Searching Far and Wide - 64 (Patreon)

Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Abra

- Bellatrix, Gyarados (Shiny)

- Andromeda, Vaporeon

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Bulbasaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

Cerulean City XXV

“Hm, much better than I expected,” Pierce commented, looking at the comments on his video on a tablet he’d been lent. He wasn’t sure about the “Pierce – Pokemon Proxy” name of the channel, but he hadn’t been able to come up with anything better and nobody seemed to think it was bad enough to comment on. Thus, it was perfect, as far as he was concerned.

Then again, maybe what he was doing was so awe inspiring that people literally couldn’t care about the name of the channel. It was kind of difficult to not think like that when the comments were so wild. People just seemed to really like the one video they’d uploaded. “They” as in Pierce, Lily – his traveling companion – and Violet.

After all, he might be the one on camera, but Lily had helped film the thing with some coaching from Violet. The Sensational Sister seemed to be the one most involved in the whole process for her family’s videos online, from filming to editing and everything else. That’d been interesting to find out, actually. She had also offered to teach and do some editing for them.

Pierce would admit that he didn’t quite like the sound of that.

He was trying to show his “talents” – Lily’s words, not his – to the world and, more importantly, show them pokemon and how to treat them better. So, he thought that doing as little editing as possible would be better. It’d probably make for worse videos, but it’d also make for more natural ones. He imagined it’d also help with the credibility of that, he supposed.

Even with his opinion on editing the videos, Lily and him had still gotten a crash course on the subject. Mostly because there’d be cases where they would need to edit things. Either because they had to make a cut here and there because nothing was happening or because there was something they couldn’t/shouldn’t show. Better to know and not need than to need and not know, he supposed.

“That’s one way to put it,” Violet commented from where she sat next to him with her own tablet. “Congratulations, if you keep it up, you’ll be famous. I know you will, because I know you won’t get in trouble for faking or something like that,” she added, giving him a smile. “Doesn’t hurt that you make every pokemon look cute and friendly.”

“I mean, not like that’s hard,” Pierce replied, looking towards the grumpy gyarados that had been the star of his first episode “Hello World”. Unoriginal, but it had done its job allowing him to introduce himself and his channel. He hadn’t done much other than explaining what he wanted for his channel and just explaining some general things about pokemon while also trying to make it clear that what he did worked for a reason and that not just anyone could go to a gyarados or other dangerous pokemon and do what he did and expect it to work.

Last thing he needed was some idiot pulling a Malfoy-Buckbeak because of some misunderstanding.

“If you say so,” Violet said with a giggle. “You are also cute,” she added, making him blink repeatedly. “Shallow as it sounds, people find attractive people much easier to follow on this sort of thing.”

“Hm, if you say so,” Pierce replied noncommittally. Even with his eyes now firmly fixed on the screen in his hands, he could see the blue-haired woman rolling her eyes. “Some of these people are…”

“Idiots?”

“I was going to say wild,” he answered dully. “But I guess that works too,” he admitted then. Because really, some people had questionable opinions and understandings. Even those that were supportive and positive could be a little…

“You get used to it. Some people just don’t care enough to look too deep, so they won’t understand anything that, well, needs that kind of attention,” Violet explained, setting her tablet aside. “Not all of them are actual idiots, they are either just ignorant or mistaken. It’s why it’s always better to be clear, especially when you are trying to pass information across. Don’t assume people will understand “obvious” things because I guarantee someone will not.”

“Hm, good to know,” he mumbled. He’d already been told that, but he guessed he now understood where that piece of advice had come from much better. It was always much easier to learn something the practical way, at least for him. Being told or reading something was one thing, it was another to see the reasons and having to apply that knowledge. “I think I might have to keep that in mind,” he added, feeling his nerves rising a bit.

Because sure, the comments were nice and it felt nice to read them. However, it made him nervous to now suddenly be out there. Pierce had to remind himself why he’d decided to do what he did just to push down the awkwardness building in him. ‘I should have thought this more thoroughly,’ he mused, gulping.

