Arc 2, chapter 2: Look, I get it

“Come on, you! Let’s try this again. You can do this.”

 

Maxie groaned, and pulled himself off of the floor. He’d stumbled in a failed attempt to learn Quick Attack for what was the seventieth time in a handful of days. Jacob had kept count.

 

“You know, Tadame, I don’t think I’m gonna get this down anytime soon. We should try something else.” Jacob was starting to worry about the time he’d already sunk into this.

 

“It only gets harder from here, Prince Maxie,” the Serperior said with a yawn. “If you can’t get this down, the later stuff isn’t going to be any easier. We’re still doing something very basic here.”

 

She yawned again. Has this woman gotten a single night of sleep since I met her two years ago? “It’s not going well.”

 

“I can see that. There isn’t really anything easier we can try.”

 

“Fine…” Maxie brushed the dust off of himself, and tried again.

 

!dt Quick Attack

 

Quick Attack – Weak Physical Move

 

The user strikes the target after moving abnormally fast. Also useful for general fast movement, despite its designation as an attack.

 

He hadn’t felt helped by the sleep-deprived Serperior’s explanations thus far, and the tiny snippet he’d gotten from his ability didn’t help in the slightest, which made him feel almost hopeless. He knew that this was a rather silly thing to get worked up over, but he could also feel the time slipping away. He took a deep breath, stared at the training dummy that Tadame had apparently carried all the way from the Guild outpost to the Manor, and scratched the back of his head.

 

“Remember,” Tadame reminded him, “You’re not just running at it. You’re pouring part of that energy that would normally be dedicated to your claws in a scratch to your legs and feet.”

 

“I know, I know…” Maxie leaned down into a crouched stance, and tried to envision what Tadame was telling him. He knew he was missing something; he just wasn’t sure what. He started a gentle jog, tried imagining scratching with his feet, and…

 

Tripped over his own two feet.

 

To an outside observer, seeing royalty face-plant when trying to use a rather basic move must’ve been comedy gold. To Jacob, it was humiliating. He’d been training with Tadame every two or three days for the better part of a month at this point and he still wasn’t making meaningful progress.

 

“Alright, you, get on up…” Tadame yawned with a stretch.

 

Maxie brushed the dust off of himself for the umpteenth time. “Can we stop here for today?”

 

Tadame looked at the sun. “It’s probably been about two hours by now…”

 

All of that time. Wasted. “That’s how long you said this is supposed to go for, right?”

 

Tadame sighed. “I did say that.” She wordlessly hoisted the dummy up onto her back with her vines, and waved. “Tell your mother we tried, but it’s just not clicking.”

 

“Yeah, I’ll say that…” God knows Tabitha’s gonna bully me for not getting this by now. Maxie sulked back inside, where nobody else seemed to be home, save for Aldan.

 

“You watched that whole thing, right?” Maxie asked.

 

“That I did. Don’t despair, You’ll put it together eventually.”

 

He’s probably right. Doesn’t make me feel any better, though… Maxie felt like he’d tried everything at this point. He’d even compared how the one egg move he did know felt, but iron tail was something so unwieldy and foreign that it didn’t really help in that department. All he could really do was try and think about how quick attack would work as a scratch.

 

That, of course, was going nowhere.

 

“Failed again?” a mocking voice asked.

 

Maxie turned around to see Tabitha, looking smug as ever. She, of course, was having absolutely no trouble learning new moves, demonstrated by all of the progress she’d made in the span of two years. Jacob was envious.

 

“What do you want, Tabitha?”

 

“Oh, nothing, just watching my genius little brother fail to learn the basics.” Tabitha had taken great joy in watching the supposed child prodigy fumble around trying to learn a single move. Evidently, she felt like he was getting what he deserved.

 

“You didn’t need to watch. At all.”

 

“But it was hilarious. You kept falling flat on your face over and over. I should’ve made ice cream for it.”

 

“Ice cream is a food reserved for sad people, not spectators.”

 

“And I’m sure you’re becoming familiar with that,” she quipped. “Don’t worry. Mom had a wonderful suggestion earlier that she shared with me.”

 

“Oh no.”

