Chapter 6: Spiraling Down

Chapter 6: Spiraling Down

Mathew was never a fan of fancy meals — it just wasn’t his style. To him, these sorts of lavish establishments were more of a celebratory place, one of those restaurants your coworkers dragged you to after a job well-done and you never went back again. But if that was the kind of place Meowth was currently dragging him off to after their workday at Asulaguah Beach, he was certainly not going to complain.

The two-story, red-bricked building before them was pleasant, though not the most eye catching. Past those windows, Mathew could see cloth-covered tables, a bright red checkered floor, waiters running about, families calmly eating… Wait, was that a dish of pasta on that bidoof’s table?

The cubone’s eyes danced from one plate to the next. Alfredo, ravioli, spaghetti, breadsticks, every table was eating something similar. What the hell? That’s Italian food! “Since when was Olive Garden on Solceus…?” he muttered to himself.

Meowth stopped walking, tilting his head in confusion. “Olive garden?”

Shit. “Uuuhh…” Would Meowth know if Mathew tried to explain a food chain that only existed on Earth? He decided not to take chances. “I was just saying I bet…I’ll-live this meal…?”

It didn’t make sense. Mathew’s pun didn’t make any sense and both of them knew it. Mathew just grinned awkwardly, pretending that he had made a meaningful joke, hoping Meowth would accept a reality where that was true.

Miraculously, Meowth just shook his head and took the lead. “You have a strange sense of humor.”

Off to a great start… Mathew thought as he followed the gray cat. He was glad that somebody had so kindly promised him a place to speak his mind, but when their lives were literal worlds apart, navigating conversation wasn’t easy.

As they made for the doors, Mathew looked up and thoroughly studied the restaurant’s name, hoping to commit it to memory and purge any combination of olives or gardens. The sign that hung above it read ‘Silvalla’s: Protect Your Town, Protect Your Appetite!’

“Protect your what?” Mathew whispered. This time, he asked Meowth directly. “What does that slogan even mean?”

“Silvalla’s the owner of this restaurant, and he’s also the owner of the Kalmwa’er Service Guild,” Meowth explained as a spherical, hedgehog-like waiter came to direct them to a table for two. “Apparently, this restaurant is one of the ways they fund the staff to take care of the town and deal with outside threats. Trust me, the food is better than the slogan.”

The two passed by tables populated by several smaller pokemon. An igglybuff and a tiny joltik sat on miniature chairs as they ate at the miniature table. Their quilladin waiter, Mathew guessed, led them to the back of the restaurant, where the tables were wider and the ceiling was higher.

“What kind of drinks can I get you?” the quilladin asked.

“Coca c—” Mathew had to bite his tongue to stop himself. “Do you have sodas?”

“Yeah!” the quilladin said cheerfully. “We’ve got Bubblim, Cheruya, Dragnroud…”

“If you’ve not tried it before, I’d recommend Dragnroud,” Meowth advised. “It’s not the most fancy soda, but it has a nice taste.”

“It does sound pretty badass…” Mathew turned to the quilladin. “I’ll take that.”

“Gotcha!” Then the quilladin was upon Meowth, waiting in anticipation. “And you will have…?”

“Water,” Meowth said.

“Ah, the boring one! I get you,” he joked as he left the table, leaving them to their menus. Meowth didn’t react to the tease at all, at least not visibly.

Mathew grabbed the plastic menu and began reading the…what the heck?! All of these food names were Italian, too! How was that possible when everything he had read up to now was English? Was there some kind of Poké-Italy out there he wasn’t aware of, where they invented the Poké-pizza? Where had they even learned to make cheese, anyway? Did the miltanks milk themselves and discover it, or was there some cheese pokémon out there he wasn’t aware of?

“You look confused.”

Mathew shook out his tirade of internal questions. “Sorry. The food names are just, uh, something, is all.”

Meowth nodded, looking down at his menu. “The story is that a human introduced this kind of cuisine a few hundred years ago. The weird names are in some foreign language.”

“Huh, that makes—” Mathew had to do a double-take. “I’m sorry, what?”

Meowth’s eyes rose from his menu in a flash. “Have you not heard of them?”

“Nope,” he lied, avoiding eye contact with him.

Thankfully, he didn’t press any further, returning to the menu. “It’s been happening for a long time. Every century or so, somebody shows up from this other world — called ‘Earth’. They tend to leave some kind of lasting impact here. Sometimes they remain until they die, sometimes they find a way home.”

