AdrianKing
patreon
Searching Far and Wide - 77
🕑 Added 2024-07-17 17:53:51 +0000 UTCCover Art: Amasw.
Teams:
Pierce Lawson:
- Narcissa, Beedrill
- Orion, Onix
- Cygnus, Abra
- Bellatrix, Gyarados (Shiny)
- Andromeda, Vaporeon
Lillian Dale:
- Root, Bulbasaur
- Talon, Spearow
- Gem, Geodude
- Star, Cleffa
Route 5 II
Pierce finished stretching feeling like he’d rather do nothing else other than drop somewhere and lie down for a whole day.
Alas, he didn’t have the time for that.
With a weary sigh, he moved to check on his team. Orion was the first to catch his attention, since he was more or less still. He was taking a break from learning Iron Tail and Twister – since they were complicated moves that he didn’t expect to get down too soon, especially the latter – and was working on Curse. Not a particularly easy move, by any means, but he was training together with Andromeda, so Pierce imagined that’d help keep his frustration down a little, if he had a teammate to struggle with.
He didn’t seem to be having much luck, but that wasn’t unexpected. Neither was Andromeda with Shadow Ball, but they had time. With some luck, she’d get it down too. Between Bite and Shadow Ball, Pierce hoped she’d be a good pick against Saffron’s Psychics. Not that he had a definitive team for that fight, but she’d have a solid foot in if she had two differently typed options to go for.
He wanted to cover as many bases as he could, considering how unpredictable Sabrina seemed to be.
“Doing alright?” he asked, more to gauge their response to the question than the answer they’d give. Taking in their respectives growl and yip, Pierce guessed Orion wasn’t having much fun with his training and Andromeda was… staying fairly calm. There was some underlying frustration there though, but maybe she was keeping her head cool because Orion was there?
Something to keep in mind, he supposed.
“Keep it up, alright? I know it’s frustrating but you are going to get better. Like I did with poffins, remember?” he commented, getting a half-hearted response, but that was fine. Few people liked hearing reassurances when they were struggling, really. On the other hand… “Speaking of, I might start trying my hand at pokepuffs when we reach Saffron. If you get those moves down before we get there, you’ll get seconds of anything good I manage. How does that sound?” he commented and he could practically see Orion’s eyes turning into stars.
Andromeda was less easily swayed, but there was no denying she was interested.
“Just a little longer, yeah? Then we can go back to regular training and maybe get some spars done,” he added, getting some relief from both of them. Yeah, he got that. He’d much rather do stuff that he already more or less knew how to do than try something new that he sucked at. “Keep it up,” he said, patting Orion’s rocky side. “Give me a call if you need me, yeah?” he tacked in last, planting his palm on Andromeda’s head. He turned to leave when he got an agreeing yip from the vaporeon.
‘Now, the troublesome ones,’ he thought to himself, smirking when he felt annoyance brush against his mind.
“I resent that, Helper-Voice,” Cygnus told him, teleporting in front of him. Despite his unchanged expression, Pierce knew the abra was glaring at him. “This move is annoying.”
‘I’m not surprised, buddy,’ Pierce replied honestly, smiling as his Psychic type teleported again, this time onto his shoulders. ‘Foul Play is a Dark type move, and I don’t imagine those play nice with you.’
“They don’t, apparently,” Cygnus said, very obviously frustrated. “Even with the energies… it’s challenging.”
‘Still not up to par physically?’ Pierce mused, head tilted.
“I’m… not,” his abra reluctantly acknowledged.
He wasn’t surprised by that either. Foul Play was an… interesting move. What it did was set up a physical fight against someone, but that wasn’t really where it went. Instead, it activated when the other pokemon struggled against the pokemon attacking. Once the other pokemon responded, the attacker would use the Dark type energy of Foul Play to turn the strength of the target against them. It was… very technical, from the examples he’d seen. It reminded him more of Judo than the Boxing Cygnus had been doing so far.
Despite that, his abra was just as eager to learn it.
Pierce’s best guess was that Cygnus just really liked to get up close and personal to overwhelm his opponent.
