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Searching Far and Wide - 103
🕑 Added 2025-02-12 17:52:26 +0000 UTCTeams:
Pierce Lawson:
- Narcissa, Beedrill
- Orion, Onix
- Cygnus, Kadabra
- Bellatrix, Gyarados (Shiny)
- Andromeda, Vaporeon
- Regulus, Meowth
Lillian Dale:
- Root, Ivysaur
- Talon, Spearow
- Gem, Geodude
- Star, Cleffa
- Cinder, Vulpix
Route 6 I
He took a deep breath in once more, like usual in those circumstances, enjoying the smell of nature.
The forests, shores and mountains didn’t always smell pleasant, of course. Sometimes they could be quite the opposite. However, when it wasn’t an affront to his nostrils, he always found it soothing. There was something decidedly serene about something that was completely natural and untouched by humanity. It was why he’d chosen the garden in Sabrina’s Gym as his go to space to meditate, really, almost as good as being underwater.
‘It’s good to be out on the road again,’ he thought to himself, letting out the air in his lungs through his nose, a content smile on his face.
They were on their first day, taking their first steps, on Route 6. Not what he’d call a particularly distinctive road, admittedly. It wasn’t the thick forest space that Viridian had been, and the less it was compared to places like Mt. Moon or even the shores close to Cerulean, the better. If anything, it was more kind of like Route 5, which made sense since both of them lead to Saffron.
If anything, he guessed those roads were more along the lines of what one would call a normal route. There was nothing distinctive about them, the face one would miss in a crowd equivalent for paths. If he took a photo – or recorded a video, which was actually going to happen that day or the next one –, he very much doubted anyone would figure out where they were. That is, without being clued in, of course.
“Good to be back on the road, right?” Lily asked him, unknowingly mirroring his thoughts, which almost made him snort.
“You know it,” he replied with a grin. It was a conversation that he was sure they’d had literally every time they left a city and got back to the actual journeying part of the journey. He was just as sure that it wouldn’t be the last time they traded such words either. “For about three days before the lack of comfort kicks in,” he added, his smile turning as wry as his tone.
“Always the heart of the party, right, Pierce?” Lily said dryly, giving him an unimpressed stare. “But yeah,” she admitted a second later before sighing. “You’re not wrong. Could have let me not think about it until the moment came though.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” he asked her, earning a huff and a shove from her shoulder. “Well, at least we are getting better equipped, aren’t we?”
“True enough.” They had been getting more and more stuff with each stop they made. It was a matter of trying to make up for the loss of comfort with camping equipment. Some might say they were ruining the experience, but those people were either weirdos or didn’t know what they were talking about. Considering the borderline magical thing that the storage and preserving boxes were, what’d be the point in not getting as many gadgets and pieces of equipment as they could afford and get their hands on? “Can’t imagine if I had to keep going the same way as the first stretch I had to travel.”
“That’s the dark timeline, as far as I’m concerned. One where we either don’t bother or can’t afford purchasing better things,” he commented grimly, both of them sharing a shudder full of dread. “Anyway-” Even he didn’t know where he was going with that before he was interrupted. Probably something inane and meaningless, like many of their conversations out on the road.
There was only so much meaningful talk they could have when they were next to each other all the time. There was a lot of small talk and tiny talk had to fill the silence, if that was even a thing. It was in Pierce’s mind, at least. Then again, neither of them minded overly much. It was all more to not just awkwardly walk next to each other more than anything else, really.
Neither of them minded that it was all barely above background noise.
“What’ve you got there?” he asked, blinking at Regulus who had interrupted the conversation by trotting over to them from where he’d been bouncing around between the nearby trees. Pierce hadn’t been too concerned about letting him roam around, considering every member of his team was around to keep an eye on him… Well, besides the obvious exception of Bellatrix and Orion, of course.
As a way of answering, the meowth stopped beside them, dropping a berry in his hand when Pierce crouched to check. He seemed extremely proud of himself, which was yet another reminder that he was even more of a child than any other member of his team except maybe Bella. He often had to hold back on adorableness comments with him though, considering Regulus didn’t appreciate them and the shiny gyarados didn’t either, for completely different reasons.
