A short while later, Didra had escorted both of the newly minted team members into a different room, this time with a window, alongside some boxes with some small trinkets that looked like small treasures dotting the room. It was furnished in much of a similar way to the last one, but slightly less messy, as if this space was official.

She sat down on a small cushioned stool. There were other stools and cushions around to facilitate different Pokemon types. Both of the smaller Pokemon chose cushions, Sanvu sitting on his, while Pachuku leaned against one similar to a bean-bag chair.

“So, I suppose we should get you acquainted with the way things are done around here,” Didra started. “Now, where to begin…”

She pondered, humming for a second, almost as if bothered.

“…So, what exactly do you mean?” Sanvu asked.

“Well, since we just met, I would like for you to recount again what you know. You woke up in the forest, and Pachuku brought you here. Is that all you remember?”

Sanvu thought for a second, cocking his head.

“Sure, since waking up that is. But that isn’t entirely true. I remember being at home, going to sleep in my room, and I was going to wake up and uhh…” he trailed off, the extent of the situation starting to rear its head the more words he tried to fumble out.

“What was home like?”

“Your… room?” Pachuku questioned shortly after Didra had finished. Both were a little perplexed.

“A room to myself much like this one but… um… way less… minimalist? More messy?” Sanvu confirmed, albeit questioningly “I can’t remember it in full detail. It’s more like, I have this idea of what I think it looked like, but it’s like there’s a giant filter over it, or like, I just woke up and I haven’t properly focused yet.”

“I see…” Didra murmured “Well don’t try to overthink anything. I just want a bit of a better idea.”

“Hey uh…” Pachuku stammered, his paws clutching his front “Why can’t you, just, like, read his mind?”

Immediately Sanvu’s head jerked over “She can do that?!”

“No…” She dismissed, waving her hand. “I can sense Amnesiac energy but I cannot go into another’s head directly unless I were to ‘talk’ to you using telepathy. Such is the means of needing to ask questions; I can sense if the energy behind individual words is legitimate, as well as how an individual is feeling, but not direct mind-reading. Other psychics are better at that than me.”

“So you’ll know if I’m lying?” Sanvu clarified. She nodded in response.

“Yes. So far, I can’t really tell that anything you’ve said, even in regards to you wanting to make a team, is untruthful. But since I don’t have knowledge of you… well here we are.” She gestured to the room.

“Huh, I just thought that was something all psychics did,” Pachuku murmured.

“Psychics? Multiple?” Sanvu questioned

“I presume you don’t know anything about type matchups or why they matter, do you?” She predicted,” There are 18 elemental types generally associated with particular species with certain attributes. All Pokemon have a type, some have two. You’re a Snivy, which is a Grass-type Pokemon. Grass-types tend to exhibit behaviour similar to trees and plants. And Pachuku here is a Pachirisu, an Electric-type, who tend to have electricity-manipulating properties.”

“So, I’m a plant?”

“No, you just have plant-like attributes. Meanwhile, I have two types, Psychic and Fairy. This is what Pachuku is referring to as “psychics” which are those that bear the Psychic-type as one of their elements. It refers to all kinds of mental cognition, but varied among species as to what those are.”

“And so, what are these other types and what do they mean, exactly?”

“These types are necessary to understand how to use moves and do battle in this world.”

“Battle as in like, fighting, battle?” Sanvu was quite stunned. He couldn’t quite imagine any of them in such a situation.

“Yes.”

She briefly listed the rest of them out, alongside individual properties of each one in a brief description. Some made sense, like water, and fire, but some others were a little confusing, like bugs apparently having their own element, ghosts being an element, and there were apparently two separate types for dirt of various kinds. It would be a lot to remember.

 “I… wasn’t much of the fighting type,” he confessed after having gone through them all.

“Well, no, not now that you’re a Grass-type.”

“Do you just go around picking fights with anybody?”

“Not usually…” Pachuku interjected, softly. “It’s for self-defense, most of the time, or for fun.”

“Majority of the Amnesiacs appear to be related to the growing amount of Mystery Dungeons, which are pockets of space that don’t follow regular rules of nature. Such endeavours are quite dangerous, and regardless, you would have to be trained. Especially since Pachuku would probably be a bit of a liability.”

“Why are Mystery Dungeons dangerous? What are they?”

