Chapter 8: Bro Visited His Friend

The void… the absence of space where nothing can be seen, where there is nowhere to go, where there is nothing to scream at, and where there is nothing to hear. An infinite darkness that permeates the parts where space does not exist. For example, there is no space between mind and matter nor dream and reality, leaving the only bridge between the two the void… or like, that’s what I least heard in some RPGs and video games. Sometimes, it even leaks onto dreams under some circumstances, like in my case!

There I was again, in the same black space, seeing nothing but my own body because of dream logic, probably. I was still in a riolu’s body since that was the form I last went to sleep with. Furry blue paws were there instead of my hands, and instead of the semi-toned skin that was my human legs, they were replaced with bony black-furred legs. 

Instead of finding myself face-to-face with the deity that was the cause of my entire situation, I was alone, with no one to give me the scolding I was expected to have after my test with the transformation. But… no one was in sight, not even that pink light that always followed him wherever he went. 

Then… why am I fully aware of the void again if it’s not one of his speeches- oh wait, I almost forgot the other void dream option. 

And just as if it heard me, the thing that was plaguing my dreams so frequently recently came out to play. Two giant red rings that belonged to a giant creature’s eyes appeared before me, staring down at my furry riolu body. And of course, just like the other times, it began speaking in a weird alien dialect that I could understand shit about it. 

I crossed my arms and sat while floating, crossing my legs as I rolled my eyes. I was already sick of this dream, it was the same shit over and over again. Eyes appear, a bunch of mumbo-jumbo is spilled, then boom, jumpscare without me ever seeing how the creature looks like while I’m fully aware of everything that happens. I don’t know how much time the guy spends on the mumbo-jumbo part, but it’s for a small bit. 

I sighed and let my back fall a bit like I was lying in a bed. Even if I was floating, I relaxed like I was back in my bed, with covers over me as I closed my eyes again. “Listen, bro, I know you’re trying to look like my sleep paralysis demon or something, but you’re having an insane amount of skill issue right now. Go get some bitches or something then we speak-”

“Go away… please…!”

A certain familiar male voice made me open my eyes again, not making me wake up back into the real world. I looked around, searching for the voice’s source while ignoring the gibberish the giant shadow monster was spitting. After looking around for a bit, I finally found the source below me. Surrounded by pink light, the yellow-eyed shadow was flying under me, curling his body and his own tail wrapped around him like some sort of shield. He looked… afraid.

“L-leave me alone already…”

The incoherent speech was slowly turning into a growl.

“S-Stop it!” 

Seeing the interaction between the two shadow beings made me realize something that finally made me understand why I was having these weird dreams that were supposed to be scary yet weren’t…

This was not my dream, it was the deity’s.

I glanced back at the deity and tried calling him, swimming through the void. “Hey dude, what’s wrong? Who the hell is this bozo scaring you-”

“Leave me ALONE!!!” 

He screamed, a shockwave passing through the void and causing winds that ruffled my fur. That was enough to rile up the giant shadow monster. It roared into the sky before its head reached towards me. And before I knew it, the creature clamped its mouth on me…

And I woke up.

My eyes quickly opened with a jump as I was left panting, trying to catch my breath after dying in a dream. I put a paw on my chest and I felt my heart regulate its beating as I calmed down from the dream experience. I blinked for a moment before saying. “Nani the fuck-” I interrupted myself to make it seem like a video cut and to appear like I was saying something else entirely, one of the many quirks I liked to do. “Anyway… uh… that answers some stuff, but still, what the hell…” I shifted my position in the straw nest, tilting my body sideways as my brain did something almost impossible and thought.

‘So… the cause of those nightmares was actually because of the deity’s dreams…? How…? I know it uses a lot of telepathy with me but like… is his power different from what the media portrayed telepathy? Or… is he connected with me in some way…’ I thought as I was thinking about some theories. Before I could brainstorm some more, something snapped me away from my thoughts: my belly rumbling. “Aw c’mon dude, not cool! I was in the middle of my nerd emoji moment and you completely blew it!” I complained to my stomach, sighing in defeat before getting up, not before realizing something.

Goddamn, my sense of smell was so powerful. It was kinda obvious since I was a canine Pokémon, but holy hell, I could smell all sorts of stuff without even being remotely close. Of course, there was the earthly air with the small smell of sulfur permeating the air. That would be as far as my human nose would go… but since I wasn’t exactly in human form, I could smell more than that, like the human sweat plaguing my T-shirt, the smell of the food on the storage area, and… uh… the smell coming from the hole where Pokémon did their necessities.

Honestly, it would be better if I just focused on the food smell, shake, brain? Shake, no questions asked.

Since these legs were a bit different than the other Pokémon I transformed had (having inverted knees for a biped is hella weird), it was a bit of a difficulty trying to walk, heck, I even fell on my side after a few steps. But after walking towards my backpack, I got the hang of it eventually, my tail being the only thing that kept me steady. 

I wanted to look for my phone, so I scavenged my backpack (that now was literally almost half of my height) for the device, checking every pocket for it. Well, there was my notebook, pencil case, and other miscellaneous items that I didn’t bother taking out of my backpack, but… no phone. “The hell? Where did I…” I muttered to myself before realizing the last time I used my phone.

It was before I went to bed the night I turned into an eevee and put the phone in my shorts’ pocket…

“Ah, it’s nonexistent for now, but…” I said with a grin before stepping away from the bag. I opened my arms and slowly transformed myself back into human form. Once the pink flash faded, I could see my shirtless body with dirty shorts and muddied shoes, the pendant that I received from the little pichu still hanging from my neck. I frowned a bit when a realization hit him. I facepalmed lightly. “Fuck, that’s right, I gotta get new clothes somehow…”

Ah yes, definitely gonna look for new clothes in a world where all of the inhabitants are naked as fuck and don’t even mind if someone accidentally peeked under their tails. Like, the stuff that I saw and prevented myself from even speaking about it even by a bit… eh, not like I’m not used to seeing that with animals back in my world, so better not bother about it.

I quickly whipped my phone out and checked the battery. Huh… 65% even being in sleep mode for two days straight… strange, but… just shows the potency of the… wait, hold on a moment. “Goddammit! How will I even recharge this-… oh wait, maybe if I turn into an electric Pokémon…” I shrugged. “Eh, that’s for later.” I looked back at my phone, frowning a bit when I saw no notifications on the lock screen. “Man, no signal sucks…” 

I put my phone beside my backpack as a thought struck me. I realized a massive hygiene problem by staying in human form. I couldn’t exactly brush my teeth whenever I ate stuff, leaving my teeth to get caries, something that animals didn’t suffer from. Also, not only that, I’d definitely be dirtying my clothes even more than I should, and since I have to go to some kind of river to wash them and don’t have any spare in my backpack… yeah, it would be bad if I stayed in human form for long.

I gritted my teeth as I put a hand on my forehead as I thought of becoming a Pokémon for the majority of my time here. “Should I… should I really be doing this?” I sat on the ground with a frown, thinking about the consequences of what would happen if I stayed as a Pokémon for too long. Suddenly, memories from last night(? I don’t know what time it is in a place like this…) returned to me, reminding me of what almost happened when I transformed into a dragonite for a couple of seconds.

I… I almost lost my humanity…

I would’ve become a wild monster if I had given in. It’s impressive how I even resisted it because whatever that voice was, it got hands. But right now, I was given a choice. Either become in a similar precarious state as a street hobo for staying too much in my human form or take the risk of becoming a wild animal by turning into a Pokémon.

I weighed my options- just kidding, I instantly decided on the latter for very obvious reasons. One: the reason why I almost lost my mind was that I fucked around and found out, turning into something that I shouldn’t have. Two: Let me be real here, turning into Pokémon is like the dream of literal thousands back in my world, and having a random dumbass like me being the one to have this opportunity is like a huge middle finger to a bunch of others who wanted this and could (definitely) be better than me in this turning into Pokémon business.