“Good job, buddy,” he readily praised, petting the meowth’s head and making him preen even more than he already was. “You’re not giving too much trouble to everyone else, are you?” he asked then, and Regulus replied by meowing and giving him his best innocent stare.
“Almost started a fight with some pidgey,” Cygnus readily ratted out- “Fighter-Watcher told me. Fighter-Challenger had to scare the flock off,” he added, as if that made the whole thing any less of a rat out moment. It just meant that Andromeda was also a snitch. “Idiot.”
Jokes aside though, he appreciated them looking out for each other.
“Don’t pick fights,” he said, giving Regulus a flat stare that made the meowth deflate. “I’d rather you don’t get into fights at all, least of all if we’re not there and/or you can’t finish them.”
“Wow, top notch parenting there, Pierce. Ten out of ten,” Lily comments drily.
“I’d rather him kicking ass than getting his ass kicked,” he replied, taking a deep breath in. “He knows not to look for fights, or so I hope,” Pierce continued, giving his meowth a narrow-eyed look. “And if he doesn’t, he’ll learn.”
The nervous look Regulus gave him wasn’t very encouraging.
“Like trainer, like pokemon.”
‘Shut up, Cygnus.’
Andromeda, walking up to them from the treeline, didn’t look any more impressed with them.
[}-o-{]
“Not gonna lie, I thought it’d take longer for us to come across one of these little guys,” he commented, rubbing his hand over the smooth, cold and slightly static “skin” of a magnemite.
A few of those had approached them while they were setting up camp during their first night, probably attracted by all the electrical equipment they’d started taking out and preparing. It wasn’t like they had a lot, but in the middle of the forest, it was enough. If what he’d read was about right, then their camp might as well have been a smoke signal in the horizon for the pokemon. Not quite obvious, but noticeable enough if they were paying attention.
“How’s it? Good?” he asked, getting a whirring noise as a response as the magnemite around him rotated the horseshoe magnets on their sides. “Glad to hear it,” he commented, somehow sure that what he’d gotten was a positive response. Then again, maybe that had something to do with how eager all of them were to “eat” the batteries that he’d offered them. Sadly, he didn’t have any metal dust to offer them, since… Well, he wasn’t that prepared for everything.
Magnemite were kind of outliers in the pokemon ranks when it came to diet. And that came from Pierce, who had a rock eating serpent as part of his team. At least Orion also ate normal food on top of that. Magnemite subsisted through electricity and metal dust that they usually collected from their surroundings while flying close to the ground. Fascinating, but it also made using his usual tactics of friendship with wild pokemon a little awkward.
Batteries worked well enough though, he supposed.
“Calm little guys, aren’t they?” he commented then, turning towards Lily, who had decided to record the video herself instead of joining him and leaving that to Cygnus. Wasn’t fair to the Psychic, according to her, which he kind of agreed with. That’s why he resolved to record himself some of the bits for Lily’s videos. “Honestly, not much to tell you, guys, except to not try to feed them electricity yourselves. It can end badly if you don’t know what you’re doing. I studied plenty before coming to this route because I knew they were here and I even asked the Center nurses to show me with a few they had over at Saffron.”
Last thing he wanted was to have idiots think it was that simple to feed the Electric types.
“There shouldn’t be anything to worry about. Unless they are running low on power, that’s when they might get a little aggressive in their restlessness. Even then, magnemite aren’t dangerous. They are unlikely to try to do actual damage,” he explained, smiling as another of the Electric types floated to his lap and he started patting it. He wasn’t sure how they could feel his hands through their steel “skin”, but it might be something like with onix, he supposed. They didn’t have organic insides like the Rock types though, so that made it all extra odd.
It was more likely that they could feel the natural electricity in his body – small as it might be – the same way they could feel batteries and wires and all that.
