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Pokémon Go (one-shot, v3)

Dragonfree

Moderator
Staff
Location
Iceland
Pronouns
she/her/hers
Partners
  1. butterfree
  2. mightyena
  3. charizard
  4. scyther-mia
  5. vulpix
  6. slugma
2022-08-31-go.png

Author's note: This story was originally written for the Worlds Collide contest on the Serebii.net forums back in 2016, then posted with some very light edits on here in 2020. I was never super happy with it originally, but I've now finally gotten around to the further edits I always wanted to do.

This is a cheerfully nonsensical premise with a heaping of 2016 nostalgia and in that respect should not be examined too closely, but the emotional arc takes itself a bit more seriously, so otherwise all feedback is appreciated!


Go

I woke up to a strange squawking – not the usual kind of birdsong that I’d sometimes wake up to at six AM, but something entirely different.

That was it, at first; I lay in bed, pulling the comforter over my head, rubbing the crust out of my eyes, wondering groggily if some kind of unusual bird had taken up residence outside my window. But then I realized it was coming from inside the bedroom, and I bolted upright.

There was a Pidgey on my windowsill, cocking its head at its reflection in the window.

I blinked at it, hard, expecting it to be some kind of early-morning hallucination. Obviously. I mean, Pidgey weren’t real, right? It was a game, a stupid little mobile game that I’d installed when I was bored. Sure, I’d had Pidgey appear in my bedroom before – on the screen. But my phone was lying on the nightstand, the screen blank. The app wasn’t even open.

I made a dumb squeaky noise. The Pidgey turned towards me and chirped, looking kind of irritated as Pidgey always did. Probably wanted to get outside? (Was I really speculating on what the Pidgey in my bedroom was thinking? None of this made any sense.)

Wait, more to the point – how had it gotten inside? The window was open a little bit, sure, but no way in hell would that pudgy, ridiculous bird ever fit through there. The door was closed. And I’d been alone in the apartment for months, since my housemate was spending the semester in France. Nobody could have let it in.

I refused to consider the completely nonsensical answer that came to mind first.

But when the Pidgey started to knock impatiently on the glass with its beak, I couldn’t help it. I carefully pushed myself back against the wall and reached for my phone. With a swipe, I unlocked it and started Pokémon Go. Everything seemed normal as it started up – the Niantic splash screen, the loading screen with the message about paying attention to your surroundings (oh yes, I was paying attention), the popup about not playing while driving.

Sure enough, there was a Pidgey right there. In the game, that is. In the game, and in real life.

Watching the real Pidgey carefully, I tapped the little Pidgey model on the screen, and the upbeat battle music started playing, just like every other time I tapped a Pidgey. The screen showed my actual bedroom as picked up by the phone camera, Pidgey included, but the usual 3D model didn’t appear. I turned the phone; the directional indicators pointed me back in the direction of the actual Pidgey.

What the fuck.

I tapped the AR switch; the screen transitioned to the foresty background with the regular Pidgey model as if nothing were more natural. I tapped it again, and I was back in my bedroom, staring at an actual anatomically impossible floofpigeon.

I couldn’t resist. I placed my finger on the Pokéball – the usual capture circles appeared – and flicked it, then recoiled as an actual Pokéball just popped into existence in mid-air in front of me and sailed towards the Pidgey. It hit it in the head and sucked it in, then dropped to the floor and wobbled a little before it went still. On the screen, a cheery shower of sparks, announcing I’d caught a Pidgey.

Holy shit.

The ball vanished into thin air, and I blinked. The Pidgey’s stat screen was up on my phone now; it looked normal. There was no sign anything unusual had happened anymore. Even though it’d only been seconds ago, I couldn’t help second-guessing myself, wondering if maybe I’d just dreamt the whole experience after falling asleep playing the game. What on Earth?

Even if it was an early-morning hallucination, though, Shannon’d love it. She’d always teased me about this game, in the sort of gentle friendly ribbing way of someone you’ve known forever and have an implicit agreement with to give each other hell. I threw on some clothes and had just about convinced myself it really was just a dream by the time I got downstairs. I opened the front door, phone in hand, fully expecting to spend the walk to the coffeeshop telling her about how man, apparently the Pokémon game had really gotten into my head.

It was not just me, it turned out.

There were Pidgey, Weedle, Rattata, just hanging about outside. Dozens of people were wandering in the street, phones aloft – some frantically texting or flipping through news sites, others heading for the Pokémon with Go’s overworld map open. Something about it reminded me disconcertingly of an apocalypse scenario in a movie; I stood there dumbfounded for a few seconds, half-expecting the wind to blow a timely newspaper in front of me with a convenient expository headline.

I stared at the people, the scurrying Rattata, the kids running after them, and blinked, part of me wondering if I was still dreaming.

My phone rang in my hand, and I looked at the screen. It was Shannon.

“Oh my God, please tell me you’ve seen,” she said the moment I put the phone to my ear. “The Pokémon game’s real!”

“Yeah,” I said, deadpan. “I woke up to a Pidgey in my bedroom.”

“Are you watching the professor?”

Professor? My brain froze for a second. “What are you talking about? What professor?”

Professor Willow! The outdoorsy scientist stud! Turn on the news!”

Wait, what?

I raced back into the house and up the stairs to my apartment. When I turned the TV on, the news ribbon at the bottom said, “BREAKING: POKÉMON GO’S PROFESSOR WILLOW ADDRESSES EARTH.”

The haggard face of a middle-aged, gray-haired man filled the screen. It was different to see him in real life, but I could still tell it was the professor from the game, the one who’d said a few words at the beginning and then left me to my own devices. I wouldn’t have even remembered what his name was, although come to think of it I did remember Shannon being bizarrely smitten with him when I’d first started up the game. (I’d rather go for Candela, myself.)

