Pokémon Perigee [Oneshot]

[windskull]

This story was originally written for the PokePod project. The theme pokemon was Clefairy. You can find an audio version of the fic here.

Summary: Nova the clefairy revisits her old home and is reminded of the parts of clefairy culture she's missed.

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Perigee​

Clefairy Nova took a deep breath as she exited the Remains Island mystery dungeon, reaching the highest point of the island. She raised a paw to shield her eyes against the harsh light of the setting sun. Good, she was a bit early; moonrise wasn’t for another couple of hours.

As her gaze swept across the clearing, she spotted another group of clefairy a dozen meters or so away, but no more. The others would probably arrive later, but she, for one, was looking forward to catching up.

“Hey there!” she called to her fellow fairy types, dashing to close the distance between them.

One of them looked up from their conversation and waggled his fingers in a metronome motion. Nova returned the friendly gesture as she ran.

“Here for the Lunar Ceremony?” he asked when she got close.

“Of course!” Nova said. “It's my first time back in years.”

One of the other Clefairy, one with a scruffier hair tuft turned. They swept a scrutinizing gaze over her before their eyes lit up.

“Wait. Nova, is that you? It's me, Cosmos! We used to hang out before every ceremony, remember?”

“Cosmos?” Nova gasped. “I do remember you! We were still cleffa back then. But look at us now.” She spun around, ending with a wink and a waggle of her finger.

The male clefairy that had waved her over gave a goofy salute. “I’m Tide of the Starburst cluster. Cosmos joined us last moon. What cluster do you belong to?”

Cluster. That wasn’t a term she’d heard in a while. Outside of predominantly clefairy areas, using it to refer to a friend and family unit wasn’t common.

Nova gave a flustered wave of her paw. “O-oh, I’m not currently with a cluster. I actually formed a rescue team with a friend of mine a couple years ago. I took some time off to come back and catch up with old friends and family.”

“Ah, I see. Well, if you want to stick around with our cluster tonight, feel free.” Tide gave her a wink. “It sounds like you have someone to catch up with here, as it is.”

Well, she had other pokemon to find, but she did want to be with a group for the ceremony. Standing alone would be embarrassing. “Not for the whole night. But I’d like that. Thanks.”

Tide grinned. “Awesome. Then we better get going. You remember the way to the clearing, right? It’s this way.” Then he turned, leading the way up a hill.

---

By the time Nova had made her rounds at the ceremony grounds, greeting old friends and family, it was already dark. She couldn’t help but be surprised by how many were there, though she supposed more clefairy stayed on the island than left.

She took a seat on a flat, smooth rock beside Cosmos, staring up at the twinkling stars.

“It shouldn’t be too much longer,” Cosmos said, gesturing to a group of clefable at the center of the clearing.

“Mm.” Nova leaned back, fluttering her wings. “I’m glad I made it. I’m surprised how little has changed since I left if I’m being honest.” She sighed. “I missed this.”

Cosmos laid back and rested their arms on their belly. “You know, you could stay if you want,” they said. “You could join our cluster. I don’t think Tide would mind; he seems to like you.”

Nova smiled wanly. “Thanks, but I can’t. I have a life off the island now. There are pokemon out there that depend on me.”

“I should have expected that. You’ve always been an independent one.” Cosmos laughed, then grew quiet, turning their attention to the twinkling stars. “But come back more often, okay?”

“I’d like to try.”

The duo lapsed into silence, content to stargaze in each other’s company until a call came from the center of the clearing. It was time to begin.

Cosmos and Nova slipped from their seat, making their way over to the rest of the Starburst cluster. A group of clefairy wove through the crowd, dancing and twirling and raising their voice in song. All around, clefairy began waving their arms to the rhythm of the voices. More of the observers joined the song, adding harmony to the melody and calling out to the moon.

In that moment, Nova knew that there would always be a part of her that belonged here, no matter how far away she traveled.

 

[System Error]

Stuff is in the oven, let's read some more quick fluff. Mystery dungeon, huh? I don't normally read these, but actually talking about the mystery dungeons themselves is a good start for me.