“And you know about this…how?”

“A class in Higher Ed. Basically any educational institution would mention it in their recent history curriculum.”

Mathew had never been more happy for their waiter to arrive with drinks and a plate of garlic bread. The strange tension Mathew suddenly felt eased as soon as their table was populated. Meowth slurped away at the drink, then took a nibble at the crust of one of the delicacies.

Mathew, on the other hand, stared at the container the quilladin had delivered his soda in. “This is a bowl.”

“And? You want your drink on a plate?” Meowth asked.

“No, I wanted it in a…” This time, Mathew stopped himself. Glasses and cups wouldn’t accommodate for all kinds of pokémon, so it made a bit of sense that they’d opt for bowls instead. “Nevermind.” Mathew lifted the bowl to his — splash. He had shoved the bowl of fizzy sweetness straight into his snout. He lurched back, Dragnroud dripping from it. “Ack, damn it!” he gasped, then took a thick napkin to his skull mark. He took it more slowly this time, raising it up to his mouth and taking careful swigs.

Meowth was bemused by the class-act he was presenting right now. Mathew knew it looked bad — this should all come naturally to him. “You really are an unusual one, Mathew.” Bizarrely, he bit into his garlic bread from the side, getting right to the chessy innards. “I’m surprised you can insert color contacts into your eyes if you can’t recognize your own snout.”

Mathew figured it’d be better to avoid that line and turn the conversation towards what they had came here for. “Yeah, well, my whole life’s been pretty unusual recently.”

“I’ve noticed. You got up excessively early this morning,” Meowth remarked. “Why are they working you so intensely?”

“I’ll be honest, I don’t really know myself.” Mathew took another swig out of his bowl, hoping he didn’t look like he was lying out of his teeth. “There’s a lot of weird things going on with the place. Like, I don’t even know who runs the company yet! I get keeping shit in the dark, but man, they might as well be the void of space sometimes.” The cubone shook his head, realizing he was getting sidetracked with this tangent. SEAS wasn’t what he really wanted to discuss, anyway. “So, long story short, they really aren’t helping what I’m going through right now, and that’s why I need you to lend an ear.”

Meowth nodded quickly. “It sounds like this ‘SEAS’ company acts pretty unfairly to you. What is it, exactly, that they have you and Joey doing?”

“I probably shouldn’t tell you that.” He wasn’t interested in telling Meowth that he had been quietly NDA’d since it’d only get them more off-topic. “I mean, you know what they say…”

Meowth looked at him blankly as he finished off his garlic bread. “I don’t really know what ‘they’ say, actually.”

“Uh, curiosity killed the cat? Have you never heard of that?”

“Curiosity did what to the cat?” Meowth’s expression intensified. “What are you trying to imply?”

“Nothing! It’s just a saying!” he exclaimed. To calm himself down, he grabbed one of the pieces of garlic bread and wolfed the entire thing down his mouth. Chewing on the crunchy crust was therapeutic enough to satisfy him. “Anyways, none of this has to do with what I wanted to talk about. Can I start on it now?”

“Hang on,” Meowth stated. “I’ll listen after you explain this idiom to me.”

He can’t be serious right now… “Isn’t it obvious? It means that you shouldn’t look into something too hard because then you might not like what you find.”

“Okay, that makes sense…” Meowth seemed to genuinely contemplate this. “And who is ‘the cat’ referring to in this situation?”

“Oh, for God’s — it’s a hypothetical!” Mathew exclaimed. “The cat doesn’t exist. He isn’t real. Can we please get to the actual session now?”

“Alright, alright…” Meowth sighed. “So, is this ‘thing’ you’re vaguely referring to a home matter? A past job? Some other trouble?”

“I…guess you could call it a home matter?” He raked the nail of his thumb against the table. “I dunno, really. It’s kind of hard to explain.”

“That’s fine,” he said. “Maybe we could start with how your work with SEAS relates to it and try to reach the root from there.”

Okay, that’s enough of this. Meowth wasn’t giving any care at all into what he was saying, that much was clear. “Did you actually bring me here so I could have a place to work out my problems, or did you just want an excuse to hear yourself talk?”

Surprisingly, Mathew’s cutting question got results out of him. “I assure you, I’m not trying to diminish you. As soon as you answer my questions, I will gladly answer yours.”