“I do,” his pokemon confirmed, determination and pride bleeding through their link. “Fighter-Charmer is having fun, actually,” he continued then, a picture of Bellatrix flashing through Pierce’s mind and he snorted. “One of us is having a good time, at least,” Cygnus grumbled enviously.
The abra wished he had as easy a time as Bellatrix was having, evidently. After all, her training consisted in learning Crunch, which was laughably easy compared to everyone else. She’d basically learned Bite without even really trying and now she just had to turn that move up a notch. Not that that was all though. Even similar moves could be challenging or outright impossible between pokemon, for a reason. Sometimes, even though they were similar in mechanics, they were completely different energy-wise.
Bellatrix still had it much easier than the rest of them though, there was no denying that. That suited Pierce just fine. His shiny girl was still not quite in control of herself. She was almost there, but almost wasn’t enough. So, he’d keep things nice and simple with her for a while until he was confident she had her gyarados-ness as under control as she reasonably could.
So, as he approached her, he took a moment to look before calling out to her. Thus, Pierce got a first row view of a shiny gyarados with its maw open and its teeth as dark as the night. It was a sight to behold, for sure, and he could easily believe these creatures could cut through a human like a hot knife through butter. Hell, she could probably bite through a rock without much trouble.
“Doing well, I see,” he commented and the change in Bellatrix was so sudden it almost gave him whiplash. From monster of the depths straight to sea puppy in point one second flat. How was he supposed not to love her when she was that adorable? “Hey girl,” he greeted, laughing as the gyarados got closer to him and then rubbed her head against him with a growl that sounded more like a purr to his ears. “Having fun?” he asked, getting an enthusiastic response. “Well, you are doing much better than everyone else. Congrats on that,” he told her.
And boy, was she proud of herself hearing that.
“Well, you seem to be the one that needs the least help from all of you,” he commented, patting her side affectionately and smiling as she leaned in. “You are the best.” he praised, getting even more happy gyarados noises. “Keep it up, alright? I have to check on everyone else, but I’ll come back in a bit, yeah?”
He expected some struggling to get away now that he had her attention, but Bellatrix seemed to be having a lot of fun training, apparently. She only gave a cheerful agreement and immediately went back to using Bite/Crunch or some middle ground between both. He wasn’t too sure.
‘How is Narcissa doing by the…?’ he started asking as he moved a little to the side. His abra, gyarados and beedrill were all training roughly around the same area, after all, since they were all working on Dark type moves. However, he couldn’t even finish the thought message before he paused, witnessing a tree being on the receiving end of a bullet made of darkness. ‘...way?’ he ended with, blinking at Narcissa.
“That looked great,” he said, because that was, quite honestly, the best Pursuit attempt he’d seen so far from her, by quite a bit at that. He wasn’t sure if it was ready though, but if anyone told him it was, then he’d believe them. Judging by how animated Narcissa looked as she turned towards him and buzzed though, Pierce would say that was at least a partial success.
“Fighter-Challenger has made progress, indeed,” Cygnus said and he nodded along. He could very well see that. “She’s far from satisfied though,” his abra added, making Pierce smirk. Of course she wasn’t. Narcissa wouldn’t be satisfied even if she could smack down a Dragon with just Poison Sting. That couldn’t be taken as an indication of anything at all.
“So, not quite there, but almost?” he asked and his beedrill buzzed right up to him and made an affirmative sound. “Great,” he replied with a grin. “Can’t wait to see it,” he commented. That is, before Narcissa started insistently “telling” him something and he didn’t need to be a mind reader to know what it was all about. “And then we can start working on something else. Don’t worry about it,” he reassured her.
Because of course his battlemaniac of a beedrill just couldn’t wait to be done so they could move on to the next move.
“Don’t push yourself too much, yeah? We need to be at the top of our game for Saffron. And in general. You are not allowed to overwork yourself or there won’t be any more new moves,” he said, wondering if he could use that as a threat too instead of the regular food ones.
Judging by the way she stiffened and fell to the ground, as if afraid to move, Pierce thought it was, indeed, rather effective. He made a mental note on that. He was pretty sure he could use similar approaches with Orion and maybe… He wasn’t sure about the rest. Maybe Cygnus, if he pissed him off, but he was usually rather smart.
“Usually?” the abra asked, scandalized.
