Criminal Corral

A Moonshine/Crusader Crossover

Part of the Summer Festival Collaboration

The Summer Festival has officially kicked off. The locals wander through the festival grounds, surrounded by all the unique vendors and attractions the members of Clover Guild had prepared.

Situated near the outer bounds of the festival was a stand run by a Bellossom, Vileplume, and a Flareon. The siblings have spent the morning making and selling flower necklaces for passing Pokémon while their team leader, Adrian, has opted to lie around out of boredom.

“This necklace is beautiful!” An amazed Golem says as she examines the red and orange flower necklace sitting in her hands; before placing it on her stubby neck and leaving the stand.

“You’re welcome!” Bellossom calls out to the Golem.

Vileplume watches the Golem as she leaves with a slight bit of surprise. “I’m amazed she can wear it. It doesn’t even look like she has a neck.”

“It looked retarded on her,” Adrian scoffs.

“Well she’s happy and so am I,” Bellossom says as she slides twenty Poké from the counter and into her coin purse. “We’ve sold four of these necklaces already. I feel like we’re doing a good job.”

“It’d probably be quicker if you made them in advance rather than having them wait for you to assemble it in front of them.” Adrian scoffs.

“Dude, are you gonna actually help with anything or just sit there and whine?” Vileplume asks.

“What do you want me to do? I can’t work with my paws, you know.”

Vileplume shakes his head in frustration. “Why don’t you handle the next customer? I’m sure someone will come here soon.”

“Fine,” Adrian replies, rolling his eyes.

He picks himself up and walks to the front counter before jumping up to get a better view. After just a few minutes he sees a Jynx leading a Lopunny to the front counter. The Jynx points directly at Adrian and looks to her Lopunny companion. “Look, Lily! He’s almost as fluffy as you!”

Adrian snorts a small puff of smoke from his nostrils, it’s always the fluff they see first, but he manages to compose himself and speak to the two potential customers. “We’re selling necklaces here in case you didn’t notice.”

“Oh! That’s amazing!” The Lopunny says. “Can we get two for both of us?”

“Forty Poké,” Adrian says.

The Jynx reaches into a purse on her side and pulls out the coins. The Lopunny then asks Adrian, “So do we like… pick out the colors? Is that how this stand works?”

Adrian growls softly and glares at the two. “Yes. It said that on the sign.”

“Cute!” The Lopunny then turns to her friend. “What colors are you thinking of, girlie? I think pink would look great on you!”

“Eugh, no way!” The Jinx responds. “I’m thinking green would be better for me. In my opinion, you know.”

“We don’t have green,” Adrian states with an annoyed look.

The Jinx is seemingly surprised. “Well, what colors do you have then?”

“It’s. on. the. sign.”

The girls then went back and forth between each other for another five minutes before finally settling on colors for their necklaces. The two then stick around to watch Vileplume and Bellossom make their necklaces and barrage Adrian with the most trivial small talk he’d ever heard. His thoughts on their hair, the weather, the defense scarf he had tied around his foreleg, and the grumpy look on his face.

“Are you mad at us?” The Jynx asks with a grin.

“No.” Adrian lies.

“I feel like you’re mad at us,” the Jynx giggles

The Lopunny playfully smacks her friend on the side. “He’s gonna get mad if you keep asking him if he’s mad!”

“No he’s not!” The Jynx says.

Adrian growls softly as the two jabber about his mood for another minute.

“Hey, so can I ask you another question?” The Jynx asks.

Adrian groans. It’s the fourth time she’s asked him that. “Sure.”

“So like… How would you feel if you like… went out with her?”

“What the fu-”

“Jynx! You’re gonna embarrass me!” The Lopunny gasps.

“I don’t mean like a date!” The Jynx says. “Just like making friends with him!”

“I don't think I could date an eeveelution. You remember that last one we met? So rude.”

“Come on. A lot of them are nice Pokémon! Isn't that right, Flareon?”

“Sure,” Adrian answers, trying to suppress his rapidly growing frustration. He can feel it boiling up inside of him. He just has to stick it out for a little while longer. Vileplume and Bellossom are almost finished.

“He’s just not my type, girlie!” The Lopunny says. “I don’t date boys who are so fluffy.”

Suddenly, all the heat that had been building up inside of Adrian throughout the conversation bursts out from his body like a miniature blast seed. The Jynx and Lopunny are knocked back by the sudden heat wave. It wasn’t enough to hurt anybody or damage the stand, but Adrian quickly notices the smell of something burning. He turns to his right to see Bellossom and Vileplume standing a few meters away. Sitting on the grass between them are two scorched necklaces.

Bellossom steps away to go talk to the Jynx and Lopunny as Adrian and Vileplume lock eyes with each other. “Your first customers,” Vileplume says.

“Hey, you would’ve been just as pissed off as-”

“I don't light things on fire when I’m pissed off!” Vileplume interrupts.

“I can't help that! It's biology!”

“Well, maybe you should’ve stayed an Umbreon then. Bright rings were a lot easier to handle.”

“Hey, I chose this to help our team!”

“And look how helpful you’ve been today!”

“Quiet you two!” Bellossom yells back at them before turning around to continue speaking with the customers.

Adrian and Vileplume stayed silent, although they didn't stop glaring at each other. After several minutes of apologizing the two walked away, leaving Bellossom to deal with her teammates.

“Adrian. I don't even know what to say.”

“How am I supposed to tolerate that?” Adrian asks.

“Customer service,” Vileplume answers. “It's a very useful skill to have.”

“Will you shut the fuck up?” Adrian sneers.

“He has a point,” Bellossom says. “You need to learn to control yourself. You can be a nicer person. I know it.”

“Why would I? The people here are horrible.”

Vileplume chimes back in. “I don't see what you have against everyone. We're not that different from humans, you know.”

“That's the problem,” Adrian says.

The siblings let out a synchronous sigh. Vileplume looks up at Adrian. “Don't take this the wrong way man, but I think it would be best if you just left for the day.”

Vileplume’s suggestion comes as a slight surprise to Adrian. The two had always been making attempts to include him in whatever they were doing. It's the first time Vileplume has actually told him to remove himself from the equation.

Before he can say anything, Bellossom looks at her brother and nods in agreement. “I think he's right. We shouldn't have dragged you out here. We should’ve known you wouldn't like doing this.”

Bellossom had made a good point. Adrian knows he’d rather be spending his morning in the guild. Still, he realizes that he finally crossed the line with them. He knows he can't make it up to them either. If he stays, it's only a matter of time before he has another outburst.

Adrian turns away and leaves the stand without saying a word. He feels a sense of guilt weighing him down. Unsure of how to handle the feeling, he decides to shift his mind’s focus towards the one other thing in his mind. The Jynx and the Lopunny from the stand.

He looks up and down the pathway to see if he can spot them. Unfortunately, he can't spot them in the crowd of Pokémon exploring the festival grounds. It doesn't matter that much. He still remembers everything about them. Their irritating laughter, their pointless questions, the strange way the Jynx had tried to set up a date for the Lopunny. He’d never met them before so he can only assume she did it because of his appearance alone. Or perhaps it was some sort of game they had between each other. He imagines that they're probably out bothering more people at the festival.

They were like Enny in a strange way. Thank God he wasn't around. Adrian can't remember where he said he was going or what he was doing. At the very least, he isn't around to bother him today. Had he been at the stand, he almost certainly would've egged him on. Or perhaps he’d have tried to suggest he was in a relationship with Adrian already. Adrian would've ripped off his ribbons if he tried to do something like that. Enny was lucky he wasn't around to try it.

Adrian gets so lost in his anger and hatred that he fails to react to a Lombre stumbling into him. The bumbling moron trips over Adrian and they both fall to the ground, slightly dazed. The two start to pick themselves and Adrian looks over to the grass type beside him and says, “Watch where you’re walking you fucking idiot.”

The Lombre gives Adrian a thousand-yard stare as he tries to stand up straight with some difficulty. “I-I’m sorry… I’m just- uh…”

The Lombre seems to lose his train of thought The way he’s stuttering and staggering about makes Adrian wonder if he’s inebriated. It is very early in the day to be drinking, but it wouldn’t be too unrealistic. The Pokémon in Capim Town have done more ridiculous things in the past.

The Lombre continues to mumble incoherent nonsense. He seems to be unsure of where he is but that’s not Adrian’s problem. He doesn't know the guy, he's not part of the guild, and it's his fault for drinking this early. He figures there’s a possibility he could be a new human, disoriented from being brought into the Pokémon world like many are. That would be more of Lliam’s responsibility though. Adrian decides to leave the Lombre where he is and continues along his way. There are better things to do today.

---

The cool summer breeze ripples the light linen covering the many booths taking up the festival grounds outside Capim. The linen provided a nice coverage from the almost oppressive heat of the sun as it sat above the clearing.

To some Pokémon, it was almost too hot to go outside. To Beau, the light from the sun provided just what he needed to wake up. He’d been antsy all week at the prospect of attending a festival. He’d been to festivals before, but those vague memories were nothing more than just booths of food, and stalls to sell things.

Spending the past week hanging around the guild hall, he had eavesdropped on the conversations among his guildmates. Seemed like every conversation was about the festival today, and who’s running the booths. Ideas that made his imagination and hype for this festival skyrocket. A festival in the Pokémon world felt more, interactive, more entertaining, and more of a real event, rather than an overhyped flea market. Of course, he wanted to be involved with it.

It took Dav and Mako a bit of convincing, but after the trio discussed ideas, they couldn’t stop snickering at the thought of Dav using the art skills he picked up over the last few months to draw caricatures of the denizens of Capim, as well as some guildmembers who happened to come around.

After some preparation and setup, the day came around. Beau watched as Dav sat in front of an easel, a pencil in his hand, staring at the Pokémon sitting on the stool. Dav’s latest victim, Charlotte, the Gardevoir.

Beau recounts the group's first meeting with her at the tavern on their way to Capim. That was also when they met Dav. After they reached Capim Town, Dav and Charlotte remained in contact. Beau wasn’t surprised the moment she started hanging around the group on some of her off days. Dav has clearly taken an interest in her, even if he hasn’t actually said anything about it to his teammates.

Plus, it doesn’t take a psychic to see Dav visibly sweating in front of the easel, as Charlotte sits there, staring at him; her joy and whimsy slowly fading into a puzzling gaze.

Dav’s eyes dart up at her, then back to the easel, a half-baked sketch of a large-headed Pokémon sitting on the canvas.

“You don’t hav’ta to draw me if you don’t wanna, Dav,” Charlotte says, (her southern drawl still a mystery to Beau), followed by a downright infectious giggle.

“No… No, I can.” Dav stammers, his voice cracking as he tries to put the pencil on the canvas.

“Dude, you’ve been at this for like… ten minutes now, these aren’t even colored, it took you five for the last one,” Mako responds, his voice flat, almost irritated. Though he’s trying to hide his disdain.

“I can always wait until later,” Charlotte adds, giving him a soft smile before standing up.

Dav pauses for a moment, before letting out a sigh.