“Looking a little pale there. Everything ok?” Violet asked, placing her face entirely too close to him, which didn’t really help him feel better.

“Yeah, just realizing the full scope of this,” Pierce answered, grimacing as he continued looking at the tablet. “I’m suddenly very worried about what’ll happen if I screw up.”

“The man that casually calmed down a fresh out of evolution gyarados, scared of the puny humans,” Violet said mockingly before giggling and patting his back. “It’ll be fine, Pierce. I very much doubt anything bad will happen. There’ll always be people that won’t like anything you might do, but I’m sure that there’ll be more people that like it, whatever it might end up being.”

“Thanks for that,” he mumbled, taking the reassurance, even if it didn’t make him feel all that much better. He appreciated the sentiment.

“Don’t mention it. Least I can do when you are helping lil’ Misty with her fear of gyarados,” Violet said, beaming at him.

[}-o-{]

“Yeah, we are gonna have to work on that, girl,” he commented while they waited for lunch time at the Pokemon Center. They’d arrived a little early, so he’d moved to the back of it and let out his team, except for Bellatrix, that is. “You aren’t much of a battler, are you?” he added, getting an annoyed glare from Andromeda. “I mean, we’ll work on that if you want, I was just saying.”

The vaporeon huffed.

“That’s not very explanatory,” he replied with a flat look. For some reason, that got him a narrow eyed stare from the eeveelution. “It doesn’t matter anyway. You do want to get better, right? Training and battling?” he asked, just to be sure.

Andromeda nodded firmly.

“Ok then. As I said, we are gonna have to work on your Bite. It’s barely a move at all and it’s a very basic move for your line,” he commented, making her let out a sound that seemed somewhere in between a sigh, a huff and a groan. He wasn’t sure if it had a name or if it was included in one of those categories already, really. “You’ve already more or less figured it out. Just have to learn how to put more power in that. Bellatrix knows the move already and Narcissa is learning how to use Dark type energy, so you can train with them, I imagine. Maybe more Narcissa than Bella.”

Nothing against the gyarados, but she was… young. Maybe that wasn’t the way to describe her, but she seemed very childish, personality wise. Kind of like Orion, now that he thought about it. That meant two things. One, she probably wouldn’t be too good at teaching others. Two, she would be a terrible fit for the more serious Andromeda.

Having the vaporeon look after the gyarados was a lot different than putting the gyarados in charge.

“For now, you can work on that while we wait. It’s a simple move and it doesn’t bother anyone, so you can do that here, or anywhere, really,” he told Andromeda, moving to take a seat with his back resting on Orion. Cygnus was taking a nap and so was Narcissa, actually. It didn’t happen often that both were sleeping at the same time during the day, but it wasn’t too surprising either.

Cygnus slept for most of the day, after all, so it was bound to happen at times.

“You doing ok, buddy?” he asked his onix partner.

The rock serpent grumbled something in response.

“Those gyarados working you to the bone, huh?” he commented, somehow making Orion deflate even harder against the ground. “You can always take a break, you know?” he pointed out, getting an annoyed huff. “Ok, someone’s determined, I guess. I’ll keep an eye on you big guy. You ain’t gonna be working too much on my watch, just saying.”

Orion grumbled something then.

“No can do, buddy. That’s bad for you, so I gotta stop you if you are pushing too far,” Pierce insisted, getting a frustrated sigh in response. “Well, sigh all you want. I’m here to make sure you aren’t stupid and hurt yourself. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that you are this motivated, but too much of anything can be a bad thing too. Like poffins. If you ate too many then you’d get sick.”

He had to chuckle at the panicked expression on the onix.

