Searching Far and Wide - 79 (Patreon)

Cover Art: Amasw.

Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Abra

- Bellatrix, Gyarados (Shiny)

- Andromeda, Vaporeon

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Bulbasaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

Route 5 IV

Pierce and Lily walked, side by side, in silence.

After all, spending every single day together, conversation was bound to just… stop at some point . Not because there wasn’t new stuff to talk about, but because there was only so much you could talk with someone. It wasn’t like Pierce could bring up stuff from his past – adapted to Pokemon world, of course – just to talk, or even just randomly start talking about some topic. So, it wasn’t rare for them to just… be quiet as they traveled.

It was a little awkward at times, for sure, but trying to fill the silence just because of that could be even worse. Besides some other times… It was just nice. He wasn’t sure why or how, but they were.

No offense to Lily, really, but Pierce quite enjoyed those quiet moments. Not more than having a nice conversation with a friend, but it was a different kind of enjoyment. Sometimes it was just nice to walk and… look around

He’d never been a fan of doing touristy stuff, honestly. His family had loved it, but he didn’t see the point of taking a million photos that they would never see again and doing a bunch of other unnecessary stuff. Pierce was a simpler person, or so he thought. He liked to go to those places, maybe taste some new food while he was there and just take in the sights. Nothing too grand about it, really. That was exactly what he liked to do whenever he had a moment to himself while traveling through the Kanto region. It was nice to look around and notice the small differences between his world and that one.

It was a bittersweet feeling, but he was getting over the bitter part of it. 

He was in a new world now and he’d had plenty of time to get used to it. Maybe not all of it had been peaceful and calm, but he liked to think that helped. Because the moments of quiet had, so far, usually been some of the hardest, since they forced the most prominent problem he had in his life to the forefront of his mind. Time had passed though and now Pierce felt… better.

He felt better.

“That’s good to hear, Helper-Voice,” Cygnus told him, from where he sat on a nearby tree branch. His abra was making a training exercise of the trekking they had to go through, basically teleporting to catch up every so often. Idly, broken from his previous train of thought, Pierce wondered if that helped with the Psychic’s Teleport distance. “Probably not,” Cygnus replied to that, unsure.

‘Remind me to look into that in Saffron. That’s the best place for us to learn about Psychics in general,’ Pierce said, half of that being unnecessary for the abra, since he already knew that very well. Sometimes it was difficult to filter what he wanted to “say” and what were just random thoughts though, but he liked to think he did a good enough job most of the time.

“You do.”

‘Thanks, buddy,’ he replied with a smile. Whatever else he might have conversed with his abra was interrupted though, when he heard Narcissa’s approaching buzz and there was a fifty fifty chance that he knew what was coming. Sure enough, the beedrill proceeded to latch onto his shoulders for a piggyback ride. 

“Fighter-Watcher is getting restless inside her ball,” Cygnus communicated, a picture of Andromeda flashing through Pierce’s mind. With a nod, he pulled the right pokeball and let out the vaporeon. Nothing was said as the Water type just started walking beside them.

It was actually quite nice, the silence. He’d half expected Lily to say something, either when Narcissa appeared or when he let out Andromeda. However, she seemed to be thinking something through. Maybe he’d ask her about it whenever the silence was broken… or whenever they stopped to set up camp for the night, whichever happened first.

Idly, he wondered if Cygnus hadn’t said much else because they’d been interrupted or because he was going with the flow of the silence. Considering his Psychic type’s mental presence was prominent in his own mind, Pierce was wagering that it was the latter or something along those lines. After all, when conversations were over, he usually pulled away through their link. Now though, he was keeping close, as if where about to speak, but instead of that-

“The quiet,” Cygnus said, his voice a whisper… which sounded a little wrong. Evidently, the abra wasn’t as good with that as he was with normal speech. “Something for me to work on,” he mumbled idly. “The quiet though, I like it. I can see why you enjoy it. The mind is more… open, I can see more, feel more, appreciate more.”