“That’s fine.” He says, “I can come back to it later, just an art block I promise.”

“More like a—” Mako’s sly line is interrupted by an audible THWAP on the back of his head from a disembodied, psychically constructed purple hand.

“Shut up.” Beau snaps at his friend.

Dav sets the canvas to the side, Mako passes him a blank one as Charlotte steps inside the tent with the group.

The four of them watch the Pokémon pass by the tent, waiting for someone to sit down on the stool to be drawn by their resident artist.

Beau looks at the small bag of money on the small table they put to the side. It’s surprisingly filled up over the first few hours of the festival. Some Pokémon were interested in the concept of what a “Caricature” was, which Beau had to explain.

He remembered his lines in his head “It’s an intentionally imperfect drawing focusing on your most prominent features. You’re supposed to look silly. Normally it’s done with friends or partners. It’s a souvenir of sorts.”

A few Pokémon had already come through and paid the reasonable 15 Poke for them to be drawn. Beau recounts one of their first customers, a Magmar who wasn’t too happy about how big Dav drew the lumps on its head until Beau frantically explained why the drawing was intentionally unflattering. It prevented a fire, but the Magmar didn’t warm up to the idea until seeing another Pokémon get one drawn.

“So, do ya’ll call people over to be drawn?” Charlotte asks, attempting to help pass the time by understanding this human tradition she’s still learning about.

“Nope!” Dav replies, brushing off pieces of grass that found their way onto the canvas. “Normally, they’ll come to us, sit down, and hand the money over. Then we’ll draw them, and give ‘em the drawing.”

“Interesting....” Charlotte muses. “But, if they don’t know what it is, shouldn’t we... maybe encourage other Pokémon to sit down?”

Team Crusader pauses for a second. They’d never even thought that some Pokémon wouldn’t even sit down cause they didn’t know what they were getting into. They were too focused on explaining what it was after the drawing was done.

“You... make a good point,” Mako says.

The trio, dumbfounded by their own stupidity, look outside the tent and see a Pokémon walking by that they’ve never seen before, it’s a brown creature, with a large head—the perfect candidate for a caricature.

“What about that guy?” Beau asks, manifesting a psychic hand to point at the Pokémon who now has their attention.

“He might like one,” Dav says, before standing up and cupping his hands around his beak.

“Hey you!” Dav says, catching the small brown Pokémon’s attention.

The Pokémon turns to the group and looks at them all with a confused look.

“You interested in a caricature?” Dav asks.

“What’s that?” The Pokémon speaks up, in a warbly, almost out-of-this-world voice.

“It’s a drawing of you!” Dav says. “But, we draw you like... funny.”

The Pokémon’s interest is piqued, as it walks up to the chair.

“Funny?” It asks.

“Yeah, It’s not flattering, but it is funny,” Dav says.

“And you do this to everyone who gets one?” the Pokémon inquires.

“Yep!” Beau adds. “Everyone is drawn silly.”

The mysterious Pokémon pauses for a second, before hopping on the chair.

“Sure, why not?” It says.

“Sounds good, it’ll be 15 Poké,” Dav says.

The Pokémon nods, pulling 15 Poke from... somewhere, and floating them over to Beau, who puts the coins in a bag.

Dav starts sketching the Pokémon, mumbling to himself, followed by a little bit of chuckling. Charlotte is leaning over his shoulder, watching intently as the Blaziken starts sketching out the Pokémon.

Beau wonders what is going on in Dav’s head, he’s focused, but with a big smile on his face. Whatever he’s laughing about, he’s keeping it to himself. But Beau remembers that he can just ask him.

Beau focuses for a moment on his friend, just like he did a few weeks ago. Before talking in his head.

“What’s so funny?” Beau asks, projecting his thoughts toward Dav telepathically.

For a moment, there’s silence, before Dav’s voice rings out in his mind.

“This drawing is going to be great. This dude’s head is freakin’ massive, so I’m giving him a super tiny body.”

Beau chuckles to himself.

“That’s hilarious, he does have a big head,” Beau responds, though before their conversation can continue, the Pokémon in the chair speaks up.

“My head’s not that big.”

The group turns to the Pokémon.

“Oh, you can read minds...” Dav says, “Sorry...”

The Pokémon glares at the two. “Kinda rude to talk about people behind their backs.” He responds.

“Your head is kinda big,” Mako responds. “That’s just the nature of these drawings. We said that they’re not flattering.”

The Pokémon continues to protest, saying, “I get that, but if it comes with you talking behind my back; I think I want my money back.”

“Whoa, whoa, hold on,” Beau says. “If you stick around and at least see the final drawing, I think you’ll like it!”

“Nope, I changed my mind, I want my money back.” The Pokémon hops down from the chair and walks to the coin bag, beginning to rifle through it.

“Hey, you can’t do that!” Dav says, standing up.

Before anyone can move, the Pokémon throws their hand out, and the small colored ends on their hands begin rapidly flashing an intricate pattern at the group.

Everyone but Beau and Charlotte starts mumbling to themselves as they stare at the Pokémon’s light show.

Beau attempts to lunge at the Pokémon but is pushed back by a psychic force. While Beau struggles to move forward, Charlotte has a chance to approach the team’s surprise attacker, Charlotte reels her hand back, and with a swift slap, knocks the Pokémon back, and the bag out of its hand.

The strange creature tumbles onto the grass in tandem with the bag of money. Beau goes to rush the Pokémon once more but is stopped again by an invisible force.

The mysterious thief holds its hand out again, pushing Beau back with what feels like a 90-mile-an-hour wind only he can feel, but Beau begins fighting against the Pokémon’s psychic power. He takes one step at a time, pushing against his force.

The Pokémon, knowing it can’t fight him for long, grabs the whole bag, and backs into the crowd. As soon as it’s out of sight, its hold on Beau is free, and he lunges face-first into the grass.

“He took our money!” Beau grumbles to himself, turning to Charlotte. “Do you know what Pokémon that was?”

Charlotte thinks for a moment before shaking her head.

“No, I’ve never seen a Pokémon like that before...” She says, a somber tone in her voice.

“I have to go after him,” Beau says, beginning to walk into the crowd. Before someone’s voice stops him.

“Go after who?”

The voice is coming from Dav, who gets up from his easel and approaches the group, seemingly free from whatever trance he was in.

“The guy who just stole all our money!” Beau says.

“What guy?” Mako asks, joining the group.

“You guys didn’t see him?” Charlotte asks.

Dav looks around the tent, trying to find whoever they are talking about. “No? Nobody’s been around here for a while.”

“I don’t know how you guys don’t remember the guy you just were sketching...” Beau says.

“I honestly don’t remember a thing...” Dav says.

Mako walks back to the group's tent and comes back holding the canvas.

“This sketch?” Mako asks, showing the group the sketch Dav was working on.

The group looks at the canvas, it’s a half-finished sketch of the mysterious thief. It’s got a super small body and the makings of a large head. Aside from the rough shapes, there’s not much else to go off of.

“I don’t remember sketching this,” Dav says.

Beau looks to Charlotte.

“Why don’t they remember?” He asks.

“I... don’t know...” Charlotte says, tapping a finger to her chin.

“He took the money! I’m going to try to find them. Maybe figure out why Dav and Mako don’t remember him, too.” Beau says. “You guys can handle yourselves while I'm gone right?”

Charlotte nods. “You can count on us.”

“Yeah, it’ll be business as usual,” Mako says.

“It’s already like nothing happened,” Dav adds. “So it’s like you’re taking a break.”

“Alright,” Beau says. “I’ll head out and see if we can’t find this... this... thief of ours, get our money back.”

Beau nods to his friends, as they watch him disappear into the crowd.

Now on his own, Beau tries recounting their encounter with the thief. From what he remembers, the thief had a large head. Small eyes, a tiny body, and his hands lit up... That’s about it.

A thought permeates his mind. “It’s weird. Despite how long I’ve been here, I’ve never seen a Pokémon of any kind like that. I don’t even have a name to go off of.”

Beau scans the crowds, The booths are busy, and groups of Pokémon crowded around the stalls made by the guild. Looking at one of the booths as he walks, he notices KFC performing some kind of service at a booth. The sign says “Aura Reading”. Beau can’t help but imagine what would happen if he walked up and got his aura read. He’s been to the guild hall a few times to see if the library has anything on auras since he can see them. His knowledge of Auras is nothing more than a glorified tracker for items inside dungeons, though. Some advice from KFC could help, but he’s found it hard to approach some of his guildmates. He knows he should change that, but he still feels like he’s not really “part of the guild” per se.

Scanning the crowds, a thought crosses his mind. This would be the perfect excuse to say hello to any guildmates he runs into today.

He brings his mind back to his tracking ability. Maybe using that could help find the thief. He has been handling the money all day. If he can just focus on it, he could find it!

As he walks, he focuses his mind on the bag, and the aura it gives off. Though, after a minute or two of nothing, he realizes this may be harder than he thought. Then again, he only senses items if they’re close by... Maybe he’ll pick it up later.

He continues to pass by more booths, peering to the side. He suddenly bumps head-first into another Pokémon. Stumbling back, he looks up at who he ran into, as he looks up he sees the face of a Lopunny in front of him. She’s leaning over, peering down at him.

“Omigosh... are you okay?!” The Lopunny asks, her voice a sickly sweet. To any average human, she sounds like a stereotypical valley girl.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was walking.” Beau replies.

“Nooo, I should be the one saying sorry!” The Lopunny giggles. “I should’ve been watching where I was going, You’re so tiny!”

“T...thanks?” Beau politely responds though he can’t help but wince at being called tiny... Something about that word... It's like he’s heard it way too many times before.

“What’re you doing wandering around by yourself anyways?” The Lopunny asks.

“I’m looking for a thief, someone stole money from our booth,” Beau replies.

“Ooh, you’re like a cute little detective!” The lopunny’s eyes light up.

There it is again. Little... cute. Beau takes a deep breath, composing himself. She’s not doing it to demean him, she’s not doing it to demean him...

“Yeah, I guess... Say, have you seen a short, brown Pokémon walking around? It’s got a big head and its hands flash colors.” Beau asks.

The Lopunny pauses. Beau can see the gears turning in her head as she taps the ground in a rhythm with her foot.

“Hmm... No... I don’t think so. I’ve been spending way too much time looking at the booths.” She giggles. “Though maybe my friend knows.”

As the Lopunny turns around, Beau leans past her to see a Jinx eyeballing one of the booths, before turning to see her friend trying to get her attention. The Jinx waddles over to join the conversation.

“You hittin’ on another Eeveelution girlie?” The Jinx asks. Her very similar, albeit lower, more strained voice rings out.

“Nawww.” The Lopunny laughs. “He’s asking about if we’ve seen a weird, big-headed Pokémon with lights on his fingers. Apparently he’s a thief!”

“Huh, neato!” The Jinx replies, taking a moment to recount their day. “Haven’t seen ‘em though, sorry.”

“That’s fine. Thanks anyway.” Beau says walking past them, he flashes a soft smile. “You two have a good one.”