Mathew wanted to agree to that pretense, that Meowth really had good intentions. But now, what Politoed and Breloom were saying about Meowth was all too clear. “Y’know what? I don’t believe you. You have a medical degree, and everyone’s been saying you’re half-therapist. You, of all people, should know what comes first in a conversation like this.”

“That sounds pretty selfish of you.”

The cubone intensified. “Do you have any idea how much I went through to even get over here? I don’t have a home, I don’t have half of my belongings, I don’t have my s… I gave up damn near everything!” He smacked the table they were sitting on. “Maybe I deserve to be a little selfish for once.”

Meowth gave him a deadpan, almost disappointed expression. “So what you’re saying is, any issue that I may be dealing with at this point is entirely irrelevant to the conversation.”

Mathew rolled his eyes, looking away from Meowth. “Oh my God, just forget it. I had this lunch with you because I thought you would help, but clearly this isn’t working…”

The cubone looked to Meowth, and suddenly, something…changed. He felt so drowsy…so woozy… The restaurant faded out of view. It was just him and Meowth now… An overwhelming sense of persuasion flooded him, and suddenly his will to resist vanished, looking into Meowth’s green…glowing…eyes.

“I guess we’re doing this the hard way.” Every word Meowth said permeated his senses, resonating across Mathew’s entire being. “Mathew, I’ll just be upfront and ask. What does your work have to do with my father?”

“Joey and I…we work in the resort…basement…the Waregle,” Mathew whispered without hesitation. “He’s not around… I haven’t seen him outside of the…Club…”

Meowth squinted, seeming annoyed at the answer. “No involvement? Why even use the resort for training, then?”

“It’s a good space…to be athletic. They’re getting me to…adjust to my…cubone body. If I do well…I get promoted into a good job.” His voice was noticeably soft, even in this state. Was anybody else even seeing this…?

The cat was baffled by what he was saying. “Your cubone body? Do you have another one?”

“No. I…was a human before.”

Those glowing eyes widened. A stillness hung in the air as Meowth’s expression transformed from annoyance to horror at what he just said. “…You definitely didn’t want me to know that.” He hurriedly clapped his paws together, and in an instant the world came back into view — and so, too, did the implications of what Mathew had just said.

“What the fuck did you do to me?!” Mathew’s scream caught the eyes of everybody in the restaurant. He scrambled around, knocking over his bowl and his silverware as he pushed out of his seat.

Meowth rose, looking desperate. “Mathew, wait—!”

“Get the hell away from me!” He burst into a sprint, rushing past customers and waiters alike as he made for the door. Mathew had to get away from him — away from whatever thing he just did to get him to spill his big secret.

He had fallen straight into Meowth’s trap, and it horrified him.

Well, that hadn’t gone exactly according to plan.

When he finally decided to pull out his hypnosis ability, he had anticipated a pretty mundane, but revealing explanation of Mathew’s work. Worst case scenario, he’d tick Mathew off for a while, possibly get a stern talking to, and then everyone would move on, keeping him equipped with the knowledge to unravel the truth Mr. Persian was keeping from him.

The moment he realized he’d accidentally goaded Mathew into revealing his humanity to him, he knew this was going to blow up in his face far worse than he pictured.

It started when two members of the Kalmwa’er Service Guild stormed the restaurant, gunning for his table. Apparently they were answering a call of possibly illegal coercion via hypnosis made by one of the other guests. Meowth turned himself in willingly, allowing them to drag him to town hall for interrogation. Fortunately, they let him keep his leftovers — although they had to stay in the massive gloved hand of the familiar interrogator.

“Eheheheh!” Despite the lack of any kind of mouth, Poliwrath had a hearty, unforgettable laugh. The blue, burly toad-ish figure could’ve easily knocked him out, based on the sports tape-like power bands wrapped around both arms, but instead, he resorted to mockery. “Well Chip, it looks like I done won this bet!” he said.

“To be fair, sire, I did say you had the better end of the bet,” Poliwrath’s colorful parrot of a partner-in-crime replied in his sing-songy tone. “If I had a say, I would’ve bet that Meowth would get arrested within three years out of Higher Ed any day of the week.”

Meowth reclined himself in the metal chair, getting comfortable. These two were one grade lower than he was, just fresh out of Higher Ed themselves, but they had plenty of secondhand experience with him thanks to the amphibian’s older brother.