‘That’s one way to put it,’ Pierce replied before they drifted to silence once more. There was plenty to see and hear in the forest, after all. From the woods themselves, filled with plants that were familiar but also new to him, to their inhabitants, pokemon of all kinds roaming around. Sometimes they'd see hints of them moving around in the distance and sometimes they’d hear the sounds of them.

Pierce had fun trying to figure out which pokemon made which sound and why. Latest sound was – he thought, at least – a pair of pidgeotto that were having a small fight. Not a serious one though, because the chirps didn’t sound aggressive enough to his ears, otherwise they’d have tried to move towards them just in case.

He wondered what would be nex-

“Pierce,” Lily said, making him blink and turn to the side. Noticing how she pointed to the side, he followed the gesture and saw something yellow peeking out from behind a tree. A moment later, it leaned a little more outside before pulling back, if not completely.

“Cutest little thing, huh?” he replied with a hand over his mouth to hide his grin, getting a giggle from Lily. “Hey, little one. Are you hungry?” he called, a little louder.

Immediately, the bellsprout peeked completely out from behind the tree to look at them.

Well, someone was interested, it seemed.

[}-o-{]

“So, even if bellsprout tend to be very relaxed, that doesn’t mean they can be just… underappreciated,” he said, smiling sadly as he passed a pokeblock to the oblivious Grass type. “They are gentle things for the most part, contrary to their evolved counterparts, and I think that just means they should be treated all the better… You are good, buddy,” he commented when the bellsprout looked up at him curiously.

He then patted the little one’s head, grinning widely. Bellsprout were also a bit slow, but he’d mentioned that a little more gently in the video. It was one of the reasons why the line was so placid, even when that also made the evolved weepinbell and victreebel merciless. Still, the later stages weren’t all that dangerous unless one was an idiot…

Which was why Pierce still gave warnings and such. Humanity was full of idiots, after all. ‘Two things are infinite, after all,’ he thought, holding back a grin. He’d always make sure to mention anything that could be caused by stupidity at least once. People just couldn’t be bothered to think, most of the time.

Either way, he closed the video soon after that.

“And that’s that, buddy. You were great,” Pierce praised, getting a confused coo from the Grass type. Evidently, most of the video thing had flown over its bell-shaped head, but that was fine. He’d still done a great job though, so Pierce would do his best to spoil him for however long the bellsprout stuck around. “You did well too, Orion,” he added towards his onix, who wiggled happily. His team didn’t technically need to be part of the videos, but he liked including them. Besides, they were all great in their own ways, so he wanted to show them off.

There were some comments on how great they were and he always made sure to read them out loud for all of them.

“Here, a treat,” he commented, pulling out one of the rocks he’d put inside one of the Storage Boxes from Cerulean’s beach. Orion had seemed to take a particular liking to those rocks, so he’d made sure to get some to act as a treat. He wondered if it was just because they were from close to sea water, or if there was some other factor influencing things.

Something to keep an eye on through their travels, which wouldn’t be particularly hard, considering Orion munched on any new rock they came across.

“Well, that was a good session,” he commented, leaning back against his onix’s side. “What do you think?” he asked, looking to the side towards Lily.

“Hm,” was all she offered as an answer with a nod included. Raising an eyebrow at her, he waited until she noticed. “What?”

“You’ve been a bit absentminded, everything ok?” he asked then, wondering if he should be concerned. She didn’t seem sad or anything, but it was odd to see his friend look so out of it. Maybe something had happened when he wasn’t looking?

Evidently, something was, indeed, going on. This became clear when Lily seemed to struggle to find an answer to his question, despite how simple it was. She could have gone with a “fine”, for sure, and maybe she could even have made him believe it. However, she hadn’t even tried, which was telling.

“... Don’t take this the wrong way,” she mumbled, sitting down and drawing her legs to her chest. “But do you ever feel… bad about how good I am at battling?” she asked softly, looking forward and down instead of towards him.

There was a response about arrogance right at the tip of his tongue, mostly in good humor… However, this seemed like a serious talk. He could make jokes and tease later, he supposed. His friend was in need of some comfort at the moment, by the looks of things.