 

“Oh yes.” Tabitha tackled her younger brother, grabbed his shaggy fur with her mouth, and yanked him over to a quiet part of the manor before cutting off his escape with a wall of ice. “Now let’s begin.”

 

“Do we have to?”

 

“Not really, but I’m not gonna pass up the opportunity to bully you over this.”

 

“Like this is gonna help.”

 

“Hey, maybe it will,” Tabitha replied, looking entirely too smug about this entire situation. “Did that Serperior tell you about how normal-type moves work?”

 

“Something vague about energy?”

 

“They specifically work off of vague energy. The blandest, simplest, and yet most nebulous type of energy there is! And that means that they’re kinda molding that energy into whatever it needs to be. She explained all of that, right?”

 

“Kinda?” Jacob still felt like he was missing something here. He knew how it felt to use scratch, but translating that to quick attack felt almost useless.

 

“Well, that means you gotta think about going fast. So, run at this wall of ice until you break it.”

 

“…Seriously?”

 

“Yes,” Tabitha answered. “You are my prisoner. Now dance.”

 

“…Wow.”

 

“Come on. I need to watch you run into a wall of ice. It’ll be hilarious.”

 

“I think you’re taking me being hailed as a genius a little too personally.”

 

“Just do it! I need this, Maxie.”

 

“Fine.” Jacob threw himself at the wall of ice with just enough force to avoid hurting himself too badly. “You happy?”

 

“…You were supposed to try a quick attack.”

“I don’t know what you want from me.”

 

“I want you to show me that you cannot, in fact, do it.”

 

Holy shit, she’s actually being sadistic right now. “Can you please just let me go?”

 

Tabitha rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, I’m not being that mean.”

 

“Yes, you are.”

 

“Well, this is easy. All you have to do is think about going fast. And quite frankly, someone needs to put you in your place.”

 

Jacob stared at the wall of ice, forlorn. “What does that even mean?”

 

“Which part?” Tabitha asked with a smirk.

 

“Never mind…” Why is this so non-specific? I feel like all I have to latch onto is the feeling of scratch? Thinking about scratch but fast hasn’t worked.

 

Screw it, I’m just gonna throw myself at the wall.

 

Jacob rather angrily ran at the wall. To his surprise, though, he felt something strange coursing through his body, and moved much faster than he expected. When he collided with the wall, he smashed right though it.

 

“Yay, he finally figured it out,” Tabitha remarked, voice dripping with sarcasm. “Seriously, though. Why was that so difficult?”

 

“I don’t know, I just kinda ran at it this time.”

 

“And you didn’t think to do that last time?”

 

“Was I supposed to?” Maxie asked, annoyance creeping into his voice.

 

“Oh my Arceus, Maxie, it’s a normal type move!” She exclaimed this as if it was supposed to be obvious. “They’re just vague feelings! You just do them, you moron. Why did that take so long to click?”

 

“I don’t know! I just thought it’d be like scratch again!”

 

Tabitha scoffed. “Well, now you know. For your sake, hopefully learning another move doesn’t go this badly. You’re free to go.”

 

Maxie stared at the ice wall. “…Are you gonna clean that up? You’re the only ice type in the house.”

 

“Fine…” Tabitha slowly got to work taking down the ice wall, as Maxie walked off to do his own thing. Which meant his own room again. He’d been keeping a journal of sorts, and now was the time of day that he usually wrote in it.

 

After carefully picking apart the hiding spot he’d prepared for it, Maxie opened up the journal to a blank page and started carefully making a log of what had happened that day.

 

Let’s see… I went to school… spent longer than I needed to there… then I went straight to training… and then I got kidnapped by my sister and now I’m here. That’s everything that happened today, right?

 

Maxie sighed as he glanced out of the window. Nothing much happened today, huh? I’m glad I actually figured out quick attack, but the way it happened left a bad taste in my mouth.

 

…I think Tabitha might’ve gotten tired of being overshadowed by me. Maxie’s journal was rather organized, the general events of each day outlined in a bullet-point list, with the occasional paragraph of his thoughts sprinkled in for good measure. He’d been careful to keep it a secret from the others, since it contained information about his life as a human, and he was in no way prepared to tell them that.

