For T'nite

The moon shone through the window in my guildhall dorm. Though it was still very early, I got up. There was something I felt I needed to do, somewhere I had to be. I quietly left my room and walked down the stairs; my footfalls too soft to echo off the wood. I entered the lobby. Moonlight shining through the windows provided the only illumination. No, not here. I had to be elsewhere. Ross was sleepwalking again, aimlessly walking around the bottom floor of the guild, leaving a trail of paint. I never saw his face. I ignore him. It appeared he at one point had wandered into the basement. I follow the trail there, into the storage room. Closer, but not quite.

Here. Behind some boxes, hidden away. There was a hole in the floor with a ladder. I went down. I had to. Deeper I went into the ground beneath the guild, surrounded on all sides by earth. Claustrophobic. There was no light source, yet the way was illuminated.

Deeper, deeper.

...

How deep does this go?

...

I reached the bottom. The bare earth gave way to dark, damp stone bricks forming a hallway, patches of dark lichens and moss spattered throughout. Dim torches lined one side of the wall, in between regularly spaced alcoves. I walked forward, further into the dungeon. The end of the hall opened up into an inner chamber, lit by braziers on either side. A figure was standing in the middle of the room, and beyond him stood a gallows grim. This is where I needed to be. Stepping into the camber, other mons appeared to materialize, though I was unable to determine what they were. Unmoving and white. I approached the figure in the middle of the room. Is this why I had to come?

The figure was undoubtedly another pokemon, I could tell, but even standing before it I could not see its face or make out any features. It was holding a length of rope at its side. Fear blossomed in by chest, but I stood firm. The gallows loomed above me.

A question escaped my mouth. "Is this for me?"

The figure provided no response.

Another. "Are you to kill me?"

Silence. My fear grew. I knew the answer.

Slowly, the figure raised its hand to me, offering the rope. Though featureless, I could see it sneer. No words were spoken, but I could hear its words. A command.

Do it yourself.

I began to reach for the rope. The gallows loomed.

I stopped. Me fear overtook me. Whatever conviction I had that led me here I no longer possess. My mind was filled with one thought. Run. I had to get out of here, this evil place.

I turned and ran. The figure remained still. I passed though the figures blocking the egress like mist. I could hear, no, feel the laughter coming from the figure, its soundless words echoing down the hall, giving me chase.

USELESS. USELESS. USELESS.

As fast as my short legs could carry me, and occasionally sliding on my chest, I made it back to the ladder. The walls seemed to shake. But the ladder is tall, and I am short. Surely they'll catch up to me before I make it to the top? I climbed. I made it to the top unaccosted. If I was being chased, I was still ahead of them. I had the feeling they wouldn't leave their chamber, but I still needed to run. To get away. I had to get higher. They could be right behind me at any moment. It was morning now. I ran towards the dorms, passing guildmates who appeared to be standing still, or wandering without purpose. Can they not see the danger that lies below? Do they not care?

I ran into a room, leaving the door open behind me. Heart still racing, but the fear had subsided somewhat. I looked out the window. It was facing the bay. The water seemed darker than normal, even in the sunlight. I stood and watched for a moment. Fear began to take me again. Surely, that dreaded chamber was down there somewhere. I watched now with trepidation, as if expecting at any moment for those figures to burst from the waters to claim me. No, it wasn't safe here. I had to get further away.

I turned to leave the room, and as I passed the threshold I emerged not into the guildhall, but a very familiar place. One I hadn't seen in quite some time. My childhood home. I could see my mother sitting in a recliner. My fear vanished. I would be safe here. I looked down and saw myself. Not the oshawott I had become, but the old me. The human me. The real me. I stepped forwa

Music: Firmament OST: Remains of Margot

I awoke from my slumber at once, and the scene blinked away in an instant, forgotten. Though unable to recall any part of the dream in particular, I was left feeling strangely uneasy.

Fuck.

(How long has it been now?)

