I?”
I glanced back to the wimpod, but it had vanished just as quickly as it had appeared, and I could barely make out its quickly scuttling form on the floor of the bay before fading away into the distance .
“Uh, wasn’t there just a wimpod here?”
Gus somberly looked around and, unsurprisingly, saw no such pokemon nearby. He flashed a look of hurt at me before it was quickly replaced by a more friendly face as he said, “well, just keep going until you see a clearing. The guild is on the opposite side of the field.”
Damn, did I hurt Gus’ feelings?
“Well, uh, we’re going to see the firework show tonight. Are you going to be there?” I asked, trying to liven the mood.
Gus, however, simply said, “I can see it fine from here” before he paddled back into the open bay and returned to whatever it was he was doing.
Well, I tried.
As we continued to walk, I realized I never got an answer about the scarves. Oh well, I’ll find something out. Maybe some way to keep the cold at bay, I thought. I glanced to Pirth, whose admittedly winter coat was not only because of the season, but because of the Articuno Feather he kept tucked away, making the entire surrounding air a few degrees cooler. Not to mention Althi, whose very presence brought the temperature down a few degrees.
Even as a vaporeon, I could honestly say that the cold of both was still enjoyable on its own. But when combined with the cold winter, there was only so much I could take.
As we continued down the path Gus had told us, we emerged from the homes and trees to see that there was indeed a clearing, with a massive building opposite where we stood and the forest surrounding Capim Town extending beyond that.
“Is that it?” Althi asked.
So long as everyone’s directions were correct, it should be.
As we all approached with a mixture of apprehension and excitement, I was able make out two extremely noticeable figures standing in the middle of the field.
The first appeared to be an almost human-like figure, save for the fact that its entire backside was wreathed in ethereal flames that glowed an other-worldly purple.
Next to it was floated a massive draconic creature that dwarfed it by body size alone, not to mention its own red triangular-shaped head.
I realized that the one wreathed in flames was a typhlosion, albeit not any that I could remember, and the other was a dragapult. I was filled with relief that Linoone had mentioned the typhlosion as his friend so that this scene wasn’t entirely unexpected; were we to run into these two foreboding figures out in the wild, there was little doubt that I would’ve asked Althi to avoid the two altogether.
We pressed on, and we were able to hear a grating voice well before they noticed us.
“Like, that’s my fuckin’ New Years resolution, man. Like, fuck these little shits. I could be doing so much, but these fuckers just screw with me.”
It was then I was able to notice in the dim light two things: first, a pile of crates with an assortment of rods sticking out – what I presumed to be the fireworks – and secondly, a horde of dreepy floating around the dragapult. It grabbed one mid-flight and spoke to it.
“Like, what the fuck kind of gimmick is it to get seven of you shits? And you all represent a sin? How original. Which one are you?”
Although I heard nothing from the dreepy the dragapult was speaking to, evidently neither did he since I then heard him speak to the typhlosion, “oh, Ikarus, this is Pride. The others just talk and talk and fuck with my rep, but this one says nothing. Fuck you!”
He threw the dreepy away, and after it flew for a second it simply stopped midair and floated back to him, silent.
“I can’t believe it. I become a pokemon that’s OU while everyone else is a shitmon, and I get stuck with seven little nerfs? I am blah blah smogon blah blah pokemon showdown blah blah pseudo…”
It was at that moment I was able to successfully drown out what was perhaps the most annoying pokemon I’ve yet encountered, and it seemed my teammates were able to as well. Even Althi, unable to hear, somehow managed to detect what a pain in the ass the dragapult was based off her disgusted facial expression.
I was quite frankly surprised that we continued walking to the floating ball of cancer, but as we neared we caught the attention of the typhlosion who gave us a look of indignation that he had to be paired with this abominable creature.
He motioned to the dragapult who was still yapping, made a talking motion with his hand, then pointed to his ears which were wrapped in bandages.
Oh, he’s deaf. What a lucky bastard.
He held up a finger to us as if to say ‘wait”’and then turned to the dragapult said, “wow that’s crazy.”
The dragapult broke into silence for a moment, then yelled, “THANK YOU! THAT’S WHAT I’VE BEEN SAYING. YADDA YADDA-”
I, thankfully, drowned him out again. Perhaps the perks of being a water type?
The typhlosion said to us, still seemingly defeated by the dragapult’s mere presence. “Oh are you new? My name is Ikarus.” He clumsily waved a hand that held what was almost certainly a renaissance-era version of a firework.
I spoke, trying to be louder than the dragapult still talking to himself. “Hi Ikarus, I’m d’Alin, and these are my teammates: Arimis, Althi, and Pirth. And that’d be right; we’re new.”
He nodded and said, “I believe I understand you, but I must apologize if anything I say seems odd. As you might see, I am suffering from a currently-indefinite case of deafness. But it is a pleasure meeting you!”
“Nice to meet you too. And actually, we’re used to it; Althi here is deaf too.”
He turned to look at the glaceon and the pair exchanged smiles, and I could’ve sworn Ikarus’ flames glowed a bit brighter.
“Oh by the way Ikarus, we ran into Linoone in the Capim Town Square earlier. He told us to say ‘hello’ to his friend.”
At the mention of this there was no mistake that Ikarus’ flames grew stronger as he donned a smile. “Well, how very kind of him! I’ll be sure to-”
A loud whizzing sound interrupted him, and we all realized that the flames on Ikarus’ chest ignited the firework he held in his hand.
“Blast! Get down!” he ordered, his bandaged ears almost immediately drooping downwards. He covered his head with his free paw and used the other to direct the firework skyward.
Ikarus appeared to get the attention of the dreepy, all of whom immediately dive-bombed the ground, but the massive dragapult that continued to talk to himself was oblivious until the firework took off from Ikarus’ hand and exploded in the sky.
“Oh, what? A firework?” he said to himself before turning to us and realizing there were four newcomers staring at him.
“Hey, what’s up little guys? Ever seen a badass dragapult before?” he said with an accompanied and, quite frankly, unimpressive flex.
No one responded, and Pirth leaned to me and whispered, “I thought you said being human meant you weren’t retarded.”
“No Pirth, I meant that not all humans are retarded. This one clearly is.”
The dragapult, having clearly heard us, opened his mouth to say something, but the dreepy surrounding him beat him to the punch and each spoke in a high-pitched voice:
“Do we have to help Ikarus with the fireworks? I just want to sleep…” said the dreepy with almost-closed eyes.
“Can I have a pomeg berry?” asked the dreepy that was twice the size of all the others in a voice that almost oozed diabetes.
“I think Drew here might want a piece of you, glaceon~” said one in a sultry voice the dreepy that for some reason had eyelashes.
“Look Drew! They’re a proper team! Can you believe they can do so much with only four members while we can’t do anything with our eight?” happily taunted the dreepy which had a tongue sticking out.
“Drew, you should beat them up to show them you’re the best ‘mon in the guild,” said the dreepy whose eyes appeared to contain perpetual fury.
“And steal all their items! More for us! Wouldn’t that be just grand?” declared the dreepy that bore very happy eyes.
The final dreepy said nothing but just stared at us with a bored expression that was all too similar to Ikarus’. Oh, this one must be Pride. Nothing to be proud of, I guess.
“SHUT THE FUCK UP, ALL OF YOU!” yelled Drew the dragapult. I believe he tried to give the bunch the middle finger, but because he had only four fingers he wound up making an awkward hand sign, much to the delight of the dreepy who all laughed at him.
We walked away as Drew continued to berate the dreepy that started to circle him while Ikarus, careful to be distanced from the fireworks, gave us a nervous smile and wave goodbye.
“Enjoy the show! I’m saving my best firework for midnight!”
I raised my foreleg and waved back to Ikarus, returning the smile, as did the rest of Team Eevee. We then continued the walk towards the guild, mixed feelings present on all our faces, and I thought well, I suppose this is just like meeting humans back on Earth; everyone’s a mixed bag. Ikarus did seem very nice, but Drew… well, its certainly fitting that he became a dragapult so that even now he can just float around and never touch grass.