 

“What are you writing, my son?”

 

Maxie jumped as he turned around to see his mother standing in the doorway to the room, which he’d rather carelessly left open.

 

He hurriedly moved to block the journal from her view.

 

“I-it’s nothing.”

 

“It seems to be something.”

 

Looking for a quick way out, Jacob decided to be honest. He closed the book and held it against his chest defensively. “…It’s my journal.”

 

“Ah. Carry on with that, then,” Courtney replied, seemingly respecting his boundaries. “I was just going to ask how training went today.”

 

“I didn’t figure out quick attack while I was training, but then Tabitha made me train some more, and then I figured it out.”

 

“Wonderful!” Courtney exclaimed. “Hopefully progress picks up from here. You’re very bright, you know that? You could be a modern-day John Scolipede!”

 

“Yeah, yeah…”

 

!dt John Scolipede

 

The name of an influential writer and poet hailing from the Eyelash Isles. Famous for his political writings, including an essay on how a ruler can be well-liked by the populace in the aftermath of a successful coup.

 

“…What’s that in your eye?”

 

“What are you talking about?” Maxie asked.

 

“In your eyes. There was unknown script.”

 

Maxie froze. “Uh…”

 

“…Were you born with a blessing?”

 

“H-how…”

 

“…Sometimes, very rarely, certain individuals can be born with special abilities that nearly nobody else has. It’s not very well documented, but it’s known to happen.”

 

“…How’d you even figure that out?”

 

“It’s not exactly normal to have unknown script floating around in your eyeballs, sweetie. In any case, you should be very careful not to let anyone else see that. Who knows what some of the more opportunistic nobles would do to you if they found out there was a prince with a blessing ability?”

 

“…Okay, mom.”

 

Courtney paused. “I’ll get you a tutor for reading unknown script. It’s annoying to have text you can’t even read floating around in your eyes, I assume?”

 

“Actually, I can already read unknown script…” Jacob admitted.

 

“Really? You learned? On your own time?” Courtney asked. “You really are a bright young man, you know that?” She briefly paused. “What does it say?”

 

“It, uh, gives me information.”

“…What kind of information?”

 

“Well, uh… information on anything, really. So long as it’s not a person, I can ask about anything I want?”

 

“Like your own personal muse?” Courtney asked, an eyebrow raised. “…You haven’t used this to cheat, have you?”

 

“N-no,” Jacob lied.

 

“Sure you haven’t,” Courtney giggled. “In any case, don’t go around telling this to people you don’t trust, okay? It’d be bad if this got out.”

 

It’s good to know that other people can see what I’m doing. That could’ve gone south fast if it was anyone else.

 

“I’ll be careful, mom,” Maxie responded.

 

“Good. You do that, and I’ll decide what to make of this myself. For now, this stays between the two of us. I’ll see you at dinner.” Courtney opened the door and exited the room, leaving Maxie behind.

 

Maxie looked out the window, and tried using his ability again.

 

!dt Maxie Zangoose

 

He didn’t bother reading the readout this time, however. Instead, he tried looking at his reflection in the glass. Sure enough, it was there, just big enough for an outside observer to notice. Worse, it seemed to glow slightly.

 

I should invest in some shades… Jacob thought to himself. It’d be harder to spot that way. Giving up something this valuable isn’t worth it. It hadn’t exactly been life-saving, but the little nuggets of information it tended to give him were more useful than they let on. For now, though, he returned to his journal. He had to document this.

 

 

---

 

 

Jacob gave a brief glance to the sky. He’d been out for about ten minutes, by the looks of it. He’d have to get what he was looking for and get back before Courtney got home in about an hour. He’d have liked to have more time to go to the market, but sneaking out of the Manor wasn’t easy. Getting back in should be easy enough.

 

Maxie looked down into his pouch, and double-checked the amount of money he had. Exactly the amount he needed, tax included. All from his own allowance. He sighed, keeping his head down, and making sure that the cloak didn’t fall from his head. The last thing he needed right now was for someone to figure out who he was and decide that a thirteen-year-old was the perfect target for a percussive pickpocket.