I pondered the question as the last remnants of my dream faded away. A few months, at least. Things settled down pretty quickly after the Gathering, and since then time seemed to both slow to a crawl and fly by at blinding speed as the days melted together, even accounting for the Federation trials. I suppose that's bound to happen when every day's about the same, more or less. Most days are spent bumming it around town, down at the bay, or elsewise trying to make myself useful. It's mostly my fault; I never do end up going on many dungeon runs. The reason, if I am to assign blame, is the unfortunate luck that I ended up without a partner to form a real team with. It's not exactly advised to run dungeons solo unless incredibly skilled, and while I've filled in here and there on teams that needed an extra hand, those opportunities aren't every day. Those missions I do take solo tend to be easy or menial tasks, since I can easily handle those, with the effect of never really having to challenge myself. Not being able to read the local language certainly doesn't help the matter.

I know, I know, its a poor excuse. Even if I can't go out on missions, that's no good reason to waste time like I've been doing. I could be spending my time training, gaining confidence to take on harder missions or dungeons. Lord knows there's plenty of mons to spar with, and the dojo is perfectly well equipped for solo training. For lack of that, I've been trying to learn the local language, but progress has been... slow. Never was very good at picking up new languages (t. languagelet). I've picked out a few key words and phrases to look for on listings out of pure necessity, but that's an exercise more along the lines of recognizing the shapes of the words than grasping the meaning. A better mon than I would go out there and make something happen, and a part of me wants to; is screaming at me to go out there and take life by the horns. But it appears my drive has been driven away by this form. Thus far I've been perfectly content to just take things as they come, "go with the flow" so to speak. Perhaps a byproduct of being a water type, and a first-stage at that? How much does a mon's typing affect its personality, anyway?

Maybe things would be better if I knew the reason we were all brought here. At least that would give me a specific goal to work towards. From my understanding of the games, a human is only ever brought over to save the world from an imminent threat, but it's been months and everything seems hunky-dory. Quite idyllic, really. And whatever human brought over always decides to stay after their purpose in bring brought over has been fulfilled, obviously finding life as a pokemon preferable to their old life as a human. I can see THAT aspect, at least, in many of my guildmates. Most everyone else has taken this opportunity to better themselves, finding something or another within these halls which they lacked as a human, be it conviction, companionship, purpose, or something else entirely. As for me? I had a good life as a human. Good friends, a loving family, a fulfilling career with clear goals to aim for. Not perfect by any means, but I was quite happy with my life. Then I found myself here one day, all of that stripped away. I miss my family. Much like when I first moved out for college, I don't always think about them every day due to everything else going on. But unlike college, they are not a mere phone call or short drive away; not here. Here, I have no way of contacting them. Will I ever see my brothers or parents again? I wonder what they think happened to me. Do they think I'm dead? My mind would be much more at ease if there was some way I could let them know I'm alright. Is there some higher purpose in my being here? Is there any point?

Well, there I go again, dammit. I'll take my train of thought getting so far off track as a sign I should get up. My day doesn't need to start on a low note. My bed is a pile of Whimsicott cotton, won some time back by Team Cozy as a job reward, loosely piled in a corner of the room against the back wall. I keep my bag by the door, a few interesting rocks and knick-knacks I've happened upon lined up against the wall, and... that's about it. Pretty spartan, but it makes sense when I just as often sleep out on the bay as I do in the room. I never had much need for a lot of "stuff" since arriving here, and as little as I'm out exploring, I've never had the chance to accumulate much, either.

As I left my room, I almost stepped directly into a thin line of neon green paint running down the hallway towards the stairs. Looks like Ross was sleepwalking again. Poor guy. I know he has that belt/fanny pack abomination, but it only helps keep the tail under control while he's actually conscious enough to remember to tuck it in. Maybe he just gotta get a rope and use it to tie that tail around his waist every night, but then that'd probably make it hard for him to whip it out when he needs to fight. Or he could at least start wearing the pack to bed.