I like the neat little body language detail of moving fingers like using Metronome. Some writers I find tend to forget that Pokemon might not have body language that matches up with humans. Even for things that are humanoid in shape! We get some small worldbuilding even here, like using the term cluster to refer to a group of the little pink metronoming horrors. Good stuff showing variance.

Random spitballing or thoughtcrafting: the three named ones have names that are related to stars. Yeah, I caught Tide too: as in tidal forces. That said, I wonder what one raised different and outside of a traditional family would be named? And how one that did would react to a different name?

This little one-shot feels like a snippet from something bigger, especially given the familiar conversation between the old friends. Not to say I didn't like it. The second half is small fluff between old friends. But the sudden invitation to rejoin a cluster sort of fell flat given the swift format. I imagine in a larger fic, it would have been given a bit more attention and gravitas, even with Nova already being ready with an answer for that from the beginning. I dunno. Still, the amount of worldbuilding you pack into the first half is pretty golden.

One small typo, at least, it is in your context of lowercasing Pokemon and their names: there is a point where Clefairy is capitalized. May not like it myself, but it's rampant enough that I have to accept it, as long as it's consistent. A quick tweak, nothing too serious.

 

[NebulaDreams]

Hi, Wind! It’s been a while since I’ve read one of your works, but I have some experience of your PMD writing style from Places We Call Home. I was surprised to read something quite wholesome here as it’s a nice slice of life story about a Clefairy reconnecting with their own kind before heading back to the guild. There were a lot of neat species-specific details such as how they greet each other, and I freaking love how their societies are split into clusters, and the term is also used to refer to friend and family units. It kind of reminds me of that one chapter of The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet where the main character visits Aandrisk’s home planet and gets to know the unique family structures there.

As light as this drabble is on story, I really liked the sentiment of the ending. Seems like you can take the Clefairy out of the cluster but you can’t take the cluster out of the Clefairy, which is relatable. It’s refreshing that she isn’t judged for staying with her career as a rescue team, as I would usually expect from these types of stories where the person who leaves the nest reluctantly returns home.

I’ll echo System Error’s sentiments and say it feels like a snippet of something greater which isn’t a bad thing as it’s consistently cosy throughout. I just would’ve liked to have seen more of the island and the ceremony, especially since it feels like there’s a middle section missing where she’s reconnecting with her friends and family. But it was nice for what it was just spending time with these characters appreciating the quiet moments watching the stars before they go their separate ways.

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

Heya, so I had most of my evening eaten up by a particularly big and meaty review, so that sent me sniffing around for some light fare to throw on top of things. Your other PokéPod fic sounded like a good enough candidate to me, so let’s see where this goes:

Spoiler: Line-by-Line

Summary: Nova the clefairy revisits her old home and is reminded of the parts of clefairy culture she's missed.

Oh, this one will be fun to see. I’ve played around with similar premises a couple times before, but I’ve never done it before for a Clefairy, so let’s see what those look like:

Clefairy Nova took a deep breath as she exited the Remains Island mystery dungeon, reaching the highest point of the island. She raised a paw to shield her eyes against the harsh light of the setting sun. Good, she was a bit early; moonrise wasn’t for another couple of hours.

I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting to see a Mystery Dungeon one-shot, since I was under the impression that PokéPod’s entries were set in trainerverse, but I’m not complaining. Kudos for choosing an actual game Mystery Dungeon to build things around, since those often don’t get a lot of development among fanfic writers.

As her gaze swept across the clearing, she spotted another group of clefairy a dozen meters or so away, but no more. The others would probably arrive later, but she, for one, was looking forward to catching up.

“Hey there!” she called to her fellow fairy types, dashing to close the distance between them.

Uh… they are going to still recognize you as an old friend, right, Nova? ^^;

One of them looked up from their conversation and waggled his fingers in a metronome motion. Nova returned the friendly gesture as she ran.

Oh, so that’s how they would also use Metronome, huh? Though there’s our first bit of Clefairy culture there.