Why the hell am I complaining anyway? Who cares if some furry thoughts get over my mind, I’m still human by mind and soul! And not like I wasn’t one of the people who wanted to become a Pokémon too, and now that I got the chance with literally infinite possibilities, I’m gonna use it dammit!

“Alright, alright, let’s get this over with.” I said to myself the very obscure reference before thinking about the Pokémon I should become for a while. ‘Hm… I should probably become a biped with great insight into my surroundings so I don’t get watched by a criminal organization again… hm… ah, well, nothing better than the overused ‘mon I slept with, huh?’ I stretched my neck and rotated my arms a bit, the sound of snapping articulations being present. 

With that, I transformed again back into Riolu, my body shrinking and getting a bit more dog-like as the structure of my body just reshaped itself. Once the pink flash had disappeared and I could see again, I glanced at my body before staring at my phone for a bit. Subconsciously, my tail started wagging a little. “Sick, I get to use my phone while in Pokémon form! But uh…” I stared at my paws, unsure if it’d actually work on the touch screen. “Welp, test time.”

I grabbed my phone and realized that it was a bit bigger than it originally was for my human self, but welp, expected. I turned the screen on and traced my furry finger on the touch screen, a smile growing on my face upon noticing that it worked. I balled a free paw into a fist in joy. “Hell yes! I still get to use my stuff even in furry mode!”

I was glad I didn’t pick a species with oversized claws or else the touchscreen would be messed up badly. 

“Lucas, are you already awake?”

A voice from outside of the room asked, clearly belonging to my heatran caretaker’s voice. 

I shouted to her, clutching my phone close to my chest like I was holding a book (since it now weighed like one). “Yes, Basi! Was just doing some stuff!” I then walked rapidly towards the door, opening it with a single paw. On the other side of the door, there stood Elder Basidian, getting a bit surprised seeing a riolu come out of the door instead of my human body. “Now I’m here!” ‘Reaching far across these new frontiers~!’

The old heatran sniffed me a bit before asking. “Child, why are you still transformed?”

I put a paw on my side and explained my reasoning. “You see since I’ll probably stay in this world for a while, I better stay in Pokémon form the majority of the time because um… human hygiene is a very delicate thing, so we made tools to help us with that.” I then shrugged while looking aside. “And since I don’t have those tools here, I decided it would be best to just stay in Pokémon form since they don’t need that much hygiene anyway. After all, ya wouldn’t happen to know what a toothbrush is, right?” The molten steel Pokémon shook her head. “Thought so.”

“Well, I think I get it… but if you don’t feel comfortable in Pokémon form, you know you’re welcome to stay as a human as much as you want.” Basidian said with a reassuring smile. 

“Thanks, Basi.” I said with a smile before thinking. ‘Not sure how a normal human without these powers would survive in conditions like these while catching a lot of unknown diseases, but sure, maybe a more experienced survival specialist could.’ 

I put my phone on the table before going to grab some food for myself and Basi for breakfast. However, I stopped once a thought came to me and I asked. “Hey Basi, have you eaten already?”

“Yep, I did! I went to wake you up right after I ate.” The heatran responded. “You can grab food just for yourself, child.”

“Got it!” I said in acknowledgment and grabbed an armful of food, scooping up berries, bread, and some sort of vegetables as well. I wondered when I would be able to eat meat or, like, what kind of policy the Pokémon made when it comes to meat.

Because surely the carnivorous ‘mons wouldn’t live for long if they only lived off of veggies, fruits, and carbs.

I brought the food back to the table, letting it fall next to my phone, and started eating, my tail wagging as I happily ate away. There were some berries and strange-looking veggies I liked, some I didn’t like while discovering as I ate. But it didn’t matter much, I’d just filter out whenever I ate later, but for now, my stomach was getting filled. 

Like in my charmander body, I couldn’t munch with my mouth closed because of my canine-like muzzle. This piqued my curiosity a bit, realizing that I had never seen my face while transformed into any Pokémon.

I paused my feast, wiping away the remains of breadcrumbs and berry pieces off my fur before wiping my paws at the table. Next, I grabbed my phone and immediately went to the camera app, the screen displaying Basidian on the other side of the table before I switched the camera to selfie mode. To be honest, I got a bit jumpscared when instead of my human face appeared a blue and black furry face. 

“Goddamn…” I muttered to myself as I slowly took my facial features. Even in a riolu body, I still had my blue eyes, but that’s where the similarities end. I had a lot of fur, covering most of my forehead and my body, black-furred tassels came from the side of my head, pointed ears extended from the top of my head, and of course, there was my small muzzle. I opened my mouth and lifted my lips with a finger, analyzing the sharp teeth in front of my mouth that were stained with food bits. ‘Yep, definitely a furry’s wet dream, alright.’

“Lucas…” I lowered my phone and looked at the heatran on the other side of the table. “What is that artifact you’re holding…?” 

I realized something, making me gasp. “Holy shit, that’s right! I never showed you what phones were! Hol’ up!” I walked excitedly towards the heatran and stood beside her, not minding the minor heat she expelled from her body as my tail wagged rapidly. “Relish in the marvel of humanity’s greatest invention that is accessible to mostly everyone back in my world (except for some places..)! Meet the cellphone!”

I try to do my best Team Fortress 2 main theme for the Meet the Character trailers. Basidian only looked at me a bit awkwardly, not understanding the whole fanfare. “Erm… alright then…?” She shifted her stare at the phone in my paw. “But what does it do to become the greatest invention created by humans?”

“It’s a multipurpose tool that lets you do a lot of things! Like…” I pointed at the camera currently in selfie mode. “Snap photos! Basically a more efficient method than things like sculpting a statue of someone or painting the person!”

“Wait, so basically… photos are a faster method of paintings and sculptures in your world? How fast are they produced even?” The heatran asked, tilting her head in curiosity.

I grinned. “Instantly!” My response made Basi’s eyes widen a bit, but before she could respond, I tilted my phone to the side and aimed the camera towards us. “Smile!” 

Before the elder had the chance to do anything else, I snapped the photo pretty easily with one paw (these fingers were honestly quite flexible), a small click being heard as the photo got saved me in my gallery. Basidian blinked, unsure of what happened in the last five seconds. “Wha-… what just happened…?”

“I snapped a photo of the two of us.” I tapped on the last saved photo, showing a high-quality image of a blue-eyed riolu and a pink-eyed heatran. I then showed the screen to Basidian. “Look, it even got the rust on the edges of your head!”

“Dear Arceus… you were right, it’s really instantaneous!” She squinted her eyes, leaning her face closer to the phone. “And the amount of details it has in such a small frame too… how did humanity even achieve without any magic to work with?”

“I don’t know the specifics, but uh… short and simple answer…” I motioned a paw slowly across me. “With the power of science and technology! And this is just the camera app!” I said before opening my arms. “There is so much more you can do with just this thing! You can talk to people from different parts of the world-…”

“Oh, like the communication orb?” The heatran interrupted me, tilting her head as asked.

I put my paws on my side and responded with a smile. “If it acts just like I think it does, then exactly!” I then looked back at my phone, seeing the icon with no signal. “Although uh… my phone requires invisible electromagnetic waves for it to work.”

“Electro… what?” The elder blinked in pure confusion, not understanding the last part. Ah, right, forgot I was in no tech zone.

“Uh… well, the invisible waves that let my phone communicate with other people.” I tried simplifying before continuing. “Not only that, it lets me access the greatest library known to mankind! The internet!” I sighed disappointedly. “I would’ve loved to give you a demonstration of how it works, but sadly… no signal for the internet here… boo-womp.” I then piped up with excitement. “But! I can still play some virtual games. Virtual as in like…” I pointed at the screen. “Inside this thing.”

