Pokémon PMD: Crux of the Self

[Truebrush]

Cover illustration by DO9Bessa

"A college dropout wakes as a salandit, and struggles to find their role in a world that already has its hero."

Content warning for gender dysphoria

Honest critique is welcome


Chapter 1: Not-Food​

The sound of rain pattering against a tent. Memories? Mine? The taste of store brand birthday cake frosting. This isn't my bed. The feel of Jake's stubble against his cheek. Headlights on a dusty windshield. Where am I?

Von dared to crack his eyes open. Sunlight drifted through an overcast sky. Groggily, he allowed himself to feel. Sand against his cheek, his belly, his hands. He didn't move as he took stock. He didn't remember passing out naked on a beach. He allowed himself to lift his head, to take in his surroundings. Instinctively, he tried to do so by propping himself up on one elbow, but nothing moved right. His arms were too short. His spine wanted to stay horizontal. Confused, he rolled onto his side, and looked down at himself, and balked, frozen in place as he took in what he saw.

Somehow, Von had become a lizard. As he tested his new muscles, swaying his tail and flexing his claws, he tried to remain calm as he processed the sight of himself. Black and gray skin, a red-orange line scrawling from his lower back down his tail. He righted himself again, back onto his belly, against the warm sand. A dream, he told himself, as he began to walk, slowly at first, to get used to his new movements. It was the only explanation, after all.

As Devon Stafford awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, Von humored himself, he found himself transformed on the beach into a small reptile. He walked aimlessly letting his tail drag through the soft sand. It felt nice against his skin, different than he remembered beach sand feeling, but the last time he felt that was years and years ago, when he was still on good terms with his family in Oregon. It would feel different, wouldn't it? He stopped walking and scraped his claws through sand. He focused on the feeling, on how material it felt. How vivid his surroundings were- the sound of the ebbing tide, the smell of seafoam and surf, the dulled irritation of grains of sand that clung to his claws when he pulled them from the dune.

This has to be a dream, Von insisted, despite his new reality. He squeezed his eyes shut, and pinched himself on his new tail. He felt the pain. He opened his eyes again, and looked skyward, to the sunlight, until the sting drove him to cast his gaze downward once more, to the material reality of the beach he stood on. What? He fell asleep in his car, in a parking lot in Whitefish, in the decidedly landlocked state of Montana. Where?

Lacking the tools to comprehend what had happened to him, and how he wound up by the ocean, what could he do but walk? He continued onward in the direction he had started. It was a coastline, sooner or later he would come across civilization, and he could puzzle out where he was. Though, I would scare people, looking like this, he thought, and after contemplating the impact of his new appearance, new factors played out in his head. He looked skyward again, scanning for wildlife, now half expecting a hawk to swoop down and snatch him up by his tail. Hawks eat lizards, right? The idea occurred to him that he should dart off of the beach, and into the treeline that followed the coast, but the thought of running into a coyote amid the trees dissuaded him further. He compromised by sticking to the driftwood- there was plenty of it, sun-bleached flotsam piled together in the sand, hollowed-out logs large enough for him to dart into should he spot the shadow of a bird circling overhead. Am I overreacting? He wondered, I'm on the larger side of the lizard spectrum. No Gila monster, but I'm no skink either. From snout to tailtip, he was about two and a half feet long. A newfound fear of predators helped take his mind off of his more existentialist dread. It let him focus, instead of mope his way down the beach, and it let his inner monologue quiet down. He funneled his energy into relearning how to walk, how to use his tail for balance, how to grip driftwood with his new claws.

After twenty minutes of walking, Von felt renewed. The coastal air felt clean in his lungs. His spirits had lifted, and were he still in his old body, he might not have minded the sudden change of location at all. The white sand, the clear blue ocean, it all felt so picturesque. This is far too gorgeous to still be in the States, he thought. Then, off to his right, in the shallows of the tide, he spotted the movement he had feared, of a bird swooping down to feed. It happened before he could do more than turn his head- a sudden thunderous splash in the water. He froze, mid step, as he witnessed a bird gulp down a fish. Some sort of waterfowl- he couldn't place the species. It was large, covered in blue feathers, a vacant and distant look in its large green eyes. It must have sensed him staring. It turned to look back at him. He was paralyzed with fear, certain that if he moved, he'd provoke it.

"Fish?" it asked.

Von stared. It didn't say 'fish,' but it's what his brain registered. The sound that left its beak was unmistakably more of a 'craw,' a loud and clumsy noise befitting of a bird as gangling as the strange beast before him, but somehow, Von understood it as a word.

"Food?!" it squawked again, and began to paddle its way ashore.

"What." Von couldn't help himself from blurting it out. What left his mouth was a hiss, low and quiet.

"Food for Cramorant?" Not just words, but it could attempt sentences. There was hope in the waterfowl's voice. Von didn't pretend to understand how he picked up on the thing's tone. Its webbed feet found purchase in the shallows, and it stood, wading ashore. Von backed up, slowly, until he pressed himself back against a log of driftwood.

"N-not food," Von stammered, still uncertain what was happening. Cross-species communication shouldn't be possible. Von couldn't even understand how he was forming words with his alien throat. The bird- Cramorant, apparently- seemed to pout. It stepped onto the sand, and shook water from its feathers, flaps from its wings sending droplets into the white dunes. "Um.. friend?" Von asked in the hopes that it would keep its beak away from him.

"Toxic," it replied. "No good."

It took a moment for Von to register that it was talking about him. The possibility that he might be a poisonous species of lizard hadn't crossed his mind. "Do you know what I am?"

Cramorant took a good, hard look at Von, tilting its head one way, then the other. "Not food," it admitted, and promptly lost interest in Von. It spread its wings to dry them in the scarce rays of sun that pierced the cloudy sky.

Von relaxed and pushed away from the log. No longer in fear of the bird, maybe he could get some of his questions answered. "Cramorant, what are you? How can I understand you? And what am I?"

"Pokemon," Cramorant said simply.

Von's head spun. Pokemon. The cultural zeitgeist he experienced as a kid. "What?"

"What?" Cramorant repeated. "What what?"

"Pokemon? Like the games? What about them?"

The Cramorant looked taken aback. "Pokemon!" it repeated, and flapped its wings in frustration. "Cramorant, Pokemon! Not-Food, Pokemon! Simple!"

Von was floored and struck speechless. He sat there, mouth agape, staring at the bird, trying to parse this new knowledge in his mind. He didn't recognize Cramorant, nor himself, from the games he played as a kid. He stopped playing in high school, and never went back to the series. What knowledge he gleaned thereafter was through cultural osmosis of simply existing in a shared online space. His brain recoiled from their conversation, and he clasped his head in his claws. "No.. no way.."

Cramorant squawked again, and Von looked up at it, dread all over his features. "Is Not-Food well? Does Not-Food need food?"

Thoughts pulled back to the material, Von swallowed. He was pretty hungry, but he imagined Cramorant regurgitating fish as birds often feed their young. "No.. Not-Food not need food. Not-Food need.. people?" The word 'people' felt off. "Humans?" he tried again.

"Never met," Cramorant said. "Town downwind, look for fire." It extended a wing, gesturing further down the shore.

"Thank you," Von said wearily.

Cramorant lingered, but remained quiet. It wasn't accustomed to being helpful.

Von began walking again, his head swimming with thoughts. He wanted to convince himself he was in a dream after all, no matter how concrete reality around him felt. Maybe I should have paid more attention to the philosophy course I took in community college. Maybe it's a fever dream? Don't think I've had one of those before. Oh, maybe I'm currently freezing to death in my car in a parking lot in Montana and hallucinating everything. That, or a coma. I wonder what it is about my subconscious that I see myself as a poisonous lizard.

To make matters worse, raindrops began to fall. They were small, unnoticeable to Von when the rain started, but the overcast sky gradually darkened, and the droplets grew heavier. He first noticed the rain when spots of gray began appearing on the white sand of the beach around him, before he felt it on his exposed back. Just couldn't allow me to keep my clothes, could you, fate? He mourned his lack of protection from the elements, and glanced inland again. He relented on his decision to stay away from the forest, and skittered over the driftwood to the edge of the treeline. As long as he kept visual on the ocean, he couldn't get lost, he decided, as the sound of rain grew louder. The trees he sheltered beneath resembled hemlocks, but he wasn't sure. Whatever trees they were, they towered above his new smaller size.

He continued onward, over roots and through grass, keeping his eyes and ears alert for any more signs of life. The sound of rain grew heavier, but it never drowned out the ocean waves. He wasn't sure how much time had passed- it was hard to track the sun through the rainclouds. When his brain grew restless and anxious from his constant state of high alert, it began to wander, and spiral.

This is all probably some sort of self-imposed guilty karmic punishment my psyche has inflicted upon itself. Cormorant said I'm toxic. How many people have I hurt? Faces from his past bubbled up in his memory. He was quick to push his family from the picture- that pain went both ways. It was his friends he missed, and his ex, despite the relationship that doomed them both, he still cared for Jake, or he thought he did. The more despondent he became, the deeper his past actions hurt, no matter how small or trivial, his most minor faults burned like hot coals. If only I was a better person..

And then, to free him from his despair, he saw hope up ahead. The shoreline curved inland, and following the shoreline, he found himself looking over a bay. He stood at what he first thought was a peninsula, but then saw as a barrier sheltering the stiller waters from the waves. A river fed into the bay, and at that river, a town. Buildings dotted the landscape, and Von's heart soared.

On the coast opposite the mouth of the bay, Von recognized the shape of a lighthouse, a tall wooden structure where a large brazier would be lit during the sunset. He scanned the horizon inland again, and thought he recognized the shape of an old stone church built on a gentle hill. Most of the other buildings in town looked newer, and vastly different in architecture, as from a distance, they looked like small wooden domes only one story tall. As Von continued to trace his path down the shore, he was able to focus on the odd architecture more clearly- they were simple huts, it seemed to him, made of wood and clay, some made of shaped stone, and many were topped with wooden structures meant to resemble pointed ears. Von didn't question the sight, enough strange things had happened to him upon waking for him to pause. He persevered onward, in the hope of simply finding a place he could feel safe.

Ocean life seemed to congregate in the bay. Von recognized Pokemon from his youth when he spotted a trio of Lapras as they swam from the waterfront of the town, though they weren't alone. Smaller Pokemon with pink shells waded in the bay, as well. Distantly, Von picked up snippets of gull cries. He couldn't see their source, but had to assume they were taking shelter from the rain. On his walk to the town, he kept his eyes peeled for more clues. Oddly, there didn't seem to be any paved roads, though dirt paths snaked between buildings and over hills. No vehicles, either. The waterfront lacked a dock, the sandy beach sprawled continuous and uninterrupted. No piers meant no boats. After he walked closer, he had to sit and stare and analyze. All of the buildings were too small for human habitation. Von's gaze went from the simple huts to the church on the hill, and back again, perplexed. The church looked manmade, at least from the distance he was at now, sized appropriately for a grown adult to step comfortably through the doorway. The houses, meanwhile, would require stooping at the very least, if not outright crawling for the smaller doorways on some of them. The town had little foot traffic, and none of it was human. The rain that swept over the village likely kept its inhabitants inside, he thought. He glanced behind him, to the Lapras heading for the horizon, and corrected himself. Water types shouldn't mind it though, right?

Von hesitated on the edge of town. There was shelter, here, but was there any for him? He couldn't just knock on the closest door and ask whoever was inside for a roof over his head- that wasn't how it worked. It was why he was living in his car, in Montana- The church! He interrupted his dour thoughts, to allow himself hope. The building on the hill, the only one sized for humans. If there was a building in town a human would be in, it would be the church.

He skittered excitedly through the empty streets, through puddles of rainwater forming on the packed dirt paths, then over soft wet grass that tickled against belly and tail, cutting a course uphill, until he came to the base of the stone building. It looked old, and towered above him. A crooked weather vane perched at the top of its steeple, and rattled stubbornly in the breeze, refusing to turn. The sole stained-glass window on the front of the building depicted a glistening silvery blue chalice, empty, and chipped along its brim. The windows were dark; but the door was propped open with stone. Von scampered up the wet steps, and lingered in the doorway, peering in. It was dark; the only light that would help him came in through the windows, and drifted over the pews, all of which sat empty, all facing the altar. There was no pulpit, a simple altar, dusty with disuse. Von's heart sank. How long had this place been sitting vacant?

He wandered inside, just to get out of the rain. The purple carpet that stretched down the aisle between the pews was a nice change of texture, at least, from all of the sand he had crawled through, and the cold grass that wiped off the sand that had clung to him. He wandered down the aisle, in search of a soft place to curl up on, to wait out the rain. When he got to the altar, he turned to look back the way he came, and blinked in surprise at the small stubby candles that filled the pews. And here, I thought my family's church was strange, he thought, before a chill ran down his spine, as one candle came alight in a cold blue flame, and then another; again and again, until the dozens of candles that filled the room all glowed a ghostly hue- and one by one, they opened their eyes.

"Stranger?" came a whisper, followed by another, "How odd. We don't get visitors often," a disembodied voice asked, breathless, yet felt against the back of his neck.

A gust of wind rattled the windows in their frames, and Von fell into a dreadful state of fear.

 

[Truebrush]

Chapter 2: Soul Food​

“I'm so, so sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt..” Von couldn't pull his eyes away from the candlelight. Each wick vied for his attention, and his eyes danced from flame to flame, each swaying in a subtle, captivating dance. He swayed where he stood. Unable to take a step, unable to look away from the candles that filled the pews.

“Are you lost?” came a whisper. “We haven't seen you in Candle Cay before,” came another. “It's so nice to have a guest!”

The words of the candle congregation were calm and curious, but they nevertheless had Von's stomach in knots.“I am lost,” He admitted.

“We're very good at guiding folks home!”

“Where is home?” Hope flared within the lizard.

“A tunnel runs beneath us.” “It will take you wherever you need to go.” “It's a maze, so you best stick with us!” “It'd be bad to get lost down there.” “We'll keep you safe.” “The door to the cellar.” “Will you follow?” “Lets get you home, where it's nice and warm.”

Transfixed, Von could only focus on the candlelight. It helped distract him from the surge of weakness he felt. Home. Which one? Jake? Would he even recognize me like this? His body began to move and he shuffled after one of the candles leading him down the chancel, to a door, tucked away in the old stone. Home. In my car? Where I was? Where it's cold. So cold.. At least the fire of the ghostly candle was warm. Home. With my family? In Oregon? There's a church there, too-

“There is no home to go to,” he said aloud. The crowd of candles kept their smiles of melted wax as they stared at him. Von's heart thudded in his chest. He had broken their spell over him, but would they let him leave?

He stopped moving and stared, not in fascination, but in shock. He stood at the top of a set of wooden stairs that descended into a darkness he could not will himself to enter. At the foot of the stairs waited one of the spirits whose flame led him downward, its candle hardly able to pierce the darkness that would have swallowed him, had he not come to his senses.

The walls of the cellar were built different from the church. Underground, the stone from which the church was made gave way to ancient clay brickwork. It smelled earthy, but dry, none of the dampness present he expected from a basement. The ghost's flickering blue light not quite strong enough to peel back the darkness that shrouded the alcoves that lined the walls. Catacombs.

The spirits' flames flared higher, and a sickness swept through Von. They've been sapping my strength this whole time, he realized. He sunk his claws into the doorframe to steady himself. “Home is down,” “Come with us through the tunnels,” “Of course you have a home,” “Everyone does!” Their voices swirled around him, the chorus of the candles cacophonous.

“.. Not this one,” came a whisper quieter than the rest, almost imperceptible, but so, so close. At the base of the stairs, the sole candle below him went dark. One by one, the fires gathered behind him, urging him down, were extinguished, while they all remained quiet, not a single protest among them. When the last light was snuffed out, Von took in a shaky breath of air as their pressure weighed off of his chest.

From the shadow cast by Von's tail rose a ghost, its body a smokey darkness, its eyes burning of two distant candles, flickering orange this time. It spoke again, addressing the gathered spirits. “This one belongs to me now. Return to your rest.” It was humanoid and stood only two feet tall, but its presence commanded all of Von's attention. As the candles obediently returned to their places, Von stared at the dark presence with only weariness, too drained to think, or to question.

“Human,” it hissed, “You will perish, if you are not more careful. Your time to venture into the Labyrinth will come, but not today.” It placed a hand on his shoulder, its grip icy, its eyes of fire burning into his. “You are weak of will and body. Do strive to be better than the naive pawn that you are.” A tremor passed through him, emanating from where the darkness held him. Sapped of everything he had, Von could no longer hold onto consciousness, and slipped into unsteady dreams.

The spirit took a piece of Von's shadow before it drifted into the darkness of the still and silent cellar.

---

Candle Cay came alive as the sun went down. Ren took a delight in watching it wake. The small black fox disguised itself as a Banette, perched on the fence that circled the pumpkin patch, and the Pumpkaboo that roused themselves from their garden payed him no mind as they slowly rose and drifted off down the hillside to the town. Faintly, Ren could see lanterns as they flickered on, orange and blue, depending on who their lamplighter was that night. The stalls at the night market slowly began to buzz with activity, as denizens of the Cay began their day a little after sunset.

Once the last Pumpkaboo had floated off, Ren lingered a few minutes longer, his eyes on the cape, for when the lighthouse flared to life with a purple glow. Dinnertime, he thought to himself, before he hopped from the fence to the soil of the ghost's garden, his illusion dispelled in a puff of smoke.

Most Pokemon made sure to steer clear of a ghost's favored haunt, but that only meant more pickings for the daring. Aside from himself and the occasional Murkrow, the Pumpkaboo's seeds were left alone for the most part, and the trellis on which berry plants grew were never quite picked clean. The true prize of the patch was, however, the plum tree that sheltered the southwest corner of the fence. The rule among scavengers was to never take more than what was needed, and those that frequented the pumpkin patch never overstepped their bounds.

Ren helped himself to two rawst berries plucked from their vines, before he made off with a plum in his mouth. The bitter juices of the rawst berry on his tongue helped dull the plum's sweetness. He carried the fruit with him on his way back to the night market, until he heard a familiar cry.

A Rockruff's howl carried through the chill air, an urgent tone meant for him. It was Kaia. He skid to a stop, turned tail, and bolted in the direction of the call, to the great stone building that loomed over Candle Cay. As he ran, he drew up an illusion of a Houndoom, to wear a mask to intimidate were there to be trouble.

He did not expect the sight he stumbled upon. His friend, Kaia, sat proudly upon a prone lizard Ren didn't recognize. The Rockruff's tail wagged happily as she saw him approach. “Look what I caught slithering out of the dungeon!”

Ren paced around to its front, examining the creature's face. Its eyes looked vacant, its breathing shallow. Pupils focused in on the features of the Zorua's illusion, but belied little emotion. Ren let the plum fall from his mouth with a soft thud against the wet grass. “What is it?”

“Salandit. Used to see them all over the shoals back home.” Kaia sniffed the air. “A female. Weird that it's alone.”

“How can you tell?” Ren never understood lizards.

“Can't you smell that sweet scent? Actually- don't try too hard,” Kaia giggled. “All Salandit emit a sweet-smelling poison gas to lure bugs into becoming a snack. Females, however, can lace theirs with a pheromone that attract males of all species-”

“I'll be sure to hold my nose,” said Ren dourly. “Anyway, I've never known an amalgam to leave Labyrinth.” He waved a paw in front of the lizard's face. It gurgled incoherently, and its tail swept over the grass, aimless. “It's oddly passive too.”

Kaia looked down at her prey under her paws, wary. “You're right, now that I think about it.” She leaned over so she could look the thing in its eyes. “Hey, if I get off of you, do you promise not to run away?” All she got in turn was a confused blink. Cautiously, the Rockruff eased her weight off of the lizard. It remained motionless.

“Maybe a ghost scrambled its brains,” offered Ren.

Kaia looked to the church. “It would've had to get past all those Litwick. I think you're right.”

“... Food?”

Both Ren and Kaia perked up in surprise as the Salandit spoke. Ren hesitated, before he nudged the forgotten plum over to their captive. Timidly, the lizard nibbled at the fruit and, after a few bites, it ravenously devoured the rest. “Must be shock,” Ren whispered. “What should we do?”

“I wonder which ghosts are best at giving medical care.”

“How many residents of the Cay do you think were Chansey in their past life?”

“I wonder if they can still make those eggs.” Kaia's stomach growled. “Probably couldn't fill up on ghost eggs though. They'd just pass right through you.”

The two friends shared a chuckle before Ren turned his attention back to their find. “It might be a longshot, but do you still have that expedition bag? I wonder if the medicine in there is still good.”

“Of course, I remember where I've buried every single thing,” Kaia said proudly. “I'll go fetch it. Be sure to plug your nose!” She took off down the hillside, leaving Ren alone as a ward.

“You're not that stinky,” Ren murmured as he studied the lizard. It was a pretty pathetic sight. Salandit didn't seem like a very proud species at the best of times, and this one had been put through the ringer. He took pity on it and he let his illusion fade.

---

Von's cognizance dredged itself back up into existence. His memory of the past few hours was fuzzy, at best- almost as fuzzy as the black-furred fox he found himself following. Key details clicked into place; they found him outside of the church, they fed him, and they meant him no harm. Relief swelled up inside of him- until a few more snippets of info bubbled to the surface. The dog-like Pokemon that sat on him mentioned something that bothered him. Did she say 'female?' His self-exam on the beach didn't account for this possibility, not that Von had any idea how to determine the sex of a lizard in the first place.

“Here. Rest here.”

Von's attention snapped back to the fox, who had led him to the base of a gnarled old tree. He found a crook in its roots that looked comfortable enough. He curled up within it, thankful to be taken away from the site of his agony.

“Thank you so, so much. What's your name?”

“Zorua,” came a curt reply.

“Is that, like.. your name, or your species?” He waited, an uncomfortable silence lingering in the air. “.. I'm Von. It's nice to meet you.”

He gave up the pretense of keeping an eye out for danger, and instead he turned around to fix him with a perplexing stare. “What did those ghosts do to you?”

“I don't know,” he said meekly. He averted his eyes- he didn't like being stared at.

Zorua must have seen the hurt in his eyes. “Well, ah.. I'm not sure what customs you're used to, but here, names are reserved for friends.”

“I'm sorry, I didn't know.”

“Where are you from?”

“Oregon.” Not a hint of recognition showed on Zorua's face. “Um. America?” The fox cocked his head. Von tried again, with mounting desperation “.. Earth?”

Both Pokemon looked and felt uncomfortable. “You're in Candle Cay right now,” Zorua said to break the silence. “North of Murkmoor. East of Green Mills?” It was Zorua's turn to be on the receiving end of blank stares. “Goodness, you're far from home.”

“I'll say,” Von muttered, before speaking up louder. “Are there any humans around?”

Zorua furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, that ever since I woke up on an alien shore, in a body not my own, the only things I talked to today were a bird that sorts everything it sees into the two categories of 'food' and 'not-food' and a church full of ghosts that I think tried to eat my soul.” Von surprised himself with the anger and frustration that boiled over and spilled into his voice. “I'm a human, Zorua. Or I was? I don't know how it works, but I'm not myself, anymore.”

Zorua just stared for a time. Von wanted to curl up tighter, to disappear. He hugged his tail to himself, and squeezed his eyes shut, tears burning down his cheeks.

“I'll talk to you about this later,” Zorua finally spoke up again. He must've heard the dog approaching before Von did. When he opened his eyes again, the other Pokemon trotted proudly up the hillside, a satchel held in her mouth, stained with soil from the ground. She dropped it to the grass before Zorua, and wagged her tail.

“See? I remembered where it was after only digging two holes!”

“I'm very proud of you,” Zorua said as he pawed the fastener. He tugged the flap open, and stuck his nose into the earthy bag, pulling a stoppered glass vial from it. The liquid inside swirled a misty blue. “Should still be good, right?”

“Iunno. You'd have to ask Braixen.”

Zorua gently tossed the vial to Von. It rolled along the grass and hit a claw. “Drink up.”

Maybe if I drink enough Pokemon mystery drugs, I'll turn back into a human. Von was too tired to argue. He gripped the vial in claw and pulled the cork stopper out with his teeth. The potion tasted like a blend of blackberry and grass clippings. Despite this, he drained it.

Von felt revitalized. The sensation reminded him of the way he used to chug a carton of orange juice when he got sick with the flu, finding that it helped him feel alive again, before he was told high acidity could actually make things worse for him. No longer chilled to the bone, he pushed himself up onto his feet, and shook the stiffness from his legs and tail. “Whoah. Got any more of that stuff?”

Zorua beamed happily at the end result. He turned to his companion. “Kaia? I think it's time we reform Night Vision.”

 

[Truebrush]

Chapter 3: Night Vision​

Night Vision? Is that a band?

“This is a sudden and abrupt change of heart, Ren. What inspired that?” Kaia asked, her question coated in suspicion.

“Kaia, my dearest friend, why, nothing more than chasing the pure joy and sense of fulfillment that comes with helping a fellow Pokemon in need.” Zorua maintained his stoicism, despite Rockruff's ability to sense an ulterior motive.

“Pardon, but what is Night Vision?” Von asked shyly.

“It's our old Research team,” Rockruff said hurriedly, her attention still on Zorua “Ren, come on.”

“Salandit isn't from here, Kaia.” Zorua assumed a friendly smile as he faced Von. “You know the Rescue and Exploration networks on other regions? No?” He barely paused long enough for Von to speak, as if he didn't already know his answer. “Well, a long time ago, a group of particularly tasty Pokemon who were all tired of being food banded together to keep themselves safe. The stronger among their numbers would help defend the weak, and in return, the weak build shelters and provide sustenance for their guardians-”

“A symbiotic relationship, sure.”

“Sim-Milotic? Huh?”

Von regretted interrupting the impromptu history lesson. “Symbiotic?” The word clunked out of his throat, obtuse and clumsy, the sounds of his hissing staggered. “It's when different species live and work together for mutual benefit?”

“Quite.”

“You're strangely eloquent for a Salandit,” Rockruff said, impressed.

What is that supposed to mean? “Am I not supposed to be?” Von thought back to his exchange with Cramorant, curious and fearful of the extent of discrepancies between species.

“Perhaps 'clear-headed' is a better term,” Rockruff admitted. “You're all usually crawling all over one another in a pheromone-induced haze.”

I really don't want to hear any more. Von shuddered. “I think we were talking about teams of some kind?” He looked to Zorua, hopeful to change the subject.

The fox's focus was still on Von, eyes filled with curiosity. “Strange. But, yes, guilds formed from these cross-species alliances. Rescue teams formed communication networks that span entire regions, and Exploration teams adopted their system and expanded it to the furthest fringes of the world, hunting wondrous treasures and monstrous predators alike.”

“So a Research team, uh.. researches things?”

“Indeed.” Zorua studied Von a moment before he smiled to Rockruff. “Kaia, it's so dreary out here. I think our new friend would recover more swiftly in our burrow.”

“What? I'm not showing him our home. I'll dig a new hole if you want-”

“No need. We're going back to Halfhenge after all, it doesn't matter if the burrow is compromised now. Unless you changed your mind about the Cay, maybe you do want to spend the rest of your life with the ghosts, until you become one yourself?”

Rockruff's ears swiveled forward, her tail began to wag. “We're... leaving?”

Oh no she's cute. Von knew better than to try and pet her. He pulled his eyes away from the dog to look back at Zorua, concerned and a little bit suspicious.

Zorua must have noticed Von's trepidation. He grinned, showing off his pointed vulpine teeth. “Come, Salandit. Lets get you some rest.”



They skirted the perimeter of Candle Cay, which shone bright in the dark of the night. The town wasn't hiding from the rain. They're all nocturnal. Cords ran from building to building holding candles suspended from them lit with a comforting orange rather than the spectral alien blue of the ghosts in the church. They reminded Von of the fairy lights his college friends decorated their dorms with. It was the lanterns wrought from black iron that housed the uncomfortable blue flames of the church's congregation. He couldn't bear himself to look at them for very long.

Instead, he focused on the townsfolk, now active after the rainstorm. He could recognize a few Pokemon; a Duskull drifted between market stalls, aimless. A Sableye chittered behind a storefront as it gnawed on a crimson gemstone. A Noctowl looked to be lecturing a group of Shuppet; on what subject, Von was too far away to make out. There were shapes he didn't recognize, too; batlike creatures with heart-shaped noses flit through the sky, and Von swore that he could make out jack-o-lanterns that floated of their own accord.

Von followed behind Rockruff, and Zorua trotted behind him in turn. The trio never stepped foot into the town itself, for which he was thankful. Crowds were overwhelming at the best of times, and the locals had already given him a reminder of his own mortality.

The lighthouse loomed tall in the distance before them as they approached the cape, the brazier at its apex spilling aquamarine light on the trees that dotted the trail and the coastal tide that waxed against the rocks. Why is there a lighthouse, but no dock? He kept his question to himself.

They continued on the trail for only a few minutes more, before Rockruff stepped off of the path and into the underbrush. Von followed suit, albeit without much enthusiasm. The sickly blue-green sheen that drenched the area around them made it hard for the lizard to differentiate between dirt, grass, and sand, as he scuttled after the dog, his pace slowed enough that Zorua easily trotted up alongside him from behind.

Rockruff promptly disappeared from view so abruptly that Von froze in place. It took him a second to notice the entrance to the burrow, a hole dug between the roots of what he thought was a magnolia tree, dotted with flowers whose colors became entirely washed out in its proximity to the lighthouse. With trepidation, Von poked his head inside.

The cavern sloped downwards at a gentle angle. The floor felt like packed clay, cool to the touch. The air inside smelled of earth and wood. The tunnel was sized for the Pokemon that dug it, and lucky for Von, he fit right in. The tunnel curved away from the tree's root system that concealed its entrance, though the occasional stray root offshoot spindled from the ceiling and sides. He paused a moment to let his eyes adjust to the darkness. The tunnel extended about four feet before it opened into the cavity Rockruff had shaped into the burrow. The circular space stretched about eight feet in diameter, Von estimated. The green light that drifted in from the entrance was faint, but it was enough for him to see by.

Rockruff waited inside the chamber for her companions, standing between two bundles of beachgrass used as bedding. “Feel free to use my bed if you'd like,” she said, her paw on one of the nests. As Von stepped aside to let Zorua through, he made out what looked like alcoves carved into the clay walls of the dome. “It's not much, but no one else has found this place.”

This looks way more comfortable than sleeping in my car. “I really appreciate the help. Sincerely.”

“We won't be needing it after tonight, so feel free to stay as long as you need. It's probably not big enough for more than a couple Salandit, so whenever you decide to amass your harem, I'd advise migrating someplace else.”

Von wasn't sure how to respond. He just nodded as Zorua snickered beside him. “Th-thanks.”

“Shall we split watch duties tonight, Kaia? I'll see what medicine we still have in stock while you forage for food for our travel?”

“That works!” She ducked as Zorua looped the strap of their canvas satchel around her head. “Oh, and remember- hold your nose!”

Rockruff's tail disappeeared back up the tunnel. Von let out his held breath, and reexamined himself. What sort of beast is a Salandit, to elicit those remarks from someone?

“Take a seat, Salandit. Ask your questions; no doubt you still have plenty.”

Von flopped onto his side on the grass bedding as Zorua moved to an alcove, gently pawing through a stockpile of dried fruit and berries.

“I don't know where to start.”

“Would you like me to start, then?”

Von looked quizzically at the black fox. “Sure?”

“What were you doing in Litwick's den?”

Litwick? The candles? “Trying to stay dry. It was raining pretty hard.” He swallowed. “I didn't expect the church to be haunted.”

“The church?”