‘I thought what I thought,’ he replied unrepentantly.
Either way, it’d be good to have a stick to go with the carrots, as it were.
“That’s better,” he commented, crouching and petting his favorite Bug type. “Do you want to take a break or continue for a bit longer? I’m going to go back to Bellatrix now if you wanna-” He didn’t even get to finish before Narcissa moved to start training once more.
He wasn’t surprised.
At all.
‘How about you, buddy?’ Pierce thought, standing up once more and moving towards the river once more, a smile on his face. ‘Wanna keep me company for a bit or nah?’
“I think I’ll go with “nah”, Helper-Voice,” his abra answered and Pierce had to chuckle at that. “This move is proving to be troublesome. I want to continue working on it.”
‘Go wild, buddy,’ Pierce replied and his Psychic type teleported away a moment later. ‘Not too wild though. You heard what I told Narcissa,’ he added, undeterred by the exasperated feeling that bled through their connection, even though he couldn’t see Cygnus anymore. ‘You are not dumb, Cygnus. Don’t do dumb things.’
“I know, Helper-Voice,” his pokemon replied, but he immediately followed that up with something more. ‘You are the only one here allowed to do questionable things, isn’t that right?’ the abra asked sarcastically.
‘Ha, ha, ha,’ he replied flatly. ‘Go back to training, will you? And remember that you can’t lie to me,’ he told his Psychic type, getting a mental roll of eyes before the connection was dimmed. It was a rare day when the link was completely severed by that point.
‘Wonder when it became normal to have another presence in my head,’ Pierce thought idly as he continued walking. Hm, maybe he could pick up some things about Psychic abilities in Saffron. He rather doubted he could get anywhere near the insane things some humans of that world could pull off, but it could be interesting to see if he could do anything in his own mind and such. He knew from Cygnus that it was pretty weird, for one.
For another, he’d gotten somewhat of a taste for it with his abra’s help, and he had to say that it seemed fairly interesting.
“Hey girl, missed me?” he asked Bellatrix as he walked back to the river where she was at, interrupting his line of thought.
He grinned widely when the red gyarados perked up.
[}-o-{]
“Now, there’s some little tricks I’ve learned to use applying more or less the same recipes sometimes,” Pierce explained, his berry blender set beside him and a selection of berries ready at hand. Lily was beside him, commenting on things and occasionally pointing out something he might have forgotten. It wasn’t like he really needed help preparing pokeblocks, after all.
He found that it did help to have her “on stage” when he recorded videos though. Not only did he feel less bad about making her help with them that way, but it made it easier for him to talk when he could talk to her instead of invisible people behind the camera. He wasn’t too sure where the difference came from, but he appreciated having an easier time, so he wasn’t complaining.
“For one, if your pokemon has an easy time chewing through things, like Andromeda here,” he commented, planting a hand on top of his vaporeon, who was lying by his other side. “You can not cut their favorite berry of the mix into pieces before blending them all together. That way, some bigger chunks will remain, which will give the pokeblock a little extra on the part of that particular berry. All the pokemon I’ve tried that with have enjoyed it quite a bit. Some like it better that way, others enjoy the variety. Just remember to not leave more than one berry uncut. That’s when you are pushing the blender to its limits and it might break.”
Was that how teachers felt standing in front of a class? Pierce suddenly had a new appreciation for all of them. God, was it awkward. Especially that gnawing doubt that he was maybe teaching wrong things and such. He’d tested everything he said. Hell, he used those tricks all the time. Nobody had ever corrected him or said anything other than compliments and he’d checked some of those things online just in case. However…
Who knew, right?
Alas, he was already in too deep, he supposed.
He just needed to think about all the pokemon that would be happy with his lessons. How many wild and/or troublesome pokemon would be better understood after his videos? How many would enjoy nice pokeblocks? How many would be able to have a great time because of what he did and said?
He needed to focus on that.
“That can be a neat trick with bigger pokemon too. Because sure, they can enjoy a pokeblocks too, even if… less than the usual. The extra punch of the bigger chunks helps them get a better taste of it, since the blender condenses the taste quite a bit together with everything else,” Pierce continued, a smile on his face.