“…so in other words, as I was saying, I’m afraid you’re stuck with them for perhaps a month or two, until we can get the machine back in order. We’re very sorry this experiment got out of hand and we apologize for any disruptions caused. Hopefully the game we devised will help you recapture these Pokémon and send them back here, although of course if you don’t mind some of them staying until we can mass-recall them and close the rift, that’s fine by us.” He looked like he’d been up all night, blinking blearily at the camera before his next words. “So, well, to the people of Earth, good luck ‘catching ‘em all’, as they say. We will keep you updated on our progress.”

“But Professor Willow–” came an off-screen voice, but the image vanished before the professor could answer. I stared at the screen. What? Seriously? This sounded like a particularly half-assed science fiction movie. There was no way this was for real. Right?

They cut back to the newscasters, who looked at each other in confusion. “Well, you heard him, folks,” one said after a few seconds’ pause. “It sounds like the monsters are here to stay for now. Please stay calm, keep a safe distance, and we will be back with more details as soon as we have them.”

-------

The next few days were chaos. Politicians and public service announcements urged caution and avoiding engagement, but it wasn’t like anyone listened – for many this was a childhood nostalgia dream come true. Pokémon popped into existence in random locations on a regular basis, and people would rush to capture them with their phones, increasingly competitive now that there was only one of each spawn. How the professor’s people had managed to make the game sync up seamlessly with real life after being just a game for months, while Niantic swore up and down that they had no idea how it was happening, was somehow the least baffling part of it all. The Pokémon weren’t hostile; they’d try to avoid capture – sort of, jumping around or knocking the ball away but still usually sticking around for a while before losing interest, in no hurry to run away – but they basically never actually attacked people or anything, other than maybe when some idiots had been intentionally provoking them. People would snatch them up and then transfer them back to their home dimension – or keep them around, fight real-life gym battles against one another in the street. It was nuts.

(PETA made their usual noises about animal cruelty, naturally, and nobody listened.)

I caught a few Pokémon too. It was weird, looking at a living creature and then pressing buttons on a screen to capture it in a ball; it just didn’t feel like it should work. At first I vaguely wanted to get into the gym circuit again – I’d battled a bit in the game, back when it was just a game, but found it a little monotonous, and I figured it’d probably be less so in real life. But that, too, felt weird when I tried it. Seeing the scattered real-life battle team I’d managed to scrape together materialize in the street was thrilling, but watching actual 3D creatures beat on each other was a lot more visceral than doing it in a game, and something about it just made me uncomfortable.

It was maybe a week into the madness when one night I couldn’t sleep. Not the first time that happened; university was stressful, and sometimes the silence made it all too easy for anxious thoughts to churn around in my brain. I found myself lying in bed in my pajamas, staring towards the window, and thinking of that strange morning and the unreal sight of the Pidgey on the windowsill.

On some strange impulse, I sat up and picked up my phone, booted up Go and found Pidgey in the list. By all rights I should’ve transferred it to Professor Willow already – it was just a Pidgey, and what else would I even do with it? The Pokémon world was where it belonged. But I hadn’t, out of some weird sentimentality. It was that Pidgey. There was something weirdly special about the first Pokémon I’d captured in real life.

(The first time I was going to transfer after that day, I’d stared at the screen for a moment looking at the deluge of Pidgey in my storage, afraid I couldn’t tell which was which, but a memory had bubbled up of seeing CP 306 on the screen above that more-realistic-than-usual Pidgey, and thankfully there’d been only one that fit the bill.)

I sent it out. The pudgy little bird gave a sharp chirp as it emerged and looked around, head turning in quick jerks as it backed away. I sat and watched as it hopped cautiously around the room, keeping a wary eye on me in between looking at the closed window.

“Do you want to go out?” I thought aloud, and the Pidgey actually looked at me and nodded, still with jerky bird motions. I blinked at it, startled. Could Pokémon actually, properly understand English? In the game they’d just been… there. Attacking and evading balls. Blindly beating each other up. I’d imagined they might be a little smarter than most normal animals, maybe, but this Pidgey had just answered a question.

Well, maybe. I couldn’t get ahead of myself. Maybe the nod I saw was just a coincidence, boosted by oversensitive pattern-matching. “Do you understand me?” I tried, and the Pidgey nodded again, with an affirmatory chirp. That’d be a hell of a coincidence.

“So do all… do all Pokémon understand us?”

Another yes. Holy shit. Suddenly I felt bad for all the Pokémon I’d been capturing, throwing into battles, leaving at gyms. The game had just had them as a… a resource to be mined. Interchangeable blocks of zeroes and ones. It was different when they were alive – but a lot more so if they were not just alive, but sapient.

“But… what? Then why don’t you… why do you just go up to people and let them capture you in balls and then beat each other up for them?”

The Pidgey made a little jerky shrug with its wings. Oh my God. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

It tilted its head. It? “Wait, are you a guy or a girl? Or…”

Chirp. That’d been a stupid way to ask. “Okay, one chirp for guy, two for girl, three for other?” Two chirps. Not what I expected, somehow, but okay.

“Okay, Pidgey. Hi, I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” A lame excuse, but it was all I had. “Do you want me to go open that window now? One for yes, two for no.”

One. I took a deep breath. Some selfish part of me protested; this was supposed to be my Pidgey, and now she was just going to fly away? But knowing she wasn’t a weird mindless battle-machine made it impossible to do anything else.

I stood up slowly and opened the window all the way, and the Pidgey hopped onto the windowsill and nudged my hand. She… wanted me to pet her? I gave her head feathers a cautious pat, confused, and then a light stroke when she leaned into it. She chirped again and then took off, fluttering out across the city. I watched her disappear, then closed the window with a sigh.

I checked the app. She was still there. Guess they didn’t account for that. It wasn’t as if I needed the storage space anyway; I was done. I transferred the last few other Pokémon I had and put my phone away, wishing I’d never installed this stupid app.

-------

I woke up to a strange tapping the next morning. I opened my eyes, still sleepy, only to find a Pidgey standing on the outside windowsill, knocking on the glass – no, not a Pidgey, that Pidgey. I wasn’t sure exactly how I recognized her, but there was something distinctive about her face and the way she moved.