Basidian blinked, apparently struggling to follow my explanation as she stared dumbfoundedly at me. “Um… wow, this… this object can really do all of that?”

“Well, there is more it can do, but I just explained the most essential features of it.” I said with a shrug before perking up as an idea appeared in my mind. “Oh wait, now that I have this thing out, I can show you some pictures of my family saved on my phone! Hold on.” I poked a tongue out as I quickly opened the gallery app and scrolled through the photos of miscellaneous things that I used for editing purposes only (I still wanted to delete them but always forgot to do so every time). I finally reached the picture I was looking for, a family photo with my entire family in it. 

Yes, even my mom. The picture was taken six years ago, it was saved on the family PC and I downloaded it onto my phone for very obvious reasons.

I viewed the picture with the heatran beside me and pointed out each member. “Okay, this human with no hair and glasses in the picture is my dad. He’s kinda a secretive guy and likes to keep stuff mostly to himself, so share any secret with him and he’ll never speak about it to anyone else besides you. Ah, his name is Martin Robinson.”

“Oh, humans have last names as well?” Basidian asked, gone was her confused and frozen face, replaced with a curious one. Seemed like she was more interested in my family.

“Yeah, we do. My full name is Lucas Robinson.” I revealed, lowering my phone a bit. “What’s yours?”

“Well, mine is Basidian Moltencore.” 

I blinked, a bit surprised her surname was something akin to a Warriors Cats’ name. “Wow, really fits with your species, to be honest.” I responded with a smile.

“Yeah, the Moltencore family is a proud one. But I haven’t carried the legacy, my siblings did with their offspring.” The heatran explained before motioning her claw to my phone again. “But that’s enough about them, I’m more interested in the rest of your family, that is if you want to continue speaking about them.”

“Oh, yes, I can continue.” I responded with a smile before raising my phone again and pointing at my brother who was still wearing glasses at the time. “This is my brother, Arthur. He’s older than me and like, he’s the cool but still annoying teaser. But overall, bro’s based. Couldn’t ask for a better brother!” I then pointed at the short red-haired girl in the middle of the photo, posing like she was the queen of the world. “This here is my little sister, Mary. She’s uh… I really don’t know who’s the most hyperactive when comparing her to me, but probably her because she can’t contain herself. She’s a literal tornado when we aren’t watching. She currently holds the record of most broken things in the house.”

The heatran chuckled. “She definitely resembles the many young Pokémon I’ve seen grow over the years in this village. Are you sure she’s not secretly a Pokémon?”

“Well, she does have the most flaming slap of all time when she’s angry when I annoy her a bit with teasing. But like, pretty sure she would’ve revealed herself to be one a long time ago if she actually was.” I giggled, causing the elder to giggle along with me as well. “Alright, next up is my mom.” Even if I tried to sound cheerful when talking about her, a sigh escaped me as I smiled a bit sadly. I pointed at the long red-haired woman in the picture. “I talked about her sometimes before, but this is how she looked like back in the day. Her name was Cassandra Robinson.”

Basidian stared at the still picture of my Mom, unreadable expressions flashing through her steel face. I tilted my head, about to ask something before the elder spoke. “You loved her a lot, didn’t you?” She looked back at me. “Every time you speak of her, there’s this sadness in your tone, even when you try to sound enthusiastic.”

I sighed and lowered my phone, looking aside as I kicked nothing but a bit of dust below me. “Yeah, I try to shove those melancholic thoughts aside, but they keep returning every time I remember her. I just…” I trailed off, organizing my thought process. “It’s tough to move on completely after what happened… even with copious amounts of therapy for five years straight…”

“Oh, child…” Basidian leaned her hard head closer to me and nuzzled her metal face against my furry forehead. Instead of getting my head fried off because of the hot steel, I leaned onto the nuzzle, relaxing on the warm and comfortable regulated heat. It felt like I was in a nice sauna. She then leaned away and spoke again with a sorrowful face. “You will eventually get over it, Dialga’s time is meant to heal all wounds as they say. You know your mother wouldn’t want to see you suffer in silence like this.”

I grimaced a bit, looking away. “I know… I cope with it a lot, focusing on something else. But like, it just keeps coming back to haunt me…” I gritted my teeth as I scratched the side of my head. “Can uh… can we move on from this topic? I kinda don’t like being sad for long…”

Basidian gave a single nod. “It’s understandable, child. If you ever feel like it, you can always talk to me if you’re having problems, alright?” 

I nodded with a smile, already trying to come up with better topics to speak of in my head. “Thanks a bunch.” I thought about showing some of the memes I downloaded on my phone, but… I doubted she’d understand much of the jokes with the amount of brain rot the offer. She’s too old for that anyway. ‘Hm… I do have uno on my phone, we could play against the CPUs…’ With that decided, I spoke. “Hey, how about we-”

“How about I take you to the bathhouse with me? You did get a bit dirty after the battle…” The heatran interrupted me.

My eyes widened, realizing the horrors I would endure again. “Huh!? But I already took my bath! I might’ve spent, like, two days in the hospital, but I’m not that-…” I trailed off, reminding myself of the odor that my shirt had when I woke up. “Well, um… at least I don’t smell that bad right now in this body!” I argued while shooting my arms up.

Basidian sniffed me before speaking. “Riolu musk… yep, you do need a bath.”

“Aw c’mon man…” I said in defeat, disappointed that I was gonna get rid of all my gamer aura again. ‘She really do be like my mom, huh?’

---

The walk to the bathhouse was livelier than last time. I was walking alongside Basidian while still in riolu form, staying close to her since I felt more protected in case another bad egg was spying on me. But well, they didn’t need to hide in the shadows anymore.

Because everyone in the village was watching us pass by.

With my sharpened hearing (and a certain faint feeling that I deduced it was aura), I could tell Pokémon from all over the village were talking about us, actually, just me specifically, the reason being so obvious. Because of the incident from two- actually, three days ago with the Dark Rebellion, word got out and spread throughout the village that there was a shapeshifter “Pokémon” in the village and that he was living with the village’s elder.

That already blew my cover for a peaceful life as an exploration team in this village (not like guild work is exactly peaceful either)… 

Simply put, I became a celebrity in this village for basically living with the elder, having transformation powers, and because of the fiasco back in the school’s basement. Just walking alongside Basidian makes any Pokémon I turned into kinda useless for cover since the Pokémon in the village, from what I heard so far, go:

“Is that the shapeshifter I’ve heard about?” A noivern said.

“It must be, he’s walking with the elder like she’s a parent. They must be the one that the elder took in.” A lairon spoke.

“I heard to identify them, you should identify eye color… heard it’s the same in every form they take!” A larvitar kid exclaimed to a friend.

“Who knew he’d look that young? What girls do you think he’s into?” A hattrem asked a friend of hers who watched me and the elder.

So, not only does my human form stand out among (us. I know, I hate myself) them, but it seems every form where they can see my arms is just a way for me to dox myself. Well, at least I’m not being recognized for something bad, like, I dunno… what a normal Minecraft youtuber would do. 

I sighed and put my paws behind my head, relaxing and trying to get not anxious with all the stares. Kinda hard for them to see me as a threat to them anyway since I was walking right beside the Pokémon who had lived in the village for a long time. But if they do see me as one; first of all, what the hell, why would they think that if I had done nothing wrong nor transformed into a big and scary Pokémon? Are they an idiot sandwich or something? Second, if they are parts of an idiot sandwich, I’ll uh… guess I’ll die. I barely could handle that flutter mane, how am I able to handle against an entire mob of Pokémon who want my ass evicted for potentially being a danger to them?

Hopefully, it’ll never come to that. My ass would not handle surviving in the Pokémon wilds a single day before becoming food for a big wild ursaring or something. 