As we crossed the field, I was able to better see the Clover Guild. Most predominantly was a central tree-stump that the guild appeared to be carved into and beside it was a smaller tree-stump one that rose to an almost equal height, save for what appeared to be a balcony or landing pad where the third floor would’ve been.
Although I thought I could make out a lean-to and what appeared to be an out-of-place palm – no banana tree – beside it on the far side of the guild, immediately in front of us was a massive garden complete with rows of berries and a small pond.
“I hear some pokemon talking,” said Pirth, “should we go say hello?”
It would be the polite thing to do.
“Let’s do it then,” I said.
Although the sun was already below the horizon, the light of the stars and torches of the guild illuminated the garden enough to make out three pokemon: one lying in the middle of grass, one sitting upright wrapped in a blanket, and a third floating in the water.
Since a group of four was hard to not miss – especially with Pirth towering over us – the trio cut their conversation and looked at us. While the togetic wrapped in a blanket stared at us apprehensively and the chespin lying in the grass kept a careful eye on us, looking especially suspiciously at Althi, the wooper hopped out of the water and waddled towards us with a big smile.
“Hi! Wanna hear a knock knock joke?”
My three companions looked at the wooper in confusion, then at me.
Is this a human joke?
It is, I’ll play along.
I turned back to the wooper and replied, “sure. Who’s there?”
“Knock knock!” said the wooper.
“Uh, who’s there?”
“Knock knock!” he said again.
Oh I get the joke, I thought, making sure to not respond and just smile awkwardly.
Unfortunately, only Arimis was able to read minds. “Oh, I get it!” Pirth said proudly. “Who’s there?”
The wooper, glad to have another pokemon engaged, once again said, “knock knock!”
“Who’s there?” replied Pirth with equal enthusiasm.
As the two continued to go back and forth the chespin approached and offered his hand, but not before shooting another worried glance at Althi. “Hi, I’m Chespin. Don’t worry about Wooper, he always does this to new guild members; wants to check if they’re former humans.”
‘Humans,’ not ‘human enthusiasts?’ Is it okay to talk about being human so freely here? Well, it’s worth a shot.
“Well, as you can tell Pirth there isn’t human, nor are my other companions, but I am. The name’s d’Alin; pleasure to meet you,” I said shaking his paw with my own.
“Oh, so you’re not just here to watch the fireworks, but join the guild?” Chespin responded, seemingly a bit surprised that I turned out to be human, “well, how long have you been here?
My mind flashed back to the roweltt that we had encountered in the outskirts of Capim Town. This must be the chespin that Cider guy was talking about. Let’s see if that’s so...
“Uh, long enough to hate the hay beds most pokemon seem to use.”
Chespin flashed a massive smile that proved me correct. “Well, as the Clover Guild Chief of Cozy, it’s my pleasure to tell you that the Clover Guild is filled to the brim with enough cotton to make you feel like you’re back home! All the rooms – except one - are fully stocked!”
While I didn’t have the heart to tell him that Pirth’s silky-smooth winter coat felt better than anything I slept on back as a human, I did want to make sure Pirth himself was able to enjoy the luxuries of cotton instead of being relegated to sleeping on hay.
“Do you have anything extra large for my friend over here?” I asked motioning to Pirth.
Chespin and I both looked at he and Wooper, who were both still going at it, the smile fading from neither of their faces.
Althi and Arimis both glanced at me, both clearly not enjoying Pirth and Wooper’s antics, and I just let out a small chuckle.
“It’s in storage, but luckily for you, Toge here can help you out with that.”
The togetic that had been listening from the distance fluttered its wings and landed a few steps away from us. I saw he had in his hands a pair of cotton earmuffs. Perhaps for the fireworks? But the noise is half the fun...
He looked down and said, “I-I c-can help make sure y-your team is n-n-nice and cozy…”
Before I could respond, Althi approached him and said, “hey, I can’t hear you.”
“S-s-sorry,” started Toge a bit louder, “I s-said-”
“I don’t know what you’re saying. I’m deaf; I need you to look at me so I can ‘hear’ you,” Althi repeated, this time any traces of kindness in her voice gone.
Toge managed to glance up and make eye contact with Althi and started to speak, “I- it’s a bit difficult for me to-”
“Hey! I need you to look at me!” Althi said, anger bubbling.
“Uh, Althi, can you chill out? I can listen and relay it to you; it’s no problem.”
Allow me to do so. Althi, is that alright?
I heard a “hmph” come from her as she held up her head and turned away.
I glanced to Arimis. “I guess we can take that as a yes.”
I looked back at Toge who seemed thoroughly bothered by the whole ordeal. “Hey, are you alright? You don’t have to worry about the blankets…”
“N-n-no, it’s a-alright. I j-just need a m-moment,” Toge muttered, not looking at any of us. I glanced to Chespin and Wooper who were looking at us, not very pleased about the situation. I thought I heard Chespin mutter “chiller” under his breath, whatever that meant, but refocused on Toge.
“Are you sure?”
Toge grew a slight smile. “I-if there’s anything I can help do, i-its to help Team Cozy make sure e-everyone is c-cozy. I-I’ll make s-s-sure your r-room is p-prepared.”
I said my thanks and apologies, and Pirth, Arimis and I quickly walked to Althi who was at the edge of the garden, looking in the direction of the lean-to and presumably the entrance.
Pirth leaned to me. “Uhh, d’Alin? Was that human retarded?”
I sighed. “I think maybe he was autistic? But I think it’d be a grave injustice to categorize that togetic anywhere near the dragapult.”
Speaking of… I thought, catching up to Althi and grabbing her, feeling the cold race up my foreleg as I turned her around.
“Hey, Althi, are you alright? You were pretty rude to the togetic and you seem... off.”
Althi just closed her eyes and turned around. “Not now d’Alin. Let’s get a move on.”
I tried to object, but she was already walking forward. I let out a sigh of frustration and said to myself, “fine, later.”
As we rounded the back of the Clover Guild building and made our way towards the front, all I could think was hopefully the weirdest pokemon we run into tonight is that dragapult.
It was then we ran into a tropius surrounded by a phanpy, torchic, totodile, and a cyndaquil. They immediately noticed us, and as they approached I found myself in awe of the tropius’ massive size.
“Wow,” I managed to utter, staring up at the tropius that looked at us quizzically, “you’re a big guy.”
Almost instantly, the look of curiosity on the tropius’ face was replaced with annoyance. At the same time, the phanpy, totodile, and cyndaquil exchanged inebriated glances and screamed in unison “for you!”
They all shared laughs and approached us while the tropius simply said, “gee, thanks for that one, stranger.”
First approached the phanpy, who introduced himself as Phanpy, the leader of Team Misfits. I glanced at the highly drunken team and thought, well, what an appropriate name.
“Nice to er- hic! meet you. Don’t mind us, we’re hic celebrating the New Years,” Phanpy said with a happy smile. Using his trunk, he offered me a bottle, which I swiftly declined.
He smiled. “More for me!” Phanpy said as he tried to use his trunk to down a drink, spilling half of it over himself in the process.
“Don’t waste it Phanpy!” cried the totodile, who threw himself to the ground and tried to catch the falling alcohol with his mouth. I was able to make out the words of “my name is Totodile!” and “want a drink?” through the gargling of alcohol.
“Uh, no thank you!” I said, forcing myself to smile.
“Okay,” Totodile said, pulling himself up once Phanpy had run dry, “well if you ever want a recommendation, let me know!” He grew a bright smile and winked.
Well, tried to wink. He closed both his eyes shut, then did so again on his second try, so for his third Totodile manually held an eyelid open as he blinked with the hand that wasn’t holding a beer bottle.
The torchic hopped over to us and, looking far more sober than its companions, said, “hello, I’m Torchic.” She flapped a wing as if were a hand, looked at it concernedly and raised a talon instead, then ultimately went back with the wing.
“Sorry, I’m still not completely used to this body even after all this time, and the drinks don’t help either,” she said while I tapped my foreleg to her wing.
Wow someone actually resembling sanity… maybe it’s a fire-type thing?
Then Cyndaquil approached.