“Don’t worry about it. I’d probably have to burn entirely too much money for that to happen. It’s just an example,” he reassured, getting a more relieved sigh this time. “Now, I think we can take a nap with those two, don’t you, buddy?” he asked, closing his eyes and letting the slight breeze wash over him calmingly. “Andy can take care of her-” he continued before being interrupted by a Water Gun to the face. “-self,” he finished, raising a hand and dragging it over his eyes to wipe off some of the liquid. “That wasn’t very nice,” he said, giving the eeveelution a flat look.

Orion thought the whole thing was hilarious, at least, and Andromeda obviously was very pleased with herself. Pierce wasn’t too bothered. Sure, being in wet clothes would get annoying really quick, but it was from a move, so it would probably disappear soon-ish when the energy that brought it about dissipated. On top of that, it would at least help cool him down. Weather was getting very hot and he was never a fan. He preferred cooler seasons, but alas, it was Summer.

So, he just leaned back against Orion once more, closed his eyes and relaxed. Between the cool water, the slight breeze and the shade they were under, he was fairly comfortable. Maybe he was more tired than he thought, if he felt so comfortable for a nap.

“Back to work, Andy,” he said, getting another Water Gun to the face. It was probably because of the nickname, he supposed, but… Well, it sucked for her, because he rather liked it. “Well, someone doesn’t want to get better as much as I thought, I guess,” he commented, hearing the vaporeon getting back to her training.

Sounded about right for one of his pokemon. Threaten them with not training and they’d give it their all immediately. How he’d managed to get those kinds in his team instead of some of the calmer creatures, Pierce didn’t know. He knew there were pokemon that were less gung-ho about battles, but somehow he managed to attract the opposite kind instead as companions.

‘Wouldn’t have them any other way though,’ he thought, his lips pulling up into a slight smile. Sure, it meant more work for him, but they were his team all the same. They were his friends and, he supposed, his new family. Maybe he preferred it that way, he supposed. They were intense, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Pierce knew he was laid-back, after all. Maybe too laid-back. If he hadn’t gotten Narcissa as his first pokemon, he probably would have ended in a much different place. He wouldn’t have had someone to kick his ass into gear, for one, with the pressure of training her to get better for her own goals. All his team members did that for him, in a way, keeping him going forward when he didn’t have any reasons of his own to do so.

Yeah, he definitely wouldn’t have them any other way.

[}-o-{]

“I know most people aren’t fans of magikarp, but I personally am, together with gyarados,” Pierce said, sitting at the edge of the pool with. Predictably, a bunch of magikarp swam around in front of him. “I imagine the reasons they have is that they are… not that pretty to look at, and they are also fairly inexpressive, which makes some people think they are dim,” he explained, leaning down to run his fingers over the side of a magikarp that moved by him.

Lily was standing to his side, filming yet another episode for his new channel. Personally, he didn’t want to post videos too often, really. He didn’t want to go too wild with the uploads. He wasn’t trying to be the pokemon world’s equivalent of a youtuber, after all. However, his current goal with the whole thing was something that needed attention and sooner rather than later.

Maybe after that they’d be able to calm down with it.

Which was good, because it probably would be difficult to have too much access to the internet. There was also the fact that he didn’t want to spend too much time filming and working on videos if he could help it. He didn’t need the money he might be able to make with it and he definitely didn’t need the anxiety that being exposed to the world like that brought. However, he did like the idea of helping people understand pokemon at least a little better, like how he’d helped Lily once or twice and how he was helping Misty with her gyarados problem.

On top of that, hopefully, he’d be able to achieve the goal he’d started it all for.

“This perception of them is wrong,” he continued, smiling down at the school of magikarp. “Most of them aren’t the smartest around, but that doesn’t mean they are dull. One just needs to see how they react, their body language. Look at how they wiggle, how they swim, and it should be very obvious how they are feeling, at the very least,” he explained, trying not to sound too excited and probably failing.