While we were walking, Basidian joyfully greeted everyone who passed by us. What was really impressive is that the old heatran remembered the name of every Pokémon she passed by. No shit, be it an old ‘mon or a little kid, she remembered everyone. “Good morning Zesto! Morning to you too, Marillion! Oh, hi there little Ikan, have you slept well today, child?”

A small gulpin (don’t think about it, don’t think about it, don’t sin again) responded as she passed us. “I slept well, Elder Basidian, thanks for asking!” 

The gulpin slithered away slowly. When she was completely away, I looked at Basi and spoke. “Damn, you sure know literally every villager here…”

“Well, I don’t get out of Cavestone much, so that’s why I spend my time here getting to know every Pokémon here better!” The heatran happily explained, following up with a hum as she walked around.

I noticed she looked happier than when I first met her. There was a huge difference in attitude from four days ago (geez, it’s already been that long). She acted a bit more childish and carefree rather than the motherly and caretaking I’ve come to know her from the first initial days. Is it because of me…? Probably, I’m known to have a lot of impact on people, are they good impacts? … better not worry about that!

Eventually, we reached the bathhouse without incident. The atmosphere of the place felt a bit different, but it was probably because Basidian was with me and I wasn’t in human form. Well, at least I won’t have any fear of stripping myself in front of a lot of Pokémon since I was already naked but covered!

I wonder if I’d get the bad dog smell if I water my fur… welp, one way to find out.

We both entered the bathhouse before I had a certain realization. ‘Holy shit… I’m going into a bathhouse with a fire type. You know what that means!? No, not fish, dumbass brain. A hot bath!’ I looked at the elder and asked a question. “Hey, small but very important question!” The heatran shifted her attention to me with an inquisitive hum. “Uh… you don’t happen to expel a bit of heat around you when you’re in the water, right?”

“I do a small bit. But if you want to, I can tone it down-”

I shook my paws and my head. “Nonononono! I actually want that! Hot water feels so nice on my body! Not like the cave water is that cold, but uh…” I shrugged sheepishly. “I’m just a fan of hot water in general.”

“Ah, well, if you say so!” The heatran said before walking to a large cave pool with me high on her heels.

Nothing had changed so far from the last time I was here, but there were fewer Pokémon than before. Sure, there were like, thirty to forty or so, but still, not as much as my first time here. There were some Pokémon I’d seen before from my time in the village like that hisuian lilligant from the first time I entered the village and some others I had never seen before like a tangrowth… I ignored a certain thought that appeared in my head.

Once we entered the water, we decided to stay on the edge of the pool, next to a cave wall. When Basidian settled down beside me, I realized her temperature was perfect. It felt like I was in a hot tub, relaxing and just having some kind of thermal massage on my skin (and fur as well.) 

I sighed in relief, letting my body get loose and just relax on my back. Sure, it’s not like the cave wall was soft or fluffy, but I didn’t even care. Hot water was there to combat the cold of the cave, a nice contrast in temperature between the hot water (around me) and the air. Was I in a spa? Because it sure looked like it!

As I crossed my legs just enjoying being alive, the elder chuckled as she looked at me. “Enjoying it, aren’t you?”

I grinned at her. “Yep! Been a while since I was in a hot pool like this. This heat is exactly what this bathhouse needs!”

“Not really…” 

I looked to the side finding a brown and moist fluff lord heading towards me and the elder. Evon was the source of the voice and, unlike yesterday, he had his bandages off, the gash on his skin mostly healed as fur started to grow again. “Don’t forget that some Pokémon don’t like the heat.”

His comment completely went over my head and I focused on the obvious. “Hey Evon, are you fully healed?”

The eevee nodded. “Yeah, mostly.” He sat on his haunches, letting the water fully wash over his fur. He looked at his side and continued speaking. “My fur just needs to regrow for the most part around the scars, but it will in a few days.” He turned his head back to me with an inquisitive stare. “I take it that you’re fully healed and back to your transformation madness?”

“Yep!” I said before getting up and pointing a finger at myself. “And I’ve decided to stay in Pokémon form for a bit since, well…” I shrugged. “This world doesn’t have the necessary tools to keep my human form clean and healthy.”

The fox Pokémon tilted his head. “Are humans really that sensitive?”

Before I had a chance to respond, the heatran behind me chuckled. “Humans really are an enigma. So sensitive for them to wear clothing all over their bodies but also intelligent enough to create incredible objects such as a cellphone!”

“Cellphone?” 

I smugly grinned. “Oh, you should’ve been there when I showed Basi the marvelous human invention. But you probably remember seeing a fraction of its power when you first met me. Remember when I needed evidence to know if I was hallucinating or not?”

The eevee blinked as he seemed to be remembering the scene. “Oh wait, you mean that black rectangle you used before you grabbed me just to see my junk, didn’t you?”

I froze a bit, feeling a menacing glare intensify behind me. I said a bit meekly. “H-hey dude, what happened in the past, stays in the past, got it…?” I smiled nervously.

My fur and tail went up as I could hear the heatran’s voice. “Lucas… what does he mean by that?”

It felt like I was dealing with my dad when he caught me in the act all over again. Geez, the parent aura around Basidian is not just for show… “Hehehe… uh…” I slowly turned around to face the big and old heatran, sheepishly scratching my arm. “You see… I was kinda in awe by everything in the world and when I met Evon… his voice was like, so high-pitched that I had to check if he was a boy or a girl.” The heatran’s eyes narrowed a little. “It’s the pure truth!”

“Yeah, he was just an innocent and curious puppy.” Evon sarcastically remarked. “But well, he knows what happens if he does it again.”

“Never doing that again or to anyone else. Got curious and jumped the gun, alright?” The two Pokémon beside me tilted their heads in confusion. I then explained. “Uh… term back in my word for basically recklessly deciding on an action.”

“Ah, so that’s what you mostly do, got it…” Evon said as he hummed in acknowledgment.

I narrowed my eyes as I crossed my wet furry arms. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh children, no need to get heated about things like these.” Basidian hummed in thought. “For teammates, you still disagree on a lot of things…” The heatran’s eyes widened, seemingly having thought of something. “I have an idea! Since you two are on a team now, how about you spend the day getting to know each other better?”

I blinked a bit, making gears turn in my head to realize what she meant. “W-wait, you want us to goof off the entire day together?” I suppressed the urge to groan as my ears and tail lowered. “But I wanted to tackle missions today! We’ve wasted so much time in the hospital already!”

Evon mumbled something under his breath, along the lines of “Just like…” from what I could hear. Bro was super silent because I had dog ears and I could hear far. He then spoke to the elder. “Hey, is this really necessary? I mean, sure… it might not seem like we don’t get along well. But just because Lucas has a couple of screws loose off his brain, doesn’t mean we can’t work together like a team.”

You could keep saying that all you want Evon, but you better not complain if I blasted you with physics and chemistry lessons that I barely remember. Then I wanna see who’s the dumber guy between the two of us… well, probably me, but still, I needed to flex my superiority over him somehow! “Alright, girly furball, whatever you say.”

Evon’s tail raised as he bore his teeth at me. “What did you just say-”

“And there’s the example that demonstrated the current state of your synergy.” The elder said before lowering her body a bit more to let water wash her rusty face. She then reemerged once again, water streaming out of her lower jaw as if she had drank the water, before responding. “You two fight a lot over petty things, and as a result, that may even affect your battles as well.”

“But-”

The heatran interrupted me. “No buts! You two are going to take the time off today to know each other better to clear your differences.” She stared specifically at me. “Once we’re done bathing, you are going to stay with Evon on his daily activities. And don’t even think about accepting any missions for today.”