“You have a good one too!” The Lopunny says. Her cheery voice is enough to give anyone a sugar rush.

As Beau walks away, he can hear the two of them talking to one another.

“He’s not as fluffy...” The Jinx teases the Lopunny.

“True... But we haven’t had good luck with eeveelutions...” The Lopunny reminds her friend.

“He was a lot nicer than the others though... you never know.” The Jinx says.

“Maybe if we see him again.” The Lopunny giggles.

Beau takes the small confidence boost in stride. Continuing down the path, weaving through the crowds. His eyes peeled, and his mind focused on finding the bag. He rounds a corner into the second set of booths. As he scans the crowds, he notices someone standing at the side of one of the unopened booths.

It’s one of his guildmates. Adrian... If Beau remembers right. He’s another eeveelution like him... a Flareon to be specific. One wearing a satchel and a white band around one of his forelegs. Eeveelutions are one of the few Pokémon Beau remembers. Maybe he knows something?

He goes to take a step forward until he stops partway. It occurred to Beau that he’s never actually spoken to Adrian at all.

Every time he’s gone into the guild, he’s seen Adrian. But, he’s one of the few guild members he hasn’t said hi to before. Something about him is just... stand-offish, and from what he’s heard around, Adrian’s got a reputation for constantly waking up on the wrong side of the bed.

But, If he’s going to get some kind of information, someone from the guild would be able to help him more than some random stranger. Even more, he’s seen Adrian and his team constantly choosing bounty-hunting jobs from the board. He’s the strongest candidate to least provide some kind of information. Plus, Beau does have the best excuse to talk to him.

Beau takes another deep breath, and approaches the Flareon, sitting on the side of the path. As he gets close, Adrian notices him. His eyes narrow, and Beau freezes in place. He feels like Adrian’s trying to focus on him, or maybe he’s trying to remember.

It’s a long, drawn-out, nerve-wracking silence for the Espeon. Until Adrian breaks the silence with the first words he’s ever spoken to him.

“Beau... right?” Adrian says.

“Yeah, that’s me,” Beau replies.

“What do you want? I’m kind of busy,” he asks, clearly doing nothing.

“I had a question for you,” Beau asks.

Adrian scoffs, smoke escaping from his mouth as he rolls his eyes.

“Not the first time I’ve heard that today... Fine... shoot.” Adrian responds.

“I’m wondering if you’ve seen a Pokémon around... I can’t seem to find him. And I need to.” Beau asks.

“You gonna tell me what he looks like? Or are you going to give me a backstory too?” Adrian responds, coldly.

“Yeah, I was getting to that.” Beau snaps back. “He’s small with a big head. He's brown and his fingers glow. He stole the money from my team’s booth, and I think he did somethin’ to my buddies. They started mumbling, once he flashed the lights on his hands, we all saw it, but for some reason, they didn’t remember this guy coming by at all. For some reason I still do.”

Adrian pauses for a second... It seems like he’s lost in thought. Beau waits patiently, sitting down to see if talking to this abrasive Flareon was a good idea.

“I know that Pokémon,” Adrian responds.

“You do?” Beau asks. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Yeah. It’s a Beheeyem. They’re not from around here.” Adrian states.

“Huh, alright then,” Beau says. “That solves one mystery...”

“You gonna go find them now?” Adrian asks, clearly trying to get the Espeon to leave.

Beau pauses for a moment, recounting the Pokémon’s hold on him, and how he couldn’t close any distance between the two of them. He’d need help. He scans the Flareon up and down and then he gets an idea, an ethereal hand manifesting, only to snap its fingers in realization, before fizzling away.

“I’d need your help to catch them. You guys do outlaw jobs a lot at the guild. You’d be perfect to help me!” Beau exclaims.

“No,” Adrian responds.

“Why not?” Beau asks.

“I’m trying to... I don't know... enjoy my weekend,” Adrian scoffs. “Finding a Pokémon capable of making me forget one of my days off doesn’t sound like fun.”

“But what if... it was?” Beau pleads. “Right now, you’re just hanging out alone, and I personally don’t like being alone. Plus... I do need the help. I can’t fight this guy on my own. But I’ve seen you around, and you can handle yourself enough to go into battle willingly. It’ll take... like 2 hours tops.”

“I prefer to be alone.”

“You have a team though,” Beau says. “You know that sometimes everyone needs a little help.” Beau retorts.

Adrian scowls at him. “Why don’t you just go ask security for the fair.”

“We have security?” Beau responds.

Beau takes a step back, realizing that the air around his guildmate just got a lot warmer.

“Yes... we have security. How did you not know?” Adrian says through gritted fangs.

“Sheesh, alright. I’ll go find security.” Beau responds, walking past the scowling Pokémon and further into the fair.

Some help Adrian was. At least he knows what he’s looking for now. A... what was it called? Bee Hee Ha? Something like that. Maybe the security guys would’ve seen him. Better yet, maybe they’ve caught him already!

He feels his fur stand up on his neck as he feels a wave of heat on his back and the stern voice of his guildmate.

“You’re a fucking idiot you know that? You’re going the wrong way.” Adrian says.

Beau turns around to see Adrian staring him down.

“S...sorry... I haven’t left my booth all morning.” Beau responds.

“Look, I’ll take you to the entrance, that’s where Serpes and Mutsel are running security. Once you tell them about the stupid thief, I can get back to my day.” Adrian continues. Beau can’t help but feel like he’s just being patronizing him.

“Alright... thanks...” Beau responds.

“Yeah, don’t mention it,” Adrian replies, turning around and walking to the entrance of the festival.

“Follow me, dumbass.” He adds.

Beau doesn’t respond, though he feels like he opened a can of worms he’s going to regret.

The two eeveelutions walk towards the front of the fair. Beau feels like the walk is taking eons... being that he’s caught following behind Adrian, the heat emanating from his body is enough to make any Pokémon feel like they’re stuck in a desert. To top it off, Adrian’s constant checks to see if Beau hasn’t wandered off make him feel like he picked the worst candidate for advice.

The two reach the front of the festival, Standing on one of the paths, the duo sees a familiar face. Serpes, the Serviper. Minding their own business. Or well, as much minding as one can do when you’re providing security for the fair, as his black cap signified.

Adrian walks right up to Serpes and immediately strikes up a conversation. Though his tone is cold, and rough, like he’s been since Beau met him.

“Hey Serpes,” Adrian says.

The Serviper turns to see the two Pokémon standing in front of him, he seems happy to have someone to talk to.

“Hello Adrian, and...” Serpes responds, his voice trailing off, as he doesn’t quite recognize the Espeon.

“I’ve sseen you around before, Espeon. But I can’t quite remember your name.” Serpes continues, a slightly embarrassed smile on his face.

“It’s Beau.” Beau responds, “I don’t think we’ve like... actually met before.”

“Probably, it seems we always misssss one another. You two enjoying the fair?” Serpes asks, his tone polite, quaint.

“I was trying to, but now I’m providing directions for him.” Adrian scoffs, gesturing to Beau, who now realizes that he’s supposed to be part of the conversation.

“Oh... Yeah. I was going to ask you Serpes... Have you seen a Beh Hay...” Beau trails off, he can’t seem to remember the Pokémon.

Before he can correct himself, he’s cut off by a heavy groan from Adrian, and another breeze of hot air that makes him and Serpes squint.

“It’s called Beheeyem,” Adrian growls. “He’s asking if you’ve seen one around, it stole money from his booth.”

Serpes adjusts his hat with the end of his tailblade, he looks out to the crowd, scanning for the Pokémon, or at least double checking to see if it’ll jog his memory.

“A Beheeyem?” Serpes responds. “I haven’t sssseen one today... They’re not common around here.”

“Alright,” Beau responds. “Hopefully he hasn’t skipped the fair yet.”

Adrian lets out a sigh of discontent, loud enough for the two to notice he’s irritated. Beau looks to Serpes and watches in confusion as Serpes cracks a sly grin, before responding to the two.

“Sssshouldn’t have... Otherwise, Mutsel or Perccccival would’ve caught him by now.” Serpes adds. “Maybe we’ll sssssee him later?”

“Please come find us if you do,” Beau responds. “Thanks for the help.”

“Coursssseee.” Serpes smiles. “What’re friendsssss for?”

Adrian lets out an audible groan. Causing the two to finally pay attention to him.

“What’ssss wrong?” Serpes asks.

“You, that’s what’sssss wrong,” Adrian responds, mocking Serpes’ speaking manner. “I get you’re a fucking snake, but you can’t just fucking hold your s’es like that. It’s fucking annoying.”

“You’re cccccertainly mad... can’t sssstop sssswearing can you?” Serpes drops his polite act, and his smile turns into a full sly grin. Beau can see it in his eyes. The Serviper is getting a rise out of Adrian, and it’s entertaining to him.

“I can use whatever words I like,” Adrian replies, his tone snappy, and irritable.

“Guys... please, let’s not—” Beau’s pleading for their little squabble is cut off as Serpes continues to rile up Adrian.

“And I can hold my ssssss’esssss for asssss long assssss I want. Doessssssssn’t matter what you sssssssay about it.” Serpes replies, intentionally picking his words to mess with the Flareon.

Adrian doesn’t respond, though the two of them can see that Adrian is brimming with vitriol and rage. Though Serpes’ smile is unceasing. Beau takes a step back, realizing that whatever is going to happen is going to be nasty. Though...

Adrian begins to lunge at Serpes before he feels his hind legs freeze in place. He glares behind him, seeing a purple aura surrounding his lower half. Beau’s face is disappointed, and a little confused at his actions.

“Let me go, Beau,” Adrian growls.

“Dude, you’re making a scene you know that? We should just go, he’s fucking with you.” Beau responds.

Serpes looks at the two of them bickering, his smile continues to widen.

“You should lisssten to your new partner buddy. No sssense in lossssing it over ssssomething sssso sssssmall” Serpes replies, trying his hardest not to laugh at his deliberate choice of words that accentuate his hissing.

Adrian lets out a roar as the two are knocked back by a large wave of heat. Adrian, now free of Beau’s psychic confines, lunges at the stunned Serviper at full force, Attempting to swipe at him. However, Serpes is lucid enough to knock him back with his Tailblade at the last second. The two of them exchange small scratches, though Adrian’s claw mark leaves a noticeable burn spot on Serpes.

Adrian flies back from Serpes’ retaliation and lands on his side next to Beau. Beau looks up at Serpes and sees him nursing his wound for a second, before locking eyes with Beau.

“Perhapssss that was a bit too much.” He winces, eyeing the burn on his side.

“I don’t know why you riled him up like that,” Beau responds. Adrian doesn’t move from where he lands, though the two notice he’s lucid.

“Fun isss fun, isn’t it?” Serpes laughs. “Like I ssaid, I’ll let you know if we run into your thief. Though Maybe someone needs to cool off?” He laughs again, amusing himself even more.

“Yeah, I'll handle it,” Beau says, walking over to Adrian as Serpes slithers away.

