Searching Far and Wide - 81 (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

Route 5 VI

“And you say I’m the weird one,” Pierce commented, sitting against a tree with his team around him and looking at Lily. His traveling companion had met with them once more and she’d brought company, by the looks of it. Quite the interesting pokemon too, actually, which just made it all the more amusing. “Are you gonna make it a habit of telling me that you want a pokemon and then finding it?” he asked, much the same way she’d complained about him catching pokemon when she wasn’t around… and in pairs.

“Shut up,” Lily told him, but she seemed entirely too happy and distracted, petting the vulpix she’d brought with her. “She’s so cute,” she gushed and Star approached her, babbling something. “You’re very cute too,” Lily instantly added, because she might be a little too focused on her new friend, but Star was her baby.

“Looks familiar, don’t you think?” Pierce commented, his voice too low to cover the distance towards Lily. He wasn’t talking to her though. He was talking to Andromeda, who was currently curled up at his side with his hand on her head.

As for what he was talking about, he meant the vulpix, of course. She was shamelessly taking all of Lily’s attention and pampering, and at most she’d give some smug response back. Then again, at least she wasn’t cold about it. So…

Andromeda huffed.

“You are right, she’s kinder,” he agreed, receiving a Water Gun to the face. “See what I mean?” he added once that was over, eyes closed and drops dripping from his hair and face. “You are not cute at all,” he mumbled, receiving a slap of her tail to his arm. “You are not helping your argument, you know?”

His vaporeon seemed to decide to leave it at that, which was basically giving up. Pierce decided it wasn’t worth pointing that out though, because it was likely to result in more violence directed at his person. He usually had fun riling up Andromeda, but there was only so much he could do that without feeling like he was bullying her or being a dumbass. There was teasing and then there was just being annoying or mean, after all.

“You are pretty sweet in your own way though,” he commented, scratching the spot behind Andromeda’s ears, which he knew she loved. Sure enough, he got a pleased purr in response that made him smile. “What do you think about that though, guys?”

“Difficult to tell,” Cygnus said, giving the smart answer that was also the coward’s answer. Orion and Bellatrix seemed enthusiastically positive, but they were like that about most things. Narcissa didn’t care. “The vulpix literally just appeared. How are we to know?” his abra asked while Andromeda seemed to ignore the question altogether.

“You can just give your first impression, as it were. She seems nice. I think she might agree to join Lily if things go well,” he said, giving his own answer. Although, maybe he shouldn’t have. He didn’t want to jinx his friend, after all. “We’ll see, she might be gone in an hour,” he added before letting his head fall back against the tree he was leaning on and closing his eyes. “I’m feeling sleepy… wake me up if something happens,” he mumbled.

He got a series of positive replies to that.

Pierce didn’t actually fall asleep then though. Instead, he just… felt. He took a moment to listen to the sounds of the forest, of Lily’s team and Lily herself with the vulpix, of his team around him. He inhaled deeply through his nose, taking in the smell of nature. He felt the wind on his skin and hair together with the soft ground and grass under him.

It was all very relaxing, but then again, that was the whole reason why he was feeling a little lethargic. Like being fairly awake but suddenly feeling sleepy at the most random of times. He’d know, plenty of his naps had started like that, even though he didn’t consider himself a nap guy.

Nature had a way of calming him though, which was one of the reasons he liked being out in the routes instead of in the cities. It was so… calm and inviting. Cities were more friendly than they were back in his world, Pierce would admit, but they were loud and intimidating. Maybe that last part was because of his circumstances more than anything, but that was how he perceived them.

Out in the forests though? There was nothing but him and his friends. The pokemon would leave him alone if he wanted them to, and that helped him deal with things a lot better. In a city, you were always more or less obligated to interact with people if you wanted to get anything done, but in the forest? There were no obligations. He could just stick to his team and Lily’s through the whole trip if he felt like it, and that was very reassuring.

That was why the forest felt more like a haven than any room so far had felt since he arrived there.