I almost wanted to just say “Okay, Mom” out of spite, but I suppressed it, not wanting to come off as rude to earn myself some lava up my ass. Instead, I just sighed and crossed my arms, looking disappointed as a low whine escaped my mouth. “Alrighty, if you say so…”

I know it was kinda childish of me to react that way, but like, think about it. I was in a world where the literal fantasies of thousands came true and I was fulfilling the dreams of all those people, of course, I’d be excited as fuck to start my explorer journey, even if I knew exactly what the stakes were. Of course, that being my life and the others around me, the fight with those two Dark Rebellion members just proved it. Even if those dangers were present, goddammit, I just couldn’t contain my excitement! I wanted to go back out there so badly to get better at doing Pokémon moves and transforming into Pokémon.

But well, now I was stuck trying to get along better with the fox cat thing that, for some reason, still held a grudge over my cringe action in the past. Oh, that would go greatly.

Evon sighed behind me with a grimace. “Alright… let’s see if this guy is actually a reasonable individual then…” Before I could retort his comment, he spoke again. “If you’re spending the entire day with me, I guess you can help me with some grocery tasks I have to do after this. I’ll even let you enter my house this time.”

I perked up a bit and looked at the eevee. “Oh shit, house reveal? What made you rethink your options?”

“Well… you did put your life on the line for us in that unwinnable battle back in the school basement instead of running away like a… coward…” That last word came out a bit bitter, but he didn’t dwell on it. “Yeah, you do deserve some credit.”

“OMG, senpai noticed me!” I said ironically while wagging my tail and putting my paws on my chin. Evon stared at me unamused as I giggled to myself. “Joking, I’m joking. But no worries though, I promise not to turn your house upside down when I step on it.”

A small smile made its way to Evon’s mouth. “You better.”

“Well, isn’t this a start!” We both looked back at Basidian who was starting to get up from her sitting position, splashes of water being present as her large body mass shifted. She shook her head clean from the water. “I’m confident that this day will help you deepen your bonds and shrug aside your differences!”

I looked aside and thought. ‘Like friendship blooms that easily after you pestered someone as a bad first impression…’

“Also, Lucas, don’t forget to drink water! You don’t want to dry yourself out for not drinking.” Basidian said as she pointed down at the water surrounding us.

Wait, they don’t mean… “Hold on, hold on, hold on!” I said a bit louder than I should’ve, drawing the unwanted attention of other Pokémon bathing. I ignored them before pointing to the water. “So… you’re meaning to tell me… you guys drink water from… here? Nahnahnah…” I turned to Evon. “Evon, is she kidding or-”

I interrupted myself once I saw the eevee drinking the water like a cat sipping from their pot. I stared wide-eyed, blinking a few times before he stopped drinking the water and looked at me. He licked his lips and asked. “What? Something wrong with drinking a bit of water?”

I stuttered a bit, trying to find a response to all of this. You know what? Fuck hygiene. Why should I be worried if someone pissed or shat in this water? Oh, what’s this? Pokémon actually bathe here? Who cares!? No one does! The Pokémon here eat food without caring if they’re tainted with bacteria or fungus, so why should I worry about drinking bath water with probably some Pokémon excrement? And hey, I’m a riolu, some dogs are known back in my world for drinking toilet water anyway!

‘Then something just snapped, something inside of me. I didn’t care anymore!’ I recited a certain meme in my mind before crouching down while supporting my body with my paws and hesitantly stretching my tongue towards the water and giving it a few licks. ‘I didn’t care about the water having germs! I didn’t care if it potentially had poop or piss!’

The water… didn’t taste anything different from the normal water I tasted. Sure, there was a slight variation in the taste because of the rocks (and because I was drinking straight out of a natural source), but it honestly didn’t taste anything different. A few more sips and no signs of poop or piss tasted, good. 

After filling the rest of my belly with water, I got up and glanced at the heatran who smiled at me. “Was that so hard? Why were you so hesitant about drinking water in the first place?”

“Uh…” I fiddled with my paws and lowered my tail as I looked away. “Human hygiene stuff again…”

Evon walked past me while commenting. “Geez, you humans are real softies if drinking water is enough to make your body sick.” Before I could correct him, he turned his head to me. “So, are you coming or not?”

I would’ve made a sex joke but I held myself back because of the grandma heatran next to me. Instead, I just said. “Sure, I’m just gonna grab some stuff back in Basi’s house. Where can I meet you?”

“Eh, the statue in the village’s square works best. It’s close to the shops. Hope you don’t get kidnapped by then.” With that, the eevee headed off with a smirk, shaking water off his body once he was out of the lake. 

I sighed before splashing more water on my body, rubbing my arms, chest, and face. Then the wet dog smell kicked in, something I was heavily familiar with when I spent a rainy day in my cousin’s home and they left his dog in the backyard for a bit and it entered the house with its fur all wet. 

A bit funny that this smell could come from me now depending on my form.

After throwing more water into the lower part of my body, I announced to the heatran. “Okay, I finished bathing. Gonna go back to the house to grab my stuff, alright?”

The heatran got up from her sitting position and tilted her head. “Do you want me to come with you? You might be a little afraid to go alone after…”

“Nah, I’m not letting the school incident get to me. I can do fine on my own, believe it or not.” I started walking off. “You can stay here and enjoy more of your bath. Cya later!” 

I waved at Basi as she waved at me with her big claw before I stepped off the lake and shook the water from my body. I felt my fur floof up a bit which I didn’t really mind.

I quickly went back to Basi’s house, running after memorizing a bit of the path there and getting the hang of my new legs. There, I grabbed my phone and went back to my room to grab my backpack. I put the phone inside it and slung the bag on my back, only to realize it felt bigger since my tail was getting shoved to the side. For some reason, it didn’t feel heavier than it felt on my human shoulders. Was it because I was a fighting type? Probably…

After that, I left the house and immediately went to the town square, the weight of the backpack not slowing me down. In the middle of the large area, next to the large stone statue, stood Evon with a pouch slung across his back. He sat on his haunches, watching Pokémon walk by before his eyes shifted his focus to the obvious riolu with a comically large backpack on his back.

Oh yeah, did I forget to comment that Pokémon were looking at me for that? Of course they were, I was just trying my best to avoid those curious and confused stares that have been getting more frequent the more I walked around in this village. Pokémon of all kinds were staring at me, even a little green blob Pokémon with a red hexagon on their chest between the crowd-

Wait a damn moment.

I glanced back to where I spotted the green little’ blob, expecting to see them continuing to stare at me, but as quickly as I sighted them, they were gone. I stopped for a second, searching for the obvious core form of a fucking Zygarde. Unfortunately, after a few seconds, I wasn’t able to find them. ‘Was that… was I imagining things or something? If I was, goddamn for the textures and realism brain…’

I got pulled out of my thoughts when someone pawed my side, making me look at the eyepatch-wearing eevee who retracted his paw. “Are you well? You just stopped and zoned out…”

I waved a paw in dismissal. “Nah, I’m good. Just felt like someone was, like, watching me and all…” I said while staring to the side, that uneasy feeling not fading away. Maybe just aura powers shenanigans, I need to learn how to control them one day.

“Of course with that large bag on your back, Pokémon are gonna look at you weirdly. It looks like one of those newly invented hiking bags…” Evon commented before shaking his head. “But that’s beside the point. Come on, let’s go to the shop, I gotta replenish my berry and meat stock back home.”

At the mention of meat, my ears perked up and I tilted my head in thought. ’Oh, so they do eat meat in this world. Well, obvious, or else no protein in these muscles. Still, the Game Theory of the day is… where do they get the meat from…’ I shoved that thought aside for now and flexed an arm. “Well, if you can’t carry everything. Count on these babies to help!”

Evon huffed unamused as he turned around. “Yeah, let’s see for how long they can hold until they drop all of the food.”