He looked at Pirth and took in the full sight of the deer, eyeing specifically his puffy winter coat.
As he waddled towards me, he eyed Arimis and I could’ve sworn his flames grew a bit brighter.
Then he looked at Althi and his flames undoubtedly grew brighter, and I heard him mutter under his breath, “holy shit, so many sexy eevees…”
Then he approached me. I felt myself on full alert, ready to fight or escape at a moment’s notice. He looked right at me and, after a few heavy breaths and an ever-brightening flame, he stuck his face right into mine and said, “Hey! Did you know that in terms...”
Oh fuck no. If there’s one thing I don’t want to have to deal with, it’s that.
“Uh, actually Cyndaquil,” I interrupted, “I’m actually a guy.”
Big mistake. If Cyndaquil was a bonfire before, at my remark he became a second sun.
I took a step back and I could see everyone else here did the same as Cyndaquil became flustered beyond belief.
He shuddered and said, “oohhh, that’s even better. Surely you know the other part of the copypasta stated-”
I glanced to the rest of his teammates, who watched on despondently as Cyndaquil recited the copypasta I really wished wouldn’t have followed me here. “Uhh, could you stop him?” I asked.
Torchic replied, “we’ve given up a long time ago.”
I then looked towards the sky to see Tropius looking down at the scene, unamused. “Could you do something?” I asked, but Tropius merely responded by saying, “Ew, there’s no way I’m touching him.”
I turned to Cyndaquil who, even though his eyes appeared closed, was undoubtedly eye-fucking me. I quickly gathered the team and tried to move us along in an attempt to to remove ourselves from the situation entirely.
“Don’t worry,” I heard from Torchic’s voice, “the others are nowhere near as bad as Cyndaquil.”
I glanced back to see Phanpy and Totodile, well-illuminated by Cyndaquil’s flames, both giving drunken nods in affirmation of Torchic’s claim, as did Tropius who said with a surprising hint of concern, “the entrance is just over there.”
I have a quick nod in thanks and hurried away from Cyndaquil. I really do hope they’re right.
As soon as we were out of sight, we all stopped to take a breath.
“Uh, d’Alin,” asked Pirth, “what exactly was that?”
That was something I wish to never hear again, that’s what that was.
“I had to close my eyes before I saw anything else,” remarked Althi.
I tried to refocus myself. This place is full of humans, what should I have expected? There was bound to be at least one degenerate here...
I turned to my teammates. “Well, you have likely seen the worst of the worst of human behavior. If we can handle that, we can move on!” I tried to brightly declare. “I mean, haven’t most the pokemon associated with the Clover Guild been fine?
Tried. I’m sure the worries on my face betrayed how I felt, but regardless the trio of native pokemon appeared to agree with what I said.
“They’re definitely stranger than most other pokemon from Wigglytuff’s Guild, but the ones we met on the outskirts were all nice,” said Pirth.
As were the ones d’Alin and I interacted with in the Capim Town Square. I saw we press on.
Althi, however had a frown, but said nothing, instead just nodding in assent to Arimis’ suggestion we continue in our agreement to join the Clover Guild, in spite of the more… interesting character’s we’ve encountered thus far.
So continue we did. Following Tropius’ instructions, we once again rounded the building and came upon the entrance of the guild. Although I saw there was a mound of earth piled to the far side of the guild alongside a small path, what made this the definite entrance was the presence of a gate for a foot-sentry.
I always thought this was so strange. I walked up to at and stood on it as the rest of Team Eevee watched. I then heard a voice, but not from below.
“Kyukyukyu~. It rarely gets used nowadays except by Cyndaquil.”
I turned to see a male meowstic wreathed in a black cloak standing in the doorway of the guild, gesturing inside as if he were expecting us.
“Come on in~,” he cooed. We all stared at one another in anticipated, the unspoken question of “do we really continue?” hanging in the air.
Arimis, however, took a deep breath and led the way. The rest of us followed.
Chapter 4 – Clover Guild, Entrance
Music: Shin Megami Tensei II
We walked through the massive doors of the guild and found ourselves in a spacious room. A dirty, spacious room.
I quickly looked around to take all of it in. To our left were two pokemon staring into a room, at the far end was a hallway and where I heard the sounds of training. Exactly opposite us was a pair of boards with various postings for what I assumed to be missions and – is that a fucking troll face? I guess this place is full of humans... – in front of us all was the mysterious blue-and-white cat.
“I,” he declared with great pride, “am Guildmaster Lliam. Welcome to the Clover Guild.”
He looked at us expectantly, but I really didn’t know what to say, and apparently neither did any of my teammates, as we all remained quiet.
“...thoughts?” He asked, glancing at Arimis to speak, but she was literally unable to.
“Fiiine. I guess I’ll speak then. You,” said Lliam, pointing to me over-dramatically, “are human. Are your teammates aware?”
What? By God, why would you ever ask if they were aware I’m human while simultaneously outing me?
“Uh, yeah, they’re aware. That’s why we’re here… Althi here” I said, gesturing to the glaceon beside me, “is the leader of Team Eevee, and we’re here to submit a request to transfer from the Wigglytuff Guild to the…”
My voice trailed off as I focused on the broken bottles of alcohol mixed with poorly-drawn memes and… suggestive images scattered all over the floor.
“Clover Guild,” I managed to say with a surprising amount of finality.
Lliam clapped his hands and did a twirl. “Ohhoho~ how great! Well, except the paperwork I’ll have to do... but I’ll have your team transferred over in no time! How about for now you explore my wonderful guild? Meet ‘humons’ as we like to call ourselves? Aaaand you came just in time for the fireworks! Didn’t your team decide to come along on the most perfect, romantic night~?”
He gave me a look that made me unable to determine if the last comment was directed at me.
While I was trying to figure it out, Althi leaned to me and asked, “d’Alin, is this one retarded.”
“Uhh, I think he’s just gay, Althi.”
“Yeah, he does look pretty happy.”
“Oh, I meant more homosexual.”
Althi just let out a titter, “d’Alin, that’s a given.”
“HEY! I’m right here!” shouted Lliam. “I am not gay, thankyouverymuch!” He turned away and started walking towards the stairs and said, “I’d say check out the guild tonight and enjoy the show! Check-in with me in my office on the third floor for your room~.”
I thought I saw Lliam give me a wink as he left, and I was left wondering if he was afraid of exiting the closet despite the “support” he’d get from the guild as evidenced by much of what I saw drawn on the walls.
So... came the thought as Arimis analyzed the surroundings, where might we begin?
“Food,” said Pirth, “I’m hungry.”
“Me too, and I want to save these berries for the actual New Year;” Althi said, “aren’t you hungry d’Alin?”
Before I could answer, I heard a resounding THUNK! come from behind us, and I turned around to see Drew, who hit his massive dragapult head on the doorway.
“Fuck my life,” I heard him mutter as he had to angle his head sideways and float in. He was followed by the horde of laughing dreepy that continued to taunt him as he floated past us and tried to enter a door to the right, which he once again struggled to do.
As he wormed his way upstairs with a colorful assortment of curses, coming to the ground floor from above were two extremely fluffy creatures; a remarkably small hisuian zorua and an alolan ninetails. They stopped in front of the job board and I could here the conversation between the two.
“What job do you think we should take to start the new year right, Fern?” asked the ninetails to his partner.
“I-I don’t know Ciel,” muttered Fern, “I know you want to do some exploration but… can we start the new year with something easy?”
Just as I was about to step forward and approach them to ask where the mess hall was, I saw a shadow appear from beside them, emerging from the floor, slowly creeping behind the duo.
As the shadow it hesitated, as if trying to decide which of the two fluffly creatures to approach, I realized that it was a duskull, specifically one with a red headband tied around its wisp-like hair.
The duskull floated silently to the back of the small zorua.
Uh, I believe that duskull is going to-.
A loud “OOGA BOOGA!” cut through Arimis’ thought, and the tiny Fern jumped a few feet straight into the air before landing and immediately scampering into the shelter of Ciel’s bushy tail, shivering in fear.
Ciel, caught by surprise as well, quickly recovered and consoled Fern before turning his attention to the duskull who remained snickering and enjoying the scene.