‘Quite the contrast from before, huh?’ he thought, because he hadn’t been one to go out much. Then again, he didn’t have a home anymore. It was just him and his backpack. ‘I miss my room,’ he thought, letting out the equivalent of a long sigh through his nose. Was there a specific word for that? He didn’t know.

‘I miss my home,’ he continued, opening his eyes and looking up at the tree branches and leaves over his head. The light of the sun filtered gently through them while the wind shook them playfully.

“How am I supposed to sleep if the sun is that harsh?” he whispered, bringing a hand to cover his eyes.

None of his pokemon pointed out that not a single ray of sunlight hit anywhere near his eyes.

[}-o-{]

“It’s so cliche,” he commented as he passed a pokeblock to vulpix. “Don’t you think?”

“What is?” Lily asked, tilting her head.

“That Fire types seem to generally like spicy food,” he answered, a mild smile on his face that widened when the vulpix huffed at him. “Why even is that? It’s not like spicy food is literally hot or anything,” he added, making his point. Then again, it was probably something regarding it feeling hot? The pseudo-burning sensation? Or maybe how the spiciness made the body feel hot?

Or maybe he was right and it was just a cliche.

Pokemon was, ultimately, a fictional world… one that turned out to be real, somehow. At the end of the day, it was a world full of tropes and cliches all the same. Not everything was still the same from the canon he remembered, but Pierce had seen plenty of things that made no sense but were still a thing anyway. Sure, maybe there was science and shit to explain them, but it all sounded the same way technobabble did to try and sound like something was possible when it was pure bullshit.

It made Pierce wonder if there was a world out there where his world was full of cliches.

Probably. Multiverse theory and all that.

“That’s kinda rude,” Lily commented, munching on a granola bar.

“Just telling it how I see it,” he replied, smile in place. “They are still very adorable even with that,” he added, patting the vulpix’s head. “How was it?” he asked the Fire type. She tilted her head, considering the question for a long moment, before giving the vulpine equivalent of a shrug. “There’s room for improvement then, got it,” he nodded.

Not that he expected the ponyta and rapidash pokeblock notes to work all that well, honestly. Those were the only Fire type notes he had to work with though. So, he guessed it was all improvisation from there. He had some other notes that he could try and adapt. Like Andromeda’s. Sure, she was a Water type, but she was much closer in animal species to vulpix than ponyta were. He wasn’t sure if that helped any, but it was worth trying out, he supposed. He’d just have to find what parts of a combination Andromeda liked because she was a Water type and which ones she liked because she was a canine. From there, he’d have to check a little further, because he wasn’t sure if Eeveelutions were closer to actual dogs or foxes, quite honestly.

So, there might be more variation there, for all he knew.

It’d be interesting to delve into new recipes though. Kinda like how it had been with the oddish, really. Just that back then he’d had a lot more pokemon to work with, so none of them would get tired of him if he made a lot of mistakes. Now? Now he only had the one vulpix, so he had to be more careful, play it a little safer.

“Well, I’ll have to keep trying then. For one, everyone else needs pokeblocks and then we have to train,” he commented, making the vulpix tilt her head.

She hadn’t been around long enough to see them train, after all. Thus, she directed a look towards Lily and yipped something. His traveling companion hummed before gulping down the last bit of granola bar. She was definitely excited by the question the pokemon had just sent her way.

“Sure, you can join us if you want,” Lily said enthusiastically. Pierce was pretty sure she didn’t know if that was what the vulpix had tried to say… but that was what she wanted to hear, so she took a leap of faith. Fortunately for her, she was correct.

The vulpix yipped again and nodded happily.

“Yeah, much warmer than Andy,” Pierce commented, getting a Water Gun to the face. “Rude.”

“That’s never going to not be funny,” Lily said between giggles and he gave her a tired but still also amused smile. “What?”

“Glad I can be entertaining for you, Lily. I didn’t know you were a sadist too.”

“I’m not!”

“Guys, Lily is bullying me,” he said, faking a sad expression and his team joined in immediately, glaring at Lily… Well, he was pretty sure Bellatrix didn’t realize it was a joke. He’d have to explain it to her afterwards, else she might actually start hating Lily or something. That’d be troublesome, at the least.

