Tyler Kimball - Lessgently
patreon
New Beginnings - Chapter 74
🕑 Added 2025-01-17 20:20:54 +0000 UTCOkay, next chapter is about Tobias and tutoring. I promise.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
After Cynthia left, Ethan relaxed in his home for the rest of the night together with his pokemon. Joyce was staying with Jocelyn in the Pokemon Center for their last night together, before she left in the morning to go back to work in Eterna City.
He did take a few walks around his ranch to make sure Tobias and the rockets were behaving themselves during the evening, but everything was fine and dandy. Jessie and James were arguing and bickering about where to plant the seeds he’d given them for their own garden, while Meowth just went ahead and started planting seeds without their notice as they were too engrossed in their argument.
Tobias was training with his Pyroar on the training field, which… was very different from what Ethan had been doing with his own pokemon. Unlike Ethan, Tobias had his Pyroar doing short sprints like he’d done once upon a time in highschool, long endurance blasts of flame, and reaction speed/accuracy tests by tossing targets into the air for her to blast. Ethan didn’t watch for very long, but he got the gist of what he was doing. It was simple, probably something to pass the time and different than his usual training methods, but reliable on a sudden notice.
After tucking in his pokemon—several of whom were now bunking with Smeargle in the guest room, namely Emolga and Tinkatink—Ethan laid down in his own bed and thanked Arceus for the day not being a complete disaster. Many things could have gone wrong with the convergence of people at his ranch, but… everything had worked out, somehow.
His simple life of hanging out on his ranch with his pokemon was quickly coming to a close. With more people staying on the ranch, more work would need to be done. While he was pretty laid-back when it came to operating the day to day of his ranch, sooner or later it’d become a proper business. Jessie and James could help with the transition… but they were also Jessie and James. So, either it was going to somehow work itself out or be a complete disaster.
He also needed to cater to his pokemon needs more closely. Tinkatink was just a baby, and he really needed to start early with some positive reinforcement—You know, getting her metal and finding out what she needed to thrive. His battlers would need to start training in earnest, which would be the hardest part of his days… The whole Oddish sapling birth…
Life was getting busy.
—---------------------------------------
The next morning Ethan rubbed his eyes as he sank down to the floor, back against the wall of his kitchen. Tinkatink was making a stink. Apparently, today was the day where she decided eating out of a wooden bowl was unacceptable. Oh, and that wooden utensils were sub-par; Her hammer would work better. The floor was covered in what remained of her breakfast, and Munchlax was making the shameful display of ‘cleaning it up’ with his mouth greedily licking the floorboards.
Up on the table, Emolga was growing impatient waiting to be let outside to fly around with Chatot. Already, she was flapping her arms and yelling out, airing her grievances. Shuckle was upset about the ruined berry-breakfast, sulking in the corner, thinking his hard efforts of collecting the berries had all been wasted.
Skiddo was outside, much to Emolga’s displeasure, because she wanted to eat grass instead of the meal he had made for her. The meal which had been put back in the fridge for later, which was now suspiciously missing after Munchlax woke up and ‘helped’.
Ethan opened his eyes, then side-eyed the living room where Pachirisu, Smeargle, and Ursaring—who had chosen today of all days to enjoy a meal with the rest of them—ate peacefully as they chatted. Pachrisu was being very well behaved, which wasn’t too out of the norm, but still a nice sight to his troubling morning. Although, his tail was pretty ruffled and un-floofed, which was irregular. The two Teddi’s who sat in the middle of the group mashed their plate of berries with their hands, playing with their food before sucking on their paws to get the juicy goodness into their mouth. They were making a little bit of a mess, but nothing he couldn’t handle with two minutes of cleaning up.
It was not a great start to the day.
After another fifteen minutes wrangling everyone into order, Ethan went off for his first official day of work in a long while. Today was the start of Tobias’ Pyroar’s tutoring, and starting bright and early would let him get to know Pyroar more, allowing for a better and smoother training session.
As Ethan opened the front door, which caused Chatot and Emolga to zoom past him right into freedom, he paused at the sight of Jocelyn. The sun was just rising over the forest, so Ethan wasn’t expecting anyone else to be awake at this time of day. Jocelyn was nervously grabbing the hem of her nurse’s skirt, and looked hesitant to speak.
“You okay? Did something happen?” He asked, growing concerned over her behavior.
With a rapid wave away, Jocelyn eased his worries. “No, no. I wasn’t sure whether to knock… Joyce had to leave during the night. There was an emergency at the center.”
“Oh… I see. I’ll give her a call later in the day.” Ethan waited a few seconds, but Jocelyn still stood at the steps of his home, wrinkling her clothes with a tight grip. “Did you need something else? Breakfast maybe?”
Jocelyn slid her eyes to the side, which in turn caused Ethan to peek around the side of his home to see what had her attention. Right there in the grass, Skiddo stood eerily still. Her eyes were locked onto Jocelyn as she chewed on the grass she was eating—or maybe it was cud, as for the next thirty seconds he stood staring at the small goat, she never bent forward to take another chomp of greens, yet still chewed.
Jocelyn took a step off to the side, which caused Skiddo’s head to turn with the movement. Ethan, already tired with the events of the day, hopped down his stairs, walked up to the weird goat, then waved a hand in front of the lazy leafy glare. Instead of stopping the weird staredown, Skiddo meandered two feet to the left, out of the way of his outstretched hand, and continued her gazing.
Ethan threw his hands up. He was done. “Alright, I give up.” He turned to Jocelyn as he pointed down towards Skiddo. “This is my Skiddo. She does weird things. Just… ignore her for now.”