Von was never much of an etymologist. He scrolled through synonyms in his head. “Ah. Like a temple? Or a shrine?” he asked, hopeful the meaning would come through.

“Is that what that structure is? Huh. How do you know that?”

Von fidgeted with his tail. “They're all over, where I'm from. Why? Who built this one?”

“I'm not sure. No ghost I've talked to here seems to know. It just is. ”

“You've talked to ghosts, here? And they didn't steal your soul?”

Zorua stopped counting berries, and smiled. He turned his head to look at Von. “About that.. you see.. I've been dead this whole time.” In a burst of shadow, Zorua's shape melted from reality, and through the cloud of darkness came piercing red eyes, and a wicked grin. Two grasping, sharp hands reached out for him from across the burrow. Haunter's tongue drooled in ectoplasmic hunger. “We've lured you here to feast on your dreams, Salandit. I've never tasted human before.”

Von bolted from the grass bed for the tunnel, but he wasn't able to get far before a furry fox-shaped missile collided with his side. The pair slid and rolled over the clay ground until they came to a stop against the earthen wall of the dome. “Bad joke! Bad joke, I should've known better!” cried Zorua, looking once more like himself. Von stopped thrashing, and simply went limp. Zorua gently removed himself from Von, and sat, looking timid for the first time since they had met. “Sorry. Kaia's used to my illusions, I haven't been able to scare her for years.”

“I think I have enough to be scared about right now,” Von said through his exhaustion.

A long while later, well after Zorua helped Von back to bed, Von was willing to talk again. “There was something else beneath the church. It wasn't just Litwick in there. There was something...” He wracked his brain for a memory, but it all seemed foggy, in hindsight.

“I'm not surprised. There's a dungeon entrance beneath the building.” After reading the puzzlement on Von's features, Ren went on. “Mystery dungeons are a new occurrence to you, I'm sure.” Zorua took a deep breath. “There's an unknown force that warps the land. You'll be in the woods looking for food, and before you know it, the path you were following has twisted back in on itself. When you turn around, the trail you were on has split into countless forks. Maybe you ducked into a cave to find shelter during a storm, and the darkness stretches out behind you, and before you know it, you're lost in an underground maze.”

This world is terrifying.

“Every region of our world plays host to these dungeons forming in odd places. But here, on this land? They're connected to one another. One might venture into a cave by the seaside, descending only deeper into the ground, and yet somehow emerge atop Mt. Brave.”

Nothing here makes sense.

“You remember when I was talking about Rescue teams earlier? This is their primary function, now, is helping those lost inside.”

“And Research teams?”

”What did you think we were researching?”

Von moved to massage his temples, before he remembered his hands had become claws. “You've been inside of these places?”

“Of course. Both to save those trapped within it, and to find Labyrinth. There's some sort of core to the dungeons here, a maze that all of the other mazes lead in and out of.”

Labyrinth. Two burning eyes. An icy grip. An ache in his chest. A hole in his mind.

“Right now, Research teams all aim to find the center of Labyrinth, and find out the whys and hows of its formation.” Zorua gingerly picked up a dried fig from the alcove and dropped it beside his guest. “And, if we're lucky, we can find out how to stop dungeons from forming altogether.”

If I had followed those Litwick any further-

A scrabbling sound came from the tunnel, and Rockruff returned, her satchel no longer empty as it swayed with the weight of what Von supposed would be food. She looked between the two. She immediately noticed Von's sullen features and Zorua's residual guilt. “Alright. What happened?”

“Before you scold me, I already learned my lesson; no pranks.” He tacked on an addendum in a quiet whisper. “Until Salandit recovers.”

“We're just talking,” Von sighed as he nibbled halfheartedly at the fig he was given. “Zorua's teaching me about dungeons.”

“What's there to teach? Isn't that how you got here? Came up through the Litwick den?”

Von shook his head. “I don't know how I got here. But I woke up on the beach.”

“Shipwrecked, maybe?” Rockruff mused, while Zorua smirked, knowing better, but not correcting her.

“My current theory? I think I died and got reborn.”

Rockruff's eyes grew wide. “You don't mean...”

“.. I used to be human?” Von finished for her. “Or I still am human, depending on your definition and theology.”

“No way.. Ren, I can't believe..” Her look of awe turned sour when she faced her companion. “Absolutely not.”

“Come, Kaia! This time things will be different. It's never coincidence when a human shows up, is it?” Zorua paced away from Rockruff to put some distance between himself and her apparent anger. “They're resourceful and clever tacticians with a knack for unbound potential-”

“Just look at it!” Rockruff's raised voice echoed from the hilltop as a sharp yap. “Does it look like a fighter to you?”

“Maybe not now, but soon. You humans learn quickly, don't you?”

Put on the spot, Von popped the rest of the fig into his mouth to use chewing as an excuse to buy time. “Some, I guess? It depends? And stop calling me 'it,' please!” A pang of frustration flared before it faded into anxiety. “I'm not an 'it,' I'm-” he stumbled for a moment as he recalled Rockruff's observations.

A female.

“I'm a boy.”

“Regardless of your stance on recruiting him, we can't just leave him here in the Cay, can we?” Zorua moved over to Von and stood beside him. “We'll have a little walk through the moors, just to try things out. Make sure no more ghosts get a nibble out of our new friend. We should take him to Braixen.”

Rockruff sighed. “You might be right about getting him out of the Cay.” She looked to Von with a gentle expression. “How about it, Salandit? Want us to take you somewhere safer?”

“Please.” Von couldn't reply faster even if he tried.

“Excellent. Gather your strength now, and we'll leave tomorrow morning.” Zorua looked so pleased with himself.

Rockruff seemed to stew in annoyance. “Ren, when did you find this out?”

“It came up when you were off digging up the the expedition bag.”

“Which prompted your decision to reform Night Vision-”

I don't want to cause a division. Von stood from the bed. “I don't like the word 'recruiting,' Zorua. I just want to be taken to the nearest human.”

“Of course. But, in the future, you can call me Ren.” The fox smiled to Von. Only a few hours earlier Ren gave him a stern 'names are only for friends,' and now this?

“Ren, can I speak with you? Outside?” Rockruff growled.

Von gave up trying to follow their dynamic. He had plenty on his plate to worry and stress over. His new body. The rules of space bending in 'mystery dungeons.' His lack of a clear path home. He had to distract himself somehow. His two new friends, if that was the right word for them, bickered outside. He had some time to himself, at least.

“Salandit.” The word flowed off of Von's tongue as if it were the most natural word in the world. “Salandit. Sssssalandit.” He experimented enunciating different parts, stretched the hisses that snaked from his mouth into different shapes, which intoned different meanings. He was content to distract himself from his pain by exploring how his newly adopted language worked; not that he could make much sense of it. He doubted he ever would. When the Rockruff that found him growled the word “Salandit,” amazingly he had processed it without any language barrier. It was easier to comprehend the mechanics of a ghost's whisper than it was Cramorant's squawks or Rockruff's barks. The more he tested the limits of his mouth forming words, the more he noticed how dexterous his tongue had become. I could totally lick my own eyeball if I wanted to, Von thought as he stretched his tongue up the side of his face. I know some geckos do that to clean- wait, do I even have eyelids? He consciously blinked. Oh thank goodness.

 

[Truebrush]

Chapter 4: Comment dit-on Salandit​

"Bonjour." Von concentrated on the way his mouth moved. The rigidity of his scales no longer had the flexibility of his old human lips, yet he could form different sounds from the hisses that slithered over his tongue. The noises he made he could still shape into different words, though as he tried his best to focus on what noises he was actually making, his brain only reflected his words back at him verbatim. "Bonjour. Hello." He closed his eyes and focused as hard as he could on the movements his tongue made. The physical differences of his pronunciation between his French and English greetings were nonexistent. "Je m'appelle Devon. But you can call me Von."

He sighed and rolled over on the bed of beach grass. They sure have been gone a while. Left idle too long, he stood and stretched. There wasn't much to explore in the tiny den aside from the alcove that pair hosting him used to store food. Restless and curious, Von crawled over to the indent in the earth. The rudimentary shelving held a sparse amount of dried fruits and a handful of nuts, all of which he recognized by the faint amount of light that filtered into the burrow, but what captured his curiosity was a pair of alien fruit. Von estimated they were the same size as tangerines, though their dimpled skin was a deep blue.

"Don't tell me you're still hungry."

Von jumped in surprise. "Rockruff! No, not hungry, just exploring. You'd be impressed to learn I've explored every inch of this burrow."

"Impressed? Maybe. What's an inch?" Rockruff strode over to join him at the alcove. Von noticed she looked more relaxed after her talk with Ren, and her concern was once more focused on him.

Right. Human terminology will only make me stand out. "Ah, it's a unit of measurement where I'm from." He cast another glance around the small burrow's interior. "Say, how large would you say the burrow is?"

"Ten strides."

"So a stride would be..." Von turned and carefully moved away from the alcove. After a rough visual estimate of the burrow, he placed his right claw on the firm clay floor and extended his tail to touch the curved wall. "So one length would be from the wall to my claw, right?"

"Roughly, yes." Rockruff looked almost as curious as he felt.

Just a little under a foot. That shouldn't be hard to adapt to. Satisfied, Von relaxed his posture. He still had so many unanswered questions, but at least the company he found had been patient with him. Oh, I should try this before I forget. "Où est Ren?"

"He went to the night market to see if there was anything we could use on our journey."

I guess English and high school level French sound the same to her. "I thought the town was dangerous."

"Only to those who don't know what they're doing. Ren and I can handle ourselves." Rockruff's chest swelled with pride. "We're seasoned Researchers. You don't get to our age in the guild without knowing how to defend yourself."

Von tapped a claw to his chin. "May I ask what age you are?" Both Ren and Kaia looked like puppies to him, given their cutesy features and proportionately large heads.

"Fifteen seasons with family, two seasons of guild work, two seasons in the Cay." Nineteen!? Von expected no more than a quarter of that, given the lifespan of canines back home. "What's that look for?"

Von's shock must have shown on his face. He faltered for a moment as he tried to course correct. He didn't anticipate anyone would appreciate being told they were defying their life expectancy. "Sorry, I'm sorry. I've never talked to anyone outside of my own species before. Humans are.. were? A very insular species. Language worked different. We could barely even talk to each other."

"I've heard stories," Rockruff said as a contemplative look crossed her puppy-like features. "Each human I talk to, they make your world sound so... messy?"

Now that's an understatement. "How many humans have you talked to?"

"Three. At least, I think they were human?"

Von's heart sank. "So, they all became Pokemon too?"

"I suppose that would have to be the case, wouldn't it? I keep running into humans, and yet I've never seen what they look like."

That rules out any humans finding a way home. Or changing back, for that matter. "At least I'm not alone in my circumstance."

"Right!" Rockruff beamed. Von studied her, unsure how to read her apparent excitement.

"Do any of them know how they got here, at least? Or are they all just as in the dark as I am?"

Rockruff looked around the burrow, then took a step to the side, letting more light in from the tunnel to the outside. Don't take it literally. "You'd have to ask them."

"I will as soon as you introduce me." Von could feel himself growing impatient. He stifled a sigh. "I think I need some fresh air."

---

Ren took on his Banette disguise to travel the torchlit streets of the Cay. With his appearance as a ghost, his presence went unremarked upon as the town's traffic hovered overhead. Spirits made their haunted rounds as they followed the same paths they carved through the air every night. Ghosts formed habits and lingered on their comfortable and familiar routines when left to themselves. Through persistent observation, Ren developed a sense of when certain denizens followed their routes. He learned a long time ago that the best way to keep a low profile in the Cay is to not tread onto a ghost's path.

The cold company of the Cay wasn't always hostile to those of flesh and blood. Rather, the Cay was comprised of those who had nowhere else to go. It was not the fault of Litwick that they consumed souls, nor was it Ren's fault he was raised to eat meat. The tragedy of many a ghost is that one would be unable to find alternative sources of soul energy growing on trees. Some ghosts only sustain themselves by causing fear. Some by eating pleasant dreams.

"Friend Ren?"

Ren recognized the softspoken voice. He drifted from the dirt road to the alley tucked between two quiet and empty houses. A young Shuppet lingered in the shadows of the dome buildings. "Just the ghost I've been looking for," the fox said through the zippered mouth of his disguise. He joined the spirit in its secluded darkness. "Are you hungry, Mourn?"

"I am. Please."

Ren didn't pull away when the ghost drifted closer. The horn atop the cloth ghost hummed a soft purple, and the Zorua closed his eyes as a calm washed over him. The constant undertow of his emotions wavered, separated as if they were ripples on a pond, before they began to fade.

Resentment. Vengeance. They would regrow in time, as deeply rooted in his most painful of memories as they were. But for now, he was at peace. Ren was content to let the Shuppet feast on negativity- he knew his sparse moments of joy and hope lacked the flavor Mourn sought.

"What's new in the market tonight?"

"Sableye is here... The Mudkips left."

The brief flash of frustration Ren felt at the news quickly left him, funneled away for Mourn's fuel. The Mudkip merchants were the ones he was hoping to barter with; being alive, the wares they stocked tended towards practicality. "Shame."

"What's wrong?"

Shuppet's horn dimmed and Ren opened his eyes. He felt lighter, as he often did after letting Shuppet feed. "Tonight's my last night in the Cay, at least for a while. Will you be alright without me?"

The timid ghost drew back and hesitated before it spoke. "Will you?"

Ren's zippered grin stretched wider. "Perhaps I will simply become motivated."

"Careful. Please." There was pity in Mourn's eyes.

Ren ducked below the dangling puppet and peeked out from the alley they hid in. "I always am. Has Pelliper been by tonight?"

"No."

"Good. Want to tag along?"

Trepidatious, Mourn joined Ren as he peeked up and down the street. "Fine." Together, the pair rejoined the flow of the night.

Stories claimed that the town grew from a grave, that when the Cay was nothing more than the church on the hill and a desolate beach, a grieving Pokemon once burned the bones of its dead on the cape and garnered the attention of every ghost that saw the smoke of the bonfire. Ren heard many renditions of the tale, and found traces of its origin in the construction of the town. The brazier that burned unfailingly every night on the cape, tended to dutifully by Marowak. The memorial pavilion built from driftwood, the ceremonial wall within covered in parchments stamped with footprint runes bearing memories of the deceased.

The only letterbox in town was built beside the pavilion. The only time Pelipper ever came to the Cay was to deliver ritual parchments to be pinned to the wall, drawn up by Pokemon hoping to help a lost loved one move on, instead of manifest as a malevolent spirit.

"It's been half a season, hasn't it?" Ren asked Mourn as the pair gazed upon the wooden wall. "Since you became Mourn."

"Yes." Despite how close the Shuppet drifted to Ren, he still sounded so quiet.

"I don't see any new papers."

"The Nameless don't get parchment."

Ren bit his tongue as he thought how to respond. True, a Pokemon had to earn a name, either through their actions or their personality. Mourn died too young for either to leave an impact in the world of the living. His identity as Mourn was granted by the spirits of the Cay, not by his parents.

In silence, Ren turned to the stand that held parchment and an inkstone. He had a letter to write.

---

Von emerged from the tunnel between the roots of the magnolia tree, and the cold sea breeze coaxed a shiver from him. After having time to let his vision adjust, the aquamarine fire that burned in the lighthouse no longer felt disorienting. He felt calmer, too, having had time to rest after his nearly fatal encounter with Litwick. From their perch on the cape, he could look over the bay to the town, and take the time to admire how its multicolored torches glimmered in reflections on the tide.

Rockruff followed Von to the coastline. She let him breathe and take in his surroundings. He climbed atop a log of driftwood and settled down, and he sucked in a lungful of air. The scent of seaweed hit a familiar tang on his tongue. It's nice seeing someplace unspoiled by industry, at least. Von hadn't had time to appreciate the water's clarity when he was walking the coastline. Now that he wasn't alone, he found himself savoring the outdoors. The starfield opened up above him, an endless expanse of color, no longer drowned out by the light pollution of human civilization.

"Not sleepy, huh?" Rockruff hopped up onto the log and settled in beside him.

"I think I managed to fit a nap in between being nibbled on by candles and sat on by a certain dog."

"You were conscious when I found you, to be fair. Just not, you know... 'all there.'"

"How far away is our destination? Halfhenge, right?"

"Depends on our route, and what weather we'll face. With a clear sky, we'll use the waterways, and be there in a couple of days. If we're unlucky with rain, we'll use the woods for shelter until we reach Murkmoor, and Murkmoor requires a lot of walking."

Von looked from the town to the opposite shore of the bay, to the path he walked when he woke. How far did I walk, anyway? He wasn't sure what soreness he felt was dealt from a long hike or from the spiritual peril he faced in the church. "I'll manage." He turned his attention skywards to scan for traces of clouds and look for stragglers from the day's earlier storm. The moon hung heavy over the ocean encircled by a halo of light. A paraselene, a rare sight to Von, unused to being out late at night beneath an unblemished sky.

Quiet fell on the pair again. When Von snapped himself out of his trance, he looked back to Rockruff, who had since curled up beside him. She seemed less enraptured by the stunning sights of the night than he was. "Are Salandit not eloquent?"

"Hmm?" Rockruff lifted her head from her paws.

"Earlier, you said I was 'eloquent for a Salandit.' Are they not often verbose?"

Rockruff looked puzzled. "They're often drunkenly tripping over one another. As lost and clueless as you are, Salandit, you're the most clear-headed one of your kind I've spoken to."

He appreciated her honesty. Distantly, he was able to recall through the haze of his shock-addled mind his two rescuers talking about Salandit pheromones and snacking on bugs when they first found him. "I spent most of today wondering why I became Salandit. Drunken stumbling is not a very flattering parallel to draw against my human self."

"Then focus on the part of female Salandit attracting males from all over. Is that flattering enough?"

"I'm not sure how to respond to that," Von said with a nervous smile. He wasn't blind to the humor of certain aspects of his situation. "How does it work, exactly? I don't think those Litwick attacked me because I smell nice."

"How would I know how it works? I'm not you."

"You just seemed to know a lot about Salandit."

"We shared habitat with Salandit when I was growing up. That doesn't mean I can tell one how to be stinky."

"I just figure I should learn how to defend myself better."

"By becoming stinky?"

"By figuring out what this new body can do. I'm poisonous, right? Can Salandit spit acid?"

"Some."

"That's cool! What else?"

"Uh.. Fire? They can spit fire."

Von's eyes widened as for a brief moment, he relived the childlike wonder that came from watching a Charmander use Ember for the first time. "I want to spit fire," he said softly, more to himself than to Rockruff.

"Then stick with us, and learn by doing. We'll keep you safe."

Von believed her.

---

Von was asleep by the time Ren returned to the burrow. The black fox ducked between the roots that hid their home, and Kaia greeted him with a yawn. "Find what you were looking for?"

"Indeed." Ren bowed his head and pulled himself free of the strap of the canvas satchel. "I heard you're supposed to give a human clothes to make them feel more comfortable." His paw pulled free a scarf of sunset orange from the bag.

"How much did it cost you?" There was worry in Kaia's voice. She stepped closer to study Ren's face.

"I just had to feed Haunter a dream, is all." Even in the darkness of the burrow, Kaia could see the weariness on Ren's features. "It wasn't that bad. Mourn was with me."

Kaia whined softly and brushed her cheek to his. "Curl up with me, Ren. The sooner tomorrow comes, the sooner we leave, the better."

Ren's tired smile did little to reassure her. "Returning to the guild isn't scary to you, is it? There's no guarantee they'll let us back in."

"Losing you scares me more. This better be the last time you barter your dreams away."

"Dreamers can make more dreams, and neither of us are strangers to sharing them."

"It frustrates me how you can phrase something so morbid as something beautiful."

"I'm a Zorua, dear."

"You're also a fool. Now come to bed."

The pair snuggled up on the unoccupied bed of beach grass. Out of the corner of his eye, Ren watched Von shift and twitch in his sleep until it came for him as well, and when he drifted off, he dreamed of Candle Cay once more.

 

[Truebrush]

Chapter 5: What Comes Naturally​

“Can’t you open any wider?”

Von’s jaw strained as he tried to stretch his mouth open for the curious Rockruff. She peered as best she could down his throat. Much like during a visit to the dentist, Von was never certain what he should be doing with his tongue, and so it lolled from the side of his mouth. His neck tilted upwards at such an angle to let as much of the morning sunlight in as they could allow. Do Pokemon have dental plans? He asked himself, Wait, do I even have teeth anymore? The lips of his lizardlike form were rigid and inflexible, though he still possessed sharp ridges that jutted from them in the semblance of sharp teeth. It was a relief, he admitted to himself, to no longer worry about his lack of health insurance.

“Unless it’s- there!” Rockruff happily pranced from forepaw to forepaw. “I think I can see a vent on the roof of your mouth when you breathe out!”

Von happily let his jaws snap shut. The oral exam was his idea to begin with, but he only grew more and more self-conscious the longer it went. “A vent?” he asked, before he let his tongue probe over his palate. With the newfound dexterity of his tongue, he was eventually able to find what she was talking about: an exit point, he assumed, for spraying poison from his mouth. “So how does it work?”

“That’s something you’ll have to figure out on your own. That, or ask one of your own kind.”

Von opened and shut his muzzle as he scanned the trees of the cape outside of the burrow. He selected the trunk of a pine tree, took aim, and opened wide. Nothing happened.

“You and Ren both have abilities, right? How did you learn?”

“Our families, of course. Well, my pack taught me, at least.” She glanced at the burrow beneath the magnolia tree, pensive. “He left home early, so I’m not actually sure.”

Maybe my poison typing is hereditary. Von closed his eyes and concentrated inwards as he tried his best to gain awareness of the subconscious actions his new body took. As disorienting as it was to even think about being inhuman, he wanted to be able to defend himself. There were new muscles to grow accustomed to, just as he was forced to relearn how to walk the day before. His tail still felt like an unnatural extension of his spine.

His body felt small, far too small. He felt claustrophobic within his own skin, as if he had been compressed into a space no human should ever belong inside. His arms and legs still bent wrong. He felt so small and vulnerable. He missed having fingers and opposable thumbs. He wanted his old face and his old identity back, not the bestial and alien features that had been somehow forced upon him by the fate that dragged him here. Anger simmered in his core. Pangs of guilt he couldn’t stifle lanced through his chest. The existential fear that loomed at the forefront of his thoughts ever since he had become an animal more and more threatened to engulf him the more he tried to focus and attune to his new shape.

Von opened his eyes and found his breathing had become erratic, and his claws sunk into the soil. He was shaking.

“Are you okay?” Rockruff’s voice pulled his attention from his mounting panic attack, and he was grateful for it.

“I’m fine,” he croaked, and he was made aware of how dry his throat had become. “Just trying to focus.”

Rockruff didn’t appear convinced, but she sat down in the beach grass of the cape.

Von gulped down a lungful of air. It tasted too strongly of the sea, but it was an external nausea- preferable to the internal, he supposed. A vent in the roof of my mouth. Is it really as simple as flexing a muscle?

Deep breaths. Deep concentration. No more letting his thoughts stray- no matter how easy it is, no matter how eagerly his worries nibble away at him. This body isn’t his, and its differences immeasurable. His human mind somehow fit within the skull of a lizard a mere sliver of the size of his former self. Subconscious processes continued to send signals to make his heart beat, to make his stomach process food, to make his lungs filter oxygen into his blood.

Natural weapons should come just as easily, right?

He wanted to breathe fire. He knew he could, he just didn’t know how. He was human, he should be smart enough to figure it out. He had all the tools he needed already, he just didn’t know how to work them.

What he needed was an objective analysis. With enough detachment, he thought, he should be able to feel the differences between old and new, and not experience the mental whiplash from attuning to a body that felt like a constricting prison. I'm a queer homeless American, I should be good at disassociating . These are a lizard’s claws, not mine. This is a Salandit’s tail; humans don't have those.

With a mental barrier erected, Von was able to examine himself through the lens of a biologist, only teetering on the edge of a breakdown rather than plummeting into existentialist dread. In his focused state, between measuring breaths and mentally estimating the air capacity of a Salandit’s lungs, he found a muscle tethered to a function he wasn’t certain of. He flexed it only a little at first, cautious, and found a heat rising in his core, a concentrated furnace he could stoke.

He opened his eyes once more. He faced away from Kaia and pulled, and suddenly found himself swept up in a sickness as a burst of caustic fluid fired from his mouth. The fever overtook him as his entire body boiled over, and with his floodgates opened, there was little he could do but expunge the vibrant purple substance that spattered onto the dirt and grass of the cape. A puddle formed before him as he heaved until the pressure relieved itself, and he stood trembling over the toxic ooze that bubbled and sizzled as it seeped into the earth below.

“Haha, gross,” came Ren’s voice from behind. Naturally, he would wake up just in time to witness his new friend embarrass himself.

“I’m s-so sorry,” stuttered a confused Von who could only stare ahead at the mess that just jetted from his jaws. The poison still trickled from his muzzle. He expected the taste to be disgusting, but it barely registered to him. It tingled on his tongue, and he spat what remained into the grass.

“You did it, Salandit! How does it feel?” Rockruff barked excitedly.

“Vile,” hissed Von. “This body feels more and more disgusting the more I learn about it.”

Ren approached the puddle cautiously and wrinkled his nose. “At least you're learning to defend yourself."

The three of them ducked back into the burrow. Von was thankful to get away from the mess he had made. With Ren awake, they shared a simple meal of raw fruits in preparation for the journey ahead. The sole bag they had with them could only carry so much, and the remainder of food stores might as well be taken along in their bellies. The taste of fruit helped Von cleanse his palate and alleviate the feeling of disgust he quietly harbored to himself.

"When do Pokemon tell each other their given names?" Von asked idly as he licked plum juice from his muzzle.

The question saw Kaia and Ren share a confused look. "When they grow close enough," Rockruff answered for the both of them as she side-eyed Ren. "That's usually how it goes, anyway."

"It's a demonstration of friendship," Ren retorted with a wide grin. "Von is new to our world, and we're the only friends he has. Would you deprive him of having anyone to call by name?"

"I question you giving yours out so readily," Rockruff huffed. "And you were quick to believe he's a human."

"Do you not trust him?"

"I met him yesterday , Ren."

"And since then we've shared food, and you taught him how to puke."

"I didn't puke!" Von interjected too readily.

"Regardless, I think we're all in agreement that we're the only friends he has. I just thought it best he have at least one friend whose name he knew." Ren resumed gnawing on dried apricot.

The three fell quiet once again, though Von looked sheepishly to Rockruff. She stopped eating, her thoughts lingering on the lizard. She looked sorry for him.

"I think I understand- friendship is earned, not given, right?" he asked.

Von's words softened the pitying look Rockruff was giving him, and her tail began to wag. "That's right!"

Makes sense in a world where Pokemon eat each other. Von glanced back to Ren, the fox grinning at him. "Should I go back to calling you Zorua, then?"

"Nope! I trust you, Von- you're just so… so harmless and naive, you couldn’t hurt us if you tried."

"Um. Thanks?"

“I even got you something as a show of appreciation.” Ren wiped his muzzle off on the back of his paw before he ducked down to tug a piece of cloth free from the satchel. “You humans like to dress up, don’t you?” he asked, an orange bandana between his teeth.

"I- yes, we all wear clothes." He lashed his tail behind him, uncomfortable at the reminder of his nakedness. "This is a very kind gesture. Where did you get it?"

Ren's smile faltered for a moment, and he let go of the cloth, letting it fall to the floor to reply. "Leavanny weave most of our clothing. You might meet one when we reach Halfhenge who works enchantments into each garment." He nudged it towards Von. "How good are you at knots? Kaia and I can try and help, but paws aren’t exactly known for being dexterous.”

Von managed to secure it around his neck after some fumbling. He no longer had thumbs, but his claws were flexible enough to make precise movements. He sat up straight once the knot was tied. “How do I look?”

“You look like you’re ready to me,” Rockruff said as she tugged the strap of the satchel over her head. “Ready to leave?”

---

The inhabitants of Candle Cay disbanded during the day, or so Von assumed. It was much like when he first arrived; silent houses with animalistic facades were the only sign of life, save for the birds that flocked upon the rooftops and lanterns of the town, no longer needing to take shelter from the rain. Wingull and Murkrow made up most of their numbers, though the gulls were the ones to make noise. Von, not having grown up on the coastline, found the soundscape of gull cries over the tide quite soothing, albeit their calls felt alien when compared to the seagulls of Earth. Wingull were less shrill, their pitch lower. He could make out snippets of words when he concentrated, but hearing their overlapping cries blurred his understanding. Much like standing alone in a chattering crowd, he could hear threads of countless conversations, but latch onto none.

The mechanisms of the language of this world would have enraptured his attention were it not for the eyes of the murder of Murkrow. Unlike the crows of Earth, these avians’ red irises were visible from a distance, and he felt like he was being studied. As he followed his friends, Von felt acutely aware of the number of eyes that followed the trio. Ren and Kaia didn’t seem to mind, however, which lent him a semblance of ease.

The three of them stuck to the perimeter of the town just as they had the night before, though instead of looping around to the church in the hills, they clung to the coast. The dirt beneath the beachgrass yielded to sand still wet from yesterday’s rain. They continued in the direction of the river that fed into the bay, and at the mouth of the river waited a bell suspended from a pole of driftwood.

Besides the bell stood the figure of a badger-like creature, a silhouette Von vaguely recognized from a distance as a Typhlosion- a large badger-like beast that sat back on its hind legs. He distantly remembered its angles being sharp and its expression fierce from the spritework, baring fangs as its cloak of fire billowed upwards. This typhlosion, however, slept standing up, dissolving any perception of ferocity it may have held while it was awake. Its muzzle and ears were rounded in such a way to give its features a feeling of softness. It wore a belt around its midsection off of which hung several small bags, and beside it sat a wooden box, its lid secured by loops of red string.

The closer they drew to the bell and the sleeping Pokemon, the smaller Von felt. Typhlosion stood almost a foot shorter than his old human body, though it towered over his new one. To combat his claustrophobia, he focused on the most curious aspect of Typhlosion, being the square, stained iron teapot it carried, the handle clutched tightly in its paws as it snoozed.

A giggle from Ren pulled his attention to him. Von turned in time to witness the black fox cloak himself in darkness as his silhouette warped and swelled. He twisted his image into a balloon-like jellyfish, and Von rapidly backpedaled from the ghostly mass.

“You’ve devoured the souls of too many of my kin, Auntie! The sea shall have its wrath!” boomed Ren’s voice, distorted and distant.

The Typhlosion sleepily opened its eyes and a yawn escaped its muzzle. It took a moment for its gaze to focus on the jellyfish floating before it. It’s expression seemed unperturbed. One paw left the handle of the teapot it held and waved at Ren’s disguise dismissively. A ripple of energy shimmered in the air, and the conjured appearance Ren adopted faded away as easily as it had appeared, revealing the fox standing in the sand, his tongue stuck out, mocking. The Typhlosion grunted with displeasure as the feathered audience of Murkrow broke their silence and their cackles echoed around the bay.

“Still alive, Zorua?” It looked over Ren’s companions. Von shrunk back from the scene as he tried not to be noticed. Rockruff seemed oblivious to the prank as she busied herself digging a worn rock from beneath the sand. “Color me surprised. I thought for sure the Cay would have claimed you by now, given your… nature. I suppose I have you to thank for that, Rockruff.”

“Hmm?” Rockruff lifted her attention from the pebble she had found. “Oh! Yes, I’m the responsible one, as we all know.”

“And who is this?” The Typhlosion stared at Von, and Rockruff and Ren followed suit as they all waited for him to answer.