“... huh?” the confused girl mumbled, blinking.

Funnily enough, even Lily’s team joined in, even if not all with glares. Talon and Gem simply turned away from her as if they didn’t want anything to do with her. Star was the critical hit though, because the small little cleffa was looking at her trainer with a deeply sad and disappointed look. That was probably another one that would have to get the joke explained to them, but damn if it wasn’t funny.

Even Cygnus was sending a lot of amusement through their connection.

“Wait wait wait, what? No!” Lily started panicking as she realized what had happened in the span of a few seconds. “It’s not like that, Star!” she exclaimed. “He bullies me all the time! Why are you all looking at me like that?! It’s not even true! It’s-”

As the girl started quickly trying to explain herself to her little cleffa, Pierce shared a look with vulpix.

“She’s fun, isn’t she?” he commented, getting an amused huff from the Fire type. “You mind keeping an eye on the fire? Lily can get a little… distracted at times,” he added, looking at his friend again before turning away. He might burst into laughter if he looked at her too much. She really just had the best reactions.

The vulpix nodded, lying down on the ground and enjoying the spectacle.

“Great, thanks,” he mused distractedly before turning his attention back to the pokeblocks. They wouldn’t make themselves, after all, and he needed those so that his team would be happy and Lily’s team would continue to be accomplices of his teasing. The power of food still reigned supreme, after all.

[}-o-{]

“... So, I thought I’d try to answer at least some of your questions,” Pierce said, sitting on a fallen tree that they found. It was in a nice place, with a lot of light getting through and the river not so far behind him. Perfect place to host the section for his channel that he’d been planning on, he supposed. Thus, there he was, looking at Cygnus, who was holding the camera. “I think that’s enough for the explanations, right? You wanna get started with this, Lily?” he asked, turning towards his traveling companion.

“Sure thing,” she answered with a beaming smile as she brought the notebook in her hands up. They’d gathered a bunch of questions from their comment section that they could answer. Most of the time, if something was urgent, they’d leave a reply, but this was more of a… fanservice thing, in a way. He’d be answering questions that were less pointed, more general. Something that might not be necessary to answer quickly nor appear in a later video. “First things first then, what some would consider the most important question… from Iono Zone asking for a collaboration.”

“Right. Not gonna lie, I thought it was a joke at first,” he said, chuckling nervously. Iono was, apparently, a Gym Leader of Paldea. He didn’t even know what pokemon edition that was from. He’d kinda let go of the series after Sinnoh and barely caught a few things here and there. Either way, how had a person across the world found his channel. Sure, he was doing well, but he was by no means anywhere close to the top. “I mean, you are from Paldea, aren’t you? That complicates matters a little bit. I’m kind of participating in the Indigo circuit right now, but maybe in the off-season I can go there on a break and we can meet up?” was the best response he could come up with to that madness.

Seriously, he was still wrapping his head around that.

“Nice. I’m definitely tagging along for that trip,” Lily chimed in, sounding genuinely enthusiastic about that idea.

“Remember, kids. Stay away from the mad brunettes. They’ll never leave you alone if you let them latch onto you,” Pierce commented, before hearing a paper being torn and receiving a balled up sheet to the face. “Rude.” 

“Your face is rude,” she replied with a pout before glaring at the notebook. “Now, the question everyone has been positively spamming in the comments,” she announced and Pierce found himself smiling. He’d helped gather the questions, but he’d forgotten a bunch of them through the days.

He had a feeling he knew which one was coming though.

“How do you stay so calm in front of a pokemon like gyarados?” Lily asked, expectedly. She looked very amused by the question, but that was also expected. She must be feeling pretty vindicated, considering she was part of the incredulous people, back in the day.