The trail presumably leads from his room on the 3rd floor (Not only are the dorms there larger to accommodate larger mons, but it also makes it harder for him to wander off too far), down the stairs, and into the lobby. Conspicuously, I did not see a second trail leading back up the stairs. Either Ross woke up downstairs and decided to go on with his day from there, or he somehow sleepwalked out of the guildhall again. I hope he didn't wind up in another dungeon, if that's the case. On the bright side, with Toge keeping his fannypack stocked, Ross is capable of holding his own if he does wake up in a dungeon. Probably.

Ah well. At least the trails make it easy to find him if he gets lost. I followed the trail down the stairs and into the lobby. The neon green trail made several loops in the middle of the room, but I didn't see it snake out the door, so it looks like Ross woke up at some point down here. I walked past - careful not to trod through the mess of paint, lest I add my own avant garde additions - and into the cafeteria. Breakfast calls, and it sings the song of pancakes and berries. That particular offering has been far more common since Beast, Pika, and Toge supposedly won a baking competition with that recipe, but evidence of a win has yet to be presented, and Beast is strangely tight-lipped when you bring it up. I accept the pancakes and sit down at an empty table. The meal lives up to its championship reputation, but I could go for some protein every now and then. I heard Kiyo's a fan of Octillery. I wasn't the biggest fan of such foods as a human, but man does that sound mighty appetizing now. I decide I should talk with him about that sometime, see if we could work something out. I'm unsure on interacting with him so soon after the cleaning incident, however.

My breakfast finished, I left the cafeteria. There's more pressing matters today anyway. And by "pressing matters," I mean, of course, something about in between "jack shit" and "fuck all." In other words, the usual. I walked over to check the job board, and hopefully catch another team in need of an extra hand for the day. No such luck on the latter, as it turns out. I had arrived just in time to see Nick and Amelia walk away with a choice mission. Guess it won't hurt to see what else that there is to see on the boards. As it happened, there wasn't much for me to see. Or should I say, there wasn't much for me to understand. I again curse my poke-illiteracy. Thankfully at this point I can at least tell what kind of job a given request is, and the pokemon involved on occasion. Sometimes I even recognize the more common rewards. Kind of fun getting mystery payment, though. It's like a little lootbox at the end of each mission, but an objectively better deal than the ones Kaiji swindles the locals with.

Moving to a different part of the board, I sight a job that I'm actually quite familiar with: Old Mon Torkoal needs some help around the house. Along with the ever-present outlaw and rescue requests, the guild also gets a good number of requests of a more mundane variety. Old Mon Torkoal happens to be a frequent customer, and I've taken most of his requests. There's never much material reward, but it always feels good to lend a helping hand to the elderly, and the stories he has to tell are more than enough reward. It's actually been a minute since I've taken one of his requests. I guess today my purpose will be helping out Torkoal with whatever, before the ennui really sets in for the day.

(Ugh. What a long day.)

It was very late afternoon by the time I finished up at Torkoal's place and found myself trudging back to the guildhall. I was hoping Ol' Torky was sending out a request for his usual needs - running to the store, cleaning, etc. Days like that usually ended in him going on a tangent with stories from his youth, which range from tolerable to incredibly interesting. Nope. Today was different. He decided it was time to rearrange his rock garden. And it was a sizable garden, indeed. Some of those rocks were bigger than I am, and I couldn't use water gun to push them around lest I damage them, so I had to rely on muscle power. Needless to say, if I wasn't sore now I certainly would be come the morning.

(Maybe it would've been better had I let the ennui take over, instead,) I thought to myself as I walked into the guild's lobby.

It was still a bit too early for dinner, so I made my way over to a bench and sat down. At least the day was done and over with now. The only thing left on the docket was grabbing a bite to eat and relaxing. And speaking of eating, I was thinking I'd grab an early dinner. My day has been a bit more physical than usual, after all. The details of the relaxing part were still up in the air; I may go float around for a bit, or I may decide to go directly to bed after I eat. Both options seemed equally appealing in the moment, but which one I would've decided on became a moot point the moment a certain duo burst through the front door.