“I’m… Salandit.” It wasn’t his name. The introduction felt off.

“I can’t say I’ve met your kind before, Salandit. I am Typhlosion,” She yawned before she readdressed Rockruff. “Just what are you two doing out of your hiding place?”

“We’re going home!” she yapped excitedly and punctuated her bark by slamming a paw into the sand. The rock she had unburied from the beach obeyed her will and launched itself into the air towards the bell they gathered beneath, and the resounding gong echoed far seaward.

Typhlosion winced and flattened her ears against her skull as the bell rang loud and clear above her head. “I’m sure they’ll welcome you home with open arms!” she yelled over the noise.

“Of course they will, Auntie!” Ren shouted back, “And don’t act like you didn’t miss crossing paths with us!"

Typhlosion snorted as the noise of the gong slowly faded, and Von picked up another source of noise, a cry from the sea. He spun, half expecting to see a whale breaching the waves, and instead recognized the pod of Lapras he spotted the day prior. One broke off from the trio to head shoreward. The waterways, he remembered. We’re going to ride on a Lapras.

 

[Truebrush]

Chapter 6: The Lapras Travel Liner​

When Rockruff last mentioned taking the waterways to reach their destination, Von assumed the three of them would follow a river on foot so as not to get lost. He felt frustrated in himself for not piecing together what the lighthouse on the end of the cape implied. Nautical travel was possible, not only for Pokemon native to the water, but for those bound on land. Lapras waded in the shallows where the river met the sea. Rockruff and Ren looked so small in comparison as they sat in the sand before it, making travel plans with it. Von kept his distance, ever in the habit of not drawing attention to himself.

"Halfhenge by river? You have fare, I trust," it spoke in a series of cetacean clicks. It wore a bag woven from palm leaves slung around its neck.

"See this patch?" Ren rebutted as he pawed at the satchel worn by Rockruff. "We've paid for a pass already!"

"Passes are for Guild members, and I don't see a badge on your bag."

"Don't you know who we are?!" yipped Ren. "We're Night Vision! We're heroes!"

"Doesn't ring a bell."

"Need me to ring it again?" asked a confused Rockruff as she looked at the gong that called the ferry.

Fare? Don't tell me these animals use currency.

"Please, everyone. If it means getting these troublemakers to leave, I will pay for them." Typhlosion begrudgingly came forward, her paw dipped into what Von assumed was a coinpurse that hung from her belt. After she fished around, she pulled out a small glittering chunk of metal, and weighed it in her paw. “This should be enough for three passengers.”

"We don't need your generosity, Auntie," Ren grumbled, but his lack of an alternative proved him otherwise.

“Acceptable.” Lapras tilted its chin upward and Typhlosion dropped the piece of metal into the bag.

"You're not coming?" Rockruff asked.

Typhlosion stepped away from Lapras and returned to her resting place beside her wooden box. "I've business in the Cay. You'll see me again, at which point I ask you make this up to me, both for paying your way as well as rousing me from my nap."

"You're always napping. Naps are replaceable." Ren gracefully leapt up onto Lapras’ back. Rockruff followed suit, then both turned to look at Von expectantly. Throughout his time spent relearning how to move and readjusting his motor skills, he realized he hadn't jumped in his new body. As he hesitated, he became acutely aware of Typhlosion and Lapras peering at him curiously. He moved forward, tail dragging through the sand, and tentatively extended a claw into the chilly water of the estuary. Lapras waded in the deep of the river, and up close Von saw how quickly the shallows fell away.

His dextrous and daring friends leapt with such confidence, it was as if they were blind to the danger of a river that swept out to sea. Von's new height being what it was, he felt he'd drown in even the shallowest puddle.

"Salandit? Everything okay?" Rockruff cocked her head.

"First time?" Lapras' voice made him flinch. Everyone was waiting on him.

"First time for- for a lot of things."

"I'd like to return to my family before nightfall. May I help?"

Meekly, Von nodded. Lapras waded closer. "Keep still." Its voice took a soothing tone, though it didn't assuage Von's nerves as it loomed over him. Cast into its shadow, he could do naught but obey, whether by trust or by nerves he kept stock still as the beast craned its long neck and opened its maw. Its jaws closed around his middle. Lapras lifted Von off his feet and its long neck swiveled, setting the frightened lizard on its shell. His claws tightly gripped the hard shell beneath him and only relaxed once the beast had let go. Lapras' breath smelled of fish and brine, and the scent lingered on him.

Lapras carved a path upstream and set a brisk pace with ease. Upon its knobby shell, Von stared off in fascination at their surroundings. Their journey took them away from the ceaseless froth and foam of the sea and sliced into the mainland where the rolling rise and fall of the hilly landscape of the Cay gave way to windswept plains peppered with wildflowers before the river they followed delved into a verdant forest. Von’s reservations about riding a Lapras amplified when they were swallowed by the dark beneath the canopy. The temperature plummeted in the shade. The grand pine trees that flanked the river towered so high that Von felt a spinning sense of vertigo as he craned his head upwards to look at them. He wondered how much he should attribute it to his diminutive form.

The familiar feeling of fear returned as the noise of the forest gradually grew louder. Von was no stranger to trekking through the woods, the native wildlife was anything but familiar. The rustle of movement through the underbrush was ever present, and he kept catching glimpses out of the corner of his eye of the forest’s elusive inhabitants. It was difficult to see their entirety through the dense greenery, not that he could recognize most anyway. Shadows zipped between branches accompanied by the hum of insect wings. The sudden drumming of a woodpecker had him circling in hopes of finding its source. He swore that even the trees themselves would occasionally move.

The rare few Pokemon that he could see during this leg of their journey had all come to the water’s edge to drink. A distressingly large caterpillar covered in red spines looked up at them as they passed by, and Von shuddered in realization that he was the size of two Wurmple.

In contrast to him being wound up like a spring, his companions lounged comfortably on Lapras’ back, curled up with one another. Occasionally an ear would twitch in response to a snapping twig or rustle in the brush near the water’s edge, but neither moved a muscle otherwise.

Von curled his tail around one of the knobby protrusions on Lapras’ shell just to find comfort in anchoring himself. “Are you two even awake?” he whispered to the snoozing pair.

“Mhmm,” snored Ren.

“Shouldn’t we be on the lookout for predators?”

Ren cracked an eye open. “You’re already doing such a good job! Didn’t want to interrupt.”

Lapras turned its head to look at the passengers on its shell. “What are you afraid of, Salandit?”

Once more put on the spot, Von shrank against the shell. “Don’t Pokemon hunt each other? A-and we’re out in the open, and I can hear so many in the trees…”

Lapras dipped its head in a nod before it faced forward, once more focused on the river it swam through. “Some do. But you’re safe with me.” Von caught a hint of the Lapras smiling. “Where did you find this one, Zorua? Rare do I meet a grown Pokemon so new to the world as this one.”

“Says he washed up on the shore, wandered into the Cay. Used to be human.”

“That explains much. Do you prefer being called Salandit, or Human?”

“I have a choice?” Von fidgeted as he looked between Lapras and his friends.

Both Ren and Rockruff looked at Lapras, confused. “But he is a Salandit.”

“Is he not both?” countered Lapras. “One in mind, the other in body?”

“Would you still call a Lycanroc by Rockruff?” quipped Rockruff. “Never mind any stranger that knows what a Salandit is would call him Salandit by appearance regardless.”

“Strangers don’t decide these things for us-”

“Salandit is fine!” Von spoke up, eager to end the debate. “For now. I still prefer Von, but for the sake of compliance with cultural norms, Salandit.”

“Does this make us friends?” asked an amused Lapras.

“You’ve known each other for half a day!” whined a bemused Rockruff.

“Maybe I’ve just got one of those friendly faces, y'know?” Von offered. “I’ve been here a day and a half, and I’ve already made two whole friends.”

“But you’ve known me longer!” Rockruff whined louder, ears folded.

Von couldn’t help but grin. “It’s like you said this morning, once I earn your friendship. You’ve already earned mine, so just tell me when.”

Rockruff’s muzzle wrinkled in exasperation. “Until then you’re just going to keep making friends within a moon with everyone you meet, is that it?”

“That’s it, that’s my devious plan to make you jealous,” Von said solemnly. He caught a glimpse of Ren who snickered with approval of his teasing.

Rockruff growled at her mate. “No wonder you two are already on a true-name basis, pulling my tail like this.”

The forest around them thinned, the old-growth trees fading in favor of fresher growth. By the time they began seeing sprightly saplings, the sun broke through the canopy once more, and the world opened up beyond the treeline. The river they rode stretched onward into the horizon, toward a distant snow-capped mountain, whose grassy green foothills rolled from its base and descended into brown and barren flatlands. The waterway bisected the moorland and the vast plains, and along the natural border, Von finally saw their destination. Where the river swelled into a lake, there rose a castle of stone. Halfhenge.

The closer they drew to their destination, the more Von could make of its namesake. The massive stone structure had fractured a long time ago. It no longer served as a fortress against outside elements, as half of its walls had sheared away. Rooms were open and exposed to the outside, once grand hallways since faded and weathered. The waters of the lake itself lapped against the rocky foundation. It was as if half of the castle- the half closest to the water- had been swallowed by the lake.

“I think you’re missing a piece,” he said.

“It’ll turn up.” Ren noticed the perplexed expression Von wore. “Torterra walked off with it. Bit of a mess.”

Von looked from his friend back to the castle as the weight of the implications gnawed at him. So it wasn’t erosion, but a Pokemon? Pokemon were strong, he knew, but the scope of such a feat was distressing to comprehend. This world new to him served the basis for the impossible, it seemed, between its impossibly shifting mazes that swallowed travelers and its apparent knack for drawing in unsuspecting humans to transform. “Torterra walked off with it?”

“Seasons and seasons ago, there was no lake,” Rockruff began. “Torterra bed down into the mud of the riverbank for the winter. On the longest night of the season, the guild woke to an earthquake, and found Torterra had grown to an immeasurable size. He walked off with half of the castle on his back. The lake formed from the crater he left behind.”

Von fell quiet as he processed the tale. Sounds like one of those weird gimmicks they added to the series. “Where did Torterra go? It must be easy to track a Pokemon of that size.”

“He wanders every now and again, but he spends most of his time asleep. A Pokemon of that size must require a lot of energy, it’s no wonder he spends so much time pretending to be a hill soaking up sunlight.” Rockruff stretched and shook her coat. “Poor guy.”

They broke from the current of the river and swam through the lake. The crystal clear water darkened beneath them into a deep blue. Von spotted a pair of Lapras, both smaller than the one they rode. He wondered if the size discrepancy was due to age, diet, or environment. They didn’t pay the travelers any mind. One dove beneath the surface as he watched, resurfacing half a minute later with long stems of waterweed in its mouth.

Von looked over the side of the shell to peer through the water to the muck of the bed beneath. He searched for glimpses of rubble remnants from the castle’s rupture, and instead caught sight of silvery scales and swishing tailfins. Pokemon he couldn’t know the names of, but resembled the fish he witnessed Cramorant consume. They hid from his view, all darted into the shadows of the depths. He couldn’t blame them. For a moment, he considered what his time in this world would have been like had he awoken in the body of a Goldeen. It would have been a short time.

As Lapras pulled alongside the castle, the guts of the building came into the diminutive Salandit’s view. Every room and chamber exposed to the outside appeared empty. The central structure of the keep towered tall despite its compromised hull, grand central pillars luckily intact. One of the chambers at ground level appeared to serve as a dock of sorts as a wooden pier jutted outward and gradually dipped down to water level. The planks were roughly hewn and bound together by tightly strung fibrous cord.

“Here we are,” clicked Lapras as they pulled up alongside the pier. The wood bobbed gently in the tide.

“Thanks for the ride, Lapras!” Rockruff was first to disembark; one hop and she trotted away up the sloped dock. Ren jumped off behind her, though he turned to wait for the Salandit.

Von hesitated once more as he tried to gauge the distance. The physics of his new body made it hard to calculate his trajectory. If embarking was hard for him, leaping from the elevated height of Lapras’ shell made it even worse. He didn’t know how to swim with tiny lizard claws. He wasn’t sure if he could hold his head above water, much less if he could tread effectively.

“Isn’t this your stop?” asked Lapras.

“I don’t know how to swim. If I miss-”

The sea creature rolled its eyes before it craned its neck and once again plucked him off of his feet. It dropped him beside Ren. Von shivered once the jaws around his middle relaxed and withdrew.

“Night Vision, was it? Remember your badge next time.” Lapras smirked to the trio as it turned to rejoin the current of the waterways.

“Thanks,” grimaced Von as he swiped a claw along his side to wipe away seaweed-scented spit.

He followed Ren up the dock and stepped onto the stone floor of the keep of the castle. They entered through a massive hallway through which they could see a gateway leading into the castle’s courtyard. The barren walls stretched into a tall vaulted ceiling, bereft of heraldry or pageantry, save for one piece of canvas hung high on display. Upon a blue field an icon of a gold-yellow Mobius strip looped in on itself.

“Oh, it’s you .” A voice that dripped with displeasure tore Von’s attention down from the flag overhead. A Pokemon lounged on a mat against a wall, an orangutan-like beast with a white and purple coat. It lazily fanned itself with leaves woven together from its own fur.

Ren stepped forward. “Surprised? I even wrote ahead. Don’t tell me we got here faster than the mail.”

“Don’t pride yourself,” the beast snorted. It pointed at Von with its fan. “You. I suppose you’re the human these two roped into coming here?”

“Ah- yes, yes I am.”

It turned to the gateway leading outside and bellowed “Braix en! ” Its voice rumbled through the stone hallway, the loud and guttural hoot of an ape.

The trio waited for their ears to stop ringing. “We’ve got no issue showing him around-” Rockruff began.

“Absolutely not. You wouldn’t want to deprive Slowking of the warm welcome he’s been saving for your return, would you?”

Von looked between his two companions as they both shuddered. He knew the pair were hiding out in the Cay for a reason, but the specifics he could only guess at.

“Well well, the castle has a hooligan problem again.” Another voice, playful. In the gateway stood a bipedal fox of yellow and red. Crimson wisps of fur poked from its ears, and a stick of driftwood poked from its tail. A thin purple shawl obscured most of its upper body, and the fur around its waist flared outwards as if to almost resemble a skirt.

“Been a while, yeh?” The fox’s eyes moved from the accused troublemakers and settled on Von, and the smirk on its muzzle turned gentle, sympathetic. “You- you’re human? A new arrival?”

"I- yeah." Does everyone know?

"Doubtless you've got many questions. I might have answers for some of them. But before that, I've a question of utmost importance for you."

Von could only nod.

“Did Berserk ever get finished?”

 

[Truebrush]

Chapter 7: Peulvan​

“You can call me Wyn.”

“And I’m Von!” He followed after Braixen as she led him out of one hall and down another. “I’m allowed to say that, right?”

“Only to other humans,” she winked, “But even then, use your judgment. Especially when there’s fairies about.”

“Sorry, fairies? Is Titania a Pokemon now?”

Wyn smirked wryly. “How much more disbelief can you afford your circumstances right now, Von?”

“Good point. Sorry.”

They stepped into the castle’s kitchen. A wide oak table dominated the center of the room, though it only rose a foot and a half tall. Wyn beckoned for him to take a seat on one of the low straw-padded stools, and he obliged.

“Where would you like me to start?” she asked.

“If I may make a guess; you haven’t found a way back to Earth yet?”

“Correct, though we are still searching.”

Von knew this answer was coming, yet his heart still sank. There would be no easy escape from a hostile world of powerful predators and warping landscapes, forever trapped in a toxic body.

Wyn was quick to read the despondency on his face. “Would you like tea, Von?”

“Oh, sure?” At least there were distractions. The last hot drink he had was burned coffee out of a styrofoam cup at a truck stop. Not like Earth is friendly either. But at least back home, I can be in my own skin.

Plenty of time to languish later. There was another human with him. He wasn’t in this alone. “Do you know how we got here?”

Wyn made her way to the kitchen’s fireplace. In one swift motion, she drew the stick of driftwood lodged in her tail and it lit up like a torch. One wave of her wand and the fireplace roared to life. “Nothing conclusive, but we’ve all got our own theories. How familiar are you with the franchise?”

“The franchise? Like the games?” He shook his head. “I played Emerald when I was fifteen. I gotta say, that didn’t quite prepare me for whatever’s happening.”

She tucked her wand back into her tail before she filled an iron teapot with water from a clay pitcher. “It’s difficult to quantify the vastness of what Pokemon are capable of. It sounds like you stopped playing the games before they introduced gods, yeh?”

“Yeah, how does that work? How is any of this real? Are we made of pixels on a cellular level or something?”

“You don’t need to get all existential, we’re still flesh and blood. Unless you’re made of steel, or a sentient rock,” she corrected herself. She hung the kettle above the fire and stepped back over to the table. “It’s wild to think about, right? Does this prove multiverse theory correct, were we somehow pulled into a parallel universe where Pokemon are real? Or did we all unknowingly get Sword Art Online’d?”

“I don’t know what that last one is.”

She sank cross-legged onto a seat beside him. “What was the last thing you remember doing on Earth?”

He had to think for a moment. He parked in a lot outside of a hardware store to use their bathroom, but his recollection grew foggy after that. “I stepped out of my car.”

“Nothing else? No portal to a magical land? No government goons jumping out of a van and strapping a VR headset on you?”

“I’m pretty sure I’m not an anime protagonist, no.”

“You never know. But we’re in agreement that multiverse theory sounds more plausible, yeh?”

“Sure, why not. Pokemon, though?”

“I’d rather this than a universe where everyone is spiders.” Steam rose from the spout of the teapot, and Wyn turned to tend to it. “Still, just one of many theories. When you introduce magic to a world, it makes it difficult to fully grasp all possibilities.”

“I’m getting the feeling I’ll be leaving with more questions than when I came in with.”

“Happy to help!” the Braixen beamed. She portioned out tea into a pair of small wooden bowls and slid one in front of Von. It smelled strongly of grass in summer. She lifted her own bowl to her muzzle for a small sip.

Von contemplated the bowl before him. Just that morning, he was eating fruit off the ground, meanwhile the fox beside him maintained her human decorum; the perks of being bipedal, he supposed. With one foreleg propping himself up against the table, his other gripped the side of the wooden dish with a claw as he considered lifting it. His forelegs couldn’t extend far enough to bring it to his snout.

"There's a reason we use bowls," Wyn said softly. "It's hard to adjust, I know. I was a quadruped too when I first arrived."

Von's throat tightened. It was one thing to join Night Vision chowing down in the burrow, but to debase himself in front of another human?

Wyn watched him hesitate for a few long moments and set her bowl back down on the table. She led the example and hunched over. Her tongue darted from her muzzle and lapped up a splash of tea.

As Von watched a droplet run down one of her whiskers, he realized he was being foolish. He dipped his head down to drink and supped green tea from the bowl. It tasted lightly of mint, but mostly of grass clippings.

“Better?”

“Better. Thank you.” Flavor aside, he was thankful for the kindness of a stranger.

---

“We brought you a human! We followed the rules!” Ren’s voice echoed up the stairway to the undercroft. Kaia waited idly outside. Her ears swiveled to catch snippets of Ren and Slowking’s dialogue, though her mind tended to wander. Her thoughts kept drifting to Salandit, to the lizard she happened to come across, to the human who never stopped asking questions. He wasn’t like the other humans she had met during her time with the guild. She wondered how long it would take for Salandit to get up to speed, or if he truly was as hopeless as he seemed, too scared and shy to do much of anything on his own. Half of her was against Ren’s idea of convincing Salandit to join their Research team. The pair of seasoned dungeon delvers didn’t need dead weight.

“-and that’s to say nothing of the destruction that follows you!” Slowking’s bellow was accompanied by a flash of eerie purple light. Kaia heard Ren yelp.

Humans were fast learners, or so she was told. Braixen demonstrated her adaptability with aplomb, and Jun was the strongest fighter among them. Yet all Salandit had figured out- with her help, no less- was how to vomit toxins. Even the youngest of pups in her pack knew how to roughhouse in order to develop their skills. For a moment, she wondered what the repercussions would be were she to goad Salandit into playing rough. Maybe then he’d learn how to defend himself.

She liked him well enough, and he wasn't without his merits. Humans, when they weren’t asking questions with obvious answers, were fun to talk to. More importantly, she was happy Ren found a friend.

After a while, Ren hauled himself out of the stairway. His pelt gained an oily sheen, and he wobbled uneasily as he mounted the last step, but he carried in his mouth their old Research badge. He dropped it onto the stone floor and sank down after it. “Your turn to talk to him.”

She poked her nose into the satchel at her side and pulled from a pocket a pecha berry. She nudged it toward him, licked him on the brow, and descended into the undercroft.

---

Wyn led Von out of the cleaved keep and into the courtyard. Buildings similar to those he saw in the Cay all hugged the outer stone wall of the castle, though these were colorful facades of a village full of life, rather than the dulled mute huts of the ghost town. The residents of Halfhenge clustered in the courtyard, all leisurely socializing.

Their numbers pulled from Pokemon of all sorts of different species. While Von counted how many different kinds of sheep-like Pokemon grazed on the lawn, Wyn held out a paw to stop him from bumping into a passing Wooper. It looked at him with a dopey smile before it tottered off after its phanphy friend.

“Did the guild build the castle?” he asked his vulpine escort.

“Oh, absolutely not. Pokemon build ramps, not stairs, and none of the stone in Halfhenge can be sourced from anywhere nearby. We theorize it, too, got pulled into this world. The guild moved in when they found it.”

That’d also explain the church in the Cay, he thought. “I don’t remember hearing any news articles about entire castles disappearing from Scotland, or wherever.”

“France,” Wyn corrected him. “At least that’s what Fei thinks. Europe's got so many empty castles just laying about, a few missing here and there would go unnoticed.”

Von strained to look up at the massive keep. “Where did you say you were from?”

“I didn’t, but I’m from London. You?”

“Portland, Oregon.”

“An American, huh? I was wondering when we’d get one of those.”

“Oh, you know us Americans, always showing up where we aren’t supposed to.”

Wyn snickered. “Not like I’ve got a leg to stand on, either. Maybe it was the Queen’s will to colonize that threw me into this dimension.”

They resumed their trek through the courtyard to a bastion in the castle wall. A cob house rose tall, built up against the preexisting stone, the red-brown clay glued firm against gray brick.

Wyn brushed aside the woven straw curtain that covered the door. “And this is my home sweet home.”

Von ducked inside and into a cluttered workshop and walked into a cloud of incense. A cauldron took up the center of the room, and the rest of the interior appeared to be built around it. Wooden shelves and low tables encircled the cauldron, all laden with raw ingredients. Lines of twine criss-crossed from wall to wall from which plants hung to dry. A rack of empty glass vials was set into a ramp that circled upwards to a loft, presumably the vixen’s sleeping quarters. She certainly wasn’t one to waste space.

“The brewer before me used to have a proper laboratory in the castle, before Torterra took it with him. They wouldn’t let him rebuild in the keep, something about the smell bothers one too many folks.”

Given the decor and the herbs crammed into every nook and cranny, Von could only assume that Wyn had become an apothecary of sorts. He sniffed, and picked up a faint whiff of sulfur beneath the incense. “Rude of them, the keep has better ventilation now than ever before.”

“Ha! To be fair, Pokemon have better noses than humans.”

“How many humans are there, by the way?”

“With the guild? There’s three of us regulars, and two others come and go. Halfhenge is the safest place you can be, but that doesn’t quash the wanderlust in some folks. You’re welcome to stay with us, of course. In fact, I insist, at least until you get your bearings.”

It’ll be a lot nicer than sleeping in a hole in the ground. “I’d like that! I like not dying in the woods.”

"You and I both. We'll sort out specifics once the captain gets back, yeh?”

“The captain? That your boss?”

“Not my boss, per se, but the one with seniority.” Wyn circled the shelves, selecting an assortment of boxes and bundles to spread out on a worktable.

Von tried to keep himself out of her way as he idly snooped through the inventory of the lower shelves. “Five other humans, huh?” A handful of questions percolated in his mind. He wasn’t sure how to broach the topic. “Have any of them noticed anything weird when they woke up? Like, moreso than becoming a Pokemon.”

Wyn squinted at him from over the lip of the cauldron. “Other than being a Pokemon? No, I was pretty preoccupied with being a quadruped. Why, what weirdness? Did you see something when you arrived?”

Von stared into a round glass bottle, his reptilian face distorted in its reflection. “Out of you five, ah… how many of you woke up as the wrong sex?”

Wyn fell quiet, and Von’s stomach knotted. The few seconds of silence that passed was enough for his mind to race into countless wrong conclusions. She thinks I’m a freak. I’m being too pushy. I crossed a line.

“What?”

Von raised his gaze to meet hers, a look of befuddlement on her features. “I-I’m-” Rockruff puts it so bluntly. “Apparently, its-” I hate this. I hate this so much. Deep breath, stop shaking. “This body is- it’s not mine, it’s- I’m? Female.”

Wyn only stared in wide-eyed fascination. “That’s possible? Oh, weird! ” She stepped out from behind the cauldron to crouch down before Von. “I- no, I don’t mean that in a rude way, just the phenomenon itself… hmm! None of us ever discussed the possibility before. As far as I’m aware, you’re the first case. If any of the others have undergone that change, they’ve kept it to themself.”

Von didn’t want to be approached. He scuttled backwards until his tail bumped against the wooden shelf. Only then did Wyn notice the discomfort he held. “Oh, goodness, sorry, I- sorry.” She stood and abruptly turned, moving back to her workstation. “Sensitive topic, I should have been aware.” She gave an apologetic smile over her shoulder. “Ah, but hey, if it’s any consolation- only female Salandit can evolve?”

Evolution can rot. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

Wyn’s smile faded, and her shoulders grew heavy with guilt. “Let’s drop it for now, then.” It was clear he needed a distraction, and an escape route to be alone for a while. “Oh, hey! In the meantime, why not wander? I know I was curious as could be when I first got here."

Having spent the greater part of his time here following Pokemon around, the freedom to do as he please sounded nice. "Only if no one out there eats Salandits."

"No one's allowed inside Halfhenge if they eat meat."

"Or souls?"

"Right, right, you washed up by the Cay? Real rough luck there, mate.”

“Or souls, right?”

“Or souls! No eating meat, no eating souls. Go on, poke about! I’ve got some work to do before Jun gets home, and we can come up with a more long-term plan for you, but if you never need anything you know where to find me.”

He wasn’t sure if stepping out into the public eye would help or not, but curiosity gnawed at him. This world had no shortage of dangers, but if Halfhenge was as safe as Wyn said, he had a castle to explore. Ren and Rockruff are nice. Familiar. “Fair enough, I’ll leave you to your-” he cast another look around, and his eyes settled on the cauldron she began filling from a pitcher. “Cooking?”

Much the same as her lighting the fireplace, all it took to ignite the flame beneath the cauldron was a wave of her driftwood torch. “My artifice ,” she corrected him with a flourish of her wand.

“Artifice,” Von repeated. “Right. I think I’m going to check in on my friends.”

“Have fun exploring the castle!”

A couple curious critters had crept close to Wyn’s lab, hoping to glimpse the newcomer. They scattered when Von ducked through the curtain and stepped into the sunlight. He watched a furret bound off across the lawn before his attention strayed back to the one Pokemon that remained nearby. A leafy stick-bug towered above him, three feet of insect shrouded in leaves. Its antlike head, a yellow bulb, watched him as he froze in place on the grass. It strung a series of ticks and clicks from between its mandibles. “Query Braixen busy?” It extended a leafy forearm in a slow sweeping gesture at the lizard.

Thankfully, it kept its distance. It took several moments for Von to find his voice again. “H-hey Wyn?” he shouted shakily over his shoulder.

The Braixen poked her head through the straw curtain. The scent of fermentation drifted through the doorway. She took in the sight of the insect, and the quivering lizard whose eyes were wide with fear. She drew the straw covering aside and made room for her apparent guest to pass through. “Don’t mind him, Sza-Tza. Here for a resupply?” She shooed Von away with her paw, but not without a reassuring smile.

The insect bowed its head to the newcomer as it strafed around him to join Wyn. “Newness.” It looked at him expectantly.

“It’s his first time meeting a bug,” Wyn whispered to her visitor. Its antennae twitched.

Since his arrival, Von had spoken to mammals, ghosts, and a dim-witted bird. It stood to reason that an insect would sound alien to a mind unattuned. "Uh… Salandit," he said, and tapped his claw to his chest.

"Forward as Leavanny." It crossed both forearms over its chest before it turned to join Wyn. They withdrew into the workshop and left Von to ponder the exchange.

The lizard trudged his way back to the keep, grass tickling his underbelly as he went. He kept his eyes peeled for Night Vision, half expecting Ren to leap out in front of him in the guise of another ghost, yet he reached the shade of the keep's entryway undisturbed.

"Hello?" the hiss of his voice didn't carry far down the stonework corridors. I guess I'm meant to explore?

The enormity of the keep weighed down on him. Much like his stay in the church in the Cay, everywhere he looked was a reminder of his loss of humanity. Windows placed far too high to peer through, stairs whose steps he had to haul himself upwards climbing, everything felt so far out of reach.

Braixen's been here for years , he bemoaned, having climbed one flight of stairs only to give up on the first landing. This can't be all there is. Just a courtyard, empty hallways, and insurmountable towers. He tested his claws against the stone wall, and carefully clambered his way up its side. He pressed his snout against the black iron grate of the window and peered over the Halfhenge courtyard.

I want to crawl out of my own skin. I want to live and breathe.

I will find a way home.

 

[BestLizard]

Hell yeah Crux of the Self

 

[Truebrush]

Chapter 8: The Anacapa Chart​

From his perch at the window, Von contemplated how to get back down. He scaled the few feet up without thinking, and now his tail hung off of the tiny sill he sat on. What practice he learned from clambering over driftwood found use in scaling a wall. The tips of his claws found purchase in the tiniest of cracks in the masonry around him.

Looking down, he wondered how much a fall would hurt, his perception colored by his shrunken size. What would have been a casual hop was now a fall of thrice his height. Hesitantly, he sunk his grip back into the wall, and attempted a descent. It came easily despite his disorientation.

“Salandit?” Rockruff’s familiar bark echoed up the stairway.

“Over here!”

By the time Night Vision found Von, he clung tightly to the wall eight strides off the ground. His claws sunk into the grooves between stone brickwork and his tail drooped with the pull of gravity.

“What are you doing up there?” Rockruff asked from the base of the stairs. She sat and waited for Ren to catch up to her.

“Making do.” He peered down at the pair at an awkward angle. “I found out the fastest way to climb human-sized stairs is by ignoring them.” With three claws dug in deep, he waved at them with the fourth. “I figured if a three-hundred pound monitor lizard can climb a wall, why couldn’t a ten-pound me?”

“I’ve never met any Monitor. Did you have those in the Shoals too?” Ren asked Rockruff.

She shook her head. “Probably a human thing. Salandit, how were things with Braixen?”

Von’s tail lashed against the wall. “Fine.” He resumed his descent, each movement made with purpose. Slow and deliberate, he reached ground level without incident. “Not sure if it’s frustrating or reassuring that no one else really knows how we got here.”

Ren perked up. “All the more reason to join our Research team!”

Von carefully dismounted from the wall and dropped onto all fours. The hopeful look on Ren’s muzzle gave him pause. “I was considering it-”

“Great! We just got reinstated, and we’ve got an open spot all set aside for you!” Ren proudly placed a paw on the badge on the bag Rockruff wore; A Mobius strip sporting two black stripes.

“-but I think I’ll pass.”

Ren flattened his ears. “What? Why?”