That had been a necessity to figure out so that Bellatrix – and the other gyarados back at Cerulean – and Orion could properly enjoy the treats he prepared for them.
“Granted, they still need more quantity, but it’ll help the flavor come across better, even if it’s mostly one berry’s,” he explained, making it a point to throw one of the pokeblocks he’d prepared just like that towards Bellatrix, who was at the river close by. “Regular pokeblock approach, with everything cut into small chunks, works much better with smaller pokemon or those that might have trouble or just not like to chew the pokeblocks with larger bits of berries,” he said, this time presenting a treat to Narcissa, who ate it right from his hand. She usually had trouble grabbing onto things and Pierce didn’t want to just drop it on her bowl. Giving treats felt bad like that, so he usually preferred to directly give them to his pokemon, even if it meant hand feeding them.
“Now, a full pokeblock might be a little much for some pokemon, but I found a little trick while I was experimenting with the pokeblocks having bigger bits in them. Lily,” he commented, taking one of the cubic treats and passing it to his traveling companion.
Nodding, he could tell she was a little tense, but she went for it like a boss.
“This makes it so that, since these “chunks” are a solid single piece instead of being a blend of everything, it’s easier to-,” Lily took over, her voice sounding a little out of sorts but not in any noticeable way, continuing the explanation. With the pokeblock held in both hands, her fingers strained the smallest bit until the thing crumbled and she was left with two pieces, one in each hand. “-separate it,” she finished with a smile, presenting her result to the camera. “Why would you want to make a small treat even smaller? Well, for little pokemon, of course,” she said cheerfully, presenting the treat to an eager Star that had been bouncing on her feet ever since she broke down the treat.
She’d learned very quickly that that meant she’d be getting it, since she was the only one of them who ate them like that… Other than Talon, but the spearow was usually too prideful to eat “baby food” unless he was feeling particularly mellow for some reason.
“Well, I think those are all the pokeblock making tricks and tips we have for you guys right now,” Pierce said, deciding that it was a good enough spot to end things. He’d been talking for a while already and he thought he’d found a good enough spot to finish things off in their first series in regards to cooking for pokemon.
On that note, he was still trying to convince Lily to hold a section of her own in regards to cooking while traveling for trainers. No such luck, but he could tell he was wearing her down. He hoped he could get some comments thrown in about her participation to motivate her. That was one of the reasons why he’d involved her more during that character.
“Leave a comment with any feedback or questions or just to say what you liked. Both of us love reading through them,” he told the camera with a smile, being a hundred percent truthful. “And don’t forget to subscribe if you want to see and be notified about new videos. See you next time.”
“... And that’s that,” Lily said after a moment. “Here you go, girl,” she added, passing another piece of pokeblock to Star. “I liked that.”
“Happy to hear that,” Pierce replied, grinning widely. She was definitely going to join him making videos.
It was all coming together.
[}-o-{]
[Lillian Dale]
Pierce thought he was smart, slowly coaxing her to be part of the videos so that he could finally convince her to have just with her on them. She knew all about his plan. He wasn’t nearly as sneaky or smooth as he thought he was when he brought up the comments that mentioned her.
Despite that, Lily had to admit that he was, indeed, smart.
… She did it grudgingly though.
She was broken from her thoughts as Gem made a rumbling sound, a questioning one. Lily’s geodude was the most observant of them all for a reason, she supposed. Nothing escaped her and Lily could only guess that it was because she didn’t often do much other than watch them. Not because she was lazy, but because she liked to just appreciate things around her… and she was also rather… calm, for lack of a better term.
“Nothing to worry about,” she reassured her pokemon, who didn’t seem very convinced with that response. She didn’t know if she wanted to go into detail though, because Lily was sure her pokemon would push her to go for it too, since she actually wanted that. Alas, it wasn’t that simple.
Thus, she was grateful for Root, who noticed she was uncomfortable and immediately stepped in to cut the topic off. She felt bad about that too though, because Gem was concerned about her. She didn’t deserve to be scolded or ignored.
“I’m just struggling with something, Gem, don’t worry about it,” Lily tried to add and her geodude nodded with her whole body but didn’t respond otherwise. That made her want to sigh but she held back on it. ‘Wish I could make pokemon feel well like Pierce does,’ she lamented to himself.
