Searching Far and Wide - 53 (Patreon)

Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Abra

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Bulbasaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

Cerulean City XIV

“So, any plans for the day besides your date with the…” Lily started before stopping herself and frowning. Toughfully, she snapped her fingers as if trying to remember something that she had on the tip of her tongue. Pierce, for his part, just stared at her with a flat expression. “Which sister is it again?” she asked, tilting her head in mock frustration at failing to “remember”.

“You are hilarious,” he replied with a dead tone.

“I know, and I’ll be around permanently,” she told him, her expression shifting back to her usual cheerfulness. Pierce just sighed, wondering if it was too late to continue traveling on his own. “No, seriously, which one?”

He rolled his eyes so hard that he was surprised they didn’t fall off.

“Whichever is at the pools today, I guess,” he said, because there was no point in denying or arguing or anything. Lily had found her target and she wasn’t going to stop firing at it until she grew bored… Which was unlikely to happen any time soon.

“All three at once. I have been traveling with a player,” she said dramatically as she placed the back of her hand against forehead.

“You should have been an actress,” he told her with the same flat voice he’d used before. “Anyway, I’ll see if there’s a job I can get done quickly, then drop by the beach for a bit. Besides that, I’ll see what training we can get done on top of visiting the Gym.”

“Busy day,” she commented and she wasn’t wrong, but it shouldn’t be too bad. He might have to cut down on his studies a little, but that wouldn’t be a horrible thing to do. He was fairly sure that he was making really good progress on that front anyway.

So, he nodded.

“True enough. What about you? Battlegrounds, tutors and training?” he asked back, getting a thoughtful expression even as she hummed affirmatively.

“Yeah. Can you send me a message if you go to the beach? I could use a break in between things to go there and so could my team,” she commented, more of a formality than an actual question. They both knew it was fine. At that point, it’d be kind of silly to tell her no, really.

“Sure,” he said with a shrug. “I might need to get Cygnus to remind me, but yeah,” he added with a grin before leaning down a little to pat the psychic type on the head.

“Your memory… is useless,” the abra told him, making him chuckle.

‘You’re not wrong,’ Pierce replied internally. His memory had the annoying tendency to forget important stuff and remember useless things. Especially when he had to remember to do something. It’d gotten him in trouble with his parent a whole lot when they told him to do something and he just…

‘Not the time,’ he thought, gulping and trying to push the feelings those memories in particular brought with them.

“How are the poffins, by the way?” he asked, turning to the side a little and trying to distract himself. He grinned and raised an eyebrow as he saw all the bowls on Lily’s side had been emptied already. “I’m not even surprised.”

“Guys,” Lily groaned, facepalming. “You are just giving him fuel-”

“Not surprised at all. I mean, I’m more surprised that they aren’t raiding the food stora-”

“One time,” Lily whined.

Pierce just grinned at her.

“Idiot,” she grumbled, glaring at him with what she’d definitely deny was a pout. “I might drop by the shopping district to check things.”

“Gonna look for some clothes to impress your boyfriend?” he asked, and the girl deflated. Lily looked up then, as if asking God to throw her a bone. Unfortunately, God was never on her side. “You are plenty pretty already, Lily. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

“I hate you, and mom,” she growled, her glare returning tenfold. “You are the same kind of annoying.”

“Neat, isn’t it?” he asked, and the choked wail/scream/whine she let out was music to his ears. “Nothing to be ashamed of, Lily. I can help you pick up an outfit or something. I’m no fashion expert, but I promise I’ll make up for the lack of girl friends you might have at the moment. I can’t help with the boy talk though, that’s where I draw the line,” he said, struggling to keep a straight face.

“You suck,” she hissed. “One makes a comment when they are five years old and nobody will fucking let it go.”

“It’s what’s meant to be, Lily. Fate has-”

“As if,” she huffed. “Blue’s the most annoying thing in the world, honestly,” she grumbled, looking to the side. Which Pierce was grateful for because it meant that she didn’t notice the way he froze where he sat.

“Blue?” he asked, and he either managed to keep his voice normal or Lily was too annoyed to notice any differences from the usual.

“Yeah, it’s the nickname we gave him. He was obsessed with the color when we were children and it stuck. The Color Trio some would call us. Blue, Red and me,” Lily explained, completely unaware of the way she was scrambling his mind. “I was, am Green, by the way. God, it’s been a while since I’ve thought of myself like that. I hadn’t even realized that I hadn’t told you.”

“I could guess that,” he commented idly, some of his mind recovering from the suddenness of that piece of information.

He’d known Lily was from Pallet, of course. However, she hadn’t outright told him that she was any named character that he knew of. Thus, he’d assumed she either was one of the unnamed characters that started with Ash. Either that or he was a year or two early. He doubted he was late, considering the Rocket situation, but… Well, a lot of things were different from the sources he knew. What were a few more, right?