BANG

The sound of the front door slamming open jolted me out of my reverie, and I naturally looked up towards the commotion. This proved to be a mistake, as Nick and Amelia, still breathing heavily after evidently having run to the guild from who-knows-where, locked eyes with me after briefly, yet frantically, scanning the room. I quickly looked back down, pretending to take an interest in the floor, hoping they wouldn't bother me.

(Please ignore me, please ignore me, please ig-)

"GUS! Thank goodness!"

(God damn it.)

I suppressed a cringe. There would be no such luck, as the guild's illustrious Vulpix/Shinx duo made towards me at once. Amelia made it to me first, as Nick tripped on his disheveled travelling bags, as he is wont to do. Wait. No he isn't, that's completely unlike the Vulpix I know, to even let his travelling garb get so disheveled so as to be a tripping hazard in the first place. If the team's sudden entrance onto the scene wasn't a sign that something was up, THIS certainly was. Though I still wish for nothing more than them to leave me in peace, I am now at least mildly interested.

Amelia, immediately taking charge and still clearly out of breath, spoke first: "Great, you're here! Need your help!"

Music: Firmament OST: Echoes of Past Futures

I wasn't exactly in a mood to help. "Oh, do you, now? What could you possibly need at this hour?"

My words, however, went unheeded, as Amelia swiftly made her way behind me and started pushing me towards to door. "Minccino! Bay! Go!"

"Wh-HEY! What does that have to do with me?" I moaned.

By this point, Nick had made his way over. Though still clearly anxious, he at least had composed himself more than his more gung-ho partner had. "There's a Minccino stuck out in the bay," He explained. "Her raft is broken, she's stranded, and she needs help getting back to shore."

I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. "Can't she just, you know... swim there? I'd assume anyone sailing out on the bay would be able to."

Nick hesitated to respond, perhaps too unfamiliar with the species to give an answer. Amelia had no such burdens now that she had the chance to catch her breath. "She's a Minccino, Gus, she can't get her fur wet!"

One thing about pokemon that I DO remember is that the Minccino line is based on chinchillas. I think I remember something about how bad it is for chinchillas to get their fur wet. (Hmm, they've got a point, there.)

"Y'all were already out there," I said. "Couldn't y'all have done it then?"

Nick got an incredulous look on his face. "You're asking a very tired fire and electric type to perform a water rescue?"

I scoffed. "Well, I'm a very tired water type--especially after moving rocks around all day. I could use a rest. Why do I need to do it?"

"Well, you're here." Nick continued. "Any moment more spent searching is another moment where something could go wrong, or possibly already has-"

"Like what?" I cut in.

Nick stopped himself, frowning. "Like she may sink and drown? And, anyway, Totodile's probably drunk. As usual."

(Damn, another good point.)

"sigh. And I suppose this is urgent?"

"Of course!" Nick responded. Amelia simply nodded.

"And you're not gonna let me say no?"

Amelia immediately interjected. "Nope!" After a pause, she continued. "You're the ONLY one who can help."

I let out an exasperated sigh.

"Alright, FINE. I'll do it," I groaned. I had resigned myself to taking on this request about halfway through this conversation. I was hoping I might worm my way out of it, but they got me in a bind.

In contrast to my exasperated one, Nick breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Gus. She's just south of the docks if you follow the shore. You'll have to swim out there."

I waved my hand dismissively. "Yeah, yeah, whatever." Under my breath, I grumbled. "It's not like I was wanting dinner or anything anyway."

"Huh? Did you say something?" My grumbling was unable to escape Amelia's keen hearing.

"Oh, nothing. Let me grab a couple things, then I'll be off."

I returned to my room and weakly screamed into my cotton bed. All I wanted was a meal and to relax after a long day, but instead I got roped into doing a late night rescue and will likely go hungry. Why must the fates be so cruel? Nevermind the fact that this is exactly the kind of interesting stuff I had been pining for that very morning. One always wants for interesting times until such arrive, when suddenly any alternative seems preferable. But moping only gets one so far. I said I'd do it, and I didn't want Nick and Amelia thinking I shirked out on them. It was time to head out.