Beau pokes Adrian with his front paw but reels back as he feels Adrian's body is too hot, still cooling off from another outburst he had. Beau manifests one of his ethereal hands and pokes the lying Flareon.

“What the hell was that for?” Beau asks. “You just attack people when they make you angry?”

There’s a moment of silence before Adrian responds.

“He was annoying me,” Adrian says, coldly.

“He was intentionally pissing you off because he knew he was getting under your skin. Is your skin so thin that you just absolutely cannot handle a little joke?” Beau snaps.

“And what do you know about fucking jokes huh?” Adrian looks up at the Espeon. “You sit around singing Kumbaya with your stupid friends all day with no problems. People don’t make fun of you.”

“Nobody was making fun of you!” Beau snaps back. “It was banter, and you took it so seriously you attacked the guy because he hammed up his hissing!”

“He’s an asshole,” Adrian responds.

“Only because it was pissing you off. Do you always set off this easy?” Beau’s tone has completely shifted to chastising the Flareon.

Adrian glares, he goes to open his mouth to speak, but can’t seem to find whatever comeback he had built in his head.

Beau lets out a sigh, his voice defeated, and slightly tired. “I don’t think you realize how this looks to people er, mons, watching you. If you’re constantly pulling shit like this, it’s a wonder why you’re still in a team. I don’t mean to be rude, but like... come on man.”

Beau shakes his head and looks to another side of the fair.
“You got me to security, and helped me figure out who the thief was, but now, I’m two steps forward, and one step back. So, I’m gonna get back to hunting this guy. If you wanna like… lie on the ground, or go back to being alone, be my guest. It was nice meeting you man, see ya around.”

Beau starts walking down one of the side paths, in search of someone else who could help him.

“Alright…” Adrian grumbles. “You’re not handling this guy alone. Let me help you.”

Beau stops, turning to Adrian, watching as he stands up from his tiny fire-themed pity party.

“You sure? You’re not going to explode every time I ask a question? Cause I’m not going to put up with you being a jerk for the rest of the festival.” Beau responds, his tone now matching Adrian’s.

“I can keep my mouth shut long enough for you to get answers,” Adrian says. “I’m a better fighter than a talker anyway.”

“Sounds good to me, I won’t stop ya from chiming in, but if you do say somethin’ just please... don’t be a jerk. Last thing you want is having more people avoiding you in the guild right?” Beau’s mood seems to go up a bit, he chuckles to himself. “Took a lot of courage for me to ask you to help me out.”

“There’s no reason to be nervous,” Adrian says. “These people will embarrass themselves more than you anyways.”

“You’ve nearly exploded when people banter with you,” Beau says, “Pardon me for not wanting to be cooked, literally.”

He laughs to himself for a minute, the thought of being turned into a 3-course meal is humorous to him, though looking at Adrian, it’s clear he doesn’t get the humor in it.

“Alright.” Beau says, “Let’s go check this way out, maybe someone else has seen our thief. I still don’t know why I remember seeing the guy when everyone else didn’t....”

He starts heading down the path, Adrian steadily following him, until he catches up to his side, responding to Beau’s question.

“Some psychic bullshit I imagine. Look for dark types or psychic types. They’d be resistant to whatever it is.”

“Hmm...” Beau pauses, “Alright, let’s go find someone who’s resistant to psychic stuff!” Beau says.

The two round a corner, they’re at the edge of the stalls for this aisle, though there are a few trees lining the ends of the festival. Beau spots a Pokémon sitting underneath a tree outside of the influence of the stalls. He thinks he recognizes them. It’s another guildmember. A darker-looking Pokémon wearing a white scarf, and on her arm is a blue armband. Even more, she’s wearing some kind of yellow headdress...

Though as Beau focuses his vision on the Pokémon, it turns out the Headdress thing isn’t a piece of clothing at all. It’s another Pokémon. A small, yellow buglike creature.

“What about them?” Beau asks, gesturing with his head to the duo under the tree. “Isn’t one of them resistant to our thief?”

“Sneasel? Yeah, she would be.” Adrian says. “Go ask them, they might have an answer.”

“Sounds good! Let’s go.” Beau says, jogging over to the two Pokémon.

“Hey uh, Sneasel!” Beau says as he trots up to the Pokémon before taking a seat.

“Oh, hey Espeon.” Sneasel replies, “You’re with the guild right?”

“Yeah!” Beau replies. “I’ve been in the hall a couple times, mostly in the Library.”

“Mhm! Yeah, that’s where I remember you from.” Sneasel replies. “You have a name? Or am I just supposed to keep calling you Espeon?” Ending her sentence with a small laugh, like the idea of calling someone by their Pokémon name is humorous to her.

“Oh! Yeah, I’ve got a name. It’s Beau.” The Espeon replies.

“Cool. Nice to properly meet you, Beau. And hello, Adrian.” Sneasel replies, acknowledging Adrian’s presence in the group. “What can we do for you guys?”

Beau notices Booker peering over from the top of Sneasel’s head, listening in on the conversation.

“So, I don’t know if you guys know, but we’re running a booth here. Our money got stolen by a Pokémon I've never seen before.” Beau says. “I’m wonderin’ if you guys have seen a... uh...” Beau’s voice trails off as he tries to remember what the name of the Pokémon thief is.

“A Beeheyem,” Adrian says, reminding Beau.

“Ah! That Pokémon.” Sneasel replies. “Yeah, I’m not surprised you don’t know what one of those is. They’re not common.”

“So I’ve noticed,” Beau replies sheepishly, before continuing. “Apparently they can manipulate minds with the lights on their hands. I’m wondering if you guys have seen one around.”

Booker looks down to Sneasel, as if he wants to say something, but ultimately retreats to his hiding spot on top of her head.

“We might have seen something like that,” Sneasel says, running through the day in their head.

“I think we saw your thief out that way.” Sneasel points to the woods. “But I’m not sure.”

“Not sure?” Beau asks.

“Yeah, we didn’t actually see him.” Sneasel continues. “Only caught a glimpse of a figure in the woods. Isn’t that right Booker?” She looks up to the Pokémon on her head.

The small bee-like Pokémon nods its head in agreement, managing to utter only a single sentence.

“Y-yeah... That’s correct.” Booker says, his voice small, shaky almost.

“So, what did you see?” Beau asks.

“We went into the woods chasing our own thief.” Sneasel laughs, “Guess we’re doing overtime now. But yeah, going back to what we saw. I’ll be honest, we didn’t see much. But we did see a figure that lit up.”

“‘Lit up’?” Adrian restates.

“The figure itself was flashing colors. Right?” Sneasel looks up to Booker once more.

Booker nods again, before attempting to speak once more to the two eeveelutions he’s staring down.

“I-it wasn’t too clear, so we c-couldn’t see exactly who it was.” Booker manages to squeak out. “But we saw a figure flashing lights—”

“That’s all we need to know,” Adrian responds, interrupting Booker, immediately turning around. “Let’s get going, Beau.”

Beau, taken aback by Adrian’s sudden interest in his cause, begins to follow him.

“Thank you guys for the information,” Beau says.

“W-w-wait!” Booker calls out to the pair. “When we c-caught a glimpse of the figure in the woods. I sensed a-a-a strange aura. It’s not like anything I’ve felt before. Please be careful!”

Beau turns back to the duo and, Gives them a slight smile.

“Oh! That’ll be helpful. Thank you!” Beau responds, before joining Adrian, who’s already partway out of the fairgrounds.

Beau quickly jogs up to Adrian, slightly out of breath.

“Did you hear that?” Beau asks Adrian.

“Something about aura,” Adrian replies. “It’s not important to the job.”

“I mean, it is important isn’t it?” Beau asks. “Booker said that it’s nothing they’ve seen before. It could be our guy, but it could be something even more dangerous.”

“Look, I don’t really know what any of that aura stuff is, and I haven’t needed to know what it is for any other jobs.”

“From what I’ve read,” Beau replies. “Aura seems important, specifically with psychic guys, which is our thief. It’s also good for tracking!”

“Yeah, footprints work just as well for tracking,” Adrian responds.
“Maybe, but being able to psychically pinpoint where something is can help when we don’t even know what our thief’s footprints look like,” Beau replies, a grin on his face.

Adrian’s face remains stern, however. “You didn’t have psychic powers as a human and you managed just fine.”

“And I’ll manage even better when we factor in auras. Who’s to say that auras weren’t important in the human world too?” Beau asks.

“You saying auras existed there too?”

“As far as I've read, Auras could be a couple things, and I could be making this up, but this is how I’ve understood it.” Beau begins his theorizing. “Auras are like a window into our soul. Our essence. What makes us... us! When we got here, Lliam mentioned that he could tell we were humans by our aura. So who’s to say that auras can’t be useful in a situation like this?”

“We can’t see its aura ourselves. It’s not gonna be useful if we can’t take advantage of it.”

“But from what we can glean from it, you can take advantage of it,” Beau responds. “When tracking, for example, everyone leaves a trace of aura, especially on items. That’s how I found them. On top of that, if an aura can tell us if we’re human or not, maybe it can help us gauge the power of another Pokémon. Y’know, like the Aura Booker mentioned. They could be bad business, especially if it’s something we’ve never encountered before.” Beau replies.

“Can you see the Pokémon’s aura?” Adrian asks.

“...No,” Beau answers after a short pause.

“So it’s not going to help us,” Adrian remarks.

“But I can sense the money bag!” Beau responds. “That’ll help us find the guy!”

“You didn’t think to do that earlier?”

“Oh, I did!” Beau replies, slightly offended at Adrian’s insinuation of his unpreparedness. “I can only sense things when they’re close, though. I'm still learning.”

“You’re a terrible psychic,” Adrian replies with a cold, uncaring tone in his voice.

“Adrian I’ve been here for... like what… Two months?” Beau replies.

“You should’ve learned it by now, then,” Adrian says. “I figured out everything I needed to know as a Pokémon pretty fucking quick, and I’ve been doing rescues and hunting outlaws since I got here.”

“Did you do that in the Human world too?” Beau asks. “Since you’re so confident in your abilities and whatnot.”

“Not exactly,” Adrian answers. “I used to do regular hunting for one, and I was also going into the police academy. Those skills transfer over pretty well.”

“Really? You were gonna be a cop?” Beau asks, clearly invested in Adrian’s prior life.

“That was the plan,” Adrian says. “Then random chance fucks all that up and drops me here.”

“It can’t be all that bad being here right?” Beau responds. “You are technically a cop, hunting outlaws, bringing justice to the world. It’s slightly different, but it’s still the same in principle.”

“More or less. It’s not really the same here. Besides, I had ambitions beyond all that in my old life. I’m sure you had some dreams that are now completely worthless here.”

“Honestly, as far as I remember, I don’t know,” Beau responds. “I don’t remember all that much about my life.”

“So I’m right,” Adrian responds.

“Hang on, I'm not done,” Beau says. “I do remember some things.”

“Okay, and?”

“I remember, that I absolutely hated my life.” Beau continues. “I keep having these dreams of my old life. I’m sitting at a computer, typing something unimportant, and that’s all I do in them. I’m not even seeing them from the first person. I’m watching my human self doing them. Nothing ever changes, but I can tell, I can feel that every dream, it’s a different day.”