“So, do I get to call you Green, then?” he asked, more to say something than because he wanted to or because he was curious. He needed to buy himself time without giving away that he was freaking out a little.

Intellectually, he knew it wasn’t a big deal. He knew Lily, after all, she was the girl with a team that just couldn’t be left alone near food. She was the girl that couldn’t find her way through tunnels even with a map. She was the girl that had the best reactions to teasing and wasn’t afraid to tease back.

‘At least this explains why she seems a step or two above the rest,’ Pierce thought to himself, leaning back on his chair for support. ‘Then again, maybe all of the Pallet sponsored trainers are monsters and that’s just that.’

“I mean, sure you can,” the girl across the table said, looking confused too, if nowhere close to how he felt. “It might be a bit weird after having you call me Lily for so long.”

“Eh… fair enough,” he commented with a shrug and a tilt of his head. That should buy him some more time, he supposed. “... Yeah, I guess you are right,” he added after a moment, a smile forming on his face. ‘Why am I complicating things more? I have enough shit on my plate and canon is an illusion here,’ he thought. “So, about this boyfriend-”

Lily would swear, later, that she didn’t scream.

She was also a liar.

[}-o-{]

“I regret nothing,” Pierce commented as he sat in the water at the beach, surrounded by magikarp. He grinned widely as he felt them swim around him, occasionally grazing his legs or his back or his hands when he extended his arms. People were giving them a wide berth and there was a coast guard staring a little too intently, but that was fine. He was having a good time, and his magikarp friends were harmless.

“Crazy,” Cygnus said in his mind, which only made him grin wider. His abra was back on the beach, having a good time playing with sand and his psychic powers, from the pictures he got. “Good for control,” the pokemon excused himself.

‘Keep telling yourself that, buddy,’ Pierce replied, drawing annoyance and embarrassment in equal measure from the abra. ‘Have fun though, nothing bad with that,’ he added, standing up and watching the magikarp swimming around him. ‘God knows I am having fun too.’

“Stupid Helper-Speaker,” Cygnus told him with a fond grumble.

“How about we swim a bit, huh?” Pierce asked the pokemon gathering around him. Immediately, the fish pokemon started wiggling happily as their answer, drawing circles around him. “Good to know,” he commented, glancing up to see Narcissa flying around. “Let’s go,” he said then, diving into the shallow water and then swimming further in.

He really didn’t regret not taking a job that morning in the end.

After all, he’d looked through the list of jobs that asked for him and none of them looked urgent. There was one with a rather hefty reward, but it was probably some rich guy. It asked him to go and help a family with their rowdy pokemon pet and nothing in the entire thing had screamed urgent to Pierce. He’d checked several times just in case. Besides that, there were a few other jobs but they weren’t as important as those he’d already done.

So, with that said, Pierce had just decided to take the day off and have some fun. Maybe he’d do the rounds the next day and check a bunch of those since they sounded simple enough. They weren’t urgent though, so he didn’t feel all that bad for putting them off.

Thus, Pierce allowed himself to relax and just swim.

As he did, he allowed himself to remember his old life and how it felt to swim back there. With his eyes closed and only water around him, it was so easy too. He could almost fool himself into thinking the magikarp touching him were relatives he accidentally grazed while swimming. That happened often enough back home too.

A sad smile formed on his face as he continued swimming, occasionally coming back up but keeping his eyes closed for the most part, grateful that there was no one close by. He hadn’t been to actual beaches a lot, but it was still fine. Even if the smell and the faint taste of the water was strange, it still could be his home world…

‘Except it isn’t,’ he thought bitterly. Opening his eyes, he saw a beach unlike any he’d ever been in. He saw birds that were anything but normal flying in the sky and never mind the bugs. He saw a magikarp pop up beside him and he saw more pokemon out of the water back on land. ‘This isn’t my home,’ Pierce thought, his chest feeling tight all of a sudden.

‘Except, it is, isn’t it?’ he continued, feeling a knot forming on his throat as he kept himself on the water surface while the waves washed around him. ‘This is the only world for me now. This is my home now… No other options,’ he thought with a chuckle that was more of a sob.

“Sorry,” he managed to say despite everything when a magikarp pushed against his shoulder. “Let’s keep swimming, ok?” he decided, diving back underwater.

Underwater, where the sounds were muted and everything else was even more so. There was only the feeling of the water and the occasional roughness of the magikarp scales. It was far from perfect and his mind continued pushing through a mess of thoughts and memories… but at least there was calm outside to contrast the chaos he felt inside.

That alone was the only thing that stopped him from falling apart. Because swimming and the feeling of being in water was familiar and nice. He could do those without even giving it much thought and that freed his brain to process his emotions and memories and the hurt without other things to pile up on that.

When he couldn’t hold it in anymore, Pierce stopped and screamed.