“Like a maze that tries to keep you in no matter what,” Pachuku shuddered at the thought.

“That, and feral apparitions of existing Pokemon live in them, and they will attack you if you’re unprepared. If you haven’t done battle and you would be relying on Pachuku alone, then I’m not sure you’d be up to the task, unless you were willing to put in the work.”

He was still letting that sink in, although it was getting easier to accept. Although he was noting how dismissive she seemed of Pachuku.

“And there’s… no training him?”

“You’d both be a handful, is what I’m suggesting.”

“So, if it’s a matter of just training us, what’s the issue here?” Sanvu couldn’t quite understand why she was so hesitant about this; surely any improvement would just mean they’d get better at it over time.

“Generally Pokemon out there are a lot less helpful.” Didra had a slightly upset look “Nobody really wants to help one another. We have some Pokemon here, but, we’re desperate for those who aren’t going to bring anybody else down.”

“So why not just accept him before this then?” Sanvu pondered

“Pachuku is better as a support Pokemon than as someone on his own. You’re not the only ones to have shown up, and many working here share my opinions on Pachuku. I can accept, if you’re willing to put in the work.”

It didn’t need much reminding. “I suppose I’ll try,” Sanvu affirmed “If it’s the only way to get to the bottom of why I’m like this now. Do I have to do anything for residency, or…”

 “No, not like that,” Didra held her hand out as if silencing him, “None of the other Mindscape members live here either besides myself and Notey. I’d acquaint yourselves with the town before I get you both assessed for basic moves before you do some work for us.”

---

They picked themselves up, and walked back to the front door, where the green bird – Notey – was peering at them without a word.

 “This will be given more discussion later; I just want all of this to have seeped in now. I presume you’ll be taking Sanvu with you, Pachuku?” Didra mentioned

“Uh, yeah. That is… if you want to come with me?” Pachuku stammered.

“Sure, yeah.”

---

After leaving the facility, they started the path to Pachuku’s home.

They rounded a small path to the left as Pachuku turned around. The path weaved behind the building, which was decorated on the back besides the window so that it didn’t look particularly plain overlooking the small town from earlier, with the same huts, and ponds from prior. A small sign to the right read in strange writing “Mentage Town.” Sanvu wasn’t too surprised at his ability to read it; he guessed it was just a part of that sense that he couldn’t put to words that was allowing him to walk without much trouble like this.

 

*Music: Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story – Shock!

The most notable thing about the town though was the sound, or lack thereof. Even at their distance, it was noticeable.

“It’s… quiet,” Sanvu commented after a while, softly, as if he would intrude on the silence if he spoke too loudly.

“Yeah. Pokemon around here don’t really care too much about one another, not even at the local shop. ‘Specially not when your whole life could go snap in a second, and there goes your whole friendship with somebody,” Pachuku mused soberly.

The few creatures milling about, of which were various shapes and sizes, were very deliberate in their movements. They watched a big grey bipedal dinosaur go up to a shop, purchase something quickly, and then move on as if the path were an automated conveyor belt. None were making much of an effort for communication, so all that was heard was a low murmuring, if even that. The streets were also fittingly quite empty, with few individuals even outside, much less near Mindscape, as all of them were a fair distance away from where the two were standing, without much effort in getting closer.

Pachuku sighed. “It’s depressing. That’s why I wanted to help. But she wouldn’t let me.”

“That’s what I don’t get. Why it took until I wanted to join for her to change her mind” Sanvu answered.

“You… weren’t the only one I found. But… those were mistakes. Those that had just ended up around the dungeon by accident,” Pachuku admitted.

“If these dungeons are dangerous though why would they be mistakes?”

“Cause they weren’t Amnesiacs. She wanted to know if I could actually find one.”

“I’m not either… at least I think so. I was just human.” He was beginning to doubt that though, his confidence on that wavering. As they walked, his eye lingered on nearby trees for seemingly no reason. There was nothing special about them either, besides small things like some lacking as many leaves but otherwise totally insignificant.

“That’s what gets me as well. Well, we’re here. Home.”

~~

---

It was a fairly tall little hut, almost like a column of wood in its construction; It looked almost like a child’s depiction of a tree. Some windows dotted its exterior in various places, looking carved out but covered up with a glass-like material.