“Alright!” Poliwrath plopped himself into a chair on the opposite side of the interrogation room, past a hardened glass wall. The chatot stood next to Meowth to ensure he didn’t try to escape, wearing a pair of dark type-imbued goggles that his hypnosis would never pierce. Meowth couldn’t tell which one was supposed to be playing the bad cop. He probably wasn’t worth a good cop. “Meowth, every time I reckon you can’t fall any farther, well, ya just go right ahead and do. Forced coercion on a dinner partner and, knowing yer line of work, a potential client? That just ain’t right.”

“Yeah, I get it,” Meowth said. “Would an explanation do me any good here?”

“Honestly, I doubt there’s a point to that, Meowth.” Idly, Chip fiddled with the pair of headphones wrapped around his neck, wired to some kind of music-playing device clipped to his side. “We know you. We know the crime. We know what you always do after something like this. Why bother, when you’ll just be like…” Chip’s voice suddenly deepened into a perfect vocal impression of him. “There’s no poooint to aaaaanything. I’ll just keep being baaaaad.”

“‘Ey, Chip!” Poliwrath had said. “I agree with ya, but we got a protocol to fill! It’s our job to at least try to rehab ‘em.”

“I’m just saying what I see, sire! Nobody can make this guy chin up.”

Poliwrath had shot Chip a mischievous look. “Wanna bet on it?”

It took a moment of contemplation for Chip to make a decision. “Eh… Sure. We need to get another one going, after all. I’m putting a thousand on it.”

At that moment, Poliwrath cackled, as if Chip had just fallen into a trap. “Oh baby, we’re goin’ on a win streak!”

It took considerable effort to keep himself from curling up in frustration. He was ready for this to be over. “What’s the punishment, then?”

“Right, right.” Poliwrath waved an arm to shake off his own distraction. “Meowth, I reckon this charge could go any number of directions. I done seen small fines, I done seen jailtime… I got options, so I got a chance to make a sentence that really puts a petty troublemaker like you on the ropes. I reckon I can do that the same way I solve my debates: with a deal!”

“A deal.” Meowth had little knowledge about the workings of the Service Guild, so he was taken a little by surprise. “Is that legal?”

“If it was illegal, I wouldn’t be doin’ it, now would I? I reckon I’ll just have to run it by ol’ Silvalla after we’re done,” Poliwrath said. “That victim ‘o yours, the cubone? If he can come to Chip or me in a couple weeks’ time, we’ll scale your punishment based on the harm done. If he tells me, of his own free will, that yer a good guy after all that, we’ll drop the charge and look away like it never happened. If he doesn’t…” If he had a mouth, Poliwrath would’ve given him the most devilish grin imaginable. “Well, you can kiss that medical license goodbye. You ain’t got the moral character for one!”

That threat haunted Meowth through the rest of his questioning and all the way home. Not only did he now risk losing the product of six years of study, but now he risked giving up his chance to find the truth. His medical proficiency was the excuse Mr. Persian used to employ him. If he lost it, would his father still be willing to keep him where he is?

As he slowly prodded through streets and caught a ride home on the gondola, the consequences truly sank in. He had risked the only thing of value that he possessed — and he wasn’t even sure if it helped him in his pursuit.

He blew it. Of course he did.

As soon as he pushed open the door to his condo, three pairs of eyes were on him, and the tension in the room spiked. Joey, Jermy, and Minichino were sitting in front of some kind of TV-like box. Next to the box was a wired remote-thing that had been left untouched. Meowth could read the word ‘paused’ on the screen. Mathew was nowhere to be seen.

Joey was the first to speak up. “Uh, hi, Meowth.”

“Hi.” Meowth glanced at Minichino. “Why are you here?”

“I let her in,” he explained. “She said she had something real important she needed to tell you. Is…is that okay?”

I sure hope it is, Joey was certainly thinking, because I bet you’ll hypnotize me too if I make the slightest of mistakes.

“Yeah, it’s fine.” Meowth looked to the visitor. “What do you need?”

“You know, on second thought,” Minichino remarked as she sunk into his couch. “I dunno, I don’t feel like I should tell you anymore. Maybe another day.”

Maybe never.

“So he explained it already, then?” he asked them.

“Uh, bits and pieces?” Jermy said. “He was playing a game on this thingamabobber he brought with him to calm down earlier, and then he suddenly went upstairs for some—”

Just then, the sounds of dragging could be heard from above. Mathew slowly moved down the stairs backwards, pulling his oversized backpack down with him. He didn’t address Meowth at all. “Okay, almost down…”

“Hey.” Meowth approached the refrigerator and pried it open by pushing his elbow against the handle. “I brought food from Silvalla’s, Mathew. I thought you might want it later.” He clearly set it on one of the shelves.