From there, he made it a little game with the school of water types where he tried to guess how they were feeling or if they were trying to tell him something. On top of that, he more or less just played around with them, swimming and occasionally commenting something to the camera, be it some advice or pointing out specific tells on the magikarp. He didn’t like that it was likely to perpetuate the ~GyaradosTamer thing even more, but it wasn’t like he had access to a lot of other pokemon at the moment.

Pierce was considering going on some jobs during the morning and asking people if he could film there. Lily probably wouldn’t always be around, but Cygnus had offered to help out with that so long as it didn’t take too much time. Something to think about, he supposed. As it was, he was thankful for the fact that his traveling companion was offering to help him out at the moment, to get some practice for when they were out on the road.

Not that he expected the girl would have too much of a problem.

She was more excited about the whole thing than he was.

Speaking of…

“You seem to be enjoying this thing,” he commented once they ended their episode. It was a long video, but it wasn’t like he could make a quick thing without missing a whole lot of things to explain. As it was, he was likely to have to do a bunch of follow up episodes for what he had in mind, like the magikarp episode he’d just gotten through. 

‘I have a feeling that I’m doing a million things wrong already,’ he thought to himself. Then again, the Sisters were supposed to have a much better idea than him and they hadn’t voiced any concerns with his approach. So, he guessed he wasn’t messing up too badly… hopefully.

“Sure am,” Lily replied, grinning widely as she looked at the camera in her hands. “This camera is amazing, by the way.”

“Not like I’m short on money right now,” he said with a chuckle, yawning and bringing a hand up to cover his mouth before running his fingers through his hair. “Nothing worse than bad video quality and such, right? At least this way we have something going for us.”

“I think that’s the least important part, but sure,” his traveling companion answered with an amused expression. “Anyway, I’m just glad I’ll be able to record your crazy… things,” she continued then, shaking her head. “Pictures just don’t cut it. Now I’ll be able to have proof of your madness.”

“Gee, thanks,” he replied flatly. “So long as you have fun, I guess. Maybe you can join me in a video or two if you want. Or you can have a section of the channel for yourself? I feel kind of bad having you as a camerawoman, basically.”

“Well, this is fun, but I guess that could be fun too,” she said then, apparently caught off guard by what he said. A second later, her expression turned thoughtful. “The channel is literally named after you though.”

“I wonder whose idea that was,” he replied with a raised eyebrow. “Doesn’t really matter, does it? We can make a separate playlist or something, give you your own series. You are a better trainer than me. Maybe you can talk about that?”

“I’m not that good,” she mumbled, pink tinting her cheeks as she smiled and looked down and to the side. Why she was embarrassed, he didn’t have any idea. She was a sponsored trainer by none other than Professor Oak and she was doing a great job in her journey so far.

“Whatever you say. I was just offering.”

[}-o-{]

“That’s it, perfect,” Pierce said, keeping his voice calm and happy.

Misty didn’t reply, too busy frozen in place at the edge of the pool. Her extended hand was touching Bellatrix, who had been thoroughly bribed with snacks and cuddles so that she’d behave herself like the perfect mon Pierce knew she could be. The gyaradosphobic girl – ‘Is that an actual word here or what would it be called?’ – still barely could do that though. Hell, the sea serpent had had to move closer while she had her arm put up instead of her walking up to her and petting her.

“Remember, relax,” he told her, standing right next to Misty as she went through the small exercise he’d taught her. He was honestly surprised she closed her eyes for it too, considering Bellatrix was right there, but she did. She took a deep breath in and then let it out, even if she was a little shaky while doing so. Eventually, she seemed to deflate a little as the tension left her. “That’s it. Now, open your eyes,” he guided her, and she took a moment to breathe once more before doing as he said.

She didn’t look much better, but at least she wasn’t a living statue anymore. She was just… shaky and very clearly afraid. Pierce could tell that her disposition was starting to grate on Bellatrix a little, so he decided to keep talking. It’d help his gyarados calm down and Misty too, hopefully.

“Relax,” he repeated. “Just, focus on the feeling on your hand. Is it different from other water types?”