The sound reached nothing, however, nothing but maybe the magikarp close by that were probably a little confused. He just continued though, as the bubbles of air floated up to the surface. His lungs hurt, eventually, and he felt the need to get out for air.

That feeling was a lot better than the loss however.

[}-o-{]

Things were relatively calm back at the Gym pools that day.

There was almost no sound besides some usual background noise. Some handlers talked to their charge or charges. Some other staff members moved stuff near the storage boxes. Some pokemon or another swam around and made splashing sounds.

Pierce, for his part, was mostly at peace. He’d felt a little spent after playing with the magikarp at the beach and it hadn’t gotten better even after lunch and a short nap. Fortunately, he had an idea about how to keep his friends at the Cerulean Gym happy without having to put all that much mental effort himself.

He’d just taken one of the brushes that were specially designed for water type scales and started working on his friends. The magikarp school and Sharpedo loved it, after all. So did Gyarados and Vaporeon, even if they were much more reluctant to show that. The best part was that he could just do that sort of on autopilot, after having gone through similar processes with Narcissa and Orion.

“Aaand…” he mumbled, smiling slightly as he gave the last few brushes to Magikarp’s golden scales. “That’s it, lady. I hope you enjoyed that,” he told her, letting her go and swim around excitedly. She was so adorable that she broke through his bad mood to make his grin widen the smallest bit. “Who’s the best?” he asked, chuckling as Magikarp immediately swam up to him and bumped against his leg.

Beside him, Vaporeon yipped her own answer.

“She’s got the right idea,” he commented, pointing at the eeveelution with his thumb. “Not me, little lady,” he said as he shook his head and rubbed a hand on Magikarp’s side. “I was talking about you, adorable little thing,” he explained, laughing again as Magikarp wiggled even more happily and he’d even say a little shyly. She was just the cutest. “Yeah, the best of the best.”

Vaporeon slapped her tail against his back.

“I stand by what I said,” he said, the eeveelution slapping him again but there was no force behind it. “You’d be up there too, if you weren’t so standoffish,” he pointed out, getting a huff as Vaporeon turned away from him. He shook his head at her and turned back to Magikarp. “Go along, yeah?” he continued, his tone and his smile dropping a little. “I have some more to spoil today.”

And he so did, because there was a queue of other magikarp to get through and even Tentacruel looked like he wanted to give it a try. Pierce would have to check with the brush’s specifications if it could be used on that kind of pokemon. So far he’d just used it on the water types with scales, since he was sure it worked well on those. He wasn’t sure Tentacruel’s shell-ish head counted though, so it was better to be safe than sorry.

“Someone’s having fun,” Violet asked, making him turn to see her sitting at the edge of the pool by his side. “I’m starting to think that Lily is right and you’re really staying permanently as unofficial Gym staff.”

“Wouldn’t be so bad,” he replied with a smile. “I’m no water specialist though, really. And I still have a journey to get back to, for my team, if not for myself,” he continued, gently guiding the magikarp that approached him into a better position and then starting to rub the brush on his scales. “So, yeah, I’ll have to leave eventually. I still have to stay in Cerulean for a while though, so I might be here to see most of these guys leave.”

It was a bit sad to think about, admittedly, but there was nothing to do about it. He’d have his journey to get back to eventually and the pokemon had rehabilitation to get through too. The Gym was nice and all, but he didn’t really belong there and not only because he wasn’t a water type specialist even if it was probably the biggest part of it.

“Shame that. Lily will be disappointed,” Violet commented, making him chuckle. “Really! It’s rare to have someone around that’s not a fan or staff, no offense to either.”

“Sounds like you need to get out more.”

“I’ll have you know we get out plenty, mister,” the Sensational Sister argued, slapping her hand on his shoulder. “We have been fairly busy lately though,” she admitted then, reaching down with her hand to drag her fingers over Magikarp’s scales softly.

“Everything ok, girl?” Pierce asked, not to the sister but to Magikarp. The water pokemon seemed to have stopped swimming around and turned to stare at him. “Come on, you can’t be jealous already. I just got done with you,” he commented lightly as he continued spoiling the magikarp floating in front of him.

He had a fairly good idea that the shiny water type wasn’t jealous though, but…

There was little he could do on that front, really.

Fortunately, while Pierce tried to make his brain work on a solution for the little one’s mood, Vaporeon sighed and stood up from where she was curled up by his side. Giving him a side-glance, the eeveelution jumped in the water, yipping something at Magikarp. From there, the two water types seemed to hold a short conversation before they went swimming away.

“They are all going to miss you, it seems,” Violet commented, looking off towards the pair.

“And I’m going to miss them all too,” he replied, looking down, any hint of a smile gone from his face as he continued brushing the scales of the water types. “So, I heard there’s a show today,” he continued then, trying to steer the conversation to something else. “There wouldn’t happen to be tickets left, right?”