He stopped on one of the stairs and glared at him. “You can keep it.” Then he went back to pulling. “Joey, get the scrapbook and whatever else you got. We’re moving to the condo.”

Jermy sprung out of his sitting position, looking panicked. “Wait, what?!”

“Why are you so surprised? I am not living in the same house as that…thing.” Mathew set the backpack down at the foot of the stairs, then turned to Meowth. “I might get fired over what you got me to say with whatever weird thing you did to me! Did you think I’d be okay with being anywhere near you after that!?”

“Wait, you hypnotized him?!” A flash of panic, than a wave of irritation came over Minichino. Her paws clenched and her tail straightened as she marched over to him. “Dude, I just thought the session went bad or something. That’s way different!”

Meowth couldn’t look any of them in the eyes. He shuffled around his kitchen, picking up dirtied plates and moving them into his opened dishwasher. “It was a mistake. I had a reason to do it, but—”

In a single motion, Minichino pushed Meowth away and slammed the dishwasher shut. Pay attention to me! she was crying out. “You can’t keep acting like this. This club’s way bigger than just yourself, you know? This could get everyone in hot water!”

Meowth eyed the living room. Mathew was preoccupied with shutting down the mysterious box. Jermy was blabbering something into his ears, but he hardly seemed to care. Joey was still on the couch, worried eyes shifting between the two pairs. He put the plates in his paws down. “Look. You wouldn’t understand, but there’s a reason I’m still here despite hardly being a cleaner. I’ve spent so many years wondering why our boss decided to let school babysit me for half of my life, and this is my only chance at finding out. This was stupid, but I don’t know a better way. Sorry.”

Minichino stared at him with a faltering apprehension. Her anger was evident, but for some reason, there was something else in there that Meowth could sense. When she reached over and snatched the plates, he realized what it was: pity. “Well, not being a butt would be a good start.” She swiped the plates clean, put them back, and then made for the door. “I’m gonna head home now. See you guys at work tomorrow.” She was gone before Meowth could even give her a ‘goodbye’.

A loud zrrrrp filled the condo as Mathew closed his backpack, box in tow. “So explain to me why, exactly, you think we can’t move in at the condo now?”

“We just shouldn’t, okay?!” an exasperated Jermy exclaimed. “We’d be boondoggling!”

ORB rolled ahead of the pikachu. “By ‘boondoggling’, he means that the space in the resort that was reserved for you and Joey was taken by now, so there’s no point in wasting your breath on it.”

Mathew met the robot with an annoyed glare. “You’re messing with me. It’s been less than twenty four hours!”

“And Kalmwa’er Resort is a busy place. Any more questions?”

He growled as he tossed his backpack onto the couch by Joey. “Fine! We’ll just go somewhere else then! Maybe Minichino could…” Mathew looked confusedly to the kitchen where Meowth stood. “Where did she go?”

“She just left,” Meowth told him, “after talking with me.”

Mathew was left dumbfounded. What did you do? that look in his eyes asked Meowth, as if he had hurt her somehow. If he told Mathew he didn’t, would he believe him?

He rolled his eyes, putting a hand on his wasted packing. “Well at least somebody here has some goddamn sense.” The cubone stormed off in an angered huff, taking it with him.

No, he wouldn’t. Meowth was sure of that.

Neither Joey, nor Jermy, nor ORB bothered to stop him from making for the door to his room.

He stepped through, slammed it shut, and threw his back at it. Down, down, down he slid against it, his tail pushed to the side, until he was sitting on the hardwood floor.

Why did he do this to himself? Right as it seemed like everything was in perfect place, right as he was feeling on top of his calculated game, he knocked over his own house of cards. He was so close to getting answers, and, at that, forming a decent friendship for once in his life. Now he had neither.

Outside his door, the world carried on. “This day has been wilder than a dog-punting deer,” the voice of Joey carried past the door. “I don’t want all of us fighting. It ain’t fun.”

“I hope so…”

Perhaps, Meowth figured, it was better that he hadn’t mentioned the interrogation. This was already hard enough as it was now.

The cat spent the rest of the night cooped in his room. Joey and Jermy continued to talk and share company. After a while, Mathew joined them again, once he saw that the ‘owner’ wasn’t around. The three’s muffled cheers, cries, and laughter reached his ears as they played on that box together. Meowth had no place there — the door he had shut stood in his way.