“Really Elm?” asked Ciel who shot a nasty glare at the duskull.
“Whaaat? Don’t you want to get all the jitters out of the way for the new year?” came Elm’s response. After another sharp glare from Ciel, I heard Elm say, “alright alright, sorry… I promise I won’t scare you for the rest of the year!”
With a snicker Elm fell through the floor again.
Kind of an asshole I thought.
I turned to my teammates and said, “should we ask them where the mess hall-”
“Hey buddy,” I heard from behind. I turned around from the sight of a still-shuddering Fern cloaked in the tails of his partner to see yet another alolan pokemon, albeit a vulpix instead of a ninetails, and this one donned a beige cap and vest.
“Wow,” remarked Althi, “there sure are a lot of keokeos around.”
“Keokeo? What’s that?” I asked.
“You know, a keokeo? The subspecies that this vulpix and that ninetails are?”
“Oh, I thought they were called alolan…”
“Hey buddy,” repeated the alolan vulpix impatiently, “last I checked, doorways were for walking through. Not standing around and gossiping like schoolchildren.”
“Oh, sorry,” I apologized before stating, “uh, we’re new the guild. Nice to meet you...”
“Kiyo,” replied the fox curtly before stating, “now would you mind moving aside? I’m trying to-”
“New guildies??! Are they cute?” I heard from behind Kiyo. A sandshrew appeared wrapped in a blue scarf before looking at all of us with bright eyes and a delighted squeal. "They ARE!!!"
Before I could react, the sandshrew practically tackled me, and I felt her embrace wrap around me. The grapple felt shockingly strong- is she a wrestler? Are there even wrestlers here?
“Wow, I thought you would’ve been more blubbery, but you’re fuzzy instead!” she said with joy.
"Cassie..." Kiyo groaned with disappointment in his voice, "we agreed you would ask for consent before tackle-hugging innocent pokemon."
"Oh, rats! My bad! Hey, mister fish! Do you consent to me hugging you?"
"Uhh, sure? Whatever makes another member of the guild happy." I said, trying to brush it off as a favor, not quite ready to admit to myself that it felt nice.
The sandshrew cheered. “Yaay! Great! I’m Cassie! Nice to meet you!”
With that settled, she dropped me and quickly turned her attention to my teammates. "Who's next?!" She said.
Once again, before I could say anything she ran to Althi, who quickly said, “uh, no thanks” and stepped back.
Cassie quickly turned her attention to Arimis, who noticed and immediately looked at me in fear.
Oh shit, she can’t speak.
“Uh, Cassie! Sorry, Arimis the espeon wouldn’t want that either; she’s mute so she can’t say so, but just take my word for it,” I managed to spit out in a flurry of words.
Cassie looked sad upon hearing this, and Kiyo gave me some side-eye, so I said, “well, I think Pirth the, uh, super-leafeon would be happy to give you a hug.”
I got a strange glance from Kiyo, the little bird on his shoulder, and Cassie for saying Pirth was anything but a sawsbuck, but the fletchling just whispered to Cassie and she just shrugged and said, “well, a hug is a hug!” and gave Pirth an embrace. “Oh. My. Goodness! You feel silky-smooth! Is that the winter coat of a…” another whisper from the fletchling, “‘super-leafeon?’”
Pirth’s sported a massive smile. “Why, yes,” he said, raising a leg and holding his head high, “as a super-leafeon I am the first of my kind to have such a majestic and fine coat. The whole team loves to sleep on it! After all, as the pokemon chosen by Arceus to spread the word against deerling and sawsb-”
“Uhh, thanks Pirth, but I think they’re tired and hungry, and they’d be more receptive to hear your preachings and whatever with a full stomach.” I said, eyeing Kiyo. The little bird, the He appeared to get the message and walked past us with his team and said, “uhh… right. This way to the cafeteria.”
The three strangers walked a few steps away and past the two pokemon – a swadloon and pikachu – that were looking into the room. I followed Kiyo’s crew all the way up to the door with the rest of Team Eevee in tow, but stopped myself and looked at the two pokemon that didn’t seem to have even registered our presence, and I could overhear them talking about ‘serpentine bondage’ and ‘kyuute fluffy threesome.”
“Uh, hello?” I said, and both jumped back with a gasp. The swadloon dropped a book which had a very… unpleasant drawing paired with scribbles of text I really don’t want to reimagine, while the pikachu yelped and a bolt of electricity shot from her, almost hitting me.
“Whoa, watch out,” I cried, “you almost shocked me, that could’ve really hurt.”
“S-sorry” said the pikachu her eyes already beginning to water, “I-I have a hard time controlling my electricity even now…”
The swadloon, gathering its belongings and stuffing a gummi into its mouth said, “are you all new here? I don’t think I’ve seen you around before and I make sure to write down the… adventures of everyone in the guild.”
“Y-yeah, we’re new to the Clover Guild,” I said, nodding to my three companions who promptly introduced themselves.
“Oh, well I’m Pika,” said the pikachu, wiping her watery eyes, “and I’m sorry again for almost shocking you.”
“And I’m Maggie,” said the swadloon, “nice to meet you four…”
After a brief silence Pika and Maggie gave each other a very strange look, then asked in unison, “how many of you are boys?”
I glanced at Pirth who was subtly shaking his head to not answer that. Probably a very good idea... I thought before replying, “uh, is in here the mess hall?”
“You sure sound like one, Mr. Vaporeon~.”
“Okay… I guess we’ll just head on in…” I said before quickly moving into what was definitely the mess hall, trying to distance myself from the rapid whispers and scribblings of those two as quickly as possible.
Chapter 5 – Clover Guild, Mess Hall
I immediately noticed many pokemon around: a trubbish and a small yellow dot that might’ve been a joltik, an orange fox pokemon whose name I forgot digging into some food, and a skiddo sitting despondently half-on, half-off a bench.
Immediately in front of me, however, was the readily apparent focus of Pika’s and Maggie’s attention: a furfou sitting and eating with a zangoose and a seviper.
“That’s odd,” I heard Althi whisper, clearly taking note as well, “those two normally hate each other.”
We walked towards where Kiyo, Cassie, and their fletchling partner appeared to be getting food, but four new pokemon was bound to grab the attention of even the most lax observers, and this case was no different.
“Wow… are you all new guild members?” the zangoose asked, drawing the eyes of the seviper and furfou.
“Yeah, we are…” Althi responded, still analyzing the unusual pairing.
“Yoyoyo, welcome to the guild,” said the furfou, “I’m Fynn, pleased to meet ya.”
The zangoose approached with a sort of tome in its claws. “Hi. I’m Mustel, and that’s my partner Serpes.”
I looked over Mustel’s shoulder to see Serpes shake his bladed tail in lieu of a hand wave, his tongue flicking in the air.
“Do you mind if I take a closer look..?” Mustel asked.
“Uhh, what?” I replied, somewhat surprised, and I once again heard a familiar snickering and a “kyuute!” from the doorway
“Oh!” he said, realizing how the wording must’ve come across, “I meant for my, uh, book. I, uh… how do I say this plainly… I’m trying to register all the pokemon?”
“Like a pokedex?”
“Yeah, like a pokedex. All of you except that espeon I haven’t registered yet… eevees are hard to come by.”
This is kind of weird, but he seems nice. If I want to have goodwill with fellow guildmates, what better time to start than the present?
“Then sure, no problem… right guys?”
Mustel approached me and he seemed to intently stare at the pages. He didn’t appear to write anything, but it was as if new information was magically appearing right before his eyes.
“Got it! Vaporeon!” declared Mustel.
“I don’t see why not,” replied Althi, “does it have extra information I could learn about glaceons?”
“I guess I can share some stuff with you, but trust me when I say don’t bother taking the book from me.”
The same that happened for me happened to Althi, and she held herself somewhat higher as Mustel excitedly read his strange tome. “Glaceon! Thank you so much!”
Althi, happier that someone appreciated her for, said cooly, “of course. Anything for someone who recognizes how incredible I can be~.”