Startled, I leapt out of bed and opened the window. She hopped inside, chirping insistently, bumping her head against my chest. Hesitant, I put a hand on her head again, petting her, and she cooed.

What? She was back? Why would she want to be back? What had I ever done for her, other than finally setting her free?

“Look, Pidgey, you don’t have to…”

Chirp. She looked at me, tilting her head. “You don’t have to come back here. I mean, it’s your life. I’m not the boss of you, even if the stupid game says so.”

She shook her head and flared her wings. I didn’t know what that meant, but it seemed she wasn’t going anywhere. “I don’t know, do you want something to eat? What do you eat?”

I found some dried fruits and nuts in a cupboard for her (technically my housemate’s, but I figured I’d just buy her a new bag before she got back). Pidgey nibbled at what I’d laid out while I watched from my usual place at the kitchen table, slumped on the chair, feeling drained and confused and having had far too little sleep.

“Hey, Pidgey,” I muttered, and she looked up. “Are the PETA people right? They’re saying we should free all the Pokémon and refuse to give them up to a world that’ll make them fight bloodsports.”

Pidgey shook her head, something perplexed in her expression. Guess not. “But I mean… What, you like getting caught in balls and fighting other Pokémon? Doesn’t that hurt? I wouldn’t want to do that.”

The bird gave me a puzzled stare, tilting her head. “No?” I frowned. I supposed Pokémon did keep hanging around letting people catch them. Evading the ball but staying, waiting, giving you several chances, until whenever they got bored and went off to bother the next person instead. Like it was some kind of big game to them, and our role in it was to try to catch them and not mess it up.

“So what, you just… think it’s fun to try to see if a human can catch you?”

She chirped happily before swallowing a raisin.

“What about the fighting? You think that’s fun too? Just a healthy bit of sport and exercise, and then with a couple potions you’re all good and everyone’s happy, no problem?”

One chirp, like it was obvious and required no explanation. Pidgey nudged a peanut towards me on the table, cocking her head.

“Thanks.” I sighed, shaking my head as I took the peanut and popped it in my mouth. It was hard to wrap my head around all this, but if she was telling me this herself, what could I do but believe her? They were basically aliens. Sure, why wouldn’t there be aliens who think beating the snot out of each other repeatedly and then magic-healing the damage away is the most fun thing ever?

I watched Pidgey peck away at the food strewn over the table for a minute. “So in your world, everyone knows you’re smart and can understand them, right? Because I never would’ve just kept you in the ball for a week if I knew. The game just… I didn’t know. I never thought about it that way.”

Pidgey chirped and nudged my hand. I reached up to pet her again, halfhearted. “Yeah, I’m sorry. Maybe you didn’t even mind, but still.”

She slid her head away from my fingers, staring up at me. “Okay, you did mind. I really am sorry, okay?”

The bird leaned into my hand again for a brief moment, as if to say she accepted my apology, and then went back to the food.

I sat there, feeling exhausted and surreal and like a jerk at the same time. “Why did you come back? When I’d done that?”

She looked at me, and then without taking her eyes off me ate another nut off the table. What, because she just… figured I’d give her food?

She nudged my hand again and gave a pleased chirp.

In my current frazzled state I just broke into a helpless chuckle. Food and pets. That was it? Why wouldn’t the alien bird monster just want food and pets? “Okay, sure. I can give you food and pets, no problem.”

She closed her eyes, cooing as I stroked her back and her wings. Her feathers were soft and light under my fingers. I’d never had a pet as a kid, but I’d wanted one, like every kid, I suppose. This wasn’t at all how I’d expected to get one, though. A Pidgey. I’d been adopted by a fat little brown fantasy pigeon, that’d leapt fully formed out of a magic mobile game, whose inspiration had been sent back through time by crazy scientists in another world, to prepare us for the unexpected consequences of a botched experiment. If I’d tried to tell my kid self that, she would’ve pouted and accused me of lying to her.

“Is there anything else I should do for you?” I asked. “I’ll keep the window open so you can get in and out.”

Pidgey let out a coo, unfolding her wings. It took me a moment, but she was asking me to scratch under her wings. I did, and she flopped onto her back making little chirpy noises while I continued.

Not how I’d expected to get a pet at all.

-------

It wasn’t quite like having a pet, of course. Once she’d invited herself back to my apartment, Pidgey was part pet, part mute but opinionated roommate. She was captivated by Earth TV, especially nature documentaries; after a few days of her staying enraptured by my side in the evenings, I came home to her having managed to manipulate the TV remote with her talons, watching David Attenborough narrating footage of lions while she’d made herself comfortable on the armrest of the sofa, feet disappeared into her rounded fluff. She hogged the TV for most of that evening until I explained to her I really wanted to watch the news and she graciously let me, though she still seemed a little miffed about it until I repaid her in scritches.

Apart from that, she liked exploring the city – both on her own and accompanying me when I went places. She’d perch on my shoulder when I walked to the university, leave me there – they’d quickly instituted a strict no-bringing-your-Pokémon-to-classes policy after the initial chaos – and then either come fluttering when I got out of my afternoon lectures or reappear through the window later in the evening, chattering away in a complicated series of chirps about whatever she’d been up to. Sometimes she’d come with me downtown, sit on my shoulder taking in all the different stores and businesses, occasionally prodding me to check out whatever caught her interest or explain what it was. Sometimes she got smitten with some food or shiny object and tried to coax me into getting it. She seemed perplexed when I tried to explain money to her.

(Of course, it turned out she had pretty good taste in street food, so I couldn’t complain there. I had to put my foot down when she started eyeing the display cases in the windows of a jewelry store, though.)

I also caught and transferred some other Pokémon on my walks. Pidgey liked to chirp at the Pokémon we met from her place on my shoulder, carrying on enthusiastic exchanges that seemed to range from friendly conversation to eager back-and-forth taunts while I struggled to throw curveballs on the screen of my phone. A Charizard spawned on the street a short way away from me once, and Pidgey immediately got up to flutter around him in what looked like an intentional effort to provoke him, while the Charizard grinned like this was the best thing that’d happened to him all year, snapping his jaws playfully at her while dodging my terrified efforts to throw Ultra Balls. In the end he gave us an amused nod before taking off into the sky, and Pidgey looked incredibly pleased with herself, landing back on my shoulder and preening like she was queen of the world.