 

!dt Never-Melt Ice

 

A hunk of ice which never melts, usually used as a supplement for ice-type attacks. Usually harvested by specialized miners during the summer months, which tends to make it difficult to come by.

 

With Tabitha’s eighteenth birthday being today, Maxie figured that this would be the perfect gift. He needed to actually work on smoothing over their relationship, after all.

 

Eventually, he spotted the vendor he was looking for off in the distance, manned by a rather disappointed looking Delibird. When he was absolutely sure nobody was looking, he approached the vendor, coin pouch in hand.

 

Naturally, someone else decided it would be a great time to also walk straight up to the vendor.

 

“Oh, uh, sorry,” the hooded figure said.

 

Instinctively, Maxie tightened his grip on the pouch, before realizing who this was. He then placed the pouch down on the counter and turned to the Delibird.

 

“One Never-Melt Ice, please.”

 

The Delibird rather unceremoniously handed him a small box, which was cold to the touch. Opening the box revealed the Never-Melt Ice inside, as promised. Alright, time to go.

 

Maxie ran off, hoping to get home before it was too late. His pace slowed, however, when he realized his fellow hooded figure had decided to follow him. After making sure the coast was clear, he turned around, and took off the hood.

 

“Make it quick, Wally. I’m kinda on the clock here.”

 

The Kirlia rather nervously took off his hood and smiled sheepishly. “I see that, but you didn’t even stop to notice that we had the same idea for a gift. I know that you care a lot about time, but this is a little bit silly.”

 

“It’s not really a big deal. Guessing you snuck out to buy something last-minute too, huh?”

 

“Great minds think alike,” Wally replied. “…Am I a great mind?”

 

“I have no idea,” Maxie replied. “See you at the party, then.”

 

“O-okay, talk to you—”

 

That was all Maxie heard before he had to run off. He really did not have the time to chit-chat. At least, in Jacob’s mind, anyway. He dodged the main road leading up to the manor, hoping not to get spotted by cutting through the woods. He carefully climbed up a tree leading into the property, and jumped down into the grass below, then took off the hood, hiding it under a pile of leaves. It’d probably be found eventually, but he’d just have to take it inside before then. He scurried on up to his room, and haphazardly started wrapping his present.

 

Why is wrapping paper so hard to use? Jacob thought to himself. He’d never actually done this before, even in his previous life, so figuring out how to fold a flat piece of paper around a three-dimensional object was much harder than he thought it’d be.

 

Eventually, he got it looking somewhat decent, just needing to hide it somewhere good. Fortunately, Maxie’s sister never actually checked this room, so shoving it in the closet was good enough. I doubt she’s even going to be home before the party starts.

 

He heard the gentle clacking of glass, and turned his head to the window. He watched as the world’s slowest, most pathetic Psybeam collided with the window, making it shake gently. Dude really wants to talk, huh?

 

Maxie strolled over to the window, annoyed, and opened the thing up, expecting exactly who he saw on the grass below.

 

“You, uh, kinda left me hanging back there, dude,” Wally said nervously.

 

“I was in a rush. What are you even doing here?”

 

“I can teleport out whenever I want,” Wally replied, not really answering the question. “My parents don’t even notice when I’m gone.”

 

Maxie sighed. “Alright, come on up.”

 

Wally wasted no time in Teleporting directly to Maxie’s room, landing almost silently right behind Maxie as he turned around. “Funny how we got the same gift for your sister, huh?”

 

“Why are you even getting her a gift? You barely interact with her.”

 

“My parents asked me. They must’ve wanted to look good in front of your mom or whatever. Wouldn’t want her reconsidering that plot of land just outside of town, I guess.”

“Aren’t they already good friends with her? They don’t exactly need to win her over.”

 

“Well, yeah, but it’d look bad if they showed up and brought nothing, right?”

 

“…Fair point.”

 

Wally scratched the back of his head. “Dude, your sister scares me. She can be vicious for, like, no reason.”

 

“She’s just looking for attention when she does that. She’s normally pretty reasonable. To most people, anyway.”

 

“Is that so?” Wally asked. “It’s a good thing I’ve got you to guide me through that mess then, huh?”