“I stay calm because that’s what I think I need to do,” he answered, leaning back and placing a hand on top of Andromeda’s head. The vaporeon had readily jumped on his other side of the tree and curled up to bask in the sun for a bit. She’d probably leave for the river after a bit though. “Gyarados can be upset very easily, so I try to stay calm and do the best I can to not cause issues. It’s not that I’m not afraid or that I don’t know what they can do. I just think being openly nervous and scared isn’t going to help, so I don’t show it.”

“For the record,” Lily commented, turning to look at the camera. “I still think he’s not all right in the head.”

“Gee, thanks,” Pierce replied flatly. “Next question, Miss Comedian.”

“I’m hilarious, I know,” she said, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “But ok, next question.” He didn’t like the way her lips twitched into a smile as she read the question. That meant that she found it funny but she didn’t want to show that to him until she asked. “Question by Kirii, and a bunch of others, really. Are you single?” Lily asked, putting on her best innocent expression. “I’m sure they are all asking for a friend.”

“That’d be a lot of friends,” Pierce said, bringing a hand to tiredly rub his eyes. Why did that question have to be second? Still, he smiled all the same, because it was kind of flattering, he supposed. Good thing this wasn’t him from a while back or he’d have been a lot more uncomfortable.

Not that he wasn’t, but still.

“Either way, yes, I’m single, but I’m not really looking for a relationship right now,” he said after taking a moment to think his answer well. He was kind of regretting not coming up with a script, but that felt fake. He liked to be more natural about it in regular videos, so not doing so for this one felt wrong.

“You heard him ladies… and especially for the gentlemen, since our boy here is straight,” Lily said and he gave her an unimpressed look. “Don’t be too broken up about it, maybe Pierce here will be on the market soon.”

“I’m suddenly regretting adding you to the videos, just saying,” Pierce told her, because there was no doubt in his mind that her words would encourage others. He’d been trying to gently push some of his more enthusiastic fans away…

‘God, it’s still weird to think I have fans.’

“Next question!” Lily announced, completely ignoring his words. “Chap asks, what are the difficulties you've had looking after Onix and or Gyarados considering their size?”

“Well, they need a whole lot more food, obviously,” he answered first of all, looking behind him where the two serpents were, one curled by the river and the other peeking out of it. “They also need a little more instruction on how to not be… too rough when they feel particularly physically affectionate. I couldn’t tell you how many times they’ve headbutted me into the floor and left me aching all over when they are just trying to get some headpats,” he continued then, half-smiling when he saw the aforementioned pokemon look away sheepishly. “Some of them might look intimidating just by how huge they are, but they can be just as sweet as any other pokemon though, I can assure you. Bellatrix is a sweetheart and Orion’s adorable too, but don’t tell him I said that,” he added, whispering the last part and taking advantage of the distance between him and his onix.

Beside him, Lily started giggling together with Star before she composed herself once again.

“From OddishEnjoyer, which is your favorite pokemon and why is it oddish?” she asked, visibly trying to hold back her laughter. Pierce, for his part, just smiled. It was pretty funny, but having to come up with an answer and having the camera right there often distracted him from expressing too much.

“Oddish are, indeed, pretty great. We’ve come across some of them as of late, as you know, and they are absolutely adorable,” he told the camera, before his smile turned wry. “I don’t have a favorite pokemon though, really. Sure, there’s some that I think stand out in certain areas, like looking cool and all that, but ultimately, all pokemon are pretty great. I know it sounds cliche and all, but I don’t think I could list favorites without mentioning like, a quarter of all pokemon species.”

“Good answer,” Lily commented teasingly, to which he rolled his eyes. Then she seemed to pause a little at the next question, but she recovered quickly. “From FireRed.” Well, that was certainly a name to come across and his companion’s little reaction there said a lot. “What’s your opinion on pokemon that don’t want to evolve?”

What a question to ask with that name too…

“I mean, that’s kind of an odd question to ask. I’m guessing the question is meant to be in regards to competitive battling?” he started answering, going a little slower this time as he considered that. “In that case, ultimately, I think all pokemon want to get better, but getting better doesn’t necessarily mean evolving. Most pokemon I’ve met want that, sure, but they aren’t all the same. I think pokemon can be plenty strong without the benefits that evolving brings. Similar arguments can be made about pokemon that don’t evolve or that only have one evolution, right? Or the special case that Bug types are.”