Its door was actually rather short, which would suggest that Pachuku didn’t converse in private unless the Pokemon was short enough to be able to fit inside the door. Its frame arched a fair bit above Sanvu, but stopped at a few metres, in a way that reminds one of the bottom of a tree being hollowed out. It did however feature a bigger door, presumably for the one that built it, but even this suggested that it was short, since it wasn’t much higher than the usual, which was around Pachuku’s height. Out the front of the house tapered above the door(s) was a small awning with a small striped cloth covering it. When Pachuku ran to the door, he basically just pushed the door with such minimal effort that it flapped open. One had to wonder how good the security of such a place was for it to be so loose.

It was hollow on the inside, with some steps jutting out of the cylindrical interior wall just above leading to an area just slightly above the left of the entrance when looked at from inside. On one of these steps was a particularly large basket with something soft-looking inside, it was not easy to see from the ground, since it was obscured partially by what looked like some kind of shielded wall. There was a small tree stump in the centre, serving as a table, with two small stool-like rocks. There were small boxes serving as storage and as small tables on the far ends of the rounded walls, alongside the most visible thing, which was not really visible from the front all too well; a second room with a particularly long bed-like structure (though not too long so as to not be seen from the front) which was long, wooden and decorated with some kind of cloth. Against the rest of the room built for the miniature Pachuku, it stood out quite particularly. Sanvu couldn’t help but marvel as he looked around for a couple of minutes, awestruck.

“Yeah, I figured if I were to find someone anyway, they’d need somewhere to sleep.” Pachuku mentioned sheepishly.

“Not to downplay you or anything, but, you live here? How’d you manage to get somewhere like this?”

“I earned it,” Pachuku said flatly, “An old friend had it, and then they moved away, so they let me have it. I, uh, haven’t seen them in a while.” Pachuku was quickly moving his head around the room as he said that, avoiding eye contact with Sanvu. “So uh, pretty neat, huh?”

Sanvu couldn’t help but notice the anxiety Pachuku exuded, his paws fiddling again, he was feeling it too himself inside, and felt that he had to at least clarify with the squirrel as soon as possible.

“I heard you before, you said something about humans being myths… tell me, do you believe me? When I say that I was human?” Sanvu asked.

Pachuku gave the room another look around before responding. “Look, at first, I thought you were an Amnesiac because I was desperate, and I don’t know that much about humans.”

“What do you know?”

“Well, I’ve only heard what most Pokemon around here will know. They used to live on this world yonder ago, but not anymore, and they tend to appear in times of great crisis, usually as Pokemon themselves, but there are also tales of humans who appear unrelated to any crisis,” Pachuku informed, unaware of the potential implications of what he said.

“So, does that mean there are other humans, here?”

“If there are, I haven’t heard of any prior to you, nearby, anyways, so you’ll probably have to live with being the only one for a while,” Pachuku noted with a pensive look on his face.

Sanvu let that information soak in before Pachuku spoke up again. The Pachirisu had a thoughtful expression, not quite upset, but something pitiful, as he leaned backwards.

“It’s not that I don’t believe you, given that you need basic functions explained to you, hence why I got confused at first, since, well, y’know, it just sounded a bit weird at first, but well, I don’t know much of what a human actually is. They’re more like an old fairy tale that most Pokemon will just dismiss as being for little kids or something,” Pachuku finally concluded.

“…Do you trust me?” Sanvu asked, “You seem kind of… worried about something.”

“Oh, uh, yeah, just…” he responded quickly “I’ve always been like this anxious, I don’t like the idea that people see me as a criminal or something just cause I stay holed up in here when I wasn’t looking for somebody. Especially when I’m so weak they kinda just want me to… go away,” Pachuku admitted.

Sanvu decided he shouldn’t press on that point any further, since he legitimately did feel bad for Pachuku now. After that display outside and knowing that Pokemon in general had lost their hospitality, it didn’t feel right to pry on Pachuku’s life right after he went out of his way to save him from essentially being homeless. That said, the ‘old friend’ and ‘earning’ of the house would stay in Sanvu’s mind for later; he had a sneaking suspicion that Pachuku was being vague on purpose, but now wasn’t really the time for that. So instead…

“Would you like me to tell you what I know about humanity? That is, since I’m not sure if we’ll need to go back or something. What’s the process for joining Mindscape, anyway?”

“Oh, she’ll probably just assess moves before we go on a mission tomorrow. Since you can walk, it’s likely you’ll know something.”