Adrian’s disrespect of Beau becomes very apparent on his face. “How lucky for you. You didn’t have a life just like the rest of the people in the guild. The thing that’s different from me and everyone else here is that I was actually starting to get my shit together. I didn’t hate my life.”

“Maybe I was too,” Beau responds. “Remember, I may have hated the situation I'm in; but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t trying to fix it. But I'm here now, we can make something new out of this world, right?”

“What do you think I’ve been trying to do here? You think I work at this guild just because I can? Obviously, I’m trying to make things work here.”

“You’re treating this like a job when it doesn’t have to be.” Beau continues. “You’re doing what you want, sure it’s not exactly how you wanted, but it seems like whatever drove you to pursue police work is missing when you hunt outlaws. You’re forcing yourself to hate your situation. I’ve only been here for a short bit, and I’m still learning new things, exploring new places, and making new connections. Like with you!”

“I don’t see what there is to like about any of this. There’s nothing for me here.”

“Was there anything for you in the human world? Outside of work?” Beau asks.

“I had plenty of hobbies there. What’s your point?”

“The way you describe it. You talk about how you had all these hobbies and opportunities.” Beau replies. “But, what I haven't heard you talk about, is friends or family. I overhear a lot when I’m in the guild, in the library. Even the few times I've sat in for meals. I’m always hearing our guildmembers talk about their previous lives like a lost loved one. Talking about family and friends, people they miss. But they’re not jaded. They’re not upset, constantly angry. They’re not physically exploding at the drop of a hat.”

Beau pauses for a second. There’s a hanging silence in the air. He glances over at Adrian, expecting some kind of jaded response, but doesn’t get any. So, he continues.

“Something tells me, and this isn’t me using my psychic powers or whatever... That this life is the exact same as you had back in the old world. You didn’t have a life outside of work. You’re just like us in that regard. For me though, I honestly believe that this life is a second chance. A chance to live the life we didn’t have. At least, that’s what my gut tells me. Do you see where I’m coming from? Or are you going to keep believing whatever keeps you from really enjoying yourself?”

Adrian stares straight ahead, his face expressionless. They both stop in front of the tree line, a dark path veering into the darkness of the woods.

“We’re here,” Adrian says.

“So we are,” Beau responds.

There’s a strange... silence between the two as they stare into the woods, facing the supposed lead from their fellow guild members.

Only one way to find out if it holds any water.

The two enter the woods, heading down the path. They quickly come to discover that the path has now faded away under their paws. Now finding themselves in the middle of the woods, the fairground disappears behind them. The sun's light peeks through the dense foliage of the trees. The quietness of the forest becomes somewhat serene. That is until it is shattered when the snapping of a tree branch, causing the duo to immediately swivel their heads in the direction of the sound.

“You hear that?” Beau asks.

“Yeah,” Adrian responds.

The two start making their way towards the rustling. Adrian slinks low to the ground, his body nearly scraping the forest floor. Beau follows in tandem, the two stalking their possible prey.

The two sneak up to a log where they both peer over. As they look over, they hone in on the sound of the rustling in the brush.

It’s a moment of silence. It almost feels like time stops. The only sound the two hear is the drops of leftover dew falling into the dank puddles on the forest floor.

Something rattles the trees. It sounds like someone dragging a sledgehammer against a Marimba, inter-spliced with the hissing of electrical wires that are desperately searching for ground. The dark green foliage of the dim forest lights up with near-blinding reds, blues, and pinks. The two eeveelutions seize up, squinting through the light.

Beau can feel something. A strong, overbearing presence that courses through his body. An overwhelming psychic energy that he can’t comprehend. Whatever this thing is, it’s close... Is it angry?

Beau doesn’t want to find out. Before he can think his legs are in full sprint the way they came back. Adrian is following close behind him, but Beau doesn’t dare look back; until they’re out of the woods that is.

The duo escapes the woods, both of them panting as they’re met with the warm sun once more, the darkness of the forest behind them.

“What the hell was that?!” Adrian’s voice was more rash and abrasive than normal. “You just ran!”

“That wasn’t our guy.” Beau pants, his breaths short, shallow, panicking. “I don’t know what that was.”

“What are you fucking retarded? It was lights and a sound.”

“No, it was more than that...” Beau replies. “Its aura. Just like Booker told us it was... I don’t know what that feeling I got was. But, I don’t want to find out. It’s not our guy.”

“Oh so now you’re a psychic master.” Adrian groans. “Whatever. You said it wasn’t our guy, but if we don’t find him I’m putting this on you.”

“We’ll keep asking around,” Beau responds. Starting to walk to the next portion of the fair they haven’t been to yet.

“We haven’t been this way... Maybe someone else has seen our thief.” Beau says.

“Sure. Maybe…” Adrian responds, clearly annoyed

The two make their slow walk to where the stage is being set up. There’s another silence between the two. Beau looks over to Adrian; he seems lost in thought or focused on the task at hand. It’s hard to tell with him.

Beau thinks for a moment, being pulled back to the conversation they had before the forest.

“You had a chance to mull over my question?” Beau asks.

“What question?” Adrian questions.

“Whether or not you think this life could be a second chance. And if you’re going to treat it like that.” Beau responds.

“We can’t go back,” Adrian responds coldly. “No point is seeing this as a second chance when it’s the only chance we have.”

“I feel like you’re misinterpreting my question,” Beau remarks. “You’re treating this like your old life.”

“What do you know about my old life?” Adrian sneers. “You don’t know me.”

“Maybe not, but I can glean enough about you from how you’re acting. You’re just going through the same motions. I’m sure you felt the exact same way when you were human.”

“Why do you care how I act, anyways? Isn’t me helping you enough?” Adrian barks at Beau.

“I dunno. I feel like we could be friends.” Beau says. “Seems like you could use some.”

“I don't need any friends from the guild,” Adrian replies. “And before you ask, my teammates are just partners assigned to me because Lliam said I was too antisocial. Nothing more to it than that.”

“You spend basically every day with your team though. If I lost Dav and Mako... hell I don't know what I’d do.” Beau says, a half-hearted chuckle trailing the end of his sentence.

“I mean… I guess Bellossom and Vileplume are okay to have around. They’re not bad at their jobs.” Adrian admits.

“But you don’t consider them like... friends?”

Adrian pauses for a moment. “They’re the only people in the guild I really understand. I still don’t like them, but I get why they are the way they are. As far as I’m concerned, they’re the only real people I’ve met in the guild.”

“Real people?” Beau’s head tilts in confusion. “What do you mean by that exactly?”

Adrian sighs, seemingly thinking of a way to explain his thoughts. “Look at some of our other guild members, like uh… Chespin. I don’t despise Chespin or anything but you’ve undoubtedly heard of his whole ‘cozy crusade’. His biggest problems in this world have been that his bed isn’t comfortable enough. I cannot begin to respect someone like him.”

“I guess I understand? I heard about Chespin’s obsession with coziness. I guess I can understand why he’s so obsessed. I personally wouldn’t want to sleep on hay either. But you have to at least admire the commitment. Passions come from all sorts of places, even if they’re not standard to how things would normally work. I’m sure Chespin has done a lot to help the guild right?” Beau replies.

“That’s not my point,” Adrian says. “He doesn’t have real problems. It’s all this fake bullshit. All this ‘hay is gay’ nonsense is meaningless. He’s also got Toge repeating it, too. Toge’s worse but he’s literally retarded so I can’t go that hard on him.”

“That could very well be a real problem to Chespin. Everyone struggles in different ways.” Beau responds. “I don’t know your struggles, and you don’t know mine. Who’s to say we’re both not going through our own shit right now?”

“Look, there are actual struggles like having your arm sawed off, and then there are struggles like not having enough pepperoni pizza so you have to eat cheese pizza instead. If you can’t see the difference there, you’ll never understand it.”

“You’re oversimplifying it. Some problems may have more weight than others. But all problems are real problems. There are physical problems, like y’know; getting your arm sawed off. But, there’s also mental problems, like lashing out at banter, or having an issue with everyone.”

Beau passes on a slightly smug glare at his companion for the day. “Yet, I don’t see anyone getting their arms cut off, or running out of pizza at this fair.”

“You haven’t seen anything at all,” Adrian says. “You don’t fucking know what actual problems are. You only do fetch quests with your little psychic radar so you probably haven’t realized this, but there are real people in this world who get hurt. People who lose a lot more than a little satchel of coins from their carnival stand, you know?”

“That’s a bold-faced lie and you know it. We all had lives before this.”

“And you don’t remember shit from it so you might as well not.” Adrian sneers.
“I remember, not all of it. But it’s coming back to me. I remember enough to know that my life wasn’t all sunshine and roses.” Beau snaps back. “You sit here and you act like the fact that we’re standing right here means that we didn’t leave behind full lives. Maybe I don’t have problems now, but I sure as hell did when I was human. I still think that counts for something.”

“The biggest problem you had as a human was working a nine-to-five job.”

“The biggest problem I had wasn’t the nine-to-five job. It was that despite all the hard work I put in, a nine-to-five wasn’t enough to get me out of the cycle that I lived in. I have spent the last few weeks plagued by dreams of my previous life, everything slowly coming together. And I may not remember everything, but what I do remember is this: I lived a very lonely life. I worked my ass off to try and escape that life, and I had no support. No one to help me work through this scenario. Constant ridicule and criticism from family—”

“Yeah, my dad beat me with a fucking broomstick. You had some parents who weren’t very nice to you. Tell me more.”

Beau stops walking, giving Adrian a look that blends shock, confusion, and disappointment blended together.

“Do you want me to finish what I was saying? Or is this just a fucking joke to you?”

“Oh go on. I’m interested,” he says, mockingly

“I don’t believe that for a fucking second. But whatever.” Beau responds, taking a breath before continuing. “I was an accident. And the moment my siblings were born I played both second fiddle and third parent. I didn't bond with my family. I was their errand boy, their chore monkey. Whatever. I didn’t grow up with any kind of real familial bond or connection. Just constant criticisms, ‘Oh don’t wear that,’ ‘Don’t hang out with this person,’ ‘If you’re not busy, get me these things,’ ‘If you’re not making money then why even bother with this hobby’.”

Beau’s eyes narrow as he stares down Adrian. Adrian can see that for once as Beau’s voice begins to rise and his speech tightens, psychic energy seems to leak from his eyes.

“Anything I wanted to do, anyone I wanted to hang out with, any hobby I wanted to pursue had to be vetted by my family. That was my childhood. I had no autonomy. Now, I'm not bound by that anymore. But there’s still a voice in my head making me second guess literally every decision I make. Even when I don’t live in the same universe I grew up in. So yeah. Maybe I don’t have problems like you think now, but I’d damn well choose chasing a stupid fucking alien than living in my parent's fucking basement.”

Adrian stares at Beau after he finishes his rant. It seems as if there’s a look of surprise on his face. Beau watches the gears turn in his head, the same silence he had before they entered the woods felt a little different now.