But much to Althi’s disappointment, Mustel had already moved past, more focused on his magical pokedex than her.
Much to Arimis’ relief, he walked past her as well.
And much to my terror, he walked right up to Pirth.
“Aaand gotcha!” declared Mustle proudly, “just today I managed to add a vaporeon, a glaceon and a-”
“Wait,” I tried to spit out, “Mustel don’t-”
“Sawsbuck.”
The words hung heavily in the air.
Despite not being an ice type, the surrounding area grew colder by a few degrees. I saw Fynn look worriedly at us and Serpes tense up, the latter clearly readying to defend his partner. I looked to Mustel and saw a very confused zangoose looking at me, his eyes screaming, “did I do something wrong?”
I looked over his shoulder and saw that the book was titled: #0586: Sawsbuck, The Seasonal Pokemon
Yes you did, you poor soul. You told Pirth exaclty what he is
“Mustel… right?” Pirth managed to say through gritted teeth.
Welp, we’re getting kicked out.
“Y-yes?”
“Are you from around here?”
“N-no. I’m not. I’m… human.”
A moment of silence.
“Are you retarded?” Pirth asked coldly.
“W-what?”
“Are. You. Re-tar-ded?”
Mustel looked to me for help, and I nodded my head wildly up and down. I saw from the corner of my eye Arimis and Althi were doing the same, clearly wishing to avoid having a bloodbath.
“Yes..?” came Mustel’s unsure reply. I looked at Serpes and saw him tapping his tailblade on the table and drawing what appeared to be poison, slowly uncoiling and readying for a fight.
After another tense moment, the mood swung from imminent death to a cheerly delight. “Well, I guess humans are retarded after all! Arceus bless you, it’s not your fault you wouldn’t know a degenerate little sawsbuck from a majestic super-leafeon, so I forgive you and all human for your retard-ed-ness, don’t you worry!”
Pirth leaned into Mustel and I could hear him utter, “but don’t you forget what I am either.”
I saw Mustel gulp and reply in the affirmative, and Pirth went along his jolly way towards the back of the kitchen where the clank of pots and pans could be heard.
I glanced at Serpes who seemed to slightly r relax now that there was no longer any danger to Mustel, and coiled around him when he sat back down, clearly shaken.
“W-what did I do wrong?” I heard Mustel wonder aloud.
Serpes glanced at the book and said before giving Team Eevee massive side-eye, “yessss, you clearly misssidentified thisss sssuper-leafeon for a sssawsssbuck. Rookie misstake.”
I wanted to explain to him what just happened, but I knew Pirth’s sharp ears would hear everything, so I made a mental note to do so later.
Well, at least Pirth bought that thing about people from Capim Town calling him weird stuff in their “regional accent;” he wouldn’t have asked where Mustel was from otherwise.
Yeah Arimis, but now he thinks humans are retarded.
I mean, that’s certianly better than culling your kind, no?
- “Culling my kind;” since when did you become a poet, Arimis? I thought as I followed Pirth towards the food.
I’ve always been poetic d’Alin, I simply can’t help if you’ve refused to notice~. I turned to her and saw a quick wink.
We walked up to where the food was served, but nothing was out.
“I was not expecting new arrivals, especially one as big as you, ‘super-leafeon,’ so you four are going to have to have to roll with the punches,” said a tired voice. that belonged to a munchlax. I looked past Pirth and saw a munchlax wearing an apron with a clover embroidered into the bottom-left corner, and an bored face that matched the voice.
“Uh, wouldn’t you have some spare food, munchlax?”
“Please, refer to me as Beast; I am one of the foremost chefs in Capim Town, after all,” he said proudly.
Then Beast looked around and realized where he was, and the sparkle in his eye vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
“And unfortunately for you, no I don’t. Normally we have a stockpile of berries, but,” he began to shout, “some members of this forsaken guild do not know that they should have fermented them weeks ago, not tonight.”
He looked back at us after his small rant and shrugged. “You lot are out of luck.”
“Beast,” started Althi, “we have some berries we brought on our own. Pomeg berries. We just need them defrosted.”
“Pomeg berries, huh?” Beast said. “well, I suppose that should not be too much trouble. Ronald!”
“Huh?” said a nasally and pimply voice. I looked into the kitchen to see a numel already starting to walk towards the exit.
“Overtime. Come warm up these newcomers’ berries.”
“What? But I’m already off the clock.
“Sorry Ronald, but you’re on duty tonight. Don’t you know it’s new years, after all? Someone has to work the kitchen, and it most certainly will not be me.”
Ronald the numel let out a defeated sigh and slowly teetered his way back towards Beast, stopped, and fell onto the floor.
“Berries please,” said Beast towards us with as much a smile as he could muster.
We handed it to him and looked around to a place to sit for while we waited.
I glanced at Mustel, Fynn, and Serpes and although the two fluffy creatures didn’t seem to mind us, Serpes was still giving us a mean glare, so I continued to look around.
The fox and trubbish and yellow dot all left, and I didn’t want to sit next to Kiyo’s crew in fear of Pirth “enlightening” them, so I settled with the final option: a nidorina sitting with a poochenya, maractus, and a smeargle.
“Uh, hello!” I said, catching the poochenya’s attention, not giving Althi any moment to object to the poochenya’s presence.
It looked up from its meal and said with a toothy smile, “oh, hi! I’m Pochi! We’re Team Moxie, and I’m pleased to meet you!”
Wow, they’re acting so normally, I’m surprised they didn’t hear-
A huge slurping sound came from beside me, and I saw the reason: the nidorina was loudly slurping on her food.
“I’m uh- Sunny!” said the maractus with a wave, trying to overcome the sound of the nidorina’s loud eating, “great to meet you as well!”
I turned to the nidarina who was too focused on her food to make note of the four pokemon standing beside her.
“Uh Nida… Nida!” cried Pochi, grabbing her attention.
“Hmm? Wha-” she said with a mouthful of food, looking at Pochi who motioned to us.
She looked over at us and stopped chewing and slurping for a moment, the peace and quiet from that being more welcome than I could’ve possibly imagined.
“Oh, well nice to meet you; I’m Nida!” she said. “Are you new here?”
“We are! We just joined!” I said, before turning to the smeargle. “And you might be..?”
“Ross,” said the smeargle plainly, “good to meet you.”
“So, what brings you fine pokemon here?” asked Pochi. Sunny and Nida both nodded in interest, albeit the latter did so because her mouth was once again stuffed to the brim with food. Althi began to try to step away subtly, but was interrupted when Sunny yelled “wait!”
All eyes turned to him as he said, “I don’t mean to be rude but… glaceons can make snow right? I come from a hot place so I’d really like to experience it...”
Now everyone’s gaze shifted to Althi who started to blush, seemingly forgetting that poochenya was right across from her. “Ahh, well, you know, since I am a newly-evolved glaceon, I don’t quite know blizzard yet, the only new move I know is freeze-dry as of now… but I am reaalllly looking forward to the next time it snows. I could probably enhance it~” she said proudly.
“And Pirth! I love your winter coat! Could I touch it?” asked Pochi.
It was Pirth’s turn to blush. “Well, I’m glad my majestic Arceus-given evolution is finally getting some proper recognition! Of course!”
Pochi approached and pawed at it, the wondrous feeling of its silky texture I had come to love being readily seen on his face.
“Sooo fluffy…” he muttered, much to Pirth’s delight. As Team Moxie – save for Nida who returned to eating her meal – reveled in the presence of Althi and Pirth, I turned to Arimis and shared a moment.
I must admit, d’Alin, this is quite nice. I’m quite relieved to see Pirth and especially Althi enjoying themselves.
As am I, Ari, I thought, the nickname once again making Ari blush – a sight I found I wasn’t getting tired of – it really is so nice that-
My thought was cut short by a hearty laugh echoed throughout the room.
It sounds… kind of familiar, I thought, my heart automatically staring to beat faster, very different but with a hint of eerie similarity but… from where..?
I looked to Pirth to ask since I didn’t know anyone with better ears than him, and I was surprised to see his ears twitching wildly, the satisfaction of getting attention to his prized winter coat from Pochi replaced by an uncharacteristically worried frown.