I grinned as I put a paw on my side. “Nah, my dad didn’t raise me to be a weakling! You’ll see!”

With that, we walked to the shopping area of Cavestone. Instead of having a lot of buildings, like the ones in my city, the shopping area was filled with small wooden-made stands that stretched throughout the rectangular tunnel area. The stands sold different things, from different types of food and drinks (like berry juices and apple ciders), bags of different sizes and shapes, accessories and orbs, to even an “open” restaurant at the end of the area. 

All-in-all, it looked exactly how a fantasy shopping district would look if it were under a cave. Ah, anime had prepared me well for occasions like this.

We walked to one of the food stands, specifically the one selling all different kinds of meat. The owner of the shop was, of course, a carnivore Pokémon: a houndoom. 

“Hey there, Evon!” The shopkeeper said in a friendly tone, already seeming familiar with the eevee. However, when he turned to me, his smile changed to a confused frown, probably because of my backpack or the rumors. “Erm… is this a new friend?”

“Hey Hadian, um…” Evon greeted before mulling over the question. “I… guess you could say that.” He shifted his tone once he looked at me, inquisitively asking. “Anyway, you want a specific kind of meat or something?”

“Well…” I said before looking at the houndoom. “What kinds of meat do you have available?”

“Lots of variety! We got big ones like tauros beef, miltank steak, and even ponyta meat as well. We also got small ones like spoink fillet, lechonk jerky, and even torchic breast!” Hadian cheerfully said.

I blinked a bit, a bit in shock at the confirmation of my Game Theory. Yes, they ate other Pokémon, and the meat on display on the stand was from other Pokémon. Were they from wild Pokémon? Hell if I knew, I was just trying to suppress the vomit that almost escaped my throat.

I tried not to think that much about the true origin of the Pokémon meat the guy had available and just chose not to draw suspicion. “Uh… I-I’ll have the um… the miltank steak, please.”

“Good, I was about to pick that one too.” Evon said as he looked back at the bone-covered canine. “I’ll take three pieces of miltank steak if you have enough.”

My mind went a bit blank as I watched the houndoom pick the chosen meat (with his mouth by the way) and put it on the counter as Evon fished for the Poké in his pouch. I was in disbelief by all of this, that was like, one of the biggest “internally flabbergasted” moments I had in my life. With the revelation of the Pokémon used for meat consumption, my mind was beginning to overthink a lot of stuff. ‘What the fuck, dude? So like, just getting meat from other Pokémon is normal here? Do they like… hunt other Pokémon just to get meat? Or is there some kind of ranch for that? Like, that’s beyond fucked up. Oh god, imagine if in those ranches, they put the same Pokémon species to butcher the wild ones- actually, fuck no, don’t imagine that brain! Shut up!!!’

“Lucas?”

I was quickly snapped out of my thoughts once Evon called out to me. “Were you listening? I was asking for you to hold these bags while I carry the berry one.” 

“Ah, my bad, was just thinking to myself about some things.” I said with a sheepish smile before glancing at the two paper bags on the counter, seeing the houndoom stare concernedly at me. I smiled a bit nervously as I grabbed the two bags, saying in a Japanese tone. “Thank you!”

After that, we went into the berry stand, a bombirdier managing this one. After handing his money to the stork Pokémon, Evon grabbed the bag of fruits he ordered with his mouth and we both walked away from the stand and the shopping district as a whole. Even with two bags of meat occupying both of my paws and a big backpack, I didn’t feel overwhelmed by the weight, hell, it felt like I was actually carrying feathers. How strong are these punch dogs???

It wasn’t long after that we reached the eevee’s home, the outside staying the same as last time. I was about to comment, but I decided to keep it to myself once before I remembered that Evon’s mouth was busy carrying something. Without too much effort, Evon pushed the door open and entered the house with me following right after him. 

I entered the house and slowly took in the sights. The eevee’s house was nothing out of the ordinary for a Pokémon house. There was the usual furniture of a low table, some wooden-made shelves with some miscellaneous items on the wall, some stacks of hay around the table and next to the wall, supposedly being used as seats. On the table, there was a book and also a shining blue orb at the center of the table. 

Evon, already having dropped the berry bag on the table, turned to me and spoke. “Well, make yourself at home, I guess…”

“Not too shabby of a place. Already more stuff than Basi’s house.” I said as I walked further inside. 

“Basi? You mean Elder Basidian?” Evon asked while tilting his head. “Have you humans no respect for your elders?”

“Listen, she didn’t mind the nickname.” I said as I put the bags on the table as well, trying my best to not succumb to the hypnotic raw meat smell that for some reason sounded delicious. “Besides, the elders back in my world have grown soft… mostly. Like, they aren’t as demanding of respect as they were in the past.”

“Well, different world, different rules. You better treat old Pokémon with a lot of respect or else you might just get a Flamethrower directly on your ass.” Evon said with a smirk as he took off his fanny pack. “Who knows what would happen if you met an angry old king who wouldn’t take nicknames very well.”

“I mean, there’s a clear difference between a village elder to a literal king. Besides, like I’d be famous enough to meet one with an exploration job.” I argued as I took off my backpack, stretching my arms once my shoulders were free from the weight. 

“You never know. After all, Guildmaster Quartzo already met the Platinum Kingdom’s king.” Evon said as he sat on a hay seat. “Oh yeah, you don’t know we’re on the Platinum Kingdom, do you?”

I sat down against my backpack, leaning against the comfortable material used. “No, duh. I only know that I am in the Gemstone Continent and that’s it. Are there more kingdoms besides this one I should worry about?” 

The eevee scratched behind his ear and said. “Well… there are two other kingdoms besides this one. The other two are the Diamond Kingdom and the Pearl Kingdom with each kingdom’s capital being named the same and-”

After hearing those two names, I suddenly had a realization that made me interrupt the eevee with a laugh. This couldn’t be real, it had to be the biggest coincidence ever made, like, ain’t no way. “Tchahahahahahaha! Ain’t no fucking way.” I giggled a bit more, my tail wagging a bit. “Biggest universal joke I’ve heard in my entire life.”

The eevee scowled a bit annoyed. “What’s so funny?”

I sighed as my nose scrunched a bit, the laughter dying down. “Okay, okay, I’ll tell you. Thank goodness I can show you with my emulator.” I said before getting up and opening my backpack, fishing for my phone. “Okay, this might be a bit hard to explain and might break your mind a bit, just making sure…” I grabbed my phone and turned my head back to the eevee. “Are you sure you can handle it?”

Evon looked at me, blinking a bit as I could feel some thoughts occurring in his head. “Wha-… I mean… if I endured all of your insanity up until this point, what’s one more insanity to the book?”

“Okay then, if you say so.” I said before walking to the eevee, sitting beside him on the same stack of hay. I noticed that, by just sitting, I was currently exactly his height, not counting the pointy ears. “So… remember when I said that there was a window that allowed us to peer into other universes?”

Evon nodded, adjusting his eyepatch. “Yeah, I remember. You could even see Arceus through that window.”

“Mhm, exactly. However…” I scratched the side of my head, a nervous frown appearing in my mouth. “I gotta admit something, I kinda… like, didn’t mention some stuff because I was unsure of how badly you’d react…”

“What do you mean? You thought I couldn’t handle the information?” Evon asked, one of his ears flattening.

“Exactly. Because like, this is some, existential-crisis-level of info. Which again, I ask, you sure you wanna know?” I asked with a firm tone this time. As much as it’d be funny in concept, I wouldn’t want to be the one to cause an existential crisis to know that a major portion of his reality is just a video game in another world. 

I could see a bit of hesitation on the eevee’s fox-like face, however, that slowly morphed into resolve as he nodded. “Send it. I wanna know how much this window allows them to see.”