“Uh…”

“Like, attacks, what you can do to defend yourself, that’s what I mean by moves.”

“Oh, uh, okay.”

“Until then, yeah, you can tell me about humanity. Blow me away, kinda makes me curious.” Sanvu couldn’t be sure the glint he was seeing in the squirrel’s eye had anything deeper to it, but nonetheless, it seemed to confide in him. He sat on one of the rock-stools, Pachuku sitting eagerly near the other, his tail propping him up.

“Well, we generally lived in… bigger… places, not to imply this place isn’t tall, but it was wider, cause we had more stuff. Knick-knacks and stuff like that.”

“Huh, were humans bigger?”

“Didra kinda looks like one, like a tall woman. Like, if you changed some things around. She might even be close to the size of one, I think, anyways.”

“Huh, no wonder your home’d be bigger.”

“Anyway, you could live in a home by yourself, but many live with someone, like a partner, or… a family…” he trailed off as he finished that last word, staring into space.

“You OK?” Pachuku noticed.

No matter how hard Sanvu tried, he knew he had a family, but could not put faces or names to his mouth. That was concerning, and that was putting it mildly.

“I know I had a family, but…. it’s like I don’t know who they were, who was in it…”

“Oh, dang…”

“Like, I would’ve had parents, but, did I have anyone else? I don’t even remember what they were like…”

At this, he began to clutch his head, not sure where to go with that, especially since more bits and pieces of his prior life felt like chunks were ripped clean out of his head as he actually tried to think of them, and were unable to be remembered. There was also the reminder that somehow, according to Didra, he wasn’t an Amnesiac. Or had this happened in the last hour? That he couldn’t be sure of. Whatever the case was, it felt terrible either way.

“Well, uh, you had a family, let’s go with that. Anything else you wanna talk about?” Pachuku quickly deflected, noticing his concern.

“W-well, yeah, I suppose I can try and tell you what else I knew.” Sanvu muttered, recovering, but still shocked by this revelation. Just what had done this to him? He had to hope that being in Mindscape would help him get to the bottom of this. “You’re still good?”

“Yeah. Nothing wrong here.” Pachuku confirmed.

Sanvu continued to chit-chat with Pachuku as the sun went down. The two were having a ball discussing various things like what a ‘squirrel’ was and speculating as to what Didra even did in her little tower above the town. Despite the cold atmosphere of outside, it were as if the two had been longtime friends already, even though they had just met. A while later though, was when it wasn’t just their mouths that were emanating noise.

“Oh, are you hungry? Should’ve said something earlier.” Pachuku moved to one of the shelves as he pulled out some round fruit-like objects. Sanvu hadn’t noticed amidst the interesting talk, but he was starving. Pachuku grabbed around a bowl at a time due to his small paws, and made trips of two berries each. Soon, a small bowl of about 3 fruits each was placed out, and then he sat down.

“Those’re Pecha and Oran berries. I dunno what you’d like, but they’re the easiest to find around here thanks to the dungeon. I also have an apple or two for later,” Pachuku then told him, before munching on the berries he laid out for himself.

“So, uh, you got the food from the dungeon even though you were refused from Mindscape?”

“Oh, no, anyone can go in the dungeon, but, you just can’t do work with the Amnesiacs if you don’t work with them and you’ve gotta be prepared,” Pachuku explained, “But it’s easier to get it from Kecleon with some money from odd jobs all over the place, or from the drops we get.”

Sanvu then put a hand on one of the pink berries, he was guessing the pink was a “Pecha” since it sounded a lot like “peach” and its rounded flesh reminded him of a peach, of what he recalled they were like in his old world. The pink was a lot more saturated than a normal peach, with splotches of a lighter colour dotting its surface. It held the vague shape of a typical love heart. Still not used to his hand being green, he slightly winced before grabbing it and then taking a bite. The taste was pretty sweet, all things considered. Sanvu never considered himself a picky eater; good thing that didn’t get wiped from his life either. Though it begged the question again how much of his life had been wiped and how much of it he really continued to know. He only gave these questions passing thought, still otherwise convinced that this was just some strange sort of dream.

“These’re pretty good, thanks.”

“Y’know, you’ll probably have to learn how to use your vines soon,” Pachuku muttered. Sanvu looked up, raising a brow in silence. “It’s something practically all Snivy know how to do, at least from what I remember.”