“Your dungeon delving group? You find impossible geometries and willingly wander in? I don’t think I’m cut out for that.”

“Least he’s honest,” Rockruff grinned.

Ren looked crestfallen. “But you’re a human! We need your kind’s ingenuity!”

“My ingenuity? Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not exactly a prime example of my species.”

Ren furrowed his brow. “No-one is when they first start out.”

“Start out? Dude, I’ve been a human longer than you’ve been alive. I think.” He assumed both members of Night Vision to be about the same age. “In all that time on Earth, I accomplished nothing but making people angry.”

“I knew I sensed some kinship in you,” the Zorua hummed, only to falter at Von's look of incredulity. “All in good fun, of course!”

Rockruff spoke up. “Not counting the accidents, or the failed missions, or that one time Ren tried to eat-”

“Hey, heyhey! All in good! Fun!” Ren strained through a forced smile.

Rockruff shook her head. “So if you’re not joining us, what are you going to do instead?”

“I want to find a way home.”

“I don’t understand how you’ll do that without signing up,” Ren said.

“I’ll be looking for a way home that doesn’t involve… what were they, Mystery Dungeons?”

Both Pokemon looked at Von blankly. “You came here from another world, and you think your way home will be outside of the areas that distort space?” Ren asked.

“There isn’t a stone left unturned in all the land. The humans before you scoured every stride of every glen, cove, and peak,” spoke Rockruff. “The humans here firmly believe if there's a way back, it's through Labyrinth."

The word made Von’s skull tremble as if something intangible haunted it. “Are you sure? If not found on this land, why not another? Somewhere else, across the ocean?”

Ren cocked his head. "Does the Liner even go that far? Sounds more dangerous than the dungeons. I guess I can't stop you from running away from your problems, but if you're determined to stay on the surface, you might as well just stick around Halfhenge where it's safe. Hey, maybe you and Braixen can work together!"

Von grimaced. “Don’t think I have it in me to be a village doctor, or whatever it is she does around here."

“‘Sides, you’re stinky enough as it is without basking in the fumes of her big pot all day,” Rockruff agreed.

“Am I?” He was skeptical, seeing as no one else had commented on it so far. Not even Lapras, who had scooped him up in its mouth. “What do I smell like, then?”

Ren wrinkled his nose. “Kelp.”

I guess I walked into that one. Von studied Ren, who still held the spark of hope in his eyes. "The other humans- what do they do?"

"They're Researchers, like us!"

"And where are they now?"

"Out researching, probably! I thought the title was pretty self-explanatory."

Somewhere out there, braving untold dangers of their own volition. On one hand, they've apparently been at this for years-, and haven't found a way home. What makes me think I can do any better? But still, what’s taking them so long?

How many man-hours had been sunk into finding a route home only to come up empty, and how much more time need be invested? If searching every corner of the planet is the only option, wouldn't he have to pitch in if he wanted even a slim chance of regaining his humanity?

Von sighed as he looked between the two members of Night Vision. Ren's ears perked up, while Rockruff cocked her head. "Maybe," he said, "Maybe. What exactly does a Research team do?"

---

The pair led him up the stairs, bounding up the steps while he scuttled slowly up the wall. At some point, between landings, Ren enshrouded himself as a mirror image of Von. The fluffy black fox rounded a corner, and when Von turned to follow, he found himself staring at the back of his own reflection. His sudden twin turned and grinned at him from over his shoulder at the surprised noise the human made, and swished his tail in greeting. “Not a bad shape, Von.”

Von grumbled as he watched the Ren-crafted facsimile ascend the steps with all the grace afforded by the vulpine body hidden beneath and urged himself to climb faster.

From stairway to hallway, Von followed them to the solar of the keep; a modestly sized study with a long, low central table. A Pokemon that loosely resembled a mongoose stood over it, teeth bared in a scowl at the page it pored over. Its brown coat gave way to yellow stripes, and the fur that grew down over its eyes meant to shield it from the sun reminded him of an unfortunate combover. It looked up at the newcomers. Its frown didn’t fade.

Unperturbed by the studious glare, Rockruff trotted into the room. “Hello Gumshoos!"

The mongoose cocked its head. Its eyes scanned over the twin Salandit at her tail. “Night Vision. We thought you died," it chittered with a certain lack of concern in its tone.

Ren stepped forward and hissed "Hey, show some concern for my friends! These two saved my life!"

It took a few moments for Von to connect that Ren was pretending to be him. He wasn't sure if that was the best first impression- he thought about speaking up, to break the illusion. Social anxiety kept him rooted to the spot.

"Yes, yes, disgraced 'heroes' drag a human home with them and expect all to be forgiven, as if the life of a human is worth more than any Pokemon. Take off that mask, Zorua, before you put any more words in your friends' mouth."

The shroud fell from a sulking Ren. "Killjoy," he muttered. "What gave it away?"

"Your human friend doesn't know how to play along."

Von's attention stayed on his friends as he watched Rockruff's tail curl downwards. She noticed him staring. "This is the solar," she said, returning to the tour so as to brush off the mongoose. "Humans stockpile information about our world here."

A number of conspiracy boards dominated one entire wall, interwoven with webs of thread. Papers and scraps of parchment completely covered the surfaces of each wooden panel, strings bridging each island of thought together. As he wandered closer he glimpsed words in English and Simplified Chinese, both written on pages torn from journals. He didn't know which page to start, nor which thread to follow.

“Braixen could explain this better. She can even read some of it!” Rockruff followed after him.

They came before a board papered over in essays penned about plantlife. One page recounted a handful of theories on pollination in a world without Earth’s bees, while another logged attempts at crossbreeding berries. A third juggled between one notion that familiar species of plant life might have been transposed to this world just as humans had, and another idea that what humans thought of as pine trees in this world merely evolved on its own into a remarkably similar twin. All three of these documents had string leading to a fourth questioning the existence of this world’s microflora, while that page strung off towards three separate conspiracy boards.

Scanning the first few lines of messy handwriting was enough to make Von’s head spin. His brain brimmed with questions, but to see even more strewn out in a physical space, impossible to organize cleanly with how thoughts interlaced into intricate webs, he turned away. “Wyn made this?”

“Wyn and Fei,” Rockruff nodded her head to one of the boards particularly saturated with Simplified Chinese writing. “Fei started it all. Before then they just kept maps here.”

Gumshoos clicked its tongue with disapproval. “Made a mess of it all, he did. The number of times they’ve had to re-weave the entire room after a wing got caught in these nets of his, I can’t say.”

"You wanted to know what Research teams do?" Ren sat before another board, larger, stringless and isolated from the others. Von moved to join him and scanned the papers. The majority of notes were in Chinese script, but the further down he looked, the more it yielded to Wyn's scrawl.

"Attempts to ascend the Gilded Switchbacks on foot reveal caves leading into the cliffside. These tunnels behave as expected for a Class B dungeon. After approx. 7 hours on loop, one tunnel rerouted itself into Labyrinth. Sub-par ephemera harvest. Encountered three amalgams total. The maze ejected us out into Ruby Roil."​

A number of reports read similarly, all sharing the same formatting with lettered classifications and mentions of amalgams and ephemera alike. “They’ve been at this a while, huh?”

“You can read it?” Gumshoos asked. It set down the papers it was rifling through and crept closer.

“Not all of it. Just what Wyn wrote. What’s an amalgam?”

The three Pokemon exchanged glances. “They’re the natives of Labyrinth, we think. You don’t find them outside of dungeons, they’re- they’re fake Pokemon,” Rockruff began.

“Fake?”

“They look like Pokemon, but they’re not. Not really,” Ren continued. “They're maybe alive, but they babble nonsense.”

“Imagine you encounter an amalgam that looks just like me,” came Gumshoos. “While I am flesh and blood, as are many Pokemon, an amalgam has oil in its veins, and its meat is mere clay. They don’t breathe, as you and I do, nor do they communicate, nor do they think.”

Von’s skin crawled. “What do they do?”

Gumshoos looked to the board again. “The humans describe them as sentries, but that lends them the possibility of being organized. They act territorial, perhaps they exist to dissuade Explorers, Researchers, and Rescuers alike from entering Labyrinth. But to use ‘sentry,’ no… they don’t watch, they don’t report. They bite, they scratch, they claw. They are merely an obstacle."

Von turned to Night Vision. "How many have you seen?"

"Every dungeon has a few of them, but they're nothing we can't handle," Rockruff stood proudly.

"We've defeated plenty!" chimed Ren. "Easy to outwit what doesn't think."

"Outwit, perhaps. Don't pretend you haven't had to outrun them either," Gumshoos warned.

"It's the meat-eaters that're the real threat," Rockruff said to Von. "They can be clever." As she watched as horror dawned on his face, she gave him a nudge. "You're toxic, you're the safest out of all of us. And Ren'll keep the ghosts away."

Some reassurance, limited as it was, was better than none. Von looked around the room’s boards once more. “Are any of these about biology?”

The three Pokemon joined him in scanning the boards. “Most Pokemon can’t read human script,” Ren said.

“Braixen tends to be… intrusive when they conduct that sort of research,” Gumshoos recalled. “Monitoring diets, measuring limbs. Near obsessive, that fox, wound up provoking her own friends. You won’t find much of that research here.”

Not that Salandit appeared to be native to the region anyway. Perhaps it was too much to hope for. Von sighed. “If it’s okay with you all, I’d like to spend some time reading.” It would take time to unravel the notes pinned to the walls, especially being unable to read Fei’s handwriting. Or is it pawwriting? Wingwriting? Nevertheless, assuming his test with French was anything to go by, they should be able to understand one another.

“I figured you might! You humans always ask so many questions,” Ren smirked.

“I’ll save your breath, then.” He broke from the three Pokemon to review the semi-organized jumble of information left to him.

The three Pokemon exchanged glances before Gumshoos broke away. It moved back to the table to resume its work, whilst Night Vision watched Von from afar. They were silent until Von picked a board to read from. “... You don’t have to stay here if you want to look around,” Ren whispered to his partner.

Kaia’s tail began to wag. “You sure? I’m willing to wait for you before saying hi to our old friends.”

Ren shook his head and eyed Gumshoos, who quickly looked away. “I’m sure. It’d be best if I don’t dampen your warm welcome.”

Kaia shook her head and bumped her nose to his. “We’re in this together.” A lick to his cheek, and he was smiling again. “We didn’t come back just for me to let you hide from everyone.”

“I got tired of hiding, but Slowking…” Ren sighed and nuzzled into her gentle affection. “You’re right.”

---

“Attempts to correlate Pokemon with type effectiveness continue to be inconclusive. The portrayals of Pokemon in the media we’re familiar with has colored my preconceived notions to unhealthy and dangerous degrees. Take typing weaknesses with a grain of salt. For the sake of posterity, the type effectiveness chart below has been replicated from memory.”​

The more Von read, the more it became clear that Wyn’s handwriting was made with the tip of a claw dipped in ink. On the rest of the page, she must have used a straightedge to make a spreadsheet. She wasn’t kidding when she mentioned fairies, he thought as he scanned rows and columns both.

His research was interrupted by Gumshoos’ chittering. “Free Aim has touched down,” she said from her seat by the window.

“Fei!” Rockruff leapt up from the floor, inadvertently shaking Ren free from where they lay. “Let’s go say hi! C’mon, Salandit!” She stood excitedly before Von, tail wagging faster, postured like a puppy begging to play.

Another human? “Yes, please!” Von descended from the wall beneath the board he was scanning, careful not to disturb any strings on his way down to the floor. Ren anxiously paced behind Rockruff. The tension surrounding Night Vision's return still eluded Von, and he doubted he'd find anything about it in Wyn's scrawl. I'll have to ask Ren tonight.

"Nice meeting you!" he called out to Gumshoos as the three of them filed out of the door. She said nothing, but gave a dismissive wave of her paw. They wound their way back to the stairs, and he took his place on the wall, scuttling after his companions.

 

[Truebrush]

Chapter 9: Bamboo Harvester​

The sun sank behind the mountain and plunged Halfhenge into shade. Night Vision emerged from the keep and scurried over the grass, Rockruff leading the charge, eager to meet an old friend. Ren forsook donning a disguise, which made it easy for Von to chase after him.

True Aim was hard to miss, even amongst the population of Halfhenge milling about in the courtyard. Three large winged beasts caught Von’s eye from afar; Wyn was dwarfed by a colossal black bird whose feathers glistened at every turn. Two more winged Pokemon flanked the fox, one Von recognized as a Flygon, the other an unfamiliar owl that wore a shroud of leaves as a hood. The owl had bandoliers looped across its chest, small ampules tucked into its pockets.

"Fei!" The excitable dog barked and leapt toward the towering owl. She skidded to a stop at its talons, her tail wagging as she grinned up at it.

"Kaia," he said calmly, peering down at her. "Doing well?" His voice came as soft stuttered hoots.

"I am! We're back! We can battle again! Oh, I bet you missed me!"

As she yipped and yapped, Fei raised his gaze. It hovered on Von for a few moments, taking his measure, before landing on Ren. Despite Fei's avian features not conveying much emotion, the cold stare he fixed Ren with had the fox shirking back.

"- and I learned how to feel out the best rocks to use! When I sense for them underground, sometimes I get lucky and can call up a stone harder than a Shuckle shell!"

Fei glanced back down to the Rockruff at his talons. "You never stop growing, Kaia. I'm certain one day you'll outpace me."

Rockruff beamed and proudly puffed out her chest. "I can't wait to show you what I learned while I was away!"

"You'll have to wait just a little longer, Kaia. We've-"

"Human business," she sighed. "But soon, soon you'll feel what I'm capable of!"

"And you'd best not hold back." Fei dipped his head to her before he refocused on Von.

"Time for introductions?" Wyn offered as Von joined the huddled group. Rockruff backed up and sat down beside him, but kept grinning at her old friend.

Meanwhile, Von tried to push away the thoughts of an imbalanced sense of scale. One metallic talon of the giant bird was larger than his entire body. His anxieties flared, and his throat squeezed shut.

"My name is Fei," the owl said, "Though Decidueye works just as well." He paused to let the small Salandit reply.

"Um, hi! I'm Von. A Salandit." He glanced nervously up at Wyn for reassurance, then back up at the winged strangers that flanked Fei.

"Welcome, Comrade-Salandit!" came the call of the bird whose voice resounded like a creaking iron gate. "I am Corviknight, of majestic Free Aim!"

If the screeching noise alone wasn't enough to make Von tense, the volume was. He dug his claws into the grassy lawn.

The Flygon seemed to smirk at his surprise. "Flygon, of Free Aim," it said in an insectile hum.

"N-nice to meet you all," Von gulped.

"Fei's been here, what, seven years?" Wyn asked.

Fei didn't look at her and instead kept his gaze on Von. "16th June, 2013. Eight seasons since. Wyn told me you're an American?"

Oh no, what else did she say? "That's right! Just a good ol’ American boy, that's me." He ignored Rockruff's quizzical look. "And you?"

"I'm from Dongguan." A moment spent looking at Von's expression, and he continued "In the Guangdong province."

"Oh! Cool!"

Fei looked at Wyn, then back again. "What geography do they teach you in school?"

"None," Von admitted. "They gave us tests in high school, to write all of the states on a map? Never scored higher than a 70."

The expressionless owl blinked once. "That tracks."

"Not like my education was much better," said Wyn. "But hey, how about that human business?" She smiled to the members of Free Aim, hoping two of them would take the hint.

Rockruff's ears drooped in dejection. Fei expended a wing towards her, and with surprisingly dexterous feather-fingers, brushed her cheek. "I'll meet you in the training field sometime soon. Welcome home, Kaia." His head swiveled towards Flygon as he unfastened his bandoliers. "Mind taking our gear to the roost, Volx?"

Flygon's wings thrummed, and bandoliers in hand, it took flight. "Follow, Llyr! The humans wish to conspire without us," it buzzed during its liftoff.

Corviknight spread its grand wings and cast the group in shadow. "I missed you too, Comrade-Kaia!" scraped its voice as it took a few steps back before the powerful flapping of its wings threatened to blow Von across the lawn. He hunkered down in the grass while the metal raven circled higher and higher.

Fei watched his teammates ascend, gusts of wind buffeting his feathers. “Kaia, why not round up your mate and head to the practice field? We’ll join you soon.”

Rockruff nudged Von with a paw once the wind had died down. "We'll find you again later tonight, okay? Ren, where should-" she looked around for her mate, and spotted him a distance away, feigning disinterest and preoccupying himself by chewing on the tip of his tail.

Ren looked up once he felt eyes on him. His gaze fell on Fei, and the fur on the back of his neck bristled.

"See you soon," Rockruff said to Von before she trotted over to her companion. She said something to him, and he relaxed his posture. Ren spared one more look toward Von before the pair left the humans to themselves.

"I'm sensing some history here," Von finally spoke up.

"Another time," Fei said. "For now, how are things on Earth?"

---

"Oh."

The three perched on the wall above the practice field. Von had scaled the stone and sat on the battlement so he could overlook the dirt clearing where Ren and Rockruff waited, and so that he could come closer to eye level with Fei. "If it's any comfort, I doubt I brought the plague with me."

Wyn sat slumped with her back against the battlement, paws fidgeting with her driftwood wand. "Not quite the news we were hoping for, I'll admit."

Von peeked down at her. "What were you hoping for?"

"Oh, you know, maybe finding a portal on their end. Maybe they can drop a ladder through? Or at the very least toss us some cans of Irn-Bru."

"I’ll admit I miss the convenience of running water." Fei's head swiveled to look over the courtyard and the community contained within. He and Von watched a Growlithe and Poochyena playfully tussle in the grass. “Yet I’ve no desire to return home.”

“What? Why not? I mean, aside from the plague, and… everything.”

“Aside from everything? That doesn’t leave much room.” Fei’s head snapped back to face Von. “This is a home that charges no one rent. We grow our own food. We can see the stars clearly, we breathe fresh air.” He lifted his beak and gazed at distant clouds. “And of course, flying is fun.”

“Were it not for friends and family, I might agree,” Wyn replied. She pushed herself up to her paws and hopped up onto the battlement beside Von so she could join him in watching the troublemakers below.

Von, once more feeling diminished between the two, let his tail droop down the wall. “I just want my body back.”

“I felt the same, once. Fresh to this world, I was about your size, and lacked all but talon and beak to interact with my surroundings.” He ignored Wyn motioning with paw across her throat to cut him off. “I’m sure as you grow, you’ll come to feel more comfortable-”

“I just want my body back,” Von repeated, gripping the stone beneath him tighter.

Fei cocked his head in confusion. “Wyn knows everything about Earth’s idea of Pokemon. Von is a Salandit, right?” He continued on as Wyn shook her head ‘no’ with increasing desperation. “What do they evolve into?”

Put on the spot, she looked from the owl to the forlorn lizard at her side. “... Salazzle,” she answered truthfully.

That name sounds familiar, thought Von before his eyes widened in dawning horror. Faint memories of countless pieces of fanart that peppered his social media dashboard rose to the surface of his hippocampus. Each lovingly rendered image was drawn with a certain intent, and of a very specific focus. Dread and disgust in equal measure roiled in his stomach.

"Ah- if you would rather stay as you are, that too is an option." Fei waved a wing as if to banish Von's source of discomfort. "Wyn has chosen to remain as she is."

"Braixen's a good shape to be in," the fox admitted.

“Must be nice,” Von muttered bitterly.

Wyn and Fei exchanged a look of concern. “Not like it’s the end-all, be-all, mate. That wall-crawly thing you did to get up here was pretty cool, wasn’t it? And with a bit of practice, we’ll have you breathing fire in no time.”

At least that’s still something to look forward to. “Fine. How do I breathe fire?”

Excited to switch tracks, Wyn grinned. “Let’s get you down to the field.”

Fei stretched his wings and took off, his flight dead silent. Von watched him swoop down and land on the grass, before he peered down over the side of the castle wall. He put one claw forward and began climbing straight down.

“I’ll just, ah- I’ll take the stairs,” he heard Wyn say from above.

---

Every Pokemon gifted with fire held within them what Wyn referred to as a furnace. In Von’s case, his furnace ran throughout his tail, an organic mechanism that could ignite poisonous gas and oils. Much as the rest of his body, the prospect of such a thing was revolting to him. Similarly, being poked and prodded by the curious Braixen had him feeling embarrassed, especially when his tail began to sweat a thin layer of purple oil oozing from the red-orange stripe. She was quick to pull her paws away then, her muzzle wrinkled with displeasure at the feeling of the substance that clung to her fur.

“Oh god, what a smell,” she whined.

“I warned you about Salandits, Braixen!” called Rockruff from afar. Ren snickered beside her.

“Smell?” Von craned his head to look back over his tail. If he concentrated, he could make out a faint whiff of rotten fruit, an underlying sickly sweet scent. Fortunately he appeared immune to the brunt of it.

Wyn knelt to wipe her paws off on the grass bordering the field. "Stings a little bit, too. Lack of forethought on my part, shows how rarely I run into poisonous critters."

"You okay?"

"Perfectly peachy! What's more important is teaching you self-defense. Light up for me again?"

Von tensed a muscle, and the oil sheen on his tail ignited. Flames danced over his scaly skin, painless, as all he felt was a radiant warmth.

"The pheromones are back! Run, Ren!" barked Rockruff, and both members of Night Vision playfully chased one another away from the field.

"You sure it's not too late for me to become a Charmander?" Von asked Wyn with a defeated smirk.

"Don't let them discourage you, Von! Chemical weapons are no laughing matter!" called Fei from a distance.

"I'm a war crime with legs!" he called back.

"We're trying to train here!" Wyn shouted to recapture focus. "Concentrate, Von. There's gotta be some way to funnel that fire forward, unless you just plan to thwack Pokemon with your tail."

Von swept his tail behind him, and listened to the sound of shifting flames burning the air. He did have one option open to him, as unappealing as it was. "I have an idea, but don't look at me weird if I throw up." He turned away from Wyn, steeled himself, and flexed open the vent in his mouth.

Heat coursed through his body from his tail to his snout, and a fireball bloomed in the empty air before him. The spectacular fwoosh! of rushing air was accompanied by a bright flash of flame that seared into his vision. It was over as soon as it began, leaving him disoriented and blinking rapidly.

"Hey, not bad!" Wyn brought her paws together in a polite golf clap. "Feels scary at first, I know, but- oh. Oh no." She scrunched up her nose as the scent of burning pheromone wafted over them. She hurriedly raised a paw to wave off Fei's advancement, the owl concerned about the flash fire. "Stay back! We're f-fine!" she loudly coughed towards the owl.

"That bad?" an oblivious Von asked, looking over himself. The eruption from his mouth had siphoned the flames from his tail, leaving him with a foul sulphuric aftertaste. With another flex, he reignited himself.

"No! No, we've made enough of a mess, let the air clear," Wyn breathed through her shawl she had drawn up over her nose.

Von relaxed, and the flames slowly died. "Am I really that unbearable to be around?"

Wyn rolled her eyes. "This is nothing, try standing next to a Hyper Beam. No, my concern is more, ah…" she glanced at Fei, relieved he had been keeping his distance. "Pheromones. It's the fuel you use for your fire, yet what Rockruff said about its other effects…" she trailed off as she grasped for a tactful way to phrase things.

"Keep the scent away from Ren and Fei," Von finished for her.

"And all of Halfhenge. Fortunately we're downwind." Wyn fanned a paw in front of her face, took a tentative sniff of the air, and frowned. She slipped her shawl up over her head and hugged it to her chest. "I had to wash this thing anyway."

"Is it really that bad?"

Wyn hesitated. "Sort of, not really? But I brew explosives out of Turtonator dung, so my sense of scale might be a little off."

"For something that's been market tested and designed to sell to children, I didn't think Pokemon could be this gross."

"Yeah, well, that's biology baby. Everyone thinks hedgehogs are cute, but did you know they chew their own-"

"Breathing fire though, that's pretty cool!" Von interrupted.

"-dung. And yeah, it is! Do it again. See if you can hold the flame longer, yeh?"

---

Von never knew lakewater could be so refreshing. After burning through his fuel reserves, the taste of sulfur clung to his tongue until he plunged his head into the shallows of the lake and drank deep. Wyn carefully crouched at the water's edge to wash her shawl, taking care to keep as much of her fur dry as possible. After a quick rinse, Wyn deemed Von fit to mingle once more.

Dinner in Halfhenge had little in the way of ceremony. Woven baskets filled with fresh fruits and findings were brought from the castle's larder into the fractured hallway, which let the populace dine with a dockside view.

Night Vision kept to a corner away from the water, each member making away from the buffet with a treat of their choice. They piled apple, plum, and mushroom before them, and tucked in.

"Orange fur, all fours, puffy cheeks?" Von gestured at a Pokemon with his tail.

"Pawmi," Ren answered, licking plum juice from his muzzle.

"Cat on two legs, blue fur?" He pointed again.

"Meowstic," Ren said before crunching back into his meal.

A thought occurred to Von. "When I say 'cat,' what does that word mean to you?"

"It's a shape of Pokemon," spoke Rockruff to stop Ren from talking with his mouth full.

"Ah, there you three are!" Wyn held an apple on her way over to their corner. Fei's talons clacked on the stone as he followed behind, a mushroom dangling from his beak.

"Wyn, how does language work here?"

"Language?" She cocked her head, then smirked. "Pokemon don't actually talk, they just put peanut butter in their mouths and dub over their lips moving."

"... What?"

Fei dropped his mushroom into his wing, surprisingly prehensile feathers closing around it. "Different species with different tongues, able to understand one another? We've named the phenomenon Intent. Yet how my brain filters your hissing into Cantonese, it's unlikely we'll ever know."

"Tower of Babel wasn't lost, it just got isekai'd," Wyn shrugged. "Only explanation I got."

"I'll keep an eye out for Babylonian ruins, I guess."

Fei tore off a piece of mushroom and snapped it down. "You do intend to explore, then?"

Von sunk a clawtip into the pear he'd been nibbling on. "Not going to find my old body here. No choice but to go." He sucked in a deep breath. "I can spit fire now, right? That'll carry me a ways, won't it?"

Fei peered down at him for a long moment before his gaze scanned over to Rockruff. "You're in good company for the challenges ahead."

The dog's tail wagged as she basked in the attention of her reunited friend. "It'll be just like those escort missions, but it'll take forever!"

As Ren snickered at the wind leaving Von's sails, a trio of Pokemon entered the hallway. Wyn's tail abruptly ceased wagging at the sight of Slowking coming towards them.

Wyn and Fei turned to follow her gaze, and the Braixen lifted a paw in greeting. "Jun! Welcome home!"

Von didn't recognize Slowking at first. The bright and cheery cartoon he faintly recalled beared little resemblance to the beast that approached them. His shell helmet had sunk over much of his head, the Shellder's eyes the ones now doing the work. The frills around his neck draped over his shoulders, no longer a carnival red and white, but shades of purple.

Slowking was flanked by two adventurers freshly returned from the field, both bipedal, both with bags slung over their shoulders. One a five foot tall cat with yellow fur and electric blue whiskers Von swore he had seen before.

The second traveler he recognized instantly as a Lucario with a red sash about his waist, and a gnarled scar that ran from the base of his ear to the corner of his mouth and drew his expression into a perpetual grimace.

Von looked between the two taller Pokemon in jealous anxiety. Am I the only human who isn't a biped?

"Salandit," rumbled Slowking, "It's always exciting to welcome a new human to our numbers. I'm relieved that these two," he swept an arm in gesture to Night Vision, "Did the responsible thing bringing you here."

"Likewise, I'm lucky they saved me."

Ren puffed out his chest. "Heroes, that's us!"

"I am Slowking," Slowking pushed on ignoring Ren. "Guildmaster of Halfhenge."

"Salandit, Burnout of Portland. Nice to meet you."

"Quite." The eyes of the shell crown surveyed the gathered group. "I know your kind is best at making one another feel comfortable, but if there are any accommodations you may need, please bring them to my attention. All I ask in return is knowledge from Earth."

Von looked from Slowking to Fei and back. "I'm not sure what everyone else has told you, but sure, maybe I can write a few essays?"

"Once you're settled in." Slowking bowed his head, a smile gradually spreading across his face. "Tonight, eat, rest, and gather your strength." He turned to depart, not waiting for a reply.

"Seeya boss," growled Lucario as he and his companion both remained behind. His voice was gruff.

"What's the word, you two?" asked Wyn.

"In short?" spoke the cat, "Word on the wind is a new dungeon has formed, of human construct." The feline smirked to Lucario. "You all just can't pick up after yourselves, can you?"

Lucario caught Von's gaze, and the lizard found himself frozen under the studious glare. "What curious timing," he growled out of the side of his muzzle.

 

[JFought]

So I actually started reading this a little while ago, and I decided that, for Review Blitz this year, I was going to take the time to review everything I read. And so here I am, caught up on the fic and ready to give my thoughts on all of it! I came in knowing the premise of “pmd fic that explores the body dysphoria element,” which I think is an inherently interesting concept to explore, and if there’s another fic out there that really explores it, I haven’t read it yet. My thoughts might be a bit disorganized, since there's a lot of things mentioned early on that get expanded upon later, but I'll try to keep things in order. With all that said, let's get to it!

Thoughts on Chapter 1 to 9

• I like the opening bit! It’s fairly standard for PMD, but it sets the tone of the story really well, and we learn a lot about Von through it. All of his thoughts and observations tell us something about him and his backstory, which helped me get an early sense of his character as someone who feels somewhat pathetic and lost in life. You did well to make him a sympathetic protagonist right off the bat, and I'm rooting for him.
  
  
• There's great attention to detail in your descriptions! The entire fic seems to be grounded in a nice sense of realism that really focuses on Von’s experience trying to get used to this strange body in a strange world. The first chapter is where it’s at its best, but you don’t let up with the later chapters either, and I’ve found your descriptions of this world enjoyable all throughout.
  
  
• I like Candle Cay as an intro town. It was a good choice to have the first civilization be something so distinct and atypical, as it gives off the impression that this world is filled with fantastical locales that are rooted in the kinds of unique things you can do with a PMD premise. And it is a neat place with a lot of good worldbuilding that goes into it. I like that Night Vision has a good reason for why they're here, and you make use of it both to demonstrate aspects of Ren and Kaia's characters and as a fitting backdrop to our first (and presumably not last) encounter with this mysterious Marshadow character. Which is all to say that it isn't just a neat place: it serves multiple good purposes in the story and you really make the short time we spend in it count.
  
  
• I think we have a good trio so far. Ren is a happy-go-lucky troublemaker with hints of a darker side under his mask, while Kaia is a bit more serious and proud but still pretty excitable with a sense of playfulness (also I think the running gag of her taking things too literally is adorable). We also get a few hints that they’re a couple before it’s finally confirmed in Chapter 9, which is interesting since you don’t usually see those kinds of dynamics among the core cast of a PMD fic, at least not so early. Their dynamic with Von is nice, in that they offer a lot of energy that he seems to lack. So far they have mostly acted as his guide to this world, at least until they reach Halfhenge and new characters start to take over that role. Their relationship with him right now is a bit shaky: Ren sees him as an opportunity, and Kaia begrudgingly goes along with it partially because she feels bad for him. And then Von goes along with them because he doesn't really have anyone else at first. But as Kaia says, they have just met, and I’m interested to see how these three develop going forward.
  