“Welp, no going back now.” I said with a shrug before showing the eevee my phone. “This is one of the many windows that exist back in my world.”

Evon stared and blinked a little bit before shooting a glance at me as if saying: “Bruh, are fuckin’ with me right now?” He then stared back at the phone and asked. “So… so you’re telling me… this small thing is part of the multiversal windows?” 

“Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that.” I explained. “They’re basically, like, connected as you could say. It’s like, a system that only exists inside these devices that allow people to interact with other people and also see other worlds while interacting with them a little bit, but not much to change the structure of the universe while others we can’t interact at all.” I tilted my head. “You getting it so far?”

“I’m not as slow as you think, I’m getting everything so far.” Evon said while putting a paw on his chest. “So basically… inside your phone and other windows, there is a multiversal system that not only allows you to communicate with other humans but to peek onto other worlds?” I nodded and the eevee hummed. “That’s kinda substantial stuff, and you already told me about humans seeing other worlds. Is there something else you’re not telling me?”

“Well, I was getting to that…” I said while looking aside. “So… what if I told you that humans think that all of these other worlds we see are purely fictional?”

The eevee perked up and looked at me confusedly. “Huh… what?” I stared at the fox Pokémon to let him process what he heard, gonna take it real slow with him. “Are you serious…?”

“Exactly.” I turned on my phone and started setting up the emulator while I continued speaking. “If you remember the windows thingy I made up to explain why we could see other worlds, then you surely remember the moving stories topic when I mentioned anime, right?”

“I… yes, I remember-… wait a second.” Evon tilted his head as he looked at me with a disappointed frown. “You made up the windows? Why?”

“To mask the severity of this whole thing. And because you wouldn’t believe me if I just said to you at the time: ‘Hey Evon! I came from a universe where everyone believes that every Pokémon and this entire world is fictional and made by humans for entertainment!’” I said with a mock voice while saying the last word while doing an exaggerated motion with my paws. I then tilted my head and asked. “Would you honestly believe that?”

Evon just stared silently at me as he processed the info he just gathered, a bit of denial creeping up on him as he asked. “Don’t tell me… you can’t be serious…” 

I looked back at my phone. “If it wasn’t for real, I wouldn’t be telling you all of this with a warning. And if you want proof, the proof is right here.” I said while launching the Pokémon Platinum emulator on my phone. I skipped the intro and showed Evon the title screen on the right half with Giratina’s silhouette on the left half. I showed the screen to Evon. “This is the coincidence I was talking about.”

Evon’s face morphed into surprise and a bit of shock for a second as he muttered. “Arceus above… that silhouette… it looks like the Banished One depicted on the books… and…” He looked back at my face. “What does the text mean?”

“Oh, yeah, right, forgot you can’t read English.” I turned the screen back to myself started the game and selected my completed save file. “The text says Pokémon Platinum which is the name of the video game, which is ironic since the other versions of this game are called Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl-” I looked back at the eevee, looking like he was overwhelmed by everything I was saying. I sighed and put my phone aside. “Um… I feel like you need a small break to process everything…”

“I… I’m okay…” Evon took a deep breath, staying silent for a moment and speaking after he was done relaxing. “This is… a bit overwhelming to hear but like…” He looked at me with a grimace. “How… how is this possible? There is no way an entire species can just think about all of these worlds without knowing them and just, like, turn them into stories without knowing that they’re actually real?”

I shrugged. “Hell if I know. Don’t wanna break my brain just thinking about multiversal questions like that with no answer.” I put my paws on my lap. “Let’s just chalk it up to multiverse shenanigans, makes it easier to digest all of this, at least for me.”

“Alright then…” Evon sighed before scratching his forehead with a paw. “So… my species is just pure fiction to your world then because they think they created fictional stories?” 

I put my paw on his back, feeling a bit of his fur on my pawpad. ‘Goddamn, I forgot how soft he was. Bro’s fur is literally heaven’s cloud…!’ “Listen, you look pretty real and not imaginary in my eyes, as well as my powers and, ya know, the rest of this world. Besides, I haven’t seen any specific story back in my world where, like, there was a world of only Pokémon and all of this berserker virus was involved with this world. At least… not in any official story.”

Evon looked at me confused. “Official story?”

“Ya know when a story gets famous and the readers try to do fan stories somehow related to those stories? Yeah, there’s a lot of Pokémon fan stories out there in my world.” I said with a smirk. “But don’t worry, still no story similar to your world. So yes, you’re not fictional and you’re real. People back in my world still would flip the fuck out if they ever saw you though.”

Evon stared at me for a second, a snicker escaping his mouth before he started chuckling. “If you said I was so cute, why would others of your species be afraid of me?”

My smile stretched further, relieved to see that existential questions weren’t plaguing the eevee’s mind. “Well, not technically be afraid of you but more like…” I started doing another mock voice. “OMG! That creature we thought was fictional turned out to be real all along! OOOH MY GAWD, no wayayayay!”

Evon giggled a bit at my antics, putting a forepaw over his mouth. “Man, humans are kinda stupid.”

“You know what? Couldn’t agree more.” I said while crossing my arms and nodding in acknowledgment. “We laugh at the most stupid shit. Like, do you find a piece of bread out of context funny?”

“No? Why should I?” The eyepatch-wearing Pokémon said, followed by a chuckle.

“Exactly! I find it funny because our humor deteriorated along the way.” I explained with a playful grin.

“Explains why it feels like you’re at the brink of insanity.”

We both continued laughing for a bit, just having a bit of a nice moment together. This felt like the actual first moment Evon wasn’t forcing himself to endure me, it really felt like he had grown used to me a little bit. (Insert Persona Social Link rank up here.)

The eevee’s laughter died down as he looked down at my phone. “Now, I’m curious.” He pointed his paw at it. “If that story is not about the Platinum Kingdom, then what is that story about anyway?”

“Oh, glad ya asked!” I grabbed my phone again and showed the screen to both of us. “Okay like, this is not like, one of those moving stories I talked about, this one is different, basically interactive. It’s called a video game.” I lowered my phone a bit. “You guys have theaters in this world, right?”

Evon looked at me as one of his ears flickered. “Huh? Yeah, we do.”

“Okay, makes it easier to explain.” I raised my phone again and pointed at the screen, pointing at the sprite of Dawn in the middle of the screen. “Like in theaters, there’s a role to be played here. We play the role of the protagonist of the story and sometimes the role varies depending on the video game and the story.” I did a circling motion with my paw finger around the girl. “In this specific story, the protagonist is called Dawn or Lucas, depending on the gender you want them to be, since interactive story.”

“Why didn’t you choose the protagonist with your own name?” Evon asked curiously.

I shrugged. “Eh, I like how Dawn looks more.” I then made Dawn walk slowly to the Pokémon Center, her character sprite moving through the streets of Veilstone City. “Anyway, the story of this game happens in a world where humans and Pokémon coexist on the same planet.”

“So you’re saying there’s potentially a universe like that?” The eevee inquired, his nose scrunching up a bit. “A universe where Pokémon, in general, live with you humans?” I nodded. “Heh, imagine the chaos that’d be.”

“Oh, because it is chaotic. The story of this game specifically is about a group of humans who have a leader who plans to reset the universe using the power of Dialga and Palkia.” I explained before adding further to my point. “And the other games are just as chaotic.”

Evon blinked, taking in what I just said. “Yeah… maybe it’s best if humans stayed away from Pokémon… does this story at least have a good ending?”

“All of them do. These games are for children anyway so all of them have a good ending, despite how morally fucked up most of the antagonists in these games are.” I made Dawn enter the Pokémon Center. “Also, I need to tell you something. Uh… Pokémon in this game… all act wildly except for the legendaries (I guess, deities in your language) and the point of these games is to uh… collect them and treat them like pets.”

Evon’s face scrunched a bit in confusion and a bit of disgust. “What…? Why?”