Then again, maybe he was just making stuff up. He didn’t actually know or understand much on the matter. He hadn’t read quite that much.
“If they run out of electricity, they might just drop to the ground, unmoving. It’s even less recommended that you try to give them energy at that point. If you want to help, call the Rangers, or carry them to the nearest Pokemon Center or expert you can manage,” he advised, half not really paying attention. At that point, he’d reached a previously unknown state in which he just talked, as if it were habit. It was something that he’d built through the many videos he’d uploaded already.
It wasn’t something new per se. He’d often get lost in the narration of sorts while playing with pokemon, absently dropping nuggets of knowledge as they came to his mind. However, at that moment, it felt a little extra, if that made any sense. He was paying more attention to the magnemite, the little bumps and scratches on their metal bodies and how they reacted to his hands and the electricity he was feeding them than the video, Lily or the audience behind the camera.
It was nice, he decided.
Pierce hoped he’d be able to reach that state more often.
“And I think that’s it,” he commented, with a grin as he turned towards the camera. Snapping himself out of his daze wasn’t something he wanted to do, but it felt like a smooth transition, somehow. Maybe he was just having a good day in general, he supposed. “A video on the short side, but magnemite are chill like that. Not much that I can share, but who knows, right? This is the first time I come across some. Maybe I’ll learn something to share with you all later in a second video about them,” he said, glancing to the side to look at a floating Electric type.
Then he shook his head and gave his video ending speech.
Not to say that he stopped playing with them or that Lily stopped recording. Maybe they’d do some editing to add more scenes of spending time with the magnemite in between things, who knew? Although, unfortunately for them, they still needed to finish setting up camp, he supposed. ‘Ugh, right, we need to do that,’ he thought, having reminded himself of his responsibilities.
Being responsible sucked.
“It was good meeting you, guys,” he said, waving at the magnemite group who whirred something back at him before flying away. “Well, now we need to finish here, right? It’ll be night soon and we aren’t anywhere close to done yet.”
“Yup,” Lily readily agreed, looking about as excited and full of energy as he did.
Meaning not at all.
[}-o-{]
[Regulus, the Whimsical Kitten]
Joining Pierce and his merry band of oddballs was a great decision.
The man provided the best food, even better than that one time he’d gotten to eat from the bowl of a distracted pokemon – with an equally distracted trainer – at a restaurant. He’d gotten a few whacks back then, but Regulus thought it’d been fairly worth it. Pierce’s pokeblocks and poffins were much, much better though, so he’d stick to finding the odd berry here and there to bring back so that he’d get some nice treats for his troubles.
Pokepuffs were a work in progress, but those promised to be even better than what they were already having once Pierce got good enough.
Regulus couldn’t wait.
From there, the other members of the group were less great, he supposed, but they weren’t bad. Orion could be fun to play with and it was interesting to have a moving playground, sort of. Regulus liked to run and jump around on the onix’s body and the Rock type seemed to like the activity just as much, so it was a win-win.
Bellatrix was scary, but once he’d gotten over that, she’d joined Orion in Regulus’ mind. It was the best when both living playgrounds were playing together with him, he decided. He just needed to praise Bella and tell her she was pretty and she’d play with Regulus for hours. It was great.
Cygnus and Andromeda were decidedly less fun. They didn’t like to play much, preferring to watch him and the others. Which was fine. It was less fine when they ratted him out for doing something Pierce didn’t like… or even something he was fine with but they didn’t like. They were boring like that.
Then there was Narcissa, who Regulus was still wrapping his head around. She could be both fun or boring. He was still figuring out when she was what. For the most part though, she was neither. Most of her brain seemed to only care about fighting and getting stronger. It was kind of intense, but Regulus also thought it was cool. Not that the others weren’t cool, but she was extra cool.
Then there was Lily’s group, which was a mixed bag too. Lily herself was nice, Root was boring for the most part, but he could be fun on occasion, just like Gem. Talon was kind of a less cool Narcissa. Cinder was boring. Star was fun, but she was also tiny and fragile, so Regulus was kind of wary of playing with her too much.