  
• If I have a bit of a criticism, and it’s hard to really put my finger on but I’m going to try: there’s something slightly off about the way characters talk in this fic. Like, none the main trio really seem to have any kind of consistent voice, specifically in the earlier chapters. They’ll often break into very eloquent and well-spoken speech patterns, and while normally I would assume “oh, that’s just how they talk,” they just as often break out of those speech patterns without any clear logic to it (I did a double take about half the times Von made a joke or spoke more casually because of this), and it made it kind of difficult to really get a handle on some of these characters early on. It wasn’t until I reread the fic for this review that I felt I got a grasp on them. And it really is an early-on thing: Wyn’s been around for three chapters and I’ve never felt this with her, and I think Ren and Kaia get more consistent around the same time too. With those two, I think the reason why it bothered me is because ideally the way a character speaks should tell me something about them in that context. But I didn’t really feel like I got that from them: the inconsistency made their moments of eloquence seem antithetical to their actual personalities, especially Kaia’s, Ren to a lesser extent (he does seem like the kind of person to randomly break into poetic speech just for the fun of it, and because of that it did work sometimes). Von… is a bit more complicated. I do get the feeling he’s supposed to be an eloquent speaker (Kaia says as much). He’s the most consistently well-spoken of the three and I do find it believable, as he seems fairly reserved and likely doesn’t always feel comfortable talking casually to strangers, but I guess I’m just not sure what you’re intending with him sometimes. And that’s kind of the core of it: I'm not sure if this is just how you want characters to talk in this fic, or if it's unintentional. And I don't want to tell you how to write your characters, especially not when so many of the other aspects of this fic are strong. This is just kind of how I felt up until about Chapter 7 or 8. Something changed about the way you write them around then, and I think it works better.
  
  
• We are introduced to the plot of this story: the Labyrinth. A world-spanning mystery dungeon that may hold the secrets behind Von’s appearance here. It’s a good setup. You’ve spent these nine chapters building it up as something that’s eventually going to have to be tackled, and the intrigue with stuff like that Marshadow in chapter 2 or the details we’ve learned about it from various characters does a lot to make me anticipate the moment we actually visit it.
  
  
• I like the way you depict Pokémon language in this fic. The focus on the exact sounds everyone is making does a lot to really highlight the way this world feels alien to Von, and is one of the many things that I think help give this setting its distinct vibe.
  
  
• It’s a bit of a nitpick, but I was confused by the bit in Chapter 4 when Von asks Kaia her age. We learn she’s nineteen seasons, and then Von reacts with surprise. Normally I’d understand this to be equivalent to almost five years, though we learn later that “seasons” are just what they call years here. But if that’s the case, it makes Von’s reaction a little odd. Not because five years isn’t weird, a dog definitely wouldn’t be a puppy anymore by that point, but because the wording of the narration suggests that he has already figured that she means nineteen years. Brushing aside that it was weird for him to figure that in the first place, since the difference in the word’s meaning isn’t really acknowledged I ended up really confused by this bit until the later chapter where it’s clarified, as it seemed really weird for him to think she was defying her life expectancy when she’s only five years old, even if it is old for a puppy.
  
  
• To talk about the setting more broadly, I like what you seem to be going for here. You really lean into this world as a weird and strange place, with all kinds of unexplained intricacies that the locals don’t question but are huge mysteries to the humans who have ended up here. Obviously there’s a lot to draw on given the strangeness evident in the source material, but stuff like the Labyrinth, the strange existence of Halfhenge and the church, and the mechanics that seem to underlie Intent as a language; they paint a picture of an intriguing world where all the things that are usually taken for granted in Pokémon, aren’t. Von’s observations carry a lot of the legwork early on, but it really starts to come into full force once we reach Halfhenge and start learning more about what’s going on. The idea that more than just humans are being pulled into this world, and that it's been happening for a while, is good hook that gets me invested in the plot's mysteries.
  
  

• “Did Berserk ever get finished?”

  oof
  
  

• “Sorry, fairies? Is Titania a Pokemon now?”

  Is that a Fairy Tail Shakespeare reference? I am very cultured.
  
  
• The conspiracy board scene kind of gets back to what I was talking about with the setting! It’s fun getting to see the kinds of questions the other humans are asking (the subtle wait what about the microflora bit made me chuckle). It really does add a lot to see these questions being asked. It kind of reminds me of Log Horizon in a way, in that you’re really capturing that vibe of “we’re stuck here, now how does this place work?”
  
  
• I like the way you’ve handled the species dysphoria in this fic so far. You put a lot of emphasis on detailing Von’s struggle to come to terms with his new form. And with every detail Von learns about this body, the direness of his situation sets in more and more. It's hard not to feel sympathetic for him, he really drew the short end of the stick with the combo of “female” and “salandit.” Either of those things could have meant less if they weren’t paired together (if he were just about any other lizard pokémon the female part would have been a lot easier to cope with). But since they are paired, he’s been put into a situation where the question of how he’s supposed to adjust to this is impossibly difficult and daunting. And so it makes sense why he’d choose to join Night Vision. The Labyrinth is his only chance of escape, and when given the choice between that and having to confront his new reality, the choice is obvious. So far, what seems to be keeping Von sane, aside from dissociation and avoiding the problem, is the hope that this is temporary: that he can escape this and turn back into a human. So it’ll be interesting to see where this story takes him; if he really does have hope, or if he has no choice but to somehow live with this.
  
  
• Wyn’s a pretty fun character so far: a British biologist who’s also a weeb. She seems to me like someone making the most of a bad situation, and her genuine interest in the way this world works and the mysteries at hand are both fun and also help to add to the story’s intrigue by setting up the world’s weirdness as a mystery to be solved. Fei’s only been around for one chapter so far, but I do like the small conflict he had with Von in chapter 9. He wasn’t really attached to his old life, so for him this is an improvement. Which is interesting because Von himself wasn’t exactly in the best situation either before coming here, and his own feelings might have been different if he had turned into most anything else. It does make me wonder how Von feels about his life as a human, if there’s anything there he misses besides his old body. We did get a sense of his regret at the way some of his relationships have gone back in the first couple chapters, but there’s still plenty of room to explore there.
  
  
• Chapter 9 ends with a few new characters, including a Zeraora, which is interesting. Slowking is giving me bad vibes already, but I’ll reserve judgment for now. You seem to be the kind of author who likes to end chapters on hooks, and it looks like it’s about time we finally visit a dungeon. There's also the question of what kind of trouble Night Vision got into that has Ren all on edge. There's a lot to look forward to, it seems!

As for errors, this is what I found:

Spoiler: Typos and Formatting Errors

A newfound fear of predators helped take his mind of of his more existentialist dread.

“”What did you think we were researching?”

Von moved to massage his temples, before he remembered they had become claws.

This sentence is a little confusing, since the structure of it implies that his temples became claws, when I'm pretty sure you intended to mean his fingers.

Their journey took them away from the ceaseless froth and foam of the sea and sliced into the mainland where the rolling rise and fall of the hilly landscape of the Cay gave way to windswept plains peppered with wildflowers beforel the river they followed delved into a verdant forest.

It was as if half of the castle; the half closest to the water; had been swallowed by the lake.

You don't want semicolons here. I'd say in general you do have a tendency to get a bit overambitious with them when either commas or sometimes a colon would do just as well if not better. It doesn't usually bother me that much, but here's definitely an instance where it would make much more sense to use em-dashes instead, as the first and third parts aren't just parts of the same clause, they are the same clause, and shouldn't be separated by semicolons.

There's also a few places where you forgot to format the italics for Von's thoughts. I checked the AO3 version and they're fine there, so I'm guessing these were just crossposting mistakes.

Rockruff looked around the burrow, then took a step to the side, letting more light in from the tunnel to the outside. Don't take it literally. "You'd have to ask them."

I guess I walked into that one. Von studied Ren, who still held the spark of hope in his eyes.

On one hand, they've apparently been at this for years-, and haven't found a way home. What makes me think I can do any better? But still; what’s taking them so long?

(there's also a weird dash-comma here.)

The tension surrounding Night Vision's return still eluded Von, and he doubted he'd find anything about it in Wyn's scrawl. I'll have to ask Ren tonight.

That name sounds familiar, thought Von before his eyes widened in dawning horror.

Von looked between the two taller Pokemon in jealous anxiety. Am I the only human who isn't a biped?

All in all, this is a really good fic that deserves more attention. You're really taking the premise and running with it in interesting directions. There's a lot to dig into and get invested in, you really do have something great going on here, and I hope to see more of it!

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

Heya, went around tonight to grab the Week 1 bonus a couple final times for the ongoing Review Blitz, which took me towards PMD stories that had been flying under the radar here on TR. I’d heard some pretty good word-of-mouth for Crux of the Self in the past, so I figured that it was as good a reason as any to dive in and see what the chatter was about.

Chapter 1

The sound of rain pattering against a tent. Memories? Mine? The taste of store brand birthday cake frosting. This isn't my bed. The feel of Jake's stubble against his cheek. Headlights on a dusty windshield. Where am I?

I take it that the protagonist’s having a disjointed memory recall moment, since it feels like we’re seeing disjointed snapshots right now.

Von dared to crack his eyes open. Sunlight drifted through an overcast sky. Groggily, he allowed himself to feel. Sand against his cheek, his belly, his hands. He didn't move as he took stock of his circumstances. He didn't remember passing out naked on a beach. He allowed himself to lift his head, to take in his surroundings. Instinctively, he tried to do so by propping himself up on one elbow, but nothing moved right. His arms were too short. His spine wanted to stay horizontal. Confused, he rolled onto his side, and looked down at himself, and balked, frozen in place as he took in what he saw.

Ah yes, the part where Von gets a crash course in lizard anatomy, which I’m sure won’t completely freak him out at all.

Somehow, Von had become a lizard. As he tested his new muscles, swaying his tail and flexing his claws, he tried to remain calm as he processed the sight of himself. Black and gray skin, a red-orange line scrawling from his lower back down his tail. He righted himself again, back onto his belly, against the warm sand. A dream, he told himself, as he began to walk, slowly at first, to get used to his new movements. It was the only explanation, after all.

Wait, so how exactly is Von seeing his back marking if he’s lying on his side and looking down? Wouldn’t he logically only see things along his underbelly as a Salandit right now?

As Devon Stafford awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, Von humored himself, he found himself transformed on the beach into a small reptile.

He walked aimlessly letting his tail drag through the soft sand. It felt nice against his skin, different than he remembered beach sand feeling, but the last time he felt that was years and years ago, when he was still on good terms with his family in Oregon. It would feel different, wouldn't it?

He stopped walking and scraped his claws through sand. He focused on the feeling, on how material it felt. How vivid his surroundings were- the sound of the ebbing tide, the smell of seafoam and surf, the dulled irritation of grains of sand that clung to his claws when he pulled them from the dune.

Would recommend hacking this up into at least 3 separate paragraphs, since that is a lot of sentences all taped together in one paragraph.

Though Von is from ‘our’ world, huh? Noted for the future, though I wonder if this means that he’s also played Pokémon / PMD games himself.

This has to be a dream, Von insisted, despite his new reality. He squeezed his eyes shut, and pinched himself on his new tail. He felt the pain. He opened his eyes again, and looked skyward, to the sunlight, until the sting drove him to cast his gaze downward once more, to the material reality of the beach he stood on.

What? He fell asleep in his car, in a parking lot in Whitefish, in the decidedly landlocked state of Montana. Where?

… Von baked to death inside that car and that’s why he’s here, huh?

Lacking the tools to comprehend what had happened to him, and how he wound up by the ocean, what could he do but walk? He continued onward in the direction he had started. It was a coastline, sooner or later he would come across civilization, and he could puzzle out where he was.

Though, I would scare people, looking like this, he thought. and

After contemplating the impact of his new appearance, new factors played out in his head. He looked skyward again, scanning for wildlife, now half expecting a hawk to swoop down and snatch him up by his tail. [ ]

Hawks eat lizards, right?

The idea occurred to him that he should dart off of the beach, and into the treeline that followed the coast, but the thought of running into a coyote amid the trees dissuaded him further. He compromised by sticking to the driftwood- there was plenty of it, sun-bleached flotsam piled together in the sand, hollowed-out logs large enough for him to dart into should he spot the shadow of a bird circling overhead.

Am I overreacting? He wondered, I'm on the larger side of the lizard spectrum. No Gila monster, but I'm no skink either.

From snout to tailtip, he was about two and a half feet long. A newfound fear of predators helped take his mind off of his more existentialist dread. It let him focus, instead of moping his way down the beach, and it let his inner monologue quiet down. He funneled his energy into relearning how to walk, how to use his tail for balance, how to grip driftwood with his new claws.

Okay, so Von officially has not played a Pokémon game since at least 2015 given that he doesn’t reflexively realize that he’s a Salandit. Though how on earth does he piece together that he’s two-and-a-half feet long when everything almost certainly looks much bigger to him at the moment.

Though this is another spot where you really want to hack up that paragraph that’s currently present into a number of parts, since it’s a really, really dense blob in its as-is state. I’d also suggest slipping in a sentence or two of Von quietly freaking out about how he might get eaten since that anxiety doesn’t really come through a whole lot.

It might also make sense to re-read this section in particular aloud to yourself to try and tighten up some of the prose, since there’s a few sentences that feel either needlessly roundabout or else like they could be said more directly. “[...] a]fter contemplating the impact of his new appearance, new factors played out in his head.” is one of the main standouts. You kinda have similar things happening on and off in other parts of the first chapter up to this point, but this section was where it was really noticeable as a reader.

After twenty minutes of walking, Von felt renewed. The coastal air felt clean in his lungs. His spirits had lifted, and were he still in his old body, he might not have minded the sudden change of location at all. The white sand, the clear blue ocean, it all felt so picturesque.

This is far too gorgeous to still be in the States, he thought.

Then, off to his right, in the shallows of the tide, he spotted the movement he had feared, of a bird swooping down to feed. It happened before he could do more than turn his head- a sudden thunderous splash in the water.

He froze, mid step, as he witnessed a bird gulp down a fish. Some sort of waterfowl- he couldn't place the species. It was large, covered in blue feathers, a vacant and distant look in its large green eyes. It must have sensed him staring. It turned to look back at him. He was paralyzed with fear, certain that if he moved, he'd provoke it.

Ohai, Cramorant. Though you know that drill about the big paragraph here. That said, I take it that Von has not been to too many beaches in the states, since there’s a lot of decently pretty breaches in the lower 48. California, Florida, and the Outer Banks area have some particularly nice ones.

"Fish?" it asked.

Von: “NOIMNOTAFISHGOAWAYGOAWAY!”

Von stared. It didn't say 'fish,' but it was what his brain registered. The sound that left its beak was unmistakably more of a 'craw,' a loud and clumsy noise befitting of a bird as gangling as the strange beast before him, but somehow, Von understood it as a word.

"Food?!" it squawked again, and began to paddle its way ashore.

Von: “Oh my god, why me?!”

"What." Von couldn't help himself from blurting it out. What left his mouth was a hiss, low and quiet.

"Food for Cramorant?"

Not just words, but it could attempt sentences. There was hope in the waterfowl's voice. Von didn't pretend to understand how he picked up on the thing's tone. Its webbed feet found purchase in the shallows, and it stood, wading ashore. Von backed up, slowly, until he pressed himself back against a log of driftwood.

Cramorant is a feral or the equivalent of it, isn’t it? Since that sentence structure it’s using feels a few fries short of a kiddie meal.

"N-not food," Von stammered, still uncertain what was happening. Cross-species communication shouldn't be possible. Von couldn't even understand how he was forming words with his alien throat.

The bird- Cramorant, apparently- seemed to pout. It stepped onto the sand, and shook water from its feathers, flaps from its wings sending droplets into the white dunes.

"Um.. friend?" Von asked in the hopes that it would keep its beak away from him.

"Toxic," it replied. "No good."

Von: “Why do I feel as if I ought to be insulted right now?” >.<

It took a moment for Von to register that it was talking about him. The possibility that he might be a poisonous species of lizard hadn't crossed his mind.

"Do you know what I am?"

Cramorant took a good, hard look at Von, tilting its head one way, then the other.

"Not food," it admitted, and promptly lost interest in Von. It spread its wings to dry them in the scarce rays of sun that pierced the cloudy sky.

Von: “... Great, so everyone here is apparently going to either just ignore me or else try and make me lunch. No pressure at all.”

Von relaxed and pushed away from the log. No longer in fear of the bird, maybe he could get some of his questions answered.

"Cramorant, what are you? How can I understand you? And what am I?"

"Pokemon," Cramorant said simply.

Von's head spun. Pokemon. The cultural zeitgeist he experienced as a kid. "What?"

Oh, so Von is a genwunner (or gentooer, I guess). That would explain a lot about how he doesn’t recognize any Alolamons or Galarmons.

"What?" Cramorant repeated. "What what?"

"Pokemon? Like the games? What about them?"

Cramoran: “Not-food is giving me headache.”

The Cramorant looked taken aback. "Pokemon!" it repeated, and flapped its wings in frustration. "Cramorant, Pokemon! Not-Food, Pokemon! Simple!"

Von: “... ‘Not-Food’? That’s seriously what you’re calling me?” >///<
Cramorant: “Yes!” >v<

Von was floored and struck speechless. He sat there, mouth agape, staring at the bird, trying to parse this new knowledge in his mind. He didn't recognize Cramorant, nor himself, from the games he played as a kid. He stopped playing in high school, and never went back to the series. What knowledge he gleaned thereafter was through cultural osmosis of simply existing in a shared online space. His brain recoiled from their conversation, and he clasped his head in his claws.

"No.. no way.."

Von: “... Maybe I really am baking to death in the car right now and this is all some sort of near-death fever dream.”

Cramorant squawked again, and Von looked up at it, dread all over his features. "Is Not-Food well? Does Not-Food need food?"

Von: “... I’d say ‘yes’, but you’re going to barf up a dead Magikarp onto me if I do, aren’t you?”

Thoughts pulled back to the material, Von swallowed. He was pretty hungry, but he imagined Cramorant regurgitating fish as birds often feed their young.

"No.. Not-Food not need food. Not-Food need.. people?" The word 'people' felt off. "Humans?" he tried again.

"Never met," Cramorant said. "Town downwind, look for fire."

It extended a wing, gesturing further down the shore. [ ]


"Thank you," Von said wearily.

It probably makes sense to play up that “sinking feeling” for Von a bit more before he says “thank you”, especially since it’s a chance to show off how his brain’s ticking at the moment from getting disappointed like this.

Cramorant lingered, but remained quiet. It wasn't accustomed to being helpful.

Von began walking again, his head swimming with thoughts. He wanted to convince himself he was in a dream after all, no matter how concrete reality around him felt.

Maybe I should have paid more attention to the philosophy course I took in community college. Maybe it's a fever dream? Don't think I've had one of those before. Oh, maybe I'm currently freezing to death in my car in a parking lot in Montana and hallucinating everything. That, or a coma. I wonder what it is about my subconscious that I see myself as a poisonous lizard.

Scratch that about “baking to death” in his car. Von left his world in the wrong season for that, it looks like.

To make matters worse, raindrops began to fall. They were small, unnoticeable to Von when the rain started, but the overcast sky gradually darkened, and the droplets grew heavier. He first noticed the rain when spots of gray began appearing on the white sand of the beach around him, before he felt it on his exposed back.

Just couldn't allow me to keep my clothes, could you, fate?

He mourned his lack of protection from the elements, and glanced inland again. He relented on his decision to stay away from the forest, and skittered over the driftwood to the edge of the treeline. As long as he kept visual his eyes on the ocean, he couldn't get lost, he decided, as the sound of rain grew louder. The trees he sheltered beneath resembled hemlocks, but he wasn't sure. Whatever trees they were, they towered above his new smaller size.

inb4 this causes Von’s body temperature to crash and he starts to enter torpor.

He continued onward, over roots and through grass, keeping his eyes and ears alert for any more signs of life. The sound of rain grew heavier, but it never drowned out the ocean waves. He wasn't sure how much time had passed—it was hard to track the sun through the rainclouds. When his brain grew restless and anxious from his constant state of high alert, it began to wander, and spiral.

This is all probably some sort of self-imposed guilty karmic punishment my psyche has inflicted upon itself. Cormorant said I'm toxic. How many people have I hurt?

Faces from his past bubbled up in his memory. He was quick to push his family from the picture- that pain went both ways. It was his friends he missed, and his ex, despite the relationship that doomed them both, he still cared for Jake, or he thought he did. The more despondent he became, the deeper his past actions hurt, no matter how small or trivial, his most minor faults burned like hot coals.

If only I was a better person..

Wow, so being a poisonous lizard really did fit Von’s personality. That definitely is a cruel twist of fate there.

And then, to free him from his despair, he saw hope up ahead. The shoreline curved inland, and following the shoreline, he found himself looking over a bay. He stood at what he first thought was a peninsula, but then saw as a barrier sheltering the stiller waters from the waves. A river fed into the bay, and at that river, a town. Buildings dotted the landscape, and Von's heart soared.

On the coast opposite the mouth of the bay, Von recognized the shape of a lighthouse, a tall wooden structure where a large brazier would be lit during the sunset. He scanned the horizon inland again, and thought he recognized the shape of an old stone church built on a gentle hill. Most of the other buildings in town looked newer, and vastly different in architecture, as from a distance, they looked like small wooden domes only one story tall.

As Von continued to trace his path down the shore, he was able to focus on the odd architecture more clearly- they were simple huts, it seemed to him, made of wood and clay, some made of shaped stone, and many were topped with wooden structures meant to resemble pointed ears. Von didn't question the sight, enough strange things had happened to him upon waking since he woke up for him to pause. He persevered onward, in the hope of simply finding a place he could feel safe.

Von: “... Why do I get the feeling that I’m not in Kansas- er… Montana anymore?” ._.;

Ocean life seemed to congregate in the bay. Von recognized a few Pokemon from his youth when he spotted a trio of Lapras as they swam from the waterfront of the town, though they weren't alone. Smaller Pokemon with pink shells waded in the bay, as well. Distantly, Von picked up snippets of gull cries. He couldn't see their source, but had to assume they were taking shelter from the rain.

On his walk to the town, he kept his eyes peeled for more clues. Oddly, there didn't seem to be any paved roads, though dirt paths snaked between buildings and over hills. No vehicles, either. The waterfront lacked a dock, the sandy beach sprawled continuously and uninterrupted. No piers meant no boats. After he walked closer, he had to sit and stare and analyze. All of the buildings were too small for human habitation.

Von's gaze went from the simple huts to the church on the hill, and back again, perplexed. The church looked manmade, at least from the distance he was at now, sized appropriately for a grown adult to step comfortably through the doorway. The houses, meanwhile, would require stooping at the very least, if not outright crawling for the smaller doorways on some of them.

The town had little foot traffic, and none of it was human. The rain that swept over the village likely kept its inhabitants inside, he thought. He glanced behind him, to the Lapras heading for the horizon, and corrected himself. Water types shouldn't mind it though, right?

Oh, so Von got dumped into a posthuman PMD setting of some sort given the church that was clearly meant for use by something human-sized and the everything else that is not

Von hesitated on the edge of town. There was shelter here, but was there any for him? He couldn't just knock on the closest door and ask whoever was inside for a roof over his head—that wasn't how it worked. It was why he was living in his car, in Montana-

The church! He interrupted his dour thoughts, to allow himself hope. The building on the hill, the only one sized for humans. If there was a building in town a human would be in, it would be the church.

Von really did freeze to death in his car in Montana, didn’t he?

He skittered excitedly through the empty streets, through puddles of rainwater forming on the packed dirt paths, then over soft wet grass that tickled against belly and tail, cutting a course uphill, until he came to the base of the stone building.

It looked old, and towered above him. A crooked weather vane perched at the top of its steeple, and rattled stubbornly in the breeze, refusing to turn. The sole stained-glass window on the front of the building depicted a glistening silvery blue chalice, empty, and chipped along its brim. The windows were dark; but the door was propped open with stone.

Von scampered up the wet steps, and lingered in the doorway, peering in. It was dark; the only light that would help him came in through the windows, and drifted over the pews, all of which sat empty, all facing the altar. There was no pulpit, a simple altar, dusty with disuse. Von's heart sank.

How long had this place been sitting vacant?

… Wait, so Von is in a post-human setting of some sort, but he came from “our world” where Pokémon is just a cartoon and game franchise. Did his world get hard reset or something by someone with a thing for Pokémon?

He wandered inside, just to get out of the rain. The purple carpet that stretched down the aisle between the pews was a nice change of texture, at least, from all of the sand he had crawled through, and the cold grass that wiped off the sand that had clung to him. He wandered down the aisle, in search of a soft place to curl up on, to wait out the rain. When he got to the altar, he turned to look back the way he came, and blinked in surprise at the small stubby candles that filled the pews.

And here, I thought my family's church was strange, he thought.

All of a sudden, before a chill ran down his spine, as one candle came alight in a cold blue flame, and then another; again and again, until the dozens of candles that filled the room all glowed a ghostly hue- and one by one, they opened their eyes.

Ohai Litwick. Or at least I think you’re Litwick. Though IMO, Von’s “chill down his spine” moment likely works a bit better if it comes after the Litwick start lighting up, since it makes things feel less like they’re being told about after the fact, which the current ordering kinda does.

"Stranger?" came a whisper, followed by another, "How odd. We don't get visitors often," a disembodied voice asked, breathless, yet felt against the back of his neck.

A gust of wind rattled the windows in their frames, and Von fell into a dreadful state of fear.

I think “show” that more by describing some of the effects that Von experiences as a frightened Salandit. e.x. does he freeze in place? Does his mouth reflexively flop open? Do those skin flaps on the back of his neck stand up? Lots of ways that you can say what you basically do there while making it a bit more “visceral”.

It’s a bit early to hand down hard judgments on this story since I’m less than 3000 words in right now, but CotS left a decent first impression on me thus far. Your first chapter had some things going for it that I liked as a reader, but there were also some structural issues with it that are weighing things down a bit at the moment.

The number one draw of the story that I can see so far is the extent that it deals with “being stuck in a strange body”. It’s a topic that a lot of PMD fics with human protagonists touch on, but you seem to be taking advantage of it a bit more than most especially since IIRC, Von got stuck in a female body when he got turned into a Salandit. It’s got a lot of potential, and it has me eager to see where things will wind up going with it.

I also liked the glimpses of the world that you showed off thus far. While there seems to be a sapience gradient like in a lot of other PMD stories, you seem to be avoiding the “ferals are just dumb animals” take that a lot of other ones opt for, which opens up some doors for things you can do narratively that ferals as “snarling, mindless beasts” can’t do. Probably. Maybe. Hard to know for sure from just one chapter in, since for all I know, the Cramorant was a townie who was just a bit slow in the head. There are also some downright tantalizing hints that the world that Von woke up in might have been more familiar once upon a time than he would reflexively assume since there’s signs that there were once humans present in it. You’ve got my interest there, especially since it makes me wonder if and how it links to Von’s / our world

Alright, now onto the stuff that I didn’t like about this chapter. The full nitty-gritty is in the line-by-line, but one of the recurring problems that stood out to me while reading was that you have a lot of paragraphs relative to the chapter’s length that are effectively big walls of text. Ones that can easily be broken up into 3+ more digestible paragraphs without a ton of effort or added content. While some of that is ultimately subjective taste on my part as an author, I did feel that at least some of those paragraphs were long and idea-dense enough that it risked readers losing certain nuggets of information in the shuffle in a way that rendering them in standalone paragraphs would be less likely to have.

I also felt that there were a couple parts that could’ve standed to have a bit more description. Like I get you not wanting to dwell on the town too much since Von’s kinda blowing through it assuming he’ll be an unwelcome drifter (even if I wanted to see more of it and hope that’ll happen in a future chapter), but we don’t even know what sort of trees were growing along the beach. Since that both helps the audience visualize things and make inferences about the environment even without telling them explicitly. e.x. A forest with palm trees implies very different things about the local climate than one with conifers. I also noticed a couple parts where you “tell” certain things to the audience, but it’s not “shown” much, with the outro where you mention that Von is scared come to mind. Throwing in body language or internal thoughts or the like to “show” how he’s scared usually is a bit more interesting for readers, and for a story that makes use of bodily dysphoria as much as yours, feels like it’d be part and parcel with “you’re not longer a male human, Von” as an overall dynamic.

I hope that review didn’t come off as being too harsh. If it’s any consolation, I did think that your first chapter was a decent hook, and it got me interested in coming back for more of it in RB4. Hope the feedback helped @Truebrush , and even if it might take a while, I’ll be looking forward to when we cross paths again.

 

[Truebrush]

Chapter 10: A Harmony Of Discordant Canons​

"A human construct formed? What do you mean? Where and when?" Wyn bounced excitedly on her toes.

"A dungeon has formed," Lucario corrected, "A human construct has been unearthed."

The tall cat spoke up. "Seems yesterday an Onix chewed its way into 'a cavern of smooth marble and sculpted columns' and didn't find its way out until daybreak."

"Left a tunnel to it for us somewhere far West along the Brave Range, at the foot of a mountain," Lucario finished.

"Marble, huh?" Wyn rubbed her chin with a paw. "Think it's too much of an ask for an abandoned mall? At least give me something contemporary."

"Perhaps a hotel," chirped Fei. "Or a government building."

"Wait, so it's underground?" Von piped up.

"Lodged in a mountain," Lucario nodded.

"When do we set out?"

The group of taller Pokemon all turned to look down at him at once. "Love that ambition, mate, but maybe it'd be best to ease you into things."

"Could be dangerous for a new recruit," Lucario nodded. "Speaking of, who are you?"

"Von- er, or Salandit," he said, glancing between the two strangers.

"Zeraora of True Path," purred the cat.

"Lucario of True Path," said the canid, before he caught a look from Wyn and hurriedly added "Between humans, you may call me Jun." He squared his shoulders and straightened his posture. "Though I prefer to be called 'Captain,' if we're on friendly terms."

"Aye aye, cap'n!"

"I take it you'll be staying in Halfhenge, then?"

"If there's room! Always used to fantasize about living in a castle as a kid, little did I know…" Von trailed off.

"Did someone take over our old den?" Ren asked.

Lucario finally acknowledged Night Vision's presence with a low growl. "One moon after you left." He peered at the badge on the bag Rockruff wore. "Yet if Night Vision truly wishes to return, we're happy to accept help. There's space in the… what's the word, Wyn?"

"The oratory."

You’re kidding. I can’t get away from churches even on another planet. “Sounds great,” Von said halfheartedly, “So long as there’s a roof over my head.”

“Great! Keep in mind we’ll be tromping through your room every Sunday for prayer, and you’re not allowed to hog all the communion wine to yourself.”

Von looked to Wyn. “You have wine here?”

“If only,” Fei sighed wistfully.

Zeraora tapped a paw to Jun’s shoulder. “Come. We should eat.”

The Lucario gave Ren one last look of trepidation before he turned towards the baskets of food. Once his back was turned, Ren stuck out his tongue at him.

There was quiet for a moment as True Path walked away, and Von watched Oranguru wheel a large pumpkin from the larder to the dock, and the pair of Lapras in the lake waded closer in anticipation. The squash splashed into the water and was swiftly torn apart as the sea beasts feasted.

“What did you do on Earth, Von?” Fei asked.

“I wanted to be a documentarian. I was in college studying film until I wound up here.” At least while I’m here, I can pretend I’m not a failure at everything I do. “What about you?”

“I worked security at a port on Pearl River.”

Von tensed. “You a cop?”

The owl trilled a laugh. “No, nothing of the sort.”

Phew. “What about you, Wyn?”

“I never really settled on a career path, if that’s what we’re talking about. But I’ll have you know I was a very important moderator in several anime Discord servers.”

“What’s anime?” Ren asked his companion.

“Braixen told me about it before, it’s one of those ‘moving pictures’ things,” whispered Rockruff.

The best ‘moving pictures’ thing,” added Wyn. “‘Least until Von’s documentary on Pokemon hits theaters, yeh?” She gave him a wink.