Story of her life, it seemed. Lily felt like she was forever cursed to meet people extremely talented while she was… Well, maybe it was wrong of her to think like that when she was somewhere between ok and above average in most things, maybe even talented. Red and Blue had always been ahead of her in training and battling, but she’d liked to think that she was better than them at getting along with pokemon. Those two tended to be a little too intense for the calmer sort that couldn’t match their energy.
And then she’d met Pierce, which was both a blessing and a curse, because everyday she was reminded that there was yet another person ahead of her in the world. How was it that she was the one that came across and made friends with geniuses wherever she went? Because sure, it was amazing to see them shine so brightly…
But it was also so very crushing.
“I’m fine, Star, I swear,” she had to say when her cleffa shuffled her way to her and climbed on her lap. “So, what do you guys think about the videos?” she asked, more to change the topic than anything else. Because she already knew they didn’t much care for those. For them, it might as well have been some weird game they were playing just because she liked it.
Pokemon just didn’t understand or care for the “silly things humans did” most of the time. In a way, it was awkward at times, but it was also understandable. Lily likened it to that moment when one realizes that their priorities don’t align with others. Like back in Pallet, where Red, Blue and her were the only ones that ever got really into training. They weren’t the only ones preparing for their journey, of course, but they were the only ones that truly dedicated themselves to it.
It was just a little more extreme for pokemon, she supposed.
“Yeah, I know,” she replied when all her team gave her the pokemon equivalent of a shrug. Well, except Star, the adorable thing that she was. She probably liked it because she got to do some silly things and she got treats for it. So, as far as the baby pokemon was concerned, she had a great time everytime they recorded a video. “Well, I hope you don’t mind participating in those more,” she commented.
They didn’t seem to mind, apparently, and that was great.
Because Lily found that she really liked doing the videos with Pierce. At first, it had been as she told her friend. It was great to be part of a world that had been, for the longest time, a window to the outside of Pallet for her. It had been great to see how life was outside, to see other people’s opinions on things and experiences, to see… so much more than was around. It had been a great eye opening experience for her, one more teacher, in a way.
And also a great way to entertain herself, admittedly.
Pierce didn’t need to point out all the comments they were getting though, because she was already reading them all, reading them like a starving man would eat at a buffet. Because it was so very nice to see that she could be part of a world that she’d been a fan of for so long. It was also great to see that she could stand out even when she wasn’t the best. Intellectually, she knew that was possible, of course. Not everyone could be the champion, but… She’d been the afterthought for so long back home and now…
Now she could stand at a stage and not feel like she was no one’s focus.
‘Just a matter of when, I guess,’ she thought to herself with a smile.
She was pulled from her thoughts once more by Star, tapping her arm.
“Sorry, I spaced out again,” she apologized, smiling down at her pokemon. “So, what do you guys want to do during this break?” she asked and she got her answer immediately. Her cleffa jumped off her lap and enthusiastically led her somewhere while Root and Gem just patiently followed along the small one’s while. Talon rolled his eyes instead, but he did fly along with them either way. “Well, off to explore a bit we go, I guess,” she thought to herself.
That was enough feeling sorry for herself anyway, better to focus on something else.
[} Chapter End {]
Hey guys! How’s it going?
A nice slice of life chapter, if I do say so myself. Feels like I haven’t been addressing the “training” part of this journey nearly enough as of late, so it’s nice to be able to give it some spotlight too. Granted, it’s not a huge part of Pierce’s journey, ironically enough, but still.
Also, ah, the perils of being talented, but not talented enough. Wonder where Lily’s path will go from here. Can’t wait to see it myself, personally.
With that said, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.
Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ
Random Question: I don’t think I’ve asked this before, but which pokemon do you think will join Lily next? (I know her training journey isn’t a great focus of this fic either, but still.)
See you.
Comments
Ranma_Leopard
As always this is just really awesome and I can't wait for more!!
Adrian King
Corrected, thanks for pointing it out.
Coyote
Nice set up chapter though, cant wait see what happens in the next city. Wondering if Lilly or peirce gets turned into a doll 🤔🤣
Coyote
Small typo at “Nothing to worry about,” she reassured his pokemon, His should be her.