“Something on your mind, little guy,” he heard, turning to look at Pierce before the man planted his hand on his head. Regulus readily accepted the attention, rubbing his head back against his palm. “What’s got you thinking so hard?” he asked and Regulus was a bit in awe of the fact that he actually felt like answering.
After all, he – like plenty of pokemon, if not all of them – didn’t always feel like talking to humans. They didn’t understand, or they hardly ever understood, to be exact. Unless it was something very obvious or very simple, they just didn’t. He wasn’t sure why, but Regulus had never been smart that way. He was just smart in other ways, like how he knew when to sneak in to steal food or when people weren’t paying attention or…
Well, he knew those things for the most part.
Everyone makes mistakes.
He was just not smart in the way that’d tell him stuff like why humans didn’t understand pokemon or why moves worked the way they did or why Cygnus was boring.
“I’m not bo-”
Back to Pierce though… Regulus meowed.
Cygnus didn’t appreciate being ignored, but that was what made it fun. Regulus was also smart in a way that let him know how to make boring people and pokemon fun. In his opinion, he was the best kind of smart, really.
“Yeah, the groups’ kind of something, right?” Pierce replied with a fond, amused grin.
That was why Regulus found himself in awe of the human. He wasn’t quite at pokemon levels of understanding, but he was much better than the regular human. Regulus would give it about even chances that he understood something, even if it wasn’t obvious nor simple. He was just that good, somehow. He didn’t know how Pierce did it, but he didn’t particularly care.
Regulus wasn’t smart that way either, but that was fine.
“You like it here then?” Pierce asked and Regulus wasted no time answering. “Good to hear,” the man said, his grin widening. “It’s still training time though,” he added, apparently deciding to join the boring group once more. Regulus whined at that fact. “Don’t give me that. You’re the one that wants to get better at battling. Either you train, or you get your ass kicked.”
Regulus whined again.
“Yeah, it sucks, doesn’t it?” Pierce asked, barking a laugh. “I feel the same way about my own exercises,” he admitted, which was a little curious. Regulus looked at him, tilting his head and meowing. “I know. I just feel bad making you all work so much and not doing anything myself. So, I train myself too, even if I’m just a squishy human.”
Well… That made Regulus feel bad too.
“Yeah, I get that too,” Pierce continued, this time without even needing him to say anything. Well, that was even more surprising than his usual understanding. He wasn’t Voice for nothing though, Regulus guessed. “So, changing your mind about the battling?”
Not on his life.
Regulus wasn’t weak. He’d been weak for too long, scurrying away from other pokemon in the city. He’d been weak for too long, eating scraps and finding cracks to hide in. He’d been weak for too long, all the way up to the point when he’d joined Pierce’s team.
“Yeah, I guessed as much,” Pierce said, once more not needing any voicing on Regulus’ part. “You fit in the team too well, even if you have a bit of a lazy side.”
He meowed.
“Yeah, it’s fine. Just know that you’ll get your ass kicked more that way,” Pierce told him before chuckling at Regulus’ whine. “Well, either go back to training or accept your fate, little guy.”
Grumbling, he got up and did as he was told.
Didn’t mean he had to like it though.
[}-o-{]
[Pierce Lawson]
It was night, most pokemon had calmed down already, but he could hear the distant sounds of creatures moving and even more so the hoothoot and the noctowl. The lights in the camp had been turned off already and everyone had gone to sleep except him and Narcissa. He’d felt extra lazy, sitting there against a tree trunk and looking up at the stars above, especially once he was left to himself and the night sky became even more impressive.
‘So peaceful,’ he thought, idly reaching for Narcissa and rubbing her head absently. For the most part though, he kept his caress fleeting, almost not touching her at all. She was falling asleep, after all, so he didn’t want to disturb her, but he also wanted to remind himself that he wasn’t alone.