“Remember when I first met you and how I acted towards you? Yeah, it was exactly because of these games.” I said before motioning to my phone again. “In these games, Pokémon don’t speak human language, although they can understand it. The problem is, like I said before, they act like the wild guys you see in Mystery Dungeons.” I made the Dawn sprite walk towards a PC, making her access the box. “Actually, I could show you the Pokémon I have stored.” 

“Huh… stored…” Evon mumbled quietly as he eyed the small Pokémon sprites that appeared on the box. I decided to hover the cursor over the ones in my party first, showcasing them to the eevee. Of course, the first party member made his eyes widen and blurt out. “T-the Banished One!?”

“Yeah… you can also collect the deities by the way.” I explained it sheepishly. “They’re actually called Giratina.”

Evon blinked, staring silently at me antimatter legendary for a few seconds, shock present throughout his face. He then slowly turned his head towards me and spoke a bit shaken. “Please don’t tell me you also have Lord Arceus in there. You can’t, like, collect God, right?”

I stared at the eevee for a moment before I turned off the screen and put the phone away. “Maybe that’s enough of teaching you about video games for today…” Evon still looked a bit frozen like a cat that stared at you judgingly. “Heeey, you must be hungry! After all, processing all that info must’ve taken a large toll on ya!” I said trying to cheer the mood up while I stood up. I walked to the table and started fishing through the berries bag. “Any specific berry you want?”

“… An oran…” Evon said, slowly recovering from the biggest reality check I probably gave him.

I produced an oran berry from the bag and took the fruit towards the eevee, placing it on his paws. “Uh… my bad for, like, potentially breaking your view on reality for a moment, but don’t worry, it’s not on your universe so you shouldn’t worry about it a single bit. Different world, different rules after all!”

Evon’s ears flattened as he looked at the berry before looking back at me with a grimace. “I know that, but still… what the fuck?”

I walked to the berry bag again and picked a different one, a cherri berry. “Listen, that’s not as fucked up as one universe where humans of the same species started enslaving one another and treating them as wild animals because some were born with a darker skin tone than others… oh, wait a second!” I threw the red fruit slightly up and turned around, stylishly catching the berry again with a paw thanks to my heightened reaction instincts. “That was our world years ago.”

As I went to sit beside Evon again, I saw that he was already biting on the berry, peel and everything. Once he gulped a piece, he looked at me with a frown. “You know… I don’t know how your kind manages to be so stupid, smart, terrifying, and messed up all at the same time.”

“Me neither, I just go with the flow to an acceptable degree.” I said before taking a bit into the berry, munching it a bit, and savoring the taste. It reminded me of those mini tomatoes that looked like red eggs, the specific name escaping me. I muttered to myself. “Hm, could do great with salt…” I took a small glance around the room again before the blue orb at the table piqued my interest a bit. While munching the cherri, I pointed at it, my voice a bit muffled. “Yo, Evon, what’s that orb for? Decoration?”

The eevee looked at the sphere and explained. “Ah, that’s just the communication orb. I used it sometimes to talk to my parents or my therapist.”

Huh, so that’s what the communication orb looked like. So it was basically a house telephone with pure magic? Interesting… wait, parents? I thought it was normal for the eevee to have a therapist, but… never once mentioned his parents. “Kinda curious, how’s your family like?”

Evon mulled over the question before responding with a roll of his eye. “Well, nothing special honestly. My mom, a vaporeon, and my dad, an absol, are explorers and like, they visit occasionally but are mostly never around since they’re busy with explorer missions on the Diamond Kingdom.”

At the mention of vaporeon, my mind immediately slowly made me remember that one infamous copypasta, but I tried suppressing it as best as I could. ‘God, imagine if Evon discovered about that hideous piece of text. He’d never look at his mom the same way…’ I nervously smiled. “I-I see… so… they call you through the communication orb then?”

Fortunately, my nervousness went unnoticed by the eevee as he responded. “Yeah, they do on weekends. They ask how I’m doing, I ask the same, we talk about what we did, and the usual…” Evon’s ears fell as he grimaced. “Or at least, that’s what we’ve been doing until Alsia’s death…”

I tilted my head for a second before it dawned back on me who Alsia was. It was the angry mightyena’s younger sister and, if I remembered correctly, Evon’s previous partner. I frowned a bit as I unknowingly whined out of sadness. “Evon…”

We stayed in silence for a moment, my anxious ass being worried that whatever came out of my mouth would only worsen the situation. However, it wasn’t that long after that Evon sighed and spoke again. “Sorry for bringing the mood down a bit…” He looked back at me with a melancholic look on his face. “Being completely honest… you remind me a lot of her.”

I tilted my head in curiosity. “How so…?”

He smiled. “That recklessness, that hyperactiveness, the way you’re so quick to decide and how you’re trying to do jokes all the time…” He shifted his paws. “Even if you came from a different world, you two act so alike…”

I blinked a bit and frowned concernedly. “Uh… I’m not causing you unhappy memories to remind you of her, right?”

Evon shook his head rapidly. “No, no, it’s not that. It’s just that… you just remind me a lot of her…” He hummed for a moment and glanced aside, looking a bit thoughtful. He then eyed me again and asked. “Hey… um… can I ask a favor of you?”

I smiled after finishing my berry. “Sure, we’re teammates so better help each other out in-”

“Can you turn into a poochyena for me…?” Evon interrupted with a question, making me stare at him for a moment. His ears flattened a bit. “I just want to see something…”

I scratched one of my tassels, trying to understand why he would want that. With my knowledge and experiences with grief, I could probably tell why the eevee wished for me to do that. “Sure, I can.”

I imagined myself as a poochyena doing some miscellaneous actions in my mind and I slowly transformed into one, a pink flash filling my vision for some seconds as I felt the structure of my body slowly change. Once the pink flash was done, I looked down at my paws, seeing black fur covering them and gray fur covering my arms. I could barely see between my eyes a red snout as well. I had successfully turned into a poochyena.

Evon got up from his sitting position and slowly walked towards me, an expression of shock plastered on his face. He stopped in front of me and just stared at me with the same expression. The silence felt awkward, especially more so when he just stared at me like that. It felt like I was in some kind of personal tension that I shouldn’t be involved. 

I was getting a bit uncomfortable, but to make it even more discomforting, the eevee fucking rubbed his head against my neck. That made me freeze and blush in embarrassment, my mind going a bit haywire once one of my poochyena’s soft spots was struck. ‘What the fuck, what the fuck!? Evon, I know we’re alone right now but please, for the love of God, I’m not a furry, and I-’

“Alsia… I promise you that I’ll use the chance you have given me and prove to you once and for all how strong I will become…” The eevee said as he kept nuzzling me. “I will not fail you on my mission, I’ll obtain power just for you…”

… Okay, so like, I know what he wanted to do by having me transform into a poochyena and all, but like… did bro really need to nuzzle me??? “U-um…” I stuttered a bit embarrassedly. “I know I resemble Alsia a bit but like… I think the nuzzle is a little unnecessary…”

Evon stepped away from me as his tail swished from side to side. “I know, I know… I just needed to get some things off my chest…” Evon sighed and smiled at me. “Thanks for doing this, you can transform back now.”

“Actually, you wouldn’t mind if I stayed in this form a bit more, right? I’d like to learn how to walk with four legs.” I said as I lifted a paw and shook it lightly.

“No, I don’t mind it.” Evon said as he looked at the ceiling. “I need to accept that Alsia’s gone and move on to become powerful for her. That’s what she would’ve wanted me to do.”

“Yeah, hopefully, you can achieve what you want for her.” I wished as I nodded with a toothy smile. “And I’ll be here to support you every step of the way, as teammates do!”

Evon eyed me again and smiled as well. “As teammates do.”