Beau takes another breath, seemingly out of energy from the rant. “Look, man. I thought this was going to be fun. Part of me was kind of excited to hang out with y’know; an eeveelution. We’re similar. But shit man, you’re just... you’re a fucking douchebag. Tap out. I don’t care. I’ll find the guy, try to talk to him, maybe get my money back.”

Beau turns away from Adrian, walking towards the stage.

“Alright. I’m sorry man.”

Beau stops once more, turning around to Adrian.

“Are ya sayin’ that? Or are you just pretending?”

“Those are real problems. I’m not gonna rip into you for those.” Adrian says, the usual bitterness in his voice gone for once.

“Like ya said, man, I don’t have them anymore; so does it really matter?” Beau responds.

Adrian answers with a sigh, “Not for you I guess.”

“Guess not, but some of that sticks still. Those problems, whether they’re there or not, still linger. I’m sure you know that right?”

“More than you know,” Adrian says. “Let’s go find this goddamn bandit so I can go home now.”

“Fine by me,” Beau responds. “I’m doing it with or without you anyway.”

The two work their way towards the stage. They notice that the stage is being set up for some kind of contest. The hustle and bustle of the stage is a little too much for either of them to barge in and start asking questions. But as they’re both about to turn away, a voice calls out to them.

“H-h-hey! Wait up!” The voice says.

The two look to see Togetic donned in a blue scarf with a green badge attached to the kerchief. As the Pokémon hovers over to the duo, Beau notices the clear expression of constant nervousness on his face, as well as the noticeable bandage above on his forehead.

“W-w-what are you t-t-two up to?” He asks.

“We’re chasing down a thief,” Beau responds. “He stole some money from my stand. He’s a uh... Beeheeya—”

“Beheeyem.” Adrian cuts in. “We searched the woods but couldn’t find shit. Just some ‘dangerous aura’ Beau felt. Plus some lights coming from whatever it was. Anyways, have you seen him around, Toge?”

Togetic shakes his head in disapproval.

“N-n-no. I haven’t,” he responds, his voice a constant quivering. “T-t-thankfully I’m not g-going into the woods. B-b-but, I d-d-do have something to a-a-ask you.”

“What is it?” Beau responds.

“Do y-y-y-you t-t-t-two want to join our c-c-c-c-cuteness competition? It’s open to o-o-only guildmembers.”

“It sounds... interesting... bu—”

“Fuck no.” Adrian interrupts.

“O-oh,” Toge responds, his voice shifts down to a more melancholic tone, though the stutter remains.

“Sorry Toge,” Beau replies. “We’re kinda busy, we’re still tracking that thief down.”

“And I wouldn’t join even if I wasn’t busy,” Adrian adds. “Just please make sure you don’t tell Enny about this.”

Toge nods in response. “I-I won’t, I w-want to k-keep the competition w-wholesome after a-all.”

“That’s smart.” Adrian nods. “Listen, we’ll tell any guild members we run into about the competition, hopefully, that’ll make things easier for you.”

“Th-that’s kind of y-you. Th-thanks.” Toge responds, before hovering past the duo on his way to recruit more guild members.

“See ya around!” Beau shouts back to the Togetic, who turns around in response, a sheepish smile on his face, before turning away to focus on his own plans.

The two turn away to the next section of the fair they haven’t been to yet. There’s still more festival ground to cover.

As the two walk away from the stage, Beau turns to Adrian.

“Who’s Enny?”

Adrian turns to look at Beau. “You lucky motherfucker.”

Beau doesn’t dare continue his line of questioning as the two round the corner to the back of the festival lot.

As the two are walking the outskirts of the festival, keeping their eyes open for anyone they might recognize.

“So… You really hate your family a lot.”

Beau’s surprised when the silence is broken by Adrian’s voice for the first time.

Beau lets out a small chuckle to himself before replying to Adrian. “You wanna know the funny thing?”

Beau looks back to the Flareon.

“I actually don’t that much. It’s... weird. They’ve basically been there, but not actually there my whole life. I resent a lot of how they raised me. When I did eventually move out, it was cause I had to rely on others who weren’t in my family. Your perspective shifts when you’re not around those people. And it was freeing. I still had nightmares though, every so often I'd dream I woke up in my bed back home. Those were... those were awful... But... I don’t think much about them anymore.”

“I guess that’s a good thing,” Adrian says.

“Eh, part of me still misses them,” Beau responds. “But I’m more focused on the here and now. This whole new world is mine to explore, and I intend to live to my fullest. But you already knew that.”

Beau waits a moment, before saying something again.

“What about you?” Beau says. “You hate your family?”

Adrian shifts his gaze to the ground, seemingly collecting his thoughts. He closes his eyes and exhales. “No… not really.”

“Gotcha,” Beau responds.

“Hold the fuck up, there’s more to it. Look, part of me really does hate them. My dad was a major asshole growing up. I wasn’t joking about that broomstick thing. When I told him I was getting an apartment and moving out, he did try to reconcile with me. Even after I left he was still calling me a lot and coming over to talk, but I just didn’t wanna deal with him anymore.”

Beau nods, “He sounds like a piece of work.”

“He’s got my anger tenfold, but I do think he cared a bit about us. My sister and I.”

“You have siblings too?” Beau asks.

“Just a sister.”

Beau turns his head, glancing at him while the two of them walk.

“Is there any part of you that misses them?”

“Sort of,” he says. “I used to have dreams about them but I- uh… just kinda stopped after a while.”

“That’s good,” Beau replies.

Adrian is surprised by the feeling of a hand giving him a gentle pat on the back.

“Remembering stuff from before, it’s hard. I know that I'm only remembering some of my life. To be honest, I’m kind of scared of what else I might remember.”

Beau pauses for a moment an awkward silence. It’s like he’s trying to find a way to word what he’s going to say next. “Is it... weird, to say this whole thing... just kinda feels right? Like I’m meant to be here, like this?”

“No,” Adrian answers. “I got that feeling around my second week in this world. That was actually before I joined the guild. Was doing freelance rescue work for a while there. Some of the people in those villages used to recognize me actually. I only joined the guild because the pay for rescue jobs is kinda shit compared to what they were offering. Figured out they were all humans just a little bit before I showed up.”

Beau lets out a sigh of relief. “Oh man, I'm glad I'm not the only one. Do you know how long I was holding onto that thought without telling someone? Least, someone outside my team. I felt like I was going to get the weirdest stares from people in the guild for thinking something like that.”

“I have no fucking clue what they’d say if you told them,” Adrian answers.

“I’m not going to tell anyone else.” Beau laughs. “I don’t know everyone well enough to open up about all those things. Plus I get this feeling that some people just don’t feel the same way. I’m surprised you do though.”

“It’s normal... I guess. Part of adapting.” Adrian responds.

“I suppose so.”

The two continue to walk the outskirts of the fair until Beau notices another group of Pokémon walking towards them. They look like they’re in the midst of a conversation. Beau does recognize these Pokémon from the guild. Gus, the Oshawott he sees always sitting at the dock during his walks back from the guild hall in the evening. He wanted to go out and talk to him, but he never got the courage. He heard from other members that Gus likes to be alone.

The other Pokémon he’s talking to is Nick, He’s noticed him come in a few times while he was reading in the library. He’s easy to spot since the library isn’t used by most of the guild; on top of that, the only other Vulpix in the guild is Kiyo, but it’s easy to tell them apart since Nick is a dark shade of brownish-red.

The third Pokémon, A Shinx wearing a green bandana is listening in on the conversation, that’s Amelia. Beau’s spoken to her maybe once. But that was when he was exchanging pleasantries with Nick.

Beau looks to the group, manifesting an ethereal hand to wave them down. The two groups slow down until they meet.

“Hey Nick, Amelia, Gus. How’re you guys?” Beau asks.

“Hello,” Gus responds.

“Hello...” Nick says, pausing for a second before remembering the name of the Espeon. “Beau, right?”

“Yeah, that’s me,” Beau responds. “Sorry to stop you guys, but I had something to ask the three of you. You guys haven’t happened to see a Pokémon running about right? It’s a Beheeyem.”

”Fucking finally…” Adrian mutters.

Beau shoots Adrian a stiff glance before turning back to the group.

“Have you seen him? He stole something from me.”

The trio pauses for a moment, glancing at one another before Nick responds.

“I believe we did see one,” Nick replies. “We saw a Beheeyem by the fireworks launch site, it looked like they were on their way out of the fairgrounds. Though I could not tell you why they were that far out from the fair.”

“That’s awesome to hear,” Beau replies, his ears perking up as he listens intently to Nick's words. “We’ve spent just about all day looking for him, and we thought we found him in the woods. But instead... I don’t know what we found, whatever it was, it was dangerous.”

“Glad we could help.” Nick replies, “We’ll stay away from that area then. Be seeing you.”

Nick’s trio begins to walk away. Until Adrian turns around to the group, calling out to them.

“Hey, hold up a sec,” Adrian says.

The trio stops and turns around.

“What’s up?” Gus asks.

“Toge wants us to let everyone know there’s a ‘cuteness competition’ going on today. Go there if you wanna embarrass yourself.”

“That sounds like fun!” Amelia replies, turning to the other two. “We haven’t done anything during this festival, and it beats waiting around for fireworks all day, we should go!”

“Just to watch?” Nick asks.

“No, we should join it!” Amelia replies, a smile growing across her face.

“Join it?” Nick says. “I don’t know about that.”

“Oh come on, it’ll be fun!” Amelia replies, “We could do it together!”

Nick pauses for a moment, contemplating the idea of joining to win with Amelia.

“Alright, I’ll participate,” Nick replies, an air of smugness in his voice. “It does indeed sound like fun, I wouldn’t mind showing everyone what we’re capable of.”

“I’m not doing it,” Gus says, breaking through the conversation.

“Why not?” Amelia replies.

“Because it sounds degrading. I’m not cute, so I’m not doing it. But I guess I could watch.”

“It could be fun though!” Amelia says.

“No, I’m not doing it. Like I said, I’d watch.” Gus remarks.

“You’ll have time to change your mind on the way,” Amelia smirks. “Thanks for the tip, Adrian.”

“Yeah, no problem,” Adrian responds.

The trio begin their walk to the stage where Toge’s competition is being held, leaving Beau and Adrian to finally catch their thief.

The duo turn around and pick up their pace, jogging to the fireworks launching site.

The two of them finally make their way to the fireworks launch site. They scan the area from the top of the hill, hoping to put an end to their wild Pokémon chase.

“You see him?” Beau asks.

“No... I don’t.” Adrian responds.

Beau pauses for a second, thinking about their journey so far until something clicks in his head. The bag! He can use the bag to track their thief!

Beau focuses on the money bag, trying to lock onto its aura. Then, he feels a pulse, a shiver down his spine. He’s caught it.

“I found him!” Beau says, turning to Adrian.

“You found him?” Adrian asks.

“Yep, psychic radar? Remember?” Beau smirks.

Adrian rolls his eyes, “Lead the way.”