“So, she’s not guarding your home?” The still slightly nervous Joy asked.
“No. She’s not a guard goat, just a weird goat.” Ethan nudged Skiddo with his foot, but found that if Skiddo didn’t want to be moved, then his half-hearted efforts would have no effect.
“Well… Joyce left something for you at the pokemon center. She said that it’s payment for taking photos of you and Emolga, if that means anything to you.”
“Oh, it means something to me alright.” Ethan scoffed. “I’ll stop by after doing the rounds and some tutoring—”
“Actually, I think it’s best if you get it now…” Jocelyn interrupted with some authority, causing Ethan’s eyebrows to rise.
Ethan straightened up, gestured down the cobblestone path, and said. “Lead the way.”
As they walked down the path towards the Pokemon Center in the early morning light, with a munching Skiddo on their heels, Ethan asked about what Jocelyn would like to do on a day to day basis. He wasn’t familiar with the runnings of a Pokemon Center, and he absolutely had no clue about what she wanted to do when there was nobody to help.
This topic seemed to ease some of Jocelyn’s nervousness and agitation. “I am hoping to work with my pokemon throughout the day and have them get used to what it’s like. You know, like, safety drills? Mock emergencies?”
Ethan nodded along, understanding the need for preparation. “That sounds like a good plan. I assume you have other pokemon? I doubt you finished your journey with just Happy with you.”
“Happy is my newest pokemon.” Joyce said, a slight smile sprawling across her face. “She’ll be my Chansey when I am fully recognized as a Nurse Joy. I only managed to get three badges back in Kanto before I went back to learning about nursing, but I have a few friends with me.”
Reaching into her uniform, Jocelyn pulled out a phone very similar to his own. After typing in her passcode and pulling up a photo app, she leaned over and began showing him pictures. The first one was of Jocelyn and a small fiery pony; A Ponyta. In the picture, Jocelyn was crouched and hugging the happy horse around the neck.
She swiped, showing him a photo of her being princesses carried by a Machoke. Its bulging muscles and self-satisfied grin told him that it was a very jovial pokemon. In the photo, Jocelyn was laughing in the body-builder's arms in front of an enormous wooden bridge. In the background, numerous trainers were lined up and battling as far as the eye could see.
“Flare and Chopper!” Jocelyn beamed with pride at the pictures of herself and her pokemon, only dropping the smile when she saw his questioning gaze. “I named him when he was a Machop…”
Hands held up in surrender at her daring frown, Ethan said. “Not judging!”
He followed Jocelyn into the Pokemon Center, stepping inside of it for the very first time. It was rustic, made of mostly local materials and concrete. The inside was very different from the Pokemon Center in Eterna City, as the Lobby here was notably smaller. It was akin to a hospital’s emergency room on Earth but with fewer seats, if Ethan were to make a comparison. There weren’t any PC’s for people to use at their leisure either. The only mechanical items in view were the small tablet on the counter, and a weird vending machine looking contraption with a large screen and a receptacle for a pokeballs.
“That’s a GTS” Jocelyn said, having caught his gaze lingering on the peculiar and out of place item. When his face only turned more confused, she elaborated. “Global Trade System—GTS. It’s how you send pokemon from one place to another.”
“Oh?! I might be using that soon! There’s some pokemon I’ve been looking into.” Ethan said as Jocelyn basically dragged him behind the counter to keep him from goggling the GTS.
Ethan stared through the small window with his hands held up along the door in the new room he was led into, eyes still roaming the magical transfer machine that could jumpstart many of his plans for the future.
“Ahem! Here is what Joyce left you.”
Ethan spared a glance at what Jocelyn was holding, then looked back—With a doubletake that physically hurt his neck, Ethan beheld the familiar appearance of a pokemon egg. Unlike Emolga, Skiddo, and Tinkatink’s egg, this egg was very uniform in its colors. The bottom half of the egg was a dark black—and around a third of the way upwards, ending in a jagged line—the egg turned into a dull yellow. There were no other markings on the egg, just the two colors clashing.
“Uhh…” He didn’t know what to say.
Jocelyn strode forward two steps, hands outstretched, and placed the egg snugly into his arms. “Pikachu had this egg last night. Joyce said you should have it.”
Ethan looked at the egg, then to Jocelyn, then the egg, then Jocelyn, then the egg…
As his brain short circuited, his mind replayed all of the strange events of recent hours. Pachirisu coming in late, his tail being ruffled during breakfast, Joyce staying the night, her minx of a Pikachu…
“PACHIRISU!!!” Ethan bellowed.
Somewhere else on the ranch, a small electric rodent sneezed and felt a chill run down their spine.
Comments
Elo2Coon
Munchlax + Morpeko = no food…
Tyler Kimball
Operation 'Author wants all the Pika-Clones' commences.
Duke of Coffee
I wonder if Pachi will take responsibility. Ethan better drill him on how to be a dad and not leave the egg to get milk and berries....
Durphymcbob
Man Ethan is gonna have alot of pokemon what this his 12th? I know he is a breeder, but all of the 3 baby pokemon he currently has don't exactly feel like they are being raised for sale and I don't think Ethan would want to separate Pachi and his child. Right?
Tsume Eiranis
Bwahaha... thank you for the chapter. Pachirisu being a playah
Freya
Tyftc
Andrew Nichols
In response to your note, who cares? Tobias can deal, this is MUCH better and more interesting!! Love that reaction though
Ferocious_Beast
Pachirisu the Rizzler
Ant1h3ld
Oh Arceus, I can practically taste how fed up Ethan is this morning :D