“For you? You bet there’ll be,” Violet told him, grinning widely.

“I need two then.”

“Sure thing.”

[}-o-{]

“It’s beautiful,” Lily said breathlessly from the seat beside him.

“It sure is,” he replied with a slight nod, never taking his eyes off the pools where the Sensational Sisters and their pokemon were. There had to be some pokemon shenanigans going on, because despite all the movement in the pool, the surface remained perfectly flat. “I should have come to watch one as soon as they started again,” he added.

He’d never been a huge fan of dance shows or just live shows in general. They could be neat and all, sure. He’d spent more than a few hours just watching Got Talent shows and he’d freely admit that. However, he’d never really gone out of his way to watch one, certainly not paid for one.

Pierce could easily see himself paying for this though.

Not that he hadn’t known before, since he’d already watched some videos on the internet from previous Sensational Sisters’ shows. Those had more production than a live show could too, but there was something very impressive about having it happen right in front of him. On top of that, there was much more to see than what a video could show.

After all, videos on the internet focused on the spectacle. They focused on the movements and move combinations that made him wonder if any or all the sisters were or had been coordinators too. He hadn’t checked, honestly, but he might at a later date.

That was only half the show, Pierce was realizing then and there. Because there was something very beautiful about seeing it all happening. His eyes tried their best to take it all in and while they didn’t succeed, they still got a whole lot. And what he could see was beautiful. Not only because of the motions and the coordination, but also because it was a great display of… care.

All parts of the show involved moves that were naturally part of what the pokemon involved would do in nature, if enhanced and clearly improved. None of them had to train or force something specifically for a show. Luvdiscs moved in schools, blastoise moved on its own, huntail and gorebyss moved in synchrony. Sure, a pool wasn’t their natural habitat, but everything else looked so natural that it made everything ten times better.

‘So glad I came to watch this,’ Pierce thought, eyes wide as he tried to watch the entire pool all at once.

People liked saying that he was ridiculously in tune with pokemon at times and he never quite grasped how much that could mean. Not until he saw something of that sort in how the sisters worked with the water types. Everything was smooth movements, and genuine expressions of joy from both humans and pokemon. There was something very awe inspiring going on right in front of him and he could only be grateful that he got to see it.

“It’s good,” Cygnus said from where he sat on his shoulders. Pierce wanted to scoff at that though, because calling this show “good” seemed like a disservice. It was like saying the ocean was big or that the moon was far away. However, his psychic conveyed a lot more than words could, so much so that Pierce was kind of envious, because his way was much better than words altogether.

“Thank you, Pierce,” Lily breathed out next to him, extending her hand to grab his arm and failing. Instead, she smacked his chest before correcting the course without even looking. “This is amazing.”

“We would have gotten tickets anyway, Lily,” he replied, his voice low as to not disturb the music of the show.

“Do you have any idea how exp-?” Lily hissed before interrupting herself. “Of course you don’t,” she sighed then. “These are the best seats, Pierce,” she whispered to him and it was probably only because the show seemed to be going into a slow part, with low music and slight movements… Pierce knew better than to be bored by that though, because it was just as beautiful and it was all the rest. “They are crazy expensive.”

“I mean…” he started, before trailing off. They were in a very good spot in the stands, sort of in the middle and on a balcony but… He looked around and the seats did stand out a bit, but surely it wasn't that much, right? “How much more could they be?”

“A lot,” Lily hissed. “They make the shows specifically for the sea- Woah!”

“Woah!” Pierce said at the same time as his companion was interrupted. The slow part seemed to have been built up, because a gyarados somehow seemed to have sneaked into the middle of the pool and broken out of the surface as things picked up pace once more. ‘How’d they even manage to hide it? Was it for these seats like Lily said or was that in general?’ he wondered, eyes wide and a grin on his face.

Their conversation died, but later Pierce was pretty sure neither of them even gave it any thought once the show sped up once more. They’d distracted each other enough as it was, and neither felt like missing anything else from the whole experience. It was all much too beautiful to do that, really. ‘Especially if it’s as expensive as Lily said to get these seats.’

Maybe he’d check later though, just to make sure he knew what gift he’d been given.

As it was, Pierce welcomed the show for more than just being amazing. He did so because he’d had some rough days lately and he hadn’t felt at his best that very day before the spectacle. Then and there though, his loss was pushed to the back of his mind and he could almost forget it had even happened.

He was grateful to even get that much of a reprieve.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Well, just another day in the life of Pierce Lawson. Some pokemon interactions here, a little depression there and a great show here. Business as usual, amirite?

I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Have you ever gone to watch a live show? Unless I’ve forgotten something (which is likely), I’ve only ever gone to one show with marine animals (nothing like the Sensational Sisters, sadly) and two music concerts and that’s it.

See you.