The two run off in the direction Beau senses, Following his psychic intuition of where the money bag is. The two bound down the hill, making their way to the crossroads outside of the fairgrounds, stopping at the crossroads.

The two look around until Beau spots the Theif partway down the road leading back into Capim.

“There he is!” Beau shouts, breaking into a full sprint towards the thief.

The Beheeyem is fast, but Beau is faster. Adrian is keeping up behind him, his determination to end this stupid escapade fueling his sprint.

The two gain on the Pokémon, whose walk turns into a run as he notices the two eeveelutions gaining on him.

Beau goes to pounce on the Pokémon but is thrown to the side in the grass with a blast of psychic energy from the wannabe bandit.

Adrian rushes directly at the Beeheyem. He snarls, fire escaping the sides of his mouth as he rears his head back to bite down on the Bandit. However, the bandit quickly holds its hand out, and the lights begin to illuminate. Adrian’s eyes widen, then quickly close as he dives to the side, hitting the ground and sliding on his back.

Beau stands back up, grabs a rock from the ground with his psychic powers, and flings it at the Beheeyem, who’s preoccupied with Adrian on the ground. It hits him on the back of the head, causing him to stumble forward, dropping the bag of money. He turns his attention to Beau, using his now free hand to grab Beau, pulling the Espeon towards him.

Beau’s claws dig into the ground, but the force is too strong, Beau continues to slide towards the Beheeyem, who rears his hand back, his fingers closing, priming himself for a mighty punch.

Adrian seizes the chance to attack, using his mouth of fire to clamp down on the bandit’s arm. The Pokémon squeals in pain, letting go of Beau, and giving him the ability to move. He grabs the Beheeyem with his mind, pinning him to the ground.

Adrian lets go of the bandit, noticing the bag of money lying next to him. He quickly kicks it away. However, as he turns his attention back to the Espeon, the two are knocked back by a shockwave; sending the both of them tumbling down the road.

The Beheeyem focuses his attention on Adrian, his eyes light up, and as his hands rise towards him, they illuminate as well. However, they don’t flash like Beau has seen him do before. He’s not altering Adrian’s memories. He’s charging an attack.

An aura of psychic energy grows between his hands, its size ballooning. As Beau traces the Beheeyem’s line of fire, he sees Adrian struggling to stand up. Whatever this next attack is, it’s going to put Adrian out of commission. Beau puts his paws to the ground, thrusting himself up, and he charges.

Adrian groans, the last fall had him tumble one too many times. One of his legs feels numb in a not-so-pleasant way. He looks to see the Psychic energy of Beheeyem’s blast staring him down.

As the light begins to get brighter, a figure eclipses the light, Adrian can’t tell what it is until he sees Beau’s body tumble across the road, wisps of purple steaming from his fur.

Adrian ignores the pain in his leg, pulling himself onto his paws, He charges once more at the Beheeyem, He feels himself get warmer, the air around him catching fire. The heat increases, and he can see flames start to cover his legs. The fire continues to spread, engulfing Adrian in flames. A dark silhouette of the Flareon amidst a ball of fire. He charges headfirst into the Pokémon, using his head as a battering ram into Beheeyem’s face.

The would-be thief tumbles back, fire catching the ground as embers from Adrian’s attack lingers on the alien-like creature.

The Flareon tumbles along the ground again; the fire withering away. Seemingly unscathed from the flame’s influence. The only recompense of the attack Adrian felt was the growing migraine in his head, most likely from him bashing his skull against the Beheeyem at full force.

He walks up to the Beheeyem, stumbling with each step he takes, the pain in his leg coming back to him. The bandit raises his hand, though the lights do not illuminate.

“I surrender.” The Pokémon says, his breaths weak, defeated.

Adrian ignores the broken Beheeyem, picking up the satchel of coins from earlier and returning to check on Beau.

Beau’s lying on the ground, catching his breath, as he sees Adrian walk over to him, he stands up with a groan. He shakes himself off before addressing Adrian as he throws the bag onto the ground in front of him.

“Thanks for getting that,” Beau says, his voice wincing in pain. “That was more intense than I would’ve liked.”

“Wouldn’t have been if you didn’t let yourself get shot at the end.”

“And let you take an entire psychic blast? I don’t think so. I don’t do that to friends. Plus, I have psychic powers, I’m pretty sure they cancel out or something.” Beau replies.

“Clearly not,” Adrian says.

“Oh well, live and learn right?” Beau laughs. “Gotta admit it was pretty cool.”

A psychic aura grabs the bag, as he walks over to the Beheeyem.

“What is your deal man?” Beau asks.

“You were mocking me.” The Beheeyem responds. “I’m not going to take that.”

“The point of the booth is to do literally that,” Beau responds. “I spent all day chasing you around and we beat each other up because you’re a little insecure. That’s just petty.”

“It’s called principle!” The Beheeyem argues.

“That doesn’t mean anything when you’re taking all of our hard-earned money. You could’ve literally just waited to see the drawing and then asked for a refund, man. I’m sure we would’ve obliged.”

“Hold up, what the fuck was this booth?” Adrian asks.

“We were drawing caricatures,” Beau responds.

“So is this guy fuckin’ retarded or something?”

“Hey, I don’t like backtalk!” The Beheeyem sits up finally, gaining enough energy to brush itself off. “I just wanted my money back.”

“It was fifteen Poke, right?“ Beau asks.

The Beheeyem nods, and Beau opens the moneybag, pulling out 15 coins and handing them to the Beheeyem.

“There. For future reference, please don’t do something so stupid again. Use your words.”

The Beheeyem looks at the money in his hands, nods to Beau, and hurriedly runs off

“I won’t!”

Beau closes up the money bag, and turns around, starting his walk back to the fairgrounds.

Adrian catches up with Beau. “You’re paying him for trying to kill us?”

“I’m giving him his refund.”

“You’re just as retarded as he is.”

“Maybe, but the guy just wanted his money back, and now I have it. All’s well that ends well.” Beau replies.

The two walk back into the fair. Adrian follows behind Beau, seemingly not disbanding their temporary team. Beau rounds the corner to their booth. He catches the gaze of Charlotte who waves the duo down. The group walks up to the tent. It looks just as empty as it was when Beau left, though a small pile of coins sits where the moneybag was this morning.

“You look awful,” Dav says with a chuckle.

Beau throws the bag onto the table, it slides across and into the pile of coins, back where it belongs.

“Eh, been better.” Beau laughs. “Found the guy finally. But he didn’t give up the cash without a fight.”

“Looks like it,” Mako replies, approaching the group from his position in the back of the tent. “Who’s that?”

“This?” Beau looks back to Adrian. “It’s Adrian, from the guild, we’ve seen him before.”

“Oh, I remember him. Yeah. How’re ya, dude?” Dav asks.

“Uh… fine,” Adrian says. He doesn’t seem to recognize the Blaziken whatsoever.
“Good to hear!” Dav responds, giving him a cheery smile.

“Do ya’ll need anything?” Charlotte butts into the conversation, scanning the two up and down. “Ya look like ya fell off a cliff.”

“Oh, an Oran Berry would be great,” Beau responds.

“I’ll getcha both one.” Charlotte gives the two of them a smile, before heading out of the tent and towards the more food-centric stands.

“So, tell me all about it,” Dav says putting his attention on the two eeveelutions.

“I want to hear as well,” Mako adds.

“Not much to say.” Beau recounts his day. “I ran into Adrian, we talked to some guildmembers, found the guy, beat him up, and got the money back.”

“Nice. good to see you back. I was worried about ya.” Mako says.

“Same here,” Dav adds. “When it was taking you all day we started theorizing what happened to you.”

“You guys have nothing to worry about.” Beau chuckles. “I had Adrian to help, thankfully, I don’t think I could’ve beat the guy on my own.”

“For all his psychic powers, he didn’t have the most basic critical thinking ability. Still probably would’ve killed Beau, though.”

“You have no faith in me.” Beau laughs. “But yeah, we’re fine.”

“Good to hear.” Dav laughs. “Does this mean what I think it means?” He turns to Mako.

Mako pauses for a moment, before nodding. “Yeah, we could totally take some outlaw jobs now if you really held your own Beau.”

“I think I did,” Beau says, taking a prideful stance.

“Yeah, he was pretty alright.” Adrian agrees.

“Then it’s settled, we’ll start taking outlaw jobs now.” Mako nods.

Dav does an air fist pump, clearly excited about the prospect of getting into some actual danger.

“Heck yeah, that’s gonna be awesome.”

As the trio starts celebrating their victory, Adrian watches on. Seeing them all happy together invokes a strange feeling in him. It makes him feel distant in a way. He doesn’t really belong here; like he’s interrupting. The thought of leaving crosses his mind. His job is done. He can go home now.

His contemplation is cut short when he sees a shadow behind him. Turning his head, he sees Charlotte set down an Oran berry on the ground for him.

“Oh… thanks,” Adrian says as he starts nibbling at the berry.

Charlotte holds the berry out for Beau, who turns away from the celebration to take it from her, snacking on it while the group takes a breather. Adrian finishes up his berry and looks at them one last time.

“I guess I’ll be heading back to the guild now.”

Dav looks to Adrian, a confused expression across his face. “Wha? No, you should stay man! You helped us get our money back! At least hang out a little bit!”

“I don’t want to get in the way of your booth,” Adrian remarks.

“You’re not!” Dav responds.

“We’re basically done here,” Mako adds.

“Just hanging out until the concert starts,” Dav says.

“Well uh… I don’t really know you guys.”

“That’s what making friends is for!” Dav says. “Anyone who helped my brother is cool in my book,” Dav replies, a cheery tone in his voice.

“Your brother?” Adrian asks, confused.
“Well, not of flesh and blood.” Beau laughs.

“He’s basically my brother,” Dav places a hand on Beau’s head, ruffling his fur. “So is Mako!” Dav adds.

“Yeah, that’s true.” Mako laughs.

“Y’know, we knew each other before all this,” Beau adds, finishing the last of his Oran Berry.

“Your whole friend group got dragged here?”

“Whole friend group? No, not at all. Just the two people I honestly couldn’t live without.” Beau says, his expression is more sheepish now. “These guys are my best friends, basically family.”

“You’re luckier than most people in the guild. Most of them were lonely sacks of shit.”

“Oh, we know how that feels,” Dav responds. “But it’s your friends that help keep you grounded.”

Beau nods. “I don’t know how many times I’ve almost lost my marbles and Dav and Mako had to drag me out of that hole.”

“Almost too many times.” Mako laughs.

“Yeah yeah yeah,” Beau responds.

“But hey, that’s what friends are for.” Dav continues. “You get down, and real friends. They’ll pick you back up, every single time. It doesn’t matter if you learn this time, or learn the 100th time after. Those people who stick by you and help ya out; they’re worth keeping.”

“Yeah. Guess so. I was always more self-reliant as a human personally.”

“You didn’t have to be as a human, who says you still need to be as a Pokémon?” Dav points out. “A mind without structure, without others to help it, is a mind that isn’t healthy. ‘Least, that’s what I believe.”