 

“You might want to take that back. She loves to look better than me.”

 

“Uh…” Wally trailed off. “Yeah, you know what? I’m just gonna hide behind you the whole time, if that’s cool with you.”

 

“You do that,” Maxie replied with a sigh. “Just make sure not to make a scene, okay? She’ll be pissed if that happens.”

 

“Your mom lets you swear?”

 

“No,” Maxie answered. “But I’ll do it anyway.”

 

Wally chuckled. “That sounds like you, alright.”

 

“No kidding…” Maxie replied. Holy shit, that was an obnoxious thing to say. Why did I say that? In his self-conscious haze, Maxie’s eyes slowly drifted around the room. He eyed his shelves, carefully organized in a manner that would look like a mess to anyone else. He eyed his drawer, where the journal was kept hidden under several textbooks.

 

He eyed his Zangoose body.

 

Jacob still hated this body. He’d slowly physically acclimated to it over the years, but that didn’t help him feel any less uncomfortable on the emotional end of things. He wondered if it even meant anything, or if he was just being self-conscious.

 

“Hey, Maxie?” Wally asked.

 

Maxie wordlessly turned to his friend. Wally looked concerned. “Uh, just lost in thought. You know me.”

 

“Oh, really?” Wally asked, without a shred of malice. “You thinking about a girl?”

 

“Nope,” Maxie replied, not wanting to even consider it. The less time thinking about those types of feelings, the better! Jacob thought. “Not even once.” He wasn’t sure if the knowledge that Wally was probably being genuine made it better or worse.

 

“Hm…” Wally said, turning away from Maxie to stare out of the window for a bit. “I have. You know that one Mienfoo girl? Tiana? She’s pretty.”

 

“Her?”

 

“Yeah, I had a conversation with her after school the other day, and it was amazing.”

 

“…Okay.” God, new topic, new topic… “Your parents travel a lot, right? Didn’t they go all the way to the other side of the continent last week?”

 

“Yeah, and I didn’t get to come. I think it was a grand opening of a hotel next to a big important guild or something? I wasn’t paying attention.”

 

“Wow… I forget how loaded you are sometimes.”

 

“I’m not that rich…”

 

“Dude, your parents own a luxury hotel chain. That takes some serious money, no matter how it happens.”

 

“…Fair enough. I feel like there could always be more, you know?”

 

“The grass is always greener on the other side, or however that saying goes. We’re in, like, the top zero-point-one percent of wealth, dude. We should probably be happy with what we have.”

 

“Yeah…” Wally admitted. “Anyway, I should be going. See you at the party.” He then teleported out of the room, leaving Maxie alone.

 

 

---

 

 

Later, at the party, Maxie was doing his best to conceal the gift he’d gotten for Tabitha. It was pretty hard, given how large it was relative to his body, but he’d been making do so far. Eventually, once it seemed like he had a good enough opportunity, he walked over to a table, where Tabitha was chatting with a few of her close friends.

 

“So, as I was saying—” Tabitha started, before noticing Maxie. “…Nevermind. What is it?”

 

“I got something for you,” Maxie replied, holding out the present.

 

Jacob could’ve sworn he heard ‘why is he doing this now’ before Tabitha responded. “Oh, thank you.” Tabitha calmly took the present and opened it. For her part, she seemed somewhat touched when she saw what was inside. “Thank you, Maxie…” She said as she set the box containing the Never-Melt Ice aside, and resumed her conversation with her friends.

 

Satisfied, Maxie left to go back to his room, one of the few places in the house not occupied by guests for the duration of the party. Well, she seemed to like it… Jacob thought to himself. Hopefully we’re done with the whole ‘aggressively trying to be better than each other’ thing. That’d be nice to be done with, not gonna lie.

 

…How many ice type moves does she even know? I know she knows some good ones, but I never checked.

 

!dt Tabitha Glaceon

 

Tabitha Glaceon (No alternate names)

Age: 18

Does not qualify for Typing Magic

Ability: Ice Body

• The holder can repair injuries and wounds to their body using ice and snow.