By now there were lots of other people around with Pokémon accompanying them at their sides day to day; I supposed it was a similar story with them as with Pidgey and me. Pidgey didn’t stand a real chance against any of the local gyms, but we went and watched some battles at her urging. They were different; the battles I’d been in for the first few days had been chaotic all-out brawls between Pokémon while their trainers stood on the sidelines and vaguely cheered them on, but over time since then they’d gained order and structure, people and their Pokémon discussing strategies in whispered tones before fighting together, trainers shouting pointers and instructions as the Pokémon executed complex moves I’d never seen in the game. And now, when I watched the Pokémon I could see the excitement in their eyes, the joy of competition and adrenaline. I guess that’d probably always been there; I hadn’t been paying attention. But I suspected they were happier now, too – working more closely together with partners who really knew and appreciated them for who they were.

“You know, I had a battling team,” I told Pidgey one night, sitting on the living room couch as we watched the end of the evening news. As an outro they were showing battles going on near a popular gym downtown, a trainer beaming as his Charizard flexed her tail, flame flaring in excitement, grin on her lips, while all three heads of the Exeggutor opposite smirked. The trainer patted their back, laughing, before ordering a move.

Pidgey gave a questioning chirp, turning her head back from where she sat on my knee.

“I transferred them all like an idiot,” I said. “That night I opened the window for you – I transferred all my other Pokémon. That was stupid, wasn’t it?”

Pidgey tilted her head. Yeah.

“I just… I thought none of you really wanted to be here, so I should do it before I thought too hard about it.”

She chirped again. It was the strangest thing – I was starting to feel like I knew what she was trying to say to me. “I mean, it seemed reasonable at the time,” I said. “I hadn’t really talked to them or anything. I didn’t even realize they’d be able to understand me, and they were apparently happy to just fight their brawls. Not that that’s their fault, I just… I don’t know.”

Pidgey gave me a reassuring chirp. “Thanks,” I said, scratching under her beak; she closed her eyes, cooing. “I guess they’re in the Pokémon world now, anyway. They’re bound to be happier there than with a trainer who didn’t even think they were sapient, right?”

She lifted her wings in a sort of shrug. I sighed, stroking her feathers. “I wish I could have gotten to know them. I didn’t do much battling, but…” I paused. “I mean, when the game was just a game, my battling team then were the only Pokémon I kinda cared about. It was fun winning a battle with a Parasect. Everything else was just…”

I shook my head. It felt weird to think that I’d used to evolve and transfer Pidgey en masse for candy and experience. Hundreds upon hundreds of identical Pidgey, all ground through the metaphorical experience machine. I’d even captured a fair few more of them in the first days after it became real. I supposed they were all flying around the Pokémon world now, a weird surplus of Pidgeotto, with hazy, jumbled memories of their five minutes on Earth.

(I’d asked Pidgey before if she wanted to evolve. Two chirps. I’d been kind of relieved; obviously if she’d wanted to that’d have been that, but it would’ve made things a bit different, and I think I would’ve missed the way she sat on my shoulder. I had the sense Pidgey felt the same way. I hoped the Pidgeotto I’d never given that choice were all right.)

“Hey, Pidgey?” I said after a little while, hugging my knees. “I’m glad I met you. I used to come home to an empty apartment every day, and I was okay with that, but… it’s nice coming home to you. Thanks for coming back and sticking around. I don’t know if I deserved that but I’m really glad you did.”

Pidgey looked at me for a second, her gaze softening. She nudged my arm, placed her head against my palm when I lifted my hand, and leaned into it, closing her eyes. I scratched her head carefully, feeling the warmth of her little body, and maybe it was stupid but a bunch of feelings descended on me all at once and suddenly I had tears in my eyes. Maybe I’d been lonelier than I’d thought. Maybe it just meant a lot, somehow, that Pidgey’d decided I was trustworthy even though I’d messed up and done something stupid. Maybe it was just feeling like I’d gotten something right for once, after so long bashing my head against my studies and doubting my choices.

Tomorrow I’d see if Pidgey wanted to go to the park or something. She’d like that, green spaces and trees and people and regular Pokémon spawns. I could bring some food and a picnic blanket and just scratch her while I read a book, or watch her scare off small mundane birds. It was the least I could do for her. And for me.

-------

It was a strange, cold shock when, on the news one night, there was another broadcast from Professor Willow. I’d always known this was coming, intellectually, but I’d managed to make myself forget.

“…so we expect to be able to close the rift tomorrow. We’d like to extend our gratitude to the people of Earth for your patience and kindness for these past seven weeks. We gather many of you will be sad to see your Pokémon go, and trust us, all trainers know that feeling – but I’m afraid any Pokémon remaining on Earth would maintain the dimensional rift and potentially lead to world-destroying consequences down the line. Therefore, all Pokémon will be automatically transferred at midnight.

“It may be possible one day to open a safe and stable portal between our worlds, but I’m afraid that technology could be years away. We will do our best to reestablish that connection and allow you to reunite with your Pokémon. In the meantime, the game will of course continue to function in its mundane form, and if you haven’t already, we invite you to enjoy the various other Pokémon media that we inspired in your past twenty years to ensure Pokémon Go’s success.

“People of Earth, it’s been a pleasure working with you for this short time. I hope we’ll meet again.”

The broadcast cut off. I turned the TV off before I could see the anchors’ inevitably awkward responses. It wasn’t fair. I didn’t want things to go back to normal. All that time getting to know Pidgey, and now she was just going to be forcibly dragged back to her happy bizarro-dimension, in just a few hours’ time.

On the armrest beside me, Pidgey gave a concerned chirp. I blinked away tears. “I’m okay,” I said. “It’s your home. I bet you had a family there and everything, huh?”