“Shame I didn’t pack my camera.” Von looked past Wyn as Lucario wandered back toward the group, a pear in his paw. “What about you, J- ah, Captain? What did you do on Earth?”

“I can’t remember,” he said casually.

“What do you mean?”

Fei and Wyn both averted their eyes. “Amnesia, I think that’s the term?” Jun growled. “I have vague memories of being a human child, I recognize some terms Wyn and Fei use, but other than that, there is nothing from before.” He bit into his pear.

“Oh, I’m- I’m sorry.”

“For?” Jun gave the half-grin his scarred muzzle would allow when Von remained awkwardly silent. “I can’t mourn what I can’t remember.”

Perhaps eager to switch topics, Fei spoke up. "Maybe we should talk of the future, yes? What will tomorrow look like? I know you and Zeraora intend to explore, while we of Free Aim continue our hunt."

Rockruff perked up. "Any missions need doing?"

"I'd want to accompany you if you're showing Von the basics, but I've got my paws full with my work," Wyn frowned as she looked to Night Vision. "What do you think, Captain?"

"Partner them up with another team for the time being."

Fei's head swiveled as he scanned the gathered inhabitants of Halfhenge. "Who?"

"We'll ask around, and see what Pelliper brings us tomorrow. Decide on it then," said Wyn.

---

The oratory was tucked away in the corner of the third floor, in a square room in one of the two remaining towers of Halfhenge. Its wooden doors, once polished and detailed with silvery paint long since faded and worn, had been propped open with river rocks. The keep's gray stone continued inward, sparing not even the keep's holiest room its dull monotony. Against the far wall beneath the room's sole window stretched a slab of stone that once served as the altar, now bereft of any symbols of worship. The room was sparse, and Von appreciated its modesty.

"Can't even tell what denomination it was," he remarked as he wandered inside.

Fei let down the bundle of barley straw he carried upstairs and stretched his wings. He remained in the hall. "I hope it's to your liking."

Rockruff dropped the small sheaf of straw she carried in her mouth next to Fei's bundle and trotted inside. "It's so high up and far away from the ground. It feels unnatural."

Ren dipped past Fei to join the rest of Night Vision in the center of the room. "We can make due."

"I won't pretend it's as comfortable as what you're used to, but I hope it will feel like home soon enough," Fei said to Von from the doorway.

Von, used to sleeping in his car, clambered up onto the altar to peek out of the window. "I appreciate it. I'll manage, thank you."

"I and the rest of Free Aim roost one flight up if you need us."

Von could see Wyn's hut from his perch. "Thanks again, man."

The owl swept one wing across his chest and bowed before he turned, and Night Vision listened to Fei's talons clacking on the stone floor recede.

Rockruff approached the bundle of straw and bit through the vine that held it together. As she and Ren set about making their beds, Von stared over the courtyard. Sheeplike Pokemon huddled together as the daylight disappeared, content to bed down in soft grass. "Why did you two leave for Candle Cay?"

The sound of rustling straw behind him faltered. "We Rockruff are a migratory species-"

"Reassignment, of a sort. The kind that comes from disagreements and ruffled feathers," Ren interrupted.

Von turned to shoot Rockruff an inquisitive look before he focused on Ren. "May I ask why you and Fei don't get along?"

"Go ahead."

Von waited for Ren to elaborate, but the fox only smirked. "... Why don't you and Fei get along?"

"Kaia is the better half of Night Vision. Stronger, more patient, better at this whole 'studying' thing." He sat back on his haunches and stared past Von, out the window behind him. "Fei thought Night Vision was a dead end for Kaia, and I wanted to prove him wrong. So we took on a difficult mission. It doesn't go as planned, Pokemon get hurt… we end up in the Cay."

"Sounds like exile. Why come back here?"

“The Cay’s no place for the living, but it’s still better than living in the wilds. Could’ve made the trip to Bell Harbor, but…” Ren trailed off, then turned to Rockruff, nosing her cheek for reassurance. “Well, we still have to prove Fei wrong, don’t we?”

Slowly, Rockruff unfurled her tail to let it wag. “Side by side,”

“By tooth and hide,” Ren finished, and the two rubbed noses.

Von softened at the display. “And bringing me here earned you your badge back?”

“Humans are Slowking’s favorite, yes. You should’ve washed up earlier, Von.”

“Slowking’s favorite… what?”

“What’s the phrase… ‘well of knowledge?’ He’s curious about your world. Sounds like a scary place to me, but he’s the one with the super-smart crown. Either way, you’re the one that asked us to take you here in the first place,” he grinned. “Good fortune for both of us, right? You scritch my back, I scritch yours?”

“Here I thought you were helping me out of the goodness of your hearts.”

“Hey, it’s not like we’d leave you to fend for yourself in the Cay either way!” Rockruff barked. “Getting our badge back or not, we couldn’t just leave you there. We didn't even know you were human at first!"

"I'm teasing, anyway. I'm glad you found me, and I'm glad to be here."

"Glad to have you with Night Vision, too. Now come make your bed, Von."

In higher spirits, Von scaled down the altar and scuttled to the straw pile. There, the trio divided materials for their bedding between themselves, and spread out. He wound up sweeping his straw bedding before the altar.

When it came to turning loose straw into a bed, Von had no clue what he was doing, and tried his best to mimic the canid couple's efforts. He watched Rockruff hop atop her pile and knead a divet into the straw before she settled into her nest. Von mirrored her, and as he settled into his self-made bed, he lay on his back and gazed at the ceiling. His eyes traced tracks in the mortar weaving between the brickwork overhead.

“Going to bed already?”

Von started at the sound of Wyn’s voice and rolled back over onto all fours. “Hey, do those doors close?”

Wyn stood in the doorway, a book tucked under one arm, holding a small vial. She reached over and knocked on solid wood. “They do, but they won’t last long if Pokemon are opening and closing them all the time. Your claws would scratch this poor thing to shreds every time you climb it to work the handle. I get wanting privacy, and tomorrow we’ll put up a curtain or something while you aren’t here. You didn’t give us much warning, otherwise we’d have prepared a better greeting. But hey, we’ll cook you something tomorrow, maybe that’ll make up for it?”

Von crawled out of his bed, bits of straw still clung to his scales. “That sounds nice, I haven’t had a hot meal in…” He thought back to his time on the road, to his dwindling bank account, to the last time he had a rubbery hot dog he bought at a gas station. “A while. I was worried it’d just be raw produce here.”

“For the most part, it is raw produce. We’re not equipped to cook for everyone here on the daily, but as a little treat every now and then? Fei makes some fantastic food.”

Rockruff’s eager tailwags rustled the straw of her bed. Von smiled. “I look forward to it.”

“Not that I came here to take your order, or anything.” Wyn held up a journal, paper pressed between two small panels of wood. “How many languages are you fluent in?”

“Uh, English, and I took two years of French in high school.”

“Just English then,” she sighed. “Can’t be helped.” She stepped further into the room and knelt down in front of him. “Fei and I have been gathering as much info as we can. If you were given a tour, you might’ve seen the fruits of our labor.”

“The conspiracy board?”

“That’s the one!” She tapped a paw to the hardcover journal she held. “Trying to document what we can in as many languages as we can.”

“Why, if Intent translates everything for us?”

“In case we’re not around when more people show up. If we find a way home, for example, we won’t be around for future transients. Think of this as a nuclear waste disposal site, but instead it’s a Pokemon tutorial. You know, ‘this is not a place of honor’ written in seventeen languages?”

“Makes perfect sense.”

“Now Pokemon, however, have their own system of writing. Your buddy Zorua sent us a letter yesterday to let us know another human was en route.” She set down the vial she held- an inkwell, he realized- and opened the journal on the floor in front of him. An array of drawings of simplified Pokemon footprints decorated the pages, black ink on pressed paper. “Intent will not translate this for you, as you can see.”

“Just spoken word, huh?”

“I’m not about to gripe about the shortcomings of a blessing. Anyway, this will be something I’d encourage you to learn, and I’d be happy to sit down with you to do so.” She turned through a few pages, until one alphabet gave way to another, one Von recognized.

“Unown!”

“That’s them! Most Pokemon don’t know this one, but as English speakers, you and I lucked out.” Wyn turned one more page to a spot bookmarked with one of Fei’s feathers to show the rest of the journal was blank. “This journal is yours now, Von, as are as many others you might need. I ruined a few relearning how to write with paws, but your claws look a bit more dexterous than what I had to work with as a Fennekin.”

Von carefully plucked up the feather between his claws. Its brown color told him it once came from Fei’s wing. “Must be convenient to grow your own quills.”

“He used to get embarrassed when he molted,” chimed Rockruff.

Wyn straightened herself up. “Not going to rush you into writing lessons or anything day one, just thought I’d offer.”

Von set the quill down and wrestled with the vial of ink. He managed to pull the stopper out with his mouth. He let go and it fell to the page below, leaving a dark blotch that slowly spread from the center. “Whoops.”

Wyn chuckled softly. “This first one’s for personal use and penmanship practice. I’ll get you a field journal to take with you tomorrow. For now, goodnight.” She nodded to Rockruff on her way out of the oratory.

When she was gone, Ren stopped feigning sleep and stretched out in his bed. “You humans have so many words.”

Von didn’t look up, too busy focusing on threading the tip of the feather into the inkwell. “Used to think it was unique to our species. You Pokemon have way more words than I ever would’ve thought possible.”

Ren scoffed and rolled over in his bed. Rockruff looked back and forth between her mate and the human messily scribbling in his journal. “How do you know Unown script, Salandit?”

Dare I explain what a video game is? He wrote the letter E above the inkstain from the dropped stopper and nudged the journal towards Rockruff. “It’s almost like my native language, see?”

Rockruff frowned. “I’ve seen Wyn’s notes before. Can’t read them, but I see the similarities.”

Von dragged his new journal back towards his bed beneath the altar. How did Fei put it? “Earth’s idea of Pokemon,” he began, “I’ve known about them since I was a kid, from stories told to us. Until yesterday, I thought Pokemon were pure fiction.”

“I used to think the same thing of humans until I met Fei.”

Von corked the inkwell and set the quill down on the open page. He watched the ink of his clumsy new handwriting dry. Is it possible knowledge of this world was brought back to Earth?

Did someone already find a way home?

---

Moonlight spilled over the altar as Night Vision slept. Ren and Kaia slept soundly while Von's dream had him toss and turn as he relived an argument with his ex.

From the shadows that stretched along the oratory floor, a darkness rose. Eyes like candlelight flickered over three sleeping forms, before the shape in perfect silence drifted from the room and walked the halls of Halfhenge.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

I've seen a lot of PMD fics take on body dysphoria as an element, but none that really take it on as centrally and satisfyingly as here.

I think this hits the feeling (or, what I imagine the feeling to be) of being cut off from everything you know in a body that's alien and uncomfortable to you. The "oh, some mysterious thing assigned your new body to you" premise from canon is seemingly thrown out the window, and we get to dig our teeth into the interesting internal conflict that comes from being assigned a body that's acutely ill-fitting and viscerally uncomfortable.

Von has been slotted in amidst all the awkward/uncomfortable trans characters I really love reading about the struggles of, but there's a unique novelty to having him face it as some with, as far as I currently know, absolutely zero experience with those issues. And, a sentence I thought I'd never say: I really like the decision to run with a relatively close-cut to canon interpretation of Salandit/Salazzle. I'm curious to see more about how it works and how this subdued gay man deals with the issues that this species would present him, and as interestingly, how the rest of the world will see that rejection of his species' role and what that says about it in turn.

The human writing in general is excellent. Wyn's first question is... obviously a joke, but it's a joke that's funny to me because I do kind of understand why that'd be the first urge she has- she was pulled out of her human life with no resolution for anything. What makes it work as a gag fits thematically in a non-comedic sense too, and I think that's just great. I like that, despite having the same translation as most other PMD fics, their language still matters, it's not forgotten. The same goes for their cultures in general. I'm glad they don't have amnesia, it pulls in so much more context from our world and makes it feel more human.

Even the existence of the games, something I'd usually pick on as something I'd dislike, serves a distinct purpose. I enjoy the idea that this cultural bleedover might be two-way, and the logical extrapolation and reason for hope it gives Von. I'm also glad Von has only a passing familiarity, with Wyn (because of course it's Wyn) being the actual bastion of info, it keeps it feeling alien for him while having that human information and context continue to exist. I'm curious to learn more about Jun, who's divorced from all this such that they seem to have little in common with the other three.

As an aside, Wyn trying to cue Fei not to dig into subjects that are problems for Von is sweet and I like it.

I wonder how body assignment works here. I hope we get to learn more about that mystery moving forwards! With Jun's amnesia, we only seem to have a sample size of 3 regarding humans we've met so far and who can actually know what their human body was like, but there's at least two more out there. I'm also interested that Wyn can't really be sure it's never happened to anyone before. It makes sense, but I wonder if it has to someone gender-apathetic, or in a less sexually dimorphic species, ect, ect, and whose just shut up about it. They don't have much of a sample size. Or if Von has been singled out, I'd be curious to know why.

Good fic, I'm curious to see where it goes from hereon out.

 

[Truebrush]

Chapter 11: Waldeinsamkeit​

The morning breeze filled Halfhenge with the breath of autumn air, the exposed guts of the castle catching the chill within itself. Beneath the altar, Von shivered himself awake. Gray light of pre-dawn illuminated the oratory, and as he blinked the tiredness from his eyes as Rockruff's curious face poked up from her bedding.

"You awake?" she growled quietly so as not to wake Ren.

"Mhm," Von barely vocalized. He felt stiffness in his limbs. "It's cold."

"It is. How are you feeling?"

Von groped for his bandana left on the floor beside his bed and drew it close, burying his face in the soft fabric. "They have coffee here?"

"I've never met a Coffee."

Von muffled a groan into his bandana before he went about tying it around his neck. "Guess not."

He clambered up the altar to where he left his journal and peered over the courtyard. Smoke rose from Wyn's hut. He and Rockruff weren't the only early risers.

He puffed out his breath, visible in the cold air, and imagined himself bigger than he was, a Charizard able to burn away the cold that seeped into him. He smiled at the thought of soaring through the skies, of being larger and stronger than he ever was in the human world. I can get behind being a fire breathing lizard, just not… this.

He swept aside his flight of fancy and opened his journal. After gently shaking the vial to make sure his ink hadn't frozen overnight, he resumed his practice of penmanship.

Just as it was with relearning how to walk on four legs, he focused on remapping his movements with the quill carefully clutched in his claw, making measured movements over the page. His early attempts from the night before resembled chicken scratch, but as he built confidence, his lettering began to resemble something intelligible. It came easier as the sky outside brightened, until-

“The sun rises, comrades! Share its warmth!” Corviknight called in a birdsong that scraped the air. Its large frame circled the keep in a downward spiral, the sudden clamor and movement outside the window causing Von’s quill to jump across the page.

“Time to rise, Ren!” Rockruff nibbled on her companion’s ear until Ren rolled over and away, to a warmer corner of his bed.

“Is sleeping in not allowed?” Von asked as he grappled with capping his vial of ink.

“Sooner teams set out, the better,” Rockruff growled, her nibbling growing more insistent until she was tugging on an ear.

Finally, Ren’s pretend sleep slipped away with a yelp. “I’m awake! I yield!”

Once the two furred Pokemon had shaken loose bed straw from their fur coats, Von followed Night Vision downstairs, scuttling along the wall as the fox and dog bounded down the steps. On the ground floor, inhabitants gathered in the split hall of the castle exchanging sleepy murmurations.

Von scanned them for a familiar face and found Wyn waving a paw beckoning them to join her. As the small crowd filed into assembly, Night Vision ducked beneath swaying tails and sweeping branches from Pokemon larger than themselves to convene with her.

“Good morning,” she yawned as they drew close. Her fur was untidy and smelled of smoke, and she clutched the shoulder strap of the hempen bag she wore.

“You always been a morning person?” Von teased.

“Goodness no. I’m more of a night owl than Fei, who is a literal owl.” She appraised the moderately less groggy trio beside her. “Work dictated I wake early today, but we’ll get into that later. You ready to go on your first adventure?”

Von half-listened, as most thoughts were on Wyn’s hut and how it had heating. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

The Research Guild faced the lake as the sun's rays grew on the horizon behind Slowking, who set the sky behind him to address the crowd. He raised an arm and the soft chatter ceased. “My friends, as no doubt you have heard, we welcome a new arrival into our ranks. From today on, Salandit will join us in our efforts of understanding.” He gestured to the row where Night Vision lurked, and Von wished once more to melt into the floor as the crowd turned their heads to him and surrounded him with curious eyes.

“He has been recruited by Night Vision, whom we welcome back to our commune.”

While most seemed nonplussed, some Pokemon bristled at the news, yet any qualms the crowd held went unvocalized. As gazes were pulled from him to his friends that flanked him, new seeds of worry took root. While Rockruff obliviously weathered their scrutiny, Ren looked sullen.

“Star Calling has agreed to work alongside Night Vision for their first task. Objections?”

Mutterings arose, but no words came higher than a whisper. “Who is Star Calling?” Rockruff wondered.

“Joined up after you two troublemakers took off,” Wyn hushed.

"Additionally, Free Aim's efforts have shed light on the brigands in Green Mills. I ask for Stealth Mission to convene with me before they set out," Slowking resumed. “No more announcements. We stay on course.” Behind the speaker, the rising sun peeked over the waters of the lake. “New requests have been posted. Continue on your projects.” He raised a fist into the air. "Tomorrow,"

"Together!" the assembly finished as one as the light of dawn flooded the hall.

Pokemon broke away from the crowd in pairs or trios, and Von let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. Wyn cocked her head, motioning for Night Vision to follow, and they did, falling back to watch the gathering converge around a bulletin board against the far wall. Von kept an eye on Slowking as he conversed with a blue froglike creature and a Haunter that drifted beside it.

Von’s attention was pulled to a pair of Pokemon that drew close to their small group. He didn’t recognize the Linoone at first, who sported striking black and white stripes far more striking than the sandy fur he remembered. The patch of fur around its eye resembled a star. A small bag was strapped around its hindquarters.

Above Linoone flit a bat with wings that looked too small to support its oversized purple ears. Its flight path was erratic, and once close enough it dropped quickly to the floor. “Star Calling reporting for duty,” it chittered tremulously. Its bright yellow eyes looked between the trio. “I am Noibat, this is my partner Linoone.”

“Zorua of Night Vision,” Ren replied, tapping a paw to his chest. “My partner Rockruff, and our new best friend Salandit.”

“Night Vision, huh?” Linoone churred. “Heard of you before.”

“All good things, I’m sure,” Rockruff beamed.

Braixen cleared her throat. “Naturally. Alright folks, seeing as how two-thirds of Vision hasn’t been in the field for some time and the other third is brand-new, we’re taking it easy today.” She smiled to Star Calling. “Would you two mind leading the charge on a resupply mission? Herbs and emera from Bramble Hill?”

“Forage, forage, always,” Linoone sniffed. “Simple job, yes.”

"Emera?" Von looked up at Wyn. "Also, you're not coming?"

"I've got my own work to do, mate, involving said emera I need you to find. Think of it as magic pixie dust." Wyn glanced at the earth-stained bag Rockruff wore. "Take stock for us, would you?"

Ren nosed open the satchel and poked his muzzle inside. "Food! Rations, two orans, and two vials, one full one empty." He pulled his nose out of the bag just in time to sneeze. "And dirt!"

Puzzled, Wyn came forward and reached into the bag and withdrew the glass vial full of blue substance. “You held onto these all this time?” She rubbed dirt from the glass and squinted inside. “I figured it would’ve gone bad by now. Or did you trade for more?”

“Nope! Same oran vials we left here with,” Rockruff wagged.

Von narrowed his eyes at Ren. “... Did you two give me expired medicine?”

“If it’s chilled in the earth it won’t go bad, will it?” he asked earnestly.

“Here, I’ll trade you. This and those orans you have for these.” Wyn kept the reclaimed vial and tucked it in one pouch of her bag, offering up three other vials of a darker blue hue.

“Deal!” Ren poked his head into the bag and brought out the blue fruits in his mouth one after the other, dropping them at Wyn’s feet.

Unsure what to make of Pokemon commerce, Von looked out over the hall instead. He couldn’t find True Path in the small crowd, or perhaps they had already departed for their destination. Free Aim readied themselves for departure by the dock, Fei helping secure a bag around Flygon.

“This is a wand that will put Pokemon to sleep,” he heard Wyn say, and his attention snapped back to her. “Pretty straightforward, point and shoot. I’d demonstrate, but it’d waste charges. Your teammates will show you if needed, yeh?” She held a short rod out, the wood glazed over with a strange sheen left over from an oil treatment.

Von looked for a trigger to pull while Wyn slipped the stick into Rockruff’s satchel. “Do I need to know a magic word?”

“Cute, but no." Wyn pawed around in her bag. “Last up we have an escape orb. In an emergency, smash it on the ground, and you’ll be whisked away to safety.” She pulled out a sphere of blue glass the size of a golf ball.

“You were never this generous to us before,” Ren noted.

“Consider it an investment. You all need to keep Salandit safe until he can defend himself.”

Linoone sniffed the air. “He?”

"What, can't a guy wear perfume?" Von grumbled.

"But do males sweat it?"

“I thought only Salazzle smelled,” Noibat wondered.

"Kyrryk, do you sweat perfume?"

“If I could, I would.”

“Can we focus on the mission?" Wyn snapped. She stashed the orb inside one of Rockruff's satchel’s pockets and shot Von a look of concern.

He shrugged it off. “Picking flowers in a place called Bramble Hill. How far away?”

"A few spans to the West. Not far, not far," said Linoone. "What plants do you hunger for, Braixen?"

"I've written it all down." She withdrew and unfolded a piece of parchment from her bag and offered it to any teammate that'd take it. “Prioritize the vivichokes if you can.”

Linoone plucked the paper from her paw. “As many as our bags can carry.”

Sounds like a shopping list, Von thought. "Anything else?"

"That's it. A little reward if you find everything I need." Wyn rubbed her cheek as she locked eyes with Von. “Questions, concerns?”

“You have any hand warmers?”

Von earned a tired chuckle from Wyn. “Seriously, you’ll be fine with four friends to learn from, and you’ll be back before long.”

“I was serious about the hand warmers.”

“Sorry mate, but the walk there will get your blood pumping, yeh?”

Von looked to his friends, then to Star Calling. “Let’s head out, then.”

---

A stride is nearly a foot. A bound is ten strides. A span is 300 bounds.

They passed the gardens that rimmed the walls of Halfhenge, through vegetable plots that stretched away from the lake and into the emptiness of the surrounding fields. Beyond Halfhenge, the only landmarks were the woods and the mountains on either side of the plains of yellow grass.

This world has at least three different scripts. Their most common alphabet consists of footprints.

They followed a well-treaded path worn through the plains, where the long grass stalks gave way to packed earth. Rockruff led the way, having overtaken Star Calling. Noibat rode astride Linoone, the smaller bat clinging to his partner’s fur.

A season is a year. A moon is a month. Ten moons in a season.

After what felt like an hour, Von began lagging behind. Ren was quick to notice and yipped a warning up to the frontrunners, and Rockruff and Linoone slowed their pace. Von loved going for hikes on Earth, but with the new length of his strides and his doubling of legs had him feeling like an amateur. The grass being taller than he was made for no horizons to look forward to, the flat landscape meant no hills to crest. He didn’t think he would miss riding on Lapras so soon.

Magic is real. Souls are real and edible. Ghosts are real and scary.

At times, Rockruff’s tail would bolt straight up, and the party would pause as she and Noibat’s ears pivoted for sounds. The wind sweeping through the tall grass surrounded them with gentle whispers, but if Von strained, he could sometimes hear movement, elsewhere. Nothing ever came for them.

Mystery Dungeons warp the physical space they occupy. They join together in Labyrinth if you go deep enough.

The ground beneath them gently rolled into the foothills at the base of the mountain range, and Bramble Hill swelled upwards from the soil. The pale grass gave way to greener shrubs, though much of the slope had been swallowed by kudzu whose leaves obscured all but the long-dead trees that speckled the hilltop.

Where the grass yielded to the kudzu, there remained an opening in the dense growth. The path disappeared beneath the shaded canopy of leaves into a tunnel five strides tall. Entangled at the base of the shrubbery, thorny vines sporting white flowers weaved together into the natural wall.

“It’s pointier than I remember,” remarked Rockruff.

“A sharp observation, my dear,” Ren chimed.

“So how does this work? Do we just… go in?”

Noibat fluttered from Linoone’s back to the ground. “Formations. Who leads?”

Ren nudged Von. “You should lead.”

“Absolutely not.”

“I’ll lead!” Rockruff proudly barked.

“We keep Salandit safe. He walks center,” said Linoone.

Von squinted into the darkness of the Dungeon. Nothing looked amiss outside of the spined walls. The spacing would be tight, and thorns warranted single-file. “Are we expecting company in there?”

Noibat fluttered to his side. “An amalgam if we’re unlucky. Nothing otherwise. Most know to stay clear.”

“Which is why we’re foraging in there, I guess.” Von glanced to the bat beside him. “How easy is it to fly inside?”

“I can in the larger spaces.” Noibat turned from Von to peer at Ren and Rockruff. “Night Vision should lead. We will guard the rear.”

“That’s what I like to hear!” Rockruff strode forward with a wag in her tail.

Von read the rumble in Linoone’s throat as a chuckle. “This one has energy. Good, good.”

Noibat clicked his tongue. “Eyes forward, Conti."

"They certainly will be."

Oblivious, Rockruff took point outside of the Dungeon entrance. Ren followed but gave Linoone the side-eye. Von shook off his confusion and scurried after his friends, and Noibat flapped after him.

"Want to see something interesting?" Ren grinned. "Watch the entrance once we go inside."

He followed, and let the vegetation surround him in gentle shade. Von craned his neck to watch the entrance of the tunnel. Noibat's curious eyes looked at him as he tried to walk straight while not letting the natural archway out of his sight. In one moment, he could see Linoone in the sunlight as she bounced in her zigzag route to catch up with the rest of them. In the next moment, the verdant kudzu wall melted into reality, cutting them off from the outside world.

“Whoah, whoah! Linoone is still-”

Before Von could finish voicing his surprise, she pounced into the new reality, fading into his vision in all her striped glory.

While Ren snickered, Von stared at the wall that shut them in. “... So how do we get out when we’re done?”

“If we can’t root out the exit, we have our badges to guide us home,” Ren reassured him, then promptly bumped into Rockruff who halted before him. “Ah- what is it?”

Rockruff held her head low to the ground, sniffing intently. She kept quiet as she took a few cautious steps forward to where the tunnel split at a crossroads, and looked to the right and left. “Something else is in here. Too natural to be an amalgam.”

Noibat flexed his wings and softened his chittering. “Perhaps someone did get lost within?”

“Fortunate for them they have two teams on their tail.”

Von spared another glance at the sealed exit behind them. If Bramble Hill was a known place of danger, why would any Pokemon willingly enter? He imagined a Rattata ducking into the brush to avoid a circling Fearow, perhaps.

“Keep an eye out, eye out,” Linoone repeated as their line formation crept forward through the maze.

Von looked at the end of the wand that poked out of Rockruff’s bag- it’d be easy to ready in an emergency. The unknown entity changed the equation. If they were lucky, it’d be like herding a bird out of a house, he imagined. If not, he hoped they outnumbered whatever might threaten them.

Rockruff walked with her nose to the dirt, opting to follow the scent of the stranger’s presence at every intersection. Burrs gathered on her fur. “It’s not a bird, and it doesn’t smell like the prairie. There’s a metallic tang,” she reported. “It, or they, aren’t from here.”

“Didn’t we come here to pick mushrooms or something?” Von hissed.

“Best to meet the unknown head-on, than let it make the first move,” chided Noibat.

Von could see the truth in that. Sandwiched between Night Vision and Star Calling, he was unable to hang back and keep a distance- something he wasn’t happy about. Yet he could lie to himself, and pretend that they were the ones on the hunt. It would have to do.

 

[Truebrush]

Chapter 12: The Flood of Knives​

The forces of the Dungeon robbed all reason from Bramble Hill. The ground rolled in odd shapes as if the landscape itself had been fed to a kaleidoscope. Uphill climbs met sideways slopes with no warning and had Von second-guessing every footstep.

On rare occasions, the tight tunnel of tangled plant matter opened up into large pockets of space. These ‘rooms’ all had at their center a gnarled, dead tree. No matter the size of these pockets, the canopy overhead strained itself into a dome and wrapped around its trunk. The larger spaces reminded Von of a circus tent, as kudzu greedily took most of the sunlight for itself, letting only sparse rays to drift through the gaps in its foliage.

“This is a direshroom,” Ren explained in one such bubble in the maze. The fungi sprouted from between twisted tree roots, globular, bumpy, and brown.

“Sounds foreboding.” Von lifted it by its stalk between two claws and gently shook loose soil from its root cluster. “Toxic?”

“No, tasty. It helps with focus.”

Von gently tucked their find into Linoone’s bag, besides the fruits of their meager scavenging. The few blooms of vivichoke they found looked like artichokes left to blossom.

Noibat’s head suddenly snapped towards the tunnel Rockruff stood guarded in front of. “Quiet,” he whispered, and strained his ears.

Von held his breath, and no one else moved, until Noibat raised a wing. “I hear a group of five or six, all bipeds.”

“Any voices?”

“One chittering, one scraping, the rest silent.”

“What could they be? Brigands?”

Rockruff glanced at them from over her shoulder. “Let’s find out. Ready?”

“We know now we don’t outnumber them. Be cautious, be cautious,” Linoone warned.

Ren made his way over to his partner, but this time swathed himself in illusion. His Banette mask wore a wide smile.

“Can you teach me how to disguise myself?” Von whispered as he fell into formation.

Ren grinned. “When you teach me how to ooze pheromones, maybe.”

“Hush,” clicked Noibat, and so they did. They quietly delved once more into tunnels in pursuit.

For ten minutes, all they did was skulk through the tunnels, until finally, they caught a glimpse of their Dungeon company. Rounding a corner, Rockruff froze, and once more endured Ren colliding with her. A curious Von poked his head around the corner while Ren righted himself, and beheld the vanishing of a Pokemon down another corridor. All he caught was sunlight glinting off of a blade.

Rockruff pushed the rest of Night Vision back behind the wall of kudzu. “Pawniard,” she said in a hushed growl.

“Did it see you?” asked Noibat in a hushed whisper.

She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

Von wracked his brain, but he wasn’t familiar with the name. He kept his voice low. “What’s a Pawniard?”

The sound of metal scraping against metal rang down the corridor. “Who hunts us?” The voice sounded like a fork dragging across a wooden cutting board.

The five teammates looked between themselves. “We hunt no-one,” Noibat squeaked. “We’re Researchers.”

“Then show me a badge.”

Linoone nodded to Rockruff, who rounded the corner again. She moved slowly into a ray of sunlight and angled her side so that whoever met her down the corridor could see the badge on her bag from afar. “If you’re lost in the Dungeon, we can help you find a way out.”

“The other voice. Where is your teammate?” the voice pressed. The four Researchers huddled behind the kudzu could hear a march of multiple footsteps drawing closer.

“Noibat! Bisharp wants to meet you!”

How naive is she? Von clenched his jaw as he searched the wall of kudzu for an opening big enough to hide in. He saw only thorns. Ren grinned down at him and mimed zipping his faux lips shut..

Noibat fluttered past them to land beside Rockruff. “Oh, you brought your clan with you! Of course, safety in numbers! Did you need help-”

“We have our own methods of escape.” Blade scraped against blade- a challenge, Von realized. “Cede your supplies to us and slink back to Slowking.”