“It’s…” she started, struggling to even say that single word before gulping. “It’s rough… but not too rough. It’s slippery, but not too slippery,” she started describing, moving her hand the smallest bit. Her voice was barely above a whisper, but it was fine. He was close enough to hear her well enough anyway. As she explained it to him, he could tell that she was thinking of other water types that she’d interacted with. That was great, because it’d probably help her put gyarados back with the rest of the water types that she loved in her mind instead.

“Now, look at her,” he said, making her tense up a little. “Just look at her. You’ve been petting her for a while already and she’s not done anything. She’s not going to do anything to you so long as you don’t do anything crazy. Even if you annoy her, I’m right here and I can calm her down before anything happens.”

“That’s easy to say… Annoying a gyarados is a big deal…” Misty mumbled and he just chuckled. “What?”

“You were annoying her when you froze like a statue some time ago,” he commented and just laughed again at the way she pulled back her arm and paled. “Hey, it’s fine. Nothing happened because I know Bella and she knows to behave. It’s not the end of the world so long as you don’t do anything stupid,” he explained as reassuringly as he could. “You are not stupid, Misty, so you don’t have to worry. Bellatrix isn’t angry, or anything like that. She’s calm. It’s gonna take more than a little mistake to set her off.”

“I-I just…” she whimpered even as she very obviously tried not to.

“Hey,” Pierce interrupted, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, breathe,” he told her, taking a deep breath in himself. “It’s fine. I’m not telling you not to be scared. Even I am scared sometimes. The important part is to not let that fear take over you. You need to be able to act, or it’ll just make everything worse. Yes, gyarados are scary and they can be set off easily, but you want to deal with them, maybe you’ll have to one day, and freezing like you are isn’t going to help. Relax, calm yourself and approach it with a clear mind, ok?” he explained slowly, clearly, softly but also firmly. “Take a minute, yeah? I’ll take Bellatrix with me while you gather your thoughts. Maybe we pushed too hard at once, I guess, we can go back to just talking for a while and then try again when you are more confident. Don’t worry about it.”

With that said, Pierce moved to place a hand on his shiny gyarados’ side to guide her to the side. While she swam and he walked, he kept his hand on her skin while thinking how to help Misty. He supposed he could pull back to step one and stay there for a while. The problem she had with gyarados was a lot worse than he thought, he supposed. 

“You are doing great, Bella,” he praised once they were some distance away. Glancing to one side, he saw his team practicing moves and keeping an eye on the rest of the sea serpents. The gyarados, for their part, seemed to be alternating between napping, helping his team and just lazily swimming around. Things were calm on that front, thankfully. “Yes,” he said when his thoughts were interrupted by a gyarados head being pressed to his side. “Yes, you are the best and absolutely adorable. There’s no need to fish for compliments, girl,” he told Bellatrix with a chuckle.

From there, he pampered her for a bit for being good with Misty. Other gyarados probably wouldn’t have been that patient with the panicky girl. They’d have seen that weakness and either grown disinterested and dismissive or annoyed and snappy. Neither of those would have been good for Misty, so Pierce was very happy to have made the choice to pick Bella.

“Can…” a small voice called for his attention from the side eventually, making him turn to see the redheaded girl standing there. He saw her hesitate before taking a moment to calm herself. Then she squared her shoulders and opened her eyes. “Can we try again?” she asked, no nervousness in her voice for once.

Pierce grinned at her.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

The life of Pierce, part time trainer, part time youtuber and full time pokemon friend continues. If you liked the chapter, please hit the like button and subscrib- Ahem, I mean, I still can’t believe the story is going the path it is. Pierce being more of a pokemon handler than a trainer was already a surprise. Now this? We are so far off course that it stopped being funny and went all the way around to being funny again.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: What type of video/series of videos do you think Pierce could upload and how do you think it/those would do on the internet? This is totally not me fishing for ideas, not at all.

See you.