“Not really,” he answered honestly. “I mean, I never was very good at anything, really. So I’m used to people being better than I am.”

“You are good with pokemon though,” Lily pointed out and he chuckled.

“Yeah, I guess I am,” he replied and it still felt awkward to acknowledge that fact. It left him feeling like he was full of himself and should keep his ego in check. On the other hand, he was aware that he was maybe a little too humble too. “What about it?” he asked curiously.

“What if you found someone that’s better than you at it?”

“It’d…” he started before trailing off. He was about to say that it would be nice. It wasn’t a lie, by any means, but was it all there was to it? Lily clearly had some kind of problem she was trying to address through these questions. He was getting somewhat of a picture of it, but the important point was that he needed to be one hundred percent honest and thoughtful. “It’d be nice, but I think I’d be a little… bitter, I guess.”

“Really?” Lily asked, surprised. “I figured you were too nice for that.”

“I’m human too,” he told her with a smile. “And I imagine everyone has a selfish side. Even the kindest person can have bad emotions from time to time. If they can even be called “bad” to begin with.”

“Is that so?”

“I think so,” he commented with a shrug, looking up through the tree branches over them. “At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that there’s always someone better than you at something,” he continued, speaking slowly as he thought over his words. “It’s kind of like with the talk we had regarding videos. There’s probably lots of people that will be more popular than me, better informed to teach and so on. However, my videos will always be unique anyway, because nobody is exactly like me. Even people similarly talented in the same field will be different, do it differently, and that individualism is important, I think. It’s not about being the best at something, but about being the best at your something, those things you can do that nobody else can, or maybe those things you can do in a way that nobody else can.”

He’d gone on quite the speech there, he realized. However, he wanted to be as thorough as possible, since this matter seemed to be important for Lily. Idly and a little self consciously, he brought a hand up to scratch his cheek. Hopefully he hadn’t made a fool of himself at the same time as he made things worse.

“Hm, I like that idea,” Lily replied, her voice barely above a whisper and she seemed to draw into herself even more. Her pokemon had gathered around her for support, but none of them seemed to quite know what to do. “I… I think I need some time to think that over.”

“You want me to prepare dinner?” he offered, getting a hum and a nod in response. “Ok then, we are all having a boring meal tonight, guys. Sorry,” he said jokingly before turning to his traveling companion once more. “We are all here if you need us, ok, Lils?”

“... I told you not to call me that, didn’t I?” she grumbled, her voice muffled as she hid half her face behind her knees. “Also…” she added, but there was a long moment of silence then where Pierce didn’t really know what to do. Glancing around, he saw the bellsprout had already set its roots down while his team was more or less settling for the night. Everyone had worked hard; they were a bit spent.

Only one close by at that moment was Andromeda, who seemed to have approached him at some point and moved to rest her head on his lap. Idly, he planted his hand between her ears and started petting her. He wanted to say something, maybe continue trying to make his point and such, but he felt like it wasn’t the time for him to break the silence. So, he decided to keep himself busy and spoiling his pokemon was never a bad way to do so.

“I’m being silly, aren’t I?” Lily commented, making him look at her once more. She hadn’t moved much, by the looks of it. “Getting all depressed because I’m not the best at something. That’s not good.”

“We all want to stand out,” Pierce told her calmly. “Nothing wrong with that, but there’s no need to feel bad about it. You are probably the best trainer I’ve seen that’s not a professional, like the Gym Leaders or the Rangers,” he continued, keeping his voice soft and even. “You are also very good at befriending pokemon, better than most people I’ve met so far,” he added, which he wondered if that was a good idea. Because he was aware that Lily had a high opinion of his skills to get along with pokemon, but it was worth mentioning anyway. “If you start feeling insecure, I’ll be angry at you, Lils.”

“Why?!” she cried out, finally looking up and glaring at him with a pout.