Pidgey nodded, looking away. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. You probably always wanted to get back eventually. I get that. I mean, I moved away from my family, and it’s been great in some ways, but I still want to see them again when I’ve finished my degree.” I stared at the blank TV screen and Pidgey’s reflection in it. A week ago I’d gone to a pet store and almost considered buying a little perch for her to sit on instead of awkwardly making do with the furniture. I hadn’t, of course, because deep down I’d known it’d be a waste of money.

Pidgey’s reflection looked back at me for a moment; then she chirped and fluttered up on my shoulder. “What, you want to go out? Now?”

She chirped again and nibbled gently on my ear. I stood up, careful to keep my shoulder steady. “Well, I guess. Our last walk, huh?”

I wanted to add, “Let’s make it a good one,” but my voice was gone.

We headed out, down into town, threading the long Pokéstop route that I’d sometimes taken when the weather was nice before the rift opened; I’d walked it with Pidgey a few times before, too. We didn’t try to catch any of the Pokémon we passed by this time around; there was no point anymore. Pidgey had little chirped conversations with a couple of other Pidgey along the way. Maybe she was telling them they’d all be home soon.

When I was about to head back, Pidgey instead nudged me and pointed up a street with her wing. I went where she pointed; might as well make this last. She guided me through a few more streets, then chirped, and I stopped.

We were in front of a video game store. A huge poster covering one of the windows showed two large logos, POKÉMON SUN and POKÉMON MOON.

She chirped again, nodding towards the poster. “You want me to… get one of these games?” I asked, skeptical. Pidgey nodded, bumping her head against mine.

“I mean, thanks, but…” I hesitated again. “I can’t just replace you with a video game. It’s not the same. It wasn’t the same. Remember how I didn’t even know you had feelings?”

Pidgey fluttered off my shoulder and knocked insistently on the poster with her beak. I sighed. “You know what, fine, I’ll try the game.”

The store was closed by now, obviously, but I supposed I could stop by tomorrow. God, I’d probably have to buy some ridiculous video game console, too. Not that Pidgey would ever know if I really did it, but I couldn’t go back on my word to her. I did have some birthday money I didn’t really know what to do with. Maybe it’d be something to remember her by.

I looked at my watch and started when I saw it said 23:57. “Oh,” I said. “Pidgey, it’s… it’s almost time.”

She looked up with a sad chirp, then flew into my arms, almost knocking me over. I staggered back to regain my balance, holding her close. Her head snuggled against the underside of my chin as she cooed, warm and soft and comforting. Tears were forming in my eyes again, but I didn’t care. “I’ll never forget you.”

I felt her nod against my neck. She wouldn’t forget me either. I knew that.

“I don’t want you to go, but I know you have to. So go and find your family, and tell them about Earth, and maybe… maybe someday we’ll see each other again. Maybe you can introduce us.”

Pidgey gave a chuckling chirp. I held her like that for a while, in our best approximation of a hug.

I think we both simultaneously felt it coming. She pulled away, and I held her out in front of me where we could look in each other’s eyes. Her body began to glow with a strange, bluish light. “Go,” I said, my voice hoarse. “Go home and be free.”

She nodded and closed her eyes, and her body dissolved into tiny, sparkling particles of light that swirled into the air and vanished. I looked after her for a while; I could see other streams of particles rising through the air, more Pokémon leaving this world. Going home.

I wiped my face off and headed back to the apartment.

-------

I did have to buy a game console – a 3DS, it was called. It had a 3D gimmick to make things look more real, but I turned it off.

I expected the game to just be Go without the exercise, but by the time my in-game avatar had chosen and been chosen by a little kitten creature and held it for the first time, I was sniffling. Pidgey’d been right. It wasn’t the same, but it was something.

And as I’d walked out of the store with the game, I’d resolved to myself that I’d get a pet. Also not the same, but it’d be someone to come home to, who’d be happy to see me. And I’d realized I needed that.

On an impulse, that evening, I opened Pokémon Go again. A 306 CP Pidgey was still sitting in my Pokémon list. I guess they’d disabled the game’s magic synchronization with reality before the automatic transfer, so people would still be able to play with the Pokémon they had. It was just data now, technically, just a bunch of zeroes and ones. But in some sense it was my Pidgey, and I’d keep her with me. I would never forget.

Maybe it’d take years, but one day I’d see her again. I’d find her, and she’d show me her home and her family. Maybe I could move to the Pokémon world. It sounded like a lovely place.

And in the meantime, to prepare, I could at least see some Pokémon on my adventures in Alola.
 

unrepentantAuthor

A cat that writes stories.
Location
UK
Pronouns
they/she
Partners
  1. purrloin-salem
  2. sneasel-dusk
  3. luz-companion
  4. brisa-companion
  5. meowth-laura
  6. delphox-jesse
  7. mewtwo
  8. zeraora
My strongest reaction to Go is that it's frankly adorable. I love that this is a fic about an unremarkable protagonist falling for an unremarkable pokémon, about making mistakes and wrong assumptions but still ending up in a loving companionship, about a slow and subtle change for the better.

The ending was a tearjerker for me, I confess to getting a little misty eyed, but I don't see it as a tragic story, but a hopeful one. The lasting effects of the friendship the protagonist has with their strange alien bird are good ones, ones that encourage her to enjoy things unreservedly, to connect to other living things, to care more. I appreciate that. I have a soft spot for stories this tight and this restrained, where I get to have feelings about 'small' things witth outsized significance, most of all the passage where the protagonist gets emotional about having been lonely, and how it makes them feel to be wanted for their companionship.

I enjoy the mundanity of it, the way that having a pidgey around goes from strange and concerning to familiar and wonderful, the way the POV character goes from a mix of indifference and worry to appreciation and love. It's a vibe. I also enjoy that you couldn't help but write Willow as tired and stressed because knackered scientists dealing with interminable disasters are your jam. I laughed pretty hard when that side character called him a stud. And I think one of my favourite aspects was Pidgey's communication and personality, since I'm always looking for pokémon written with this kind of attentiveness.