“Here for the Lunar Ceremony?” he asked when she got close.

“Of course!” Nova said. “It's my first time back in years.”

One of the other Clefairy, one with a scruffier hair tuft turned. They swept a scrutinizing gaze over her before their eyes lit up.

Scruffy Clefairy:

Nova: “Er… that shouldn’t be an issue, right?”

“Wait. Nova, is that you? It's me, Cosmos! We used to hang out before every ceremony, remember?”

“Cosmos?” Nova gasped. “I do remember you! We were still cleffa back then. But look at us now.” She spun around, ending with a wink and a waggle of her finger.

Oh, so they all have space/star-themed names. I wonder if they’re also literally from space like they are in the anime / are said to be in game folklore.

The male clefairy that had waved her over gave a goofy salute. “I’m Tide of the Starburst cluster. Cosmos joined us last moon. What cluster do you belong to?”

Oh, so that’s what they call their groups. That’s actually really clever for keeping with the space/star theming you have going on with them.

'Cluster'. That wasn’t a term she’d heard in a while. Outside of predominantly clefairy areas, using it to refer to a friend and family unit wasn’t common.

A bit nitpicky, but it might make sense to single-quote ‘Cluster’ as an internal quote to Cosmos’ word there.

Nova gave a flustered wave of her paw. “O-oh, I’m not currently with a cluster. I actually formed a rescue team with a friend of mine a couple years ago. I took some time off to come back and catch up with old friends and family.”

“Ah, I see. Well, if you want to stick around with our cluster tonight, feel free.” Tide gave her a wink. “It sounds like you have someone to catch up with here, as it is.”

Well, that turned out less awkwardly than I expected. Though that actually makes me wonder why Nova didn’t invite those teammates of hers to come along here.

Well, she had other pokemon to find, but she did want to be with a group for the ceremony. Standing alone would be embarrassing. “Not for the whole night. But I’d like that. Thanks.”

Oh, so it’s like prom night in high school. /s

Tide grinned. “Awesome. Then we better get going. You remember the way to the clearing, right? It’s this way.” Then he turned, leading the way up a hill.

Nova: “Er… vaguely? But I’m sure I’ll remember things as I see a bit more.” ^^;

By the time Nova had made her rounds at the ceremony grounds, greeting old friends and family, it was already dark. She couldn’t help but be surprised by how many were there, though she supposed more clefairy stayed on the island than left.

Oh, so Nova’s not the only Clefairy who made the trip back from outside this Mystery Dungeon to back home.

She took a seat on a flat, smooth rock beside Cosmos, staring up at the twinkling stars.

“It shouldn’t be too much longer,” Cosmos said, gesturing to a group of clefable at the center of the clearing.

“Mm.” Nova leaned back, fluttering her wings. “I’m glad I made it. I’m surprised how little has changed since I left if I’m being honest.” She sighed. “I missed this.”

Fortunately, Nova isn’t getting confronted about giving anyone a stiff bop upside the head while on the job. Can’t tell if that means that she skipped out on the missions in this Mystery Dungeon or else if the local Pokémon are fairly quick to let bygones be bygones.

Cosmos laid back and rested their arms on their belly. “You know, you could stay if you want,” they said. “You could join our cluster. I don’t think Tide would mind; he seems to like you.”

Nova smiled wanly. “Thanks, but I can’t. I have a life off the island now. There are pokemon out there that depend on me.”

“I should have expected that. You’ve always been an independent one.” Cosmos laughed, then grew quiet, turning their attention to the twinkling stars. “But come back more often, okay?”

“I’d like to try.”

I actually wonder just how much of this story, if anything aside from the mention of Mystery Dungeons, would have to change if this story were framed as Nova doing a day trip back to Mt. Moon, since something about these sentiments feel like they’d be pretty universal for journeying Pokémon in general.

The duo lapsed into silence, content to stargaze in each other’s company until a call came from the center of the clearing. It was time to begin.