“Because you are a great trainer and a great person in general. There’s literally nothing to feel bad about,” he told her, putting as much confidence in his voice as he could. Not that it was difficult, but he wanted to make sure he did as good a job as possible. “Well, besides your navigation skills but-”

“It was one time!” she exclaimed, looking even more scandalized. “God, you suck at comforting people, Pierce.”

“I do,” he acknowledged with a nod and no problem whatsoever. He’d always been unsure how to deal with people that were feeling bad. Comforting others really wasn’t his thing, he felt. At least, when he couldn't just directly help, like when he meddled in pokemon issues. “I’m trying alright?”

“I know,” Lily mumbled, drawing into herself once more. Before he could sigh dejectedly though, Pierce heard her speak once more. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

“Don’t mention it,” he replied, a little relieved himself. “That’s what friends are for, right?”

[}-o-{]

[Comments]

Iono Zone

Still waiting for an answer on that collab, you know? Don’t be mean~

And you gotta have an electric type on this series someday, please~

Lightning55Turbo

He calmed down a gyarados!

HE CALMED DOWN A GYARADOS!

CorphishOutOfWater

I’m still processing that gyarados show, man…

TM-gaming-and-fishing

Can we take a moment to appreciate how freaking handsome this guy is?

• Poison_Sniffa

Like we do every video?... Yes, yes we can.

• Shi89

I’m more impressed by Lily’s restraint. Are we sure they aren’t dating?

• Ruxlay

Would.

SproutedBell-1

Finally some appreciation for the little Grass types! I’m sick and tired of them being so overlooked. What’s up with that? They are the cutest little things!

… In my completely unbiased opinion.

• CrystalMorgan9655

Totally unbiased, yeah.

It is good to see him talk about literally any pokemon.

johnyoung4733

Why’s the top comment the same every time?

Also, is it just me or is it kind of weird to see our boy, Pierce, warning us about bellsprout when he stood right in front of a just evolved sea monster?

Edit: Not top comment for once, huh? Also, holy shit! Iono collab?!

[}-o-{]

[Mike White]

He continued scrolling through the comments before deciding it was a good enough time to watch the gyarados show once more. Because it was always a good time to watch it again, really. He wondered if the awe it inspired in him would ever go away. It wasn’t even really the absolute madness that was the fact that Pierce had made a gyarados show.

Or rather, it wasn’t just that.

Beyond that still very valid point, the show was beautiful. Everything flowed so well and seemed so natural… It reminded him of those oddly satisfying videos. There was a followup behind the scenes video explaining all the little things that had gone wrong with the choreography, but that just made it all the better in Mike’s eyes. Because if it wasn’t all practiced and it still managed to look so good, then Pierce was just God, he guessed.

No wonder people were going crazy. There were a bunch of things that you could like about the guy and his videos. There was the absolutely insane ease with which the guy approached any and all pokemon. There was the mostly wholesome vibe of his videos. There was the informative nature of them, nevermind how easy it was to pay attention. There was also the fact that the guy was good looking, which Mike could understand and admit. God knew he’d checked out Lily more than once through the few videos that were there.

However, Mike felt like there was something… more to it all. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but there was definitely something else going on in regards to Pierce’s popularity. Maybe a mix of all those previous points, he supposed, but that felt like a cheap answer.

The fact of the matter was-

“Miiiiiike! You theeeeeeere?” a voice called, snapping fingers in front of his face. He turned to give his friend a flat look. “You need to take your eyes off that screen at some point, you know? You’ll trip again.”

“That only happened once,” he grumbled, turning off his device and placing it in his pocket as he took off the earbuds. “Besides, it’s not like there’s much going on around here. We are off the path and we haven’t seen a single trainer in days.”

“You could try to find a bellsprout. Isn’t that what Pierce posted about last night?” Josie asked with a tilt of her head. “We could try to look for those, right?”

“Bellsprout are…” Mike started, before trailing off before saying “lame”. Bellsprout weren’t all that, and even the one that Pierce had worked with for his video looked a little… slow, but it’d been cute anyway. Sure, they weren’t the best pokemon around, but Mike didn’t think he was all that either. “My team is fine right now,” he said in the end.