Constitution -> 4/10

Physical power -> 3/10

Physical resistance -> 5/10

Special power -> 6/10

Special resistance -> 4/10

Agility -> 4/10

Stamina -> 6/10

Intelligence -> 7/10

Charisma -> 6/10

 

Known moves:

• Icy Wind
• Quick attack
• Tackle
• Tail whip
• Sand attack
• Baby-doll eyes
• Growl
• Charm
• Bite
• Ice Shard
• Ice Fang
• Freeze-dry
• Snowscape
• Mirror coat
• Ice Beam
• Dig
• Protect
• Chilling water
• Water pulse

 

Daughter of Courtney Vaporeon, and one of Several Princesses of the Neoh Crown. Is very studious, and evolved on a skiing trip. Has demonstrated considerable talent with ice-type moves.

 

…Huh. That’s way more than I thought she knew. She’s done a lot of work to get better, huh?

 

As the words faded from his eyes, Maxie took notice of something he hadn’t really paid much attention to before. Why does it say that she doesn’t qualify for typing magic? What does that even mean? He hadn’t really noticed that tiny line of text beneath the age before, but now he was getting curious. He’d probably have another hour by himself to figure it out, anyway.

 

Alright, let’s look into this…

 

!dt Typing Magic

 

The mystical art that allows its practitioners to break the rules of the type chart. Those experienced with it can change their type freely, as well as assign the properties of one type to another, which has far, far too many applications to list here. Notably, only those who are said to have ‘the potential’ qualify for typing magic. Acquiring ‘the potential’ typically involves experiencing something that lies far outside of the typical Pokémon-kind experience, especially, although not exclusively, by accident.

 

…Well then. That’s interesting. Jacob wasn’t sure what exactly had led to him, of all people, being qualified to practice some ‘mystical art’, but he wasn’t complaining. Even more interesting was the fact that this description was far more detailed than usual, giving him quite a bit to chew on that he wouldn’t normally get.

 

Unfortunately, it didn’t leave him with many avenues to explore further.

 

!dt how to learn typing magic

 

Term not found

 

I probably should’ve known that wouldn’t work… Jacob thought to himself. What do I even do from there, though? ‘The potential’ is already explained in the entry for typing magic…

 

Well, it couldn’t hurt, could it?

 

!dt the potential

 

The intangible thing all users of typing magic must have before they can begin learning it.

 

Yeah, that was no help…

 

Mildly annoyed, Maxie laid down on his back, staring at the ceiling. It’d be a few more hours before the party wrapped up and he’d have things to do, which also irked him.

 

Changing types freely, huh?

 

Jacob had no idea how that was even supposed to work, other than the fact that it was something he could apparently do. He was still struggling to learn new moves, albeit less than before, so he had no idea where to even start with something like this.

 

He sat up. I have a book on types lying around here somewhere, right?

 

After looking around his shelves, searching for where he imagined he’d place a book like that, he found a book with the Eighteen-sector chart on it. That is what it’s called, right? Idly, he traced the outline of the symbol with his claw. The normal type, up top, was bordered by the fairy type to its right, and the bug type to its left. Then there was ghost type, and dark type…

 

This feels so arbitrary. Who even came up with this?

 

!dt Eighteen-sector chart

 

The circular chart usually used to explain the effectiveness of using moves of other types. Also has significance when using typing magic, as it’s easier to mess with or change to a ‘nearby’ type to one’s own than a ‘far away’ type.

 

…Well then. I’m quite lucky.

 

That still doesn’t explain shit. I mean, it does, but there’s still a lot it leaves unanswered. It was probably par for the course at this point for The Blessing of Knowledge to keep things vague, but something about this particular instance left Jacob feeling particularly lost.

 

Well, I guess I got something out of it. Ghost shouldn’t be too ‘far away’, right?

 

Jacob flipped to the page describing the ghost type. ‘Mischievous’ and ‘spooky’… Also something about death? That’s a bit much, but…

 

Not really sure where to start, Maxie closed his eyes and tried his best to think about being spooky.

 

He was suddenly overcome with the sensation of falling down.

 

In a panic, he opened his eyes, saw that he was halfway through the floor, subsequently panicked harder, shot upwards at an alarming speed, and collided with the ceiling.

 

He was not conscious for what happened next.