If I had to criticise this piece, I might say it's pretty heavy on summaries and exposition in the narration, but even when that's done, it's consistently charming and keeps a pace, and I think it's a necessary device to tell the story as it needs to be told without extending it a great deal.

You've done a good job with this one – and the title art is lovely. Well done, dearest Free.
 

canisaries

you should've known the price of evil
Location
Stovokor
Pronouns
she/her
Partners
  1. inkay-shirlee
  2. houndoom-elliot
  3. yamask-joanna
  4. shuppet
  5. deerling-andre
Hi there! I happened to be a in a reading mood when I saw you'd uploaded this, so I figured I'd see what it is. I think this is also the first time I've actually read anything of yours bar that one Catnip Speed Dating round, and I was curious to see what your writing would be like.

I made a dumb squeaky noise.
this speaks to me.

Something about it reminded me disconcertingly of an apocalypse scenario in a movie; I stood there dumbfounded for a few seconds, half-expecting the wind to blow a timely newspaper in front of me with a convenient expository headline.
Loved this line.

(PETA made their usual noises about animal cruelty, naturally, and nobody listened.)
based

“Hey, Pidgey,” I muttered, and she looked up. “Are the PETA people right? They’re saying we should free all the Pokémon and refuse to give them up to a world that’ll make them fight bloodsports.”
PETA would advocate for freeing alien creatures at the cost of total ecological collapse.

while she’d made herself comfortable on the armrest of the sofa, feet disappeared into her rounded fluff.
L O A F
O
A
F

She seemed perplexed when I tried to explain money to her.
them

---

The world is full of stories where fantastical things or creatures are discovered on Earth, but it seems like many of those always suffer the same flaw of needing to brush over the shock and disbelief and accommodation in the first few minutes in order to get to the actual story. Not that it really makes them bad - it's a necessary evil most of the time. However, it does mean that I appreciate stories like this even more, where the story is about the change in the world and we get to properly explore it instead of trying to get an expodump out of the way as fast as possible.

Not that there isn't a story here besides just the Pokemon appearing! It's just more subtle and woven into the major change in the world so that it doesn't feel like the "monsters appear on earth" event isn't at odds with the rest of the story. Here, they complement each other rather than fight for the audience's focus.

The prose, dialogue and character(s?) feel very true to life here, which of course is a funny thing to say about a story about a mobile app suddenly bringing magical creatures to existence, but I mean it. Despite the wack premise, disbelief is easy to keep suspended with how natural everything comes off as. The emotional arc, too, is something real. Yeah, I cried. I'm a big girl, I can admit it.

I think that's about all I got this time. See you around!
 

Umbramatic

The Ghost Lord
Location
The Yangverse
Pronouns
Any
Partners
  1. reshiram
Here for Review Blitz! I remember reading this way back when for the contest it was submitted in (it was with my fic Reality'S Edge). I don't know if I reviewed a previous version on this site but I don't see any reviews by me on THIS version so HERE WE GO

The thing about Pokemon is it's one of those works of fiction that back in the day every kid wished was real. Our unnamed protagonist gets that wish, but promptly freaks out when there is an actual live Pidgey in her room. After trying to finagle the separation between Pokemon Go and reality, she discovers this Pidgey isn't the only one and Professor Willow is trying to get the other Pokemon back into his dimension thank you very much

(I must say the "Candela's hotter" joke sent me. Same, unnamed protagonist, same)

Things get complicated however when she starts acttually making friends with her Pidgey. They live together, do Pokemon trainer things together, be the very best like no one ever was.

But then professor Willow fixes the rift, all the Pokemon have to go home, and Pidgey does some GRATUITOUS ADVERTISING for Unnamed Protagonist-chan to remember her by and dissapears forever and It definitely makes me feel sad.

Good news is the protagonist is enjoying the FRESH AND NEW Generation 7 and stillhas a virtual Pidgey in GO. Mabye some day she can transfer her to the main series...

But this is still very cute and yes nostalgic. Fun to read this contest buddy again.
 

HelloYellow17

Gym Leader
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. suicune
  2. umbreon
  3. mew
Hello hello! Yellow17

I’d been meaning to hit up this one-shot last week but irl got in the way and I got a super late start in blitz. I’ve been hearing lovely things about this one-shot, so I’m very happy to be here reviewing it now!

But then I realized it was coming from inside the bedroom, and I bolted upright.
Hahaha this is stupid but I was reminded of a meme I saw once that said something along the lines of: “A cat meowing is adorable. Unless it’s right outside your door. At 3AM. And you don’t own a cat.”


I blinked at it, hard, expecting it to be some kind of early-morning hallucination. Obviously. I mean, Pidgey weren’t real, right? It was a game, a stupid little mobile game that I’d installed when I was bored. Sure, I’d had Pidgey appear in my bedroom before – on the screen. But my phone was lying on the nightstand, the screen blank. The app wasn’t even open.
OHHHHH this is a Pokémon coming to the real world story?? I am invested, count me in

(Was I really speculating on what the Pidgey in my bedroom was thinking? None of this made any sense.)
I’ll be commenting on this a lot through the review, but I just gotta say: the narration? Freaking amazing. So much character, and the narrator here has such a fun, snarky, way of phrasing things. It really makes the whole experience for me.

I tapped it again, and I was back in my bedroom, staring at an actual anatomically impossible floofpigeon.
“Anatomically impossible floofpigeon” is the only way I will be referring to Pidgey from now on and no I will not be accepting criticism at this time

She’d always teased me about this game, in the sort of gentle friendly ribbing way of someone you’ve known forever and have an implicit agreement with to give each other hell.
These are the best friendships. It do be like that sometimes. 😂

When I turned the TV on, the news ribbon at the bottom said, “BREAKING: POKÉMON GO’S PROFESSOR WILLOW ADDRESSES EARTH.”
I don’t know why, but “PROFESSOR WILLOW ADDRESSES EARTH” cracked me up. I mean, I don’t know what else you’d headline that anyway, but something about it so dramatic that I find it highly entertaining.