“I’m sure that’s what you were trying to say,” Josie commented with a teasing smile.

“What? You didn’t like your rattata either!” he accused, completely in the right. Josie had hated that her starter was a rattata. She didn’t do anything too out there and the little guy was great, really. However, there was no comforting Josie about the fact that she didn’t get something more… more as a starter.

“Shut up,” she grumbled, pouting. “Fang is great.”

“You say that now, as if it weren’t because of Pierce’s video,” Mike pointed out, getting a glare in return. Granted, neither of them really had a leg to stand on, but still. She was the one that started it.

“The guy’s something else. Were you watching something new?” Josie asked, eyes bright.

“No videos, obviously, but they uploaded a short,” he answered, already preparing to set it up for her to see before she could ask for it. He knew the request was coming, after all. “Just Narcissa doing Narcissa things.”

“A battle?”

“Yeah, they came across a mankey family and she fought them,” Mike confirmed with a nod and a smile. “They don’t have a mankey video yet though, so maybe that’s the next one?”

“I bet,” Josie replied, already putting on the earbuds to watch the short.

Idly, Mike wondered if they might come across Pierce and Lily. They were all in Route 5, he knew, but the chances of just happening to come across each other were small. The route area was big and neither of them were in the main path. He didn’t even know if they were on the same side of the path, let alone close to each other.

“She’s so… intense,” Josie mumbled, and Mike readily agreed with a nod. Narcissa seemed to be one of those pokemon that lived for battles. Most of them were into it, sure, but some of them made it their purpose in life. It showed in the way she pushed herself. Like in that video, for example, where she just kept asking to fight more and more of the mankeys.  “And she’s so cute,” Josie added and Mike she’d gotten to the part where Star was playing with a mankey.

He’d readily agree with her on that. Star was, indeed, very cute.

“God, I hope we can meet them,” Josie said, sighing as she finished the short. “Maybe there’ll be another show we can actually go and see?”

“We’ll need to save a whole lot. I don’t imagine it’ll be cheap… and we gotta be very quick,” he commented, sighing. Because really, what were the chances that they’d be one of the lucky few to get to attend? No way they could get VIP tickets. He’d seen how much those had sold for in Cerulean and holy fuck. If he made that much money through his entire journey, he’d be so set for whatever else he decided to do.

“We can save… probably. There’s a tournament coming up in Cerulean, so maybe we can get in? You like our chances?”

“Nope.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Josie said, not even bothering to argue that. “I guess we gotta tackle those trainer jobs, huh?”

“Seems like it.”

“It’s gonna be a pain.”

“Yep.”

“Pierce seems to have fun with those.”

“Yep.”

“We’re not gonna have fun with those, are we?”

“Nope.”

“God, I hate being poor.”

“Same.”

Both of them sighed at that, lamenting their unfortunate circumstances. Who knew though, maybe they would be lucky. At least with Pierce’s videos, they’d have a better idea of how to deal with pokemon around Cerulean. That’d probably help a little, he supposed.

Still though, he hoped they could get enough money.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Ok, the Comment section and Mike’s were both kind of… experiments. The former was a bit of a pain to write, I’ll admit, and it barely adds anything to the word count, which is kind of annoying. It was kind of fun though, for sure. If you guys like it, I can try and write another, maybe a longer one, at some point. So, feel free to tell me what you think.

Then there’s Mike. It was also pain, but it was interesting too. I mostly stick to PoVs from people… closer to the plot, you know? Characters that are connected to the MC in some way and not absolutely disconnected strangers. Initially, Mike was supposed to meet Pierce and co. at the end of the chapter, but somehow his PoV devolved into what you saw. It was interesting to see the MC from the eyes of someone that has literally nothing to do with him… other than being a viewer.

All in all, I tried new things and it was interesting. Feel free to tell me what you think about both of those, yeah? That way I can know if they work or not and use them again… or not, obviously.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: As I said, I’d really appreciate your opinion on these experiments of mine, it’d really help.

See you.