“Brigands?” Rockruff gasped in exaggerated surprise. “But we need these mushrooms to heal our sick! I have pups at home!”

“Fall back,” Ren whispered to Von. “We’ll need more space.”

Linoone had already taken a few steps back the way they came. She waited for him to follow. He didn’t need to be convinced to flee.

“Resist, and your blood will nourish the Dungeon.”

Rockruff’s snarl echoed behind them.“Persist, and I will bury you alongside your clan!”

The ground trembled, and Von scurried away as fast as his legs could carry him. He chanced a glance over his shoulder as the clash of battle erupted, and the foliage that made up the walls swayed as wind billowed from Noibat’s wings.

With a sharp howl, Rockruff raised rock from below ground in a thick slab of mica. The barricade covered her retreat, if only for a moment. She chased after Noibat as the wall of stone exploded into splintered shards.

Bisharp rushed through the hole it punched open. It looked almost insectile, coated in metal, and sported blades on the back of its forearms. Six knives jutted from its torso, reminiscent of an exposed ribcage. Its battle cry screeched painfully through Von’s skull while its clan poured through the opening behind it, a small horde of beetle-like warriors whose arms ended in spearpoints.

“What are these things!?” he wheezed as he pushed himself as fast as he could.

Ren’s illusion glided through the air before him, though he could hear the fox beneath it panting in exertion. "Invasive brutes!”

Linoone was first to burst from the tunnel into the spacious cavern ahead. Ren and Von both bolted past her, and Von threw himself behind the lone tree. He cowered behind the trunk, heart hammering in his chest. He peeked up over one of the roots to witness Noibat soar into the room, Rockruff leaping through behind him, and hot on her heels chased a flood of knives.

Gnashing steel seethed into the space. Chaos and noise clashed as the pursuers flung themselves at their targets. Rockruff had earned Bisharp’s ire. She danced out of reach of his bladestrokes, and the ground cracked in her wake. From the fissures of her footsteps she launched stones at her attacker, shattering them against his red metal carapace.

The Pawniard broke their ranks to hunt the rest of the Researchers. There were six of them, as far as Von could count in the commotion. The rest of the Research teams all found themselves fending off pairs of attackers. Noibat took flight, his erratic patterns helping him evade spearpoints thrust skyward.

Two Pawniard backed Ren into a corner, brandishing blades at the Banette disguise. They swept forward with sharp jabs, while the ghost pulsed with a dark aura. A sphere of black energy knocked one oncomer off of its feet, and the other’s blade tore away Ren’s disguise. In its momentary confusion, the fox darted through the opening he had made.

Rens pursuers took off after him as he darted towards the tree. Why are you leading them to me?! Von panicked, until Linoone bowled into one of his pursuers. The headbutt flung one Pawniard off its feet, yet Linoone sped on unhindered. She had been outrunning her own angry pair, dancing away from the blades swiping at her heels.

“Think you can handle a one-on-one?” Ren didn’t wait for an answer from Von. He leapt over the roots Von cowered behind, and spun around to face the Pawniard scrambling after him. A blade thrust toward his muzzle, and the nimble fox dropped low. The swipe nicked an ear, eliciting a yip from the black fox, but it didn’t break his focus. His shadow lashed out at the Pawniard, ethereal darkness raking claws through the defenses of its carapace. Ren’s attack opened no wound, yet the creature flinched all the same. Its next downward slice Ren sidestepped, and when its quarry ran, Pawniard gave chase.

Von let out a sigh, having been overlooked by Ren’s foe, but his relief was short lived. The Pawniard that Linoone had struck now stalked its way toward him.

Von scuttled backwards as it stepped over twisted roots. "I haven't done anything to you!" He croaked in fear.

Pawniard narrowed its eyes. "You quake like you're fresh from the egg. I hope your fighting is better than your form." It lunged.

It was all Von could do to evade, twisting out of the way in time for the blade to gouge into the root. The second strike came sooner. Von didn’t have the time to react against a well-honed blow. The edge of the knife found his flesh. All at once, Von felt stinging pain, and the cold air against an open wound. It scored over his back in a line, and he felt the wetness and warmth trickle down his hide.

It should have been deeper, it should have hindered his movement. Yet it was true, that Pokemon were more durable than the fauna of Earth. Panic rose in his chest, though still he drew upon what little practice Wyn had ran him through. As he backpedaled, he opened his mouth. Acid splashed over his foe as Von backpedaled. The purple liquid dripped from Pawniard’s glinting carapace, who seethed and swung its blades through the air.

It didn’t melt as much as Von hoped. It didn’t melt anything at all. Something about poison and steel, he thought as he struggled to recall distant childhood memories and Wyn’s type chart in the solar. He clumsily rolled out of the way of a piercing blade, and another cut glistened open along his side.

I’m going to die if I don’t.

He inhaled sharply, and what roared from his mouth wasn’t poison, but fire. The eruption that spewed from the Salandit’s mouth engulfed his attacker’s upper body, and Pawniard swiftly brought its arms up to shield its head from the sudden heat. Flames swirled over its armor, steam billowing from beneath its plates as it cried out in a metallic rattle of pain.

Still, it remained upright. It stormed forward as the flames that licked its form faded and struck out. The blade punched into the side of his jaw, opening a wound that crunched against bone. The blow lifted Von off his claws and sent him crashing against the root cluster.

Adrenaline hammered through his system as Von rushed to right himself. Before he could sort out his tangled limbs, the Pawniard loomed over him, arm drawn back for another blow.

A howl filled the maze, and with it sailed a hefty stone. It cracked against Pawniard's carapace helmet, and the warrior crumpled to the ground with a clatter.

Von shook as he untangled himself from the root and wiped a claw along his jaw. The wound was tender, though his skin had already knit itself back together.

Rockruff bounded over the Pawniard's fallen form and landed beside Von. She retethered to the stone she had hurtled its way, and her lithomancy held it hovering at her side as she bared her teeth at the Bisharp that stalked after her.

"Persistent,” Bisharp spat. “Stubborn.” Its cold eyes fell upon Von. “Surrounded by weaklings.”

“My weaklings are making short work of your weaklings,” Rockruff growled.

Bisharp scoffed and faced her again. “The next time your attention strays from me, your head will leave your shoulders.”

“Empty threats! Come!” A shrill yap, and the stone hurtled towards Bisharp.

With one swipe, Bisharp cleaved the projectile in two. The split stones disappeared into the thicket wall behind it. It leaped forward, arm raised-

-and promptly crashed to the ground, prone.

Von’s tail curled around the wand he plucked from Rockruff’s satchel. “Thought he’d never stop talking.”

The dog blinked in surprise, and sniffed at her sleeping foe. It remained unmoving. “When did- nevermind.” She perked her ears and took in her teammates' situation in a glance. “Go help Star Calling.” She took off after Ren, gathering stone as she went.

Von tightened his tail around the wand. The wood hummed with arcane energy against his scales. He spat a mouthful of poison that splashed harmlessly off of Bisharp’s armor, then chased after Linoone.

---

The foggy memory of Pokemon Emerald painted a picture far detached from the reality Von found himself in. He stood over an unconscious Pawniard as sprites danced in his head, stiffly trading blows with one another.

Beside him, Ren looked over the slowly healing wounds in the Salandit’s hide. “You can relax, Von. I don’t see anything wrong with you.”

The human’s stomach twisted in knots. “In my world, when we get stabbed, we need immediate medical attention.”

“I’m giving you attention right now!” Ren pouted. “What else do you want from me?”

Von’s gut gnawed at him. “... Do we have any food?”

“I supposed you would be hungry after mending that many wounds.” Noibat perched beside the two friends and offered Von the vial grasped in a claw. “Drink.”

“Thank you.” Von pulled the stopper out with his teeth, and tipped the vial back. The rich blue elixir within settled his stomach and reignited his energy.

A short distance away, at the base of the tree, Rockruff snarled. “What are you doing here?”

“The Land of Smoke belongs to Kingambit,” Bisharp seethed from within a cocoon of stone slabs.

"But why are you here? Inside a Dungeon?"

"Kingambit's rule is absolute!"

"I don't think she's telling us anything useful," Noibat spoke as he fluttered over to Rockruff. "We shouldn't let her and her clan waste any more of our time."

"Adamantly unhelpful of them," Rockruff sighed, but relented. "Let's get going, then."

As Von carefully tucked the wand back into the bag on Rockruff's side, Bisharp strained against her prison. "Release me! You must!"

"Will you say anything important, or are you going to keep shouting about how great Kingambit is?" Linoone said.

Bisharp's gaze dripped with malice, but otherwise fell silent.

"If you're lucky, your clan will wake up to free you before an amalgam comes through." Ren turned his back on Bisharp and her clan and trotted up alongside Von and Rockruff. “Should we resume our foraging?”

Noibat fluttered onto Linoone’s back and opened her bag to take stock. “We have most of what we need, but we will hurry to finish the job. It isn’t wise to linger so close to the enemy.”

“Then let’s get some distance between us.” Rockruff resumed her spot in the lead, and both Research teams delved back into the Dungeon’s twisting tunnels.

Their march was quiet, either due to weariness from the frantic fight or due to them not wanting to be overheard by the foe they left behind, Von couldn’t tell. After he felt they had taken enough corners, he finally spoke up. “... Was any of that normal?”

“For Kingambit and his clans, yes,” Rockruff answered. She glanced at Noibat from over her shoulder. “How long have they been pushing their territory beyond the Reeds?”

“This is the first I’ve heard word of his overambitious grasp reaching this far.”

“Fools, fools, full of pride,” Linoone grumbled. “Spreading his hive so thin to cover the land.”

“We’ll report this to the guild upon our return,” Noibat chittered. “Good work, everyone.”

Yet Von still dwelled on the sensation of blades splitting his skin, of the sight of his blood on the grass. He pulled his gaze upwards, to Ren marching ahead of him. All his thoughts could seem to focus on, was that they all remained in one piece.

 

[Truebrush]

Chapter 13: Amalgam​

"Someone else has been through here already."

"Bisharp's clan?"

Rockruff shook her head. "Those are claw marks, not the bites from a blade."

Both Research teams huddled around another reflection of a dead tree. Gouges marred it, raked along the bark. A glittering substance still clung to its surface, small flecks the remnants of something more.

"What is it?" Asked Von.

"Emera. Normally we collect it in special jars to take home to Braixen, to aid in making objects of magic," squeaked Noibat.

"But what is it? Pixie dust?"

"Pixie…? No, it is material of the Dungeons," muttered Linoone. "It flows through their walls like veins."

"So it's Dungeon blood. Kind of."

Noibat withdrew a small crystalline jar from Linoone's bag and offered it to her. She took it from him, stood on her hind legs, and braced herself against the tree with one forepaw. "Leaving leftovers, wasteful, wasteful. Either they were full up or had to suddenly flee."

"Might have been a harvest cut short by the Bisharp clan," Ren mused.

Linoone's claws rasped against the wood, scraping emera into the quartzlike jar. "Marks are fresh. Wonder where they went?"

"Think they need help?" Rockruff asked.

Noibat's ears twitched. "I've heard no other signs of strife. And if they have a chamber to keep emera, they're likely as equipped as we are."

"And we have a new human to concern ourselves with." Linoone, satisfied that she had collected every speck from the bark she could, capped the chamber. Noibat took it from her and tucked it delicately back in their bag.

Von glanced back the way they came. "I thought I held my own pretty okay."

"Wands can be powerful tools," Rockruff nodded. "But you can't rely on them alone."

"Well I thought you were cool and clever," Ren grinned. "Even if Kaia can't admit it."

Rockruff rolled her eyes. "Keep growing strong, and I might one day say you're strong."

The sound of movement in the overgrowth came from the depths of the maze. All eyes turned toward the source as the wall of foliage on their left rippled with movement. The vines stretched around a protrusion of a mass that pressed itself from the wall, straining to free itself. The sound of tearing roots gave way to a bassy thump of punctured air pressure as a being pushed its way into the distorted realm of the Dungeon.

A knotted sphere of blue-green vines thicker than the kudzu that birthed it stood atop two knobby red stubs. Stark white eyes peered through its own foliage at the Researchers, and it spoke with the voice of wind whispering through the underbrush. "Fold the cloth along the center."

"A Tangela?" Von gasped.

"An amalgam," whispered Ren.

"Fold the faces of the cloth down to the limb." The trailing end of one of its vines lashed forward.

Von stared and strained to understand the voice made of rustling leaves that murmured incomprehensibilities.

"It's a small one. Salandit should fight it," spoke Linoone from behind.

Von had already begun to backpedal. "What? Why me?"

"To hone your strength! To learn!" Rockruff barked in agreement. "Do you want to brave Dungeons, or not?"

The Tangela lurched forwards in intermittent steps, each bringing its lashing vines closer to the group. "Fold the stone of the cloth to the limb."

Von's heart raced almost as fast as his mind. At least this thing isn't covered in knives. "If I lose, please save me," he shouted back to his team, and pressed forward. I've got this. Like a Charmeleon in Erika's gym. I've done this before.

He locked his eyes on the weapons of his target; two long, spindly blue vines animated by the being that wore them. If I watch their base, he figured, I can predict when they'll strike. Yet reading the alien thing's movements might be asking too much. Yet when they tensed, he sprung sideways. The air split apart as a vine cracked inches to his right. The sharp crack of noise alone rang through his skull, but he scurried forward, poisons pooling in his jaws.

He flung himself at the ball of vines and wrenched it off balance, and his claws sunk into fibrous tendrils. He opened his mouth, and screamed caustic fluid at the vacant eyes nested in the center mass of his foe. Tangela writhed as it tried to pry away from his grasp, its nebulous voice breaking through his attack. "Find the new face of the cloth and fold to the limb," it droned with all the emotion of a swarm of flies.

"That smell never gets any better, does it?" Linoone asked the rest of Night Vision.

"You asked me to fight! You wanted this!" Von shouted at his audience, flecking the last of his poison upon the plants he pinned down.

Tangela quaked, and new gaps opened through the weave of its plants. As Von sparked his furnace, ready to ignite, a plume of dull yellow spores sprayed upwards and into his open maw. They stung his tongue, and his synapses fired with alarm.

Von snorted, shuddered, and went limp as his muscles ceased working. The amalgam pulled itself free of his slackened claws, and loomed over his prone form. Eyes trapped open, Von stared ahead at Tangela as it snaked its vines around his belly and throat.

Man. Pokemon battles suck.

Wind sliced between them, severing the tendrils from Tangela's main body. Noibat coursed through the air, wings alight with his own inner power. The severed lengths of Tangela's vines thrashed, but its eyes remained free of expressing pain. "Fold each nail to the limb."

Noibat dove, and his wings sliced through his mark. The plants that comprised Tangela's strange shell scattered in tatters, blown against the wall it crept out of. Whatever body it had within burst in a shower of ichor, an oily black substance that seeped into the soil.

Still paralyzed, Von was stuck staring ahead at the knobby red protrusions that the amalgam had stood on. Severed from their body, they sloughed apart, their red coloration melting into the same uniform black sludge that seeped into the ground.

Unable to close his eyes and shield himself from the gruesome sight, Von recoiled into his mind. For a moment that stretched on, his thoughts existed only as a cloud of frantic energy and angry emotions that spun each other into a knot of nightmares.

Gradually, he came to feel the sensation of claws built for digging grasping his snout. They opened and closed his mouth as he stared skyward at the kudzu that encompassed Bramble Hill. Slowly, he tasted the pulp of a berry on his tongue and the subtle spice beneath its off-cherry flavor. Eventually, he heard the worried words of Night Vision and Star Calling fade into being audible.

"Who eats Tangela spores?" Rockruff whined as she pawed at the ground.

"Salandit, it seems." Linoone was the one forcing him to chew. As the juices trickled down his throat and seeped into his core, Von found himself able to move, bit by bit. She released him when he frantically blinked away the dryness in his eyes.

"Von, can you hear us? Still with us?" Ren fretted away at his side. Von could only gurgle in response. "I'll take that as an 'I won't tell Slowking.' Also please promise you won't tell Slowking."

Von coughed through the mouthful of cheri berry, and flexed his claws as feeling returned to them. "Ren," he sputtered, "R-Rockruff…"

Both teammates perked their ears and leaned in closer. "We're here! What do you need?"

"Battling… sucks."

"Maybe when you battle like that." The worry in Rockruff's features faded. "But what did you learn from it?"

"Don't inhale?"

Noibat trilled in what may have been a laugh. "You handled its vines well, but made yourself vulnerable up close. How well-suited is your kind for battling at a distance?"

"How far can you spit?" Von grumbled. During his single training session with Wyn, he was able to launch toxic globs about three lengths of his new, small body, yet the motion of setting them on fire took focus and reduced momentum.

"The Salandit of the Shoals battle best close up," Rockruff answered for him.

"Then quicken yourself, Salandit, or learn to endure."

"Quicken. Definitely quicken. Salandit don't have enough predators to know how to take a blow."

"I've taken a punch before," Von scowled. As more of his motor functions returned to him, he climbed onto all fours and slithered from the center of the worried circle that crowded around him. "But teeth, claws, whips, spores, everything else- can't I just use that wand?"

"Wands are strong, but no substitute for what you are- what you will be capable of."

"I've never felt more encouraged in my life."

With the subject of their concern mobile once more, the four Pokemon shared a glance. "Tiring, tiring. Mission goals met?"

"We have gathered enough to make Braixen happy, with emera besides." Noibat twitched an oversized ear as he studied Von for a moment. "Night Vision, I believe our first job together is a success, despite its irregularities. You should tend to your human back at Halfhenge."

Linoone pressed a paw against the badge on Star Calling's bag. "Take us to the real," she incanted to the emblem, and drew forth a gentle glow of light from its burnished metal.
The wall of overgrowth ceded to the magic of the badge, and the atmosphere around them rippled as sense righted itself. The repeating circuits of the Dungeon closed in on themselves, snapping outside of their perception. The huddled group stood once more beneath the canopy of Bramble Hill's entrance, sunlight spilling into the passageway from outside. Its warmth was welcome on Von's scales as he scuttled away from the maddening loops behind them and rejoined the more sensible space of the Land of Smoke.

---

"A Bisharp and its clan, in Bramble Hill? Strange, indeed."

Upon their return, the teams split into groups to report their finds. Rockruff and Linoone met with Braixen to finish their delivery, while he, Noibat, and Ren made their way to report to Slowking.

Noibat led the way through the courtyard, into the castle, and down the stairs to the undercroft, whose vaulted ceiling played host to a thin layer of green-brown moss. The floor had been mostly flooded when Halfhenge split in two, but the uneven granite walkways Von perched on must've been installed by the same Pokemon that reinforced the damaged foundations.

The chill air kept the undercroft from feeling too humid, at least. Von couldn't smell a mold problem brewing, either. If the slowpoke that clung to the sides of the walls and the pillars were any indication, the dwellers of the undercroft were happy with their habitat.

"Did it divulge anything of import?" Slowking asked the three of them.

Ren's form faded into shadow as he took on the appearance of the same Bisharp. "The Land of Smoke belongs to Kingambit!" the image shrilled.

"She was uncooperative and would admit nothing," chittered Noibat. "They held no badge for an easy path out of the Dungeon, but spoke of having their own method. They seemed to be there for a purpose."

"Ambushing Researchers, perhaps to thin our ranks?" Slowking mused.

Von's attention was pulled from the Slowpoke lazily drifting beside the bridge to the Guildmaster. Slowking's expressiveness was difficult to parse past the shell crown that encompassed most of his skull. "If that was the case," Von offered, "Wouldn't they have just gone for our throats rather than try to rob us first?"

Ren's illusion swung a bladed arm over Von's head, who instinctively flinched. "It was a trick to disarm you! But that cute Rockruff saw through my weak scheme!"

Slowking frowned at Ren's theatrics. "Both lines of thought are worth following. We are not to underestimate the hive's cunning nor its ruthlessness, as it claimed the Coast of Reeds with each. If they are searching for something to give them a landing near Halfhenge, we must anticipate it."

Maybe I should have stayed with the ghosts after all.

Seeing Von downcast, Slowking let out a sigh. "I had hoped your first venture be one of orienting yourself, rather than the… excitement, your group has found. The Research Guild will do its utmost to see you safe, Salandit. As such, I have much to ask our winged Researchers in these coming days. Rest well, Night Vision. Salandit, I will meet you again when our humans convene for a meal. Noibat, I would like to continue our talk with your partner present. Bring her here."

Noibat saluted with a wing, and Ren's illusion dissipated. Von lingered a moment as he tried to read Slowking, in the off chance he could peer past the shell crown to search the eyes concealed beneath. Nothing came to the surface.

Von followed the sound of Noibat's wingbeats fluttering up the stairwell. He found his grip on the wall, scurrying up after Ren bounding up the steps. When Von was sure his voice wouldn't echo down the passage to the undercroft, he whispered to Ren. "He didn't seem very alarmed."

"Should he be?"

"Isn't Kingambit a threat?"

They crossed through the gateway of the keep and stone gave way to grass underfoot. "Kingambit is the same threat he's always been." Ren gave him a reassuring smile. "It's another matter of territory. There is push and pull. But remember, Von, I brought you here, to Halfhenge, for a reason. For safety! This guild has weathered worse than a greedy hive."

"I thought you brought me here to buy your way back in."

"For our safety as much as yours! And you wanted to meet other humans! They stuck around here too, didn't they?"

"I guess."

Von looked ahead at their destination of Wyn's hut. Linoone, Rockruff, and Wyn all calmly conversed, before Noibat as he touched down on the yard beside his partner. They weren't close enough to overhear their conversation, but he watched Wyn wave her paw in farewell. Yet just before she was out of reach, Linoone turned back and gave a sudden nip at Rockruff's wagging tail. The shrill bark of surprise that followed broke into a bout of yapping as Rockruff gave chase to a cackling Linoone as they streaked across the yard.

Linoone outsped the smaller dog easily. "Good work, good work!" she shouted in passing as she blitzed past Ren and Von.

Rockruff reached the rest of Night Vision, still barking, only to be intercepted by her partner. Ren parked himself between her and her quarry, grinning. "What'd Braixen give us?"

Rockruff whined as she kept glancing over Ren's shoulder to the fleeing Star Calling. "Decent coin. Extra for finding emera." Her excitable fidgeting stopped once Linoone was through the gate and out of sight.

"Excellent! And Slowking didn't yell at me at all," Ren proudly boasted.

Von found himself grinning. "Mission accomplished, then."

"Yes! We did very well, all considered. Even you, Von!" Rockruff beamed.

"Ouch. Wait, did you just call me Von?"

The smile faded fast from her face. "W-well, I feel much more confident in calling you a friend, having battled beside each other. And you let everyone else call you your true name-"

"So can I call you…?"

Her smile slowly returned. "You can call me Kaia."

 

[JFought]

Going down my list of fics to do follow-ups on for Review Blitz, I have returned to this fic! Last time, I ended off right when Jun and his Zeraora friend were introduced. It looks like I have four chapters to get caught up on, so let’s go ahead and get started!

Thoughts on Chapter 10 to 13

• Right off the bat, True Path gets their proper introduction. It’s interesting that Jun lost his memories, and even more interesting that he got paired with a Zeraora! No one seems to make special note of the legendary, which actually makes sense: Zeraora isn’t particularly godlike, so to the locals they’d just be really strong. Von wouldn’t recognize them due to his lack of knowledge beyond Gen 3, and while we don’t know exactly when Wyn was isekai’d, it’s entirely possible it was before the pokémon was officially revealed (and everyone else we know of definitely was). So I’m curious to see where this is going.
  
  
• also oops i was wrong about Wyn being a biologist. She just has involved hobbies :P.
  
  
• The bits of worldbuilding on writing systems were interesting to note. Given all the cross-world stuff, I can’t help but wonder if Unown have some kind of human-origin in this fic, or if otherwise there’s some connection. It makes sense that Von would start thinking about this connection in the other direction: the idea that his knowledge of Pokémon in his world may be proof of a way out is both a spot of hope for him and an intriguing way to highlight that the connection between these worlds might be a two-way street.
  
  
• We also learn a little context behind Night Vision’s current predicament. They’re still being a little cagey about it though, which is understandable given the bad feelings that still seem to be left over.
  
  
• I don’t know why, but I liked Von recapping to himself some of the worldbuilding he’s learned on the way to Bramble Hill, as if he’s trying to keep himself occupied on the journey. Most of it is stuff that’s been implied, but there are some new details in there, and it feels diegetic.
  
  
• I liked the descriptions you used to introduce the Bramble Hill dungeon, they did a lot to make the place feel strange, and it painted the picture of a neat aesthetic.
  
  
• As the first proper battle in the fic, the Bisharp fight felt pretty well done. We got a good glimpse into how Pokémon fight each other in this setting and how Night Vision fares in battle. I felt like I got to see a new side of Kaia here: she showed off her experience and was very composed, even at a type disadvantage. And of course, Von didn’t fare very well, given his lack of experience. It was an interesting choice to have his first opponent be a Steel-Type, given what Salandit are normally known for. But Von wouldn’t know about the corrosive aspects of his poison (and technically he’d have to use a poison status move here, and I’m assuming he’s using an attack), so this fight acts as a demonstration of just where he stands in this kind of matchup given his current knowledge and abilities. It's a smart decision, is what I’m trying to say.
  
  
• The ending to the battle was a little weird. We kinda jumped out of Von’s perspective for a moment, and it was written as if the wand’s effects weren’t seen or visible. I suppose it was done for the sake of having this kind of sudden-anticlimax moment, but I’m not sure if it felt jarring in a good way.
  
  
• Amalgams sure are creepy. I wonder if there’s a special significance to the words it was repeating. Von is given his second chance to fight here, and, well, he tried :p. He definitely isn’t cut out for this yet, but he did make good use of the wand last chapter: figures the human would do best with tools.
  
  
• Also wow he really wishes he became a Charmander, huh? He did basically say as much in an earlier chapter, but it really does keep coming up. I suppose as a Gen I kid, that’d be his best reference for how Fire-Type Pokémon should work, especially if it was his starter as implied.
  
  
• Slowking helps give more context as to what was going on with the Bisharp clan. It looks like this won’t be the last of them we’ll see (which incidentally will give Von more opportunities to figure out his poison). Right now, judging by Ren’s words, they do seem to be a minor force in the plot; important maybe but not unusual.
  
  
• Also it’s kinda funny that Slowking just shares his “office” with a bunch of slowpoke. Von seemed a little curious about him, and tbh I’m still a little suspicious about his interest in humans. But time will tell.
  
  

• "Yes! We did very well, all considered. Even you, Von!" Rockruff beamed.
  
  "Ouch. Wait, did you just call me Von?"
  
  The smile faded fast from her face. "W-well, I feel much more confident in calling you a friend, having battled beside each other. And you let everyone else call you your true name-"
  
  "So can I call you…?"
  
  Her smile slowly returned. "You can call me Kaia."

  This was a cute note to end the chapter on! I like seeing these three bond.

Spoiler: Typos and Errors

There were six of them, as far as Von could count in the .

A word got cut off here.

Chapter 12 did have a few missing italics for the TR version:

How naive is she? Von clenched his jaw as he searched the wall of kudzu for an opening big enough to hide in.

Rens pursuers took off after him as he darted towards the tree. Why are you leading them to me?!

I’m going to die if I don’t.

It didn’t melt as much as Von hoped. It didn’t melt anything at all. Something about poison and steel, he thought as he struggled to recall distant childhood memories and Wyn’s type chart in the solar.

A glittering substance still clung to its surface, small flecks the remnants of something more.

It feels like there's something missing in this spot here.

The vines stretched around a protrusion of a mass that pressed itself from the wall, straining to free itself.

Something about this sentence doesn't read right, and my instincts are telling me it has to do with one of these A's.

"But teeth, claws, whips, spores, everything else- can't I just use that wand?""Wands are strong, but no substitute for what you are- what you will be capable of."

Missing line break. also damn that feels like the last thing Von wants to hear right now.

With the subject of their concern mobile once more, the four Pokemon shared a glance. "Tiring, tiring. Mission goals met?"

Judging from the speaking pattern, I'm guessing that's Linoone speaking, but the lack of a dialog tag did make me do a double take. I feel there are few moments like that in this chapter where it does it get a little confusing, since there are five characters all in the scene at the same time, and it isn't always easy to keep track.

This was a good set of chapters. We get our first glimpse of Mystery Dungeons, Von gets into actual combat, some good teases (including marshadow! i didn’t forget that). And I think the end of Chapter 13 really pulled things together. I dunno, maybe I’m just a total sucker, but I enjoyed the characters in these chapters: there were a lot of charming interactions, and I like seeing them get along.

That’s all I have to say! I look forward to coming back to this fic again in the future.

 

[Truebrush]

Chapter 14: Human Business​

Night Vision lounged in the soft grass of the courtyard a few bounds away from Wyn’s hut. Both Ren and Kaia sprawled out on the lawn, basking in the warmth of the afternoon sun. Von sat on his haunches as he watched the herd of sheeplike Pokemon gradually graze from one end of Halfhenge to the other. “It’s still early in the afternoon. What do we do for the rest of the day?”

“Whatever we want,” answered Ren, whose eyes remained closed. “Why do you ask?”

“Because I should be doing something.”

“I don’t get it,” said Kaia, sprawled out on her back and peering at Von upside-down. “Do what?”

“I’m not going to get home by doing nothing.”

Ren snorted. “I knew a human once, he got home by learning how to relax. Soaked up so much sunlight that it lit his way back to Earth.”

Von looked down at his claws as he combed them through soft grass. “I just don’t like waiting.”

Kaia rolled over onto her belly to look at him proper. “Well then, what do humans do when they’re done with human business?”

What did human leisure time even look like? It had been so long since Von felt he could let himself relax, even before being transposed to the Land of Smoke. Further, he had no idea where to start explaining to a sentient dog the enormity of the concept of the internet. “I used to make videos. A form of art, but one I can’t do here.”
“Fascinating,” Ren yawned. “More moving pictures. What else?”

Von poured over his routine from before he lost everything. When classes let out, he would get a bagel at the school’s cafe, and spend hours on his laptop chipping away at coursework. “Write papers. Edit footage. Study.”

Kaia cocked her head. “That doesn’t sound fun or relaxing.”

“Right?” Ren grinned. “It always sounded like you humans march on like a colony of Durant.”

“Well, what do Pokemon do for fun?”

Ren hopped to his feet. “We talk, we playfight, we explore! We spend time with our mates-,”

“-and our friends,” Kaia inserted.

“We play pranks. We do whatever we want!”

Not a bad deal, honestly. There were times Von would look at his roommate’s cat that slept through every afternoon and feel a pang of jealousy.

“So what would you like to do, Von?” Kaia looked at him with a preemptive wag of her tail. “Don’t overthink it!”

“I’m okay with just talking.” Small talk- innocent enough, and certainly less effort than whatever Ren would consider a prank. “So, how long have you two been mates?”

“Over three seasons now!” Kaia wagged.

“A few moons after we formed Night Vision. Weather enough battles together, and a bond is bound to form,” Ren said as he leaned his side against hers.

“Longer than any of my relationships. Maybe Pokemon really do have it all figured out.”

“Hm.” A hint of hesitation in Ren’s growls. “Does that mean you don’t have a mate back on Earth?”

“I- I don’t, no,” Von hissed. “Not anymore.”

“So you’re in such a hurry because of family, then.”

“My family kicked me out of the house, actually.”

“So you could learn how to fly?” asked Kaia, and as she watched befuddlement cross Von’s features, she went on. “Like how a Fletchling is pushed from the nest?”