“V-Vines…?”

“You heard Didra, didn’t you; you’re a Grass-type. You guys can, like, grow vines that do all sorts of wacky things. You’ll stand out if you don’t, and given the state of things it’s not likely anyone’s gonna believe you if you don’t know how to do it, and with all the human stuff, well… good luck finding anybody who won’t just find that a little bit weird” Pachuku explained.

Sanvu supposed that made sense, although he wasn’t entirely sure what Pachuku meant by ‘growing’ them. The various trees from outside came to mind, he couldn’t be entirely sure what Pachuku exactly meant but he figured that since they were saying he was like a plant that it made sense that he’d be able to do plant-like things. “So, like, what do the vines do?”

“I’ve heard, don’t quote me, that they’re like, better than hands or something. Also they’re useful as an attack.”

“Oh, so it’s one of those moves?”

“Yeah, I think if you use them as an attack it’s called Vine Whip.”

“Do you have any of those moves?”

“Yeah, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to knock the Flying-types out for any of these berries. I can’t learn any Grass-type stuff though.”

“Okay, so what are they?”

“The moves or the Flying-types?”

“Uhh, both?”

“I only know two moves right now, I call one a weak Discharge, and the other is Quick Attack. Too tired for demonstrations, and I’ll probably show you tomorrow.”

“Okay? What do they do?”

“Eh, I can shoot electricity basically. Quick Attack isn’t anything special, most Pokemon can learn it. Flying-types usually have beaks and wings and hang out in trees where the berries are.”

“So… birds?”

“Uhh… I guess? No idea what a bird is.”

“That smaller creature we met looked like a bird. Is he Flying-type?”

“Notey? Uh, yeah actually he is. So that’s what you call a bird?”

“Yeah, he looked kind of like one.”

“He’s a Natu. He’s part Psychic as well, hence why he works with Didra.”

This conversation continued well on into the night, when Pachuku eventually had to turn on a small lantern that he provided with a small bit of electricity, and they’d long since downed both bowls and the promised apples, which Sanvu recognised and noted as being familiar. It was odd how the lantern maintained power, but no attention was brought to it; they were beginning to tire, and eventually, it was time to sleep.

Sanvu went in to the ‘second’ bed; Pachuku had put a smaller cushion on top to function as a pillow. It looked quite nice, and Sanvu asked why he didn’t sleep in it himself.

“Oh it’s great and all, but I prefer sleeping up above” his eyes then pointed to the area up close to the entrance where some wood shielded what looked like a small basket from view. “Besides, I know you’re all selfless and all but you don’t need to worry about me. I’ve done this for ages.”

“What, sleeping up above, or sleeping with another?”

“The first one. Now I’m about to collapse, so, night. Tomorrow we find out what Didra wants out of us! Can’t wait.”

He bounded ahead, before turning around to say one last thing.

“And… thank you. I know this is… a lot, but surely we’ll find out your issue in time too, right? Okay, for real, night.”

And with that he bounded up. Sanvu was a little behind, and saw Pachuku easily climb up the couple of steps laid close to the entrance. Pachuku upon reaching the basket practically flopped in it. It was shielded from falling by a sturdy wall that curved around the basket at most angles. He couldn’t quite see too well, but there was a small blanket at the bottom to prevent it from being too itchy, but Pachuku pretty much substituted the rest by curling his big white tail around so that his head was resting on it as a pillow. It was… a pretty cute sight. Sanvu could only see part of that, and even then he managed a warm smile.

Upon making it back to the bed that was his own for the night, which was a small cushion atop this longer bed, he thought at first at just lying the way he used to. That wasn’t really very comfortable, so he shuffled around until he was, which wasn’t totally curled around, but his head was on the cushion like a pillow, and he was on his side while his tail sort of came around in an odd curl, not quite twisting around, but swivelled enough as he laid somewhat flat. Once he was comfortable, the day’s events came back to him.

He hoped that by joining Mindscape that he might come to the bottom of this. Why parts of his life were missing, why he was suddenly a lizard-Snivy-creature, and also, why everyone else’s lives were going missing. One tiny part of him was just hoping he’d wake up from this strange dream so that he could get on with his old life, like nothing happened.

And only one answer awaited the former human that he wouldn’t know until he woke up.