(PETA made their usual noises about animal cruelty, naturally, and nobody listened.)
STOP 😂

I checked the app. She was still there. Guess they didn’t account for that. It wasn’t as if I needed the storage space anyway; I was done. I transferred the last few other Pokémon I had and put my phone away, wishing I’d never installed this stupid app.
I’ll admit that this is the one issue I have; the narrator’s depressed mood and dislike of the app felt really sudden to me, and while I’m sure it’s related to Pidgey flying away, it seems to imply that they (he? She? They?) have been unhappy for a while, and yet we don’t really get too many glimpses of that until this point. It’s not a huge thing, and reading through the rest of the story made this part make more sense, but at the time it felt a little jarring and out of the blue.

What? She was back? Why would she want to be back? What had I ever done for her, other than finally setting her free?
Aha. I have a sneaking suspicion that MC doesn’t think too highly of themself at all, and was like this long before Pidgey materialized in their bedroom. It’s probably why they were so convinced Pidgey wouldn’t come back; fear of abandonment leading one to expect it at every turn, low self esteem causing one to feel like this should be the natural outcome, because who would want to stick around? Etc.

One chirp, like it was obvious and required no explanation. Pidgey nudged a peanut towards me on the table, cocking her head.
Gosh I love the depiction of bird behavior here, you nailed it. I can see her movements so clearly.

They were basically aliens. Sure, why wouldn’t there be aliens who think beating the snot out of each other repeatedly and then magic-healing the damage away is the most fun thing ever?
😂 I love this. MC can’t fathom WHY Pokémon do what they do, so naturally they chalk it up to: “ALIENS.”

A Charizard spawned on the street a short way away from me once, and Pidgey immediately got up to flutter around him in what looked like an intentional effort to provoke him, while the Charizard grinned like this was the best thing that’d happened to him all year, snapping his jaws playfully at her while dodging my terrified efforts to throw Ultra Balls. In the end he gave us an amused nod before taking off into the sky, and Pidgey looked incredibly pleased with herself, landing back on my shoulder and preening like she was queen of the world.
This was one of my favorite moments of the whole story. Gosh, I wish Pokémon were real. Everyone is having so much fun! Having a great time! No danger, no foul play, just friendly sparring and meeting new creatures. Why can’t Pokémon be real 😭

(I’d asked Pidgey before if she wanted to evolve. Two chirps. I’d been kind of relieved; obviously if she’d wanted to that’d have been that, but it would’ve made things a bit different, and I think I would’ve missed the way she sat on my shoulder. I had the sense Pidgey felt the same way. I hoped the Pidgeotto I’d never given that choice were all right.)
this is more of a side note than anything, but I think this paragraph works just fine without the parentheses!

Tomorrow I’d see if Pidgey wanted to go to the park or something. She’d like that, green spaces and trees and people and regular Pokémon spawns. I could bring some food and a picnic blanket and just scratch her while I read a book, or watch her scare off small mundane birds. It was the least I could do for her. And for me.
Oh no something sad is around the corner, isn’t it :( :( :(

A week ago I’d gone to a pet store and almost considered buying a little perch for her to sit on instead of awkwardly making do with the furniture. I hadn’t, of course, because deep down I’d known it’d be a waste of money.
Guh. Hhhhhh. Reading this made me emotional. As a pet owner and someone who has connected deeply with the Pokémon franchise all my life, I can feel how much hurt is behind that un-purchased perch. It’s the deciding not to invest any further because this period won’t last, the choosing to save themself the money and the hurt but it’s too late because it’s already hurting anyway.

We were in front of a video game store. A huge poster covering one of the windows showed two large logos, POKÉMON SUN and POKÉMON MOON.
Sun and moon?? Is this going where I think it might be going?? 👀 (spoiler alert, it was not. Idk my brain thought of the ultra wormhole and how the player can cross into the other dimension in the postgame and thought there would be something along those lines here.)

“Go,” I said, my voice hoarse. “Go home and be free.”
Oh. Oh.

There are a lot of things I really, really love and vibe with in fiction. But utilizing the story’s title and having it take on a completely new meaning at the climax? That stuff destroys me, and this was a perfectly, beautifully executed example. “Go” went from referencing the game to being the MC’s parting words to their dear friend that they’d desperately needed. My heart. 😢

This was an absolute treat to read, and I’m glad I decided to look into it. So wholesome and adorable with the perfect amount of bittersweet feels at the end. I love the hopeful note at the end—the narrator believes this isn’t goodbye forever, and so do I. 💛 Thank you for sharing!
 

Flyg0n

Flygon connoisseur
Pronouns
She/her
Partners
  1. flygon
  2. swampert
  3. ho-oh
  4. crobat
  5. orbeetle
  6. joltik
  7. salandit
  8. tyrantrum
Me: I've read Go before so surely this time I won't get emotional. Right? Right??

Free stop giving me emotional gut punches at work pls and thx

Anyways I can't believe I've never read this? I guess I simply imagined I did lol. Every bit as charming and heartwrenching and delightful the second time around.

She hogged the TV for most of that evening until I explained to her I really wanted to watch the news and she graciously let me
How dare you expect to use the TV, that's her TV! I like the distinction now that she's letting him use it :mewlulz:
Pidgey looked at me for a second, her gaze softening. She nudged my arm, placed her head against my palm when I lifted my hand, and leaned into it, closing her eyes.
Aaaaaa this is too cute
Therefore, all Pokémon will be automatically transferred at midnight
EST? Midnight in each timezone? Cna you game the system by flying to a later timezone?
POKÉMON SUN and POKÉMON MOON.

She chirped again, nodding towards the poster. “You want me to… get one of these games?” I asked, skeptical. Pidgey nodded, bumping her head against mine.
Ah HAH I knew it you secretly work as a spokesperson for TPC and this whole fic is to market sun and moon.