“Humans don’t have wings, no,” Von sighed.

“Decidueye does,” Ren laughed.

“It’s more like I was the runt of the litter, in a sense. Too different, in a way they didn’t like.”

“That’s not a good enough reason for them to send you off on their own,” Kaia frowned.

“No, it wasn’t.” Von sunk his claws into the dirt beneath the grass. “... Are there gay Pokemon?”

Ren and Kaia shared a look. “Of course,” the Zorua said with a tilt of his head. “Why?”

How do I explain homophobia to a dog? “It was enough of a reason for them to kick me out. Me, being gay.”

A long stretch of silence hung between the three of them. Von watched as the chimney of Wyn’s hut belched a puff of yellow-tinged smoke skyward. The cloud dissipated before it could drift far.

Kaia broke the quiet with a whimper. “I don’t get it.”

Ren rubbed his cheek to hers. “Not everyone has as strong a family bond as you, dear.” The fox kept an eye on Von while he consoled his mate. “Nor are families only broken up by tragedy.”

“I know,” Kaia sniffled, her ears splayed back. “It’s all… human business! I’ll never understand it.”

“Me either,” Von smirked.

Ren licked one of Kaia’s ears before he glanced back at Von. “So you’re gay?”

“Always have been, always will be.”

The black fox twitched an ear. “And you were… what were you on Earth? A boy, right?”

“A boy who liked boys, yes.”

“So does that mean-”

A thick plume erupted from the nearby chimney, accompanied by the roar of flame from within. A sputtering Wyn fled through the door, pursued by yellow smoke. Once she put some distance between herself and the scene of her crime, she collapsed to her knees and sucked in fresh air.

“Uh. You need any help?” Von called out to her.

Wyn quickly waved away his offer with a paw. “J-just an unexpected reaction! Nothing’s on fire!” She straightened herself up and wiped her paws on her shawl, watching smoke waft out through her curtained front door. “Think I’m just gonna let that air out, yeh! This is normal,” she reassured anyone listening in while she set about pinning her door open to let her living space vent.

Night Vision all shared the same skeptical look. “We worked hard to bring her those samples. She’d better not have destroyed them already,” Kaia growled.

“They’re hers to destroy as she pleases.” Ren gave Von a gentle nudge. “May the night devour your parents, friend. Be as gay as you want while you’re here.”

That’s an intense curse. “Thanks, but I don’t think Pokemon are my type. Like, at all.”

Kaia cocked her head. “I didn’t know you were so picky.”

“I’m not picky! Maybe if I ever meet a bipedal Pokemon wearing flannel and has a driver’s license, I’ll change my tune,” Von laughed to himself, only for his smile to subside as he noticed Wyn heading their way.

“And what’re our heroes of the day laughing at? Not my misfortune, I hope.”

Kaia spun around to face her. “Braixen! What were you making? You smell almost as bad as Salandit. Also, what’s flannel?”

“Alright, I’m starting to remember why we kicked you two out. One, what happens between my cauldron and I is our business. Two, flannel is a type of fabric. I bet between Wooloo and Leavanny, we could get something close enough to it made. Why?”

“Hear that, Von? Your love life just got a whole lot brighter!” snickered Ren.

Von sniffed the air. A slight skunky smell clung to Wyn’s fur, doubtlessly planted there by the fumes still leaking from her chimney. “I’m being teased, is all. I think you have bigger problems.”

Wyn grimaced at the thought. “I’m going to have to burn the rest of my incense tonight, I think. Anyway, Night Vision. How was your first battle as a trio?”

“Fun!” Kaia wagged.

“Funny,” Ren growled.

“Freaky,” Von hissed. “There were these bugs made of metal, which would be fine if I was allowed to go all-out with fire. But then there was that Tangela, that… amalgam, talking about folding limbs or something?”

“As far as we can tell, amalgams are just speaking gibberish. But yeh, Rockruff mentioned you ran up against a real blighter of a Bisharp.” Her smile softened. “It’s scary, your first real fight. So you took a few blows, and look at you now! No worse for wear, yeh?”

Von leaned back on his hind legs and ran his claws along his tail as he looked over himself. “Pokemon are pretty tough, but what if they cut even deeper than they did? Like if they punctured a kidney or something.”

“We won’t let them,” Kaia huffed. “And don’t be so grim! It’s rare for a battle to draw blood. Pokemon battle for many reasons, not all of them violent.”

“Sometimes you just need to settle a dispute without using words, or find your role in the pack,” added Ren.

“Both battles I’ve been in were life-threatening, but sure. Whatever you say.” Von released his tail and looked up at Wyn. “Any more tips? When do I learn flamethrower?”

Wyn rubbed her cheek. “Look, we’re not sets of data, we’re not numbers. You build up your own skill, you stoke your own furnace. I can help you practice, but at the end of the day, it’s all up to you.”

Not what I was hoping to hear. “... Level 30, right?”

“I think my Salazzle learned it at 50-something? But it’s been a while since I’ve played, you know, considering I haven’t charged my DS in three years. But that was just a game! What you see now is how this world works. No stats. No turn-based combat. You can’t even rely on the type chart. A bolt of thunder can still rattle a Flygon. We’re still flesh and blood, mate. Well- most of us.”

“You sure about the type chart? Pawniard wasn’t phased by my poison.”

“They’re talking human again,” Kaia whimpered.

Her mate nosed at her cheek. “Let’s escape before they start doing maths.” Ren stuck his tongue out at Von before both he and Kaia scampered off to play in the grass.

Wyn rubbed at her temple with a paw. “That’s not to say that the type chart is useless. Water can still douse a fire, obviously. But Jun can still punch a bird, even at a distance. It’s weird, you know? We’re strange critters who throw magic at each other. The possibilities are endless. That said, I faintly recall the Salandit line being more corrosive than other poisonous species.”

“I get it, I’m weak.”

“It’s not that you’re weak. It’s that you might just be oblivious,” Wyn winked at him. “Now I may be misremembering, but the Salandit line’s hidden ability makes them immune from charms and taunts. But Pokemon can do more than the two lines of text that fit in a dex entry anyway. Surely you’ve noticed that by now?”

---

“I could’ve had super poison. I could’ve melted steel beams! Instead I get the power to not notice I’m getting flirted with when I’m already bad at picking up signals.”

Kaia and Ren rejoined their found friend once Braixen had returned to her work, and Von convinced them to return to the solar, hungry for more knowledge. Now the lizard paced all along the surface of the wall, ducking beneath connective red strings while voicing his stress.

The dog craned her head back to follow his path above them. “Just because you didn’t tarnish a Pawniard in your first ever battle doesn’t mean your poison isn’t potent.”

Von followed a thread from the board he hovered over and scuttled to the next. The journal entry managed to hold his attention long enough that he paused in his pacing, and carefully found a place on the wall where he could cling that wouldn’t disturb the intricate web around him. “But it could be better. Would’ve been nice to be known as someone who can melt stuff, not someone who’s unobservant.”

Ren tilted his head from one side to the other as he watched Von cross the room from above. “I thought all you wanted was to go home.”

“That too! But if I’m stuck here for however long, I don’t want my sole defining trait to be ‘stinky.’”

“It’s just one of many traits!” Ren yipped. “You’re also inquisitive, and a quick learner.”

“And anxious, and impatient, and-” Kaia’s ears flickered toward the door at the subtle footsteps of pawpads on stone. Ren hopped down from the table he was sitting on before they arrived. “Oh! Welcome back!”

True Path stepped into the solar, and Jun strode past Ren without so much as a glance. Zeraora gave the fox a feline smile, and waved to the lizard on the wall. “Thanks! We had fun. Bright Vision, right?”

“Night Vision,” corrected Kaia.

Ren grinned up at the cat thrice his height. “We’re heroes!”

This earned a grunt from the Lucario as he took a seat at the table. He unslung his bag from his shoulder and withdrew his journal and opened to the page bookmarked with a pressed elm leaf. “Heroes with only two stripes on their badge, hm?”

Kaia placed a paw atop the Mobius strip pinned to the bag she wore. “We would’ve made gold by now if we stayed with the guild.”

“My point is that anyone can call themself a hero.” Jun withdrew an inkwell and quill, and set to writing.

Zeraora knelt down in front of the pair. “We’ve had a long day, and my partner still has to write a report on the new Dungeon.

Von carefully extracted himself from the weave of red string, his attention thoroughly drawn away from an essay on cross-species Pokemon illnesses. He paused as he reached the ceiling again as the angle let him spy on Jun’s handwriting. He penned footprint runes with ease. The blue dog must’ve sensed him snooping, as he looked up at the lizard that clung to brick and mortar. “Yes?” he asked, unamused.

“Ah- uh, how was the Dungeon? An unearthed human building, right? What was it?”

“Come down here, and I’ll show you.”

In the time it took for Von to scale down the wall and climb his way up the table, Jun had flipped through his journal again to pages of clumsy sketches. “A building of marble, white beneath the dust and debris. Stretches of red carpet, desks and tables.” Jun gestured with his quill to a specific drawing of a thick rope strung between two poles. “The weirdest part are these ropes. No structural purpose, easily knocked over. There were so many of them, all lined up for some purpose.”

“It looks like a stanchion,” Von offered. “Guides for people to line up in a queue? Like when you’re waiting to get into a theater, or board an airplane.”

Jun flipped to the next page, and Von instantly recognized the sketch that overshadowed all others, depicting a round portal hewn from heavy material, with a distinctly shaped door resting open on its hinges. “Oh! A vault door! This must’ve been a bank.”

“Perhaps when Fei has enough free time, we can send him to confirm your theory.” Jun unceremoniously flipped back to his bookmarked page, and returned to scripting in the runic alphabet.

“Well, I haven’t been given an ongoing project just yet, so maybe we can go take a look for ourselves?”

“Slowking would not let you stray so far from Halfhenge, Salandit. Not yet, not until you’ve grown strong enough to meet his expectations,” Jun growled as he kept his eyes on the page.

“Oh. Is this place dangerous?”

“No, not that we’ve seen. Very cold, very empty. Outside of an amalgam in the Dungeon, the only risk is getting lost in the Onix tunnels that lead to it.”

“So then why-”

“Because you are human, Salandit, and because Slowking thinks humans are special. A sentiment I hope you don’t share.”

Von didn’t reply, and instead sat there as he watched the feather of Jun’s quill swish and sway along to the sound of slight scratches on parchment. He only looked up when he heard a yip from Kaia, and beheld the sight of three Pokemon playing. Zeraora’s paw fizzed with static, and as he brushed it over Kaia’s pelt, her fur stood on end. This had Ren giggling at her chagrin.

“Nah. I’ve always been just some dude. But you, Fei and Wyn too- the Pokemon here all seem to look up to you. Don’t they?”

“I have been a Pokemon for nearly twenty seasons. Much longer than I have been a human. Pair that with my memory, and-” Jun set aside his quill, and carefully tore the page from the bindings of his journal. “-I am just a Pokemon.”

“So you’ve just given up on going home?”

Jun’s journal page tore off at the corner, severing one and a half runes on the vestigial scrap still stuck to the binding. He looked at Von, who had frozen beneath the stare of the intense red irises of his eyes. “I have never given up. This is my home, and I have fought with everything I’ve had to keep it all intact. I will play along with you humans, until all of you come to the same conclusion.” He deftly corked his inkwell set about shoving his journal into his bag. He stood abruptly. “See you at dinner, Salandit.”

Von remained on the table, fighting back both the sickness and anger that rose in his gut. He watched silently as Zeraora stood and tried to wipe the grit his static had pulled from Kaia’s pelt off of his paw, before hurrying after the Lucario that had stormed past him. Only after True Path had left the solar, did Ren and Kaia notice the lividity written all over Von’s face.

Ren was first to speak up. “Whoah. What were you talking about?”

“Human business,” Von hissed through his clenched jaw.

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

Heya, coming back for another stop on my tour for Reading Rookidee of PMD fics that I wanted to get to from RB5 but wound up getting lost in the shuffle, this time focusing on getting past the first chapter of another story that I’ve heard great things about:

Chapter 2

Spoiler

“I'm so, so sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt..” Von couldn't pull his eyes away from the candlelight. Each wick vied for his attention, and his eyes danced from flame to flame, each swaying in a subtle, captivating dance. He swayed where he stood. Unable to take a step, unable to look away from the candles that filled the pews.

“Are you lost?” came a whisper. “We haven't seen you in Candle Cay before,” came another. “It's so nice to have a guest!”

- looks up at the chapter title -

Yeah, you should probably turn around and get out of there right now, Von.

The words of the candle congregation were calm and curious, but they nevertheless had Von's stomach in knots. “I am lost,” He admitted.

“We're very good at guiding folks home!”

“Where is home?” Hope flared within the lizard.

“A tunnel runs beneath us.” “It will take you wherever you need to go.” “It's a maze, so you best stick with us!” “It'd be bad to get lost down there.” “We'll keep you safe.” “The door to the cellar.” “Will you follow?” “Let’s get you home, where it's nice and warm.”

I’m… not really feeling the way that the way all these separate lines of dialogue are smushed together like this. Like, I get that turning each one into its own line would make it look awkward since there’s 8 separate speakers in play, but I wonder if something as simple as cutting the numbers in speakers in half and splitting things up into their own paragraphs would look neater, kinda like so:

“Where is home?” Hope flared within the lizard, as the strange candles began to speak up one after the other.

“A tunnel runs beneath us. It will take you wherever you need to go.”

“It's a maze, so you best stick with us! It'd be bad to get lost down there.”

“We'll keep you safe. It’s just over to the door to the cellar. Will you follow?”

“Let’s get you home, where it's nice and warm.”

Some food for thought, anyways. Though yeah, I frankly would be more surprised if this whole candle business didn’t end with Von’s soul almost getting eaten.

Transfixed, Von could only focus on the candlelight. It helped distract him from the surge of weakness he felt.

Home. Which one? Jake? Would he even recognize me like this? His body began to move and he shuffled after one of the candles leading him down the chancel, to a door, tucked away in the old stone.

Home. In my car? Where I was? Where it's cold. So cold.. At least the fire of the ghostly candle was warm. Home. With my family? In Oregon? There's a church there, too-

It might be an “authorial style” thing, but IMO, this one paragraph where Von’s thoughts and actions are intermixing with one another works better as a few smaller ones. I was going to criticize things for being a bit light on description, but then I realized that that’s probably deliberate and meant to sell an impression of Von spacing out or growing entranced.

“There is no home to go to,” he said aloud.

The crowd of candles kept their smiles of melted wax as they stared at him. Von's heart thudded in his chest. He had broken their spell over him, but would they let him leave?

Narrator:

He stopped moving and stared, not in fascination, but in shock. He stood at the top of a set of wooden stairs that descended into a darkness he could not will himself to enter. At the foot of the stairs waited one of the spirits whose flame led him downward, its candle hardly able to pierce the darkness that would have swallowed him, had he not come to his senses.

The walls of the cellar were built different from the church. Underground, the stone from which the church was made gave way to ancient clay brickwork. It smelled earthy, but dry, none of the dampness present he expected from a basement. The ghost's flickering blue light was not quite strong enough to peel back the darkness that shrouded the alcoves that lined the walls. Catacombs.

Yeeeeeeeah, you should probably turn and run away really, really fast right about now, Von. Since I’m not convinced at all that this story won’t come to a really abrupt end if you go down into that crypt.

The spirits' flames flared higher, and a sickness swept through Von. They've been sapping my strength this whole time, he realized. He sunk his claws into the doorframe to steady himself.

“Home is down,” “Come with us through the tunnels,” “Of course you have a home,” “Everyone does!” Their voices swirled around him, the chorus of the candles cacophonous.

That’s a bit more than your strength there, Von. Not that you would know any better at the moment, though boy is this a really creepy interpretation of how those particular ‘dex entries about Litwick work.

Though yeah, same recommendations regarding the voice of the soul-eating legion there.

“.. Not this one,” came a whisper quieter than the rest, almost imperceptible, but so, so close.

At the base of the stairs, the sole candle below him went dark. One by one, the fires gathered behind him, urging him down, were extinguished, while they all remained quiet, not a single protest among them. When the last light was snuffed out, Von took in a shaky breath of air as their pressure weighed off of his chest.

Huh. Is that their ringleader or something? Since all those other Litwick sure backed off fast from Von after it decided to leave him alone.

From the shadow cast by Von's tail rose a ghost, its body a smokey darkness, its eyes burning of two distant candles, flickering orange this time. It spoke again, addressing the gathered spirits.

“This one belongs to me now. Return to your rest.” It was humanoid and stood only two feet tall, but its presence commanded all of Von's attention. As the candles obediently returned to their places, Von stared at the dark presence with only weariness, too drained to think, or to question.

Wait, does Von have a firm perception of how big he is right now? Since wouldn’t “two feet tall” look gigantic for a Salandit given that they don’t have a lot of height in their neutral resting stance.

“Human,” it hissed, “You will perish, if you are not more careful. Your time to venture into the Labyrinth will come, but not today.”

It placed a hand on his shoulder, its grip icy, its eyes of fire burning into his.

“You are weak of will and body. Do strive to be better than the naive pawn that you are.”

A tremor passed through him, emanating from where the darkness held him. Sapped of everything he had, Von could no longer hold onto consciousness, and slipped into unsteady dreams.

Oh, well that’s totally not ominous at all there, even if I’m not fully sure what on earth Von just ran into there.

Von: “... Ow.” X_X

The spirit took a piece of Von's shadow before it drifted into the darkness of the still and silent cellar.

Oh yeah, that’s totally a good sign™ there and there will surely be no complications arising from this later on.

Candle Cay came alive as the sun went down. Ren took a delight in watching it wake. The small black fox disguised itself as a Banette, perched on the fence that circled the pumpkin patch, and the Pumpkaboo that roused themselves from their garden paid him no mind as they slowly rose and drifted off down the hillside to the town. Faintly, Ren could see lanterns as they flickered on, orange and blue, depending on who their lamplighter was that night. The stalls at the night market slowly began to buzz with activity, as denizens of the Cay began their day a little after sunset.

I smell a partner for Von here. Though I see that the entire town that Von saw in the first chapter is a bit heavy on the Ghost-types and nocturnalism. Definitely quite a change from a more “stock” PMD town.

Once the last Pumpkaboo had floated off, Ren lingered a few minutes longer, his eyes on the cape, for when the lighthouse flared to life with a purple glow. Dinnertime, he thought to himself, before he hopped from the fence to the soil of the ghost's garden, his illusion dispelled in a puff of smoke.

Most Pokemon made sure to steer clear of a ghost's favored haunt, but that only meant more pickings for the daring. Aside from himself and the occasional Murkrow, the Pumpkaboo's seeds were left alone for the most part, and the trellis on which berry plants grew were never quite picked clean. The true prize of the patch was, however, the plum tree that sheltered the southwest corner of the fence. The rule among scavengers was to never take more than what was needed, and those that frequented the pumpkin patch never overstepped their bounds.

Huh. I wonder if Ren is a civilized ‘mon or some sort of feral. Since he sure doesn’t seem particularly fazed at helping himself to other ‘mons’ food and belongings.

Ren helped himself to two rawst berries plucked from their vines, before he made off with a plum in his mouth. The bitter juices of the rawst berry on his tongue helped dull the plum's sweetness. He carried the fruit with him on his way back to the night market, until he heard a familiar cry.

A Rockruff's howl carried through the chill air, an urgent tone meant for him. It was Kaia. He skid to a stop, turned tail, and bolted in the direction of the call, to the great stone building that loomed over Candle Cay. As he ran, he drew up an illusion of a Houndoom, to wear a mask to intimidate others were there to be trouble.

… Or Ren could just be a thief. That works too, if definitely a bit of an uncommon bird for major protagonists in PMD stories.

He did not expect the sight he stumbled upon. His friend, Kaia, sat proudly upon a prone lizard Ren didn't recognize. The Rockruff's tail wagged happily as she saw him approach. “Look what I caught slithering out of the dungeon!”

And ferals are apparently on the menu in this setting. Duly noted. Even if you’d be well advised not to munch on a Salandit, Kaia, since it’d probably be the last thing you ever ate with all those toxins inside that can ignore poison immunities.

Ren paced around to its front, examining the creature's face. Its eyes looked vacant, its breathing shallow. Pupils focused in on the features of the Zorua's illusion, but belied little emotion. Ren let the plum fall from his mouth with a soft thud against the wet grass. “What is it?”

“Salandit. Used to see them all over the shoals back home.” Kaia sniffed the air. “A female. Weird that it's alone.”

Ah yes, there’s the part where the genderbending angle comes into play in this story.

“How can you tell?” Ren never understood lizards. Kaia could really tell the difference from such a casual glance?

“How can you tell?” he asked.

The funky smell from all the pheremones, presumably. :V

“Can't you smell that sweet scent? Actually- don't try too hard,” Kaia giggled. “All Salandit emit a sweet-smelling poison gas to lure bugs into becoming a snack. Females, however, can lace theirs with a pheromone that attract males of all species-”

Ren: “Oh, gods. I did not need to know that, Kaia!”

[ ]

“I'll be sure to hold my nose,” said Ren dourly. “Anyway, I've never known an amalgam to leave Labyrinth.” He waved a paw in front of the lizard's face. It gurgled incoherently, and its tail swept over the grass, aimless. “It's oddly passive too.”

It might make sense to give Ren more of a described reaction to Kaia’s exposition there, especially if there’s some sort of funny reaction or internal thought that he might have before speaking up.

Though ‘amalgam’, huh? Implying that Mystery Dungeon Pokémon are constructs in some capacity, I take it.

Kaia looked down at her prey under her paws, wary.

“You're right, now that I think about it.” She leaned over so she could look the thing in its eyes. “Hey, if I get off of you, do you promise not to run away?”

All she got in turn was a confused blink. Cautiously, the Rockruff eased her weight off of the lizard. It remained motionless. [ ]

“Maybe a ghost scrambled its brains,” offered Ren.

I think that we’re missing a step for Ren getting to the part where he goes “maybe a Ghost messed with her”. Maybe it’d make sense for him to look off at the abandoned church or something to indicate “right, the ghosts” are on his mind or something?

Kaia looked to the church. “It would've had to get past all those Litwick. I think you're right.”

“... Food?”

Both Ren and Kaia perked up in surprise as the Salandit spoke. Ren hesitated, before he nudged the forgotten plum over to their captive. Timidly, the lizard nibbled at the fruit and, after a few bites, it ravenously devoured the rest.

“Must be shock,” Ren whispered. “What should we do?”

Whelp, Von definitely lost quite a bit of his/her articulation in the wake of that ghost encounter. I wonder if that’s related to the part of his shadow that was stolen from him at the very end of the last scene.

“I wonder which ghosts are best at giving medical care.”

[ ]


“How many residents of the Cay do you think were Chansey in their past life?”

“I wonder if they can still make those eggs.” Kaia's stomach growled. “Probably couldn't fill up on ghost eggs though. They'd just pass right through you.”

Another part where it probably makes sense to drop in a bit of extra description. Though I see that this story rolled with the take that Ghostmons straight-up originate from departed souls.

The two friends shared a chuckle before Ren turned his attention back to their find. “It might be a longshot, but do you still have that expedition bag? I wonder if the medicine in there is still good.”

“Of course, I remember where I've buried every single thing,” Kaia said proudly. “I'll go fetch it. Be sure to plug your nose!” She took off down the hillside, leaving Ren alone as a ward.

What on earth is that medicine made of if Kaia’s warning in advance that it reeks?

[ ]

“You're not that stinky,” Ren murmured as he studied the lizard. It was a pretty pathetic sight. Salandit didn't seem like a very proud species at the best of times, and this one had been put through the ringer. He took pity on it and he let his illusion fade.

Oh. It’s meant to be directed at Von. Though I wonder if we’re missing a bit here where Ren smells / examines Von more closely before coming to his conclusion, since something about his line’s delivery here reads a bit sudden.

Von's cognizance dredged itself back up into existence. His memory of the past few hours was fuzzy, at best- almost as fuzzy as the black-furred fox he found himself following. Key details clicked into place; they found him outside of the church, they fed him, and they meant him no harm. Relief swelled up inside of him- until a few more snippets of info bubbled to the surface. The dog-like Pokemon that sat on him mentioned something that bothered him:

Did she say 'female?' His self-exam on the beach didn't account for this possibility, not that Von had any idea how to determine the sex of a lizard in the first place.

Ah yes, time for things to start getting really, really awkward for Von in short order. Not that it’d exactly be easy to sex oneself as a lizard considering how the only way of telling short of getting one horny are fairly subtle differences in tail structure.

“Here. Rest here.”

Von's attention snapped back to the fox, who had led him to the base of a gnarled old tree. He found a crook in its roots that looked comfortable enough. He curled up within it, thankful to be taken away from the site of his agony.

“Thank you so, so much. What's your name?”

“Zorua,” came a curt reply.

Oh, so Von can still speak coherently right now. I at first thought that we might be having another Quenched Torch situation, but I suppose that makes sense that he was incoherent earlier due to being in bad shape.

[ ]


“Is that, like.. your name, or your species?” He waited, an uncomfortable silence lingering in the air. “... I'm Von. It's nice to meet you.”

IMO, it makes sense to show off Von’s thought process behind “wait, is that your name or your species?” Since given that Von only was exposed to early gens of Pokémon, he might not know that Zorua isn’t just a name until remembering the episode with the Cramorant.

He gave up the pretense of keeping an eye out for danger, and instead he turned around to fix him with a perplexing stare. “What did those ghosts do to you?”

Wait, is this narration written in mind of it being from Von’s perspective, or Ren’s? Since the formulation is a bit ambiguous at the moment. I assume that it’s Von’s but if that’s the case, I think we’re missing an extra sentence or so of transition into Ren speaking.

“I don't know,” he said meekly. He averted his eyes- he didn't like being stared at.

Zorua must have seen the hurt in his eyes, [ ].

“Well, ah.. I'm not sure what customs you're used to, but here, names are reserved for friends.”

It probably makes sense to elaborate on what about Ren tips Von off to “oh, he saw that”. Though I see that this is another setting where Pokémon are on a species name basis with each other unless they’re close with one another.

[ ]

“I'm sorry, I didn't know.”

“Where are you from?”

“Oregon.” Not a hint of recognition showed on Zorua's face. “Um. America?” The fox cocked his head. Von tried again, with mounting desperation “... Earth?”

Ren: “... Salandit, just how badly did those ghosts mess you up? Since you’re spouting a bunch of gibberish right now.”

Both Pokemon looked and felt uncomfortable. “You're in Candle Cay right now,” Zorua said to break the silence. “North of Murkmoor. East of Green Mills?” It was Zorua's turn to be on the receiving end of blank stares. “Goodness, you're far from home.”

Oh hey, there’s a song for this moment!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePypW6n1egQ


… I’ll just see myself out now. ^^;

[ ]

“I'll say,” Von muttered, before speaking up louder. “Are there any humans around?”

It might make sense to show off a bit more of Von’s thought process as it starts to sink in on him that he’s not in Kansas Oregon anymore, and that he got visited by truck-kun’s frosty cousin to punt him here.

Zorua furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, that ever since I woke up on an alien shore, in a body not my own, the only things I talked to today were a bird that sorts everything it sees into the two categories of 'food' and 'not-food' and a church full of ghosts that I think tried to eat my soul.” Von surprised himself with the anger and frustration that boiled over and spilled into his voice. “I'm a human, Zorua. Or I was? I don't know how it works, but I'm not myself, anymore.”

Wait, how does Von know the bit in underlined when in the entire sequence with the Litwick draining him, there’s zero mention of ‘souls’ or by the ghostly presence that comes afterwards to bail Von out? Since he obviously didn’t recognize Litwick enough to identify them, so you’d think that he wouldn’t know about this bit about their series lore.

Zorua just stared for a time. Von wanted to curl up tighter, to disappear. He hugged his tail to himself, and squeezed his eyes shut, tears burning down his cheeks.

“I'll talk to you about this later,” Zorua finally spoke up again.

He must've heard the dog approaching before Von did. When he opened his eyes again, the other Pokemon trotted proudly up the hillside, a satchel held in her mouth, stained with soil from the ground. She dropped it to the grass before Zorua, and wagged her tail.

“See? I remembered where it was after only digging two holes!”

>after only digging two holes
-snerk-

Though nice contrast in abilities between Ren and Von there with what they’re capable of hearing, and definitely true to life for lizards and foxes IRL.

“I'm very proud of you,” Zorua said as he pawed the fastener. He tugged the flap open, and stuck his nose into the earthy bag, pulling a stoppered glass vial from it. The liquid inside swirled a misty blue. “Should still be good, right?”

“Iunno. You'd have to ask Braixen.”

Von: “I’m sorry, but what the hell is that in that jar there?”

Ren: “Medicine? Y’know, to make you feel better after almost having your soul eaten?”

Zorua gently tossed the vial to Von. It rolled along the grass and hit a claw. “Drink up.”

Maybe if I drink enough Pokemon mystery drugs, I'll turn back into a human.

Von was too tired to argue. He gripped the vial in claw and pulled the cork stopper out with his teeth. The potion tasted like a blend of blackberry and grass clippings. Despite this, he drained it.

So… is this actually going to work, or are we going to see

in the story for the first time? ^^;

Von felt revitalized. The sensation reminded him of the way he used to chug a carton of orange juice when he got sick with the flu, finding that it helped him feel alive again, before he was told high acidity could actually make things worse for him. No longer chilled to the bone, he pushed himself up onto his feet, and shook the stiffness from his legs and tail.

“Whoah. Got any more of that stuff?”

I actually wonder what on earth was that potionanyways? Liquified Oran Berries or something like that?

Zorua beamed happily at the end result. He turned to his companion. “Kaia? I think it's time we reform Night Vision.”

‘Night Vision’, huh? I’m guessing that that’s going to be their team name, or given what we saw of Ren from his introductory scene, maybe things will be a bit more totally legit™ than a normal Rescue/Exploration Team.

Alright, made it to the end, so time for the customary summary that I make for my reviews done in my customary forum style:

Alright, so starting off with the positives, but the prose is nice and snappy, and in spite of the small wordcount, it felt like a decent amount happened between Von almost getting his soul eaten, the audience getting introduced to Ren, and then Von having a ‘Hello World’ with his new buddies. It’s a surprising amount of ground for roughly 2500 words, so kudos on that front. I see that the worldbuilding in this story seems to be handled on a ‘need to know’ basis plot-wise but what’s there is really interesting, including in how it takes some lore from the official series that sounds a bit fantastical and hard to believe and pulls them off in really convincing fashion. That Litwik swarming sequence, man… that one’s going to linger for a while.

As for criticisms, I actually don’t have a whole lot to level with this chapter. There’s some quibbles that I have with paragraph formatting and wording here or there, but those are ultimately “author’s style” things. There were a couple details that I wasn’t sure whether or not they were built up enough like Von’s realization that he almost had his soul eaten, but those also seemed like fairly easy fixes. The closest thing to a big structural issue that I saw was that there are a few parts where things feel a little too sped-up and like we should be seeing more of the characters’ thought process. There were a couple parts with Von’s first back-and-forth with Ren where this was particularly noticeable, especially in the part where Von finds out that he’s not even in his world anymore where you’d think that he’d have more internal thoughts about what’s going on. But once again, not all that hard of an issue to deal with if you think it’s a legit problem.

Thanks for the patience @Truebrush , and I’m honestly a little embarrassed that it took me this long to come back to Crux of the Self when its chapters are made by design to be accessible and quick to read. I’ll be keeping an eye on this one, and hopefully will be back at least once before Diner’s Review Event is over. ^^