Narcissa, as if summoned, latched onto his back.

“I think any pokemon can be competitively strong, even without evolving, just like pokemon from lines that are thought to be weaker can be too. It’s all on the trainers and the pokemon themselves,” he finished his speech with. Maybe he’d gotten a bit preachy there, but pokemon world people could be kind of… dicks when it came to pokemon they thought of as weak or such things. The answer wasn’t supposed to be directed at Red himself but at the rest of the public.

“I agree with that, for the record,” Lily chimed in, a smile on her face but she looked plenty serious all the same. Then she turned back to the list to move on without much more fanfare. “From Mankey D. Conan, in your opinion, besides gyarados, what would be the top five most misunderstood Pokémon that aren’t as gruff as most initially assume?”

“... Top five is kind of tricky,” Pierce started, letting out a breath as he considered the question. “I haven’t met nearly as many pokemon as I’d like, so, maybe I’ll have a different list next year or ten years from now as I travel more and more. Right now, my list would include mankey, like I hope you know with a name like that, beedrill, for sure,” he said, patting one of Narcissa’s stingers around his neck while she tightened her hold the smallest bit. “Spearow too,” he added, waving his hand towards Talon on a nearby branch. “And… Well, I’ve met a bunch of other “gruff” pokemon that turned out to be pretty nice, like arbok or crawdaunt or sharpedo. I haven’t met many of them though, so it’s kind of early to make a top about it. Anything else, I’d need to meet more pokemon to really comment on.”

“As expected of the Pokemon Proxy. You went all out in that answer, didn’t you?” Lily commented with a grin, making him smile and roll his eyes. “Next question is… Amasw asks, did you always like magikarp and gyarados?”

“Yup.”

“Instant answer,” Lily said just as quickly, clearly amused but not surprised.

“What can I say? They’d definitely be one of the pokemon I’d put in my favorites list,” Pierce explained, running a hand through his hair and thinking about how to best express his thought process there. “I just really like how they go from one of the objectively weakest pokemon to one of the strongest. I genuinely don’t understand why some people don’t like magikarp when they are just gyarados in the making. Sure, they might take a bit to get there but… everyone struggles to get to high places. If we all gave up because we are weak then… that’s what I think would make us weak.”

“Getting a little deep there, don’t you think?” Lily pointed out, but she didn’t sound like she disagreed.

“I just don’t like people that treat magikarp badly, is all. I have a huge soft spot for them,” he answered with a shrug.

“Fair enough. So, the next one…” Lily continued easily enough. She was getting the hang of being on camera, by the looks of it. Soon, soon he’d convince her. Pierce was pretty sure this video could be the breaking point, since she was a lot more involved. “Wentley asks, is there a pokemon that you would particularly like to work with? Why?”

“Wentley with a tough question, huh?” he mumbled to himself, leaning back a little and disturbing Narcissa enough that she let go and went flying. Pierce followed her absently as he considered the question. “All pokemon are different, but it’s fun to work with pokemon I haven’t met yet and learn about them. So, would saying that the pokemon I want to work with are those I haven’t met yet?” he asked, turning towards his traveling companion, unsure.

“Kinda dodging the question there, don’t you think?” Lily pointed out, making him chuckle nervously. “He’s been a hundred percent honest with that though, guys. Believe it or not,” she added with a laugh of her own. “Now, onto the next one…”

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Another experiment-ish chapter, as it were. I’m a lot more confident with this one than I was with the previous one. I had fun writing this Q&A section, actually. I’m definitely going to make another at some point. I didn’t use all the questions I had written down, but feel free to add more if you want. Remember that your nicknames will be used if you don’t suggest the use of another one.

Oh, and there’s a vulpix following the group around now, so there’s that.

With that said, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Opinions on the Q&A? I kind of want to know. I had fun, but if you guys didn’t like it, then this can be it.

See you.