Cosmos and Nova slipped from their seats, making their way over to the rest of the Starburst cluster. A group of clefairy wove through the crowd, dancing and twirling and raising their voice in song. All around, clefairy began waving their arms to the rhythm of the voices. More of the observers joined the song, adding harmony to the melody and calling out to the moon.

In that moment, Nova knew that there would always be a part of her that belonged here, no matter how far away she traveled.

Cute ending there.

Alright, made it to the end of things. I don’t have that much to say since it’s a short piece and mechanically there wasn’t terribly much to complain about. I do think that the exploration of Clefairy culture was a lot of fun, especially since they’re one of those Pokémon that’s a bit “oh yeah, them, they exist” sometimes, while you got a lot of mileage out of their star/space theming that’s typically attached to them while still making it feel natural. The characters were also charming, and you did a pretty good job at bringing them to life in such a short number of words.

I understand that PokéPod had very strict length limits for its submissions, even if I do wonder if a bit more runway would’ve allowed you to explore the Clefairy culture and show off more of Nova’s thought process and context for where she came from a bit more. I do kinda wonder if the Mystery Dungeon setting wasn’t leveraged as much as it could’ve been, since aside from having to acknowledge the presence of a trainer somewhere, the things that happened in this one-shot honestly felt like they could’ve been transposed to Mt. Moon without much effort, which… uh… would be a bit harder if playing up the Mystery Dungeon angle a bit more.

But altogether, I thought that this was a fun bite-sized story @windskull . I’ll be looking forward to diving back into your more substantial fare sometime soon, since it’s always a lot of fun seeing you bring your characters and the worlds they live in to life.

 

[ShiniGojira]

Hello! How's it going for ya? Good? Bad? Well, however you day's going, I hope this little review can brighten up your day!

So, this was a nice little fic. A mystery dungeon fic and it looked like it was either from an original region or something completely disconnected from the story of the games.

Our Clefairy MC meets up with a cluster of her own species. I love all the space references you've thrown here and there. A group of Clefairy being called a cluster, all the named Clefairy having names that had something to do with space.is every Clefairy named after spacy things? If so, does that mean there's a Clefairy out there named 'Black Hole' or 'Gamma'? 'cause I'll be honest, that sounds rather goofy if it's true.

The lunar ceremony... Well there wasn't too much in terms of content but it is nice to see little tidbits of it. Singing under the moonlight, aligning their rhythms with each other and overall enjoying themselves. I wonder whether this had anything to do with the anime's portrayal? It felt familiar to me so who knows.

The interaction between Nova and Tide was nice, I like the calm and happy undertone between the two and how they reminisce abou the past, about how many and how little things can change despite the time passing. It's a great little somber and grounded discussion that I always enjoy.

And that should be it for now. Thanks for this fun little fic. Hope you have a great rest of your day.

 

[Namohysip]

And my second review for your oneshots! Right at the start, I like the quiet implication of how this is a nocturnal activity by referring to sunset as arriving there early. In general, as I was reading this piece, I liked a lot of the indirect worldbuilding. I can appreciate doing that instead of spelling it out, especially for a work so concise.

I like the worldbuilding in general in that first scene. Since the story has to be so short as part of that project, I think I'll be a little stricter on word choice and sentence inclusions here and remark that the bit of exposition on what clusters were could have been condensed. There was not much of a need to explain what a cluster is. Context clues were enough, and in a way could enhance it by the reader putting it together themselves, like a star cluster. I'm almost surprised they don't use the term constellation, or nebula, or something. "Cluster" works well, though.

I liked this snapshot. It seems like one of those things that could easily fit as a scene as part of a greater work, you know? Like a backstory or a memory and motivation for whatever adventures Nova would be going on next in her rescue team. But otherwise, I liked this. I wonder what mystery dungeons are like here for her to be able to travel so easily through one alone, or if the cluster she was part of acted more like residents of the dungeon instead. That's not frequently seen, and it has me interested in what that all could mean in the greater context. Now that I think about it, I wonder if this could be even remotely tied to PWCH. No idea. But anyway, this was a nice snapshot into Clefairy life. I think you captured the theme of the Pokémon well, and that was the goal. Thanks for the read!