I glanced at Arimis who heard it too and, like Pirth, bore a look of concern. I turned to Althi who heard nothing but, having noticed Pirth’s discomfort, turned to the entrance. I saw her eyes widen with a mixture of emotions.
Surprise. Disgust. Anger. Fear.
I turned back, the sounds of conversation and Nida’s noisy eating fading away as I saw not only a torchic and squirtle walk through the door, but a sneasel with a ribombee as well, the latter two sharing an innocent laugh.
Music: Vs. Ghestis Theme
My heartbeat quickened. I felt myself instinctually tense up, ready to fight.
Stop, d’Alin.
Images of Ruined Roost began to flash right before my eyes.
It’s not the same one.
The sneasel laughed. I saw Weavile laugh as he smashed the orb, stealing the key to the treasure, to the Articuo Feathers, as he betrayed all of us, leaving us for dead in the monster house.
You need to ask yourself d’Alin...
The sneasel took a step. I saw Weavile fading into shadow as we walked into his trap, the ferals surrounding us as he sharpened his claws over and over and over.
...isn’t this exactly how...
The sneasel idly twirled an ice shard in its hands. I saw Garchomp get stabbed, again and again, by Weavile’s ice shards, dying a bit more each time until he collapsed onto the ground.
...Althi feels…
Another joyous laugh from the sneasel. I saw Weavile’s wicked grin and evil laugh as he hit Starmie, over and over again as Pirth lie helpless, fallen onto the ground from exhaustion.
...about humans…
The sneasel held a small ribombee in its claws and spoke to it. I saw Weavile taunt us again, over and over, driving Garchomp and Pirth to madness, playing right into his perfect trap.
...about dark-types...
The sneasel took note of us and waved her claw in a “hello.” I saw Weavile cut down Garchomp after he said his goodbye, tears still flowing from his eyes, the real mixed with the fake, right before we were all enveloped by light.
...about Ari?
I snapped out of it. I shook my head. This is not the same one. It’s not him.
Even though my heart beat wildly, despite the images of Ruined Roost appearing before me, I managed to focus what was in front of me: an innocent sneasel. A helplessly confused sneasel. I turned to face my teammates and I could see why.
Everyone had the same emotions I had seen in Althi’s eyes plastered all over their face. Team Eevee was staring daggers at a sneasel they hadn’t even met.
“Excuse me, but is everything alright?” I heard Pochi ask.
This seemed to snap Arimis and Pirth out of it, with Arimis looking ashamed of herself while Pirth, who remained somewhat uneasy, opting to say, “y-yes Pochi, it’s no problem. I just heard something familiar.”
Althi however, continued staring, the emotions I saw earlier only intensifying, I stepped towards her and, although she should’ve been able to see me, her only focus was on the sneasel.
“Althi,” I said, raising my left foreleg to her, touching her. Instantly, I felt a sharp and bitter cold run up my foreleg and down my spine, all the way to my tail, giving me a slight shock. Althi flinched at my touch and looked at me, her eyes pleading to leave to anywhere but here.
“Let’s go,” I mouthed to her then said to the rest of Team Eevee, quickly saying goodbye to a befuddled Team Moxie and Ross.
As we hurriedly walked past the four, everyone trying to look straight and Althi actually tensing up as we walked by them, I managed to catch a glance of the sneasel and ribombee on its head. Although I tried to say sorry with just my eyes, I was uncertain if it managed to push through the lingering fear I still felt.
We stepped beyond the doorway to the cafeteria, back to the open entrance where we had entered what felt like an eternity ago, and together breathed a sigh of relief.
“Are we all okay?” I asked. Arimis quietly nodded in the affirmative, and Pirth, after a moment’s hesitation, said, “Yeah, d’Alin, I was just… not expecting that.”
“Nor was I. The reaction I mean. I… I thought I had handled what had happened in Ruined Roost alright.”
But evidently not… clearly this got to me far more than I would’ve ever expected.
I looked at Althi, who was looking away and shuddering.
I once again tapped her, though fortunately she was far less cold to the touch this time around. She glanced at me, eyes watery and mouth wavering, and said, “d’Alin, I- we need to leave.”
I felt my heart drop. “Athi, we can’t just up and abandon-”
“d’Alin, as the leader of Team Eevee, what I say goes. And I say we-”
“Excuse me?” I retorted, “and who exactly made you dictator?”
I knew I was going to regret those words the moment they came out of my mouth, and the flash of pain that crossed Althi’s eyes confirmed it.
“I- Althi I-” I tried to spit out.
“What did you just call me?”
“Althi, I’m sorry that I-”
Althi started to breathe heavily and shake. “Am I a dictator? For listening to you when you said you needed to be somewhere safe? Am I a dictator for feeling left out when I saw that you and Chespin were talking about things that went completely over my head. Am I just supposed to smile and be happy that I don’t understand what’s going on around me?”
Althi, now noticeably shuddering, tears coalescing around the bottom of her eyes, continued. “Am I a dictator for not feeling safe here? I already told you: dark types are bad. Evil. They’re sneaky and backstabbing liars. And now I get to deal with a human one? Have you forgotten that the only one we met so far tried to kill us? Hurt Starmie? Actually killed Garchomp? And guess what? We have a little version of the very same pokemon that did all that right here in this guild. Am I a dictator for not wanting to die? ”
“Althi,” I managed to say, “do you tru-”
“Am I a dictator for wanting to protect my baby brother, you, and -”
“Althi!” I shouted, breaking her from her rant while stepping forward and offering her my foreleg. “Do. You. Trust. Me?”
After only the briefest of hesitations, she took it, and I felt her quickly start to warm up.
“Of course d’Alin. I do.”
“Then please hear me out. Do you know why I became a vaporeon?
Althi shook her head no.
“First, I was going to leave. This world, I mean. But I decided to stay because of a promise I made to Garchomp, to do justice in this world, to do what I know is right in my heart. And I wanted to stay by your side. To do what I knew was right with you.
“And that wasn’t all. I was inspired by Starmie, how she stood her ground to protect us. To protect Pirth. I became a vaporeon so I could protect you… protect us.”
Can you trust me to do that, to make a promise to protect you? To make a promise to never hurt you?
“A promise to never abandon us?” Althi asked.
I approached Althi and hugged her tightly, the cold of her coat now a reassurance rather than a sharp feeling. “I promise that.”
She broke from the embrace and looked at me. “You promise that this is all the truth, d’Alin? That you won’t lie?”
“Of course, Althi. I promise you all of that.”
She took a moment to shore herself up and breathed in heavily before exhaling a chilled breath.
“Thank you, d’Alin, that helps…” she muttered before looking at us with an admixture of determination and reservation, “let’s get a move on, huh? I know you wanted to show us those fireworks.”
I looked at Pirth, for whom Althi spoke on his behalf. Then I glanced at Arimis, who had a mixture of emotions plastered on her face, but resolution coming out on top.
Let’s meet everyone else.
Chapter 6 – Clover Guild, Upper Floors
Music: Paora Plains
“So Lliam said we continue to his office on the upper floor for the room assignment?”
“Yes,” I responded, “so let’s just go do that and meet whatever other members might be on the way. I have a feeling this will go by in a flash.
As we neared the stairs, I heard the sound of combat coming from a room. I looked inside and saw a skorupi, makuhtia, and meditite all taking turns striking practice dummies.
A furret with a bow on its head looked on, bored, but appeared to have seen us from the corner of its eye since it jolted up after a moment and, in a flash, was right before us, drowning us in a flurry of questions.
“Oh hello! I’m Furret! Are you new members? Wow you look like such a cool team! I like your armbands! And your badges! Do you like my bow? I got one for my partner too for the New Years celebration! He’s the skorupi over there! His name is Smith! Let me show you how cute he looks with it!”
As quickly as she appeared before us, she ran back into the dojo, returning to the four of us who remained at the doorway, shocked-still. In tow was a Smith the skorupi who had a flashy “2025” headband on his head.
If there was any doubt that this was not of his own volition, his tired eyes gave it away.
“Uh, hi,” he said with a wave of his tail,’ we’re Team MLG.”