Funny how that worked, considering he was surrounded by his team and his friend’s team too. All the same, he felt so very lonely then and there. ‘I wish I knew more about the stars,’ he thought, wondering if the night sky in that world was the same as the one in his old one or if it was different. Constellations weren’t his thing, so he wouldn’t know.
Pierce imagined it was different though, and that felt like a stab to his chest.
A stab much like the one that had sent him there.
A stab like the one that took him away from his world.
In an effort to not think about that – and the pain, the blood, the edge and –, he let his mind wander to others, not unrelated topics. He thought of his family and his friends. He thought of all the things he hadn’t told them and wished he could.
Sometimes, back in his world, he’d have odd thoughts for no reason at all. His mind would just conjure scenarios about things happening to him, sometimes even others close to him. Car accidents, sickness, or some other thing would befall him or someone else in his imagination. Then he’d wonder what he’d say, what others might say, about that.
He regretted never putting those thoughts to paper or something so that his loved ones would know. Now, they’d never hear what he thought about them, how much he appreciated them. He’d never get the chance to hug them and tell them that they were important, that they mattered. Maybe they were thinking something similar about him even, which wasn’t as much of a reassurance as he might have liked.
‘I wish I could talk to you all,’ Pierce mused to himself, eyes firmly on the stars above, even as his sight blurred with unshed tears. ‘Just one last time…’
It wasn’t to be, of course. While not impossible, considering how crazy some pokemon could be, Pierce really doubted he’d ever get the chance to go back to his world, or that it might even be possible. With every day, he grew more accepting of this fact too. It would never be ok, but he liked to think he was making peace with that fact.
He had a life now, one that he was building for himself from what he could pick up, from his lot in a new life.
All the same, he thought about the past, about his old life and pondered on those words once again, more seriously than ever. He thought of all the things he’d like to tell them. Maybe he never would get the chance, but it was… It felt like it might help to put it all into words. Maybe he’d even write it down somewhere. It was a risk, but he thought it might help. Maybe he could write it down and then burn it or something, like a strange kind of offering.
He wanted to try and find closure, more than he’d already achieved, if he’d done that at all.
That was something for the future though. As of that moment, he just wanted to think about that, like he did on occasion. Tears ran down his cheeks, but he paid them no mind, just like the knot in his throat. It was fine. It hurt, but he couldn’t just ignore it. He didn’t want to ignore it. He didn’t want to turn his back to everything that he’d known, even if it was all out of reach.
So, he thought about them all, all the people that had once been part of his life. Even those mere acquaintances that he didn’t really know nor interact much with got at least a few stray thoughts. He could have been more friendly with the convenience store owner that he’d regularly bought stuff from while in the city. He could have tried harder with those friends of his friends that he’d met on occasion while hanging out. He could have gone to those dinners that his parents had with their friends, since they were all fairly nice people.
He could have spent more time with his parents and friends too. He remembered all the times he’d taken them all for granted. He didn’t think he had been a terrible relative or friend, not really. He could have been better though, or so he thought. He guessed that was why he tried to call and visit Daisy and the Sisters as much as he could. They were friends now, just like Lily, and not only did he have few of those, but he also didn’t want to make the same mistakes.
‘I have so much I want to tell you,’ he thought, looking at the stars and imagining that each of them was a person from his old life. ‘Is there anything you’d want to tell me?’
He got no answer except a chill night breeze.
[} Chapter End {]
Hey guys! How’s it going?
Back on the roads, and we didn’t even break into the 20’s in the chapter count this time. Ain’t you guys glad?... Why are you looking at me like that?
Fine, be that way.
So, yeah, it took a while to leave Saffron, but if Cerulean didn’t give you all the hint that things would be slow, then nothing will. And if you thought that was a one time thing, then you were sorely mistaken, I’m sorry to say. I’m having fun with this journey though, I have to say. Sure, it’s a little slow even for me at times, but I feel no need to speed it up. This is the ultimate slice of life “adventure” – if it can even be called that – and I love it.
I hope you agree with me and that you enjoyed the chapter.
Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ
Random Question: Is there anyone you’d want a PoV from in this story?
See you.