Excellent job
“Go,” I
Roll credits *drum noise*

But that... That puts a bittersweet twist on the title. It's not just Go as in Pokemon Go, which in itself is a play on 'Go [pokemon name]' and also go outside. But it's about 'Go free/home'

Ouch. oof. my heart.
There's so much i want to say. I am struck by just how nicely you capture characters that feel so much like mundane people in an engaging way. Really tiny details like the MC's reactions to this incident and little quip about how their friend pestered them about the game or liked prfessor willow when she first saw him apparently.

The prose itself was delightuflly smooth, equally simple yet effective and even funny in bits. I like that the scope of the story keeps it very small and focused. I'm not concerned with the wider world and their reaction to pokemon, whats important is this one guy and Pidgey.

Even so there's a lot of fun tidbits to consider in regards to worldbuilding that help support their relationship. My favorite was the pleasant simplicity of how much Pidgey's pokemon-ness shines through. Pidgey isn't a human in a birdsuit, Pidgey feels like an alien creature from a world whose rules are different from our own. She has different interests and values and desires and outlooks than a human, and I think the story captures that really effectively in a short time.

The conversation they have about how she sees things wrt to battling and capture was fun, and well set up with the early observation the MC has noticing how pokemon would linger around if you don't catch them first try, like its a game. Its been fun lately for me to think about how pokemons values affect their outlooks so it what great coming back to this. CUlture differences are fun. I also liked how it highlights something important in a subtle way, the importance of respecting a pokemon's way of operating, and I like that the MC was quite open minded and ultimately accepting once he realized.

I really like that the story didn't simply stop at Pidgey departing, but also focused on how Pidgey changed the MC. We may not know exactly what their life looked like before Pidgey but we know they were lonely. Yet Pidgey impacted him, made him go outside, helped him remember the enjoyment of connection and the simply comfort of a pokemon game. In a way, mirroring how Pokemon Go the game, for whatever quirks it had, was a fun way to get people out of the house and going places for awhile.

And boy, the most important bit sure does hit hard. Everything between MC and Pidgey just,,, is so precious. So sweet. It wasn't something big or epic or crazy they did, just the simple delight of spending time around someone. Becomign friends. Without ever hammering it in awkwardly, the story shows so well that they are companions and had fun together and had a friendship. My heart,,,

I'm really grateful for the ultimately hopeful ending, I'd like to believe that given the events of Sun and Moon, and the many powers of the pokemon world, they are reunited again. (Jirachi? Faller? Hoopa? Ultra Beasts? Somehow, they'll find a way. In my head Pidgey goes on an epic quest and wishes for their friend. Yeah, that'd be nice.)
The nebulous nature is sweet because now the reader themself can interact with the story and imagine that brighter future. <3
 

K_S

Unrepentent Giovanni and Rocket fan
Go review
Oneshot blitz

About GO I will say personally that the craze hasn't died... Just dimmed a bit and at least the gyms in my area are heavily contested hot spots/troll spots almost ten years later.

For p.o.v you gotta admit that thats one heck of a wake up call. A real life pidgy just at the window tapping away and stealing from the pages of poes nevermore bird. But more of a mon slanted chirruping.

I can only hope that most mon spawning points were tame... Because a charizard in the home depo bbq section sounds like a disaster and a snorlax in a grocery store fitting but also horid.

Pidgy: i get youre having an existiental crisis but i want out.

Pov: crisis' harder

I'm sure many a mon head desked, face covered, from the varied reactions from these crazy not-trainer-trainers. Pidg is being a saint here and not pulling on the humans ear or hair to lead them to the window.

Congrats p.o.v your bedroom is a spawn point for birds. Hopefully its only one birs or every morning you are in for a fun surprise... (I can only imagine a dodrio spawning by the window in the morning).

Snorts, floof pidgion... Smooth. And at least capturing keeps things tame and limits the possibility of damages.

I can also imagine the sheer insanity of everyone with a pulse downloading this game as a result.

Thats a whole kanto starter pack right there in the front yard. P.o.v.s got more restraint than i've got i'd of snapped up the weedle and ratata.

Love shanons standards. We got mon-a-geddon but mr. Studs on so we must focus there... I laughed when he dropped the catchfrase, the man looks like hes holding on by a string but he'll crack that joke... Was this in the time t.r. events started up or later?

The politicians and powers that be "dont do this thing" the rest of the world "we are livong out our katchem dreams here!" And no cares were given by anyone.

Except peta who started cosplaying plasma, because why not?

Good build up to why not eberyome wamts to be a trainer. The p.o.v sees the other sode too later but thier own distaste, and pidgys too, sound reasonable. I could see p.o.v. as a low level bird trainer. And of course pidg is semtient. If being a bit overwellemed by all the words being thrwown around. But the bird picks it up quick enough and they seem to get on well in their new setting.

I wonder how insane people looked to these mon used to the anime verse.

The more peta talks the more i hear ns dogma. Wonder in this worlds if n almost sucseeded with his wish and this was the fall out?

I suppose the mon jist view it as a vacation of sorts. Casual nonleague scuffles and free roam in a new enviroment... All the tv you can stream.

I imagine the fights over the remote got wild for adament natured mon. And who knows what mischievious mons dis with thier trainers computers... But p.o.v.s got a pretty chill bird by most standards.. Though if.the anime started streaming i gotta wonder how many mon would blue screen of death as a result.

As an oddity i imagine mon were insanely cherished and iv and ev trained to heck and back. Something they probably appreciated and the battle scene must of been insane. Whole industry and leagues springing up overnight....

And of course the magic has to go away at some point. Love how pidgy is like... You will play sun and moon after i've gone so we stay connected... And p.o.v. is like.. Alright.. When it opens. .... Because no one im thier right mind is going to be game shopping when game worlds is happening in front of them. But still its a nice gesture on pidgys part and the whole ends on a sweet note rather then a sad one... I can imagine so many trainers being crushed but at least in how this ends.you get the feeling p.o.v trainer is going to be fine. Eventually.
 
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