“Oh, newcomers?” said a voice from the back. I looked beyond Team MLG to see a makutia and a meditite with a scar running down its face wave to us hello. “I’m Makuhita and this is Asana; we’re Team Ying-Yang.”
We barely managed to introduce ourselves before I saw Furret breathe in a huff of air to once again create a deluge of words, so I hastily said, “well, it was great meeting you, but we really have to go meet Lliam. You know, before the fireworks show.”
Smith’s eyes somehow became even more tired as Furret turned to him and said, “Oh that’s right! They should start any moment! I told you not to train! Now lets-”
Her voice quickly faded away as I hurried Team Eevee upstairs to the second floor, all of whom were quite keen to follow.
At the second floor we stepped away from the stairs to take a look around, though the open area that was surrounded by a myriad number of rooms appeared to be mostly empty, with most noise emanating from the floor above.
I believe everyone is already up there.
“For the celebration, you think?”
Most definitely, and we can get our room assignment then if we just speak to Lliam.
Before we could proceed, however, we heard a commotion emanate from behind us, gradually making its way closer and closer until a group of four – a vileplume, bellossom, and sylveon all headed by a bored-looking flareon – appeared from the stairway.
“I can’t wait to see Ikey’s show! I wonder if he made a special firework just for me~.” said the sylveon wreathed in a dress in a very high pitched voice.
“I thought you haven’t seen that typhlosion since that little accident in his lab, Enny?” said the vilepume.
The flareon said, “he’s been avoiding him ever since I let slip Enny is a fag-”
He stopped himself short, noticing the four of us looking at us intently.
“Uh sorry, if you’re here for the show you gotta leave. Only guild members are allowed in here right now.”
“Don’t worry Adrian, I can show you all the way out!” offered the bellossom with a smile, beginning to walk to us to escort us away.
“Actually,” I said, “we just joined the Clover Guild today. We’re heading up to get the paperwork from Lliam’s office.”
Adrian let out a tired sigh, but Enny the sylveon let out a hearty cheer and twirled in her skirt. “Yaaay! Welcome to the guild bre. Or bres. I’m Enny, and this is Team Moonshine!”
“That’s not-” Adrian started to mumble, but Enny then gave me a sly look and used one of her – wait, Adrian called Enny a guy, right? – his feelers to wrap around me and pull me in.
She – he – said, in an admittedly alluring voice, “you ever been with a fellow eevee before bre? I could use a new year’s kiss~.”
“Oh, well, I uh-” I said, trying to say something. I glanced over at Althi and Arimis who were blushing on my behalf at Enny’s very direct approach, and I could’ve sworn I heard “kyuute!” echo faintly down the halls.
“Hehe, uh, no thank you Enny.”
“Thank-fucking-God,” said Adrian, “I was worried we’d have to deal with yet another annoying gay prick; Enny is bad enough.”
“So,” I asked, making note of Adrian’s words, “you’re a human as well?”
Adrian looked at me with a questioning stare and said, “well I guess you are too. Makes sense why you’d wind up joining this shitty guild. Yeah, Enny and I are both human, Bellossom and Vileplume here are natives.”
“We’re Team Eevee!” declared Pirth with pride.
At this Adrian rolled his eyes. “Are you? I see that you’re a sawsbuck so that kind of negates your whole ‘Team Eevee’ shtick. And what is that, a bandanna? Are you blind?”
Pirth took a step towards Adrian and said, “huh, that’s funny. Since d’Alin never got it wrong, I would’ve thought being blessed by Arceus to become an eevee negated the natural retard-ed-ness of humans, but I guess you must be an exception, huh?”
Adrian immediately flared up, his bored demeanor almost rapidly shifting into a fiery annoyance mixed with anger. “What the fuck did you call me you little bitch? I’ll have you know-”
“Whoa! Okay! Sorry about that,” I said loudly, “Pirth is very sensitive about others calling him a sawsbuck instead of a super-leafeon.”
This got strange looks from the entirety of the tentatively-named Team Moonshine, so I elaborated, “which he is.”
Team Moonshine understood the implications, and Adrian surprisingly backed off from the towering Pirth who remarked, “yeah, silly human me got it wrong. Whoops.”
Pirth’s cherry demeanor returned, and he said with an innocent smile, “glad to have taught you something today.”
I saw Adrian open his mouth to say something, but Bellossom put a hand on him and whispered to him, and Adrian shut his mouth.
“Well, we’ll be going to the show. It’s starting anytime now, so don’t you guys miss it.” said Vileplume with a partially-forced smile, still clearly on-edge from having to deal with Pirth.
With that, the quartet` made their way upstairs, and we started to follow, and we passed by a library I knew I would be keen to check out on some future date as well as a room studded with maps. Within it was a mareep and sableye who were looking at something at a table, what appeared to be a map of sorts.
I let myself into the room and overheard snippets of their conversation, the entire time the mareep’s tail gently shifting intensity in some indecipherable pattern.
“-looking for a new place for gems, Macom-”
“-near Crystal Cave is the best bet, Topa, since-”
They noticed me and stopped talking, and I introduced myself and my companions as new members of the Clover Guild.
Topa the sableye said, “well, good to meet you! If you ever want some nice gems, I’m the mon you come to!”
Althi and Arimis immediately took interest, and began to pester Topa with questions about gems and jewelry – a surprise to me since neither had expressed any sort of interest in that before. Gift ideas, I suppose.
While this was happening, I approached Macom the mareep who gave a quiet introduction to Pirth and I, explaining that he was the Lead Cartographer of the Clover Guild, and that if we ever needed any help to ask him or his foremost aid, Booker.
“Oh,” I responded, “I don’t think we’ve ran into him yet.”
Macom seemed to take a step away from his previously solemn self and said with a warm reminiscing smile, “you likely will. Booker and his partner are a real stand-up duo, and they typically try to help out newcomers.”
“Thanks! What pokemon are they?”
“Ah, the two are almost always together; Booker is a ribombee and Sneasel is a, well, sneasel.”
I glanced at Pirth who seemed just as surprised as me. Beyond him I looked to Arimis and Althi, who were still engaged in conversation with Topa, who seemed to be reveling in the discussion he was very much an expert in as well as the potential for new customers.
“...is everything alright?” asked Macom who evidently noticed the strange expressions Pirth and I bore.
“Y-yeah, no worries. Just a- uh…” Pirth said, the end of his sentence dangling ion the air.
“Unrelated incident,” I said with finality.
Macom still seemed a bit perplexed, but he didn’t push it. At the same time, Topa had finished his own discussion with Arimis and Althi, who promised to seek him out in the very near future. Topa said his farewell to us and Macom and left the room with a gleaming smile.
“You should go see the fireworks, it should be starting around right now,” advised Macom. As if on cue, the sound of a firework could be heard, and a large cheer erupted.
We started to leave, but Arimis took notice that Macom didn’t appear to be closing up shop.
Could you ask him if he’s going to be joining the festivities? We can wait.
I relayed this to Macom, but he did the closest thing to a shrug as a sheep and said, “I’m not too interested in that, thank you though.” As another firework went off, I thought I saw Macom’s eyes briefly look to nothing in reminiscence before returning to the present and staring back at us.
“Enjoy,” he said simply, returning to his maps.
With that, we exited the room and went up the stairs again, following the sound of explosions and loud conversation.
As soon as we stepped onto the third floor, we saw a bored hisuian growlithe and shinx together get up in joy when a door to a nearby room opened and out walked a vulpix and a regular growlithe.
“Thanks for the last-minute chat, Bill; let’s go watch the show, Amelia” said the vuplix with a blue scarf before Amelia – apparently the shinx with a green scarf of her own – happily pulled him to the open doors that revealed a starry night sky outshone by the light of a rapidly-fading firework that had exploded moments ago.
“Sure thing, Nick,” said Bill who appeared utterly exhausted, but he had enough energy to mutter, “wait Gill, please don’t-”
He was cut off by Gill the hisuian growlithe who practically leaped on him and gave him a massive lick on the side of his face, much to his despair.