“Yeah well… I do have a team and they were running a stand. Nice meeting you all I guess.” Adrian says as he starts to walk away.

Dav calls out to Adrian. “Before ya go, can we at least send ya back with a drawing?”

Adrian turns around. “A what?”

“Y’know, a caricature!” Dav turns to Beau; “You did tell him that’s what the stand was about right?”

Beau shrugs his shoulders the best an Espeon could.

“Kinda...”

“Yeah I remember,” Adrian recalls. “I… guess they wouldn’t be mad if I was gone a little longer.”

Dav gestures to the stool. “Jump up then! It won’t take that long.”

“Alright then.”

Adrian climbs up onto the stool and takes a seat. Dav looks to his latest, and final subject of the day. Charlotte walks up to Dav, placing a canvas on his easel. Adrian remains stone-faced as Dav starts sketching, muttering to himself. Adrian can’t quite make out what Dav’s saying, all he can hear is the snickering of Dav and a little bit of laughing from Beau. Are they talking to each other? What are they saying?

“Whatever, doesn’t matter,” Adrian thinks to himself. As he watches Dav quickly draw on the canvas. He trades out a makeshift pencil for a brush of some kind and starts working on what Adrian would assume is finishing the drawing. After what felt like an hour in his mind. Dav nods at the canvas.

“Alright, we’re done!” Dav says, a tinge of pride in his voice.

“Lemme see it,” Adrian says.

Dav spins the canvas around, and Adrian takes a sharp breath as he sees his caricature. What he’s been reduced to on the canvas is basically a ball of fluff, with a very detailed grimace.

In his mind, he’s screaming, “The fucking fluff. They all see the fucking fluff now!” On the outside, however, Adrian composes himself. The detailed grimace, he can’t help but at least chuckle at that.

“You’re a pretty alright artist.”

“Thanks! I pride myself in my work.” Dav says, picking the canvas up, and waving it around to let it dry; before placing the canvas into his satchel. “I’m sure your team will get a kick out of that!”

“I won’t hear the end of it,” Adrian mutters. “Anyways, thanks for the drawing but I should head back to our stand.”

“Thanks for helping us out!” Dav says. “Be seein’ ya!”

“Yeah, seriously. You’re a lifesaver,” Mako replies.

Adrian hops off the stool and begins to walk away, before noticing that Beau is following him.

“Let me walk ya back,” Beau says, continuing to walk with him down the aisle of stalls.

Adrian’s eyes widen at Beau’s offer to accompany him. He hadn’t accounted for that.

“Uh… no. You probably shouldn’t.”

“Why not? It’s the least I can do for having you follow me around all day.” Beau responds.

“Well, you already gave me the sketch, and I-um…” Adrian stutters.

“Adrian, we’re friends, aren’t we?” Beau asks.

“Uh… I mean I just met you today. Besides, I can walk myself back.”

“We spent all day tracking a bandit down, I think after an adventure like that we’re at least friends.” Beau laughs. “Plus, it’ll make me feel better.”

“Look man, I don’t want you coming back with me,” Adrian says.

“Seriously?” Beau asks, his voice drops, and his ears flatten in disappointment.

“It’s not like that man,” Adrian says. “I’m just uh... I wanna walk around a little bit more.”

“You wanna walk around a bit more? Didn’t you say you were in a hurry?” Beau tilts his head in confusion.

“Well… it’s not that much of a hurry. I mean, I’ve been gone a while already, so…”

“Alright man, what’s actually going on here?” Beau asks. “I didn’t see ya with your team when I got here, and now you’re in a hurry, now you’re not in a hurry. We’re friends, you can tell me what’s goin' on.”

Adrian lets out a frustrated groan. Beau’s seeing right through him, might as well own up to it now.

“They kicked me out of the booth this morning,” Adrian admits. “They don’t want me back for the rest of the day.”

“Why didn’t ya just start off with that?” Beau asks.

“You didn’t need to know,” Adrian answers.

“Well, I do now. Not like it matters.” Beau laughs. “To be honest, I can understand why. But hey, if you wanna walk around a little more, we could. I haven’t seen the booths for myself yet. You know that.”

Adrian thinks for a minute. He’s only met Beau today. He doesn’t really want to refuse the offer. It’d be rude at this point. Of all the times he’d be concerned about acting like an asshole, this was the time.

Adrian closes his eyes and lets out a defeated sigh. “Alright. Fine.”

“Hell yeah,” Beau says, bounding back and forth in excitement. “Let’s go check out those stalls. I haven’t even been able to see one today.”

The two begin their proper walk through the festival stalls. However, as it draws closer to the concert, the stalls have been taken down one by one. The amount of Pokémon wandering the festival has dwindled as well, leaving a few stragglers, the two eeveelutions included.

“Not a lot going on here,” Beau says.

“Not really,” Adrian replies.

“Kinda sucks that we missed everything,” Beau adds. “But there’s a few stalls open.”

The two continue down the path, checking to see what stalls are still available. There’s a stall selling a variety of berries, but both of them have already eaten. There’s a stall that’s selling stones, though Adrian couldn’t be bothered to think about the benefits of owning a rock. There is one stall however that did catch his eye.

It looked like some kind of clothing stall. There are two Pokémon chatting to one another behind it. A Zweilous, and a Sligoo.

“This one looks interesting,” Adrian says, walking up to the stall, where he’s greeted by the brash voice of one of the Zweilous’ heads.

“Hello There! Looking to buy something?” One of the heads says.

“Don’t be so upfront Lee!” The other head shouts, giving its brother a swift smack on the head.

“I’m not being upfront!” Lee responds. “The Flareon walked up and obviously was interested! I’m just confirming!” He responds by reciprocating the assault.

The two start bickering with one another while the Sligoo addresses Adrian and Beau.

“Don’t mind them, Nice to meet you, what brings you to our stall?”

“What the fuck is this stall?” Adrian asks.

“We’re selling clothing for Pokémon. Mostly ponchos. We make them ourselves!” the Sligoo responds.

“We sure do! All three of us!” Reed says.

“Don’t you mean two? We are one Pokémon.” Lee remarks.

“Oh shut up. We’re both our own person!” Reed sneers, before the two of them devolve back into bickering.

“Okay, this is just getting annoying. I can’t use one of these ponchos anyway.”

“Whoa hang on, I'm kind of interested in this. Is it just like a cloth?” Beau asks, chiming into the conversation.

“They’re not just clothing for Pokémon.” Sligoo continues her sales pitch. “They’re waterproof! It’s very useful for rainy days.”

“Yeah, and waterproof fabrics are usually flammable,” Adrian says.

“Not these ones!” Lee responds, breaking away from the bickering with his brother. “The poncho fabric is woven with fur from our glorious mane.”

“It’s washed of course,” Reed adds. “Then woven into a fabric with Sligoo's gooey scales. They’re completely fireproof!”

“Oh, that’s actually clever,” Adrian says. Part of him is seriously considering getting one.

“They’re not pricy either,” Sligoo adds. “Just 850 Poke.”

“That’s not bad. I’d get one, but I can barely wear my own bandana” Beau chuckles. “It’s too uncomfortable to wear outside of missions.”

“850…” Adrian ponders. “Fuck it, I need to get the rain off me. You got a red one?”

The Sligoo produces a red poncho onto the booth table.

“Sure do!” She continues, “You need help putting it on?”

“Yeah, guess I do,” Adrian says.

“Sure thing!” The Sligoo says, walking around from the stand. She takes the cloak, draping it over Adrian, before tying and affixing the cloak to him. It seems to fit him rather well.

“You want your hood down or up?” The Sligoo asks.

“Are there slits for ears?”

The Sligoo nods. “Course! This poncho’s made for most quadrupedal Pokémon.”

“Alright. Hood up.” Adrian responds.

The Sligoo obliges, putting his hood up, as she affixes the hood, Adrian’s ears pop out one by one.

“There we go, don’t you look dapper!” the Sligoo says, standing back and admiring Adrian’s new outfit.

“Yeah… dapper,” Adrian replies, rolling his eyes.

The two bid farewell to the Sligoo and Zweilous and continue their walk through the fair, noticing Pokémon making their way to one side of the grounds.

“Looks like they’re going to start the concert soon,” Beau says. “Wanna go?”

Adrian shrugs. “Not much else to do.”

Beau nods in approval as the two start following the crowd, making their way to the stage where the concert is being held. When they get there, Adrian spots three people in the crowd talking amongst each other.

“Fuckin’ hell, he’s here too.” Adrian groans.

“Who’s here?” Beau asks, looking into the crowd to see who Adrian is talking about.

“The rest of Team Moonshine,” Adrian says as he cuts through the crowd to see the rest of his group.

“Oh, your whole team is here? That’s cool!” Beau follows. “I kinda wanna meet them.”

“Yeah, seems like you’re gonna…” Adrian says before turning to his team. “Bell! Vileplume!”

Vileplume, Bellossom, and Enny all turn to see Adrian coming towards them, surprised to see someone else following behind him.

“Oh hey Adrian!” Bellossom calls back.

“Who’s that with you?” Vileplume asks with a concerned look.

“Hey, I’m Beau,” Beau says, his face beaming.

“Adrian found a date!” Enny says with a snicker.

Adrian growls, a few cinders escaping his clenched teeth.

“Alright, that’s not true,” Beau replies, sending a slightly disgusted look towards Enny. “I’m one of your guildmates. Adrian was helping me with a thief.”

“For how much?” Vileplume asks.

“Oh, I didn’t pay him,” Beau responds. “I just kinda asked him, and off we went.”

“Okay, not exactly,” Adrian says. “He had no fucking clue what he was doing. It was an obligation at that point.”

“Kinda hurts my feelings but alright,” Beau replies.

“I kinda expected you to go back to the guild,” Vileplume says.

“Viley, he made a friend today!” Bellossom says with glee. “I told you he’s getting nicer!”

“Bell, shut the fuck up,” Adrian says. “He needed help so I stepped in.”

“And he’s still hanging around you because?” Vileplume questions.

“I’m right here,” Beau says. “I was just hanging out until the concern started. We had fun, right?” Beau turns to Adrian.

“Yeah, getting bloodied and bashed was pretty fun,” Adrian says flatly.

“Don’t forget the psychic blast I took for ya!” Beau laughs. “Gotta admit that was pretty cool.”

“Yeah that sounds like something you'd enjoy,” Vileplume chuckles. “I am surprised to see you made a friend though.”

Everyone hears the rustling of the crowd as the concert looks like it’s about to begin. Beau looks around and seemingly spots his own team. He turns back to Team Moonshine.

“Well it was nice meeting all of you, but I'm gonna go link up with my team.” Beau turns to Adrian. “Was nice hanging out with you man. Don’t be a stranger, alright?”

“Yeah, sure man,” Adrian says. “Enjoy the concert.”

“Thanks! See ya all around the guild hall.” Beau says, disappearing into the crowd.

As Beau walks away, the rest of Adrian’s team looks back at him.

“So… what’s with the cape?” Enny asks.