“Okay!” said Bill to Gill, “we’re going right now, so don’t li-”
Another lick – this one as distressing to Bill as the previous one – promptly shut him up, and the two hurriedly went towards the landing, neither of the four having noticed us.
“Well, you all go ahead to the show,” I said, as a quick flurry of pokemon rushed passed us to the landing, “I’ll go talk with Lliam to get our room situated.”
“It’s my job, d’Alin, so allow me to-”
“Athi,” I interrupted, “please; I’ve seen fireworks many times over before, and I’d like you to experience something human that’s good.”
Well except everything that followed the invention of gunpowder; I’ll be sure to never mention that to her...
“Besides, Lliam might want to talk to me about human things, so go enjoy the show. Please?”
After a quick bout of back-and-forth between Althi and Pirth – and probably Arimis since I saw her make silent eye contact with Althi for a moment or two – Althi relented the trio walked to the open door.
“Get yourself a good spot, alright! Be there soon!”
Arimis turned back to me and I heard, d’Alin, don’t take to long, alright?
I decided to do a very dramatic bow, my head falling to the floor as I did what I would’ve assumed what would be called a “downward dog” and raise my tail to the air. Then, with a surprising amount of dexterity I didn’t know I had within me, I wagged it back and forth, making a “goodbye” wave.
She let out a quick mental laugh – moreso the feeling of a small wave of humor washing over me rather than an actual, audible laugh, something I still wasn’t used to even after having arrived a month ago - and joined Althi and Pirth.
I, meanwhile, walked all over the entire third floor, trying to see which room belonged to the guildmaster until I realized that I had taken the long route.
I stopped in front of the large office and read the sign hung on the door, written in the type of cursive one would see from a restaurant back on Earth: Out For Lunch, Be Back Soon!
Under it, pinned to the door, was a hastily scribbled note that said, “didn’t want to do paperwork, there’s a free room near the alchemy lab in the basement :)”
Great… well, no point in moping around; time to join in on the celebration.
Chapter 7 – Clover Guild, Landing
I stepped out onto the landing as it was illuminated by a trio of fireworks going off to see it was entirely occupied, the “oohs” and “aahs” of human-turned-pokemon and natives alike floating in the air as the fireworks resounded and lit up Capim Town.
I found a towering Pirth and, surprisingly, Althi and Arimis both perched on his back with both their pairs of hind legs centered on what I’d describe as his shoulders while both leaned outwards on his antlers.
Another firework went off as I managed to call out Pirth’s attention, who leaned down to let me on and, while doing so, almost made both Arimis and Althi both fall off.
“Watch it Pirth!”
Warn us beforehand, please!
Both, however, seemed glad to see me, and both scorched ever-closer to the edge of Pirth’s surprisingly wide back, giving me space to be in the center. Althi handed me a pomeg berry and said, “enjoy!” with a small smile before returning to where she was looking at the show from before.
I saw that they had leaned their bodies on Pirth’s antlers, but I had no such support.
“Just lean on my face. It’s not like I can see anyways, d’Alin.”
I let out a laugh. “That’s quite true Pirth, thanks,” I said with a laugh as I leaned on the top of Pirth’s head, the paws of my hands resting on the blindfold that took the place of what would’ve otherwise been Pirth’s eyes.
Wait, is he just blind and unable to use his eyes? Or he doesn’t have any whatsoever?
I asked Pirth this and he just laughed and said “I’ll tell you some other time, just enjoy the show for now, d’Alin.”
“Pirth,” I said over the sound of fireworks, “how can you enjoy it? You can’t even see it.”
“Well, I don’t need to see to hear these really unique sounds. Besides, I can still enjoy the energy of the crowd.”
As firework after firework went off in quick succession, I looked around at the crowd and not only felt the energy of excitement and anticipation for the new year felt, but saw many familiar faces as well.
Lit up by the array of lights peppering the night sky, I managed to see Tropius’ head peeking over the side of the railing of the landing, Torchic and Totodile (of course accompanied by a bottle of liquor in his hand) sharing a look with the towering pokemon as they watched the show.
I saw in the distant outskirts of Capim Town plainly colored orange fireworks light up all at once, their own sounds being covered up by the fireworks high in the sky, and caught in the corner of my eye Linoone snicker at the sight.
I looked and saw flying opposite of the landing Rain on the back of Cory, the two looking at the fireworks in wonder. At that moment I have to admit I was more focused on the shine of Cory’s feathers than the show occurring overhead.
I then saw Booker and Sneasel, and although my heat beat wildly at the sight of Sneasel, I quickly caught it under control, aided by the fact that I saw the two looking at one-another, both managing to see the light of the fireworks in each other’s eyes, catching the two in a moment that couldn’t possibly be had by what I had worried the Sneasel to be.
I turned away from them to give them their privacy and saw the members of Team Moonshine, the natives all enjoying the show with a bright discussion and Enny cheering on, saying with delight, “Ikey made those!” I saw Adrian looking at the lights and, although he was silent, I saw there was a slight smile on his face.
I turned to see Beau and the rest of Team Crusader all watching the show, and I managed ti catch a glimpse of a sliver of some unknown camaraderie lingering between. Charlotte, who I thought I could see holding Dav’s hand, looked at the show in sheer amazement.
My sight then shifted to Nida, who had a piece of noodle sticking out her mouth while she and the rest of Team Moxxie looked on with wonder, sans the loose noodle.
Finally, my sight shifted to Alphonse and Bethel, the latter standing upright against the railing while popping a liechi berry into her mouth, taking the fireworks above in. I saw Alphonse break from the sight and catch my eye, and I saw him mouth the words, “glad you could make it” before returning his own sight to the show in the sky.
Suddenly, the fireworks stopped, and a wave of silence overtook the crowd, and I used this moment to pop the pomeg berry into my mouth, the tasty juices exploding in a delightful wave of sweetness.
At last, a lone firework whizzed towards the heavens, the faint screech of its burning ignition breaking the silence.
Then, the final firework Ikarus made erupted into light.
Music: Explorers of Sky: Exploration Team
The explosion began as a small red light, then was quickly flanked by an array of smaller fireworks that each had their own small green explosion cascading all aroud the epicenter. I saw in the sky what I had seen throughout the day: a large green four-leaf clover and its red center, the badge and shining symbol of the Clover Guild.
“HAPPY NEW YEAR!” cried the crowd, everyone hugging and cheering and celebrating the end of the old and the start of the new, a time full of new chances, opportunities, and stories to be told.
I looked to my immediate left to see Althi paying full attention on the firework, the brilliant design in the sky of the Clover Guild reflected on her eyes that stared on with an admixture of wonder and surprise, with an unfortunate hint of worry that I dearly hoped would be wiped away soon.
I turned to my right to see Arimis looking at the sky, but then quickly glancing at me as she noticed me look at her. I saw reflected in her eyes myself, a vaporeon, no longer human but still myself, and in my own eyes – a mystic combination of light and dark blues – a look of anticipation and wonder that equaled hers. After that brief moment, we both turned back to see the Clover Guild badge in the night sky fade away as the New Year began.
An assortment of questions entered my mind. But one stuck out, one which was far removed from the questions of “what’s it like here”” and “what happens to us from here on out?” as this question had an answer I knew almost instantly.
I once again looked around and saw the cheers and celebrations for the new year, the undoubtedly colorful cast of members of the Guild celebrating with one another the new year and the unequaled potential it held, and I found the answer to the question of “have I found a place worth fighting for?”
As the light of the final firework faded away and the light of the stars returned to full brightness, the newly-born star that I had seen with Arimis but two nights ago shining brightly down upon us all, as I breathed in the cool air of the New Year and felt the winds of change blow against me, I gave myself the answer:
Of course the this place is worth fighting for; after all, even if you just arrived, d’Alin, doesn’t the Clover Guild feel just like home?
<- Ch. 5, The Stars, Like Dust --- Homepage --- Ch. 7, Antediluvian (Coming Soon!)->
Changelog:
Jan 5, 2025 - Updated formatting, added links.
Jan 15, 2025 - Fixed names/music.
Jan 18, 2025 - Fixed pokemon species.